Quantcast
Channel: Big 10-Inch Record
Viewing all 838 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Christmas 1955 with Beverly Sills

November 29, 2014, 11:42 am
$
0
0
At Christmas 1955, the 26-year-old soprano Beverly Sills had already been a performer for more than 20 years and had just made her debut at the New York City Opera.

Her bel canto singing was beginning to attract notice, and the New York architectural firm of Fordyce and Hamby thought it might be a good idea to engage her for a LP to be sent to its clients as a holiday gift. This one-sided, 10-inch album is the result.

1956 photo by Carl Van Vechten
It contains five songs, of which only the "Cantique de Noël" could be considered familiar Christmas fare. "Bless This House" is well known, too, but not usually considered a Christmas song.

Sills went on to an illustrious career, although her fame was mainly in the US, where she largely confined her career and where she often appeared on television. After retiring from the stage, she became general manager of the New York City Opera, then chairman of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera. She died in 2007.

The sound here is good. Howard Kubik accompanies Sills on an electronic organ.
↧
Search

Archer & Gile - The Wonder of Christmas

December 4, 2014, 5:11 pm
$
0
0
Those of you who like your Christmas music unadorned will appreciate this 1961 album from the duo of Archer & Gile.

That's unadorned - not unsophisticated. Soprano Frances Archer and alto Beverly Gile were fine artists who worked in a folk vein, and the chamber orchestra accompaniments here are well suited to their style.

Frances Archer and Beverly Gile
Archer & Gile were discovered by none other than Walt Disney, singing at a Palm Springs party. (The women were singing, not Walt.) He signed them up for the Mickey Mouse Club television show and had them record the first LP ever issued on his Disneyland label, A Child's Garden of Verses.

The artists stayed with Disney for about five years and then moved on to Eleanor Steber's St/And Records, where they produced this holiday LP and at least one another. Greg Ehrbar's book on Disney records says that they later moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and retired from the business.

This particular LP was not especially well recorded, placing the singers at opposite ends of the stereo spectrum and plopping the band in between in a dry acoustic. I've done my best to compensate. But the sound is not a major distraction, and the album is worth your time if you like Christmas music.
↧
↧

A Promo Christmas

December 14, 2014, 7:02 pm
$
0
0
The commercialization of Christmas is not new; and certainly not a novelty in the record business. I have heard promotional holiday records that date back into the 1920s, and I would be surprised if there aren't older items out there.

Today we will sample several types of promotional disks, and even one that could be considered an anti-promotion.

The first type of promotion is a record intended to benefit a charity. This collection has three examples of the genre, all of them official "Christmas Seal songs" of their respective seasons. Christmas Seals were originally a tuberculosis charity, later broadened to include all lung diseases. I haven't been able to discover the first official "Christmas Seal song" in the U.S., but I know the tradition dates back to at least "Happy Christmas, Little Friend," which was written by Rodgers and Hammerstein at the behest of Life Magazine in 1952, and then was chosen as the Christmas Seal song the next year, in the Rosemary Clooney recording.

The Christmas Seal song for 1954 was "The Spirit of Christmas," a fine Matt Dennis-Tom Adair tune that Kitty Kallen recorded, with a Jack Pleis backing.

For the official 1956 song, Rosemary Clooney returned with her young sister Gail and "He'll Be Comin' Down the Chimney," with music lifted from "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" and its antecedents. (I wonder if the listed "composers" donated their publishing royalties?)

Finally, the 1965 Christmas Seal song was Robert Goulet's "This Christmas I Spend with You," the title tune from his 1963 Christmas LP. This transfer is from the promotional 45, which includes opening and closing messages from Goulet as well as his rendition of "White Christmas."

Dinah Shore was renowned for her vocal skill, warmth and charm, which made her an ideal commercial spokesperson, and she was employed both by her record company and her television sponsor for promotional purposes during the holiday season.

1957 Billboard ad with Dinah Shore

In 1957, Dinah was the face of RCA Victor's extensive Christmas releases, appearing on point-of-sale materials and in trade ads. Oddly, Dinah herself did not merit a Christmas LP release, only an EP titled "You Meet the Nicest People at Christmas." No arranger is listed, although it may have been Harry Zimmerman, who was working with Shore both at RCA and on her TV show.

