I don't know if it's right to post a bunch of 78s while we're in a state of national emergency, but then why not? Any virus in the zip file--highly unlikely--isn't going to be physical, anyway. Oops--touched my face. Gotta stop that.
The reason I'm doing all these shellac restorations right now, including many titles I've previously put up, is because I'm getting new levels of fidelity from these things by manually manipulating the "equalization page" graphic in VinylStudio--something I just started doing. So I'm going crazy with the 78s. I wish the VS display was larger, but you can't have everything. I'm getting detail I wasn't able to get before. I've read that recording engineers during the horn-recording era, despite the absence of an electrical recording curve, were able to manipulate the playback results--by using dampers, for instance--and so there was nothing close to a standard recording curve. This makes it okay--and, really, necessary--to custom-sound-shape each file. And I don't know if I hyphenated that correctly, but let's move on.
I was kind of amused to discover that our first track, Alagazam (To the Music of the Band), shows up on the first volume of the CD series, That Devilin' Tune. My rip is cleaner, so unless you're a fan of low-frequency hum, mine's the one to go with. The song is a racist staple--a "colored" group of soldiers and the comedy that results when you gather up same. Except I seem to recall that African-American soldiers fought with great distinction during WWI. But this is minstrel stuff, so what can we expect? Musically, it's very interesting, and there is definitely a jazz feel. Partly, it's the aggressive syncopation and the up-front percussion, but it's more than those. Something indefinable. The flip, which concerns "Old Bill Bailey" (clearly a standard "colored" character) playing the "ukalele," has jazz feel, too, though milder. Excessively interesting sides. For David, I'm offering Paul Whiteman's own adaptation, in its 1921 acoustical version, of Song of India, a number taken from a Rimsky-Korsakov aria and known as... Song of India. Hence, the title. (I think I'm late for my meds....) While Whiteman very quickly decided he was not up to writing the arrangements for his orchestra--his goofy 1920 version of Dance of the Hours would seem to support his judgement--he did give us this fascinating take on India. What gives it its punch is the thumping tonic-note ostinato. I also love the seven emphatic staccato chords at the end. With the cymbal crash providing the final quarter note.
Circus Clowns was apparently composed by the bandleader John Fischer, who was Hungarian-American, I believe. It's from a light-green Columbia E-series 78 made for the ethnic market, and I never got it to sound 1/10 as good as this rip. Fabulous side, with magnificent musicianship. Two sides by the Original Memphis Five--the first on the lousy Regal label, which explains the less than terrific fidelity, and the second on Victor, which explains the vastly superior audio. This is the only time in my life I'll have the chance to choose between Bee's Knees and Snakes Hips, so I'd better cherish the moment. I'll go for the latter, a Spencer (Basin Street Blues) Williams classic, and I'll forever wonder if there was supposed be an apostrophe before or after the s in "snakes." I read on line that "snakes hips" refers to belly dancing, and I have no reason (or desire) to question this. Why shouldn't it? And now we come to The Cross Bow. Lots to say about it--I'll give it a shot. We'll start with the words, which I lucked out and found on line in an 1892 magazine digitized at Google Books.
A tailor there dwelt near old Sherwood edge, Who was deft with an old crossbow. One day as he sat on his window ledge, Came winging a jet black crow. He perched near by and to caw began--They heard him anear and far--"It takes nine tailors to make a man, So a ninth of a man, then, you are!"
The tailor grew wroth and exceedingly fierce, Crying "Wife, bring my old crossbow!" And he shot then a shaft that was aimed to pierce the heart of that jet black crow. He killed his favorite pig outright--the crow cried and flew afar, "It takes nine tailors to make a man, So a ninth of a man, them, you are!"
