Sound Beat

Most kids take their piano lessons at school, or at a neighbor’s house. But Hazel Scott was always a bit above “chopsticks”.

You’re on the Sound Beat.

Hazel Scott was a child prodigy, playing by 3 and improvising on the keys by 5. She received formal training at none other than the Juilliard school of New York, where she won a classical music scholarship at age 8. She would blend her classical training with the smooth sounds of jazz, blues and popular songs, and was a Café Society star by the late 1930’s. It would become her signature sound: “swinging the classics.” Here she is with Rainy Night in G.

How did Billie Holiday take a dive for Scott? 

When Billie heard word of an up and coming Hazel Scott, she decided to play hooky for the night, and let Hazel fill in for her at Cafe Society.  Big shoes to fill, to say the least, but Hazel filled in admirably.

Couples sway to the music, hand in hand, step matched for measured step. But we’re not in Austria, or Vienna…we’re in Ponce, Puerto Rico…and YOU’RE on the Sound Beat.”

Known as the Puerto Rican Mozart, Juan Morel Campos is the composer of “Mascaras Alegres”. It’s a form of danza, a genre of Puerto Rican origin. Its slow, romantic rhythm sets the ambiance for elegant, ballroom style dancing. Morel Campos was himself a deep romantic, and composed many of his danzas about his one true love, Mercedes Arias…and, kind of, about her family. See, they never quite approved of Juan, and the titles of his danzas seem to reflect the anguish this caused him. Like: Maldito Amor (Damned Love), Tormento (Torment), Si te toco (Yes, I will Touch You) and No Me Toques (Do Not Touch Me). Mascaras Alegres (Happy Masks) describes his concealed emotion surrounding their eventual, and devastating, breakup.

This episode was written in part by Syracuse University student Juceliz Batista, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

If you’re a Saturday Night Live fan you’ve probably seen the Lawrence Welk skit with Fred Armisen as the venerable bandleader. The skits feature the fictional Meryl Sisters of the Finger Lakes, but they’re a nod and a wink to The Lennon Sisters…um, of the Pacific Ocean. Los Angeles. The Lennons, Diane, Peggy, Kathy and Janet were really sisters. That is, they are sisters…and they’re still performing, though Diane and Peggy have retired, and younger sister Mimi has filled in. In 2001, they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

So how do they feel about the SNL skits? “It just cracks everybody up,” said Janet. “It’s hard for us to believe we’re kind of an American institution.” It’s a refreshingly-tolerant reaction. If you haven’t seen the skits, well, let’s just say you would understand if they’d been received poorly.

But, judge for yourself.

El Capitan is a selection from, and title of, Sousa’s first operetta. A political thriller set during the Spanish possession of Peru, it debuted in Boston in April 0f 1896.

This recording, though, was made by the London Concert Orchestra and recorded on a Lambert Cylinder. They’re the easy-on-the-eyes cylinders, coming in shades of pink, as well as purple, blue and black. And they’re also pretty rare…they were the first cylinders made of celluloid, making them much more durable than wax. But…the parallel technologies battle among early-20th century cylinder manufacturers was a fierce one.. Lambert would only produce their records from 1901 to 1905. For a more-detailed breakdown of the Cylinder Wars, check out our blog at soundbeat.org.

You’ve heard it before: sometimes it’s not what, but who you know.

Though he was certainly no slouch himself, Artie Shaw knew how to surround himself with the right people. Over his  career, he signed both high-powered drummer Buddy Rich, and iconic songstress Billie Holiday. This made him the first bandleader to tour the South with a black lead singer. He sold more than 100 million records, and you’re listening to one of them. This is Dancing in the Dark from 1941.

He also surrounded himself with a bevy of leading ladies, marrying Lana Turner, Ava Gardner and six other wives over his lifetime. According to all accounts, including his own he was a “very difficult man”. Seems like it.

But he was also a multi-talented one; He studied advanced math, dabbled in “The Pictures”, and authored both fiction and non-fiction works.

Sure, marshmallows are great. But it’s a special kind of campfire when someone breaks out the chocolate and graham crackers. Put all three together (carefully) and you get S’mores, that sticky sweet summer treat that’s been burning mouths and fingers since the first quarter of the 20th century. It’s thought that the recipe originated with the Campfire Girls, now known as the gender-friendly Campfire USA.  You’ve been listening to I’m a Campfire Girl by Beatrice Lillie, with Sam Walsh.

The Campfire Girls predate the Girl Scouts, and count Shirley Temple Black, Beverly Cleary and Madonna as former members.

So, good for him, he’s got some coconuts, you might be thinking. And if you are, you’re probably not well-versed in early-to-mid-20th century British street fair terminology. That “roll a bowl a ball a penny a pitch” is a pitch of a different sort, from a barker or “carn-y”. You know, they of the pingpong ball/goldfish bowl or balloon-dart toss. The game in question is a “coconut shie”, where, for a penny you could pitch a ball at a coconut on a post. Knock it off, win a prize.

Games like these are where we get “close but no cigar”. It was a popular refrain from the barkers, as cigars often served as prizes. Not for the kids, who got… the leftover coconuts. Dumb kids.

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Ivory Joe knew what it took to make a hit from past experience as radio program manager and founder of Ivory Records. In 1956 he would top the R&B charts with this song, which crossed over and hit twelfth on the pop charts. And when Sonny James hit number one with a country version in 1969, Ivory Joe followed suite, releasing an album entitled “I’ve Always Been Country”. Audiences and the country music elite believed him; he was invited to perform at the The Grand Ole Opry in the early seventies.

This episode was co-written by Syracuse University student Emelio Woodstock, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Lyricist Jack Yellen wrote Happy Days are Here Again with composer Milton Ager in 1929. Yellen was a registered Republican…which bears relevance in that the song would become not only Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign song, but the unofficial song of the Democratic Party for years to come. He probably still cashed those checks, though.

You’ve been listening to Leo Reisman and his Orchestra on a Victor 78 from 1929. The song was featured in the 1930 MGM film Chasing Rainbows, and the Recording Industry Association of America put it #47 on their “Songs of the Century” list in 2001.

This episode was co-written with Christina Reid, part of the Sound Beat Class Partnership.

Image: FDR with Anna Roosevelt Halsted and Eleanor Roosevelt during campaign at Warm Springs, Georgia enroute from his cottage to the station. October 24, 1932. Licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

1940 was a banner year for Alfred Hitchcock. Two of his films Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca were nominated for  a total of 17(!) Academy Awards. For the latter, he was nominated for best director, though he would lose to John Ford and The Grapes of Wrath. As a matter of fact, Hitchcock would be nominated in the category 5 times over his career but would never take home a statue.

Of his 144 compositions, Franz Waxman called Rebecca his favorite. He was invited to arrange the piece for the Standard Symphony hour, a popular radio show on the NBC radio network. The arranged suite was broadcast, in the words of production manager Ray Klune “May 9th at 8:30 PM, over the entire Pacific Northwest Radio Network as far East as but not including Chicago.”