'You Must Believe in Spring,' Samuel Barber and Leroy Anderson

Note the punctuation above. You need not believe in Samuel Barber or Leroy Anderson. But we do implore you to believe in Spring. The season has come, but perhaps not the state of mind. If that's the case, then I suggest you listen to David Federman's latest compilation, which has the new season as a theme, and is just the tonic for troubling times.

David's "You Must Believe in Spring" includes 32 songs on the subject of the season and renewal, including a version of the eponymous song from the wonderful Sue Raney. As David writes, "Never has Spring been more needed and the belief in it more important." The link to David's compilation is in the comments to this post.

As for Samuel Barber and Leroy Anderson, please see the following notes.

Barber Conducts Barber

The American composer Samuel Barber conducted three LPs worth of his own music for English Decca on December 11-13, 1950 - his later-suppressed Second Symphony, the Cello Concerto with Zara Nelsova, and his ballet suite, "Medea."

Years ago I transferred both the symphony and "Medea" for this blog. I wasn't happy with the sound of the symphony transfer, so I recently redid it in response to a request. Here is a link to the original post, where the download link is in the comments, as usual.

The "Medea" transfer is more recent, and didn't require a new transfer. But it did benefit from some remastering and sounds better than ever. Please go to the original post for more information and the link.

Leroy Anderson

Those of you who didn't plumb the fathomless depths of my St. Patrick's Day post may have missed the fact that I am offering remastered version of two notable Leroy Anderson records.

The first is a vintage Boston Pops/Arthur Fiedler compilation of works that Anderson wrote for that fine ensemble, including definitive performances of eight superb items, including "Sleigh Ride," "Fiddle Faddle" and two of my own favorites, "Serenata" and "Belle of the Ball." I added a bonus on the form of "The Syncopated Clock."

The second is Anderson's own recording of his "Irish Suite," which begins with a version of "Irish Washerwoman," a tune that was prominent in my "Let's Sing a Quasi-Irish Song with Buster" compilation.

Both of these are available via this post.

Sorry about the interruption in posting. I developed pneumonia and ended up in the hospital. Now I am back and feeling better.

Stay well, everyone!

Let's Sing a Quasi-Irish Song with Buster

And now, to mark the upcoming feast of St. Patrick, I present an Irish-themed compendium that has nothing to do with that good saint and very little to do with Ireland itself. While each selection is Irish-related in some way, it is usually the Irish or Irish music through the lens of American or English composers and performers - with the notable exception of the great Irish tenor John McCormack. Apropos of its varied ingredients, I am calling this collection "Buster's Irish Stew."

As usual, I'll present the 32 selections chronologically, reaching back to the early years of last century for the oldest specimens.

Peter Wyper

Our first number, an "Irish Jig," comes from 1909 and the Scottish accordionist Peter Wyper. He was supposedly the first accordionist to make records, so now you know who to blame.

The following year, two of the big stars of the early recording scene, the Americans Steve Porter and Billy Murray, combined for the vaudeville routine "Irish Wit," with a snappy tune sandwiching fast-paced ethnic repartee.

American banjo virtuoso Fred Van Eps is next with his 1911 record of "Irish Hearts." Van Eps was the father of jazz guitarist George Van Eps.

Fred Van Eps at the recording horn

Vaudevillian Ada Jones was last heard on this site in a German dialect number; on this 1911 record she has been transformed into an Irish lass, telling her "German dunce" boyfriend that "You Will Have to Sing an Irish Song" to have a chance with her. Albert Von Tilzer ("Take Me Out to the Ball Game") was the songwriter.

Billy Murray turns up again in 1912 with a tune called "If It Wasn't for the Irish and the Jews," reminding us that "without the Pats and Isidores you'd have no big department stores," among other benefits provided by these two ethnicities. Presumably the Victor company hoped to sell these platters in both Irish and Jewish neighborhoods, and the department stores run by Pat and Isidore.

Cigarette card from 1914

The great John McCormack makes the first of several appearances in this collection with the traditional song "Molly Brannigan." The recording dates from 1913, although this pressing comes from 1920.

Among his other accomplishments, the American songwriter and singer Chauncey Olcott wrote two enduring standards - "My Wild Irish Rose" and "When Irish Eyes are Smiling." In 1913, Olcott recorded the first named for Columbia.

