Vintage Mid Century Modern Print - Exotic Vocalist Bas Sheva - Star of THE PASSIONS by Les Baxter

Vintage Mid Century Modern Print - Exotic Vocalist Bas Sheva - Star of THE PASSIONS by Les BaxterTreasures from THE MUSIC COLLECTION at Lost Highways Archive & Research Library. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review. Print size 24 x 18, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit. Bas Sheva was the stage name of a fascinating and truly gifted vocalist originally from Philadelphia. She had a career that included early 50s work in the Borscht Belt and the release of a number of

Treasures from THE MUSIC COLLECTION at Lost Highways Archive & Research Library. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.  Print size 24 x 18, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit.

Bas Sheva was the stage name of a fascinating and truly gifted vocalist originally from Philadelphia.  She had a career that included early 50s work in the Borscht Belt and the release of a number of solid and well produced standards on Capitol.  Steady yet unremarkable, they still managed to hint at the breadth of power yet to come.  That said, it was her brilliant interpretation of traditional Jewish songs with bandleader Hal Mooney on the LP Soul Of A People that first put her on the map.

Then, during an era of surprising musical experimentation by the major labels in the mid 50s that allowed artists like Yma Sumac to find a place in popular culture, producer and composer Les Baxter reeled Bas Sheva in as the star vocalist on the wildly adventurous and experimental suite The Passions.  Rereleased on CD and much admired to this day, The Passions and Bas Sheva's performance were too wild for real commercial success in the America of the 1950s.

Bas Sheva passed away suddenly and tragically at 34 from a diabetic reaction on board a cruise ship in 1960.

I acquired this photograph originally knowing nothing of Bas Sheva or her career.  I was drawn in first by her eyes, her lips, her ears, her hair, her skin and her far away gaze.  To be honest, her silver lame' outfit carried me back to my childhood, watching the gals on Lost In Space.  Through all that I spent real face time allowing myself to be drawn in, and having built that relationship so central to what we do here, happily parted with the modest money the antiques dealer was asking and brought her, with love, back to The Grand Review.

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A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps.  The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands.  That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here.  See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road.  I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle!  So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.