1959: Today at the 30th Street Studio

"Trans" was reference to Columbia Transcriptions, their custom service (which also handled advertising as well as custom pressing for labels such as Cadence and Laurie at this point); it was reorganized around 1961 as Columbia Record Productions, with Columbia Special Products following not long thereafter. This must've been for some ad that was aired either locally or nationally.

 

The label fonts are from Bert-Co of Los Angeles; compare that to Bridgeport, and you'll see this seems more stiff and mannered. (Sadly, Discogs only has Hollywood labels for US variants.) Here's Side 1 of a pressing made some time between late 1967 and mid-1970, of the stereo version, for comparison:

(The 'NONBREAKABLE' below the cat. # was struck from all label copy film of all back releases between January and February 1967; however, I saw a 1978 red/orange "ring around" label design pressing of Johnny Mathis' Merry Christmas album from 1958, with 'NONBREAKABLE' where it had been up to '67.)

As for the personnel. Two basses were usually par for the course where the string section was 18 violins, 6 violas and 6 celli. Sidney Brecher and Richard Dickler were among the string players on Billie Holiday's Lady In Satin album from the prior year. Mr. Dickler's credits date to at least the 1940's if not earlier; he was on many New York sessions up to the mid-1970's, the last known one being Barry Manilow's big 1974-75 hit "Mandy." By 1977 (and I might've noted this before, if I did my apologies) he was based out of L.A. One record he participated in after moving was Barry White's 1977 LP Barry White Sings For Someone You Love. I wonder if Mr. Dickler played on any of Jackie Gleason's 1950's albums, if so he may've had the distinction of playing for two artists of similar avoirdupois whose musical "formula" had certain similarities, even if their approaches were way different for the eras they came from.

The orchestra appeared to be 53-piece here.

And Mr. Shoobe's original surname was indeed Shoubel; I have an old Raymond Scott Quintette 78 ("The Toy Trumpet" c/w "Powerhouse") on the Master label (later re-issued on Brunswick and re-reissued on Columbia) with that original last name, before he changed it.

 

Not to spoil your joke, but this isn't quite true although it may have been true in many cases. I went through some of his correspondence last Fall and there were a variety of his signatures on various documents:

GL
Franz Kafka Lieberson
Henry Miller Lieberson
Goddard
and once "King Judas the Tenth" in response to a note about (not from) King Christian X of Denmark

Although, to be fair, most of what I saw was carbon copies that he didn't sign, and I suppose that his signature was dependent on who he was writing to.

He mostly addressed Lehman Engel as "Looman", and Engel addressed him as "Goonard" or "Gono" or the like and often signed his own notes as "Loorman" or similar.

And, despite its meaning as a standalone word, "God" is in fact a diminutive of his given name and therefore reasonable to use. Much better than "Dard", IMHO.

I agree that if you or I were to use it as our signature the meaning and implications would be quite different.

 

So they were recording jingles and/or the whole ad? For radio, since TV ads would be recorded at a TV studio? Presumably the big studio wouldn't be necessary for voice-overs, so something with music?

 

you did? wow.. that's incredible. what circumstances prompted you to do that.. are you writing about him?

fascinating. either way, it's the "legend" and i would imagine he did it ( when he did? ) to make his point. "god for short" love it. i wish i had a copy of the "pass" letter from columbia to my pop that essentially reads: "sorry billy, we don't want to sign lenny bruce". he's signing the doors, no one wants them and instead lieberson had my pop drive stravinsky around hollywood. whew. can't imagine that evening!

 

Oh, believe it. (Though recordings for TV ads would have pre-recorded tracks made at sessions such as this, for people in the TV studio to lip-sync to if it came to that.)

 

Check this other thread about 30th St, preferably with your Dad (if he's interested) when you're with him for a long time and after you record him talking about those days, to see why I'm a nut case about this subject.

Short answer: because I'm enjoying finding out as much as I can about it AND enjoy pretending to be a scholar on some level.

 

if it approaches the degree of thoroughness and the depth of info of your thread? i'm all for it. thanks.

 

Of course also married to Alfred Lion of Blue Note ! I knew she had died recently, a sad loss, but I believe the Vanguard is still in the family. Long may it continue so.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

The two threads have some differences, which I've thought extensively about and so can suggest what they are.

The other thread is necessarily speculative and tentative in many cases, since we often take pictures that have no context which show unknown people at unknown times, and try to figure out what's going on and when it was and who it is. Many wrong turns later, we frequently find out who, what, why, and sometimes when, and that ratchets our knowledge up so we can more easily identify that person on another occasion. The pictures in which the "where" is unknown are the most exciting for me because there are huge areas of the studio building that we don't know what it looked like, or where the look of it changed radically over the 33 years that the studio was open.

