Group & Last Name Index to Full History:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Tracks are listed in chronological order by year, then alphabetically.
Listings do not reflect proper order by month or day: later oft precedes earlier.
Find on Page = F3. Not on this page? See history tree below.
Featured on this page loosely in order of first recording if not record release (as possible).
Names are alphabetical, not chronological, per year:
| Ben Harney Scott Joplin Tom Turpin Joe Jordan | |
| 1915 | James Johnson |
| 1916 | George Gershwin Marion Harris James Johnson |
| 1917 | Eubie Blake |
| 1918 | Zez Confrey |
| 1919 | Luckey Roberts |
| 1920 | Willie Smith |
| 1921 | Clarence Williams |
| 1923 | Lil Hardin Armstrong Sonny Clay Baby Dodds Eddie Lang Jelly Roll Morton Fats Waller |
| 1924 | Red McKenzie Lee Morse Eddie South Joe Venuti |
| 1925 | Hoagy Carmichael Sol Hoopii Dick McDonough |
| 1926 | Lillie Delk Christian Annette Hanshaw |
| 1927 | Eddie Condon Carl Kress |
| 1928 | Stuff Smith Joe Sullivan |
| 1929 | Teddy Bunn Walter Page Snoozer Quinn |
| 1930 | Chick Bullock |
|
Caveats in the employment of this page: 1. It descends in chronological
order by the year the artist or band is first found on a commercial record
issue (ideally) by year only, alphabetical thereat. One musician above
another doesn't necessarily translate to earlier issue unless the year
changed. 2. Though release dates are the aim with links to YouTube, some
are recording dates and may not be everywhere clearly distinguished. 3.
Reissues are used to represent originals without much discussion.
Minor note: though piano rolls were punched into paper rather than scratched into wax
they are accounted as recordings. |
||
|
This page is Part 2 of Early Jazz Part 1. "Jazz" (or jass) was a sexual term. Both Webster's and the Oxford Dictionary of Music estimate its origin as of 1913. Its deeper roots may be purveyed by timelines at Jazz In America and All About Jazz. See also jazz history and theory at Jazz Standards; the Great American Songbook at 1, 2, 3; 20s Jazz; Scaruffi. At the origins of jazz are of two main stems, the one arising out of ragtime in New Orleans, with strong Creole and black influence. The other heralds largely from Chicago, also a transformation of ragtime, before moving onward to Harlem, St. Louis, Kansas City, etc.. New Orleans is generally considered the heart of jazz, where many musicians began their careers before merging with the Chicago limb. (This is true of the blues and boogie woogie as well, the Mississippi Delta the deep home of the blues, musicians often migrating to Chicago to join the blues scene there. Boogie woogie, the southern equivalent of ragtime, originated in eastern Texas, likely Marshall, about forty miles from Shreveport, Louisiana.) Though New York City was the third major hub of jazz, it is Hollywood that would wield the greater influence on the public due to film. Sessions this page are largely Lord's Disco. See also Brian Rust's 'Jazz and Ragtime Records 1897 – 1942' at Mainspring Press. References to the Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR 1, 2) and Red Hot Jazz (RHJ 1, 2, 3) also point to sessions. See also Walter Bruyninckx' [1, 2, 3] '85 Years of Recorded Jazz 1917-2002 A-Z Complete' compared to Lord in 2011, Jørgen Grunnet Jepson, and Brian Rust 'Jazz and Ragtime Records 1897 – 1942' and 'Jazz Records 1917–1934'. A good source for lyrics for this period in jazz is Lyrics Playground. Likewise composing credits at Cafe Songbook, Jazz Standards, Second Hand Songs and Songfacts. Other early jazz vocalists in Early Blues 2.
|
||
|
Ben Harney Source: Study Com
Tom Turpin Source: Music Timeline
|
Because jazz is largely a transformation of ragtime it is well to preface this page with a brief account of ragtime in its heydays in the latter 19th century. Though not necessarily associated with, and as different from jazz to follow on this page as are knickers from pants, it points back to roots not of New Orleans more covered in Early Jazz Part 1. Ragtime originated in the 1880's, due largely to black musicians, in the southern and midwestern states, especially Missouri. It came to be as a mix of jigs and marches and was at first considered declassé, played more in bordellos than salons. During the 1890's, however, ragtime had become so increasingly popular that there were good livings to be made selling sheet music to a public of home pianists wishing to add something different to their repertoires of Chopin, but a bit of beat to go with melody. Ragtime's heyday was during the first decade of the last century, its decline, or transformation into jazz, occurring about the time of World War I. The history of ragtime much corresponds with that of famed (and notorious) Tin Pan Ally in New York City where publishers peddled their sheet music. The heydays of sheet music and Tin Pan Alley began in the last decade of the 19th century, their decline, together with the piano roll, occurring during the Great Depression, upon radio and the phonograph becoming major vehicles of musical expression. Among the greatest ragtime composers and musicians were Ben Harney [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], Scott Joplin [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] and Tom Turpin [1, 2]. Ben Harney composed 'You've Been a Good Old Wagon' in 1895. None of his compositions were recorded, however, until some years later. Neither the date nor vocalist of the recording below are certain. Scott Joplin first began publishing music in 1895. His were also among the first piano rolls produced in 1896. The tunes by Joplin below are piano roll recordings at later dates than when composed. The pianists are unknown. Joplin's contributions to early American music brought him a posthumous Pulitzer Special Award in 1976. 'St Louis Blues', by Tom Turpin, is recorded from a later piano roll. Again, the pianist is unknown. 'Harlem Rag' is his first published tune (1897), performed by Ann Charters some sixty years later. Joe Jordan [1, 2] was another great ragtime composer and musician who never recorded. He first published in 1902, 'The Century March' and 'Double Fudge'. The song below, 'That Teasin' Rag', was composed in 1909. It is played more than ninety years later in 2001 by Robert Darch. See also HMR Prohect. Tom Turpin Composition: 1892Ben Harney Composition: 1895 Scott Joplin Composition: 1899 Scott Joplin Composition: 1902 Tom Turpin Composition: 1903 Joe Jordan Composition: 1909
|
Scott Joplin Source: Britannica
Joe Jordan Source: Amoeba |
|
Born in 1894 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, composer James Price Johnson developed a reputation along the East Coast as a great pianist in the twenties, largely due to producing piano rolls. He well represents a bridge from latter ragtime to early jazz due to his development of the stride piano technique [1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Others who employed stride include Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Thelonious Monk, Luckey Roberts and Willie Smith. Sources range from 1915 [Womack Ref 6] to 1917 as the year that Johnson perforated his first piano roll. Womack has that for Aeolian, which distribution that year I assume. He would produce above 400 rolls for several manufacturers well into the forties. His first known shellac recordings are thought to have been in 1921. Johnson was able to survive the Depression on song royalties, comfortably, though not richly. He died on November 17, 1955, in Queens. References: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; stride piano and: *. Compositions: 1, 2. Discos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Piano solo compilations: *. Johnson on Broadway: *. Further reading: 1, 2. Other profiles: 1, 2, 3. More Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters for whom Johnson plays piano in tracks below. Uncredited titles below were composed by Johnson. James Johnson 1917 Piano roll Piano roll Piano roll James Johnson 1918 Piano roll James Johnson 1921 Piano roll James Johnson 1925 Piano roll James Johnson 1927 With Bessie Smith Composition: Bessie Smith James Johnson 1928 With Ethel Waters Music: James Calvin Johnson Lyrics: Andy Razaf With Ethel Waters Composition: Andy Razaf James Johnson 1929 With Bessie Smith Composition: Spencer Williams With Bessie Smith Composition: Bessie Smith With Bessie Smith Composition: Bessie Smith James Johnson 1930 James Johnson 1939 Trumpet: Henry Red Allen James Johnson 1943 Composition: Bessie Smith James Johnson 1944 Composition: Fats Waller/Andy Razaf
|
James Price Johnson Source: Last FM |
|
|
George Gershwin Source: NNDB |
Born in 1898 in Brooklyn, composer George Gershwin was brother to lyricist, Ira Gershwin [1, 2, 3, 4,], with whom he would collaborate from 1924 to 1937. George began his career in the music industry at age 15 as a song plugger, advertising sheet music on the streets of Tin Pan Alley [1, 2, 3]. Tin Pan Alley was that quarter of New York City where popular music was hustled by publishers in every fashion. It acquired a reputation, especially among serious musicians - such as Gershwin, a classical pianist - as a place to avoid. Nevertheless, Tin Pan Alley would later help make Gershwin a wealthy man, more so, apparently, than among his greater rivals in Tin Pan Alley as a composer, Irving Berlin [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10], the latter born in Russia 10 years Gershwin's senior. Gershwin's first published composition, written at age 17, was 'When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em'. He began producing piano rolls [1, 2, 3] for the pianola [1, 2, 3] the next year, of which he made more than 140 during his earlier career. Stanford University lists his first two rolls for the Standard Music Roll Company in January of '16 per 'Bring Along Your Dancing Shoes' and 'Kangaroo Hop' issued as Perfection 85865. He also began making rolls for the Aeolian Company that year. One got paid 5 some dollars for a piano roll at that time, equal to well above fifty dollars today. That doesn't sound like a lot, but several rolls a week could double the average American salary at that time of $15 a week. Gershwin's first recording on shellac was 'Swanee' with the Fred Van Eps Quartet in Dec 1919. Among his best known compositions and recordings was 'Rhapsody in Blue' [1, 2] with Paul Whiteman in 1924. In 1934 Gershwin had his own radio program, 'Music By Gershwin', for NBC. Gershwin is also well-known for his opera, 'Porgy and Bess' [1, 2], first performed in 1935, to commercial failure. It was 1935 when Gershwin last recorded as well, highlighting tunes from 'Porgy and Bess' for RCA Victor [*]. After which Gershwin moved to Hollywood, where he wrote the score for 'Shall We Dance', issued in 1936. He was only 38 years of age when he died in Los Angeles of brain tumor on 11 July 1937. Gershwin was posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Special Award in 1998. References for George Gershwin: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8; piano rolls and: 1, 2; rollography. Compositions by George and Ira Gershwin: 1, 2; see also 'Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls' (1916-27) issued by Nonesuch Records in 1993. Catalogues for George and Ira: 45Worlds 1, 2; DAHR 1, 2; Discogs 1, 2, 3; RYM 1, 2. Compilations: 'Historic George Gershwin Recordings' RCA Victor Red Seal 1998: 1, 2, 3. Gershwin on Broadway. George Gershwin 1916 Kangaroo Hop Player piano Composition: Melville Morris Walkin' the Dog Player piano Composition: Shelton Brooks Chinese Blues Player piano Composition: Oscar Gardner George Gershwin 1917 Rialto Ripples Player piano Composition: George Gershwin/Will Donaldson George Gershwin 1919 Player piano Music: George Gershwin (Lyrics: Irving Caesar) George Gershwin 1920 Player piano Player piano Music: George Gershwin (Lyrics: Ira Gershwin) George Gershwin 1924 With the Paul Whiteman Orchestra George Gershwin 1925 Player piano Recorded 1945 Player piano fused with the Columbia Jazz Band Composition: George & Ira Gershwin George Gershwin 1926 Composition: George & Ira Gershwin Composition: George & Ira Gershwin George Gershwin 1928 Composition: George Gershwin George Gershwin 1930? Composition: George Gershwin George Gershwin 1934 Composition: George Gershwin George Gershwin 1935 Baritone: Lawrence Tibbett' Soprano: Helen Jepson From the opera 'Porgy and Bess' Music: George Gershwin Libretto: DuBose Heyward Lyrics: Ira Gershwin Album 'Highlights from Porgy and Bess': Recorded Oct '35 Issued Dec '35' [DAHR] Director: Alexander Smallens Supervisor: George Gershwin
|
|
| Born in 4 April 1896 in Indiana,
Marion Harris began singing in
Chicago at age 18 on the vaudeville stage, also adding voice to silent
films. By Dec 1915 she was in New York City already doing the big time
with a minor role in Irving Berlin's 'Stop!
