1959: Today at the 30th Street Studio

It wants me to log in, and I'm not a member.

 

Ah, for shame. I'll have to see what avenue to go for that.
How about this?

 

That works just fine, thank you!

That's quite an eclectic collection! You have fuller descriptions than most that I've seen on Discogs, but that's not a surprise.

 

February 25 (Wednesday) I:

Philippe Entremont and Maurice Gendron continued on their recordings from 10am-1pm.

 

February 25 (Wednesday) II:

From 2:30-5:30pm, Mahalia Jackson with Mildred Falls and Group recorded the songs

Just To Behold His Face
To Me It's So Wonderful

Musicians were:

Leader and Piano:
Mildred Falls
Organ:
Harold Smith
Alfred Miller
Bass:
John Simmons
Drums:
Edmund Thigpen

These songs were on the album "Great Gettin' Up Morning", and it looked like this



Labels:



To Me It's So Wonderful on Youtube:



So are those backup singers Ms. Falls and band? John Hammond doesn't say so in his liner notes, but what he wrote about Mildred Falls is about as much as I could find about her, except that many people elsewhere refer to her as a wonderful gospel accompanist, and was used as a reference point without further description, alas.

In Eugene Robinson's obituary/opinion for Aretha Franklin in the Washington Post, he quotes Jerry Wexler talking about Aretha's piano playing:

“She was a brilliant pianist, a combination of Mildred Falls — Mahalia Jackson’s accompanist — and Thelonious Monk,” Wexler wrote. “In other words, Aretha brought a touch of jazz to her gospel piano.”

You can even see it in the Journal of Gospel Music, where I found an obit for Alfred Miller (linked above). Searching for Mildred Falls only gives some references to people who were influenced by her or who play like her.

And that's about all I could find about Mildred. That seems like a pretty large vacancy of information. And since I'm writing this non-linearly, I see that every one of the accompanists has bio information available except for Mildred, the leader. Gee, what was different about her?

If you can find more than I found, please post it. It's a shame that she's been largely ignored, at least in searches.

Mahalia, of course, had a huge career, and Hammond's notes for this album point out that they were able to recreate the church fervor within the 30th St. Studio, so there were other sessions as well as this one.

Interestingly, although Hammond wrote the notes for the album, my notes of the schedule show that Irving Townsend was the producer. Curious (and my notes could be wrong). However, as we'll see if I can finish the next few sessions (this was a busy day in 1959) before I need to be out for the day, the AFM reports are also not always fully reliable.

 

February 25 (Wednesday) III:

The AFM reports provided momentary distress, as they showed both Link Wray and The Wraymen and Victor Borge with another large orchestra in 30th Street from 7-10pm, which would neither be physically or acoustically possible. However, looking at my schedule notes, Link Wray was actually in 799 7th Avenue, which is disappointing because I wanted to talk about him and them.

For aesthetic contrast to our normal fare, here's one of the songs they recorded this day:



So the session that actually was from 7-10pm today was Victor Borge with Lehman Engel and His Orchestra, recording

Rachmaninoff Concerto
Rachmaninoff- 18th Variation Paganini Theme

Musicians were:

Leader:
Lehman Engel
Contractor and Cello:
Morris Stonzek
Violin:
Jack Zayde
Tosha Samaroff
Paul Gershman
George Ockner
Harry Glickman
((Harry Zarief)) David Nadien
Leonid Bolotine
Harold Kohon
Michael Spivakovsky
Alexander Cores
Harry Urbont
Eugene Settani
Ben Miller
Andrew Gottesman
Joe Haber
David Rosensweig
Viola:
William Lincer
Harry Zaratzian
((Harold Coletta)) Isadore Zir
Nicolas Modavan
Ralph Mendelson
David Makovitz
Cello:
George Ricci
David Soyer
Seymour Barab
Harvey Shapiro
Lucien Schmit
Bass:
Homer Mensch
Sam Levitan
Flute:
((John Hummer)) Harold Bennett
Robert Morris
Oboe:
Albert Goltzer
Philip Bodner
Clarinet:
Robert McGinnis
((Vincent J. Abato)) Napoleon Cerminara
Bassoon:
Harold Goltzer
((Theodore A. Gompers)) Frank Ruggieri
Horn:
James Chambers
Fred Klein
Joseph Singer
Ralph W. Brown
Trumpet:
Nathan Prager
William A. Vacchiano
Drums:
Saul Goodman
Morris Arnold Lang
Trombones:
Neal DiBiasi
Albert Godlis
Allen Ernest Ostrander

Victor Borge, piano solo

((No Harp))

So some replacements, some additions, one deletion.

