The English Singers

What better way to revive this semi-dormant blog with an obscure Christmas record, which also happens to be one of the favorite discs in my collection.

It is by the English Singers, a pioneering ensemble that specialized in madrigals and other forms of early music, but also performed works by contemporary composers who looked to the past or to folksong for inspiration.

This record is an example of the latter repertoire. It consists of a setting of "The Holly and the Ivy" by Rutland Boughton from his 1915 nativity play Bethlehem. The other side has an extraordinary setting of the ancient carol "Corpus Christi" by Peter Warlock.

These were among a series issued in 1927-30 by the Roycrofters, an influential arts and crafts collective in western New York state, on its short-lived Roycroft label. I wish the Roycrofters' dedication to craft ideals had extended to its record pressings. These are by the budget Cameo label, and are remarkably noisy. This does not affect my enjoyment, nor, to be honest, does the wandering pitch of the singers involved.

As I mentioned in a post on my other blog, the English Singers had a great reputation. They were artistically important, although technically fallible. If you enjoy this glimpse of their artistry, there is a CD that collects all their Roycroft recordings.

Update: I have newly transferred the "Corpus Christi" / "The Holly and the Ivy" coupling, and added three additional Roycroft songs from the English Singers:

• "In Dulci Jubilo" in a setting by R.L. Pearsall
• William Byrd's "O Christ Who Art the Light"
• "The Wassail Song" in the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement

Waltzing with Ormandy and Jim Flora

I have to admit I chose this item more for the cover than for the music - although the sounds are good, too. The artwork is by the famously quirky Jim Flora, who designed albums from RCA Victor and Columbia in the 1940s and 1950s. This EP is circa 1954.

Here we have one of the rarer covers, I think - it's to an EP of waltzes from the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy, and as far as I know does not correspond to an LP cover (I could be wrong). Although the cover is not signed, it is certainly Flora, whose bizarre style is unmistakable, although sometimes imitated at the time. (More about Flora here. Plenty of merchandise - you can even get Flora wallpaper, should you want his strange creatures to be your constant companions during your leisure hours.)

Jim Flora

The main item on the EP is the waltz sequence from Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier. On the cover, Flora depicts a suitably rose-colored knight sniffing rather than proffering the rose, while Sophie could not be less impressed.

As always with the Philadelphians, the performance is both immaculate and delightful, although lacking any touch of decadence. The fill-up is a fine performance of the waltz from Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings.

I think these performances date from April 1946 (Tchaikovsky) and November 1947 (Strauss), although the ensemble also recorded them in 1952. I say that because there seems to be some added reverb, which was Columbia's habit with reissues of the period; also there is very little signal above 10kHz, unlikely for a 1952 recording. Also, the Michael Gray discography claims the 1952 Serenade for Strings was never issued.

Gisele MacKenzie and Hits from 1955

I have been neglecting this blog lately in favor of the parent blog, so to make amends, I will start posting a series of EPs that RCA issued in its Camden budget series under the titles "Today's Hits" or "Today's Top Hits'.

The series will include entries from the Honey Dreamers, Snooky Lanson, Bob Carroll and perhaps others. We start off with this 1955 issue by Gisele MacKenzie, a charming and talented performer of the time. MacKenzie's strengths were her flawless intonation and diction. I do believe she could sing most anything, which served her well on the television program Hit Parade, where she was one of the resident singers.

A hat wearing Gisele

In 1955, musical tastes were changing, and so in addition to pop songs, you would hear tunes such as "Two Hearts, Two Kisses," originated by the R&B group Otis Williams and the Charms, and covered by Pat Boone. "Two Hearts, Two Kisses" is actually the best performed song of the four at hand.

MacKenzie is less successful with "Unchained Melody," which lacks passion, and "The Breeze and I," which does not at all convey regret. "Unchained Melody" (from the film Unchained) was first an instrumental hit for Les Baxter and then a vocal hit for Al Hibbler. The Righteous Brothers had a huge success with it 10 years later "The Breeze and I" is a vocal version of Ernesto Lecuona's "Andalucia," and was on the US charts first in 1940 (Jimmy Dorsey-Bob Eberly) and then in 1955 (Caterina Valente).

From a Billboard ad

"Play Me Hearts and Flowers" was introduced by Johnny Desmond, who sang it on a television program, but was really not much of a hit. I featured Desmond's LP of the same name on my other blog a few years back.

The backing here is by Alvy West. I enjoyed the recordings he made with Sinatra some years before this, but these are not in that league. "Unchained Melody" sounds feeble and "The Breeze and I" is stereotypical. The recording of the band isn't very good, either - although Gisele sounds fine.

Lauritz Melchior

This is a companion to my recent post of Lauritz Melchior in The Student Prince, which can be found on the Big 10-Inch Record.

This 78 offers up the supposed "Bach-Gounod" version of "Ave Maria", a Melchior encore, and couples it with the 1898 Ethelbert Nevin groaner "The Rosary", a song that was considered outdated a generation before this recording was made in 1947.

