Madison 5098 – Lew Gold and his Orchestra/Tuxedo Syncopators – 1930

Posted on June 13, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

This record, a split release on Grey Gull’s Madison label, one of the later issues on the label, is interesting for a number of reasons. The first thing that sticks out about it is the color. Rather than the typical black, or slightly less typical red, it is pressed in dark brown shellac, one of several atypical shades used by Madison (though you can’t see that here thanks to the limitations of my format, so I suppose you’ll just have to take my word for that part). Most interesting, though, is the unusual pairing of songs; popular fox-trot on one side, and hot jazz on the other. This record is one of a handful of super hot jazz records made by Grey Gull in their later years, many of which could be considered among the hottest jazz put to record.

Madison 5098 was recorded in two separate sessions in New York City, the first side in December of 1929 (the precise date being unknown), and the second on January 30, 1930. As was often the case with records produced by the Grey Gull company, the “B” side was also released on a number of other labels, appearing on Grey Gull and Globe 1839, Radiex 923, and Van Dyke 81839, while this one appears to be the only release of the “A” side.

On side “A”, you find an elegant sweet dance band rendition of the classic “Confessin’ (That I Love You)” by Lew (or more commonly “Lou”) Gold and his Orchestra, with a vocal refrain by popular studio vocalist Paul Small. Turn the record over however, and you’ll find something quite different…

Confessin’ (That I Love You), recorded December 1929 by Lew Gold and his Orchestra.

Cliff Jackson, circa 1939. From Eddie Condon’s Scrapbook of Jazz.

On the reverse, you’re greeted by a red hot roaring Harlem jazz number by a band under a rather typical Grey Gull pseudonym, “Tuxedo Syncopators”. In actuality, it is stride pianist Cliff Jackson and his Crazy Kats (as their name appeared on non-pseudonymous record labels, i.e. not “Krazy Kats”), a band once considered one of the hottest in Harlem, who played at the Lenox Club on 652 Lenox Ave, a popular night spot for members of Duke Ellington’s orchestra.

“Horse Feathers” was the first recorded side at the first session by the Krazy Kats, who include, besides Cliff Jackson at the piano, Henry Goodwin playing exceptionally hot trumpet and singing the amazing scat vocal, Melvin Herbert on second trumpet, Waymon “Noisy” Richardson on trombone, Rudy Powell on clarinet and alto sax, Earl Evans on alto sax, Horace Langhorn providing tenor saxophone, Andy Jackson on banjo, Percy Johnson on the drums, and Chester Campbell providing the romping tuba bass. This is take “A” of two existing takes.

Horse Feathers, recorded January 30, 1930 by Tuxedo Syncopators.

Updated on June 24, 2016 and June 13, 2018, and with improved audio on July 16, 2017.

Superior 2815 – Happy Joe Hill – 1932

Posted on June 12, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

This record, featuring two guitar-accompanied popular songs by one Happy Joe Hill, was recorded by the Starr Piano Company quite late in their history, at a point when the Great Depression had all but killed off sales completely. The Superior label was introduced by Starr Piano around the time their Gennett label disappeared from the market. With the Great Depression only getting worse as time passed, all the record companies were in bad shape financially, the Starr Piano Company especially so, and as such, Superior records aren’t very commonly encountered.

Happy Joe Hill—per George Kay’s Superior Catalog published in Record Research—was a pseudonym for Harold J. Leslie. Leslie recorded four titles for the Starr Piano Company in 1932, consisting of “‘Leven Pounds of Heaven” and “I Wanna Count Sheep (Till the Cows Come Home)”, issued on Superior 2803 and Champion 16404, and “Rhymes” and “I Could Expect it From Anyone but You”, issued on Superior 2815 and Champion 16413. His releases on the Champion label were credited as Jack Leslie. With a single guitar backing lending to a more rural, folksy feel, his songs differ a bit from most of the standard pop fare of the period, and make for fairly interesting listening. Compare to Charlie Palloy’s solo recordings for Crown records in 1933, at a time when that company was near its end. Whether or not he intentionally borrowed his performing name from the union agitator of the same name I do not know. Outside of his brief recording career, I can find no details regarding Leslie’s life, professional or private. If anyone out there has any information regarding “Happy Joe Hill”, please comment, I’d love to know.

