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1967 Bergstrom Paper Printing Press Impressions In Color Bill Walker Vinyl LP Record Gatefold VG+
Vinyl / Jacket Grade per Goldmine Standard: VG+ / VG+
Everyone who has ever worked around printing presses knows that each press sings its own song. ■ What everyone may not realize is that each press actually sings several songs. That is one of the fascinating things that composer Bill Walker found out when he was creating these unusual pieces which are derived from the rhythms of printing presses. ■"My first step," Walker explained, "was to tape the presses running at different speeds. We recorded them working from 1800 impres- sions an hour up to 8000 impressions, moving our microphones around each press to get dif- ferent effects in stereo. Sometimes I heard the rhythm that would control the composition as soon as I heard the press. That's what happened on Blue Line—the rhythmic feeling came out immediately. The rhythm for Color Me Waltz was also apparent, except that I changed the stress to the second beat of the bar instead of placing it on the down beat. But in most cases, as I listened over and over to the tape record- ings of the presses, I could hear the rhythm in two or three different ways." ■ This possible choice of rhythms is one of the provocative elements in the compositions that Bill Walker has built on the sounds of working presses. Each piece begins with the functioning sound of a press. You, the listener, sense a rhythm When the musicians come in, they may be playing your rhythm—or, to your surprise, they may be marching to a slightly different beat. That different beat may throw you at first. But go back and listen again. You'll find it's just Bill Walker hearing something a little deeper in the rhythm than you did. ■That's because Walker has had a broader ex- perience in this kind of compositional challenge than most musicians ever run into. He has created musical settings for subjects as far apart as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Duncan Hines Early American Date-Nut Mix. His Gettys- burg Address was performed by the Milwaukee Symphony His Date-Nut Mix won one of 15 awards that have been bestowed on him at the American Television Commercials Festival. Back of this is a solid foundation of study at the Chicago Conservatory of Music and practical experience as a dance band musician with Wayne King and Ted Weems and as leader of his own band at the famous Pump Room in Chicago's Ambassador East. BLUE LINE is based on a heavy 4/4 rhythm overlaid by an eighth note pattern which suggests that rock 'n' roll may really have been derived from a Harris Offset LTV 17 x 22 press. There is strong em- phasis on "bottom" sound produced by a com- bination of bass trombone, bass harmonica, string bass and bass guitar. As striking contrast. Walker has also used the high, sharp sounds of the harp, piccolo, vibraphone and piano. The blend almost seems to be a natural part of the heart beat of the Harris press. PRESS PARTY is Bill Walker's musical interpretation of a hazily cloudy day—a day on which the sun is trying to break through the clouds and occasionally does, although the effect of haziness remains. The battle between the sun and the clouds appears in the shift between passages by piano (played by Bill Walker) with rhythm ac- companiment and passages by the voices. De- spite the seemingly free and easy swing of this piece, the musical elements involved were "mixed" over and over again to get the voices at precisely the right level in relation to the instruments—which is something like getting color registration absolutely perfect in printing. HARPANOVA, which is a pressman's bossa nova, proved to be fraught with problems. At the very start, in re- cording the sound of the press, Bill Walker had to experiment with numerous recording angles before he found one that produced the precise rhythm he wanted. Then he wrote a piece so complex—even though it sounds simple—that the featured harpist, Eddie Druzinsky of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, practiced his part at home for two weeks with a tape record- ing of the rhythm section before he felt prepared to make this record. OPUS IN OFFSET is built around the astounding bass harmonica work of Johnny Thompson. It is an exercise in counterpoint in which two dissimilar melodies complement each other both rhythmically and harmonically. Like many contemporary record- ings made on tape, this is a carefully edited combination of parts of two recording sessions. Because the middle section at the first session swung so well, it was used, while the full rich- ness of the bass harmonica and the trombone in the opening and closing parts at the second session were so impressive that they could not be neglected. So—presto-slice-o!—all the best elements are fused into one COLOR ME WALTZ is not just a waltz. It is a jazz waltz which means that it swings and one of the most delightfully swinging aspects is Bill Walker's soaring piano. To intensify the rhythmic feeling. Walker used two string basses along with two guitars, harp, piano and drums and made the voices a con- trapuntal force that adds one more element to the strong rhythmic flow. PRINTER'S DEVIL is an example of the varied rhythmic possi- bilities that can be heard in a press. This Heidel- berg Letterpress produces a definite 3/4 rhythm but, if you listen closely, you also hear a 4/4 beat. The combination of four on three led Bill Walker to a lively samba with four drummers contributing exotic sounds from a Tahitian wood block, timbales, a jawbone and snare drum. Over this, the string bass, bass harmonica and bass guitar combine on one melodic pattern while the brass section with clarinet lead fol- lows another pattern. A third line is built by the regular guitar with the bass trombone lending added strength to the whole mixture. On the second side of the record. Bill Walker plays six of his non-press compositions. Two of them—the smooth and slinky Serendipitous You and the exuberant Yes, Yes, Nannette!—feature bass trombonist Edward Kleinhammer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony trombone section. Yes, Yes, Nannette! first combines three top voices with three top trombones while the bass voice sings with Kleinhammer's bass trombone, then switches to counterpoint between voices and trombones— all done at a tempo challenging to voices, to the top trombonists and especially to the bass trom- bone. Kleinhammer is again called on for a display of unusual virtuosity in his solo on Serendipitous You when he drops from a low B to an incredibly deep pedal note B. Who Knows, AH at Sea, and Beyond My Wildest Dreams show Walker's flair for creating melodic ballads while Bongolow, going to an opposite extreme, is a fusion of rhythmic excitements laced with hints and suggestions of soaring lyricism. JOHN S. WILSON JOHN S. WILSON is jazz critic of The New York Times and of High Fidelity magazine. His weekly program, "The World of Jazz," has been a feature attraction of WQXR, the radio station of The New York Times, for thirteen years. It is rebroadcast around the globe by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. During a recent leave of absence, he was artist in residence at the University of Hawaii, lecturing on jazz. His newest book is Jazz: The Transi- tion Years, 1940-1960, just published by Appleton-Century-Crofts. THE PRESSES AND SPEEDS THAT INSPIRED THE MUSIC BLUE LINE.................Harris Offset LTV 17 x 22 at 8000 impressions per hour PRESS PARTY...............Miehle Vertical at 4000 impres- sions per hour. HARPANOVA................Miller 38 4-color at 4000 im- pressions per hour. OPUS IN OFFSET...........Harris LUB 25 x 38 at 5300 impressions per hour. COLOR ME WALTZ..........Miehle 38 2-color at 4500 im- pressions per hour. PRINTER'S DEVIL............Heidelberg Letterpress at 1800 impressions per hour. All 12 compositions A.S.C.A.P. Copyright 1967 Advertisers Music Inc.. Chicago, III. 60601 Recorded at Universal Studios. Chicago. Illinois—Bernie Clapper Engineer DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY RAYMOND WELCH/MAGEE INC. From concrete forests the obedient twice-tamed fibers of Bergstrom Papers Why do Bergstrom papers help avoid trouble- some curl, tail-end wrinkles,out-of-register, and cockled surfaces? Because they are papers made of paper. Gathered from the concrete forests that make up the cities of America, the fibers are twice- tamed . . one generation removed from the damp green forests of their birth. They are shorter, flatter, smoother, more uni- form and more manageable .. . less responsive to the ancient calls of temperature and humidity. Offset or letterpress stocks available from paper merchants or made to your specifications. Either way, Bergstrom can enhance your fin- ished product. Let us show you why the mill that offers you so little choice, offers so much more in what you choose.





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