The Varsity Seven

 Here's another set of jazz records that can't really be considered rare, but which are somewhat obscure. The Varsity Seven was a studio band of all-star jazz players who made two sessions (December, 1939 and January, 1940) for Eli Oberstein's Varsity label. Despite the high quality of the music, these sessions have only been reissued sporadically (on Savoy and other labels) and are not well known.

Oberstein was something of a shady figure in the record business. He worked for Victor Records for a decade beginning in 1929, after which he left to form the United States Record Corporation, whose main labels were Varsity and Royale. Varsity was the discount label, selling for 35 cents per disc, while Royale records sold for the more standard 75 cents. Many of the early Varsity releases were drawn from the catalogs of dormant labels like Paramount, Gennett, and Crown - whether the titles were legally licensed or not.

But Oberstein also wrangled some fairly big pop and jazz names into recording for Varsity, including Harry James and Buddy Clark. Along the way, he recorded The Varsity Seven. I haven't been able to come up with much background information on how these sessions came about, but I assume that they were organized by either Benny Carter or Leonard Feather. Carter was always a reliable choice to organize a casual jazz session, and one of the tunes is his composition. Feather also wrote one of the tunes, and he usually managed to work one of his compositions into record dates that he arranged.

In any case, the band is top-notch and the music is generally excellent. "Easy Rider," from the first session, was selected by George Simon of Metronome magazine as one of the best records of 1940: "Coleman Hawkins' tenor leads an all-star group that hits a fine tempo and boasts of a magnificent vocal by Jeanne Burns and some good Danny Polo clarineting." 

Most contemporary listeners will be less enthralled with Ms. Burns' vocalizing than Simon was. But the mighty blues singer Joe Turner sings on two titles from the second session. And if Jeanne Burns is not really magnificent, the band certainly is. I was particularly impressed with the solo contributions by guitarist Ulysses Livingston, whom I knew as a solid rhythm guitarist, but not as a soloist. 

The great Benny Carter mostly plays his secondary instrument, trumpet, here, only offering an alto saxophone solo on "Scratch My Back." That makes this session another example of what a wonderful trumpet player Carter was. Incidentally, Carter is listed on the labels as "Billy Carton," presumably because he was under contract to the Vocalion label at the time.

So here are a couple of wonderful sessions that reside in that no-man's land of obscurity in which so much classic jazz finds itself. I have presented the music in order of recording.

Benny Carter - trumpet and alto sax

Danny Polo - clarinet

Coleman Hawkins - tenor sax

Joe Sullivan - piano

Ulysses Livingston - guitar, vocal asides (2)

Artie Shapiro - bass

George Wettling - drums

Jeanne Burns (1, 2, 4), Joe Turner (5, 6) - vocals

December 14, 1939, NYC:

It's Tight Like That

Easy Rider

Scratch My Back (Leonard Feather)

Save It, Pretty Mama

January 15, 1940, NYC:

How Long, How Long Blues

Shake It and Break It

A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody

Pom Pom (Benny Carter)

Louis Armstrong in Paris 1934

 It could be argued that no recording by the great Louis Armstrong can really be considered obscure. Most of his records have remained almost continuously in print - reissued over and over again. But some of his recordings have remained elusive, at least comparatively speaking. A latter-day example is the 1967 Brunswick session that produced two singles, including a cover of The Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream." Those two singles have never been issued on an album, as far as I can tell. Speaking for myself, I find the whole session to be a delight, and I'm glad I have the 45s.

Among Armstrong's early recordings, perhaps the most obscure is the session he made for French Brunswick in Paris in 1934. These are Louis' only records between his last Victor session of the 1930s (April, 1933) and the first session for Decca (October, 1935). Without the Paris sides, we'd have a two-and-a-half year gap with no Louis Armstrong records!

The Paris sides have been reissued, in whole or part, quite a few times over the years, but often on obscure labels of questionable legality. In any case, I think it's worth posting this music again. My source is the first U.S. issue of this music: a Vox album from 1947. One of the Vox label's specialties was stateside issues of music recorded in Europe, so the Paris recordings fit that bill perfectly. Unfortunately, Vox pressings are not of the highest quality, and tend to be slightly noisy. And the session is not quite complete - two takes of "St. Louis Blues" survived, but Vox only issued the second take.