Superior 2815 was recorded in March of 1932 by Happy Joe Hill, accompanied by guitar, likely his own. Unless I’m misinterpreting the data in Kay’s Superior Catalog, it shipped out a total of only forty-two copies!

The first side of this record features Happy Joe’s very polite and sincere rendition of Leslie Sarony’s “Rhymes”, with somewhat Americanized lyrics. I’ll eventually post the version by Jack Hylton’s Orchestra here too, so you can compare.

Rhymes, recorded March 1932 by Happy Joe Hill.

On the flip, and with a bit more background noise, Hill performs “I Could Expect it From Anyone But You”, written by Al Hoffman, Al Goodhart, and Ed Nelson and published by DeSylva, Brown and Henderson. Composer Al Hoffman sued or at least threatened to sue the BMI in 1946 over similarities between this song and the pop hit “Laughing on the Outside (Crying on the Inside)”—and rightly so, the latter song “borrowed” close to the entire melody of this 1932 flop.

I Could Expect it From Anyone Else But You, recorded March 1932 by Happy Joe Hill

Updated on June 15, 2017 and with improved audio on June 21, 2017.

A Brief Guide to the ARC Numbering System

Posted on June 12, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Around September of 1935, the American Record Corporation (ARC) revamped their catalog numbering system for most of their budget labels. Prior to this change, all of the multitude of labels made by the ARC used different numbering schemes for their cataloging, and this new system created a unified system of numbers.

This new cataloging system involved a five digit code consisting of three numbers separated by hyphens. The first number represents the year of release, the second the month of release, and the third the release number and series (e.g. popular, race).

The first number used a single digit code for the release year. For example: 6 would equate to 1936, 7 to ’37, and so on. The first two months of releases using this system used 35 as the first number before changing to the single digit system in November of that year.

The second, two digit number, quite straightforwardly, refers to the month of release, 01 for January, 04 for April, 11 for November, and so on.

The third number refers to the release number of the record, 01 would be the first issue, 12 for the twelfth, etc. Beginning around November 1935, releases in the popular series used numbers beginning at 01 for the final number, and releases in the Race/Country & Western series began at 51.

For example: 7-04-18 would be the eighteenth issue in the popular series for April of 1937, 7-04-68 would be the eighteenth in the Race/Country series.

In the case of the record pictured, Romeo 6-06-03, the numbers equate to the following:

6: the year of release, 1936
06: the month of release, June
03: the release number, third in the popular series

That means the above record is the third record released in the popular series in June of 1936.

The ARC used this system for Banner, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, and Romeo. Conqueror and many of the ARC’s small client labels did not adopt the system.

Supertone S2061 – Frank Luther and Carson Robison – 1929/1928

Posted on June 8, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Carson Robison and Frank Luther as “Bud and Joe Billings”. From Victor catalog, 1930.

So far I’ve mostly shared jazz records, so I think it’s about time I broke the monotony with something a bit different, so here’s one of my favorite country records, by Frank Luther and Carson Robison.

Carson Robison started out his lengthy and prolific recording career as a guitar player for vaudevillian Wendell Hall in 1924, becoming a studio guitarist and whistler for Victor records. Later that year, he was teamed up with the classically trained hillbilly singer Vernon Dalhart, beginning a partnership that lasted until an acrimonious parting in 1928, and would define “citybilly” music. Soon after, Robison joined forces with minister-turned-singer and fellow Kansan Frank Luther, who had previously sung with the Revelers and as a popular dance band vocalist, and the pair went on to supersede Dalhart as some of the nation’s foremost country recording artists. Their partnership lasted until 1932, when Robison set sail with a new group to bring hillbilly music to the British Isles. Luther continued to record domestically.

Supertone S2061 was recorded on May 21, 1929 and December 10, 1928, respectively, in New York City. The two sides were originally issued apart, with the first side on Brunswick 425 and the second on Vocalion 5278. This Supertone was released around 1931, and draws its masters from the Brunswick/Vocalion catalog rather than the original Gennett masters, after the Brunswick Radio Corporation (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Pictures) acquired the contract from the Starr Piano Company.

On the first side of Supertone S2061, Frank Luther and Carson Robison perform “Left My Gal in the Mountains”, one of many country songs written by Robison and recorded by the duo on numerous labels. The accompaniment—made up of Earl Oliver on cornet, probably Roy Smeck on steel guitar, and an unknown clarinettist and guitarist—adds a little jazz to the song.

