ALL THAT JAZZ♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪

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Bing Crosby with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra 1930


Taken from the 1930 movie "King of Jazz".

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Johnny Dodds-After You're Gone


Tribute to legendary jazz clarinetist Johnny Dodds who appeared in his own groups and played with King Oliver.

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Jimmy Lunceford


Jimmy Lunceford

Pianist and bandleader, Bennie Moten helped to establish what is called the Kansas City Jazz style. In 1922 he formed the B. B. & D. Trio (Beenie, Bailey and Dude, although they were popularly referred to as Big, Black and Dirty) and made his recording debut in 1923, when his band accompanied Blues singer Ada Brown on the song "Evil Mama Blues". In 1926, Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra began recording for Victor. Moten had several bands touring under his name in the 1920s. Moten started "raiding" another Kansas City band, The Blue Devils for musicians. Count Basie left the Blue Devils in 1929 and was followed by Jimmy Rushing, Hot Lips Page, Eddie Durham and Ben Webster, thus forming the nucleus of the future Count Basie Orchestra. When Moten died in 1935 from a botched tonsillectomy, Basie took over the band. Under his leadership the band emerged as one of the greatest of all Jazz bands.

Professor Hot Stuff was recorded in Kansas City for Victor on October 30, 1930 as Victor 23429 and the orchestra included Basie and Rushing. Please click on the link below to download or listen to the MP3:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room31/866047/Bennie%20Motens%20Kansas%20City%20Orchestra-Professor%20Hot%20Stuff-Victor%2023429-1930.mp3

Pictured here, below, (photograph from the Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University) the Sam Morgan Jazz Band, was one of only about six New Orleans Jazz Band to record during the 1920's. The photo shows (from left to right) Nolan Williams, Isaiah Morgan, Jim Robinson, Sam Morgan, Earl Fouche, Sidney Brown, Andrew Morgan, and Johnny Dave. The Morgan band was another New Orleans group which worked on the steamboat 'Capitol', usually alternating with one of Fate Marable's, bands. Isaiah Morgan tells the story of a competition occurring on one such excursion in which Marable was so angered by the audience's enthusiasm for the Morgan band that he disconnected the amplifying device which the band was using. "The Streckfus people wondered why the band was not playing (or being heard), so I discovered Marable's trick, turned the amplifier on, and the day was won." The Morgan band, like Marable's, was known for its consistent dance tempo, which may have accounted for its popularity on the riverboats. However, by the latter 1920's, Marable's bands (co-led by St. Louis cornetist Dewey Jackson) were made up primarily of non-New Orleans musicians, so the Sam Morgan Jazz Band also had the advantage of being the home-town favorite.

Bogalusa Strut was recorded in New Orleans in 1927 for Columbia as one of their 140000 race series records. Please click on the link below to download or listen to the MP3:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room12/291850/sam%20morgans%20jazz%20band-bogalusa%20strut-1927.mp3

Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra was named for Tuxedo Dance Hall in New Orleans. The band played there from 1910 to 1913, when the club was closed after a shooting. Papa Celestin , the leader of the band, continued to lead a brass band in the city under the name of the Tuxedo Brass Band after the ballroom closed. In 1917 Celestin formed an earlier version of the orchestra that is represented by these recordings. The Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra continued to play throughout the Gulf Coast states until the early 1930s, when the Depression forced Celestin to leave the music business until after World War II. During the Dixieland revival of the late 1940s his music career was revitalized and he continued to play music until his death in 1954. Louis Armstrong, Johnny St. Cyr, and Zutty Singleton all played in Celestin's bands early in their careers.

Our featured selection is It's Jam Up, recorded by the band in New Orleans, Lousianna on Oxtober 25th, 1927. Please click on the link to download or listen to the MP3:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room25/659442/Tuxedo%20JB-Jam-1927.mp3

