Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

290 RADIO BROADCAST FEBRUARY, 1928 But the dose must be moderate and we want it palatable. Though we can t seem to get away from the stumbling block of a limited number of current songs which we are forced to hear over and over again, the better orchestras do their best to vary the music as much as possible by the addition of frills in studied orchestration. Those who or- chestrate well can make good music out of mediocre. Take for instance Good News and Lucky in Love as played for Brunswick by Ben Selvin and His Orchestra. Yes, those are the same selections which we frowned on so severely last month. But you would never know they were the same! That is what Selvin orchestration does for a piece. A little trimming here and there by a steel guitar—and the trick is done. The re- sult: a simply grand dance record! This orchestra is versatile, too. In / Could Waltf On Forever it makes the most of the strings, the sax, and the piano. Even that moss- grown favorite, Cheerie-Beerie-Bee, on the reverse, takes on new life under Selvin treatment (Bruns- wick). Play-ground in the Sky from "Sidewalks of New York," being a particularly good number to start with, doesn't need much doctoring and it has very wisely been simply treated by this same orchestra. Incidentally, why haven't we heard this selection oftener? It is swell! Wherever You Are from the same show isn't as good but the most has been made of it (Columbia). The fourth record by this outfit is / Call You, Sugar and Yes She Do (Brunswick). Again trick orchestration. Selvin does this instrumental or- namentation extremely well, making it fit into the general scheme of things instead of letting it stand out like the ball on the Paramount Build- ing, as a lesser light would be apt to do. The result is that the records are not ruined for dancing but are improved. Our old favorite, Ernie Golden, is a past mas- ter at this art of orchestration. He rings the bell again with All By My Ownsome and A Nigbt In June, in which he introduces a steam caliope effect which rs grand! We suggest that he get it patented and use it as a musical trade mark (Brunswick). Don Voorhees has made four recordings on three different discs for Columbia. These four are: Rain, Baby's Blue, Highways Are Happy Ways, and When the Morning Glories Wake Up In The Morning. There is a sort of smooth placidity about this orchestra by which you can always identify it. It never gets excited, it is uniformly good and yet it never seems to climb quite to the topmost heights. However, it has personality and that is a lot in these days. We have named the records in the order in which we rate them, the first being by far the best. Listen to the saxophone. On the opposite side of Baby's Blue is The Calinda by the Radiolites. It is a very good number with an irresistible swing. Not the least attractive feature of the record is the vocal chorus by Scrappy Lambert, of cough drop fame. (Columbia). The Radiolites are responsible for another good dance record, There's A Cradle in Caroline and Everybody Loves My Girl. Neither selection is inspired but each moves along with a smooth rhythm (Columbia). A record that stands out from the rest is Charmaine and Did You Mean It? by Abe Ly- man's California Orchestra. Both numbers are played with a restraint not often displayed by a dance orchestra. Soft pedals and plaintively in- sinuating rhythms are a relief after robust, vigorous jazz (Brunswick). If you have once heard Phil Ohman and Victor Arden stroke, jingle, bang, and otherwise urge on the ivories, you will look forward eagerly to hearing them again. We have and did, and were disappointed by their record for Brunswick, There's Everything Nice About You and Mine. Oh, yes, they are good numbers, well played, but there is too much of the orchestra and too little piano. You can always hear good orchestras but there is only one Ohman and Arden. Two more disappointments were records by Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra and by Vincent Lopez and His Casa Lopez Orchestra. By rights one can expect the best from these two bands. But they both play as if pay day were at least a month away. The records are Miss Annabelle Lee and Swanee Shore by the first outfit and Someday You'll Say "O. K." and Just a Memory by the second. Both are Bruns- wick. Only moderately good are the rest: A Night in June and Are You