Peg O' My Heart was the Harmonicats' first big hit in 1947, but this 1961 album starts off with a remake of that tune and works its way through a number of other pieces. The programming is pretty lacking - all of the songs on this record fall into two pretty clear categories, namely ballads (mostly waltzes) and shows of technical skill. And don't get me wrong - there's plenty of fantastic technical skill to go around, not to mention a heapin' helpin' of very musical playing, but it's not the most clever dichotomy to work with.
My real issue with this record is the engineering. Someone at Columbia was clearly very excited to get their shiny new stereo sound board and 2-track tape machine, and as you can see "STEREO" gets top billing on this album cover - more important than even Al Fiore's disembodied head. Unfortunately, "STEREO" pretty much means "chromatic harmonica on the left, chord harmonica on the right and bass all around". They also went a little crazy with the reverb chamber throughout, but at least the reverb has a nice stereo image.
More importantly, throughout most of the record, someone has thrashed the bass harmonica with a heavy-handed lowpass filter. The end result eschews the instruments fascinating harmonic content (a result mostly of the pairs of reeds acting in octaves, as well as the ramp-up effect of playing a new note and the effect of the shape of the mouth...) and instead spits out something that sounds like a combination of the worst parts of a tuba and an upright bass; round to a fault, lacking in definition. For awhile I actually wasn't sure if the record featured additional musicians - it took me most of the opening track to deduce that what I was hearing was in fact the mangled remains of the bass harmonica master Don Les' fantastic playing.
Not all is lost however, because once we get past a few ballads (don't get me wrong - they are fantastic tracks) and get to the first technical piece, a wild version of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance", the bass harmonica is playing countermelody as much as bassline, and the engineer mercifully opens up the cutoff knob, giving the old beast a chance to sing. And oh does it!
Really, seriously, all three of these guys are great musicians (apparently they're all still alive and possibly plan to return to the stage at some point - they have a somewhat actively updated website and facebook page), and their musicianship shows all over this record. Al gets more than a few opportunities to carry the melody on his chord harp, and its always a treat - but his comping is second to none, sounding all the while like some kind of impossible breath trick; Jerry's lead playing swings from insane chromatic runs to the sweetest of birdsongs without a twitch; and Don's driving bass is placed ever so carefully (despite the engineer's best efforts to ruin it).
In fact, on the second side of the record, if "Galloping Comedians" was too much for you (which is was for me, especially as the end of a side), they make it up with a fantastic rendition of "Malegueña", and end the record with a ridiculously awesome run of "Minute Waltz". The ballads in between are more of a blur, but Rowan was fast asleep at this point, so the 14 lbs. I was walking around with are my excuse. I do recall some fantastically arranged endings, and some clear and expertly timed interactions between the members.
This record has earned a place in my collection. Even if it hadn't been good, the first half put Rowan to sleep twice in a row, and that in itself is absolutely priceless.
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