1961 Chevy promo
In 1961, her sponsor, Chevrolet, called upon her for another EP, which I believe was a giveaway at dealerships. By that time, Dinah had moved on to Capitol, but had not moved on from "You Meet the Nicest People," which appears here in a different, peppier version. This EP, with backing by Jack Marshall, is just as good as the RCA effort.

Another type of promotional item is a demo record. Today's collection includes what I believe was a demo sent by the publishers Patore Music to record companies on behalf of its composer, Henry Tobias and two of his Christmas ditties, "Take Off Those Whiskers Daddy" and "The Holiday Hop." The artist is Bernie Knee, a talented vocalist who was one of the best known demo singers. His backing is by Irving Fields, whose popular 1959 LP, "Bagels and Bongos," can still be found in many thrift shops.

Based on copyright records, I believe the Tobias-Knee-Fields 45 is from 1966. Several years later, Knee and Tobias combined to record the Richard Nixon tribute, "Hang In There, Mr. President," during the waning days of Nixon's term, replacing Irving Fields with Frankie Yankovic. (Sadly, only a snippet of this gem is available online.)

We conclude with an anti-promotional record of sorts, Stan Freberg's "Green Chri$tma$" from 1958, which is the satirist's complaint against Madison Avenue's appropriation of Christmas for its own purposes. It's a funny bit if you remember the ads he skewers. It's also a little ironic because Freberg was making some green himself from this Christmas record.

Wikipedia, perhaps reflecting Freberg's own views, would have you believe that Capitol did not want to release the record and did so with "no promotion or publicity," which isn't true. The company issued it with a picture sleeve containing Freberg's essay of self-praise on the back. My own copy of the 45 is a white-label Capitol promo. The record itself was a moderate hit and appeared on Billboard's charts.
↧

All the Best for Christmas from Jack Carroll

December 17, 2014, 7:04 pm
$
0
0
The other day I shared a group of promotional records that included a publisher's demo from Bernie Knee, who was one of the best known demo singers of the time. Now here is a full Christmas album featuring another demo specialist, Jack Carroll.

This LP came out in 1959 on the small Laurie label (Dion and the Belmonts were it hit artists), although I suspect Carroll recorded it years earlier. But before I get to the speculation about its origins, a few words about the singer.

From what I can tell, Carroll was born Vincenzo Riccio in New Jersey, and started in the business as a big band singer with Les Brown, Tex Beneke and Sammy Kaye. He recorded for Decca, Majar (including a tune called "Whistling Otto, the Baby Reindeer," which I would like to hear, once), and on MGM, Rondo and National with Russ Case.

Rose Marie Jun and Jack Carroll at the Pins and Needles sessions
Perhaps his longest stint with a label was from 1955 to 1957 on Unique, where he taped a good album called "My Heart Sings" and singles. Then came this holiday album, a 1962 Pins and Needles studio recording on Columbia, a 1963 LP on VRC, and many, many demos and ads. He also appeared in a few movies as (for some reason) Jidge Carroll.

As you might expect from a demo singer, Carroll's diction and intonation are excellent. Depending on your taste, you may find him subtle - or bland. For me, this understated approach works well for this over-exposed holiday fare.

As I mentioned, I doubt that this was a new recording when it was released in 1959. Here's why. There is no stereo release that I can trace. There are only eight vocals, suggesting this was planned as a 10-inch LP, a format that was almost extinct in the US in 1959. The listed arranger is Eliot Glenn, but I can't find any other mention of a musician by that name. The arrangements themselves are badly dated, with their Miller and Lombardo overtones. The newest song on the LP ("Home for the Holidays") is from 1954. My best guess is that this comes from Carroll's time at Unique.
↧

Remastered Jo Stafford Christmas Singles

December 19, 2014, 6:42 pm
$
0
0
I had a request for the collection of Jo Stafford Christmas singles that I put together five years ago, so I went ahead and refurbished them and am reupping them now.

