October 2007
October 25
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
The Commander Streight Eight
Victora $1475 at the factory.
Bumbers and spare tire extra.
STUDEBAKER
Builder of Champions
(from 1929 ad)
Note: I am very pleased to welcome
back guest contributor Eddie The Collector. Eddie will be providing
this week's main update. The records and commentary are
Eddie's - my only contribution was to transfer and digitalize the recordings.
You may read more about Eddie as well as view his photo and contact information
by clicking here.
Bob Haring directed the house band
for Cameo records from their beginning in 1922 until its merger with Pathe
records and with the Plaza Music Company (parent company of Banner records)
in 1929, usually under his own name, but sometimes under colorful pseudonyms
typical of the era. He also recorded for Brunswick during this time
using the names Colonial Club Orchestra, The Copley Plaza Orchestra, The
Clevelanders and, for British issues, "King" Solomon and His Miners.
For the last year of his recording career, 1931, Bob Haring recorded for
the American Record Corporation, the corporate successor to the Cameo/Pathe/Plaza
merger.
A
Night In May
Bob Haring And His Orchestras
1929
(Brunswick 4310)
A nice Fox Trot typical of the era
with its sunny outlook and pretty tune rendered in March 1929 by "Oliver
Smith" - a name which has kind of a pseudonymnish ring to it.
But it is very possible that was his real name.
If
You Believed In Me
Colonial Club Orchestra
1929
(Brunswick 4486)
This August, 1929, recording is
one of the best versions of this song I've ever heard. Manny Klein
plays a hot lead trumpet right from the beginning, then following the vocal
Tommy Dorsey plays his trombone just before the ending. One of those
"everything's just right" records!
My
Song Of The Nile
Colonial Club Orchestra
1929
(Brunswick 4486)
This song, incorrectly described
as a Fox Trot on the label, is a waltz and also the theme song of the 1929
full-length talky The Drag, directed by Frank Lloyd, starring Richard
Barthelmess, Alice Day and Lucien Littlefield. The 118 minute movie
was panned by the critics as a "yawner", and the subject song described
as one of "two arbitrarily inserted songs." It's a pretty enough
tune and Tommy Dorsey also plays solos in this arrangement before and after
the vocal.
- Eddie The Collector
EXTRA
This section will present
78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop
and jazz fare that I usually present. Here I will feature
recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities
as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
Faust
Ballet Music - Dance of the Nubian Slaves
Vessella’s Italian Band
1912
(Victor 17284-A)
Faust
Ballet Music - Trojan Maidens and Mirror Dance
Vessella’s Italian Band
1912
(Victor 17284-B)
Here are two selections from the
ballet scenes of the Charles Gounod opera Faust which debuted in
1859 at the Théatre-Lyrique in Paris. The ballet
scene and the music featured here was not added to the opera, however,
until an 1869 revival. The ballet scene is frequently omitted
from modern productions of the opera. Gounod wrote music
for eleven other operas but Faust was and remains his most famous.
The ballet scenes from the opera
Faust
should not be confused with the 1848 ballet also called Faust which
was set to music by Giacomo Panizza, Sir Michael Andrew Costa, and
Niccolò Bajetti.
I don't have a lot of information
about Vessella's Italian Band but the band made quite a number of records
for Victor during the 1910s. The band's leader was Marco Vessella.
During the mid 1910s the band performed at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City
and perhaps some of the city's other venues. I have seen a mention
online that the band also toured quite a bit. I also
found a blog
posting that reproduced a 1907 Long Beach, California newspaper article
about a rather odd legal dispute Vessella was involved in. The posting
mentions that during that period Vessella led the "Royal Italian Band"
and that the band was popular in Southern California.
In 1912 all recordings were recorded
acoustically - that is, through a large horn rather than a microphone which
did not appear in recording studios until the mid-1920s. There
are plenty of more modern recordings of these selections that have
significantly better fidelity and do far more justice to the original compositions
than do these rather primitive sounding efforts. Unlike with
vintage popular recordings, fans of classical music usually do have the
option to hear a recording performed in a similar style that takes advantage
of modern technological advances. Still, there is a certain kind
of fun about the experience of putting an old 78 rpm on a turntable and
giving it a spin that modern formats, despite their vast technological
superiority, are not able to provide. And once one's ears adjust
to the sound of acoustic recording, the mind is able to compensate
and mentally fill in the missing data much the same way it does when one
views a black and white movie. So while acoustic-era recordings
have been, quite properly, considered obsolete for more than 80 years now,
they are still capable of providing amusement and entertainment even in
instances where a vastly better recording of the same selection is easily
obtainable.
