Big 10-Inch Record

I grew up listening to Bruno Walter's Beethoven and Brahms recordings, in the later stereo versions made near the end of his life, in Los Angeles. But his earlier, mono versions are just as worthwhile, and sometimes the younger Walter was the more volatile.

Here are two symphonies from the conductor's earlier Beethoven cycle, made mainly with the Philharmonic-Symphony of New York. (The 6th was done with the Philadelphia Orchestra.) The seventh, in particular, is beautifully done and strikingly well played by the New Yorkers. The recording, from March 1951, is from Columbia's 30th Street Studio, and is in terrific sound.

I have also included Beethoven's first, also with the New York ensemble, but recorded in Carnegie Hall in November 1947. The sound on this 10-inch LP has less bloom than the other album, but is sturdy enough.

I would appreciate any insights on the cover of the LP above. What is going on here (besides Walter giving a downbeat)? The photo, by the estimable Aaron Siskind, is of some kind of arch encasing Walter in a green oval. (Siskind, by the way, also took the photo on the cover of one of my recent Charles Ives posts.)

Speaking of perplexing images, check out the ad below. It was for Mahler's fourth symphony, but still . . .

Bruno Walter conducting - as imagined by Columbia's ad agency, 1946

My recent repost of the Rolf Liebermann Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra led to a request for more music by the band that played on that record, the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra.

Cover of 12-inch LP

So here is the first LP by that hyphenated ensemble, in its original 10-inch format (cover above), with the bonus of the four songs added on in 1956 to make the 12-inch album (cover at right).

The group was named for Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan, two leading arrangers of the big band era. Sauter worked for many of the top ensembles, starting with Red Norvo and most notably for Benny Goodman. Finegan was on Glenn Miller's staff, and then wrote for Tommy Dorsey.

The two came together in 1952, aiming to program only original compositions. They were, however, talked out of that idea by their management, who were concerned that the results would not be palatable to a broad public. And finding an audience did turn out to be a problem for the pair - the band only stayed together for five years. Their music was not danceable for the most part and was not hip enough to appeal to Kentonites. Despite the association with contemporary classical music implied by the Liebermann piece - and the promise of "New Directions in Music" on the LP cover - this was not a high-brow group, nor did it include much jazz improvisation.

What it was, was an outgrowth of the big swing bands led by two skillful arrangers who produced delightful light music. It was mainly influential with other arrangers who scored television shows, produced pop instrumentals or backed singers. (A good example can be found in the work Sid Bass did on the Florence Henderson record I posted recently.)

First Billboard ad, 1952

Although the popularity of the band didn't last, it did start off life with a promising record called "Doodletown Fifers," an arrangement of a Civil War tune that became the band's theme. This LP contains that song along with other pieces that are among Sauter-Finegan's best-remembered numbers - "Moonlight on the Ganges,""April in Paris," a fine arrangement of "Azure-Te," and their version of the Troika from Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite, called "Midnight Sleighride" here.

For me, the highlight of the four songs added on to the 12-inch version of the LP was Joe Mooney's vocal on his own "It's Mutual." Not a great song, but Mooney does a persuasive Billie Holiday impression that makes it enjoyable. He and the band were to go on to have a semi-hit with the great "Nina Never Knew." (This cut is on their second album, which also will appear here.) Less successful are the vocals by Florence Fogelson and Andy Roberts, who toured with the band.

In making this transfer, I worked from the 10-inch LP because it seemed to have less added reverb than the later record. I appended the four songs that were added to the 12-incher. The sound is good, with some slight noise on a few of the 10-inch cuts. The download includes a good thesis on Sauter by Alex Chilowicz that contains a useful discography.

The bandleaders appeared on the Camel Caravan radio show in 1953

I have had this record transferred for some time, and it came to mind while working on the Sauter-Finegan post of last week. The bandleaders' breakthrough recording of "Doodletown Fifers" reminded me of one of Malcolm Arnold's English Dances (specifically, the fifth), as done here by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic.

Aha, I thought - could this be artistic "borrowing" in one direction or the other? But now that I look at the timeline, such a connection is unlikely.