Olcott was an polished vocalist but no John McCormack, who did his own version of "My Wild Irish Rose" for Victor in 1914. The song dates from 1899, when it was heard in the Broadway play A Romance of Athlone. Coincidentally, McCormack himself was from that Irish town.

One of Australian composer Percy Grainger's most famous compositions was his setting of the Irish reel "Molly on the Shore," dating from 1907. Originally for string quartet or string orchestra, Grainger later obligingly arranged it for orchestra, wind band, and violin and piano, missing an opportunity to capture the big kazoo-player market. In this 1916 recording, American violinist Maud Powell is heard with pianist Arthur Loesser, the half-brother of songwriter Frank Loesser.

Maud Powell in 1914

John McCormack returns with Chauncey Olcott's other big success, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," in a 1916 recording for Victrola. The orchestral accompaniment is led by the immensely prolific Victor staff conductor Rosario Bourdon.

Two years later, McCormack was in a New York studio with the less-familiar "My Irish Song of Songs," which name-checks all the familiar Irish tunes of the time. Josef Pasternack, another Victor music director, leads the band.

Arthur Pryor in 1920

We skip ahead to 1923 for a two-sided medley from Arthur Pryor's Band, "Reminiscences of Ireland." One of the tunes is "Irish Washerwoman," which will turn up twice more later in the playlist. The Pryor Band first became famous under the leadership of Arthur's father, Samuel. Arthur took over its leadership after his father's death. A trombone virtuoso, Arthur had been in Sousa's Band for 12 years, rising to become its assistant conductor.

Bartlett and Robertson

Ireland has been the source of inspiration for many composers, none more so than the English composer Sir Arnold Bax. Among his many works with an Irish theme is 1916's "Moy Mell (The Happy Plain)" for two pianos. Performing in this 1927 recording are the eminent wife and husband duo of Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson. The two were closely associated with Bax's music, although he did not compose this work for them - it was written for Myra Hess and Irene Scharrer.

One of the leading chamber ensembles of the day was the Flonzaley Quartet, who recorded an "Irish Reel" in 1927 for Victor. The arrangement is by second violinist Alfred Pochon. The other side of the record (not in the playlist) was Pochon's arrangement of the spiritual "Deep River" - much different from the Flonzaley's usual diet of Beethoven and Haydn.

The Flonzaley Quartet

Perhaps the best known (and most parodied) sentimental song in the repertory is "Mother Machree" by the well-known songwriters Chauncey Olcott, Ernest Ball and Rida Johnson Young. Again, this was an American song of theatrical origin, coming from the 1911 Broadway play Barry of Ballymore. John McCormack is heard in his second recording of the piece, dating from 1927.

Mother Machree song card, c1939

Albert Sammons by
Alexander Akerbladh

Grainger's "Molly on the Shore" was popular with violinists, but not all used his arrangement. In 1928, the superb English instrumentalist Albert Sammons recorded Fritz Kreisler's version, which Grainger reputedly hated. No accompanist is named on the label and I haven't able to discover who the pianist might be.

Also in 1928, John McCormack recorded the wrenching ballad "The Irish Emigrant," written in the mid-19th century by Lady Dufferin and George Barker. This is a remarkable record, surely the best of this group.

"The Irish Emigrant" cigarette card

Moving on to 1936, we have the lighter-hearted "Laughing Irish Eyes" from veteran American bandleader Johnny Johnson, with a pleasing vocal by Lee Johnson. The budget label Melotone records issued this disc.

English violist Watson Forbes recorded William Alwyn's "Two Folk Tunes" in 1940 with harpist Maria Korchinska. The composer contrasts a Norwegian tune with an Irish air. Forbes was a distinguished figure, but he is not note-perfect here.

Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears by Cecil Beaton

Last October I discussed John McCormack's recording of Yeats' "Down by the Salley Gardens" in the setting by Herbert Hughes. Benjamin Britten set the poem under the title "The Sally Gardens" in his first volume of Folk Song Arrangements. In this 1944 recording the composer accompanies Peter Pears.

Charlie Spivak

James Royce Shannon's "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral" was written for a 1914 Chauncey Olcott show, Shameen Dhu. It did well at the time in Olcott's recording, and its popularity was renewed when it was included in Bing Crosby's 1944 film Going My Way. The playlist has a relatively unfamiliar instrumental version from big-toned trumpeter Charlie Spivak and his band.

