Leinsdorf in Cleveland, 1946

Erich Leinsdorf

Erich Leinsdorf was only 31 when named the music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1943, in succession to Artur Rodziński. But he had already achieved success as an assistant to Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini, and at the Met after coming to America.

Leinsdorf's Cleveland reign was to be short and uneasy. He was drafted soon after his appointment, and by the time he returned, the board and the public had shifted their affections to George Szell, who had excelled as a guest conductor.

There are, however, a number of remembrances of Leinsdorf's tenure in the form of a series of recordings he and the orchestra set down in February 1946 - after Szell's appointment as his successor.

Today we look at two of the longer works they took before the microphone - Schumann's Symphony No. 1 and Rimsky-Korsakov's Antar - together with a three shorter works only issued on 78.

Schumann - Symphony No. 1 (Spring)

Veterans like me who recall Leinsdorf's later, impassive podium manner may be surprised to discover that the young conductor was notably volatile on some of these discs. His reading of the Schumann Spring symphony is nothing if not urgent. I coincidentally listened to some of Herbert von Karajan's Schumann the other day, and that dignitary's grandiloquent air could hardly be different from Leinsdorf's straightforward approach.

Leinsdorf's Schumann has never been considered a competitive reading, but I enjoy a conductor who presses ahead in this symphony, as he does. The orchestra was then in a state of flux due to the war, with turnover of about 50 percent in a few years. Nonetheless, the ensemble does sound in good form. That said, the orchestra had but 84 members at the time, and its strings were considered a relatively weak point.

Rimsky-Korsakov - Antar, Suite for Orchestra

Leinsdorf was known for his interesting programs; here, he somehow talked Columbia into setting down Rimsky-Korsakov's wonderful but even today neglected Antar, a suite for orchestra that Rimsky initially called a symphony. (The conductor had tried to interest the Columbia folks in a George Antheil work, but they demurred.)

The Cleveland performance was to be the second complete recording; Piero Coppola had done one with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra in 1933. Victor had Pierre Monteux set down a competing version in San Francisco only a few weeks after the Cleveland sessions.

As with the Schumann, Leinsdorf's manner is insistent from the first bar. Where some conductors lean into the exotic qualities of the score and its underlying tale, Leinsdorf's approach is to begin developing tension immediately.

The Clevelanders again play well.

Mozart, Schubert, Josef Strauss

To fill out the program, I've added three works issued as singles. One 78 coupled Mozart's Minuet (K. 409) with some of the ballet music from Schubert's Rosamunde. The second encompassed a performance of Josef Strauss' lovely Music of the Spheres waltz.

The Schumann and Rimsky works first came out in 78 albums. I transferred those works from LPs in my collection. In the process, I discovered that my Schumann 10-inch LP sleeve actually contained a Bruno Walter Beethoven performance, so I resorted to a good-sounding 12-inch reissue from the mid-50s. The Antar comes from the 10-inch LP edition. I remastered the singles from lossless needle-drops found on Internet Archive. The sound is very good on all of these records.

The download includes a variety of cover images, including scans of both 10-inch LPs and the front of the 12-inch album.

Note (July 2024): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

Two Bob Hope Soundtracks

I was looking through an old backup drive a few weeks ago and came across a number of LPs that I transferred many years ago, probably even before I had this blog. I've now remastered some of them and will be presenting them here periodically.

We start with two soundtracks from a few of Bob Hope's later and less remembered movies: Beau James from 1957 and Paris Holiday from the following year.

Beau James

I've seen Beau James, but not for many years, but I do recall that it is a romanticized film about jazz age New York Mayor Jimmy Walker. It was based on a book by hagiographer Gene Fowler, whose most famous opus was probably Good Night, Sweet Price, a similarly misty-eyed tribute to John Barrymore.

Jimmy Walker

In case you haven't guessed, Hope plays Walker, in a rare dramatic role. Both the film and the book seem to take the attitude that it was forgivable for "Beau James" to take loads of bribes because He Loved His City. The charming rogue stereotype worked overtime during that period, for sure.

The music has little to do with this, of course, and it at least is enjoyable. In it, music director Joe Lilley weaves together smooth versions of standards of the age (including "Manhattan," of course). Both Hope and columnist Walter Winchell intone obsequies to Walker over the title music. Winchell returns to do the same, even more fulsomely, over the closing number.

Imogene Lynn

The singing on the LP is handled by Hope and Imogene Lynn, who dubs the vocals of love interest Vera Miles. That's Miles on the cover, seemingly dressed as a nun, smooching a uninterested Hope, who appears to be an invalid.

