A Wish For A Brighter Tomorrow

From the Children of the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind.

The files are in MP3 format

• Side One: Merry Christmas Neighbors, Drummer Boy and An Israeli Folk Song
• Side Two: Sleigh Bells and Christmas Alphabet

Thanks to alumnus Pauline Dalton, we now know much more about this little album. She writes that it was recorded around 1953. The "Sleigh Bells" was written by music teacher Teo Macero. With a little research, I located a Wiki biography on him. He must of left the Institute around 1957 and had a very influential career at Columbia Records. I will quote below a portion of it.

"Teo Macero (born Attilio Joseph Macero on October 30, 1925) is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years, and most notably produced the Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue, which at #12, is the highest-ranked jazz album on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and according to the RIAA, is the best-selling jazz album of all time. Macero also produced Davis' Bitches Brew, and Dave Brubeck's Time Out, which, along with Kind of Blue, are three of the best-known and most influential jazz albums of all time.

Macero found greater fame as a producer for Columbia Records. He joined Columbia in 1957, and produced hundreds of records while at the label. Macero worked with dozens of artists at Columbia including Mingus, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Mathis, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, Charlie Byrd, and Stan Getz. He was also responsible for signing Mingus, Monk, and Byrd to Columbia."

You must agree that is one impressive resume.

Pauline also provided these names as having sung on the album. The married names are in parenthesis.

Josephine Alvarez,
Barbara and Jolee Crane, (Wetmore and Magnuson)
Deborah Rosario,
Pauline Nodhturft (Dalton)
Myrna Witkecz (Speirs)

• A video interview with Teo Macero.
• Teo Macero, 82, Record Producer, Dies
  (NY Times Obituary)