Even those closest to Davenport, Iowa-born Leon Bix Beiderbecke never really knew just who he was, or the source of the musical genius as cornetist, pianist and composer that brought him lasting worldwide fame. Many have called him "an enigma." After all, how probable was it that a mostly self-taught young man from the mid-sized Iowa town on the Mississippi River would ever play and compose such incomparable music. Bix was born on March 10, 1903, blazed like a jazz comet through the "Roaring '20's,' and died, worn-out and deathly ill, on Aug. 6, 1931, at the age of only 28. How likely was it that he would be little more than an asterisk to the Jazz Age, if that, or that in more recent years he would be the subject of three films, at least five books, countless magazine and newspaper articles, and conversation wherever jazz fans and musicians gather? He was a wash-out in school, never properly learned to read music, yet astounded his colleagues wherever he played. In his short life, Bix composed just five pieces, work that bear the stamp of genius and further enhanced his reputation. Music, including the classics, was the one true love of his life, and when he was playing he was immersed and oblivious to anything else. He went from the Wolverines, to the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, and finally to the very "mountain-top" of the Twenties, the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. There were many recordings in between. Still, he could never get his personal life in order, and those who knew him wondered if musically he ever found what he was looking for, perhaps something dreamed of, but unattainable. In his autobiography, "Sometimes I Wonder," friend and fellow musician Hoagy Carmichael wrote, "He was our golden boy, doomed to an untimely end." Hoagy also said, "In Harlem, in Hollywood, in the Chicago South Side, in Le Jazz Hot joints in Paris where the city folk come to listen to his records, they still talk of Bix Beiderbecke." Hoagy told of a time after a gig that he and Bix stopped on a cold night along a lonely country road, took out their horns, and began playing: "Bix was off. Clean, wonderful streams of melody filled the dawn, ruffled the countryside, stirred the still night. "I bolted along to keep up a rhythmic lead while Bix laid it out. A wind drove autumn leaves around us. Bix finished in one amazing blast of pyrotechnic improvisation. He took his horn away from his mouth, as if in a sleepwalker's dream." One writer wrote of there being "elusive bars that only Bix could hear." An unknown jazz musician perhaps summed up the essence of Bix: "Once you hear him blow four notes on that horn, your life will never be the same."

The band members included Bix of course, on cornet, Bill Rank on Trombone, Chauncey Morehouse on Drums, Don Murray on Clarinet and many others, too numerous to list.

Our featured selection was recorded as Okeh 41173 on September 21, 1928 in New York City and is entitled Louisianna. Please click on the link below to listen or download:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room11/282626/Bix%20and%20HisGang-Louisiana-okeh%2041173-1928.mp3

The Hot Five was Louis Armstrong's first jazz recording band led under his own name. It was a typical New Orleans jazz band, consisting of trumpet, clarinet, and trombone backed by a rhythm section. The original New Orleans jazz style leaned heavily on collective improvisation, where the three horns together played the lead: the trumpet played the main melody, and the clarinet and trombone played improvised accompaniments to the melody. This tradition was continued in the Hot Five, but because of Armstrong's creative gifts as a trumpet player, solo passages where the trumpet played alone began to appear more frequently. In these brilliant solos, Armstrong laid down the basic vocabulary of jazz improvising, and became its founding and most influential exponent. The Hot Five a recording group organized at the suggestion of Richard M. Jones for Okeh Records. All their records were made in Okeh's Chicago, Illinois recording studio, except for the session made under the pseudonym "Lil's Hotshots" for Vocalion/Brunswick. There were two different groups called "Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five", the first recording from 1925 through 1927 and the second in 1928; Armstrong was the only musician in both groups. The first Hot Five The original Hot Five was, other than Armstrong's wife Lil Hardin Armstrong on piano, all New Orleans musicians who Armstrong had worked with in that city the 1910s: Kid Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, and Johnny St. Cyr on guitar and banjo. For some or all of the Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven sides, Ory was in New York City working with King Oliver's band, and was replaced, probably by John Thomas. On one session in December of 1927, Lonnie Johnson was added on guitar. 

The Last Time was recorded for Okeh records in 1927 and has some of the most brilliant solos of Armstrong included. Please click on the link below to download or listen to:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room25/659442/Louis%20Armstrongs%20Hot%20Five-The%20Last%20Time-1927.mp3

The Savoy Bearcats were an eleven piece band that played at the Savoy in New York between the years of 1924 and 1926. The Savoy Bearcats were really quite a good, hot group. The leader of the band was violinist Leon Abbey. Before they landed the gig at the Savoy they went by the name of the Charleston Bearcats. The group was a co-operative, meaning that they equally split the income of the band among all of the band members. When their stint at the Savoy ended in 1927 the group became known as Leon Abbey's Band. Abbey took a band to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a year. The band returned to New York where Abbey lined up a job in Paris. The band decided that they were not interested in going to France, so Abbey formed another group that played in Europe and Asia for over a decade. Abbey didn't return to America until the outbreak of World War Two in 1939. He continued to lead bands in New York and Chicago until the 1960s when he retired from music.

