In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Recorded Sound Archives is exploring music through portraits. This week discover and learn more about Spanish singer, actress, dancer and business woman Lola Flores in the video below.
If you enjoyed learning about Lola Flores you can listen to one of her recordings in the Recorded Sound Archives: https://rsa.fau.edu/artist/14933
Please feel free to download a coloring page we created of Lola Flores that you can color and hang up in celebration of Hispanic heritage month and we hoped you enjoyed learning a little bit about these Hispanic musicians.
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Recorded Sound Archives is exploring music through portraits. This week discover and learn more about Cuban American Musician and Bandleader – Desi Arnaz in the video below.
If you enjoyed learning about Desi Arnaz you can listen to five of his recordings in the Recorded Sound Archives: https://rsa.fau.edu/desi-arnaz
Please feel free to download a coloring page we created of Desi Arnaz that you can color and hang up in celebration of Hispanic heritage month and join us next week to find out which Latino musician we end up exploring next.
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Recorded Sound Archives is exploring music through portraits. Enjoy the first of four videos created in celebration of Hispanic/Latino artists. This week discover and learn more about Cuban composer and pianist – Ernesto Lecuona and Lecuona’s Cuban Boys in the video below.
If you enjoyed learning about Ernesto Lecuona you can listen to two of his recordings in the Recorded Sound Archives: https://rsa.fau.edu/ernesto-lecuona
Please feel free to download a coloring page we created of Ernesto Lecuona that you can color and hang up in celebration of Hispanic heritage month and join us next week to find out which Latino musician we end up exploring next.
Did you know that Ethel Waters was the first African American to be nominated for an Emmy Award? In 1962, the legendary jazz and blues singer received the nomination for her performance in a “Route 66” episode, “Good Night, Sweet Blues.”
Ethel Waters in “Route 66”, episode “Good Night, Sweet Blues.”
In the episode, “Good Night, Swee Blues”, Ethel Waters plays Jenny Henderson, a retired singer in failing health who commissions Tod and Buzz to find and bring her the members of the Memphis Naturals, the band she performed and recorded with thirty years earlier.
Waters’ nomination for this role paved the way for women like Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson, Alfre Woodard, Halle Berry, Kerry Washington, Regina King, and Viola Davis, now the first Black woman to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
Beyond acting, Waters’ also performed jazz, big band, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.
Her best-known recordings include “Dinah,” “Stormy Weather,” “Taking a Chance on Love,” “Heat Wave,” “Supper Time,” “Am I Blue?” and “Cabin in the Sky,” as well as her version of the spiritual “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”
Here at the Recorded Sound Archives we are celebrating Black History month through music by highlighting the voices of the past and their accomplishments.
To listen to recordings by Ethel Waters, click here.
Two weeks after his 101th birthday, pianist and composer Irving Fields passed away August 20, 2016 in Manhattan. He was perhaps the longest working musician in the world. At the age of hundred, he used to play the piano several nights a week at Nino’s Tuscany restaurant in Manhattan. Irving Fields became known by fusing Jewish tunes, jazz, and popular songs with Latin music.
Born as Isidore Schwartz in 1915 New York City to Jewish immigrants, Irving Fields started working as a pianist in the thirties during the years of the Great Depression. In this time of high unemployment, he started playing piano in resort hotels in the Catskills Mountains, and then he found work as a pianist on cruise ships sailing from New York to Havana, capital city of Cuba. In Havana, Irving Fields listened to the great Cuban orchestras, and developed his love for Latin music. Attracted by pictures from palm trees and beaches in travel magazines, Irving decided to settle in Miami Beach and performed in hotels playing dinner music, and did sessions with local orchestras.
After joining the army, he began the Irving Fields Trio, with a bass and a drummer, and started composing his own songs. In 1947, his song Miami Beach Rhumba became a big success by versions of Kay Kyser, Freddy Martin, Carmen Miranda, and even by the popular band leader Xavier Cugat. During the Latin craze trend in the 40s, Irving Fields was at the right time and place, and soon Miami Beach Rhumba was followed by the number one hit song Managua, Nicaragua (1947) recorded by big band leader Guy Lombardo, and ten years later by Chantez-Chantez (1957) by singer Dinah Shore.
In 1959, the Irving Fields Trio recorded the album Bagels and Bongos blending popular Jewish tunes with Latin rhythms such as Bei Mir Bist Du Schön as a mambo, Havannah Negila a paso doble, and I Love You Much Too Much a rhumba. The album became a big hit all over the world, and was followed by the albums More Bagels and Bongos (1960), Pizzas and Bongos (Italian traditionals), Champagne and Bongos (with French standards), and Bikinis and Bongos (with Hawaiian music). Every song was mixed with a Latin beat, which turned out to be a story of success.
