February 2004

February 26, 2004
 

 
Crashin' Thru
Joe Daniels and His 
Hot Shots In "Drumnastics"                     1939
(Decca 3370-A mx CE9782 (U.K.Parlophone))
 

Moonglow
Joe Daniels and His
Hot Shots In "Drumnastics"                    1937
(Decca 1792-B mx CE8465 (U.K.Parlophone))
 

Drummer Man From Dixie
Joe Daniels and His
Hot Shots In "Drumnastics"                    1938
(Decca 2725-B mx CE9229)
 

This week's selections feature an excellent British jazz band that I think has been undeservedly overlooked by modern audiences.  To my knowledge, there has only been one CD reissue of the band's recordings, a British release on the Vocalion label.  Joe Daniels was a drummer in several British dance bands, including the Harry Roy Orchestra before forming his own band in 1935.   All of the recordings featured this week are from American pressings on Decca.  In Britain the band's records were released on the Parlophone label.   Daniels must have had some amount of following in the USA as the American Decca pressings are not that difficult to come across. 
 
 

EXTRA

Note: In the past, I have featured an "extra" recording whenever the mood hit me to do so or when I upgraded the audio files elsewhere on the website.  Starting this week, "extras" will appear more frequently and with a somewhat different format.  I will use this space to present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Instead, I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings.  One of the more enjoyable aspects of buying a bulk lot of 78 rpm records is that one comes into possession of recordings that one would not normally seek out and purchase.  I have made many wonderful discoveries this way that have expanded my musical horizons.  My hope is that, in the weeks and months ahead, these "extra" recordings will do the same for you as well. 
 

Amorettenreigen - Waltz
Orchestra Mascotte with Edith Lorand             1928
(Parlophone R191 mx 34918)
 

Wiener Praeterleben - Waltz
Orchestra Mascotte with Edith Lorand                   1938
(Parlophone R191 mx 34749)

I think both of these recordings are quite beautiful. 

Edith Lorand was a world famous violinist in the late 1920s and 1930s who played a musical style known as "salon music" which was popular in Europe and in more refined American circles from the 1870s through the 1930s.  Salon music basically consisted of classical and light classical works, selections from operas, operettas and musical comedies and popular dance tunes performed by small groups of classically trained musicians.  Salon orchestras typically provided background music at elegant hotels, restaurants and social gatherings

Unfortunately, the only biographical information I could find about Edith Lorand was on a German language website.- and online translation services have definite limitations.  Lorand was born in Hungary in 1898 but spent most of her early career in Germany.  She was a prolific recording artist and her records sold extremely well.  She also toured extensively throughout Europe.  Lorand, who was Jewish, was forced to flee Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933 and made it impossible for her to find employment in that country.  Lorand moved to Hungary but anti-Semitism became a problem for her there as well under a government which was increasingly aligned with Nazi Germany.   In 1937, Lorand fled Europe for safety in the United States where she spent the rest of her life. 

The recordings featured here are from pressings issued by the British Parlophone label which imported a lot of material from Europe.  My guess is that the recordings were made in Germany, but I cannot be certain. 

"Amorettenreigen" was written by Czech composer Julius Fucik.  "Wiener Praterleben" was composed by Siegfried Translateur. 

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Listen To The Glissin'
Will Osborne And His Orchestra
Will Osborne, vocal                                    1937
(Decca 1915-B mx 63117)
 

So Lovely
Will Osborne And His Orchestra
Bob Gibson, vocal                                      1938
(Decca 1915-A mx 63817)
 

Would'st Could I But
Kiss Thy Hand Oh Babe
Will Osborne And His Slide Music
"Doghouse" Dale Jones, vocal                     1940
(Varsity 8143 mx US1158)
 

Rosalie
Will Osborne And His Orchestra
Will Osborne, vocal                                    1937
(Decca 1467-B mx 62615)
 

Will Osborne was a bandleader from the mid 1920s until the late 1950s.  Though he is largely forgotten today, in the early 1930s he was a well-known vocalist and participated in a much publicized on-air radio "feud" with Rudy Vallee over who deserved credit for inventing "crooning." 