- Dismuke
October 18
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
Knapp Electric Questioner
Knapp Electric (Div of P.R. Mallory
& Co., Inc.)
(from 1931 ad)
Note - I am very please to welcome
back guest contributor Matt From College Station as he shares some
more recordings from his excellent collection of 1920s and 1930s jazz and
dance band 78 rpm records.
All recordings and commentary
in this update, both the regular and the "Extra" sections, are from Matt.
My only contribution was to transfer and digitalize the recordings.
You can learn more about Matt
and find his contact information by clicking here.
Hikin’
Down The Highway
Sleepy Hall And His Collegians
Scrappy Lambert, vocal
1931
(Panachord 25070 A mx M12212)
Honeymoon
Parade
Sleepy Hall And His Collegians
Smith Ballew, vocal
1931
(Panachord 25070 B mx M12190)
This enigmatic British Panachord
disc contains two American dance band recordings. I know next to nothing
about Sleepy Hall other the name was a stage name for a banjoist
named John Nelson and that he was a member of various studio bands in the
early 1930s and involved in the music business until the 1940s. I have
seen him on the cover of sheet music from 1940. Both sides of this
disc were originally issued in America on the Melotone label which
was a bargain subsidiary of Brunswick.
It is unlikely that the bands featured
in these recordings actually belonged to Sleepy Hall. One is free
to speculate whose band is actually on this disc, but it is likely the
Smith Ballew, Eddie Kirkeby or Victor Young Orchestras.
The first side, "Hikin' Down The
Highway" was recorded on July 9, 1931 and issued on Melotone 12212.
It is a pleasing rendition of a catchy Irving Kahal & Lee David tune
and boasts a vocal by Scrappy Lambert. When Dismuke first heard this
recording he liked it so much that he insisted I include it on a Hit of
the Week update..
Next we have "Honeymoon Parade"
which was recorded on February 21, 1931 and issued on Melotone
12190. It too is a very upbeat and catchy tune and features a vocal
by Smith Ballew an early 1930s bandleader and crooner who would go on to
star in several "singing cowboy" movies.
Depression era recordings such as
these can be very hard to find and most have not been issued on CD which
makes it very pleasurable for me to be able to share them with you.
- Matt From College Station
EXTRA
This section will present
78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop
and jazz fare that I usually present. Here I will feature
recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities
as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
King
Of Jazz Selections
Laddie Ray, piano
1930
(Broadcast Twelve 5172-A)
Puttin
On The Ritz Selections
Laddie Ray, piano
1930
(Broadcast Twelve 5172-B)
Laddie Ray, piano soloist, gives
us this week's Extra on an old Broadcast Twelve 78 rpm.
Broadcast Twelve was a budget label
put out by the British Vocalion firm in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Although it was only 10 inches in size, it had the recording time of slightly
less than a 12 inch record. Broadcast also put out a line of 8 inch
records, which claimed to play as long as 10 inch records. They have excellent
fidelity and offer us many great performances today.
"King of Jazz Selections" is an
upbeat medley of songs from the 1930 Universal picture of the same name.
King
of Jazz was a lavish jazz revue shot in Technicolor which featured
the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and starred Broadway headliners such
as Jeanette Loff, screen sensation John Boles, and hit vocal group The
Rhythm Boys (including Bing Crosby). Fortunately the complete film survives
today and is available at amazon.com on home video in used, out of print
copies
The next group of selections come
from the vary popular 1930 film Puttin' On The Ritz, which
starred Harry Richman and Joan Bennett. It is a very important record of
Broadway great Harry Richman on film as it gives one an accurate feel of
his stage persona. The movie is full of jazzy songs and production numbers.
It survives today as a severely edited edition, but still pleases as jazz
age entertainment. Copies of this movie can occasionally be found on ebay.