 The band members include Leon Abbey Violin, Leader Demas Dean Trumpet Henry Edwards Tuba Ramon Hernandez Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone Carmelo Jari Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone Willie Lynch Drums Otto Mikell Clarinet, Alto Saxophone Gilbert Paris Trumpet Jules Reevy Trombone Freddy White Banjo, Guitar.

Senegalese Stomp was recorded for Victor as number 20182 on August 23, 1926 in New York City. Please click on the link below to listen or download:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/31441/Sengalese%20Stomp.mp3

The Washboard Rhythm Kings (which had different personnel on each session) played jubilant jazz that defied the soothing musical trend of the early Depression years, featuring a washboard player and usually a couple of horns along with spirited group vocals. The emphasis was on basic goodtime music that fell between Dixieland and swing. It debuted as the Alabama Washboard Stompers in 1930, became the Washboard Rhythm Kings in 1931, and by 1934-1935 was known as the Georgia Washboard Stompers. Some of the personnel have never been identified, but among the known players are guitarist Teddy Bunn; trumpeters Taft Jordan and Valaida Snow; singer Leo Watson; and such regulars as singer Jake Fenderson, Steve Washington on banjo and vocals, and Ben Smith on clarinet and alto. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

The recording of If You Were Only Mine  is known to have been completed in 1932 in New York City under Victor 23367, but the exact recording date remains elusive. Please click on the link below to download or to listen:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room25/659442/Washboar%20Rhythm%20Kings-If%20you%20were%20Only%20Mine-Victor%2023367-1932.mp3