Look! Listen!'. Harris was twenty years old when she first recorded in 1916. DAHR has her in session as early as 9 August for 'My Syncopated Melody
Man' (Victor 18152) and 'I Ain't Got Nobody Much' (Victor 18133). She
proved to be a popular singer four months later when 'I'm Gonna Make Hay
While the Sun Shines in Virginia' reached #8 on the
charts in December.
Moving over to Columbia in 1920, then Brunswick in 1922, Harris positioned
forty songs in the Top Ten to as late as 'The Man I Love' in 1928. Four of
those topped the charts at #1: 'After You've Gone', 'St. Louis Blues',
'Look for the Silver Lining' and 'Tea for Two'. Her last title to chart
was 'Nobody's Using It Now' in 1930 at #20. Harris began 1927
performing on Broadway in 'Yours Truly' from Jan to May. She appeared in film
for the first time in 1928 per the short, 'Marion Harris, Songbird of
Jazz'. She sang
on radio for the first time in 1931 with NBC, also touring to London that
year. Crossing the Atlantic between NYC and London on multiple occasions,
Marion is thought to have recorded as late as 1934 in the UK, issuing 'Singin’
the Blues'/'Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday' on Decca F 5160. By 1936 she was
married (again) and living in London where her home was destroyed by a
German rocket during World War II in '41. A trip to NYC in 1944 proved fatal when Harris died
for the unforgivable sin of smoking in bed in
her hotel room in Manhattan on 23 April, she only 48 years old.
References: 1,
2,
3;
w the Six Brown Brothers.
Sessions: 1,
2,
'Columbia Master Book Discography: Principal U.S. Matrix Series 1910-1924' (Rust/Brooks).
Discographies: 1,
2,
3.
In
visual media.
Archives: 1,
2,
3.
Further reading: 1,
2. Marion Harris 1916 Composition: Joe Verges Composition: Spencer Williams/Roger Graham I'm Gonna Make Hay While the Sun Shines Music: Archie Gottler Lyrics: Joe Young/Sam Lewis Music: Spencer Williams Lyrics: William Hirsch Marion Harris 1917 Everybody's Crazy 'Bout the Doggone Blues Composition: Henry Creamer/Turner Layton Marion Harris 1918 Composition: Henry Creamer/Turner Layton When Alexander Takes His Ragtime Band to France Composition: Alfred Bryan/Cliff Hess/Edgar Leslie Marion Harris 1919 Composition: Eddie Green Marion Harris 1920 Composition: James F. Hanley Composition: Carey Morgan Never Let No One Man Worry Your Mind Composition: Jack Baxley/Will Skidmore Composition: WC Handy Marion Harris 1921 Composition: WC Handy Composition: Joe Gibson/Joe Ribaud/Joe Gold Composition: Benny Davis/Lester Santly/Milton Ager Music: Jerome Kern Lyrics: Buddy DeSylva Marion Harris 1922 Composition: Walter Donaldson Marion Harris 1923 Composition: Billy Baskette Composition: Bert Kalmar/Harry Ruby/Ted Snyder Marion Harris 1924 Composition: Gus Kahn/Isham Jones Composition: Dick Finch/Little Jack Little/Tommie Malie Marion Harris 1925 Composition: Irving Caesar/Vincent Youmans Marion Harris 1927 Composition: Abe Lyman/Sid Silvers/Phil Baker Composition: George & Ira Gershwin Marion Harris 1928 Film Marion Harris 1930 Music: Jimmy McHugh Lyrics: Dorothy Fields Film: 'Gems of M-G-M' Music: Neil Moret 1929 Lyrics: Richard Whiting Genre: Torch song Music: Victor Schertzinger Lyrics: Clifford Grey Marion Harris 1931 My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes Composition: Ted Kohler/Eddie Pola/Jack Golden
|
Marion Harris Source: Jazz Age 1920s |
|
|
Eubie Blake Source: Black Kudos |
Born James Hubert Blake in 1887 in Baltimore, composer, bandleader and pianist Eubie Blake first recorded with Noble Sissle for Pathe (20210) about April, 1917: 'Mammy's Little Choc'late Cullud Chile'. Eleven more tracks with Sissle followed to August, the same month he made his first recordings as a leader, also for Pathe: 'Sarah from Sahara', 'Hungarian Rag', and 'American Jubilee'. Tom Lord lists possible members of that affair as Elliott Carpenter (piano), Broadway Jones (drums) or Buddy Gillmore (drums). Blake released his first piano roll for Ampico in November 1917: 'Charleston Rag'. On February 11, 1922 he led 'Cutie' and 'Jimmy' with Sissle in the band on violin (Emerson 10519). Blake recorded with Noble Sissle's operation into 1927. They would release titles together in the fifties and sixties as well. Blake's first keyboard had been a pump organ purchased for him by his mother for seventy five dollars. On an installment plan it came to 25 cents per week. Among his first professional engagements many years later in 1907 was as a pianist at the Goldfield Hotel in Baltimore. He then worked medicine shows (quitting one wagon act because Sunday dinners were against the religion of the Quaker doctor who ran the company) and vaudeville. In 1912 he began working with James Reese Europe. Briefly after World War I (July 1914 - November 1918) Blake formed a partnership with Noble Sissle called the Dixie Duo. He began working in film (short Phonofilms) in 1923. After his years with Sissle he began leading his own orchestra. His first issue with His Orchestra was recorded in March of 1931 for Crown Records, issuing 'Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone', 'I'm No Account Anymore', 'When Your Lover Has Gone', and 'It Looks Like Love'. During World War II Blake worked with the USO. He earned a degree in music from New York University in the latter forties. Blake died in 1983 in Brooklyn, five days after his 96th birthday, still smoking cigarettes, having started at age ten. References: HMR Project. Eubie Blake 1917 1st piano roll Eubie Blake 1921 Eubie Blake 1922 Eubie Blake 1923 Eubie Blake 1924 Eubie Blake 1931 My Blue Days Blew Over When You Came Back Eubie Blake 1969 Eubie Blake 1972 Tricky Fingers (Troublesome Ivories) Eubie Blake 1978 Shuffle Along/Love Will Find a Way
|
|
|
Born in 1895 in Peru, Illinois, composer, Edward Elzear Zez Confrey, played piano as a youth. He formed an orchestra while high school, also playing piano on steamboats, after which he attended the Chicago Musical Collage, there strongly impressed by French Impressionism. In 1915 he landed a job w the Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Company leading to the composition of such as 'On the Banks of My Dear Old Illinois', 'Over the Top' and 'My Pet'. He enlisted in the Navy when the United States entered into World War I, during which time he recorded his first piano roll in 1917, 'Over the Top', issued on Imperial 511340. That was in Chicago where he resumed civilian life to compose, arrange and perform piano, notably with the QRS piano roll manufacturer. The first player piano [1, 2] roll [1, 2] had been invented in France in 1863 by Henri Fourneaux, who got the idea from a loom designed by Jacquard Mills in 1800, also in France, that could weave patterns according to punched card diagrams. It was Edwin Welte who introduced the first perforated paper roll in Germany in 1887 that could play longer songs. As for Confrey, among early titles with QRS (founded 1900) was Confrey 'My Pet' in 1918 on 100827. He would record that again in 1921 for issue on Brunswick 2082. Jasen has Confrey punching 123 rolls during his tenure with QRS ['Rags and Ragtime: A Musical History'/ Dover Publications/ 1978], among them 'Kitten on the Keys' (QRS 101003) and 'Mandy 'n' Me' (QRS 1678) in 1921 [*]. DAHR begins its list of sessions to issue on disc as of c Aug 1921 with 'Greenwich Witch' (Brunswick 2167). Highlighting his life in the thirties was marriage in 1932 to showgirl, Wilhelmina Matthes, she to bear a son the next year. Parkinson's Disease arriving in the forties put a cease to performing, though Confrey continued composing. He died in Lakewood, New Jersey, in 1971. Further references: 1, 2, 3, 4. Catalogues: 1, 2, 3. Confrey in visual media. Other profiles: *. All the recordings below are piano rolls unless otherwise noted. Zez Confrey 1918 Piano roll Composition: Confrey Zez Confrey 1921 Piano roll Composition: Confrey Zez Confrey 1922 Disc recording Composition: Confrey Performed by the Broadway Dance Orchestra Zez Confrey 1923 Piano roll Composition: Nacio Herb Brown Zez Confrey 1925 Piano roll Composition: Confrey Zez Confrey 1927 Piano roll Composition: Thurlow Lieurance
|
Zez Confrey Source: AMICA |
|
|
Luckey Roberts Source: All Music
|
Born Charles Luckyth Roberts in 1887 in Philadelphia, ragtime and stride pianist Luckey Roberts played in minstrel shows as a child. About 1910 he made New York City his home to become one of Harlem's favorite pianists. Going by DAHR one finds his composition, 'Junk-Man Rag', first recorded by Fred Van Eps on 6 Sep 1913 for issue on Columbia A1417. Roberts also composed 'Pork and Beans' that year. On 26 Oct 1916 he recorded 'Shoo Fly' and 'Shy and Sly' for Columbia, neither issued. Roberts played with James Reese Europe in Europe during World War I. Upon his return to the States he worked largely as a composer, also making piano rolls. Come 1919 he produced the piano rolls 'Railroad Blues' (Vocalstyle 11356) in April, 'Irresistible Blues' (Vocalstyle 11463) in Sep and 'Blue Fever' (Vocalstyle 11490) in Dec. 1923 witnessed 'Rosetime and You' (QRS 2287) 'Mo'lasses' (QRS 2306)'. To go by DAHR and Discogs he recorded and issued 'Hard Times'/'Mamie' (Victor 19359) in 1923 with Eddie Hunter. He and Hunter recorded 'Bootlegger's Ball'/'I'm Done' (Victor 19247) on the same date for release in 1924. During the forties he performed at his nightclub in Harlem, Luckey's Rendezvous, open for business from 1942 to 1954. During that period he recorded several tiles in 1946 including 'Railroad Blues' (Circle J-1026) and 'Shy and Sly' (Circle J-1028). Discogs has four of those released in 1956 on 'Harlem Party Piano' (Riverside Records RLP 1056), that w James P. Johnson on A side. In 1958 Roberts strung along a set of titles getting issued on 'Luckey & The Lion: Harlem Piano' by Good Time Jazz in 1960 [Discogs], that with Willie the Lion Smith on B side. Roberts was among a very few rich musicians in his day, that from real estate investments rather than performing music. He died in New York City on 5 Feb 1958. References: 1, 2, 3. Other profiles: *. Compositions for Broadway productions. Catalogues: 1, 2, 3. 'Railroad Blues', below, well demonstrates a ragtime-jazz fusion. Roberts authored the music on all titles below. A vocal version of 'Railroad Blues' was copyrighted in 1920 w text by Haven Gillespie and Howard Washington. Luckey Roberts 1919 Piano Roll Luckey Roberts 1946 Composition: Luckey Roberts 1911 Published 1913 Composition: Luckey Roberts 1913
