You're quite welcome!
On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 09:48:53 -0600 "Bob Maffit" <maff...@bresnan.net> writes: > Merle: > > Thanks for sharing this. This introduces me to another one of my > Bros. > > Bob > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Merle Sprinzen" <msprin...@juno.com> > To: <phono-l@oldcrank.org> > Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 3:25 PM > Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Ward Marston in the New York Times 8/27 > > > Here's the Times article for those that prefer not to register > (registering is free...) > > ************** > > August 27, 2005 > A Master of Making Old Tunes New Again > By FRANK J. PRIAL > SWARTHMORE, Pa. - Ward Marston shut down his turntable, pulled off > the > record and said, "I'll be singing 'Night and Day' for the rest of > the > week." > Mr. Marston's compliment was for Cole Porter, who wrote the song, > and for > Fred Astaire, who recorded it in 1932. But not for the recording > itself, > one track on a remastered CD. "The sound is thin and the surface > scratchy," he said. > And Ward Marston should know. By almost any measure, he is > considered one > of the best in the small but worldwide group of music lovers and > sound > engineers dedicated to finding new life in old phonograph records. > Mr. Marston had not worked on the old Cole Porter disc, which > irritated > him, he said, because he would have liked to "clean it up." He > works > mostly with classical recordings, and his output over the years has > been > prolific. There was the reworking of Arturo Toscanini's entire > recording > career, ultimately 35 long-playing records, done for the Franklin > Mint in > conjunction with the Toscanini family. There was the complete set > of > Leopold Stokowski's broadcasts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, > which > eventually led to 58 one-hour programs on a local National Public > Radio > affiliate. "When Stoky died," he said, "they replayed the whole > thing." > Mr. Marston, who has been blind since shortly after birth, first > came to > rominence in his field in 1979 when he successfully restored the > first > known stereophonic record, made by the Bell Telephone Laboratories > in > 1932. He has restored old recordings for labels including EMI, BMG, > Biddulph and CBS. He restored all of Rachmaninoff's recordings. > "The > producer got the Grammy on that one," he said. > He gathered and reworked everything the tenor Enrico Caruso ever > sang > into a microphone or, in the early days, a recording machine horn. > A > decade later, he redid the entire Caruso collection using more > sophisticated equipment and adding a rare Caruso recording recently > found > in a barn. Yet another project was his restoration of the complete > recording of the legendary soprano Lucrezia Bori. For another > project, he > restored most of the very early records for a 93-record collection > of the > works of the pianist Arthur Rubinstein. > In 1997, he garnered a Grammy nomination for his work on a > collection of > old Fritz Kreisler recordings for BMG. Separately, he did all of > Kreisler's European recordings for a British label. For Naxos, he > restored much of the recording done from 1926 to 1937 by Willem > Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. From 1937 > through 1943, Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw recorded for > Telefunken, > and he worked on many of those recordings as well. > Improving the sound of old records - in fact, discovering sounds no > one > knew were there - demands both technical skill and a high degree of > musical sensitivity. In the past, Mr. Marston said, it was left > mostly to > recording engineers, some of whom, in his words, "wouldn't know > Mussorgsky from Mozart." > "You have to try to know what the composer wanted," he said, "and > what > the artist tried to achieve." > This does not mean he plays down the technical side of the work. "I > come > from a musical, not a technical, standpoint," he said, "but I'm not > at > all spooked by the technical part." Indeed, he quickly leaves a > layman > behind when he talks about technical achievements in sound > reproduction. > "We've come far in recent years, but there are going to be > incredible > strides in the next 10 to 15 years," he said. > Restoring an old record, Mr. Marston said, begins very simply - with > a > bath. Solutions are used to clean years of dirt and grime that have > collected in the record groves. After that, the bulk of the > rehabilitation is relegated to a computer. "Once the recording has > been > digitalized," he said, most of the work can be done from the > keyboard, > using sophisticated software. > His own studio is filled with electronic gear, turntables and > speakers. > He uses some 15 custom-ground styluses - phonograph needles to most > of > us. And he invented and built a device that safely plays his old > and > extremely delicate wax cylinder recordings. "But I'm no one-man > band," he > said. "I can't do it all. I'm a musician and a historian, and I do > have > perfect pitch, but I'm always learning from the engineers. For > instance, > there's a guy out in California who can remove pitch flutter from a > recording. He's amazing." > Mr. Marston, 53, was born in nearby Bryn Mawr into an old > Philadelphia > family. "Actually," he said, a bit sheepishly, "my name - my full > name - > is Henry Ward Marston IV." > "My father was a banker and his father was, well, a rebel. He loved > singing, and in the days before the First World War, he fled to > Paris, > where he apparently sang some minor roles at the Op?ra Comique," he > said. > > Mr. Marston said he taught himself to play the piano when he was 4. > At 7, > he began lessons in piano and organ. "In Paris, in 1968, I got to > play > the organ at Notre-Dame, and I took lessons with Pierre Cochereau, > the > cathedral's organist," he said. > He seemed destined for a concert career, but it held no appeal. > Paraphrasing Yogi Berra, he said, "Life took a fork." Still a > teenager, > he played in clubs and piano bars, "anything to make a living." His > blindness has never affected his career. The few things he can't do, > like > driving, are handled by his partner and business manager, Scott > Kessler. > "I wasn't born blind," he said, "but I was born prematurely. Too > much > oxygen in an incubator did the rest." > At Williams College he majored in history and ran the radio > station, > mostly so he could play his own records. Even then, his collection > was > impressive. It still is: his basement in Swarthmore holds 35,000 > CD's and > records, many of them rare 78's he hopes to restore one day and > sell > under the Marston label he created two years ago. > Almost as a sideline, he has restored and produced a series of > recordings > of historical events and excerpts from political speeches. The > remastered > discs were made for the Annenberg School for Communication at the > University of Pennsylvania. On one CD, for example, he has > recaptured > presidential campaign speeches from 1908 by William Jennings Bryan > and > William Howard Taft, and from 1912, by Taft, Woodrow Wilson and > Theodore > Roosevelt. > But Mr. Marston must turn elsewhere to earn his living. In fact, he > turns > to the piano, from which he leads the Ward Marston Trio, which > plays > nationwide. The group was in the Hamptons recently and has a full > calendar for the months ahead. Expanded, it becomes the Lester > Lanin-style Ward Marston Orchestra. As a former concert pianist > turned > saloon player, Mr. Marston is a fan of Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum > and > Erroll Garner, but he reserves the top spot in his pantheon for Cy > Walter, a club pianist of a few years back. "He is my God," Mr. > Marston > said. He also admires the late Bobby Short, for whom he > occasionally > substituted at the Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan. > Playing in clubs - with his trio or solo - provides something > vital, > aside from pulling in the dollars, for a man who spends most of his > time > in libraries or a sound studio. It provides live music. > "I've always tried to keep the sound of live music in my ears," he > said. > "Recordings, even the best of them, are a pale imitation of what > real > music sounds like." > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- > ---- > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Phono-L mailing list > > Phono-L@oldcrank.org > > > > Phono-L Archive > > http://www.oldcrank.org/pipermail/phono-l/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > Phono-L@oldcrank.org > > Phono-L Archive > http://www.oldcrank.org/pipermail/phono-l/ > >
