The Mills Brothers with Louis Armstrong - In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree (1937) @the1920sand30s

the1920sand30s Performed by: The Mills Brothers with Louis Armstrong

Full Song Title: In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree

Recorded in: New York, June 29, 1937

The Mills Brothers, John Charles (b. Oct. 19, 1910, Piqua, Ohio, U.S.—d. Jan. 24, 1936, Bellefontaine, Ohio), Herbert (b. April 2, 1912, Piqua—d. April 12, 1989, Las Vegas, Nev.), Harry (b. Aug. 19, 1913, Piqua—d. June 28, 1982, Los Angeles, Calif.), and Donald (b. April 29, 1915, Piqua—d. Nov. 13, 1999, Los Angeles), American vocal quartet that was among the most unique and influential in the history of both jazz and mainstream popular music.

The Mills Brothers began as a barbershop quartet—which was perhaps only natural, as their father, John H. Mills (1882–1967), owned a barbershop. They gave their first public performances in variety shows on the radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. In about 1930 they moved to New York City, where they became the first African American singers to have their own national radio show. Billed as “Four Boys and a Guitar” and accompanied only by brother John’s guitar, they could sound like a full jazz band, particularly on such numbers as “Tiger Rag,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Bugle Call Rag.” Each brother specialized in an “instrument”: they imitated two trumpets, a trombone, and a tuba. They were also a hit on records and in live performances, and they appeared in several films, including The Big Broadcast (1932) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).

John C. Mills’s sudden death in 1936 was a blow to the close-knit siblings, and they almost dissolved the act. Fortunately, their father took over his son’s role, and the group continued without any loss in popularity (although it was necessary to employ an outside guitarist). They continued mostly in the hot-jazz style, with a strong emphasis on scat singing and instrumental imitations, and made records with such artists as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Boswell Sisters. The Mills Brothers had their biggest hit in 1943 with “Paper Doll,” which sold more than six million records and was also a best seller as sheet music. In the mid-1940s they dropped the instrumental imitations and became a more-conventional vocal group, backed by a regular rhythm section or an orchestra. Their later hits included “You Always Hurt the One You Love” (1944), “Glow Worm” (1952), and “Opus One” (1952).

John H. Mills retired in 1956, and the brothers continued as a trio, recording and performing regularly into the 1970s. The act came to an end after Harry’s death in 1982, but Donald Mills in his last years performed the group’s hits with his son, John H. Mills II. Their sound became identified with an era, and many of their recordings were later used on the sound tracks of movies, including Raging Bull (1980), Pearl Harbor (2001), and Being Julia (2004).

Louis Daniel Armstrong (born August 4, 1901 — died July 6, 1971) was a masterful trumpet player and beloved entertainer in the 20th century. He rose above the hardship and challenges of poverty from a young age and the racism he was subjected to throughout his life to become one of the most influential musicians of his genre.

He played a key role in the development of one of the early 20th century's most important new styles of music: jazz. Though he mostly kept quiet about racial discrimination, much to the disapproval of fellow Black Americans, Armstrong sparked controversy when he spoke out publicly against segregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.

Armstrong's inventiveness and improvisational techniques—along with his energetic, dazzling style—have influenced generations of musicians. One of the first to perform scat-style singing, he is also well-known for his distinctive, gravelly singing voice. Armstrong wrote two autobiographies, becoming the first Black jazz musician to write an autobiography, and appeared in more than 30 films.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

updated 2 years ago

The Mills Brothers with Louis Armstrong - In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree (1937)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: The Mills Brothers with Louis Armstrong

Full Song Title: In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree

Recorded in: New York, June 29, 1937

The Mills Brothers, John Charles (b. Oct. 19, 1910, Piqua, Ohio, U.S.—d. Jan. 24, 1936, Bellefontaine, Ohio), Herbert (b. April 2, 1912, Piqua—d. April 12, 1989, Las Vegas, Nev.), Harry (b. Aug. 19, 1913, Piqua—d. June 28, 1982, Los Angeles, Calif.), and Donald (b. April 29, 1915, Piqua—d. Nov. 13, 1999, Los Angeles), American vocal quartet that was among the most unique and influential in the history of both jazz and mainstream popular music.

