RtO didn't find these. Gillian Atkinson at the excellent Document firm in Scotland did. Document has issued a CD of apparently forgotten Edison recordings. Sound samples embedded within the press release, follow link.
" 'Hawaiian Rainbow’ is the latest CD in the Document ASA (American Sound Archives) series featuring previously unissued recordings produced by the Edison Company between the years of 1914-1929. Hawaiian music had been recorded as early as the 1890s but was not especially popular or influential until 1912 when Richard Walton Tully’s Play Bird of Paradise hit the Broadway stage sparking an explosion of interest. Next came the appearance of Keoki Awai's Royal Hawaiian Quartette at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. In late 1915 Victor began issuing Hawaiian discs on a monthly basis. By 1916 all companies, not least Edison, recorded Hawaiian or pseudo-Hawaiian numbers. An article titled "Hawaiian Music Universally Popular," included in the September 1916 issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly, asks, 'Two years ago what did the public know about Hawaiian Music, Ukuleles, Hula Hula Dances? Since then Hawaiian music and American versions of it have taken the United States by storm . . . ' ”
Like most music recorded that early, it seems to have a very quick tempo. Perhaps the musicians were conscious of squeezing all the notes on a short cylinder or disc.
"After Every Party" by the Hilo Serenaders has a vocal by Vernon Dalhart.
Document also is offering a book about Hawaiian guitars that is modestly described as "arguable the most remarkable guitar book ever published."
" 'Palm Trees, Senoritas....And Rocket Ships!' by Mark Makin
" "Palm Trees, Senoritas... and Rocket Ships' is arguably the most remarkable guitar book ever published, it contains the history of National, Valco and Dobro instruments and paraphernalia.
"4 images
"Every illustration of players and instruments was drawn by hand, by the Author, taking over 50 years of research and 10 years to produce. Simply unbelievable, a must have for any guitarist's collection!!! We can’t recommend this enough. Please don’t go to Amazon as the book appears to be 'out of print,' but this is not true."
I have noted before that the Europeans have done a better job of finding and reissuing American recorded music than Americans have. Document was the first publisher I became aware of, but there are others in England and Germany, and probably still more I haven't found.
Showing posts with label found sounds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label found sounds. Show all posts
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Found sounds 13: A mystery chanteuse
It's been a while since I've found a sound worth reporting -- since March 2011 -- but here's a sound with a story, an untold story.
In the 1932 movie "Hot Saturday," an uncredited nightclub singer belts out a wonderful torch song, "I.m Burning for You."
Peter Mintun, a pianist and singer who has hundreds of videos at Youtube, plays it and attributes it as an unpublished piece by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow. So far so good.
Johnston and Coslow are well known. Their best-known collaboration may be "My Old Flame," or perhaps "Pennies from Heaven." They were successful on Broadway and in Hollywood. Johnston, according to the Broadway DataBase (a site originated by my son, he said proudly), was, for example, the arranger for the Marx Brothers hit "The Cocoanuts." Coslow won an Oscar for a short documentary.
But "I'm Burning for You" sank without a trace. The next year, the Production Code came in, which meant that "Hot Saturday" was not seen for about four decades. Today, it is available (along with some other Johnston-Coslow songs for Paramount) on a collection of Pre-Code Hollywood films. A brief search finds no mention of the song on sites related to Johnston or Coslow, and an inventory of Coslow's recordings held at the U. of Wyoming shows no copy of "I'm Burning for You."
Mintun does not indicate where he got "I'm Burning for You" and his performance lacks oomph. (There's another version from him, also without oomph but with better recording.) But the film version packs plenty. Who is that singer?
iMDB asks the question but does not answer it. A number of reviewers, not only me, were strongly impressed by the song.
The singer is a typical club singer of the period, with short, peroxide hair and Mae West gestures (but not Mae's figure). Nor is her orchestra identified. They play a hot chart but it is not obvious whether Paramount hired a Southern California band or put together an outfit for the filming.
The movie, in fact all six movies in the salaciously marketed Pre-Code collection, is tame stuff. It is worth a look, besides the great song, for Cary Grant's wardrobe. He plays a rich layabout who, when not dressed in soup-and-fish, is attired in the 1932 equivalent of resort dress wear. It is the gayest clothing seen on a Hollywood actor at least until "The Day the Fish Came Out," and you'd have to be as handsome as Cary Grant to carry it off.
In the 1932 movie "Hot Saturday," an uncredited nightclub singer belts out a wonderful torch song, "I.m Burning for You."
Peter Mintun, a pianist and singer who has hundreds of videos at Youtube, plays it and attributes it as an unpublished piece by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow. So far so good.
Johnston and Coslow are well known. Their best-known collaboration may be "My Old Flame," or perhaps "Pennies from Heaven." They were successful on Broadway and in Hollywood. Johnston, according to the Broadway DataBase (a site originated by my son, he said proudly), was, for example, the arranger for the Marx Brothers hit "The Cocoanuts." Coslow won an Oscar for a short documentary.
But "I'm Burning for You" sank without a trace. The next year, the Production Code came in, which meant that "Hot Saturday" was not seen for about four decades. Today, it is available (along with some other Johnston-Coslow songs for Paramount) on a collection of Pre-Code Hollywood films. A brief search finds no mention of the song on sites related to Johnston or Coslow, and an inventory of Coslow's recordings held at the U. of Wyoming shows no copy of "I'm Burning for You."
Mintun does not indicate where he got "I'm Burning for You" and his performance lacks oomph. (There's another version from him, also without oomph but with better recording.) But the film version packs plenty. Who is that singer?
iMDB asks the question but does not answer it. A number of reviewers, not only me, were strongly impressed by the song.
The singer is a typical club singer of the period, with short, peroxide hair and Mae West gestures (but not Mae's figure). Nor is her orchestra identified. They play a hot chart but it is not obvious whether Paramount hired a Southern California band or put together an outfit for the filming.
The movie, in fact all six movies in the salaciously marketed Pre-Code collection, is tame stuff. It is worth a look, besides the great song, for Cary Grant's wardrobe. He plays a rich layabout who, when not dressed in soup-and-fish, is attired in the 1932 equivalent of resort dress wear. It is the gayest clothing seen on a Hollywood actor at least until "The Day the Fish Came Out," and you'd have to be as handsome as Cary Grant to carry it off.
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