The famous heldentenor was branching out from Wagner in the 1940s, appearing in movies, recording operetta, and indulging in salon songs such as this pair, which he inscribed for the record arm of M-G-M. He also was endorsing a variety of products, including the drug store after-shave lotion called Aqua Velva. The ad below displays the peculiar notion that you could sell scent by associating it with tenors, actors, violinists, generals and writers. Why, everyone knows that half-naked women are the way to go!

On this single, in the grand M-G-M tradition, Melchior has the posh backing of the studio orchestra, led by Georgie Stoll. The sound is reasonably good.

1947 ad (click to enlarge)

Fran Warren with Charlie Barnet

I've been celebrating the recordings of the recently deceased Fran Warren on my blogs recently. Here is what I believe to be the singer's first record, made with Charlie Barnet's band in October 1945, when she was 19.

Warren had already sung with the bands of Billy Eckstine and Art Mooney. As far as I can tell, she made only two records with Barnet; this is the first. It certainly is a creditable effort, showing great promise.

Warren

Fran moved on to greater success with the Claude Thornhill aggregation - notably "A Sunday Kind of Love" - and as a solo artist. I have already shared some of her RCA Victor recordings here and on the Big 10-Inch Record, FYI.

Evans

The flip side of this Decca 78 is also of interest. It shows off composer Redd Evans' chops as a singer (he's a little like Johnny Mercer, another singing composer). However, Evans did not write the song, "Surprise Party", nor was he a member of the Barnet band. He did have a sideline as a music publisher, however - and as publisher of this particular song, he sold both it and himself to Barnet.

As a composer, Evans usually wrote with Dave Mann, and was responsible for among others, "No Moon at All" (a Page Cavanaugh specialty), "The Frim-Fram Sauce" (a Nat Cole hit), "If Love Is Good to Me" (a Jackie Paris favorite), and "Let Me Off Uptown" (Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge with Gene Krupa).

Fran Warren

Last week I was sorry to hear about the death of another fine vocalist, Fran Warren, who made many excellent records from the 1940s into the 1960s.

Warren was a band singer before going out on her own. Her first recording was with Charlie Barnet (I believe I have that and will share it), and her first hit was with Claude Thornhill - "A Sunday Kind of Love". Warren signed as a single artist with RCA Victor in late 1948, and her records started being issued after the then recording ban ended. She stayed with RCA until 1951.

This EP collects four items from that period, although the record itself dates from late 1955 or early 1956.

In 1947

"A Wonderful Guy" is from 1949, and has backing by Henri René. This version does not use the familiar verse, but does have a musically and lyrically interesting "C" section that I can't say I have heard before (I am no expert on the South Pacific score, admittedly).

Hugo Winterhalter leads the band on "My Silent Love", from 1950, and "Stormy Weather", from 1951.

As far as I can tell, "Temptation" was never issued as a single. It has backing only by drums. (I wonder if it dates from the Musicians Union recording ban.)

Warren was a very skillful singer, but doesn't always get credit for that because she stresses involvement over technique, and her singing isn't note perfect. I have always responded strongly to her work, and I am sure I have most of her records. That includes almost all the RCA sides, which I will collect for a future post on my other blog.

1949 Billboard ad

Vic Damone and Ralph Marterie

I recently was preparing a reup of one of trumpeter Ralph Marterie's LPs for my other blog, and enjoyed the listening experience so much, I pulled out a few other Marterie records for sharing.

One is this EP that paired the bandleader with the wonderful vocalist Vic Damone in four romantic tunes. This is presented as a "Sorority Serenade," reminiscent of the "Freshman-Sophomore Frolics" and the "Junior-Senior Prom" that were the names of two Ralph Flanagan LPs I recently offered on the 10-inch blog.

The songs are all associated with well known recordings - "Serenade in Blue" with the Glenn Miller-Ray Eberle recording, and the others with Frank Sinatra (at least in my mind). Damone stands up well to comparisons, his sole lapse being a unwelcome (and insecure) venture into falsetto.

The EP is from circa 1954 - "Serenade in Blue" and "That Old Feeling" were issued as a single in late 1953. The sound is excellent. The cover features dual disembodied heads depicting the principals, and even a bonus pair of severed heads from depiction of the sorority soiree.

G&S with Barbara Cook and Alfred Drake

This is a promotional EP that I first shared several years ago on my other blog. I have redone the transfer, achieving much better results this time around. Here is some of what I had to say way back when:

"Today we have a very unusual item - a promotional record made for a 1957 televised presentation of Gilbert & Sullivan's Yeomen of the Guard, with a cast that included Alfred Drake and Barbara Cook, fresh from Candide.

"The record is a 7-inch EP issued by the NBC publicity department. My copy does not have a cover, and I doubt it came in one.

"These songs are not excerpts from the televised production itself, which probably was transmitted live. These were pre-recorded with piano accompaniment in place of the Franz Allers-led orchestra that was featured on the Hallmark Hall of Fame program.

