Musical Notes

“Desdemona”
Sam Lanin’s Orchestra
(Test Pressing Matrix 140868-3, issued on Columbia 447-D)              August 27, 1925

Here is a single-sided test pressing I found while sorting through the Edward Mitchell collection.

Test pressings were just that, a one-off pressing of a recording, usually ahead of it being issued, so that various record label staff members could listen to and/or evaluate it.  Test pressings are always worth looking into because sometimes they contain alternative, non-issued takes of an issued recording or, in some cases, of a recording that, for whatever reason, was never issued.

In this instance, it is of a very nice recording of “Desdemona” by Sam Lanin and His Orchestra recorded on August 27, 1925   One can tell from the arrangement that it was made during the height of the “Charleston” dance craze. The recording was assigned a matrix number of 140868.  On the label, it is listed as 140868-3, indicating it was the third take.

In those days, there was no such thing as “mixing” a recording.   The entire musical ensemble gathered before the microphone or, before the advent of electrical recording, the recording horn and played it “live.”  If one of the musicians messed up or there were technical issues, everyone had to start over again with another blank wax disc and perform however many takes were necessary to capture an acceptable recording.

Multiple discographies indicate that three takes were made of “Desdemona,” with the third take being the one that was ultimately issued on Columbia 447-D, which was coupled with the Lanin Orchestra’s recording of “The Promenade Walk” on the flip side.  Since this test pressing is of that third take, its musical contents are identical to that of the issued record.

Despite not being one of the two unissued takes, the record is still interesting for the label that was attached to it.  Many test pressings only have a blank label and, if one is lucky, it might have handwritten notations regarding song title, artist credit and perhaps a matrix number if it was not already stamped into the pressing.  But, here, the label contains a pre-printed blank template that offers some insight into Columbia’s quality assurance and approval process.

Observe in the above image that there are spaces for approval and/or comments by various departments or individuals: the factory, the operator (whatever that might have indicated), a sub-committee, as well as the final outcome of that process.

If my interpretation is correct, it appears that the recording was given the OK by someone associated with the factory whose initials were H.O on August 31, 1925, four days after it was recorded.  I have no way of knowing if, from there, that same test pressing was to be passed on to the other departments or if the relevant people in each department were provided with and signed off on their own separate test pressings. My guess is the latter, given that the recording was subsequently issued and there are no further notes on the label.

At the bottom is a place to note the matrix number of the recording they ultimately decided to couple with it on the flip side.

What I find interesting is that there appear to be options for indicating whether the recording will be on the record’s A-side or B-side.   But during this period and previously, Columbia was one of the labels that did not show an A-side or B-side.  The same catalog number appeared on both sides underneath the artists’ credits with each side’s unique matrix number listed in smaller font underneath the catalog number.  My only guess as to why it might have been necessary for them to designate an A-side and B-side is that it was perhaps, for some reason, necessary to do so when setting up the stampers in the machinery that pressed the records.

Also of note is the circled letter W in the upper left-hand portion of the label.  That same circled letter W can also be found stamped into the record’s run-out area, indicating that it was recorded electrically rather than acoustically.  The W stood for Western Electric, which licensed the technology to both Columbia and rival Victor (Victor recordings made with the Western Electric system have an oval containing the letters VE stamped into the run-out area).

Columbia started making electrical recordings in April 1925.  However, it was a few months before they fully phased out recording sessions using their old acoustical equipment for new releases on their flagship Columbia label.   During this period, both Columbia and Victor kept quiet about using the new technology and held off announcing it to the public until the latter part of the year.   This gave them time to build up a new catalog of electrically recorded releases and to sell off their inventory of existing records that would soon be regarded as obsolete.

Because Columbia had been conducting recording sessions with both the old and new technologies, it makes sense that, as a recording went through its internal review process, various people might want to see at a glance which technology was used without having to play the record.