In 1945, Boyd Neel took his orchestra into Decca's West Hampstead Studios for our final version of "Molly on the Shore," in Grainger's arrangement for strings.

The next year, comic Morey Amsterdam (last discussed here for not having written "Rum and Coca-Cola") decided to revive an old vaudeville song, "With His Wonderful Irish Brogue," which dates back to at least 1918. This was for the small Crown label.

Fred Lowery

"My Wild Irish Rose" returns in a version from Fred Lowery, probably the most recorded and popular whistler of all time. A big-band veteran, Lowery would achieve his greatest hit with "The High and the Mighty" theme in 1954. This one has the same eerie quality that helped make "The High and the Mighty" a success.

It wouldn't be an Irish-themed collection without hearing from Bing Crosby. I've included one of his lesser-known songs, "My Girl's an Irish Girl," the flip side of "Galway Bay," a 1948 coupling. Victor Young leads the band.

John McCormack died in 1944, and in 1948 another Irish tenor, Michael O'Higgins, put out the tribute song "When McCormack Sang Mother Machree" on the small American Beauty Recordings label. O'Higgins was a music professor at the University of Dublin.

Glamorous Freddy Morgan

In 1949, Spike Jones wreaked his usual havoc with "MacNamara's Band," featuring a decidedly inebriated sounding "I. W. Harper and The Four Fifths" on vocals. (I. W. Harper was a then-popular bourbon.) I believe "Harper" is actually Freddy Morgan. The conceit here is that MacNamara heard Spike's records and decided to imitate his sound, at which point the Irish deported him.

At long last, we come to our first version of "The Irish Washerwoman," a traditional tune played throughout the British Isles. Here we have Leroy Anderson's arrangement from his Irish Suite, written for the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler. This recording dates from 1950. You can hear Anderson's own version of the Irish Suite via this post. I've newly remastered the sound both of that recording and its companion, a Fiedler collection of Leroy Anderson compositions.

The Pinetoppers

"The Irish Washerwoman" returns disguised as an "Irish Polka" in our next selection, dating from 1952. The artists were the country group The Pinetoppers, who were led by songwriter Vaughn Horton, the author of "Mule Skinner Blues," "Sugar Foot Rag" and "Mockin' Bird Hill," not to mention Louis Jordan's classic "Choo-Choo Ch'Boogie." The "Irish Polka" is attributed to "Paddy Hogan." My guess is Hogan was Horton under another name.

Perhaps fittingly, we close our collection with a song that has nothing whatsoever to do with Ireland or Irish music, but does lend its name to this collection. "English Muffins and Irish Stew" was a pop song by the well-known writers Moose Charlap and Bob Hilliard, here recorded by Brooklyn's Sylvia Syms. Unaccountably, it turns out to be a mock calypso!

The Cash Box, July 28, 1956

As usual with these collections, the raw material came from lossless needle drops found on Internet Archive and refurbished by me. The sound is quite good - even for the records that are now 100+ years old.

A pleasant St. Patrick's Day to all from your one-quarter Irish blogger!

The First Recordings of Paul Creston's Music

The American composer Paul Creston is not entirely neglected - his Second Symphony has been recorded several times - but he also is not a household name even in musical domiciles. This present LP, the first of his music, is a worthy testimonial to his impressive skills.

Creston (1906-85), who was almost entirely self-taught and did not become a full-time composer until 1932, somehow was able to gain notice in a relatively short time. An early advocate was fellow composer Henry Cowell. Soon his music was being programmed by the biggest batons of the day - Toscanini, Ormandy, Stokowski - as well as the lesser known Howard Mitchell, music director of Washington, D.C.'s National Symphony Orchestra.

Paul Creston

This Westminster LP, presented by request, is one of the relatively few from Mitchell's two decades at the National Symphony's helm. A cellist, Mitchell rose from the orchestra's ranks to succeed Hans Kindler as the chief conductor in 1949. He had a reputation as more of a fund-raiser and socialite than as a great conductor - the download includes a photo of him yucking it up with Dwight D. Eisenhower - but this particular record is quite well done.

Howard Mitchell

Mitchell was strongly committed to American music in general and Creston's music in particular. Not only was he the first to record Creston, in 1956 Mitchell and the National Symphony were to commission the composer's fifth symphony.

