CD

The New Friends of Rhythm: 1939-1947 Performances (Hep). This delectable CD contains the complete commercial recordings–never before reissued in any format–of one of the wittiest chamber ensembles ever to cut a 78. Alan Shulman, a cellist with Toscanini’s NBC Symphony and a part-time composer of no small accomplishment, penned a series of lightly swinging versions of such familiar classics as the Marriage of Figaro Overture (“The Barber’s Hitch”) and the first movement of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (“Fable in Sable”), all scored for harp, string quartet, and jazz rhythm section, with clarinetist Buster Bailey sitting in on three sides. Now they’re available on a CD, augmented by five 1939 radio broadcast performances. Even if you don’t usually go in for jazzed-up classics, these ultra-rare recordings will charm your socks off (TT).