“Stomp Off – Let’s Go”
New Orleans Owls
(Columbia 489 D mx 140992) September 24, 1925
“Oh Me! Oh My!”
New Orleans Owls
(Columbia 489 D mx 140993) September 24, 1925
Here’s a hard-to-find record from the Edward Michell collection featuring two excellent examples of New Orleans-style jazz (which would later be commonly referred to as “Dixieland”) from a historic recording session held at the Hotel Roosevelt in New Orleans.
The recordings were not just the first recording session for the New Orleans Owls, they were part of the first field recording session to utilize the new electrical recording process via a mobile recording van. The recording session ended early due to technical difficulties that you can actually hear in portions of both recordings in the form of odd noises and distortion, a particularly noticeable example of which can be heard just after 2:03 into the “Stomp Off- Let’s Go” side. I saw some speculation online that it might have been caused by an issue with the cutting head, possibly brought on by high New Orleans humidity.
Fortunately for jazz enthusiasts ever since, despite the obvious technical flaws, Columbia nevertheless decided to bring both recordings to market.
– Dismuke