The ODJB's First Recordings at 100

Sunday marks 100 years since the Original Dixieland Jass Band took their instruments into a loft studio on New York's West 38th Street to record what many experts consider the first jazz records - the "Livery Stable Blues" and the "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step."

I was reminded of this anniversary the other day by a typically informative piece on Marc Myers's blog, JazzWax, and of my own transfer of those recordings by a discussion of "X" Records in the comments section of my last post, on arranger George Siravo.

The original ODJB 78 came out on Victor Records, and was reissued by Victor subsidiary "X" Records in the mid-50s, together with a 1918 coupling of "Skeleton Jangle" and "Tiger Rag." I transferred that "X" Records EP back in the early days of this blog.

1917 ad

To mark the centenary of the ODJB's first session, I decided to see how much I could improve the sound of those 1917-18 acoustic recordings. I won't suggest that the results will transport you back to that loft in New York 100 years ago, but it will give you a good impression of the goings-on that day.

To adjust the sound, I corrected the pitch, which was quite sharp, addressed some of the peaks that gave the records an unpleasantly shrill sound, and added some heft at the lower end to balance things out.

These recordings were a marvel in their day, but don't expect musical revelations. As a friend of mine recently observed, the records may be more significant for their repertoire than the performances themselves. The ODJB's Nick LaRocca, Eddie Edwards, Larry Shields, Henry Ragas and Tony Sbarbaro were mainly important as pioneers.

As I myself wrote back in 2008, "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."

One final note for those who may be curious. The name of the band on the first record was given as "Original Dixieland 'Jass' Band." By the time of the 1918 sessions, they had become known as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. I've followed the spelling on the "X" Records EP.

1918 promoional card: Tony Sbarbaro, Eddie Edwards, Nick LaRocca,
Larry Shields, Henry Ragas

Siravo Swings in Hi-Fi and Stereo

When I recently reupped three early LPs by arranger-conductor George Siravo, my friend Scoredaddy sent in a polite plea for more.

SD is one of the blog's earliest and most loyal supporters, so I made it a priority to unearth more Siravos from the cartons in my cavern of a basement. Here is the result of my search.

George Siravo

This one is an unusual post because I am offering both the mono and the stereo versions of the record, while stating my strong preference for the single-channel version.

The cover you see above is from the LP's original incarnation on RCA Victor's subsidiary Vik label. Recorded in July 1957, it probably came out later that year under the title "Swing Hi Swing Fi." A good example of hi-fi it was, too, with a wide range and good instrumental balance. My only niggle would be that because it is a multi-miked but single-channel recording, the musicians sometimes sound like they are standing on top of one another.

Stereo was supposed to address this phenomenon, and when it came along in a big way in 1958, people were astounded by what they heard. The tendency back then was for engineers to park some of the instrumentalists over on one side and some over on the other, with nothing in the middle, so as to emphasize that you were hearing two-channel sound, let there be no doubt about it.

So when RCA decided to put out a stereo version of the Siravo LP in 1959, that's exactly what it did - hole-in-the-middle stereo. Too bad the ham-handed engineer in charge used a 14th generation tape for a master and then added clumsy reverb to the whole thing, resulting in a sonic horror that does not do justice to the performances.

Since "hi-fi" was dated as a marketing gimmick and "stereo" in vogue, RCA renamed the mess "Siravo Swing Session" and issued it on its budget line, Camden, in the cover below. (You may think that's the same photo as on the mono release, but look closely and you will see it's from a different negative. I just wonder how the drummer managed to play his kit with the the pieces scattered all over the place.)

On to a few words about the music. Siravo reached way back for his repertoire choices, with all tunes composed in the first three decades of the century. I imagine some of this was impelled by royalty considerations, but the arranger did have a taste for the real oldies. His previous LP for Vik was music by Stephen Foster and his 19th century contemporaries.

Siravo of course updated the material, turning the "Twelfth Street Rag" into a rhumba, and using an R&B motif to intro "Margie." (I might note that he then turns that figure into a riff that is suspiciously similar to Kenyon Hopkins's famous theme from the film The Strange One, which came out a few months before "Swing Hi" was taped.) Otherwise, you will hear many echoes of Siravo's big-band background, including one arrangement that sounds a lot like a Benny Goodman recording with Charlie Christian that I can't place.

As usual I've included a run-down of personnel where known. Soloists are not noted, but my guess is you are hearing (among others) Buck Clayton on trumpet, Boomie Richman on tenor, Toots Mondello on alto, and Buddy Weed on piano. Terry Snyder is on vibes, and is probably also the xylophone player on "Twelfth Street Rag."

One final note: the title "Siravo Swing Session" predates "Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!!" by a few years. Somewhat ironic, since half of the Sinatra LP (arranged by the irreproachable Nelson Riddle) was a remake of the "Sing and Dance with Frank Sinatra" album that Siravo arranged for Columbia. That was probably not lost on Siravo, who by that time was on the outs with the Voice. (See this good article on the arranger.)

