'Irish Stew' with Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti is known for big-band arranging and for composing such fare as the Batman Theme, but he also made many records under his own name.

This particular EP dates from before his period of greatest fame, when he penned arrangements for Basie and Sinatra and whipped up scores for the movies. "Irish Stew" is from about 1954, and consists of Hefti's takes on four familiar Irish tunes.

The record is an early example of his technique of using voices as an instrumental choir, something he would continue on some Epic records that gained a certain amount of popularity.

Label "X" also had Hefti do an EP called "Scottish Broth" This was combined with the Irish-themed record to make a 10-inch LP. For the Scottish cover, Hefti was depicted with a set of bagpipes, which I suppose was an improvement over the breeches, bow tie and concertina he affects here. As far as I know, he confined his instrumental prowess to the trumpet on actual recordings.

Dinah Shore with Hits from 'The King and I'

This Dinah Shore EP is one half of a miniature celebration of this wonderful singer and personality, going on today here and on my other blog, where you will find her 10-inch LP, "Dinah Shore Sings the Blues".

Back in those days, record companies fought with one another to record the latest hits from Broadway - and prospective hits even before they opened. For the biggest names - such as Rodgers and Hammerstein - they would cover all the songs from a given show. Such was the case with 1951's "The King and I." RCA Victor brought Shore, Robert Merrill, Patrice Munsel and Tony Martin into the studio to record the songs. Dinah's recording of "Getting to Know You" came out on a single in 1951 (coupled with "The End of a Love Affair").

This EP, circa 1953, combines "Getting to Know You" with three others, all in excellent versions conducted by Henri René. The sonorous bass-baritone of the Met's Robert Merrill is heard with Dinah on "Shall We Dance."

RCA was saving on photography costs in 1953 - this EP and the LP on my other blog use the same photo of the photogenic Miss Shore. It's not badm but how much better is the contemporaneous glamour shot at left, in color! She was one of those people who got better looking as she aged, unlike the rest of us (well, me anyway) who have suffered the indignities of age from the time we hit our 20s.

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).