Arnold in 1948

Arnold's English Dances were published in 1950 and 1951. "Doodletown Fifers" was taped in 1952. But as far as I can tell, the Arnold pieces were not recorded until mid-1953, by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Robert Irving.

So while it's possible Sauter and Finegan saw the music or heard a performance of the Dances before their recording date, it's more likely that this is a coincidence.

You are welcome to investigate on your own via the aural evidence contained in this November 1954 traversal of the Dances from Boult and the LPO. I certainly recommend doing so; these are among Arnold's most famous and felicitous pieces, wonderfully memorable items that will brighten your day. The performances and Kingsway Hall sound are very good.

The English Decca cover

The awkward American cover above has good Sir Adrian recoiling from the sight of a chinless Elizabethan maid being courted by a fellow materializing from a pea-green fog. Boult appears to holding a cigar stub or worse; it is actually the handle of his baton. Instead of this strange tableau, the English were offered an image of the composer framed by an herbal garland emanating from England's green and pleasant land below.

Sing Out, Sweet Land was an attempt to bring American folk music to Broadway in the waning days of World War II. Opening in late December 1944, it remained afloat for a little over three months before being sunk by its weak and contrived book.

The play was mainly an excuse for a lengthy parade of music whose connecting tissue was that it was American. The original playbill called it "A Salute to American Folk and Popular Music," and as such it presaged the crossover success of such artists as the Weavers later in the decade.

Burl Ives

While Alfred Drake starred in the show, fresh from his triumph in Oklahoma!, the breakout performer became Burl Ives. In this production, the big folk singer first presented a number of songs that became associated with him, including "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Blue Tail Fly."

Decca recorded the show - or at least some of it - in 1945 for an album that first appeared on LP in this 1949-50 incarnation. The complete show must have seemed endless. The list of songs in the playbill (included in the download) goes on and on, with 13 separate scenes and locations. Drake is common to all as a character called Barnaby Goodchild, who runs afoul of the Puritans and somehow is consigned to wandering through history singing and such.

This idea came from playwright Walter Kerr, better known as a critic. In the program (also in the download), the author is at pains to say that this is not a pageant - but that's exactly what it is. I suppose it is an ancestor of the jukebox shows that have thrived on Broadway in recent decades.

Alfred Drake with Alma Kaye as "Little Mohee"

Much of the music will be familiar to anyone of my age and background. Most of this "folk music" came from commercial sources, although perhaps once of folk origin. "The Big Rock Candy Mountain," while certainly a hobo song, was recorded (and perhaps written) by Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock in 1928. "Blue Tail Fly" probably came from a minstrel show. "Little Mohee" will be instantly recognizable to many as being closely related to "On Top of Old Smoky" (later a hit for the Weavers) and "Birmingham Jail." The melody may go back to Elizabethan times. "Frankie and Johnny," although possibly based on older material, was first published in 1912 and recorded in 1924. (The notes to a Pete Seeger anthology, provided in the download, provide clues to the origins of these songs.)

Program cover

American composer Elie Siegmeister arranged the music, and managed to get his name on the record packaging 20-some times. Less fortunate was the great Juanita Hall, who has an important part on the record and presumably in the show. She barely rates a mention in the playbill and program, and her "Watermelon Woman" character became an unfortunate caricature on the LP cover.

Also in the cast is the delightful Bibi Osterwald, who sings the vaudeville hit "Casey Jones" with appropriate gusto.

Decca's sound is reasonably good, although something went wrong in the LP mastering of "I Have Been a Good Boy."

1945 Decca ad

My first foray into Sauter-Finegan territory was a resounding success with you, so I have quickly put together this post of the band's second album, from 1953, plus a bonus EP.

The Sound of the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra came out as a 12-inch LP that was possibly intended to be a 10-inch LP when first conceived. The artwork on the cover is for a 10-inch LP - perhaps a clue that RCA had plans to issue this in the smaller format.

Here's what may have happened. After the 10-inch LP was assembled, RCA decided to switch formats by adding two songs that had originally come out on an EP. The 7-inch EP (Extended Play) format was new, and to mark the occasion, the record company asked Sauter and Finegan to compose an "Extended Play Suite". This consisted of the suitably titled originals "Child's Play" (from Finegan) and "Horseplay" (from Sauter).

