Friday, March 31, 2006
Lombardo, Germans, and Birds (OH MY!)
A long day. That there is STILL no toner in the copier at work (and many many training packets to copy), I got a three-hour (unpaid) break, so I decided to go into Loveland (and see the Lovely Lake where Lovers Love to Go) to check out the thrift-store action up there. No quantity, but I did manage to find 10 discs, 9 of which contain German music, and one Patti Page 78 I didn't have.
We'll start out this voyage with the 'A' side to the Lombardo Loveland 78 (an interesting story about that one, if you listen to the lyrics, apparently there is quite the colloquial intimate reference in Lovely Lake in Loveland....... if you speak Swedish....) the oft-recorded "Wedding Samba". Kenny Gardner does the vocal chores quite nicely on this take. I fail to understand, however, where the huge Brasilero contingent is on the Rio Grande, unless there is a Rio Grande in Brasil, in which case, my ponderings are moot. But, on first listen, it seems that Kenny is singing about southern Texas, and if he is, someone horribly failed geography 101. Shoot the lyricist.
Remember the kvetching I did about Decca shellac? Well, this here cut proves me wrong, although this song is probably from the same session as Wedding Samba, which would put it on the better black-label shellac. "Enjoy Yourself", again with Kenny Gardner on vocals, joined by the Lombardo Trio on backing vocals. Hedonism in the early 50s, anyone? Not the record I would play when the Reverend is over for supper....
This next recording is for the birds... literally!"Bird Calls with Story, Part 1", done by Howard R Garis and Edward Avis. Mr Garis tells the story of Uncle Wiggly and Billy the Squirrel, while Mr Avis adroitly performs whistled bird calls. I suspect that this was a childrens offering, but Columbia in the blue-label acoustic era made no indication of a 'juvenile' series. There is a little bit of artifacting on this disc, but you can plainly hear the reverberation from the studio walls (a bit on the hard side) and even some of the recording machinery. I suspect this was recorded in the late teens.
Finally, we continue the bird motif with a very interesting recording from Columbia, "Waldeslust", which roughly translates to "Call of the Forest", or something like that. Any of you who are better at German than I am, please correct mein malgespracht Deutch. Vielen Dank, meinen Damen und Herren (und lieben Kinder). Harry Steiner's Parlophon Orchestra & Choir perform this one. It is interesting because even though the label (US Columbia Vita-Tonal green Ethnic series) SAYS "Electrical Process", the vocals sure sound like they were singing into a horn! Needless to say, this was a challenge to re-master! The birdsong and some of the other music sound electrically recorded, so this may have been a case of an overdub of an acoustical track onto an electrical recording.
What the heck, I'll put on the other side as well... "Der Soldat hat ein Sabel", or "The Soldier has a Saber". This time, Herr Steiner's orchestra backs up the Saxophone Orchester Dobbri (mit gesang). My guess would be that this would have been very early on in the German Patriotic Campaign of the early 1930s, so this recording may have some darker overtones of things to come. Again with parts of this sounding as if it were recorded acoustically and then laid onto an electrical recording. Both sides do say on the label that this is an imported recording...
As always, right-click on the link to download & enjoy!
We'll start out this voyage with the 'A' side to the Lombardo Loveland 78 (an interesting story about that one, if you listen to the lyrics, apparently there is quite the colloquial intimate reference in Lovely Lake in Loveland....... if you speak Swedish....) the oft-recorded "Wedding Samba". Kenny Gardner does the vocal chores quite nicely on this take. I fail to understand, however, where the huge Brasilero contingent is on the Rio Grande, unless there is a Rio Grande in Brasil, in which case, my ponderings are moot. But, on first listen, it seems that Kenny is singing about southern Texas, and if he is, someone horribly failed geography 101. Shoot the lyricist.
Remember the kvetching I did about Decca shellac? Well, this here cut proves me wrong, although this song is probably from the same session as Wedding Samba, which would put it on the better black-label shellac. "Enjoy Yourself", again with Kenny Gardner on vocals, joined by the Lombardo Trio on backing vocals. Hedonism in the early 50s, anyone? Not the record I would play when the Reverend is over for supper....
This next recording is for the birds... literally!"Bird Calls with Story, Part 1", done by Howard R Garis and Edward Avis. Mr Garis tells the story of Uncle Wiggly and Billy the Squirrel, while Mr Avis adroitly performs whistled bird calls. I suspect that this was a childrens offering, but Columbia in the blue-label acoustic era made no indication of a 'juvenile' series. There is a little bit of artifacting on this disc, but you can plainly hear the reverberation from the studio walls (a bit on the hard side) and even some of the recording machinery. I suspect this was recorded in the late teens.
