Petula Clark

by Peter Cates

Petula Clark

I Know a Place
Jack and John. Warner Brothers 5612, seven inch 45 vinyl disc, recorded 1965.

Now 88, singer Petula Clark achieved fame in England and Europe before hitting paydirt over here. Downtown, This Is My Song, and Don’t Sleep in the Subway are megahits for the best reasons-they are beautiful songs beautifully sung. She had producer Tony Hatch working the arrangements enhancing her singing numerous times. In fact, if she ever made a bad record, I don’t know of it.

I Know a Place may be my favorite of the group with its spirited rhythms and upbeat musicality. It took a few hearings to like the B side, Jack and John, but it too exudes charm.

In 1968, she hosted a tv special and sang a duet with Harry Belafonte during which she locked arms with him. A representative of the sponsor Chrysler wanted another take used in which Clark stood at a distance from Belafonte because he feared a backlash in the Deep South. Clark refused, she destroyed all other takes of the duet, and the special made television history , receiving an Emmy nomination.

Continuing with Coffin’s Kennebec Crystals:

“In the clear dawn next day, along a hundred roads that led down to the Kennebec, farmers were trudging, mustaches hanging down to the woolen mufflers like the tusks on the walrus. Brown mustaches, golden ones, black ones, gray ones and white. But every one in front of a man. And behind them steamed their wealth, on its own feet. Tall, sinewy sons, out of school for good and on the doorstep of manhood and marriage, horses with hides like scrubbed horse chestnuts, big of hoof and billowy of muscle, fattened on corn, sharp shod, with long calks of steel that bit into the frozen ground. Here you could reckon up a man’s prosperity in solid tangible things, as in the days of Jacob and Laban. Goods with the breath of life in them. Like Job’s. The richest man was one who had nine or ten strong men to follow the swing of his creasing trousers in ringing ironed shoes. Or three or four spans of horses with the morning star in their forehead and the music of steel under their feet. So the wealth of the Kennebec came down to the harvest of Maine’s best winter crop in the eighties.”

More next week.

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A note on Vassalboro, Maine, history, the Cates Country Store (which was in family hands from when it was built in 1824 to when it was sold in 1971 to new owners) had ice deliveries from a horse drawn wagon well into the 1920’s. A gentleman, who drove such a wagon and knew my grandfather, Harold Cates (1881-1953), his father George Henry Cates (1852-1938) who ran the store for 65 years from 1873 until he died and other relatives employed in the store, used to park his car down by the Civil War monument during the early 1960’s to read his newspaper and I made his acquaintance. His name was Oscar Tubbs, he lived on the Cushman Road in Winslow in an old house with a long driveway and he told some fascinating stories about those years.

Connie Francis

by Peter Cates

Connie Francis

Now 83 years old but still active, Connie Francis is a living legend in pop music. Her 1957 megahit, the lovely Bert Kalmar/Harry Ruby Who’s Sorry Now, was one truly fine song, made extra special by CF’s totally sincere rendition, even if a tad smothered by sentimentality. That year, American Bandstand featured her lip-singing it and, as a six year old, I remember wishing, just momentarily, that she would adopt me as her little boy on a single Mom basis – LOL !!!

BTW, with respect to Kalmar and Ruby, the 1950 Fred Astaire and Red Skelton musical biopic, Three Little Words, also from MGM (Hmm, interesting coincidence), and about the two songwriters, had a very stirring and expressively different performance of WSN by Gloria De Haven, very much in the Peggy Lee/Julie London tradition.

Exciting is a set of 12 very classic pop standards – Time After Time; Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen’s Come Rain/Come Shine; a very personal favorite, There Will Never Be Another You; Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, of which my copy of the late Karen Chandler’s early ‘50s Coral 45 is the gold standard; That’s All; All By Myself, etc. She performs with heartfelt expression but her timing and phrasing is sometimes leaving me wanting something more, an elusive nuance and magic that such balladeers as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme and Doris Day had aplenty. But I really liked her singing of Time After Time. And the arrangements of the gifted Ray Ellis, like those beautiful ones for many of the Johnny Mathis late ‘50s hits, enhanced the album.

