May 2003
May 29, 2003
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
(Click On Image For Larger View)
Atwater-Kent Radio
(from 1925 ad)
Wa
Wa Wa
The Savannah Syncopators
1926
(Brunswick 3373-B)
Someday
Sweetheart
The Savannah Syncopators
1926
(Brunswick 3373-A)
"Savannah Syncopators" was a recording
pseudonym for the Dixie Syncopators, a band that jazz pioneer King
Oliver took over from Dave Peyton in 1925 after the break up
of his famous Creole Jazz Band.
In 1927, Oliver made the unfortunate
decision to turn down a long term, high profile engagement at Harlem's
Cotton Club. The job was given to Duke Ellington and helped to propel
him to superstar status. From then on, Oliver's career and health
went into decline. In 1929, The Dixie Syncopators was
taken over by Oliver's pianist, Luis Russell. By the mid 1930s,
the great pioneer of jazz who introduced Louis Armstrong to the world was
largely forgotten. For a while he earned his living operating a fruit
stand in Savannah, Georgia. At the time of his death in 1938, he
was working as a janitor in a pool hall.
May 22, 2003
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
(Click On Image For Larger View)
American Telephone And Telegraph
Company
(from 1932 ad)
Maple
Leaf Rag
Victor Arden - Phil Ohman, piano
1930
(Victor 22608-B)
Maple
Leaf Rag
Earl Hines and His Orchestra
1934
(Brunswick <British> 01995 mx
C9463)
Thanks to a very successful revival
in the 1973 film The Sting, many will recognize this Scott Joplin
classic which dates back to around 1897.
Joplin named the song after the
Maple Leaf Club, a short-lived black social club in Sedalia, Missouri.
After being rejected by music publishers, "Maple Leaf Rag" was finally
published in 1899. The song became a best seller (In sheet music
sales, that is. It wasn't until a few years later that the phonograph became
a commonplace fixture in middle class parlors) and sparked a nationwide
craze for ragtime compositions.
Joplin continued to write ragtime
music throughout the 1900s and into the 1910s. Sadly, none of his
works even began to approach the commercial success of "Maple Leaf Rag."
Joplin also wrote two ragtime inspired operas Guest of Honor in
1903 and Treemonisha which was copyright in 1911. Guest
of Honor was performed by a short-lived touring company financed by
Joplin himself. The production, however, was soon forced to break
up when its box office receipts were stolen and Joplin was unable to meet
payroll. He never fully recovered from the financial loss. Unfortunately,
the score to Guest of Honor was never submitted to the Library
of Congress and no known copy exists.
Joplin's final years were
spent in a constant but futile quest to secure financial backing for a
production of Treemonisha. It was not until 1975 that the
opera was finally performed. Joplin's final year was spent
enduring the mental and physical effects of syphilis. He died in
a mental hospital in 1917.
But while Joplin was largely forgotten
by the time he died and the popularity of ragtime gave way
to jazz during the early 1920s, "Maple Leaf Rag" continued to live on
and a number of recordings of it were made throughout the 1920s, 1930s
and 1940s by a variety of artists.
This week's first selection is performed
by Victor Arden and Phil Ohman, a famous piano duo whose performances on
piano rolls and records were popular during the late 1920s. They
also fronted their own dance band.
The second selection by Earl Hines
and His Orchestra was originally issued in the US on Decca 218.
My copy, however, is the British release on the British Brunswick label
and has an interesting history of its own. On the label is a paper
stamp indicating that it was first sold in Nazi Germany by Alberti, a very
famous record store located near Berlin's Kurfürstendamm.
Alberti was a well known source for imported records frowned upon by Nazi
officials. In 1943, the store burned down after being closed
by the Gestapo on grounds that it was selling the enemy's music.
Indeed, it was - as this recording of a song by a black American composer
performed by an all black jazz band demonstrates! More information
on the store can be found at this
website.
May 15, 2003
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
JELL-O
(from 1923 ad)
Back
Where The Daffodils Grow
Oriole Orchestra
1924
(Brunswick 2769-B)
I promise that this recording is
much better than the rather hokey sounding title might suggest.
The Oriole Orchestra was, in reality,
the Russo-Fiorito Orchestra which was co-led by Dan Russo and Ted Fiorito.