We're not done with this day.

 

February 25 (Wednesday) IV:

Finally, from 11:30pm-3:00am, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra did the second of the two sessions that resulted in the "Jazz Party" album. This was the percussion-heavy session.

Songs recorded were:

Tymparturbably Blue
Malletoba Spank
Le Sucrier Velour
Lightning Bugs and Frogs
Villes Ville Is The Place, Man (225)

I'm not sure but think only some of those wound up on the album and don't have time now to check.

Musicians were:

Leader and Piano:
Duke Ellington
Trumpet:
William "Cat" Anderson*
Willis Raymond Nance
Clark Terry
Harold Jones Baker
Trombone:
Britt Bingham Woodman
John Conrad Sanders
Quentin Leonard Jackson
Sax:
Johnny C. Hodges
Harry Howell Carney
Russell Procope
Paul Gonsalves
James Hamilton
Drums:
((Sam Woodyard)) George Gaber
Elden C. Bailey
Chauncey Morehouse
Harry Breuer
Robert M. Rosengarden
Bradley Spinney
Milton Schlesinger
Bass:
((James Bryant Woode)) Sam Woodyard
Violin:
James Bryant Woode

So that's cool that Sam and James were part of both sessions but different instruments. Funny/odd that Saul Goodman didn't have back-to-back gigs.

(In case it's not obvious, I'm using "((---))" to signal "deletion, replaced by" in the last two posts, and will continue for the rest of the thread.)

That was a lot.

 

The mono labels were typeset by Bert-Co of Los Angeles (sheesh, are Bridgeport monos that hard to come by?). Here are the labels for the stereo issue (CS 8153), typeset in Bridgeport:

The left and right sides notwithstanding, you get the general idea of what the mono would've looked like with Bridgeport type - and how their philosophy of layout differed wildly from Bert-Co's.

The fonts here are: 12 point Gothic No. 16 (used by Bridgeport [and Bert-Co] in tandem with 18 point Gothic No. 13), 12 and 8 point Erbar Bold Condensed, 10 point Gothic Condensed No. 1, and 7 point Gothic No. 4.

As for the bassist John Simmons (whose own credits weren't all that shabby, and include a stint with Erroll Garner), he was the father of Sue Simmons, who was anchor at WNBC (Channel 4) in New York from 1980 until 2012, and was famous for her on-air partnership with Chuck Scarborough.

 

So this session had 16 violinists, 6 violists and 6 cellists, I see. (Nelson Riddle's recommendation for huge string sections was 18 vn/6 vl/6vc.) 49-piece, not counting Mr. Borge, of course.

At a future time, I shall advise of what Mr. Riddle and Don Sebesky each recommended.

 

February 26 (Thursday) I:

Philippe Entremont and Maurice Gendron continued work on their recordings from 10am-1pm and 2:30-5:30pm.

 

February 26 (Thursday) II:

From 7:00-10:30pm, Mitch Miller with Jimmy Carroll and His Orchestra recorded the following songs:

Hey, Betty Martin (single)
Bill Bones (single)
I Love You Truly (album)
Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland (album)

The orchestra consisted of:

Leader:
Jimmy Carroll
Contractor and Bass:
Frank Carroll
Guitar:
George Barnes
Al Caiola
Don Arnone
Accordion:
Charles Magnante
Harmonica:
Eddy Manson
Drums:
Herbert Lovelle
Xylophone:
Harry Breuer

The "(single)" and "(album)" notations above were on the report; did they decide during recording what use was to be made of the recordings? That seems odd.

I could not find that Bill Bones was released at all; the single of Hey Betty Martin had Jine The Cavalry on its flip side but I couldn't find a version of that (which is apparently "Join The Cavalry" in Southern talk).

Here is the Betty Martin song:



and here are the two sides of the single



The other two songs came out on this album



and here are two versions of the side 1 label



Why two versions? Were they created in different places at different times?