Not that this change makes any difference. The Sound of S-F, intended to appeal to the nascent hi-fi cult, was not designed to be a cohesive record. It offers up a potpourri of vocals, attempts to recreate the "Doodletown Fifers" success, and even a rhythm and blues cover.

The vocals include three by the great Joe Mooney, including the semi-hit "Nina Never Knew," the excellent "Love Is a Simple Thing," derived from New Faces of 1952, and "Time to Dream." Former big-band warbler Anita Boyer does a good job with the awful "Now That I'm in Love," a travesty of Rossini that was a hit for Patti Page. "The Honey Jump" is a cover of Oscar McLollie's number one R&B single, with a typically disastrous band vocal and a kazoo out-chorus.

Also on the LP are the joint S-F compositions "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" and "Yankee Doodletown."

My great friend and reformed blogger Ernie has contributed the very significant bonus - Sauter-Finegan's "Extended Play Suite - Volume II," which only came out on EP, in 1954. It contains "Dream Play" (Finegan) and "Holiday" (Sauter). This is complete with scans. Thanks, Ern!

I complete the package with scans of the second issue LP cover, from 1956 (below). Instead of the hi-fi illustration, we have a portrait of the maestros, looking like insurance agents who had wandered on stage. The back cover has a selection of miniature color covers framing the liner notes - one of my favorite motifs from this era. Interestingly, RCA chose to advertise classical records to the Sauter-Finegan buyer. No Elvis records here, although Mario Lanza does sneak in.

The Sound of S-F was a labeled as being "Specially Recommended for High Fidelity Fans" on the original cover, and the sonics are indeed excellent.

1956 cover - Bill Finegan at the keyboard

Samuel Barber conducted three LPs worth of his own music for English Decca on consecutive days in December 1950 - his later suppressed Second Symphony (which I shared here several years ago), the Cello Concerto with Zara Nelsova, and this recording of his ballet suite, "Medea."

Martha Graham as Medea

Barber draw the 23-minute "Medea"suite from ballet music he had written for Martha Graham, in the process adapting the music for large orchestra. (Graham called the ballet Cave of the Heart or Serpent Heart) Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered the suite in 1947.

In 1955 Barber re-adapted the music into a 14-minute piece called "Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance," mostly culled from I, IV and V of "Medea."

This conductor-led performance, utilizing an accomplished London pickup orchestra, was the first recording of the work, followed by the shorter suite in Boston - Charles Munch and New York - Thomas Schippers LPs. The sound of this Kingsway Hall production is quite good.

Barber with the score of his Second Symphony, at about the time of this recording

Fulfilling some requests tonight . . . Sorry it took me so long to get around to these.

Eddie Cantor Story - Cantor himself supplied the vocals for this 1953 soundtrack (mp3 only).

Enesco Plays Schumann - The great Romanian composer-violinist in Schumann's D minor sonata. This has been remastered to eliminate most of the surface noise and is now in lossless format.

Gordon MacRae on Musicraft - Early recordings from the great popular baritone.

Gregor Piatigorsky in Hindemith and Barber Sonatas - The great cellist in two notable 20th century works. Remastered.

Links to these are in the comments to this item, or can be found via the original blog posts.

* * *

Note to those interested in Ives recordings.Bryan over at The Shellackophile recently posted one of the most elusive Ralph Kirkpatrick recordings. This is an excerpt from Ives' first sonata, which originally was a fill-up on the 78 set of Kirkpatrick's famous recording of the second sonata. I recently posted the LP of the second sonata, which does not include the first sonata excerpt. So this is a chance to fill out your collection, and acquire scans from the 78 album as well. Also in that same post, Bryan included two interesting early Copland recordings from the Dorian String Quartet.

Despite being made right after An American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain, Invitation to the Dance was not a successful venture for the great Gene Kelly. It was a departure in that it was an anthology film with three separate stories, all told entirely through the medium of dance. The studio did not have faith in the result, so it was shelved from 1952 to 1956.

This soundtrack LP contains the original music for two of the three segments - "Circus" and "Ring Around the Rosy." The third section, was set to music adapted from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. This part, which matches Kelly with cartoon characters, may be more familiar than the other parts of the movie because it has been anthologized.