Fiorito moved to Chicago to join Russo's band in 1921. A year later
Fiorito became co-conductor when the band opened in a high profile engagement
at Detroit's Oriole Terrace nightclub. Many of the band's recordings
were made under the name of "The Oriole Terrace Orchestra" and "Russo &
Fiorito's Oriole Orchestra." In 1926, the band was chosen to open
Chicago's famous Aragon
Ballroom. Russo left the band in 1928 but he apparently made
some recordings on his own using the Oriole name as late as 1932.
During the 1930s, Fiorito's band was in demand at major hotel ballrooms
throughout the country and made a number of records for Brunswick and later
Decca. In 1932, future pin up girl Betty Grable joined the band as
a vocalist and appeared with the band in the 1933 film "Sweetheart of Sigma
Chi." Fiorito stopped recording in 1942 but continued to lead bands,
mostly in Las Vegas, through the 1960s.
One of the things that helped Fiorito's
bands was his talent as a songwriter. He wrote over 100 songs including
such hits as "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye" "I Never Knew" "Lily of Laguna"
and "Roll Along Prairie Moon."
May 8, 2003
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
Chicago Rubber Tire Roller Skates
(from 1930 ad)
And
Then Your Lips Met Mine
Cliff Roberts and His Orchestra
William Robyn, vocalist
1930
(Romeo 1530-B mx 110312)
Here is a largely forgotten song
that I think has a rather nice tune. Its lyrics were written by bandleader
and later television star Ozzie Nelson. This record was recorded
in late 1930 and released in early 1931.
The Cliff Roberts Orchestra made
recordings in the late '20s and early '30s for Cameo and its affiliated
Romeo label. I suspect that it was a recording pseudonym - but I
do not know for sure. If anyone out there has information, let me
know and I will publish it on next week's update.
Vocalist William Robyn made a number
of recordings on Victor, Cameo and other labels mostly during the early
1920s. His real name was William Rubin and he was born in 1894.
After his recording career ended, he performed for many years as a cantor
in New York synagogues. He died in 1996 at the age of 101.
5/9/03 - NOTE: I had an
errand to run downtown today so I stopped by the library and looked
at their copy of Brian Rust's hard-to-find American Dance Band Discography.
I was correct in assuming that "Cliff Roberts and His Orchestra" was not
a real band but rather a recording pseudonym. Most "Cliff Roberts"
recordings were, in fact, the Lou Gold band - as was the case with
this week's selection. However, the Sam Lanin, Smith Ballew and Ted
Wallace bands each made a small number of recordings using that pseudonym
as well. The use of the pseudonym started on Cameo and its
subsidiary Romeo label - however, after Cameo's 1928 merger with Pathé,
some of the Cliff Roberts material issued on Cameo/Romeo was also issued
on the Perfect label, which had previously been Pathé subsidiary.
This week's selection was one such example and was also issued on Perfect
15404. The exact recording date for the selection was December 9,
1930.
May 1, 2003
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
General Electric Refrigerator
Click On Image For Larger View
(from 1927 ad)
Hallelujah!
The Astorites
1927
(Harmony 412-H mx 144118)
Me
And My Shadow
The Astorites
Charles Hart, vocal
1927
(Harmony 412-H mx 144116)
The Astorites was a recording pseudonym
for the Fred Rich Orchestra which played at New York's Hotel Astor from
1922-1928. The Rich band was very prolific in the recording studio
during the late 1920s and early 1930s recording under numerous pseudonyms,
mostly for Columbia and its affiliated labels.
Both of this week's selections come
from opposite sides of an old Harmony record. Harmony was a bargain
label issued by Columbia. Releases on Harmony were also issued on Columbia's
other main bargain labels Velvet Tone and Diva. While a lot of interesting
stuff was issued on these labels, unfortunately, the technical quality
was usually poor even for its day as most were recorded using the outdated
acoustical equipment that Columbia had stopped using on its flagship label
when it switched over to electrical recording in 1925.
New York's Hotel Astor (image)
opened in 1904. The hotel's roof garden, The Astor Roof, became one
of America's best known dance band venues during the 1940s. Sadly,
the hotel closed in 1967 and was torn down and replaced by what I think
is a rather ugly
office building.
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