News for this day in June, 1942 was about the War on all fronts.

Starting with reports from Australia that the War wasn't getting much in the way of newspaper space because of the monotony of the dispatches. However, on this day it was reported that Darwin had it's first raid-free day. The same couldn't be said for Port Moresby, as raids by some 18 Heavy Japanese bombers made up for Darwin's lack of action. The whole picture was painted in grim terms as General MacArthur, in an appeal for support of an Australian War Loan drive, said Australia was facing an imminent invasion and it was imperative they be prepared for it.

While on the air, a bulletin came through the newsroom that the Canadian Air Force and Anti-aircraft units had joined up with U.S. forces, for the first time, in the defense of Alaska over the invasion of the Aleutian Islands.

From Stockholm came reports that Berlin was counting on a Japanese Declaration of War against Russia within hours, and that the Russian-Japanese Friendship Pact signed a year earlier was now worthless. Reports also came through that the situation in North Africa was cautious, as Germany was experiencing difficulties with their Italian allies in the area of water supplies and dwindling morale.

From London the picture was a bit different, with news that British forces had withdrawn from El Aderri and Sidi Rezegh and that Rommel was making good his threat to cut off land communication between Tobruk and Egypt. It was also noted that the British Government voiced concern over the lessening of antagonism between Washington and the Laval Government of Vichy, despite reports that Laval had okayed sending idle French workers to Germany in an effort to shore up Berlin's lagging war production, since Laval had shut most non-essential industry in Occupied France.

From Washington came reports that the Sugar shortage was an on-again-off-again situation with wild discrepancies in rationing being noted. Also of concern on Capitol Hill was the recent signing of the Anglo-Soviet Pact which led many to wonder just where Moscow would be fitting in with the proposed United Nations and Post-War atmosphere in Europe.

And today marked the second anniversary of the Surrender of France.

All that and much more on this June 18, 1942 as reported by the NBC World News Roundup.

Day 520 in what would soon become World War 2, but still only "the war in Europe" this January 31st in 1941. The U.S. still had diplomatic ties as well as news bureaus in Berlin and Tokyo. But how long that was going to last was only a matter of time.

The previous night, on January 30, 1941 Adolf Hitler, during a 90 minute speech, warned the U.S. that dire consequences would arise if we continued providing aid to Britain and that the German navy would be compelled to torpedo U.S. ships entering "zones of contention" (i.e. British waters).

The threat was interestingly timed, as arguments over Lend-Lease and Foreign Aid to Britain were being argued on Capitol Hill all this week.

But the war nonetheless continued. News of continued daylight bombings of London were containing reports of indiscriminate targets being hit as the result of cloud cover and civilian casualties were on the rise.

Meanwhile, the Italian army was losing on several fronts, substantiating Prime Minister Churchill's assessment that Italy really had "no stomach for war". Greek troops were advancing in Albania, forcing the Italian army to retreat after suffering heavy losses resulting in a failed counter-attack. Likewise in Libya where British forces forced Italian abandonment of Derna and reports of large numbers of prisoners taken as the result. Italy was rapidly losing ground in Libya and in threat of losing their entire toehold in North Africa.

In Southeast Asia, Siam (now Thailand) issued surrender demands to the Vichy Government to give up French claim to Cambodia and one-fourth of Indo-China. Also stipulating that, should France give up Indo-China altogether, it had first dibs on a second province in the Indo-China territory (remember this for later reference in the 1950's). Suspicions were aroused that the Japanese were behind these negotiations as it was Tokyo who acted as buffer between Siam and the Vichy Government.

And that's how this day went in 1941, as reported by NBC and their morning as well as evening newscasts.

Day 520 indeed.

(Andre Cluytens - one of the true luminaries of French music . . .who happened to be Belgian)

A tiny cheat today. This recording actually comes from a set of transcription discs sent out by the French Broadcasting System in the late 1940s and early 1950s to radio stations promoting the cause of French music and French performers. The likelihood of this particular performance showing up at your record store in 1949 was remote at best, but it's so good and so rare that I had to put aside the notion that everything in these posts has to run at 78 rpm and offer it for you today.

This performance of Debussy's Jeux was made roughly around 1949, and possibly earlier. It features the French National Orchestra led by the legendary Andre Cluytens. Cluytens is probably more closely associated with the Paris Conservatory, an orchestra he was almost synonymous with from the early-1950s until his death in 1965.But his association with the French National Orchestra pre-dates that by some years and even though he recorded comparatively little with them, several of those recordings are considered classics.

This performance of Jeux has never been available commercially, as far as I know. Who has the masters is anyone's guess.

So until you can find a better copy or source, here is this one for now.

(Paul Gayten - one of the unsung luminaries in the pantheon of Blues)

I first ran across the music of Paul Gayten by way of some 78's I found at a Salvation Army thrift shop when I was fifteen. What got me was the sound of his orchestra. Gayten was a band leader from the late 1940s to the mid 1950s and some of the people who came in and out of his band read like a Who's Who of Jazz of the 1950s. But Gayten was also a great songwriter and singer who had many hits on the R&B charts and had a long career working for Chess Records.

Many years ago I had the pleasure of working on a reissue album of Paul Gayten's music. I was handed a small mountain of early tapes containing masters of released songs and, in a few cases, masters of songs that were never released. It's this song that's up tonight, I Love You So, that's never been released, never been reissued and for all intents and purposes not heard since it was recorded in 1950. I loved it the second I heard it - the band and arrangement kill me. Why it's never been available is a complete mystery to me.

But that doesn't mean it has to be a mystery to you. All you get to do is turn up the volume and relax. Enjoy.

(Featuring a Who's Who of French musicians from the 1940s)

Back to early lp's tonight with a recording issued only in France by Odeon around 1953 of the Saint-Saens Le Carnaval des Animaux led by the legendary French-Roumanian conductor Edouard Lindenberg. This recording also boasted something of a Who's Who of French musicians, household names in Europe since the 1930's, including Andre Navarra, cello, Henri Merckel, violin and Raymond Trouard, Piano.

Carnival Of The Animals is a well known work, initially denounced by its composer Camille Saint-Saens after one performance and withdrawn from public performance (with the exception of the The Swan) until after his death, it's one of those deceptively simple pieces of music that often gets short shrift as something of a "kid's piece of music" and not taken seriously. Which is too bad because sometimes with something even as simple as this the true talent of a gifted composer leaps out effortlessly. The trick with everything is to make it all look simple. Carnival of The Animals sounds simple - and then it gets stuck in your head and stays there.

Happens all the time.

(The Ondricek Quartet - Mozart in wartime)

Mozart this Sunday, as recorded in April of 1944 by German Odeon of the String Quartet Nr. 3 K. 156 performed by the Czech ensemble The Ondricek String Quartet. Since the war would take a dramatic turn just two months later, its pretty doubtful this recording was very widely circulated in the German occupied countries or anywhere else for that matter. I haven't seen it reissued anywhere, either on lp or CD and I suspect the masters were no doubt destroyed. The Ondricek String Quartet were a well respected ensemble, together since 1921 with a few personnel changes, all the way to the late 1940s. They weren't prolific as far as recording was concerned, and virtually none of their releases (except for one) were available outside of Czechoslovakia. So anything they did would be welcome for most collectors.

Hopefully this is one of them.