The centerpiece of the collection is the medley of Christmas songs that Jo recorded with Gordon MacRae for the 1949 season, here in the 1955 EP edition (above).

Also included are her 1946 recordings of "Silent Night" and "White Christmas," her excellent 1953 version of "The Christmas Blues," and a 1952 duet with Frankie Laine on the country-tinged "Christmas Roses."

Paul Weston, as usual, accompanies.
↧
↧

Many More Reups for Christmas

December 21, 2014, 6:39 pm
$
0
0
I had quite a few requests to reup some of the Christmas posts, mostly dating back to the early years of this blog.

So here is what is on offer tonight, presented without much commentary in the interests of getting this post up in a timely fashion. Four of these are the original versions in mp3 form. In three cases, I had the raw transfers and remastered them. Those are noted below up top. Links are in the comments to this post.

Im Glanz der Weinachtskerzen. Excellent Polydor LP from 1955 with baritone Willy Schneider, the Berlin Motet Choir, Erich Bender and his children's choir. Remastered version, Apple lossless. 

Malcolm Sargent and Royal Carol Society - Christmas Carols. Atmospheric 1955 LP from the famed conductor and his Royal Carol Society. Remastered version, Apple lossless.

Dorothy Collins - Won't You Spend Christmas with Me. The fine pop vocalist's late 50s Christmas LP, a real favorite with blog readers. Remastered version, Apple lossless.

Buddy Clark - Merry Christmas Waltz / Winter Wonderland. A Columbia 78 from the great 40s vocalist.

Festival of Lessons and Carols 1954 - King's College Choir. One of the early LPs documenting the famous Christmas Eve service from King's College, Cambridge.

Leopold Stokowski - Season's Greetings. An EP from the 50s reprinting several vaguely holiday-themed items that Stoki did for Victor back in the 40s.

John Jacob Niles - Folk Songs of Christmas, Vol. 2. EP from the early folk singer.
↧

An 18th Century Christmas with I Solisti di Zagreb

December 22, 2014, 3:26 pm
$
0
0
What's a Croatian ensemble doing with the Italian name "I Solisti di Zagreb"? I'm not sure, but it might have something to do with its founder and director, Antonio Janigro, being from Milan.

Janigro, noted as both a cellist and conductor, spent most of his career in Zagreb, and founded the Zagreb Soloists chamber ensemble in 1953. Today it is usually called by its Croatian name, Zagrebački solisti.

This traversal of some familiar holiday fare comes from 1957, when the group had begun recording for Vanguard Bach Guild. They had already become an impressive, secure ensemble, well led by Janigro and nicely recorded by Vanguard.

A giant Janigro attempts to behead a Zagreb violinist
The repertoire here begins with the Corelli Christmas Concerto. Then we have three J.S. Bach chorales in respectful arrangements by Croatian composer Milko Kelemen. Following is the Toy Symphony once thought to be by Haydn, then by Leopold Mozart and now by who-knows. And finally there is the Torelli Concerto Grosso known as the "Pastoral Symphony for the Nativity." 

The sound is excellent.
↧

Isabel Bigley and Stephen Douglass

December 30, 2014, 5:46 pm
$
0
0
Isabel Bigley and Stephen Douglass starred in some of the biggest Broadway hits of the 1950s, without ever becoming household names. This budget-label release allows you to hear them in some of the best-known Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes, individually and in duet.

Isabel Bigley
Bigley originated the role of Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls and then Jeanie in R&H's Me and Juliet.  She retired from the stage shortly after this record was made in the late 50s.

Douglass had been a lead in The Golden Apple, a replacement Sid Sorokin in The Pajama Game and then became Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees, his biggest role.

One reason why Bigley and Douglass aren't better remembered is that their best roles either never made it to Hollywood, or were recast there - Jean Simmons took over the part of Sarah Brown and Tab Hunter (!) became Joe Hardy.

Stephen Douglass with Gwen Verdon,
recording Damn Yankees
This record is a workmanlike product for a budget label, but it sounds under-rehearsed, the arrangements are thin, and the two singers have little chemistry. Among Bigley's numbers is "No Other Love," which she introduced in Me and Juliet, a most enjoyable score even though the show's success was limited by a weak book.

