Connorized 3011 – Connorized Jazz Hounds – 1921

Posted on February 10, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

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 marks the 123rd birthday of Mr. Jimmy Durante, who was born on February 10, 1893. Before his most famous years as a beloved comedian, the Great Schnozzola got his start as a pianist in the earliest years of jazz music on record. This record features two of his sides as a sideman with Ladd’s Black Aces (none of whom were black or named Ladd).

Connorized 3011 was recorded in September of 1921 in New York and originally appeared on Gennett 4762. Connorized Jazz Hounds is a pseudonym for Ladd’s Black Aces. The personnel features Phil Napoleon on trumpet, Moe Gappel on trombone, Doc Behrendson on clarinet, Jimmy Durante on piano, and Jack Roth on drums. The Connorized label was produced by Starr Piano Co. using masters from Gennett.

“Shake It and Break It Blues”, is a fine early jazz tune. I believe it is Sam Lanin that interjects the brief vocalization.

Shake It and Break It Blues, recorded September 1921 by Connorized Jazz Hounds.

The flip, “Aunt Hager’s Children’s Blues”, is a classic W.C. Handy blues song, and does not disappoint either.

Aunt Hager’s Children’s Blues, recorded September 1921 by Connorized Jazz Hounds.

(Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!)

Bluebird B-6415 – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 1927/1928

Posted on February 8, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

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.

In celebration of fifty “likes” on our Facebook page, we’ll have a jubilee here at Old Time Blues, and what better way to than with the hot jazz of Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Orchestra on two of their hottest for Victor records.

Bluebird B-6415 was recorded on two separate occasions, the first side on March 26, 1928 and the second on December 19, 1927, both in New York City. The “A” side was originally issued on Victor 21580 and “B” on Victor 21490 and again on 22985.

Given the two record dates, the two sides feature different personnel in the band. The first includes Arthur Whetsel, Bubber Miley, and Louis Metcalf in the trumpet section, “Tricky Sam” Nanton on trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet and tenor sax, Otto Hardwicke on clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, and bass sax, Harry Carney on clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, and baritone sax, Duke Ellington on piano, Fred Guy on banjo, Wellman Braud on string bass, and Sonny Greer on drums. The second features Miley and Metcalf on trumpets, Tricky Sam on trombone, Rudy Jackson on clarinet and alto sax, Otto Hardwicke and Harry Carney on all the same reeds as the first side, and Ellington, Guy, Braud, and Greer in the same positions as the previous.

One of Ellington’s best, “Jubilee Stomp” was played in 2011’s The Artist, albeit on a disgustingly inaccurate phonograph.

Jubilee Stomp, recorded March 26, 1928 by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.

On “Blue Bubbles”, Ellington shares composer credit with Bubber Miley, and the piece bares some stylistic resemblance to another of Miley’s works, “Black and Tan Fantasy”.

Blue Bubbles, recorded December 19, 1927 by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.

Okeh 8557 – Lonnie Johnson – 1928

Posted on February 8, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

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.

On this fine day we celebrate a man whom I consider to be one of the finest jazz and blues guitarists of all time, Mr. Lonnie Johnson, who was born on this day in 1899. Here are two great guitar blues songs from earlier in his career.

Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson was born February 8, 1899 in cradle of jazz, New Orleans, Louisiana into a family of musicians. After touring Europe in 1917, Lonnie returned home to find his family dead from a flu epidemic, except for his brother, James “Steady Roll” Johnson. Leaving New Orleans, Lonnie and his brother settled in St. Louis some years after, and performed as a duo. In 1925, Lonnie Johnson signed a contract to record with Okeh Records, with whom he stayed until the 1930s. Working both as an solo artist, accompanist, and sometimes band member, he went on to have a long career in music, continuing to perform until near his death in 1970.

Okeh 8557 was recorded November 9, 1927 in New York by Lonnie Johnson, accompanied by his own guitar. Both songs are Johnson’s own compositions.

First we hear Johnson sing a tale of the high seas on “Life Saver Blues”.

Life Saver Blues, recorded November 9, 1927 by Lonnie Johnson.

