“Bill Grauer and
Riverside Records: Capturing the Sounds from Sports and Race Cars.”
John Heitmann
Department of History
University of Dayton
300 College Park
Dayton, OH 45469-1540
Doing history often gets personal for me, and the story that
follows is a prime example of why I chose the topics I pursue. For some time, I
have been interested in the history of sports cars in the U.S., particularly
during the 1950s when sports car sales and SCCA participation took off. It was
the result of rising middle class expectations and ambitions, a response to the
ungainly Detroit “dinosaur in the driveway,” and popular literature that
included Don Sanford’s The Red Car
and Tom McCahill’s Mechanix Illustrated
articles. And as a teenager during the mid-1960s I got caught up in it, as I
purchased a 1959 MGA after graduating from high school.
Lately as I reflect on my past I have often wondered how I
got on the path of being so keenly interested in sports cars. One reason for my
passion was the consequence of acquiring at age 12 the Riverside Records LP
“Vintage Sports Car in Stereo.” On one side the
record featured the sounds of a number of vintage cars I had never heard of
before: a Frazer-Nash; Type 51 Bugatti; E.R.A.; P3 Alfa Romero; Alta; V16
Maserati. On the other side a vintage race was narrated by the famous David
Scott-Moncrieff.I played that disk over and over again, much to the
anguish of my parents who thought I had gone over some sort of an adolescent
cliff. But as I have discovered from
recent conversations, many others joined me in this obsession with the sounds
of exotic motor cars. Today sounds are often a part of cars & coffee
events; in the 1950s and 1960s they were often heard in Hi-Fi as well as on the
track and street.
The Riverside Records story is worth telling, for it links
jazz music with sports cars. It began in 1952 with the partnership of two
Columbia graduates, Bill Grauer, Jr. and Orrin Keepnews. Seeing an opportunity
to approach the major record firms with a proposal to counter what was then
seen as the release of “pirate” recordings of performances dating back to the
1920s and 30s, between 1952 and 1962 Grauer and Keepnews would build Riverside
Records into a major jazz label. Additionally they wrote a definitive book on
the history of jazz in the U.S, published by Crown in 1956 and reissued in
1971.
Grauer began by convincing RCA Victor to re-issue 78s from
the 1920s and 30s in LP format. However, he then shifted focus to the
contemporary music of Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins
and Cannonball Adderly. In the midst of this artistic achievement, Grauer also became a sports car enthusiast.
In a 1961 interview in his New York City office that featured
a large photo of Bill behind the wheel of a 1937 Mercedes-Benz, he recounted
how in “1956, just for fun, we recorded sounds of sports-car races down at
Sebring, Florida (I’m a racing nut, you know). We decided to release it and
then the roof fell in. It began to sell like crazy.” The success of “Sounds of
Sebring” led to a series of some 24 sports car records, including a parody of
them by Peter Ustinov. To acquire those sounds, Grauer would have “mikes buried
in bull rings. We’ve recorded hot-rods and go-carts. But those motorcyclists
were too much. It was 110 degrees and those idiots had leather jackets on. It
was ludicrous. It was insane. But they sure blew a good chorus.
It began with RLP
5001 -- "Sounds of Sebring: The 1956 Florida International
Twelve-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance."
"At Sebring, everybody has problems and for
the most part all this worry and fuss is just for the fun of it. And because
it's for the fun of it, Sebring is a terribly wonderfully exciting
spectacle."
The most unusual sound recording's A side began
with interviews of drivers, a prelude to the listener experiencing
"sounds at rest:" a 3 liter Maserati; 3.5; 3.5 liter Ferrari; a
Lotus; and finally a Porsche Spyder. Driver interviews connects us to ghosts
from the past:
Stirling Moss
Jean Behra and Carlos Medniteguy
Pochirio Rubirosa
Peter Collins
Bill Spear
Juan Manuel Fangio
John Gordon Bennett
Reg Parnell
Marquis de Portago
Luigi Musso
The flip side included hour by hour reports of
the 12 hour race. Who do you think would care about all of this? But this was
not a one-off exercise, for over the next seven years many other vinyl discs of
racing sounds and exotic cars would follow, and amuse a generation
or two of sports car enthusiasts. A label with a reputation for jazz
recording left a legacy for the automotive historian to mine and explicate.
