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A PAUL WHITEMAN "POPS" CONCERT
Paul Whiteman (1890-1967) and his Concert Orchestra
Featuring Bing Crosby, Hoagy Camichael, and Bix Beiderbecke
Recorded 1927-1929
NAXOS Nostalgia 8.120520 [59’46"]
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My melancholy baby
Washboard blues
Sweet Sue - Just you
Among my souvenirs
The man I love
High water
La Golondrina
My heart stood still
Together
Moonlight and roses
La Paloma
Chlo-e (Song of the swamp)
Southern medley: Old black Joe-My old Kentucky home-carry me back
to old Virginny-Old folks at home
Jeannine (I dream of lilac time)
‘Pops’ Whiteman is viewed as the pioneer of symphonic
jazz and is probably best known, certainly by cross-over aficionados,
as the man who put Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on the map. Born
in 1890 at Denver, Colorado, (he died in Philadelphia in 1967) he trained
as a boy on the violin and in his teenage years was an orchestral as
well as chamber music player, but during the First World War he discovered
jazz. He first fronted a small nine-piece band, then he was taken up
(1922) by Victor Records and produced the hits Whispering and
The Japanese Sandman which sold two million copies. His unique
ability to attract the best players in their instrumental fields to
his band unsurprisingly produced performances of the highest calibre;
names such as Jack Teagarden, Joe Venuti, the Dorsey brothers, Hoagy
Carmichael and Bix Beiderbecke were legends in their own right but played
under Whiteman. They were then joined by vocalists such as Harry Lillis
‘Bing’ Crosby when Whiteman’s New York base was extended to Broadway
including such showtime hits as Ziegfeld’s Follies.
By 1927, when the first of these recordings were made,
he had for several years been experimenting with a ‘pop’ style with
the composer and pianist-arranger Ferde Grofé as well as using
a symphonic treatment of arrangements of vaudeville and dance music.
This disc has its marked characteristics, the ubiquitous inclusion of
either vibraphone or celesta, the final cymbal clash to end so many
of the tracks, extremes of vocal range (at times uncomfortable low at
others in that falsetto style which Dennis Potter so exploited in the
likes of Pennies of Heaven), sentimental melodies treated instrumentally
such as the muted trumpet, nostalgic violin playing followed by Vaughn
de Leath’s exaggerated vibrato in The Man I love make you wonder
momentarily if this is all a spoof. The orchestrations are magnificently
imaginative (down to the odd bassoon or viola solo), the instrumental
breaks worth seeking out. Dvorak’s New World Symphony is beautifully
parodied in High Water down to the use of the original cor anglais,
but after this pseudo-Al Jolson cameo by Crosby, the best from him is
saved for in the southern Medley of familiar numbers. Listen out for
the ‘Third Man’ zither sounds in La Golondrina, twenty years
before their time, giving it all an Hispanic folksong colour. Excellent
transfers and the music nostalgic in the best sense of the word.
Christopher Fifield
CD Reviews
