This audio documentary on Fred Waring is a pleasant, sprightly tribute to the now-neglected bandleader, with enough emphasis on his early years to please vintage music fans. I especially enjoyed hearing the sound clips from his 1930s radio programs, valuable especially considering the total lack of Waring's commercial recordings from those years. (Waring stopped recording in the 1930s because he found that local stations would program his phonograph recordings to compete with his live radio show.)
People who remember Waring from only his later years will delight in discovering the snippets of 1920s and 1930s hot dance. The recording of "Sleep" used in the piece is actually a slightly later electrical recording (rather than the original 1923 acoustic release), but this is an absolutely minor quibble. I thoroughly enjoyed this program.
Comments by Andy Senior
Comment for "Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians"
Andy Senior
Posted on May 18, 2008 at 03:01 PM | Permalink
Review of Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians
This audio documentary on Fred Waring is a pleasant, sprightly tribute to the now-neglected bandleader, with enough emphasis on his early years to please vintage music fans. I especially enjoyed hearing the sound clips from his 1930s radio programs, valuable especially considering the total lack of Waring's commercial recordings from those years. (Waring stopped recording in the 1930s because he found that local stations would program his phonograph recordings to compete with his live radio show.)
People who remember Waring from only his later years will delight in discovering the snippets of 1920s and 1930s hot dance. The recording of "Sleep" used in the piece is actually a slightly later electrical recording (rather than the original 1923 acoustic release), but this is an absolutely minor quibble. I thoroughly enjoyed this program.