The Mills Brothers began as a barbershop quartet—which was perhaps only natural, as their father, John H. Mills (1882–1967), owned a barbershop. They gave their first public performances in variety shows on the radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. In about 1930 they moved to New York City, where they became the first African American singers to have their own national radio show. Billed as “Four Boys and a Guitar” and accompanied only by brother John’s guitar, they could sound like a full jazz band, particularly on such numbers as “Tiger Rag,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Bugle Call Rag.” Each brother specialized in an “instrument”: they imitated two trumpets, a trombone, and a tuba. They were also a hit on records and in live performances, and they appeared in several films, including The Big Broadcast (1932) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).

John C. Mills’s sudden death in 1936 was a blow to the close-knit siblings, and they almost dissolved the act. Fortunately, their father took over his son’s role, and the group continued without any loss in popularity (although it was necessary to employ an outside guitarist). They continued mostly in the hot-jazz style, with a strong emphasis on scat singing and instrumental imitations, and made records with such artists as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Boswell Sisters. The Mills Brothers had their biggest hit in 1943 with “Paper Doll,” which sold more than six million records and was also a best seller as sheet music. In the mid-1940s they dropped the instrumental imitations and became a more-conventional vocal group, backed by a regular rhythm section or an orchestra. Their later hits included “You Always Hurt the One You Love” (1944), “Glow Worm” (1952), and “Opus One” (1952).

John H. Mills retired in 1956, and the brothers continued as a trio, recording and performing regularly into the 1970s. The act came to an end after Harry’s death in 1982, but Donald Mills in his last years performed the group’s hits with his son, John H. Mills II. Their sound became identified with an era, and many of their recordings were later used on the sound tracks of movies, including Raging Bull (1980), Pearl Harbor (2001), and Being Julia (2004).

Louis Daniel Armstrong (born August 4, 1901 — died July 6, 1971) was a masterful trumpet player and beloved entertainer in the 20th century. He rose above the hardship and challenges of poverty from a young age and the racism he was subjected to throughout his life to become one of the most influential musicians of his genre.

He played a key role in the development of one of the early 20th century's most important new styles of music: jazz. Though he mostly kept quiet about racial discrimination, much to the disapproval of fellow Black Americans, Armstrong sparked controversy when he spoke out publicly against segregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.

Armstrong's inventiveness and improvisational techniques—along with his energetic, dazzling style—have influenced generations of musicians. One of the first to perform scat-style singing, he is also well-known for his distinctive, gravelly singing voice. Armstrong wrote two autobiographies, becoming the first Black jazz musician to write an autobiography, and appeared in more than 30 films.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Eric Helgar - Aus lauter Liebe [Out of pure love] (1937)

the1920sand30s 2023-09-01 | Performed by: Peter Kreuder mit seinen Solisten

Vocalist: Eric Helgar

Full Song Title: Aus lauter Liebe

Recorded in: June 28th, 1937, Berlin, Germany

Flip side of: Coming soon..

Peter Paul Kreuder (born on August 18, 1905 – died on June 28, 1981) was a renowned German-Austrian pianist, composer, & conductor.

Kreuder was born in Aachen, the son of a Kammersänger. He began his piano studies at the Cologne Conservatory in 1910, where he gave his first concert just a year later, & at music academies in Munich, Berlin, & Hamburg. After World War I, he ventured into composing music for theatrical productions at the Hamburg Kammerspiele theater, at the Munich Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, as well as for several Kabarett & revue productions.

