Please note: this article dates to Old Time Blues’ first year and does not meet the standard of quality to which more recent postings are held. Thank you for your understanding.
Today, I offer you something a little different than the usual fare; delving into the 1940s with this World War II era swing record from France. Interestingly, this disc turned up in a little junk shop in Austin, Texas. Likely, it was brought home from Europe by a returning serviceman. One way or the other, these Swing label records don’t turn up all too often around these parts.
Bandleader Charles Hary was a French jazz saxophonist, and had the distinction of playing with both Django Reinhardt and his brother Joseph Reinhardt. I’d love to be able say more about Hary and the record in general, but unfortunately, I don’t know anything about it, and I can’t seem to dig up much, so I’ll just let you all enjoy the music.
Swing SW.164 was recorded July 3, 1942, presumably in Paris, France. The personnel includes Aimé Barelli, Alex Caturegli, and Alphonse Marlier on trumpet, Maurice Gladieu and Pierre Rémy on trombone, Charles Hary, Charles T. “Coco” Kiehn, Hubert Rostaing, Marcel Coestier, and Max Blanc on saxophones (one of them doubling on clarinet), René Cloerec on piano, Lucien Gallopain on guitar, Lucien Simoens on string bass, and Armand Molinetti on drums.
The first number is a swingy little thingy titled “Allégresse”, which I believe translates to “Glee”.
Allégresse, recorded July 3, 1942 by Charles Hary et son Orchestre.
The flip, “Liliane”, is played a little hotter than the first, with some fine saxophone (that reminds me a little of Charlie Barnet’s playing.)
Liliane, recorded July 3, 1942 by Charles Hary et son Orchestre.
As January 20 comes to a close, so does the 128th anniversary of the birth of that great song spinner Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly. I know of no better way to celebrate the life of such an important hero of American music than with this type of musical extravaganza. I’ll admit that I did not realize the date until this very day, and this is a bit of a rush job, so as not to miss the occasion entirely. I was lucky enough to find this great album set from Capitol Records at the same time as that home recording, and, featuring not only Lead Belly, but a variety of other great artists, I believe it’s perfect for the occasion. Now, I couldn’t tell you that this set is a historically accurate history of jazz music, but it does feature some fine tunes.
The man of the hour, Lead Belly. From album’s inside cover.
Capitol CE 16 was released in early 1945, and contains five discs, a step up from the typical four. The individual sides were recorded on the following dates: 10021 on October 4 and 27, 1944; 10022 on June 30, 1944; 10023 on June 30 and January 27, 1945; 10024 on March 7, 1944; and 10025 on January 27, 1945. These records feature a great number of fine artists, the highlights being Lead Belly, to whom this post is dedicated, Wingy Manone, Johnny Mercer (who founded Capitol), Zutty Singleton, and many others, whose names can be found listed on the album cover pictured above.
I tend to pick up home recordings and lacquer discs when I see them, providing the price is right. Sometimes, the quality of sound on them is surprisingly decent, but often, they sound terrible. What you’ll find on those discs is also a crapshoot, oftentimes I’ve found families marking a special occasion, or the ubiquitous child’s recital of a song or instrument. Once I even found a bawdy comedy skit. However, rarely do I ever turn up anything musically exciting.
Recently, I picked up about five lacquer discs. One of them was a recording of a local family’s Thanksgiving in 1944, one an unintelligible recording of children’s voices, another was an unusual cornet performance. One completely unmarked disc contained a pair of very enjoyable piano solos that I’ll post here at a later date. Then there was this one. When I came to this one, I put the needle on the record, curious to hear what secrets it had concealed for so many years, I was thrilled to hear a great old time fiddle and guitar duet burst to life. Then, after about five seconds of play, the stylus skated all the way across the disc to the label. Unfortunately, despite (or perhaps because of) the record’s excellent musical content, the lacquer surface of the home recording disc was in absolutely dismal condition, bubbled and cracked, with large worn passages.
Nevertheless, I knew I had to figure out a way to coax those tunes out of these shallow old grooves. Eventually, I wound up using two methods to transfer the two sides of this eccentric disc. On the first one, I rigged up a very unconventional method of tracking the grooves by tying a string to the tone-arm and guiding it by hand. On the flip, I managed to get it to track with an LP stylus at 45 RPM, and changed the speed to 78 RPM on the computer.
On this presumably unique metal based lacquer disc, a fiddler and guitarist play two classic old time tunes. Given the nature of this record, I know nothing of the identity of the artists. It would stand to reason that they were based in North Texas, as I found the disc in Dallas. My estimate for the date comes from the copyright date on the label, but it could have been made much later.
Please take warning, these transfers are not for the faint of heart, while the music is superb, the condition of the record is awful, making these a very noisy and distorted pair of transfers. Since the record is virtually unplayable through normal means, I think they’re pretty decent under the circumstances. I’ve cleaned them up to to the best of my abilities. If at any time in the future I figure out a way to get a better transfer of these, I’ll update this post.
First, J.L. Cosslly (?) and “Frank” play it slow and easy on “Saving Up Cupons [sic]“. This side plays a bit more respectably than the next, and I find it quite listenable for the most part, though it begins to break up near the end.
Saving Up Cupons, recorded ? by J.L. Cosslly and Frank.