Douglass is good in declamatory songs such as "Some Enchanted Evening," but stiff in "It's a Grand Night for Singing," where elan is required.

The LP is dated 1957 on the back cover, but I believe it actually came out in 1958 or 1959. The mono sound is reasonably good. I haven't seen evidence of a stereo issue, although one may exist, considering the probable date of issue.
↧
Search

Reups by Request: Rodzinski, Lili Kraus, Fran Warren, Frank Skinner Soundtracks

January 8, 2015, 5:18 pm
$
0
0
I've been busy with some reups as a result of requests - a bunch of recordings by Artur Rodzinski with the New York and Cleveland Orchestras, pre-war Lili Kraus in Bartok, Fran Warren singles, and two tuneful film scores from Frank Skinner.

The Skinner and Kraus LPs and some of the Rodzinski tracks have been remastered. In general, this has improved the sound, but the Rodzinski items were by and large never very good sounding, whether from the original recordings or the quality of my copies (or transfers!). You may need to exercise some sonic tolerance for these.

Tonight's offerings:

Bartok Piano Music - Lili Kraus (remastered). Her 1938 recordings for Parlophone - I believe this may be the only 20th century music she recorded.

Tammy and the Bachelor; Interlude (remastered). Frank Skinner's beautiful 50s scores. Tammy includes the Debbie Reynolds hit song; I've added the McGuire Sisters' recording of the Interlude title song as a bonus.

Fran Warren - RCA Victor Singles. I compiled this tribute post upon the death of Warren, one of my favorite pop vocalists. Excellent sound.

Bizet - Carmen Act III Prelude (Rodzinski) (remastered). This is from 78 and actually has better sound than the Bizet LP below.

Bizet - Symphony (Rodzinski) (remastered). Columbia recordings with the New Yorkers.

Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5 (Rodzinski) (mp3). More with the New York PSO.

Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2 (Rodzinski) (mp3). Ditto.

Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliet, 1812 (Rodzinski) (remastered). With the Clevelanders and better sounding than some of the others.

Wagner - Siegfried Idyll (Rodzinski) (remastered). And back with the New York ensemble.

FYI - a further Rodzinski recording, the Franck symphony with Vienna forces, is still available. See the comments to this post for links to all these items.
↧
↧

Mahalia Jackson - First LP on Apollo

January 11, 2015, 4:40 pm
$
0
0
This LP is titled, "Queen of the Gospel Singers," and Mahalia Jackson certainly was that in postwar America.

A powerful singer and commanding presence, she came to fame via the recordings heard on this, her first long-playing album. It collects eight of the sides that the small Apollo label made with her beginning in 1946. Pride of place is given to "Move on Up a Little Higher," her breakthrough 1947 single. The other songs are hardly less fine, saturated with her intensity and sincerity.

At a recording session
The accompanists on most of these items are Mildred Falls, piano, and Herbert James Francis, organ, with guitar added on some songs.

The recording quality is just to my taste, giving the listener a real sense of what it was like in the studio with Jackson and the musicians. (Please forgive the occasional pops that the record has acquired over the years.)

This LP came out in 1954, just before the singer moved on to Columbia Records. If there is interest, I also have her second Apollo collection, "In the Upper Room."
↧

Jean Sablon on Capitol

January 16, 2015, 5:02 pm
$
0
0
About a year ago I began featuring the American recordings of French crooner Jean Sablon. The series started with 1942 and 1946 collections on Decca, moved on to 1946-47 RCA Victor sides, and here concludes with Sablon's 1952 album for Capitol.

Jean Sablon
This album is just as good as the other LPs, so needless to say I recommend it. The singer is in good voice (although something went wrong with "C'est La Vraie de Vraie"). The highly sympathetic accompaniments are by Skitch Henderson and orchestra, plus an anonymous vocal troupe.

The sound is excellent on these sides, which made up a 10-inch LP presented here in its dual-EP form. Although the front cover only mentions six songs, there are indeed eight included. This fact is helpfully mentioned on the back cover, although it does not go on to specify what those eight songs are. I have included label scans to clarify matters.

