Recorded in 1952, “Nostalgia” and “Caminito” by Emil Coleman are characteristic tangos of 1940s & 50s NYC hotel nightlife, and feature his impressive, well-gigged Orchestra. These certainly have a cinematic quality to them as the brass, strings, winds and piano drive and interplay some serious, moody romance. Pizzicato passages sneak into the drama, along with some tasteful accordion flourishes, reminding us of the essence of tangos – they are the sensual partner-dance that began to evolve in 1880s Buenos Aires from the combination of Spanish tangos and Argentine milongas.
Emil Coleman was born in Odessa, Russia in 1892 and by the 1920s was a star orchestra leader performing in the high-society hotels of New York City, most notably the Trocadero and the Waldorf-Astoria. He also recorded quite a bit for Vocalion, Brunswick, Columbia and RCA Victor labels, and had many hits on the national pop charts.
Couldn’t decide which side of this excellent tango 78 to post, so I went with both.
“Sastale Se Dve Devojke“, or “Two Girls Meet”, is a traditional Serbian-Croatian “kolo“, a circle folk dance tune. Performed by the Sloboda Orchestra, a popular 5-piece Yugoslavian tamburitza band in the 40s and 50s, it features the Director Joseph Grcevich on lead brač, a long neck lute also called a tambour or tamburitza. There are many, many styles, sizes and varieties of these instruments, both single-stringed and double-stringed. The other instruments are the 2nd brač, bass, cello, and bugaria (a Bulgarian-style tambour.) I also hear three or four voices…
The Balkan tamburitza style has evolved in Central and Eastern Europe for almost 200 years, and sometimes has a somewhat “Italian” sound, but not surprisingly: the Croatian Dalmatian coast is directly east of Italy, across the Adriatic Sea.
From 1950 on the Oakland 78rpm label, Kolo Festival.
Yesari Asim Arsoy (Bey), born in 1900 in present-day Drama, Macedonia, was a legendary composer and singer of Turkish folk, classical and pop music. In his childhood, because of his strong, distinct voice, he was a muezzin, which was the person who announced the Islamic call to prayer twice a day. From 1929 until his death in 1992, he composed and recorded about 300 songs. Arsoy is regarded as a very important musician because he innovated the singing style, lyricism, diction and songwriting approach of popular Turkish music of the 1930s and 40s.
Here he sings the self-penned duet “Kadinlar Erkekler”, “Men and Women” in English, with another famous Istanbul-based singer (and cinema star), Madame Mahmure Hanim. From the 1920s through the 1950s she was very well-known in Turkey and in Anatolian culture around the world, recording many Turkish folk and pop sides and also appearing in over 30 films.
Besides the vocal duo, the accompaniment I hear is an oud, extra male and female voices, and violins, with one of the violins typically doubling and/or harmonizing the singing melody.
Jacqueline Francois was one of the greatest singers and interpreters of French song. There are so many classic recordings, and some of the repertoire is considered cabaret. She exemplified a certain kind of charming, classy diva and was popular from her very first singles, and a global star a few years later. Born Jacqueline Guillemautot in 1922, she had a very long life in singing, recording countless, mostly French-penned, songs. Her voice, a rich alto with a ton of character and a certain smokiness throughout her range, is one of my favorite voices of all time. The feel of her voice on the microphone is something so soothing, but commanding.
“Mélancolie” (Melancholy) is a haunting, lesser known number which was written by the famous songwriting duo Al. Romans & Pierre Dudan. Recorded in 1951 for French Polydor, it features Jo Boyer and His Orchestra (who also worked with greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Django Reinhardt) and Francois’ mesmerizing voice singing the lonesome lyric: (English translation is below)
Mélancolie un jour s’achève,
Mélancolie on n’y peut rien.
Chaque jour dans la fumée et dans l’alcool, on noie ses
rêves,
Seul, jusqu’au matin…
Et chaque nuit, ça recommence
Pour torturer le coeur trop lourd,
Le cafard dans la fumée et dans l’alcool, mène la danse
Jusqu’au jour.
Demain y aura d’ l’amour et d’ la lumière,
Peut-être bien, ça m’est égal…
Barman jusqu’au matin, remplis mon verre,
Je veux rêver que j’ai moins mal.
Mélancolie… tu nous enchaînes,
Plus fortement qu’un grand amour,
Un beau soir dans la fumée et dans l’alcool, on noie ses
peines
Melancholy one day ends, Melancholy can’t be helped. Every day in smoke and alcohol, we drown our dreams, Alone, until the morning… And every night, it starts again To torture the heavy heart, The pointless depression in the smoke and in the alcohol, leads the dance Until the day is over. Tomorrow there will be love and light, Maybe I don’t care… Bartender till morning, fill my drink, I want to dream that I have less pain. Melancholy… you chain us, Stronger than a great love, One fine evening in the smoke and in the alcohol, we drown its pains
Born Alexandra Nicholas Badran in 1924, in Mersin, Turkey, to Lebanese parents, she changed her name to Nour el Houda (“Light of Guidance”) just as she was becoming a famous actress and singing star. During her long career, which began at ten years old, El Houda recorded a huge chunk of classical, religious and popular Arabic songs and is considered one of the greatest Lebanese singers. For her tone, intonation, power and control, she was hailed as “the Girl with the Golden Voice” and was a cultural sensation for almost 30 years.
