Sing Sing Sing - The Night Swing Hit Carnegie Hall

The power of the interaction of an artist and an audience can sometimes be one of the most amazing things you can experience. It's just something you feel. You can't explain it, but you know something special is going on and you are at the magical moment that you will never forget!! Sometimes however, for whatever reason, you did not attend, but you have a recording of it. Officially released or not, there are times you just want to re-live that concert or that moment when everything was so special. This recording, while yes, is famous, it also has an interesting history and is a piece of music that just blows me away everytime I hear it.

Benny Goodman was born in Chicago in 1909. During the 1930s and 1940s, he went on to be a household name and have the title the"King Of Swing," where he played clarinet and was his own band leader. One of his most famous recordings of his career is the night he and his band played at Carnegie Hall in 1938. At the time, Jazz music was not thought of as a "serious music" such as Classical and to have that kind of  music in this kind of a forum was unheard of. 

The event—one of the first public concerts to feature a racially integrated group—helped elevate the status of swing music, and included some of the brightest jazz stars of the day. Count Basie, making his Carnegie Hall debut, appeared as a guest, and members of Duke Ellington’s orchestra also participated. Lionel Hampton and Gene Krupa were there, as were Buck Clayton, Johnny Hodges, Walter Page, Lester Young, Harry Carney, and Freddie Green.

Before I knew the tragic history of the recording, I heard this!!

It is one of those great things you just have to hear to really enjoy.

The entire show, well what I had heard at that point, was just amazing for many reasons: the situation, the musicians, the crowd. They just blew the roof off the place, the entire night ending with Sing Sing Sing. This is a song  Louis Prima had written and recording a few years earlier, but this was a much different version. There are many other recordings of this song by Benny Goodman, but because of  all the many different elements involved in this evening, this version just has the magic that I've only heard on this recording. It's also fun to mention it's just over twelve minutes. 

Sing Sing Sing (with a swing)   MP3   WAVE

(This version is from my personal collection which I always thought was a better source then others)

Just listen to the band roar!! It's hard not to enjoy Gene Krupa just bangin' the crap out of the drums many years before rock and roll came around. You can just hear the echo in the room from his drums and it's Carnegie Hall in 1938!! The horns...oh the horns...they played their brass off on this night. Man, do I love the way they overlay each other. What a fine piece of music that gives me chills as a listener, a musician and a writer. This version also includes the seldom heard piano solo by Jess Stacy which also give it a different twist.

You can just hear the place going nuts during the epic song performance. Peoples standing and dancing is something you didn't do at Carnegie Hall...well, they did!!  To me this is a pre-rock-and-roll moment in time and the place goes crazy over the power of music and it changed music forever.

The history of the recording:

There never would have been a recording of the concert if Albert Marx had not taken the initiative. Marx was married to Helen Ward who was Benny's vocalist from 1934-1937. He decided to record the concert as an anniversary present for Helen. Two copies were ordered, one for Helen and one for Benny.

At the time, recording technology was still in a fairly primitive state. Only three microphones were used, one above the conductor's podium and two others at ends of the band.

The feed went offstage to a mixer and then to a CBS truck in the alley. The engineers on site did not control the mix and thus the settings were the same for each song. There was no attempt to bring out individual soloists or to make adjustments appropriate to the unique nature of each song. From the truck, the feed was then sent by broadcast quaily telephone lines to the CBS master control room downtown who then patched it on to a Recording Studio. There, acetate records were cut but each was limited to 8 minutes 45 seconds. In order to capture the entire live concert, two record cutting turntables had to be used in relays. Smith only had two turntables, so he "subcontracted" the job to Raymond Scott's Universal Recording Studio. Scott received the same feed from CBS master as did Smith. Thus, the concert was recorded on four different cutting machines --- alas, synchronization had not been invented and half the recordings are at a slightly different speed than the others and it was virtually impossible to attain continuity by "splicing" the records together using analogue methods. 

Meanwhile, in the CBS studio, a master was cut on aluminum studio transcription disc The discs had much higher quality but were useless for commercial use because:

• Goodman had used a number of people from other bands and it proved almost impossible to resolve the contractual issues
• The American Federation of Musicians (musicians union) demanded prohibitively high royalties for playing transcribed (recorded) music on the radio. The purpose of this was to provide employment for large numbers of musicians since all performances were "live". It was not until 1947 that the Supreme Court invalidated prohibitions on broacasting recorded material.

Since they couldn't be turned into salable records or broadcast over the air, these transcription discs were of academic interest only. Eventually they were filed away and more-or less forgotten. They waited 60 years to be accidentaly found in 1998.