An advertisement in the December, 1956 Sports Cars Illustrated touted the “Sounds of Sebring” album this
way:
For the first time ever: a superb high
quality 12 inch long playing record of all the sounds that make up America’s
greatest sports car race. Over 60 minutes of interviews with the world’s
greatest drivers…Fangio, Moss, Collins, Behra, Hill, Musso, Menditeguy,
Bennett, Rubirosa, Portago, Parnell. The sounds of Ferraris, Maseratis, Jags,
Aston martins, Porsche, Corvettes, Lotus, etc. warming up, revving, roaring at
speed, coming out of corners flat out.
The fabulous Le Mans start, pit activity, the fantastic sounds of Fangio
shifting up and down as he makes the five mile circuit, and dozens of other
remarkable on the-spot sounds which are so exciting to the driver and spectator
alike.
Other
releases that followed the “Sounds of Sebring” included the chronicling of the
Sebring races between 1958 and 1962. Additionally, drivers were featured. Thus
in 1957 titles included “The Marquis de Portago: The Story of Racing’s Most
Colorful Driver – a Memorial Tribute;” “Phil Hill: Around the Racing Circuit
with a Great American Driver;” “Carroll Shelby: The Career of a Great American
Racing Driver;” and “Stirling Moss: A Portrait of Britain’s Great Racing
Driver, Told in his Own Words.” These
recordings then serve as primary source material not only of the races and the
engine sounds – distinct of brand and vintage, a sort of original language
speaking to us – but also of the best drivers of the day, speaking in their own
words. But we can’t neglect the focus on sounds. From
the dust jacket of Riverside Records RLP 5002 [1957?]:
"The theme here, then is engine noise: exhaust, valve, camshaft.
The variation on the theme are endless. As long as men design and build
engines, there'll be enthusiasts trying to make them perform better. When they
blow up, they'll simply build engines that won't blow up. The automobile is
unique in the history of civilization. It has provided man with effortless
transportation -- freed him, as it were, from the bounds of his physical
limitations. And to the men who own own and run these cars, it is given, more
than to most men, to create as well as to savor the magic bouquet of
speed."
During more recent times ex-Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason
and collaborator Mark Hales revisited the theme of sound and race cars with the
1998 publication of Into the Red, a
book that included an accompanying CD. A number of the cars whose sounds were
reproduced by Mason and Hales were also featured in the Riverside series. Given
the technical description of the pains taken
to capture exhaust engine and track sounds in 1998, a renewed
appreciation of Grauer’s pioneering efforts emerges. Musician Mason has the
ear, sensitivity and prose to capture the sounds of cars on the track at
Silverstone that Riverside Records had captured at Oulton Park, in Yorkshire
some 40 years before.
From Mason and Hales, p.30, on the Alfa 8C 2300
1931:
At first, the noise from this gleaming mass of
metal is a disappointment. Folklore still says eight straight cylinders make a
noise like ripping fabric, but not this Alfa. It’s more of a boom than a rip.
Push in the ignition key to switch on the electrics and illuminate the a starter
button. The electric motor whirrs the eight pistons past compression with
barely a stutter and the Alfa gently comes alive, moaning and chuffing as a
thousand pieces of metal bump and grind before bathing themselves in a fresh
coating of lubricant. And then, as you wait to warm the oil, there’s more to be
had by listening carefully, just as with any good piece of music. You cn hear
the boom become the bass, and now there’s a gentle wail from the supercharger
which swells as you rev up, disappears when you lift off. Just beneath that
there’s another, more musical warble from the exhaust. Not the demented pigeon
noise of a modern five-cylinder Audi, but a more orchestrated, subtler kind of
rhythm, like a string bass shimmering in the background. If that little
chrome-rimmed rev counter with its flickering needle were to fail, it would be
the rhythm which would say how fast the engine was turning. Otherwise the hum of
eight straight cylinders is so seamlessly subtle that you could hardly tell.
