An early, long-forgotten Van Gelder recording

[Rooster_Ties]

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=149079 <-- original thread on the Steve Hoffman board

Thought this might be of interest to some of us here in Organissimo-land...

I found this 10" vinyl 78 at a Hackensack, NJ church rummage sale last year, and have been curious about it ever since. So, the other week, I called up the Van Gelder Recording Studio in Engelwood to see if they might have any background info concerning the artist, etc. After a couple of questions, I realized the gentleman on the other end of the line was Mr. Van Gelder himself. He was fairly amazed that I had found the disc, but he himself didn't remember anything about the recording or even the artists, Joe Payne and His Royal Arcadians (Bob Santa Maria, vocalist).

It was, he surmised, an acetate recording he made for one of the local northern NJ artists, back when his studio was located in his parent's home, and just before he was hired by Blue Note. Joe Payne and the Royal Arcadians -- and Bob Santa Maria -- had the acetate made, but apparently weren't successful in getting a recording contract. And thus, they're in the dustbins of music history.

I don't have a 78 rpm player, but a few moments of listening to it at 45 rpm reveals it to be a kind of Frank Sinatra-crooner-type sound.

[Dan Gould]

Sounds like something that should be put up on eBay for some RVG fetishist to overpay for.

It also looks just like my Four Sounds demo acetate, except that the group went on to some fame and fortune, and it wasn't recorded at Rudy's.