Christmas in Boys Town

An actual 10-inch LP for you today, an early one with the Boys Town Choir that was among Capitol's offerings for the 1949 holiday season.

At that time, Boys Town was a very well known American institution, founded by Rev. Edward Flanagan in 1917, and made famous by two fictional Boys Town films, with Spencer Tracy taking the part of  Father Flanagan. The orphanage for boys was and is near Omaha, Nebraska.

The choir itself is charming in this surprisingly diverse program, although the older boys are distinctly thin sounding, as is often the case with ensembles such as these. The recording is not one of Capitol's best, but serviceable enough.

Father Flanagan had died by the time this record came out, which is nowhere mentioned on the sleeve. The music director for the record was Rev. Francis Schmidt.

More Hymns from Virgil Fox

I thought I would follow up my earlier Virgil Fox posts with another outstanding early collection from the famed virtuoso organist.

This set of great Protestant hymns is a sequel to his A Treasury of Hymns, and is in some ways preferable because it was done on pipe organ rather than an electronic instrument.

These 1957 recordings are from New York's Riverside Church, Fox's own territory, and its Aeolian-Skinner organ.

Promotional flyer from 1957

No recording can convey the physically palpable sound of a great pipe organ, particularly a vinyl pressing with very long sides, which necessarily restrict low frequencies. Nonetheless, this example is fairly successful, giving a good impression of the instrument, if without the gut-shaking deepest tones. I have used an ambient stereo effect to bring out the resonance of the recording space.

This repertoire is highly suited to the holidays, at least for this blogger, being familiar, comforting and inspiring. Hope you enjoy these simple gifts of the season.

All my earlier Fox shares are still available - links are in the comments.

Henri Tomasi and Chistmas in Provence

This delightful music was unknown to me until I acquired the LP at hand, a few years ago. The music is the work of Henri Tomasi, a French composer-conductor of Corsican decent who was a contemporary and associate of Milhaud, Honegger and Poulenc, Like them, his music is highly accessible; unlike them, it is little heard today.

Henri Tomasi

The album, titled Noël en Provence, includes two Christmas-themed choral-vocal works. Side one is devoted to a "Divertissement Pastoral," written for a Mass of the Nativity at the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Frigolet, and setting texts by Alphonse Daudet, Jean Giono, Marie Mauron, Frédéric Mistal and Marcel Pagnol. Side two contains "Douze Noëls de Saboly," on texts by the 17th century Provençal poet Nicolas Saboly.

The performances under the direction of Jacques Jouineau are suitably glowing and sympathetic. The sound combines clarity, warmth and impact in a way that is hard to find in a 21st century recording.

This is perfect for all who have a taste for little-known holiday music. The recording dates from 1963; my French pressing is from a few years later.

Cy Coleman Jazz Trio, Plus Reups

The main event today is an upload of the Cy Coleman Jazz Trio's Why Try to Change Me Now LP from 1959, but this post also includes several remastered reups, one of which inspired the new Coleman transfer.

First, the fresh item. When I wrote about Coleman's Benida LP a while back, I ventured the opinion that Coleman, while a virtuoso, was not a jazz pianist. But here, as a riposte, he is presented with a "jazz" tag and in the company of two certified jazz artists, bassist Aaron Bell and drummer Ed Thigpen.

And in fact the trio does produce something very like jazz, although it is impossible to know how much of the notes you hear were worked out in advance - Coleman was, after all, a well known composer. On the plus side, the group swings effortlessly; on the minus, the pianist relies far too much on the locked hands approach for my taste.

Cy Coleman

The program is largely standards, including Coleman's title song, associated with Sinatra' superb recording (which, I might note gratuitously, is almost the same song as another Frank specialty, "Everything Happens to Me," written by another blog favorite, Matt Dennis, way back in 1940).

If it seems like I am down on Coleman, let me add that I am an admirer both of his instrumental and compositional skills. To prove it, I am also uploading one of his earliest records on my long-neglected singles blog, where he performs with a vocal group called the Cytones. (He should have had then all wear masks of his face and called them the Cyclones.)

The sound here is good, but highly directional early stereo, with the piano on the left and rhythm right. My pressing is clean, except for some surface noise on the title tune.

Now on to the reups, the first of which inspired the new Coleman post.

Night Out Music for Stay-at-Homes. This is a Decca compilation from the 1950s presenting unusual items from Coleman (his first record), Matt Dennis, Erroll Garner, Billy Taylor, and Nat King Cole.

Southern Gospel on RCA. A compilation of singles issued by RCA Victor in 1956-57, with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet, the Statesmen Quartet with Hovie Lister, Stuart Hamblen, George Beverly Shea, and the Johnson Family Singers.

Blackwood Brothers - Own Label 78s. I also went ahead and revisited my post of a few records that the Blackwoods issued on their own label circa 1948 and 1952, which appears on my singles blog. This includes the tremendous "Working on the Building."

