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Deems Taylor and Paul Creston

March 16, 2014, 3:07 pm
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Recently I asked the readers of this blog if any of a selection of my half-finished transfers would be on interest. I should have asked if any of them were not of interest, because all of them received votes, most of them several.

But the exercise was not without merit - it elicited far more comments than anything else I have ever published here! So I am going to go ahead and share various items as I finish them off. I started off this AM with a post on my other blog of two EPs by a fairly obscure vocalist, Bob Carroll. I had thought that only I would remember him, but no, a few of you did ask for his work.

Taylor in 1931
I suspected that the present post would be more desirable, and sure enough, many of you requested it. This 10-inch LP is one of the American Recording Society series from the early 1950s, combining high accessible works by contemporary composers Deems Taylor and Paul Creston.

If Taylor's name lives on today, it may be primarily as the narrator of Disney's Fantasia. But he was a formidable presence on the American music scene for several decades, as critic, composer and broadcaster.

"The Portrait of a Lady" is an attractive suite from 1925 that veers between Delius and light music. Taylor, in his capacity as the representative of the New York World, reviewed the premiere himself, commenting, "The audience, probably composed of the composer's relatives, greeted the piece with what seemed to us highly disproportionate cordiality."

Creston
Paul Creston's Partita is from 1937, a relatively early work. Creston was a conservative like Taylor, although his music is less romantic than that of Taylor.

These performances by an anonymous orchestra led by Walter Hendl are better than some of the ARS recordings heard here. Michael Gray's discography claims that the orchestra is actually the Vienna Symphony, and dates the recording to sessions in June 1952. The sound is very good.
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Noël Coward in 1954

March 18, 2014, 5:02 pm
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Following his experience entertaining the troops during World War II, Noël Coward developed a cabaret act, which he honed in London and then took to the U.S. in 1955.

Before embarking for the States, Coward set down this collection, representing his repertoire at the time, and including many of his best known numbers. The recordings were made in London in July 1954.

Backing Coward here is the great arranger Wally Stott (Angela Morley) along with pianist Norman Hackforth, Coward's long-time musical associate.

This is another one of the stray items I offered to post a short while back. The performances and recording are excellent, so I hope those who expressed interest will partake.

Coward flanked by Yul Brynner and Tony Martin in 1954

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Juno and the Paycock

March 22, 2014, 12:42 pm
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I transferred this some time ago, as a follow-up to my post of J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, and then never posted it. I am here today to make amends and satisfy a promise made back in 2012.

Cusack and McKenna
Sean O'Casey's 1924 Juno and the Paycock is often considered a successor to Synge's 1907 masterpiece, and rightfully so, even though it is set in Dublin and Playboy in the rural west. Here the similarities are accentuated by the casting, with Siobhán McKenna, Marie Kean and producer Cyril Cusack among the cast, as they were in the Synge recording. Both productions are from 1955.

Like Playboy, this is a tragi-comedy among the working class with a female character as the fulcrum and ineffectual males. Here, McKenna (as Juno) is married to the loutish Captain Boyle (Seamus Kavanagh), with the setting amidst the Irish Civil War. As with the Synge play, the language is key to its success. This is not an easy play to bring off; the present cast succeeds beautifully. The recording has a spoken introduction by the playwright. The sound is good.

The download includes a booklet with O'Casey's preamble, essays, photos and a synopsis. I've included the text of the play from Project Gutenberg.

YouTube has the 1930 filmed adaptation, with the original Juno, Sara Allgood. It is directed by Alfred Hitchcock.


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Dream On with Elliot Lawrence

March 28, 2014, 4:44 pm
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Conductor Elliot Lawrence has had a remarkably long career. Still active today, there are photos of him leading a youth band in the 1930s (with Buddy DeFranco on clarinet).

Lawrence's career splits neatly into two parts - first, as leader of big bands on the road and on records; and second, as conductor and arranger for Broadway and television, after being enlisted for Bye Bye Birdie by director Gower Champion.

