Columbia 2504-D – King Carter and his Royal Orchestra – 1931

Posted on September 5, 2015 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 today’s post, it is my pleasure to present to you what I consider to be one of the finest examples of early Depression-era jazz ever recorded. Two quite different, but both superb pieces played by a band billed as “King Carter and his Royal Orchestra”, which was in actuality a pseudonym for the always excellent (and unfortunately oft overlooked) Mills Blue Rhythm Band.

Columbia 2504-D was recorded June 25, 1931 in New York City, and the orchestra includes Wardell Jones, Shelton Hemphill, and Ed Anderson on trumpets, Harry White and Henry Hicks on trombone, Charlie Holmes on clarinet and alto sax, Ted and Castor McCord on clarinet and tenor sax, Edgar Hayes on piano, Benny James on banjo, Hayes Alvis on string bass, and Willie Lynch on drums. George Morton provides the vocal on “Moanin'”.

For these two sides, I found that my usual equalization hindered the crispness of the music, especially the trumpets and cymbals, so these transfers are presented straight off the record, no equalization whatsoever. I hope you’ll find the increased crispness outweighs the slight crackle.

The first side of this disc introduces us to the sizzling hot, and also quite modernistic tune “Blue Rhythm”, a fitting title for this band, even if they’re not using their actual name.

Blue Rhythm, recorded June 25, 1931 by King Carter and his Royal Orchestra.

Don’t let the worn label fool you, the flip side, “Moanin'”, is in just as good or better condition. This side seems to have some kind of “wobbly” effect to it, it’s not a flaw with this particular copy, but is in fact a fault in the engineering, and is present on all pressings. Maybe the needle on the cutting lathe was worn out when it was recorded.

For me, this side conjures up the images of sitting a smoke-filled Harlem jazz club in the years after the stock market crash, as swing begins to evolve from its primordial soup of hot jazz, taking it slow and easy as the fast paced world passes by outside the door.

Moanin’, recorded June 25, 1931 by King Carter and his Royal Orchestra.

Melotone M 12639 – Cab Calloway and his Orchestra – 1930

Posted on August 21, 2015 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.

I think it’s about time I featured a Cab Calloway record, so here it is, one of his earliest records, as well as one of his best. At such an early recording date, Calloway’s band retained the most of the members, and hot sound of their predecessor, the Missourians.

Melotone M 12639, originally issued as Brunswick 6020, was recorded on December 23, 1930 in New York, two days before Cab’s birthday, in New York City, this Melotone was issued around early to mid 1933. These sides feature Cab singing and directing the band, and includes R.Q. Dickerson, Lammar Wright, and Reuben “River” Reeves on trumpets, De Priest Wheeler and Harry White on trombones, William Thornton Blue on clarinet and alto sax, Andrew Brown on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Walter “Foots” Thomas on alto, tenor and baritone saxes, Earres Prince on piano, Morris White on banjo, Jimmy Smith on bass, and Leroy Maxey on drums.

The band’s energetic performance of the evergreen classic “Some of These Days” is one of Cab’s hottest tunes ever recorded, with the (ex-)Missourians playing as hot as ever. This side has a few small needle digs that cause slight disruption near the end, please try to excuse them.

Some of These Days, recorded December 23, 1930 by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra.

Maceo Pinkard’s “Is That Religion” is performed in the form of a mock-sacred song, with a chorus singing in the background, and Cab preaching.

Is That Religion?, recorded December 23, 1930 by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra.

Victor 45347 – Will Rogers – 1923

Posted on August 15, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Will Rogers was America’s most complete human document. He reflected in many ways the heartbeat of America.

— Damon Runyon

The great American humorist Will Rogers, circa 1935.

On this day, August 15, eighty years ago, the great American humorist, movie star, vaudevillian, and cowboy, Will Rogers met his tragic fate with the famed aviator Wiley Post near Point Barrow in Alaska while surveying a route from North America to Russia in Post’s cobbled together airplane, with Will intending to pick up some new material for his newspaper column along the way. The flight went well until an engine failure caused the plane to take a nosedive and crash into a lagoon.

In his life, Will Rogers, born November 4, 1879 in Oologah, Indian Territory, was one of the biggest and brightest stars of the Roaring Twenties. He became a cowboy in his early life, and later turned to vaudeville, starring in Ziegfeld’s Follies, with his trick roping a major attraction. By the end of the 1910s, Rogers had become a Hollywood movie star, and would appear in seventy-one pictures from 1918 to 1935. What Will Rogers is probably best remembered for however, is his wit, which he expressed in his newspaper column from 1922 to 1935. Befriending another of the greatest stars of the day, Charles Lindbergh, Rogers took an interest in aviation, which would be his downfall in 1935. Will Rogers in his day became something of a folk hero, representing classical American values, and an innocence of bygone days, and his death sparked nationwide tributes.