|
|
| Born William Henry Joseph Bonaparte
Bertholoff Smith in 1893 in Goshen, New York, stride [1,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8] pianist
Willie Smith
(aka the Lion) was raised poor, worked at a slaughterhouse, brawled and
stole, began his career at piano as a kid in the back room of a saloon in
Manhattan, and learned Hebrew. His father being Jewish, Smith's Bar
Mitzvah was held at the usual age of age of thirteen. When he won a piano
in a newspaper contest run by a newspaper he took to it seriously before
serving as a drum major in the U.S. Army during World War I. He picked up
"The Lion" for a sobriquet due to bravery as a heavy artilleryman. After
the War Smith worked in Harlem clubs and at rent parties. He is thought to have first recorded in NYC in 1920 with blues singer,
Mamie Smith, on her own debut
issues as well, those for Okeh on February 14: 'That Thing Called Love'
and 'You Can't Keep a Good Man Down'. Though there is general agreement
that such is so, multiple discographies also register a measure of
reservation. Lord's discography, for instance, notes that rather than
Smith with the Rega Orchestra it may have been Frank Banta on piano with
the Hager Orchestra. Be as may, Smith did next record with
Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds on
August 10, 1920 for Okeh: 'Crazy Blues' and 'It's All Here for You'. A
couple more titles followed the next month with
Mamie: 'Fare Thee Honey Blues'
and 'The Road Is Rocky'. Smith later attended several sessions in the
latter twenties with various outfits but didn't gain a lot of traction as
a recording artist until the thirties. He released his first titles with
pianist,
Clarence Williams, at
vocals with the Seven Gallon Jug Band in 1930: 'What If I Do?' and 'Wipe 'Em
Off'. That was followed by numerous titles with
Williams' Jug Band in
1933. May 7, 1934, witnessed him recording with
Mezz Mezzrow before
recording what may be his first piano solos on the 14th: 'Fingerbuster'
and 'I've Got to Have My Moments'. Smith's initial titles as a leader were
recorded with his Cubs on April 23, 1935, 'What Can I Do with A Foolish
Little Girl Like You?' among them. He issued his composition, 'Echo of
Spring', in 1937. Among the numerous with whom Smith
worked over the years were organist, Milt Herth,
Eddie Condon and
Henry Red Allen. Smith
began touring in North Africa and Europe in the forties. In 1964 Smith
published his autobiography, 'Music on My Mind'. His last international engagements
were in 1971. He
last recorded in 1972, the year before his death on April 18th of '73 in
Newark, New Jersey. References: 1,
2.
Catalogues: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Piano solos composed by Smith.
Piano solos composed by others.
Smith in visual media.
Other profiles: *.
Smith composed all uncredited titles below with the exception of * = author unidentified
and 'Ain't Misbehavin' which was written by
Fats Waller and Harry Brooks w
lyrics by major composer of the period, Andy Razaf [1,
2]. 'Squeeze Me' was also composed by
Waller and Razaf.
Though lyrics were credited to
Clarence Williams, 'Squeeze Me' was among
credits
Williams had purchased as a music publisher per Wikipedia. Willie the Lion Smith 1920 With Mamie Smith Composition: Perry Bradford Willie the Lion Smith 1937 Composition: Clarence Williams/Willie Smith Willie the Lion Smith 1938 Willie the Lion Smith 1939 Composition: Fats Waller/Andy Razaf Composition: Fred Ahlert/Roy Turk With Sidney Bechet Composition: Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler Composition: Vernon Duke Willie the Lion Smith 1949 Willie the Lion Smith 1958 Composition: Shelton Brooks Composition: Al Dubin/Victor Herbert Composition: Scott Joplin Willie the Lion Smith 1960 Live Live performance Willie the Lion Smith 1964 Live performance Live performance Live performance Live performance Live performance Composition: Vincent Youmans/Irving Caesar Willie the Lion Smith 1965 Music on My Mind Live performance Willie the Lion Smith 1966 Live performance Live performance Composition: WC Handy
|
Willie the Lion Smith Source: All About Jazz |
|
|
Clarence Williams Source: Planet Barberella
|
Louisiana-born (1893) pianist, vocalist and band leader Clarence Williams [1, 2, 3, 4] got his start in music in 1910, running away from home at age twelve to join a traveling minstrel show. At age seventeen (1910) he became a music publisher. Williams' first recordings for Okeh as a bandleader circa September of '21 weren't issued: 'If You Don't Believe I Love You' and 'Roumania' [Lord's]. Those titles were released from a second session in October along with 'The Dance They Call the Georgia Hunch' (Okeh 8029) and 'Pullman Porter Blues' (Okeh 8020). In 1923 Williams produced his first piano roll, 'Sugar Blues', the same year he first recorded as a band leader with Sidney Bechet in his band, the Blue Five. Williams' two other main bands were the Jazz Kings and the Washboard Five. He recorded and published extensively, also backing a host of big name musicians, until selling his catalogue to Decca Records for $50,000 in 1943, which he used to purchase a bargain used goods store in Harlem. Williams died in Queens on 6 November 1965. Crediting Williams w compositions comes w caveat that he bought numerous as a music publisher from composers like Andy Razaf [1, 2]. Catalogues: 45Worlds; DAHR; Discogs: 1, 2, 3, 4; RYM; RHJ: 1, 2, 3, 4. Williams on Broadway. He died in Queens on 6 Nov 1965. Clarence Williams 1921 If You Don't Believe I Love You Thought to be William's 1st recording issued Composition: Clarence Williams Clarence Williams 1923 Composition: James P Johnson Composition: Fats Waller/Clarence Williams Clarence Williams 1925 Vocal: Eva Taylor Composition: Clarence Todd/Clarence Williams/Spencer Williams Clarence Williams 1926 Vocal: Eva Taylor Music: Mike Jackson Lyrics: Jack Lauria Clarence Williams 1928 Composition: ClarenceWilliams/Eddie Lang Vocal: Ethel Waters Composition: Clarence Williams Clarence Williams 1929 Composition: Clarence Williams/Fats Waller Clarence Williams 1931 You Rascal You (I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) Composition: Sam Thread
|
|
|
Lil Hardin Armstrong Photo: Frank Driggs Collection Source: Riverwalk Jazz
|
Born in 1898 in Memphis, pianist and vocalist
Lil Hardin Armstrong got a job demonstrating
sheet music at a Chicago music shop in 1918, she age twenty. Three weeks later
she was asked to join the New Orleans Creole Jazz Band. Before long the band
was able to book the Dreamland, Chicago's most prestigious nightclub. Eventually
Joe King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band replaced the New Orleans Creole Jazz Band.
Hardin was invited to stay. King Oliver soon after asked
Louis Armstrong to
join his band (1922), which is how Lil and
Louis came to marry in 1924. Hardin's
first recordings were likewise
Armstrong's first, with
King Oliver's
Creole Jazz Band in Richmond, Indiana on April 5, 1923 [Lord's]. From
'26 into '27 she was a member of
Armstrong's Hot Five
[1,
2] and
Hot Seven
[1,
2]. Among
titles she composed for the Hot Five were 'I'm Not Rough', 'Knee Drops'
and 'Struttin' with Some Barbecue', all issued in '28, the year she was
replaced by
Earl Hines. By twists and turns Lil
had formed her own band, continuing to play at the Dreamland. Lord's has
her first unissued session as a leader w her Serenaders for Vocalion on
April 20, 1926, for 'After I Say I'm Sorry' and 'Georgia Bo Bo'. Her
initial issued session was w her Hot Shots on May 28 of '26 for 'Georgia
Bo Bo'/'Drop That Sack' (Vocalion 1037). Lil and
Louis separated in
1931, then divorced. Though Hardin led an active career her second love
was tailoring, making a tuxedo for Louis
Armstrong in the latter forties, then shirts for friends.
Hardin died
in August 1971 (one month after
Louis in July), collapsing at a televised
concert performance. References 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Discos: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Further reading: 1,
2,
3. Lil Hardin Armstrong 1923 Cornets: Louis Armstrong & King Oliver Composition: King Oliver Lil Hardin Armstrong 1925 With Louis Armstrong's Hot Five Composition: Louis Armstrong Lil Hardin Armstrong 1936 Composition: Lil Armstrong/Avon Long Composition: Lil Armstrong Lil Hardin Armstrong 1937 Composition: Lil Armstrong/Avon Long Composition: Lil Armstrong/Avon Long Composition: Alexander Robinson Lil Hardin Armstrong 1938 Composition: Lil Armstrong Composition: Lil Armstrong/Avon Long Lil Hardin Armstrong 1940 Composition: Fitzpatrick
|
|
| Born in 1899 in Chapel Hill, Texas, bandleader, drummer and pianist,
William "Sonny" Clay
[1,
2,
3],
got moved to Phoenix at age eight. He played drums and xylophone before
taking up piano at about age 16. Five years later he joined Charlie Green
and Jelly Roll Morton in Mexico. In 1921 he joined the band of Red Spikes
in California. Clay first recorded
per Lord's and Rust in 1922 with
Camille Allen in Los Angeles per 'Ain't But the One'
and 'Mama Likes to Do It'. Those saw issue in 1985 on the compilation,
'Sonny Clay 1922-1960' (Harlequin HQ 2007). In 1923 Clay formed the
Eccentric Harmony Six with which he laid tracks as the California Poppies: 'What a
Wonderful Time', 'Lou', and 'Mama Likes to Do It'. JHJ has the former
issued that year on Sunset D-506 and Sunset S-507. 'Mama Likes to Do It'
is thought unreleased. Sometime between 1923
and '25 he recorded the piano solos, 'Gang o' Blues' and 'Punishing
the Piano'. Clay laid more tracks with his band, now the Stompin' Six,
about May of '25 before his first issues that year as the leader of his
Plantation Orchestra, recording 'Jambled Blues' and 'Bogloosa Blues' in
Los Angeles for Vocalion. In January of 1928 Clay took his Coloured
Plantation Band to Australia to perform in his musical revue, 'Sonny
Clay's the Colored
Idea' [1,
2].