In 1925, he was employed as Kapellmeister at the Deutsches Theater München, & conducted theater ensembles, first in Munich & then in Berlin, where he worked with Max Reinhardt. In 1930, he met with Friedrich Hollaender, whom he assisted in arranging the musical score of Josef von Sternberg's film "The Blue Angel," starring Marlene Dietrich. During the 1930s & 40s, he became one of the most sought-after German musical film composers; his credits run to some 150 movies.

Kreuder joined the Nazi Party in 1932, however, he resigned his membership in 1934. His compositions added to the intended development of a "German" light music genre as contrasted to the US big band style, though they contained a large deal of jazz & swing elements. He emigrated to Sweden in 1939, but returned to Germany two years later after threats against his relatives were launched by the Nazi authorities.

After World War II, Kreuder adopted Austrian citizenship & conducted radio orchestras in Brazil & Argentina. In the second half of the 1950s, he was occasionally the pianist of Joséphine Baker. He died in Salzburg & is buried in Munich Ostfriedhof, grave number 55-19-2.

Eric Helgar (born February 8, 1910, in Regensburg - died June 14, 1992, in Munich) was a popular German singer, stage, film actor & composer of the 20th century.

Born during his father's tour, Swiss opera singer Gustl Helgar, Eric Helgar came into the world in Regensburg in 1910. He grew up in Zurich. At the age of 17, he moved to Berlin to live with his grandmother. There, he met Herbert Grenzebach, a friend of his father & the artistic director of the Ultraphon record company. Optimistically, Grenzebach said to Eric Helgar, "[...] if your father has such a magnificent voice, you should be able to sing as well!", & invited him for a trial recording. Grenzebach's assumption was correct, Helgar secured his first record contract.

Eric Helgar owed his film career primarily to his popularity as a young record & radio tenor. His initial recordings were made for the Ultraphon label in December 1930 in Berlin, & thereafter, from 1932 onwards, almost exclusively for the newly established record label of Telefunken. However, during the early years, until about 1935, Helgar also worked, sometimes anonymously, for numerous other Berlin record companies. Helgar's interesting, diverse, & versatile repertoire was carried by a pleasant, clear, expressive, & easily recognizable voice. It ranged from simple hits to tangos & sophisticated operetta melodies - such as those by Ralph Benatzky (e.g., Telefunken A 1702, 1934); & included equally demanding chansons & cabaret recordings to big-band swing from the late 1930s to the early 1940s. He made his film debut in 1933 with "Was Frauen träumen" & a year later, he played the lead role in "Der Springer von Pontresina" The song "Wir wollen Freunde sein für's ganze Leben" from this film became a popular hit. From the mid-1930s, Eric Helgar became one of the main vocal interpreters of Adalbert Lutter's popular dance orchestra for Telefunken, including at least one propaganda piece for the National Socialists (e.g., "70 Millionen - ein Schlag" 1937).

Helgar is occasionally credited as the composer of his own songs, such as the summer tango "Wo Meereswogen rauschen" (TO Lutter, Telefunken A 2513, 1938, see the list below). He continued to appear in films until the end of World War II, including "Gauner im Frack" (1937), "Friedemann Bach" (1941), & "Romanze in Moll" (1943). In addition, he lent his voice to less musically talented actors like Karl Schönböck in the film "Der Blaufuchs" (1938). In 1944, Helgar was listed in the Gottbegnadeten-Liste (God-gifted List) of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment & Propaganda.

Eric Helgar recorded well over 1000 records with many leading German dance orchestras, making him one of the most significant German-language vocal interpreters of the shellac record era.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Billie Holiday - Mean To Me (1937)

the1920sand30s 2023-08-31 | Performed by: Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra

Vocalist: Billie Holiday

Full Song Title: Mean To Me

Recorded in: May 11th, 1937, New York, NY

Flip side of: Coming soon..