Gorgeously sung, no? The selection is from a late 19th century opera, Robin Hood, by Reginald De Koven. Growing "wroth," of course, means getting pissed off. I'm not sure that I would attempt to kill a crow for calling me one ninth of a man, but then I'm not a tailor living back in Robin Hood days--i.e., the 13th century or so. And I don't have a cross bow. But the thing is, what does the saying mean--"It takes nine tailors, etc."? My best guess was that it took nine tailors to work on a suit back in those times, with suits being so complicated that each section required a specialist. In my interpretation, "a man" meant a suit. Clothes makes the man, right? But I stumbled onto an Oxford University blog post devoted to this "proverb," the blogger a famous linguist. I was in luck! Except, like me, he doesn't know what it meant. But he traced it back to the 1500s and discovered that it could be used to both compliment tailors or trash them. Makes sense. Any saying that lasts six centuries is going to function in many ways, and in any number of contexts, so....
I thought that would be more interesting than it turned out to be. But I do love the way that genuine experts, unlike the middlebrow type who sell lots more books, are willing to admit when they don't know something. As for taunting tailors (my favorite rock group), I understand that, in crow society, this counts as a misdemeanor and can result in up to three weeks in a caw-rectional facility.
College Life March is very advanced stuff for 1909, and I believe Walter B. Rogers was that amazing arranger who wrote for the Victor Military Band. Billy Murray's voice rings out from the vocal chorus on this one, and the "Rah! Rah!" parts are wonderfully weird and cool. The side has a drive that I associate with later dance band music, so Rogers is someone to find out more about. He could have been the Ferde Grofe of his day. He may have scored the 1911 Alexander's Ragtime Band, too, a side with a delightfully loose, almost swinging feel to its syncopation--and, despite the popular claims to the contrary, the song is ragtime. It has some ragtime rhythms, anyway. Ragtime Lite. And I didn't plan to put two Vincent Youmans classics in a row, and from the same year (1924), but fate made it so. The first, the Benson Orch.'s version of Tea for Two, is in my shellac Top Ten, and Jan Garber's version of I Want to Be Happy (not my favorite Youmans) is extremely jazzy. Garber seemed to have given up on jazz after the 1920s. As for the Ted Lewis Jazz Band, I'm okay with calling his side jazz, though it's very clunky jazz. Apparently, Lewis inherited Earl Fuller's orchestra (which one, I'm not sure, as Fuller had three or so) when all the members, including Ted, split from Earl. By contrast, Lewis' 1923 12th Street Rag (dunno what happened on the mp3 tag) is surprisingly effectively jazzy, if I can double my adverbs, despite no "jazz" in the band credit. I first had 12th Street in a warped edition, so I was thrilled to land (after two tries) a good one. Lewis had a corny style, and many find his jazz chops highly lacking, but he did his share of good jazz discs.
Don Richardson's extraordinary 1916 recording of Arkansas Traveler predates by six years what Wikipedia calls "the first generally recognised country recording" of 1922--namely, "Eck" Robertson's Sallie Gooden/Arkansaw (sic) Traveler on Victor. And we Yanks spell it "recognized," so I don't know what's up with that. Wiki is reluctant to label Don's fiddle sides country, because everyone knows that genuine country musicians can't read, write, or teach music like Don could. Worse, North Carolinian Don was capable of playing in other styles. In short, he possessed the skills necessary to make a living from music, which means he can't be called a country musician, which means his sides can't be called country. So I totally get Wiki's dilemma. I hope you're following this, because there'll be a quiz. Seriously, though, questions regarding who was the first "authentic" this or that are too subjective to mean a danged thing, so when you have a 1916 side that sounds like country, the sane person calls it country.
Cool 1926 recording by the peerless Peerless Quartet of Sweet Adeline and In the Evening by the Moonlight, the latter by the "black Stephen Foster," James A. Bland. I wonder if, in 1926, Adeline enjoyed its present reputation as the Barbershop number. Dunno. As for the "darkies" in the Moonlight lyrics, that was nothing compared to the Barbershop staple Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield, which the Imperial Quartet recorded as the flip to The Cross Bow, and which I didn't rip because of language. And, as far as I can tell, Cornfield is still in use as a Barbershop number--with softened lyrics, I'm sure. Barbershop clearly came out of minstrel shows, and I mean "out of" in the sense of detaching from. Minstrel shows were variety shows, and close harmony singing was one feature thereof. The racism that's all over Barbershop (before Barbershop became anything and everything, song-wise) has too much of a minstrel show flavor not to be a product of minstrelsy.
