More Perfectly Frank

Several months back, I presented a selection of songs that Frank Sinatra recorded for his 1953-55 radio program, To Be Perfectly Frank. These were sourced from two awful-sounding bootlegs from many years back. I got rid of most of the noise, rebalanced the scrawny sounding transfers, and fixed the speed where it was awry. The results, while not in any sense high fidelity, were acceptable to these jaded ears - and certainly good enough for you to appreciate some Sinatra from a prime period and in a small group setting.

Here, as promised, are the rest of the recordings from those sources - and if anything, these sound even better.

I spent a fair amount of time searching through my Sinatra materials to find some ad or other artifact of the radio program, without luck. So I've chosen one of my favorite Frank photos - looking casual outside what I would guess is the office of a Tijuana divorce lawyer.

As before, I am presenting these recordings are in memory of my late mom, who started me on record collecting and got me my first Frankie LP (Ring-a-Ding-Ding).

NEW LINK

Stokowski Conducts Falla and Borodin

Here by request is an early LP of music conducted by Leopold Stokowski - Borodin's "Polovtsian Dances" from Prince Igor and Falla's "El Amor Brujo." In other words, a work sometimes called "Love the Sorcerer" conducted by a musician sometimes called the Old Sorcerer.

Our friend David says this Falla is the best he's heard, and indeed this 1946 version with the Hollywood Bowl Symphony is not the only notable version led by the conductor. He also did a vivid stereo version with the Philadelphia Orchestra. This one is characteristically atmospheric and nicely recorded.

The label says the Polovtsian Dances were "transcribed" by Stokowski. I have no idea what that means, although it suggests that Stoki has adjusted things for recording purposes. This session, with a pickup orchestra, is from 1950.

I'm not the world's biggest Stokowski admirer, although I notice that I do seem to have quite a few recordings by him, including both the Falla versions. And in truth I do enjoy them!

More Josef Marais

I am indebted to reader JohnnyUSA who has graciously provided Josef Marais' first recordings, in response to my recent posting of Marais' second album.

Johnny has provided a very nice transfer that I have cleaned up a bit. There are a few brief passages of groove damage, so please be warned. [August 2019 note: I've replaced the defective sides with new transfers.]

I hope Johnny doesn't mind but I am using the cover of the 78 album above (his transfer is from the 10-inch LP). That's because, as often happened, the graphics on the 78 album were much better than the LP. I have included the LP's front and back cover in the download.

Those of you who have heard the later collection will know what to expect, so it only remains for me to thank Johnny once again for his contribution!

Mambo with Sonny Burke

A short while back I offered the first US LP by Pérez Prado, mentioning that it was issued after bandleader Sonny Burke had had an American hit with a cover version of one of Prado's tunes.

Here is that Burke record - Mambo Jambo - which includes a selection of other mambo items that Burke issued after his initial success with the title tune.

Burke was an accomplished arranger and these sides are actually quite good in their own way, if not with the idiomatic touches that make Perez's records so satisfying. So, for example, instead of Perez's perfectly timed interjections of "dilo!" (which he somehow turns into one syllable), you get a sloppy band shout of "ugh!" And instead of the great vocalist Beny Moré, you get that horrible swing-era convention, the band vocal. As usual, the band here sounds bored, embarrassed and a little irritated - why this sort of thing became popular is an enduring mystery.

My friend Ernie asked for this record because he somehow acquired the cover above without the record inside (actually records - it's a double EP), and always wondered what the music sounds like. Now he knows.

Picking up a cover with no record (or the wrong record) is an all too frequent annoyance for the record collector. Right now I am looking at one of my favorite record covers, which I unfortunately found with no record. It is called Authentic Music from Another Planet, in which ufologist Howard Menger plays music taught to him by a man from Saturn (the planet, not the car company). Also on the record is music inspired by Marla Baxter, who claims to have had a lover from Saturn - a tall, well-built man with a golden beard, she says. There are photos of Howard and Marla on the LP, but none of the tall, well built man with the beard.

Since I don't have the record, you will never learn what the people of Saturn were listening to in 1956, when this record came out. (Presumably it wasn't Elvis.) Sorry!

