West Coast Wurlitzer Don Thompson Available on CD CD $17 Quantity:   UK Customers Only (PPD): CD 12 GBP Quantity:

Concert Time at Old Town Music Hall
1 Selection from The King Steps Out
2 Nostalgia
3 Pizzicato Polka
4 Procession of the Nobles from “Mlada”
5 Bach with Bells On (Wachet Auf)
6 Vilia

Easy Listening at San Sylmar
7 As Time Goes By
8 Charade
9 Days of Wine and Roses
10 Moonglow/Picnic
11 Romeo and Juliet

The Beginning, at the Avenue Theatre, San Francisco
12 A Cheerful Little Earful
13 Charleston / Black Bottom / Doin’ The Raccoon
14 More Than You Know
15 Yes Sir, That’s My Baby / Rainbow Round My Shoulder
16 Tell Me, Little Gipsy
17 Wild Cat Blues

Fireworks at Redwood City (Capn’s Galley)
18 Thunder and Lightning Polka
19 March from the movie “Things to Come”
20 Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin
21 Waltz from Masquerade
22 The Phantom Regiment

And a quiet one to finish –
23 What A Friend We Have in Jesus
 

 Old Town Music Hall, El Segundo, near L.A. Airport, contains a 4/22 Wurlitzer originally installed in the Fox West Coast Theatre in Long Beach in 1926. In its new home several additions have been made to the instrument, including the four manual console which was originally used at the Los Angeles Paramount Theatre and is the console on the cover of this CD. The array of percussion and trap units which had long been obscured in dark chambers now can be seen in full view, in organ-equipped pizza parlor style. These units are colorfully illuminated with special lighting. The organ speaks into a smallish room and has a very dead sound. All items were recorded live at a concert in 1970. All items were cut off right at the end to avoid including applause and we added reverb to the tunes to cover up that abrupt ending and - Wow! It became one of the most beautiful Wurlitzer sounds we have ever heard. Nostalgia is from a suite that organist Walter Freed wrote for Don Thompson. His more famous brother was Arthur Freed, of movie production fame. Old Town Music Hall was formerly a movie theatre built in the early twenties. Now it provides the proper setting for organ programs which include community sing-alongs and silent movies designed to please young and old. Owned by organist Bill Field, OTMH also enjoys many other functions.

The Nethercutt Museum in San Sylmar, a suburb of Los Angeles, contains the largest Wurlitzer on the West Coast and the second largest in the world. The grand piano is played from the console. At the time of this recording in the late 1980s the instrument had 49 ranks. It is now much larger at 75 ranks. The console, originally from the Denver Civic Auditorium was rebuilt by Ken Crome and now has three complete stop rails plus a fourth partial on each side to accommodate the new ranks. Now it holds 361 stopkeys. There are 27 pistons in addition to the 10 divisional pistons for each manual.

The Avenue Theatre contained a 3/13 which was originally from the State-Lake Theatre in Chicago. In 1969 it was the largest Wurlitzer remaining in a theatre in the Western USA. Many well-known organists made their first Northern California appearance on this organ, including the first resident organist Tom Hazleton, and Lyn Larson, Don Thompson, Warren Lubitch and so on. These tracks were recorded on Oct 6, 1969. The organ was removed to the Towne theatre in San Jose some years ago, and subsequently to a residence in Florida.

The Cap’n’s Galley pizza parlor in Redwood City contained the first four-manual organ to be installed in a pizza parlor and it became the standard toward which all subsequent parlors aspired. The organ came from the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle and had originally 18 ranks. At the time of this session, in 1973, several more ranks had been added and it eventually was intended to have 27 ranks. Ed Stout, famed as a superb organ re-voicer was in charge of the re-voicing so that the organ would sound its best in its new setting and all who heard it were overwhelmed. At the time many proclaimed it to be the finest Wurlitzer installation in California, if not in the entire US. A new post horn was built by the Moller organ company and it is heard often on this recording, not only at the Galley but also on the Avenue Theatre excerpts, where Claire Elgin had originally had one built for that theatre. Bill Brewer, owner of the Galley, heard it and wanted one for his organ also.

Don Thompson was born in Northern England and after playing professionally there and in Europe and the Middle East for some years emigrated to the USA in 1968. A few years ago he celebrated 50 years since his first theatre organ appearance at the Victoria Cinema, Cambridge, England, and at the time of the release of this CD he is celebrating 50 years since his first job as a full-time professional organist. Further information about Don can be found on his web site, www.donthompson.org.