Okeh 41393 – Carl Webster and his Yale Collegians – 1930

Posted on May 11, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Born on this day 128 years ago was one of the finest songwriters Tin Pan Alley has ever known, Irving Berlin.

Berlin was born Israel Isidore Baline in the Russian Empire on May 11, 1888, and emigrated to the United States when he was a young boy. As did many immigrants in that day and age, he Americanized his name, changing it to Irving Berlin. Like so many greats, Berlin began working as a song plugger in New York City as a young man, and before long published his first song, “Marie From Sunny Italy”. Having never taught himself to play piano in more than one key, Berling purchased a special piano that allowed him to transpose the key at the flip of a lever. In 1911 came Berlin’s first big hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”. When the Great War came around, Berlin was drafted, and, always full of patriotic vigor, was tasked with writing songs for the war effort. In that period, he gave us such hits as “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning!” from the all-soldier musical revue Yip Yip Yaphank. From then on out, he had a string of popular hits, including “Blue Skies”, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, “God Bless America”, and too many others to list. Berlin’s composing began to wind down after the 1940s, with the preceding decades being his most productive. In 1989, Irving Berlin died peacefully at the age of 101.

Okeh 41393 was recorded March 1, 1930 in New York City by Carl Webster and his Yale Collegians, playing two Irving Berlin tunes from the United Artists motion picture Puttin’ on the Ritz. Interestingly, these sides were apparently recorded on the same day the show premiered. The Yale Collegians consist of Stew Pletcher, Seelye Vidal, and Bob Stanley on trumpets, Andy Wiswell on trombone, Louis Rappaport (who later changed his name to Barry Wood) on clarinet and alto sax, Bob Bruce on cornet, clarinet, and alto sax, Hank Palmer on alto sax, Al Thompson on tenor sax, Sidney Fine on piano, Neil Waterman on guitar, Carl Webster on tuba and string bass, and Jimmy Devlin on drums.

The Yale Collegians rendition of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” is, I believe, the only original 1930 recording that can be considered hot jazz as opposed to the popular dance band styling, and it’s one of the best there ever was, if you ask me. Stew Pletcher sings the vocal on this side.

Puttin’ on the Ritz, recorded March 1, 1930 by Carl Webster’s Yale Collegians.

“With You” is not nearly as hot as the previous side, but it’s still a fine version of this ballad by a competent band. According to invaluable information from Mr. Paul Lindemeyer, the vocalist on this side is probably Dick Webster, Carl’s brother. He later worked with Jimmie Grier’s band in Los Angeles.

With You, recorded March 1, 1930 by Carl Webster’s Yale Collegians.

Vocalion 15498 – Red Nichols and his Five Pennies – 1926

Posted on May 8, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Red Nichols, late 1930s/early 1940s. Down Beat photo by Gordon Sullivan.

The eighth of May, 2016 marks exactly 111 years after the birth of jazz cornetist Red Nichols. Nichols was one of the most popular and prolific jazz musicians of the roaring twenties. I believe this disc was his first record with his famous “Five Pennies.”

Loring “Red” Nichols was born May 8, 1905 in Ogden, Utah. Nichols took up the cornet, the primary “jazz” instrument of the day, and was a child prodigy. Nichols joined a Midwestern jazz band in the early 1920s, and moved on to New York by 1923. In New York, he met trombonist Miff Mole, with whom he played for many years. In 1926, Nichols signed with the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, and recorded prolifically with his band, the “Five Pennies,” which often consisted of some of the best white jazz musicians in New York. Although his records were among the best-selling hot jazz records of the 1920s, musical styles began to change as the Great Depression rolled in, and Brunswick dropped Nichols in 1932. He continued to record throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s, but never saw such fame as he had known in his days of yore. In 1959, Danny Kaye starred in The Five Pennies, a biographical picture loosely based on Nichols’ life. At the end of his life, Red Nichols played in Las Vegas, where he died of a heart attack in 1965.

Vocalion 15498 was recorded December 8, 1926 in New York City by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. It was also issued on Brunswick 3407 and in the “race” series on Vocalion 1069. The band includes Nichols on cornet, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto sax, Arthur Schutt on piano, Eddie Lang on guitar, and Vic Berton on the drums. Though many of his “Five Pennies” groups were actually much larger, this one is true to its name.