Like most of the longer lasting dance bands, the Will Osborne orchestra changed with the times and sought out ways to differentiate itself from the competition.  In the late '30s and early '40s the band employed a stylistic gimmick that Osborne called "Slide Music" which emphasized slide trombones played into cardboard megaphones.   All of the recordings in this week's update are from this period.  Osborne himself describes the style in the lyrics of "Listen To The Glissin'."  Osborne was also a composer and had several hits to his credit including "Pompton Turnpike" and "Between 18th And 19th On Chestnut Street."  He was also the composer of this week's recording "Would'st Could I But Kiss Thy Hand Oh Babe" - and the song's title is not the only thing unusual about the recording. "Rosalie" is a Cole Porter composition and the title song of  a 1937 musical picture staring Nelson Eddy and Eleanor Powell. 

Will Osborne retired from bandleading in 1957 and became the music director for Harvey's Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. 

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Diga Diga Do - Parts 1 & 2
Bob Crosby and His Orchestra                    1938
((Decca 2275-A mx 91538, Decca 2275-B mx 91539)
 

Stomp Off And Let's Go
Bob Crosby and His Orchestra                    1939
(Decca 2379-B mx 64928)
 

Martha (Ah So Pure)
Connie Boswell, vocal
with Bob Crosby's Bob Cats                       1937
(Decca 1600-A mx DLA 1066)
 

The Bob Crosby band was formed in 1935 around the remnants of the Ben Pollack Orchestra which had broken up the previous year.  Deciding that they wanted to remain together, the musicians formed a corporate organization headed by sax player Gil Rodin with the Rockwell-O'Keefe booking agency as part owner.  Recognizing that he did not have the public persona necessary to be a successful front man, Rodin, at the suggestion of Cork O'Keefe, offered the position to Bob Crosby.  While Crosby's resume included stints as vocalist for the Anson Weeks and Dorsey Brothers orchestras, having an older brother named Bing, who just happened to be the nation's most popular crooner, certainly did not hurt his chances.  Crosby was not a musician and his function was strictly that of a front man and occasional vocalist.  Behind the scenes it was Rodin who ran the organization.   The band was extremely successful and is regarded by many as one of the big band era's better white jazz bands.  Its style was mostly - though not exclusively - Dixieland, something which was very much out of step with the times during the late 1930s when swing was overwhelmingly dominant and Dixieland was considered by some to be "old fashioned" and "corny."

This week's recording of "Diga Diga Do" has been in my collection for who knows how long - but it wasn't until recently that I finally got around to playing it for the first time.  The song, composed by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh was originally introduced a decade earlier in the all-black Broadway musical Blackbirds of 1928.  The Crosby band's swing rendition of it is a great example of how the band could, from time to time, break away from its usual Dixieland fare.  The recording takes up both sides of the 78 rpm record - thus the Parts 1 & 2.   Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, however, you will not have to turn the record over halfway through!

"Stomp Off And Let's Go" is one of the band's better known recordings and an excellent example of its Dixieland style.

"Martha (Ah So Pure)" is another recording that I only recently got around to giving a listen and I was immediately impressed by what I consider to be its pretty and almost haunting tune.  Turns out that  the song was already 90 years old when this recording was made. The song was originally  from the Friedrich von Flotow opera Martha which premiered in Vienna in 1847.  Jazz vocalist Connie Boswell was one of the three Boswell Sisters, a very successful female vocal act in the early 1930s.   When sisters Martha and Vet retired in 1936, Connie successfully continued her career as a soloist.   A victim of childhood polio, Boswell was confined to a wheelchair - and, as with FDR, this fact was often camouflaged in public appearances and publicity photos. 

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School House Blues
Bennie Kreuger's Orchestra                   1922
(Brusnswick 2181-B)
 

I've Got My Habits On
Bennie Kreuger's Orchestra                   1922
(Brunswick 2181-A)
 

By 1922, jazz had all but replaced ragtime as the inspiration for popular dance recordings.  Note that, unlike the recordings I recently featured from the previous decade, the arrangements on this week's selections do not simply repeat the same passages over again as if someone were trying to fill out the side of the record.  The commercial dance recordings of the early '20s may not have featured a great deal of the spontaneity and improvisation on the part of the musicians that is associated with the era's more "pure" jazz bands.  But the new acceptability of improvisation had a profound impact on arrangers who suddenly felt free to depart from the stock  versions issued by the music publishing houses and were thus able to recraft the song in ways that could fill out up a record without sounding repetitive and monotonous. 

"School House Blues" is an Irving Berlin composition which was featured in Berlin's Music Box Review of 1921.  The review played at Broadway's Music Box Theatre which is still in use to this day.  "I've Got My Habits On" was composed by comedian  Jimmy Durante

For more information about Bennie Kreuger, check  out the October 30, 2003 update which you can find in the "Previous Selections" archive below.