Pathé 22055 Discovered in the Wild

[Brad Kay]

Just in from the "wild" and right up your alley:  Found a rare American Pathé of John Pidoux / Thomas Malin that might be of interest:   

Pathé 22055   ca. January 1919  

John Pidoux:   "A Plantation Episode"  (Grimshaw)  mx. A79785

Thomas Malin:  "The Darkey's' Delight" (Pidoux)  mx. 0.12-B

I do not know if you've already covered this, but this transfer is in crisp sound, and at the correct speed, which on my turntable is about 85 rpm!  Pathés are notoriously hard to play at any speed. Unless you have the right size stylus (9 mil for one of these babies), the sound will be dim as hell, if you can get the record to track in the first place.  Therefore, I think the chances this has been heard at all, or at least in good fidelity, are very slim indeed.      

PLANTATION EPISODE by John Pidoux

THE DARKEY'S DELIGHT by Thomas Malin

[thereallyniceman]

Ah dear customer,

So you don't like Pidoux's playing...  Try Thomas Malin, who has a recording on the other side from Pidoux, he is an amazing player.

That will be $2.00 

Thank you...goodbye

Q.E.D.

[Shawn McSweeny]

Nicely recorded to digital media Brad.

There has been some discussion about pitching these and your care taken in setting turntable speed notwithstanding, the score pitch is usually an excellent reference to work toward.

I have taken the liberty of adjusting pitch (and tempo) for both tracks closer to score pitch and forwarded files to Ian. He may post them here with a player.

DARKEY’S DELIGHT pitch and noise reduction

PLANTATION EPISODE pitch and noise reduction

[Brad Kay]

Shawn, I'm not convinced.  The re-pitched records sound like they are under water.  Can you hear how low, how out of timbre the band is on both tracks?  All the instruments sound just wrong to my ear.  Big fat cornets.  Huge trombones.  That isn't right.  Again, why would every record in the Pathe 22000 series play at upwards of 83 rpm, except this one?  It contravenes the written score, but that's what my spidey-senses tell me.  

The only possible out is that "Plantation Episode" was recorded in England, in a master series atypical of American Pathes.  You are "Over There."  Go look for some British Pathes, ca. 1910, that bear master numbers close to A-79785.  If you can find brass band records that end up in normal band keys (B-flat, E-flat, F etc.) at 78 rpm, then maybe I'm wrong after all.  But the British Pathes I have heard tend to run even FASTER than American ones.