Happy by the Ipana Trouba- dours (Columbia); Feelin' No Pain and Ida Sweet as Apple Cider by Red Nichols and His Five Pennies (Brunswick); Manhattan Mary and Broadway, both numbers from "Manhattan Mary," by Cass Hagan and His Park Central Hotel Orchestra (Columbia); Like the Wandering Minstrel and Molly Malone, from "The Merry Malones," played by The Cavaliers (Columbia); and No Wonder I'm Happy and Sing Me a Baby Song by the George H. Green Trio (Columbia). Taken all in all all these dance records that we have reviewed form a good collection. Not one of them is really poor. If you are a devotee of Roxy you will welcome three records played in the Roxy Theatre by Lew White, the organist, Broken Hearted and Just Like a Butterfly, When Day is Done and Forgive Me, Underneath The Weeping Willow and At Sundown (Brunswick all). It is all typical movie organ music. Many people object to that sort of thing but we like it when it is well done, as this is. Our preference is for Underneath the Weeping Willow and second choice is Broken Hearted. Neither of these has a vocal chorus and the rest have. Does a vocal chorus go with organ music? The male counterpart of Vaughn De Leath seems to be Vernon Dalhart. He isn't as gushy, for which let us be truly thankful, but the idea is the same. He offers My Mother's Old Red Shawl and Down On The Farm on a Brunswick record. Billy Jones and Ernie Hare, the Happiness Boys, again present us with a little vulgar singing of a nice sort. Well, you know they aren't exactly refined but they are good. This time they have recorded You Can't Walk Back From An Aero- plane and Who's That Pretty Baby? for Columbia. Art Gillham, the Whispering Pianist, hands out the typical vaudeville sob stuff, piano and recitative, in Just Before You Broke My Heart (Columbia). On the other side is / Love You But I Don't Know Why which is moderate. About the only thing to say about Roam On My Little Gypsy Sweetheart and There's A Cradle in Caroline as sung by the Goodrich Silvertown Quartet is that they have been in better shows than this (Columbia). The same might be said of the Anglo-Persians who play Call of the Desert on a Brunswick record. But they redeem themselves by the selection on the reverse side. Down South. We end on a note of praise for the carpet riders. New York Philharmonic Orchestra • Chicago Symphony Orchestra St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Cleveland Symphony Orchestra Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra New Electrical Symphony Orchestra Recordings VICTORY BALL —Fantasy. Parts i and 2 . (Schelling) 1127 Victor VICTORY BALL —Fantasy. Parts 3 and 4 (Schelling) 1128 Victor ARTIST'S LIFE (Strauss) 50096 Brunswick TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS (Strauss) MARCHE SLAVE, Parts i and 2 (Tschaikowsky) 50072 Brunswick MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM —Scherzo (Mendelssohn) 50074 Brunswick MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM —Nocturne (Mendelssohn) WINE, WOMAN AND SONG (Strauss) 6647 Victor SOUTHERN ROSES (Strauss) CARNIVAL OVERTURE, Parts i and 2 (Op. 92) (Dvorak) 6560 Victor IN SPRINGTIME —Overture, Parts I and 2, Op. 36 (Goldmark) 6576 Victor (i.) SERENADE (Volkmann, Op. 63.) (2.) Flight of Bee (Rimsky-Korsakow) 6579 Victor VALSE TRISTE (Sibelius) To A WATER LILY (MacDowell) . 1152 Victor To A WILD ROSE (MacDowell) COUNTRY DANCE, No. i (German) 9009 Victor PASTORAL DANCE, No. 2—Merrymaker's Dance, No. 3 (German) FINGAL'S CAVE — OVERTURE, Parts j and 2 (Mendelssohn) 9013 Victor BLUE DANUBE WALTZ (Strauss) 50052 Brunswick TALES FROM VIENNA WOODS (Strauss) DANSE MACABRE (Saint-Saens) 50089 Brunswick MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR OVERTURE (Nicolai) FINLANDIA (Sibelius) 50053 Brunswick SYMPHONY No. 2 (Brahms) HUNGARIAN DANCE, No. 5, G MINOR (Brahms) 15092 Brunswick VALSE TRISTE (Op. 44) (Sibelius) SLAVONIC DANCE No. 3 (Dvorak) 15091 Brunswick TRAUMEREI (Schumann) 1812 OVERTURE — PARTS i AND 2 (Tschaikowsky) 50090 Brunswick LOHENGRIN: Prelude to Act 3 (Wagner) 15121 Brunswick LOHENGRIN: Wedding Music (Wagner) SLEEPING BEAUTY WALTZ Tschaikowsky 15120 Brunswick SONG OF INDIA (Rimsky-Korsakow) COPPELIA BALLET —Prelude and Mazurka (Delibes) 50087 Brunswick DERNIER SOMMEII. DE LA VIERGE (Massenet) DER FREISCHUTZ, OVERTURE, Parts i and 2 (Weber) 50088 Brunswick MELODRAMA FROM " PICCILINO" (Guiraud) 15117 Brunswick WAIATA Poi (Hill)