Bitter Dregs

(yawn)...As Stacie mentioned last night, we like to stay up late and while she was plugging away at her blog, I was doing more audio transfers (how geeky can you get?!). Last night's batch included a couple of transcription discs I did for my Dad. These records were cut at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. Dad had a friend who was a recording engineer in the area. I'm not sure how he ended up doing these there (this studio was where a lot of huge hits were done including many Elvis singles in the 1950s), but it's pretty cool to have a disc cut at this place in your hands with the label intact (here's an example which is about the same as the ones I've got):

These records are disc cuttings of open reel tapes my Dad wanted to save or have good copies of (I don't think he's got the original tapes). One is of a Dixieland combo he played bass in (and sings on one song!); this is from ca. 1954. The other one is from a recording of the Coast Union High School band, which he conducted; this was from 1956. The odd thing about these records is that while they run at a standard 33 1/3 rpm, they were cut with a larger size stylus typically used for 78 rpm discs. So while I have so much obsolete tech to play this kind of thing back, my Dad hasn't been able to listen to these so it was good to get them on CD. Nothing of real value musically, but worth preserving for sure (and perhaps the only recording of Dad singing!).

I also did a jazz lp from the 1950s called Jazz of Two Decades; a sampler lp from the old Emarcy label. (part of the Mercury label). This jazz "variety pack" dates from the mid 1950s and has some great stuff on it. I also took some stuff from an lp I bought in Russia back in 1989, a Greenpeace benefit lp called Breakthrough. A double lp pressed in the USSR by Melodiya (then the state-run record label), it's lots of pop hits from the mid to late 80s from a number of rock/alternative artists. Some fun stuff and it has this huge booklet in Russian. Again, nothing you can't elsewhere, but a fun curiousity. Ah, more food for the ever-hungry Trowles Music Server!