The wonderful cover art may be the best thing about the package. I think that's a hat on her head; at least the placement would indicate as much.
↧

Meredith Willson's 'Chiffon Swing'

January 27, 2015, 5:39 pm
$
0
0
There was a great amount of interest in my previous post of Meredith Willson's band recordings, so here is another set by him.

That first group collected concert pieces. This album assembles pop songs and a few classical adaptations under the confounding banner of "Chiffon Swing." I'm not sure what the "chiffon" signifies, but I can report that there is little "swing" to be found herein.

Meredith Willson
What you will discover is some enjoyable light music, with imaginative if slightly dated arrangements. Willson does particularly well with the Chopin and Tchaikovsky pieces. It's usually a dreary experience when dance bands take on the classics, but these efforts are enjoyable.

Also of note is Willson's own composition "Thoughts While Strolling," which comes from his O.O. McIntyre Suite. (McIntyre was a then-famous syndicated newspaper columnist.) Willson himself is the flute soloist in the piece. He was an accomplished instrumentalist who had labored in bands as diverse as those of Sousa and Toscanini (the New York Philharmonic).

These recordings all are from March 1942, and originally were issued in a 78 set. This 10-inch LP comes from 1949. Decca's sonics are pleasant but opaque.
↧

Soundtrack Reups and Remasters

January 30, 2015, 12:56 pm
$
0
0
A few of these soundtrack reups are requests, but most of them are just the result of me wanting to improve the sound on some of my old projects. These are all remastered, and the sound is generally much improved.

Links to all items are in the comments to this post.

Aladdin (promo). The excellent promo record for the 1958 CBS television presentation of Cole Porter's Aladdin, with an intro by the composer.

Alexander the Great. Mario Nascimbene's thunderous 1956 score. Has a great cover image of Richard Burton plotting to take over the world while wearing blue diapers and a blond wig. (Really.)

Barabbas. More glorious noise from Nascimbene, this time in stereo. No Burton, though. This transfer is new to this blog.

Flame and the Flesh. Obscure 1953 soundtrack EP with music by Nicholas Brodsky. The "flesh" here is Lana Turner, "predatory adventuress of all the capitals of Europe," who unfortunately does not appear on the EP. Carlos Thompson does.

Summer Love. Something of an homage to the recently deceased Rod McKuen, who appears here as "Ox," a member of a rock group called "Jimmy Daley & the Ding-a-Lings." Music by Henry Mancini. I am not making this up.

Sunny Side of the Street. Songs from the 1951 film by Frankie Laine and Billy Daniels, who appeared in the flick, although these aren't the soundtrack recordings, if that makes sense. The cover features giant heads of the singers jutting out from a shocking-pink apartment building. 

Victor Young - For Whom the Bell Tolls; Golden Earrings. Atmospheric 40s scores by the great Victor Young in excellent sound from an early LP.

Tammy and the Bachelor; Interlude. This one was actually in my past batch of reups, but I thought I would throw it out there again because there is a new link. Music by Frank Skinner.
↧
↧

More from Sauter-Finegan, Florence Henderson and Bruno Walter

February 3, 2015, 4:06 pm
$
0
0
More today from the Satuter-Finegan Orchestra, Florence Henderson and Bruno Walter (not together, I should add). These are quick follow-ups to some of the posts that have appeared here in recent months. I'd like to say you have been clamoring for them, but that wouldn't be true, so I'll just say that I hope some of you enjoy them!

A few words about each (you can tell I am tired of writing about these particular artists):

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra - Concert Jazz. This is the troupe's fourth LP (I have the third but can't find it), and it follows a familiar path, with some compositions by the individual maestros, some vocals, including an odd version of John Henry, and interesting arrangements. Great sound, a Jim Flora cover and a scan of the second cover, depicting Sauter and Finegan on stage. Recorded in 1954-55.

Florence Henderson - The Best from Fiorello! and The Sound of Music. My first post by the future Mrs. Brady was surprisingly well received by people who didn't know she sang, or who knew she sang but had never heard her do so. Like that initial LP, this album has potted versions of two Broadway hits of the time (1960) - Fiorello! and The Sound of Music. Henderson once again sounds like Mary Martin, which is especially appropriate in the latter score.The Sid Bass arrangements are loungy, which isn't to my taste in this repertoire.