“Desdemona” was composed by Maceo Pinkard, a black music publisher and composer whose most famous composition was “Sweet Georgia Brown,” which remains well-known as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

One will occasionally come across test pressings of pre-World War II recordings made using the original masters or stampers in vinyl, which did not come into use until after the war.  Sometimes, such pressings were made in preparation for reissuing a recording in a more modern format.  I suspect that, in some cases, they might have been made by record label employees who had the ability to do so for their own personal enjoyment.  Such test pressings are treasured for the significantly quieter surface that vinyl provides versus the shellac-based surface of the original pressings.

– Dismuke

“Blue Ridge Blues”
White Way Players
(Van Dyke 81819 B mx 3713)             November, 1929

“Lucky Me Lovable You”
All Star Troubadours;  Smith Ballew, vocal
(Van Dyke 81819-A mx 3804)                   December 27, 1929

Here are two sides from a Van Dyke record from the Edward Mitchell collection.

Van Dyke was one of several subsidiary labels of Grey Gull, a low-priced label based out of Boston.  Records manufactured by Grey Gull are notorious for being made out of poor-quality material. Even in new condition, they tend to be noisy, and since they wore out quickly, it is not uncommon for them to turn up in almost unplayable condition.   This particular record is in pretty decent condition compared to most records on the Grey Gull labels I have come across.

Grey Gull began recording electrically in 1926 and, as with the materials the records were made out of, the audio engineering and fidelity on their electrical recordings were often lower than average in quality.

The Van Dyke label was introduced late in Grey Gull’s existence and was only made between 1929 and 1930 when Grey Gull went out of business.  Recordings on Van Dyke duplicated those issued on other Grey Gull labels, though the pseudonym used on the artists’ credit sometimes differed from label to label.

Despite the records’ often poor technical quality, many interesting recordings can be found on the Grey Gull labels.   As a result of the company’s efforts to cut costs as much as possible, one can find songs that were never recorded or performed elsewhere.

Record labels were required to pay a per-copy royalty to the music publishers for every copyrighted musical composition they sold.   To save on royalty expenses,  Grey Gull often placed a well-known popular song for which it had to pay royalties on the A-side of a record and used a song written by one of its in-house composers on the B-side.  Because such compositions were never published other than through the recordings, they were not available for the various bands of the era to perform, nor were they recorded by other record labels.

One of those in-house composers was trumpet player Mike Mosiello, who wrote “Blue Ridge Blues” and several other songs for the label.  The band which performs it was Grey Gull’s in-house studio band, of which Mosiello was a member.   In addition to Mosiello, that band typically included Andy Sanella, and Charles Magnante who were, on occasion, joined by Joe and/or George Hamilton Green and future bandleader Tommy Dorsey.

On this Van Dyke copy, that band is credited under the pseudonym White Way Players.  However, on parent label Grey Gull, it was credited under the pseudonym of the Jazzopators.

“White Way” is a reference to “The Great White Way,” a then commonly used nickname for New York City’s Broadway theater district resulting from the area’s many impressive electrically illuminated advertising signs.

Several other songs over the years have shared the title “Blue Ridge Blues.”  Musical compositions can be copyrighted, but their titles cannot.

“Lucky Me Lovable You” was composed for the talking picture Chasing Rainbows, which was filmed in 1929 but not released to theaters until 1930.   The most famous song from that movie was “Happy Days Are Here Again,” which is still well-known.  Because of the delay in the film’s release, all of its songs were already published, recorded and being performed on radio broadcasts well before it appeared in theaters.

The band on this recording is the California Ramblers issued here on Van Dyke under the pseudonym of the All Star Troubadours.  On parent label Grey Gull, the recording was credited under the pseudonym of the White Way Serenaders.

The uncredited vocal here is provided by Smith Ballew who, in addition to being a successful early 1930s bandleader who later went on to star in several “singing cowboy” B-Westerns, worked on the side as a studio vocalist for most of the era’s record labels.  In that capacity, he appeared on several hundred records issued between 1929 and 1935.  If you tune in to Radio Dismuke it won’t be too long before you will hear his voice.

The California Ramblers did not record exclusively for any particular label; thus, their recordings can be found under various pseudonyms on many of the labels in existence during the 1920s and early 1930s.