This is said to be the
first black jazz operation to tour there. Though initially highly popular, rumors of drug use and miscegenation resulted in a
police raid that got Clay and his outfit deported, after which the Australian government
banned black jazz musicians from entering the country until 1954 (Louis
Armstrong the first to visit Australia that year). Upon his return to
the States Clay took up residency at the Vernon Country Club in Los
Angeles, leading various configurations like his Dixie Serenaders with
which he recorded in in 1931. During World War II he served in Special
Services (Armed Forces entertainment branch). He continued working as a
musician after the War but would also tune pianos and find employment with
the U.S. Postal Service. After a gap of nearly thirty years Lord's
sessionography traces Clay to as late as a couple strings of piano solos
recorded at his home in Los Angeles by John Bentley on 1 May and 3
December 1960. Titles like 'I wish I could shimmy like my Sister Kate' and
'Tack head blues' eventually saw issue in 1985 on the compilation, 'Sonny
Clay 1922-1960' (Harlequin HQ 2007). He died on 10 April 1973 in Los
Angeles. RHJ sessionography.
Catalogues: 1,
2,
3.
HMR Project. The California Poppies 1923 Composition: Clay/Henry Walker Sonny Clay 1923 Circa 1923-25 Sonny Clay 1925 Composition: Clay Sonny Clay 1926 Composition: Jelly Roll Morton Composition: Clay/Ernest Coycault Sonny Clay 1928 Composition: Clay
|
Sonny Clay Source: Swing FM |
|
| Born in 1898, drummer
Baby Dodds
(brother of clarinetist, Johnny
Dodds in Early Jazz 1), began his music
career in New Orleans playing funeral marches, street parades and in various
bands (trumpeter Bunk Johnson among those with whom he worked).
In 1918 he
and cornetist, Louis Armstrong, left New Orleans to play music on Mississippi riverboats
destined back and forth to St. Louis. About the time he and Armstrong had
had enough of that (1921), and King Oliver
(cornet) had had enough of California, the
three eventually found themselves playing together in
Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in Chicago, together with Baby's brother, Johnny,
Armstrong's bride-to-be, Lil
Armstrong, on piano, Honore Dutrey on trombone and Bud Scott on banjo.
The significance of their first recording session on April 5, 1923, in
Richmond, Indiana, was that it would be the first vinyl release of all in
the band. Oliver's Creole
Jazz Band came to its demise in early 1924 upon a disagreeable falling out
between Oliver and the Dodds Brothers. The Armstrongs toured afterward
with Oliver while the Dodds remained in Chicago, soon acquiring a
residency at Bert Kelly's Stables for the next five years. On 24 July 1929
in Chicago the Dodds made what Lord shows to be their last session
together for another eleven years, that with the Beale Street Washboard
Band for two takes each of 'Forty and Tight' and 'Piggly Wiggly'. Johnny
didn't record again until January of 1938 while Baby was working at the
Three Deuces in New York City. He didn't record with Baby again until 5
June 1940. That session was Baby's first after a gap of eleven years, yet
Johnny's last, for he died on 8 August 1940 in Chicago of heart attack.
That session nevertheless kindled Baby's latter recording career during
which he performed with such as
Sidney Bechet,
Muggsy Spanier and Jim
Robinson. Certainly some of Dodd's nicest work was in the band
of Bunk Johnson from '44 to
'47, recording extensively in various venues about the nation with
Johnson. Dodd also
heavily participated in the 'This Is Jazz' broadcasts of 1947 out of New
York City, performing with such as Wild
Bill Davison. In 1948 Dodds toured Europe with Mezz Mezzrow,
then continued freelancing in Chicago and NYC until his death in Chicago
on Valentine's Day of 1959. References: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Discographies: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Further reading: 1,
2,
3. Baby Dodds 1923 Creole Jazz Band Composition: King Oliver/Bill Johnson Baby Dodds 1944 Baby Won't You Please Come Home Kid Shots' New Orleans Band Composition: Charles Warfield/Clarence Williams 1919 Baby Dodds 1946 Baby Dodds Trio Clarinet: Albert Nicholas Piano: Don Ewell Composition: Albert Nicholas Baby Dodds Trio Clarinet: Albert Nicholas Piano: Don Ewell Composition: Jelly Roll Morton Composition: Baby Dodd
|
Warren Baby Dodds Source: A Tela da Reflexão |
|
|
Eddie Lang Source: Jazz SK |
If there is a "Father" of jazz guitar it might be Eddie Lang (Salvatore Massaro) who first recorded with the Charlie Kerr Orchestra in 1923. His first of five sessions with Kerr that year yielded 'Good Morning, Dearie' and 'A Silver Canoe' for the Edison label. Not long later Lang became a member of both Red Nichol's Five Pennies and the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. Violinist, Joe Venuti, was a member of Goldkette's band as well. The pair began recording duets together in 1926, then formed the Blue Four. Lang and Venuti's musical collaboration was the American version of the partnership between guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli in France some eight years later (see Jazz 7). Excepting Nichol's Five Pennies, Venuti is the violinist in all the samples of Lang below. Unfortunately Lang died at age thirty on 26 March 1933. It is thought he bled to death after a tonsillectomy to improve his voice for taking parts in Bing Crosby films [*]. References: 1, 2, 3, 4. Lang and Venuti at Nyaard. Lang and Crosby at Guitar Player. Discographies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. HMR Project. Eddie Lang 1923 Charlie Kerr Orchestra Thought to be Lang's 1st issued recording Composition: Jerome Kern Charlie Kerr Orchestra Thought to be Lang's 2nd issued recording Composition: Vincent Rose Eddie Lang 1926 Jean Goldkette Orchestra Composition: Frank Galvin/Robert Spencer With Red Nichols Composition: Hoagy Carmichael/Irving Mills With Red Nichols Composition: Red Nichols Eddie Lang 1927 Violin: Joe Venuti Composition: Lang/Venuti Eddie Lang 1928 Violin: Joe Venuti Composition: Lorenz Hart/Richard Rodgers Violin: Joe Venuti Composition: Harry Akst/Joe Young/Sam Lewis Violin: Joe Venuti Composition: Lang/Venuti Violin: Joe Venuti Composition: Eddie Edwards Eddie Lang 1931 Violin: Joe Venuti Composition: W. C. Handy Farewell Blues Violin: Joe Venuti Composition: Elmer Schoebel/Leon Roppolo/Paul Mares
|
|
|
Born Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe in 1890 in New Orleans, Jelly Roll Morton is thought to have begun his professional career at age fourteen, playing piano in a brothel. In 1904 he began composing while traveling the South with minstrel shows. In 1912 he began performing the vaudeville circuit with Rosa Brown. Among his first published compositions was 'Jelly Roll Blues' in 1915. He left for Hollywood in 1917, then Vancouver, where he played at a club called The Patricia. Back in Chicago in 1923, he recorded with his own orchestra as early as June, 1923, two takes each of 'Big Fat Ham' (aka 'Big Foot Ham') and 'Muddy Water Blues' in Chicago for Paramount. The next month he laid three piano solos for Gennett at its studios in Richmond, Indiana: 'King Porter Stomp' with two takes of 'New Orleans Joys'. July that year found him recording with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Morton's debut piano rolls are thought to have been made in the summer of 1924 for Vocalstyle in Cincinnati, Ohio: 'Mr. Jelly Lord', 'Tin Roof Blues' and 'Tom Cat Blues'. His career took off in a big way when he signed up with Victor in 1926 with his Red Hot Peppers band. Morton's first issues with the the Peppers that year were 'Black Bottom Stomp', 'Smokehouse Blues' and two takes of 'The Chant'. During the Depression Victor chose to not renew Morton's contract. With work drying up in clubs, Morton turned to radio in 1934, then toured with a burlesque act to earn a living. In 1935 he moved to Washington D.C. to manage a bar called the Jungle Inn, which career path ended in 1938 upon being stabbed by a friend of the owner. It was also 1938 when he recorded for Eddie Lomax and the Library of Congress, resulting in 'The Complete Library of Congress Recordings', a production of 128 tracks set down between May 23 and June 12 with interviews (released as a box set of eight CDs in 2005). Morton died July 10, 1941, of complications arising from his stabbing in 1938 [*]. References encyclopedic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; musical: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Compositions (titles in red written by Morton). Discographies: 45worlds, Discogs, DoctorJazz, Lord, RYM, RedHotJazz. Rollography. Compilations: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Archives: IA, DoctorJazz. Other profiles: 1, 2. More Jelly Roll Morton in Birth of the Blues. He composed all titles below but as noted. Jelly Roll Morton 1923 Aka 'Big Foot Ham' Jelly Roll Morton 1924 Piano roll Composition: Walter Melrose/Morton Jelly Roll Morton 1926 Composition: Walter Melrose/King Oliver Composition: Morton/Boyd Senter Jelly Roll Morton 1929 Jelly Roll Morton 1930 Jelly Roll Morton 1938
|
Jelly Roll Morton Photo: Frank Driggs Collection Source: Gaetano Lo Presti |
|
|
