GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 274, 19 November 1927, Page 28

GRAMOPHONE NOTES.

ARTISTS AND THEIR RECORDS

(By SOUNDBOX.)

Amid thp sroldfn gifts which Heaven Has left. likt? portions of its light on earth, Js'onc hath such influence as music hath. —L. E. Landon. Vernon Dalhart, who specialises in a certain type of sentimental ballad, pays tribute to Lindbergh, the successful Atlantic flyer, in "Lucky Lindy," and to Nungessor and his companion, whose flight had a less fortunate termination, in "The Lost Trench Flyers." (3572.)

Light music, played effectively as a piano solo, can be rather appealing, and the work of Lee Sims in this field must be acknowledged as unusually good. He plays "Song of the Wanderer" and "Falling in Love With. You" with his usual deft touch. (3551, 10-inch.)

Two unusually good fox-trots are "Moonbeam, Kiss Her for Me," with "Who Do You Love?" by Golden and his orchestra (3458), and "Sa-lu-ta," with

"Georgeous," by Harry Archer and his orchestra (3579). "Sa-lu-ta," a fox-trot in six-eight time, is quite out of the usual run.

Elizabeth Rethberg, a soprano whose work with the Metropolitan Opera Coin-

pany, raised her to a position of eminence, sings Massenet's "Elegic" and Braga's "Angels Serenade" in a manner that will not disappoint her many admirers, and does justice to these wellknown songs. (10253, 10-inch.)

The A. and P. Gypsies play two fascinating items in "Mystery of Night" and

"Marchioness, Your Dancing." The work of this clever little orchestra must be heard to be appreciated, and for this pairing of melodious and well played numbers a good hearing may be confidently prophesied. (3556, 10-inch.)

A violinist of high repute in the United States, Albert Spalding, with his inseparable accompanist, Andre Benoist at the piano as usual, plays two fascinating favourites of those of us who like our music good but melodious withal, Brahm's "Waltz in A Major" and Mozart's "Minuet." Well played and well recorded, it is a record to cherish. (15127, 10-inch.)

As a violinist, Fredric Fradkin has played music of the masters and the lighter melodies of passing interest, the one now and the other then, so that one wonders whether to data him violinist or fiddler. His playing of ".So Blue" and "Russian Lullaby" are very acceptable trifles, whether he be the one or the other, capably played and well recorded. (3565, 10-inch.)

Mentioned previously in these notes as a rather out of the ordinary foxtrot, one naturally wonders how such a "tricky" number as "Doll Dance" would lend itself to organ playing. At the hands of Lew White playing the Kimball organ of the Rosy Theatre, New York, it loses nothing of its fascination. The reverse, "Charmaine," is also well played, and completes an interesting pairing. (3581, 10-inch.)

The pleasing work of the A. and P. Gypsies is responsible for a pair of unusual dances, "Marigny," a Parisian tango, and "Pleura d'Amour," a French foxtrot. Both are most musically played by an orchestra that prefers the folk music of Eastern Europe as its usual fare, but is not above lending its compelling art to lighter music once in a while. As one expects, the tone and playing of this little orchestra is splendid. (3140.).

New dance music includes "Red Lips, Kiss My Blues Away" and "Magnolia," by the Clevelandsrs, foxtrots (35(53); "You Don't Like It, Not Much," and "Where the Wild Wildflowers Grow," foxtrots by Jules Huberveaux's Palmer House Victorians (3557); "Honolulu Moon" and "Lonesome Melody o' Mine," waltzes by Goldcn's Orchestra (3166); and "Kiss Me Again," with an old welcome friend, "Missouri" waltz, played by Carter's Orchestra (3540).

Some orchestras seem to specialise in certain classes of dance music, and the Regent Club orchestra may be depended upon to choose good waltzes and play them well. Two good examples of their work are "That Saxophone Waltz" and "Consolation" (3483. 10-inch). The former is notable for its strong melody and should prove popular, while I imagine the vocal refrain must be by our friend Frank Munn, though the label is silent on the point.

When Lemare'a "Andantino" was 'changed by that modern alchemist, the writer of "popular" songs based on wellknown melodies into "Moonlight and Roses," the few who were scandalised were hopelessly outnumbered by the many to whom the new version brought an alloyed pleasure. Now Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Taught Me" has been transmuted (to continue the alchemy metaphor) into "One Summer Night." It is played by Lew White on the Kimball organ, a vocal refrain lending the necessary touch of completeness to a most attractive item, with "Russian Lullaby," a melodious Irving Berlin song played as an organ solo on the reverse (3575).

A perusal of the reviews of local moving pictures prompts the thought that there is an upward tendency in the class of music that picture orchestras are providing. There is no doubt, in spite of what Mr. Highbrow and his friends may think, that the taste of that collection of many strange varieties known as "the public" is definitely tending upward. Dance music is swinging back from the over-orcliestrated, much-broken-up variety technically described as "hot" to a more musical mode in which melody is again given its right emphasis, and the fascinartion of harmony and rhythm is taking the place of the ultra-jazzy type. I am inclined to ascribe to the gramophone much of the credit for this change. It is educating the people, perhaps unknown to them, to appreciate better things. A clever American coined the phrase "Sav it with flowers," and florists must have blessed him. But I prefer the altered phrase upon which a noted song-writer based one of his successful song's, it with music." Certainly the picture people in their incidental music evidence a growing demand for, or at least appreciation of, higher-class music. And as the. Christmas season comes around again, when the ever-perplexing problem of the choice of gifts presents itself, why not this year take advantage of this growing appreciation, and when choosing the means of conveying the annual remembrance of friends, give a record, "Say it with music"?