Christmas In July 2019-Part 11
Hello again, welcome back! I've got plenty more Christmas music in the pile to share with you, so here are ten more select tracks for a hot day in July.
1. Vera Lynn, Accompanied By The Rae Jenkins Quartet-The Bells Of St. Mary's from The Great Years-Orginal Recordings 1935-57 (Decca (UK) 2xLP SPA 3023/4, Originally Recorded 6 April 1938, Mono, 1975). Never as big of a deal in the US as she was in the UK, Vera Lynn was still a great talent. More from her later in the season.
2. Walter Gieseking-Children's Corner Suite No. 3: Serenade For The Doll from Children's Corner-Suite Bergamasque (Angel 35067, Mono). Not really Christmas, but I can't resist any sort of toy or child suite. I didn't do the whole suite though, just the toy and winter themed bits. The rest of them will come later on.
3. Jack Teagarden With The Condon Gang-Christmas At Carnegie from Big "T" & The Condon Gang (Pumpkin Productions 106, Originally Recorded New York City, December 16, 1944, Mono, 1978). Similar to the Hal Kemp track earlier this July, this is a collection of songs from radio transcriptions. There's good stuff on some of these discs, you always have to pick them up and check when you find one.
4. German Kaliope-Come Hither Ye Children (Ihr Kinderlein Kommet) (Played Without Bells, Then With The Bells) from The Charm Of The Old Music Box-Rare Old Music Boxes From The A. Hacker Collection (Yesterday's Amusements/Premier Film & Recording Corporation 13993, Mono). I love these music box collections, can you tell?
5. Alfred Deller With Desmond Dupre-Coventry Carol from The Three Ravens (Vanguard VRS-479, Mono, 1955). So many things out there that have just been nearly lost to time.
6. The Blue Ridge Mountain Boys-Footprints In The Snow from Hootenanny N' Blue Grass (Time 52083, Mono, 1963). Weird album trying to connect folk and bluegrass music.
7. The Choir Of Christ Episcopal Church-The Holly And The Ivy from 75 Men And Boys (No Label 2xLP BL 1500 (Side 4-Christmas Carol Service) (Bloomfield, Glen Ridge), Mono). Nice double disc with a whole side of Christmas tunes. Unfortunately, two of the tracks were badly damaged by a needle dig at some point in their life. I'll still throw them up at some point, but their hard to listen to. No such problem with this track, so enjoy.
8. Guitar Magic-Jingle Bells from Guitar Magic-Play Along Record (Educational Productions SON 94811/94812, Mono, 1971). Funny story, I thought I was going to share this with you last year, but when I pulled the LP from the sleeve, it was volume two, not volume 1. But I found a Christmas track anyway and shared it. Now I have an actual volume one to share with you, so it's come full circle.
9. The Rift Valley Academy Chorale-Solo: Becky Kellogg-Don Fonseca, Conductor-Silent Night from We've Only Just Begun (Philips (Kenya) PKLP 104, Mono, 1972). I was so excited when I found this one, an actual record all the way from Africa, and there was a Christmas song on it! I hope it was worth all that excitement.
10. Unknown Artist-Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light, one more demo recording from Choral Celebration Vol. VIII (Jensen Publications JP-6400, Stereo, 1985). Just when you start to get into these tracks, they fade out and end. So sad.
And that's the end for now. Here's the download, more to come soon. I've given up and plugged in an old corded mouse. It's working much better and I'm less frustrated. Hooray!
You've got me in that synchronistic frame of mind where songs suddenly lend themselves to holiday contextualization. Give a listen to Willie Nelson's "Seasons of the Heart" and see if that doesn't have some kind of (latent, perhaps) Christmas connotation. I am so glad someone is on an active search for this kind of music. I spent years doing so and accumulated scores, if not hundreds, of CDs in the process. Now I find myself wanting to aid your cause as I comb through music of the 1920s and 30s. But we can't leave the salvage and salvation of seasonal music to Mariah Carey and Kenny G.
ReplyDeletethe three ravens. 1955. i thought, “great, a doo-wop version of the coventry carol”. i could already hear them walking in with “lu lu lu dat-dat-dat dat-dat-dat dat-dat-dat…”; then a falsetto wail wafting “luuuuuuuu lu-lay luuuuuuuuu ; then maybe inner voices with “bom-bom bye-bye bom-bom bye-bye”; all before you got to the main melody.
ReplyDeleteimagine my disappointment. i’m now trying to judge the arrangement on its own merits but i’m having a hard time. some men hear song-versions as they are and ask why. i dream of song-versions that never were and ask why not.
barba - I myself would like to hear Alfred Deller's falsetto and Desmond Dupre's lute with the Ravens! But doing something like Sixty Minute Man rather than the Coventry Carol.
ReplyDeleteErnie - There were a number of bluegrass-folk crossovers, particularly among folk-rock musicians such as Chris Hillman and Doug Dillard. That's not to say this particular album isn't weird!
Thanks for the Vera Lynn and Jack Teagarden!
I get to put together mixes for my 92 year old mother (maybe your oldest fan?) and I'm sure she will want me to thank you for posting one from her all-time favorite, Jack Teagarden.
ReplyDeleteTell her Ernie (Not Bert) says howdy! And Merry Christmas!!
ReplyDelete