This thread here starts with almost all the information about particular people in the same place at different times, working on known individual projects that served their intended purposes (released to the world for consumption) in at-first-unknown ways (what album? what single?), but because we know the components we can find the result if it exists.

The earlier thread is much more meandering and wasteful, in some entertaining ways and maybe creative, while this thread is much more linear and tedious but equally as rewarding in the end, in that it really humanizes the whole process as it names the people involved and allows insight into their interesting lives of achievement that we can only hope to emulate.

As we've seen in this thread and definitely in the other thread, this wonderful forum with its amazing cast of participants with their varied and extensive experience and knowledge are what makes this exercise work, since when we share our information we move the bar of what we know higher and higher. The bulk of what we've learned in both threads (and other similar threads not specifically about 30th St.) brings the knowledge of this time and place back to the front of minds rather than the back or completely forgotten.

In many ways, what we're doing is similar to what Henry Louis Gates is doing in his wonderful "Finding Your Roots" TV series on PBS, which I love watching, and giving life to the people who came before us and accomplished incredible things and overcame harsh adversity and who deserve to be remembered. Your situation specifically is relevant to the people on that TV show, because Gates' subjects are the product of the actions and choices made by their ancestors, and we have you in this thread because of your Dad's choices and work and actions, and we are the richer for it.

Now back to work.

 

i began on it late last night. you are a font of arcane music business info

 

March 6 (Friday) 1 of 3:

Today's first session, from 10am-1pm, is a continuation of the Ray Conniff with Billy Butterfield recordings.

Al Ham producing.

 

March 6 (Friday) 2 of 3:

From 2:30-4:00pm, our friend Agustin Castellon, professionally known as Sabicas, remade Joyas Del La Alhambra. No producer is shown in either Report or Schedule.

 

March 6 (Friday) 3 of 3:

Since the other two sessions were so simple I'd hoped to do just one post for the three, but this Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra session is complex enough that it's worth doing on its own.

They were scheduled from 8:30-11:30pm, but must have run into an issue because it actually ended at 12:30am.

Songs recorded were

We Kiss In The Shadow
Bali Ha'i
Kalua
Moon Of Manakooba
Hawaiian Medley: On The Beach At Waikiki; Hawaiian War Chant; My Honolulu Tomboy

Those are some enchanting titles!

Here are the musicians:

Leader:
Andre Kostelanetz
Contractor:
Louis Shoobe
Librarian:
Louis Robbins
Violin:
Jack Zayde
George Ockner
Maurice Wilk
Michel Gushikoff
Raoul Poliakin*
Bernard Ocko
Leo Kruczek
Paul Gershman
Harp:
Gloria Agostini
Viola:
Richard Dickler
Theodore Adoff
Cello:
Harvey Shapiro
David Soyer
Bass:
Milton J. Hinton
Flute:
Victor Just
Oboe:
Albert Goltzer
Saxophone:
Chet Hazlett
Herbert Lytle
Paul J. Ricci
Nuncio Mondello
((Trumpet)
Trombone:
Sy Shaffer
Laurence Altpeter
Jack Satterfield
Clifford Heather
French Horn:
Fred Klein
Tony Miranda
Guitar:
George Barr*
Alex E. Caiola
Drums:
Milton Schlesinger
Martin Grupp
Ted Sommer
Philip C. Krause
Bradley Spinney
Gordon A. Powell
Piano:
Samuel Liner
Luther Henderson, Jr. x

* = 4 1/2 hours
x = 3 hours

I was going to do a comparison of the orchestra yesterday to that today, but there's too many musicians to fit. Also, I don't know how to do two columns in this posting format.

Big differences seem to be lots less strings, no trumpets, and more drummers, plus a second pianist for most of the time. Oh, and they name the Librarian!

Edit: Plus, you get a bonus smiley face.

 

This was 36-piece, about ⅔ the amount of the prior "Kosty" session. 8 violins, 2 violas and 2 celli are the usual preferred combo for sessions of this ilk (plus 1 string bass), which both Nelson Riddle and Don Sebesky had recommended in their list of preferred string combos for pop or jazz recording sessions. Of the violists, I see Richard Dickler was involved in both sessions of Mr. Kostelanetz'. Also, I wonder how many of those credited for drums actually did percussion.