"The sound is good, and reveals fine performances by Alfred Drake and Barbara Cook, and a soggy one from Celeste Holm."

Drake, Holm, Hayes, Cook

I should also mention the good performance by Bill Hayes, and that the production has now been issued  on DVD. You can learn more about it here.

For the record:

Yeomen of the Guard - April 10, 1957

NBC

Barbara Cook - Elsie Maynard
Alfred Drake - Jack Point
Bill Hayes - Col. Fairfax
Celeste Holm - Phoebe Meryll

Ralph Flanagan - Top Pops

This EP is something of a follow-up to the two Ralph Flanagan LPs I recently featured on my other blog.

"Top Pops" presents four popular songs of the time (1953-54). "Stranger in Paradise" is from the 1953 Broadway show Kismet (but of course was derived from one of Borodin's Polovtsian Dances). "From the Vine Came the Grape" was a hit for the Gaylords. Lou Monte had a popular version of "Darktown Strutters' Ball" - Italian style, as was his shtick (to mix ethnicities).  "Make Love to Me" was brought to renewed popularity by Jo Stafford in 1954. It was originally "Tin Roof Blues", a 1923 New Orleans Rhythm Kings recording.

The EP features the familiar Flanagan sound, derived from Glenn Miller, but nonetheless attractive. The songs are well recorded and the pressing is good.

Patty Andrews

Patty Andrews, the last surviving Andrews sister, passed away yesterday. She was a fine singer, so I wanted to post one of her singles in tribute.

This particular item was recorded in Los Angeles in February 1952. At that time, Decca was issuing individual records by Patty along with ensemble recordings with her sisters. She was always the solo voice in the act, but these records allowed her to work in a different style from the bulk of the trio's repertoire.

The World War II song "I'll Walk Alone" was revived for the 1952 Jane Froman biopic, With a Song in My Heart, and Andrews' rendition contended with Froman's for popularity. The flip side, "That's the Chance You Take," was a new song, and not a bad one. Eddie Fisher's version was, I believe, more popular, although not superior to this one.

Andrews is in fact convincing in both songs, although her intense, forthright approach isn't all that well matched to Nelson Riddle's pastel arrangements. The off-mike effect at the end of "I'll Walk Alone" was a bad idea.

This is still a nice remembrance of a talented vocalist. The sound is good (for Decca, anyway).

Perline Ellison and Her Razor

Making outrageous records to get noticed is nothing new. Songs about sex, drugs and mayhem go way back.

This present specimen can be put in the "mayhem" category. Blues singer Perline Ellison insists that her man behave or she will split his pants with her razor.

All this sounds serious, but it is little more than bravado, as these items often are. The 1944 record actually has a kind of old-timey feel to it, it part because it harkens back to the vaudeville blues tradition of 20 years before and in part because of the dated accompaniment.

Grant and Wilson

Nothing is known of Perline Ellison (by me, anyway), and as far as I can tell, she made no other records. She is an accomplished singer, but the real driving force behind the record is its composer, Wesley "Sox" Wilson, also known as Kid Wilson, a singer and song writer who had a popular stage duo with his wife Coot Grant in the 1920s and 30s - in the manner of the better-known Butterbeans and Susie.

While Wilson's mainstay was double-entendre songs, his best known works are "Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)" for Bessie Smith and "Price of Wails" for Fletcher Henderson.

Adding to the dated feel of the record is the accompaniment, led by Sammy Price, a Decca house pianist who also made records with his "Bluesicians". Price was a fine musician, but his style was firmly rooted in the 1920s.

You can hear the changes in music from that time until the 40s by listening to the flip side of this record, "New That Ain't Right", which is a take-off on Nat Cole's 1942-43 hit "That Ain't Right". This was Cole's first hit, and his smoother style is a contrast with the Ellison-Price version, good as it is.

"New That Ain't Right" is actually the "A" side of this record. My copy, however, is much more worn on the "B" side, as you might expect. There is some groove damage, but the basic sound is good.

The Barkleys of Broadway

Soundtrack recordings from The Barkleys of Broadway are not unusual, but I thought you might be interested in seeing how the relatively new M-G-M record company issued the music from its storied productions way back when.

Barkleys was a spring 1949 release (as was I, come to think of it), and at that time the 78 was still the dominant format. M-G-M took four songs from the score and issued them in a gatefold package for this release, with a colorful cover and the interior devoted to a spectacular Fred-and-Ginger montage (see below). As always, restored high-res scans are in the download.

The plug song from this production was the (to me) almost unlistenable "My One and Only Highland Fling," with the performers adopting broader accents than would be heard in your local high school's presentation of Brigadoon, and the added detraction of Rogers' wavering intonation. But things improve thereafter, and Astaire is terrific in the other numbers - although "Shoes with Wings On" isn't much of a song.

To me, one of the great pleasures of this package is the work of Conrad Salinger (and perhaps other studio hands) on the arrangements, which are simply glorious, and extremely well played by the orchestra led by Lennie Hayton. The sound on these original 78s is very vivid.

LINK

Click to enlarge