More New Items, Reups and Remasters

Hopefully we have something for everyone today, with reups by request, remastered items, and a few things that have never appeared here before. The latter, transferred many years ago, have been rescued from the nether regions of my storage drives, and refurbished just for you.

As always, the links to these discs are in the comments to this post. These are all in Apple lossless format, unless noted.

NEW ITEMS

Elmer Bernstein - Movie and TV Themes: The great film composer conducting some of his best swaggering jazz themes, leading off with the tremendous "Rat Race." Played by a stellar ensemble of West Coast musicians (including George Roberts). Recorded in 1962.

Music from Million Dollar Movies - Boston Pops-Fiedler: A favorite from my long-gone youth, the impossibly glamorous sound of the Boston Pops with glittering film themes. Features Pops pianist Leo Litwin in the Warsaw Concerto and other such sub-Rachmaninoff fare.

REUPS

Rubbra - Symphony No. 5 (mp3): The first recording of an Edmund Rubbra symphony, with Sir John Barbirolli leading his Hallé Orchestra.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Blessed Assurance (remastered): Vivid recording of the wonderful gospel singer from the early 50s. (A little noisy.)

Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 (Vienna PO - Böhm) (remastered): An outstanding performance by the Vienna Philharmonic and Karl Böhm, a favorite conductor of this blogger. From 1953.

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (Vienna SO - Böhm) (remastered): Very fine performance and recording by Böhm and the other noted Vienna ensemble, with soloists from the Vienna State Opera. A few sonic burbles.

Desert Song and Roberta (mp3): Blog favorite Gordon MacRae in two potted operettas.

Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - Kiss Me Kate: Stafford and MacRae were wonderful individually, even more so together.

Johnny Desmond - Play Me Hearts and Flowers (remastered): 1953-55 Coral sides from the crooner, who was then adopting a more dramatic approach a la Eddie Fisher.

Bruno Walter's Second Eroica

Bruno Walter recorded Beethoven's Third Symphony three times for Columbia. The first two were with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, in January 1941 in Liederkranz Hall, and in March 1949 in the 30th Street Studio.

Most often heard these days is Walter's only stereo recording, with a West Coast ensemble dubbed the "Columbia Symphony" in January 1958. But this, the middle recording of the three, is exceptionally good as well. Walter was 73 at the time, and still showing the vigor that sometimes waned in his stereo recordings near the end of his life.

The New Yorkers were then an outstanding ensemble, and Columbia's sound is splendid. Plus the cover design is one of Alex Steinweiss' best.

This continues a series that started with Walter's New York recordings of the first and seventh symphonies. Next is the Pastorale with the Philadelphians.

Walter in 1942

George Roberts and the Bass Trombone

George Roberts, who died last month, was possibly the most influential bass trombonist in popular music, and was widely admired by classical instrumentalists as well.

After a stint in the Stan Kenton band, Roberts became an active West Coast free-lancer in the mid-50s. His unique abilities were soon recognized by legendary arranger Nelson Riddle, himself a trombonist. Roberts also was employed extensively by Henry Mancini and other arrangers, and he appears on thousands of records and soundtracks.

George Roberts

In his dissertation on Roberts (included in the download), Jonathan Yeager says that the trombonist "has often been recognized as defining the role of the bass trombone in popular music and setting new standards for technical refinement and expressive possibilities of the instrument." Yeager quotes symphonic trombonist Bob Hughes as saying Roberts "makes probably the best sound on the instrument. Focused with real core, warm, fruity, perfectly weighted with great intonation. His feel and style are wonderfully relaxed and flowing."

Frank DeVol

This 1959 LP, the first of two that Roberts recorded for Columbia, is a showcase for those qualities. The sympathetic backing is by Frank DeVol, an arranger-composer who was equally well known as a comic actor.

The program is standards, one original by Roberts ("Feelin' Low") and a few children's tunes, including "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" - or as the band vocal has it, "Next Time Take the Train." (FYI - this title was based on advertising slogan for the Southern Pacific railroad. See the ironic Depression-era photograph by Dorothea Lange below.)

I don't know why Roberts is posing with a terra cotta donkey on the cover, unless it is an oblique commentary on the mulish quality of the instrument. 

Note (July 2024): The excellent mono sound has now been enhanced by ambient stereo.

LINK

"Toward Los Angeles, California" by Dorothea Lange (1937)

New Items, Reups and Remasters

I don't always post what I transfer, sometimes because I don't feel like writing about the music or performers, sometimes for other reasons.

Here are a few such items presented without much commentary, followed by some reups and remastered versions, done by request.

As always, the links to all these discs are in the comments to this post.

NEW ITEMS

New Music from Old Erin, Vol. 1: This is an attractive LP of music by 20th century Irish composers Brian Boydell, Seoirse Bodley and Frederick May, from the Radio Eireann Symphony and Milan Horvat. If the back cover of the America Decca pressing is to be believed, it was a Deutsche Grammophon production. The record is from about 1958.

Miyoshi Umeki - Miyoshi: The warm and charming Japanese-American singer-actor Miyoshi Umeki made two LPs for Mercury in the 1950s. I transferred both for my own listening after her death in 2007. This 1959 album followed her Academy Award for Sayonara and Tony nomination for Flower Drum Song.

REUPS

Ella Mae Morse - Barrelhouse, Boogie and the Blues (remastered, lossless): The terrific swing-era boogie-woogie singer takes on mid-50s R&B with notable results. Also features one of the great album covers of the era.