First, the Five Pennies play Hoagy Carmichael’s “Washboard Blues”, a different take than the one released on Brunswick. We last heard this tune as it was sung by the lovely Connie Boswell seven years after this side was cut.

Washboard Blues, recorded December 8, 1926 by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies.

Nichols’ composition “That’s No Bargain” is a sizzling hot side marred only by some stressed grooves during a loud section in the middle. Fine modernistic jazz.

That’s No Bargain, recorded December 8, 1926 by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies.

Broadway 1140 – Devine’s Wisconsin Roof Orchestra – 1927

Posted on April 30, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

So I’m told that the thirtieth of April is International Jazz Day. I was unaware that such an occasion even existed, but I certainly can’t let it fall by the wayside, so here’s a real humdinger of a jazz record, and from a most unexpected place…

An autographed photo of bandleader Bill Carlsen, dating to the late 1920s or early ’30s.

One of the best ways to experience the “real” jazz of the 1920s and 1930s is to seek out the oftentimes scarce records by the so-called “territory bands”, that being bands that traveled around various regions, usually by bus, gigging at dance halls, hotel ballrooms, and the occasional radio station. I think it’s safe to assume that those bands played what the regular folks were interested in hearing.

This disc comes from a fine Midwestern territory band that had the distinction of playing at Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Roof Garden, an open-air ballroom perched atop the Carpenter Building at 700 North 6th Street, owned and operated by George J. Devine, who lent his name to the band for many of their records. The band, led by saxophone player and Kansas-native Bill Carlsen, was a hot one, playing in a style that we today might call “dixieland jazz” (at that time, of course, it was just “jazz”), with that hot and raucous sound common to Midwestern jazz bands.

Broadway 1140 was recorded in December of 1927 at Paramount’s Chicago studio by Devine’s Wisconsin Roof Orchestra, directed by Bill Carlsen (spelled Carlson on the label). The band includes Dip Happe and Alec Alexander on trumpets, Ole Turner on trombone, Paul Peregrine, Harry Bortner and Bill Carlsen on reeds, Lee Simmons on piano, Ralph West on banjo, Chet Harding on tuba and Harry Pierce at the drums. This record was also issued as Paramount 12599.

First, the band plays a hot and stomping novelty rendition of the “New St. Louis Blues”, which, as it turns out, is actually the same old St. Louis Blues as always. My speculation is that bands like this one titled it “new” to entice buyers that likely already owned a copy of the “old” St. Louis Blues.

New St. Louis Blues, recorded December 1927 by Devine’s Wisconsin Roof Orchestra.

Next up, they play what is surely one of the all-time best versions of that classic (or as Satchmo might have put it, “one of the good old good ones”), “Tiger Rag”.—one of my own favorites, at least This pressing is the first of two extant takes of this side.

Tiger Rag, recorded December 1927 by Devine’s Wisconsin Roof Orchestra.

Updated with improved audio on June 5, 2018.

Gennett 3005 – Straun’s Pullman Porters – 1925

Posted on April 30, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Come all you rounders if you want to hear, a story about a brave engineer. Casey Jones was the rounder’s name. On a six-eight wheeler, boys, he won his fame. Exactly one-hundred-sixteen years ago, on April 30, 1900, the brave engineer mounted to his cabin and he took his farewell trip into the promised land.

Casey Jones was born Jonathan Luther Jones in 1863. He got the nickname “Cayce” from his hometown in Kentucky, and he restyled it as “Casey”. Jones married Mary Brady in 1886 and raised three children. He worked for the M&O and the IC railroads, and eventually rose to his dream of being an engineer, becoming one of the most able and respected in the profession, famous for his unique sound with the train whistle. In 1893, Casey’s services were employed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

On April 30, 1900, Casey Jones made his final run. It was a foggy night, and Casey departed in the Old 362, behind schedule at 12:50 am, pulling the No. 1. Despite several delays, Casey was able to get the train running on schedule for a time. The end of the run came for Casey, however, when his fireman Sim Webb spotted something on the tracks ahead. It was a stalled freight train. Casey slammed on his airbrakes, but it was too late, and the Old 362 plowed into the rear of the freight train, going through several cars before derailing. Thanks to his heroic actions that night, Casey’s life was the only loss in the accident. His story was immortalized in song by IC engine-wiper Wallace Saunders. Casey Jones went down in history as an American folk hero, he was a teetotaler, a family man, a baseball lover, and a brave engineer.