In his band days, Lawrence had some association with jazz, notably using the arrangements of Gerry Mulligan on a number of occasions. But his niche was a soft, danceable variety, reminiscent of the style of Claude Thornhill. Here he enlists the services of several notable arrangers:

Mood Midnight - Al Cohn, composer and arranger
Someone to Watch Over Me - Lawrence
The Pretty One - Lawrence, composer and arranger
Our Love Is Here to Stay - Cohn
Nightfall - Cohn, composer and arranger
Deep Purple - Johnny Mandel
Cheek to Cheek - Frank Hunter
To a Wild Rose - Nelson Riddle
They Didn't Believe Me - Cohn
The Night Is Young and You're So Beautiful - Hunter
Jazz Lullaby - Cohn, composer and arranger
I'll Follow My Secret Heart - Lawrence

As you might expect, the band is composed of New York's finest studio musicians (Cohn, Nick Travis, Urbie Green, etc.). Lawrence had given up his road band a few years earlier.

This was one of Fantasy's first stereo releases. The recordings were made in December 1957.

There was a considerable amount of interest in this disc in my recent poll, so I hope you like it. I have many Lawrence records, and have already transferred one of his first LPs for future presentation.
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Remastered and Reupped, Vol. 1

March 30, 2014, 11:58 am
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As time goes by, I've become much better at mastering the recordings I present here. I have been revisiting a number of my earlier transfers with an ear on improving the sonics, and will be presenting the results here from time to time.

Here is the first batch - the links, as always, are in the comments to this post. You can learn more about the LPs themselves by investigating my original posts via the keyword links at right. The new links can be found in the original posts as well.

Let me stress that in all cases, the sound is far superior to the original post.

Alfven - Swedish Rhapsodies 1, 3; Festival Music (early stereo recordings conducted by the composer and Stig Westerberg)

Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 1 (New York Quartet)

Brahms - Violin Concerto (Ida Haendel; LSO - Celibidache)

Copland - Red Pony; Thomson - Acadian Songs and Dances (Little Orchestra Society/Thomas Scherman)

Ellis Larkins - Blues in the Night (a little noisy, but superb playing)

I Love Melvin (soundtrack with Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor)

Louis Alter - Album of Manhattan (Paul Whiteman Concert Orchestra)

Miguelito Valdes - Bim Bam Boom

Morris Stoloff - Music from Movieland
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Quincy Porter Conducts Quincy Porter

April 1, 2014, 3:45 pm
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When I recently asked readers to vote on whether they wanted me to post a variety of music I had transferred, this was one of the most frequently requested items.

There is a lively interest around here in American music of the last century, and Quincy Porter is one of the leading composers of conservative, tonal music from that era.

Porter was literally a son of Yale; a grandson, too - both his father and grandfather were professors there, and Porter himself both was educated at the New Haven school and spent a good part of his career there.

Overtone Records, which issued this disc in 1955, was located in New Haven and drew upon the Yale faculty for its performers. For this particular production of Porter conducting his own works, it contracted the Concerts Colonne Orchestra of Paris, and noted engineer André Charlin.

On the program are two middle-period compositions, Porter's Symphony No. 1 and Dance in Three Time, both from the 1930s, and his Concerto Concertante, which had won a Pulitzer Prize the year before this record was made.

I can't say the results met my own expectations, which may be more a commentary on me than anything else. The music left little impression and the sound, while good and no doubt truthful, lacks impact. Porter's grim look on the cover just about sums up my personal reaction. I am sure many of you will enjoy this more than I did.

The download includes cover scans, as always, along with a copy of the detailed program note insert that came with the record.
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Remastered and Reupped, Vol. 2 - featuring Matt Dennis

April 3, 2014, 3:12 pm
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Here is a second selection of recordings that I have remastered and reuploaded. These have far superior sound in all cases.

First of all, I want to showcase my redo of the nine singles that singer Matt Dennis made for Capitol in 1946 and possibly early 1947, all with Paul Weston. These are excellent records - Dennis was a terrific singer even relatively early in his career, the arrangements were fine, and the songs were well selected, although I could do without "A Trout, No Doubt." (Hey, that rhymes!) He even makes me like "Linda."

