The 1930s witnessed many advances in entertainment for the masses. Films were now talking, radio was making great strides in the home, and the electrical recording that had been fully developed as the 1920s drew to a close meant that records no longer sounded ‘hissy’ and ‘tinny’ - provided that you owned a reasonable gramophone on which to play them. Light music was thriving, not only through the afore-mentioned modern miracles, but also at the seaside, in public parks and in theatres throughout the land where ensembles, large and small, were in their hey-day. The record companies reflected this wide diversity of musical choice, and the recordings in this collection offer many contrasting styles. Today’s restoration techniques are revealing just how far the art of sound recording had progressed by the 1930s.
"...Alongside Marek Weber’s famous ensemble – essaying some more generic novelty stuff – we have the top notch Whiteman band and some transatlantic finesse in the Rodgers and Hart Slaughter On Tenth Avenue and yes, that creaky old concert band could swing when it needed to. Good solo from the principal violin as well; who was he? Sound quality is fine and the notes are, as ever, helpful and to the point. There might be too many glow wormy and nightingaley things here for more austere tastes – but these were part and parcel of the genre and they do have their place in a conspectus of the decade." Jonathan Woolf
