The Last Of Leibert
The last, earliest, and probably least, of the organ records by Dick Leibert today is this EP from 1951. Keep in mind that the material found this record is from 10 years earlier than the other two, and the musical world had been turned on it's ear during those years. The organ sound during those intervening years seems to have gone from the rather stiff and staid funereal tones here to the playful and swinging instrument you heard on The Happy Hits of Christmas. So just keep that in mind when you download and listen to Sing And Rejoice! Christmas Carols Played by Dick Leibert At the Organ of the Radio City Music Hall New York City (RCA Victor EPB 3056, 1951). FYI this is a gatefold sleeve containing 2-7" 45 rpm records. The back was just ads for other records, so I didn't include a scan of that. There are 8 tracks in total, each a medley of two songs.
I'm sure that "Sing and Rejoice" was recorded on the smaller 3 manual, 14 rank Wurlitzer in the Radio City Music Hall broadcasting studio, and not the big 4 manual, 58 rank Wurlitzer in the theatre. All of the older RCA Victor records were made on the studio organ. That's why the sound is so different from the later ones made on the big Wurlitzer, and somewhat dry and stiff. My guess is that the engineers weren't up to the task of recording the big organ, or at least somebody at RCA thought so. I have other Dick Leibert records of this vintage (but not this one) and they all sound like this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making these old organ records available. You're performing a real service! This set in particular is very rare.
I stumbled on these accidentally through Google. You can bet I'll be back.