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For the newcomer to Newstalgia - Sunday nights, aside from classic Jazz is also classic Classical, by way of the Weekend Gramophone. Originally, it was supposed to be the place all the old 78's and early lp's were going to be posted. But lately it's shifted to showcase some of the amazing radio recordings that have not been commercially released. Such as tonight's post, which features the famed French Pianist Yvonne Lefebure in two Debussy pieces, recorded in the studios of the ORTF in Paris (French radio pre-1968). These recordings were made in the early-mid 1950's, and sadly there are no concrete dates of recording as there is nothing to indicate when they were recorded on the disc labels, only when they were aired. According to when the disc was broadcast, it appears to be 1955.

The two pieces featured are:

1. Debussy - from Images, Book 1 - Hommage à Rameau
2. Debussy - from Preludes - Danseuses de Delphes

More discoveries next week. In the meantime, enjoy.

I would venture to guess, just based on uncovered evidence, that America in the 1950's was probably more balanced from a cultural standpoint, than it is now.

Why do I say that? The evidence - weekend radio in America was a veritable grab-bag of music, information and culture - all laid out, usually in one place. In 1955, NBC Radio introduced a Weekend service called Monitor. It was an adventuresome idea, geared along the lines of America's then-insatiable curiosity over how things worked.

Monitor's credo was "go anywhere, do anything" and it lived up to that credo over a 48 hour period, beginning at 12:01 on Saturday morning until 11:59 Sunday night.

This episode of The Grand Ole Opry comes from that service. For a half hour (On June 22, 1955) it featured the talents of "Little" Jimmy Dickens, "Cousin" Minnie Pearl, Del Wood, Jimmy Newman, Chester "Chet" Atkins and a host of others. Strictly Americana at its most rural.

But here's the thing - right after Grand Ole Opry, Monitor went to Birdland and featured a set by Woody Herman and Erroll Garner, and a half hour after that, a set by Tyree Glenn and "Philly Joe" Jones.

And the next day, you got the NBC Symphony. Quite a blast of disparate culture, to say the least. But if you were up for it, you got one hell of an education in the space of 48 hours. And your musical taste got very broad and all-encompassing. And if you were a musician, you stumbled into a gold mine.

So as a reminder of how potentially isolated we've become as a culture, here is a half-hour of down-home rural/middle America/roots music, supplied by Mainstream Radio in the form of NBC on June 22, 1955.

The Jazz portion comes tomorrow.

They aren't actually collaborating, just sharing the same stage at The Birdland in New York City for this broadcast from the All Star Parade Of Bands series from NBC Radio, recorded on June 4, 1955.

Erroll Garner opens the broadcast, and it includes his latest composition, Misty along with a lot of other great sounds for the first half of the show.

And then Perez Prado takes over the second half, opening with Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White), which was a huge hit for him around this time. The rest of his set is high-voltage, just like all of his material.

Two great sets from a very unlikely pairing, but that was what radio in the 1950's was all about.

Digging again into the Transcriptions of 1940's and 1950's French Radio.The music of Gabriel Pierne` this week, as performed by The Pierre Jamet String Quintet, featuring Pierre Jamet on Harp, in a performance of Pierne's Variations Libres et Finale op. 51. Recorded by French Radio in 1955, and as far as I know, not re-issued in any form.

Gabriel Pierne` was a prolific composer, but during his lifetime he was equally well known as a conductor whose legendary recordings of the 1920's and 30's were sought after for years by collectors. They've been reissued at various times over the years. While Pierne` the composer underwent a period of obscurity, being overshadowed by his contemporaries Ravel, Debussy, Satie and Stravinsky. But time has shone a little more light on the lesser luminaries of the period, and the music of Pierne` has been getting performed and recorded more regularly of late.

A nice closer to the weekend.

Traditional Jazz this week from the great Louis Armstrong, recorded live at Basin Street on New York's famed 52nd Street on May 7, 1955.

