Sunday, June 04, 2006
Acoustic Tunes for June
Well, now that the Memorial Day rigamarole is over, we can settle down into a summer (OK... late spring) filled with shellac-ical wonderment!
The temps in Colorado have been more summer-like than spring-like, so any time in the studio is limited (no air-conditioning), but I am managing to get a few encodes done...
We begin with the comedic pair of Furman & Nash, and their offering:Hey, You Want Any Codfish? This is from the reverse side of an earlier post of Jones & Hare off of an acoustic Columbia
disc. The scene is basically this: street vendors came through the streets of the city so that the housewife could get supplies, instead of having to go out to do marketing. Fruits, vegetables, meats, milk & cheese, even ice was available on an almost daily basis. Furman & Nash were one of the many Vaudeville teams that recorded some of their material... not as famous now as Jones & Hare, but still fun.
We'll go to Cuba for the next one, from the Orquestra de Max Dolin. Si Ilego a Besarte (Dame un Beso) is another little listenable treat for the parlor Gramophone. From an acoustic Victor, the sounds of this turn-of-the-century Cuban Orquestra are sure to please.
We'll continue this acoustic odyssey with another selection from Prince's Orchestra: La Paloma. Again, good material for the parlour on a summer evening. Tunes like this were great for sitting around, having tea and cakes on the screen-porch, the era equivalent of chillin' on the front steps of today... but much less harried!
Crossing oceans, let's hear the trio of Louise, Ferrera, and Greenus playing O Sole Mio. Hawaiian guitars playing a Neopolitan song... it does work, and I believe that this was one of Peter Ferrera's more popular early recordings for Columbia.
We did some whistling records a while back, and on the first incarnation of the Shellac Shanty (now long gone but archived somewhere, I'm sure) there were some more whistling records. This one is kind of interesting, it is the Cribiribin Waltz, as whistled by one Guido Gialdini, and recorded for posterity on a Victor acoustic disc. This record had some bad groove damage in the first 30 seconds or so, but I think I got most of what I could out of it... further on in the record, it plays quite nicely, especially after CoolEdit did its' thing. The orchestra is uncredited, unfortunately...
On to the banjo... and this is not a Fred Van Eps record! This is the A-side to the whistling record just mentioned, and the banjo is plucked and strummed quite nicely by one F. J. Bacon (with uncredited piano accompaniment). The tune is the West Lawn Polka, and it doesn't sound too much like any polka I have heard! When I was recording this into the computer, it was interesting hearing the banjo being played at 60% speed, almost sounded like a classical guitar... it gives quite an insight into fingering technique for the banjo... and this recording has a lot of very nice technical playing.
I'm working on some more for you in the jazz vein, so I'll leave you with these for the parlour for now. Keep watching this space and feeding back some feedback, and I'll keep posting the discs!
Blessed summer!
the Impaler
The temps in Colorado have been more summer-like than spring-like, so any time in the studio is limited (no air-conditioning), but I am managing to get a few encodes done...
We begin with the comedic pair of Furman & Nash, and their offering:Hey, You Want Any Codfish? This is from the reverse side of an earlier post of Jones & Hare off of an acoustic Columbia
disc. The scene is basically this: street vendors came through the streets of the city so that the housewife could get supplies, instead of having to go out to do marketing. Fruits, vegetables, meats, milk & cheese, even ice was available on an almost daily basis. Furman & Nash were one of the many Vaudeville teams that recorded some of their material... not as famous now as Jones & Hare, but still fun.
We'll go to Cuba for the next one, from the Orquestra de Max Dolin. Si Ilego a Besarte (Dame un Beso) is another little listenable treat for the parlor Gramophone. From an acoustic Victor, the sounds of this turn-of-the-century Cuban Orquestra are sure to please.
We'll continue this acoustic odyssey with another selection from Prince's Orchestra: La Paloma. Again, good material for the parlour on a summer evening. Tunes like this were great for sitting around, having tea and cakes on the screen-porch, the era equivalent of chillin' on the front steps of today... but much less harried!
Crossing oceans, let's hear the trio of Louise, Ferrera, and Greenus playing O Sole Mio. Hawaiian guitars playing a Neopolitan song... it does work, and I believe that this was one of Peter Ferrera's more popular early recordings for Columbia.
We did some whistling records a while back, and on the first incarnation of the Shellac Shanty (now long gone but archived somewhere, I'm sure) there were some more whistling records. This one is kind of interesting, it is the Cribiribin Waltz, as whistled by one Guido Gialdini, and recorded for posterity on a Victor acoustic disc. This record had some bad groove damage in the first 30 seconds or so, but I think I got most of what I could out of it... further on in the record, it plays quite nicely, especially after CoolEdit did its' thing. The orchestra is uncredited, unfortunately...
On to the banjo... and this is not a Fred Van Eps record! This is the A-side to the whistling record just mentioned, and the banjo is plucked and strummed quite nicely by one F. J. Bacon (with uncredited piano accompaniment). The tune is the West Lawn Polka, and it doesn't sound too much like any polka I have heard! When I was recording this into the computer, it was interesting hearing the banjo being played at 60% speed, almost sounded like a classical guitar... it gives quite an insight into fingering technique for the banjo... and this recording has a lot of very nice technical playing.
I'm working on some more for you in the jazz vein, so I'll leave you with these for the parlour for now. Keep watching this space and feeding back some feedback, and I'll keep posting the discs!
Blessed summer!
the Impaler
