Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 5 (1931-02)

166 The Phonograph Monthly Review POPULAR Dietrich B Y this time “Morocco” and the English version of “The Blue Angel” have introduced the latest triumph of the talking films— Marlene Dietrich —to these states where it seems inevitable that she will duplicate her European success. Small wonder, for here is a personality and voice of unusual and vivid qualities. Records have a way of show- ing up the vocal deficiencies of many film stars, unhappily divorced from their physical presences, but Dietrich, with her amazingly flexible voice and varied registers, gets her per- sonality across scarcely less brilliantly on discs than on the screen. Victor shrewdly rushes out her first American record release, English versions of hits from “The Blue Angel”— Falling in Love Again and Naughty Lola (22593,) the for- mer one of the song hits of the season, and the latter a piquant and vivacious bit that fits La Dietrich, to a “T”. Despite the disc’s merits, however, and the fact that it was also recorded in Europe, it compares unfavorably with the superlatively effective German versions of these two songs and two others from the same film, issued earlier by Victor in its German list—Nos. V-6083 and V-6083. In the German versions Dietrich sings with greater gusto—although her Eng- lish is quite competent,—the recording is more spacious, and the accompanying orchestra much more brilliant. The Eng- lish disc is recommended, but those who want to hear Deit- rich at her inimitable best will find it very much worth their while to hunt up the German recordings. Vocal Ensembles The Rollickers desert the popular song field temporarily to tackle Rachmaninoff’s In the Silence of the Night (Colum- bia 2353-D 1 ). They are a trifle over-serious, but otherwise quite effective. They seem more at home, however, in the more sentimental ballad, The Dawn Brought Me Love and You. For Brunswick the Foursome does a nice piece of work with Gershwin’s clever Bidin* My Time and a very peppy Walking My Baby Back Home (4996). Instrumentals Quentin M. MacLean is the most ambitious of the in- strumentalists this month, playing an ultra-expressive theatre- organ transcription of Ketelbey’s honeyed morceau—the Sacred Hour Reverie. It is well recorded, but marred by the introduction of an ineffectual male chorus (Columbia 2360-D). Brunswick lists the faithful Palikko and Paaluhi, augmenting their enormous Hawaiian repertory with Cielto Lindo and La Golodrina (6001), and—for greater novelty— Harry Reser, the Segovia of the banjo, in a very snappy bit of original vir- tuosity entitled Cracker Jick, coupled with a more restrained nola, Flapperette (4991). Warblers I like best Frank Crumit, temporarily deserting his usual ballad and nonsense song material to sing commendably un- pretentious and unexaggerated versions of Three Little Words and I Miss a Little Miss (Victor 22579). Close behind is Seger Ellis with an animated version Cheerful Little Earful coupled with .a slower and less effective I Miss a Little Miss (Columbia 2362-D). On Okeh 41473 his performance of both Three Little Words and I Miss a Little Miss is so slow as to lose much of the song’s character. Lee Morse is heard from on two doubles, You’re Driving Me Crazy and He’s My Secret Passion (Columbia 2348-D), The Little Things in Life and Tears (2365-D)—all well recorded and clearly sung, but with the throbbing tearful Voice Miss Morse has lately af- fected and which becomes her and the songs far less well than her old-time light-heartedness and zest. Art Gillham is characteristically saccharine in Gazing at the Stars and To Whom it May Concern (Columbia 2349-D); Georgie Price is Jolsonishly big-voiced and affected in Mender of Broken Dreams and Song of the Fool (Brunswick 4997); and Lewis James is over-emphatic and forcible in his ringing versions of Little Things in Life and Under the Spell of Your Kiss (Victor 22594). Sandy and Davey The old tradition of Scotch comedy and song would be in total eclipse this year if it were not for the indefatigable ef- forts of Sandy MacFarlane, who beats the old Scotch masters at their own game. His lilting invitation to a Boston girl to come Where the Blue Bell Grows and the more sentimen- tal, but never too lush, invocation to Scotland, Bonnie Scot- land, are characteristic examples of his well-turned writing and singing. The little speech that introduces the latter song is noteworthy for its modesty, a rare quality in recorded announcements (Columbia 2355-D). Davey Lee, of Sonny Boy fame, is heard on a special Brunswick release that should be popular among Davey juvenile public—I’ve Lost My Dog and Davey Lee and his dog Tatters (Brunswick 4986). Davey appears perfectly unaffected before the microphone, recounts his little stories and sings his songs with an ease and sim- plicity that might be envied by many older and more ex- perienced recording artists. Southern The best Southern tunes of the month are the rollicking ballad versions of Abraham and I’m Gettin’ Ready to Go, sung and accompanied with infectious glee by the Phil Crow Trio on Victor 23504 and by Phil Crow, Robinson and Luther on Columbia 15627-D. The best of the sketches is the rustic Debate on Prohibition by McMichen, Puckett, Stokes, et al, on Columbia 15632-D. The yodelers are represented by Jimmy Rodgers in the eighth edition of his Blue Yodel and a new Mean Mamma Blues (Victor 23503). The balladists carry on in the person of Bud Billings, telling of the Fate of the Fleagle Gang and He Was Once Some Mother’s Boy (Victor 23500), and George White in dulcet versions of Mak- ing Little Ones from Big Ones and I ‘Am Just a Gambler (Okeh 45502). Sentimental songs are sung by McFarland and Gardner-, happy revivals of Hello Central, Give Me Heaven and On the Banks of the Wabash (Brunswick 479), and less striking fare on Brunswick 492 and 483. The best instru- mental discs are Okeh 45501—accordion solos by Bobby Greg- ory, and Brunswick 480-—Pop Goes the Weasel and Chicken Reel by the Kessinger Brothers. Unclassifiable is Stuart Hamblen (“Cowboy Joe”) in nostalgic songs of Hawaii with a prairie flavor (Victor V-40306). DANCE Concert Orchestras R ED Nichols and his concert orchestra, featuring the famous Five Pennies, are given good opportunity to strut their stuff in elaborate versions of Sally Won’t You Please Come Home and It Had To Be You (Brunswick 20092). I like best the quasi-primitive vocal chorus in the former piece, the symphonic introductions, the well varied treatment and changes in pace, and the occasional scherzo- like interludes. Less striking are the Brunswick Salon Or- chestra in Little Grey Home in the Wiest and the Anglo-Per- sians in My Little Persian Rose (Brunswick 6005). The playing on both sides is ultra-songful, although there is rhyth- mic relief in the latter piece. Foreign Sauces Victor seems to make a specialty of dance music with for- eign flavors. Following up the sensational success of The Peanut Vendor it brings out a new Cuban coupling this time by the Havana Novelty Orchestra, heard in Lady Play Your Mandolin and Oh Mama!, both Rumba fox-trots (22597). The former will surely be a best-seller, an extremely attrac- tive tune, seductively rhythmed. The latter performance is the more interesting, however, by virtue of rough and vig- orous treatment, in which the fine rhythmic pulse of the playing is embroidered by wild cries and whinnies, both vocal and instrumental. Going northward, French-Canadian sauces are found in Harold Leonard’s catchy coupling of En Roul- ant ma Boule and Alouette, the latter with choruses in French and English,—jaunty folk tunes done in bright and dance-