Danby and the Sparrows’ Nest – Historic Rotherhithe Organ – Nicholas Danby (1960-1970)

Two organ pieces by English composers of different eras. If you like the sound of an eighteenth-century English organ untainted by German influence, this will be your sort of thing.

Gramophone, again, is quite helpful here:

Noel Mander’s sympathetic restoration ten years ago in no way changed its tonal qualities, and it remains an instrument of great historic interest and beauty. The trumpet is quite as good as any continental reeds of the period, although completely English in treatment; the cremona has an authentic krummhorn flavour. The diapason chorus is wonderfully full, clear and ringing, and Cecil Clutton believes it to be one of the finest to be heard in London. The cornet is a splendid specimen: a five rank solo stop consisting of a stopped eight-foot rank, principal twelfth, fifteenth and seventeenth, with a compass from middle C upwards.

Oh, OK, that meant almost nothing to me, but here is one detail that does: if you listen carefully, in the quieter passages of the Fantasia you can hear the tweeting of nesting sparrows. These sparrows were immune to the efforts of the recording engineers, and so remain a part of this recording, as they should.

Fantasia for Double Organ (Orlando Gibbons) (1583-1625)

Air & Gavotte (Samuel Wesley) (1766-1873)

The Voice of the Iron Lady

After watching The Iron Lady, about which I suppose my feelings are about as mixed as they are about Thatcher herself, I was almost entirely consumed by one conviction: that hers is the most recognisable voice ever in British politics (no doubt partly because she is still probably the most discussed – and most polarising – woman in the Western world).

During the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, Wendy Richard
was a frequent and conspicuous supporter of Thatcher's policies and accomplishments.

So it’s no surprise that the scene that most intrigued me is a relatively minor one where she undergoes vocal training to ‘feminise’ her voice. Now, I’ve read that a recording of one such session used to be in circulation among journos, but I’ve never heard it. Here’s an illustration of the difference. According to Max Atkinson (in Our Masters’ Voices)

She achieved a reduction in pitch of 46 Hz, a figure which is almost half the average difference in pitch between male and female voices.

One record that made excellent use of Thatcher’s distinctive voice was this Pete Harman-produced tune from 1991, which apparently reached No. 10 in the 12” charts (sounds apocryphal to me, but I’m sure I could find out if I could be bothered).

Maggie’s Last Party – V.I.M.

I had a go at doing a mix using an interview with her myself. It’s a dystopian tale that also features little Prince and the theme from Are You Being Served? You can listen to it here.

Timbre! Unusual Instrumentation Playlist - Vol. I

Timbre, as Frank Zappa says in the Real Frank Zappa Book, is everything. But it’s also confusing. To a Westerner, the sitar eternally signifies the mysterious allure of the East, while – as Talvin Singh once pointed out – ‘in Bombay, an electric guitar is exotic’. Why is this?

ABOVE: A rare and dangerous example of the urethra flute.

This playlist argues that context, rather than the instrument itself, is the key. I hope to demonstrate this by putting fifteen instruments in an unexpected context.

It’s a playlist that plunges into the world of exotic tones with a banjo in one hand and an ocarina in the other, and comes out the other side with a sore head, yodelling.

It would be doing the merely obvious
to include such gimmicky instruments
as the trapezoidal harp (ABOVE).

I have deliberately steered clear of the more familiar examples of instruments being used in an unusual context. Much as I love the sitar on the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood, or Jethro Tull’s use of rock flute, and the whole of the Tubular Bells album, I’m looking here for juxtapositions of timbre that still have the power to surprise.

I hope you find yourself marvelling at the sound of a violin screeching across a dub track, or a sousaphone powering an rock tune, as much as I did.

Jungle Flute – Don Tracy & the Voodoo Family

Flute

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(Dance to the Music of) The Ocarina – Irving Berlin

Ocarina

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The Twisted Nerve – Bernard Hermann

Harp

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Jan Pahechan ho – Mohammed Rafi

Electric guitar

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Got a Match – Frank Gallop

Harpsichord

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I Touch Myself – Rolf Harris

Wobble board

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A Day In The Life – The Koto Ensemble

Koto

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K.G.’s Half Way Tree – Augustus Pablo & The Simplicity People

Violin

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Yaman (The Colonel’s Lady) – The Indo-British Ensemble

Sitar

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Donna Lee – Tom Slavicek

Banjo

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Prodigy Medley – The Banana Sessions

Sousaphone

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Take Five – Cayman Islands Steel Pan Jazz Trio

Steel pans

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Bag’s Groove – Leon Thomas

The yodel

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Oboe Mambo – Machito And His Afro-Cuban Orchestra

Oboe

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It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ’N’ Roll) – AC/DC

Bagpipes

Timbre! Unusual Instrumentation Podcast – Vol. I

 
If you can suggest any more for the next playlist, please leave a comment or contact me.

