{"id":1456,"date":"2024-05-18T15:47:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T20:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/?p=1456"},"modified":"2024-05-18T15:47:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T20:47:20","slug":"savoy-havana-band-1923","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/2024\/05\/18\/savoy-havana-band-1923\/","title":{"rendered":"Savoy Havana Band – 1923"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Columbia<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The Cat’s Whiskers”
\nSavoy Havana Band;\u00a0 Ramon Newton, vocal
\n(Columbia 3340 mx A 350)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 October 17, 1923<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Panamericana”
\nSavoy Havana Band
\n(Columbia 3340 mx A 349)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0October 17, 1923<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Savoy-Havana-Band-Panamericana.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the Edward Mitchell collection<\/a>, here is a 1923 record by the Savoy Havana Band<\/a>. The band was famous in Britain during the 1920s and took its name from London’s Savoy Hotel<\/a>, where it was the hotel’s house band from 1921 to 1927.<\/p>\n

“The Cat’s Whiskers” was also recorded in the USA by the Benson Orchestra of Chicago<\/a> on Victor and by the Jazz-O-Harmonists on Edison.\u00a0 But neither of those two American recordings included a vocal, which is provided on the recording here by Ramon Newton. In addition to being a vocalist, Cyril Ramon Newton was a violinist and composer and led his own band.\u00a0 In the late 1920s, he made several vocal recordings for the Broadcast label, for which he was given solo credit.<\/p>\n

What caught my eye about this particular record was the foxtrot version of “Panamericana” on the flip side. I have always enjoyed this Victor Herbert<\/a> composition, which is usually performed by a concert orchestra, not a dance band.<\/p>\n

The song was written for and was the official theme of the Pan-American Exposition<\/a>, the 1901 World’s Fair, held in Buffalo, New York.\u00a0 Sadly, the fair is best remembered as the site of the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley<\/a>, to whom Herbert had dedicated the song.<\/p>\n

Victor Herbert described the song as:<\/p>\n

“…a morceau characteristique of the more popular order. The first part is supposed to be ‘Indian,’ the second part ‘ragtime’ (modern America), and the third ‘Cuban’ or of Spanish character.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t know why the Savoy Havana Band decided to revive a song that was already a couple of decades old with a dance-tempo arrangement but, at the time, Victor Herbert was still alive (he died the following year) and was still widely known.<\/p>\n

I discovered the song when I came across a copy of a 1984 LP Victor Herbert: Sovenir<\/em><\/a> by the Eastman-Dryden Orchestra, directed by\u00a0Donald Hunsberger<\/a>.\u00a0 I thoroughly enjoyed the entire LP, but my favorite selection was, by far, “Panamericana” and I loved the way they performed it.\u00a0 Happily, a copy of that recording has been made available on YouTube at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed the Savoy Havana Band version, definitely check out the YouTube link.\u00a0 Not only is it without the limitations of 1923’s pre-microphone recording technology,\u00a0 the arrangement is likely similar to that heard by those attending the 1901 World Fair.<\/p>\n

\"1901<\/p>\n

\""The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  “The Cat’s Whiskers” Savoy Havana Band;\u00a0 Ramon Newton, vocal (Columbia 3340 mx A 350)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 October 17, 1923   “Panamericana” Savoy Havana Band (Columbia 3340 mx A … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":67,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1456"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1456\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}