1925-1926

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
While Ethel Waters's years of fame as a singer coincided with those of Bessie Smith and the other classic blues singers, Waters's style and delivery were utterly different, even when she was singing similar material. Her voice was significantly lighter and more flexible, and there's an early grasp of jazz phrasing that often appears in these recordings from August 1925 to July 1926. It's particularly marked on "Dinah" and "Bring Your Greenbacks." Although Waters was an immensely popular and influential singer, she's better remembered today for the stage and film career of her later years. That theatrical gift is often apparent here. Along with her sophisticated jazz phrasing, Waters sings with superb diction, and she's far better at delivering narrative lyrics and the requisite comic banter than her contemporaries. Waters is accompanied here by a variety of pianists, including Pearl Wright, Fletcher Henderson, and Maceo Pinkard. Louis Hooper is particularly good on the blues of "Refrigeratin' Papa." Waters is sometimes joined by larger bands. Cornetist Joe Smith adds fine obbligatos and a solo to "I've Found a New Baby," joining with Henderson for the best jazz backing in the collection. A young Coleman Hawkins appears briefly as well, supplying bass lines on an unwieldy bass saxophone. --Stuart Broomer

Tracks:

Plain Crazy: Full Score
Lost World: Into The Amazon
Lost World: Dinosaur's Revenge
Lost World: The Couple
Nosferatu: The Vampire's Waltz
Nosferatu: Lust
Nosferatu: Hydra
Nosferatu: The Escape
Nosferatu: The Coffin
Metropolis: Yoshiwara
Metropolis: Escape From The Underground City
Metropolis: The Chase
The Unknown: Alonzo The Armless
The Unknown: Hands, Men's Hands
The Unknown: Stung Like A Whip
The Unknown: Love Theme

Amazon.com

Of all the bands playing that accompany silent films (and there are more than a few out there), none are better than the Alloy Orchestra. Simply put, the Boston-based band has an incredible sense of humor, cinematic timing, and a great sound. Perhaps it's the instrumentation: Alloy utilize oddball percussion (fire extinguishers, old pipe) and the occasional sampler sound effects. The group's music never sounds dated, and yet, somehow, it never dates the movie it accompanies. Silents is some of the ensemble's best work, a compilation featuring music written for five different classic silent films. The group's scores for Plain Crazy (noteworthy as being Mickey Mouse's first film appearance) and a funky accompaniment to Metropolis are the clear highlights, but there really are no duds here. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews:

Quirky, unpredictable and beautiful scores.......2000-09-29

Seeing the Alloy Orchestra in person playing one of their original scores while the film is playing on the screen is an experience I always enjoy. Whenever they're in town, I round up friends and relatives to watch METROPOLIS, NOSFERATU, or some other silent classic. It's not easy. Today's audiences aren't very keen on silents and the people in my group protest having to "read dialogue" and watch an old movie that's not in color. But when the films over, they can't stop talking about what a great time they had.

Unfortunately, the talented Alloy Orchestra isn't playing in my city 365 days a year, so I can't see them as often as I like. But they do sell recordings of their work. Sure, these compositions from LOST WORLD, NOSFERATU, METROPOLIS, and the bizarre THE UNKNOWN can stand on their own as terrific music. But I get further enjoyment by popping any of those films in my VCR or DVD and playing the proper selections on my CD player. It's a pain to keep switching tracks back & forth, but it helps me relive the mood I first got when I saw it performed live.

I probably love NOSFERATU the best. I own the film on video with a droning, heavy organ score in the background, which is a soundtrack you'd expect from an old silent vampire film. The Alloy Orchestra did an atypical score with a spooky waltz for the main title. The other selections for the film are also haunting, yet quirky -- not like anything you'd expect for a typical score for NOSFERATU. And that describes their scores perfectly -- they're quirky, beautiful, and very appropriate.

If you've already seen them, you will want to own this (as well as their CD "New Music For Silent Films). If you haven't and you have a taste for the unusual, give this CD a try. And go out of your way to see them perform in person.

Correction.......2000-09-15

I would like to correct the previous reviewer. The Alloy Orchestra writes and performs their own *original* compositions to accompany silent films. The tracks on this CD will have nothing to do with the original scores for these films. I have had the pleasure of seeing the Alloy Orchestra perform their music for several different films, and their live performances are truly extraordinary and provide an opportunity to appreciate how closely the music is tied to the films. However, I find most of their music stands up well on its own, and I enjoy the scores for the films I haven't seen just as much.