Unfortunately I could not find any
information on Laddie Ray, but hopefully this article will spur people
on to send me some information about this talented pianist
Note: A visitor kindly
contacted Matt with the following information about Laddie Ray:
"Laddie Ray didn't exist
!... The Vocalian Co. used the name for various pianists "for contractual
reasons " the one you feature is by a VERY
great British pianist BILLY MAYERL... he composed dozens of novelty piano
solos and also the scores for many London west end theatre shows of the
20s and 30s he also broadcasted (radio) frequently with his various groups
and did solo work . His first job was as pianist with the famous Savoy
Orpheans. Some of his better known compositions are MARIGOLD ....The
Jazz Master... HOP 'O MY THUMB....and (I think ) ESKIMO SHIVERS ..........
there is an excellent book by Peter Dickinson published by the Oxford
University Press " Marigold- the music of Billy Mayerl which
has his full story plus complete list of his compositions and records
including King of Jazz and Putting on the Ritz..well worth reading if you
can get a copy..... by the way there are only 2 other Laddie
Ray records...one by PEGGIE COCHRANE (pianist and vocalist with the
British Jack Payne Band the other thought to be by HARRY BIDGOOD..."
- Matt From College Station
October 11
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
Universal Table Stove
Made By Landers, Frary & Clark
New Britain, Conn..
(from circa 1920s product manual)
Teddy
Bear Blues
Imperial Dance Orchestra
1922
(Regal 9425 B mx 11234)
I
Gave You Up Just Before You Threw Me Down
Imperial Dance Orchestra
1923
(Regal 9425 A mx 5038)
The Imperial Dance Orchestra was
not an actual band but rather a recording pseudonym that was assigned to
the recordings of a number of bands throughout the 1920s. The
band on this week's recording of "Teddy Bear Blues" was, in fact, the California
Ramblers. The band on the second selection was the Joseph Samuels
Orchestra.
At the time it was not uncommon
for recordings to be issued on multiple labels owned by a common parent
company or for the master recordings to be leased to entirely different
company. Both of these recordings were issued on separate releases
on the Banner label as the Hollywood Dance Orchestra. Both Banner
and Regal were products of the Plaza Music Company. Furthermore,
Plaza leased the master recording of "Teddy Bear Blues" to Boston,
Mass. based Grey Gull records which issued it under the pseudonym of Golden
Gate Dance Orchestra. The various pseudonyms of the same recording
across many labels can frequently become a bit confusing. And more
than once I have purchased a recording of a song I enjoy only to discover
it is the exact same recording that I already had on a different label.
The California Ramblers was among
the first white dance bands to regularly record "hot" jazz arrangements.
They recorded under the California Ramblers name on Columbia and also very
large number of recordings for the most of the other record labels in existence
at the time under a variety of pseudonyms.
Very little information is available
about Joseph Samuels other than the fact that his band was very prolific
in the recording studio waxing almost 400 sides between 1919 and 1925.
- Dismuke
EXTRA
This section will present
78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop
and jazz fare that I usually present. Here I will feature
recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities
as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
I've
Got Rings On My Fingers
Blanche Ring
1909
(Victor 5737)
Susan
Kiss Me Good And Hard
Collins & Harlan
1906
(Victor 4850)
Both of these recordings come from
old one-sided Victor records. All early disc records were one-sided.
Two-sided "Double Disc" records were introduced by Columbia in 1908 with
Victor introducing its own two-sided records soon afterwards. Two-sided
records became the standard for popular recordings almost immediately.
Victor did continue to issue some single-sided popular recordings as late
as 1912 and all Victor "Red Seal" classical recordings, which were considered
a premium product, were one-sided up through 1923.
Blanche Ring was a successful Broadway
performer shortly after the turn of the 20th century.
"I've Got Rings On My Fingers" was a song she introduced in the 1909 musical
The
Midnight Sons which also starred Vernon
Castle. The song was such a success that she performed
it again in the 1910 musical The Yankee Girl.
If you find some of the words in the song difficult to make out,
you will find a text of the lyrics at this
link.
Arthur Collins
|
Byron G. Harlan
|
Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan
were a very popular comic due in the first two decades of the early 1900s.
