Teasing the Korean

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2722872,00.html Adolf Hitler's music collection included some surprise choices: Russian and Jewish musicians considered "subhuman" by the Nazis. A woman found the music in her family's summer home near Moscow. It's no surprise that music from Hitler favorite composers such as Richard Wagner and Ludwig van Beethoven would turn up in the Nazi leader's personal record collection. Yet a Moscow attic has yielded a more complex picture of the Führer's musical taste. Nearly 100 records suggest Hitler also listened to Russian and Jewish musicians declared "subhuman" by the Nazis, according to an article in the current issue of Der Spiegel magazine. A surprising find Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Hitler during the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth In 1945, Lew Besymenski, a captain in Russia's military intelligence unit, went with two other officers to the recently captured Reich Chancellery in Berlin. The headquarters of the Nazi party were located near the secret underground bunker where Hitler committed suicide at the end of World War II. Besymenski's comrades took silverware engraved with Hitler's initials home with them as souvenirs. Besymenski, a music lover, made an unexpected find. Behind several large steel doors that had been closed with special locks were boxes filled with personal belongings. "It presented us with an odd sight: In each of the rooms there were numerous rows of sturdy wooden boxes all of them numbered," Besymenski wrote in a memoir years later, Der Spiegel reported. The boxes were awaiting transfer to Hitler's mountain fortress in southern Germany and were filled with plates and various household goods, including Hitler's records. Records kept in an attic Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer considered sub-human Besymenski 's daughter, Alexandra Besymenskaja, who is now 53, accidentally came across the box in 1991 when she was at the family summer home near Moscow. She had been sent to the attic to look for a badminton racket. Her shin hit something hard and she saw that she'd run into a stack of records labeled Führerhauptquartier, as the Reich Chancellery is called in German. She asked her 70-year-old father about the records, but he didn't want to talk about them, saying that he had only listened for years to CDs. Besymenski didn't want to be seen as a marauder who had ransacked the enemy's personal belongings. He had taken them because music was his personal passion, his daughter said. When he died in June at the age of 86, his daughter decided to talk publicly about her father's record collection. Of the 100 discs, some are scratched, others are warped or broken, but many remain in relatively good condition. The records include Beethoven's piano sonatas and Wagner's famous opera "The Flying Dutchman." Hitler loved music, attending the opera almost daily during the time he lived in Vienna. Hitler's hypocrisy Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Richard Wagner was a Hitler favorite Surprisingly, Hitler's collection also included Russian composers labeled by the Nazis as "subhuman" such as Peter Tchaikovsky, Alexander Borodin and Sergei Rachmaninoff, Der Spiegel reported. One of the Tchaikovsky records featured the star violinist Bronislaw Huberman, a Polish Jew forced to flee Europe when the Nazis took over. Hitler didn't care who had made the music he listened to in his bunker, despite in his book "Mein Kampf" stating that Jewish art had never existed. Besymenski, who was a Jew himself, was surprised that so many famous Russian composers were included in Hitler's record collection, according to the memoir he wrote after being pressured by his daughter to record how he had had ended up with the collection. "I feel that is complete mockery," Besymenskaja told the magazine. "Millions of Slavs and Jews had to die because of the racist Nazi ideology."

Hank Mobley - A Slice of the Top - Blue Note

This past weekend: John Keating – The Keating Sound – WB mono Dexter Gordon – Landslide – Blue Note Brasil ’77 – Pais Tropical – A&M Toquinho – Dolce Vida – Ariola Bjorn Jayson Lindh – Sissel – Metronome/CTI Shelly Manne – Daktari – Atlantic mono reissue

As I thought. So why would she fabricate such a presposterous story when everyone knows the real story? On a related note, I think it's bizarre that albums released by Walter Carlos don't show up if you do an Amazon search for that name, but show up when you search for Wendy Carlos.

On Wendy Carlos's website, she claims that "Walter Carlos" was a pseudonym used because electronic music by a female musician wouldn't be taken seriously. I'd always heard quite a different story. What's the deal? Is this revisionist history by W. Carlos?

Not sure. I've got a mono original and never heard the stereo mix, either on an original or reissue. I can say my mono LP jumps out of the speakers.

This is, quite simply, a KILLER record! I LOVE Chico's stuff from this period.

What issues do folks have with his playing? Just curious...

I have Moby Grape's first album in mono. Was it a fold-down mix or an actual mono mix?

Art Blakey - Live Messengers - 70s Blue Note twofer of previously unreleased live stuff Johnny Williams - Diamond Head OST - Colpix stereo

James Brown - Reality - Polydor Early 70s LP with covers of "Who Can I Turn to" and "Don't Fence Me In!"

The Beatles - as a group or individually - were never really on "Apple Records." They were signed to EMI, and slapping the Apple label on their releases was some kind of a contractual thing they worked out. In the US, they used this label on Beatles group and solo releases/re-pressings until at least 1975. Apple was long since gone by then.

George Shearing - Bossa Nova - (Capitol Rainbow Stereo) Great woodwind arrangements by Clare Fischer! AK Salim - Afro Soul/Drum Orgy - (Prestige Reissue) - The label says stereo but it sounds mono (thankfully).

Just curious how MJQ ended up signed to Apple. I know of two albums. Were there more?

Looks like it was a good program: http://www.hollywoodbowl.org/misc/notes_jazzmovies.cfm

I had Mexican food for dinner last night. So, of course I had to listen to: Herb Alpert's Goin' Places (A&M mono).

Understanding Latin Rhythms, featuring Jose Mangual y Potato.

I have this album too, but can't help you. Any idea if he was leading a band at this time or if the musicians on the LP are the usual west coast studio gang?

I believe it's a TRIO recording, at least the first one on Verve.

Milton Nascimento - Courage - CTI/A&M

Strings have been very abused in pop music, usually doing little more than adding "sweetening." However, the strings are the most versatile section of the orchestra and are capable of a HUGE range of sounds and emotions. Too bad it's out of print, but an example of strings used to tremendous effect in an "orchestral pop" record is Les Baxter's "Caribbean Moonlight" album on Capitol. It's an album of latin-tinged standards arranged for percussion, winds, and strings (no brass), and the strings on this album are fantastic. With the right arranger/orchestrator, orchestral instruments and sections CAN be integrated into jazz setting, IMHO.

I like quite a bit of what could be termed "mid century orchestral pop." Yes, some of it can be dreary, but the top orchestral arrangers are right up there with any of the great jazz arrangers in my book. I agree that Paul Weston could be schmaltzy - I've never heard an instrumental record of his that I liked - but I do like his arrangements with certain singers, such as Jo Stafford.

MONO promo!!!

I guess I don't know much about Johnny Mercer, other than his lyrics, some of his records, his involvement with the founding of Capitol, and now this track that is causing such controversy. Can anyone tell me (briefly) why he is a "problematic" figure, or lead me to a link?

In an era like ours in which we're inundated with information - with inexpensive LPs and CDs everywhere - there is something kind of poignant about records like the one you describe.