Bruno Walter/Philadelphia Orchestra - Beethoven Symphony No. 6. Another installment from Walter's Beethoven cycle of the 1940s. Here he takes a break from the New Yorkers, and travels to Philadelphia and the Academy of Music for January 1946 sessions. This to my ear is a less successful performance and recording than the efforts with the PSONY, but enjoyable enough. Below, a Columbia ad from 1946 touting this new release among others. The transfer is from an early LP.


↧

The Nearly Complete Sun Valley Serenade

February 7, 2015, 6:10 pm
$
0
0
For some time now, the erudite Dave Weiner has been providing session-by-session commentary on the civilian recordings of the Glenn Miller band on Dave's blog, Community Swing.

This has been a real pleasure for me, a Miller fan since I was 10, and when Dave recently covered the songs from the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade, I decided to do a post of my own. This for two reasons: one, these were among the first Miller items I owned myself, and two, the soundtrack recordings exist in a variety of versions, which Dave neatly straightens out, enabling me to assemble a coherent and nearly complete package.

We start with RCA Victor's 10-inch soundtrack LP, which belatedly came out in 1954 as part of the blitz of Miller recordings that RCA reissued in the wake of The Glenn Miller Story. In 1959, 20th Century Fox issued a Miller soundtrack set that included some but not all of this material - and added one item that isn't found on the RCA edition.

The RCA LP is unusual in that it includes the first version of the gorgeous Harry Warren-Mack Gordon ballad "At Last" (yes, the Etta James song), cut from this film only to turn up in the second Miller pic, "Orchestra Wives." Here's Dave: "It’s a great arrangement by Jerry Gray and Bill Finegan, done here as a rhythm ballad, vocalized by Lynn Bari and John Payne. Payne sings for himself, rather reedily and Bari is doubled, as usual, by Pat Friday." I might add that Pat Friday was a superb singer who unfortunately is quite unknown these days. The Pat Friday-Ray Eberle version of "At Last" in Orchestra Wives is even better than this one. Friday, Payne and the Modernaires also do another beautiful Warren-Gordon ballad, "I Know Why" in Sun Valley Serenade.

The RCA LP includes the complete eight-minute "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." It starts with the familiar Tex Beneke-Modernaires vocal, followed by a long section featuring Dorothy Dandridge and the Nicholas Brothers. This is as seen during the film, but minus the sound of the brothers' tap dancing. (Their routine is astonishing, by the way.)

The album contains what Dave calls the best-ever version of Miller's famous "In the Mood," among several outstanding band features, including Jerry Gray's terrific "The Spirit Is Willing."

But as I mentioned, the RCA LP is not complete. It did not contain the snatch of Miller's theme "Moonlight Serenade" as heard in the movie. So I have added that song from the Fox soundtrack album (which did not contain this first rendition of "At Last" and had truncated versions of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "I Know Why").

Another song, "The Kiss Polka," appears in the film but is not played by the Miller band. However, the band did make a commercial recording of it that I have appended to the download.

I say my version is "nearly complete" because there is one song that was cut from the movie and has never been released. It is called "The World Is Waiting to Waltz Again." Dave, however, has somehow come up with the recording, and it can be heard via his blog post discussing Sun Valley Serenade.

The RCA LP has excellent sound, and is better than the Fox edition, which adds unneeded reverb. The soundtrack also is superior to the Victor commercial recordings of the early 40s. One final note for those who might be curious: the strange whistling sounds heard under the muted trumpet solos during "The Spirit Is Willing" are on both the RCA and Fox records.

Below, the Miller band as seen during the film, with Lynn Bari as vocalist, John Payne as pianist, the sections all mixed up, and Glenn looking as confused as I was writing this piece.
↧
Search

Kaufman and Milhaud Perform Milhaud

February 10, 2015, 5:42 pm
$
0
0
The recordings of violinist Louis Kaufman continue to draw the interest of this blog's readers, so here is another from the files.

