The Lou Gold album is also pure gold. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’ve known about Gold’s records for most of my life—you can find them everywhere including all three countries where I’ve lived, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. I believe I found one in Argentina, too.
This album has some variable recording quality, although this in no way reflects poorly upon Rivermont, nor producer Bryan Wright who did all the remastering and transferring. It’s rare that you can say someone produced “countless” anything, but Lou Gold is one of those figures. Most record collectors know him, but Gold was so prolific that I doubt if there will ever be a collector who knows all of Gold’s work. Examples of his recordings included here are on a variety of labels, Perfect, Banner, Cameo, Regal, Diva, mainly “dime store” labels that sold records at a price your average person could afford, but not always recorded with the most optimal equipment of the time. As a result, some of the transfers really “pop,” while others are perhaps a little lack-lustre. But having heard countless LPs and CDs over the years of “hot” dance music, I know for a fact that Mr. Wright did an exceptional and extraordinary job of remastering these little masterpieces.
Little is known about Lou Gold. We know he was an exemplary pianist and band leader. But like Adrian Schubert, we will probably never know more about him than blessedly little, and most of his instrumentalists are probably similarly unknowable.
All the recordings are all so well played and well-practiced it is difficult to pick out favorites. The album charges out of the opening gates swinging with a rousing performance of “Everybody Loves My Baby.” The second, “What Did I Tell You,” has great alto saxophone work and a driving bass force behind it. “Lucky Day” has a lovely vocal with a violin obbligato, followed by a great little trumpet solo followed by a great clarinet solo followed by a rousing final chorus. “Sixty Seconds Every Minute” was recorded quite possibly with electrical equipment, and you can hear great brass bass work followed by a great vocal accompanied on piano (by Lou Gold probably?) followed by a lovely trombone solo with novelty “clock effects.”
“Breakaway” I’ve known for almost as long as I’ve been listening to music. The lyrics are kind of silly, but the tune is fabulous, and is given a great rendition with saxophones followed by a trumpet solo, then followed by a “call and response” pattern between sax, trumpet, clarinets and any other number of instruments. This is the sort of thing Bix and Tram used to do.
With “If I Could Sweep the Clouds Away” you start to hear less of the “hot” dance band music of the 1920s and more of the “sweet” arrangements of swing bands in the 1930s with more violins. It is a delightful contrast to the other songs.
My only complaint is that this album doesn’t include “Ramona,” a beautiful waltz-ballad recorded around about the same time as “Breakaway.” But most people probably don’t know about this side, just like I’ve never heard most of Gold’s other recordings.
This is an essential album for any collector of “hot” dance music. The transfers and remastering are excellent, as are the liner notes written by Randy Skretvedt. It’s hard to imagine him leaving any stone unturned in his search for the paltry amount we can know about the extraordinary Mr. Gold. I recommend this album without reservation, as well.
It’s Tight Like That
Lou Gold and his Orchestra
Rivermont BSW-1147
Matthew de Lacey Davidson is a pianist and composer currently resident in Nova Scotia, Canada. His first CD,Space Shuffle and Other Futuristic Rags(Stomp Off Records), contained the first commercial recordings of the rags of Robin Frost. Hisnew Rivermont 2-CDset,The Graceful Ghost:Contemporary Piano Rags 1960-2021,is available atrivermontrecords.com.A 3-CD set of Matthew’s compositions,Stolen Music: Acoustic and Electronic Works,isavailable through The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music University of Illinois (Champaign/Urbana),sousa@illinois.edu.
