The Columbia stuff...at least the ones pressed here in Toronto...suffer from what I call the Canadian symdrome: like the Berliner pressings from Montreal they don't seem to have much abrasive in the compound. This means that they can have very quiet surfaces if they've only been played a few times with a steel needle, but since that rarely happens, most copies are rather heavy going. And by 1917-18 I think they were noisy even if they have been played much or not.
But in terms of recording technique I often mutter as I listen to columbias "...pity they had the artist sing through the transom..." If the record has a quiet suface this isn't so bad, but with a noisy record they can be as wretched as a bad Diamond Disc.
And Charles Prince's pedestrian conducting is a whole other rant waiting to happen.
And Charles Prince's pedestrian conducting is a whole other rant waiting to happen.
I think this is a major issue in the musicality of many Columbia operatic/classical sides. Prince's conducting is emotionless and dull, to be generous. The total lack of rubato, dynamics, or even understanding of the score in general(albeit abridged, arranged for 10 instruments etc.) makes many of the recordings tiresome and totally unfair to the vocal talents. Mix this with Columbia's general practice of placing the singer on the next street over unable to sing louder than a mezzo-forte and you get the perfect storm. On the flip side, it is quite obvious when Prince is not conducting or at the piano. Nordica's recording of the "Hunyadi Laszlo" aria.
And Charles Prince's pedestrian conducting is a whole other rant waiting to happen.
I think this is a major issue in the musicality of many Columbia operatic/classical sides. Prince's conducting is emotionless and dull, to be generous. The total lack of rubato, dynamics, or even understanding of the score in general(albeit abridged, arranged for 10 instruments etc.) makes many of the recordings tiresome and totally unfair to the vocal talents. Mix this with Columbia's general practice of placing the singer on the next street over unable to sing louder than a mezzo-forte and you get the perfect storm. On the flip side, it is quite obvious when Prince is not conducting or at the piano. Nordica's recording of the "Hunyadi Laszlo" aria is a great example.
I have a story about the shellac drives of WWII. In the 1960s I was friends with an older person names George who was a clerk at the Southern Music Store on Orange, Ave. in Downtown Orlando. One day George mentioned the shellac drive, which at that point I had never heard about and George proceeded to tell me how he was in charge of collecting, packing, and shipping records that were turned in at the Southern Music store. George was a jazz record collector (as am I), and I marveled at the fact that he was allowed to take any record from the piles to be recycled provided that he replaced them with another record. He told me that a lot of the best 1920s jazz records in his collection came from those turned in for recycling. As I listened to his story he mentioned some specific records he found and I imaged a scene where piles of 78s we tossed into wooden crates after George had looked though them and pulled out anything decent.
BTW, at that time in the late 1960s, Southern Music Company, which was also a juke box record distributor, had rooms of new 78 album stored upstairs in the store and shelves of surplus and returned records from their juke box route. Everything was for sale and I bought many of the Columbia, Victor, and Decca reissue albums of 1920s jazz like Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. I should also mention that I bought crates and crates of R&B 78s from the '40s and early '50s, which I have sold, a few at a time, ever since. I am down to the last few of these and last week I sold the last of the Tampa Red Bluebirds on eBay.
Happy Collecting and Best Regards,
Green Mountain Bill
I have a story about the shellac drives of WWII. In the 1960s I was friends with an older person names George who was a clerk at the Southern Music Store on Orange, Ave. in Downtown Orlando. One day George mentioned the shellac drive, which at that point I had never heard about and George proceeded to tell me how he was in charge of collecting, packing, and shipping records that were turned in at the Southern Music store. George was a jazz record collector (as am I), and I marveled at the fact that he was allowed to take any record from the piles to be recycled provided that he replaced them with another record. He told me that a lot of the best 1920s jazz records in his collection came from those turned in for recycling. As I listened to his story he mentioned some specific records he found and I imaged a scene where piles of 78s we tossed into wooden crates after George had looked though them and pulled out anything decent.
BTW, at that time in the late 1960s, Southern Music Company, which was also a juke box record distributor, had rooms of new 78 album stored upstairs in the store and shelves of surplus and returned records from their juke box route. Everything was for sale and I bought many of the Columbia, Victor, and Decca reissue albums of 1920s jazz like Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. I should also mention that I bought crates and crates of R&B 78s from the '40s and early '50s, which I have sold, a few at a time, ever since. I am down to the last few of these and last week I sold the last of the Tampa Red Bluebirds on eBay.
Happy Collecting and Best Regards,
Green Mountain Bill
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