Torch Song. This early M-G-M LP presents music from the 1953 Joan Crawford vehicle Torch Song, with singer India Adams dubbing Crawford's vocals and pianist-composer Walter Gross doubling for Michael Wilding's blind pianist, whose unselfish love redeemed La Crawford's temperamental diva character. Touching!

The reup links can be found in via the comments to the original posts linked above, or go to the comments to this post.

Marc Blitzstein Presents His Theatre Compositions

This post of Marc Blitzstein discussing his theatre works and presenting excerpts with some well-known performers was requested by a reader following my recent reupload of an obscure Blitzstein LP of recordings from 1946.

First cover

This particular album comes from May 1956, and was the first in a series originally on Westminister’s Spoken Arts imprint intended to inaugurate a Distinguished Composers Series.

At the time, Blitzstein was to have less than eight years to live, and never achieved a success to rival his earlier works, the politically committed musical plays The Cradle Will Rock and No for An Answer, and the opera Regina, adapted from Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, all of which are discussed and excerpted here.

The composer was nonetheless an important figure in the American musical theatre, one who had a strong effect on other luminaries. When you hear his voice on this record, you may be struck (as I was) with the similarity of his presentation with the familiar eloquence and urbanity of Leonard Bernstein. That is probably not a coincidence. Bernstein was much taken with Blitzstein, organizing and leading a production of The Cradle Will Rock when the younger artist was still an undergraduate at Harvard.

Orson Welles, similarly, was highly impressed by Blitzstein when Welles was directing The Cradle Will Rock as a precocious 22 year old. Welles recalled many years later, “When he came into the room, the lights got brighter . . . He was an engine, a rocket directed in one direction which was his opera – which he almost believed had only to be performed to start the Revolution.”

The Cradle Will Rock production photo, with Blitzstein at the piano,
Howard Da Silva and Olive Stanton

While The Cradle Will Rock did not spark a second American Revolution, it was widely and perhaps surprisingly well received and reviewed despite the radical politics it espoused. Developed through the Depression-era Federal Theatre Project, the play never appeared under its auspices. The conjunction of the play’s leftist views and significant labor unrest at the time of its impending premiere led the government to declare a moratorium on new theatre productions that was plainly aimed at shutting down The Cradle Will Rock.

As clumsy censorship often does, the effect was to turn the play’s production into a cause célèbre that Blitzstein, Welles and producer John Houseman turned to their advantage in ways both ingenious and fortuitous. The composer tells the tale of its unusual premiere on this record. The unconventional staging that resulted, with Blitzstein on stage at the piano and the performers appearing from the audience, was highly influential.

This is not to say that the music itself is without precedent. You will not get very far into Blitzstein’s oeuvre without the names Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht coming to mind, and indeed today Blitzstein is best remembered for his translation and adaptation of the Weill-Brecht version of The Threepenny Opera. The composer himself was at pains to say that his works had many other influences than the expressionists, and it is only fair to observe that his songs have their own powerful atmosphere. On this record, “Francie” is highly affecting and even “Penny Candy,” while not in the least to my taste, is decidedly well done.

Evelyn Lear

A few words about the performers on this record.

The well-known soprano Evelyn Lear made her recording debut on this record. In 1955, newly graduated from Juilliard, she created the role of Nina in Blitzstein's Reuben Reuben. George Gaynes also was in the cast of that failed musical, among many other Broadway productions and, in later years, television shows.

Brenda Lewis and Blitzstein

Brenda Lewis was another distinguished soprano who first had a success on Broadway as Birdie in the original 1949 production of Regina. She sings “Birdie’s Aria” here. Lewis later moved on to the title role, assuming it in the complete 1958 recording of the work.

Joshua Shelley, blacklisted by the movie studios in the early 1950s, appeared on stage until resuming a Hollywood career in the 1970s.

Theatre and club performer Jane Connell appeared in Blitzstein’s production of The Threepenny Opera.

Alvin Epstein had a very long and distinguished career in the theatre as actor and director. At about the time of this recording, he was on Broadway with Orson Welles in King Lear.

In addition to the transfer of this Blitzstein record, I have included links to my remastered version of the cast recording of No for An Answer. This comes from an LP reissue that suffered from substandard sound, which I have done my best to rectify. The original transfer predates this blog.

Mendelssohn Special with Kletzki, Szell, Barbirolli, Borries and Celibidache

Rummaging through my collection a while back, I came across several interesting discs with the music of Felix Mendelssohn, and decided to transfer them for this post, and possibly one more to come.

Here are the details of today’s offering. The sound quality varies, but is never less than good.

Symphony No. 3 (Israel Philharmonic/Paul Kletzki). This particular record was among the first to be made by the orchestra, dating from April/May 1954. The download includes scans of an eight-page commemorative booklet included in the American Angel release. Kletzki leads a good performance, although the coda, marked Allegro maestoso assai, is more maestoso than allegro.