Next, Lonnie sings of being intimidated by firearm wielding ghosts in “Blue Ghost Blues”. Lonnie Johnson later re-recorded this song for Decca in March of 1938.

Blue Ghost Blues, recorded November 9, 1927 by Lonnie Johnson.

Updated with improved audio on April 27, 2018.

Homestead 16002 – Roy Smeck’s Trio – 1929

Posted on February 6, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

An illustration of Roy Smeck from 1930s Perfect record sleeve.

Roy Smeck, “The Wizard of the Strings” was born on this day 116 years ago, on February 6, 1900.

Roy Smeck rose to prominence in the 1920s with vaudeville performances playing his plethora of stringed instruments, including an eight string Hawaiian guitar known as an octo-chorda. Riding the Hawaiian music wave of the 1920s and 1930s, he made his great fame in the budding field of radio, becoming known as the “Wizard of the Strings”, and records by his ensembles sold huge numbers. In 1926, Smeck had the distinction of appearing in one of Warner Brothers first Vitaphone short sound films, called Roy Smeck: His Pastimes. He would continue to make numerous other filmed appearances over the course of the next decade. In the 1930s, Smeck’s fame was such that he played at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural ball and King George VI’s coronation review in 1937. By the 1950s, however, Smeck had slowed down, though he still made occasional performances. In 1985, Smeck appeared in Wizard of the Strings, an Academy award nominated documentary about his career and life (which is a great film, by the way, and I recommend seeing it.) Roy Smeck died April 9, 1994 at the age of ninety-four.

Homestead 16002 was recorded April 3, 1929 in New York for the Plaza Music Company by Roy Smeck’s Trio. It was also issued on Banner 6368. The vocal on both sides is by Scrappy Lambert, under name Larry Holton, one of his many pseudonyms. The Homestead label was sold by the Chicago Mail Order Company, and was made from Plaza/ARC masters, much like Sears, Roebuck’s Conqueror label.

First, Smeck’s trio plays a dandy little version of the 1929 hit song, “A Precious Little Thing Called Love”, the theme song of The Shopworn Angel.

A Precious Little Thing Called Love, recorded April 3, 1929 by Roy Smeck’s Trio.

The next tune is a Hawaiian one through and through, titled “My Hawaiian Queen”.

My Hawaiian Queen, recorded April 3, 1929 by Roy Smeck’s Trio.

Perfect 0252 – Walter Roland – 1933

Posted on February 2, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Recorded in the deepest depths of the Great Depression, I offer to you these two boogie woogie piano tunes from the brief recording career of the skilled Alabama blues man Walter Roland.

Walter Roland was born in December of either 1902 or 1903 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama—the twentieth of December is most often given as his birth date. He was working as a musician by the 1920s, playing both piano and guitar and singing. Though Roland remained an active musician until the end of his life, he recorded only a few times in the 1930s. In 1933, Roland traveled to New York with guitar player Sonny Scott to record for the American Record Corporation, and would return twice between then and 1935. During those trips, he recorded solo, and also played as an accompanist with Lucille Bogan and Joshua White, as well as part of the “Jolly Jivers” with Scott and Bogan. Some of his records were released under the pseudonym Alabama Sam. After returning home, Roland did not make another recording, but continued to play music. By the 1950s, he was a farmer, but sometimes worked as a street musician. Sometime in the 1960s, he was blinded by buckshot after trying to break up an altercation between neighbors, and he retired in the later part of that decade. Roland died of lung cancer October 12, 1972 in Fairfield, Alabama.

Perfect 0252 was recorded over two consecutive days on July 19 and 20, 1933 in New York City, Roland’s second released disc from his ARC sessions. It got an honorable mention in 78 Quarterly’s famous “Rarest 78s” column. These ARC race records seldom turn up in very good condition, and this one is no exception, but thankfully, despite a few brief blasts of noise, the music is still prominent.

Roland’s first number is the classic “Early This Morning (‘Bout Break of Day)”, his own version of Charlie Spand’s “Soon This Morning”. Unfortunately, the text on the label has faded away completely, leaving only the faintest trace of what was originally printed. This side was recorded on the July 20 date. Roland also recorded the same tune the previous day, accompanying his guitar-playing associate Sonny Scott.