What are you listening to?

[LizzieMaine]

September 7, 1942: a Labor Day address over CBS by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins on the important of total victory for the working people of the world -- making work at top speed, maximum efficiency and maximum safety vital for all. I guess I better stop using old milk crates for a stepladder.

 

[ThesFlishThngs]

My husband try to master the one-handed surgical knot via youtube, after half a big bottle of white wine. But his Welsh accent is still charming........

 

[Alex Oviatt]

Just tuned in to a broadcast by KUSC of a concerto for trombone composed for Tommy Dorsey. Only ever played Carnegie Hall, the Hoolywood Bowl and then KUSC. Great stuff!

 

[funneman]

Charlie Parker

 

[Fletch]

Just tuned in to a broadcast by KUSC of a concerto for trombone composed for Tommy Dorsey. Only ever played Carnegie Hall, the Hoolywood Bowl and then KUSC. Great stuff!

Is it the Nathaniel Shilkret concerto? I seem to remember WNYC, years ago, playing a 'check they had from 1943. Whether it was from Carnegie, tho, I can't recall. Interesting piece - showed TD's tone and technique well.

As for me, I've stumbled onto a neat-o clip...George Hall and the Hotel Taft Orchestra in 1936, playing the one hot number every sweet band had in the book: Swamp Fire.
[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BXUXhhujLZQ&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BXUXhhujLZQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]
Sartorialists please note Maestro Hall's unusual semi-shirred back.
He had once been a men's clothing buyer before turning to show biz.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Excellent clip -- I'm a big fan of George Hall, who always looked to me like he was born to lead a "businessman's bounce" orchestra. He's the Great Gildersleeve of bandleaders.

I'm fending off a chronic headache with my favorite Fats Waller and his Rhythm side, from 1934 -- "Boy, what's the matter with you! Aw, ever'thing! My wife run off with the iceman, my daughter done run off with the undertaker! An' I'm 'bout to die, an' ain't got nobody to bury me! Son -- Don't Let It Bother You!"

If that doesn't cure the headache, nothing will.

 

[Shangas]

The Chords - "Sh-Boom!" (Life Could be a Dream).

 

[Antje]

Blue tatoo, Marti Brom

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Round Midnight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOm17yw__6U&feature=related

 

[chanteuseCarey]

"Its The Girl" performed by the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra (RSJO), vocal by Frederick Hodges www.frederickhodges.com , this is a video taken at last year's Art Deco Society of Northern California (ADSC) Gatsby Summer Afternoon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIzQPtIwvQk&feature=related
We're sooo looking forward to this year's Gatsby on 9/13!

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We have had the privilege of having gotten to know and become friends with Mr. Hodges- an amazingly talented ragtime and deco pianist and vocalist, over the last several months, since he played with the California Pops Orchestra in Feb 09. He was the one that told me about the ADSC's Yosemite Heritage Holidays. That was the start of our family's foray and adventure into vintage clothing! What a wonderful time we're having and I have him to thank for it. If you want a real musical treat, check out his YouTube videos- there are some 200+ of them!

 

[Fletch]

Fun video, Carey...thanks for posting it! I always enjoy the RS - to me they are a "real world" vintage band, with a crisper sound and a more relaxed beat that make them danceable, approachable and fun.

 

[HadleyH]

"Its The Girl" performed by the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra (RSJO), vocal by Frederick Hodges

That's a nice version! :eusa_clap
Love that song!!!!!!!!!


And here is the 1931 "It's the Girl" with Freddie Rich!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1UsdtrcnkE

 

[Fletch]

Something to ponder...then vs now

You know Hadley, as much as you and I love the Rich version, I wonder whether present day dancers - and musicians - might not prefer Neely & Hodges', and find it more satisfying and accessible.

The recording quality is what their ears are used to. The instruments would sound professional to modern players, with less vibrato in the ensemble. The rhythmic feel is not so clipped, a little closer to swing. And Freddy's vocal is hiply square - you know it's done as an homage, with just a bit of irony.

Let's face it: this once-popular music isn't popular anymore. No music can exist without an audience. Today's interest in the dance band sound is a secondary passion, coming out of people's love of movies, musical theater, or dancing. (I myself came to it thru jazz, which very few people do.) That extra bit of distance, that ironic flair, may be necessary for it to stay fun, fresh and alive to them.

Or it may not...what do people think?

 

[Carlisle Blues]

You know Hadley, as much as you and I love the Rich version, I wonder whether present day dancers - and musicians - might not prefer Neely & Hodges', and find it more satisfying and accessible.

The recording quality is what their ears are used to. The instruments would sound professional to modern players, with less vibrato in the ensemble. The rhythmic feel is not so clipped, a little closer to swing. And Freddy's vocal is hiply square - you know it's done as an homage, with just a bit of irony.