As mentioned, I have remastered these sides and the sound is much improved. I also have carefully repitched the recordings, which were sharp, making Dennis sound adolescent (he was 32). The transfers are from my collection of 78s.

These days, Dennis is mostly known for his compositions - "Angel Eyes,""Violets for Your Furs,""The Night We Called It a Day,""Everything Happens to Me," all available in superb Sinatra renditions - but he also was one of the finest singers of the post-war era. Unfortunately, none of the songs here are his compositions.

The rest of today's remastered selections:

Virgil Thomson - The River; Otto Luening - Prelude on a Hymn Tune by William Billings; Two Symphonic Interludes. ARS recordings led by Dean Dixon.

Written on the Wind; Rhapsody for Four Girls in Town. Soundtrack recordings of music by Frank Skinner and Alex North. The latter piece features Andre Previn on piano.

Nielsen - Symphony No. 3. The classic rendition led by Erik Tuxen.

Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - Sunday Evening Songs. Really old oldies in treasurable versions from the beloved pair.

See the original posts for more on these selections. Links to the downloads are in the comments.
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Mitropoulos Conducts Vaughan Williams and Rachmaninoff

April 6, 2014, 7:21 pm
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I transferred this LP because I have been reading William Trotter's vivid, if melodramatic biography of Dimitri Mitropoulos, Priest of Music.

The conductor was indeed an unworldly sort who was a mismatch with the all-too-worldly New York Philharmonic. But before his ill-fated Phil follies, he was the long-time maestro in Minneapolis, and a beloved figure there.

Mitropoulos' commitment to modern music extended from the more conservative works heard here (and previous uploads such as compositions from Gian Carlo Menotti and Elie Siegmeister), through the second symphony of Roger Sessions (also previously featured here), to Schoenberg's Erwartung (which I will transfer when I locate the record in my collection).

Mitropoulos was famous for his remarkable memory, control and intensity. These traits serve the Rachmaninoff very well. But his febrile approach may be less suited to the Tallis Fantasia, which needs more room to breathe.

Columbia recorded these works in March 1945 in Minneapolis' Northrup Auditorium. The sound is adequate. This transfer is from an early LP issue.

Mitropoulos in his Minneapolis days
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'Just for You' and Other Remastered Soundtracks and Shows

April 11, 2014, 4:59 pm
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Many more reups today, all remastered and in much superior sound, and all from movies or shows.

The feature presentation is the Bing Crosby-Jane Wyman musical, Just for You, from 1952, with a Harry Warren score. The film is a favorite of mine, and I went on at length about it in my first post, drawing parallels between the plot and Crosby's life, and even introducing a discussion of Mamie Eisenhower's hairdo.

Otherwise, we have a studio version of the Rodgers-Hart show On Your Toes, three scores from the underrated George Duning, a Kenyon Hopkins score, and the soundtrack of The French Line with a singing Jane Russell.

Here's the roster. Find the links in the comments to this post, or my looking up the original posts.

Just for You (with Bing and Jane)

Me and the Colonel (Duning's score for the Danny Kaye film)

Naked City (Duning's music for the television show; this actually is a narrated musical on record a la Manhattan Tower, featuring the fantastic singer Jo Ann Greer)

On Your Toes (Jack Cassidy and Portia Nelson are featured)

Salome (with Duning's superb score)

The French Line (music by Josef Myrow; Russell stars with Gilbert Roland)

The Strange One (interesting Kenyon Hopkins score with a great jazz theme)
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Meredith Willson and 'Modern American Music'

April 15, 2014, 4:25 pm
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Paul Whiteman's 1924 Aeolian Hall concert is famous primarily for having introduced Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. But that event was just the beginning of what the conductor called his "Experiments in Modern American Music," with concert music commissioned from composers with pop and jazz roots. There were to be a total of eight such concerts, the last being held in 1938.

