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11/9/14

National Concert Dance Orchestra: Selections from Porgy and Bess and others (Halo Records)




This is one of those Halo Record releases that screams low budget. The cover is the only real reason you want a copy of this record. After all, only five Porgy and Bess tunes are on the record! The cover art is lovely, to say the least. Oberstien, for his Halo record line, got the New York Graphic Society to let him use prints of top-grade paintings for his label's record jackets.

As you can see in the video below, this cover is worthy of framing. It's too bad the content of the enclosed record needs to reach the expectations set by the jacket art. Also, the artist's attribution is generic. The staff at Record Corporation Of America (The company that Eli Oberstein used to release these budget records) got into a heated argument on what generic name they would use for the artist credit on this release. I imagine it must have been a stalemate between "The National Dance Orchestra" and "The National Concert Orchestra," and somebody stepped in and made a compromise with "The National Concert Dance Orchestra" so everyone could move on with their lives.

The music on this record could be better as there are only three Porgy and Bess tracks. The rest of the album is comprised mainly of cheap classical recordings. The last filler track on side A is the only one that breaks the reasonable canned classical music mood. It is a track from the Royale record album "Strictly Instrumental: Broadway Hits, arranged by Russel Bannett" (catalog number 1241). I have the complete album uploaded here on YouTube. The track "Hoops" is not the only recording on this album taken from that album. "Summertime" on this Halo release is also the previously mentioned Royale album.

The copy I had was rather worn, which makes for noisy vinyl rips when combined with a styrene pressing. The A side is boisterous. However, DeNoise, my noise reduction program for cleaning up my transfers, pushed the noise under the desired audio level. The first track on side A had some severe problems with needle jumps throughout the first minute of the track. The track is also worth listening to, as the unknown vocalist has an almost operatic style that makes for exciting listening. The rest of the album suffers from surface noise and related artifacts that are impossible to remove with software. The album is still quite listenable, however you will need to be able to tolerate some noise to enjoy this album. 


Side A
  1. I Got Plenty O' Nottin' & Bess You Is My Women (0:11)
  2. It Ain't Necessary So & Woman Is A Sometime Thing (3:47)
  3. Summertime (6:37)
  4. Intermezzo
  5. Traumerei
  6. Minute In G
  7. Hoops (18:04)
Side B*
  1. None But The Lonely Heart
  2. Minute In G
  3. Serenade
  4. To A Wild Rose
  5. Souvenir
  6. Traumerei
  7. Andante Cantabile
  8. Intermezzo
*The label on side B lists "American In Paris," "Rhapsody In Blue," and a bunch of Show tunes that would have made this record worth every penny. However, the label completely misrepresented the actual content, as it is all cheap canned classical music, which I fall asleep to almost every night. 

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