Two very entertaining 1920 sides by Lanin's Roseland Band, which I assume is Sam Lanin (though I'd better verify), and then a less than well-known Gershwin number, Limehouse Blues, played by the world-famous Columbia Saxophone Sextette. I haven't read up on the group, but I'm betting it was Columbia's answer to the Six Brown Brothers. Prior to using the equalizer page method, I was never able to get a decent rip from this 78.
To the shellac....
DOWNLOAD: Shellac for 2020, Part 2
Alagazam (To the Music of the Band) )Sterling-Harry Von Tilzer)--Peerless Quartet, 1915
Bee's Knees (Lopez-Lewis)--The Original Memphis Five, 1922
Song of India (Adapated by Paul Whiteman)--Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 1921
Circus Clowns (Fischer)--Gallop--John Fischer's Band, 1918
Snakes Hips (Spencer Williams)--The Original Memphis Five, 1923
The Cross Bow--From "Robin Hood" (De Koven)--Imperial Quartet, 1915
When Old Bill Bailey Plays the Ukalele (sic) (McCarron-Vincent)--Peerless Quartet, 1915
College Life March (Frantzen)--Victor Orchestra, c. Walter B. Rogers, w. vocal chorus, 1909
Alexander's Ragtime Band (Berlin)--Victor Military Band, 1911
Over the Waves Waltz (Rosas)--Dance Orchestra (Victor 2881; 1904)
Tea for Two (Irving Caesar-Vincent Youmans)--Benson Orchestra, Dir Don Bestor, 1924
I Want to Be Happy (Youmans)--Jan Garber and His Orchestra, 1924
I Never Care About Tomorrow (La Vine-Lange-Holden)--Same
"O" (OH!) (Intro. "The Vamp") (Gay and Johnson-Gay)--Ted Lewis Jazz Band, v: Jack Kaufmann, 1919
Arkansas Traveler--Don Richardson, Violin Solo, Piano Acc. (Columbia A2140; 1916)
Sweet Adeline (Gerard-Armstrong)--Peerless Quaret (Victor 20055; 1926)
In the Evening by the Moonlight (James Bland)--Same
Oh! By Jingo (One-step) (Albert Von Tilzer) (Sam) Lanin's Roseland Band, `910
Rose of Chile (Tango) (Bowers)--Same
12th Street Rag (Bowman)--Ted Lewis and His Band, 1923
Limehouse Nights (Gershwin)--Columbia Saxophone Sextette, 1920
Lee
23 comments:
Looks like a great group of tunes! Thanks so much.
Absolutely enjoying your latest posts, as well as appreciating the improved fidelity.
I do have a question: By any chance do you have a recording of "Miss Springtime" ?
It's an absolutely obscure instrumental ditty by Jerome Kern which - as far as I have been able to determine - was only ever commercially recorded by an anonymous "saxophone sextet."
I remember it was my grandmother's favorite tune and I have searched far an wide to find a copy and have been unable to track down even a recording. Do you happen to have one?
Cheers, Jim
It's a selection from a show, and not the show, right? Because I have some Victor Opera Singers sides, and a couple are Kerns. But a saxophone sextet? Unfortunately, no. Could it be the Six Brown Brothers on Victor?
I just found (thanks to eBay) that the Victor Military Band did a "Miss Springtime" medley--Victor 35598 (12-inch). Don't have it, but could that possibly be what you're thinking of? I'll look through my small acoustical showtune medleys and see if I have a vocal recording.
I'll listen to anything you've got to share.
Haven't heard it in decades; Grandma passed in 1981. But such vivid memories of hearing it.