The year 1899 was a seminal one in American music. For in the space of seven months three auspicious events took place. Scott Joplin published his Maple Leaf Rag-whose acceptance would become emblematic of the mainstreaming of African-American music in American culture. And two figures who would play pivotal roles in 20th century music-Duke Ellington and Hoagy Carmichael-were born. Born Hoagland Howard Carmichael in Bloomington, Indiana, he grew up in very modest circumstances. His father earned an on-again, off-again living as an electrician. His mother played piano for dances at local fraternity parties and at "silent" movies. Hoagy would tag along. Like a sponge, he absorbed music from his mother, from the visiting circuses, and from the black families and churches in his neighborhood. Ragtime was in the air, and his mother mastered the Maple Leaf Rag and other popular tunes of the day. In 1916, his family moved to Indianapolis. There, Hoagland came under the influence of an African-American pianist named Reginald DuValle, who gave him a great piece of advice: "Never play anything that ain't right," he admonished the young pianist. "You may not make a lot of money, but you'll never get hostile with yourself." DuValle gave Carmichael pointers about playing hot ragtime and the emerging style of jazz. Carmichael sought out cheap pianos in restaurants, night spots, and brothels where he was allowed to sit in. Back in Bloomington in 1919, Carmichael booked the Louisville-based band of Louie Jordan (not the later jump-blues singer), and this experience spurred Carmichael into becoming a self-described "jazz maniac." He also listened to records avidly. He made a trip to Chicago, where he heard Louis Armstrong-a musician who would influence him (and with whom he would record later). After completing high school, Carmichael entered Indiana University where, judging from his memoir The Stardust Road it would seem he majored in girls, campus capers, and hot music. He reveled in a growing passion for jazz, and started his own group, Carmichael's Collegians, which developed a reputation not only on campus, but in the region, as they traveled through Indiana and Ohio to entertain young dancers. In the spring of 1924, Bix Beiderbecke--a young cornetist out of Davenport, Iowa-came to Indiana University. Carmichael booked him to play a series of ten fraternity dances, and the two became fast friends. It was for Beiderbecke that Carmichael wrote his first piece, titling it Free Wheeling. Beiderbecke took it with him to Richmond, Indiana (100 miles to the East), home of the early record company, Gennett Records, and waxed it with his seven-piece band, The Wolverines. It was now retitled Riverboat Shuffle. Carmichael himself got a chance to record at Gennett studios, in 1927. One of the numbers he recorded on Halloween, 1927, was an up-tempo wordless original called Star Dust. It initially landed with a thud. Meanwhile, Carmichael managed to secure his Bachelor's degree in 1925 and a law degree in 1926, both at Indiana University. After completing his law degree he briefly hung out a shingle in West Palm Beach, Florida, but after happening on a recording of his song Washboard Blues, he gave up law for good in favor of music. Carmichael closed the chapter on the first of three periods in his life when he left Indiana in 1929 and moved to New York City-where you had to go to make it in the music business. By day he worked for a brokerage house, while by night he wrote songs and made musical contacts--among them his idols Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong, as well as the Dorsey brothers, clarinetist Benny Goodman, trombonist Jack Teagarden, and a hopeful lyricist out of Savannah, Georgia, named Johnny Mercer-ten years Carmichael's junior. They began writing songs together, such as Lazy Bones which became a huge hit in 1933, even at the depth of the Depression. In January,1929, Mills Music Company of New York published Carmichael's Stardust, still a wordless instrumental. In May of that year, the piece was published as a song, with lyrics by Mitchell Parrish, a New York lyricist working for Mills. But still the song went nowhere. In May, 1930, bandleader Isham Jones recorded the song, slowing the tempo and now the song began its skyward ascent, as more and more musicians were attracted to its dreamy, romantic qualities. Carmichael was now writing folksy songs that would become jazz standards-notably Rockin' Chair (copyrighted in 1930) and Lazy River (1931). During the five years from 1929 to 1934, Carmichael made 36 recordings for the Victor company-the nation's leading record label. He was rubbing elbows-and recording-with some of the great talents in jazz: Louis Armstrong, Henry "Red" Allen, Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Mildred Bailey, and Jack Teagarden. In 1931, he was admitted to membership in the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), signifying his arrival in the songwriting fraternity. In 1931, the death of his close friend Beiderbecke closed a chapter in his life and seemed to lessen his fire for jazz. By the mid-1930s, he was enjoying considerable financial success as a songwriter, and the mainstream beckoned him. He made several life changes in 1936. He married a Ruth Meinardi of Winona Lake, Indiana. The couple would have two sons-Hoagy Bix and Randy-though the marriage would break up in 1955. And in 1936 Carmichael left New York City for good, thus closing the second big chapter in his life. He moved to Hollywood, where, as he put it, "the rainbow hits the ground for composers." Thus began the third and final phase of his musical career. Working for Paramount Pictures, he teamed with lyricist Frank Loesser on such songs as Two Sleepy People, Small Fry, and Heart and Soul. In 1939, Carmichael and Mercer collaborated on a Broadway musical, Walk with Music, but it closed quickly; this would be Carmichael's only foray into musical theater. Otherwise, he composed "independent songs"-songs meant to stand alone of any production-as well as songs for the movies. After a bit part as a piano player in the 1937 film Topper, Carmichael was given roles in other movies, including To Have and Have Not (1942) where Lauren Bacall introduced How Little We Know. Then followed The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Canyon Passage (1945, where his performance of Ole Buttermilk Sky helped make it a hit), and Young Man with a Horn (1950), a fictionalized life of his good friend Beiderbecke. In the 1940s, Carmichael's career took off in multiple ways-as a songwriter, as a singer (recording for three labels), as a movie actor, and as a radio star (he had his own series on three networks), and as an author (his first book of memoirs, The Stardust Road, was published in 1946). More than any other decade, the '40s marked the peak of his career and popularity. One of his songs from 1942, the resplendent Skylark (with a fine Mercer lyric), like Stardust, seemed to have the improvisations built right into the melody; it became a standard among singers and jazz musicians. In many of his songs from his California