Morton Gould, 1932--Bolero; Satirical Dance

The man could play the piano. Ripped from my 78 copy.

Click here to hear: Morton Gould, 1932


BOLERO (Ravel)--Morton Gould, piano (1932).
SATIRICAL DANCE (From "Three Conservative Sketches"--M. Gould)--Same.


Lee

A Savio festival; Gutter down; Icicles

"Fuzzy Wuzzy Rag," "The Snaky Blues" (1917)

I left more of a low end in my EQ (always wanted to type that), which was necessary to get any kind of decent sound from these. My budget pre-amp has a single 78 rpm curve, and so I have to tweak around that wherever compatibility issues arise.

I bought this 78 with the hopes of getting a better-sounding file than the one achieved by the Memphis Archives label (W.C. Handy's Memphis Blues Band, MA 7006; 1994), but it wasn't as easy as I thought. I did this EQ in layers, pushing out the low end by degrees. The Memphis Archives restoration has astonishing bass response, though at the expense of the overall balance, and with a good deal of surface rumble. 78 restoration is often a choice between tolerably bad and over the top bad, with the former sounding, by comparison, pretty darn good.

Musically, Snaky Blues is a genuine twelve-bar blues, at least for the first strain. Meanwhile, Fuzzy Wuzzy Rag is a blatant rip-off of Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. Great fun, though, and the performance is brilliant.



Fuzzy Wuzzy Rag (Morton)--Handy's Orch. (Columbia A-2421; 1917)

The Snaky Blues (Nash)--Handy's Orch. (Columbia A-2421; 1917)


Lee

Sunday morning gospel--The Blackwood Brothers Quartet: On Stage! (1963)

Performing live in 1963 at Municipal Auditorium, Long Beach, California, are lead James Blackwood, tenor Bill Shaw, baritone Cecil Blackwood, and bass J.D. Sumner, all accompanied by Wally Varner. I gave each tune its own individual track (with a quick fade-out at the end of each), though on the LP things move without a break. Otherwise, every is as-is. (I've always wanted to type "is as-is.")

To the LP: The Blackwood Brothers Quartet--On Stage! (RCA LSP-2646; 1963)

TRACKLIST

I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MY LORD
IT DON'T MEAN A THING
WAIT A WHILE
OLD TIME RELIGION SONG
LORD, TEACH ME HOW TO PRAY
HE MEANS ALL THE WORLD TO ME
I WILL SEE HIM THERE
CAMP MEETIN' TIME
I NEVER KNEW TILL NOW
FROM NOW ON
HE'LL SEE YOU THROUGH
SOMEBODY LOVES ME

(RCA LSP-2646; 1963)


Lee