Theodore Shaw Wilson (born November 24, 1912 – died July 31, 1986) was an acclaimed American jazz pianist. Critic Scott Yanow hailed him as "the definitive swing pianist," noting his gentle, elegant, and virtuosic piano style. Influenced by Earl Hines and Art Tatum, Wilson's mastery graced recordings by jazz luminaries such as Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. Notably, he broke racial barriers by performing prominently alongside white musicians, notably with Goodman. Amidst his prolific sideman work, Wilson led his own groups and recorded sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s.

He married three times, including to the songwriter Irene Kitchings. Throughout his life, he remained active as a soloist and collaborated with various groups, including leading a trio with his sons Theodore Wilson on bass and Steven Wilson on drums.

In 1979, Berklee College of Music honored him with an Honorary Doctorate of Music.

He succumbed to stomach cancer in New Britain, Connecticut, on July 31, 1986, at 73 years old. He found his resting place at Fairview Cemetery in New Britain. Wilson's family included Theodore, Steven, William, James (Jim), and Dune.

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – died July 17, 1959) stood as an iconic American jazz and swing music singer. Fondly dubbed "Lady Day" by her close friend and musical collaborator, Lester Young, Holiday left an indelible mark on the realms of jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal approach, deeply influenced by jazz instrumentalists, introduced a revolutionary approach to phrasing and tempo manipulation. She earned renown for her unique vocal delivery and exceptional improvisational abilities.

Born to Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1915, her life's particulars are shrouded in ambiguity, inviting scrutiny. On her birth certificate, she is listed as Elinore Harris, but she adopted Eleanora Fagan until her music career began, when she became Billie Holiday. Her father's abandonment prompted her to change the spelling to Halliday, distancing herself. Later, she reclaimed Holiday, earning the moniker "Lady Day" from Lester Young, and "Billie" from her admiration of movie star Billie Dove. Despite a challenging upbringing, she ventured to New York City in the late 1920s and early 1930s, singing in jazz clubs, earning repute as a gifted jazz vocalist.

Holiday's career escalated in 1933 when John Hammond discovered her at Monette's in New York. She recorded with Benny Goodman and performed across the city. By the late 1940s, she was a jazz icon, voted best jazz vocalist by Esquire and appearing in films. Holiday's singing style was influenced by Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, transforming melodies with inventive improvisations.

Sadly, her success coincided with substance abuse, notably drugs and alcohol. In the late 1940s, her career faltered due to drug addiction and depression. Following rehabilitation, she performed at Carnegie Hall but faced restrictions due to her cabaret license suspension. Her European tour in 1954 marked a decline in performances due to declining health.

Holiday's autobiography, "Lady Sings the Blues" (1956), co-authored with William Dufty, highlighted her struggles with drugs and poverty. It was adapted into a 1972 film. She passed away in 1959 while under house arrest for narcotics possession.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Frankie Trumbauers Orchestra - How Am I To Know? (1929)

the1920sand30s 2023-08-31 | Performed by: Frankie Trumbauer's Orchestra

Vocalist: Smith Ballew

Full Song Title: How Am I To Know?

Recorded in: September 18, 1929, New York, NY

B-Side: Coming soon..

Orie Frank Trumbauer (born May 30, 1901 – died June 11, 1956) was a popular American jazz saxophonist of the 1920s and 1930s. His main instrument was the C melody saxophone, a now-uncommon instrument between an alto and tenor saxophone in size and pitch. He also played alto saxophone, bassoon, clarinet and several other instruments.

He was a composer of sophisticated sax melodies, one of the major small group jazz bandleaders of the 1920s and 1930s. His landmark recording of "Singin' the Blues" with Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Lang in 1927, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1977. His major recordings included "Krazy Kat", "Red Hot", "Plantation Moods", "Trumbology", "Tailspin", "Singin' the Blues", "Wringin' an' Twistin'", and "For No Reason at All in C" with Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Lang, and the first hit recording of "Georgia On My Mind" in 1931.