Looking at both through the average Discogs blurriness on the one but not the other, we see that Lenny Carroll arranged a few of the songs.

We have Jimmy, who's an arranger, Frank, who's a contractor and bassist, and there was Lenny as well? The only songs that Lenny ever arranged, according to Discogs, were for various Mitch Miller singalong albums.

Was Jimmy actually Lenny or vice versa for some reason? Or was Lenny his own person?

Edit: In In The Good Old Summertime, is G. Evans Gil Evans? That would be a surprise.

Moving on, looking at Mitch Miller's Wikipedia again, I see that Mitch was born in Rochester, NY, went to Eastman School of Music in Rochester, and met Goddard Lieberson there, likely while both were students (I haven't been able to find the exact years Goddard was there). Goddard met Alec Wilder, composer and arranger, there, and probably Paul Tyler Turner, who knew Alec as teenagers. It's fun seeing how this vortex, which undoubtedly had other people in it, lasted many years in one way or another. This is probably a topic for the other thread.

 

Different pressing plants and different label typesettings. The stereo label was from Terre Haute, IN; the mono, from Bridgeport, CT. I frankly prefer the Bridgeport layout. That on the Terre Haute, in terms of how the track selections are laid out, is far too reminiscent of what we've seen of UK Beatles LP's or others on EMI labels for other British acts as from the 1960's.

 

Terre Haute pressing and layout. Here's the Bridgeport:

For some reason the Bridgeport of this has a better sense of layout and proportion, typesetting-wise, than Terre Haute's . . .

 

Pardon me for being dense all this time, but these specific comparisons really make me see what you've been talking about, Terre Haute vs. Bridgeport. There has always been something unsettling and cheap-seeming with what I now know are Terre Haute layouts, while the Bridgeports seem more solid and making a statement. The blockier lettering is more proportional, as you say, than the slimmer squeezed-together lettering.

Particularly with the album labels, it seems like the Bridgeport designer(s) are really trying to convey the information in a more easily-assimilable way than the Terre Haute. It's somewhat similar to the difference between having this post be one solid block of type rather than multiple paragraphs with white space between.

Not sure what difference it makes to the buyer pre-purchase, but the Bridgeport labels are easier to read to my eyes. I'll be paying closer attention to that to see if I can pick them out myself (unless it's as simple as "Easier to read=Bridgeport, harder to read=Terre Haute, Indiana").

Thanks!

 

I’ve nothing to add other than my kudos to you for continuing to slog through this. Great stuff..

 

February 27 (Friday) I:

There were two sessions today.

The first, from 10am-1pm, was with Joe Glover and His Orchestra. Although we've already met them, I think His Orchestra was a little different today so we'll name them in a minute.

Songs recorded were:

Chatterbox Rag
Hungarian Rag
The Cascades
Celestial Rag

Funny that there's one interloper there. Regardless, all these songs are on the same album already described, called "That Ragtime Sound!".

Musicians today were:

Leader:
Joe Glover
Drums:
((Chauncey Morehouse)) Cliff Leeman
Piano:
Irving Brodsky
Milton M. Kraus
Banjo:
Harry Reser
Bass:
((Sidney Block)) Harry London

Minus the musicians who were present for the first session:
((Trombone)
((Thomas Rao))
((Clarinet)
((James Lytell))
((Trumpet)
((Charles Shavers))
((Sax)
((Wolffe Taninbaum (Two links: 1 2 )))

So a lot different band than the other time. FWIW.

 

February 27 (Friday) II:

The second session in the reports for today was from 3:30-6:30pm, and was The Merrill Staton Choir, with Merrill Ostrus and His Orchestra.

Songs recorded were:

The Winter Song
The Drum
Madame Jeannette
Waltzing Matilda

Musicians were:

Leader:
Merrill Ostrus
Drums:
Terry Snyder
Jack Saunders
Stanley Krell

That's it.

There's a couple curious aspects to this session:

1) A choir accompanied by nothing but drums?
2) A choir director and a band leader with the same relatively uncommon first name?

First, I couldn't find anything in Wikipedia about either of them, but did find this blog which in 2011 asked its readers:

"Does anyone remember the Merrill Staton Choir?

