Musical Sharing Thread 1900-1960s

Modern media makes it very difficult to learn about the rich heritage of American popular music from 1900 to 1960. The focus is on current artists and the recent past, specifically, the rock era. Legacy titles and other musical genres, even those with tremendous historical and cultural importance, are rarely promoted or broadcast. A Google search can yield amazing treasures, but this is so far out of their frame of reference, young people aren't familiar with the names and titles, and don't even know where to start looking.

 

My personal music collection includes tens of thousands of 78s, LPs and CDs going back more than a century, and I've spent decades searching out "the good stuff". I bet there are others here who have a great deal of experience in music that the average person may not be aware of. It's time to share.

 

So I'm starting this thread to point out things that I think are fantastic and under appreciated... jazz, the blues, latin, ethnic. pop vocal, rhythm and blues, country, classical... it's all fair game as long as it dates before the British Invasion. Others can feel free to jump in too. I hope folks follow these breadcrumbs and discover vast new worlds of music they never knew existed. Comment away. Share.

 

I'm going to start out with some Pre-WW2 jazz...

 

"Stormy Weather" excerpt featuring...

 

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Robinson

Cab Calloway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cab_calloway

Lena Horne http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_Horne

The Nicholas Brothers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Brothers

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dtYeCcgJp0

 

The energy in this sequence of numbers builds to the point where you can't believe it could possibly go any further... then the Nicholas Brothers come out and do just that.

 

My, My Ain't That Something!

Edited by bigshot - 9/28/11 at 9:24pm

And here is some 50s classical music...

 

Nathan Milstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Milstein

Paganini http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccolò_Paganini

 

Nathan Milstein plays Paganiniana

 

http://youtu.be/5G0jEFanw-Y

Edited by bigshot - 9/28/11 at 8:59pm

Fayard Nicholas lived near a Starbucks I used to frequent. I met him once. He was a very nice man. He and his brother started when they were children.

The lyrics are in "jive", a lingo that Cab Calloway popularized....

http://www.cabcalloway.cc/jive_dictionary.htm

It's kind of like Snoop Dogg's catchphrases. Many of Calloway's colorful terms entered the general language, like "cool" for good and "cats" for musicians. Look through that link and you'll find a lot more. I bet you use jive terms just about every day. Cab could go into extended dialogues in jive that were hilarious.

The Calloway band boasted some of the most talented musicians in jazz. His goal was to have an even better band than Ellington. I think in this particular video he had it. Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, Ike Quebec, Dizzy Gillespie, Walter "Foots" Thomas... Lots of top talents.

Cab Calloway is one of those artists who never made a bad record. The worst of Cab was better than the best of most other musicians. It was a record by him that opened up my ears to jazz when all I had listened to up to that point was rock.

Paganini was a wild man with a reputation for virtuoso pyrotechnics. The comparison to rock guitarists is apt. His compositions are pretty shallow, but they're filled with flash. Milstein is a violinist who is rarely spoken of any more. I don't know why because he was one of the best. Perhaps his calm demeanor hides his incredible skill. Watch what he's doing here. He uses every technique in the book to squeeze the most out of the piece and never breaks a sweat. Superhuman. It is a challenge to get that varied and that full of a sound out of a single violin. Every time I watch that video, I notice a new trick.

I'll post some more treats soon.
Edited by bigshot - 9/29/11 at 12:19am

Louis was the single most important American creative artist of the 20th century. I'll post something by him tomorrow.

The single greatest American artistic achievement created in the 20th century was jazz. The second greatest was probably cartoons. Here's the best of both worlds rolled into one.

 

Louis Armstrong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_armstrong

Fleischer Studios http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleischer_Studios

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV1Z7AnhTN0

 

It's easy to get sucked into the cartoon and not really listen to what is going on in the soundtrack, but make a point of paying attention to Louis's horn in this film. He is absolutely fearless, executing perfect grabs for high notes, phrasing imaginatively and producing that beautiful tone he was famous for.

 

 

Some incredible bluegrass now...

 

The Osborne Brothers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Brothers

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfGPIyxi7A

 

Back in the 60s, there were local Bluegrass Festivals in fields where folks would bring box lunches and lawn chairs and spend the day listening to great music. It was informal and I bet a whole lot of fun. Check out how comfortable the Osbornes are in this clip. There's a great deal of improvisation and give and take going on between incredibly accomplished musicians. This clip is from a DVD called Bluegrass Country Soul, a filmed version of one of the 60s bluegrass festivals. No bluegrass fan should be without this CD. It's a real treasure.

In another thread, Cain asked me to suggest some good classical links. It's a bit harder to do that than with popular music because classical music is more long form, and the structure is important. It doesn't take well to excerpting as youtube videos. But if I had one suggestion for people interested in learning more about classical music, it would be to head straight to Netfix and rent Leonard Bernstein's pioneering television series, "Young People's Concerts". Bernstein speaks from the podium and illustrates his points with the spectacular New York Philharmonic. These programs were aimed at school age kids but they don't talk down to the audience at all. Even a person with a lot of experience in music will learn something from these shows. In the program this clip is from, Bernstein asks, "What makes American music American?" He goes through the entire history of America, showing how music was an integral part of who we are as a nation. As a summation, he brings on a guest conductor for the NY Philharmonic. Aaron Copland to perform Fanfare for the Common Man. It's a jaw dropper of a finale.

 

Aaron Copland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland

Leonard Bernstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3D3LovIK0g

 

Just to let everyone know that I don't have anything against rock and roll, here is an iconic clip from the DVD, Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway 1967. This song is basically a simple riff, but listen to what the band does with it. The phrases are never repetitive. This has got to be the coolest sound in rock.

 

Booker T and the M.G.s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._and_the_MGs

Stax Records http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stax_Records

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy83xtvZ5RA

 

More links tomorrow.