Saturday, August 19, 2017

The soothing concert sounds of Paul Whiteman, featuring Ferde Grofe and Jack Fulton




Before I forget, and for those who don't already know, it's Christmas in July time at Ernie (Not Bert).  (Wait, it's August!  Boy, is Ernie dedicated!)  Everyone is wondering how Ernie does it, and that includes me!

Meanwhile, over here, some soothing sounds for people having trouble getting to sleep--people like, oh, for example, me.  Four superb sides by Paul Whiteman--three of them "concert" treatments of pop songs and the fourth a symphonic jazz piece by Rube Bloom called Soliloquy.  These are my own rips from my own  12-inch 78 rpm copies, and I hope I've done the originals some justice.

Meanwhile, on the sleep front, I'm halfway there with a recent prescription that has me sleeping like a log but, unfortunately, still plenty sedated after getting up (or, rather, making the attempt!).  It's back to the drawing board, but at least I've experienced some decent sleep.  Problem is, I need decent awake time, too.  Comes in handy....

Two of our selections--Lover and I Can't Give You Anything But Love--feature (in my opinion) lovely vocals by Jack Fulton, whose biggest fan has to be Gary Giddins, author of Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams--The Early Years, 1903-1940. who describes Fulton's singing style as "effeminate" and "almost flaccid," apparently because Jack sang in a (gasp!) falsetto.  (What was next?  Long hair?  Flowery clothes?)  I would like Giddins' book a great deal more if he'd managed to present Bing as something new and important (which Bing certainly was) without resorting to insult-a-thons, but the volume is dedicated to hyping Bing as the hero in a sea of backward squares (is that redundant)?  In other words, same ol' pop biography.

To the music.  Sorry for all the junk on the Zippyshare page:

I Can't Give You Anything But Love--Paul Whiteman and His Orch.

ALL PAUL WHITEMAN ORCHESTRA (in "concert" mode)

I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Arr: Ferde Grofe)--Vocal, Jack Fulton (1928)
When Day Is Done (Arr: Ferde Grofe) (1927)
Soliloquy (Rube Bloom, Arr: Grofe?) (!927)
Lover (Arr: Adolph Deutsch?)--Vocal, Jack Fulton (1933)

Enjoy!


Lee


5 comments:

Ernie said...

It's not easy being me. Thanks for the shout-out, Lee. Glad to hear you're doing a little bit better. Those old 78s are good sometimes for putting you to sleep, problem is having to get up and turn them over every two and half minutes.

Buster said...

Most enjoyable, Lee, and great transfers! Hope your sleep troubles clear up soon.

Aging Child said...

Lee, great to see you out and about and ripping... even if not zzz-ing. You'd think that after all these years with all these cats, it would be second nature to plop down anywhere and doze off. But then... 1 AM is also a time our felines are wide awake (and walking on us, and playing cup-hockey in the kitchen), while the two-leggers are sleeping.

Best wisheszz to you for a zzzpeedy recoverzzzz,

Kindzz regardzzzzz,
Aging Chzzzzzzzzzzz

garrido said...

Get well soon Lee, you have been gone too long!

Unknown said...

Love that Whiteman label!