Phonoland

Many years ago I was the proud owner of an old wooden gramophone. An RCA, I believe. It was approx 3ft by 2ft and stood on 4 sturdy wooden legs.

With the gramophone came a pile of old Shellac 78s. One of the records had "Canasta Samba" on one side, and "Rio Samba" on the other.

The songs in question are of the instrumental (dance orchestra) variety, and I'm pretty sure that they were recorded by Victor Sylvester in perhaps the 1940s, but a pretty detailed look on the AMG (All Music) web site appears to show that Victor Sylvester never actually recorded titles of either name. What's more, the titles do not seem to show up as recorded by anyone in that era.

Now, I know that I am not imagining having had this record. In fact, the image of the record label and the sound of the music itself is indelibly imprinted in my mind. What's more, this must have been a pretty popular pressing at the time (if 'pressing' is the correct term to use with Shellac discs). So, presumably there are still some of this disc out there circulating amongst collectors even today.

Does anyone reading this have any specialist knowledge of this artist, or era, or know who recorded the two tracks in question, if it was not Victor Sylvester? What's more, could I obtain the music on CD?

Hope someone can assist. If not, where should I look next?

Tried a couple of searches with no luck. Do you rember if it was a RCA Victor label on the record or some other label?

If I am to be totally honest, I simply can't be sure. We're talking 30 years since I used to regularly belt this record out on the wind-up gramophone. I actually managed to retain this lovely unit and its accompanying 78s until about 1990 when, whilst moving house, it got left behind in the shed - I seem to remember that this was something to do with it not fitting in at the new house. I now bitterly regret having let it go. Not because of its potential worth, but because it was so lovely.

Anyway, I digress. The record label may have been RCA Victor. In fact, my subconscious is saying it was. But I can't honestly say for certain.

Just returning to what I was saying in my first post. Surely for me to have had this disc amongst a collection of aging 78s, must mean that at one time there were an awful lot of this particular record about. I mean, wouldn't they have probably manufactured thousands of this title?

Of course, I realise that after all these years the original 78s may pretty-much all have met with a sticky end by now. But undoubtedly the recordings themselves must live on. These days, and in most cases, an artists entire back catalogue is now available to purchase on CD.
So why no mention of the two titles I am searching for, regardless of the artist, whom I may have gotten wrong?

You know, I'm certain that if I were to go in search of shops selling old 78s, if any still exist, that this disc would turn up somewhere. At least I'd know I wasn't imagining all this, which I know I'm not.

Anyway, thanks so much for looking. Any ideas on where else I could ask?

Maybe that's because the titles were in Spanish, and were "Samba Canasta" and "Samba de Rio". I did find a German site with Sylvester, and both songs in this form on it, but an attempt to translate crashed my Internet connection.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find out any more on Samba Canasta, because it is also a card game. The web search is swamped with game sites.

But I did find this CD with Samba de Rio on it.

Nico Gomez & His Orchestra -- Bossa Nova ... CD
Omega/P-Vine (Japan), Early 70s Condition: New Copy.... Out Of Stock

Way way more than bossa nova -- a mighty groover from the great Nico Gomez! Nico's known for his harder pounding tracks that have become favorites with the funky crowd, but this stellar album shows that Nico could also work in jazzier territory when he wanted to -- as the album's a wonderful batch of tunes that mix together Latin, groovy, and bossa styles! There's some very nice wordless female vocals on a few cuts, and other tracks feature vibes, or guitar, sax, and other strong instrumental elements. The whole thing's as groovy as groovy can be -- with a sound that's past bossa, and way more than any fake easy instrumental attempt at the genre -- a real peep into the mad mind of Nico Gomez, and proof that his albums are always worth tracking down. Titles include "Din Din Din", "Aquarela", "Samba De Rio", "Saudade Do Rio", "Agua", "Rio", and "O Barquinho".