Ferde Grofé was an American pianist, arranger and composer born at the end of the 19th century. He was hired by Paul Whiteman as a pianist for his orchestra in 1920 and rose to fame when he arranged Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue for that orchestra. The original piece was written for two piano’s, but Grofé’s version is the one everybody knows.
He wrote his second best known piece in 1931, also for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. It was a five part suite inspired by the awesome landscape of the Grand Canyon. Although born in New York, Grofé lived since he was five in California, and he knew the national park well. The piece portrays the different colours of the rock over time, and a donkey ride through the depths of it. The last bit is the most popular and was added as the music for a diorama in Disneyland since 1958. There it is still visible to this day, and I suspect it has the same place in the memories of Americans as Danse macabre has for Dutch people.
This record is a so called half speed master: this must be the first of its kind in my collection. The thought behind these pressings is that by lowering the speed of the mastering process the sound gets better. It sounds good, but I don’t know if that comes from the mastering process or the recording itself.