Whiteman's efforts inspired at least one other bandleader to a similar effort, and this present album is the result. In 1939, Meredith Willson was a radio conductor on the show Good News, which was primarily a showcase for M-G-M talent. For the show, Willson commissioned 10 notable pop composers to produce new works in a variety of forms, including the minuet, waltz, march and so on. Participating were Harry Warren, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Peter DeRose, Duke Ellington, Louis Alter, Sigmund Romberg, Morton Gould, Dana Suesse and Ferde Grofe. Ellington, Gould and Grofe had all contributed works to Whiteman's 1938 concert.

Meredith Willson
Willson convinced Decca to make an elaborate album of the resulting commissions, which contained two 10-inch and three 12-inch 78s. Willson and band (or "concert orchestra," as both he and Whiteman were then calling their ensembles) recorded the compositions in one session in early January 1941. The results are certainly listenable, although none of the pieces has become well known. But that was the case as well with the works that Whiteman commissioned - he never achieved a success to match Rhapsody in Blue, at least not with anyone but George Gershwin.

Willson's biggest success was to come many years later, with the hit musical The Music Man, which has at least five songs that became better known and loved than any of the compositions on this album. His own concert pieces, while enjoyable, will never be considered his main contribution to music.

This transfer is from an early LP reissue of the 78 set, with reasonably good sound. Also, I have rummaged through Internet Archive and located eight of the 10 Good News radio programs that premiered the original compositions. If anyone is interested in hearing these shows, just let me know in the comments and I will upload them.
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Mexican Hayride

April 25, 2014, 4:54 pm
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I've been very busy for a long time, but I wanted to slip in a quick post, in this case the 1944 Cole Porter musical Mexican Hayride.

This is not one of Porter's best known scores, nor is the cast the starriest, but the record is entirely agreeable and worthy of your attention.

The star of the show was June Havoc, who was best known for being Gypsy Rose Lee's sister, called Baby June on the vaudeville stage. Havoc (néeHovick) was also apparently known for her legs. Producer Mike Todd commissioned Alberto Vargas to design a gargantuan billboard of Havoc recumbent, which appeared outside the Winter Garden theatre when the musical was in residence. That is co-star Bobby Clark ogling June through his painted-on eyeglasses.

The block-long June Havoc
Somehow Clark got left out when it came time for the Decca cast album, here presented as "selections from"Mexican Hayride"featuring members of the Original New York Production." Beside Havoc, those members were Wilbur Evans and Corinna Mura.

Evans made his name on the operetta stage. On Broadway, he also appeared in Up in Central Park, later By the Beautiful Sea. He can be heard in a few Decca operetta albums.

This was Mura's only Broadway show. She had appeared in Casablanca (singing the Marseillaise) and other movies.

I transferred the songs from the 10-inch LP of 1949, and included scans, as usual, but since I also have the 78 set, I have added scans from that album's inside front and back covers, which present photos from the show and the recording session, respectively. (The latter is below.)



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Early Cy Coleman

May 1, 2014, 5:41 pm
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Before he became famous as a Broadway composer, Cy Coleman was a fixture in the better clubs with his piano trio - even as a very young man.

This obscure 10-inch LP is from 1955, when Coleman was either 25 or 26. (The back cover says 24, but news accounts from 1950 had him as 22, so that's unlikely.)

This was not Coleman's first record - he had a contract with Coral as early as 1950 - but it may be his first LP.

Coleman was a very effective pianist. The back cover says he offers "an almost symphonic form of jazz," which is nonsense: he was not really a jazz artist. Although he offers his own takes on some very familiar tunes, little here sounds improvised.

The young Cy Coleman
Coleman's cohorts were jazz players, though. Bassist Ernie Furtado had stints with Bill Evans, Chuck Wayne and Morgana King. Drummer John Cresci played with Helen Merrill and Lena Horne, later, oddly, with Al Kooper and Michael Bloomfield.

By the time this LP came out, Coleman had already written such songs as "Why Try to Change Me Now." The only song here that may be his work is the opener, "One-Two-Three."

The cover makes it look like Coleman played the accordion, but there's none of that here.

