Word: asch
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Glinka:'Russian and Ludmilla (soloists, chorus and orchestra of the Moscow State Theater of the U.S.S.R.; Disc, 4 sides). One of Russia's oldest operas (1842) released on records for the first time in the U.S. by Moe Asch's new firm (TIME, Feb. 25). The Russians sing vigorously and loud. Performance: good...
...Asch, whose studio is a cluttered room in Manhattan's drab WFVD building, has almost a fear of hits, and he brushes off commercial jazz as if it were an unmentionable disease. Unlike most record companies, which have lavished their scarce shellac on surefire songs, Asch frequently stops making an album just when it is selling well, so he can put out something else-which may or may not sell. He has put out about 40 albums in the past three years, hopes to issue another 40 this year...
...Asch calls his albums "basic music" to distinguish them from popular swing or the Gene Autry-Bob Wills (TIME, Feb. 11) kind of folk music. Said he: "Ours get down to the musical roots. Very often a basic song like Buffalo Gals ["Can't you come out tonight?"] becomes a hit, but I'm not interested in individual hits. To me a catalogue of folk expression is the most important thing...
...Asch, born in Warsaw, brought up in Brooklyn, schooled in Germany, once installed sound equipment in burlesque houses and Yiddish theaters on Manhattan's Lower East Side. His first recording (in 1939) was In the Beginning, his father's Bible stories for children. He released it under the label "Asch Records," then recorded Leadbelly's songs of bad men and worse women...
...soon as he can, Asch hopes to record folk music from the southern Soviet republics of Tadjik and Azerbaijan, Greece, Hungary, South Africa and Haiti. Says he: "It's not very profitable, but it's steady...