Trumbauer was described as one of the most influential and important jazz saxophonists of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly influencing the sound of Lester Young. He is also remembered for his musical collaborations with Bix Beiderbecke, a relationship that produced some of the finest and most innovative jazz records of the late 1920s. Trumbauer and Beiderbecke also collaborated with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang.

Born in Carbondale, Illinois, USA, with Cherokee roots, Trumbauer was raised in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother, a music enthusiast, directed saxophone and theater orchestras. He found early success with the Edgar Benson and Ray Miller bands before joining the Mound City Blue Blowers, gaining national fame through Brunswick recordings.

Trumbauer enlisted Bix Beiderbecke for Jean Goldkette's Victor Recording Orchestra, where he became musical director. Afterward, they briefly collaborated in Adrian Rollini's New Yorkers band and joined Paul Whiteman in 1927. The same year, he signed an OKeh contract, releasing the hit "Singin' the Blues" featuring Beiderbecke and Eddie Lang. This version revitalized the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's 1920 classic. He enjoyed a successful run with Whiteman, also making solo OKeh recordings until 1930.

While part of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra for most of the next nine years, he recorded with Beiderbecke until 1929. Trumbauer's musical journey shifted; he formed a Chicago band, then returned to New York in 1933. His collaborations included sessions with Jack Teagarden. In 1936, he led The Three T's featuring the Teagarden brothers. He co-led a band with Mannie Klein in 1938, performing as "Frank Trombar." He ventured into aviation in 1939, pausing his music career and rejoining the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA).

During World War II, Trumbauer served as a test pilot with North American Aviation, training B-25 Mitchell bomber crews. Post-war, he continued CAA work and played in the NBC Orchestra. After 1947, aviation became his primary income source, even though he maintained involvement in music through performances and recordings.

Trumbauer passed away from a heart attack in his long-time home of Kansas City, Missouri, at the age of 55.

Sykes "Smith" Ballew (born 1902 – died 1984) was an acclaimed American actor, suave singer, orchestra leader, and renowned western singing star, also known as Buddy Blue, Charles Roberts, and Billy Smith.

Hailing from Palestine, Texas, Ballew's education spanned local schools, Sherman High School, Austin College, and the University of Texas. During his time at Austin College, he co-founded the Texasjazzers orchestra and later engaged with the Jimmie's Joys jazz combo, showcasing his banjo and vocal skills.

By the late 1920s, Ballew's vocal prowess shone on numerous dance band and jazz records, primarily in New York City, alongside notables like Scrappy Lambert and Dick Robertson. In 1929, he established the Smith Ballew Orchestra, centering on his vocal talent.

He ventured into radio as a singer, achieving recognition as a pioneering singing cowboy in 1930s films. His film debut in "Palm Springs" (1936) marked the beginning of a series of musical Westerns for studios like Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. He also provided singing dubbing for John Wayne in "The Man from Utah" (1934).

From 1929 to 1935, he released multiple records under various labels, showcasing his versatility. Notably, his early records diverged from his later Cowboy style.

Ballew passed away at 82 in Longview, Texas, and was laid to rest in Fort Worth.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Napoleons Emperors - Anything (1929)

the1920sand30s 2023-08-31 | Performed by: Napoleon's Emperors

Full Song Title: Anything

Recorded in: May 23rd 1929, New York, NY

B-Side: youtu.be/4SFbfl_xUZQ

Phil Napoleon (born Filippo Napoli 2 September 1901 – died 1 October 1990) was a popular early jazz trumpeter and bandleader of the early 20th century.

Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, he emerged as a significant figure in the early jazz scene, distinguished for his prowess as a trumpeter and a bandleader. His impact on the realm of jazz is notably reflected in his leadership of numerous recording sessions during the mid-1920s, which played a pivotal role in boosting the genre's popularity, as noted by Ron Wynn.

In the assessment of Richard Cook and Brian Morton, prominent authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Napoleon is rightly characterized as a "genuine pioneer." His trumpet playing had a profound influence on fellow musicians such as Red Nichols and Bix Beiderbecke, underscoring his lasting legacy in shaping the evolution of jazz.

