{"id":1668,"date":"2020-06-07T23:25:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T17:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2024-04-17T20:07:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T14:07:39","slug":"down-a-rabbit-hole-with-linda-keene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=1668","title":{"rendered":"DOWN A RABBIT HOLE WITH LINDA KEENE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, it’s the first week of June and I haven’t posted a new blahg in almost three months.\u00a0 \"Scott<\/a>Where do I begin to explain?\u00a0 Covid 19.\u00a0 Those have to be bad words in any language right now and I’m also not a fan of “the new normal”.\u00a0 I only just returned to work this week.\u00a0 I’ve been off since mid-March.\u00a0 I took a week of holidays the second week of March and was in Toronto to see a concert and saw my children and then when I got back the world went to hell in a hand basket or is it a hand bag or an apple cart.\u00a0 It didn’t matter how we got here but I was off from work for a long time and had no excuse not to write a blahg except that I just couldn’t get motivated.\u00a0 This is the blahg I had in mind the past couple of months and I hope you enjoy it.\u00a0 Go to hell on your own Covid 19 and stop dragging us along with you!\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In a previous blahg at the end of 2019 I mentioned that I <\/span><\/strong>took over posting “THIS DATE IN SINATRA HISTORY” for a Yahoo Group I belong to.\u00a0 The previous moderator had disappeared mysteriously and there had been no new posts for almost six months.\u00a0 He sent a cryptic email last fall with promises of an update on what had happened to him but then he went silent.\u00a0 I decided last September to revive the daily posts because I didn’t want to see the Yahoo group die due to inactivity.\u00a0 So, each day I dig through past posts and corrections to post things related to Frank Sinatra for a particular day.\u00a0 As it relates to this blahg, here was a radio listing for the entry from April 17:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

April 17, 1950 Strictly From Dixie
\nHenry Levine Orchestra
\n<\/i><\/b>NBC Blue Network
\nWJZ
\nNew York City
\n10:30 – 11:00 p.m.
\nMonday Evening
\nHenry Levine Orchestra & Soloists
\nMartha Lou Harp\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 blues singer
\nGuest\u00a0 Singer: Frank Sinatra
\n<\/i>\"Sinatra<\/a><\/p>\n

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The previous listing has been slightly incorrect and looked like this:<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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April 17, 1950 Henry Levine Orchestra<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n
NBC Blue Network<\/div>\n
WJZ<\/div>\n
New York City<\/div>\n
10:30 – 11:00 p.m.<\/div>\n
Monday Evening<\/div>\n
Henry Levine Orchestra & Soloists<\/div>\n
Martha Lou Harp\u00a0 \u00a0 blues singer<\/div>\n
Guest\u00a0 Singer: Frank Sinatra<\/div>\n
I’m a stickler for accuracy and when I saw this listing I had to research it and that’s where I came up with the correct title of the show being “Strictly From Dixie” with Henry Levine and his Orchestra.\u00a0 I wasn’t able to find a review or a listing for songs performed by Sinatra so if anyone has a copy of this show or a review or knows the songs performed, please let me know.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Well, that one listing is what sent me down the proverbial rabbit hole as referenced in the title of this blahg.\u00a0 When researching Henry Levine and his Orchestra and “Strictly From Dixie” I came across a box set of\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>78 rpm records\u00a0 under the title of “Strictly From Dixie”\"Strictly<\/a> with what is now considered an inappropriate cover.\u00a0 The cover, to the left and which will show a larger version when clicked upon, listed Henry Levine and His Jazz Band and Linda Keene as Soloist.\u00a0 I was not aware of the Band nor the soloist and unfortunately the album of 78rpm records has never been issued on CD or digital format.\u00a0 I eventually found a download of the album having been digitized by a collector from the original 78rpm list.\u00a0 The music was great and this “Linda Keene” soloist was a delight.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
I began to research more about Henry Levine and Linda Keene and discovered that both were part of “NBC’s Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street”.\u00a0 It was a weekly radio jam session of the 1940s, with two house bands backing guest soloists who were the leading exponents of jazz.\u00a0 \u00a0Henry Levine was a regular and some of those guest soloists included Lena Horne, Dinah Shore, and Linda Keene.\u00a0 \"NBC's<\/a>When I came across the information about the “Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street” I realized that I had a vinyl LP by that title.\u00a0 I had bought it some time ago at a local Church sale.\u00a0 Funny the things you remember.\u00a0 Well, I pulled out my LP and was saddened to find that my copy did not include any vocals by Linda Keene.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great album and the music by Sidney Bechet, Henry Levine, and Paul Laval is excellent as are the vocals by Dinah Shore and Lena Horne.\u00a0 But where was Linda Keene?\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 I have since discovered that there was a CD issued of\"Lower<\/a> “NBC’s Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street” on the ‘Harlequin’ label.\u00a0 If you look at the image to the left you will see that Linda Keene is included on the CD and there’s even a picture on the bottom right of her.\u00a0 Linda’s only two tracks on the CD are “Somebody Loves Me” and “Georgia On My Mind” with Henry Levine and his Dixieland Philharmonic.\u00a0 I later discovered that Levine left NBC’s “Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street” and went to a rival network and started “Strictly From Dixie” and that latter program is the only one on which Linda Keene appeared.\u00a0 \u00a0The two tracks on the CD were recorded February 2 and February 4, 1942 respectively.\u00a0 How do I know about those recording dates?\u00a0 You’ll have to keep reading but first give a listen to those two tracks:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

