Rodzinski Conducts Prokofiev

A while back, we had the first in a series of recordings made by the conductor Artur Rodzinski in the 1940s. That was a Rachmaninoff symphony; here he turns his baton to Prokofiev, with equally fine results. Again the orchestra is the New York Philharmonic, which Rodzinski directed when this recording was made, in October 1946. The location was Carnegie Hall. Columbia was able to achieve better results there than the typically congealed sound it produced in its 30th Street studios.

Next in this series will be a few of the recordings Rodzinski made with the Cleveland Orchestra earlier in the decade, before he moved to New York.

Buddy Clark, Part 2

I recently posted a Christmas record by the fine singer Buddy Clark, who died 60 years ago in a plane crash. My friend Scoredaddy requested more of Buddy's work, so here we go with three more singles. As far as I know, these have not been available since their original issue.

I chose the three singles because they are in a format unique to Columbia records in the late 1940s - the 7-inch, 33 rpm single - or Microgroove 33 singles, as they are sometimes called. When Columbia began issuing the first LPs in 1948, RCA Victor countered with a 45 rpm format. Columbia then issued 33 rpm singles to rival the RCA format as a successor to 78 rpm singles. The 33 single didn't last too long, and now is rarely found.

The label above is similar to the contemporary look that Columbia used for its 78s and its main elements would be adopted as well for 45s. On this record, Clark is here covering (and very well, too) a country song, Floyd Tillman's I Love You So Much It Hurts.

Below is the white-label promotional DJ version of the 33 single. I love the crew-cut, bow-tie DJ with his little turntable (not very level, is it?). No idea who Dick Meyer was - could have been the promo man, a DJ, or a later owner. Here Clark was billed below Xavier Cugat, one of the first popular Latin bandleaders.

I'll be back with a 10-inch LP from Buddy and Dinah Shore.

Note (September 2015): the download now also includes the microgroove single of "You Was" and "If You Will Marry Me," by Clark and Dinah Shore, in a new transfer.

Glasgow Orpheus Choir

The recent post from the King's College Choir got me thinking about other choral music I might feature, and this old HMV issue came to hand - a record I had not listened to.

The Glasgow Orpheus Choir was quite famous in its day, at least in Britain and to some degree the US. The ensemble lasted until the retirement of its founder, Sir Hugh Roberton, in 1951. These recordings were made, as far as I can tell, in the immediate post-war period.

The self-regarding notes from Roberton, included below, suggest that the choir was quite beloved, and that may be. However, its charms seem distinctly faded by the passing of the years. Sir Hugh's comments indicate that he was pleased that the choir disbanded upon his retirement. He doesn't mention that many of its members continued as the Glasgow Phoenix Choir, which continues to this day.

[August 2019 addendum: The choir was much better than I had recognized a decade ago. A new remastering shows off its quality. I've banded Roberton's annoying introductions so you can ignore them if you wish.]

Eartha Kitt

Another icon of the popular arts has passed away - Eartha Kitt, at the age of 81.

Kitt had a remarkable personality, which shows through every moment on this, her first LP on RCA Victor, from the early 1950s. It contains many of her most recognizable tunes, although not the inescapable Santa Baby, nor Monotonous, which she introduced in New Faces of 1952. That performance is on video (but not, it appears, on YouTube.)

I've included separately the Stan Freberg version of C'Est Si Bon, which manages to parody both Kitt's vocal mannerisms and the Henri Rene arrangement.

A Festival of Lessons and Carols, 1954

King's College Chapel in Cambridge is one of the most beautiful places on earth and has one of the best known Christmas ceremonies, the festival of lessons and carols on Christmas Eve, which is broadcast all over the world. The Choir of King's College has made several commercial recordings of the ceremony; one of the first is this 1954 recording, conducted by its then-director, Boris Ord.

The Choir, composed of boys and choral scholars from the college, is justly as famous as its Chapel, which, despite its name, is a vast edifice.

Perhaps because I have been privileged to have attended choral evensong in the chapel, I find this record to be both treasurable and memorable. When the Choir and organist Hugh McLean launch into the hymn While Shepherds Watch, the effect is truly magnificent.

This transfer is from the US Westminster pressing of the Argo original. The sound reflects the beautiful King's College Chapel ambiance - except for several of the lessons, which sound more like they were recorded in the King's College Closet. Odd, but not enough to spoil the overall effect.

Happy holidays to all our friends!