Gennett 3005 was recorded March 24 and April 5, 1925 in Gennett’s New York studio. “Straun’s Pullman Porters” is a pseudonym for Nathan Glantz and his Orchestra, fronted by vocalist “Chick” Straun, apparently yet another a pseudonym, this time for Jack Kaufman. I’m not entirely sure what you’d call these old folk songs reworked as jazz, if there even is a name for them, but I know I like them. Much like Paul Tremaine’s hot dance renditions of “She’ll Be Comin ‘Round the Mountain” (and so forth), but these two are much earlier.

The first song on this disc is Wallace Saunders’ famous tale of the brave engineer, “Casey Jones”, sung by “Chick” Straun/Jack Kaufman. Songwriting credit is given on the label to vaudevillians T. Lawrence Seibert and Eddie Newton, who popularized the song as a comedy act, with lyrics alleging infidelity on the part of Mrs. Jones, which she opposed for many years. I selected this version specifically to avoid those lines, in order to maintain some respect toward poor old Casey.

Casey Jones, recorded March 24, 1925 by Straun’s Pullman Porters.

Unfortunately for us, the old classic tune, “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”, is marred by some skips, but it’s still a neat little side.

A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, recorded April 5, 1925 by Straun’s Pullman Porters.

Brunswick 6265 – Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra – 1932

Posted on April 29, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Today we celebrate the birthday of Duke Ellington, who was born on this day 117 years ago. Music as his mistress, he was the man that truly made a lady out of jazz—and a sophisticated lady, at that.

Duke Ellington with his orchestra at the Cotton Club sometime in the 1930s. From Jazzmen, 1938.

Duke Ellington with his orchestra at the Cotton Club sometime in the 1930s. From Jazzmen, 1939.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C. to two piano playing parents. As a youngster, he came to be called Duke for his refined manners and dapper style of dress. While working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café in 1914, Duke composed his first song, the “Soda Fountain Rag” (a.k.a. the “Poodle Dog Rag”), which he played in a variety of styles. Working as a sign painter in the latter part of the 1910s, Ellington put together small bands for various affairs. He put his first orchestra together in 1917, included as its early members were his childhood friend Otto Hardwick, Arthur Whetsel, Elmer Snowden, and Sonny Greer. Eventually, the band moved to Harlem, following drummer Sonny Greer, who was invited to play with Wilbur Sweatman’s band. In 1924, the band made its first records on the Blu Disc label, which were sold only at the cigar counter of a New York theater. As the Washingtonians, led by Elmer Snowden, the band played at Harlem’s Kentucky Club. Snowden was later kicked out of the band over a financial dispute and full leadership was assumed by Ellington.

In 1926, Ellington signed Irving Mills as his band’s agent, a move that brought his success to new heights. Later, in 1927, King Oliver had foolishly decided to hold out for more money on the prestigious Cotton Club gig, and Ellington took the job, his orchestra becoming the house band of the famous club, replacing the recently deceased Andy Preer. He held the position until Cab Calloway brought Preer’s band (as the Missourians) back to the Cotton Club. Duke was brought to greater fame when his orchestra appeared in the 1930 Amos ‘n’ Andy picture Check and Double Check. Ellington toured across the United States in the early 1930s, and, like many American artists, made a European tour in 1933. Throughout the years, Ellington featured many great musicians and introduced many famous pieces. He appeared in a number of films and continued to enjoy immense success as one of the world’s foremost musical forces until his death in 1974.

Brunswick 6265 was recorded February 2 and 11, 1932 in New York City. Ellington’s Famous Orchestra features Arthur Whetsel, Freddie Jenkins, and Cootie Williams on trumpets, Joe Nanton and Juan Tizol on trombones, Barney Bigard on clarinet and tenor sax, Johnny Hodges on clarinet, soprano sax, and alto sax, Harry Carney on clarinet, alto sax and baritone sax, Duke on piano, Fred Guy on banjo, Wellman Braud on string bass, and Sonny Greer on drums.

First up, it’s Ellington’s famous “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing)”, named after the credo of former band-mate Bubber Miley, who was ailing at the time. Ivie Anderson provides the famous vocal.