Nat Shilkret - The Hot Dance Sides (23 tracks) +Album Reviews

Finally! A Nat Shilkret CD!!

john s landry | East Patchogue, NY United States | 10/07/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Nathaniel Shilkret, Musical Director at Victor in the 20s and 30s , and leader of The Victor Orchestra has been often overlooked in the history books. This CD offers 23 classic Shilkret tracks featuring musicians like Andy Sannella, Del Staigers, Mike Mosiello and everpresent 20s vocalists like Franklyn Baur, Johnny Marvin and Scrappy Lambert. This CD is must for a beginner, although die-hard collectors will not appreciate the horrible job of sound restoration, nor the omission of many of the better known Shilkret sides ("Hallelujah!"; "It's a Million to One You're In Love";"Something To Tell" and "Me And My Shadow" are alas not present!) Still, at least Nat Shilkret is now present and accounted for on a medium other than Shellac. That's good enough for me."

The Hot Dance Sides - Nat Shilkret

Julian Vein | England | 11/24/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Musically this is a fine issue of its kind but soundwise it's a mixed bag. Some of the earlier tracks have such severe dropouts that that it makes listening an unnerving experience. "Susianna" sounds to be out of phase whilst "Hittin' The Ceiling" appears to have been dubbed from a Broadway LP, as well as containing a nasty skip.All this is frustrating as many of the transfers are as good as most."

Amateurish noise reduction

Dance Day and Night | 09/05/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The noise reduction on this CD and others from the same producer is uniformly amateurish. On almost all tracks, the music is severely damaged by digital artifacts, caused by the misguided attempt to eliminate every trace of surface noise."

Great Shilkret CD

Niel Shell | Jackson Heights, NY United States | 05/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a representative collection of transfers of some of the great dance records conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret. Comments from other reviews notwithstanding, the audio engineering satisfactorily allows the listener to hear and enjoy music recorded nearly eighty years ago.

All of the songs are foxtrots, and some of these are ideally suited to dancing American Style smooth foxtrot. The fast tempos of others make them suitable for dancing the Peabody.

The book WHITBURN'S POP MEMORIES cites Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra as the seventh most popular orchestra of the 1920s, and this is based only on the 54 entries under that group name, rather than the total of more than one hundred entries in Whitburn of songs conducted by Shilkret,also under names such as the Hilo Hawaiian Orchestra and as accompaniments for stars such as Gene Austin.

"The Hot Dance Sides" was the first commercially available CD devoted entirely to Shilkret recordings. However, the recently published autobiography NATHANIEL SHILKRET: SIXTY YEARS IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS lists about 150 commercially available CDs with tracks conducted by Shilkret, and many of these predate "The Hot Dance Sides." Later CDs with Nathaniel Shilkret as the featured artist include "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" (2002), "Skyscrapers: Symphonic Jazz" (2002, released in Europe), and "Nathaniel Shilkret and the Symphonic Pops" (2005, included with the Shilkret autobiography)."

Delightful!

Dance Day and Night | Montreal, Quebec Canada | 08/11/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is a sizeable collection of very difficult to find early popular music. Considering the vintage of the tracks, I found the sound quality quite good. An excellent quantity and quality of music for the price. Perfect for those who wish to experience the musical atmosphere of the 1920s, those with interest in early jazz, and those ballroom dancers interested in early swing dances and fox trot. Jump on this one while it's available! I've been looking for such a collection for 20 years!"

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