Page Cavanaugh, Part 3

A great musician died yesterday - pianist-singer Page Cavanaugh, whose work has already been featured here on two occasions. Page was 86.

Here is a fine example of his talents - an MGM album from the early 50s. The emphasis here is on the piano, and just as much on the guitarist, who may be Al Viola (no credits on this one).

I learned about Page's death from Bill Reed; please go to his blog, the People vs. Dr. Chilledair, to learn more about this fine artist.

NEW LINK

Morton Gould's Christmas

The records of Morton Gould are favorites of this blog's proprietor, so here is an LP of Christmas music he arranged and recorded in April 1949. This issue on a Columbia budget label is from the mid-50s.

Here Gould arranged suites of carols and hymns for orchestra, with orchestration reminiscent of Vaughan Williams at times. The sound is the usual muzzy product that came out of Columbia's 30th Street studios in New York, but listenable for the most part. The two final movements of the suite of carols are pretty congested, however.

Don't think this has been reissued, and I hope you enjoy. Much of it is quite beautiful, and beautifully played.

NEW TRANSFER FROM ORIGINAL 1949 ISSUE

Buddy Clark, Part 1

This blog is for 10-inch records and lately it seems like we've been featuring everything but. And today we have a 78, one by another of those artists who don't get enough recognition. He is singer Buddy Clark, who had several hits before dying in a 1949 plane crash at the peak of his career.

Clark's winning, unassuming approach is well suited to the familiar Winter Wonderland and the unfamiliar Merry Christmas Waltz, presented here. His style is reminiscent of the early Bing Crosby but he has a charm all his own.

I've been accumulating Clark 78s over the years, most of which have never been reissued. Although there generally is at least one collection of his recordings in circulation, these usually center on hits such as Linda, which is emphatically not his best work.

Hope you enjoy this seasonal specialty.

REUP - DECEMBER 2014

Digression No. 14

We've been writing about blogs that feature Christmas music, and one of the great sites for unusual items is Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else (often, mercifully, shortened to MY(P)WHAE). The other day, Lee, the proprietor, featured Vol. 1 of John Jacob Niles' Folk Songs of Christmas, a two-volume EP set from 1955 by the early folk revivalist. Reader reaction was good, and Lee said he wished he had the second volume.

Well, I do have it and sent it his way. It's now up on his blog if you want to stop by. The cover is below.

Alec Wilder's Hansel and Gretel with Barbara Cook

A while back we offered a selection of octets from the American composer and songwriter Alec Wilder (courtesy of Bill Reed). Today we have a musical that he wrote for American television back in 1958, with lyrics by frequent collaborator William Engvick.

The score contains one glorious and touching number, Evening Song (and its variant, Morning Song), which everyone should hear as performed here by the sublime Barbara Cook. The balance of the score is lesser Wilder, but Evening Song must be heard.

I don't mind telling you that I had a heck of a time transferring this badly mistreated pressing. But the results sound good - with the exception of a few skips in the Finale. Speaking of skips, I skipped transferring the second side of this record, which contains an indifferent performance of an orchestral suite from Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel.

One other note: the musical numbers are separated by narration from Red Buttons. You won't want to hear that more than once, so I have put it into separate tracks.

This is for Mindy of Mindy's Bright Lights of Broadway at Franklynot.

NEW LINK (JUNE 2014)

Seasons Greetings from Stoki

Back in the mid-50s, you could hang these season's greetings from Stoki on your tree, with a Christmas-themed EP inside. I'm not surprised this idea didn't spread to other conductors - can you imagine A Jolly Christmas with George Szell or Joy to the World from Fritz Reiner?

I hate to say it, but Stoki came to the party with stale goods - these items are excerpts from recordings that he made for RCA in the late 40s.

But the package is unique - I can't recall any other record sleeve that you can hang on a tree.

REUPLOAD - DECEMBER 2014

Digression No. 13

I really wasn't planning on posting so much Christmas music, but once you get rolling, it's hard to stop. There are many sites that specialize in this music; I've already mentioned Ernie of Ernie (Not Bert), who keeps up a frenetic pace throughout the month. Another is A Christmas Yuleblog, whether the Captain keeps coming with the tunes at a remarkable rate.

Two posts of 10-inch records over at the latter site have given me particular pleasure this season. One is Dragnet - The Christmas Story. (Jack Webb and Christmas? Who could argue with that?) The second is Christmas on the Range with Jimmy Wakely, the great western singer. The latter is a rare set that Wakely made for Capitol at about the same time that he cut the big hit Silver Bells with another fine singer, Margaret Whiting.

