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.
When we last heard from Harry, he was singing “Puttin’ on the Ritz“, and I promised to post his radio theme, I Love a Parade”. Thanksgiving Day being the occasion for one of the grandest parades of the year, it seems like a fitting choice.
Columbia 2701-D was recorded August 15, 1932 in New York City by Harry Richman and issued with their short-lived “Radio Record” label, which seemed to have often featured more than just straight song singing, in a more “radio-like” performance (some of Rudy Vallée’s have announcements at the beginning, and you’ll hear what this one’s like).
First, Richman delivers an (a bit more than) exuberant rendition of what was later the theme song of his radio show in the 1930s, Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen’s “I Love a Parade”.
I Love a Parade, recorded August 15, 1932 by Harry Richman.
Next, Richman sings the popular Arthur Freed and Harry Barris (whose birthday was just a few days before this posting) composition “It Was So Beautiful”.
It Was So Beautiful, recorded August 15, 1932 by Harry Richman.
This record, one I’ve been on the lookout for for quite a while, arrived just in time for Hoagy Carmichael’s 116th birthday, and I know of no better occasion to feature it here than that.
Hoagland Howard Carmichael was born November 22, 1899 in Bloomington, Indiana. One of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, he is remembered for many enduring compositions including “Washboard Blues”, “Riverboat Shuffle”, “Star Dust”, “Rockin’ Chair”, “Georgia (On My Mind)”, “Lazy River”, and so many more. Carmichael graduated from the Indiana University School of Law in 1926, but after playing with a student band, he soon turned to music instead. Hoagy made his first recordings for the Indiana-based Gennett Records with Curtis Hitch’s Happy Harmonists in 1925. Over his long career, Carmichael became one of America’s foremost songwriters, and worked with such personalities as Paul Whiteman and Louis Armstrong, to name a few. Hoagy Carmichel died in 1981 at the age of 82.
Victor 25494 is a 1936 master pressed reissue made up of sides originally from two different discs, recorded on May 21, 1930 and September 15, 1930 in New York. Both sides feature different, but equally star studded personnel in the band. Hoagy does the vocal on both sides, and both feature the cornet of Bix Beiderbecke, in two of his last recording sessions.
“Rockin’ Chair” was originally issued on Victor V-38139 and features the musical talent of Bix on cornet, plus Bubber Miley on trumpet, Tommy Dorsey on trombone, Benny Goodman on clarinet, Arnold Brilhart on alto sax, Bud Freeman on tenor sax, Joe Venuti on violin, Eddie Lang on guitar, Irving Brodsky on piano, Hoagy on organ, Harry Goodman on tuba, and Gene Krupa on drums.
Rockin’ Chair, recorded May 21, 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and his Orchestra.
On the original recording of Carmichael’s famous “Georgia (On My Mind)”, originally issued on Victor 23013, the musicians present are Bix on cornet once again, with Ray Lodwig on trumpet, Jack Teagarden and Boyce Cullen on trombone, Pee Wee Russell on clarinet, Jimmy Dorsey on alto sax, Bud Freeman on tenor sax, Joe Venuti on violin, Eddie Lang on guitar, Irving Brodsky on piano, Min Leibrook on bass saxophone (though I honestly don’t hear a bass sax here), and Chauncey Morehouse on drums. This was Bix’s final recording session.
Georgia (On My Mind), recorded September 15, 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and his Orchestra.
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.
This website needs more Boswell Sisters. It’s going into its sixth month of existence and still only has one article featuring the Boswells. That simply won’t do. After all, it was the Boswell Sisters that dragged the center of my interests back from the 1940s and 1950s into the 1920s and 1930s, and they’ll always have a special place in my heart. To remedy this unacceptable omission, here are two of the Boswells’ finest sides, one of my favorite records.
Brunswick 6847 was recorded on two separate occasions, the first side was recorded December 7, 1932, and the second was recorded a year and a half earlier, April 23, 1931, both sides in New York City. The first side, “Crazy People”, features only a rhythm backing by Dick McDonough on guitar and Artie Bernstein on string bass, along with Martha Boswell on piano. The flip side, “Shout, Sister, Shout” features a truly all-star accompaniment directed by Victor Young, including either Mannie Klein or Jack Purvis on trumpet, Tommy Dorsey on trombone, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto sax, Joe Venuti on violin, Arthur Schutt on piano, Eddie Lang on guitar, and Chauncey Morehouse on drums and vibraphone.
Although the Boswells’ rendition of Edgar Leslie and James V. Monaco’s “Crazy People” was recorded in 1932, a few months after the sisters filmed their performance of the song for The Big Broadcast, it was not given a record issue until this one in 1934.
Crazy People, recorded December 7, 1932 by The Boswell Sisters.
The Boswells’ classic performance of Clarence Williams’ “Shout, Sister, Shout” on the other hand was issued originally on Brunswick 6109 in 1931, and again issued on Brunswick 6783, before this issue in 1934.
Shout, Sister, Shout, recorded April 23, 1931 by The Boswell Sisters.
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.
At the strike of midnight on All Hallows Eve, I offer to the viewers of this site a selection chosen specially for this occasion. I tried to select something airing on the creepy side, and I think this one is the best I can scare up.
Columbia 2096-D was recorded January 7, 1930 in New York City by Ben Selvin and his Orchestra. I’m not sure of the identity of the vocalists on these sides. These labels may look rough, but I assure you folks that this one has it where it counts!
As our Halloween special, here is Ben Selvin’s Orchestra with one of their hottest numbers, the classic “Tain’t No Sin (To Dance Around in You Bones)”. The vocalist on this side may be Irving Kaufman.
‘Tain’t No Sin (To Dance Around in Your Bones), recorded January 7, 1930 by Ben Selvin and his Orchestra.
“Funny Dear, What Love Can Do” is a rather unremarkable dance band song, not bad by any means, but I find it has a hard time stacking up against the tour de force on “‘Tain’t No Sin”.
Funny Dear, What Love Can Do, recorded January 7, 1930 by Ben Selvin and his Orchestra.
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.
October 25 marks the birthday of jazz guitar great Eddie Lang, who was born on that day in 1902. Eddie Lang was born as Salvatore Massaro in Philedelphia, Pennsylvania. He initially took up violin, playing with his close school friend Joe Venuti, and later switched to guitar. In the 1920s, Lang played in various bands and with such luminaries as Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, Adrian Rollini, and Lonnie Johnson, the latter of whom he recorded with under the name “Blind Willie Dunn”. Tragically, Eddie Lang died in 1933 at the age of 30 as the result of a botched tonsillectomy.
Okeh 8696 was recorded on May 22, 1929 in New York City, and issued in their race series for some reason. The band includes the talent of Tommy Dorsey on trumpet, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto sax, Arthur Schutt on piano, Eddie Lang on guitar, Joe Tarto on string bass, and Stan King on drums. This record isn’t in the greatest condition, but I think it’s a great choice to celebrate Eddie’s birthday.
First, the band plays “Freeze an’ Melt”, a Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh composition.
Freeze an’ Melt, recorded May 22, 1929 by Ed. Lang and his Orchestra.
Eddie Lang takes a nice long solo on “Hot Heels”, composed by Jack Pettis and Al Goering.
Hot Heels, recorded May 22, 1929 by Ed. Lang and his Orchestra.