England's Newest Hitmaker - Vera Lynn

I was amazed to read last week that the top spot on the British album charts was claimed by Dame Vera Lynn, who vaulted to number one over those comparative newcomers, the Beatles. The UK must be in the throes of one of its periodic spasms of nostalgia.

Well, I think it's a wonderful thing, because Dame Vera - still with us at 92 - was a fine singer who managed to be approachable while being artful. Somehow she used her extreme skill as a vocalist to draw us closer, and the catch in her voice was always endearing rather than annoying.

This 1949 LP provides a chance to hear her in some characteristic selections, with backing on most tracks by Robert Farnon, the great arranger (he is called Bob Farnon here). His work is beautifully suited to the vocals, and the greeting-card perfection of the cover could not be more apt, as well.

Now the bad news - I transferred two different pressings of this LP using two turntables and three cartridges and was not able to avoid a certain amount of peak distortion on Dame Vera's voice. It apparently was on the master. Still, I hope you enjoy this as much as Dame Vera must be enjoying her renewed celebrity.

Overtures with Albert Wolff

Albert Wolff was one of those conductors who made fine records, but has no great reputation these days. Of Dutch descent, he was born in Paris and spent much of his career there, conducting the Lamoureux, Pasdeloup and Opéra-Comique orchestras.

Wolff made this LP with the Opéra-Comique orchestra in June 1951. (Actually, even though it says "long playing" on the cover, I think this was what was called a medium-play record in the trade, per our friend Mel - longer than an EP, shorter than an LP.) Decca sent the classic team of John Culshaw and Kenneth Wilkinson to do the recording in the Maison de la Mutualité, and the results are very fine.

Two miscellaneous French overtures aren't usually the kind of thing that attracts me, but Wolff, the Opera-Comique players, and the Decca production team make this a treat.

Hanson and Harris Symphonies

I promised a return to the America Festival Music Series that came from Rochester on Mercury records during the 1950s, so here we go with a notable pairing of symphonies. Howard Hanson and his Eastern-Rochester group present the work most often nominated as the "great American symphony" - Harris' third - with Hanson's own fourth.

The performance of the Harris is less muscular than you might be used to, if you are used to Leonard Bernstein's way with this music. I'm not complaining, just observing - I do prefer this approach. Hanson's symphony, meanwhile, is enjoyably Sibelian.

One of my favorite aspects of the LP (as often happens) is the American Scene-style cover, so appropriate in style if not in content for the Harris work. The cover artist (named Maas) may have been inspired by one of my favorite paintings, John Rogers Cox's Gray and Gold from 1942. (Take a look for yourself.)

The download includes the February 1955 review of this recording from The Gramophone, which observes that "one sometimes feels as though a guiding hand is reaching out to lead us into a particular section of the orchestra." If so, the guiding hand is Hanson's - these performances were recorded with a single microphone.

More from this source soon.

Pérez Prado's First US LP

More Latin music - this time the first US LP of music by bandleader Pérez Prado.

Prado was born in Cuba, but in the late 40s he moved his base of operations to Mexico City, where his version of a new dance called the mambo became wildly popular.

This 1950 US LP compiles 78s that brought Prado fame in Mexico. The back cover says it contains Prado's biggest hit, Qué Rico el Mambo. Not that I can tell, it doesn't.

Anyway, that song was covered by bandleader Sonny Burke (from exotic Scranton, Pennsylvania), and he turned it into a hit under the title Mambo Jambo. That led to major mambo mania in the US.

You can learn more about this convoluted history (including the tale of the two Pérez Prados) on the Pérez Prado Pages. The discography there says that this is Prado's first US LP, and may be his first LP anywhere.

Now - after that painful exposition - what about the music? In a word, it's terrific. The brass screams, the drums jump, and the saxes slurp (displaying clearly the source of Billy May's trademark sound). Two of these numbers feature the superb singer Beny Moré - I think I have an LP by him; may have to break that out. I also have the Sonny Burke Mambo Jambo LP; I may put that one into the queue as well.

If you want to do the mambo yourself, take a look at the lessons on the back cover below. (You are advised to put down the laptop before attempting these steps.) The instructions are by Jerry Wexler, then a writer for Billboard, later a famous producer for Atlantic records.