As a tribute to these indefatigable bloggers, here is a record that Wakely made circa the late 50s for his own company, Shasta. This exists in two different forms, one with the cover below, the other with a generic Christmas present cover that then could be customized with a sticker for corporate gift-giving.

NEW LINK

Ronnie Deauville, Part 2

I mentioned in the first post that singer Ronnie Deauville was in a serious traffic accident that left him paralyzed, then came down with polio. His story was told on the popular television program This Is Your Life, and this picture sleeve was designed to capitalize on that appearance. Amazingly, you can see the opening of the show via YouTube.

But the subject here should be Deauville's exceptional talent, which is shown in his outstanding performance of As Children Do, an obscure song that the singer makes his own. It is backed by the standard I Concentrate on You, in this Era records release from late 1957 or early 1958.

LINK

Christmas with Ferrante and Teicher

The piano team of Ferrante & Teicher has achieved a certain retro renown for the prepared piano hijinks (or hi-fivories, as they are called here) on their early albums.

This specimen is the first record they made for Westminster. Released in 1954, most of these items on this 10-inch LP were later recycled for a 12-inch record called Adventures in Carols, which has Santa riding a rocket on the cover. This version instead has reindeer assisting the duo-philanthropists by pouring sand into the piano and pulling out the strings so they could be plucked.

The pianists each laid down two tracks so there is much to hear. The musical results are interesting if a bit relentless, witty but also kind of tacky. Not really my thing, but the pianists and woodland creatures seem to be enjoying themselves. Perhaps you will, too.

LINK

The New Christmas Songs for 1952

In 1952, Coral Records wrapped up Christmas themed singles from some of its leading pop acts, put a red bow around them, and sent them to record stores in a 10-inch album. These were the "NEW Christmas Songs," as the cover helpfully points out, and were Coral's attempt to generate some holiday cheer (and sales).

Not sure how much success they had, and the only song on here that has had much shelf life has been the adaptation of "The Night Before Christmas" by Johnny Marks, who produced several Christmas hits, starting with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

But it's a good record nonetheless. I enjoy pop tunes with a holiday theme that haven't been heard over and over, and this is a good collection of them. The artists include some of Coral's finest, including the Ames Brothers, Don Cornell, Eileen Barton and Johnny Desmond.

One reason why record companies like Christmas albums is that they can bring them back on a yearly basis to generate new sales. Coral did that with this record in 1953, just with a slight modification of the cover. You can see the results over at Ernie (Not Bert), one of the web's leading purveyors of Christmas music.

Note (December 2023): this record has now been remastered in ambient stereo and has complete scans.

LINK

A Record for Christmas, 1953

Let's say it's a December day 55 years ago, and you're walking past Record Rendezvous on Prospect Avenue in downtown Cleveland. You can't help but notice it - it's a big store and it's blasting Big Mama Thornton's version of Hound Dog at you. Compels attention.

Big Mama is not your style - and you are faintly annoyed by the store itself. After all, it sponsored Alan Freed, and he brought that raucous jive music to the Cleveland airwaves, and now all the kids are listening to it.

Let's go in anyway and see what we can find. Here's one that just came in today, the clerk tells you - Rosemary Clooney and her husband Jose Ferrer. Make a good present. OK, wrap it up - I can afford 79 cents.

The clerk pulls out a green Record Rendezvous bag, puts the 78 into it, adds some cardboard, and throws in some Capitol and RCA promo items. I like the looks of the Tawny promo. Better looking than Ferrer. What does Clooney see in him?

And what in hell does "you ain't nothin' but a hound dog" mean?

Well, that one's Christmas present down anyway.

LINK

[The file includes the Clooney-Ferrer single, scans of the promos - for Capitol's Background Music series, Jackie Gleason's Tawny, and Laugh and Learn children's series, and RCA Victor's newsletter, The Baton, for December 1953.]

Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick

If you were going to produce a film, would you contemplate using the title "Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick"? Not unless the movie was to feature adorable animated creatures, you wouldn't. But Paramount Pictures did use that title for a musical in 1952, and instead of animated leads, managed to get pop singer Dinah Shore and Metropolitan Opera baritone Robert Merrill to star in it. Met honcho Rudolf Bing was so annoyed with Merrill for taking part in this undignified endeavor that the singer left the company for a time.