Big Batch of Reups and Remasters

A good number of reups for you today, all by request; hopefully something of interest to those who don't have the patience to wander back through almost nine years of posts. As usual, anything that is more than a few years old has been remastered and now has much improved sound.

The links below lead to the original posts. Download links can be found in the comments to each of those posts; all are also included in the comments to this post.

Les Baxter - Blue Tango, Blue Mirage (remastered). Two EPs containing many of Baxter's big hits of the 50s, including "Blue Tango," "Ruby," "April in Portugal," "Quiet Village" and "Unchained Melody." The best of the bachelor pad!

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (remastered). Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe combined voices and personas for this diverting 1953 movie with an excellent score. Both shine.

Lena Horne - Lena Horne Sings (remastered). Outstanding collection of 40s-50s singles for M-G-M. The highpoint for me is the original version of Alec Wilder's "Is It Always Like This?"

Kabalevsky - Symphony No. 2 (remastered). An obscure Capitol release with the Russian-American conductor Jacques Rachmilovich leading the Santa Cecilia orchestra in a Kabalevsky symphony from the inter-war years.

Vera Lynn - Sincerely Yours. Classic singing from a favorite of many, many people. Just be aware that there was a bit of peak distortion on the master.

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (remastered). Another obscurity, this one a soundtrack from a 1951 film with Dennis Morgan and Lucille Norman.

New Music from Old Erin, Vol. 1. An attractive LP of music by 20th century Irish composers Brian Boydell, Seoirse Bodley and Frederick May,

Lauritz Melchior in The Student Prince. The world's greatest heldentenor in operetta? Why not? Melchoir was branching out in the postwar years.

Prokofiev - The Prodigal Son (Barzin). One of Prokofiev's lesser-known ballet scores from the New York City Ballet Orchestra under Leon Barzin.

Lisa Kirk - 1950-53 RCA Victor Singles

At least once before on this blog, I've proclaimed my allegiance to Lisa Kirk and the cause of seeking more recognition for her as a singer. The Broadway artist whose superb renditions introduced "The Gentleman Is a Dope," "Always True to You in My Fashion" and "Why Can't You Behave" ought to be more recognized as a master of the craft.

A number of years I ago I devoted several posts to RCA Victor's "Show Time" Series of musical highlights, all of which contained Kirk contributions, and added several of her RCA singles to one of the collections. I've now done new transfers of all those six songs, and added 18 more to compose this collection of singles done for RCA from 1950 to 1953.

Before she became an RCA artist, Kirk came to public attention via her first Broadway appearance, in the 1947 Rodgers-Hammerstein show Allegro. In that show, she was the lovelorn nurse to the show's protagonist, Dr. Joe Taylor. Her version of "The Gentleman Is a Dope" is the high point of the cast album.

Lisa Kirk in Allegro. At the desk is John Battles as Joe Taylor.

The next year she was cast in the important role of Lois Lane in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, in which she introduced "Always True to You in My Fashion" and "Why Can't You Behave" (as well as "Tom, Dick or Harry").

After that, Kirk was less seen in Broadway and more on television and in nightclubs, although in 1963 she replaced Janis Paige as a lead in Meredith Willson's Here's Love and in 1974 had a featured role in Jerry Herman's Mack and Mabel.

She was relatively active in the studio for RCA from 1949-53, and today's offering presents two dozen of her single sides from that era. Please see my other blog for a bonus - her only single for the Columbia label, dating from 1956.

A few notes on the RCA performances follow. For the most part, her backings are anonymous, although the first six sides are credited to Henri René and the final two to Harry Geller.

We start off with a cover of "Confidentially," the theme song of the English comedian Reg Dixon, which she handles with her customary warmth. (Reg seems to have been inspired by the oldie "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," which had been revived in 1947.) The b-side is a Livingston-Evans song, "Copper Canyon." The label says the tune comes from the 1950 Ray Milland-Hedy Lamarr movie of the same name, but it's not clear from the IMDb entry the song was actually used in the film.

"Have You Ever Been Lonely" was a 1932 song that became a country hit for Ernest Tubb in 1949. On both this and the flip side, "You Missed the Boat," Kirk duets with Don Cornell, who had recently gone solo after much success with as a Sammy Kaye vocalist. His final hit with that band was 1949's "It Isn't Fair," which contains the unusual Kaye introduction, "To sing this beautiful song ... here is ... Don Cornell," as if they were on the bandstand.

Kirk's relaxed, behind-the-beat rendition of "Life Is So Peculiar" is one of the best items in the set, displaying some of the characteristics that made her so special. "Life" is a Burke-Van Heusen song written for Bing Crosby's film Mr. Music. (The flip, "I'm Gonna Hang Your Picture (in the Post Office)," is best left unacknowledged.)

Next we have an excellent version of the Fields-McHugh song "Don't Blame Me." Here, Kirk's approach may remind you of Jeri Southern, who actually did not record until the year after this song was recorded. The flip side, "I Feel a Song Comin' On," is good, too.

Kirk seemed to have a preference for Jimmy McHugh songs at the time. Our next single couples the Fields-McHugh oldie "I'm in the Mood for Love" with the Gaskill-McHugh standard "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me."

