The Revelers: Gems from "Oh, Kay!" (1927), plus more shellac classics (1909-1928)

 

Not too long ago, David asked me to post any Revelers sides I own, and Gems from "Oh, Kay!" is my sole Revelers side.  So... here it are.

Someone took less than ideal care of the disc, as you can tell by the damaged label (top image--gramophone needles played heck with paper labels), and this is after photo-shopping.  Two serious gouges in the grooves, so you'll hear some sonic "turbulence" halfway through, but nothing drastic.  I had to creatively work around the missing groove portions with my MAGIX program.  And, did I say "my sole Revelers side"?  Well, it's my sole all-Revelers side, but I'm betting the farm that it's the Revelers at the start of the Eveready Hour Group's Down South--and the group members' names are part of the long track roster, so I can't see how it couldn't be them doing the opening quartet chores.  (Opening quartet chores?)

Down South was a very popular number (maybe it still is) by British composer William H. Myddleton, whose real name was George Arnold Haynes Safroni-Middleton.  Kind of funny (if that's the word) that a famous minstrel-style "I long to be back in the South" ditty was written by an Englishman.  What was next?  God Bless America by a songwriter born in Siberia?

And we get a repeat (hopefully, in better, more up-front fidelity this time) of the 1926 Chicago Symphony Orch.'s recording of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance, followed by the song version of the "walking song" section--Land of Hope and Glory, superbly sung by the Victor Male Chorus, 1925.  Continuing the theme of  American-style works from European composers, we have Giuseppe Creatore's arrangement of French composer Adolphe Sellenick's Indian March (that's Adolphe on the left), and I guess that completes the imported-Americana titles.  Bandmaster Creatore's fame rivaled that of John Philip Sousa's, I read on line (Wikipedia, probably), and I had no idea.  Imagine the days when light concert music ruled--the past is hardly all sunshine and roses, but there are some portions we wish we could have back.  For me, it would be the days of light music everywhere.  And I suppose Gems from "No, No Nanette" would fall into the light music category, given the operetta sound to the side.  Gorgeous and classic Vincent Youmans numbers, and I used to have a No, No Nanette revival LP.  Used to.  It grew legs and walked away, I guess.  Tea for Two (the highlight of the medley, for me) is one of my all-time favorite songs, and the song has been done a disservice by having its verse (introductory section) eliminated in so many performances--that verse is essential to the song's beauty.  The song also lends itself to sing-songy and monotonous interpretations, but when sung with feeling at a medium tempo, it's pure gold.  The modulation to the key of the major third (in the chorus) never grows old for me.

And I also promised David the flip side of Homer Rodeheaver's Victor recording of Jesus, Rose of Sharon (a Charles Gabriel masterpiece), and so here it is (along with Sharon): an A.H. and B.D. Ackley gem, Where They Never Say Goodbye.  I personally regard Rodeheaver's baritone as quite solid, and I much prefer his electrical sides, because they give us an idea of his vocal power.  "Rodeheaver" is pronounced Rode-ah-Haiv-er, and no one was more surprised than me to learn that.  Homer's two 1925 78s boast superb sound quality, especially given that 1925 was the year microphone recordings became a thing--commercially, that is.

I didn't have time to look up Victor Herbert's marvelous Algeria, but the chorus to The Rose of Algeria is one of the loveliest numbers I've ever heard.  1909 is the recording date for the Victor Light Opera Chorus' Gems from "Algeria," and frankly I think the whole delightful medley has an ahead-of-its-time sound.  Which is to say, though Herbert is typically sort of tucked away as a pre-showtune or strictly operetta composer, I hear the a prototype for the Broadway musicals to come.  I'm no authority on showtunes, but I think Herbert does not get his due as one of the songwriters who laid down the law for Broadway shows.  For instance, his 1919 I Might Be Your Once-in-a-While was profoundly sophisticated for the time--Herbert was working ahead of the Gerswin/Porter/Kern/et al. curve with that one.  The song isn't in our playlist, but I did feature it a while back on a hill-and-dale Pathe 78.

We close with an incredible live recording (from 1927!) of the 2500-strong, all-male Associated Glee Clubs of America, as they peak the 1927 mixing board meter with their excellent performance of British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Viking Song.  (The mixed-race Coleridge-Taylor referred to himself as "an Anglo-African,")  This famous choral number is the obvious source for the Monty Python Spam sketch, and it's all about the British shipbuilding industry.  I read someplace (but where, I know not) that this outdoor concert was piped into a radio station via phoneline.  The engineer clearly had mixing capability, because we can hear the volume cut back whenever it peaks.  I doubt any auto-limiters were being manufactured back then, so I'm picturing a guy at a vintage mixing board, monitoring things with old-fashioned headphones and manually reducing the input signal when necessary--likely, with a knob and not a slider.  That, or someone yanked the microphone away at peak-volume moments (not likely).

DOWNLOAD: Revelers, and more (1909-1928)

Lee