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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZSHILKRET, Nathaniel(b 25 December 1896, NYC; d 18 February 1982) Composer, conductor, pianist, an A&R man before that term was in use, music director and pioneer in the use of recording techniques. He played clarinet in symphony orchestras, and for Arthur Pryor and John Philip Sousa. As a conductor he had hits 1924-32 on Victor, the biggest probably 'Dancing With Tears In My Eyes' (vocal by Lewis James). He was director of light music for Victor 1915-45, backing many of the label's artists. Compositions include a trombone concerto (played at the Hollywood Bowl in 1945 by Leopold Stokowski, with soloist Sgt. Hoyt Bohannon) and one movement of a cantata Genesis (he commissioned Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others to write the rest). His best-known song is 'Lonesome Road', co-written with Gene Austin. Shilkret is almost forgotten now, but he may have made more records than anyone else in history, conducting the Victor studio pop. His autobiography Nathanial Shilkret: Sixty Years in the Music Business was completed around 1965, while he lived in his daughter Barbara's home. She and her son (also called Nathaniel Shilkret, but had shortened his name to Niel Shell) prepared it for publication by Scarecrow Press in 2005. It is absolutely fascinating. One anecdote: Shilkret probably oversaw the first (acoustic) recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue in 1924, by Paul Whiteman; when electric recording began, the old acoustic studios were too small, and Shilkret had discovered Liederkranz Hall in the German Club, which turned out to be ideal for many years, but it took the engineers a while to learn how to use it, and at first it wasn't soundproofed, so cops were hired outdoors to try to keep the street noise down. When an electrical remake of Rhapsody In Blue was being made in 1927, Gershwin and the piano were 100 feet from the orchestra, and Whiteman was 200 feet away. Furthermore, Whiteman had been playing the piece on the road, making cuts and speeding it up for dancers, and Gershwin didn't like his new version. There was a lot of tension at the recording session, and Whiteman finally marched out, saying 'Take over, Nat.' So Shilkret conducted the new recording. (Edward Jablonski, Gershwin's biographer, says that Whiteman composed himself and came back to the room, surprised to find the recording underway.) Shlkret, a friend of Gershwin's, also conducted the first recording of An American in Paris.
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