For me personally, the worst record she may have released – and one of the top ten worst in recording history, was the 1963 Brylcream Sing Along with Connie. First, it was an insult to the finest Sing Along group then popular, namely Mitch Miller’s. Secondly, the arrangements were hokey, cornballish and, most obviously, a rush job of rush jobs, much like most Christmas albums and TV specials. Thirdly, the Brylcream commercials flooded the American Bandstand. And finally, those little dabs made men’s hair greasier and grosser – forget pursue, the gals would all avoid ya!

The album would also impact the 1963 Christmas of the greater Cates family groups in the vicinity – the price for the record, when first released, was $1 when one purchased a tube of the ointment. Within a week, the price was down to ten cents without the required extortion.

A most “thrifty,’ well-to-do relative whose anonymity shall be honored in this instance, like the other sleeping dogs, bought a pile of the 10 centers and flooded every household with a copy as his way of good will to all men and women. Even after 30 years, no other copies of a record flooding the rubbish sales and Goodwills would be in such mint plus condition.

However, the story doesn’t end there. Rare record shops had their copies priced at 20 bucks and more by the mid ‘80s.

The singer’s life would be shattered by two horrific events. In 1974, a rapist would bust into her room at a New Jersey motel and brutally assault her, never to be found to this day. In 1981, her brother was murdered by two Mafia hitmen.

But her ability to move on and bless so many both here and abroad is only one of the reasons she is so worthy of honor for her life’s work.

Several selections, maybe the whole album, can be heard on YouTube, while prices on the Amazon page start at $4.39 for LP and $6.80 for CD.

Miliza Korjus

by Peter Cates

Record rescue operation

I have been receiving avalanches of free 78s the last few Sundays from a friend who needs to empty his locker. I call it a rescue operation of these records. Otherwise they end up in dumpsters because too many folks want everything modernized. As far as I am concerned, they are missing out on real listening experiences.

A few choice shellac examples: RCA Victor 12829 features the then very popular and now forgotten soprano Miliza Korjus singing two different waltzes usually played by the orchestra by itself – Johann Strauss Jr.’s Voices of Spring and Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Waltz. She was noted for brilliantly swooping high notes and other vocal acrobatics, along with beautiful phrasing and articulation.

Another of her records, Victor 12021, features her vibrantly alive renditions of two Rimsky-Korsakov arias; the well-known Hymn to the Sun from his opera The Golden Cockerel and the lesser known Martha’s Aria from the Tsar’s Bride.

Geraldine Farrar

Another soprano Geraldine Farrar recorded the Ethelbert Nevin classic Mighty Lak’ a Rose with violinist Fritz Kreisler’s delectable violin obliggato and accompanying orchestra on an acoustic Victrola one sided shellac, 89108, and quite lovely on its own terms but not equal to the absolutely beautiful 1929 electrically recorded Victor of Nathaniel Shilkret’s arrangement with soprano Olive Kline in an album devoted to Nevin’s Songs.

Alma Gluck

Farrar also recorded the very popular F.E. Weatherly/Stephen Adams special church number, The Holy City, also with orchestra on the acoustic Victor 88569 but, again, my favorite performances are three later ones from the electrical era – the 1930s Victor of tenor Richard Crooks with Sir John Barbirolli conducting, a late 1940s Decca 45 with Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, and the early 1980s Phillips LP featuring the late soprano Jessye Norman with a superb organist. However, Farrar did sing with beauty and conviction.

The last one was a most unexpected charmer; Aloha Oe, which has been given more ghastly overblown performances than I care to remember, was sung sublimely by the wonderful soprano Alma Gluck (1884-1938) whose records sold by the millions. Her acoustic Victrola shellac, 74534, featured her with the Orpheus Male Quartet and orchestra. She was married to violinist Efrem Zimbalist Sr. and their son was the well-known actor best remembered for his starring roles on TV’s 77 Sunset Strip and The FBI.