The band Louis assembled for a string of European appearances and for this session has few stars, (only pianist Herman Chittison might be worthy of that designation), but it's a fine band for that place and that time. The musicians were from various parts of the world, but were all part of the African diaspora; all were living in Europe at the time. I wonder if Louis felt a special connection to alto saxophonist Peter DuConge, a fellow New Orleanian; at the time DuConge was living in Paris and married to Bricktop, the famous entertainer and saloon owner.

For the record here's the band:

Louis Armstrong - trumpet, vocal; Jack Hamilton, Leslie Thompson - trumpet; Lionel Guimarez - trombone; Peter DuConge - clarinet and alto saxophone; Henry "Hy" Tyree - alto saxophone; Alfred Pratt - tenor saxophone; Herman Chittison - piano; Maceo Jefferson - guitar; German Arago - bass; Ollie Tines - drums

The session took place in the Paris Polydor studio on November 7, 1934. The tracks are presented in the order they appear in the Vox three-disc album rather than the original recording order. "On the Sunny Side of the Street" was originally issued in two parts, filling both sides of the third record; I have joined the two parts into one.

Tiger Rag (also issued as Super Tiger Rag)

St. Louis Blues (take two)

Song of the Vipers

Will You, Won't You Be My Baby?

On the Sunny Side of the Street

The Low Back'd Car is Back

 I have finally repaired the link to the recording of James McCool singing "The Low Back'd Car" from 1905. With this repair, all previously broken links in this blog are now working.

You can take a ride in The Low Back'd Car here.

Bach is Back

 It has taken me a while, but I have made new transfers of the Roth Quartet playing Bach's Art of the Fugue to replace the files lost in a server switch. This blog is now almost completely repaired - all that's left is to make a new transfer of James McCool's "The Low Back'd Car," and I will make sure to do that soon.

Here's the link to Art of the Fugue from 1934.

Bayreuth Festival 1929

 

I have mixed feelings about creating this post. Richard Wagner was a groundbreaking composer; his operas are monumentally impressive creations. He was also anti-semitic, and something of an Aryan nationalist. The composer's name has become inexorably linked to Hitler and the Nazis, to whom Wagner's music was the highest expression of German art and ideals. In one sense, he can't be blamed for that, since he died some 50 years before Hitler came to power. But one has the uncomfortable sense that Wagner would have embraced the Nazi movement had he been around at the time, given some of his writings.

In a sense, Wagner embodies the age-old debate: to what extent can you separate the art from the artist? To the record industry in the early days of electrical recording, there seemed to be no question - Wagner's music represented the epitome of musical art, the most elevated music around. The problem was that the sheer dimensions of the music meant that it really couldn't be adequately captured by the technology of the time. A short Wagner opera runs around two and a half hours, and the longer ones are around four or five hours. Five minutes was the maximum playing time of 12" 78 RPM record side.

So when Columbia issued a mammoth eleven-disc album of Wagner recordings from the 1929 Bayreuth Festival, it was an event. This was the largest album set that Columbia had issued up to that point. The 1929 Columbia catalog included a page of quotes from musicians and critics, praising the recordings. And it is indeed an impressive achievement for its time. One could buy an hour and 15 minutes of well-recorded music by the composer who was considered to be the top of the heap in the classical music world - and for a mere $16.50! Of course, adjusting for inflation, that works out to be about $287 at the time I'm writing this.

Surprisingly, I can't find that these historic recordings have ever been reissued. I may be missing something, but I can't find them anywhere online or on any reissue CDs. So qualms and all, here is Columbia Masterworks Set Number 79, issued in 1929. I have joined all multi-side selections into single tracks. (See the photograph from the catalog for the original pairings and side breaks.) Again, recording quality is generally good, although there are a few moments when the engineers miscalculated, resulting in some distortion. I have used minimal noise reduction, so you will hear some surface noise. All selections are performed by the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra; conductors and additional artists are noted under each title.

Parsifal: Transformation Scene

     Conducted by Karl Muck

Parsifal: Grail Scene

     Conducted by Karl Muck; with chorus

Parsifal: Flower Maidens Scene

    Conducted by Karl Muck; with Flower Maidens and chorus

Parsifal: Prelude, Act 3

    Conducted by Siegfried Wagner

Parsifal: Good Friday Music

    Conducted by Siegfried Wagner; with Alexander Kipnis, bass, and Fritz Wolff, tenor

Siegfried: Forest Murmurs

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin

Siegfried: Prelude, Act 3

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin

Siegfried: Fire Music

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin

Das Rheingold: Entry of the Gods Into Valhalla

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin; with Rhinedaughters

Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries

    Conducted by Franz von Hoesslin; with Valkyries

Rachmaninoff is back....