Symphony No. 4 (Hallé Orchestra/John Barbirolli) and Violin Concerto (Siegfried Borries; Berlin Philharmonic/Sergiu Celibidache). This coupling on RCA Victor’s Bluebird budget label combined Manchester and Berlin sessions that both transpired in February 1948. Barbirolli elicits a spruce performance from the resuscitated Hallé, which remained underpowered in the strings five years after the conductor revived its fortunes. Siegfried Borries, then the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, offers an assured reading of the concerto, with an excellent accompaniment led by Celibidache during his postwar years as the orchestra’s conductor.

Symphony No. 4 (Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell) and Music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Philharmonic-Symphony of New York/Szell). The fine Cleveland performance is from November 1947 dates in Severance Hall; the terrific New York rendition of the Midsummer Night’s Dream music is from January 1951 and Columbia’s 30th Street studio. I don’t like making comparisons, but for me the New York band of this period was second to none. This particular coupling had two different covers, both of which are in the download along with images from a 78 set and 10-inch LP.

If there is interest, I will transfer Mendelssohn overtures from Adrian Boult and Midsummer Night’s Dream excerpts from Sargent and Old Vic forces including Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Stanley Holloway.

George Szell blisses out to a 1951 recording session playback

Dinah Shore on Columbia

Dinah Shore has often graced this blog, but I have never devoted a post solely to her single output for the Columbia label from 1946-50. This post starts with an early 10-inch LP descriptively titled Dinah Shore Sings, and continues with 14 other sides transferred from 78s in my collection.

1946 magazine cover

Shore was among the favorite female vocalists of the era, and this set shows why – while technically she is not the most accomplished of singers, she was among the warmest, sharing honors with Perry Como among the males.

The collection provides a good survey of her recorded repertoire of the time, especially current show tunes from hits such as Kiss Me, Kate (she is too sincere for “Always True to You in My Fashion” but just right for “So in Love”) and songs from films such as The Time, the Place and the Girl (the excellent “A Rainy Night in Rio” and “Through a Thousand Dreams” from Dietz and Schwartz) and The Perils of Pauline (“Poppa, Don’t Preach to Me” from Frank Loesser).

Columbia also liked to pair her with other singers. This blog has previously featured her duo LP with Buddy Clark, and she also recorded with Doris Day and Jack Smith. Perhaps inspired by Capitol’s success with Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely, the label sent her to the studios with a parade of country artists, including Gene Autry and George Morgan. This collection includes two sides with the relatively obscure Dusty Walker, who was on radio and television in Southern California and on the Columbia artist rolls for a few years. It also has her sole outing backed by Western swing artist Spade Cooley, a good if predictable song called “Heartaches, Sadness and Tears,” but Dinah just can’t evoke the desolate quality it needs.

Columbia favored Shore with a pre-LP album called Torch Songs in 1947, with the type of commercial blues songs she featured early in her career, when she was on radio’s "Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street.” I only have one of the two 78s in the set (a coupling of “St. Louis Blues” and “Tess’s Torch Song”), but have included it in the download along with scans of the album artwork, including the delightful inside spread shown below (click to enlarge).

The sound on all these items is quite good.

Mozart Concertos from Rosina Lhévinne

I thought I might follow up the Ania Dorfmann and Maryla Jonas posts with a selection of the recordings of another lesser-known woman pianist, Rosina Lhévinne.

Lhévinne made very few appearances in the recording studio and was principally known in her lifetime for being a noted piano teacher, with pupils including Van Cliburn and John Browning, as well as for being the wife of pianist Josef Lhévinne. The few items that were captured, however, show her to be a first-rate artist.

Rosina Bessie was a promising piano student in Moscow when she met Josef Lhévinne, marrying him soon after her 1898 graduation from the Conservatory, and quickly abandoning any career as a solo performer, although she did engage in duo-piano works with Josef. The pair came to the US following the World War, and they joined the Juilliard faculty several years later. Josef died in 1944.

The Lhévinnes only made two recordings together, to my knowledge – Debussy’s “Fêtes” and a Mozart sonata, both in the 1930s.

Today’s LPs include the first record that Rosina made following Josef’s death, a November 1947 rendition of Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos K.242, where she is joined by the duo-pianists Vitya Vronsky and Victor Babin, and accompanied by the Little Orchestra Society and conductor Thomas Scherman, in a recording from Liederkranz Hall. The transfer is from an early Columbia LP that also includes Vronsky and Babin in a showy version of Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos K.365 with the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra and Dimitri Mitropoulos. The latter dates from September 1945. The sound on both is good. Strangely, Columbia bills Rosina Lhévinne only as “Lhévinne” on the LP cover.

