Friday, May 27, 2011

Georges Montalba at the Mighty Wurlitzer with Percussive Accompaniment- Fantasy in Pipe Organ and Percussion



If you've ever been in one of those old theaters with a pipe organ built into the walls, you'll have a good idea what to find here, minus the physical force of a theater sized instrument. If you haven't, this won't sound like what you expect, maybe. Very odd sounding. Cheesy, authoritative and strangely intriguing.

1) Danse Macabre (Saint-Saens)
2) Mazurka From Masquerade (Khatchaturian)
3) March Fantasy (Hunter-Emig)
4) In A Persian Market
5) Theme From Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)
6) Ritual Fire Dance (Manuel de Falla)
7) Polovtsian Dances (Borodin)

http://www.mediafire.com/?50m3ds1tsg95v6s

3 comments:

  1. i have the stereo version of this record, it was a warhorse audiophile demo record back in the day, with exceptionally vivid sound for its time. my fave tracks were Dance Macabre, Mazurka from Masquerade, In a Persian Market and Theme from Scheherezade which is probably the most beautiful of all the tracks. Robert Hunter ["Georges Montalba"] was the organist, performing on the lorin whitney robert-morton theatrical pipe organ in the now-defunct lorin whitney studios, an organ which hollywood used for various movie soundtracks [such as "The Ghost & Mr. Chicken"]. on this 1958 recording mr. hunter [RIP 2001] was accompanied by 2 percussionists which really makes this record stand out among the sea of organ records- rhythmmic accompaniment, who'd a thunk it? what a concept! alas, the original master tape of this performance was recorded over and no longer exists, so the only reissue [by Hit Thing Records in 2001] was from a specimen monophonic original pressing. the stereo pressing beats the pants off of the mono, AFAIC.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i always heard that "Georges Montalba" was rumored to be Anton lavey under an alias(?)

    ReplyDelete
  3. really? whether it's true or not, i'll run with it!

    ReplyDelete