{"id":1750,"date":"2025-01-15T19:58:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T00:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2025-01-15T19:58:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T00:58:02","slug":"jazzy-mystery-band-grey-gulls-house-band-1929","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/2025\/01\/15\/jazzy-mystery-band-grey-gulls-house-band-1929\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazzy Mystery Band & Grey Gull’s House Band – 1929"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Van<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“In Harlem’s Araby”
\nDixie Devils
\n(Van Dyke 71804 B mx 3744)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 November 1929<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Turn On The Heat”
\nCollegiate Jazzers
\n(Van Dyke 71804 A mx 3762)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Circa November\/December 1929<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Collegiate-Jazzers-Turn-On-The-Heat.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the Edward Mitchell collection<\/a>, here are two recordings from a 1929 Van Dyke record.<\/p>\n

Van Dyke was one of several subsidiary labels of Boston-based Grey Gull Records.\u00a0 The various Grey Gull labels were among the least expensive records of the 1920s and are notorious for being made out of poor-quality material, which caused them to have noisy playing surfaces and to wear out quickly.\u00a0 Starting in 1926, the company’s releases tended to have a rather quirky sound quality as a result of poor audio engineering and Grey Gull’s homegrown electrical recording system.<\/p>\n

The identity of the band on this recording of “In Harlem’s Araby,” which I played on Radio Dismuke’s recent New Year’s broadcast,\u00a0 has been the subject of speculation among discographers and record collectors for many years.\u00a0 It is a very haunting recording and much jazzier than most Grey Gull sides.<\/p>\n

This copy on the Van Dyke label credits the band under the pseudonym of the “Dixie Devils.”\u00a0 However, on Grey Gull and its subsidiary labels Radiex and Supreme, the pseudonym used is the “Memphis Jazzers.”\u00a0 Unlike Radiex and Supreme, Van Dyke’s labels and promotional material never made mention of its association with Grey Gull, which likely accounts for its release being assigned a different pseudonym.\u00a0 The pseudonyms used on the Grey Gull labels usually do not correspond with any particular band.\u00a0 They were used on recordings by Grey Gull’s in-house studio band as well as other bands that occasionally recorded for them.<\/p>\n

It is believed by some that the band on “In Harlem’s Araby” was a mixed-race ensemble consisting of members of Grey Gull’s in-house band as well as black musicians, including Porter Grainger on piano.\u00a0 Grainger was one of the composers of “In Harlem’s Araby” and of the other songs recorded during that same recording session.<\/p>\n

For many years, into the early 1960s, it was widely believed that the band was King Oliver’s<\/a> – indeed, circa 1950, a British jazz label reissued the side and credited it to “King Oliver’s Memphis Jazzers.”\u00a0 However, shortly before he died, Andy Sannella<\/a>, who participated in most Grey Gull recording sessions after 1926, denied that King Oliver was present.\u00a0 Because Grey Gull recording ledgers are believed to be lost, the identity of the musicians on this recording is mostly a matter of speculation.\u00a0 You can read more about this recording and the speculation surrounding it at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I need to correct a comment I made about this recording during the New Year’s broadcast.<\/p>\n

One of the things that Grey Gull frequently (but not always) did to reduce costs was to feature a popular song of the day that would appeal to buyers on a record’s A-side while using non-copyrighted songs, often written by Grey Gull’s in-house musicians, on the B-side in order to avoid paying the 2 cents per song composers’ royalty on the second side.\u00a0 Because the wholesale cost of Grey Gull’s records was as low as 11 cents apiece,\u00a0 that extra 2 cents royalty was a significant percentage of the company’s costs.<\/p>\n

During the broadcast, I incorrectly stated that “In Harlem’s Araby” was an example of such a B-side.\u00a0 \u00a0The song was, in fact, copyrighted in 1924 with Fats Waller as one of Percy Grainger’s co-composers.\u00a0 Percy Grainger also performed it on a 1924 recording on the Ajax label.<\/p>\n

In January 1930, Adrian Schubert’s<\/a> Salon Orchestra made a recording of the song that was issued on several American Record Corporation labels under different pseudonyms. That recording session featured many musicians who regularly performed with the Grey Gull house band, some of whom might or might not have participated in the recording featured here.\u00a0 You can hear the Adrian Schubert version, which includes the song’s lyrics, on YouTube at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The song on the flip side of the record, “Turn On The Heat,” comes from the 1929 movie musical Sunny Side Up<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Credited to the “Collegiate Jazzers” on Van Dyke, the recording was issued under the pseudonym of the “University Syncopators” on the Grey Gull, Radiex and Supreme labels.<\/p>\n

There’s little mystery about the band on this side – it is Grey Gull’s in-house studio band.\u00a0 The\u00a0band’s membership changed from session to session, but it typically consisted of\u00a0Andy Sannella<\/a>,\u00a0Mike Mosiello<\/a>,\u00a0Charles Magnante<\/a>,\u00a0Charles Butterfield<\/a>,\u00a0George Hamilton Green<\/a>,\u00a0Joe Green,<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and, on occasion, Tommy Dorsey<\/a>.\u00a0 The vocal is provided by Irving Kaufman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grey Gull’s house band made a lot of interesting and entertaining records. While most of its output was intended to appeal to a mass-market audience seeking records they could dance to that featured the popular songs of the moment at the lowest possible price,\u00a0 the band included some of the era’s top New York City jazz musicians.\u00a0 However, as is the case with “Turn On The Heat,” the company’s poor audio engineering and recording equipment often gave the recordings a certain quirky and even harsh sound.<\/p>\n

Those who tuned in to the New Year’s broadcast might recall Connor<\/a> playing a recording of “Turn On The Heat.”\u00a0 But that version was by Horace Heidt<\/a> and His Californians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  “In Harlem’s Araby” Dixie Devils (Van Dyke 71804 B mx 3744)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 November 1929   “Turn On The Heat” Collegiate Jazzers (Van Dyke 71804 A mx 3762)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Circa November\/December 1929   From the Edward Mitchell … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":110,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,18,17,16],"class_list":["post-1750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1920s","tag-film-music","tag-grey-gull-house-band","tag-porter-grainger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750","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=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1758,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.early1900s.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}