Porgy & Bess - Summertime - Rhapsody In Blue
Vito
Edward Vito and Joseph Vito
All arrangements by Edward Vito
Cook Sounds Of Our Times
Cook Laboratories 1031 (10-inch disc)
Cook Laboratories 1031 (10-inch disc)
1952
From the back cover: The performance here can not be as a "recital" of the usual type found on records at all. Actually, it is a condensed version of what happened when two famous brother-harpists of our day got together for a family wedding and our microphone dropped in by accident one Sunday afternoon. Starting from a chance remark by Ed Vito, for three years it looked as if this record would never be made. It was that long before busy Joe Vito's Chicago Symphony concerts and busy Ed Vito's Toscanini schedule allowed them any free time together.
We set up our recording equipment in the living room of Ed's home in Greenwich, Conn. Along with the playing came reminiscences – unconnected fragments from a unique story of events which helped shape the careers of two of this country's leading harpists. In the days before our many highly developed symphonic organizations when harp playing could hardly be considered a "profession," the brothers Vito were busy studying and practicing on the one family harp they all shared. (Including farther Vito and Ed's daughter, the Vito clan boasts three generations of experts harpists). Joe being the eldest assumed the role of passing on what he had learned at lessons to the others and even today Ed refers to him as his teacher.
Edward Vito played all sorts of engagements, even in gin mills, and a triumph of sorts was the day 14 year old Ed was given a spot with a touring vaudeville show. A youngster playing such an improbable instrument was a big hit – and also gave the barber shop quartet time for a fast change of costume and scenery before the sword-swallower came on. Joe remembers mostly the salary – $7 a week and considerably less than "all you can eat." Those days it was a case of knuckles-to-the-bone and starving as well; artistry was nourished later in the frugal comfort of conservatories and with symphony orchestras – Joe again acting as trail-blazer. (First symphonic post 1915 with Henry Hadley).
Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring
Haydn Minuet
Tournier Prelude & Danse
Porgy & Bess
Rhapsody In Blue
From the back cover: The performance here can not be as a "recital" of the usual type found on records at all. Actually, it is a condensed version of what happened when two famous brother-harpists of our day got together for a family wedding and our microphone dropped in by accident one Sunday afternoon. Starting from a chance remark by Ed Vito, for three years it looked as if this record would never be made. It was that long before busy Joe Vito's Chicago Symphony concerts and busy Ed Vito's Toscanini schedule allowed them any free time together.
We set up our recording equipment in the living room of Ed's home in Greenwich, Conn. Along with the playing came reminiscences – unconnected fragments from a unique story of events which helped shape the careers of two of this country's leading harpists. In the days before our many highly developed symphonic organizations when harp playing could hardly be considered a "profession," the brothers Vito were busy studying and practicing on the one family harp they all shared. (Including farther Vito and Ed's daughter, the Vito clan boasts three generations of experts harpists). Joe being the eldest assumed the role of passing on what he had learned at lessons to the others and even today Ed refers to him as his teacher.
Edward Vito played all sorts of engagements, even in gin mills, and a triumph of sorts was the day 14 year old Ed was given a spot with a touring vaudeville show. A youngster playing such an improbable instrument was a big hit – and also gave the barber shop quartet time for a fast change of costume and scenery before the sword-swallower came on. Joe remembers mostly the salary – $7 a week and considerably less than "all you can eat." Those days it was a case of knuckles-to-the-bone and starving as well; artistry was nourished later in the frugal comfort of conservatories and with symphony orchestras – Joe again acting as trail-blazer. (First symphonic post 1915 with Henry Hadley).
Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring
Haydn Minuet
Tournier Prelude & Danse
Porgy & Bess
Rhapsody In Blue
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