My singles blog has a new post of one of Coleman's greatest hits - "Playboy's Theme" - along with his own vocal on "You Fascinate Me So."
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Ray Price, Floyd Tillman, Carl Smith and Cowboy Copas

May 3, 2014, 3:55 pm
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Today we have a doubleheader with music from four of the best singers in country & western history - a set of early hits from Ray Price, Floyd Tillman and Lefty Frizzell, and a bonus LP of gospel songs from Cowboy Copas.

Ray Price, the "Cherokee Cowboy," on stage in 1956
I transferred "Greatest Western Hits" a while back following the death of Price, one of the finest singers in any genre. It contains "Crazy Arms," perhaps the singer's best record, and a gigantic success for him in 1956. Price's performance is haunting - it only takes a few notes for his voice to give me the shivers. By the way, the excellent harmony singing on this record is by Van Howard.

Nearly as famous is Frizzell's "If You've Got the Money, I've got the Time," the sly anthem of the honky-tonk lothario, which came out in 1950. (I actually prefer Willie Nelson's jaunty 1976 remake.)

Among the the Carl Smith hits here is "Hey Joe," a number one record in 1953, also the first top hit for writer Boudleaux Bryant.

Price, Smith and Frizzell were mainstays of the Columbia catalogue of the early 50s. During that period, Cowboy Copas was one of the big stars on the King label of Cincinnati. His 1959 LP of "Hymns and Gospel Songs" collects songs he recorded in the early 50s.

By the time the album came out Copas had moved on to the Dot and Starday labels. This is a good record, but the production may be a little too smooth and bland for the material.


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Curtain Going Up in Boston

May 11, 2014, 6:50 pm
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This 1957 LP shows off one of the specialties of the house for the Boston Pops during the long Arthur Fiedler reign - medleys from famous musicals.

Curtain Going Up features mash-ups from the recent Broadway hits My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Carousel, Can-Can, Wonderful Town and South Pacific, along with a selection of Richard Rodgers' waltzes.

All feature the typical Fiedler élan that stops just this side of seeming rushed. This works particularly well with such tunes as "It's a Grand Night for Singing," which ends the program on a high note. If there is little depth in this approach - well, it is the Pops, after all.

The sound also is typical of RCA Victor's efforts for this ensemble. Depending on your own preferences, you could call it big and glamorous, or woolly and indistinct. My copy is mono - I can't recall ever seeing a stereo copy and couldn't find evidence of one on the web, although I would not be surprised if they exist.

The cover is by Mozelle Thompson (a favorite of my friend Ernie). It appears to depict an operetta that is being presented on a particularly tiny stage.

The artist as shoe salesman

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Doris Day Plugs 'On Moonlight Bay'

May 17, 2014, 6:26 pm
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Not long ago, I was looking around for something to transfer in honor of Doris Day's 90th birthday. (I hope it won't be considered caddish for me to mention that some people think she is actually 92.)

Promo 78
It's not so easy to find unusual Day material - everything she ever recorded has been reissued. But finally I remembered a promotional disc for her 1951 album of songs from the film On Moonlight Bay, so here it is, along with the album itself.

On the record, Doris introduces four titles from the LP with opening and closing remarks. The idea is that radio stations would make a 15-minute program out of the songs and her comments. Columbia would have sent the record to deejays along with an opening script (which I don't have).

Day and MacRae make music; Smith makes waves
Day shares the LP with singer-actor Jack Smith. He was in the film as well, but not as the romantic lead. Gordon MacRae had that role, but he was contracted to Capitol records. Smith, later a television game-show host, played a rival suitor favored by Day's father. Smith was a pleasant singer who does better here than he did with Doris in the movie.

Arranger of the LP is the estimable Paul Weston, who also appears on the promotional disc. The sound is excellent.

This is the first time I have presented Day here. It's a pleasure - she is one of my favorite singers and actors.