Let's face it: this once-popular music isn't popular anymore. No music can exist without an audience. Today's interest in the dance band sound is a secondary passion, coming out of people's love of movies, musical theater, or dancing. (I myself came to it thru jazz, which very few people do.) That extra bit of distance, that ironic flair, may be necessary for it to stay fun, fresh and alive to them.

Or it may not...what do people think?

Fletch I appreciate both versions. The first for originality the second for the ingenuity involved in the interpretation.

To my ear and my soul an original flows from the very essence of the composer.

When I interpret a song I always go back to the original if possible then perform it. If there are other versions available I listen for the differences.

There is no substitute for musical instruments that were popular when those originals were made. Today we have to make due with what is available. Unfortunately, in some instances the instruments are synthesized and they sound like a tinny version of the original.

For me the real loss is having played orchestral instruments my entire life.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Let's face it: this once-popular music isn't popular anymore. No music can exist without an audience. Today's interest in the dance band sound is a secondary passion, coming out of people's love of movies, musical theater, or dancing. (I myself came to it thru jazz, which very few people do.) That extra bit of distance, that ironic flair, may be necessary for it to stay fun, fresh and alive to them.

Or it may not...what do people think?

It may well be true for people who've come to vintage music secondarily -- especially the CD/digital generation, who only know vintage recordings as pickled noise-reductioned restorations. By comparison to a modern recording, they're doomed to sound remote and foreign.

I've been listening to vintage music since childhood -- we never listened to rock or other contemporary music in our house when I was growing up, and I never developed any interest in it. My mother's tastes leaned more toward Lawrence Welk and Billy Vaughn and Sammy Kaye than to anything modern coming out of the sixties, and the only records my grandparents owned were 78s. So to me, that was what music sounded like, and I always found "modern" recordings to be -- not comforting, if that makes sense. They're *too* realistic, too in-your-face for me, and the whole "ironic take" thing really puts me off, because I can't stand the whole hipper-than-thou air-quotes-around-everything attitude that goes along with it. Jump on the bandwagon, follow the fad, and then on to the next thing.

There are exceptions. I enjoy Vince Giordano's stuff very much, because he seems to really respect the music -- it isn't just an excuse to pose and smirk. If he'd put out some stuff on 78, now, I could get behind that!

 

[Fletch]

My gosh, you really ARE the anti-Susan Sontag. You must still be thinking "camp" is something you do with tents and Coleman lanterns.

If my opinion matters a damn, tho, your musical upbringing was as "atypically atypical" as mine, or Vince's (whom I know pretty well). So it's not surprising you can hear thru the lack of pose, camp and irony in the old recordings. I actually find that lack refreshing, myself.

But you and I and those like us are not the modern audience for this music, original or reproduction. For most all of those "typically atypical" listeners, unless it's by a critically acclaimed jazz artist (like Fats Waller), it's a form of theater. Jazz is an art form - so is theater. We lack the language or the context to really appreciate obsolete pop music as music without having to give the nod to a lot of out and out garbage. So it's going to appeal most to people who love it for its theatricality, and don't have much feel for its musicality. As the eggheads would say, they control the discourse - to the extent there is any.

I don't know that they'll prefer the repro to the original, but I feel pretty sure that the number of people listening to the old stuff for what it is isn't likely to grow with time. The ways you can discover it are too limited - if not technologically anymore, then culturally. You are very unlikely to hear it, as it were, thru your own ear.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Enjoying the Sweet and Hot podcast; it's the tribute to Count Basie

 

[HadleyH]

You know Hadley, as much as you and I love the Rich version, I wonder whether present day dancers - and musicians - might not prefer Neely & Hodges', and find it more satisfying and accessible.

There is not one iota of doubt in my mind that present day dancers ,musicians and listeners in general prefer the "new" recordings, of course they do! (I'm only refering here to songs that are supposed to sound like if it they were from the 20s and 30s I'm not refering to remades with a more contemporary sound like the ones by Rod Stewart for example, which I find excellent)

But then Fletch, for me, at least,the charm of old recordings lies in the fact that the rythm is clipped and the vocals are soulful and the music sounds the way it sounds ... you know what i mean....

The new sanitized versions are not for me, let them others have them. I want the real McCoy that is what really gives me pleasure, that is what I like best and ultimately that is what brings me closer to a long gone era that I love so much.

 

[Michael Conwill]

The Andrews Sisters do burlesque

You have to check out the Puppini Sisters - it's like real 40's swing with a burlesque twist. Great sounds and amazing style too!

http://www.thepuppinisisters.com/

 

[Shangas]

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - "Cotton Club Swing".