The title role of the film was played by Alan Young, who seemed to have a thing for barnyard epics, going on to star with Mr. Ed the horse on television.

The above commentary, I know, is not much of a endorsement for the soundtrack record, which is the subject of this post. Nonetheless, this is a sought-after disk, perhaps because it's rare and has a funny name to boot. Or maybe because of the melodious score, which came from the prolific team of Livingston and Evans. Although the score doesn't contain any tremendous hits, Shore and Merrill sing the tunes quite nicely and Alan Young is more than tolerable.

As the cover states, the record features the original cast - but the songs aren't directly from the soundtrack. RCA seems to have remade the score in its studios using label stalwarts Henri Rene and Hugo Winterhalter for orchestral backing.

Ronnie Deauville, Part 1

I wrote a few days ago about the late singer Ronnie Deauville, and Bill Reed's attempt to stimulate interest in his little-known records. Deauville is a long-time interest of mine, so I am proud to do my part.

Hard luck was Deauville's companion. In 1956, he was in an auto accident that left him in a wheelchair, then contracted polio that confined him to an iron lung for an extended period.

Amazingly, he continued his career for a time and made several excellent records, among them this superb story-ballad.

At the time this record came out, Jerry Lewis featured Deauville's story on his television show and Era sent the single out to radio stations with a message from Jerry on the flip side (see below) asking them to play the record in advance of the show. This is the copy that went to WCKR of Hornell, New York.

More from Ronnie Deauville later.

LINK

A Record for Christmas, 1925

If this were 1925 and you were a prosperous Cleveland music lover, you may have headed down to S. Kohn & Sons furniture store to look at the selection of records and perhaps pick up a new Victrola for yourself or for a Christmas gift.

The Clevelander who owned this recording of the Columbia Novelty Orchestra performing Oh, Baby! and Why Did I Kiss That Girl? apparently did just that, and may have taken his or her prize home in the envelope on the right, which featured a wreath full of the Victor Company's leading lights, from Alma Gluck to Ernestine Schumann-Heink. (I think these records are somewhat earlier, which may signify that the S. Kohn Co. had some envelopes left over from earlier seasons. Or maybe things just got switched around.)

I believe the Columbia record at left was acoustically recorded in 1924, and later placed in the 1925 sleeve touting the company's New Process, which I think was electrical recording. Regardless, it is a vivid performance of an excellent band, which seems to have been composed of Joseph Samuels and his associates. Very little is known of them, even though they were a prolific recording orchestra under a variety of names. The fine lead trumpet may have been Jules Levy, Jr. The vocalist is the ubiquitous Billy Jones.

I don't know whether the buyer didn't like the record or forgot about it, but it was little played and remained in this envelope until I found it. Through the years, I have discovered several 78s in store bags (among them, apropos the season, the Drifters' version of White Christmas). I'll be featuring another one soon. It is from the early 50s and the bag also contains promotional flyers from Capitol and RCA Victor.

Below is the label of the record at hand, which features the distinctive flag motif that Columbia used from 1923 until it switched over to electrical recording.

REUPLOAD - DECEMBER 2014

Chant at Christmas

We've reached the holiday season, and it's time to present the first of several Christmas recordings we plan to feature here.

Our initial offering is this recording of the Christmas Eve vespers from the monks of the Franciscan Abbey of St. Martin, Beuron, conducted by Dr. Maurus Pfaff. It was issued on DGG's Archiv Produktion label, one of the first early music imprints, in 1952.

The sound and performance are both excellent. Hope you like this one - and happy thanksgiving to those in the US! 

Digression No. 12

One of my favorite singers is Ronnie Deauville, a superb vocalist who started out in the post-war big bands (Tex Beneke, Ray Anthony) and then had a solo career. Deauville was capable of creating an intimate mood and achieving a personal connection with the lyric rivalled only by the very finest singers. Yet he is almost unknown today.

Some of us who are among a small band of Ronnie collectors are getting together to make his out-of-print recordings available again. We're led by that indefatigable promoter of fine but neglected vocalists, Bill Reed, via his blog the People vs. Dr. Chilledair. I've mentioned Bill before in connection with two of my other enthusiasms, Page Cavanaugh and Jackie Paris.

Bill has already posted several sides, with more to come, including contributions from me. You can find much more about Deauville by doing a search on Bill's blog.