Oh, and have a happy new year!

Finnegans Wake (James Joyce) - Siobhan McKenna and Cyril Cusack (1959)

I’m going to do something which betrays the philistine in me and post up two extracts from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, recorded nearly thirty years after they were written. Philistine because I must admit I haven’t read the book, but these recordings are quite captivating in themselves, as is the link to Joyce reading from Anna Livia Plurabelle.

The cover of Nino Frank’s translation of Anna Livia Plurabelle (1938)

A Concert-in-a Turn - The Honris (Narrated by Peter Honri) (1974)

This post gives those with an interest in the history of music hall a chance to sample a wonderful book about the remarkable Honri family. It’s called Working the Halls by Peter Honri. Like many such books on the subject, it’s now out of print, but this post is a chance for you to read a few excerpts and listen to tracks from the accompanying flexidisc, called Concert-in-a Turn.

ABOVE: Sickert’s Old-Fashioned Mother Of Mine, a portrait of Talbot O’Farrell, in etching and pastel form, respectively.

It features a loving preface (or ‘Overture’) by Spike Milligan which laments the fact that “a few etchings and paintings by Sickert are the only colourful evidence we have of a great age”, a period “that began with gas-lit stages and ended in the tense days before World War II”.

Sickert’s Brighton Pierrots

The Billy Eckstine Transition – Can Crooners Change?

A singer who made the transition from jazz crooner to funk-edged soul singer (on Stax records, no less) completely plausible.

Four tracks will illustrate his mastery of both musical forms:

An Evening With Alistair Cooke (1955)

The great broadcaster made only a few vinyl recordings, but they are all fabulous. I have featured one of his spoken word records previously: Talk About America.

This LP, however, features him at the piano, whistling, singing and telling stories. I realise that to the youngsters of today, that sounds almost insane. They let him do this? Why didn’t someone sedate him, send him to a nursing home or put him on a stairlift?

There is even a wonderful moment where he demonstrates, with impish glee, the results of an experiment in multi-tracking his own voice.

The album tells a coherent narrative, so is perhaps best listened right through, but once you’ve done that you’ll keep coming back to many of these tracks for more.

The Astonishing Sound of the CORDOVOX - Mike Timoney (1971)

I’m a big fan of accordions, so I knew I had to have this. I was nonetheless perturbed by a perusal of the liner notes:

Many musicians who’ve gone over to electronics have tended to use them for either novelty or bizarre effects. Not so Mike Timoney; he displays restraint, discretion and impeccable taste.

If you’re a regular reader of this site, you can imagine how my heart sank.

Turns out Timoney is an accordion prodigy who, when he saw this Leslie-speaker-clad beast, had to have one — at a cost of over £2,000.

I mean, look at some of this kit:
The album’s got some weird programming (‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ AND ‘Je T’aime’ on the same record?), but two tracks amused me enough to rip and here they are:

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Theme)

Wheels

Nat Cole - Wild is Love (1960)

Cole experiments here in an LP of love songs by Ray Rasch and Dotty Wayne tied together by a narrative concerning the vicissitudes of love. I think it would have made a fantastic one-man show. There are some spoken word interludes helping to tie the tracks together, and these may well be my favourite parts.

Beggar for the Blues

Clearly the stand-out track. A stripped-down 6/8 pulses throughout while Cole squeezes everything out of those portamento notes (When love pulls me iiiiiiiiin...).

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Pick-Up

I like this as an example of a jazz carpe diem. Cole’s pitch-perfect sleaziness is quite a contrast with the next track.

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Hold Her Tight

This is an example of the spoken word interludes that punctuate the album. Cole has got such a trustworthy voice that what could be interminably cheesy sounds genuine.

Peggy Lee Sings The Man I Love (Arr. Riddle, Cond. Sinatra)

Featuring an orchestra conducted by Sinatra. And he does a good job. This post is no longer displayed here. You can find it here now.

The Left Bank Bearcats in Hi-Fi

I hope you’re ready for some Snazzy New Orleans arrangements with some nice solos. This is a really upbeat, fun record. But I think you’ll agree that the cover is what really swings it.

Two Great Albums by Lee Wiley...

...illustrating the two phases of her career.

A Ship Without A Sail Down With Love Glad To Be Unhappy Moanin’ in the Mornin’ Stormy Weather You Said It You Took Advantage of Me

from I've Got the World on a String (1930 & 1935)

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The Memphis Blues From The Land Of The Sky Blue Water The Ace In The Hole Someday You'll Be Sorry My Melancholy Baby A Hundred Years From Today Make Believe

from A Touch of the Blues (1957)

Name Band - 1959 - Bob Florence & His Orchestra

A piano’s one-finger mysterioso introduction; a guitar that thrums an almost inaudible heartbeat; beautiful structures that have as much room for carefree ensemble lollops as for solos of heart-rending intensity: sounds like I’m describing the music of Count Basie.

And it seems to me that Florence’s arrangements have some of the laid-back glitziness of the later Basie band orchestrations, particularly the ones by Neal Hefti for E=MC²/The Atomic Basie (1957).

The sleevenotes boast of the LP being completely manually compressed by skilful engineers. It just sounds classy to me, but if that over-compressed sound was interfering with your listening pleasure, who am I to argue?

From that album, one slow burner and one arrangement that sizzles with joy.

Baby Come Here

Little Girl

Personnel: Bob Florence (p), Johnny Audino (tp), Tony Terran (tp), Irv Bush (tp), Juiles Chaikin (tp), Bob Edmundson (tb), Bobby Pring (tb), Don Nelligan (tb), Herbie Harper (tb), Herb Geller (as), Bernie Fleischer (as), Bob Hardaway (ts).

Ambrose - A Tribute to Cole Porter

Sam Browne, Anne Shelton and Evelyn Dall sing to these stylish orchestrations from the Porter songbook.

Anne Shelton has been featured at MMM before here and here. I didn't realise I had such a thing for her.

Harpsichord Moods - Gilbert O'Sullivan 1973

A whole album of these wacky, stompy versions of the Seventies star’s hits is a bit much, so I’ve picked three tracks you’ll really love.

English with a Dialect - English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh Accents (1971)

Despite this being called “English with a Dialect” it’s not a study of dialect words. Rather, it’s a load of archive recordings of speakers with regional accents, cobbled together here as a “pronunciation guide” for actors and a “study guide” for teachers.

Some of the accents have really changed in just 40 years – Liverpudlian being a case in point, and isn’t the Brummie accent on here very different to the accent we now expect – while some, like the Suffolk accent (my own: see this post if you’re not aware of it), are slowly vanishing through the onslaught of Estuary.

Also, I think it amusing (as someone who’s lived in the area for a while) that Yorkshire is covered in one all-encompassing accent.

Here’s something new to the site: an interactive map. Simply click on the area to listen to or download the recording. If you prefer traditional links, they're at the bottom of the page. 
Feel free to email/tweet/comment if you hear anything you like (or if you notice any great absences)!

Underdogs: The 5 Least Popular Posts on Music Makes Me

Self-publicising crap is a real bugbear of mine. Pages like this and this, shamelessly trumpeting their own content, are such a bore. There’s no way I’m doing a ‘Best-Of-2010’-style post anymore. That’s so 2009.

So, in a break from tradition, I’m presenting the least popular pages on the site. Inexplicably, the following five posts are the least visited on the site! (Of course, you can rectify this travesty by visiting them now!)

	Four pieces on 78 by unknown French pianist I wish I knew about these records, with their handwritten labels, made on the French Pyral label, but apart from the fact that these are well-known practice pieces, I still have had no suggestions.
	Wild Hills O’Wannie - The Small Pipes of Northumbria Showcasing the beautiful timbre of the Northumbrian pipes, quite different in tone to their cousin, the bagpipe.
	Simon Turner OK, I bought it for the hilarious liner notes (reproduced here for your amusement), but the tunes aren’t too bad, either.
	Alec Wilder & American Popular Song A rambunctious, scholarly, tendentious and often funny account of the phenomenon of the American Songbook. It’s a marvellous introduction and a deeply insightful companion to the works of Gershwin, Porter, Mercer, Kern and Berlin. Featuring a couple of beautiful songs written by Wilder.
	Ronald Frankau’s WWII propaganda Features a PDF of Frankau’s propaganda-poem He’s A Perfect Little Gentleman – The Swine! and a couple of smutty songs.

A Night with the Voodoo Family - Don Tracy

Some wild rhythms and incantatory flutism from Don Tracy’s album A Night With The Voodoo Family.

Four Last Songs (1937-1958) - I

It took me half of a Sunday to do it, but after I had hatched the idea of a punning collection of last songs by various composers of popular music^*, I racked my brains (and the Internet) and came up with four decent last songs.

Impact - The Exciting World of Stereo Sound (1968)

Amazingly, this stereo showcase compilation still sounds quite innovative. (Is anyone still doing stereo experimentation, or is it all 4.1. Surround Sound ?)