Jean Morel

Rosina is heard to best advantage, however, in today’s second album, recorded in May 1960 to mark her 80th birthday. This is a superior account of Mozart’s Concerto No. 21 in which she sounds just as youthful as the students in the accompanying Juilliard Orchestra (I suspect the ensemble also included faculty), led by Jean Morel, another famed teacher. (Vronsky and Babin also were instructors, and were on the Cleveland Institute of Music faculty for many years – Babin was the director of the school.) The sound from Columbia’s 30th Street Studio is as vibrant as the artistry. That is Josef Lhévinne’s portrait over Rosina’s shoulder on the LP cover up top.

I also have the Lhévinnes’ version of “Fêtes” and Rosina’s 1961 Chopin Concerto No. 1 if there is interest.

Early Frankie Laine

Last December I remastered a Columbia Christmas record from the vocal duo of Jo Stafford and Frankie Laine, and enjoyed the experience so much I decided to transfer one of my many Laine LPs. I chose this one not for any musical reason, but because I liked the cover the best – a nice portrait of Frankie emoting, rather than the floating headshots that characterized many sleeves of the time.

This Mercury album collects singles that Laine recorded throughout his 1946-51 stint with Mercury, when he first achieved popularity as a big-voiced belter whose forceful sound contrasted with the enervated tones of the other Frankie or Laine’s label-mate Vic Damone. This muscular approach reached its apex with Laine’s 1949 hit record of “Mule Train” (heee-YAAAAH!), mercifully not included here.

Laine may have seemed fresh in the 40s, but his style was a throwback to the openly emotional singing of Al Jolson, crossed with Frankie’s admiration for the popular blues singers. After starting his recording career with a few sides on Bel-Tone and then Atlas records in 1945, Laine achieved success in his first Mercury session, which produced the big hit “That’s My Desire”. This 10-inch LP includes two of the songs recorded at that August date, “September in the Rain” and “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman” (a cover of Louis Jordan’s number one R&B hit). Trumpeter Mannie Klein leads a combo featuring the excellent tenor sax man Babe Russin.

The balance of the LP’s tunes are from 1950 and 1951, with backing by the Harry Geller orchestra and pianist Carl Fischer, who worked with Laine until the instrumentalist’s 1954 death. Fischer alone directs the band on the rollicking “Metro Polka."

As a bonus, I’ve added my transfer of Laine’s first two records, “In the Wee Small Hours” (not the Sinatra song) and “That’s Liberty,” made for the short-lived Bel-Tone label circa June 1945. My dub is from a reissue on the Gold Seal label, possibly from 1946 when Laine achieved renown with “That’s My Desire.” The download includes details from Gold Seal discographers Robert L. Campbell and Robert Pruter.

Chopin Nocturnes from Maryla Jonas

Here is my third and final post collating the remarkable Chopin recordings of Polish pianist Maryla Jonas.

This 10-inch LP brings together five Nocturnes in February 1950 recordings from Columbia's 30th Street studio in New York. The results are just as sensitive and atmospheric as the two previous collections I have posted. Columbia's sound is good.

The drawing of Jonas on the cover is based on the photo at left. Without checking, I have the sense that it was unusual for Columbia to use a drawing of the artist on their covers at the time; naive cartoons were more common (cf., this cover for Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915).

A more animated (but still apprehensive looking) Jonas is depicted below. Instead of Chopin, that seems to be Stravinsky looking over her shoulder, in Picasso's sketch.

LINK (newly remastered in ambient stereo, April 2025)

André Previn Meets David Rose

Today’s post comes to us courtesy of friend-of-the-blog Stealthman, who previously contributed the lone Conrad Salinger LP in stereo. Today he comes to us with a stereo copy of the first collaboration of blog-favorite André Previn with composer-arranger David Rose. M-G-M brought them together for a 1958 LP called Secret Songs for Young Lovers. (Apparently these were songs that had been kept hidden from Frank Sinatra when he recorded Songs for Young Lovers earlier in the 50s).

Rose and Previn were among M-G-M's leading lights, although Previn also recorded for Contemporary, and would soon defect to Columbia. (See his outing with Jackie & Roy here.) This album was a winner for the pair, ending up in the Billboard album charts for several weeks and spawning a popular single in the form of Previn’s composition, “Like Young,” and then an LP sequel, Like Blue.

Among the Grammy winners for 1960 were (from left): David Rose, André Previn,
Bobby Darin, Jonah Jones and Shelley Berman

The sedately funky “Like Young” was likely the inspiration for two other notable compositions that came along in the next year or two – Nelson Riddle’s “Route 66 Theme” and Cy Coleman’s “Playboy’s Theme,” the latter of which has appeared on my other blog here. But as I have opined previously, all three compositions owe a debt to the work of such artists as Horace Silver and especially Bobby Timmons.

That said, this is quite a good LP that is at once easy listening and jazz - or at least jazzy. “Like Young” also was somewhat popular in the R&B market, hitting both those charts and the pop listings in 1959.