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (mp3): Dennis Morgan and Lucille Norman in a soundtrack from a relatively obscure 1951 musical.

Vera Lynn - Sincerely Yours (new transfer, lossless): I had another go at this problematic recording from the beloved English singer. A little improved, but still some peak distortion.

Delius Conducted by Anthony Collins (remastered, lossless): "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" and "The Walk to the Paradise Gardens" in excellent 1953 renditions by Anthony Collins and the London Symphony.

Louis Kaufman in Vaughan Williams

I had a request for more recordings by the American violinist Louis Kaufman, who has appeared here before in the music of Delius, Barber and Robert Russell Bennett.

Louis Kaufman

Here is that artist in Vaughan Williams' seldom-heard "Concerto Accademico" of 1924-25. The work finds Kaufman in his usual driving form. The backing here is by the Radio Zurich Symphony under the Swiss conductor Clemens Dahinden, who made many records for this label, although usually with the Winterthur Symphony.

Victor Desarzens

The other side of this 10-inch LP from the 1950s also is of British music as performed by Swiss musicians. This time, it is Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, as assayed by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under its founder and long-time conductor, Victor Desarzens, who also often worked for Concert Hall Society and its offshoots.

Both performances and sound are worthy. These were probably the first recordings of these works outside the British Isles.

Jackie & Roy - Sing! Baby Sing!

My last post started a series devoted to recordings by the great vocal duo of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral. The response was excellent, so here is one of Jackie & Roy's records made for George Wein's Storyville label.

This LP came out in both 10-inch and 12-inch versions; my copy is of the larger format.

10-inch LP cover

The 10-incher comprised early 1955 recordings of a ensemble comprising Kral on piano, Barry Galbraith, guitar, Bill Crowe, bass, and Joe Morello, drums.The four additional tunes on the bigger format replace that group with Joe Rumoro, guitar, Mel Schmidt, bass, and Bob Tilles, drums.

By this time, Jackie & Roy had refined their act to a great degree, evident from the first song, a spirited version of "Sing Baby Sing" from the 1936 musical of the same name. Jackie follows this with a sensitive solo on George Handy's lugubrious "Forgetful," which David Allyn had introduced with Boyd Raeburn, I believe.

A real highlight of the album is the artists' version of "Season in the Sun." Jackie & Roy had begun championing the works of the then little-known writing team of Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman as far back as 1952. J&R's other Storyville LP include "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," the composers' greatest hit, in what may have been its first recording. "Season in the Sun" is a much different kind of song, but hardly inferior in quality, and it shows off the singers' remarkable rapport to perfection.

The artists circa 1955

As was the case with the Charlie Ventura record below, Kral contributed several compositions of his own. I particularly enjoy "Hook, Line and Snare," which features drummer Morello, who was about to join Dave Brubeck at the time of this recording session. It also shows off the singers' bop roots. But all the songs on this one are delightful - and the sound is very good.

I also want to present Jackie & Roy's album of songs by Andre Previn and Dory Langdon, but that will be on another day.

Charlie Ventura with Jackie & Roy and Buddy Stewart

I wanted to pay homage to the great jazz singer Jackie Cain, who died this week, by presenting a selection of her recordings, starting with some early efforts in the studio with Charlie Ventura.

Her four sides on this LP date from 1948, when Cain was 20. She had already formed what would become a lifelong duo with her soon-to-be husband, pianist and singer Roy Kral.

By the time Jackie & Roy joined him, Ventura had enjoyed a certain amount of success with Gene Krupa and as a combo leader recording for Black & White, Crystalette and, starting in 1947, National.

Jackie Cain and Charlie Ventura

Although this 10-inch LP from the early 50s appeared on Mercury's EmArcy label, its contents were drawn from National masters that Mercury had leased or acquired following the smaller label's demise.

The LP's back cover identifies a group comprising Charlie Shavers (tp), Bill Harris (tb), Ventura (ts), Ralph Burns (p), Bill DeArango (g), Chubby Jackson (b), and Dave Tough (d), but that lineup actually only appears on two songs - "Synthesis" and "Stop 'n' Go," from March 1947.

The ensemble for "Pennies for Heaven", from September 1947, is Kai Winding (tb), Ventura (ts), Lou Stein (p), Bob Carter (b), and Shelly Manne (d).

Kai Winding, Buddy Stewart,
Charlie Ventura

"Synthesis" and "Pennies from Heaven" feature the exceptional vocalist Buddy Stewart, who was equally adept at bop and ballads. Stewart died in a car accident in 1950 before reaching his considerable potential.

Jackie & Roy came on board for an October 1948 session that resulted in "Euphoria," "F.Y.I.," "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," and "Gone with the Wind," a solo feature for Cain, as well as the instrumental "If I Had You." The personnel for the 1948 dates is a little murky, but includes trombonist Bennie Green.

1949 ad

Ventura styled his band as playing "bop for the people," and several of these numbers are bop-flavored. Sometimes this involves adding "ba-doo-da-la-lee-bop" frills to an old tune like "Blowing Bubbles," and sometimes it is more substantive, such as in "Euphoria." Ventura had a swing-based style that was more like Illinois Jacquet than Charlie Parker, but he was a fluid player with a full tone and considerable energy.

Jackie & Roy's appearances with Ventura brought them to public notice, starting a highly regarded career lasting until Kral's 2002 death.

The sound from these National masters is reasonably good. More from Jackie & Roy to come.

Boots Mussulli, Conte Candoli, Jackie Cain, Charlie Ventura, Roy Kral