steviefromalaska
08-05-2017, 06:38 AM
Hailing from Centralia, Washington, Mahlon Merrick devoted himself to a career in music. Beginning as a saxophonist at the Old Italian Gardens in Spokane�s Davenport Hotel, Merrick�s career led him to Hollywood where he was associated with a number of popular television series including The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and The Bob Cummings Show. For thirty years he remained the musical director for comedian Jack Benny. A versatile composer, a number of his works appear under the pseudonym, "Gene LaGrande." Merrick�s most ambitious work, SYMPHONY No. 1 in B flat: �SONG OF YOUTH�, was composed and recorded in 1962 and released on a limited edition private pressing. A fairly clean LP of this rare private pressing was DSD archived and remastered for this download.
Another rare stereo LP (also DSD archived and remastered) that was commercially released for about 2 seconds on the Jubilee label in 1958 is MY FAVORITE PLACES, composed and conducted by ten-time Oscar-nominee Walter Scharf, whose score for the 1959 Jerry Lewis film, �The Geisha Boy�, was also released on Jubilee. Scharf was a Hollywood veteran and in addition to co-composing the 1972 song �Ben", he was also the music director and arranger of Jule Styne�s score for the 1968 film version of �Funny Girl� and the 1972 musical film �Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory�. SONG OF YOUTH and MY FAVORITE PLACES have both been out of print for a half century and have never been reissued to my knowledge in any other format.
This download is expanded even further with two more places visited musically via bonus tracks by American composers conducted by Andre Kostelanetz, �Twilight, Texas�, composed by Henry Cowell and �Midnight, Mexico�, composed by Paul Creston. This rare collection is well worth a listen, in my opinion. I hope you agree.
Merrick: SONG OF YOUTH & Scharf: MY FAVORITE PLACES + Cowell & Creston
MP3 (320 kbps): https://www.sendspace.com/file/fcpzay
Another rare stereo LP (also DSD archived and remastered) that was commercially released for about 2 seconds on the Jubilee label in 1958 is MY FAVORITE PLACES, composed and conducted by ten-time Oscar-nominee Walter Scharf, whose score for the 1959 Jerry Lewis film, �The Geisha Boy�, was also released on Jubilee. Scharf was a Hollywood veteran and in addition to co-composing the 1972 song �Ben", he was also the music director and arranger of Jule Styne�s score for the 1968 film version of �Funny Girl� and the 1972 musical film �Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory�. SONG OF YOUTH and MY FAVORITE PLACES have both been out of print for a half century and have never been reissued to my knowledge in any other format.
This download is expanded even further with two more places visited musically via bonus tracks by American composers conducted by Andre Kostelanetz, �Twilight, Texas�, composed by Henry Cowell and �Midnight, Mexico�, composed by Paul Creston. This rare collection is well worth a listen, in my opinion. I hope you agree.
Merrick: SONG OF YOUTH & Scharf: MY FAVORITE PLACES + Cowell & Creston
MP3 (320 kbps): https://www.sendspace.com/file/fcpzay