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Kate Winslett

Highly recommended TV viewing – Mare of Easttown starring Kate Winslett. Filmed near Philadelphia, Winslett gives the performance of her life as a small town police detective investigating the murder of a young mother while battling her own issues at home and elsewhere.

Pooled COVID-19 testing in K-12 schools can reduce the time it takes to uncover positive cases in the classroom.

(NAPSI)—Enabling K-12 schools to reopen for in-person learning is a high priority for parents, communities and governments. In fact, President Biden’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness was launched to fund COVID testing for teachers, staff and students in an effort to create a safer return-to-school environment.

Getting kids back to in-person learning will mean giving working parents a break, letting parents return to full-time work, reducing the expense of tutors or childcare and providing a near-normal learning experience.

Nevertheless, concerns linger over COVID in the classroom and the possibility of children bringing the virus home. School districts have looked at options for student testing but at the top of many lists is pooled testing. Here are some common questions and answers about that:

What is pooled COVID testing?

Pooled COVID-19 testing combines swabs from consenting individuals in a classroom and runs them as a single test. This can significantly increase testing capacity and lower costs. School personnel are trained to operate and monitor on-site sample collection, usually done weekly. In the event of a positive pool, the entire pool is quarantined and individually retested. But students who test negative can return to school immediately.

Does my child need to participate?

Participation is optional but according to district supervisors, most parents participate because regular, proactive testing can offer peace of mind. Knowing your child is in a COVID-free pool can make sending them to in-person learning less stressful. Proactive pooled testing alerts parents if a pool tests positive—which can be faster than finding out only after a child starts showing symptoms. It also means that parents know if a child tests positive, even if they are asymptomatic.

Can I trust the results?

Yes, in many states, pooled testing is already being administered by trained school personnel. Swabs are tested by Helix, a CLIA-certified lab, identified as having one of the most sensitive PCR tests on the market in an independent study conducted by the FDA.

Does testing my kids at school cost me anything?

No, having your kids tested for COVID at school on an ongoing basis doesn’t cost families anything. It provides a convenient way to protect all family members and creates a safer in-person learning environment.

How can I learn more?

For more information, contact your school and ask about pooled COVID-19 testing and visit www.helix.com.

Sviatoslav Richter

by Peter Cates

Emil Gilels

Emil Gilels

In 1955, Russian pianist Emil Gilels (1916-985) made his debut in the United States, being one of a handful of musicians allowed to tour outside the Iron Curtain. His entourage, like other touring musicians from the Soviet Union, included several ‘friends’ who were KGB operatives prepared to shoot in case Gilels tried to seek asylum.

Fritz Reiner

He made two recordings with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony – the Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concerto and the Brahms 2nd – which were distinguished by an unusually refined technical virtuosity, delicacy but full-blooded musicality. He and Reiner, who was otherwise notorious for scathing sarcasm with orchestra members, had a most congenial relationship. (Many years later, Gilels was collaborating with the young Simon Rattle who made a mess with his conducting. Gilels jumped up from the piano bench and screamed at the young maestro for his stupidity. Since then, Rattle’s conducting has drastically improved.)

When Gilels was complimented for his playing during his first appearances, he replied, “Wait until you hear Richter.” He was referring to his good friend, pianist Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997) who first toured the U.S. in 1960. Richter was a big, broad-shouldered man with huge hands that swept across the piano with dazzling power, unlike Gilels who was shorter and had smaller hands.

Simon Rattle

Two outstanding Richter recordings are his ones of the 2 Piano Concertos of Franz Liszt and of Rach­ma­ninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto. I would also add his record of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, one that Gilels did very well with a much different approach from Richter.

Richter had a miraculous memory for the names of every single individual he ever met, no matter how briefly, and found it annoying. He also preferred doing free concerts for small groups in such places as a country church.

Both pianists have recordings accessible on YouTube.