Hope of course could sing, and introduced a number of notable tunes, but here the 54-year-old's voice is dry. The talented Lynn is much better, particularly in "Someone to Watch Over Me." A former band singer, she cycled through such vocal groups as the Merry Macs before becoming a studio artist who handled a good number of film dubbing assignments.

The one original song on the soundtrack is "His Honor the Mayor of New York," with music by Lilley and words by the ubiquitous Sammy Cahn. It is a duet by Hope and Jimmy Durante, set during a tribute dinner to Walker. The number eventually turns into a soft-shoe version of "Sidewalks of New York."

The anticlimactic "Tammany Parade March" follows, and completing the LP is the closing medley with Winchell voice-over. The columnist and radio personality would forever be associated with the Jazz Age, although the Walker regime (1926-32) was near the beginning of his career. A few years after this film was made, Winchell would provide the staccato intros for the wildly popular American television show The Untouchables, which dramatized (and romanticized) Eliot Ness' government agents battling the Capone mob in 1920s Chicago.

Paris Holiday

Hope returned to comedy and better voice in 1958 for his caper film Paris Holiday, sharing billing with French comic Fernandel and supported by Martha Hyer and Anita Ekberg.

The "soundtrack" album includes music written for the film by Joe Lilley, which is pleasant and well arranged. It adds two songs by Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, the title tune and "Nothing in Common." The latter had been slated for the film - as a duet for Hope and Hyer - but was cut. So Hope decided to reunite with Bing Crosby to do a version for the quasi-soundtrack LP, adding a special version of the title tune as well. Bing did not appear in the movie, but does show up on the front and back covers of the LP.

In bringing in Bing for "Nothing in Common," Bob hoped to rekindle the repartee that marked their duets from their Road pictures. Cahn's lyrics even references the studio for those films, Paramount, even though Paris Holiday was released by United Artists. Some of you may be familiar with the version of "Nothing in Common" that Frank Sinatra cut with Keely Smith. Same tune, but completely different words by the remarkably glib Cahn - possibly the lyrics slated for the Hope-Hyer duet. Both the Hope-Crosby and Sinatra-Smith versions were recorded at about the time of the film's release in early 1958. On the LP, "Nothing in Common" appears twice, via the duet and an instrumental. The Cahn-Van Heusen title song shows up three times.

The album also offers a few chestnuts in blossom such as "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and "April in Paris." The liner notes explain that Hope's "madcap memories of Paris" inspired him to record these "for posterity" (and probably money). He sings both songs with chorus - very well, too. He indulges in a comic dialogue with a unknown actress in "The Last Time I Saw Paris," and a monologue in  "April in Paris."

The 45 picture sleeves

In addition to the LP, United Artists released the Hope-Crosby songs as a single with a double-sided picture sleeve, then packaged those numbers with Bob's Paris tunes to make up an EP.

Both albums are in good-sounding mono. I don't believe either was ever issued in stereo. Paris Holiday was United Artists' first soundtrack LP.

Risë Stevens' First 'Carmen'

Opera star Risë Stevens has appeared here twice in cross-over repertoire - once in a selection of love songs, the other in a collection of Victor Herbert operetta arias. Today she makes her operatic debut in her most noted role, Carmen, from Bizet's famous work of the same name.

These 1945-46 Columbia excerpts were Stevens' first recording of Carmen. After switching to RCA Victor in 1951, that company quickly had her in the studios with Jan Peerce, Licia Albanese, Robert Merrill and Fritz Reiner for a complete recording, one that seldom if ever has been out of the catalog. There also have been bootleg issues of a Met performance with Mario Del Monaco and Dimitri Mitropoulos. But to my knowledge the Columbia material has not been reissued since a 1973 Odyssey budget pressing.

Georges Sébastian

For the Columbia recordings, originally issued in a 78 set, Stevens was partnered by Raoul Jobin as Don José, Robert Weede as Escamillo and Nadine Conner as Micaela. Leading the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus was the Hungarian-French conductor Georges Sébastian, then resident in the US. Sébastian recorded extensively, but mainly for small labels. His work here is very good, as are the vocal performances.

Beside Stevens, all the other cast members did crossover work, which was far more common back then - probably because operatic performers were more prominent in the public eye. Stevens, as one of the most famous American opera stars of the time, had many commercial endorsements (see, for example, the cigarette ad below). I also recently came across a two-page magazine ad she did for the long-vanished Henry J automobile, and have included other ads in my previous uploads of her work.

1948 ad

Jobin has appeared on this blog in a Christmas LP from his native Québec, and Conner partnered Lauritz Melchior in one of the numbers from his film Two Sisters from Boston. Weede has not previously shown up on this site, but he was perhaps one of the most notable crossover successes, becoming a Broadway star years later in Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella and Jerry Herman's Milk and Honey.