Also, Bill has graciously sent along a contribution to this blog, his rare copy of a 10-inch record devoted to the music of Alec Wilder (see below). These Octets were a specialty of the great songwriter/composer, whose style combines jazz and neoclassical influences, with perhaps a small piece of Raymond Scott. (The first item is titled Jack, This is My Husband.) Delightful stuff and highly recommended - as are the Ronnie Deauville recordings!

LINK

Hershy Kay and Virgil Thomson Ballets

Here we go with one of my favorite discs of American music. Ignore the clunky cover - it has nothing to do with the music.

The works inside are two ballet scores written for the New York City Ballet. Hershy Kay's Western Symphony on very familiar western tunes, and Virgil Thomson's Filling Station, one of his lesser-known pieces from the 1930s.

The cover cites the choreographers as well as the composers - George Balanchine along with Kay, and Lew Christensen along with Thomson. I don't recall another record doing this for ballet scores - after all you are not getting the ballet along with the music itself.

Kay was mostly known as an orchestrator, and this piece is delightful in that regard. Thomson's contemporaneous works were The River and The Plow That Broke the Plains, which have been recorded several times. There is a modern recording of Filling Station, but I don't think it could be much better than this 1954 version by Leon Barzin and his New York City Ballet Orchestra, which was made shortly after the premiere of the Kay-Balanchine ballet.

The back cover of the record has informative notes by Balanchine, which I've included in the file. It also has a fuzzy photo of Barzin smoking a cigarette and leading the band.

NEW LINK (JUNE 2014)

Neal Hefti Plays Friml

Here's a tribute to the arranger-conductor Neal Hefti, who died last month. Hefti was best known for his charts for the Basie band and for his TV and movie work, perhaps the most notorious being the Batman theme from TV.

This 10-inch record from circa 1953 is like none of those pieces. Instead, it is in a semi-easy listening mode that Hefti also adopted for several albums in the 1950s. In these, he used wordless vocals as an instrumental choir, a little like Ray Conniff or even Esquivel. Here, he applies the concept to the operetta tunes of Rudolf Friml. The result is not as cloying as you might think - and I am someone who lunges for the off switch when they start with the "doo-doo-doody-doo-doo" business.

On the bright side, the sound is good and the record is rare.

NEW LINK

The Original Dixieland Jass Band

The first side of this EP contains what is usually cited as the first jazz record, made by the Original Dixieland Jass (later Jazz) Band in February 1917. The claim is debatable, not least because this music (in common with all other types of music) is an outgrowth of earlier styles. The Wikipedia article about the ODJB (as the band is often called) notes that the first item on this record is actually a version of a ragtime tune written in 1909.

These records are by no means obscure, and actually I've included them to continues the series derived from the "X" label's Vault Originals series, a jazz/blues reissue program from the mid-50s. As before, the RCA engineers did a fine job on the transfers. These are some of the best acoustic recordings I've heard. (Pre-1925 acoustic recordings were made through a recording horn instead of a microphone.)

Similar to the previous "X" recordings seen here, this has a cover by Paul Bacon, much more to my taste than the previous items. Bacon worked in several different styles, and this scratchboard drawing is a evocative rendering of a 1917 promotional photo that you can see on Wikipedia's ODJB page.

The ODJB was a sensation in its time, and you will find it sensational too if you go for hectic ensembles, barnyard effects and clattering percussion. It's easy to scoff at this stuff 90 years later, but it was the precursor of much great music.

Yeomen of the Guard with Barbara Cook and Alfred Drake

Today we have a very unusual item - a promotional record made for a 1957 televised presentation of Gilbert & Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard, with a cast that included Alfred Drake and Barbara Cook, fresh from Candide.

I'm no expert on G&S, but I have not seen this record noted elsewhere, including the on-line Gilbert & Sullivan discography. (The Yeomen page has a very good article on the production.)

The record is a 7-inch EP issued by the NBC publicity department. My copy does not have a cover, and I doubt it came in one.

These songs are not excerpts from the televised production itself, which probably was transmitted live. These were pre-recorded with piano accompaniment in place of the Franz Allers-led orchestra that was featured on the Hallmark Hall of Fame program.

The sound is good, and reveals fine performances by Alfred Drake, Barbara Cook and Bill Hayes, and a soggy one from Celeste Holm.

NEW TRANSFER

Tony Martin

Here's another of the ageless pop music veterans who, like Herb Jeffries, is still with us. He is 95-year-old Tony Martin, whose career goes back far enough for him to have appeared in an Astaire-Rogers movie.