From Mason and Hales, p. 44,
on the 1936 ERA B:
The ERA makes a noise like a bass saxophone and
cello in duet. The strings are the tremendous whine of the supercharger that
feeds the one and a half litre six cylinder engine and the sax is the rich,
reedy, deep-throated, metallic sound of the exhaust. When the engine is driving
hard, the clamor gargles from deep within the engine’s chest, then vibrates
down the long metal pipe that runs just below the cockpit side before blasting
out like a freshly lit firework. When you lift off the accelerator, there’s a
muted crackle like a thousand ball bearings cascading over a wooden floor while
the underlying bassy boom dies away with the fading engine revs. The disparate
layers of sound seem to come form opposite ends of the car like two speakers
each at end of a room. Walk around it and you hear different amounts of each. A
supercharged methanol-fueled exhaust note is deeper and richer than anything
you will hear today and although the concert is nothing like as loud as the
BRM’s, it is still noisier than one and a half litres has any right to be. It
brings a smile to the lips.
Music is often made
by instruments – technologies not that dissimilar from machines and internal
combustion engines. Those machines reflect the work of human beings who very
creatively made artifacts of power and awe, that bluster their stuff in unique
ways.
There is one other aspect of the
Riverside Records sports car series worth mentioning. Namely the record jackets
are often works of art in their own right. Often the work of Bill’s wife Jane
Grauer, the covers are at times stunning representations of cars, engines, and
Bugatti grills.
Art, jazz, and sports cars, along with watches and cameras, they
all came together during the 1950s and 1960s. Riverside Records, still
recognized for its achievements in the arts, also left a legacy in automotive history.
Discography –
Riverside Records on Sports Cars, Racing, and Miscellaneous Motor Sports
Riverside 5000 series (12 inch LP)
·
RLP 5001 V.S. - Sounds Of Sebring 1956
·
RLP 5002 V.S. - Sports Cars In Hi-Fi
·
RLP 5003 V.S. - Pit Stop
·
RLP 5004 interview - Stirling Moss
·
RLP 5005 interview - Phil Hill
·
RLP 5006 interview - Carroll Shelby
·
RLP 5007 interview - The Marquis De Portago
·
RLP 5008/5009 V.S. - Sounds Of Sebring 1957
·
RLP 5010 V.S. - Cuban Corners
·
RLP 5011 V.S. - Sounds Of Sebring 1958
·
RLP 5012 V.S. - Mercedes-Benz
·
RLP 5013 V.S. - Vintage Sports Cars In Hi-Fi
·
RLP 5014 V.S. - Sounds Of Sebring 1959
·
RLP 5015 V.S. - Sports Cars At Sebring In Hi-Fi
·
RLP 5016 V.S. - Grand Prix Of The U.S. Sebring 1959
·
RLP 5017 V.S. - Grand Prix Cars In Action At Sebring
·
RLP 5018 V.S. - Sounds Of Sebring 1960
·
RLP 5019 Paul O'Shea - Sing A Song Of Sports Cars
·
RLP 5020 V.S. - The Race Mercedes-Benz 1937-1955
·
RLP 5021 V.S. - Grand Prix Of The U.S. 1960
·
RLP 5022 V.S. - Farewell To A Formula
·
RLP 5023 V.S. - Sounds Of Sebring 1961
·
RLP 5024 V.S. - Sebring Corners
·
RLP 5025/5026 V.S. - 75 Years Of Mercedes-Benz
·
RLP 5027 V.S. - Sounds Of Sebring 1962
·
RLP 5028 V.S. - Grand Prix Cars At Watkins Glen
Riverside 5500 series (12 inch LP)
·
RLP 5501 V.S. - Bullring
·
RLP 5502 V.S. - Hot Rods And Dragsters
·
RLP 5503 V.S. - Hot Rods In Action
·
RLP 5504 V.S. - On The Drag Strip
·
RLP 5506 V.S. - Griff Borgeson Presents Bonneville 1960 -
Sounds On The Salt Flats
·
RLP 5507 no information
·
RLP 5509 V.S. - Hot Rod Heaven
·
RLP 5512 no information
·
RLP 5513 no information
·
RLP 5515 V.S. - Hot Cars At Winternationals
·
RLP 5516 V.S. - Super Stocks
·
RLP 5517 V.S. - Rods 'N' Rails
·
RLP 5518 V.S. - Hot Rods, Dragsters And Super Stocks
·
RLP 5519 V.S. - Burning Slicks
·
RLP 5520 V.S. - 1320 Feets - Hot Rods And Dragsters
·
Discography from https://www.jazzdisco.org/riverside-records/catalog-5000-5500-5700-7000-box-set-series/album-index/