1951 Billboard ad

The next item is another McHugh composition (with lyricist Harold Adamson) "You're a Sweetheart," coupled with the Fields-McHugh "Exactly Like You."

Kirk then moved away from standards with a raucous take on "Charlie Is My Darling," a traditional Scottish song, and "Beautiful Brown Eyes," a Delmore Brothers country song from 1951 that was made into a pop hit by Rosemary Clooney. The bass voice on Kirk's record is uncredited.

Kirk had married songwriter Bob Wells ("The Christmas Song") in 1949, and recorded a number of his songs for RCA. The first in this collection is "Sad and Lonely," a dreary folk-style lament. The sort of thing became popular in the wake of the Weavers and their 1950 hit version of "Goodnight Irene." Much better is the backing, "Love Is the Reason," drawn from the 1951 Fields-Schwartz musical A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Kirk sings it in canon with her own voice.

Next there are two duets with singer-songwriter Bob Haymes, sounding much more like the brother of Buddy Clark than Dick Haymes. The arrangement of "(I Wish We Were Sweethearts) Fifty Years Ago" shows the strong influence of the productions that Mitch Miller was directing for Columbia at the time. "Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie Blues" is based on a turn of the century Harry Von Tilzer song.

"If Your Heart is Breaking (Like My Heart Is Breaking)" was a new, relatively attractive song from 1952 by Jack Fulton and Lois Steele. Its flip, "How Come You Do Me Like You Do," is a Gene Austin song dating back to 1924.

In the overwrought "Do Me a Favor," Kirk harmonizes with herself in the manner of Patti Page. The noisy b-side, "King Size Kisses," has a relatively early Hal David lyric.

Speaking of Hal David, Bob Wells's "Fly Bird (And Tell Him)" predates David asking a Kentucky bluebird to take a "Message to  Martha/Michael" by a almost a decade. The flip side is "All Man and All Mine," one of Kirk's lesser efforts.

The sound on these records, which are largely old store stock or radio station copies, is very good, save for one noisy 78.

György Sándor in Rachmaninoff

I discovered this superb performance of the Rachmaninoff second concerto through a posting on another forum by my friend Joe Serraglio of a transfer by the great Argentine music lover, Maria Elena Hartung.

As Maria acknowledged, her work came from a poor pressing, so I offered to dub a cleaner example of the LP, which I am bringing to you today.

It is an early recording by the Hungarian-American pianist György Sándor. Today, Sándor is closely associated with the music of Béla Bartók, but his first recordings for Columbia were actually of Liszt, Chopin and Schumann in March 1945, followed by this traversal of the Rachmaninoff concerto in January 1946. The following month Sándor premiered Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy. Those forces took the piece into Columbia's studios in April 1946 for a recording I'll be presenting at a later date.

This particular concerto was accompanied not by the Philadelphians but by the New Yorkers under their then-music director Artur Rodziński. The recording session was in Carnegie Hall, but for such a famous venue, the Columbia engineers achieved frustratingly opaque and tubby sound. I have attempted to address the balances, perhaps at the cost of inducing some clattery piano tone above forte.

I hope the sound is good enough to convey the pianist's sterling qualities. Known as a virtuoso, Sándor nonetheless conveys grace and elegance while never indulging in the swooping and swooning that this concerto seeks to provoke in today's instrumentalists. Rodziński and his orchestra at at one with this approach.

Cover of 78 set

The first issue of the concerto was in 78 set M-605. In the LP era, the recording became a fixture in Columbia's low-priced lines, first on Entré and then in at least two iterations on Harmony. My transfer is from a circa 1957 pressing. Thanks to Maria and Joe for introducing me to this fine performance, and to Joe for sourcing the vintage image at right and several contained in the download.

New Batch of Reups and Remasters

A nice crop of reups for you today, most of them remastered and sounding quite nice. The links below lead to the original posts. The download links can be found both in the comments on those posts and the comments section of this post.

George Siravo - Polite Jazz. The recent reup of Siravo's "Dance Date" led to a call for renewing my two previous uploads of LPs by the arranger, best known for his work on Sinatra dates. Don't let the title fool you - this is imaginative stuff from a talented hand. From circa 1953.

George Siravo - Portraits in Hi-Fi. An album of Siravo's own compositions - some better than others - and of course his arrangements. From 1955.

Ralph Flanagan - Freshman-Sophomore Frolics - Junior-Senior Prom. Two LPs from the postwar Flanagan band, blog favorites and Miller acolytes. Smooth sounds favored on the mid-century college campuses.

Everything I Have Is Yours / Lili.  Two soundtracks on one 10-inch LP from 1953. Lili was the charming Leslie Caron vehicle that spawned "Hi Lili, Hi Lo." Everything I Have is Yours starred Marge and Gower Champion along with chanteuse Monica Lewis. This LP, a relatively recent transfer, is the sole offering not newly remastered.

Walter Gross - Piano Moods. These days the facile pianist Walter Gross is known for his one enduring hit, "Tenderly," which is of course included in this program of medleys dating from 1950.