Finally, we continue the bird motif with a very interesting recording from Columbia, "Waldeslust", which roughly translates to "Call of the Forest", or something like that. Any of you who are better at German than I am, please correct mein malgespracht Deutch. Vielen Dank, meinen Damen und Herren (und lieben Kinder). Harry Steiner's Parlophon Orchestra & Choir perform this one. It is interesting because even though the label (US Columbia Vita-Tonal green Ethnic series) SAYS "Electrical Process", the vocals sure sound like they were singing into a horn! Needless to say, this was a challenge to re-master! The birdsong and some of the other music sound electrically recorded, so this may have been a case of an overdub of an acoustical track onto an electrical recording.
What the heck, I'll put on the other side as well... "Der Soldat hat ein Sabel", or "The Soldier has a Saber". This time, Herr Steiner's orchestra backs up the Saxophone Orchester Dobbri (mit gesang). My guess would be that this would have been very early on in the German Patriotic Campaign of the early 1930s, so this recording may have some darker overtones of things to come. Again with parts of this sounding as if it were recorded acoustically and then laid onto an electrical recording. Both sides do say on the label that this is an imported recording...
As always, right-click on the link to download & enjoy!
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Thursday's posting and stupidity by your host...
OK, I really blew this...
If anyone has the oringinal text to this post, which I STUPIDLY overwrote, please put it in the comments bin so I can recreate it??
I have the tunes, but all of the ancillary info is PFUI.
"Cut Yourself A Piece of Cake" by Billy Jones & Ernest Hare
Billy Jones & Ernest Hare on a Columbia acoustic recording from the very early 20s... this showed their style and why they became famous as "The Happiness Boys". Their later recordings were on Brunswick.
"Lola Lo" by Joseph C Smith & his Orchestra
A Nice little pepster by Mr Smith on a Victor acoustical recording from the early 20s.
"Sailing On" by Ben Black & his Orchestra
A Victor electrical recording... this one is a bit shrill, and I'll re-master it (I promise) to get the artifacting out. This one will have a theme familiar to anyone even remotely classical trained.
Sorry about the brief commets, but I really screwed the pooch in overwriting instead of creating-new... it's late and I need to go to bed.
If anyone has the oringinal text to this post, which I STUPIDLY overwrote, please put it in the comments bin so I can recreate it??
I have the tunes, but all of the ancillary info is PFUI.
"Cut Yourself A Piece of Cake" by Billy Jones & Ernest Hare
Billy Jones & Ernest Hare on a Columbia acoustic recording from the very early 20s... this showed their style and why they became famous as "The Happiness Boys". Their later recordings were on Brunswick.
"Lola Lo" by Joseph C Smith & his Orchestra
A Nice little pepster by Mr Smith on a Victor acoustical recording from the early 20s.
"Sailing On" by Ben Black & his Orchestra
A Victor electrical recording... this one is a bit shrill, and I'll re-master it (I promise) to get the artifacting out. This one will have a theme familiar to anyone even remotely classical trained.
Sorry about the brief commets, but I really screwed the pooch in overwriting instead of creating-new... it's late and I need to go to bed.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Some more for a spring evening
I'm slowly but surely going thru the thrift-store bonanza, donig 4-6 sides a day when I'm not working. Since I *have* been working today (and tomorrow and Thursday), not much progress has been made on the stacks, but I have a few already done I can share wit'cha.
We'll start off with a side with some local flavor: "There's A Lovely Lake In Loveland". Loveland, CO, is about 90 minutes north of me, and, yes, Virginia, there's a lake in the center (or centre) of town. Not very big, but a lake, nonetheless. Must have been some kind of inspiration to the songwriter, as Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians do a nice job with this waltz. Kenny Gardner does a nice job with the vocals, along with the Lombardo Quartet. The recording is on Decca, and is definately from the late 40s.
We venture from Colorado to early 1920s Cuba with a recording by Orquestra Max Dolin: "La Golondrina". This Victor acoustic recording is fairly commonplace amongst collectors (I have at least 3 copies of it now), but I find that it is interesting for... well... the most melodic use of slide whistle in a waltz. This was part of Victor's
'Ethnic' series, as the catalogue number is in the 70000 series, as opposed to the normal 10000 series for their 'un-ethnic' recordings.