This was not the only California Ramblers recording of “Lucky Me Lovable You.”  They recorded a slower tempo arrangement on Columbia under the pseudonym of Ted Wallace and His Campus Boys,  also with Smith Ballew on the vocal.  They recorded another version under the pseudonym of the Golden Gate Orchestra for Columbia’s low-priced subsidiary labels Harmony, Diva and Velvet Tone, which, at the time, were still using the obsolete pre-microphone recording equipment that their parent label stopped using in 1925 when it switched over to recording electrically.  Irving Kaufman provided the vocal on that recording.

I tend to include recordings from the Grey Gull labels that I might otherwise pass over for inclusion in Radio Dismuke’s playlist simply because many are somewhat obscure, even among collectors, and most have not been reissued in modern formats.

– Dismuke

“It’s A Great Life If You Don’t Weaken”
Ray O’Hara And His Orchestra; unknown, vocal
(Crown 3001 B mx 1061)            November 1930

“Three Little Words”
Adrian Schubert And His Orch; Paul Small, vocal
(Crown 3601 A mx 1060)      November 1930

Here are two recordings from the very first release of the early Depression-era Crown label.  Sadly, my copy is not in the best of condition. However, I am using some new audio restoration software that enabled me to do a better job at cleaning it up than I previously would have been able to.

Crown was a low-priced label that mostly focused on mass-market, popular hit songs buyers might have heard on radio, in films or on the New York stage.  At a time when most low-priced records sold for 35 cents, Crown records were priced at 25 cents and advertised as “two hits for two bits.”

The label was introduced in November 1930.  However, since the Depression was still far from reaching its bottom, selling records became increasingly difficult, even at a low price, and the label ceased operations in February 1933.

Crown was produced by the Plaza Music Company, a wholesaler of sheet music and various music-related merchandise.  Since 1921, it had been the exclusive sales and marketing agent for the Regal Record Company, which issued low-priced records on the Regal,  Banner, Oriole, Domino, Jewel and other labels.  This profitable arrangement ended in 1929 when Regal and all of its labels became part of the merger that formed the American Record Corporation (ARC).

The label was named after the Crown Music Company, a competitor that Plaza acquired after it became insolvent in June 1930.   Starting in February 1932, Crown Records were pressed under contract by RCA-Victor, which, at the time, was beginning to experiment with introducing its own low-priced line of labels.  But RCA merely pressed the records using masters provided by Crown.

It has recently come to light that, prior to contracting with RCA-Victor, Crown records were made using equipment that had previously pressed Edison records before Edison shut down its record and phonograph division in October 1929.

Most sources state Crown’s recording studios were in New York’s McGraw-Hill Building.  Crown’s low-priced competitor, Hit of the Week, also founded in 1930, had studios in that building.  But neither label’s releases recorded in 1930 and 1931 could have been recorded there as the building was still under construction.

What I have not been able to determine is whether the two rivals, by coincidence, just happened to have separate studios in the same building or if there was some arrangement that enabled them to share a single recording studio, perhaps through renting time from a third party that owned the facility.

Adrian Schubert, who is credited on this recording of “Three Little Words,” was the director of the in-house band for Plaza’s former Regal, Banner, Oriole and other labels and remained after the ARC merger until he moved back to Plaza in the same capacity in October 1930 shortly before the debut of Crown.

While this is the first Crown record to be issued in terms of catalog number, a few other records with higher catalog numbers were, in fact, recorded a couple of months before these sides.

As was common with the era’s low-priced labels, recordings by Schubert and other bandleaders were sometimes credited under various pseudonyms.  Sometimes, these pseudonyms were entirely made up. In other instances, they were the names of actual musicians or bandleaders who might have had nothing to do with the particular recording session (but, undoubtedly, appreciated the enhanced name recognition).

I have not found any discographical information about this recording of “It’s A Great Life If You Don’t Weaken.”  But Ray O’Hara was an actual bandleader who was active in the New York City area throughout the 1930s and, at the time this was recorded, had a 10-month engagement at and radio air time from the Governor Clinton Hotel.  There was also a bandleader by the same name in the 1920s who was prominent in the Chicago area and operated a band booking agency, as well as one who led a band in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1945.   My assumption is they were all the same Ray O’Hara.