Creston's Symphony No. 2 dates from 1944 and the third symphony from 1950. Both are strong, characteristic works that alternate lyrical passages that may bring to mind Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2, with more forceful music which betrays a love for the early Stravinsky. The third symphony bears the title Three Mysteries, with the movements named "The Nativity," "The Crucifixion" and "The Resurrection." The music is not programmatic, however. For whatever reason, the title is mentioned nowhere on the record.

The recordings, made in the Holton-Arms School Auditorium in Washington, date from several days in December 1953, when the orchestra also recorded music by Copland, Shostakovich and Brahms (the violin concerto with Julian Olevsky). Westminster did not engage Mitchell again, but he was able to tape two albums for RCA Victor in 1957 - more Shostakovich and works by Morton Gould. In 1960 he backed Jaime Laredo in two concertos and embarked on a series of educational records, also for RCA.

I have had this particular record for at least 40 years. I remember buying it in an extremely hot antique store, and being excited to get it. Back then, very few records of 20th century American music were available. My excitement turned to disappointment, however, when I played the disc. It was riddled with pops and thumps that neither Creston nor Mitchell intended. These days most of the superfluous noise can be eradicated via software, with the remainder done by hand. As a result, Westminster's very good sonics now come through unimpaired.

The download includes a PDF of the August 1956 edition of High Fidelity magazine, which contains an article on LP recordings of American music, including Creston.

Harlan Leonard and His Rockets

Harlan Leonard

Back in the early 1970s, I became a tremendous jazz fan, an outgrowth of my youthful interest in swing bands such as that of Glenn Miller.

Among my biggest enthusiasms were the bands that came out of Kansas City. The most famous, and my favorite, was Count Basie, but I also listened to such ensembles as Andy Kirk and Jay McShann, and the earlier groups such as Bennie Moten, which spawned Basie and many other important musicians, including today's subject, tenor saxophonist Harlan Leonard.

I never did get around to listening to Leonard's records 50 years ago. Back then, recordings were not so easily acquired, especially on a budget, and I never come across a cheap copy of the RCA Vintage Series reissue of the sides that Leonard's band made for Bluebird in 1940.

Five decades later, a post on the JazzWax blog reminded me that I had wanted to hear that band, so as I often do in these cases, I looked for lossless needle drops on Internet Archive. There I found 13 of the approximately 20 songs that Leonard recorded during 1940, the only year he was in the studio. After remastering, they came out sounding very good, probably better than the RCA reissue - Vintage Series sonics often were not that vivid.

Members of the Harlan Leonard Band, circa 1940: Richmond Henderson (trombone,
standing), Jimmy Keith, Leonard, Darwin Jones, Henry Bridges (saxes), Myra Taylor
(vocals). Vocalist Ernie Williams leads the band.

As I mentioned, Leonard came out of the Moten band, going on to lead the Kansas City Skyrockets in 1932, then forming the Rockets in 1936. He gained enough notice that Bluebird had him come in to do sessions in January, March, July and November 1940, all in Chicago except for the March date, which was in New York. Unfortunately, the band's success was relatively short-lived. It broke up in 1945 and Leonard left the music business soon thereafter.

Leonard used excellent arrangers, with Tadd Dameron probably the best known these days. In this collection he is responsible for "Rock and Ride," "'400' Swing" and "A-La-Bridges." Trumpeter James Rose handled many of the other songs. Eddie Durham arranged Myra Taylor's vocal specialty, "My Pa Gave Me a Nickel," inspired by "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," Ella Fitzgerald's 1938 success with Chick Webb's band.

Despite Dameron's charts and the brief presence of Charlie Parker in the band (he left before the recording dates), there are no bop pre-echoes here. Leonard's ensemble is best seen as a precursor of the driving big-band proto-R&B that was soon to become so influential through the recordings of such bands as Lionel Hampton and Lucky Millinder.

The Rockets boasted no famous soloists, although tenor saxophonist Hank Bridges and trombonist Henry Beckett were highly accomplished. You can read more about them and the band in Leonard Feather's detailed notes from the Vintage Series reissue, included in the download. I never did acquire that album, but I found an image of its back cover that I've managed to make readable. It details the arrangers and soloists for most of these records.

While Harlan Leonard achieved some renown, he was not as fortunate as some of his Kansas City compatriots. He never had a hit, even though the Rockets were the first to record "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" (not included here). And Charlie Barnet later had a hit with their "Hairy Joe Jump" under the title "Southern Fried." Still and all, it was an exciting band, one that is well worth revisiting 80 years later.