Gene Kelly as sad clown

The first story in the trilogy is "Circus," a laugh-clown-laugh story with Gene as the broken-hearted and ultimately tragic figure. So the film started on a dour story - and an overly familiar one, at that. The music, however, is excellent. It came from the contemporary French eclectic Jacques Ibert, best known for Escales, recorded in the 50s by both Munch and Ormandy, with their respective ensembles. Here the good performance is by the Royal Philharmonic and John Hollingsworth.

With Tamara Toumanova in "Ring Around the Rosy"

Accomplished as it may be, that music is eclipsed by the wonderfully varied score for "Ring Around the Rosy" from composer-pianist-conductor André Previn, then still a Hollywood wunderkind. (He was 23 when the film was shot and 27 when it came out.) You will hear echoes of Britten, Khachaturian (!) and Gershwin, Kenton-style stentorian jazz, blues piano, salon music, mood music and much more. "Ring Around the Rosy" is a La Ronde-inspired journey that follows a bracelet as it passes from one person to another, with Previn switching styles at least as often as the bauble changes owners. The score is brilliantly played by the M-G-M Studio Orchestra with Previn himself at the piano.

The sound is better for Previn's contributions than Ibert's, but fine in both cases.

I wanted to pay homage to the great jazz singer Jackie Cain, who died this week, by presenting a selection of her recordings, starting with some early efforts in the studio with Charlie Ventura.

Her four sides on this LP date from 1948, when Cain was 20. She had already formed what would become a lifelong duo with her soon-to-be husband, pianist and singer Roy Kral.

By the time Jackie & Roy joined him, Ventura had enjoyed a certain amount of success with Gene Krupa and as a combo leader recording for Black & White, Crystalette and, starting in 1947, National.

Jackie Cain and Charlie Ventura

Although this 10-inch LP from the early 50s appeared on Mercury's EmArcy label, its contents were drawn from National masters that Mercury had leased or acquired following the smaller label's demise.

The LP's back cover identifies a group comprising Charlie Shavers (tp), Bill Harris (tb), Ventura (ts), Ralph Burns (p), Bill DeArango (g), Chubby Jackson (b), and Dave Tough (d), but that lineup actually only appears on two songs - "Synthesis" and "Stop 'n' Go," from March 1947.

The ensemble for "Pennies for Heaven", from September 1947, is Kai Winding (tb), Ventura (ts), Lou Stein (p), Bob Carter (b), and Shelly Manne (d).

Kai Winding, Buddy Stewart,
Charlie Ventura

"Synthesis" and "Pennies from Heaven" feature the exceptional vocalist Buddy Stewart, who was equally adept at bop and ballads. Stewart died in a car accident in 1950 before reaching his considerable potential.

Jackie & Roy came on board for an October 1948 session that resulted in "Euphoria,""F.Y.I.,""I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," and "Gone with the Wind," a solo feature for Cain, as well as the instrumental "If I Had You." The personnel for the 1948 dates is a little murky, but includes trombonist Bennie Green.

1949 ad

Ventura styled his band as playing "bop for the people," and several of these numbers are bop-flavored. Sometimes this involves adding "ba-doo-da-la-lee-bop" frills to an old tune like "Blowing Bubbles," and sometimes it is more substantive, such as in "Euphoria." Ventura had a swing-based style that was more like Illinois Jacquet than Charlie Parker, but he was a fluid player with a full tone and considerable energy.

Jackie & Roy's appearances with Ventura brought them to public notice, starting a highly regarded career lasting until Kral's 2002 death.

The sound from these National masters is reasonably good. More from Jackie & Roy to come.

Boots Mussulli, Conte Candoli, Jackie Cain, Charlie Ventura, Roy Kral

My last post started a series devoted to recordings by the great vocal duo of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral. The response was excellent, so here is one of Jackie & Roy's records made for George Wein's Storyville label.

This LP came out in both 10-inch and 12-inch versions; my copy is of the larger format.

10-inch LP cover

The 10-incher comprised early 1955 recordings of a ensemble comprising Kral on piano, Barry Galbraith, guitar, Bill Crowe, bass, and Joe Morello, drums.The four additional tunes on the bigger format replace that group with Joe Rumoro, guitar, Mel Schmidt, bass, and Bob Tilles, drums.