After the success with his trio in the sixties, Irving Fields went back working as a solo pianist on cruise ships again, where he sailed the whole world, and finally settled as a music entertainer in restaurants, from 2004 six nights a week in Nino’s Tuscany, Manhattan. This would become the place, where he started his second career.
In the last decade, several films appeared about Fields playing piano on YouTube. These films form a good impression of his talent, wisdom, and humor. Although Irving Fields was not a user of a computer or the Internet, he did compose the YouTube theme song.
Regarding my research about the influence of Jewish tunes in American popular song, I contacted Irving Fields, and then I received several handwritten letters from him. At my birthday March 2010, I met Irving Fields and his lovely wife Ruth in person in Nino’s Tuscany restaurant, where he entertained the guests with his music. From my letters, he knew that I should visit him this special evening. To my surprise, he welcomed me with a newly composed personal anniversary song. When listening to his music and talking to him, I knew that I was close to one of the last persons, already in his nineties, who could tell me first-hand about the history of popular music in the Tin Pan Alley period before the second World War.
Irving Fields and Niels Falch at Nino’s
Of course, I also asked him about his secret for longevity, and he replied with more than ten rules. The first three rules for longevity are; (1) Have a sense of humor (you’ll never get ulcers), (2) Think of these three magic letters before you make a decision: L.T.D. Look, Think and Do, and (3) Be the first to say “hello” with a smile on your face and a friendly glow. Following these rules during his life, Irving Fields became ultimately 101 years young.
Even U.S. President Donald J. Trump admired Irving Fields, and shared one of his secrets for longevity: “Irving has said that work is a blessing, especially when you like your work. He loves his work, and that love is evident in his music. Irving is a great pro.”
Irving Fields will be remembered as the pianist who blended bagels and bongos, although he never had a way to play a bagel…
You can listen to over 30 recordings by Irving Fields on the Recorded Sound Archives website by clicking here.
RSA Guest Blogger, Niels Falch, is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is currently writing a dissertation on the influence of Jewish music in American popular songs.
Please note, due to copyright some of these recordings may only play for 45 second snippet to give the user a taste of what this music sounded like back in the day, if you are interested in full access considering applying for Research Station Access.Access to Research Station is limited to educators, students and serious researchers.
There was a “joke” in the cantorial world that “If you can’t get Koussevitzky, get Aroni!” Personally, I think Aroni (my dad) had a better voice.
His voice instructor and many others told him that he could have been, or should be an opera singer, but he loved being a cantor too much.
His voice didn’t age noticeably from his first recordings, specifically The Grape Song recorded in 1950, to his last recording Kohanecha Yilb’shu Tzedek recorded in 1990.
Both recordings can be heard on the RSA website, along with 34 other recordings by Cantor Zvee Aroni, just one of over 260 cantorial voices to choose from in the Cantorial Voices Collection.
While digitizing recordings by Sergei Rachmaninoff at the Recorded Sound Archives, we found some interesting facts about Rachmaninoff that you may not of known. Such as did you know….
1. Rachmaninoff was twice offered the position of conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He refused both times.
2. Aside from being a magnificent composer, Rachmaninoff was also a man of strong moral character. In 1912, Rachmaninoff resigned from his position as vice-president of the Russian Musical Society in protest to a musician being dismissed from his duties because he was Jewish.
3. Rachmaninoff’s last piano recital included Chopin’s Sonata no. 2, which includes a famous funeral march. Rachmaninoff died 40 days after performing the funeral march. Rachmaninoff’s composition All Night Vigil was sung at his funeral.
Want to learn more about Sergei Rachmaninoff and his music?
Click here to listen to over 40 recordings that have been digitized and learn more about the life of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The Recorded Sound Archives has digitized a collection of cantorial music by Cantor Shloimele Rothstein , one of over 260 Cantorial voices to choose from in the RSA’s Cantorial Collection.
Born in Bessarabia on May 1, 1891 in the town of Falesty. He was the first Cantor to sing on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh in 1926 and was contracted by Columbia Grafonola to produce phonograph recordings along with being Cantor at Synagogue B’nai Israel in Brooklyn, NY.
Shloimele’s only teacher was Jerome Hayes of whom he learned several operas with. As a result, he was offered the leading tenor role in “La Juive” by an Opera Co., but refused the offer to give his attention to the Synagogue, Phonograph and Concert work. He passed away on October 19, 1966, at the age of 75.