The first two LP covers

The Carmen excerpts featured today come from one of Columbia's first classical LPs, encased in the strange "tombstone" cover that the company applied to its early rush releases in the new format. Columbia later marketed the record with a cover photo of Stevens in costume. (Covers are at right.) My guess is that the second cover was issued to combat the RCA Victor release, which had a smoldering photo of the artist-as-gypsy.

The sound has come up very well, although Columbia's LP transfer, perhaps rushed to meet the deadline for the new format's release, was none too good, being pitched flat and with a peculiar frequency response, which I have done my best to rectify.

I transferred this record as the result of a request on another site, but thought some of you might enjoy it. By the way, the Victor Herbert set mentioned in the first paragraph has been newly remastered and is entirely charming, as is the love songs album.

Art Hodes Revisited

Art Hodes

A few posts back, I reuploaded a 10-inch Blue Note LP collecting some sides that pianist Art Hodes made with various small groups in the 1940s. At the time I lamented that the LP, called Out of the Back Room, sounded more like "Out of the Bath Room" because of the clumsy reverberation that the engineers applied during the LP mastering.

Frequent commenter Charlot wondered if the original 78s would have better sound, and I speculated that they would. Shortly thereafter, I decided to see if my assumption was true, and acquired 14 Hodes needle drops from Internet Archive, including four of the eight numbers found on the LP.

Max Kaminsky

I found out that the 78s do sound better - much better - and today's post is the proof.

The items I chose generally fall into two camps. The first includes seven blues or quasi-blues riffs with Hodes leading a few small ensembles, all of which included the estimable Max Kaminsky on trumpet. A couple of the records feature trombonist Sandy Williams, once of the Chick Webb band.

Pops Foster, Sidney Bechet, Art Hodes and Albert Nicholas

The second group includes six songs from the standard "Dixieland" repertoire. I selected these because they all feature the wonderful Sidney Bechet on clarinet or soprano sax. Bechet was one of the preeminent jazz musicians of the pre-bop era. Also on these sides are trumpeter Wild Bill Davison and bassist Pops Foster, two more legendary names.

The final song is the only one not issued under Hodes' name, although it was included on the Hodes LP. It is "Feelin' at Ease" from drummer Baby Dodds' Jazz Four. Also on the date along with Hodes were clarinetist Albert Nicolas and bassist Wellman Braud. Beside "Feelin' at Ease," the other songs on both the LP and in the 78 collection are "Blues 'n' Booze," "Low Down Blues" and "Jug Head Boogie."

These sides all emanate from New York and were recorded in 1944 and 1945.

A brief note about Hodes: he was never a virtuoso pianist, but he nonetheless was a leading light among the traditional musicians that the newly ascendant boppers called "moldy figs." (The "moldy" pejorative I get; the fig reference eludes me.) For one thing, for several years in the 40s, he edited a magazine called The Jazz Record that was devoted to traditional jazz music.

Hodes also had a record contract with Blue Note, and for his sessions brought in many of the stars of the traditionalist movement. They included both musicians who came from New Orleans, such as Bechet, Foster, Nicholas and Braud, and those associated with "Chicago-style" jazz, artists from that city such as Jimmy McPartland and Bud Freeman who were inspired by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings of the 20s.

It is sometimes said that the New Orleans style emphasized ensemble, the Chicago style solo playing. Maybe, but the two greatest soloists who played this music were Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong, both from New Orleans. Hodes himself was from Chicago, and spent most of his career there, except for several years in the 1940s when New York was home base.

Rignold Conducts Delibes Ballet Suites

Longtime reader centuri praised this record back in June when I posted Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet score conducted by Hugo Rignold. Centuri is a knowledgeable fellow, so I quickly put this LP on the schedule for transfer. It contains suites from Léo Delibes' ballets Sylvia and Coppélia conducted by Hugo Rignold, who also led the Prokofiev recording.

Hugo Rignold

Rignold was the conductor of the Royal Ballet when these recording sessions took place in May 1959. He conducted Coppélia there in 1958 and both ballets in 1959. But rather than utilizing the Covent Garden band, as it did in the Prokofiev record, RCA Victor went with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, a not-unreasonable choice considering the repertoire.

The English maestro and the French ensemble turned out to be a good match. Rignold and the orchestra seem to have had a good time together, at least from the audible evidence. The famous Mazurka from Coppélia is tremendous fun, for example. The Parisians, not noted for virtuosity, play well for Rignold, and the sound is good. As with the Prokofiev LP, RCA utilized the English Decca production team. The result was the usual FFSS sonics, with elevated high- and low-frequency responses. I don't know how accurate it is, but it is glamorous! A few notes: my pressing had a bit of mild periodic noise on the right channel, which will only be noticeable over headphones. Also, RCA (or Decca) mastered the LP quite sharp, which I've adjusted. This was possibly because of a long side one.