Jim and Lee -
I found a copy of "Miss Springtime" on Internet Archive and cleaned it up for you. The song is from Kern's "My Castle in the Air." The artists are the Saxo Sextette. The record is on Columbia and dates from 1917.
This is in Apple lossless format. Let me know if that's a problem for you. I also have the other side of the record if it's of any interest.
https://mega.nz/#!Ccs0EQIY!sA1yn_soS6ch5wZ4yG7KUq5rvz5vcGcsWzWgpYNKPY8
Fast detective work! Can "Saxo Sextette" be a renaming of my Columbia Saxophone Quartette? (Well, they're not actually mine....)
Oddly enough, in looking into this further, I believe that Columbia (or the Saxo Sextette) may have confused matters on the label. The Kern show was "Miss Springtime." The song was called "My Castles in the Air."
Yes, it's the show. Columbia must have flipped things. I'm almost sure I have the "vocal gems" from that show on Victor, but I'll need the energy to get upstairs, and I'm currently allergy-dazed and still in shock from the raided bread shelves at my local grocery store. The clerks have no idea when or if the bread will be restocked. It "should be," I was told by one. The other didn't say anything. I think she was simply too exhausted to answer. I feel for these clerks. I wouldn't want their jobs right now.
The other side of the record has things backwards, too. It must have been the way Columbia was doing things back then. In that case the show is "Follow Me" and the song is "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?" IBDB does not list that song in that show, but it may have been interpolated. Billy Murray and Ada Jones had a hit with it, so the producers might have added it. The show was by Romberg, the song by McCarthy, Johnson and Monaco.
So, turns out I have the Victor Military Band's "Miss Springtime" medley. Composer is Emmerich Kalman. Seems that Kern wrote extra selections for the show. Five numbers, apparently. So, it was not actually a Kern show, per se.
I'll keep looking, to see if I have a sung medley.
Fascinating stuff I tell you, absolutely fascinating! And then even more going on in the comments!
I'm reading a book called Perfecting Sound Forever-An Aural History Of Recorded Music. Skipping over the fact that it's not really an aural history (because it's written), it's pretty neat stuff. Long section at the beginning talking about the war between cylinders and discs, and a great deal of info over the early performances matching live singers with recorded discs. Hard to believe that the early acoustic recordings were considered to be on par with the human voice, but I guess that when the stars aligned and the sonics were just right, maybe they were similar. But the found a very telling quote from one of the performers in just such a test, where she admits to singing in such a way that she sounded like the recording instead of belting it out like she would in a real concert. A neat read so far.
For what it's worth, here's the Victor Military Band medley from 1916 (Victor 35598). https://workupload.com/file/4Zdf5enu
Very charming, though apparently no Kern.
Ernie, Cool!
That singer must have been shilling for the Victor label....
Hard to imagine how people experienced reproduced sound prior to electrical recordings. The simple fact that sound could be reproduced at all was probably amazing enough to folks. At Greenfield village, I heard a demonstration of an original Edison machine, which, in replicating the human voice, produced a sound like a congested parrot yelling into a snowstorm....
Ernie - Sounds like a good book! The acoustic horn was better at reproducing the human voice than most instruments. The voice peaks at about 3kHz, which is at about the limits of the high frequencies that the horn could capture. I just worked on a vocal record that dates from 1901-3 (the exact date is unclear), and the vocal sound is fairly good. (The performance is dreadful, however.)
Lee - I heard that demo myself when I was a kid record collector. I think it put me off listening to acoustics for most of my life!
It was all Edison at the time. I think Victor was around, but not yet the powerhouse they would become.
Lee, it's fine by everybody that you're going crazy with your 78's - your slipped cog is our treasure. Thank you for the background on these recordings and their inner workings; my ears are looking forward to a good, appreciative listen.