He is also known as ShlomoRothstein, Sol Rothstein & Solomon Rothstein.
To listen the voice and recordings of Shloimele Rothstein, click here.
To discover other cantorial voices, please visit the Recorded Sound Archives Cantorial Voices collection.
Bagelman Sisters/Barry Sisters early photo with Claire Barry on the right.
Yiddish music icons, Merna and Claire Barry, entertained generations of Jewish Americans with their jazzy versions of Yiddish songs.
For over 40 years the Bagelman Sisters, later known as the Barry Sisters, were the darlings of Jewish entertainment. Their recordings could be found in almost every Jewish household in the 1950s and 60s. The younger of the two sisters, Merna, passed away in 1976. The older sister, Claire Barry, died on November 22, 2014 in Hollywood, FL at 94. Click here for full NY Times obituary.
Who were the Barry Sisters?
Two beautiful girls, dressed in the latest fashion, hair perfectly coiffed, singing with sultry voices that could make your heart leap.
Born in New York, the two sisters were originally known as the Bagelman Sisters. Many saw them as the Yiddish answer to the popular Andrews Sisters in the 1940s. They combined old Jewish folk songs and Yiddish Theater ditties with swing arrangements and perfect harmony. When Clara and Minnie changed their names to Claire and Merna The Bagelman Sisters became The Barry Sisters. They have often been credited with creating Yiddish Swing, a music genre which did not exist previously.
The glamorous Barry Sisters were regular guests at Yiddish radio programs like Yiddish Melodies in Swing. They toured with the Ed Sullivan Show to the Soviet Union and performed in Israel in October 1962.
The popularity of their catchy and jazzy tunes may have paved the way for the Broadway hit, Fiddler on the Roof, and the klezmer revival of the late 70s.
Listed below are some of their most popular tunes. The Judaica Sound Archives has 41 recordings by this dynamic duo of Yiddish music.
Click here for more Barry Sisters recordings. Due to copyright concerns only snippets can be heard on our public website. Full versions are available to users of the RSA Research Station.
RSA guest blogger, Niels Falch, is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is currently writing a dissertation on the influence of Jewish music in American popular songs.
Cantor Todros Greenberg’s great-granddaughter wanted her son to hear his great-great- grandfather sing, but all she had was a tangle of tapes from dozens of reel-to-reel recordings. What could she do?
After locating a box full of tapes belonging to her great-grandfather, Cheryl Silver reached out to the JSA. With her son Noah’s Bar Mitzvah only a few months away she wanted to preserve the music on the tapes as part of Noah’s Mitzvah Project.
Although most of the tapes seemed to be in fairly good condition they were in total disarray. The home-made tapes were not clearly identified. We had no idea who was singing what on which tape.
A bit of good luck: As it happened, Cantor Joseph Gross, friend of the JSA, remembered Cantor Greenberg and could identify his voice. Hour after hour after hour, Cantor Gross sat with ear phones listening to tapes and making notes. JSA sound technician, Ben Roth-Aroni meticulously digitized the tapes, created separate tracks and organized the songs on CDs for the family.
Well-known among Cantors for his talents as an educator and composer, Cantor Greenberg’s 40 year collaboration with Cantor Sholom Kalib resulted in the critically acclaimed book, Heichal Han’gina V’hatfila. Vol.1, published in 1961 by the Cantor’s Assembly.
His compositions have been included in the Milken Archive’s CD: The First S’lihot by Benzion Miller and in The Milken Archive’s 50 CD boxed set. They were also featured as part of the 8-program WFMT (Chicago) radio series, The Art of the Cantor, hosted by Cantor Alberto Mizrahi. But, recordings of this great Cantor’s voice have been rare …..until now.
The Judaica Sound Archives is proud of its role in preserving the recorded music legacy of Cantor Todros Greenberg.The digitized music in this collection was lovingly and painstakingly created from Cantor Greenberg’s personal reel-to-reel tapes which were donated to the Judaica Sound Archives by Cantor Greenberg’s family in honor of the Bar Mitzvah of his great-great-grandson, Noah Johnson.
Click here to read more about Cantor Greenberg and to hear his recordings.
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In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Recorded Sound Archives is exploring music through portraits. This week discover and learn more about Spanish singer, actress, dancer and business woman Lola Flores in the video below.
While digitizing recordings by Sergei Rachmaninoff at the Recorded Sound Archives, we found some interesting facts about Rachmaninoff that you may not of known. Such as did you know….
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