By this time, Jackie & Roy had refined their act to a great degree, evident from the first song, a spirited version of "Sing Baby Sing" from the 1936 musical of the same name. Jackie follows this with a sensitive solo on George Handy's lugubrious "Forgetful," which David Allyn had introduced with Boyd Raeburn, I believe.

A real highlight of the album is the artists' version of "Season in the Sun." Jackie & Roy had begun championing the works of the then little-known writing team of Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman as far back as 1952. J&R's other Storyville LP include "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," the composers' greatest hit, in what may have been its first recording. "Season in the Sun" is a much different kind of song, but hardly inferior in quality, and it shows off the singers' remarkable rapport to perfection.

The artists circa 1955

As was the case with the Charlie Ventura record below, Kral contributed several compositions of his own. I particularly enjoy "Hook, Line and Snare," which features drummer Morello, who was about to join Dave Brubeck at the time of this recording session. It also shows off the singers' bop roots. But all the songs on this one are delightful - and the sound is very good.

I also want to present Jackie & Roy's album of songs by Andre Previn and Dory Langdon, but that will be on another day.

I had a request for more recordings by the American violinist Louis Kaufman, who has appeared here before in the music of Delius, Barber and Robert Russell Bennett.

Kaufman in 1952

Here is that artist in Vaughan Williams' seldom-heard "Concerto Accademico" of 1924-25. The work finds Kaufman in his usual driving form. The backing here is by the Radio Zurich Symphony under the Swiss conductor Clemens Dahinden, who made many records for this label, although usually with the Winterthur Symphony.

Young Desarzens

The other side of this 10-inch LP from the early 50s also is of British music as performed by Swiss musicians. This time, it is Britten's Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, as assayed by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under its founder and long-time conductor, Victor Desarzens, who also often worked for Concert Hall Society and its offshoots.

Both performances and sound are worthy. These were probably the first recordings of these works outside the British Isles.

I don't always post what I transfer, sometimes because I don't feel like writing about the music or performers, sometimes for other reasons.

Here are a few such items presented without much commentary, followed by some reups and remastered versions, done by request.

As always, the links to all these discs are in the comments to this post.

NEW ITEMS

New Music from Old Erin, Vol. 1: This is an attractive LP of music by 20th century Irish composers Brian Boydell, Seoirse Bodley and Frederick May, from the Radio Eireann Symphony and Milan Horvat. If the back cover of the America Decca pressing is to be believed, it was a Deutsche Grammophon production. The record is from about 1958.

Miyoshi Umeki - Miyoshi: The warm and charming Japanese-American singer-actor Miyoshi Umeki made two LPs for Mercury in the 1950s. I transferred both for my own listening after her death in 2007. This 1959 album followed her Academy Award for Sayonara and Tony nomination for Flower Drum Song.

REUPS

Ella Mae Morse - Barrelhouse, Boogie and the Blues (remastered, lossless): The terrific swing-era boogie-woogie singer takes on mid-50s R&B with notable results. Also features one of the great album covers of the era.

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (mp3): Dennis Morgan and Lucille Norman in a soundtrack from a relatively obscure 1951 musical.

Vera Lynn - Sincerely Yours (new transfer, lossless): I had another go at this problematic recording from the beloved English singer. A little improved, but still some peak distortion.

Delius Conducted by Antony Collins (remastered, lossless): "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" and "The Walk to the Paradise Gardens" in excellent 1953 renditions by Anthony Collins and the London Symphony.

George Roberts, who died last month, was possibly the most influential bass trombonist in popular music, and was widely admired by classical instrumentalists as well.

After a stint in the Stan Kenton band, Roberts became an active West Coast free-lancer in the mid-50s. His unique abilities were soon recognized by legendary arranger Nelson Riddle, himself a trombonist. Roberts also was employed extensively by Henry Mancini and other arrangers, and he appears on thousands of records and soundtracks.

Roberts

In his dissertation on Roberts (included in the download), Jonathan Yeager says that the trombonist "has often been recognized as defining the role of the bass trombone in popular music and setting new standards for technical refinement and expressive possibilities of the instrument." Yeager quotes symphonic trombonist Bob Hughes as saying Roberts "makes probably the best sound on the instrument. Focused with real core, warm, fruity, perfectly weighted with great intonation. His feel and style are wonderfully relaxed and flowing."