years, however, the jazz influence is not as obvious. Another collaboration with Mercer, the 1951 film song In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening earned Carmichael an Academy Award for best song. Several of his 1950s songs-My Resistance Is Low and Winter Moon-found modest success, and he continued to compose, but he would have no more major successes as a songwriter. He had enjoyed a fertile creative run of more than twenty years-no mean feat in the fast-evolving, fickle world of popular music. And popular tastes in music were changing in the 1950s-rhythm & blues and rock & roll brought harmonically simplified songs, heavy with beat, to the fore, grabbed young listeners, and began taking over the airwaves. The "golden era" of American popular song, in the view of many, was over. But once launched, many of Carmichael's songs took on lives of their own, finding favor and permanent homes in the repertories of singers and instrumentalists from various corners of American music. When, for example, Ray Charles made a huge hit and earned a Grammy Award for his moving rendition of Georgia, it helped the song find new audiences and live on in cultural memory. Already an evergreen, Stardust grew taller and stouter during the late 1950s and the 1960s, and RCA Victor even issued an LP, The Stardust Road, with nothing but different versions of the song. In 1965, his second book of memoirs, Sometimes I Wonder, was issued. Carmichael became something of a fixture on television of the 1950s, even playing a straight dramatic role on the TV Western, Laramie, in 1959-60. He became an avid golfer and coin collector, and still wrote songs-though hardly any of them were to be recorded. He maintained an interest in children and in 1971 published Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop, a collection of songs he composed for children. In 1977, Carmichael married the actress Wanda McKay after what was termed "a long courtship." Golf and coin collecting were two avid pursuits. He returned a number of times to his native Indiana, and, as his years grew, was increasingly honored. In 1972, Indiana University awarded him an honorary doctorate and in 1974, the university's rare book archive, the Lilly Library, curated an exhibition in his honor. In 1979, Carnegie Hall held a tribute concert. In 1980, a stage production, Hoagy, Bix, and Wolfgang Beethoven Bunkhaus, moved from England to the United States, playing in Indianapolis and Los Angeles. After suffering a heart attack, Carmichael died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, on December 27, 1981. His body was returned to his native Bloomington for burial. In the years after his death, his place in the cultural firmament has slowly risen. His family donated his archives and memorabilia to Indiana University, which in 1986 opened the Hoagy Carmichael Room in his honor. In 1988, the Indiana Historical Society and the Smithsonian Institution issued a lavishly illustrated boxed set of recordings, The Classic Hoagy Carmichael, which earned Grammy Award nominations for Best Album Notes and Best Historical Album. In 1997, the United States Postal Service, acting on a recommendation from this author, issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honor. During his centennial year of 1999, there were radio broadcasts, concert programs, and songbook publications. His two memoirs were restored to print when Da Capo Press issued them in a combined edition-The Stardust Road & Sometimes I Wonder: The Autobiographies of Hoagy Carmichael. Then came word of a forthcoming biography by the cornetist and author Richard M. Sudhalter. With rare exceptions, until Carmichael came along, songwriters were a separate group from singers. Something of a modern minstrel, Carmichael was one of the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media. He paved the way for later such performing writers as Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and Joni Mitchell. His down-home Hoosier accent and singing style he described as "flatsy through the nose" made him seem like one of the people. In fact, more so than many songwriters (for example, fellow Hoosier Cole Porter), Carmichael's songs appealed to all sections of American society-from the Wall Street broker to the sharecropper farmer. He was a musical democrat. If Carmichael's singing voice was as unmistakable as his nickname "Hoagy," similarly no one would mistake his songs for those of Gershwin or Porter or any other songwriter. While there is no single Carmichael "sound," his songs nonetheless sound like him. His melodies are so strong and distinctive that they usually dominate the other elements of his songs. Many of these melodies move to unusual intervals, cover a wide range, and display the instrumental influence of jazz. Most have few repeated notes, and most travel an unpredictable path-they are fresh. And that's one reason why so many of them have remained with us for decades. His two greatest songs-Stardust and Skylark-reveal deep jazz influences: eloquent, lyrical, striking melodies that seem like Beiderbeckian solos captured for all time. The composer himself said, "The Bix influence was there. And the improvisations are already written." Other songs reveal a gift for harmony: the unusual chord progressions in Baltimore Oriole, the unconventional harmonies that end Rockin' Chair, and creative middle sections (what musicians call "the bridge") of both Skylark and Georgia, and the abrupt key change in the chorus of Washboard Blues. His music was deeply rooted in his native Indiana, and in the ragtime and jazz he grew up with, as much as any influence from Tin Pan Alley. He turned instinctively to the vernacular sounds of Indiana, New Orleans, and Chicago. His world of songs was often small-town, early twentieth-century America, a time of Lazy Rivers, old Rockin' Chairs, and Watermelon Weather. So familiar and timeless were Carmichael's songs that several entered aural tradition. Rockin' Chair seemed to some so down-home that they thought it a folk song. With its repeating notes and stepwise melodic motion, Heart and Soul was so easy to remember that, in the years after 1950, it became familiar to virtually every American kid with a piano and a pal to play the other part. It was common coin among children. And so it was-through the uniqueness of his songs, the charm of his performances, and the technology of the mass media-that Hoagy Carmichael's music found a place in the American consciousness, and that of much of the English-speaking world. His songs are at least as enduring as many public buildings of his day. And no doubt they will continue to give meaning and pleasure to people for a very, very long time. ________________________________________ John Edward Hasse is Curator of American Music at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington and the editor of Jazz: The First Century. He produced and annotated the three-disc boxed set of recordings, The Classic Hoagy Carmichael. Hasse holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Indiana University. He lectures and performs widely in American music.

