Phil Harris Cocoanut Grove Orchestra

[Mike]

i found a great collection of cd music of orchestras that played at the grove: phil harris, gus amheim, jimmie grier, and ted flo rito. other than harris i never heard of the other 3, lol, but the music is great. i'm really into 30's music, but a lot of it is new to me, since i was born in the 50's. i don't know if these recordings are old news. i'm not an mp3 person either and don't know if these recordings are floating around in the mp3 universe, but the notes say that the recordings are "nearly impossible to find" or something to that effect. this is an excellent collection of cd's, much better than i expected.

http://www.radioarchives.org/sets/PC70.htm

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

I just got the set in the mail the other day. The music is great! I strongly recommend it!

[Mike]

i'll 2nd that. i would add that all antique musical recordings such as these have an inherent "tinniness". the way i deal with that is to adjust the bass control most or all of the way up, and the treble most or all of the way down. if you have a good cd player with good bass & treble controls or an equalizer on a stereo system it improves the overall sound quaity dramatically.

[Mike]

on the discs with phil harris he does a little shtick inbetween the songs with a southern accent, which i never noticed before. was he originally from the south, or was this an "act"?

[Yhtapmys]

i found a great collection of cd music of orchestras that played at the grove: phil harris, gus amheim, jimmie grier, and ted flo rito. other than harris i never heard of the other 3, lol, but the music is great.

I thought Jimmy Grier worked with Jack on some show before he fiinally settled in L.A.

Gus Arnheim had pretty popular orchestra on radio.

Yhtapmys

[Mike]

one of the amheim discs has a great song called "moan you moaners" sung by a 3 part harmony group called "the three ambassadors." i'm not sure if i ever heard this song before. it's a really good snappy, upbeat tune. oh, the good old days! if only i could have been there during the great depession years, lol.

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

Featured in "The Three Ambassadors" is Marty Sperzel, later of The Sportsmen Quartet

[Shemp]

Featured in "The Three Ambassadors" is Marty Sperzel, later of The Sportsmen Quartet

The Three Ambassadors, with Sperzel, appear in MGM's BEER AND PRETZELS (1933), a Ted Healy & His Stooges (Moe, Larry & Curly) short comedy...

BEER AND PRETZELS

Available on DVD in Warner Home Video's FLYING DOWN TO RIO.

[LLeff]

on the discs with phil harris he does a little shtick inbetween the songs with a southern accent, which i never noticed before. was he originally from the south, or was this an "act"?

He was from southern Indiana. Indiana does have its own Southern drawl, but having not heard the recording, I can't say if it's exaggerated or not.

[Mike]

he seems to alternate between a mild drawl and a deep(er) southern accent. i haven't heard any other of his orchestra recordings for comparison, but maybe he was having some fun with the girl singer on his show, leah ray, who was from virginia, according to the notes. anyway, this is a great collection of music. in my next life i want to come back as a bandleader of the era, (and get my pick of the girl singers), ha-ha!