DeVol

This LP, the first of two that Roberts recorded for Columbia in the early 1960s, is a showcase for those qualities. The sympathetic backing is by Frank DeVol, an arranger-composer who was equally well known as a comic actor.

The program is standards, one original by Roberts ("Feelin' Low") and a few children's tunes, including "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" - or as the band vocal has it, "Next Time Take the Train." (FYI - this title was based on advertising slogan for the Southern Pacific railroad. See the ironic Depression-era photograph by Dorothea Lange below.)

I don't know why Roberts is posing with a terra cotta donkey on the cover, unless it is an oblique commentary on the mulish quality of the instrument. The sound is excellent; however, my copy is mono only.

"Toward Los Angeles, California" by Dorothea Lange (1937)

Bruno Walter recorded Beethoven's Third Symphony three times for Columbia. The first two were with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, in January 1941 in Liederkranz Hall, and in March 1949 in the 30th Street Studio.

Most often heard these days is Walter's only stereo recording, with a West Coast ensemble dubbed the "Columbia Symphony" in January 1958. But this, the middle recording of the three, is exceptionally good as well. Walter was 73 at the time, and still showing the vigor that sometimes waned in his stereo recordings near the end of his life.

The New Yorkers were then an outstanding ensemble, and Columbia's sound is splendid. Plus the cover design is one of Alex Steinweiss' best.

This continues a series that started with Walter's New York recordings of the first and seventh symphonies. Next is the Pastorale with the Philadelphians.

Walter in 1942

Hopefully we have something for everyone today, with reups by request, remastered items, and a few things that have never appeared here before. The latter, transferred many years ago, have been rescued from the nether regions of my storage drives, and refurbished just for you.

As always, the links to these discs are in the comments to this post. These are all in Apple lossless format, unless noted.

NEW ITEMS

Elmer Bernstein - Movie and TV Themes: The great film composer conducting some of his best swaggering jazz themes, leading off with the tremendous "Rat Race." Played by a stellar ensemble of West Coast musicians (including George Roberts). Recorded in 1962.

Music from Million Dollar Movies - Boston Pops-Fiedler: A favorite from my long-gone youth, the impossibly glamorous sound of the Boston Pops with glittering film themes. Features Pops pianist Leo Litwin in the Warsaw Concerto and other such sub-Rachmaninoff fare.

REUPS

Rubbra - Symphony No. 5 (mp3): The first recording of an Edmund Rubbra symphony, with Sir John Barbirolli leading his Hallé Orchestra.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Blessed Assurance (remastered): Vivid recording of the wonderful gospel singer from the early 50s. (A little noisy.)

Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 (Vienna PO - Böhm) (remastered): An outstanding performance by the Vienna Philharmonic and Karl Böhm, a favorite conductor of this blogger. From 1953.

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (Vienna SO - Böhm) (remastered): Very fine performance and recording by Böhm and the other noted Vienna ensemble, with soloists from the Vienna State Opera. A few sonic burbles.

Desert Song and Roberta (mp3): Blog favorite Gordon MacRae in two potted operettas.

Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - Kiss Me Kate: Stafford and MacRae were wonderful individually, even more so together.

Johnny Desmond - Play Me Hearts and Flowers (remastered): 1953-55 Coral sides from the crooner, who was then adopting a more dramatic approach a la Eddie Fisher.

For a final salute to the music of Jackie & Roy, we have this 1963 LP of songs by André and Dory Langdon Previn. It's a fine record that languishes in obscurity and has not been reissued, as far as I can tell.

This may be the best introduction to the Previns as songwriters, along with Michael Feinstein's recent Previn CD. André had of course already made his name as a Hollywood prodigy and virtuoso pianist in the pop, jazz and even classical modes. He had begun working as a classical conductor as well, and in 1962 issued his first recording in that role, with the St. Louis Symphony.

In 1958, Dory Langdon had recorded an album of her songs (improbably titled The Leprechauns Are Upon Me) with Andre's accompaniment. She went on to record several albums as a singer-songwriter in the 1970s and 80s, under the names Dory Previn and Dory Previn Shannon.

