Victor 36205 – Benny Goodman and his Orchestra – 1937

Posted on January 16, 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.

Besides Prohibition, another momentous event that occurred on January 16 was Benny Goodman’s legendary concert at Carnegie Hall, which happened in 1938. It was the first jazz concert ever held at Carnegie Hall, and has been credited as the event that brought swing jazz into the mainstream. Though Goodman was initially hesitant to take the gig, he did following the success of Hollywood Hotel, in which he appeared. At first, the audience’s reception was lukewarm, but soon Benny won them over, and it became one of the greatest landmarks in music history. Particularly popular with the audience were Martha Tilton’s swinging of the Scottish folk song “Loch Lomond” (how’d you like for me to post the record of one sometime?), and the band’s legendary performance of Louis Prima’s “Sing, Sing, Sing”. The entire concert at Carnegie Hall was recorded and released by Columbia Records on the new LP format in 1950.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t post two records in the same day, but the date of Goodman’s concert came to me long after I had already planned the other one, so all you lucky readers get a two-fer today.

Victor 36205 was recorded July 6, 1937 in New York City by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra. This one was not recorded at the Carnegie Hall concert, but rather a few months earlier, around the time he was filming Hollywood Hotel. According to the label, the band includes Benny Goodman on clarinet, Hymie Schertzer, Arthur Rollini, George Koenig, and Vido Musso on saxophones, Harry James, Chris Griffin, and Ziggy Elman on trumpets, Murray McEachern and Sterling “Red” Ballard on trombones, Harry Goodman on string bass, Jess Stacy on piano, Allan Ruess on guitar, and Gene Krupa (whose birthday was just yesterday, the 15th) on drums.

Here it is, the legendary “Sing, Sing, Sing”, played with a bit of “Christopher Columbus” interpolated within. Both sides of a longer playing twelve inch 78 played end-to-end for your listening pleasure.

Sing Sing Sing (Parts 1 & 2), recorded July 6, 1937 by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.

Victor 22802 – Russ Columbo – 1931

Posted on January 14, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Russ Columbo, as pictured on the Eveready Book of Radio Stars, c. 1932.

January 14 marks the anniversary of the birth of the great 1930s crooner Russ Columbo, born on that day in 1908, an icon in his day who had every girl swooning from coast-to-coast in the time after Rudy Vallée had past his apex of popularity, and before Bing Crosby reached his.

Russ was born Ruggiero Eugenio di Rodolpho Colombo in Camden, New Jersey (home of the Victor Talking Machine Company). Thankfully, if only for the sake of fitting on record labels, he shortened his professional name to Russ Columbo. He took up violin as a child and made his professional debut not long after. In the late 1920s, Columbo played violin in Gus Arnheim’s Cocoanut Grove Orchestra, and can be seen in Arnheim’s 1928 Vitaphone short. By the early 1930s, Russ had struck out on his own for a career as a crooner, introducing such hits as “You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)” and “Prisoner of Love”. In the 1930s, he was romantically involved with Carole Lombard. Tragically, Columbo’s promising career was cut short at the young age of 26. On September 2, 1934, he was accidentally shot and killed when a musket belonging to his friend Lansing Brown’s gun collection misfired; the bullet ricocheted off a table, and hit him in the head.

Victor 22802 was recorded on two separate sessions at Victor’s Studio 1 in New York City on September 3 and 9, 1931. Columbo’s vocal is backed by Nat Shilkret’s Victor Orchestra.

I consider Columbo’s theme song, “You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)”, to be one of the defining songs of the early 1930s style of romantic ballad, and a fine one at that, as well as one of the most evocative songs of the Great Depression era.

You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love), recorded September 3, 1931 by Russ Columbo.

“Sweet and Lovely” was another of Russ Columbo’s top songs, and a well remembered standard.

Sweet and Lovely, recorded September 9, 1931 by Russ Columbo.

Updated on May 29, 2017, with improved audio.

