Back over to the French Radio Transcriptions this week. Music by Germaine Tailleferre. A member of the legendary Les Six of composers, Tailleferre was one of the first women composers in France to achieve International prominence.

Tonight it's Ouverture for Orchestra, a work she composed in 1932 and is heard here in this mid-1950's (1955?) Radio Broadcast performance with the Orchestra of The French Radio conducted by Eugene Bigot.

As usual, it's highly doubtful this particular performance has seen the light of day since it was recorded and it's equally doubtful a more recent recording was made of this work, since most of what has been issued of Tailleferre's work consists of vocal and instrumental pieces.

This work certainly shows off some of the influence of the others in Les Six but it more importantly illustrates the vast untapped reservoir of brilliant and gifted women composers were emerging in the 20th century.

And Germaine Tailleferre was in the vanguard.

I'm not entirely sure this being touted as "the first Network Jazz concert on Television" is accurate, as I think CBS may have had that distinction a year or two earlier. But I'm sure it sounded good in the press releases and, truths to tell, it was a star-studded lineup that promised more on a regular basis. Hosted by then-King of Late Night Television Steve Allen (he was the first Tonight Show host) with venerable pitch-man John Cameron Swayze for Timex (takes a licking and keeps on ticking) watches, it was a one hour extravaganza.

Packed with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, June Christy and a host of others, it was one solid hour of wall-to-wall Jazz at a time when Rock n' Roll was threatening to eclipse the popular music market and Jazz was making a stand.

I believe this concert has been preserved and is available on video. These however, are the original transcription discs made by NBC engineers as a reference recording and so the sound quality may be a bit better.

In any event, if you've never heard this concert before, here's a good opportunity to hear what was going on in 1957 as far as the more mainstream Jazz practitioners were concerned. If you have heard this concert before, maybe this one sounds a bit better. You decide.

Maybe as something of an antidote to the sensationalism of the Beat Generation (in my post yesterday) is the social consciousness and backlash to the McCarthy Red Scare era that also enveloped America in the 1950's. Championed by the likes of Playwright Arthur Miller, (who himself was lambasted in the mainstream media as a Pinko and, for a while, Mr. Marilyn Monroe) Clifford Odets and many others of the neo-realist school, who helped take the Theater from a place of breezy entertainment to a forum on the human condition.

A View From The Bridge began life as a one-act verse drama in 1955 and was later reworked into a two-act play in 1956. It's a compelling mixture of fear, false pride and revenge taking it's nod from the Italian neo-realist Opera that gave the landmark Cavalleria Rusticana while mixing with the Immigration issues (and Red Scare) prevalent during the McCarthy era, and ironically prevalent today.

For a complete breakdown of the Play check out some of the sites associated with it. It's seen numerous revivals over the years, primarily because the message hasn't aged and with most social consciousness issues, hasn't changed all that much over the years.

This recording, sadly deleted from Mercury Records' catalog way too long ago, features the original revival cast as it was presented off-Broadway at the Sheridan Square Playhouse in 1964-1965. That revival garnered Obie Awards for it's star Robert Duvall and its director Ulu Grossbard.

The cast goes as follows (in order of appearance):

Louis - Richard Castellano
Mike - Carmine Cardi
Alfieri - Mitchell Jason
Eddie - Robert Duvall
Catherine - Linda Eskenas
Beatrice - Jeanne Kaplan
Marco - Ramon Bieri
Tony - Gino Morra
Rodolpho - Jon Voight
First Immigration Officer - Dan Priest
Second Immigration Officer - Curt Dempster

Directed by: Ulu Grossbard
Assistant Director : Dustin Hoffman

Act I - top player
Act II - bottom player

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Finishing up the Holiday Weekend with a world premier recording, made for French Radio in 1957 of Jean-Michel Damase performing his Variations For Piano (re-titled Theme and Variations For Piano).

Damase, a celebrated contemporary French composer, divided his career early on between composition and performing. He is still very active and his works are regularly performed throughout the world. But it's always great to hear a first performance done by the composer, particularly when it hasn't been available for a very long time.

Enjoy what few minutes are left of this holiday (in the U.S.) weekend.

In keeping with our current preoccupation with taxes, the deficit and spending, I thought I would run an address President Franklin Roosevelt gave while campaigning for re-election in 1936.

Seems the subject of taxes has been with us for a very-very long time. And it also seems the ones doing the most complaining haven't changed very much in the past 200 or so years.

Comforting, I suppose. But you'd think by now it would get a little tired.

In 1936 though, FDR had a few choice words nestled in what has become a timeless address.

President Roosevelt: “In 1776 the fight was for Democracy in Taxation. In 1936 there is still the fight. Mister Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said ‘taxes are the prices we pay for civilized society’. One sure way to determine the social conscience of a government is to examine the way taxes are collected and how they are spent. And one sure way to determine the social conscience of an individual is to get his tax reaction. Taxes, after all are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society. And as society becomes more civilized government, national and state and local, is called on to assume more obligations to its citizens. The privileges of membership in a civilized society are vastly increased in modern times. But I am afraid we still have many who still do not recognize their advantages and want to avoid paying their dues.”

Tax breaks for the wealthy were a concept well in place by the time Hoover was President.

FDR: “To divide fairly among the people the obligation to pay for these benefits has been a major part of our struggle to maintain Democracy in America. Ever since 1776, that struggle has been between two forces; on the one hand there has been a vast majority of citizens who believe the benefits of democracy should be extended and who are willing to pay their fair share to extend them. And on the other hand, there has been a small but powerful group which has fought the extension of these benefits because they did not want to pay a fair share of their cost. That was the lineup in seventeen hundred and seventy-six and it’s the lineup today. And I am confident that once more, in nineteen thirty-six democracy in taxation will win. Here is my principle, and I think it’s yours too; Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.”

So hearing this now and knowing it was from the dim-distant past of 1936, it makes the current situation and posturing that much more absurd. Unfortunately if it were only absurd it would be laughed off. But it has become deadly serious business in the ensuing years.

And I keep reminding myself that Fair is a place in Pomona California where people get together once a year and show cows.