Thursday, February 6, 2014

Uplifting music

The gramophone itself was fun to fix and indeed does look great. It's now also great fun to play music with it.

Over the past months I've been getting more music to go with the gramophone. I always liked dance orchestra music of the period and have been buying some some 'stacks' of old records of the period off of the net. When getting a stack, there is then the fun of going through them to see what you've got, and enjoy the music.

Some are not quite my cup of tea (some are really surprising though, quite amazing stuff). Some are records I knew would be great to have from well known artists, luckily many of the popular artists sold very well and records are still plentiful. Some are by artists I wasn't all that aware of.

Of that last category; I'm very glad I came across some records of Nat Gonella and his band. He was an English trumpeter and bandleader, that I now have a couple of records of from the late thirties. This music just lifts me up :-)

This UK Parlophone record (catalogue number F 1475) has what is perhaps more of a novelty song from '39, but it does show off very well his style of trumpet playing. 


Boogy Boogy Boo, by Nat Gonella and his Georgians. (Hmm, should've let the player make more speed before lowering the needle. Also bad quality and low-res video, oh well - it's about the music mostly and at least it makes the file load fast ;)



On the other side (that I suspect is the 'A' side insofar as there are 'A' and 'B' sides), another novelty song of the period that must've been very popular. It was recorded by several bands in that year. Different times...


Three Little Fishies by Nat Gonella and his Georgians. (Again, not a good camera setting and video compressed to very low res, but most of the sound should be there still. Still have to think about how to do recording...  :)


:-)

2 comments:

  1. There are LOTS of old records in various OP shops and antique shops around Perth. I should get myself a record player of some kind. Is the gramophone just one speed? (depends how much you crank it up?)

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    1. Yes it's only 78 rpm shellac records. The regulator is adjustable though, from about 60 to I guess almost 100. Needs that; for e.g. old Columbia's you need 80 rpm and have now also found one that says 90. Took a while for 78 to settle in as standard, format wars for media also happening back then :)
      With a good spring and clean record, it will keep proper speed for playing 2 sides of a 10" record on one winding.
      Very fun to play with, highly recommended :)

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