Al Bowlly

I first heard the voice of Al Bowlly in 1975 on Alan Dell's BBC Radio 2 programme 'Dance Band Days'. Actually I had already found a few dance band 78's before then and realised on next playing it that the one of 'Minnie The Moocher' featured his voice. Over 30 years later I now have 148 of the 78s of Al Bowlly, about 250 songs. And with LPs and CDs the total is about 600! I am not alone.

In the last 30 years more words have been written about Al Bowlly than any other singer from the British dance band era of the 1930's. It's also true that more words are written about Al now than when he was at the height of his career, for during his life Al Bowlly did not receive the fame that he deserved.

Why should Al Bowlly be of such interest to the music listeners of the 21st century? That voice, his natural style of singing, appeals to the modern ear which recognises Al had a superb range, a fine sense of rhythm, good intonation and vibrato, and best of all Al expressed real emotion in any song he sang, be the lyric sad, tragic or happy.

These were qualities which were appreciated back in the 1930's dance era and Al Bowlly's voice can be heard on more than 1000 78rpm recordings, yet on most of the record labels he is an anonymous 'vocal refrain' with a popular dance band.

Al Bowlly biography

Every year sees another CD featuring Al Bowlly. I don't have a listing but I expect Al Bowlly can be heard on over 100 CDs, and on those CDs 100 or so of Al's recordings have been issued many many times, mainly from his time with Ray Noble and Lew Stone. Recent years have seen rarer items re-mastered for the first time.

I featured recordings of Al Bowlly on a few of my early British Dance Band shows, and now on 17th April, 68 years after his death, I've dedicated a show to Al with 10 of his rarely heard records.

Listen to Dance Band Show #17.

THE voice of the 1930s, Al Bowlly, made some great songs his own, not just the Ray Noble favourites 'Goodnight Sweatheart', 'The Very Thought Of You' but many others including 'Sweet And Lovely', 'Close Your Eyes', 'Time On My Hands', 'Penny Serenade'.

Listen to Al Bowlly's vocal in the Lew Stone Band recording of

Easy Come, Easy Go

John Wright

'Orientalism' in parlour songs

Amy Woodforde-Finden and Adela Florence Nicholson, typified the Englishwoman Abroad, living in the colonies, but as privileged foreign observers.

It was at the age of 34, that Amy Ward had married Lt Col Woodford Woodforde-Finden a brigadier and surgeon in the Indian Army; they lived in India for several years, and it was during her time there that Amy wrote and published what would become her most famous music pieces: The Lover in Damascus and her settings of Indian Love Lyrics.

Indian Love Lyrics are poems with words by Laurence Hope, which was a pseudonym for Mrs Adela Florence Nicholson. Of the four lyrics, Kashmiri Song became the most popular.

The two ladies' examples of Victorian/Edwardian Orientalism, are arabic or asian pastiche and say more about British colonial attitudes than about the subjects themselves, but I suppose Adela and Amy's intention was to transport the reader or listener to a world of exotic romance.

Adela Nicholson was married to Colonel Malcolm Hassels Nicolson, who led a Regiment in India. Her poems often used imagery from Indian and Persian poets. She became among the most popular romantic poets of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. It was in 1901, that she published Garden of Kama which included the Indian Love Lyrics. She had attempted to pass these off as translations of various poets, but the claim was suspect. Writing mournful poems about longing and death it's quite moving to know that after her husband died Adela committed suicide by poisoning herself in Madras, India, in 1904.

Woodforde-Finden's music of the Indian Love Lyrics was originally self-published in 1902 but eventually published by Boosey & Co. In the years that followed the success of Kashmiri Song, Amy composed On Jhelum River, The Pagoda of Flowers and Stars of the Desert. In 1916 Amy lost her husband in the war in France but that same year her work was featured in the film Less Than The Dust. Woodforde-Finden may have inspired Albert Ketelbey and other British composers as well as many tin pan alley songsters who featured Oriental subjects in their popular tunes in the 1920s.

What really distinguishes the music of Woodforde-Finden from the other parlour songs of the day are the beautiful sentimental melodies.

The first example of Woodforde-Finden's music featured in my Parlour Song programmes was the Zonophone record of Less Than The Dust, sung by Foster Richardson, and with a beautifully played orchestral accompaniment. The matrix number Yy13203 suggests a date of 17 or 18 April 1928, and that the conductor may have been the Zonophone dance band leader Bert Firman who recorded (on the 18th) a couple of light music items My Dainty Lady (Leo Peter) and Community Lancers.

What a fine singer was Foster Richardson!

Listen to Less Than The Dust
(featured in Parlour Songs programme #5)

Less Than the Dust

Less than the dust, beneath thy Chariot wheel,
Less than the rust, that never stained thy Sword,
Less than the trust thou hast in me, O Lord,
Even less than these!

Less than the weed, that grows beside thy door,
Less than the speed of hours spent far from thee,
Less than the need thou hast in life of me.
Even less am I.

Since I, my Lord, am nothing unto thee,
See here thy Sword, I make it keen and bright,
Love's last reward, Death, comes to me to-night,
Farewell, Zahir-u-din.

I assume this refers to 'Babar' Zahir-u-Din Muhammad (1483-1531) a Muslim conqueror of Central Asia.


John Wright

Favourite female singers of the 1930s/1940s

My dance band playlists are intended to provide an overall picture/sound of the Golden Age of British Dance Band, not just my personal favourites, but there are indications of my favourites when you consider I've featured (so far) four songs each by two female singers, Anne Lenner and Elsie Carlisle!


ANNE LENNER

I just find her voice so romantic and so refined, and I've not found a record yet that I don't adore. Her records with Carroll Gibbons' Savoy Hotel Orpheans are quite easy to find at record fairs so she was clearly popular in her day.

In this medley of tunes from 1935 Anne Lenner sings Rhythm Of The Rain - the record (Columbia DB1534) I featured on Dance Band Show #9.

Not surprisingly a good proportion of Anne Lenner's recordings are available on CD.

Look out for Vocalion's Carroll Gibbons, Vol. 2
and the Sunflower CD Sweet As A Song


ELSIE CARLISLE

A very different voice has Elsie, you either love it or you don't. I certainly enjoy most of her records. As she recorded with several bands, Ambrose, Ray Starita, Jack Harris and others, and made many solo recordings in the 1930s, there should be a lot to choose from, but it has been harder to find Elsie Carlisle on 78s and on CD.

Thankfully Vocalion have come to the rescue with two CDs devoted to Elsie Carlisle. Look for Vocalion's Elsie Carlisle, Vol. 2

Here, from 1939, Elsie Carlisle sings Till The Lights Of London Shine Again - the record (Rex 9693) I featured on Dance Band Show #9.

John Wright

The blog starts

Hello, this is John Wright,

I've recently begun broadcasting 'radio shows' from my website, created from original 78rpm records in my collection. I thought a blog would be a good place to discuss the music on the shows with listeners who can leave comments and exchange information about the music and the artistes featured.

The radio shows are The British Dance Bands Show

and Parlour Songs and Art Songs

At those links check out the current radio shows and the archived shows and you can read the playlists. The British Dance Band show is usually weekly and the Parlour Songs programme is usually every two weeks. New shows are uploaded on a Friday.

John Wright