Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1927-10)

October, 1927 The Phonograph Monthly Review 37 T3ISV who gave us the fine Scratch and Memphis Sprawler a short time ago. The first selection has an ending of actually enchanting tonal beauty; unfortunately both pieces are con- structed rather haphazardly, otherwise they would rival Duke Ellington’s best. Among the less heated records, White- man’s Shakin’ the Blues Away and Maybe it’s You (Victor 20885) will probably prove to be the most popular; both selections are effectively played and of real musical value. In his other releases of the month, Whiteman is far less happy in his performances, giving evidence again of his weakness for invertebrate arrangements—with elects intro- duced for the sheer sake of novelty, never felt as integral parts of the piece. (Victor 20874—Broadway and Manhattan Mary; 20881—Just a Memory and Cheerie Beerie Bee—the last disk is played with a very rich instrumental tone throughout.) Okeh 40871 deserves a lot of the limelight, coupling the happily entitled For No Reason at All in C with Trambology; Tram, Bix, and Eddie hold the field alone in the first side, and the rest of Trumbauer’s orchestra joins in on the second. Needless to say, there is some great sax and guitar playing! Fletcher Henderson and the Five Har- maniacs each offer one of their best records for months: the latter on Brunswick 7002 (Carolina Bound and Sleepy Blues —the latter is a remarkable novelty in very quiets slow, hot jazz!), and the former on Brunswick 3460 (Have it Ready and Stockholm Stomp); Have it Ready has a fine vigorous obstinato running through it and is easily preferable to the coupling. The re-recording of the Popular Songs of Yesterday Med- ley Waltz (Victor 35831—12 inch, $1.25) by the Troubadours proved rather disappointing. The recording and orchestral arrangement are excellent, but the performance is lacking in life, and cannot be compared with that of the old acoustic version. The Troubadours are also heard on Victor 20830 (Paradise Isle and Can’t You Hear Me Say I Love Ypu), and 20848 (Tired Hands—coupled with Jan Garber’s Sixty Seconds). They still play with excellent tone, but hardly up to the standard of earlier releases. More effective is Olsen’s Varsity Drag and Good News (Victor 20875); he also plays two more selections from the same show, Good News, on 20872 (Lucky in Love and The Best Things in Life). His vocal choruses are good, and there is a fine piano solo and conclusion to the Varsity Drag, much more effective than in the Okeh Melodians’ version on Okeh 40876, al- though they too do well. Two Columbia leaders are 1088-D and 1095-D; the former couples Annabelle Lee and Roam on My Little Gypsy Sweetheart, by the Knickerbockers, and the latter, Just Call on Me and Is it Possible, by Leo Reis- man’s Orchestra. In the same class is Ben Selvin’s Oh Doris Where Do You Live and Dew-Dew-Dewey Day on Bruns- wick 3610; his orchestra is very good, but he hardly succeeds in carrying off the comedy “stunts” as well as in the very rowdy version by the Collegians on Okeh 40870 (coupled with the Jazz Pilots’ Gid-Ap Garibaldi, a novelty pastiche on the style of Sa-Lu-Ta, but hardly as enjoyable. Going back to the hot jazz, there is a remarkable Vocalion record by Jimmy Bertrand’s Washboard Wizards (1100— The Blues Stampede and Easy Come Easy Go Blues); the latter piece is virtually a concerto for percussion and the former has a very striking piano part. Cass Hagan and his Park Central Hotel Orchestra now have the scintillant name of Red Nichols added to their roster, but if he played his trumpet in Columbia 1089-D (Broken Hearted and Havana), he had little opportunity to allow his genius to shine, al- though occasional moments in Havana aroused one’s expec- tations, only to disappoint them in the end. The Dixie Washboard’s Cushion Foot Stomp and Anywhere Sweetie Goes on Columbia 14239-D contains some insanely monoto- nous percussive effects, but there is an effective drag to the performance of the Stomp. Fess Williams hardly comes up to his recent releases with Brunswick 3596 (Razor Edge and Number 10), although the ending of the first named selec- tion is in his best manner. Louis Armstrong, too, is disap- pointing in Melancholy Blues and Keyhole Blues (Okeh 8496), but here also there is some atonement made in his hoarse chorus—again almost unbelievably primitive. Reser’s Orchestra is very peppy in Are You Happy? and Justin Ring’s coupling of Roam On is