Benny Goodman shelved the idea of issuing a recording from his acetates due to the same contract issues that stymied CBS. Since Benny was busy with lots of other projects, his set of acetates also drifted into obscurity. In 1950, the acetates were discovered by Rachel Speiden (Benny's sister-in-law) when she took over Benny's New York apartment and cleaned out the closets. Needless to say, the quality had degraded even further.

With heroic engineering by Harvard physicist Bill Savory, it was possible to restore about 75% of the concert. Benny was amused when he found out that he had come in sixteen bars late on "Dizzy Spells."

Combining Savory's genius with application of massive legal talent, the re-engineered version was issued in 1950 and became one of the first of the 33-1/3 rpm long play records to sell over a million copies. A 1985 rework of this recording using Helen Ward's additional acetates obtained by producer  Phil Schaap is available on CD. In early January of 1998, it was announced that the aluminum studio masters had been rediscovered, allowing the entire concert to be reproduced with much better fidelity.

Listen to the entire performance on Spotify

Christmas Island with AJJ

With everyone compiling end of the year lists of their favorite albums and all, I thought I might pass along one of my favorites for the year. "Christmas Island" by Andrew Jackson Jihad is many things, but it is NOT a Christmas record.

I learned of A.J.J. though Adam, a co-worker of my wife, Patty. I had given him a few CD's of some music Patty and I thought he should check out, and he, in return, gave us a few different bands to listen to - one of them was the band's CD, "Knife Man". They had me on the first listen but not for the reasons you would think. 

For those unfamiliar with Andrew Jackson Jihad, they are a band from Phoenix, AZ that can rock out some of the greatest folk-punk music, but at first listen, can be a bit of a shock.

"It's all in the lyrics" is often said to be the way to a great song. A.J.J. has definitely accomplished that in so many different ways. It is something like I had never heard before...a sad, twisted, odd, depressing, fascinating, humorous...and I loved it.

As you can see in this video, you can also find yourself and a group of friends singing some of the strangest sing-a-longs I can remember.

When I first saw the title of the band's newest album "Christmas Island" it just made me laugh from the start. You've got to understand A.J.J. songs tend not to be on the happy side of life so the title just had me right away. As I've seen and heard from other A.J.J. fans and critics, this album is not as good as the past albums in the way that it is more commercial. I don't agree. Besides college radio stations, internet stations, a live show or a friend telling you about the band, I'm not really sure where you would hear their music due to obscenities and the content of most the songs. That's another reason I love the band, because it's their art.

Lyrics to Getting Naked and Playing with Guns:

Getting naked and playing with guns
There’s a gerbil in the microwave, a baseball bat in everyone
Sharing kisses and building a bomb
We’ll set it off like Microsoft in ’94
We’ll set it off like Microsoft in ’94

McDonald's PlayPlace before the Xbox.
Cake frosting, sweet talking, bedroom wall
Covered in knives, touching God, burning shit
We’ll make a wish and take a trip to Future Town like our daddy did

And we’ll kill the neighbor kid who only wants to be our friend
His dad is dead enough that his new dad his new dad can cure the bends
We’ll make a wish and take a trip to Future Town

Feeling weird, yet tasting sweet.
It’s a top-bottom, rock-smoking magic mask making it bleed
Feeling sweet, getting weird
Now I can see the playground through the trees
And I can see the playground from the trees

And we’ll show the neighbor kid what our love actually means
He’s here from out of town and I heard he’s got A.D.D.
We’ll climb the tallest branch with a rifle full of dreams.
And we’ll blow the little dickhead up to smithereens 

Getting naked and playing with guns
There’s a gerbil in the microwave, a baseball bat in everyone
Sharing kisses and building a bomb
We’ll set it off like Microsoft in ’94
We’ll set it off like Microsoft in ’94
We’ll set it off like Microsoft in ’94 in our backyard.

With MANY more lyrical and joyfully, twisted songs, this is one of my favorite albums of the year. I recommend that you listen to it a few times and you will understand the refreshing and fun world of Andrew Jackson Jihad and "Christmas Island.

                                

Long Way Home - Soul Asylum (Pre-Grave Dancers Union)

Growing up in the Midwest, you get an understanding of the blue collar, hard-working mentality of the Midwest. It's an attitude saying that something will get done with a little flare for the "I'm gonna do it the way we want to, not the way you're telling me or everyone else is doing"  This is indicative of the story of Soul Asylum and their, what I would call, "big rollercoaster ride" of fame. Lots of highs, but also many lows and many things that would just have your head, well, "Spinnin'".