I am pleased to present a rare soundie of Hoagy Carmichael at the piano singing his 1933 composition Lazy Bones. Although the clip is from much later than the era this blog site tends to focus on, it is historical, non the less. Please click on the link below to view or download the clip:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room14/339441/sound-lazybones.avi

FRED RICH & HIS ORCHESTRA Pianist Fred Rich hired many jazz musicians for his own orchestra and many of these tunes included Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang and Stan King. Here are the records and their recording dates.

H ELLO ALOHA, HOW ARE YOU?..................141988=2 HAR171H 04/20/26 DIXIE JAMBOREE (vR)........................149429=2 COL2043D 11/15/29 HE'S SO UNUSUAL (vR).......................149430=3 COL2043D 11/15/29 DIXIE JAMBOREE.............................100341=1 HAR1063H 11/15/29 HE'S SO UNUSUAL............................100340=1 HAR1063H 11/15/29 COLLEGIATE LOVE............................403746=A OK41386 2/7/30 ACCORDION JOE..............................403747=A OK41386 2/7/30 I WAS MADE TO LOVE YOU.....................403748=C OK41395 2/7/30 WASTING MY LOVE ON YOU.....................150812=1 HAR1220H 9/17/30 SWEETHEART OF MY STUDENT DAYS..............404463=1 OD36145 9/17/30 YOU'RE LUCKY TO ME.........................404464=1 OD36146 9/17/30 I GOT RHYTHM...............................150908=2 HAR1234H 10/29/30 CHEERFUL LITTLE EARFUL.....................100439=1 HAR1249H 11/19/30 LITTLE THINGS IN LIFE......................100437=1 HAR1240H 11/19/30 I'M TICKLED PINK WITH A BLUE EYED BABY.....404559A OD36165 11/19/30 I'M SO AFRAID OF YOU.......................151183=1 HAR1269H 1/7/31 WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE A WALK..............151190=1 HAR1269H 1/7/31 PLEASE DON'T TALK ABOUT ME WHEN I'M GONE...408436B OK41484 2/9/31 WHEN I TAKE MY SUGAR TO TEA................100501=1 HAR1307H 3/18/31 LITTLE GIRL................................HOWJ4 HOWJ4 8/?/31 WHY CAN'T YOU..............................148426 COL1878D 4/12/29 NOBODY BUT YOU.............................148503 COL1838D 5/10/29 WISHING AND WAITING FOR LOVE...............148693 COL1924D 6/12/29 ======================================================================= STEVEN ABRAMS ALPHA MUSIC: www.oldvintagejazz.com 

Our selection today was recorded on April 12th 1929 as Columbia 1878 D, and is entitled Why Can't You.. Please click on the link below to listen or download:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room17/430494/Fred%20Rich%20and%20his%20orchestra-why%20can%20t%20you-columbia%201878%20D-1929.mp3

