May 1

Scott Tissue
Soft As Old Linen
The Waldorf
Scott Paper Company
(from 1927 ad)

Eddie South was trained as a classical violinist at the Chicago Music College.  Because of the limited opportunities in classical music for black musicians, South began performing with Chicago area jazz bands.   South made several trips to Europe where he was especially influenced by gypsy music styles he heard in Budapest and which he eventually incorporated into his work.  "Alabamians" on the label credits refers to Club Alabam in Chicago where South performed at the time.

"By The Waters of the Minnetonka" was first published in 1913.  Composer Thurlow Lieurance was a teacher for a Chautauqua society which provided musical instruction to American Indians in traveling tent schools.  Lieurance developed in interest in Indian culture and music and began recording Indian performers using a portable Edison cylinder phonograph.  In 1911 he made several recordings by an Indian named Mortimer Dreamer on the Crow Indian reservation in Montana.   Lieurance took the melody from one of those songs and turned it into "By The Waters of The Minnetonka"   Copies of some of the the Lieurance cylinders of Mortimer Dreamer apparently still survive in the Library of Congress folk archives.  I was also able to locate a portrait of Mortimer Dreamer on a Smithsonian Institution website.

"La Rosita" was published in 1923 with "Paul DuPont" credited as the composer.  Paul DuPont was, in fact, a pseudonym for composer Walter Haenschen.  Haenschen was a recording director for Brunswick Records who is best remembered for his recording sessions under a different pseudonym: Carl Fenton And His Orchestra.   The Paul DuPont pseudonym was used because the intense rivalry between the major record companies at the time would have likely resulted in any  composition published under Haenschen's real name being deliberately ignored by the other labels.

"That's What I Call Keen" was published in 1928 with music by Ted Fiorito and lyrics by Gus Kahn.

 - Dismuke
 
 

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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.
 
 

  

"Please"    mp3 stream  |  Real Audio Stream  | Real Audio File
Sam Coslow  1932
(Victor 24144 A)

"Here Lies Love"    mp3 stream  |  Real Audio Stream  | Real Audio File
Sam Coslow  1932
(Victor 24144 B)

"Say It Isn't So"    mp3 stream  |  Real Audio Stream  | Real Audio File
Sam Coslow  1932
(Victor 24143 A)

"Give Her A Kiss"    mp3 stream  |  Real Audio Stream  | Real Audio File
Sam Coslow  1932
(Victor 24143 B)

Sam Coslow is famous as a composer of many hit songs in the 1920s and 1930s.  But he was also a "crooner" featured on several Victor recordings between 1928 and 1933.  He also recorded for Columbia in 1928 and Vocalion in 1933 and made recordings in England for HMV and UK Decca in 1934 and 1935.

All of the selections featured here come from the same recording session and are of songs by other composers.  

I enjoy Coslow's vocals on  these recordings - and you can definitely hear a Bing Crosby influence on their overall style.

 - Dismuke
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board.