By the time of this recording, the Previns' songs were being used in films (they received two Oscar nominations already by the time of Like Sing), and such artists as Doris Day had taken up their work. Day's LP with André, Duet, featured "Yes" and "Control Yourself," which are also on this record, as well as "Daydreaming."

Dory and André Previn

Jackie & Roy are at one with the Previns' material. Jackie is, as always, extraordinary, with her exquisite performance of "Where, I Wonder" a particular highlight. It is a gorgeous (and difficult) song that should be much better known.

The title song is a close relative of André's 1960 instrument hit with the similar title of "Like Young." Both songs, along with such other hit compositions as Nelson Riddle's "Route 66 Theme" and Cy Coleman's "Playboy Theme," were under the spell of Bobby Timmons' influential "Moanin'" of 1958.

We don't know for certain who is responsible for the piano backing or the arrangements. The pianism does not sound like André Previn, so it is probably Roy Kral. The backings are possibly by André. In his notes to his Previn CD, Feinstein makes reference to the arrangement of "Change of Heart" as being by Previn, although I suppose that may just be the singer's assumption.

The cover shows the two couples as being very much in the Kennedy mode of the time, with Roy and André in their sack suits and Dory in a Jackie-esque pink ensemble. A handsome group - and so talented!

The third symphony of Charles Ives had to wait about 40 years before its first public performance in 1947, but within the next decade it had earned two commercial recordings, presented here.

Ives circa 1909

Ives had written the symphony circa 1904, basing it on earlier organ compositions. He revised it later in that decade. But it wasn't until Lou Harrison and the New York Little Symphony took it up in 1946 that it gained notice and a subsequent Pulitzer Prize.

The first recording was led by Richard Bales and his National Gallery Orchestra on August 6, 1950. A local publicly supported radio station, WCFM, issued it on its own label.

This was followed in 1955 in a version for the Vanguard label by the Baltimore Little Symphony and Reginald Stewart.

Bales in about 1950

Both are worth hearing; the Bales recording made while Ives was still alive, and the Stewart shortly after his death. Bales leads what sounds like a very small orchestra in a careful rendition. The Stewart reading is smoother.

The symphony is sometimes called The Camp Meeting, and the movements "Old Folks Gatherin'", "Children's Day" and "Communion." I don't believe that the documentation for either recording mentions this.

For his fill-up, Bales chose his own arrangement of "Music of the American Revolution," which has less to do with the revolution and more to do with the apparent evidence that all the pieces that Bales arranged were once heard by George Washington. They are pleasant.

Stewart

Stewart selected a neoclassical Suite for Strings and Oboe by the fine American composer Richard Donovan. Alfred Genovese is the soloist.

Both covers include imagery of colonial churches, which must have been considered the right approach for Ives, who had been an organist in a Presbyterian church. The Vanguard artwork is by Rockwell Kent, like Ives a transcendentalist. Kent's sketches graced other Vanguard covers of the time.

Good sound on both.

When the Ford Motor Company introduced its new Edsel line for 1958, it expected a winner. What it got was a catastrophe.

The Edsel (named for a son of Henry Ford) quickly became another word for failure - a product scorned for its inability to live up to its advance promotion as a new kind of car. It turned out to be a fancy Ford with an ugly snout, overpriced and unreliable. Within three years it was dead.

This 10-inch record is a souvenir of the pre-release euphoria. An Edsel fan site explains, "In August 1957, Edsel Division staged the Dealer Introduction Show for Edsel dealers. Presented in five regional cities (and later in 24 more performances with touring companies) the production was billed as the first all-musical automobile introduction. The program cost $250,000 to stage and featured a 12 member chorus. Holding together the various presentations by Edsel Division executives, was a thin story line about 'Adam and Eve', the first Edsel customers. Looking back, the lyrics are quite ironic, depicting, as they do, unbridled optimism and visions of great success for the Edsel automobile."

"Once you've seen it, you'll never forget it": how true

As often happens with such industrial musicals, there are no credits on the sleeve or label, but the product is highly professional, with cheery if generic music and lyrics.