Victor 25094 – Ray Noble and his Orchestra – 1935

Posted on January 7, 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 January 7, 1898, Albert Allick Bowlly, better known as Al, was born in Mozambique. He spent his childhood in South Africa, where he found his first work as a singer with Edgar Adeler’s band, which was touring Africa. After a falling out with Adeler in Indonesia, he sang with a number of bands in the Orient, before making his way back to the West. In 1927, Bowlly made his recording debut, again with Adeler. He first came to London to sing with Fred Elizalde’s Music, with whom he recorded an excellent rendition of “If I Had You” in 1929. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Bowlly sang with a number of British dance bands, inluding those of Roy Fox, Lew Stone, and Roy Noble, whose association with Bowlly is perhaps the best remembered today. In 1934, Bowlly came to the United States with Noble’s orchestra before returning to England in 1937. On April 17, 1941, Bowlly died tragically in the Blitz, not from a bomb, but from a door blown off its hinges from the explosion, which struck him in the head.

Victor 25094 was recorded June 8 and 10, 1935 in New York City, featuring Roy Noble’s Orchestra with a vocal refrain by Al Bowlly and the Freshman, singing two Irving Berlin hits from the 1935 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers picture Top Hat. I had the great fortune of screening Top Hat at the historic Texas Theatre in Dallas, in a special presentation put on by the local Art Deco Society, followed by a concert by Matt Tolentino’s Singapore Slingers. Quite a fun time.

In the film, Astaire danced solo to “Top Hat” (White Tie and Tails), and Noble and Bowlly do great with the song here.

Top Hat, recorded June 8, 1935 by Ray Noble and his Orchestra (Vocal refrain by Al Bowlly and the Freshmen).

Top Hat, recorded June 8, 1935 by Ray Noble and his Orchestra (Vocal refrain by Al Bowlly & The Freshmen).

PIccolino” was probably the most publicized tune from the movie and touted as the “big hit” in 1935, though today the most remembered song is likely “Cheek to Cheek”.

Piccolino, recorded June 10, 1935 by Ray Noble and his Orchestra (Vocal refrain by Al Bowlly).

Victor 39,000 – A Night With Paul Whiteman at the Biltmore – 1932

Posted on December 31, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Since I regrettably don’t own a copy of “Auld Lang Syne” by Guy Lombardo’s Royal Canadians with which to usher in the New Year the traditional way, we’ll have to ring in the new year here at Old Time Blues with a different sweet band. As we prepare to get 2016 started out right, for our last post of 2015, here’s Paul Whiteman’s orchestra on one of his gorgeous Art Deco styled early 1930s picture records, with a medley of some of his most popular songs, played and sung by some of his most popular talent. As a side note, I do believe I’ll be tuning into Radio Dismuke for their annual New Year’s Eve Show this evening, and if you like the music I post here, I’d wager that’d tickle your fancy, too.

Victor 39,000 was recorded December 2, 1932 in New York City by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra (or his “Troupe” as is noted on the record), it was reportedly offered to guests of the Biltmore Hotel during his engagement there (I guess Bert Lown had packed up and left by then). Coincidentally, this record probably would have made it to the presses sometime around the New Year of 1933. Though these rather poorly laminated picture discs are noted for their low-quality surface by Victor’s standards, the high quality recording, made with Victor’s early 1930s “hi-fi” process, still comes across very well on this copy, with a little bit of background noise. The personnel of Whiteman’s orchestra is Nat Natoli and Harry Goldfield on trumpets, Andy Secrest on cornet, Jack Fulton on trombone, Hal Matthews and Bill Rank on trombones, Chester Hazlett on clarinet and bass clarinet, Charles Strickfaden on alto and baritone sax, Frankie Trumbauer on C-melody, alto sax and bassoon, John Cordaro on clarinet and tenor sax, Kurt Dieterle, Mischa Russell, Matty Malneck, and John Bowman on violins, Roy Bargy and Ramona on pianos, Mike Pingatore on banjo and guitar, Art Miller on string bass, and Herb Quigley on drums.