The album includes two compositions from Rose (“Young Man’s Lament” and “Young and Tender”) and two from Previn (“Too Young to Be True,” written with then-wife Dory Langdon, along with “Like Young”) plus standards, including David Raksin’s memorable theme for The Bad and the Beautiful in its guise as the song “Love Is for the Very Young.” The sound is superb early stereo, with solid piano presence and Rose’s sweet strings.

Many thanks to Stealthman for this gem!

More Remasters, Again Featuring Buddy Clark

More reupped recordings for you today, again by request and again leading with a rejuvenated collection from the great pop singer Buddy Clark.

This featured group is from the early days of this blog, and comprises singles that Clark's label, Columbia, issued on its short-lived 33-rpm microgroove single format in 1948 and 1949. This 7-inch format was intended to supplement the 10-inch and 12-inch LPs that the label introduced at the same time. Record buyers, however, preferred RCA Victor's 45-rpm single format, and Columbia's alternative was abandoned.

The original blog post included three singles from Clark. For this post, I added a newly transcribed single that Clark made with frequent partner Doris Day - "You Was" and "If You Will Marry Me." Warning: the sugar content is very high on these two tunes.

Here are the other selections for today. The headings link to the original posts, where you will find the download links in the comments. The comments to this post have the links to all downloads.

Stravinsky - Firebird Suite; Concerto for Piano and Winds (Noel Mewton-Wood). One of two reups from a great pianist who died young, along with a worthy Walter Goehr-led version of the Firebird Suite.

Schumann - Piano Concerto (Mewton-Wood). The second offering from the talented Mewton-Wood, again with Walter Goehr conducting.

Ella Logan - Sings Favorites from Finian's Rainbow. A solo outing for one of the leads in the original cast of Finian's Rainbow.

Billy Eckstine - Love Songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein. An early LP from Mr. B, and a fine one, courtesy of Will Friedwald and David Lennick. Nelson Riddle leads the band. (mp3)

Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick. That unprepossessing title heralds one of the rarer musical soundtracks, with Dinah Shore, Robert Merrill and Alan Young and a Livingston-Evans score.

Ania Dorfmann in Chopin and Beethoven

Having recently posted two Chopin collections from Maryla Jonas, I thought I might present a contrasting approach to the composer from a Jonas contemporary, Ania Dorfmann, via her collection of waltzes issued on RCA Victor’s Bluebird budget label.

Like Jonas, Dorfmann did not enjoy an extensive recording career. Most of her records were made for RCA, although the Russian-born pianist did set down some items for EMI before coming to the US permanently in 1938.

You can hear the differing approaches of Jonas and Dorfmann in their renditions of Chopin’s Waltz No. 13:

The sense of unease lurking in Jonas’ playing is largely absent from the Dorfmann track. The latter artist was known for the elegance and sheen of her pianism, admirable qualities in full display throughout her collection of Chopin waltzes, which date from 1953 sessions at New York’s Town Hall.

As a bonus, I have also uploaded Dorfmann’s 1945 recording of Beethoven’s first concerto, with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. While there is some end-of-side distortion on my pressing, the overall sound may be among the best ever afforded Toscanini, coming from Carnegie Hall rather than the cramped Studio 8-H. The more resonant sound may be one reason why the result seems less relentless than many of the maestro’s recorded output. Of course, many critics adored Toscanini in hard-driving mode, and this particular rendition has been criticized for being bland!

Dorfmann went on to record Mendelssohn, Grieg and others for RCA before joining the Juilliard faculty. I also have her Schumann-Tchaikovsky collection and hope to transfer it before too long.

Mega Remaster Collection, Featuring Buddy Clark

I enjoy remastering the old posts on this site because I can usually wring much better sound from my earlier efforts – and I don’t have to do any transferring or scanning. Everyone wins! So here is the latest collection of reups, all bright, shiny and as new as I can make 60-year-old recordings sound.

The featured artist for today is the wonderful 30s/40s crooner Buddy Clark, in a group of his earliest solo efforts. When I first offered these, a vocal collector huffily complained that the original issues were not pitched properly and I should have fixed that malady. Well, I have finally got around to doing so, and have added new transfers of two additional records to make belated recompense.

The collection contains almost all the singles Clark made for the budget Varsity label in 1939-40, now for the first time including “You Are Too Beautiful” and “Robert the Roué,” as reissued later in the 40s on the Sterling label. As a bonus I have added one of the singer’s earliest solo discs, “Lost” and “The Touch of Your Lips,” which he recorded for Melotone in May 1936.

Just a digression about “Robert the Roué”: this is a quite risqué (for the time) song that I believe came from the 1939 Broadway review Streets of Paris, where it was introduced by the vaudeville comic Bobby Clark. Music and lyrics are by the distinguished team of Jimmy McHugh and Al Dubin. Buddy delivers the double-entendres with great enthusiasm.

Here is the rest of today’s collection. Some of these benefit from a fuller explanation, so I have included links to the original posts, where you will find the download links in the comments. Links to all downloads are included in the comments to this post.

