The historical mandolin... Recordings.

[Simen Kjaersdalen]

It's not raining today, here in one of the rainiest cities in Europe - what a perfect day for playing one of my great historical mandolin recordings! But alas - I have none... I am a great lover of historical recordings, and would really like some suggestions. By "historical" I mean from the earliest days (1900) to - let's say 1980. I would like the names of all the great masters... Thank you!

[vkioulaphides]

As for avoiding the rain, Simen, I highly recommend the place of our most recent vacation, Rhodes-- the one spot with the most sunshine, and least rainfall in all of Europe.

As for historical mandolin recordings, however, I defer to others. I do know, at the very least, that some of the masters of the Golden Age --mostly Italians, often emigres to the U.S.-- made recordings that are still available, with some effort. Our own Neil Gladd is a veritable living encyclopedia on such matters, so I hope he chimes in.

In the meanwhile, you can start planning your next vacation.

Cheers,

Victor

[Martin Jonas]

As far as recordings of the great mandolin virtuoso are concerned, availability is rather better at the "light classical" end of things than for more serious repertoire. There's a very nice double CD of old Dave Appollon recordings issued by Dave Grisman's label (here), and you can also get Howard Frye's "Gypsy Mandolin". Other old virtuosi are rather more difficult to get hold of. I'm aware of a few recordings by de Pace, Calace, Pettine and Munier, but they are either isolated tracks or long out of print albums.

Your question also got me thinking that I've never seen any albums by Hugo D'Alton other than as a very minor session player (e.g. on Alan Parsons' Tales Of Mystery And Imagination). A quick search pointed me towards a download for a very obscure album here. This is a 1969 album by a British band called "Wooden O" featuring D'Alton. The band's Allmusic entry suggests that D'Alton was a full member of the band, but from what I can see in a poor scan of the back cover, and from listening to the album, it appears he was a guest musician. Still, about a third of the album has prominent, and very well-recorded and well-played, mandolin by D'Alton. This is a somewhat peculiar crossover between baroque and jazz, dominated by the recorder, but quite agreeable.

Martin

[Martin Jonas]

To add to my previous post: there's a good classical mandolin discography at this Japanese web site, listing mostly modern recordings, but also a double CD by Raffaele Calace and the above-mentioned Howard Frye album.

Martin

[labraid]

> This is a 1969 album by a British band called "Wooden O" featuring D'Alton.

Thanks for that, Martin. John Renbourn meets Pink Panther! Nice sound.
Here (xxx) is an easier link, I'm not deficient at the 'Net, but I think they did their best to make that a difficult find.

[K. WONG]

You can try the link below. It contains around 20 MP3 of mandolin music between 1900-1920, most of them are recordings of Samuel Siegel.
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/se...0attr+1%3D1016

[Simen Kjaersdalen]

Thank you, Victor, I'll really have Rhodes in mind... Two year ago, it rained for a 100 days in a row here, beat that...
I understand that the "historical mandolin" is not an easy subject - like the historical violin or piano. But thank you, you are really good. What a great thing that would be if someone put together a 5 cd box with "the historical mandolin." Who would not buy such a collection?