Was this ever part of the musical "Show Boat" 1927?

[marcapra]

This would have to be an electric record since Showboat was produced first in 1927. It doesn't look like a scroll label though. It could be a Canadian Victor batwing record? I agree with everything Frank said in his post above, especially about there being a wave of "nostalgia" about the South of 50 years ago in the 1920's. Also I read that Showboat greatly impressed composer George Gershwin and led to his composing Porgy and Bess ten years later.

Does anyone know if Edison ever recorded any songs from the Kern musical Showboat on either Diamond Discs or Edison Needle Cuts?

[Henry]

Tangential to this thread, but related to Showboat the musical, I own Columbia Masterworks album M-495, "Kern: Showboat, Scenario for Orchestra," Rodzinski conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1941, according to the album liner notes, Rodzinski "invited Jerome Kern to compose a symphonic work based on the operetta Show Boat...." Note the description of the musical as an operetta, and also the title written as two words (in the notes, but not on the album cover!). I'm not familiar with any performance/recording of this Scenario other than the one in hand. Anybody?

[marcapra]

I've seen that album before. I always thought that it was probably arranged by Rodzinsky himself. If Kern wrote a tone poem based on Showboat, that would be more interesting. Is the music good on that album?

[Henry]

Yes, it has most of the recognizable, familiar tunes from the show.

I am inclined to agree with your assumption that Kern himself did not make the arrangements, but whether or not Rodzinski made them is a matter not addressed in the liner notes! And that's not surprising, considering that almost all Broadway shows were orchestrated by hands other than the composers'. This is true even for those composers who were certainly skilled enough to have done it themselves: Leonard Bernstein comes to mind in this connection. An awful lot of the shows from the '20s forward were arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, q.v.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Russell_Bennett. See especially the category headed "Broadway arrangements and orchestrations (a selection)," toward the end of the entry.

[De Soto Frank]

Henry,

I went to you-tube to listen to the Rodzinski / Cleveland version, and along the RH side of links, this turned-up:

Utah Symphony, conducted by Maurice Abravanel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cV46gsE4KY


Rodzinski's version still carries weight, in that he knew Kern, commissioned the work, and presumably premiered it. Probably as close as we can get to a "primary source"...


I imagine that by this point in his life, Kern had the means to employ assistants to do the heavy lifting of scoring the work, but probably under his close supervision. Or perhaps he regarded this as enough of a departure from the drudgery of his usual work to take a more active hand in it ?

While it was Ferde Grofe who realized the original Jazz band and symphonic scores for Rhapsody in Blue, from that point onward, Gershwin did his own orchestrations, at least of his concert works, determined to master those techniques. I believe "American in Paris" was his first orchestration.

The Show Boat Scenario is a neat work, especially as it came from the original composer.

[marcapra]

Does anyone know if Edison ever recorded any songs from the Kern musical Showboat on either Diamond Discs or Edison Needle Cuts?

By using the The Edison Discography 1926-1929 by Raymond R. Wile, I found that just two songs were recorded on Edison Diamond Discs from the Showboat musical. B. A. Rolfe and His Palais D'Or Orchestra recorded two songs without singing in fox trot format on 52223 Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man/ Why Do I Love You?. Also, Elinor Gail recorded in June 1928 the song Bill, that was issued on N309, which I assume means needle cut. Apparently, Old Man River was never recorded on an Edison record.

[gramophone78]

This would have to be an electric record since Showboat was produced first in 1927. It doesn't look like a scroll label though. It could be a Canadian Victor batwing record? I agree with everything Frank said in his post above, especially about there being a wave of "nostalgia" about the South of 50 years ago in the 1920's. Also I read that Showboat greatly impressed composer George Gershwin and led to his composing Porgy and Bess ten years later.

Does anyone know if Edison ever recorded any songs from the Kern musical Showboat on either Diamond Discs or Edison Needle Cuts?

My record is a Canadian pressing.

[marcapra]

By using the The Edison Discography 1926-1929 by Raymond R. Wile, I found that just two songs were recorded on Edison Diamond Discs from the Showboat musical. B. A. Rolfe and His Palais D'Or Orchestra recorded two songs without singing in fox trot format on 52223 Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man/ Why Do I Love You?. Also, Elinor Gail recorded in June 1928 the song Bill, that was issued on N309, which I assume means needle cut. Apparently, Old Man River was never recorded on an Edison record.

Some of my research above is faulty. Because I thought the song was called "Old Man River", I thought that Edison never recorded it because there was nothing in the Wile book under "Old Man River". But the song is called "Ol' Man River" and was recorded by Edison in July 1928 by the Rollickers on DD 52358, and on needle-cut N317.