Tony's hit records and movie appearances began in the 1930s, and his vocal style, although a little dated sounding even in these late 1940s recordings, was a precursor of the romantic balladeers who were ascendant in the post-war years.

This album also allows us to revisit the work of my cover art "discovery," Fred Steffen, who did a number of odd and outrageous covers for Mercury Records way back when. This one, possibly inspired by Cot's The Storm (I know my kitsch), is tame by Steffen standards. It might even be considered attractive, if not for the obtrusive cartouche.

These are very fine records of their type, and well recorded for the time. They are wildly out of style, but I love 'em anyway.

Rodzinski Conducts Rachmaninoff

Let's feature a few records led by Artur Rodzinski, a talented conductor of the 20th century who is not well remembered these days. I've been listening to some of the symphonies he recorded with the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra (he was music director of each at different times), and they are worth anyone's time.

Here is an early recording of Rachmaninoff's second symphony, in a strong, sympathetic, perceptive, and persuasive performance by the alert New Yorkers. Rodzinski makes the cuts that were usual at the time.

The recording was made in early 1945 in Carnegie Hall. It was originally issued on 78s, and reissued on Columbia's early budget label Entré, encased in the ungainly cover above. The sound is OK for its time.

Rodzinski was apparently quite a character; there are brief bios on the web, but the best account of his life is the biography written by his wife Halina, Our Two Lives. I read it many years ago and recall it as being very lively.

George Greeley

Here's an LP requested by my friend Mel (welcome back!).

This the first time we've encountered George Greeley here as a pianist, but we've already seen him a couple of times as an arranger and conductor.

Greeley, who died only last year, was quite a talent - he also composed, with perhaps his greatest hit being the theme from the TV show My Favorite Martian. (See his obituary here.)

He was an exceptional pianist, as you can hear in these sides, which are from about 1954.

Love the cover, which reminds me of the elegant soirees in my own drawing room. (Of course, I have to move the records out of the way first.)

Shelly Manne and Russ Freeman

The other day I was in the mood to listen to jazz, for once, and flipping through the collection I came across this one - two of the notable West Coast jazz artists of the 50s, pianist Russ Freeman and drummer Shelly Manne.

This is an unusual duo LP - no bass, no other instruments. For the most part, Manne plays an equal role with Freeman. The music is not really to my taste, but this kind of jazz is at least as popular today as it was in September 1954, when this record was made, so who am I to judge.

One of the reasons I chose this item was the fact that it was recorded with a single AKG mike, and my copy of the record is mint. So I was hoping for some good sounds. And they are good - but only just that.

The cover is unsigned, but along with the piano and drums includes a steam jet blower and a fish, which otherwise do not make an appearance on the record, as far as I can tell.

LINK

The Eddie Cantor Story

Younger readers (if there are any at a blog that specializes in the music of 60 years ago) may not know who Eddie Cantor was. Well, son/daughter, he was a very famous entertainer in his day, was on Broadway, on the radio and later television, and made movies. This is his life story as told by the Warner Bros. in 1953.

That's Eddie on the cover, although he wasn't the star of the movie (the dreaded Keefe Brasselle was), but it's his voice on the soundtrack and on this record, doing his most famous numbers.

Forgotten today, Cantor was famous enough to have made records even into the stereo era. His contemporaries included George Jessel, Al Jolson, and Jimmy Durante, and who remembers them today?

It certainly has a colorful cover, done by Karlis or Karlin, who I believe did other covers from that era.

Myra Hess

Here are some splendid recordings by Dame Myra Hess, as requested by David a while back.

She often has not received her due as an artist. Here is an admiring take by the critic Bryce Morrison: "Unlike Horowitz, to take an extreme example, she never sought to stun and bemuse, to leave her audience more exhausted than elated, or to create an impossibly wide chasm between artist and listener. Hers was a voice that ‘connected’, leaving her audience refreshed and, as she would have wished, conscious of the miracle of great music."

Myra Hess

Although these recordings are otherwise available, I did want to bring them to you because they show the artist's beautiful touch and sensitivity. Another reason is that it allows me to display an example of the cover designs by Atelier Cassandre.

Atelier Cassandre was the studio, I believe, of A.M. Cassandre, one of the greatest graphic artists of the 20th century. It's by no means clear that Cassandre himself designed this cover, or others in a very long series that I believe originated with Pathé in France, but whatever their provenance, they are all quietly superb.

