Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi - A Yuletide Song Fest

Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi were two stalwarts of the Metropolitan Opera in the 1950s and 1960s, taking featured roles in a spectrum of works. Both were in the cast of the premiere performances of Barber's Vanessa in 1958, the year before RCA Victor issued this seasonal album.

Giorgio Tozzi

Tozzi, a bass, has a voice that will be familiar to many music lovers who have never listened to opera. He dubbed the vocals for Rossano Brazzi in the 1958 film version of South Pacific - and very effectively.

Elias achieved no such crossover fame, but, like Tozzi, she had a strong, vibrant, well produced voice that is striking in its power. It is, indeed, a bit too striking in the opening "Deck the Halls," where she pops out of the texture obtrusively. Fortunately, this effect subsides in the balance of the program.

Rosalind Elias

RCA backs Tozzi and Elias with a chorus and orchestra led by Lehman Engel, who was active on Broadway and television, and who also conducted any number of studio recordings for Columbia and RCA during the period. His small pop-oriented chorus here is not well matched to the powerful Tozzi and Elias, sounding enervated in comparison.

The program is largely conventional, but does include the less-often-heard "Patapan," the "Cherry Tree Carol" and "Down in Yon Forest."

The sound is good but washy, as it often was when in the hands of producer Richard Mohr and engineer Lewis Layton.

Christmas with Damone, Laine and Howard

Let's kick off the holiday season with a 10-incher featuring blog favorites Frankie Laine and Vic Damone and new friend Eddy Howard.

The recordings are all from 1947 and 1948, then compiled into this LP in 1951, I believe.

Damone's version of "Silent Night" first came out on a 12-inch 78 in 1947, later cut down to 10-inch format for jukeboxes. His excellent version of "White Christmas" and the obscure "Christmas Morn" are from 1948. The latter has a difficult melody line, which gives Vic some trouble.

Laine's coupling of "You're All I Want for Christmas" and "Tara Talara Tala" are also from 1948. Frankie is sincere, but in truth these readings do drag a bit.

Eddy Howard may not be familiar to many of you; he is not nearly as well remembered as Laine or Damone. Howard started out as a band vocalist, then moved on to fronting his own band in the 1940s. The three items here were recorded for the small Majestic label in 1947, then swept up by Mercury when Majestic fell to pieces. Mercury reissued the sides in 1948.

Howard was a sensitive singer, but he tends to croon in a head voice, a mannerism I find annoying. Nonetheless his versions of the songs "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "The Christmas Song," then new, now standards, are well done, and nicely played by his band. "Dearest Santa" is a sentimental item in the vein of "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot," only this time around the unfortunate orphan is a girl.

The sound on the items recorded by Majestic is very good, those originating with Mercury less so. Mercury's processing and pressings leave something to be desired, as usual, but the results still are reasonably good.

Have a fun holiday season, everyone!

1948 trade ad featuring all these sides

Early Capitol Recordings by Kay Starr

I've had very little time to transfer records lately, but I did want to pay homage to the terrific vocalist Kay Starr, who died earlier this month.

Starr was one of the last remaining singers who came out of a big band background. She had come up while still in her teens with Joe Venuti, then went with Glenn Miller (briefly) and Charlie Barnet (see my other blog for her Barnet 78).

Kay did do a handful of records with Miller and Barnet, then recorded quite a few under her own name for small labels, which were reissued incessantly on budget labels after Starr began churning our hits for Capitol.

It was on that label that she achieved her greatest fame. Her first Capitol recording was as a guest at a March 1945 date with the Capitol International Jazzmen, a proto-supergroup centered on Nat King Cole. At that session, she did the vocals on "Stormy Weather," which had achieved renewed popularity in the wake of the film of the same name with its Lena Horne feature.

I have added the "Stormy Weather" side as a bonus to this post, which is mainly devoted to Kay's first Capitol LP, a 10-incher from 1950 collecting some of the singles she produced for the label in 1947-49. Even early in her career, she was a fully-formed artist, confident and in command in a variety of styles.

From 1949

The estimable Will Friedwald describes her as a great jazz artist with a country timbre. While she was certainly from the country (Oklahoma), her singing is also saturated with the blues. Capitol sensed this, and for these early recordings matched her with R&B songs such as "Steady Daddy" and "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." They also gave her songs from the "red hot mama" tradition, like 1923's "You've Got to See Mama Ev'ry Night," identified with the likes of Sophie Tucker, and tunes in a similar vein such as "You've Got to Buy, Buy, Buy for Baby" and "Poor Papa (He's Got Nothin' at All)." Her intense delivery, rapid vibrato and powerful rhythmic sense are perfectly suited to this material.

It did take a venture into the country realm to produce her first hit, a vocal version of the country riff "Bonaparte's Retreat" in 1950, and she did record duets with pop country singer Tennessee Ernie Ford. Later she handled gospel material very convincingly. And although she was very versatile, she was always unmistakably Kay Starr.

In general, Dave Cavanaugh leads the band on the earlier LP sides, with Frank De Vol taking over later on. The sound from the album is excellent. "Stormy Weather" comes from a 78 pressed on noisy wartime shellac.

I have quite a few of her early Capitol 78s in addition to the material here and will try to transfer some of them at a later date.