Juanita Hall. Hall achieved fame as Bloody Mary in South Pacific, but this post collates a blues LP she made in the 1950s and a choral collection she led in the 1940s.

Kathryn Grayson in Grounds for Marriage. Soundtrack from a 1951 Grayson romantic comedy, mainly operatic arias with the addition of a “toy symphony” from David Raksin.

Gordon Jenkins - 26 Years of Academy Award Winning Songs. An obscure Jenkins-conducted compilation of the various songs that had won Oscars.

Carole Simpson - Singin' and Swingin'. A fine singer in a enjoyable collection of Steve Allen songs, from am early stereo budget LP.

Marc Blitzstein - Songs of the Theater. Muriel Smith and composer Blitzstein perform some of his theater songs in this rare early LP.

Sheila Guyse - This is Sheila. Interesting vocal LP from a good singer; another rarity.

Stubby Kaye - Music for Chubby Lovers. The beloved actor/singer (Guys and Dolls, L’il Abner) in a vocal collection that shoulda been better – but is still pretty good. I have ironed out some of the pitch problems on the original.

Sue Raney – Singles. A collection of 50s and 60s Capitol and Imperial records from one of the greatest singers alive today.

Tonight We Sing. Soundtrack from the bizarre 1953 Sol Hurok biopic, with Ezio Pinza as a blustery Chaliapin, joined in the musical selections by Roberta Peters and Jan Peerce.

Young Vic Damone. One of the several early Vic Damone LPs and EPs to be featured here – and a very good one! Terrific singing.

Music for Mid-Century British Films. Contemporary British recordings of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lord Berners, Mischa Spoliansky, Allan Gray, Richard Addinsell – and one American ringer, Miklos Rozsa. A favorite of mine.

Jerry Fielding's 1953 Band

Jerry Fielding is remembered today as a film and television composer, but before that experience, he was an arranger, radio conductor and bandleader. It’s in the latter guise that we hear him today, in this 1953 10-inch LP for the short-lived Trend label.

A friend of mine posted this record on his blog, and observed that Fielding seems so young on the cover that he does not look like he’s begun to shave. Perhaps so, but by this time he had been a professional for nearly a decade, writing big-band arrangements and conducting the orchestras for a number of radio shows.

Fielding was born Joshua Feldman, and the claim is made that in 1947 the producer of Jack Paar’s radio show made him change his name as a condition of getting a job on that program. However, by that time the young bandleader had already made records under the Fielding name.

By whatever name, he was a notable success, and this record is testimony. It documents a working band that Fielding had assembled, with three or four trumpets, two trombones, four or five saxes, and rhythm. The soloists include Maurie Harris (trumpet), Hymie Gunkler (alto), Buddy Collette and Sam Donahue (tenors) and Gerald Wiggins (piano). The leader’s arrangements are varied and imaginative, making for a fine album. (Perhaps not as good as the review below, which touts this disc as “the best band album ever recorded,” to the surprise, no doubt, of Ellington, Basie and many others.)

Billboard ad - click to enlarge

The LP has 11 cuts, five of which are devoted to Fielding’s theme song, “Carefree,” which is heard in snatches at the start and end of each side of the record, and complete on the first side. It’s an attractive piece, but maybe not deserving of all that exposure.

As a bonus to the LP, I’ve added Fielding’s first single for the Trend label. It includes a band treatment of “Here in My Arms” backed by a vocal on “A Blues Serenade” by the young Ruth Olay, who was under the influence of Mildred Bailey at the time. Olay went on to record a number of albums, and was backed by Fielding on one of her records for Mercury.

The Trend label was started by Albert Marx, who had owned the Musicraft label and was at the helm of Discovery for many years. Trend also recorded blog favorites Matt Dennis and Claude Thornhill, among others. These masters later were reissued on Kapp.

After Trend’s demise, Fielding moved on to Decca. I’ll post one of the records from that association if there is interest.

Latest Group of Reups and Remasters

A large number of reups and remasters today, from the requests of loyal readers (at least I assume they are loyal).

As usual, these cover the range from the sublime (Beethoven piano concertos) to the ridiculous (Mel Blanc). Some have been remastered, as noted below, and now have much better sound.

Links to the lot are in the comments to this post.

Albeniz - Iberia (Philadelphia/Ormandy). The complete Iberia in fine performances from the Philadelphia forces, courtesy of Joe Serraglio.

Mel Blanc - Party Panic! The best thing on this early Capitol LP is Mel’s impression of Al Jolson, with cut-ins from Woody Woodpecker and Porky Pig.

Mitch Miller - Light Music. Taken from a promo album handed out by Mitch himself to Will Friedwald, who handed it out to us.

Mitch Miller Plays Oboe & English Horn (Saidenberg & Stokowski, conductors). More Mitch promos, this time including excellent classical material. Also courtesy of Will.

