“I Don’t Want To Make History (I Just Want To Make Love)”
Stuff Smith And His Onyx Club Boys; Stuff Smith, vocal
Vocalion 3200 mx 18817 March 13, 1936
“Tain’t No Use”
Stuff Smith And His Onyx Club Boys; Stuff Smith, vocal
Vocalion 3200 mx 18818 March 13, 1936
Stuff Smith was one the 1930’s top jazz violinists. As the band’s billing suggests, it regularly appeared at New York’s Onyx Club.
Before forming his own band, Smith spent several years as a member of the Alphonso Trent Orchestra. Though it only made a handful of records and is largely forgotten today, Trent’s band significantly impacted the history of American popular music. It was the first black band to become the in-house band of a high-end, big-city hotel and the first to regularly and prominently broadcast over radio. You can read more about the Alphonso Trent Orchestra at this link.
The song “I Don’t Want To Make History (I Just Want To Make Love)” was from the 1936 film Palm Springs. That film was also the Hollywood debut of a gentleman whose voice will be familiar to regular Radio Dismuke listeners: Smith Ballew. In addition to leading his own successful band, Ballew appeared on hundreds of records as a freelance studio vocalist for most of the major labels between 1929 and 1935. While Ballew sang in the film, Frances Langford performed “I Don’t Want To Make History.”
Stuff Smith’s musical career continued long after the period of Radio Dismuke’s focus. He spent the last few years living and performing in Europe, where he died in 1967.