Born Thomas Wright Waller in 1904, Fats Waller was to became an enormously popular jazz composer and pianist [See stride piano: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Growing up in Harlem, he began playing piano professionally at age fifteen in cabarets and theaters. He made his first ragtime piano recordings as Thomas Waller in Oct 1922: 'Muscle Shoals Blues' and 'Birmingham Blues' (Okeh 4757) issued in April of '23 per Discogs. John Farrell's rollography at Pianola has him issuing his first piano roll in March of 1923 on QRS 2149: 'Got to Cool My Doggies Now'. That and other early piano rolls saw issue in 1970 on '1923-1924 Parlor Piano Solos from Rare Piano Rolls' on Biograph BLP 1002Q. It's said that in 1926 Waller was kidnapped after a performance in Chicago and taken to the Hawthorne Inn, a place owned by Al Capone. Upon arrival the joint was filled with guests, who Waller was expected to entertain, persuaded at gunpoint. Turns out it was a birthday bash for Capone's 27th birthday, and "the boys" had made a "present" of Waller to Capone for the occasion. The story goes that he left three days later, drunk, weary and some thousands of dollars richer, tips in increments of hundred dollar bills. Feb and March of 1927 saw the issue of piano roll duets w James Johnson titled 'Cryin' for My Used to Be' (QRS 3800) and 'If I could be with You' (QRS 3818). Waller's first original composition to be recorded, 'Whiteman Stomp', was for Fletcher Henderson in 1927. He also wrote 'Alligator Crawl' for issue by Louis Armstrong in 1927. He composed 'Viper's Drag' for issue by Cab Calloway in 1930 and 'The Jitterbug Waltz' for issue by himself in 1942. Live recordings at the Yacht Club in NYC in 1938 got issued on 'Handful of Keys' in 1957. Waller died of pneumonia on 15 December 1943 while traveling by train. His funeral in Harlem was attended by some 4000 people. Cremated, his ashes were spread over Harlem. References encyclopedic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; musical: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Rutgers. Compositions. Sessionographies: Tom Lord, Paul Machlin ('Stride: The Music of Fats Waller'). Discographies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. See also Chronological Classics 1922-1929: 1, 2. Waller in visual media. Further reading: 1, 2. HMR Project. Per 'Muscle Shoals Blues' in 1922 below, sessionographies show that piano roll later issued on disc on an unknown date per 'Fats Waller in London' (World Records SHB 29). Discogs has the same album issued by Disques Swing SW 8442 in 1984. 'Muscle Shoals Blues' was composed by George Washington Thomas. 'Ain't Misbehavin' below was co-written by Waller and Harry Brooks w lyrics by Andy Razaf [1, 2]. 'Stormy Weather' was composed by Harold Arlen w Ted Koehler in 1933. Per '(If) You're a Viper' ('The Reefer Song'), "mighty mezz" in the lyrics refer to Mezz Mezzrow, a clarinetist who was also a go-to for cannabis among jazz musicians in the thirties. Fats Waller 1923 Piano roll recorded May 1923 Issue on QRS 2213 Composition: Fred Rose/Albert Short 1st recording c 21 Oct 1922 Issue on Okeh 4757 Composition: George Washington Thomas Recorded c July 1923 Issue on Paramount 12052 Vocal: Anna Jones Composition: Armand Piron Fats Waller 1924 A New Kind of Man with a New Kind of Love for Me Piano roll Composition: Sidney Clare/Leon Flatow Piano roll Composition: Traditional Piano roll Composition: Bessie Smith/Clarence Williams Vocal: Hazel Meyers Composition: Benjamin Spikes Fats Waller 1927 Recording 1981 on an Estey organ Composition: Edna Alexander/Maceo Pinkard/Sidney Mitchell Fats Waller 1929 Composition: Brooks/ Waller Composition: Waller Fats Waller 1934 Music: Waller Lyrics: Andy Razaf Fats Waller 1936 Film Music: Jimmy McHugh Lyrics: Ted Koehler Until the Real Thing Comes Along Composition per label: Sammy Cahn/Saul Chaplin/Lawrence Freeman DAHR adds Mann Holiner/Alberta Nichols Fats Waller 1937 Composition: Hoagy Carmichael/Mitchell Parrish Composition: Harold Adamson/Jimmy McHugh Fats Waller 1938 Live at the New Yacht Club in NYC Fats Waller 1939 Composition: Waller Fats Waller 1941 Film Fats Waller 1943 Film: 'Stormy Weather' With Ada Brown Film: 'Stormy Weather' Composition: Nat King Cole/Irving Mills 'The Reefer Song' Composition: Stuff Smith Original issue: Onyx Club Boys 1936 See Wikipedia
|
Fats Waller Photo: Dave Dexter Jr. Collection Miller Nichols Library Source: 100 Jazz Piano |
|
|
Red McKenzie Photo: William P. Gottlieb
Source: Wikipedia |
Born in 1899 in St. Louis,
Missouri, vocalist Red McKenzie
[1,
2,
3] also played the comb (with paper,
preferably newspaper, a couple examples below: 'From Monday On' and 'Dark
Town Strutter's Ball'). He first recorded in 1924 in Chicago with a trio consisting of Jack Bland
(banjo) and Dick Slevin (kazoo). He himself played comb. That trio soon became the Mound City Blue
Blowers, their first two releases 'Arkansas Blues' and 'Blue Blues' in
1924 on Brunswick. McKenzie became frontman for
Eddie Condon's Chicagoans
in 1928. He didn't begin singing until 1931, pairing up with
Condon again
from 1944 to '47. Liking his alcohol beyond good measure, McKenzie died of
liver cirrhosis on 7 February 1948 in New York City. Sessionographies: DAHR,
Lord's,
Red Hot Jazz. Discographies:
1,
2,
3. Compilations:
'Mound City Blue Blowers' by Gardenia Vol 1,
2,
3.
HMR Project. Red McKenzie 1924 Composition: Spencer Williams Red McKenzie 1928 Comb Composition: Harry Barris/Bing Crosby Red McKenzie 1929 Film w the Mound City Blue Blowers: With Ethel Parkins Composition: Roger Graham/Dave Peyton/Spencer Williams Composition: Beth Slater Whitson/Leo Friedman Composition: Paul Dresser Red McKenzie 1931 Comb Composition: Shelton Brooks With the Celestial Beings Composition: Hoagy Carmichael/Stuart Gorrell Red McKenzie 1932 With Paul Whiteman Music: Fred Ahlert Lyrics: Roy Turk With Paul Whiteman Music: Ted Fio Rito Lyrics: Raymond B. Egan Red McKenzie 1936 I Can Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat With the Rhythm Kings Composition: Malneck/David
|
|
|
Born Lena Corinne Taylor as #9 of 12 children in 1897, guitarist, Lee Morse was a vaudeville [1, 2, 3] torch singer (sad or sentimental love songs) w a yodel from a musical family which toured by wagon as the Taylor Family Concert Company, making the place of her birth uncertain. Wikiepedia lends Cove. Oregon. To go by Joanna Zattiero' 'One Small Girl A Whole Quartet'[ Academia], she was born in Texas prior to leaving for Oregon, receiving her first professional billing at age three with the rest of her family in Leadville, Colorado, along the way to Oregon where the family bought a ranch which went bust, leading her father, Pleas, who mixed entertainment with preaching, to take his family to Portland until he claimed a homestead near Kooskia, Idaho. Accounts agree that this is where Lene was raised. Lene Taylor became Lee Morse via marriage to Elmer Morse in 1915 (divorce '25), Lee the stage name she assumed upon beginning to perform in the region in 1917. In 1920 she followed her father to the Democratic National Convention (he an Idaho delegate) in San Francisco where vaudeville producer, Will King, saw her performance at the Hotel St. Francis and hired her, beginning her career in vaudeville. She traveled w a couple more companies until drawn to Broadway to perform in musicals in 1923 ('Hitchy-Koo', 'Artists and Models'). While thus engaged she made trial tracks on guitar, piano and vocals for Victor in June of '23: 'Darky Patter', 'Swanee River', 'Nigger Patties' and 'Louisville Lou'. Going by Red Hot Jazz, her first session to issue was on 1 Oct 1924 for 'Lee's Lullaby' (Pathé Actuelle 32102). A week later on the 7th arrived 'Alone At Last' (flip to 32102) and 'Mail Man Blues'/'Bring Back Those Rock-a-Bye Baby Days' (32086). RHJ commences its list of sessions for Morse and her Blue Grass Boys with 'Everybody Loves My Baby But My Baby Don't Love Nobody But Me' (32101) on 11 November that year [*]. Morse and her Serenaders spread along several tracks as early as 17 March 1927 for titles like 'Ain't He Sweet?'/'Mollie Make Up Your Mind' (Columbia 939-D) [*]. Morse performed on Broadway again at the Ziegfield Theatre in 1930, 'Simple Simon' staged from Feb into June [IBDB]. She was also the feature of three short films in 1930: 'A Million Me's' (Paramount), 'The Music Racket' (Vitaphone) and 'Song Service' (Paramount) [IMDb]. In 1935 Morse opened her own club in Texas w pianist, Bob Downey, until it burned down in 1939, directing them to Rochester, New York, where Morse played clubs while doing radio. She married a second time in 1946 to Ray Farese. Making her final recordings in 1950, DAHR lists those per a session on 5 May toward 'If You Only Knew'/'Lonesome Darlin' (Decca 27066) and 'Don't Even Change a Picture on the Wall'/'Longing' (Decca 27163). Having produced one child, Jack, back in 1916 with Elmer Morse, Lee died unexpectedly on 16 Dec 1954, only 57 years of age. Further references: 1, 2, 3. Further sessionographies: *, Lord's; Rust: 'Jazz and Ragtime Records 1897-1942', 'The American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942'. Discos: 45Worlds; Discogs: 1, 2, 3; RYM. Compositions. Archives. Collections. Lee Morse 1924 Composition: Jack Palmer/Spencer Williams Composition: Lee Morse Lee Morse 1925 Composition: Jack Yellen/Milton Ager Composition: George Little/Arthur Sizemore/Larry Shay Composition: Lee Morse Music: Walter Donaldson Lyrics: Gus Kahn Lee Morse 1926 Composition: Lee Morse Lee Morse 1927 I've Looked All Over (For a Boy Like You) Composition: Bob Downey/Lee Morse Composition: Lee Morse Composition: Harry Woods What Do I Care What Somebody Said Composition: Harry Woods/Sidney Clare Lee Morse 1930 Composition: Thomas Fats Waller/Andy Razaf Music: John Fred Coots Lyrics: Benny Davis Composition: Irving Berlin Short film Short film Composition: Harry Akst/Grant Clarke Short film Lee Morse 1931 Music: George W. Meyer Lyrics: Alfred Bryan Music: James V. Monaco Lyrics: Edgar Leslie/Ned Washington Composition: Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Composition: Charles Kenny/John Frederick Coots Lee Morse 1932 Composition: Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Lee Morse 1950 Don't Even Change a Picture on the Wall Composition: Lee Morse Composition: Harry Kogen/Vaughn Horton/Whitey Berquist Composition: Bob Buchanan/Bob Nicholson Composition: Ervin Drake/Jimmy Shirl
|
Lee Morse Source: Planet Barberella |
|
| Born in 1904 in Louisiana, Missouri,
Eddie South
[1,
2] studied
classical violin as a child, but began his career in music doing vaudeville.
(Vaudeville was a form of theater in which brief acts, from singing to stunts,
were consecutively performed on stage. It began coming together briefly after
the Civil War and declined in the twenties.) It was upon making his
way to Chicago that he first issued, recording with Jimmy Wade's Moulin
Rouge Orchestra in December of 1923 for Paramount: 'Someday Sweetheart'
and two takes of 'Mobile Blues'. South first recorded as a leader with his
Alabamians on December 2, 1927 in Chicago, yielding four takes each of 'La
Rosita' and 'The Voice of Southland'. Upon a chance to study at the Paris
Conservatoire in 1928 South was able to record 'Doin' the Raccoon' and
'Two Guitars' in Paris on March 12, 1929. While in Europe he'd been able hear some Hungarian folk music
in Budapest, later to serve mixtures of gypsy music with jazz. Another
visit to Paris in 1937 resulted in a number of recordings
with Django Reinhardt and
Stephane Grappelli. South played in
orchestras other than his own, such as those of Freddie Keppard and
Erskine Tate. He worked
with pianist,
Earl Hines, from '47 to '49.
During the forties and fifties he was employed in radio and television.