As I grew up in Chicago, of course I would hear about the bands from the surrounding area (Illinois,Wisconsin, Minnesota)...Minnesota - The Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesota nice and Soul Asylum. Minneapolis to be precise. a place where there  must be something in the water because the music scene there is special and has a very hometown feel to it that I've loved for years.

Soul Asylum is one of those bands that, after I discovered them, and then saw them live, this was my kind of shit. Not just the music, but the band and the personalities that came with it. The jokes on stage, the choice of cover songs that always blew my mind, Karl's choice of shorts for the evening and everything else that went along with it. From the get-go, it was something that I enjoyed very much but I had yet to realize how much fun was to come for many, many years.  

So it is now time for me to dive into the band and discover the brilliance that is Soul Asylum.

It can be said about most bands is there are two sides - the way the band sounds on their LP/CD and how they are live. Well, as for the LP/CD, yes, of course, I enjoy most of them, but live...from a person who has spent over 25 years on and off, traveling across the country to see the band over 100 times, you have to see them live to understand the full picture. It's an entirely different world. The band, in the late 80's, was called "the best live band in America" and in my opinion..yes they were... even longer. So, if all you've ever heard is that "Runaway Train" song and thought that was all the band had to offer, it time to get "Closer To The Stars"

Before Soul Asylum, there was Loud Fast Rules and they were a punk rock band, sometime even called a hardcore band. The members were Dave Pirner, Dan Murphy and Karl Mueller, who were three friends from school. Dave originally sang and played drums, and Pat Morley joined later to replace Dave on drums. They would get together in Karl's basement and rock out.

Soul Asylum's first two LPs were produced by Bob Mould of Husker Du. The bands would also tour together often and Soul Asylum was given the insulting nickname by some attendees as "Baby Huskers". Sure, it was punk rock but there was more to it. Their songs were becoming more developed and accessible, such as "Stranger." They would also sign a record deal with their hometown indie record label Twin Tone to join bands like The Replacements, The Suicide Commandos and many other Minneapolis bands.

Another place that played, and continues to be, a big part of the Minneapolis music scene is the music venue of 7th Street Entry & First Avenue. These are in the same building in two different rooms. First Ave is the famous club that is featured in the film "Purple Rain" with Prince, which is the larger venue. 7th Street is a small room that fits about 200 people. Both rooms have had their fair share of greatness and history play there. I have attended shows that I will never forget in both of these rooms over the years. The Depot is attached to the venue and is a great place to meet up before shows. It has great food and drinks as well as some of the best photo collections of bands that played next door, including a few classic shots of Soul Asylum.

 .

Pat Morley left the band in 1985 and was replaced by Grant Young on drums.

In 1986, the band also release "Time's Incinerator" a cassette-only release that was a collection of unreleased material.

After releasing three albums with Twin Tone and touring almost constantly for those years, it was time for the band to move on and try to get out of a small indie market. The band was signed by a major label, A&M. This gave the band much bigger exposure because their budget increased, better distribution and, of course, more tour dates.

I would like to point out that during this time Soul Asylum often played on college campuses. The crowd was generally very intoxicated. Shows involved what Dan called "male bonding." It was kind of like being in a tag team wrestling match in bumper cars with bodies flying, stage diving and lots of craziness in between. At the beginning of the show at Marquette University, you can hear one of the people in attendance tell his friend, "This is going to be like a Metallica concert"

The band's next release was Clam Dip & Other Delights, a six song E.P. that featured Karl on the cover. A&M, the band's label, was owned by Herb Albert of the famed Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass. The band had a few jabs at him over the years, including the cover of Clam Dip which was a parody of Herb Albert & The Tijuana Brass' LP, Whipped Cream & Other Delights. When originally issued on vinyl, there were two different versions. The U.S. version included "Artificial Heart" and "Take It to the Root." The U.K. version contained covers of "Move Over" (Janis Joplin) and "Jukebox Hero" (Foreigner).

They also did a fine, fine version of the Herb Albert classic, "This Guy's In Love With You" at one of their famous holidays shows at First Avenue. It featured a trumpet being dropped from the top of the light, down to Dave to play a mighty fine trumpet solo, all in good fun. This is featured the the film, "Something Out Of Nothing."

By this point in the band's career, one of the famous things the band did, was play cover songs. These had no bounds in the fun and entertainment of what the cover song was going to be, did anybody know it was a cover song, and what the hell was that cover song. Their catalog just seemed endless. Some songs later became staples of their sets, but it did not start out that way. I was going to try to list a few here but it's really an endless amount of laughs and wowers and the occasionally...really? Here's a link that will be the tip of the iceberg, but it's a good start. It's something some of us collectors would someday like to have a complete list of but that's kind of a joke once you discover how many there really are.  Non LP / Cover Songs

Here's a short news clip that explains 1990 "And The Horse They Rode In On."

