Search - Goldman Band :: Marching Down Main Street

Without liner notes, it loses 90% of its interest.

Daniel P. Smith | Massachusetts, USA | 02/26/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This CD tells us nothing about the Goldman Band, and nothing about the dates and circumstances under which the recordings were made. The only information given is title, composer, and either one or two asterisks. The first 8 cuts have one asterisk, indicating Edwin Franko Goldman as conductor and "digital translation from mono source." The last two have two stars, indicating Richard Franko Goldman as conductor. None of Goldman's own marches are on this recording, and one wonders why. The sound on the first eight tracks not just mono, but fairly gummy mono. The program material is all very familiar; six of Sousa's most popular, Colonel Bogey, and Anchors Aweigh. And, oddly enough, the performances are not all that stirring--probably because Goldman was so very influential that his interpretation became the "standard" interpretation. So, what you have is eight tracks with gummy sound that have an interpretation that no longer sounds fresh. In other words, the main interest in these tracks is historical--but there are no liner notes to give us the history. Maybe the most interesting thing in the first eight tracks is the Colonel Bogey march without any whistling! The last two tracks have very good stereo sound; analog, I think, but (I'm guessing) very good seventies analog; and the marches are interesting and rarely heard."