Lord's discography has South recording as late as 1959 with flautist, Mike Simpson,
those from their second session in Chicago, being 'Let's All Sing Like the
Birdies Sing', 'Robins and Roses' and 'Bird Bath' toward the album, 'Music
for the Birds', issued in 1962. South died in Chicago
on 25 April 1962. Discographies: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
HMR Project. Eddie South 1924 Jimmy Wade's Moulin Rouge Orchestra Composition: Fred Rose/Albert Short Jimmy Wade's Moulin Rouge Orchestra Composition: Benjamin Spikes/John Spikes/Jelly Roll Morton Eddie South 1927 By the Waters of the Minnetonka Composition: Thurlow Lieurance Composition: Paul Dupont Eddie South 1928 Composition: Ted Fio Rito/Gus Kahn Eddie South 1929 Composition: Apollon Grigoriev Eddie South 1931 Composition: Jenö Hubay Eddie South 1962 Jimmy Wade's Moulin Rouge Orchestra
|
Eddie South 1946 Source: William Gottlieb Source: Wikiwand |
|
|
Joe Venuti Source: To Be Free |
Born in 1903, if there is a "Father" of jazz violin it is said to be Joe Venuti, an Italian immigrant, who had been a friend of guitarist Eddie Lang (also of Italian heritage) since childhood. Venuti's first recordings were with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra for Victor on March 27, 1924, in Detroit. He issued titles with various outfits until partnering with Lang in 1926, they first recording together in two sessions in January with the Roger Wolfe Kahn Orchestra for Victor, yielding: 'Looking for a Boy', 'Song of the Flame', 'Baby' and 'Lantern of Love'. Venuti and Lang recorded their first titles as a duo later that year in September: 'Stringing the Blues' (unissued) and 'Black and Blue Bottom'. Lang then continued with Venuti in both the Goldkette Orchestra (Goldkette a Greek immigrant) and the Kahn Orchestra (Kahn a Jew). Venuti and Lang next recorded as a duo in November: 'String the Blues'. Venuti and Lang pursued a strong partnership into the thirties. Among others with whom Venuti issued numerous titles were Red Nichols, Seger Ellis, Paul Whiteman, Ben Selvin, Fred Rich, Dick Robertson and the Boswell Sisters. In 1961 Venuti began playing at the Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas for several years. He also worked with the Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra. Beginning in 1973 he began laying tracks with sax player Zoot Sims, then pianist Earl Hines in 1976, then Jethro Burns in 1977. Venuti also recorded in his final years with pianists Dave McKenna and Ross Tomkins. His last sessions were in 1978 including 'Joe In Chicago 1978' and 'Joe's Last Ride', the latter privately available on a CD produced in 2013. Venuti died on 14 August of 1978. References: 1, 2, 3. Discographies: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Compilations: 1, 2. Venuti in visual media. Other profiles: 1, 2, 3. Joe Venuti 1924 Jean Goldkette Orchestra Thought to be Venuti's first recording issued Composition: Walter Donaldson Joe Venuti 1926 Jean Goldkette Orchestra Composition: Ned Miller/Chester Cohn Jules Stein/Benny Krueger Joe Venuti 1927 Guitar: Eddie Lang Composition: Lang/Venuti Joe Venuti 1928 Because My Baby Don't Mean 'Maybe' Composition: Walter Donaldson Music: Jimmy McHugh Lyrics: Dorothy Fields Joe Venuti 1929 That's the Good Old Sunny South Music: Milton Ager Lyrics: Jack Yellen Music: Louis Silvers Lyrics: Grant Clarke Joe Venuti 1930 Guitar: Eddie Lang Composition: Joe Venuti Guitar: Eddie Lang Composition: Edward Claypoole Joe Venuti 1931 Composition: Madeline Hyde/Francis Henry Joe Venuti 1933 Guitar: Eddie Lang Composition: Harry Revel/Mack Gordon Moonglow Composition: Will Hudson Joe Venuti 1974 Guitar: Lino Patruno Music: Philip Braham 1922 Lyrics: Douglas Furber
|
|
|
Hoagy Carmichael Source: 8 Notes |
Born in 1899 in Bloomington, Indiana, composer and pianist,
Hoagy Carmichael, was a law
student at Indiana University when in 1922
Bix Beiderbecke
performed at a fraternity dance. Their meeting and relationship between
there and Chicago provided much the thrust of Carmichael's musical
vocation in the early twenties while attending law school. Carmichael was a student when
he made his first recordings with Hitch's Happy Harmonists, replacing
Curtis Hitch on piano in Richmond, Indiana, for Gennett Records on May 19,
1925: 'Boneyard Shuffle' and 'Washboard Blues'. He was yet a student
when he laid a couple unissued tracks with his Collegians in February of
'26. He'd received his law degree by the time he issued 'One Night in
Havana' and the waltz, 'One Last Kiss', in 1927 with his Pals. Carmichael
recorded with Emil Seidel in latter '27 before joining Beiderbecke
as a member of the
Paul Whiteman Orchestra
for the recording of 'Washboard Blues' in Chicago on November 18, 1927.
Carmichael proved a hep talent straight out of the gate and would
accompany numerous huge names during his career. He and
Louis Armstrong, for
example, recorded 'St. Louis Blues' and 'Rockin' Chair' in NYC on December
13, 1929. Among the more important
names who used Carmichael's compositions during his early period were
Armstrong,
Irving Mills (recording
with him 1929-30) and
Johnny Mercer.
Bennie Moten issued his composition, 'New Orleans', in 1932. Carmichael made it
through the Depression as a songwriter for Southern Music Company until
royalties from arrangements and compositions started adding up, enabling
him to live comfortably enough to leave Southern in 1935.
Howsoever, it was also 1935 that Paramount decided to hire him at a $1000
a week to compose for films. Now living not only comfortably, but posh
(residing in the former mansion of chewing gum heir, William Wrigley Jr.),
the first film (of fourteen total) in which Carmichael appeared was
'Topper' in 1937. 1939 saw the issue of his tune 'Bread and Gravy'
(Bluebird 10415) by
Ethel Waters and the Ed Mallory Orchestra. During World War II Carmichael performed for the USO.
From 1944 to 1948 he worked three radio programs: 'Tonight at Hoagy's',
'Something New' and 'The Hoagy Carmichael Show'. Among compositions
arriving in the the meantime was 'Rogue River Valley' for issue by
Elton Britt in July 1946. Carmichael
(had) also issued his first memoir, 'The
Stardust Road', that year. In 1953 Carmichael hosted his own
television show, 'Saturday Night Review'. Carmichael's second memoir,
'Sometimes I Wonder', saw print in 1965. Among the last songs Carmichael recorded
was during the year he died,
1981, 'Small Fry', below. Carmichael's heart failed December 27, 1981, in
Rancho Mirage, California. References
encyclopedic: 1,
2,
3,
4;
musical: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5; timelines:
1,
2;
Beiderbecke and: IPM.
Compositions: 1,
2,
3.
Sessions: 1,
2,
Lord's. Discographies: 1,
2,
3.
Reviews.
Carmichael on Broadway.
In other visual media.
Tribute site.
HMR Project. Per below 'Washboard Blues' was co-authored by Carmichael, Fred Callahan and
Irving Mills. Hoagy Carmichael 1925 With Hitch's Happy Harmonists Recorded 19 May 1925 Issued on Gennett 3066 Composition: Carmichael Composition: Carmichael 1926 Hoagy Carmichael 1928 Original Instrumental Recorded 31 Oct 1927 Issued on Gennett 6311 Music: Carmichael Lyrics: Mitchell Parish (1929) Recorded 18 Nov 1927 Issued on Victor 35877 Composition: Carmichael 1926 Hoagy Carmichael 1930 Music: Carmichael Lyrics: Stuart Gorrell Hoagy Carmichael 1932 Recorded 1930 Music: Carmichael Lyrics: Sidney Arodin Hoagy Carmichael 1937 Old Man Moon Film: 'Topper' Composition: Carmichael Hoagy Carmichael 1941 Music: Carmichael Lyrics: Johnny Mercer Hoagy Carmichael 1944 Composition: Harry Akst/Grant Clarke 1929 Recorded 1942 (First recorded 1938) Composition: Carmichael Hoagy Carmichael 1947 Composition: Clancy Hayes/Kermit Goell Hoagy Carmichael 1956 Original issue by Mildred Bailey 1932 Composition: Carmichael Hoagy Carmichael 1981 With Annie Ross & Georgie Fame Music: Carmichael 1938 Lyrics: Frank Loesser
|
|
| Born in Honolulu in 1902, Hawaiian
Sol Hoopii
[1,
2]
played guitar, steel guitar and ukulele. Hoopii was the 21st child of a
something large family. He was playing ukulele at age three, but steel
guitar would be his favored instrument. Hoopii's first professional
performance was with the Johnny Noble Orchestra, prior to moving to the
mainland at age seventeen (1924). He and two friends had stowed away on
the Matsonia ocean liner. They were discovered, but their fares paid by
passengers upon performing music. Once in Los Angeles, his friends
returned to Hawaii, but Hoopii formed a trio with Glenwood Leslie and Lani
McIntyre. His first recordings were in 1925
('Lady Be Good' and 'When My Sugar Walks Down the Street'. Hoopii ceased performing secular music in 1938 when he began touring with
evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. In 1942 he appeared in 'Musical Moments
with Sol Ho'opi'i and His Hawaiian Guitar'. Hoopii died on 16 Nov 1953. He was
inducted into Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1979, and the Hawaiian Music
Hall of Fame in 1996. Sessionograhies.
Discographies: 1,
2,
3. Sol Hoopii 1927 Composition: Euday Bowman/James Sumner Composition: WC Handy Composition: Leon Roppolo/Walter Melrose Sol Hoopii 1933 Composition: King Composition: Sol Bright Sol Hoopii 1938 Composition: George & Ira Gershwin
|
Sol Hoopii Source: Stereorama |
|
|
Dick McDonough Source: 78 Record Spins
|
Born in 1904, banjo and guitar player
Dick
McDonough [1,
2]
debuts in Lord's Disco with Ross Gorman and his
Earl Carroll Orchestra on August 2, 1925, for Columbia, those tracks, 'A
Kiss in the Moonlight' and 'Somebody's Crazy About You', neither issued.
McDonough's first released titles with Gorman were recorded on August 7
the same year, again for Columbia in NYC: the waltz, '(You Forgot to)
Remember' and 'Oh! Boy, What a Girl'. Red
Nichols was in the same band, with whom McDonough would record
numerous titles in years to come. As a session player McDonough was in demand by
a heavenly host of jazz musicians, including Don Voorhees, Charleston
Chasers, Ben Selvin,
Miff Mole,
Smith Ballew, the Sunshine
Boys, the
Boswell Sisters,
Annette Hanshaw, the
Dorsey Brothers,
Victor Young,
Benny Goodman and
Joe Venuti. McDonough's
first title issued as an orchestra leader was 'Broadway Rose' in 1929. He
issued several duets in '34 and '37 [1,
2] with guitarist,
Carl Kress, the latter with whom he'd
been a frequent studio companion since the Ben Selvin Orchestra in 1927.
McDonough died young (age 34) of pneumonia on 25 May 1938 while at work at
NBC Stusios. Sessions: DAHR, Lord's.
Discographies: 1,
2,
3. Dick McDonough 1925 Ross Gorman & his Earl Carroll Orchestra Thought to be McDonough's 2nd recording issued Composition: Bud Green/Frank Wright/Frank Bessinger Dick McDonough 1926 I'd Rather Be the Girl in Your Arms Ross Gorman & his Orchestra Composition: Harry Archer Dick McDonough 1927 With Red Nichols Composition: Fud Livingston Dick McDonough 1934 Composition: Fats Waller Duet with Carl Kress Composition: McDonough
|
|
| Born in Chicago in 1896, Lillie Delk Christian
[1,
2,
3] is
thought to have laid out her first titles to issue in March of 1926 w Johnny St. Cyr for
release in May on Okeh 8317: 'Sweet Georgia Brown'/'Sweet Man'
[1,
2].
