Tuesday, November 13, 2012



Looking forward to this broadcast as I think it will be nice and gratifying.

Highlights include:

"Stumbling" (which I still contend ought to be our national anthem until we learn some collective sense) composed in 1922 by one Zez Confrey. Performed by Eteri Andjaparidze who hails from the Republic of Georgia.

"Everybody Two Step" published one hundred years ago and recorded in 1912 by pianist Mike Bernard.

"Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean", a major vaudevillian hit from 1922. Al Shean (whose given surname was Schoenberg) was the uncle of the four Marx Brothers. this routine is loaded with amazing quips.

"Farewell Blues" recorded in 1922 by Friar's Society Orchestra, also known as the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. They were the next step after the Original Dixieland Jazz Band; both groups strongly influenced an entire generation of hot jazz players including Bix Beiderbecke.

"Boo Hoo Hoo", a record waxed in 1922 by Husk O'Hare's Super Orchestra of Chicago. The leader's name is a play on words, for a herd of hares is called a "husk".

"Birmingham Blues" was one of the first records ever made by Fats Waller, who was around eighteen years old when he cut this piano solo in 1922.

"O Sole Mio" is the old Italian air, popularized by Enrico Caruso who made a record of it in 1916. This disarmingly refined adaptation was played in Paris by pianist Blind John Davis in 1952.

"Tiger Rag" was almost certainly the first record Art Tatum ever made. The year was 1932, and he was about to take New York by storm after traveling east from his home town of Toledo, Ohio with vocalist Adelaide Hall. I think this was a test pressing. Not certain that it was ever released to the public back then.

Also dating from 1932, "Everybody Loves My Baby" features extraordinarily bubbly vocals by the Boswell Sisters backed by Bunny Berigan's Orchestra. 

"Bee's Knees" was published in 1922. Pianist Ralph Sutton more or less ran it up the flagpole exactly thirty years later.

Isn't life wonderful?

1 comment: