Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1927-11)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 75 November, 1927 •<*3l i Happy on 3635; Chestor Gaylord sings Dew-Dew-Dewy Day and You Don’t Like It on 3613; A1 Bernard is heard in Casey Jones and Steamboat Bill on 178; and Vernon Dal- hart is back again on 142 with My Mother’s Old Red Shawl and Down on the Farm. More outstanding than these just mentioned is the current release of the saxophone maestro, Rudy Wiedoeft (3395—In the Orient and Sax-o-trix) ; nor is Frederick Fradkin’s regular issue far behind (3621—One Summer Night and Just Another Day Wasted). Frank Sylvano, tenor, is heard on 3638 in Just Once Again and a Night in June; the McClung Brothers sing of Liza Jane and Chicken on 135; A1 Hopkin’s Buckle Busters fiddle the Nine Pound Hammer and C. C. & O. No. 558 on 177; and the Old Southern Sacred Singers are heard on 166 in On- ward Christian Soldiers and Goin’ Down to the Valley—the last-named, to be frank, is characteristic of “Southern” records at their worst. Nick Lucas sings Sweet Someone and I Can’t Believe that You’re In Love With Me (3614) ; Prince Piotti is heard in Just Another Day Wasted Away and I May Learn to Forget Someday (3624) ; and finally conies Lew White again, to complete his organ triology for the month with 3591 (Forgive me and When Day is Done). From Columbia conies a coupling of Sing Me a Baby Song and No Wonder I’m Happy, played by the George H. Green Trio with choruses by Vaughn de Leath (1118-D) ; the South Sea Islanders hawaiianize on 1111-D the Song of Hawaii and the Hula Medley; the Artist Ensemble resur- rects ’Tis the Last Rose of Summer and Silver Threads Among the Gold (1115-D) ; and Ruth Etting couples the popular Ziegfeld Follies hits, Shaking the Blues Away and It All Belongs to Me (1113-D). The monthly release from Art Gillham (whispering pianist) and his Southland Synco- pators is 1116-D, (I’d Walk a Million Miles and Flutter By Butterfly—a tongue-twisting title for sure) ; Franklyn Baur’s offering is 1119-D with Charmaine and the Far Away Bells coupled; Vernon Dalhart’s is 15181-D (Golden Slip- pers and When the Moon Shines Down). Arthur Tanner is heard alone on one side of 15180-D in Two Little Chil- dren, and with his Cornshuckers on the other, in Shack No. 9; Hugh Cross (a new and exclusive Columbia Southern artist) makes his debut with the happily-titled The Parlor is a Pleasant Place to Sit In Sunday Night (coupled with I’m Going Away from the Cotton Fields—15182-D) ; Bar- becue Bob is heard on 14246-D (Honey You Don’t Know My Mind and Poor Boy A long Ways from Home) ; and the Jubilee Singers, on 14245-D (I Will Ever Stand and .0 Lord Have Mercy!). 1132-D is by Kate Smith, heard in Clementine and Just Another Day Wasted Away; 1122-D, by Little Jack Little in Who is Your Who? and Annabelle Lee; 1130-D, Seeger Ellis in Kiss and Make Up and Broken- Hearted; 1127-D, Smeck and Kahn in novelty banjo selec- tions, Banjokes and the Ghost of the Banjo; 15185-D, Riley Puckett in Alabama Gal and Fire on the Mountain. Benny Borg (the singing soldier) digs up two old-timers for 15183-D (Pictures from Life’s Other Side and a Concert Hall on the Bowery) ; Charlie Poole plays Sunset March and Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down on the banjo on 15184- D ; Martha Copeland sings of Hobo Bill and of the sad fact that Nobody Rocks Me Like My Baby Do (14248-D) ; and the Chattahoochee Valley Choir couples Hand Me Down the Silver Trumpet Gabriel and King Jesus is Listening (14249-D) Charles Kaley emerges after an absence of a month or two with Moonlit Waters and the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi on 1139-D; Kitty O’Connor girl-baritones Dream Kisses and Ml*. Aeroplane Man on 1140-D; the Happiness Boys put in a strong bid for the best title contest with You Can’t Walk Back From an Aeroplane So What Are You Girls Gonna Do? (coupled with Who’s that Pretty Baby on 1141- D) ; the Goodrich Silvertown Quartet is heard on 1142- D in There’s a Cradle in Caroline and Roam On. Among the Southern and Race records in this group are 15188-D (Drink ’Er Down and Darktown Strutters Ball, by Gid Tanner’s Skillett-Lickers); 15187-D (Burnett and Ruth- erford duetizing My Sweetheart in Tennessee and Are You Happy or Lonesome?); 15186-D (Walter Morris’s In the Time of Long Ago and Mother’s Face I long to See—the latter is aptly described as a “right good home ballad”; 14251-D (the Nugrape Twins in Pray Children and The Road is Rough and Rocky) ; 14250-D (Bessie Smith singing the Mean Old Bed Bug Blues and A Good Man is Hard to Find) ; and finally the leader of the group, 14252-D (Don’t You Want That Stone and King Jesus is My Captain, sung by the Birmingham Jubilee Singers. From Vocalion comes one of the finest Negro choral rec- ords heard for many a day: the Swanee Jubilee Singers heard in two remarkable songs by Porter Grainger, My Good Lord’s Done Been Here, and I’ve Opened My Soul To You Oh Lord (Vocalion 1066), accompanied by the com- poser. A most unusual record. The McGee Brothers sing of Ragged Jim and Rufus Blossom on 5170; Uncle Dave Macon is heard on 5172 (More Like Your Dad Every Day and You’ve Been a Friend to Me) ; Areu and Guzman bring out parts 3 and 4 of their Battalia Del 5 de Mayo de 1862 (8105); Phil Worth sings the Song of the Wanderer and You’re the One for- Me on 15598; Uncle Dave Macon, as- sisted this time by his Fruit-Jar Drinkers in the enigmati- cally named coupling of Walk Tom Wilson Walk and Hop High Ladies, the Cake’s All Dough (5154) ; Blind Joe Tag- gart sings of the Storm Passing Over and God’s Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares (1123); finally comes Luella Miller, singing the Triflin’ Man Blues and Jackson’s Blues on 1103. Victor 35841-2 (Italian list—2 D12s, $1.25 each) Bizet Carmen—Selection, played by Creatore and his Band. Creatore knows the value of a well-built climax in rec- ord releases as well as in his performances. This four-part Carmen Selection comes inevitably as the peak of his great operatic series; the best, from an all-round point of view, perhaps, of his many great band recordings. On account of the nature of the music, this set should have even greater popularity than the Italian operatic selections and fantasies. The Prelude to Act I is taken at a pace slightly slower than the usual break-neck speed of most concert performances, but the piece profits in consequence. If you never liked band records before, do not condemn them until you have heard Creatore at his best, and he most surely is here. It might not be amiss to mention here (sotto voce), that it is in his records that Creatore shows to best advantage. A recent concert engagement on the stage of a Boston movie palace proved again the veteran enthusiasts’ conten- tion that disillusionment often awaits one in the concert hall, whereas a proved record never disappoints or dis- heartens. Creatore himself is of the florid school of con- ductors, with a penchant for graceful little sallies to and fro from the conductor’s stand into the band and return. He covers a great deal of ground in the course of a few numbers, but one’s attention on the music is not greatly intensified thereby! The band numbers well oyer forty and gives ample evidence of the marvellous drilling to which Creatore has subjected it. Yet the total effect—musical and otherwise—is never that of the recordings. Creatore’s re- markable talents are less obfuscated on the disks, and one’s enjoyment from them is more unadulterated than when the maestro “himself” and his men are present “in person.” Another triumph for the phonograph! Brunswick 3539 (D10, 75c) Pride of the Wolverines and Gridiron Club Marches, played by Walter Rogers and his Band. Pride of the Wolverines is a great march, but it is not within Mr. Rogers’ grasp yet,—nor—from the evidence of this and several earlier records—will it be for. a long time. His talents must lie in other directions: all his records so far are but mediocre at their best. One of the best bids for popularity this month is made by the Anglo-Persians in their current Brunswick release of Dancing Tambourine (coupled with a Siren Dream on 3655), played in a highly virtuoso style that will appeal particularly to those to whom hot jazz is anathema. The