The band released what would end up being their last LP for A&M Records with many different horse combos and, as always, a big tour followed.

Vinyl

CD

Cassette

Promo Poster

Promo CD

I was lucky enough to see more then a few shows from this tour. This is when the cross country trips for shows really started to pick up. Two of those great nights of music and Soul Asylum were captured on the live CD from the "Welcome To The Minority" that "Freaks" like myself had to wait about 20 years for. I'm glad to say that I was in attendance at these classic shows.

This is another show I did attend and, again, it was released 20 years after the fact.

This is the still-unreleased film, "Something Out Of Nothing" that documents the band writing, recording and performing, all in a fast 27 minutes. It was only shown once at First Avenue before a holiday show in 2005 and a few times in the theater at film festivals. 

Best live show on video of this tour is, by far, this one. This was also a labor of love that, with the help of a fellow collector, trader and film maker, we were able to sync up better audio to this great video. This is something else that took nearly 20 years to happen.

Here's a great hometown radio broadcast from the 1990 "Horse" tour:

So the band put out a great album, toured the world and promoted the hell out of everything they had. So what was next for Soul Asylum? They got dropped by their label and had to start again by recording new demos and looking for a new label. What happened next is a part of music history and good old Midwest stubbornness. 

Dave and Dan did a small acoustic show tour and the band recorded 12 demo songs which would end up being the "Grave Dancers Union" demos. This was a completely new side to the band in that they were playing "guitars with holes in them" (acoustic guitars). New songs and even old ones had a completely different feel to them. Hearing them do a Woody Guthrie song and a Leonard Cohen song in the same night was something different. All the songs were great as acoustic songs, and then later with the full band. You could feel in the air and within the crowd that something special was going to happen.

A perfect way to end the year was to see Soul Asylum play on New Year's Eve at a Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Minneapolis in one of the ballrooms. The highlight of this show was the "Midnight Medley," only played once at this special show. Remember how they played lots of cover songs? This medley is all songs that have "Midnight " in the title. No, really an entire medley, just before midnight, of all song with midnight in the title. Now that's funny!!! 

Thank you and happy fucking New Year. 

Next was the 12 song demo tape which included "Black Gold" and "Runaway Train."

Grave Dancers Union Demos

So that is just a small portion of the story of Soul Asylum . I will be posting more on the band in the future. I hope this helped you in some way on your musical journey. 

If your looking for more Soul Asylum here's some links to check out:

Collectors Page

Flyer/Photo Archive

Video Archive

enterthesoulasylum

My Classic Soul Asylum Playlist on Spotify

Pink Floyd - 1969-1971

Just like many other musicians who play music for a long time, Pink Floyd is a band you can talk about their music and it has many different eras. My favorite that has played a big part of my life as a musician is the era from 1969 - 1971. This was the post-Syd Barrett band with David Gilmour taking up a role as a writer as well. The band had a back catalog of songs and played those live but it was also a time for great experimentation in the studio and live. Here are some of selections you might have missed.

In 1969, Pink Floyd released the soundtrack to the movie "More." 

As a complete soundtrack, it does have a range of songs with lyrics and instrumentals. When the band played these live, some of the songs would be expanded.

Also in 1969, the band also released "Ummagumma," a double album of live and experimental music.

LP One contained 4 newly recorded versions of some older Floyd classics. These versions of these songs are among my favorite. I would also find this album in many friends' record collections, so I guess we all got it. LP Two was VERY experimental with a few cult classics that are fun to know about.

In 1970, the band released "Atom Heart Mother."

For those who have not heard this one before, the first time you take this one in you will be a bit shocked that this is Pink Floyd. Full orchestration, choir, horns and the band in a nearly 24 minute classical piece for its first song, which is the entire album side and the album title. The band performed this song in a variety of different ways live - a few times with the orchestra and choir, but most of the times it was just the four members of the band. 

In 1971, the band released "Meddle." 

The band again showed us another epic in the song "Echoes," a 23 minute journey that took up the entire second side of the album.

 Some great performances of these songs were also recorded live, including when the band went the the ruins in Pompeii and filmed it.

Modern musicians have also noticed this time period of the band as well.

When I first heard "O.K. Computer" by Radiohead and "The Virgin Suicides" by the band Air, I did hear this influence in a big way. I was even as bold to compare "O.K. Computer"  to Pink Floyd to the shuns of the non-listener of this era of the Floyd.  You can be the judge.