Darius Milhaud
As with previous Kaufman records, this presents the music of a contemporary composer, in this instance Darius Milhaud.

The French Milhaud had moved to California and Mills College and became familiar there with Kaufman, who was a very busy Hollywood studio musician. In 1949, the Los Angeles record label Capitol brought them together for this collection of Milhaud compositions.

Louis Kaufman
The longest item here is Milhaud's Violin Concerto No. 2, in its first recording, but the finest work is his Concertino de Printemps, in a dazzling rendition that makes the most of Kaufman's extraordinary intensity. The concerto is well done as well, with an affecting slow movement. Kaufman misses the specific dance character of the final Danses de Jacarémirim, but his virtuosity is worth hearing on its own account.

The sound in this enjoyable program is excellent. In my collecting experience, most Capitol classics of this vintage are reprints of Telefunken originals, including many Mengelberg LPs, but I believe this offering originated with the West Coast label.
↧

Johnny Desmond on M-G-M

February 15, 2015, 6:35 pm
$
0
0
Balladeer Johnny Desmond first achieved fame as a member of Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band during World War II, although he had previous big band experience.

Young Johnny
After the war he became a solo act, and quickly lined up a record contract with RCA Victor. That label marketed about a dozen Desmond sides in 1946-47, then the singer went looking for a new company. His manager announced that he was going with Majestic late in 1947 - just in time for that small imprint to implode.

So Desmond moved on to the nascent M-G-M operation in 1948, beginning one of his more notable associations with a record label, recording some 50 numbers with that concern into 1951.

12-inch LP on Lion
For some reason, M-G-M saw Johnny as a specialist in French repertoire, and a significant minority of the songs he taped were from or about France. A 1952 10-inch LP gathered eight of these items, and there were enough left over that in 1958 the label could issue a 12-inch version on its budget imprint, Lion.

I have both editions, and this post consists first of the songs on the 10-incher, followed by the extra songs added to the Lion LP, "Johnny Desmond Dreams of Paris." The earlier album has marginally better sound, but there isn't much in it.

To complete the package, I have added Desmond's first M-G-M single, "P.S., I Love You," as well as the attractive ballad "If You Could Care," from 1951. Both are from 78 sources (sonics on the former are not ideal, although listenable).

Desmond worked extensively with guitarist-arranger Tony Mottola, who is in charge of the proceedings on most of not all these songs. Johnny was a romantic balladeer in the Sinatra mold (although he did not sound like The Voice), and Mottola appropriately evokes Sinatra arranger Axel Stordahl in his fine orchestrations.

At this time, Desmond was much better with the dreamy stuff than with up-tempo or novelty scores. Fortunately most of these recordings are of the softer variety, with the exception of "C'est Si Bon" and its follow-up "C'est La Vie," in which Desmond, Mottola and a group called the Quintones try to sound fizzy and end up sounding flat.
↧
↧

Early Elliott Carter

February 22, 2015, 3:29 pm
$
0
0
Elliott Carter is famously not a composer that many people find comfortable to hear, although he is widely considered one of the greatest American voices of the 20th century - and even into the 21st.

Young Elliott Carter
Notably long-lived, Carter survived until his 104th year, and died only a few years ago - composing to the end. But it's interesting and perhaps instructive to go back to his earlier years and listen to what he devised in his 20s and 30s.

In his late 20s, Carter became the music director for Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan. The impresario commissioned the young composer to produce a score for a ballet on the Pocahontas tale, which would have choreography by Lew Christensen. Charles Rosen's notes for this present recording state that much of the music comes from 1937, although an orchestrated version did not arrive until 1939. In may be true that some of the music is even earlier - the George Platt Lynes production photo below is dated 1936, when Carter was 28.

Pocahontas production photo
Rosen notes that the music, presented here in its 1941 suite form, is derivative, mentioning Hindemith. I might add the contemporary Russians, and the Americana movement as well - at the time Kirstein was commissioning ballet music from Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson along with Carter. (Thomson's Filling Station, also choreographed by Christensen, appeared here several years ago.) But the score also has a assured quality and powerful sweep that carries through to Carter's later, more idiosyncratic scores. The performance here by Zurich forces led by modern music specialist Jacques-Louis Monod is very fine.