On the first part of this twelve inch musical extravaganza, the Whiteman group plays “Whispering”, “The Japanese Sandman”, “Some of These Days” featuring Roy Bargy and Ramona Davies, “Ida (Sweet as Apple Cider)” sung by Red McKenzie, “Dinah” by Peggy Healy, and “When Day is Done” featuring the trumpet of Harry “Goldie” Goldfield.

A Night With Paul Whiteman at the Biltmore [Part 1], recorded December 2, 1932 by Paul Whiteman and his Troupe.

Part two of the medley includes “St. Louis Blues” sung by Irene Taylor, “Sweet Sue” by Jack Fulton, “Mississippi Mud” sung by the Rhythm Boys (Al Dary, Jimmy Noel, George MacDonald, and Ray Kulz; not Bing, Al, and Harry), “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” by Jane Vance and Al Dary, a rousing “Wabash Blues” with Mike Pingatore (or is it Pingitore?) on banjo, and “Three O’Clock in the Morning”.

A Night With Paul Whiteman at the Biltmore, recorded December 2, 1932 by Paul Whiteman and his Troupe.

A Night With Paul Whiteman at the Biltmore [Part 2], recorded December 2, 1932 by Paul Whiteman and his Troupe.

Updated on June 1, 2017, and with improved audio on July 3, 2018.

Brunswick 4936 – The Jungle Band/Cab Calloway and his Orchestra – 1930

Posted on December 27, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Cab Calloway in his early years as a bandleader, circa 1930. Pictured in Of Minnie the Moocher & Me.

Aside from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, December 25 marks another important birthday, that of Cab Calloway. As a belated celebration of that anniversary, here is Cab’s first record, with two takes of his first recordings. This record was made soon after Cab took control of the excellent Harlem band, the Missourians, who had played at the Cotton Club under Andy Preer in the middle of the 1920s. After departing from their Cotton Club engagement when Preer died and Duke Ellington replaced them in 1927, they returned in the early 1930s under the leadership of Cab Calloway.

Brunswick 4936 was recorded July 24, 1930 in New York City. The band includes the same basic personnel as the Missourians, with R.Q. Dickerson, Wendell Culley, and Lammar Wright on trumpets, De Priest Wheeler on trombone, William Thornton Blue on clarinet and alto sax, Andrew Brown on clarinet, alto sax, and bass-clarinet, Walter “Foots” Thomas on tenor sax, alto sax, and baritone sax, Earres Prince on piano, Morris White on banjo, Jimmy Smith on tuba, and Leroy Maxey on the drums. This record stayed “in print” for many years, I even have a 1938-39 silver label Brunswick issue of it. Also recorded at this session was an unissued take of “I’ll Be a Friend (With Pleasure)”; I don’t know of any surviving copies of that recording. You may note that the first issue label credits “The Jungle Band”, a pseudonym that was typically given to Duke Ellington’s recordings on Brunswick, the only exceptions that I know of being this one and Chick Webb’s first recording.

Two takes were recorded of Cab Calloway’s very first recording, “Gotta Darn Good Reason Now (For Bein’ Good)”. The second take was released first, presumably because either Cab or the producers at Brunswick preferred that take, and it seems more polished than the first, where Cab seems more hesitant. Later pressings used the first take, likely because the original stamper was beginning to wear out. Here, the sound files are included in order of release, with the second take first.

Gotta Darn Good Reason Now (For Bein’ Good) (take 2), recorded July 24, 1930 by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra.

Gotta Darn Good Reason Now (For Bein’ Good) (take 1), recorded July 24, 1930 by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra.

Only one take is known to exist of Cab Calloway’s famous rendition of “St. Louis Blues”, so the better sounding of the two records is featured here. Just listen to how long he holds that note!

St. Louis Blues, recorded July 24, 1930 by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra.