Steve,
I am impressed by your knowledge and experience here.Is there any way to get any of these master lists containing the original sources here ?
These budget labels fascinate the hell out of me.I doubt the people who put these labels,and their catalogs together,had any clue people would be so interested in what they did,forty,fifty years later,and trying to figure out what they did,and who is on their records.Or putting out lovingly remastered reissue CDs,like Rediscovery does.
Just what do you mean by " used these tapes to record some of the active opera singers of the period." Were these aspiring singers who never made it big ?
There are gems in Obie's catalog that we are all familiar with,like the Kabasta "New World" (One of my all time favorite recordings of the piece.),and the Kempff and Bachaus German radio concerto recordings.Someone needs to finish the work of finding out what the rest of these records are,if this is at all possible.But my question is what about some of the other budget labels of the day.Two I have mentioned here before are "TOPS" and Promenade.
"TOPS" is best recalled for the exotica classic "Voodoo",by future TV/film composer Robert Drasnin,http://www.dionysusrecords.com/bacchus/drasnin.html http://www.myspace.com/drasnin ,a few early R&B Lps,by the likes of Joe Houston,and exploitation hit song EPs,that included Elvis covers by one George Jones http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/j/jone3400.htm ,under assorted other pseudonyms.But they also put out a greivously overlooked recital Lp,by longtime Heifitz accompanist Emmanuel Bay,and a very good anonymous Mozart piano concerto Lp that no one else seems to have heard of.What else did they put out like this ?
Promenade/Parade was a label put out by Synthetic Plastics,of New Jersey,the same fine folks who gave us Peter Pan Records.Today,they are best known for their Beatle exploitation records,such as "Beatlerama" by "The Manchesters",a minor garage classic.
Their classical stuff was mostly put out under the name "Hans Ledermann",but as I have said here before,I have this Lp of excerpts from "Swan Lake", by"The French National Radio Orchestra",conducted by French composer Henri Tomasi.The only record I have ever seen by him,as a conductor not doing his own music.He is listed in several biographies as conducting this orchestra,in the era of WWII (1940-45),in Marseilles,and I am assuming this is a French radio recording of the period.This is properly credited,but almost all the rest are pseudonyms,mostly Ledermann and The "Promenade" or "SONOR" Symphony. What other French radio gems did they issue ?
I really wish there was some way to learn more about these records.
Roger
"Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: ----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Smolian"
I have at least one catalog of "master" tapes available from a European source
that offers copies of popular standards, broadway show, operetta, G&S, the
standard symphonic repertoire, etc., in instrumental versions, marketed to the
bargain LP market. I'm searching for it. You purchased a copy of the master as
could anyone else. They were uncredited. The buyer was expected to add his own
performer names.
Thus the same performance probably appeared under a variety of credits. Some
likely candidates made their way into Schwann though most were distributed
either though other outlets (cheap) or mail order ventures.
An interesting feature was that you could issue the pop and show stuff either
as instrumental items or, by overdubbing, have them appear as vocal versions. I
suspect the old "Ed Sullivan Presents" broadway show series was thus created.
One of my odd jobs was hunting down all the cheap issues of West Side Story
and songs therefrom for Leonard Bernstein's office so they could be sure they
were collecting royalties. A copy of Rodin's bust of Mahler was part of the
office decoration. One of the office girls told me she was sure it was
Bernstein because some visiting sculptor-type had told her he had made it. Her,
not it. What a line!
Sales were not restricted to the US. There was a Mikado, possibly from one of
these sources, with a cast including Martyn Green, which was issued on Allegro.
The same instrumental performance appeared behind a version in German, or so I
recall.
Some of the Halo (.$ .99) records were made this way. I remember Eddie Smith
(EJS records, Golden Age of Opera, etc.) once telling me he used these tapes to
record some of the active opera singers of the period. Kurt Baum may have been
one. This was probably part of a gig Eddie did for Allegro or Remington that
trickled down to Halo. I've no paper work on this, just recollection. I'm sure
other tenors of that ilk reused these audio backgrounds.
I recall sitting late a couple of nights in the old Crest Cafateria on 57th St
in NY with George Goldner, a rock behind-the-scenes personality, plus a friend
of mine who had German and Dutch, the three of us making up performer names for
symphonic recordings. George was planning a bargain line from these sources.
This was about 1964. I think some of these came on Roulette and/or a sub-label,
maybe Forum. Goldner, a minority interest founder of Roulette, subsequently
sold his share to Morris Levy, the bigger stockholder and a man with dubious
connections. Goldner later did ocassional projects for him of which this was
one. At least one source was legit- the English Saga label.
In addition, Vox leased tapes for use in some of encycloperdia sets and other
ventures. Sometimes credited, often not, they add to the confusion.
This situation murkifies uncovering accurate credits for many of the bargain
records.
I'll let you guys know when that tape catalog shows up.
I would guess that once WWII ended, there was a "half-vast" number of
German recordings (as well as other countries "on their side") which
suddenly became "orphan works" due to them either being "enemy
property" or the owning companies not surviving either the war itself
or the post-WWII economic chaos of Germany being "occupied"...!
As well, there were probably "Oberstein-type" operations who simply
pirated overseas recordings on the assumption that the legal owners
of the copyrights in question were very unlikely ever to hear, or
know of, any US of A issues...?!
Steven C. Barr
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