As was common in those days, vocal credits were not provided on the label for either side.  However, discographical sources indicate that the vocalist for “Three Little Words” was Paul Small.

I could not find such information for the vocalist on the Ray O’Hara side.  But, interestingly enough, in Adrian Schubert’s final recording sessions for ARC in July and August 1930 prior to moving over to Plaza/Crown, four sides credited a “Ray O’Hara” as the vocalist.  Brian Rust, in his The American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942 speculates that the name might have been a pseudonym for one of the regular studio vocalists on ARC’s roster.

I was able to find and listen to copies of those Schubert/O’Hara ARC sides online and the vocalist on all of them sounds to me to be consistent with the vocalist on “It’s A Great Life If You Don’t Weaken” – though I don’t have the best ear in the world at making such comparisons.  The vocal on “It’s A Great Life….” also strikes me as sounding similar to Frank Luther.

The only other recording I can find mention of being credited to Ray O’Hara’s band was ten issues later on Crown 3011 of “You Are The Melody, I Am The Words.”

What remains a mystery to me is whether this recording was, in fact, made by the actual Ray O’Hara orchestra or whether it was made by Schubert and issued under O’Hara’s name as a favor to a bandleader new to the New York scene and just starting to catch on.

As for the two songs, “It’s A Great Life If You Don’t Weaken” was introduced by Maurice Chevalier in the 1930 film Playboy of Paris.

“Three Little Words” was introduced by the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the 1930 film Check and Double Check.  In the film, the vocal to the song was performed by The Rhythm Boys (Bing Crosby, Al Rinker, and Harry Barris).  However, they did not actually appear in the film.  Instead, members of the Ellington band merely lip-synced to the lyrics.

Ellington and the Rhythm Boys also recorded the song for Victor (Victor 22528).  I know for a fact that I have a copy of that recording, but for some reason, I have never added it to Radio Dismuke’s playlist.  It is possible that I might have had a concern about the condition of my copy. But, if not, and its omission was merely an oversight, I will set it aside for digitization next time I come across it.

– Dismuke

“Dinah”
Ted Lewis And His Band;  Ted Lewis & Four Dusty Travelers, vocal
(Columbia 2181-D mx 149911)                            January 24, 1930

“The Lonesome Road”
Ted Lewis And His Band; Ted Lewis & Dixie Four, vocal
(Columbia 2181 D-mx 149758)                        January 10, 1930

Here are two recordings by Ted Lewis And His Band being added to Radio Dismuke’s playlist.

I played the recording of “Dinah” during the station’s recent New Year’s broadcast as it is my favorite version of the song I have come across to date.  One of the things that impressed me about the arrangement was the vocal by a group listed as the “Four Dusty Travelers” – a group I had not previously heard of.  Since the broadcast, I have been able to learn more about them.

The Four Dusty Travelers was a black vocal quartet comprised of members of the larger Dixie Jubilee Singers led by Eva Jessye who was the first black woman to achieve international fame as a choral conductor.  The quartet was well-known in the New York City area thanks to local performances as well as a weekly broadcast over the radio station WOR that aired from August 1929 to April 1930.   They also recorded an additional four sides for Columbia by themselves in October and November 1929, all of which were issued.

The same vocal quartet appears on the flip side “The Lonesome Road” but, for whatever reason, was credited as the Dixie Four.

According to the Discography of American Historical Recordings, the Four Dusty Travelers on these and these other Columbia recordings was comprised of Charles Emmett, William Emmett, Herbert Benson and Junior Dean.   However, according to
Encyclopedia of Black Radio in the United States, 1921–1955, the group consisted of Ray Yeates. Jester Hairston. James Waters and Viviande Carr.

I cannot explain the discrepancy other than to guess that the group’s membership might have changed over time or that a different subset of Dixie Jubilee Singers members might have been used on different occasions.

“Dinah” is a Harry Akst composition with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young and was introduced by Ethel Waters in 1925.   The song has been recorded many times by a variety of artists in the decades since and remains well-known.