TERRIFIC!.......2000-07-06

I thoroughly enjoyed this album, the performances are vibrant, lively, original, and breath life into the old scores. The instrumentation has a great "organic" feel. I would highly recommend this for anyone who is interested in old film scores particularly silents. (The Amazon review sites "Plane Crazy" as Mickey Mouse's first film appearance, this is incorrect: Mickey Mouse first appeared in "Steamboat Willie" on November 18, 1928, "Plane Crazy" was released later that same year. While "Plane Crazy" was actually produced before "Steamboat Willie" it was in "Steamboat Willie" that Mickey made his debut.)

Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3, 1925-1926

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Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3, 1925-1926
Fiddlin' John Carson
Manufacturer: Document
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1, 1923-1924
Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 6, 1929-1930
Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 5, 1927-1929

ASIN: B000000JJW
Release Date: 1998-01-02

Tracks:

There's A Hard Time Coming
The Boston Burglar
Little Mary Phagan
The Honest Farmer
To Welcome The Travellers Home
Run Along Home With Lindy
The Lone Child
Flat-Footed Nigger
Bully Of The Town
Hop Light, Lady
The Hawk And The Buzzard
Hell Broke Loose In Georgia
Soldier's Joy
The Drinker's Child
The Grave Of Little Mary Phagan
All Alone By The Sea Side
Do Round My Lindy
The Batchelors' Hall
The Drunkard's Hiccups
Liberty
The Old Frying Pan And The Old Camp Kettle
Cackling Pullet
Georgia Wagner
Good-Bye Liza Jane
If There Wasn't Any Women In The World

Retour De Voyage (Return From A Journey)

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Simpleton Music

Retour De Voyage (Return From A Journey)

Manufacturer: Naive
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00008PW5A
Release Date: 2003-09-23

Tracks:

Lento, Quasi Recitavito
Procession Nocturne
Chant Katzapsky
Chant Grec
29. XII. 1925
8. XI. 1925
Danse Sayyide
Mamacha
Danse d'Arabie
1.V. 1927
Retour de Voyage
23.X. 1926
26.X. 1926
7. XII. 1925
Te Laudamus

Customer Reviews:

Simpleton Music.......2003-10-05

George Gurdjieff (1877-1949) was a Russian-born 'seer and mystic who promised that his guidance, known as "the Work," would bring his students a new enlightenment, a greater level of consciousness, a deeper sense of what it means to be in the world.' He apparently had intense personal charisma and attracted to himsself a circle of people who were deeply influenced by his cryptic teachings. He may, indeed, have be considered one of the first of the New Age teachers with which our anti-scientific age is now crowded. He also reportedly collected Middle and Far Eastern folk music and often, after a meal presiding over his disciples, he would plunk out melodies on a small harmonium and one of his disciples, a trained musician named Thomas de Hartmann (1885-1956), took down the melodies and then harmonized them so they could played at the piano. This CD represents the 11th of a 12 CD project in which all of Gurdjieff's music is being recorded by French pianist Alain Kremski, a present-day follower of Gurdjieff's teachings.

I had heard of his music years ago but had never heard any of it. When I ran across this CD I was eager to hear what it was like. On the disc are 15 pieces, totaling 62 minutes. Most are slow, most have a tame middle-eastern-sounding melisma with a few cautious melodic curlicues. De Hartmann's harmonizations are squarely diatonic and his piano arrangements feature mostly monotonous oompah left hand accompaniments. Occasionally there are martial sounding chordal rhythms in the left hand--a kind of Janissary music?--but usually the oompah returns in short order. Once in a while an odd meter will emerge, e.g. 5/8.

The melodic material is euphonious but undistinguished. The harmonies are undistinguished. The accompaniments are rudimentary. The overall effect, especially if one is listening closely, is stultifying. It is possible that the music is intended as 'trance music,' and in my case that certainly worked. I found myself falling asleep repeatedly on both occasions that I listened to it all the way through. One has the sense that simplicity is the goal here, rather like the intent of much of Satie's music; what is missing, though, is Satie's self-aware irony, not to speak of his harmonic creativity. This music is clearly intended to be serious, and thus it becomes pretentious.

In Kremski's defense, I will say that his playing is excellent and the recorded sound is rich and full.