1928 found her recording with the great
Louis Armstrong and his Hot Four
on multiple titles from 'You’re a Real Sweetheart' (Okeh 8607) to 'I Must
Have That Man' (Okeh 8660)
[1,
2,
3]. Titles w
Armstrong would see
later release in Dec 1995 on 'Hociel Thomas and
Lillie Delk Christian in Chronological Order 1925-1928' by Document Records
[*].
Christian was among the minor figures populating Chicago in its bustling
early jazz period. Not a lot more is known about her beyond her death in
Chicago in January of 1966 [Wikipedia]. Catalogues: 1,
2.
HMR Project. Lillie Delk Christian 1926 Composition: Ben Bernie/Maceo Pinkard/Kenneth Casey Lillie Delk Christian 1928 Trumpet: Louis Armstrong Composition: Newman/Carmen Lombardo Trumpet: Louis Armstrong Composition: Sam Coslow/Larry Spier/Andy Britt
|
Lillie Delk Christian Source: Jazz Lives |
|
|
Annette Hanshaw See
Annette Hanshaw. |
||
|
Born in Goodland, Indiana, in 1905, guitarist, Eddie Condon, formed a partnership with Gene Krupa and Red McKenzie (McKenzie-Condon Chicagoans) to first record in 1927: 'Sugar' and 'China Boy'. The next year he switched from banjo to guitar and left Chicago for NYC where he recorded with such as Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Henry Red Allen, Red Nichols and Joe Marsala. Beginning a residency at a Manhattan club called Nick's in the latter thirties, by that time he had worked with Wild Bill Davison, Edmond Hall, Pee Wee Russell and Bobby Hackett. In 1944 Condon ventured into radio for a year. From 1945 to 1967 he ran his own jazz club in NYC called Eddie Condon's. Condon published his autobiography, 'We Called It Music', in 1947. He traveled to Great Britain with Wild Bill Davison in 1957, then formed an all-star band to tour Australia and Japan in 1964. Condon died in New York City on August 4 of 1973. References: 1, 2, 3, synopsis. Sessionographies: DAHR, RHJ, Rust, Lord. Discographies: 1, 2, 3. Compilations: 'Eddie Condon's World of Jazz' ('73): 1, 2; 'Jam Session Coast to Coast'/'Jammin' at Condon's' ('02) 2 CD set by Collectables. Condon in visual media. Collections: New York Public Library. Other profiles: 1, 2. Gene Krupa is the drummer on the majority of samples below. Eddie Condon 1927 Composition: Phil Boutelje/Dick Winfree Composition: Eddie Condon/Red McKenzie/Aaron Rubin Composition: Billy Meyers/Elmer Schoebel Ernie Erdman/Gus Kahn Eddie Condon 1928 With the Footwarmers Composition: Nicholas Joseph Clesi With the Footwarmers Composition: Jack Teagarden/Condon Composition: Billy Higgins/William Benton Overstreet Eddie Condon 1929 Composition: Condon/Jack Teagarden Peck Kelly/George Rubens Composition: Joe Sullivan/Mezz Mezzrow Condon/Jack Teagarden Eddie Condon 1938 Composition: Robert Carleton Film Composition: Tom Delaney Film: 'Saturday Evening Swing Club' Composition: Nick LaRocca/Larry Shields Eddie Condon 1944 With Lee Wiley Composition: Edna Alexander/Sidney Mitchell/Maceo Pinkard
|
Eddie Condon 1946 Photo: William P. Gottlieb Source: Wiki 2 |
|
|
Carl Kress Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1907, guitarist
and composer,
Carl Kress
[1,
2],
was largely a studio musician. His earliest recording may have been
'Shanghai Dream Man' on which he contributed banjo to Irwin Abrams Hotel
Manger Orchestra on 23 February 1927 in New York City (matrix W80478 to
issue on OKeh 40798 and Parlophone R 3364). DAHR then drops him until
1928. Tom Lord, however, finds either him or
Dick McDonough at guitar
with the Ben Selvin Orchestra on May 6, 1927, for 'Just a Little Cuter'
and 'Marianette' (Brunswick A451). That was issued as the Kensington
Serenaders on Vocalion 15570, concerning which Brian Rust agrees with Lord
on the date in May, though both DAHR and Discogs prefer an earlier date of
23 April 1927. Lord has either
McDonough or Kress if
not both with Ben Selvin on several occasions until 8 September 1927 when
Kress and possibly
McDonough are shown with
the Charleston Chasers run by cornetist, Red Nichols,
to record 'Imagination' and 'Feelin' No Pain' toward Columbia 1268-D.
Kress supported luminaries such as
Frank Trumbauer, Paul Whiteman, the
Dorsey Brothers, Fred Rich,
Annette Hanshaw, Jack Shilkret,
Mildred Bailey,
Louis Armstrong, Bobby Hackett,
et al. He became part owner of the Onyx Club ('27-'49), sometime in the thirties, that a hot spot for jazz in NYC until
becoming a strip club in 1949. Kress was also well-known for his duets with
Dick McDonough [1,
2] in
'34 and '37. Kress had played with
McDonough since back
with the Selvin Orchestra, they having been frequent studio companions.
He recorded several duets w guitarist,
Tony Mottola, in 1941, issued on 'Fun
on the Frets' (Yazoo L-1061/Discogs) in 1988 [eBay vendor]. Kress played in the ensemble of the
'Garry Moore Show' from 1950 to '55 [IMDb]. He paired w guitarist,
George Barnes, for tracks w tenor
saxophonist,
Bud Freeman, in 1962 [copyright
WorldCat] toward 'Something Tender' released in 1962 and '63
[Discogs]. A
couple albums of duets w
Barnes were issued in 1963. The one
was recorded at Town Hall in NYC in April of '63
[Discogs] for issue on
'Town Hall Concert' [United Artists UAL 3335/UAS 6335]. The other was
'Guitars Anyone? Why Not Start at the Top?' per Carney LPM 202
[Discogs].
The duo issued 'Watusi for Luci'/'The Jazz Man Blues' in 1965 on Carney
33-1005
[45Cat], the same year Kress died of heart attack
in Reno, Nevada, on 10 June while on tour with
Barnes.
Sessionographies: DAHR, Lord's.
Discographies: 1,
2,
3.
HMR Project. Carl Kress 1927 Possibly / Ben Selvin Orchestra Composition: Gus Kahn Carl Kress 1932 Duet with Eddie Lang Composition: Kress/Lang Carl Kress 1936 Danson Duet with Dick McDonough Composition: Kress/Mcdonough Carl Kress 1939 Composition: Kress Carl Kress 1941 Duet with Tony Mottola Composition: Kress Carl Kress 1947 Composition: Kress Carl Kress 1953 Composition: Kress Composition: Kress Live duet with George Barnes Composition: Bob Haggart
|
|
Stuff Smith Source: Discogs Alternate: Rocker Stomp |
Born in 1909 in Portsmouth, Ohio, though Stuff Smith [1, 2]performed with a few large orchestras on occasion, he largely lead his own smaller ensembles. His given name Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith, "Stuff" was both a vocalist and thought to be the first to use electric amplification on a violin [1, 2, 3, 4]. Much influenced by Louis Armstrong as a youth, he began his professional career at age fifteen with the traveling minstrel show, the Aunt Jemima Review, before hooking up w Alphonso Trent the same year in Dallas. Remaining w Trent for four years, he also performed briefly with Jelly Roll Morton during that period which JazzProfiles dates by the time he turned age twenty in '29 [*]. Lord picks up Smith as early as 11 October 1928 with Trent and his Orchestra, that the initial of three early sessions with Trent for Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana, yielding 'Louder and Funnier' and 'Gilded Kisses' (Gennett 6664). Lord next finds Smith on unissued tracks with Zach Whyte on 12 November of '31 also for Gennett: 'Alabama Home', 'Rock Me in the Cradle of Love' and 'Goodnight Sweetheart'. He may have already based operations in Buffalo, New York, by that time where he married in 1930 [*] and would put together a band including major partner throughout the thirties into the forties, trumpeter, Jonah Jones. Smith and Jones took their mutually honed talents to New York City in 1935 to perform at the Onyx Club on 52nd Street. Smith began making his mark the next year when Paul Whiteman decided to put together a swing ensemble drawn from his orchestra called the Teagarden Boys & the Trumbauer Swing Band to record Parts 1 and 2 of Smith's composition, 'I'se a Muggin', on 10 March 1936, issued on Victor 25273. That featured Charley Teagarden on trumpet and Jack Teagarden on trombone w saxophones by Frank Trumbauer and Bud Freeman. Smith's first session with his Onyx Club Boys on January 17, 1936, went unreleased by Vocalion, but a session on February 11 yielded 'I'se a Muggin' (Vocalion 3169), 'I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music' (Vocalion 3170) and 'I'm Puttin' All My Eggs in One Basket' (Vocalion 3170). Among dates to follow were numerous transcribed broadcasts by Radio WMCA from the Biltmore Hotel in NYC in Jan and Feb of 1937. On May 4 of 1937 Smith and His Onyx Club Boys documented 'Onyx Club Spree'/'Twilight in Turkey' (Decca 1279) and 'Where Is the Sun?'/'Upstairs' (Decca 1287). Smith largely recorded with his own bands, though backed others such as Dizzy Gillespie on occasion. He left the States to live in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1965. Completing well above 100 sessions during his career, Smith is thought to have last recorded on March 3 and 4, in Villingen, Germany, for the album, 'Black Violin'. He died several months later not yet sixty years old on 25 September 1967 in Munich. Sessionographies: DAHR w composing credits; Lord. Discos: 1, 2, 3. Compilations: 'The Complete 1936-1937 Sessions' by HEP 2007; 'Time and Again' 1936-45 by Proper 2003: 1, 2; '1944-1946 Studio, Broadcast Concert & Apartment Performances' by AB Fable 2002; 'The Complete Verve Stuff Smith Sessions' 1956-59 by Mosaic 1999: 1, 2. Smith has also been issued on three volumes of the Classics Chronological series: 1936-39 #706, 1939-44 #1054, 1944-46 #1081. Smith in visual media: 1, 2. Further reading: David Schulman. Biblio: 'Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest' by Ross Russell (U of CA Press 1971). Other profiles: 1, 2, 3. Stuff Smith 1930 With Alphonse Trent Composition: Turner Layton/Henry Creamer With Alphonse Trent Composition: Joe Primrose (Irving Mills) See Wikipedia Stuff Smith 1936 Here Come the Man with the Jive Composition: Stuff Smith/Jack Palmer Part 2 Composition: Stuff Smith Aka 'If You're a Viper' Composition: Stuff Smith Stuff Smith 1944 Composition: Stuff Smith Composition: Stuff Smith Composition: Stuff Smith Composition: Stuff Smith Stuff Smith 1967 Composition: Otto Harbach/Jerome Kern
|
|
|
Joe Sullivan Source: Red Hot Jazz (defunct) |
Born in 1906 in Chicago, pianist
Joe Sullivan [1,
2] began studying
classical piano at age five. He first started to play professionally at
age 17, when he was issued his first musician's union card. In 1922 he
began study at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, where he continued
through 1923. He first recorded in two sessions in December of 1927 in
Chicago as a member of McKenzie and
Condon's Chicagoans:
'Sugar'/'China Boy' (Okeh 41011) and ''Nobody's Sweetheart'/'Liza' (Okeh
40971).