“The Lonesome Road” was composed in 1927 by Nat Shilkret with lyrics by Gene Austin.  Both recorded for Victor and, together, made a recording of it in September of that year issued on Victor 21098.  Shilkret also recorded it with Willard Robison in 1929.   The song achieved greater recognition when it was included in the 1929 film version of Showboat, a hybrid silent film with added sound scenes for theaters capable of playing them.

My copy of the record is not in the best of condition.  As the included image shows, the label on both sides has significant damage.  Columbia records from this period have a lead-out groove that was designed to trigger a stop mechanism to turn off the motor of wind-up phonographs or to trigger the record changer on players equipped with them.  When played on a modern turntable, the stylus remains in that groove in an endless loop until the tonearm is removed.

But, as was the case when I played both sides of this record, sometimes the lead-out groove has a defect and the tonearm continues its forward motion and ventures onto the label.  The damage on the labels leads me to suspect that the record was played on a wind-up machine and the stop mechanism wasn’t triggered until after the heavy steel needle had already gone into the label area.

The record’s playing surface also has quite a lot of scuffs.  But, because of their laminated surface, records made by Columbia during the 1929s and 1930s often play better than their visual condition would suggest and I was pleasantly surprised that my software was able to clean these recordings up as well as it did.

– Dismuke

“Smoke Rings”
Harry Leader’s Band
(Vocalion 3290 mx 19334)     January 15, 1936

“My Sweetie Went Away”
Harry Leader’s Band; Jessie Robbins vocal
(Vocalion 3290 mx 19335)     January 15, 1936

Here are a couple of recordings being added to Radio Dismuke’as playlist of a British band that remained active for many decades after the 1930s.

Much of the Harry Leader band’s 1930s output was on the bargain-priced Eclipse label, eight-inch records sold through the British branch of the F. W. Woolworth stores.   In 1935 the band began recording for English Columbia. These sides were issued in the UK on Columbia FB-1357 and in the USA on Vocalion.

“Smoke Rings” was best known as the theme song for the Casa Loma Orchestra and was composed by one of its members, Gene Gifford.  Casa Loma recorded the song for Brunswick in 1932 and again for Decca in 1937.  Both of the Casa Loma recordings, in my opinion, deserve a place on any list of outstanding recordings of the 1930s decade.

The Harry Leader version is quite different but still enjoyable and features an extended guitar solo by Archie Slavin, a noted guitar player who worked with several British dance bands of the era.

“My Sweetie Went Away” was already an “oldie” when the Leader band recorded this version.  The Lou Handman/Roy Turk composition was published in 1923 and many jazz and dance band recordings of it were made that year as well as a blues interpretation by Bessie Smith.  Leader’s version is of arrangement updated to a style typical of mid-1930s British dance bands and, I think, is quite nice. 

– Dismuke

“That’s A Plenty”
Anthony Parenti’s Famous Melody Boys (Playing At La Vida)
(OKeh 40308-A mx 8895-A)              January 22, 1925

“Cabaret Echoes”
Anthony Parenti’s Famous Melody Boys (Playing At La Vida)
(OKeh 40308-B mx 8896-A)             January 22, 1925

Here are two recordings from the Edward Mitchell collection of a mid-1920s New Orleans band led by Anthony Parenti, who remained prominent in jazz in both New Orleans and New York City into the 1960s.

These were recorded during the OKeh label’s second field trip to New Orleans with their portable equipment to record local and regional artists.  The recording sessions took place inside the Junius Hart Piano House at 123 Carondelet Street whose building still exists. Junius Hart was a music publishing company as well as the regional distributor of Kimball Pianos and OKeh records. 

OKeh did not begin using microphones until 1926.  But despite the old-fashioned acoustic recording horn technology, these recordings are still very engaging and enjoyable.

Parenti’s band performed at the Liberty Theater and, after the theater’s evening closing time, the band moved over to the La Vida nightclub at 1019 Iberville St in the Tango Belt district. 

While the Lew Pollack composition “That’s A Plenty” has long been regarded as a jazz standard, it was originally published as a piano rag in 1914.