“Ala Oum el Manadili” is mostly a big, insistent groove and melody which eventually open up into a slow, bare, and moody bridge section that allows you to really hear her incredible vocal talent, before taking it back to the top for a fierce finale. Besides the lead voice and backing singers, the instruments I hear are the mijwiz (a reed clarinet), tablah, the buzuq (strings, long-fretted neck and a tone like a viola), and handclaps. The arrangement and the sounds are pretty typical for middle 1950s, popular Arabic recordings.
This is a song on two sides, so I edited them together in Logic Pro.
This is a Thai luk thung 78 I found in a flea market in Chiang Mai. Luk thung, which translates to “children of the field”, is the name of a folk/country genre of music that developed in the central rural areas of Thailand after WWII. The sound can be described as traditional Siamese/Thai elements combined with Western musical instruments (mostly brass and electronic) and styles emerging in 1940s and 50s America.
I had the great luck of having my friend Oraboon “Taeng” Imchai Bulut from Doisaket, Thailand, translate the writing on this very rare disc. So, the artist is called Fascination and the song is “Love You Girl (Thai folk dance); and it is catalogue number R.H. 2001 on the Hong Barge label, which is one of hundreds of tiny, obscure labels operating at the time. I am guessing this is from around 1959. That’s about all know at this time, unfortunately, wish I knew more…
The “Love You, Girl” melody is sung by a male tenor voice on top of a simple arrangement of accordion and percussion. The moody, serpentine-slow groove and harmonic flutters from the accordion are all that’s needed to float the lover’s passionate incantation.
Pablo Rodriguez Lozada, better known as “Tito” Rodriguez (“tito” meaning “uncle” and sometimes “giant” in Puerto Rican Spanish) was a massively popular bandleader, singer and arranger in the 1950s when the mambo and cha-cha craze was at its height in the U.S. During this era he was just about as renowned and requested as the great Tito Puente, another legendary timbalero, who was also Rodriguez’s rival in the salsa and Latin scenes of the 50s and 60s.
This is the other side of Tito Rodriguez, “Desert Dance” (on TICO #10-035A) from the last post, and it is a groovy, medium-burning mambo called “Donde Estabas Tu?”, “where were you?.”
I can’t find any information whatsoever about this duo, Jack and Betty, who seem to be lost to history at this point. And it also seems like this is their only record: TEEN 107A, “Satisfied Mind” and 107B, “This Is My Story”.
From 1955, “Satisfied Mind” made a moderate-sized splash as a popular jukebox rendition of this Red Hayes & Jack Rhodes C+W classic which has been covered many times since it was first recorded that same year. Even Jeff Buckley, the 1990s NYC songbird who tragically died way too young at 30yrs old, did a cover of this tune, which is really amazing, and it is available on the Columbia Records release “Live at Sin-E” (Legacy Edition.) This, however, is my favorite take of this beautiful secular hymn. Jack plays the rhythm guitar and Betty plays the organ, and they sing in harmony virtually the whole time. There is also an unknown electric guitar player plucking some great sounding lead lines, wish I knew who that was… The simplicity of the arrangement, the passion in the playing and the singing, and just one hell of a lyric, make for a powerful, haunting piece of Americana.
Mr. Olvera was born three days before Christmas 1936, in Aguascalientes, Mexico. He was blinded by lightning at the age of seven months, became a piano prodigy later on, and around 13yo began to play the Hammond organ in the Guadalajara restaurant where he worked. He eventually developed an original technique of gradually opening the organ bars in ways which created vocal inflections, to make the organ sound as if it was singing words! The first big success with his new style was this 1956 78, “Pancho Lopez”, a take on the popular “Ballad of Davy Crockett.” On the RCA label, recorded in Mexico, and such a very creative, colorful cover of this timeless frontier classic.
This a Serbian folk tune which is probably a traditional and has no one author, but through time has changed and evolved as generations of musicians have played it and sang it. “Nas Dva Brata” in the Serbian language is “Us Two Brothers” in English. Two piece vocal duo, guitar and accordion for accompaniment. I would call this a rustic, Balkan toe-tapper, and a great drinking song; and I just love the Italianesque, but very Balkan as well, guitar string work and dense, quick harmonies coming off the accordion against the vocals. Released on Chicago’s PERUN label in the late 1940s, I’m guessing.
Time Travel at 78rpms 