Vaughan Williams from Cincinnati

This is another request (from our friend Gil, I think) - Vaughan Williams' second symphony, called the London symphony. This is a 1941 recording from the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by Eugene Goossens, reissued on RCA's budget label Camden in the early 1950s.

OK, if it's the Cincy Symphony, why does it say the Cromwell Symphony on the cover? Well, RCA used pseudonyms with all or almost all its early LP reissues on Camden. It's not clear why - although they probably did not want to cannibalize sales from their higher priced line by parading low-cost reprints touting famous names like Stokowski and Koussevitzky. So the Philadelphia Orchestra became the Warwick Symphony, the Boston became the Centennial and so on - and the conductors became anonymous. There is a good site that explains all this, and which is helpful if you come across any of these LPs (of which I have a fair number).

Gil was interested in this recording because it is the only version to use Vaughan Williams' 1920 edition of the score, which contains more music than the final edition, which is the one usually recorded. (Notably, the epilogue is extended.) That's not to say that the timing of this particular recording is longer than others - Goossens does not take the repeat in the scherzo, and is generally quite swift in his tempos. Not that I'm complaining - I love this work, but an urgent approach does it no harm and there is no lack of warmth in the rendition. The sound is good as well.

It remains to be said that this is not the most "complete" version of the symphony out there. The late Richard Hickox and the London Symphony recorded the original (1914) version several years ago, and it does include substantially more music. It's worth seeking out.

REMASTERED VERSION (JUNE 2014)

Vic Damone

Continuing our series of records that feature gigantic disembodied heads on the cover, here we have Vic Damone, his voice and visage, via a circa 1953 Mercury LP.

Vic's titanic tête is overlooking a tender riverside tête-à-tête and a Parisian cafe scene. (The artist must have thought that "amor" is a French word.)

The record recycles a number of singles that Damone made for Mercury in previous years, and it displays some of the typical repertoire being presented on the pop singles of the day. Damone often is in excellent form, notably on the ballad Rosanne and on The Breeze and I.

As a bonus I've added a 1951 single of It's a Long Way (From Your House to My House) entirely because it contains an arrangement by George Siravo, whom we've been featuring in the recent past. (I have to say that the arrangement is too busy for my taste.) The flip side is Calla Calla (that is, Bride Bride), a Yiddish song arranged by George Bassman. This and the Latin items on the LP show how singers and producers were searching for new and different material, which also led them to cover R&B and country songs. One of the latter (Afraid) appears on this LP.

The recording quality for the LP is fair, even though it was pressed on cheap vinyl. The 45 is another story - the sound here is at once dull, disembodied and shrill. I've done my best to compensate.

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Josef Marais

I had a request for music by Marais and Miranda, and while I do not have any records by that early folk duo, I do have this record made by Josef Marais before he met Rosa de Miranda.

The rustic cover image is deceiving. Marais was a well-trained South African violinist who started singing folk songs almost by accident. He had settled in London, and somehow was engaged to record folk songs in Africaans for HMV to sell in South Africa. This led to BBC work, with Marais later moving his base of operations to New York.

Marais made his first recordings for American Decca in 1941; this is a 10-inch LP version of his second set, which dates from shortly thereafter. His popularity was deserved; these songs can be very charming, although I have to say that Siembamba has one of the most bizarre lyrics I have ever heard. "Twist his neck and hit him on the head; throw him in the ditch and he'll be dead!" And this is a lullaby? Pleasant dreams!

[August 2019 update: newly available discographical information shows that Marias' first recordings were in 1939. This set was recorded in 1941.]

If Marching to Pretoria sounds familiar, it was a staple of the Smothers Brothers repertoire. If I remember correctly, it was generally the jumping off point for the folk duo's comedy act.

See this detailed site for more on Marais and Miranda and some of their recordings together.

Chris Connor

The great singer Chris Connor died earlier this week, and this is my small tribute to her. She's been an artist I've liked ever since the day I picked up a remaindered copy of her Atlantic LP Chris In Person almost 40 years ago. My admiration has only grown with preparing this post.

Connor was (as she acknowledged) in the Anita O'Day/June Christy mold - husky voiced and light on the vibrato. But she was nonetheless her own singer - intense, introspective, idiosyncratic, and a master of the art.

