Steve Gibson and the Red Caps

Here is a 10-inch LP by Steve  Gibson and the Red Caps that is notable not only for the music found on the record but the cover that encased it.

First, the music. The Red Caps had a very long career (chronicled in detail by Marv Goldberg elsewhere on the web) making music inspired by the Mills Brothers and Ink Spots, as were many other groups of the 40s. These eight sides were cut as singles for Mercury from 1947-50. As you listen you will hear echoes of he Ink Spots' Bill Kenny (high voice) and Hoppy Jones (low voice) and the Mills Brothers' Harry Mills. Like those groups, the Red Caps played their own instruments.

There is nothing about Red Caps' performance - which, if anything, was a bit ironic and detached - to inspire the perfervid goings on shown on the cover. A giant woman in the grip of some nameless passion? Two boppers rapt in admiration? Purple and magenta swirls on a bed of chrome yellow? It's cover art by Fred Steffen!

Steffen is obscure. He does not have the cult following of Jim Flora or Alex Steinweiss, both of whom will be making appearances here in due course. Steffen's art, if it can be called that, was every bit as eccentric as Flora's but I don't believe his career was as long-lived. He did quite a few covers for Mercury - I have examples done for Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Lionel Hampton, and probably others. After executing these, he and his garish palette seemed to vanish. Other information about him would be welcome.

During the 10-inch era, Mercury's other specialty in covers was a compete contrast to Steffen's work - bland cartoon illustrations for the likes of Vic Damone, Ralph Marterie, Xavier Cugat, and Steve Gibson - on the Red Caps' only other Mercury album.

Page Cavanaugh, Part 1

Most music lovers have no idea who Page Cavanaugh is. Odd, considering he has been active and highly visible for 60 years, has made many records, including one of the most frequently found thrift store items, has backed everyone from Frank Sinatra to Doris Day, and appears in some well-known movies (some awful ones, too).

Page was and is a virtuoso pianist and singer. I prefer him in his classic trio setting, such as on this 10-inch album with bass and guitar.

Cool stuff, as signified by this sharp cover. The odd detail of the pan figure on the edge of the piano is the symbol of Vaya Records, which issued this item circa 1950.

Copland by Copland

Aaron Copland is better known today for his records as a conductor than as a pianist. On this early effort - dating from 1946-47 - he participates only in "Danzon Cubano." The leading player throughout is Leo Smit, something of a Copland specialist.

The selections from "Our Town" are familiar from the orchestral score. These piano versions are superb. The real find (to me) is the set of "Three Blues." In their simplicity and tone, they are reminiscent of Gershwin's "Three Preludes." Copland's debt to Satie is apparent in these pieces.

This was an early 10-inch LP on the Concert Hall label. I've never seen a reissue of it - strange considering Copland's popularity.

I met Copland once a long time ago at a master class. I remember he was mildly critical of one of the student's compositions. I heard later that the young composer (who later became well known) was devastated.

Weill's Down in the Valley with Alfred Drake

Here is one of Kurt Weill's less well-known efforts. It was one of his last compositions, and he was preparing to supervise this 1950 recording when he died.

Despite this being a 10-inch record, it contains the complete "ballad opera," which lasted only about 45 minutes. Weill intended it for performance by amateurs. Nonetheless, the lead in this version is Alfred Drake, hardly an beginner. It's a superb performance. All the more odd, then, that this version is not in print and may never have been reissued since its initial publication. However, a rival recording from RCA Victor has been out at least twice. It too is in my collection, but although I haven't heard it for some years, I don't think it is better than this one.

The story involves an evil, rapacious capitalist who is killed in self-defense by Drake's man of the people, who then is sent off to meet his fate at the hands of the state. A period piece that makes liberal use of familiar tunes like "Down in the Valley."

The basic sound here is pretty good, but my pressing must have been owned by either a Weill lover or a stalwart of the Old Left. It was beaten down as Drake's proletariat character. But my remastering has it sounding pretty good.

Note: I have now combined both the Decca and RCA recordings in one updated post.

Delius by Collins

Another big interest of mine - I suppose from reading British music magazines my entire adult life - is English music and English interpreters. They will be a theme here, if only because they make up a big part of my collection.

In these performances you get both: the English composer Frederick Delius, and the English conductor/composer Anthony Collins leading the London Symphony, on the Decca label. This was even a "special Coronation issue" of 1953. Decca seemed to dub many of its English music releases that year "Coronation issues." Maybe it didn't sell records then, but it does help date the issues now.

This was a 10-inch version of a 12-inch record, with only two pieces included; about 15 minutes of music. Not especially generous.

These performances are not nearly as well known as Beecham's, but they are nonetheless in print as two different reissues. Collins makes the music's links to Wagner and Franck evident.

This is a good sounding transfer (if I do say so myself), but there was some peak distortion on my pressing in The Walk to the Paradise Garden.


REMASTERED VERSION - OCTOBER 2014

Compositions by Robert Sanders, Burnet Tuthill, Bernard Rogers

The American Recording Society issued quite a few records of conservative composers back in the 1950s. This music has a populist bent, but I don’t know that it was ever really popular. It was popular enough, however, to get recorded by ARS, which had a grant for the purpose.

Bernard Rogers was perhaps the best known of the three composers on this 10-inch LP; his music was also recorded in the Howard Hanson series from the Eastman School, where Rogers taught such better known composers as Peter Mennin and David Diamond. Burnet Tuthill taught in Memphis; his best known pupil was Moondog (not the Gidget boyfriend, the eccentric musician). Tuthill’s father, by the way, designed Carnegie Hall. Robert Sanders taught at Brooklyn College. The Rogers and Sanders items come from the early 1930s; not sure about the other.

I hope to make some other examples of this series and some similar items available here under the title above. Frankly most of the items that will appear here are forgotten. That’s too bad.

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