Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra - The Woman In The Shoe (1930)

Nathaniel Shilkret (Dec.25,1889 - Feb.18,1982) was born in New York, to an Austrian immigrant family. He was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive (A&R man), and music director (Victor, RKO and MGM).

He was a child prodigy, touring the country with the New York Boys' Orchestra from the ages of seven to thirteen as their clarinet soloist. From his late teens to mid-twenties he was a clarinetist in the best New York music organizations, including the New York Philharmonic Society (under Vassily Safanov and Gustav Mahler), the New York Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra, the Russian Symphony Orchestra, Victor Herbert's Orchestra, Arnold Volpe's Orchestra, Sousa's Grand Concert Band, Arthur Pryor's Band, and Edwin Franko Goldman's Band. He was also a rehearsal pianist for Walter Damrosch, playing for stars that included dancer Isadora Duncan.

He joined the Foreign Department of the Victor Talking Machine Company (later to become RCA Victor) around 1915, and soon was made manager of the department. In 1926 he became "director of light music." He made many thousands of recordings, possibly more than anyone in recording history. His son Arthur estimated the sales of these records was of the order of 50 million copies. He was the conductor of choice for many of Victor's innovative recordings. He conducted the first record made by the "electric method," the first commercial Victor LP (in 1931!) and was the first conductor to successfully dub an electrically recorded orchestra background over the recordings of Enrico Caruso, Victor's star artist, who died before the vastly superior electrical recording method was developed. He conducted the orchestra for the premiere recording of George Gershwin's symphonic poem An American in Paris, in 1929. This recording was one of five recordings conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret that eventually earned Grammy Awards.


Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra - The Woman In The Shoe (1930)

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[Boo Spanyer Cassiopeia]

fabulous upload and wot a great and interesting history!!! :)