While this is not as good an example as some, it nonetheless displays many of the series' characteristics. First, the extraordinarily elegant typography for "Myra Hess." Cassandre himself was a typographer, whose most notable contribution was Peignot. My favorite Cassandre font is Bifur, which is Art Deco incarnate. Another characteristic is the use on an inset photo or illustration. The result is simple and clean - and could hardly be more out of style. You can see a page of examples of these covers, concentrating on typography, here.

In focusing on the cover, I have not done justice to the music, which is very well done. My pressing, visually mint, has a bit of rustle in the Schumann, which I have minimized.

LINK (August 2025 remaster in ambient stereo)

Herb Jeffries, Part 2

We had a good reaction to our first post of Herb Jeffries, the ex-Ellington balladeer, so here's another.

Jeffries' signature tune was Flamingo, so it appears here as well on the previous Mercury album. Also Basin Street Blues, in the same arrangement with street cries, only here Herb does them, not a second voice. Those two tunes were cut with Les Brown. Leading the band on the other numbers is Dick Hazard.

This 1952 collection is just as good as the Mercury album, so if you liked that one, hope you'll enjoy this one as well.

REUP (May 2014)

The Johnson Family Singers

"Each Sunday morning at this time Columbia presents fifteen minutes of hymns and sacred songs with the Johnson Family Singers... a father, mother, and four children. Southern-born, steeped in the tradition of the Deep South, the Johnson Family Singers bring to the well-beloved, familiar songs of Christian people everywhere a sweetness and simplicity of interpretation."

This is the way the Johnson Family Singers were introduced during their radio heyday of the 40s. It gives a bit of the background of this group, captures their style - but the fact that it was being read on one of the major radio networks also conveys that the Johnson Family Singers were a commercial success.

Betty with Ma (Lydia) and Pa (Jesse) Johnson

This 1955 record - one of the group's earliest albums (it may be the first; I'm not sure) - also conveys some of that duality. The record is earnestly presented, but it's also contains several of the most well-worn pop gospel staples. The group is backed by studio musicians, who are quite good but also give the record a slick feel.

If this sounds critical, I don't mean it to be. The Johnson Family Singers are favorites of mine, and they spawned a very good pop singer, Betty Johnson (on the left in the cover photo), who was often seen on American television in the late 1950s and made several excellent albums.

Note: this album has now been remastered and augmented with four additional songs found on the 12-inch LP version. Addendum (September 2024): this LP is now available in ambient stereo via the link below.

LINK to Old Time Religion

Jean Françaix

Here are two delightful neoclassical pieces by Jean Françaix, recorded shortly after their composition. Unexpectedly - at least to me - both come from German orchestras.

The soloist in the Concertino for Piano is Françaix himself. The music manages to be memorable even though the whole piece lasts less than eight minutes. Telefunken recorded this with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1937. The conductor was Leo Borchard, who became the BPO music director for a few months after the second world war, until a sentry killed him by accident.

Jean Françaix

Eugen Jochum led the 1939 recording of the Serenade for 12 Instruments during his residence as Hamburg music director from 1934-49.

This record is one of a series that Capitol sourced from Telefunken circa 1950 - many of them recordings by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Willem Mengelberg. All have this same drab cover style - particularly unsuited to Françaix's sparkling music.

Note (September 2023): this recording has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine

I think this one is fairly obscure - both the movie and the record.

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine was a 1951 vehicle for Gene Nelson and Virginia Mayo, as well as Dennis Morgan and Lucille Norman, who are the performers here.

We have encountered Lucille Norman before, opposite Gordon MacRae in Capitol's version of The Desert Song. Dennis Morgan was a sometimes lead in Hollywood comedies (Christmas in Connecticut ought to be showing up on your TV starting in about a month) and also in the occasional musical.

Norman, as noted before, was a very good singer, and was sometimes used by Hollywood studios as a vocal double. Morgan was an OK faux-Irish tenor who was himself dubbed by Allan Jones in the Great Ziegfeld, which was Morgan's first film.

The musical selections are a mish-mosh, but the George Greeley arrangements are bright and well-recorded, and this is worth hearing for all those who love their musicals.

Digression No. 11

Awhile back I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't share the score of Lovely to Look At. (Don't have it.) Well, my friend Mindy has come to the rescue and is offering it via the link below.

On behalf of all Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel fans, thanks to Mindy for these great tunes!