Incidentally, for those who are asking, the saxophonist credited in that list as Nuncio Mondello is better known as "Toots." Besides the "formal" nomenclatures for some we know by such names as Milt Hinton and Al Caiola.

Let me advise of the recommended lists of both arrangers. First, Mr. Riddle's:
- 8vn/2vl/2vc (on this session)
- 9vn/3vl/3vc
- 10vn/3vl/3vc
- 12vn/4vl/4vc
- 18vn/6vl/6vc (on the prior Kostelanetz session)
Now for Mr. Sebesky's:
- 2vn/1vl/1vc
- 7vn/2vc
- 8vn/2vl/2vc
- 9vn/2vl/2vc
- 12vn/4vc
- 12vn/4vl/4vc

Quite a few 30th Street sessions, not only in 1959 but also before and after, had any number of those combos within the instrumentalists assembled to back a recording, whether by a "thrush" (per Billboard verbiage) or group or Broadway cast recording.

 

While those gentlemen are both noted arrangers, orchestra composition had been going on for a long time before they were born. Were there other guidelines that these supersede? Or are there new guidelines that supersede these?

Are these ratios specific to recording? Are there ratios specific for performance? Or for specific locations?

I had always assumed that orchestra composition was specific to the desires of the composer and/or the needs of the piece, but confess that I've not thought about it a lot.

 

March 7 (Saturday) 1 of 2:

Dang, I thought I'd have a day off today.

There were two sessions, though. The first was from 2:30-5:30pm, Johnny Ray with Richard Maltby and His Orchestra.

Songs recorded were:

You're All That I Live For (Que L'amour Me Pardonne)
Call Me Yours
Here And Now
I'll Never Fall In Love Again.

Producer for this session was Mitch Miller

Musicians were:

Leader:
Richard Maltby
Contractor:
Joseph Lenza
Trumpets:
Dick Perry
Tony Paso
Lyle Dedrick
Trombones:
John Rains
William Byers
William Elton
Horn:
James Buffington
Donald Corrado
Joe Singer
Tuba:
Don Butterfield
Piano:
Morris Wechsler
Bass:
Frank Carroll
Guitar:
Al Casamenti
John Pizzarelli
George Barnes
Drums:
Herman Kapp
Percussion:
Philip Kraus
Viola:
Richard Dickler
George Brown
Theodore Adoff
Violins:
Arnold Eidus
Harry Glickman
Paul Gershman
Sam Rand
Max Cahn
Harry Katzman
Felix Giglio
Harry Urbont
David Nadien
George Ockner
Leo Kruczek
David Novales

Random observations:

1) That's a weird ratio;
2) It's interesting that Frank and Arnold don't have to be contractors, they're willing to be sidemen, too;
3) Wasn't Johnny Ray well past his prime at this time?
4) There's no contract dates on this report but I thought he was an early 50's guy.
5) It's nice that he was still plugging away.

I'll let you tell us what album/45 release these songs were on.

On to the next one, which was just as complicated.

 

These combos were mainly for purposes of recording sessions, generally. Such guidelines were contingent on a host of factors including not only the needs of the song being orchestrated, but in some cases the budgets for sessions. I've been looking at Frank Sinatra's sessionography, and in the 1944-71 period the amount of strings on his records, on a per-session basis, tended to match the ups and downs of his career in that time period.

 

"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" (master # CO 62351) (no relation to either the Lonnie Donegan co-composition that Tom Jones recorded in 1967 and had a hit with in 1969, or the Bacharach-David number recorded most famously by Dionne Warwick, but rather one of Johnnie Ray's own compositions) was issued as a single (c/w "You're All That I Live For," master # CO 62350) on 4-41438:

The other songs from this session, "Here And Now" (master # CO 62349) / "Call Me Yours" (master # CO 62352), were issued on single #4-41372:


But I do have to wonder: Where are the cello players? And I suppose those marked "Horn" would have been French horns.

Oh and yes, Johnnie Ray was indeed past his prime on the music charts by then (his last big hit was 1956's "Just Walkin' In The Rain").