We conclude with another journey to Hawaii, this time on a Decca electrical recording, Ray Kinney singing with Dick McIntyre & His Harmony Hawaiians: "Farewell Malihini". The recording is a bit noisy in places, but as with most pre WW-2 Decca blue-label discs, the quality of the shellac is atrocious, making the restoration a challenge. The song is beautifully sad, though, and you can hear some very nice Hawaiian steel guitar work in this one as well. The other side of the 78 is equally as poingant, I may post it in the near future... don't want to make you too depressed in one sitting. :)
As always, right-click on the link to download & enjoy!
We'll start off with a side with some local flavor: "There's A Lovely Lake In Loveland". Loveland, CO, is about 90 minutes north of me, and, yes, Virginia, there's a lake in the center (or centre) of town. Not very big, but a lake, nonetheless. Must have been some kind of inspiration to the songwriter, as Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians do a nice job with this waltz. Kenny Gardner does a nice job with the vocals, along with the Lombardo Quartet. The recording is on Decca, and is definately from the late 40s.
We venture from Colorado to early 1920s Cuba with a recording by Orquestra Max Dolin: "La Golondrina". This Victor acoustic recording is fairly commonplace amongst collectors (I have at least 3 copies of it now), but I find that it is interesting for... well... the most melodic use of slide whistle in a waltz. This was part of Victor's
'Ethnic' series, as the catalogue number is in the 70000 series, as opposed to the normal 10000 series for their 'un-ethnic' recordings.
We conclude with another journey to Hawaii, this time on a Decca electrical recording, Ray Kinney singing with Dick McIntyre & His Harmony Hawaiians: "Farewell Malihini". The recording is a bit noisy in places, but as with most pre WW-2 Decca blue-label discs, the quality of the shellac is atrocious, making the restoration a challenge. The song is beautifully sad, though, and you can hear some very nice Hawaiian steel guitar work in this one as well. The other side of the 78 is equally as poingant, I may post it in the near future... don't want to make you too depressed in one sitting. :)
As always, right-click on the link to download & enjoy!
Sunday, March 26, 2006
A couple to get you started
Thanks to Lee's Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else blog, I have been prodded to share a few of my transfer efforts.
First up is a nice Hawaiian trio of Louise, Ferrera and Greenus with "My Hawaii (You're Calling Me)". This is on a Columbia acoustically recorded 78, and has gone thru the Club Impaler restoration process (to be described in a later blog). The three instruments came out really well in this recording, and you can feel the relaxed aura of Hawaii in the early 1920s.
Next up, an electrical recording of a Scottish singer, Will Fyffe. Victor had Sir Harry Lauder on their records, so Columbia needed a Scottish singer as well, since they were great competitors, or so history relates it. "Ye Can Come And See The Baby" is done in the same style as Sir Harry would have done, but with the electrical process, sounds soooo much better. This would have been recorded in the late 20s.
Finally, we return to the acoustical era for what would be known as a "Parlour Recording", basically a prelude to "light Classical" music: Prince's Orchestra performing "The Trailing Arbitus". Not to be confused with The Performer Formerly Known As The Performer Formerly Known As Prince of modern day, this Prince recorded extensively with his band and orchestra for the Columbia Graphophone Company. Recorded in the late teens or early twenties, this is another nice relaxation piece.
As always, right-click on the link to download & enjoy!
First up is a nice Hawaiian trio of Louise, Ferrera and Greenus with "My Hawaii (You're Calling Me)". This is on a Columbia acoustically recorded 78, and has gone thru the Club Impaler restoration process (to be described in a later blog). The three instruments came out really well in this recording, and you can feel the relaxed aura of Hawaii in the early 1920s.
Next up, an electrical recording of a Scottish singer, Will Fyffe. Victor had Sir Harry Lauder on their records, so Columbia needed a Scottish singer as well, since they were great competitors, or so history relates it. "Ye Can Come And See The Baby" is done in the same style as Sir Harry would have done, but with the electrical process, sounds soooo much better. This would have been recorded in the late 20s.
Finally, we return to the acoustical era for what would be known as a "Parlour Recording", basically a prelude to "light Classical" music: Prince's Orchestra performing "The Trailing Arbitus". Not to be confused with The Performer Formerly Known As The Performer Formerly Known As Prince of modern day, this Prince recorded extensively with his band and orchestra for the Columbia Graphophone Company. Recorded in the late teens or early twenties, this is another nice relaxation piece.
As always, right-click on the link to download & enjoy!