Left My Gal in the Mountains, recorded May 21, 1929 by Frank Luther and Carson Robison.

On the flip-side, Luther, accompanied by Robison on guitar, sings Harry McClintock’s famous “Big Rock Candy Mountains” in an almost flawless imitation of Mac.

The Big Rock Candy Mountains, recorded December 13, 1928 by Frank Luther.

Updated on October 2, 2016, and June 10, 2017.

Victor 19644 – Lloyd Finlay and his Orchestra – 1925

Posted on June 5, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Featuring the Houston-based band of Lloyd Finlay, this record has the distinction of being one of Victor’s first field recordings in the state of Texas. According to the files available on the Discography of American Historical Recordings, the first Victor recording session in Texas took place the day before the one that created this record, on March 17, 1925, when Finlay’s orchestra made their first recording. Victor would not make it back to the Lone Star State until April of 1928. That makes this record one of special interest to me, as one of my primary focuses in collecting is the musical history of Texas. These Lloyd Finlay records also hold the distinction of being the debut recordings of the Houston-born pianist and future singer Seger Ellis, who would go on to become Okeh Records’ answer to popular crooner Gene Austin.

Lloyd Calvin Finlay was born on November 9, 1883, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one of five children to George William and Ella (née Laughlin) Finlay. His father was a traveling nursery salesman from Wisconsin whose work brought him all around the northern Midwest. Lloyd Finlay studied violin and began venturing southward from the land of his birth shortly after the turn of the century to make a living as a musician, settling for a time in Oklahoma, where he married Nebraska-native Grace Coldiron—a pianist herself—before continuing onward until he hit water, settling permanently in Houston, Texas. There, he found employment conducting theater orchestras. By the onset of the First World War, Finlay was musical director at the Majestic Theatre at Texas Avenue and Milam Street. During the days of the “Roaring Twenties”, Finlay was well-regarded as a society bandleader and musician in the Houston territory, and was in-demand for local events. His repute reportedly extended as far as New York City, where vaudevillians were purported to remark that “Houston, Texas, [was] the town to play, they got Lloyd Finlay’s orchestra there.” When the Victor Talking Machine Company brought their recording equipment to Houston on their first field trip into Texas—second only to Okeh, who has recorded in Dallas less than half a year earlier—Finlay’s orchestra was the first to be recorded. On the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth of March, 1925, Lloyd Finlay’s twelve-piece ensemble—featuring local musician Seger Ellis on piano—waxed seven sides, of which all but one were released. Unfortunately, none of his three records proved to be a hit, and likely only saw regional distribution. By 1930, Finlay had separated from his wife, and was living in a boarding house. Around 1933, Finlay departed the Majestic and began directing the orchestra at the Metropolitan Theatre at 1018 Main Street. Thereafter, he went to work managing the Tower Theater at Westheimer and Waugh, a position which he held for the remainder of his life. At the age of fifty-three, Lloyd Finlay died from complications during a surgery to remove his gall bladder on May 10, 1937, at St. Joseph’s Infirmary in Houston.

Victor 19644 was recorded on March 18 and 19, 1925, in Houston, Texas; it was released later in the same year, and remained “in-print” for less than a full year.. Besides Finlay on violin and Seger Ellis on piano, the personnel for this record is unknown. This record was transferred at 76 RPM, as is often accepted for acoustic Victor records.

The first side, recorded March 19, is “Jews-Harp Blues”, and features a solo by the titular instrument beginning around two minutes in. Finlay’s orchestra displayed a tight and polished, if rather old-fashioned sound compared to other early Texas-based jazz groups on records, like hot playing of Jimmie Joy’s or the wild and reckless abandon of Jack Gardner’s.

Jews-Harp Blues, recorded March 19, 1925 by Lloyd Finlay and his Orchestra

The flip-side features “Fiddlin’ Blues” (apparently also known as “Fido Blues”), recorded the previous day, March 18, and likewise prominently features the virtuosity of Finlay’s eponymous instrument.

Fiddlin’ Blues, recorded March 18, 1925 by Lloyd Finlay’s Orchestra

Updated on May 26, 2021.