Napoleon's journey commenced with a foundation in classical training, showcased through his early public performances by the age of five. In the 1910s, he stood among the pioneering musicians in the northeastern United States who embraced the novel "jass" style introduced by artists from New Orleans, Louisiana. Teaming up with pianist Frank Signorelli, he co-founded "The Original Memphis Five" in 1917, a collaboration that would leave a significant mark on the jazz landscape. Throughout the 1920s, Napoleon's trumpet skills garnered widespread acclaim, establishing him as one of the era's most sought-after trumpeters. The prolific output of his group was evident, particularly in New York City, where they recorded over a hundred tracks in just the span of 1922-1923. Notably, Napoleon's rendition of "Clarinet Marmalade" in 1927 achieved notable success, becoming a standout in his repertoire.

The chapter of The Original Memphis Five came to a close in 1928, leading Napoleon to embark on diverse musical endeavors. The 1930s witnessed his role as a session trumpeter, including stints with the RCA Radio Orchestra and his efforts in forming his own orchestra, though the latter was met with limited success. This era also marked his involvement as a network house conductor and a trumpet soloist for NBC from around 1929 to 1937. Napoleon's musical breadth extended to collaborations with various artists, including the Cotton Pickers, the Charleston Chasers, and blues vocalists Leona Williams and Alberta Hunter.

During the mid-1940s, Napoleon joined the Los Angeles-based ensemble led by Jimmy Dorsey, making an appearance with the band in the film "Four Jills in a Jeep." Following his departure from Dorsey's group in 1947, he returned to New York, dedicating his skills as a studio musician at NBC until the late 1940s to early 1950s. During this period, he reformed The Original Memphis Five, their performances at Nick's in New York City garnering significant recognition in the early 1950s. Notably, Napoleon's collaboration with his nephew, jazz pianist Marty Napoleon, added another layer of musical richness to his career.

A remarkable moment in Napoleon's journey occurred on July 3, 1959, when he and The Five delivered a memorable performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. This event was later immortalized in an album release. In 1966, he ventured into entrepreneurship by establishing "Napoleon's Retreat," a club situated in Miami, Florida. This served as both his creative outlet and residence until his passing, during which he continued to captivate audiences with Dixieland jazz performances that resonated well into the 1980s.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Napoleons Emperors - You Cant Cheat A Cheater (1929)

the1920sand30s 2023-08-31 | Performed by: Napoleon's Emperors

Full Song Title: You Can't Cheat A Cheater

Recorded in: May 23rd 1929, New York, NY

Flip side of: youtu.be/1dWBGnzgpW4

Phil Napoleon (born Filippo Napoli 2 September 1901 – died 1 October 1990) was a popular early jazz trumpeter and bandleader of the early 20th century.

Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, he emerged as a significant figure in the early jazz scene, distinguished for his prowess as a trumpeter and a bandleader. His impact on the realm of jazz is notably reflected in his leadership of numerous recording sessions during the mid-1920s, which played a pivotal role in boosting the genre's popularity, as noted by Ron Wynn.

In the assessment of Richard Cook and Brian Morton, prominent authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz, Napoleon is rightly characterized as a "genuine pioneer." His trumpet playing had a profound influence on fellow musicians such as Red Nichols and Bix Beiderbecke, underscoring his lasting legacy in shaping the evolution of jazz.

Napoleon's journey commenced with a foundation in classical training, showcased through his early public performances by the age of five. In the 1910s, he stood among the pioneering musicians in the northeastern United States who embraced the novel "jass" style introduced by artists from New Orleans, Louisiana. Teaming up with pianist Frank Signorelli, he co-founded "The Original Memphis Five" in 1917, a collaboration that would leave a significant mark on the jazz landscape. Throughout the 1920s, Napoleon's trumpet skills garnered widespread acclaim, establishing him as one of the era's most sought-after trumpeters. The prolific output of his group was evident, particularly in New York City, where they recorded over a hundred tracks in just the span of 1922-1923. Notably, Napoleon's rendition of "Clarinet Marmalade" in 1927 achieved notable success, becoming a standout in his repertoire.