“Somebody Loves Me”<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
\n\nhttp:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/audiofiles\/Somebody%20Loves%20Me%20-%201942-02-02%20with%20Henry%20Levine%20Band.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<\/div>\n

“Georgia On My Mind”<\/em><\/h4>\nhttp:\/\/www.falseducks.com\/theblahg\/audiofiles\/Georgia%20On%20My%20Mind%20-%201942-02-04%20with%20Henry%20Levine%20Band.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0 There is much to be found on the Internet about Dinah Shore and Lena Horne but when it came to Linda Keene I had do a little digging.\u00a0 I just kept coming across 78rpm listings or that one CD or occasional references to her appearances on “NBC’s Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street”.\u00a0 Eventually I found a reprint of an article from “Doctor Jazz Magazine” out of Holland.\u00a0 I am not sure of the date of the magazine but here are scans of the article below.\u00a0 Click on each to get a larger sized image.<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\"Unlucky<\/a><\/div>\n

\"Unlucky<\/a>\"Unlucky<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 Koodos if you read the whole article.\u00a0 It’s a fine article and included some information about Linda Keene of which I was not aware.\u00a0 At the end of this article, the following paragraph caught my eye:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“There is only one Linda Keene CD collection available at this time. This is an unheralded collection of most of Keene’s recordings and soundies called ‘The Velvet Voice of the Forgotten Linda Keene’ produced by Prov. Eves I. Raja for Hunter Music in Hamilton<\/em>, Ontario, Canada.<\/h4>\n

I was ecstatic about that paragraph and that this CD existed.\u00a0 The only problem is I could find no reference for\u00a0Prov. Eves I. Raja\u00a0 or for Hunter Music in Hamilton, Ontario.\u00a0 <\/em>Also World Records, where you could obtain the CD, went out of business a few years ago.\u00a0 I was lucky enough to find the CD artwork online for front and back covers:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/a>
\nIf you click on the images you get a larger image and you can make out all of the tracks and their recording dates.\u00a0 That’s how I found out the recording dates for “Somebody Loves Me” and “Georgia On My Mind”.\u00a0 On further research I discovered that almost all of the tracks on the CD had been issued only on 78rpm.\u00a0 Some tracks showed up on compilation box sets of some of the bands but a few are impossible to hear unless you can find the original 78s or track down the elusive CD “The Velvet Voice Of The Forgotten Linda Keene”.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0There’s also the words “Soundie” and “Soundies” that show up in the article above and listed on the back of the CD.\u00a0 Here’s what I found out about “Soundies”:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Soundies are three-minute American musical films, produced between 1940 and 1947, each containing a song, dance, and\/or band or orchestral number. Produced professionally on 35mm black-and-white film, like theatrical motion pictures, they were printed in the more portable and economical 16mm gauge.<\/em><\/h4>\n

The films were shown in a coin-operated “movie jukebox” called the Panoram, manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago. Each Panoram housed a 16mm RCA film projector, with eight Soundies films threaded in an endless-loop arrangement. A system of mirrors flashed the image from the lower half of the cabinet onto a front-facing screen in the top half. Each film cost 10 cents to play, and there was no choice of song; the patron saw whatever film was next in the queue. Panorams could be found in public amusement centers, nightclubs, taverns, restaurants, and factory lounges, and the films were changed weekly. The completed Soundies were generally made available within a few weeks of their filming, by the Soundies Distributing Corporation of America.”<\/em><\/h4>\n

So Linda Keene appeared in three of these early music video “soundies” and the audio tracks from each “soundie” is included on the Linda Keene CD.\u00a0 Luckily someone posted a video of all three “soundies” on Youtube in one video:<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n