Resolutions - Dave Hause

One of the many things over the years music has offered me is the great joy of a new discovery.
Whether it's a new band your friend or co-worker told you about, or a Big Band song that you've just heard for the first time and it just blows you away.
Some of the best feelings I have enjoyed is when discovering something new at a live show.
Here it is, right in front of you and it has your full attention. By night's end, you have discovered something new and amazing.

As fortune would have it, one of those special nights would happen on May 21, 2011 @ the Double Door in Chicago.

Tommy Stinson - Slobberbone - Dave Hause

Tommy Stinson, bass player extraordinaire (The Replacements, Guns N' Roses, Soul Asylum), was out on a short tour to promote his new solo CD - 3 shows in total at the time. Tommy had been playing on and off as the bass player for Soul Asylum, so I naturally thought, let's go see Tommy and Slobberbone, who I had heard but never seen live before. I asked my wife Patty if she was interested in going. She checked out the line up online and agreed we should go. She really was interested in seeing the guy who was opening the show, Dave Hause. To my surprise, many of the Soul Asylum traveling crowd was in attendance, as well as some new folks we would meet for the first time. 

What happened next is just one of the things:  right place, right time, right people and a magic night of music.

Dave Hause got his punk rocker street cred from being the singer of the band The Loved Ones from Philadelphia, PA  They have released 2 albums and several EPs.

 In 2010, Dave recorded his first solo CD, Resolutions. When listening to the CD, you get the full band experience in that other musicians are playing. When you went to see Dave Hause on his solo shows, it was a man and his acoustic guitar, his voice and his songwriting. One of the first things I noticed about Dave's solo CD and his writing is that it was very different from punk rock with a singer/songwriter kind of quality.

After this night, Dave has became one of those people Patty and I see live as much as possible.

We have also had opportunities to talk to Dave about music, songwriting and life in general. He's just a great guy and a great singer/songwriter musician.

This discovery is something that opened us a new door into a entire new world of music and friends.

   

Patty with Dave Hause

http://www.davehause.com/

The Beginning

It is said that music can soothe the soul, that music is an art and music can mend a broken heart.

At an early age, I discovered that music is something that has many different styles and each person has their own opinion about music - what is cool to listen to and what is not.
This journey of music has taken myself and others on a path that is just something that I could talk about for forever. If you've ever been around me and started talking about music, well you just opened that big can of stories and opinions. You can ask any of my past or present friends, co-workers and musician friends. Sometimes these discussions can be an interesting debate about a band, a song or a style of music. Other times it can just be myself or others being big-headed about our passion.

I also have a bit of a background when it come to music and being in a music scene. For 15 years, I worked at various record stores in the Chicagoland area. I've been a musician in the Chicago music scene for over 25 years. I've recorded bands, promoted bands (local and international), been a roadie, put on our own local music festival with over 1,000 in attendance for 3 years in a row, etc., etc., etc.
So you get the point that I'm not some guy who just listens to some music as a thing I do in the car when I'm driving...it's in my blood.

With Lo-Fi Noise Makers, I hope to tell the stories of some of my favorite music. Whether it's some band you've heard of or some local band I recorded, my idea is to pass on to others some of my stories and fun music history.

                                "You Didn't Have A Choice"

  

I was born in Chicago but when I was 18 months old, my parents and I moved to Warrenton, Virginia. My dad was in the Army and he was stationed at Vint Hill Farms - 7th RRFS in Warrenton.

25 miles away was Washington D.C., which I did visit a few times in my early childhood and it looks like it had an impact on me. I was at the Capital Building, I went to the Smithsonian. In 1968, we also visited during the Poor People's Campaign which showed me some hardcore facts of life at and early age.
 http://www.blackpast.org/aah/poor-peoples-campaign-december-4-1967-june-19-1968

                             

We lived there from 1968-1969 and would make frequent trips back to Chicago to see my grandmother. My parents got married young and were just teenagers when we would make our 10 1/2 hour drive back and forth from Virginia to Chicago. During this time, they would listen as much as they could to WLS. It was a big Top 40 station and it played a big variety of music.

This is how I grew up on Chicago radio...WLS until the mid 70's.

Here is a chart from the time period I would have been in the car on my listening tours. http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls061068.htm

My first song I would sing over and over and over ended up being something that still to this day makes me tear up a bit. As the story goes, I would sing and play this (on my rocking plastic guitar) for HOURS in the car on these drives. Over and over. Yes, it drove my parents nuts but this is how it started.

I heard this for the first time in many decades back in the late 90's when a CD was put out that featured music from "The Flintstones". My song "Let The Sunshine In" was on it. I do have to say that a flood of memories and old feelings hit me like a brick. It was such a great and odd feeling.