“Pickin’ ‘Em Up And Layin’ ‘Em Down”
Eddie Mitchell & His Orchestra December 12, 1924
(Gennett 5612-B mx 12100)
“Pleasure Mad”
Eddie Mitchell & His Orchestra December 12, 1924
(Gennett 5612-B mx 12098)
From the Edward Mitchell Collection, here are two sides that constitute the entire recorded output of a 1920s bandleader who was also called Eddie Mitchell.
After Eddie passed away, I heard someone mention that he had sought out and acquired a record by a bandleader who shared his name. So this is a record I have been on the lookout for while sorting through his collection and selecting recordings to digitize for Radio Dismuke’s playlist. And it just so happened to be a very good record. I am not sure how long it took him to find it or how much he had to pay/trade to get it, but it is a hard-to-find record.
The Eddie Mitchell band was based out of Columbus, Ohio and regularly performed at Olentangy Park. in nearby Clintonville, Ohio. Mitchell, a violinist, worked as an automobile salesman by day while running the band on the side.
Unlike most record labels whose recording studios were in New York City, Gennett’s studios were in Richmond, Indiana, the hometown of the label’s corporate parent, the Starr Piano Company. At the time, the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions, with their numerous large and middle-sized cities within a day’s driving distance from each other, were a hotbed of jazz talent and excellent regional territory bands.
For many regional bands, traveling to New York to record was cost-prohibitive, not just because of the travel expenses but also because of the lost revenue from gigs they would not be able to make during their absence. Then, as now, musicians earned most of their money through live performances rather than record sales. By 1924, labels such as OKeh and Columbia began making occasional field trips with special portable equipment to record regional talent and musical genres. Nevertheless, such field trips could only record a fraction of the era’s local and regional artists.
While Richmond, Indiana was only a small city, its location enabled it to record a lot of excellent talent that traveled throughout the Midwest and parts of the South, earning it the nickname “the cradle of recorded jazz.”
For the Eddie Mitchell band, the distance between Columbus and Richmond was roughly 100 miles. During the recording session, the band also made two takes of a third song, “Helen Gone,” but for whatever reason, they were never issued.
You can read more about the Eddie Mitchell band and see a photograph of the band inside the Gennett recording studio, where these two selections were recorded at this link.