 

March 7 (Saturday) 2 of 2:

From 7pm-11:30pm Jack Lemmon, with Marion Evans and His Orchestra, recorded the following songs:

Try A Little Tenderness
It's Anybody's Spring
Stairway To The Stars
Daphne
Sleepy Lagoon

Musicians for the session were:

Leader:
Marion Evans
Contractor:
Edward Goldberg
Violins:
Harry Lookofsky
Paul Gershman
Harry Katzman
Leo Kruczek
Arnold Eidus
Maurice Wilk
David Nadine
Eugene Orloff
Viola:
David Mankovitz
Harold R. Colletta
Cello:
George Ricci
David Soyer
Bass:
Milton J. Hinton
Sax:
Joseph Soldo *
William Slapin *
Philip L. Bodner *
Sol Schlinger *
Drums:
James O. Johnson
Guitar:
John Pizzarrelli *
Joseph B Galbraith
Harp:
Janet Putnam Soyer *

Producer for this session was Joe Sherman

* = these people played only 4 hours
All others played 4 1/2 hours

Edit 3 or 4: Funny that they had the whole sax section, half the guitars, and all the harp show up later or leave early.

Once again, the clearest pictures on Discogs were the Canadian release:









Is anybody but me imagining Jack Lemmon doing the Otis Redding arrangement of Try A Little Tenderness? That would be funny. Regardless, here is his version:



Not bad.

Speaking of arrangements, Marion Evans is worth reading about. We may have met him already in this thread.

There were several musicians who worked back-to-back sessions today, which is kind of cool. I wonder if the engineer did, too? And if it was Frank Laico.

Oh, and the Wikipedia said that Jack Lemmon was a good buddy to Ernie Kovacs and narrated a documentary about Kovacs, but after spending 41 minutes watching it and loving it but realizing that Lemmon wasn't the narrator, well, that caused me to mess up the post (fixed now).

Since I love Ernie Kovacs and he would be off-topic for a 30th St. thread but has come up in this one, here is that swell documentary with lots of early footage:

Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius (1982)

It's almost 90 minutes and wonderful.

 

March 8 (Sunday):

No sessions this day.

 

The seventh violinist listed was actually David Nadien; I suppose "Nadine" was a misspelling from that list? But 8vn/2vl/2vc, that ratio was more fitting for this kind of session.

 

You are correct, that is my transcription error. That's the problem with using a middleman.

 

March 9 (Monday) 1 of 3:

There were either three or four sessions in 30th St. today.

The first one or two, possibly from 10am-1pm and for sure from 2:30-5:30pm, were with Ralph and Buddy Bonds and Their Orchestra. The Schedule says two, the Report says one. The Report and Schedule agree that they had two sessions at the same time the next day.

Songs recorded in all sessions were

Memories Of You
Dansero (edit: how did they know I'd be interested in this?)
Route 66
Opus One
Johnson Rag
Say You're Mine
Orgasonic Blues
'Deed I Do
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Moonlight Cocktail
Jersey Bounce
Cherokee

Musicians were:

Leader and Organ:
Ralph Bonds
Organ:
Buddy Bonds
Drums:
Stanley Shapiro
Bass:
Edward Goldberg

Producer for all sessions was Jim Foglesong.

Once again, the Canadian posters on Discogs come through with album pictures, although perhaps not as many as we'd hope for:



I couldn't find much about them, but did find a couple of things.

The first is a post about Buddy and a different album, but the letters section has a note from one of his associates that sheds a little light on them.

The second is a Youtube video about them which I haven't been able to watch because the audio part of this computer is busy working on a project that needs to be done soon. So you can tell me if this is interesting, if you watch it before I leave for work.



Realizing that I don't know much about Baldwin organs; what little I know is about Hammond and tracker organs. Looking up Baldwin organs finds that the inventor of them was Winston Kock, which is a familiar name to me for some reason.

This is an introduction to Baldwin organs, with a few pictures.

Here's a small picture of the Bonds brothers from Discogs; I can't tell if the ones they are playing are like any in the pictures in that website.



Hey, it's the same picture as in Youtube. Not many pics of them...

Following a link to Winston Kock, there are circuit diagrams as well as a history of his life both before and after the Baldwin organ, and more pictures.

Hey, he was an (the?) inventor of acoustic lenses!!! And worked for both NASA and Bell Laboratories!

There are a couple of interesting letters on that web page, too, but most want to know how to fix or how much their broken organ is worth.

Mr. Kock being such a distinguished audio inventor, I wondered if he'd been awarded the Honorary Member Award by the Audio Engineering Society which is a very important award?

When Frank Laico won it in 2011 (from my nomination), Gary Louie and I and a few others from our AES Section did some research and found out who the past winners were and what they did to win it, in order to put Frank's win in context since we were not familiar with its history or past winners.

That research got posted on Pro Sound Web (with a title by them) and looking there, sure enough, in 1972 Winston E. Kock received the Honorary Member Award! There's a couple more links to him in that article.

It's funny how things tie together.