Dancing with Hal McIntyre

The latest in our series of post-war dance bands is Hal McIntyre. Here Columbia invites you to a dance date with Hal and his band - apparently at another college prom, as with the previous bands in this series.

This one came out in 1950, just two years after Columbia introduced LPs, and when it was battling RCA's competing microgroove format, the 45-rpm single. So the Columbia marketing wizards were touting the advantages of the LP - for dance music this meant continuous music, so you needn't let go of your beloved even for a few seconds. "No interrruptions between numbers," the cover proclaims. In practice, however, what Columbia has done is to stitch together the normal complement of eight tunes with a few bars of snoozy celeste transition. Not exactly revolutionary.

Well, enough of the marketing and on to the music. Hal McIntyre's band was in effect a spin-off of the Glenn Miller organization. Hal, a Miller saxophonist, struck out on his own in 1941 with Miller's backing, and remained popular (or at least in business) into the 50s. But while a Miller spawn, the McIntyre band does not display the familiar Miller mannerisms, thankfully. The smooth arrangements put me in mind of the Claude Thornhill band, and the two vocal cuts from the excellent Sinatra disciple Frankie Lester are reminiscent of Ronnie Deauville, who has appeared here on several occasions. Good stuff.

I should mention that there is a bit of pitch instability on the first side, and a few unavoidable skips.

Two Sides of Juanita Hall

Juanita Hall is the third in our series featuring the original stars of South Pacific, following Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza.

This being a 10-inch record blog (or so it says above), my intent was to present only the recording depicted below, Juanita Hall and Choir in Stephen Foster Songs. But when I listened to it, I discovered that she appears on only one song - and I am not even positive that the singer is her. The style is very different from her other recordings. So I decided to also present the later 12-inch LP shown above, even though it has been reissued on CD.

Let's start with the older item first. As far as I can tell, these recordings were made for the old Varsity label in December 1939, and at least some of them were issued on 78s under the name of the Plantation Singers. As you might guess from the name of the group, the repertoire and the LP cover, these records are products of a very different time. They may make you cringe, but they are well done musically.

When the Foster songs were recorded, Hall was leading a Works Progress Administration choir, according to this biographical sketch. (The WPA was a Depression-era government effort that funded many arts programs.) She went on to develop a nighclub act, and then achieved a level of fame after being cast as Bloody Mary in South Pacific. At that time, record entrepreneur Joe Davis, who had taken over the Varsity catalogue, reissued the Foster songs on LP as being by Juanita Hall and Choir.

In the 1958 film version of South Pacific, Hall again appeared as Bloody Mary (although, strangely, her singing was dubbed by Muriel Smith). After the movie came out, Hall made a blues LP for Counterpoint, accompanied by a number of famous jazz musicians. The results are quite good, if a little studied. She is very much at home in the idiom - it's remarkable that she could be so accomplished in so many different styles.

Todd Rhodes Reappears

I wanted to post this ad along with the Todd Rhodes material last week, but I couldn't find it then. It promoted 1955 appearances by Rhodes and Sonny Stitt at the Loop Lounge, a downtown Cleveland jazz club.

Music will return soon - I've been out of town, and it's hard to carry a turntable on airplanes.

By the way, thanks to Lee Hartsfeld of Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else for touting this blog over at his place. Like me, Lee features a wildly eclectic assortment of tunes - and, as he says, you won't find them elsewhere.

Ezio Pinza Sings "Enchanted Melodies"

The second in our series of 10-inch LPs from the stars of the original production of South Pacific - this one featuring Ezio Pinza.

Pinza's big tune in the show was "Some Enchanted Evening," and Columbia makes reference to that in the LP's title without actually including the song. Instead this 1950 album resurrects some items that Pinza had recorded for Columbia at various times in the 1940s.

In truth, it makes an attractive if not enchanted program, and gives the singer ample opportunity to display all his best qualities.

The cover is by Alex Steinweiss, who thought that Pinza would look good with green skin and teeth.

Cyrano de Bergerac

José Ferrer could have made quite a career out of doing just this one role - Cyrano de Bergerac. He won a Tony Award on Broadway, followed by an Oscar for this filmed version in 1953. He also was nominated for an Emmy for a televised version.

This Capitol recording is primarily excerpts from the film, with linking narrative. There also is some incidental music by classical composer Paul Bowles.

This is in response to a request. I hope my friend filmpac doesn't mind that I appropriated his cover scans for this post!

R&B with Todd Rhodes

One of the first LPs ever presented here was an R&B album (by Steve Gibson), but I've neglected the genre since then. The reason is largely that 10-inch R&B LPs are scare (and very expensive). So I've decided to break out 12-inch LPs from a few of the R&B bands that were so popular after the war. These LPs in themselves can be rare and pricy - this original King issue by Detroit pianist and bandleader Todd Rhodes has auctioned as high as $900.

The LP collects singles Rhodes made for Vitacoustic, Sensation, and King from about 1949-53. Rhodes' basic style was post-Hampton riff blues, but he varied that with pretty ballads reminiscent of the kind of thing that Johnny Hodges did with Duke Eillington. It's a good band, although its tuning can be adventurous.

Rhodes also had vocalists, including the young LaVern Baker, but only Connee Allen is featured here, with an opus called Rocket 69. Double-entendre records were quite popular on the R&B charts back then.

The sound here is pretty good, although whoever did the LP transfer for King slapped on a bit of reverb.

I'll be back later on with Freddie Mitchell's band and perhaps some others.

Cash Box ad, November 1947

Mary Martin Sings for You

I recently saw the outstanding revival of South Pacific at New York's Lincoln Center. As a tribute to the original cast, I'm preparing posts featuring 10-inch LPs from the show's leads, Mary Martin, Ezio Pinza, and Juanita Hall.

Here is the first one, Mary Martin Sings for You, which was recorded while South Pacific was in rehearsals in February 1949. The dated sounding arrangements are by Broadway orchestrator Ben Ludlow.

This is quite a good record in better sound that Columbia usually offered. The cover is by Alex Steinweiss.

The first Mary Martin record featured here was quite popular, and I suspect this one will be as well.

NEW LINK (remastered)