On the other side of the disc, “Jess and Frank” play “Give Me Back My 15¢”. This side unfortunately has more than its fair share of skips and jumps, the worst being a passage from about twenty-five to thirty-five seconds that is greatly interrupted by a severe crack in the lacquer surface.
Please note: this article dates to Old Time Blues’ first year and does not meet the standard of quality to which more recent postings are held. Thank you for your understanding.
One-hundred years ago today, on January 4, 1916, pianist, guitarist, and singer Bulee “Slim” Gaillard was born. Though the details of his early life are disputed, he claimed to have been born in Cuba and spent his childhood picking bananas and sugar-cane there before embarking on a world-round voyage with his Greek father where he was accidentally left on Crete from where he worked his way to America. Whatever his origins, Gaillard first found fame in the 1930s performing with bassist Slam Stewart as half of “Slim and Slam”, who had a hit in 1938 with “Flat Fleet Floogee” (as it was originally titled, better known as “Flat Foot Floogee”). By the 1940s, Gaillard had become a leading bebopper and hepster supreme, famous for a scat language of his own creation called “Vout”, which involved interjecting a lot of the word “vout” and suffixing just about everything with “o’reenie” or “o’roonie”. He had a smash hit in 1946 with “Cement Mixer (Put-Ti-Put-Ti)”. Gaillard died February 26, 1991.
Atomic A-215 was recorded December 15, 1945 in Hollywood, California. The band includes Slim Gaillard on guitar, the always distinguished Zutty Singleton on drums, “Tiny” (aka “Bam”) Brown on bass, and Dodo Marmarosa on piano. These Atomic records had a very distinctive label design didn’t they, one of my favorites, artistically.
Mere months after the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II in the Pacific Theater, Slim Gaillard’s Quartette cut “Atomic Cocktail”. In the rather esoteric genre of “atomic music” that appeared in the late 1940s and early 1950s as the atomic era began, with such songs as “Atom and Evil” and “Old Man Atom”, this one, in my opinion, stands out as one of the best.
Atomic Cocktail, recorded December 15, 1945 by the Slim Gaillard Quartette.
According to legend, “Yep-Roc-Heresay” (pronounced “yep rock ha-reesy”) has Gaillard and Tiny Brown reading the names of Arabic dishes from the menu of a Middle Eastern restaurant offering such fare as yabra, stuffed grape leaves, harisseh, an Arabian dessert, kibbeh bil sanieh, a meat dish, and lahem meshwi, lamb kebabs. “That’s a good deal McNeil” is, of course, not in Arabic. Despite its innocuous nature in reality, it was reportedly banned from airplay by several radio stations for fear of carrying secret messages promoting drugs and crime.
Yep-Roc-Heresay, recorded December 15, 1945 by the Slim Gaillard Quartette.
December 12 marks the monumental occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s birth. For such an occasion, I’d love to post Sinatra’s first record with Harry James’ orchestra. Unfortunately, I don’t own a copy, so here’s the earliest Sinatra record I do have, this classic swing with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra in 1940.
Francis Albert Sinatra was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only son of Italian immigrants. Sinatra began singing as a child, and idolized Bing Crosby. In 1935, he joined a local vocal trio called the 3 Flashes, which became known as the Hoboken Four after Sinatra joined. After a successful performance on Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour, they embarked on a tour of the United States and Canada. Following that engagement, Sinatra found work as a singing waiter in a New Jersey roadhouse, and he began to perform on WNEW in New York. In 1939, Sinatra began performing with Harry James’ orchestra, and made his first commercial recordings for Brunswick that year. Before long, he left James band to replace Jack Leonard as vocalist for Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra. After great success with Dorsey, by 1942 Sinatra wanted to go solo, and he parted ways unceremoniously with the bandleader. Rumor has it that Sinatra’s mobster godfather Willie Moretti forced Dorsey to release Sinatra from his binding contract at gunpoint. After going his way, Sinatra signed with Columbia records while the musicians’ strike and subsequent recording ban was in effect, and his first solo recordings were quite successful. The rest, as they say, is history, with Sinatra going on to huge success, the Rat Pack days, all with a few slumps in between, for the next five decades or so, until his death in 1998.
Victor 26525 was recorded on February 26, 1940 in New York City, not long after Sinatra joined Dorsey’s orchestra. The Dorsey orchestra is in fine form , and on these earlier recordings, Sinatra sings a bit higher than he did in his greatest fame, and to my ear, honestly resembles a better Ray Eberle. Nonetheless, as always, he had a very pleasant voice. In the band are Zeke Zarchy, Ray Linn, and Jimmy Blake on trumpets, Ward Silloway and Lowell Martin on trombones, Johnny Mince on clarinet and alto sax, Les Robinson and Fred Stulce on alto sax, Paul Mason and Babe Russin, on tenor sax, Bob Kitsis on piano, Benny Heller on guitar, Gene Traxler on string bass, and the great Buddy Rich on drums.
First up, Old Blue Eyes croons the Eddie DeLange and Jimmy Van Heusen tune, “Shake Down the Stars”.
Shake Down the Stars, recorded February 26, 1940 by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra (Vocal refrain by Frank Sinatra).
On the back, Sinatra sings and swings “Moments in the Moonlight”.
Moments in the Moonlight, recorded February 26, 1940 by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra (Vocal refrain by Frank Sinatra).
