A while ago, I bought a nice parcel of 78s, many on obscure West Coast labels (mostly Melodisc). Included were three 78s, all with plain white labels. When I got around to playing them, I was pleasantly surprised…one of them had a maddeningly familiar voice singing Someday, Sweetheart, backed by a couple of saxes and rhythm section. The flip side was a slow, pretty instrumental. The (very tiny) matrix numbers were in an “EXC-“ series. That got me thinking…Exc-lusive! Sure enough, the record was indeed by that label’s star performer, Joe Liggins…and the flip side was Yvette.
So far, so good, Sherlock.
The other two records…well, it turned out they were actually two copies of the same record…a solo pianist (who reminds me a bit of Erroll Garner, but I don’t think it’s him…not enough “Garnishes.”) playing Stormy Weather and I Surrender, Dear. These had matrixes R-17 and R-25 respectively. I’ve searched the Abrams database…and looked around on the web for a comprehensive Garner discography (it could be recorded before Erroll’s style had completely formed), but to no avail.
So I ask you, Dear Reader...might you recognize the mystery pianist?
R-17 Stormy Weather Mystery Pianist Unknown label test pressing
Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 40 times
R-25 I Surrender, Dear Mystery Pianist Unknown label test pressing
Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 38 times
2 comments:
Phenomenal "I Surrender Dear..." You ROCK "Zorch!" :-)
Wow! I missed out on these? Dang! Any chance of a re-up? I might be able to shed some light on these.
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