The Lud Gluskin Orchestra was the only American orchestra continuously based in Europe during the late 1920s and early '30s. While their recorded output was basically of the commercial dance band variety, nearly all of the members were primarily "hot" men and could - and did - play excellent jazz. The large majority of Americans in the group were from Detroit, and the Goldkette influence is evident. According to local laws, at least one-fourth of the orchestra was required to be French, and the very best of these musicians were always used by Gluskin. The first recording session was on December 30, 1927, and the records were labeled as by "Lud Gluskin and His Versatile Juniors". Record producer Warren K. Plath put an album together in 1980 titled "BLACK AND WHITE JAZZ IN EUROPE, 1929". The album featured the music of three great 'European' bands; Lud Gluskin, Sam Wooding and Gregor. Here are Plath's Liner Notes : "The three orchestras portrayed here were among the best in Europe for the period, and were hired basically because they put forth excellent dance music. Yet each band was able to incorporate jazz solos within their dance music, hence these cuts will be of much interest to the jazz fan. Fortunately, Wooding and Gluskin had any number of good jazz men and - in Brun and Cohanier - Gregor had two of the best available. The contrast in styles is interesting: the easy going Harlem sound of Wooding; the crisp Goldkette atmosphere created by Gluskin; and (excepting Brun and Cohanier) the handicap of the Gregor group with the use of French musicians who were not acquainted with the American dance music idiom. These three bands crossed paths during their respective careers. Gluskin and Gregor played opposite each other during summer, 1929, at Le Touquet, Paris-Plage, while Wooding followed Gluskin at the Roof Garden of Haus Germania in Ber n. Gluskin closed 1929 at the latter location; Wooding and Gregor were in Paris; and the ensuing years had all three decreasing the jazz solos and settling down to more straight dance music." "The first quarter of 1929 was a busy one for the Gluskin Orchestra. (His orchestra was then known as 'Lud Gluskin and his Ambassadonians'). In addition to playing at 'The Ambassadors' in Berlin for the tea dances, and dancing and floor shows at night, the band made several short subjects and signed "exclusive" contracts with five different record companies. Record collectors often refer to January, February and March, 1928, as a "marathon" recording session for the Paul Whiteman band which recorded over 20 titles. During the same period in 1929, Gluskin recorded over 110 tunes." "The four examples in this album are each from a different record company. "Tiger Rag" still uses the Goldkette arrangement though comparison with the two tracks on Wolverines #1 and #2 will indicate entirey different solos. "I Wanna Be Loved By You" is a typical pop number of the day with a fine alto sax solo by (Gene) Prendergast in the last bridge." "That's My Weakness Now" is taken at a breakneck tempo with a bridge by Christian and Prendergast and Ritten riding out the last chorus. This was originally recorded for the Artiphon Company in 1929; and the masters were used by the Phonycord Company in 1930 to press pure vinyl, flexible discs. "That's A Plenty" is easily the rarest of all the Gluskin European records (only one copy is known), appearing on a 12" disc made to be used as sound with an early UFA short subject, featuring Black dancer Barbara La May. Here's a late photo of Spencer Clark, holding his wonderful Bass Sax....who makes himself heard on the record, taking the only solo. Listen carefully to the end of the record and you will hear the UFA extras dutifully applauding as La May finishes her number." The sidemen at this time consisted of: Eddie Ritten, Faustin Jeanjean, trumpets; Emile Christian, tro mbone; Gene Prendergast, Georges Charron, Maurice Cizeron, Serge Glykson, Spencer Clark, reeds; Fred Zierer, violin; Paulie Freed, piano; Howard E. Kennedy, banjo; Arthur Pavoni, bass; Bart Curtis, drums. Berlin, January 17, 1929 "Tiger Rag" (2188) Tri-Ergon 5463 Berlin, January 25, 1929 "I Wanna Be Loved By You" (480) Homocord 3043 (vocal, Bart Curtis backed by Ritten, Christian and Kennedy) Berlin, March 1929 "That's My Weakness Now" (3513) Phonycord 235 Berlin, during first quarter of 1929 "That's A Plenty" (4070) British Phototone 4070 (12") This information on Lud Gluskin was kindly supplied by Ms Eugenie J.(Prendergast) Wing.

I debated on whether or not to show this movie clip of the Lud Gluskin orchestra playing Dinah, as the clip is rather blurred and it is difficult to see the band members. However, since I believe this is perhaps the only known clip of the band, I will let you, the audience decide. Please click on the link below to view the movie clip:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd7/163551/gluskin.wmv 

In 1929 King Oliver signed a contract with Victor Talking Machine Company. These sessions turned out to be his last recordings as a band leader. Oliver had gum disease and was unable to play on many of these tracks and hired other trumpeters to play his parts. Oliver's nephew, Dave Nelson co-wrote many of these songs and wrote a great deal of the arrangements .

Among the more familiar of the musicians who were a part of the band were Henry Red Allen, Buster Bailey, Bubber Miley, Luis Rusell and James P. Johnson. Our selection today is Struggle Buggy recorded as Victor 23001-B on Jan 28, 1930 in New York City. Please click on the link below to listen to the MP3:

http://www.filelodge.com/files/room14/339441/king%20oliver%20-%20struggle%20buggy%205st%20.mp3