1951 promotional tie-in

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More Reups and Remasters

May 18, 2014, 2:46 pm
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I have another pile of reupped transfers for you today. Some of these are by request; some are remastered versions that I have done to improve on my early work. The remastered files are in Apple lossless format; those that don't say "remastered" are the original mp3s. In general, the redone transfers have vastly better sonics than the originals.

Today's bill of fare:

Axel Stordahl - Dreamtime (by request; an early Stordahl LP on Capitol)

Copland by Koussevitzky (by request; the classic recordings in a remastered version with a new transfer of "Appalachian Spring")

Kabalevsky - Symphony No. 2 (by request; the version conducted by Jacques Rachmilovich)

Leo Sowerby - Prairie; From the Northland (remastered version of the ARC recordings led by Dean Dixon)

Lena Horne - Lena Horne Sings (remastered version of an excellent M-G-M LP)

Pérez Prado - Plays Mucho Mambo for Dancing (remastered edition of Prado's fantastic first US LP)

Roy Harris - Fantasy; Abraham Lincoln (remastered edition of the composer-led performances)

Links to all the above are in the comments to this post and individually can be found by looking up the original post

I also had requests for the "Love in the Afternoon" EP and the "Joy of Living" Schlitz promo. I intend to redo the EP and the Nelson Riddle - J's with Jamie ad is coming up, along with a complete J's with Jamie promo LP.
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The J's with Jamie Sing and Sell

May 21, 2014, 5:23 pm
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Not long ago, a reader asked me to reup a Nelson Riddle promotional record made for the Schlitz Brewing Company in the late 1950s. That contained the Schlitz ad, "The Real Joy of Good Living," as sung by Jamie Silvia of the group the J's with Jamie. (You can read more about the record on the original post.)

After working on that reup, I decided to pull out my collection of J's with Jamie records. The group was along the most successful specialists in commercial work of the day, for good reason - they were superb. Comprising Jamie and Joe Silvia, Don Shelton (or Marshall Gill) and Len Dresslar, the group recorded hundreds of ads, and several LPs.

This present album presents their "two sides" - one side of the commercials of the day (early 1960s), most of which I remember, and one of their recordings for Columbia.

If I prefer the ads, it may be for nostalgic reasons, but there is no denying that their craftsmanship was remarkable. Listen, for example, to their dead-on hootenanny routine during the Alka-Seltzer spot. You will hear ads for vanished products (Plymouth, Valiant and Corvair cars, Northwest Orient Airlines), items that are no longer advertised in this way (three different cigarette brands), and a number of brands that are still around 50 years later.

The ads are knit together by a clunky Dragnet-style narration. I believe the anonymous narrator may be Ken Nordine. The LP was probably made for distribution to both advertising agencies and clubs.

The Columbia selections are drawn from the group's two albums and handful of singles. The best cut is probably the single "Everybody Says Don't," from the contemporaneous Stephen Sondheim musical flop Anyone Can Whistle. The ensemble also recorded two LPs for ABC records under the name Jamie and the J. Silvia Singers.

The J's with Jamie went out of business in 1968. Thereafter, the Silvias concentrated on production work. Shelton (who had been in the Hi-Lo's) went on to form the Singers Unlimited with Dresslar, fellow Hi-Lo's alum Gene Puerling, and Bonnie Herman, another vocalist who specialized in commercial work.
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Mitropoulos Conducts Schoenberg and Krenek

May 27, 2014, 4:45 pm
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Continuing our exploration of Dimitri Mitropoulos' recordings, we encounter Arnold Schoenberg's expressionist "Erwartung" and Ernst Krenek's Symphonic Elegy in Memory of Anton von Webern.

You might expect that these atonal works would have appealed to the modernist Mitropoulos, but his biographer William Trotter claims that the Schoenberg was the source of a crisis of confidence for the composer.

"I am wondering sometimes if this kind of distorted and screwy beauty is of any transcendental value," Mitropoulos wrote to his great friend Katy Katsoyanis. She sensibly replied, "It's very natural, when you are battling desperately with one of these problematic creations, to question whether they are worth all that effort; your mission, however, is to play them, solving their problems, explaining them to the audience."

