Rating:
Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 09/07/2000
Bert Williams was a gifted and convincingly expressive entertainer. His thematic repertoire speaks volumes about the nature of the entertainment industry at the beginning of the 20th century.
Bert Williams: The Remaining Titles 1915-1921 (
Document 5661)presents 23 vintage performances lifted directly off of scratchy old
Columbia recordings dating from the last six years of his recording career, with instrumental accompaniments by
the Charles Adams Prince Orchestra. There are gaps in the progression; it does not represent an exact chronology of everything
Williams recorded during this time period. "Bonus" track 24, a short alternate take of
"The Phrenologist Coon," comes from a 7" lateral record cut for
Victor in October of 1901. Although the phrase "
Remaining Titles" implies the existence of other volumes by
Bert Williams on
Document, this appears to be the only
Williams title in the
Document catalog. A word about sound reproduction is in order: the
Document record label specializes in early
jazz,
blues,
ragtime,
country, and
vaudeville. Unlike various other historical reissue projects,
Document often presents the original 78-rpm recordings in a manner that conveys the exact listening experience enjoyed by collectors of these timeworn artifacts. The sound quality of each selection seems to depend entirely upon the condition of the individual platter or cylinder from which the sound was extracted. On the one hand, it's good to preserve the marvelous textures of vintage speech and musical entertainment wreathed in authentic surface noise, a commonly encountered but by no means universal trait of the historical medium, as some truly mint condition 78-rpm records have little or no discernible "scratchiness." On the other hand, it's good to have access to other reissue compilations presented by producers who have made an effort to "clean up" the sound using high-tech "remastering" techniques. The complete recordings of
Bert Williams, wonderfully restored and arranged in chronological sequence, are available in three volumes from
Archeophone. True believers in the majesty of
Bert Williams will also want to obtain this
Document disc so as to be able to consult the informative liner notes by
Rainer E. Lotz while staying in touch with that delectable scratchy antique record ambience.
~arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
;)
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