LINK

First Recordings of Barber and Copland

Here we have two superb works in what I think are their first recordings, and distinctive ones at that.

Louis Kaufman was a stalwart of the film music orchestras and made quite a few records for budget labels. He takes a very personal and romantic view of the gorgeous Barber concerto - much different from the poker-faced approach that's normal in most music these days. He, the indefatigable conductor Walter Goehr, and their pseudonymous orchestra also do a great job with the finale, which usually sounds like an afterthought.

Aaron Copland makes an appearance to conduct his early Piano Concerto, which is from the Jazz Age and sounds it. It's great fun and very enjoyable in this performance by the talented Leo Smit, a friend of Copland and a superb interpreter of his piano music. The sound isn't too bad.

The Musical Masterpiece Society and its sibling labels made many interesting records. We've seen several already on this blog, and more are to come.

Unre-released Charles Munch, Part 2

There was a great deal of interest in the last post of unre-released Boston Symphony/Charles Munch material. So here is another one - this time Schubert's second symphony. As with the Schumann, his orchestra/conductor combo later recorded the same music in stereo, which may account for this 1949 version remaining in the vaults since its first issue.

This early rendition was issued both on a 10-inch LP and on this 12-inch LP, where it was paired with the Schubert 8th, again by the Boston orchestra, this time conducted by Munch's predecessor as BSO music director, Serge Koussevitzky.

I can't confess any special affinity for Schubert's symphonies, but these versions are as well played as you might expect given the participants.

The last post in this series elicited a lengthy discussion about whether it was issued at the right pitch. I think this one is pitched correctly.

The Charioteers

The Charioteers made many excellent records in the 1940s, some of them collected on this very early Columbia LP.

Forgotten today, the group was prominent in the post-war era, regulars on Bing Crosby's radio show and making records with the likes of Frank Sinatra.

The Charioteers started out as a gospel group and made records in the 1930s for Vocalion. Signed to Columbia in 1940, they began recording pop music in a style similar to the Ink Spots.

The group's lead vocals were by Billy Williams, who went on to form a group under his own name in the 1950s, and to have a big solo pop hit with I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter in 1957.

This was quite a good group. Most of these sides have not been re-released, to my knowledge.

The cover is an example of Columbia's first generic house style.

NEW LINK

Kings of the Blues

This is a follow-up post to our item on Ida May Mack and Bessie Tucker. That was Vol. 2 in Label "X"'s Backgrounds of Jazz series, and this is Vol. 3. (Don't have Vol. 1.)

Remarkably, most of these sides were recorded in Memphis during the same week of August 1928 as the Mack and Tucker recordings.

As with the earlier LP. this must be one of the first albums ever devoted to reissuing the blues records of the 1920s. I should mention, though, that many of these sides are not really blues, strictly speaking.

Jim Jackson and Frank Stokes were experienced medicine show entertainers. Furry Lewis lasted long enough to appear with the Rolling Stones. He even showed up on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Ishman Bracey may be the least known of the group, having produced only 16 sides.

The two Jim Jackson songs on this record may be familiar to those who grew up in the 60s because they were rerecorded by two good-timey folk rock bands - I'm Wild About My Lovin' by the Lovin' Spoonful and This Mornin' She Was Gone by the Youngbloods (under the title Grizzly Bear). I wonder if those groups knew this album.

The cover is by Paul Bacon, who also did the cover of the Mack-Tucker LP, in a much different style.

LINK

Manhattan Moods by Gould

In the first easy listening post, I mentioned Morton Gould, so here he is with one of his innumerable easy listening records, and a very enjoyable one at that.

Called Manhattan Moods, it contains music inspired by the city, but even more so, by George Gershwin. Two ("Manhattan Serenade" and "Manhattan Moonlight") are by songwriter Lou Alter, who wrote many pieces with a New York theme.

Morton Gould

The Nocturne is by Thomas Griselle. "Park Avenue Fantasy," by songwriter-bandleader Matty Malneck, became known as "Stairway to the Stars" after it acquired lyrics. Gould wrote "Big City Blues."

Probably the best known composition is "Street Scene," from the music that Hollywood's Alfred Newman produced for the 1931 film of the Elmer Rice play, which is set in New York.

The recording was made in June 1950, possibly in Columbia's 30th Street studio in New York. It is quite resonant. I wonder if this in an example of "stairwell reverb."

The cover is by Alex Steinweiss.

LINK (June 2024, new remaster in ambient stereo)