For those of you interested in the great "Mouldy Fig vs. Chinese Music" controversy (i.e. Dizzy Gillespie, high priest of Be-Bop, once proclaimed Louis Armstrong's Traditional Jazz as Mouldy Fig music and Armstrong fired back saying Gillespie was playing Chinese Music), Armstrong gets in a not-so-subtle dig at Gillespie mid-way through the broadcast.

All good fun and all good musical history via the weekly All-Star Parade Of Bands broadcasts.

The great Louis Armstrong tonight, recorded live at Basin Street in New York on May 28, 1956 as part of the weekly NBC Radio Series All Start Parade Of Bands.

Not too much to add other than this probably hasn't been reissued anywhere and may or may not have made the circles of radio collectors of live Jazz.

In any event, it's here and you get to enjoy it.

Continuing with the collection of French Radio transcriptions, here is a recording (a studio concert) featuring members of the Student Orchestra of the Paris Conservatory conducted by Louis Martin in a performance of Capriccio for Ten Players by Jacques Ibert.

Judging from the details on the label, I would guess it's from around 1954-1955 and it offers some very distinctive playing styles that have all but disappeared from orchestras around the world.

An interesting piece of music fascinatingly played and certainly a small slice of history.

Although somewhat distant in history, Stan Kenton was a pretty controversial figure in the Jazz world of the 1950's. There was a contingent of ardent followers who swore up and down it was the way of the future and Kenton was taking the Big Band idea to new and interesting places. And there was an equally large contingent of people who swore it was all hype and that Kenton was just being as noisy and soul-less as possible.

What ever the consensus of opinion was, Stan Kenton came along at a time when the Big Band was dwindling and being replaced by the small unit; the Trio, Quartet and Quintet. He did inject a lot of much needed energy into the form and Kenton gave the musical world a band you listened to, and not at. In short, there wasn't a whole pile of dancing at Stan Kenton concerts; people sat and listened. And on that score, that was a good thing and Kenton breathed a fresh new life into the idea of the Big Band, even if some considered it radical.

Tonight's installment of the Downbeat takes place at Birdland in New York City on July 11, 1955 and it's pretty much typical of what Stan Kenton was up to at this period of time.

Looking at it now, it's hard to see what all the fuss was about. I'm sure there was a measure of hype that may have been unnecessary at the time. But how else do you get noticed when the field, which was once crowded with people saying the same thing, is now pretty much abandoned for greener pastures and the people left are looking for something different?

And it worked for a long time.

Without question one of the most important figures in Jazz in the last 100+ years. Louis Armstrong has been synonymous with traditional Jazz out of New Orleans since the dawn of commercial recording. And his popularity has endured long after his death in . In the 1950's Jazz (well, all music for that matter) was undergoing a transformation, having evolved out of the Big Band era into small units. Trios, quartets, quintets and everything in between began an era of exploration, branching out from traditional styles into the experimental and the extended solo. Traditional Jazz had a rough go of it for a while, and practitioners like Armstrong were in danger of being swept aside with the tide of Avant-Garde. But Armstrong was true to his roots and withstood the shifts in popularity and, like many before him, took to the road and made a case wherever he went. His perseverance won out as this broadcast from the All-Star Parade of Bands series for NBC Radio.

This performance features Louis Armstrong leading a small group at Basin Street in New York on May 21, 1955. It's a half-hour of top-notch Armstrong and further evidence why his artistry has endured for so many years.

If you liked this, or are planning on downloading it, could you toss a few pennies in this direction too?

From the Chi-Chi Club in New York City tonight, a live set by smooth, suave and debonair Matt Dennis and his Trio. Not a household name these days, but Dennis was a successful song writer with a lot of Jazz Standards to his credit over a long and productive career.

A mellow and casual half hour, compliments of the NBC All-Star Parade of Bands series from June 13, 1955.