"In my youth, I frequently listened to two long-playing records that were favorites of my father's. One was "Up Anchor!", an album of US Navy songs, and the other was an album of US Army songs, "Sound Off!". The recordings were by the Merrill Staton Choir (which I understand was also known as the Merrill Staton Voices), a choir formed by Dr. Merrill Staton, who died in 2000. I haven't been able to find any online sources about him except for a brief obituary here - scroll down to find it."

Ah, OK, it's a choir that sings military songs. That explains the instrumentation. If you read further down into the letters on that blog, you'll see one from someone who knew Mr. Staton and says that he was a huge man, and another from his widow who sheds a tiny bit more light on him.

Looking for the album with the songs, we find



which has all the songs from this session helpfully listed at the bottom, but Discogs has no back cover for this album nor labels with song titles (and hopefully more).

The back cover of a later album (from 1962, I believe based on the blurb contents)



gives some more biographical information about Staton, and at least part of it was written by Jim Foglesong, Columbia producer of other albums and possibly the one shown and maybe even today's.

Finding a picture of Mr. Staton later in life



makes me think that the man on the cover of the Glee Club album is in fact Merrill Staton.

Continuing to search for some reason, finds a much fuller biography at Teachers' College, which is part of Columbia University in NYC, and where Dr. Merrill Staton received his doctorate in music.

Quoting from part of it:

"During his 50-year career, Staton—who passed away in 2000—accompanied, conducted and produced just about everyone in the business. He sang background for Elvis Presley’s TV debut, performed at JFK’s inauguration with the Count Basie Orchestra, soloed with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra and chorus on national radio, backed up Nat King Cole, Dinah Shore, Bobby Darin, Bobby Vinton and numerous rock singers, and worked with, among many others, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Ethel Merman, Myrna Loy, Julie Andrews, Richard Burton, Robert Goulet and Maurice Chevalier (the latter four as part of the Lerner & Lowe TV Special, which is available at the National Museum of TV & Radio in New York City under “Merrill Staton”).

"He also regularly appeared with his choral group, The Merrill Staton Voices, on TV shows hosted by Whiteman, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Benny, Rudy Vallee, George Burns, Phil Silvers, Alan Funt and Merv Griffin. To top it off, Staton and his second wife, Barbara, won a score of gold and platinum LPs for their pioneering series of music teaching records for children.

“Merrill always wanted to be in music, and he had the versatility to play all the roles—producer, conductor and soloist,” says Barbara Staton, a talented music educator whose brother, Robert “Bud” McFarlane, served as National Security Advisor under President Reagan. “He didn’t just want to pitch, he wanted to be the catcher, too.”

Those were significant accomplishments!

But wait, there's more, also from Teachers' College:

"Merrill Joseph Ostrus was born in 1919 on an Iowa farm and didn’t acquire his performing moniker until the 1950s. (“Staton” was the maiden name of the mother of his producer at Columbia Records.)"

So Merrill Staton and Merrill Ostrus were the same guy, with "Staton" as his stage name, and his producer at Columbia named him.

While the reports don't list the producer, the schedule does and today's producer was indeed Jim Foglesong.

One thing I haven't mentioned that's in the reports is the contract signing date for the headlining musician for each session, and Merrill Staton's was August 1, 1958, so less than a year before this session. It seems likely that Jim Foglesong was that producer, too. Maybe.

Cool, huh? But we're still not done.

One of the search results was a Wikipedia hit for an album called "Buddy Holly", a two disc set.

If you scroll down to the "Additional Personnel" section, you see a few familiar names from this thread, Al Caiola and Don Arnone, both playing guitar on Track 11. Scrolling further down, we see Merrill Ostrus, who was a backing vocalist, also on Track 11.

Going back up to the track listings, of course each side is individually numbered, but continuing up from 6 on disc 1, track 5 on disc 2 is RAVE ON!!!!!

Merrill Staton/Ostrus sang back up on Buddy Holly's original recording of Rave On!!!



I'm not looking further, but I don't doubt that he also performed on that Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper", the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds", and maybe Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".

BTW, Rave On was recorded at Bell Sound in NYC, not 30th St.

 

That back cover would have been more late 1960. First of all, Epic albums, like Columbia's (and Columbia Masterworks'), had different sequential numbers for stereo than mono; not until the very end of the year were they synchronized mathematically (i.e. CS 8350 = CL 1550). The other was, based on the 45cat site with certain Epic artists' picture sleeves, they unveiled a new logo variant at the end of 1960 (and would hold until 1972-73) which was a bit different in its layout from that on said back cover.

