Boogie Down with Ambient Stereo Remasters

To celebrate the advent of ambient stereo processing on the main blog, I presented 12 remastered recordings in the classical realm and a dozen more in the pop field. Here on the singles blog, we're offering an additional dozen, representing classical, pop, jazz and gospel. 

To start off the proceedings, we have a newly augmented post that mixes genres: it involves the early recordings of "grand dame of the harpsichord," Sylvia Marlowe (above), when her repertoire combined boogie woogie with the baroque.

Sylvia Marlowe Boogies. My original post had Marlowe taking on the compositions of Meade "Lux" Lewis and Jimmy Yancey. Now I've added Pine Top Smith's "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" to the post, throwing in a Raymond Scott number for good measure. From the 1940s.

Gospel Boogie. Boogie woogie was big in the 40s, even reaching into the Southern gospel realm. Here we have the famous "Gospel Boogie" by Leroy Abernathy and the Homeland Harmony Quartet. Believe me when I tell you this one should not be missed.

A Danse Macabre. Let's move on to a "Danse Macabre," in which the Cleveland Orchestra's first music director, Nikolai Sokoloff, makes the skeletons boogie in this vivid 1928 recording of Saint-Saëns' classic tone poem.

More Sokoloff Conducts. One Sokoloff recording isn't enough - this entry has him leading the Clevelanders in music of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky - the "Song of India" and the Waltz from Sleeping Beauty. Entirely convincing romantic interpretations.

Chick, Ella and Wacky Dust. Back in 1938, bandleader Chick Webb and his young singer Ella Fitzgerald went to market with a thing called "Wacky Dust," which wasn't what you think, honest. (Well, maybe to those "in the know.") The song was the handiwork of Oscar Levant.

Diz Wants 'More Meat'. Several years later, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie came out with a bop vocal whose sole message was "Hey Pete, let's eat more meat. Cause the meat from the Texas cows is cheap." He liked this ditty so much he recorded it twice.

Andre Previn on V-Disc. Latter-day eminent conductor André Previn was recording piano jazz and arranging in Hollywood studios when he was in high school. These Armed Services V-Discs were made when he was 17 and already an amazing virtuoso.

André Previn Live in 1947. To give you an idea of what Previn sounded like live, I posted these concert recordings dating from 1947, just a year after the V-Disc session. I wrote then that "his pianism is propulsive, imaginative, many-noted and immaculate."

Playboy's Theme. Another famous musician who started off as a pianist was Cy Coleman, later the toast of Broadway, but in the 1950s a cabaret artist and songwriter. One of his biggest instrumental hits was "Playboy's Theme" from 1960, where he was both the writer and the piano player.

Shirley Ross and the Foursome. Two unjustly forgotten Broadway acts are Shirley Ross, star of Higher and Higher, and the Foursome, who introduced "Bidin' My Time" in Girl Crazy. In this set they dazzle in Gershwin songs - including "Bidin' My Time."

Let's finish with a few EPs, those four-song 45s popular in the 1950s and 60s.

Bobby Short's First Recordings. The famous cabaret artist Bobby Short was already a finished talent when he made his first recordings in 1953. This session was notable for a terrific rendition of "Sunday in Savannah" by the forgotten songwriter Hugh MacKay.

Elgar Marches. Finally, for the greatest possible contrast, we matriculate on out of here with a set of Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches in stirring 1955 performances from the little recorded English conductor Stanley Pope.

Most of these posts have new graphics to go along with the improved sonics. The links above take you to the original posts. As always, the download link is in the comments.