 I have made new transfers of Rachmaninoff on Edison, playing the Liszt "Second Hungarian Rhapsody" and a Scarlatti "Pastorale," to replace the files lost in  a computer crash. I'm still not satisfied with the quality, but here's the post, for what it's worth:

Rachmaninoff on Edison

Early Jean Moeremans (1899-1901)

 Jean Moeremans was not the first saxophonist to record, but he was the first to make a substantial number of records. Between 1897 and 1899  he made 21 solo recordings for Berliner Gramophone, as well as 14 duets with other instrumentalists or vocalists. He then moved over to the fledgling Victor label in 1900, where he recorded some 25 sides - mostly solo, but including some duet and ensemble recordings. His final Victor discs, recorded in 1904, are not difficult to find, but the Berliners and 1900-1901 Victors are elusive. I'm presenting four of them here

Biographical information on Moeremans is sketchy. He was born in Belgium and emigrated to Canada, probably in the 1880s. Bandleader Patrick Gilmore heard him there and recruited him for his New York-based concert band. After a stint in Gilmore's band, Moeremans became the featured saxophone soloist with the United States Marine Band. He never recorded again after 1904, and his later life is clouded in mystery. He died in 1937 or 1938.

Moeremans' style is seems slightly odd, or at least archaic, by today's standards.  His nearly vibrato-less sound is somewhat bland (as far as we can tell through the haze of the primitive recording techniques), and his phrasing is not particularly distinguished.  But his technical abilities are apparent, and are even more impressive when one realizes that the saxophones of his time had more primitive keywork than modern horns, and that he's doing all that while negotiating double octave keys; the linked octave key mechanism had not been developed when these recordings were made.

Transferring these very early disc records presented several problems, not the least of which was determining the proper playing speed for each disc. The standard of 78 RPM was not widespread until a few years into the 20th century - and even then record speeds did not become reliable until the advent of electrical recording in 1925. Berliners were meant to be played at "about 70 RPM," but that varied a good bit from disc to disc. 1900-1902 Victors were usually recorded at 75 to 76 RPM.

In determining the correct speed for these discs, I used my ear, my knowledge of the saxophone, an electronic tuner, and common sense. I still acknowledge that I could be wrong about some of my conclusions. The "Fantasie on Old Folks at Home" sounds natural to me when played at about 67.5 RPM. At that speed, the piece is pitched in E flat. And in that key, the Moereman plays up to the highest "normal" note on saxophone. If the speed is pushed any higher, Moeremans would have had to utilize the altissimo register of the saxophone,

which he was not known to have used, and which would have been unusual at the time. The other Berliner, "Miserere" from Trovatore, was recorded on the same day, and sounds right at more or less the same speed.

The Victors sound natural at about 75.6 RPM. And again, that puts them into reasonable keys which fit the range of the instruments.

Caveats: The first Berliner, "Fantasie on Old Folks at Home," is pretty worn. For a few seconds at the beginning, there is more noise than music. It quickly improves, though. The other records are in better condition, although they all show their age. The recording is fairly primitive and unstable - you'll hear lots of wavering of pitch. I've used minimal noise reduction and filtering in order to avoid affecting the sound of the instruments. There is some "blasty" distortion in the saxophone sound in "Miserere." 

I have been unable to track down the composer of the "Fantasie for Flute and Saxophone" on Victor Monarch A-462. The last title doesn't feature Moeremans as soloist, but as part of a woodwind ensemble playing Louis Moreau Gottschalk's weepy salon piece "The Last Hope." These are all 7-inch, one-sided records - the standard at the time - with a playing time of about two minutes each.

Berliner 0605: Fantasie on Old Folks at Home by Jean Moeremans; recorded October 13, 1899

Berliner 0582: Miserere, 'Il Trovatore by Jean Moeremans and Frank Badollet (flute); recorded October 13, 1899

Victor Monarch A-462: Fantasie by Jean Moeremans and Frank Badollet (flute); recorded October 26, 1900

Victor A-604: Gottschalk's Last Hope by Moereman's Wood Wind Quartet (flute, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon); recorded January 1, 1901