I don't believe these recordings have been reissued, except in RCA's mid-60s Victrola line (see below), but I have been wrong before on such matters. The download includes a 1961 review from High Fidelity magazine.

Ad for Victrola reissue in High Fidelity, 1965
(click to enlarge)

More New Year's Music, Plus New Items and Reups

Every year about this time, when the rest of you are busy with resolutions and revelries, I like to sink into my own little ritual and indulge a nasty viral infection. It's sort of a tradition around my place, as welcome and as comforting as being attacked by feral hogs.

And so, for the last week as I've been occupied by my physical miseries, I've had little time to inflict any musical miseries on you all. Today that changes. I have for you one additional collection of New Year's songs, two new/old transfers that have not appeared here before, and several reups. Details follow.

A Carpe Diem New Year's Eve

Just at about the time the bug hit me, David Federman graciously donated his latest collection to the comments page of my last post. While it was themed to New Year's Eve, the 35 well-chosen selections are beautifully timeless, I recommend them heartily - and let me clarify that I do not include his collection among the "miseries" threatened above.

As always, David ranges widely across pop music of the early- and mid-20th century. I noticed that he has included some favorite artists who have not appeared here before - folks such as Alice Faye, Lee Wiley, Ray McKinley, Hal Kemp and Milton Brown and His Brownies. Good stuff! The link is in the comments; David's notes are in the download.

Jack Sheldon

Trumpeter-vocalist-actor Jack Sheldon died late last year, and in remembrance I have uploaded one of his most elusive albums - The Cool World of Jack Sheldon, from 1969.

Sheldon is best known for television appearances as Merv Griffin's bandleader and on the 70s series Schoolhouse Rock, but his background was in the West Coast cool school. The LP on offer today was made during a time when music was changing rapidly, so it includes everything from "The Whiffenpoof Song" to the Turtles, Burt Bacharach, Randy Newman and other odds and ends. It ends up being less a collage than a hodge-podge, but it is distinguished by Sheldon's lyrical trumpet and gravelly vocals.

I transferred this one for Will Friedwald about 10 years ago but never uploaded it here. No scans on this one; sorry.

Link is in the comments.

This Is Kim (as Jeanne Eagles)

This 1957 LP is another transfer from a decade or more ago. I remember working on several soundtrack records featuring composer George Duning, but put this one aside because it didn't actually include much original music. For whatever reason, rather than producing a soundtrack LP, Decca decided to market a Kim Novak exploitation album in conjunction with her starring role in the Columbia biopic Jeanne Eagels, calling it This Is Kim (as Jeanne Eagels). The resulting album includes the theme from the film, a Duning tribute song for Novak, which shows up as a leitmotif throughout the album, and a bunch of easy-listening numbers including three Duke Ellington and two Ray Noble songs.

Poor Duning is identified only on the record label - Columbia music director Morris Stoloff has his name all over things, as was his wont.

Here too, the link is in the comments.

The Two Manhattan Towers

Oh, I know there were more than two Manhattan Tower LPs, but here we have the first two versions of Gordon Jenkins' popular suite, which I've reupped on request by loyal follower Kwork.

The original Manhattan Tower was a 16-minute piece that first came out in a 78 set in 1946. My transfer is from an early Decca LP reprint. That record also included the California suite that Jenkins wrote to Tom Adair's insipid lyrics. The download includes complete scans of the LP and 78 album covers and the 78 set's insert booklet. The wonderful radio actor Elliott Lewis is the protagonist, supported by Jenkins' wife Beverly Mahr.

In 1956, Capitol asked Jenkins to expand Manhattan Tower into a full-length LP, and in response Jenkins added some of the suite's best known excerpts - "Married I Can Always Get" and "Never Leave Me." Lewis and Mahr again take the lead roles, although Lewis is not as fresh as he had been 10 years earlier.

These records are available via the original posts - Decca and Capitol.

Art Hodes - Out of the Back Room

I am preparing a piece on pianist-singer Charles LaVere, and some of his work put me in mind of Art Hodes, who appeared on one of the first posts here. Hodes' Out of the Back Room, an early Blue Note LP, collected eight sides he made with a few Chicago-style groups in 1944-45.

The sound here was always a bit rough and not well reprocessed by Blue Note - I commented at the time that the added echo made the record sound more like "Out of the Bath Room" than "Out of the Back Room." I've now remastered things and the sound is presentable for the most part.

Again, find this one via the original post.