interesting until the vocal chorus ruins its effect (Okeh 40872). One of Shilkret’s best is on Victor 20884; Paree is a rather feeble rehashing of Valencia, but the Here I Come on the reverse has a notable drum obstinato and a splendid piano solo. Sam Lanin also plays Paree on Okeh 40874 to the more interesting coupling of Dancing Tambourine. Three other leaders are Brunswick 3536, Hal Kemp in a very good version of Go Jo Go (note the ending!) and Mary Dear; 3615, Abe Lyman’s Californian Orchestra in Bye Bye and Just Another Day Wasted; and 3576, Joe Green’s Novelty Marimba Orchestra (Down the Lane and Broken Dreams) for those who like their waltzes very, very smooth and in the sentimental tradition. Other Brunswicks to be mentioned are: 3605, Lyman’s Orchestra in Baby Feet and There’s One Little Girl; 3607, Colonial Club in Love and Kisses and Ain’t That a Grand, etc.); 3606, Jules Herbuveaux in I’m Coming Virginia (good, but not up to Trumbauer’s Okeh version) and Meet Me in the Moonlight; 3603, The Six Jumping Jacks as lively as ever in She’s Got “It” and Gonna Get a Girl; 3609, Home- ward Bound and Can’t You Hear by the Regent Club Or- chestra. As always, these are all quite interesting, even when not outstanding; the Brunswick standard continues invari- ably high. Victor’s yet unnamed are: 20847, Jack Crawford in his first Victor releases (Swanee Shore and Who’s That Pertty Baby), strangely nervous and strained performances by a really capable band; 20846, Ted Weems playing Barbara and Annabelle Lee rather tamely; 20833, Garber in Bye Bye and Sweet Marie (with a terrible tenor in the chorus of the former!); and 20837, the Virginians in a fairly interest- ing coupling of It’s a Million to One and Nothing Could be Sweeter—the sequences and ending of the second piece are worth special mention. Ted Weems is heard again one 20892 in Roam On, coupled with the Goodrich Orchestra in Charmaine; both are quite undistinguished. Okeh 40869 couples the Gotham Troubadours’ Million to One with Justin Ring’s Annabelle Lee; 40865 contains the Southern Melody Artists’ rather shrill versions of Carolina Home and I’ll be With You. Paul Ash is hardly up to his usual standard in Columbia 1090-D (Just Once Again and Love and Kisses); the Ipana Troubadours are fair in Are You Happy and Give Me a Night in June, but again a poor chorus is the handicap (Columbia 1098-D); Lombardo’s Royal Canadians are heard in Somebody and Me and I Haven’t Told Her, She Hasn’t Told Me on 1093-D; Eddie Thomas’ Collegians play The Missouri Waltz and Till We Meet Again on 50048-D; and finally comes the powerfully recorded coupling from Harry Reser and His Syncopators, heard in Swanee Shore and Meet Me in the Moonlight, and again the chorus offends! Fortunately, 'there are good choruses sometimes, and yet as a rule it seems that their standard is far below that of the orchestras themselves. Or perhaps it is that they just don’t appeal to RUFUS. The New Music, by George Dyson (152 pp.). The Oxford University Press: London and New York. This is not an “easy” book, but it is an exceedingly meaty one. A note on the wrapper outlines its aim: “Dr. Dyson’s book attempts to analyze the extensions of musical means and the difference of musical aims which have so startled the musical word and give rise to so many schools of opinion. Written with a view to explaining and correlating many hard things, this book is not a technical treatise, though it is lavish of illustration and contains a great deal of detailed informa- tion concerning the processes of modern harmony.” The book is all this, and also much more: it is a revealing and thought- provoking study that stirs one both intellectually and emo- tionally by virtue of its very avoidance of any attempt to stir its readers. Dr. Dyson, a teacher and composer, first issued this book in 1924, but the developments of the intervening years have sub- stantiated rather than discredited any of his conclusions. His style is compact, terse, and muscular; at first it almost wear- ies one by its hammer-like blows upon the mind, but before the end the reader is often laughing in sheer pleasure oyer his ©raftsmanship with words, and the quizzical gusto which is the only humor he allows himself. Never, in all his read- ing, has the present reviewer found a writer on musical topics of greater depths of tolerance and broadmindedness, nor one whom more surely wins both the respect and admiration of his readers. Dr. Dyson is a conservative by nature, but he