Rosen considers the Piano Sonata to be a revolutionary work, a "new departure in piano writing with few analogies in the literature of the past." His penetrating analysis in the liner notes is helpful in understanding what Carter is doing, and his performance is sympathetic. This may have been one of Rosen's first published writings on music; he went on to be known as much for his scholarship as his pianism. (Rosen's thoughts on Carter and his music can be found here.) To what Rosen has to say in his notes, I might merely note that Carter also shows the influence of the Americana movement in the sonata's second movement.

The sound on this Epic recording, from about 1962, is quite good. I own other recordings of early Carter works anyone is interested.

Charles Rosen and Elliott Carter in 2007

↧

Felicia Sanders Sings Kurt Weill

March 1, 2015, 4:55 pm
$
0
0
I am belatedly filling a request from some time ago with this fine recording from Felicia Sanders, performing the songs of Kurt Weill.

This is an exceptionally good record, with Sanders is excellent voice and in total sympathy with the material. The opposite of the cool singers then in vogue (although she may have picked up a trick or two from Chris Connor), her intense approach is much more along the lines of Judy Garland.

Felicia Sanders
The repertoire is drawn from Weill's American works, starting with 1935's Johnny Johnson. (Side note: the jacket doesn't mention it, but the lyrics for that play were by Paul Green.) "Mon Ami, My Friend" from Johnny Johnson is the closest in its sound world to Weill's German works. The liner notes aver that Sanders is evoking the music hall singers of Weimar Germany in her approach, but I also think she may be paying homage to her idol, Edith Piaf, and perhaps Lotte Lenya, who had recorded the song for the musical's 1955 studio cast.

Sanders' husband, Irving Joseph, authored the excellent arrangements, which stay away from the Die Dreigroschenoper sound for the most part, except for "Mon Ami, My Friend."

Original cover
The Time label marketed this LP in 1960 with a cover mimicking the minimalist style that Josef Albers had developed for Command records. My copy is from the Mainstream reissue of a few years later, which had a more appropriate cover. Unfortunately my pressing is mono, although the sound is well balanced and pleasing.

Felicia Sanders first came to public notice in 1953, with her vocal on Percy Faith's hit recording of "The Song from Moulin Rouge." She went on to be a popular cabaret singer at The Blue Angel and other New York boîtes. She died of cancer at a relatively early age.
↧

Schuman's Concerto on Old English Rounds

March 10, 2015, 5:55 pm
$
0
0
I had a request for this record, which is outside the blog's usual time frame. But I decided to post it anyway because it is such a exceptional product.

The LP contains the first, and I believe only, recording of William Schuman's Concerto on Old English Rounds. The young violist Donald McInnes commissioned the work under a Ford Foundation grant. Its premiere was in 1974 with the Boston Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas. Leonard Bernstein heard the broadcast, through the intercession of the composer, and programmed the piece with the New York Philharmonic in April 1976. The recording was made a few days later.

Donald McInnes
McInnes recalled an after-concert conversation with Bernstein: "He said during the performance he had a dream of me playing Berlioz’s Harold en Italie, which he was conducting in New York and Paris in 1976." The violist did go on to record the Berlioz work with Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France. It too is a fine achievement.

The Bernstein-McInnes team is just right for this work, which is itself of considerable interest. McInnes is wonderfully secure soloist, and Bernstein is fully in command of the proceedings. In the liner notes, Schuman admits to being a disciple of Roy Harris in his early years, but I have always thought this work was influenced by Benjamin Britten. That may be because I purchased Andre Previn's recording of Britten's 1949 Spring Symphony at about the same time as acquiring this LP upon its release in 1978. Britten and Schuman both set archaic texts in a conservative modern idiom, although this work has a significant solo instrument, which is lacking in the Britten.

McInnes has pursued a career in academia and the West Coast film studios.

The sound from Columbia's 30th Street Studios is excellent, but the thin vinyl pressing was slightly warped, leading to some momentary image instability that shouldn't be noticeable unless you use headphones.
↧
Viewing all 838 articles
Browse latest View live
Search