On Victor 45347, recorded February 6, 1923 in New York City, Will Rogers gives us “A New Slant on War” and “Timely Topics”. The record was released in March of 1923 and remained in the Victor catalog until 1927, it was later reissued as Victor 25126 on August 25, 1935, ten days after Will’s untimely demise.

With the Great War still fresh on the nation’s mind, in “A New Slant on War”, Will gives us, as the title would indicate, some humorous thoughts on war, why we have them, and how we can prevent them in the future.

A New Slant on War, recorded February 6, 1923 by Will Rogers.

While “Timely Topics” may not seem so timely anymore, Rogers’s monologue is still remarkably relevant, brimming with gems of his timeless witticisms.

Timely Topics, recorded February 6, 1923 by Will Rogers.

Victor 20944 – Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra – 1927

Posted on July 2, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Accompanying this record is a tale of tragedy. After long searching far and wide for an original Victor issue of Fletcher Henderson’s “Variety Stomp”, I was thrilled when a promising copy turned up on eBay, and I was able to win for an excellent price. When the record was finally delivered, I opened the package to discover in horror that it was woefully insufficient to protect the contents from careless postal workers, and what would have been a nice V+ record was snapped in two pieces, just about through the middle. The seller very kindly refunded the cost, and the record sat dejectedly for months on my broken record pile.

It wasn’t doing any good just sitting there, so eventually I decided to try my hand at repairing it, and with the remains of Victor 20944 and a tube of superglue, I carefully lined up the two halves of the record, and put a dollop of glue on the outside edges, and in the runout area on both sides. After the glue dried came the moment of truth, I brought the repaired record to my turntable and to my surprise and relief, it tracked perfectly, and played through with only two surprisingly minor background clicks.

I have since acquired Henderson’s Bluebird issue of take 2 of “Variety”, and his acoustical recording on Harmony, but my heart still yearns for a better copy of this record. Maybe someday.

Below, you can hear the results of my efforts, straight from the turntable, with no cleaning up or modification of any sort to the audio, as well as digitally cleaned up versions attempting to remove the clicks from the crack.

Victor 20944 was recorded April 27, 1927 at the Victor studios in New York City, and released in November of ’27. Besides Henderson on piano and directing, the all-star lineup includes Joe and Russell Smith, and possibly Tommy Ladnier on trumpet, Benny Morton and Jimmy Harrison on trombones, Buster Bailey and Don Redman on clarinet and alto sax, Coleman Hawkins playing his famous tenor sax, Charlie Dixon on banjo, and June Cole and Kaiser Marshall on tuba and drums, respectively.

On “A”, Henderson’s Orchestra plays hot on “St. Louis Shuffle” (take 2), composed by Jack Pettis and Thomas “Fats” Waller.

St. Louis Shuffle, recorded April 27, 1927 in New York by Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra.

St. Louis Shuffle, recorded April 27, 1927 by Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra.

On “B”, they play one of my favorites, take 3 of “Variety Stomp”, which was only issued here, composed by Jo Trent, Ray Henderson, and Bud Green.

Variety Stomp, recorded April 27, 1927 in New York by Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra.

Variety Stomp, recorded April 27, 1927 by Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra.

I don’t think it sounds too bad for a record that was broken in half, myself!

Updated on June 22, 2024.

Columbia A3943 – Clara Smith – 1923

Posted on June 26, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

This particular record is one of a group that got me started in collecting, a group originally owned by my great-grandmother and her father. I believe this one in particular was my great-great-grandfather’s, and like many from that bunch, it has seen better days. If you ever wondered whether a white family from Texas in the 1920s would buy vaudeville blues records, there’s your answer.

This record also has the great distinction of being the first record by “Queen of the Moaners” Clara Smith. Smith, of no relation to Bessie or Mamie, was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1893, and most details regarding her early life remain a mystery. In the late 1910s, she toured the TOBA circuit in vaudeville before moving to Harlem in 1923, where she began recording with Columbia Records. While in vaudeville, Smith gave a young Josephine Baker her first break in 1920, and she was good friends with Bessie Smith until a night in 1925 when Bessie got drunk and beat her up. Clara Smith continued to record until 1932, and died of a heart attack three years later in 1935.

Columbia A3943, made several months before Columbia’s race series began, was recorded exactly 92 years ago on June 26, 1923 and features “I Got Everything a Woman Needs” and “Every Woman’s Blues” performed by Clara Smith with piano accompaniment by the great Fletcher Henderson. Rejected takes of these tunes were recorded a month earlier on May 31.

First up, Clara moans Stanley S. Miller’s “I Got Everything a Woman Needs”, about Emmaline down in South Caroline who was “a vampire through and through.” This is the sixth take of the recording, the only one issued, according to the DAHR.