Don't expect much of a story. "Adam and Eve," perhaps reflecting FoMoCo marketing confusion, don't have much of an idea of what they want in a car, nor what the Edsel offers them. Side two switches perspective; we hear from a proud Edsel dealer, as well as his wife, who celebrates the status attached to being the spouse of an Edsel retailer. Their hauteur that would be short-lived, to be sure.

I enjoy industrial musicals and have a number of examples of the genre. This is one of the rarer items, although mp3s can be found elsewhere on line. My transfer is lossless, if that makes a difference to you.

Back cover: scenes from the Edsel spectacular

Let's begin the Christmas season a little early with some presents from longtime blog favorite Morton Gould.

First we have Gould's own Serenade of Carols and his Suite of Christmas Hymns in their original 10-inch LP packaging. This replaces my earlier posting of the 12-inch reprint. The earlier issue has much better sound.

As a substantial bonus, there is a terrific two-LP traversal of "The Serious Gershwin" in its original 1955 packaging, with Gould as pianist and conductor.

Gould recorded the Christmas works in April 1949 in Columbia's 30th Street studios in New York. His arrangements are felicitous and the sound is excellent. Alex Steinweiss did the cover.

The Gershwin album was Gould's first big assignment at RCA Victor after leaving Columbia. It was recorded in nine sessions from January 14 through April 6, 1955 and came out in the fall. The "Serious Gershwin" was accompanied by a "Popular Gershwin" set, with RCA artists taking on the composer's songs.

I believe the concert works were also parceled out into separate LPs, one with an improbable cover scene at the Arc de Triomphe, the other depicting a languorous woman reclining atop a piano while brandishing a cane and bowler hat.

The Gershwin set consists of the Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, An American in Paris, Three Preludes, the Jazzbo Brown piano music from Porgy & Bess, and Gould's own suite from that opera.

The Rhapsody's clarinet glissando is by Vincent "Jimmy" Abato, a veteran of many big bands (including Whiteman's),

who had also played in the Met orchestra and the CBS Symphony.

The Gershwin records were possibly taped in New York's Webster Hall, which had become RCA's main East Coast recording studio a few years before. The sound is exceptionally fine mono.

For those of you who are WAAAY behind on your taxes, here are some income tax hints from 1959 from the then-fashionable comedy duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May.

Although these tips may not be timely, the posting is. As you may have read, Nichols, who became a famed director, passed away last week. Elaine May is thankfully still with us.

This gem is courtesy of our great friend Ernie, a reformed blogger with a wonderfully eclectic collection of rarities that he shares with us from time to time.

May and Nichols

These four "income tax hints" are actually are nothing of the kind. They are one-minute comedy sketches broadly centered on a tax theme, and are typical of the Nichols-May act. Each vignette has different characters, who are typical of the team's repertoire - a married couple, a psychiatrist and patient, co-workers, and a imperious movie director and actor. While these brief routines might not represent the best examples of their art, Nichols and May's material strongly influenced comedians who came after them.

The promotional record was at the apex of the duo's popularity. They had only become an act together after leaving an improv troupe in 1957, and were to last only until 1961, when they went on to other things. Both ended up in theater and films, May as writer, director and actor, Nichols as director and producer.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants sent this record to radio stations for use as free public service announcements in the run-up to the US federal income tax deadline of April 15. Such gratis announcements for non-profits were common then; much less so now.

Thanks again, Ernie!

Bruno Walter Conducts Beethoven

Sauter-Finegan's First LP

Malcolm Arnold's English Dances

Sing Out, Sweet Land

The Second Sauter-Finegan LP - and Bonus EP

Barber Conducts Medea

Reups and Remasters by Request

Invitation to the Dance - Music by Ibert and Previn

Charlie Ventura with Jackie & Roy and Buddy Stewart

Jackie & Roy - Sing! Baby Sing!

Louis Kaufman in Vaughan Williams

New Items, Reups and Remasters

George Roberts and the Bass Trombone

Bruno Walter's Second Eroica

More New Items, Reups and Remasters

Jackie & Roy Sing Dory and André Previn

Two Early Recordings of Ives' Third Symphony

A Musical Celebration of the Edsel

Christmas with Morton Gould

A Nichols and May Rarity