“Cabaret Echoes” was one of Parenti’s own compositions.

– Dismuke

“Allah’s Holiday”
George McMurphey And His Orchestra
(Columbia 1498 D mx 146459)                       June 19, 1928

“Poor Butterfly”
George McMurphey And His Orchestra; Kenneth Allen, vocal
(Columbia 1498 D mx 146452)                  June 18, 1928

From the Edward Mitchell collection, here is one of only two records made by a nice-sounding band based out of Eugene, Oregon.

These recordings were made on June 18 and 19, 1928 in Seattle, Washington on one of Columbia’s regular field trips that sent their mobile equipment to various parts of the USA to record regional talent for which travel to their New York recording studios would have been cost-prohibitive.

During those two days, the band recorded a total of four sides, the other two being “Trumpet Sobs” and “Alice Blue Gown” which were issued on Columbia 1526-D

Both of the songs here were already over a decade old when the band recorded them.

“Allah’s Holiday” is a Rudolf Friml composition from the 1915 Broadway production Katinka.  A lot of ragtime renditions of the song were recorded during the late 1910s.

“Poor Butterfly” was composed by Raymond Hubbell with lyrics by John L. Golden for the 1916 musical revue The Big Show at the New York Hippodrome.   The song has been recorded by many artists over the decades  A 1954 recording of the song by The Hilltoppers climbed to number 15 on the Billboard best-selling music charts.

-Dismuke

“If I Didn’t Have You”
Albert Brunies & His Halfway House Orch; Johnnie Saba, vocal
(Columbia 1959 D mx 147659)             December 17, 1928

“Just Pretending”
Albert Brunies & His Halfway House Orch; Johnnie Saba, vocal
(Columbia 1959 D mx 147658)            December 17, 1928

Here are a couple of enjoyable recordings from a record in the Edward Mitchell collection by a jazz band that was popular in the New Orleans area throughout most of the 1920s.  These were made during one of Columbia’s regular field trips to that city and were recorded in the old Godchaux Building.

The band was based out of the Halfway House, a dance hall that took its name from the fact that it was located approximately halfway between New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain.

There are several other recordings by this band in Radio Dismuke’s playlist and they all have a similar jazzy but laid-back style.  The recordings here are from the band’s last recording session – though Albert Brunies did record again years later during the LP era.

At this link you will find a detailed article about the band, Albert Brunies, the other musicians in his family and the Halfway House.  Note: the article indicates that the Halfway House is still standing, which it was when the article was published.  Unfortunately, the building was subsequently demolished in 2010.

– Dismuke

“Ne félj a csóktól babám”  (“Don’t be afraid of kisses, baby”)
The Charleston Serenaders; Weygand Tibor, vocal
(Columbia 14149 mx WA 7561)                                         circa June 27, 1928

“Legyen a Horváth-kertben Budán” (“Be in the Horváth Garden in Buda”)
The Charleston Serenaders; Weygand Tibor, vocal
(Columbia 14149 mx WA 7562)                                           circa June 27, 1928

Here’s a record from the Edward Mitchell collection featuring two recordings by a popular 1920s and 1930s Hungarian vocalist and film star backed up by a nice, somewhat jazzy dance band.

Both of these songs were written by Lajos Lajtai and István Békeffy for the 1928 Hungarian operetta  A régi nyár (The Old Summer).  In early 20th-century Europe, operettas were the source of many songs performed by jazz and dance bands in the same way that Broadway musicals were in the United States.  This particular operetta was also made into a 1942 Hungarian film.

“Legyen a Horváth-kertben Budán” (“Be in the Horváth Garden in Buda”) refers to a famous and historic park in Budapest.  The song has a definite Eastern European flair.

The band’s arrangement on “Ne félj a csóktól babám” (“Don’t be afraid of kisses, baby”) reminds me a bit of the sort of music played in the musical revues in German cabarets during the era.

Tibor Wegand was one of Hungary’s more popular male vocalists in the 1920s and 1930s and appeared in several Hungarian films.  You can view a nice clip of him singing a very catchy song in one such film from 1936 on this YouTube video.