Dippermouth has him with
Louis Armstrong's
All-Stars in 1929 on 'Knockin' a Jug' (Okeh 8703). In 1933 he
recorded his first title with
Bing Crosby in Los Angeles:
'I Guess It Had to Be That Way' (Brunswick 01597). He also held his
initial name session recording piano solos in 1933. His first tracks with
Crosby's brother, Bob, were
laid in NYC in September 1936. Among others with whom Sullivan recorded
numerously were
Bud Freeman, Red
Nichols and
Jack Teagarden. Another
great trumpeter with whom he laid tracks was
Benny Carter in 1939 and
1945. Sullivan's domiciles were largely Chicago, Los Angeles and New York
City until his death
on 13 October 1971 in San Francisco, CA. Sessionographies: 1,
2,
3, Lord's.
Discographies: 1,
2,
3.
HMR Project. Joe Sullivan 1928 With McKenzie and Condon's Chicagoans Composition: Phil Boutelje/Dick Winfree With the Chicago Rhythm Kings Composition: Jack Palmer/Spencer Williams First issue: Clarence Williams' Blue Five 1926 With McKenzie and Condon's Chicagoans Composition: Billy Meyers/Elmer Schoebel Ernie Erdman/Gus Kahn Joe Sullivan 1933 Composition: Sullivan Piano solos With Billie Holiday & Benny Goodman Composition: Dick McDonough/Benny Goodman/Fred Buck Joe Sullivan 1935 Composition: Sullivan With Bing Crosby Composition: Hoagy Carmichael/Edward Heyman Joe Sullivan 1939 The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise With Bob Crosby Music: Ernest Seitz 1918 Lyrics: Gene Lockhart Joe Sullivan 1941 Composition: Sullivan Music: George Gershwin 1934 Lyrics: DuBose Heyward For the 1935 opera 'Porgy and Bess' Joe Sullivan 1945 Composition: Cole Porter Joe Sullivan 1951 With Buster Bailey & Henry Red Allen Composition: Clarence Williams/Spencer Williams 1919 With Buster Bailey & Henry Red Allen Composition: WC Handy When the Saints Go Marching In With Buster Bailey & Henry Red Allen Composition: See Wikipedia
|
|
| Born in 1909 in Freeport, New York, guitarist
Teddy Bunn
[1,
2,
3]
began recording at age nineteen (1929) as a guest performer with
Duke Ellington on the same day
as a session with the Walter Pichon Orchestra. Tom Lord puts them in this
order although matrix numbers would indicate that the Pichon session was
followed by Ellington. Bunn put away tracks w the Six
Jolly Jesters in 1929 as well. Excepting 1938, Bunn played with the Spirits of Rhythm
[1,
2] from 1932 to 1941.
Some of the more important musicians he backed were
Sidney Bechet,
Hadda Brooks, Johnny Dodds,
Lionel Hampton and
Jimmie Noone. Bunn died
on 20 July 1978 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Sessionographies:
DAHR; Lord's.
Discographies: 1,
2.
Compilations: 'Teddy Bunn 1929-1940';
'The Spirits of Rhythm'.
Further reading: Jazz Lives;
New York Times.
Tracks below are chronological by year only. Teddy Bunn 1929 Trumpet: Henry Red Allen Composition: Fred Skinner/Irving Bibo William Weldon/Walter Fats Pichon With Duke Ellington Composition: Ellington Teddy Bunn 1930 With Spencer Williams Composition: Spencer Williams Teddy Bunn 1933 With the Spirits of Rhythm Vocal: Leo Watson Composition: George & Ira Gershwin With the Spirits of Rhythm Vocal: Leo Watson Composition: Billy Meyers/Elmer Schoebel Ernie Erdman/Gus Kahn Teddy Bunn 1938 Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly-Roll Clarinet: Mezz Mezzrow Trumpet: Tommy Ladnier Composition: Clarence Williams/Spencer Williams Clarinet: Mezz Mezzrow Trumpet: Tommy Ladnier Composition: Mezzrow/Bunn Teddy Bunn 1940
|
Teddy Bunn Source: Hikaru's Blog |
|
| Born in 1900 in Gallatin, Missouri, though bandleader
Walter
Page [1,
2,
3,
4] also played baritone sax and tuba he was best known as a double bassist.
He got to a good start at age 18 with the
Bennie Moten Orchestra in 1918. In
1925 he formed the Blue Devils in Oklahoma City which recorded two titles
in latter 1929, those for Vocalion in Kansas City: 'Blue Devil Blues' and
'Squabblin''. Page then recorded with Benny Moten's Kansas
City Orchestra, several titles on December
13, 1932. 1936 found Page recording with
Count Basie, for the first time, whose
swing bands would be
Page's main vessel throughout until 1948. Recordings with Teddy Wilson
followed in 1937. That meant, of course, backing
Billie Holiday as well. Among
the more preeminently distinguished early upright bassists, Page worked with numerous big
name musicians during his career, among them
Sidney Bechet,
James Rushing ('Blue Devil Blues', below, is
Rushing's debut recording),
Ralph Sutton,
Eddie Condon,
Buck Clayton and
Ruby Braff. He died on 20
December 1957 of
pneumonia. Sessions:
DAHR 1932-54;
RHJ; Lord.
Catalogues: 1,
2. Further
reading: NEPR; 'Jazz Style in Kansas City and the Southwest' by
Ross Russell
1973; WBGO.
HMR Project. Walter Page 1929 The Blue Devils Vocal: James Rushing Composition: Jewell Babe Stovall Walter Page 1938 The Kansas City Six Composition: Walter Page Swingin' the Blues With Count Basie Composition: Count Basie
|
Walter Page Photo: Frank Driggs Collection Source: OK Nation/Rak Music |
|
|
Snoozer Quinn Source: Snoozer Quinn |
Born in Pine County, Mississippi, in 1907,
Snoozer Quinn,
guitarist, graduated from high school in 1924 to join the Paul English
Players in 1925. Soon heading to Texas the same year, he became a member
of Joe (Wingy) Manone's New Orleans Rhythm Band also consisting of Don
Ellis (saxophone), Pee Wee Russell (clarinet), Joe Lamer (piano) and
Claude Humphries (drums). 1925 also saw Quinn joining the musical staff at KPRC Radio in Houston Texas. Though Quinn left few documented recordings
along his path he is anecdotally mentioned by other musicians as one of
the more talented guitarists of the period. He
had occasion to record several unissued tracks for Victor in San Antonio
on May 21, 1928: 'Snoozer's Blues', 'Tiger Rag', 'That'll Get It' and
'Rambling Blues'. In 1928 Paul Whiteman
happened to hear him playing
backstage at a theatre in New Orleans. That brought him to New York City
where he recorded six takes of two titles with
Whiteman and Bee Palmer on January 10 of
1929: 'Don't Leave Me Daddy' and 'Singin' the Blues', neither released.
Both Lord and Rust have Quinn recording
'We'll Have a New Home in the Morning' with Willard Robison and his Deep
River Orchestra on February 14. Those share the same matrix numbers as
what
Discogs has issued in 1929 on Velvet Tone 1870-V. Robison issued that as
Paul Howe on Harmony 870-H (see also the Online Discographical Project). March 8 saw recordings with
Frank Trumbauer,
yielding 'Futuristic Rhythm' and 'Raisin' the Roof' released that year on
Okeh 41209. Bix Beiderbecke
was at that session, as he would be on April 17 bearing 'Louise', 'Wait Till You See Me, Ma Cherie'
(Okeh 41231) and 'Baby Won't You Please
Come Home?' (Okeh 41286). Though both Lord and Discogs list Quinn on said
titles above w
Trumbauer others prefer
Eddie Lang. Nor does Kathryn Ray include
them in her sessionography of Quinn. Quinn joined the Mason Dixon Orchestra on a couple titles
on May 15 for
'What a Day' and 'Alabamy Snow' (Columbia 1861-D). DAHR has Quinn backing country singer, Jimmie Davis,
in 1931 on seven issued titles, among them 'Get on Board, Aunt Susan' w 'Market House Blues'
on Victor 23620 composed by Davis. Quinn's 'There's Evil in Ye Children, Gather 'Round'
was released on Victor 23573.
ARSC has him documented in a silent film by Charles Peterson w
Rudy Vallee’s
Connecticut Yankees in 1932
(see also Ray). Quinn's life is largely a mystery since then. It's known that he performed in the band of Earl Crumb in New Orleans for periods in the
thirties and forties. His only other extant recordings were made in 1948 with cornetist, Johnny Wiggs, while in the hospital for tuberculosis
in New Orleans.
Ray has
four of those released on Wiggs' own label in 1952: 'Melancholy Baby',
'You Took Advantage of Me', 'Singing the Blues' and 'Snoozer’s
Telephone Blues'. Hobgood has those released with other titles in 1969 on 'The
Legendary Snoozer Quinn' on Fat Cat Records FCJ104. They were also
issued on CD per 'The Magic Of Snoozer Quinn' in 2014 (504 Records 504 CD
25). Quinn died of tuberculosis
soon after those sessions on 21 April 1949 at only
age 42. Further references: 1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
Sessions: 1,
2,
3, Lord.
HMR Project. 1948 below is the probable recording date. Discogs has them issued in
1948, differing from Ray who cites 1952. Snoozer Quinn 1929 We'll Have a New Home in the Morning Vocal: Willard Robison Composition: Gene Buck/J. Russel Robinson/Robison Snoozer Quinn 1952 Cornet: Johnny Wiggs Composition: Burnett/Norton Composition: Snoozer Quinn Composition: Rodgers & Hart
|
|
|
|
We proceed no further than Snoozer Quinn on this page, updating as such occurs. |
|
Early Blues 2: Vocal - Other Instruments
Modern Blues 2: Vocal - Other Instruments
Romantic: Composers born 1770 to 1840
Modern: Composers born 1900 to 1950
Early Jazz 1: Ragtime - Bands - Horn
Early Jazz 2: Ragtime - Other Instrumentation
Modern 4: Guitar - Other String
Modern 5: Percussion - Other Orchestration
Modern 7: Latin Jazz - Latin Recording
Latin
Latin Recording 2: The Caribbean
Latin Recording 3: South America
Total War - Sixties American Rock
Classical - Medieval to Renaissance
Classical - Baroque to Classical
Classical - Romantic to Modern
Jazz Early - Ragtime - Swing Jazz
Jazz Modern- Percussion - Latin - Song - Other
Boogie Woogie - Doo Wop - R&B - Rock & Roll - Soul - Disco
Sixties American Rock - Popular
vfssmail (at) gmaill (dot) com