And the comments here are darned interesting and illuminating! Ernie, I wouldn't mind tracking down that book for a read as well; I'm a pygmy among giants here, and am still fascinated by the detail that acoustical technology was borderline-lousy when recording string instruments (do I have that right?)... even to the point were some were made with a horn/cone on the fingerboard to "project" the sound toward the recording horn; e.g., http://pspatialaudio.com/acoustic%20recordings.htm.
Something about the nature of the sound from brass instruments, however, was different enough that they could be recorded much more easily... leading the average listener today to the impression that almost all early twentieth century groups performing were brass bands... because that's so much of what's come down to us. Right?
Hi, AG. Hm--your link isn't working, for some reason. Anyway, some time back, I read that musicians used all-out substitutes for violins for acoustical sides--sort of a stand-alone fingerboard which produced a screechy sound that registered just right on the recording horn. In fact, I think it was Paul Whiteman writing about it--possibly in his book "Jazz." As for the impression that most early 1900s groups were brass, I think that's an overgeneralization, as there were lots of woodwinds backing early singers, and there were piccolo and banjo solos, and a certain number of fiddle recordings--I have a 1900 recording of the "Arkansas/Arkansaw Travler" routine ("That road don't go anywar. Just stays where it is--uh, haw, haw, haw") with country fiddling. Since the fiddler was a studio pro (he had chops, and he could read music, which can't be allowed), he's not a country performer by the standards of those purists who are allowed to decide who and what was first. Purists, of course, are primarily concerned with excluding examples. Gives them a sense of importance, I suppose. Problem is, after purists get done excluding 80 percent of everything as "not jazz" or "not country" or "not rock and roll," etc., then the excluded recordings become, by definition, the norm. The real deal. You can't take the bulk of sound recordings and declare them inauthentic, because then what the hay does "authentic" mean? It's sort of like how we Boomers were conditioned to regard all "pre-rock" pop as invalid. Invalid in what way? It was the popular stuff of its time. Things don't get more valid than that.
Rock journalists were not shilling for the recording industry, of course.
The link is to a page that details some of the basic challenges in acoustical recording, including a photo of one of those "screechers": http://pspatialaudio.com/Stroh_violin_up.jpg ...aka Stroh violin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroh_violin), an intriguing innovation!
When I first started listening to the earliest recorded music, I was delighted to find it ranged far outside the stereotype/overgeneralization of "only brass and barbershop", little more than Sousa and Vaudeville / Music Hall. So I'm with you on the resounding eyeroll the white-gloved "purists" merit. Color and sing and play outside the lines; that's music.
Thanks for opening our ears, and jamming some great good sounds and works into them!
Great stuff here! So glad I checked out the comments. They're a post in themselves.
Paul Whiteman's original of "Song of India" has never sounded so good. Indeed, these refurbishing are all superb and reveal pre-electronic recording was far better than I ever thought. As for the selections, I agree about the wondrousness of "The Cross Bow." Those vocal groups like the Peerless and the Haydn Quartets never fail to amaze me. Maybe some day you or Buster (or both) can devote a series of Profile posts to these groups and sing their praises. I forget which of them (maybe both) recorded "Nearer My God to Thee" and "In the Great Bye and Bye," but these farewell-to-the-Titanic recordings always bring tears. I want to thank you for the Jan Garber recordings. Sweet bands of the 1920s always led dual or secret lives as jazz bands. Of course, I have long known about the comprehensive compass of Sam Lanin. But this orchestral double life of sweet and hot, sugar and spice, in the 1920s deserves deeper focus and, again, you and Buster are equipped to give it. Your remastering of "Limehouse Nights" is the cleanest by far I have ever heard. All in all, I can't thank you enough for these posts. One last thing: beneath their novelty, "Circus Clowns" and "Snakes Hips" show very clever arranging and good musicianship. Who doesn't love those snake charmer rhythms? And, like Charles Ives, I remain a sucker for bass drums.
Thanks for the very nice words, David! I'll have to dig out all my classic quartet 78s. I don't have as many as I'd like, but I do have a decent number...
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