There is contradictory information as to when and where these recordings were made.

The Grammophon Portal website lists the recordings as having been made in Vienna in 1929.  The Austrian-based Society for Historical Sound Recordings website lists them as having been made in Vienna in 1928.

However, other sources state that they were recorded in London in 1928. I am strongly inclined to believe this to be the case.

WA matrix number prefix that appears in the runout groove on both sides of the record was primarily used by UK Columbia for recordings that were made in Britain.

Furthermore, since matrix numbers were issued consecutive order,  WA 7561 and WA 7562 would have been assigned in late June, 1928.  By January 1929, the WA matrix numbers were up to WA-8275.

Under the “Charleston Serenaders” listing in his British Dance Bands On Record 1911-1945 Brian Rust states:

“Pseudonym on Columbia for Van Phillips and his Band, q.v., and for various American bands also.”

At the end of his listings for the Van Phillips band, Rust states the following:

“A considerable number of sides were made in 1928 and 1929 by a studio orchestra that seems to have included Van Phillips, under the nominal direction of Stan
Greening; but all were of material designed for Continental issue, in languages
such as French, German, Danish and Hungarian, with many vocals in those languages. In view of the enormous number of these, and of their not having been issued in the UK, – we feel it is better to exclude them as being outside the scope of this book.”

I think it is most likely that the recordings here were part of the above-mentioned sides.

A bit of further circumstantial evidence can be found under Rust’s section for Stan Greening’s band for a June 27, 1928 London recording session that produced a recording of “Mississippi Mud” that ended up not being issued.  The matrix number assigned to that recording was WA-7563 – just one digit higher than the matrix numbers for the recordings here.

Given that matrix numbers were issued consecutively and the previously mentioned connection between Greening and the Charleston Serenaders pseudonym, that suggests a very strong likelihood that the recordings here were part of that same June 27, 1928 recording session.   That is also what I used as the basis for the estimated recording date.

“Hot Lips”
Bill Brown And His Brownies
(Brunswick 7003-B)        March 17, 1927

“Bill Brown Blues”
Bill Brown And His Brownies
(Brunswick 7003-A)        March 17, 1927

Here’s a rare record from the Edward Mitchell collection, one of only two made by a very nice black jazz band based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I was not able to find a lot of information about Bill Brown And His Brownies.  Brown was a trombonist and his band was active between 1925 and 1935.  Most references to the band are regarding the fact that John Kirby was, for a while, a member.   While it was based out of Pittsburgh, during the mid-to-late 1920s the band regularly appeared at top Harlem nightspots such as the Alhambra Ballroom and the Savoy Ballroom.

This record was the third of Brunswick’s 7000 “race” series. “Race records” was an industry term at the time for recordings by black artists that were primarily marketed to black record buyers.

The band had its only other recording session on December 26, 1929 which resulted in two sides issued on Brunswick 7142,  “Zonky” and “What Kind of Rhythm Is That?”

John Kirby was in the 1929 recording session but not the 1927 recordings featured here.

I was impressed by both of these recordings and wish the band had been able to make far more recordings than it did.

“Hot Lips” dates back to 1922 and was co-composed by Henry Busse who was one of the original members of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.  Whiteman’s band was not the first to record the song but it had the top-selling recording.  The song, with Busse’s trumpet solo, remained part of the band’s live performances throughout the rest of the 1920s.  After Busse formed his own band, the song became its opening theme.  Busse made recordings of it in 1934 for both Columbia and Decca.

I have always enjoyed Busse’s 1934 Decca recording of the song – but, in my opinion, Brown’s hot jazz rendition is, by far, the best version of the song I have come across.

“Bill Brown Blues” was composed by Brown himself and I suspect could have perhaps been used as the band’s opening theme song.   Brunswick also issued this recording of “Bill Brown Blues” on its lower-priced Vocalion label (Vocalion 1128) with Johnny Dodds Black Bottom Stompers’ “Melancholy” on the flip side.   The Vocalion issue is harder to find than the Brunswick.

– Dismuke