Image Copyright ©2003
by Dismuke
Where
Were You - Where Was I
Jerome Conrad And His Orchestra
Edmund Ruffner, vocal
1928
(Harmony 747-H mx 147080)
Here's a nice and peppy recording
I discovered recently while going through a stack of records in my collection
that I had not previously listened to. Too bad that it was recorded
for Columbia's Harmony, Diva and Velvet Tone bargain labels which were
still using the outdated acoustical equipment left over from when the company's
flagship label converted to electrical recording in 1925.
"Jerome Conrad and His Orchestra"
was a pseudonym used by Harry Reser's band so my assumption is that
was the case on this recording as well - though I have no specific confirmation.
The song comes from the George M.
Cohan musical Billie which opened on Broadway in October 1928 at
Erlanger's Theatre. That theatre, which was renamed The St. James
Theatre in 1932, still houses Broadway productions. I took the above
night time photo of it while on a trip to New York in 2000.
The only information I have about
vocalist Edmund Ruffner is that he appeared in the Broadway adaptation
of two operettas - Sigmund Romberg's Princess Flavia in 1925 and
Emmerich Kálmán's The Circus Princess in 1927.
Note the brief "scat" vocal near the end of the recording.
For the past 19 months, I have
been using DC-Art audio
restoration software in order to clean up the recordings added to this
website and to restore the vintage equalization settings that are destroyed
whenever pre-1950s records are played through modern stereo sets.
The software is wonderful - but there is a definite skill involved in using
it which is not easy to acquire by merely reading through instruction
manuals that use technical terms which have a tendency to be floating abstractions
to a non-audiophile such as myself. I am a vintage music fan - not
an audio engineer. Sometimes I could get what I thought were great
results from the software with relatively little effort. Other times,
however, I would spend an hour or more working on a recording and still
have serious doubts about the adequacy of the results. It
eventually got to the point that I was beginning to regard these weekly
updates not as an enjoyable diversion but rather as a chore that some weeks
I actually dreaded. Obviously, something had to be done.
For some while I have been a
fan of Rich Conaty's radio program "The
Big Broadcast" on WFUV-FM in New York City (also broadcast over the
Internet) which is devoted to 1920s and 1930s music. A lot
of the material Rich features on his programs comes from original 78 rpm
discs and he plays them through a machine called the Souvenir
VSP made by KAB Electro Acoustics. Unlike the software, the Souvenir
VSP does the sound restoration in real time and simply becomes part of
one's hi-fi system. Since I have always been impressed by the sound quality
of the 78 rpms on Conaty's program, I decided to give it a try. My
machine arrived a couple of weeks ago and I loved it from the moment I
played my first record through it. I wish I had ordered one a long
time ago.
If the Souvenir VSP has a downside,
it is that it does not produce the same quality of results that are possible
with the software. But one has to consider that getting excellent
results from software can require a significant time investment.
With the Souvenir VSP, one gets very acceptable results instantly thus
allowing one to focus on enjoying the music instead of figuring out how
to correct the various flaws in the record.
Interestingly enough, for the
purposes of preparing sound files for this website, I find that the Souvenir
VSP works best in conjunction with the DC-Art software. I was initially
planning on using the software only for the purpose of recording
the music to my computer's hard drive. What I discovered is that
the software lets me remove the remaining surface noise left behind
by the Souvenir VSP with very little effort and without the audio distortions
I would sometimes get from the software's noise reduction filter when I
was using it exclusively. Using the Souvenir VSP, it takes
me less than 5 minutes to clean up and process a sound file with the software.
Before, it would occasionally take me an hour or more. Basically,
I am now getting better sounding results in only a fraction of the time.
All of this week's selections
have been processed using both the Souvenir VSP and the software.
To provide you with a better feel for its capabilities, I have also provided
some examples of how the Souvenir VSP sounds without the software.
The bottom line good news is
that my putting these weekly updates together will once again become fun
- and as an added bonus, visitors will enjoy better sounding recordings
as well.
Hoosier
Sweetheart
Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra
Ray Maerer, vocal
1927
(Victor 20471-B)
Here's a nice record featuring the
legendary Bix Beiderbecke on cornet that I was not familiar with until
I recently picked it out of a pile of mostly junk records in a second hand
bookstore.
I am absolutely wild about the final
45 seconds or so of this recording. Gee, how I wish that music that
is capable of conveying such a feeling of carefree joy could somehow come
back in style in today's pop culture.
Click here
to listen to how the same recording sounds coming directly from the Souvenir
VSP without any further processing through the DC-Art software.
Have
A Heart
Leo Reisman and His Orchestra
Ben Gordon, vocal
1931
(Victor 22794-B)
This record is in excellent condition
with very few audible flaws. When processed through the Souvenir
VSP and the DC-Art software, the results are downright exquisite.
For the first selection, I complained
about how modern popular music is lacking in its ability to express joy.
For this selection, I will just say that I wish the music of today
was capable of conveying a similar sense of urbane elegance.
I also think this is a very pretty tune. Sadly, many popular songs
today do not even have a tune.
Click here
to
listen to how the same recording sounds coming directly from the Souvenir
VSP without any further processing through the DC-Art software.
EXTRA
One great advantage of my new Souvenir
VSP is the fact that I will now be able to make much faster progress in
updating the older sections of this website with better quality sound files.
Below are 19 selections featured in the August 1999 update to this site's
1920s & 1930s Section which I re-recorded using both the Souvenir VSP
and the DC-Art software. It took me just a few hours this past weekend
to do all 19 recordings. Had I used the software alone, it
could have easily taken me the entire weekend.
That Feeling Is Gone
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
Martha Tilton, vocal
1937
Für wen macht eine
Frau sich schön?
Hans Söhnker und die Metropol-Vokalisten
MD Robert Redard Tanzorch
circa mid-1930s
Everything's Gonna Be All
Right
Frank Harris, vocal
1926
Don't Be Like That
Helen Kane, vocal
1929
Stop The War (The Cats Are
Killin' Themselves)
Wingie Manone And His Orchestra
1941
Nothin'
Nat Shilkret and The Victor Orchestra
Gene Austin, vocal
1927
Bob White
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
Martha Tilton, vocal
1937
How Could Red Riding Hood?
Plantation Players
1926
I Married An Angel
Swing And Sway With Sammy Kaye
Jimmy Brown, vocal
1938
Goin' Hollywood
Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra
1937
They All Laughed
Fred Astaire, vocal
Johnny Green and His Orchestra
1937
Little By Little
Johnny Marvin, vocal
1929
My Little Grass Shack In
Kealakekua Hawaii
Ted FioRito and HisOrchestra
1933
She Really Meant To Keep
It
Johnny Mesner and His Music Box Band
1939
Just A Little Longer
Philip Spitalny and His Orchestra
Charles Hart, vocal
1926
Don't Be Blue
Floyd Tilman
1939
Broadway Melody
Ben Selvin and His Orchestra
1929
The Nightmare
Gene Morgan and
His Loew's State Theatre Orchestra
1927
Ain't Misbehavin'
Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra
1933