Mitch Miller - With Horns and Chorus (remastered). Where else but on a Mitch Miller record could you hear Greensleeves presented in oom-pah style? This one is from my collection.

Beethoven - Piano Concertos No. 4 and 5 (De Groot) (remastered). Outstanding artistry from Dutch pianist Cor De Groot, with orchestras led by Willem van Otterloo.

Morton Gould - Interplay, Spirituals (remastered). Surprisingly idiomatic renditions of these very American compositions from De Groot and Otterloo.

Juliette Gréco (remastered). Superb songs from the oh-so world-weary Gréco, via an American compilation of her early French records. Unforgettable!

More Chopin from Maryla Jonas

As a follow-up to the recent post of Polish pianist Maryla Jonas’ set of Chopin mazurkas, here is the first Chopin program she recorded for Columbia, during April 1946 sessions. This more varied selection contains three additional mazurkas, two nocturnes, two waltzes and a polonaise. Once again, the pianism displays the short-lived artist’s impressive command and ability to create mood.

The set was issued first in a 78 album with a Alex Steinweiss cover (above), and then in one of Columbia’s first 10-inch classical LPs in 1948, with the generic “tombstone” cover at top.

A Classical Discography does not list a location for the recording. The quality was somewhat boxy; I have ameliorated this a bit.

These were Jonas’ first records; my two posts comprise three of the six LPs she produced during her lifetime. She died in 1959.

LINK (April 2025 remastering in ambient stereo)

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(click to enlarge)

The Brief Success Story of Adler and Ross

Richard Adler and Jerry Ross should have been one of the greatest Broadway success stories – and for a brief time, they were. The composer and lyricist, respectively, of two of the biggest musical hits of the 1950s – The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees – their rapid ascent was stopped only by the early death of Ross, at age 29 in November 1955, just six months after Damn Yankees opened.

Adler and Ross teamed up in 1950. Until The Pajama Game debuted, there was little in the duo’s output to suggest the range and skill displayed in that score. They did enjoy one big hit, Tony Bennett’s version of “Rags to Riches” in 1953, and they put together a good partial score for John Murray Anderson’s Almanac late that same year. Less distinguished was the work they did for the hyperactive R&B troupe, the Treniers, with their contribution of “Poon-Tang!”, a title derived from a vulgar American term referring to women as sex objects. (I should add that said title is the only racy thing about the song.)

(From left) Richard Adler and Jerry Ross demo their songs for director George Abbott (I believe) and Columbia Records honcho Mitch Miller

So when The Pajama Game opened in May 1954, it was a revelation. Every song was superb on its own and in context, and the music was complemented by an excellent book from co-director George Abbott and novelist Richard Bissell, a tremendous cast including John Raitt, Janis Paige, Reta Shaw, Eddie Foy Jr., and Carol Haney, direction from Abbott and Jerome Robbins, and choreography by Bob Fosse. The cast, with the wonderful Doris Day replacing Paige, repeated their performances for the 1957 film version.

Damn Yankees was hardly less successful, once again with a strikingly fine, if not as varied a score. I am less fond of this show, perhaps because the film is not as successful, with Tab Hunter (!) replacing Stephen Douglass as Joe Hardy, who makes a deal with the devil to become a baseball star and lead the Washington Senators to victory over the hated New York Yankees.

In the 1950s, songs from Broadway shows were still a major contributor to the repertoire of pop singers. The publishers would cajole the record companies into having their artists record songs from the upcoming shows as part of the pre-opening promotional push. These would first be issued as singles, then may have been repackaged as a compilation EP or LP, often in the low-price bracket.

Today’s offering is an example. It combined some of the hits from The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees as a tribute to Adler and Ross, and was issued in Epic’s budget-priced 10-inch LP series just before Ross’ untimely death. The record company was then a relatively new offshoot of Columbia Records. The artists, the Mello-Larks and Jamie, Dolores Hawkins and Neal Hefti, were on its roster at the time.

The Mello-Larks: Bob Wollter, Joe Eich, Jamie Dina, Tommy Hamm

The Mello-Larks started off with the Tex Beneke band in the post-war period, making a number of singles at the time. The original female singer in the group was Ginny O’Connor (who was to marry Henry Mancini). By the time these sides were made, the lead singer was young Jamie Dina, who was so accomplished and such an attraction her name was appended to the group’s own. Dina was married to group founder Tommy Hamm for a brief time, leaving him and the group for another musician, Joe Silvia. Together they founded the J’s with Jamie, who have themselves appeared on this blog.

The Mello-Larks were often on television and are quite polished in an entirely conventional manner. For some reason, arranger Neal Hefti takes a very square approach to “Once-a-Year Day,” treating it like a polka rather than the exuberant romp conveyed by the lyrics. The prominent trombone choir isn’t a help. “Whatever Lola Wants,” a vocal feature for Jamie, is much better.