Dorothy Dow
At this, the conductor was a master; he and the New Yorkers make Schoenberg sound as effortless as Schubert. The concerts leading up to this recording were praised by the critics, and even the audience was pleased. You can hear why in this taping from November 19, 1951, from Columbia's 30th Street Studio. Dorothy Dow is fully in command of the ungrateful part of the protagonist in this overwrought monodrama from the pen of Marie Pappenheim.

The companion work on this LP is just as impressive. Mitropoulous had become acquainted with Krenek when the conductor was in Minneapolis and the composer was on the faculty of Hamline University in adjacent St. Paul. Mitropoulos consistently championed the works of Krenek, and this is reputed to be one of the latter's finest compositions. The recording dates from April 21, 1951, also from the 30th Street Studios.

The sound on both sides is excellent.
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Herb Jeffries on Exclusive

May 29, 2014, 4:45 pm
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Former Ellingtonian and "bronze buckaroo" Herb Jeffries, one of the great ballad singers, died a few days ago. He has been featured here a number of times, most recently as a 100th birthday tribute, and now this post must be a memorial.

What you see above is the cover of a circa 1950 Mercury 10-inch LP, but the contents were recorded in the 1946-48 time frame for the Los Angeles label Exclusive and released as singles. Mercury acquired the Jeffries sides following Exclusive's 1949 collapse.

The discography I consulted insists  these all were recorded in 1946, but I believe "Just Naive," done a capella with the Celebrities vocal group, probably dates from the musicians' union recording strike of 1948. (As a bonus, I've included the flip side of the 78 issue of "Just Naive" - a cover of "Nature Boy" - in the download.)

The backing on most other items is by Buddy Baker, an arranger and radio maestro who later worked for Disney.

Jeffries is in superb voice for these records, and the sound is very good, except for one cut, which Mercury must have dubbed from a noisy pressing.

I also will be adding a Jeffries V-Disc to Buster's Swinging Singles today.

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Elliot Lawrence Special

June 2, 2014, 4:55 pm
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There was a very positive reaction to my previous Elliot Lawrence post, so today I'll double down by presenting two of his LPs.

My friend Mindy, a show music fanatic, asked me if I had "Jazz Goes Broadway" in response to the earlier Lawrence offering. I had to tell her that I didn't - but as sometimes happens, I came across a copy of the desired LP a few days later, and here it is as our first selection.

"Jazz Goes Broadway" is not, strictly speaking, a Lawrence LP, even though he conducted it, plays piano, arranged half the songs, and appears on the cover in a pose that suggests he is in charge of the proceedings. Vik did not list the LP as being "by" anyone on the spine, back cover or labels, although it is clearly Lawrence's effort in all but name. I can tell you that the other two fellows on the cover are Jimmy Cleveland playing the trombone, and Al Cohn on the baritone sax. (Al was legally required to be on every big band LP made in the 50s.) I cannot tell you why Al and Jimmy are serenading a fire hydrant.

The tunes were selected from shows that were then (this was 1957) on Broadway, or had been recently. A look at the posters behind the musicians shows the amazing quality of the productions at that time. Today, the least known is Happy Hunting, an Ethel Merman vehicle that ran for a year.

The record is all very enjoyable, as you might expect considering the quality of personnel involved.

The other LP is a 10-incher from several years earlier, showcasing Lawrence's working band that was striving for popularity on the nation's campuses, as denoted by this college-themed program with the title "Moonlight on the Campus." This ensemble was decidedly more of a dance band than the one Lawrence fronted on the Vik LP.

Rosalind Patton
Lawrence, who was 25 when these songs were taped in 1950-51, was already a veteran bandleader, having formed his first band in high school. The Elliot Broza Orchestra (his full name is Elliot Lawrence Broza) had Rosalind Patton (Roselyn Mae Piccurelli), heard here, as the vocalist. (The male vocalist of his high school band was Al Alberts, later of the Four Aces.)

I love this kind of mid-century dance band sound - just don't expect to hear jazz solos and you won't be disappointed.


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