This LP is her first, and it is a wonderful example of that artistry, with Connor's approach contrasting beautifully with Ellis Larkins' bright and imaginative pianism. This is inspired work - and if the liner notes are to be believed, Larkins and Connor had never played together before these August 1954 sessions. She had in fact recently departed from the Kenton band and was pleased to leave the blaring brass behind for a trio setting.

Even though Connor and Larkins were not regular associates, that doesn't mean this date was unrehearsed. The songs are carefully worked out - much more so than on most recordings of this type.

I was surprised to see that this album is out of print (or seems to be, although it has been reissued on a number of occasions), so I made a copy of my well-worn original pressing. It's a little noisy, folks, but there is gold amidst the grunge.

If you want to learn more about Connor and read about these sessions in frightening detail, go to the online Chris Connor bio-discography.

Parenthetical note: Chris is singing into two classic microphones on the cover - a Neumann U 47 on the front and in the top photo on the back, and an RCA 44-BX in the lower back photo. You can learn more about these important instruments on the Microphone Home Page, which has a profusion of details and intimate photos that amount to microphone pornography. I can't recall who tipped me to this site, but thanks!

REMASTERED VERSION (JUNE 2014)

Theatre Music by Maurice Jarre

The distinguished film composer Maurice Jarre died recently. Rather than presenting one of his many film scores as a tribute, I've uploaded this LP of incidental music he composed for the stage. The music was for productions of the Théâtre National Populaire, which Jarre served as music director early in his career. The 1950 music for Le Prince de Hombourg, included here, was his first score. 

This record's presentation is exceptionally confusing. The LP has only a few bands and there are no breaks between most of the items. The back of the LP (see below) is opaque about the contents. When combined with my rudimentary command of French, I did have to struggle to figure out the various items. But I think I did straighten them out at last, and have separated the contents into 44 tracks for the download.

The autograph on the back cover below is by Gérard Philipe, a wonderful actor who died very young. Also in the cast are TNP director Jean Vilar, Huguette Forge, Maria Casares, and Monique Chaumette. The singer is André Schlesser. The orchestra is conducted by Serge Baudo.

The sound is good, except for two very brief patches. Hope you enjoy this unusual item - the music is quite worthwhile.

The Naked City

Just to clarify, this "Naked City" is not the 1948 film, it's the television show of a decade later. That was the first incarnation of a trendsetting TV program that later came back on a different network with a somewhat different cast - and different music.

The music here is by George Duning, a solid Hollywood craftsman. The words and narrative are by lyricist Ned Washington. And the spoken narration is by radio actor John McIntyre, who took the leading role in the first season of the police drama.

Those of you who are looking for crime jazz, look elsewhere. This is a solid middle-of-the road effort, and the first voices you hear will be those of Jud Conlon's singers, who were perhaps best known for backing Bing Crosby. They present the title tune along with future teen idol James Darren. This was before Darren hit it big with Gidget, so his name is nowhere to be seen on the cover.

Gritty, this isn't. It is closest in concept to, and appears to have been inspired by, Gordon Jenkins' Manhattan Tower. Radio actor as narrator - check. Story in song - check. Singing lovers - check. Throw in a gangster named Big Harry, and you have The Naked City.

The plot involves Lt. Dan Muldoon (McIntyre) playing guardian angel for a Broadway hopeful voiced by Jo Ann Greer, a band singer and vocal double who is a superb vocalist and the best reason for hearing this record. She is being menaced by Big Harry, and the whole thing ends up in a chase. I suppose that's what is depicted on the cover, although if so, Big Harry must have been the only mobster in New York history to wear Pat Boone-style white bucks.

Naturally, this being the 50s and all, the story ends with the ingenue leaving the big city behind for her cowpoke boyfriend (played by Darren, improbably). "Give me solid food, solitude and you," she tells him. (Not sure what she was being fed in New York; must have been a liquid diet.)

I doubt that this plot came from one of the televised episodes, which were written for the most part by the famous Hollywood screenwriter Stirling Silliphant.

The record is particularly recommended to all the fans of Manhattan Tower and anyone who wants to hear fine singing (by Greer; Darren isn't that good).

REMASTERED VERSION