There’s
A Little Picture Playhouse In My Heart
Russ Morgan & His Orchestra
Chick Bullock, vocal
1935
(Perfect 16098 B mx 17033)
You
Opened My Eyes
Russ Morgan & His Orchestra
Chick Bullock, vocal
1935
(Perfect 16098 A mx 17034)
Russ Morgan is best remembered for
his trademark "wah-wah" style trombone and as the leader of a sweet band
that enjoyed its peak popularity in the very late 1940s and early 1950s
at a time when most big bands were rapidly dying out. The band, however,
dates back to 1935 and is still active today.
As a child Morgan worked in a Pennsylvania
coal mine to help support his family and earn money for piano lessons.
By his late teens, he had learned to play the trombone and worked with
Billy Lustig's Scranton Sirens, an early white jazz band which was a training
ground for a number of important musicians including Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.
In the late 1920s, Morgan was an arranger and trombonist for the Detroit-based
Jean Goldkette Orchestra. While in that city, he also became the
music director of radio station WXYZ. In the early 1930s he
worked in New York City as an arranger for Broadway productions and as
a pianist and trombonist for several several of the city's more successful
bands. He also became a music director for the American Record Corporation.
In 1935, with encouragement and
assistance from Rudy Vallee, Morgan launched his own band with a successful
engagement at New York's Biltmore Hotel. While the band enjoyed
modest success throughout the late 1930s and 1940s its big year was 1949
when four of its records hit the charts. The band is still active today
under the direction of son Jack Morgan.
Both of these selections were recorded
on March 14, 1935 and my guess is a studio band that Morgan led in his
capacity as an American Record Corporation music director and NOT his own
band that he led that same year at the Biltmore Hotel.
- Dismuke
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comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly
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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.
Carioca
RKO Studio Orchestra
1935
(Victor 24515 B)
Raftero
Nat Finston And Paramount Studio Orchestra
1935
(Victor 24515 A)
Here are a couple of Latin style
selections from two successful mid 1930s films. I am pretty sure
that these are NOT soundtrack recordings but rather the result of record
company recording sessions featuring the movie studios' orchestra.
"Carioca" comes from the RKO film
Flying
Down To Rio which starred Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
The film is available on DVD and is enjoyable.
"Raftero" is from the 1934 Paramount
film Bolero which starred George Raft, Carole Lombard and the famous
"fan dancer" Sally Rand. Conductor Nat Finston joined Paramount Pictures
in 1928 as founder of its music department just as the studio was starting
its transition from silent pictures to talkies. Finston remained
with Paramount until 1935 when he became the head of M-G-M's music department.
- 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.