The other featured singer is Dolores Hawkins, a very good vocalist who is particularly effective on “Hey There,” although she does not radiate the charisma of John Raitt (or Sammy Davis, Jr., for that matter).

For “Small Talk,” one of the best Adler-Ross songs, Hawkins is joined by contract artist Bill Heyer, a sonorous baritone reminiscent of Bob Manning.

Composer Adler never recaptured the magic of his collaboration with Jerry Ross, although Doris Day had a hit with his “Everybody Loves a Lover,” and his scores to Kwamina (for Broadway), and The Gift of the Magi and Olympus 7-0000 (for television) were released on LP.

The sound on the LP at hand is vivid. Backing Dolores Hawkins on her songs is Artie Harris. Don Costa leads the band for “Whatever Lola Wants.”

A note about the way that record companies would repackage material: Epic issued six-cut LPs by the Mello-Larks and Jamie and by Dolores Hawkins, both of which include two of the songs here. The record company also had an EP of hits from The Pajama Game with all three Hawkins tunes on this LP along with the Four Esquires’ version of “Steam Heat.”

Note (October 2024): This LP has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

Chopin Mazurkas from Maryla Jonas

This recording was the subject of a discussion on one of the classical sharing sites, which motivated me to transfer my very good copy of the LP, which contains an exceptional performance of 18 Chopin mazurkas by the neglected Polish pianist Maryla Jonas.

My friend Fred of the Random Classics blog also offered this album some time ago, but the links are now dead. I hope he doesn’t mind if I quote some of his description of the performance, because my reaction is the same: “This is not the Chopin that you are used to hearing and it is a polar opposite from the elegant, aristocratic approach of Rubinstein.” Fred’s response on first hearing the record: “Never had I heard such melancholy, such world weariness, from these brilliant miniatures. Indeed, Chopin had painted, below the surface, a sadness of seeing his Polish nation subjected to rule and desecration by others.”

Postwar promotional leaflet

Jonas herself had a most difficult life, and was the victim of Nazi persecution, which may have contributed to her early death at the age of 48. Her small discography, made in the US for Columbia in the post-war years, centers on Chopin but also includes a smattering of other composers. This particular LP reissue from 1956 combines two sets of mazurkas, which Jonas inscribed in September 1947 (set M-810) and September 1949 (set M-897), both of which also came out on 10-inch LPs. Sessions for the latter set were in Columbia’s 30th Street studios in New York. No location is listed for the 1947 dates in Michael Gray’s discography, but since that predates Columbia’s use of the 30th Street location, the site may have been Liederkranz Hall. The sound is quite good.

A note about the cover: Columbia had engaged the relatively new design firm Push Pin Studios to prepare a series of covers for its Entré reissue series. Push Pin had been founded by Seymour Chwast and Edward Sorel, who both were to become noted graphic artists. Sorel, soon to leave Push Pin, designed the cover of the Jonas LP in a style far removed from the biting political caricatures that he is known for today.

LINK (remastered in ambient stereo, April 2025)

Caballé and Wyn Morris in Debussy, Chausson

I transferred this unusual record as the result of a request on one of the classical music newsgroups, and thought some of you might be interested in it.

It is one of the few issues on producer Isabella Wallich's Symphonica label of the late 1970s. As usual with her productions of this time, it featured the talented but tempestuous conductor Wyn Morris, the so-called "Welsh Furtwängler," this time in French music rather than his usual Germanic repertoire.

Unusually for the fledgling company, the record starred soprano Montserrat Caballé at the peak of her fame. The diva's representative had proposed recording the Debussy to EMI, but the firm was not interested. Symphonica stepped in, proposing a coupling of Chausson's gorgeous Poème de l'amour et la mer.

Wyn Morris, Montserrat Caballé, Isabella Wallich

In her autobiography, Recording My Life, Wallich says the results were "neither the happiest nor the most successful sessions I ever undertook," citing problems with getting the scores from France, utilizing an unfamiliar hall and engineer, and working around Caballé's operatic commitments in London. For her part the soprano was "unfamiliar" with the Chausson and "somewhat unfamiliar" with the Debussy, per Wallich, although she does praise Caballé's vocal skill and professionalism.

All that aside, the record is decidedly successful. It is well recorded and nicely performed, with Morris seemingly at home in what may be the only French music he recorded, and Caballé in fine voice.
The Debussy is an early work, when he was under the influence of Wagner and the Pre-Raphaelites. La Damoiselle élue is a setting in translation of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's poem The Blessed Damozel, also the subject of Rossetti's later painting, a detail of which is shown on the record cover. The work by Debussy's older colleague, Chausson, is from the school of Franck.

The recording was laid down in All Saints Church, Tooting, in June 1977. This transfer is from my copy of the subsequent vinyl issue. As usual, the download contains hi-res scans of the covers, some related materials and the audio files in Apple lossless format.

LINK to remastered version (September 2025)