With this batch of shellac (sixteen sides!), I was testing my new after-market 78 stylus for my Stanton 500 cartridge. Now, I could have gotten a custom-made stylus for more than four times the cost, but I can't see paying half the price of a turntable for a needle, so.... At any rate, since Stanton's no longer making the stylus, after-market is the only option. So....
Not too pricey, and it performs well. But I had to get used to its lower-end punch, so I ended up doing some of these tracks twice. Or thrice, in one instance. (Thrice in one instance. Hm.... Does that add up?) Anyway, some interesting sides today. A number of these were "problem" 78s, which simply means they were not in the best of shape. More "knackered" than usual. (I'm having Scotland flashbacks....) So I did a lot of splicing out of bumps, thumps, and big clicks. Just my job, ma'am. Yup. Been doin' it since I was a pup.
Form 1939, two sides that border on high fidelity--both of them Albert Ketelbey standards: In a Monastery Garden and In a Persian Market. I swapped my original playing order, because, when placed after Persian Market, Monastery Garden simply sounds like a continuation of the other piece. It helps to have a contrast in tempo, dynamics, or other essential details when you're featuring two mood pieces in a row. Or, descriptive pieces. Whatever. "Light concert works" will do it. Some distortion during the middle-theme crescendo on Market, which could have been the result of a mistracking gramophone tonearm way back when--or a worn needle. We'll never know. 1923's Applesauce, performed by the Columbians, is a delightful dance number, and I managed to mask some high-freq distortion without muffling things. Then, Joseph C. Smith's first sides--1916's amazing Money Blues, composed by arranger Hugo Frey (amazing in the way it anticipates the Whiteman sound), and the bouncy one-step I've Got a Shooting Box In Scotland (1917), composed by Cole Porter. Arabian Nights is back--this time, by Joseph Knecht's Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra, and the sound is very Joseph C. Smith. Especially for not being Smith.
Next, two by the Dixie Daisies, and they're classic early '20s dance, the second side an especially jazzy one. On the same label (Cameo), the "Dixie Daisies" served as a pseudonym for bandleaders like Fred Rich, Irving Mills, and Adrian Schubert. Most of those sides also came out on the Lincoln and Romeo labels. Now you know. And... we have the Brox Sisters trio, with Arthur Johnson on piano, singing Irving Berlin's Lazy and a number I remember from my young days, Cover Me up with the Sunshine of Virginia, though I seem to recall it was by a ukulele player.
And we have Irving Berlin's wonderful Alice In Wonderland, coupled with Poor Butterfly. The latter became a standard, but I think the Berlin song is better. (Not that anyone asked me.) On the former, "Anna Howard" sings with Harry MacDonough. Anna Howard is actually Lucy Isabelle Marsh. Butterfly is sung by "Edna Brown," who is actually Elsie Baker. Now the weird fact--the Canadian edition of this 78 used Lucy Isabelle Marsh's pseudonym ("Anna Howard") for Poor Butterfly, and I'm sure it was done just to confuse collectors 104 years later. Very sneaky. Anyway, priceless vocal sides, and forgive the opening surface noise on the gorgeous Alice in Wonderland.
Band Espanola gives us the "Cake Walk and Two-step" Berta, and it's a very raggy number. At the Discography of American Historical Recordings, a range of recording years is given for this one--1905-1907. That must mean the band periodically returned to the studio to redo the side. So it must have been a big seller. 1904's Cocoanut Dance may (or may not) have been transferred to disc from cylinder--there is a cylinder recording of the number by the same artist in the same year--but it's also possible the cylinder and disc recordings were made concurrently. Well, not at exactly the same time, unless banjoist Vess L. Ossman was able to bi-locate.
Then, two weird 1920 Ted Lewis sides--the Ted Lewis Jazz Band, no less. Fair One, a hit song by Lewis and George Mallen, comes first, and it frankly sounds like something dying. That's my best description of the side. It has a Dixieland sound, but it's all treble and mid-range--either 1/3 of the band missed the gig, or the engineer screwed up. The saxophone work is awful, and I suspect it's Ted Lewis on alto sax--the pointless flourishes and the ascending chromatic runs sound like Ted's notion of clarinet playing transferred to the sax. I'm almost certain Ted is playing the clarinet at the start, then making a quick switch. His tone is dreadful, and it distracts from the fairly interesting stuff going on behind him. The sax is less destructive on Gypsy Moon, on which Lewis mostly plays fill-in phrases when he's not stating the melody. The total effect is still weird, but not as.
The shellac awaits you.
DOWNLOAD: Another 78 break
In a Monastery Garden (Ketelbey)--Columbia Salon Orch., Dir. Mortimer Palitz (Columbia 36234; 1939)
In a Persian Garden (Ketelbey)--Same
Applesauce (Lyman-Arheim-Freed)--The Columbians--Dance Orchestra Deluxe (Columbia A3853; 1923)
Money Blues (Hugo Frey)--Joseph C. Smith and His Orchestra (Victor 18165; 1916)
I've Got a Shooting Box in Scotland (Cole Porter)--Same, 1917
Arabian Nights (M. David-Wm. Hewitt)--Joseph Knecht's Waldorf-Astoria Orch. (Victor 18536; 1918)
Lovin' Sam (The Sheik of Alabam') (Milton Ager)--Dixie Daisies (Cameo 291; 1922)
What More Do You Want? (Isham Jones)--Same
Lazy (Irving Berlin)--The Brox Sisters, Piano Acc. by Arthur Johnston (Victor 19298; 1924)
Cover Me Up with the Sunshine of Virginia (Young-Lewis-Meyer)--Same
Alice in Wonderland (Irving Berlin)--Anna Howard (Lucy Isabelle Marsh)-Harry MacDonough (Victor 18211; 1916)
Poor Butterfly (Golden-Hubbell)--Edna Brown (Elsie Baker)--Same
Berta (Cake Walk and Two-step)--Band Espanola (Columbia Record 5663; 1905-1907)
Cocoanut Dance--Moreau Characteristic--Vess L. Ossman, Banjo Solo w. Orchestra Acc. (Columbia Disc Record No. 1705 (1904)
Fair One (Ted Lewis-George Mallen)--Ted Lewis Jazz Band (Columbia A2998; 1920)
Gypsy Moon (Ed Moebus)--Same
Lee
4 comments:
Where did you order your new needle from? I need to get a new needle something awful, and my old source has closed up shop.
From eBay. It's a Pfanstiehl replacement. A slightly pricier version is being offered at Turntabeneedles.com--made by the Bliss company--but I'm told that Bliss styli are often simply repackaged Pfanstiehl or another common after-market. LP Gear is another place to go. Also, Esoteric Sound, though ES is the place that had the custom needle I mentioned--for $139. Nope.
I didn't have my vari-focals on when I read about those big clicks, and the small laptop screen didn't help much either. Big clicks indeed.
And a shooting box in Scotland? We've all been there.
I had assumed a shooting box was literally a box--something to stand on while shooting giraffes or elephants, maybe. (Doesn't sound very safe.) But Merriam-Webster says, "a cabin or small house in the country for use in the shooting season." That selection is a wonderful early dance side--lively two-step Joseph C. Smith. The flip has a Paul Whiteman sound four years before the fact. Why Smith never used drums again, I dunno, as Victor was good at recording them. Listening back to these, I'm unhappy with the thin sound I got from the Brox Sisters 78 but am happy with the clarity of the vocals. The acoustical process was unkind to the female vocal range.
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