Many of their recordings, including the one featured here, were so-called
"coon" songs which made use of black stereotypes and impersonated black
dialect - thought they did make recordings using stereotypes of other ethnic
groups as well. At the time such recordings and the use
of such stereotypes was considered quite mainstream and uncontroversial
- and , at least in that respect, our culture has definitely changed for
the better in the hundred years since. On this and most of
their recordings, it is Byron Harlan who does the female voice impersonations.
- Dismuke
October 4
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
Chicago
Rubber Tire Roller Skates
"Speed Without Noise"
Chicago Roller Skate Co.
(from 1930 ad)
Note
- I am very please to welcome back guest contributor Matt From College
Station as he shares some more recordings from his excellent collection
of 1920s and 1930s jazz and dance band 78 rpm records.
All
recordings and commentary in this update, both the regular and the "Extra"
sections, are from Matt. My only contribution was to transfer and
digitalize the recordings.
You
can learn more about Matt and find his contact information by clicking
here.
Follow
A Star
Sophie Tucker
With Ted Shapiro And The Winter Garden Theatre
Orchestra
1930
(Broadcast Twelve 5195-A)
I
Never Can Think Of The Words
Sophie Tucker
With Ted Shapiro And The Winter Garden Theatre
Orchestra
1930
(Broadcast Twelve 5195 B)
If
Your Kisses Can’t Hold The Man You Love
Sophie Tucker
With Ted Shapiro And The Winter Garden Theatre
Orchestra
1930
(Broadcast Twelve 5196 B)
That’s
Where The South Begins
Sophie Tucker
With Ted Shapiro And The Winter Garden Theatre
Orchestra
1930
(Broadcast Twelve 5196 A)
"From birth to age eighteen,
a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five she needs good
looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From
fifty-five on, she needs good cash."
- Sophie Tucker
A fitting quote for an entertainer
whose career spanned 63 years.
Sophie
Tucker began performing in 1903 at her family's restaurant. There she was
a big hit with the customers so she decided to try her hand at vaudeville.
Initially,
she was not popular because she was (in her own words) "big and fat." But
she found acceptance as a blackface performer. During this period she enjoyed
success and took singing lessons from black blues performers.
As her
popularity grew, she was able to abandon blackface and take her act to
Broadway. It was there that she teamed up with Ted Shapiro as a piano player
for her act and Jack Yellen as a songwriter. This proved to be a successful
team and throughout the 1920s she performed in many locales and recorded
for several record labels. During this period she still took vocal lessons
from the likes of Mamie Smith and Ethel Waters.
In 1929
she made her first picture the now lost Honky Tonk.
In 1930
Tucker traveled to Britain to star in the musical Follow A Star.
It was a big success at London's Winter Garden Theatre, but she quit early
because she grew tired of it. All of the selections in this update
come from Follow A Star. Composer Sidney Baynes was
the conductor for the show and on these recordings, which come from that
show.
In the
1940s 1950s and 1960s Sophie Tucker continued to perform with Ted Shapiro
including numerous live, film and television appearances.
In 1966,
Sophie Tucker died of lung cancer but remains remembered and enjoyed today
thanks to her recordings.
-
Matt From College Station
EXTRA
This
section will present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the
range of the vintage pop and jazz fare that I usually present.
Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres
and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
One
More Hour Of Love
Ray Ventura And His Collegians
1932
(Decca F 2838 mx GB 3852)
Toujours
L’Amour In The Army
Ray Ventura And His Collegians
1932
(Decca F 2838 mx GB 3851)
Ray Ventura
was France's most popular jazz and dance band and, as was the case with
these selections, his recordings were often issued on British labels, including
Decca. He performed throughout the 1920s and 193's and continued to perform
in Argentina after the outbreak of World War II.
These
recordings are special because they feature songs from the operetta and
Hollywood film The Smiling Lieutenant . The film version directed
by Ernst Lubitsch was made in 1931 by Paramount and starred Claudette Colbert
and Maurice Chevalier. It is a most enjoyable film to watch, if you can
find it, because the music is wonderful and the story is entertaining.
The film was adapted from the 1907 Oscar Straus operetta Ein Walzertraum
(which,
by the way, Dismuke says is his favorite operetta). Straus was famous
for being a major player in the "silver" era of Viennese operetta.
It is sad that such quality music is not written much today.
- Matt From College
Station
|