But I presume Mr. Staton's albums for Epic would have been major fixtures at thrift shops over the decades, I saw a few in such places myself.

 

I beg to differ with you.

As I said, Staton's contract with Epic started 8/1/58. The last paragraph of the blurb on the back of the album says "Since its Epic debut four years and ten albums ago...", so four years from 1958, taking all that at face value. Making sure the artist had a valid contract would seem to be a significant concern, so one would think there was an effort to have that kind of stuff accurate.

Other than that, I have no reason to believe it was any particular year.

 

The Staton choir made its first LP for Epic as part of a group effort (i.e. with other acts) in 1956, as the matrix number attests:

I reckon this was what the textmakers on Hits From The Hills were going back to, in terms of his timeline with the label.

By 1962, this is what Epic LP covers looked like (oh, and look, there's Jim Foglesong again):

(No doubt we'll be hearing from him at 30th this year.)

It was also after that LN 3703 album that both Epic and Columbia began mentioning timings in a small box towards the bottom of the back cover, as above. Also by '62, the back covers began being set in stone for the next couple years: text in Akzidenz Grotesk for Columbia releases, Palatino for Columbia Masterworks - and Optima (as seen here) for Epic. (I also misspoke. The Epic LP cat. #'s didn't synchronize mathematically until after they switched to the LN 24000/BN 26000 series later in 1962.)

 

I stand corrected, and thank you for that great information.

Maybe they did a contract renewal in 1958?

 

Quite a possibility. That, and/or his choir in '58 started doing albums on their own rather than as part of a greater ensemble.

 

February 28 (Saturday) I:

Two sessions today; the first, from 10:15am-1:15pm, was Mitch Miller with Jimmy Carroll and His Orchestra.

Songs recorded were:

Ramblin' Wreck From Georgia Tech
Medley: Oh What A Pal Was Mary; Harrigan
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now

These songs also appeared on that "Party With Mitch Miller and the Gang" album shown above on February 26.

Musicians today were:

Leader:
Jimmy Carroll
Contractor and Bass:
Frank Carroll
Guitar:
((George Barnes))
((Al Caiola)) John Pizzarelli
Don L. Arnone
Accordion:
Charles Magnante
Harmonica:
Eddy Manson
Drums:
Herbert Lovelle
((Xylophone)
((Harry Breuer))

 

From what I can see, and I have heard my share of Sing Along With Mitch albums and tracks over the years, the harmonica and accordion would have been played in unison, with the same notes, to create that particular "sound" that, with the guitars, bass and drums, accompanied the various singers.

 

February 28 (Saturday) II:

Jerry Vale with Abe Osser and His Orchestra recorded from 2:30-5:30pm.

Songs recorded were:

The Heart Has Won The Game
Don't Kill The Flame
Bella, Bella Sue
When You Used To Dance With Me

Musicians were:

Leader:
Abe Osser
Contractor:
Arnold Eidus
Violin:
Max Cahn
David Novales
Ralph Silverman
Anthony Di Girolamo
Archie Levin
Felix Giglio
Max Pollikoff
Marilyn Wright
Viola:
David Mankovitz
Calmen Fleisig
Cello:
George Ricci
Bass:
Frank Carroll
John Beal
Piano:
Joseph Berlingeri
Guitar:
Joseph B. Galbraith
Al Casamenti
John Pizzarelli
Drums:
Herbert Lovelle
Martin Grupp

Jerry Vale had a long and prosperous career.

Abe Osser was also known as Glenn Osser and as his link says, he was a bandleader for a long time, primarily for ABC in his later career.

It seems odd that Arnold Eider, who was a world-renowned violinist, was the contractor for this session, and I haven't been able to confirm that he was indeed a contractor for sessions, but he and George Ricci (cellist on this session) had their own record company and studio and were the engineers, too. So it seems likely that this was that Arnold.

I haven't been able to find an original album that these songs were released on; they seem to be only 45's:



Bridgeport, right?

What's this one?



Oh, the title of it includes "Canada". Is that it?

Here's a video of The Heart Has Won The Game