The chapter of The Original Memphis Five came to a close in 1928, leading Napoleon to embark on diverse musical endeavors. The 1930s witnessed his role as a session trumpeter, including stints with the RCA Radio Orchestra and his efforts in forming his own orchestra, though the latter was met with limited success. This era also marked his involvement as a network house conductor and a trumpet soloist for NBC from around 1929 to 1937. Napoleon's musical breadth extended to collaborations with various artists, including the Cotton Pickers, the Charleston Chasers, and blues vocalists Leona Williams and Alberta Hunter.

During the mid-1940s, Napoleon joined the Los Angeles-based ensemble led by Jimmy Dorsey, making an appearance with the band in the film "Four Jills in a Jeep." Following his departure from Dorsey's group in 1947, he returned to New York, dedicating his skills as a studio musician at NBC until the late 1940s to early 1950s. During this period, he reformed The Original Memphis Five, their performances at Nick's in New York City garnering significant recognition in the early 1950s. Notably, Napoleon's collaboration with his nephew, jazz pianist Marty Napoleon, added another layer of musical richness to his career.

A remarkable moment in Napoleon's journey occurred on July 3, 1959, when he and The Five delivered a memorable performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. This event was later immortalized in an album release. In 1966, he ventured into entrepreneurship by establishing "Napoleon's Retreat," a club situated in Miami, Florida. This served as both his creative outlet and residence until his passing, during which he continued to captivate audiences with Dixieland jazz performances that resonated well into the 1980s.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ella Fitzgerald and the Mills Brothers - Dedicated To You (1937)

the1920sand30s 2023-08-16 | Performed by: Ella Fitzgerald and the Mills Brothers

Vocalist: Ella Fitzgerald & the Mills Brothers are vocal mimicking instruments

Full Song Title: Dedicated To You

Recorded in: February 3rd 1937, New York

Side B: youtu.be/l6EEQzk0XHE

Ella Fitzgerald, in full Ella Jane Fitzgerald, (born April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.— died June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California), was an American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range & rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades.

As a child, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, but when she panicked at an amateur contest in 1934 at New York City’s Apollo Theatre & sang in a style influenced by the jazz vocalist Connee Boswell instead, she won first prize. The following year Fitzgerald joined the Chick Webb orchestra; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgerald’s guardian when her mother died. She made her first recording, “Love and Kisses,” in 1935, and her first hit, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” followed in 1938. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his band until it broke up in 1942. She then soloed in cabarets & theatres & toured internationally with such pop and jazz stars as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, & Dizzy Gillespie. She also recorded prolifically.

During much of her early career she had been noted for singing & recording novelty songs. Her status rose dramatically in the 1950s when jazz impresario Norman Granz became her manager. From 1956 to 1964 she recorded a 19-volume series of “songbooks,” in which she interpreted nearly 250 outstanding songs by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, & Johnny Mercer. This material, combined with the best jazz instrumental support, clearly demonstrated Fitzgerald’s remarkable interpretative skills. Although her diction was excellent, her rendition of lyrics was intuitive rather than studied. For many years the star attraction of Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert tours, she was also one of the best-selling jazz vocal recording artists in history.

Fitzgerald’s clear tone & wide vocal range were complemented by her mastery of rhythm, harmony, intonation, & diction. She was an excellent ballad singer, conveying a winsome, ingenuous quality. Her infectious scat singing brought excitement to such concert recordings as Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin & was widely imitated by others. She garnered 14 Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement. She also received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1979) & the National Medal of Arts (1987).

In 1993, however, her career was curtailed following complications stemming from diabetes, which resulted in the amputation of both her legs below the knees.She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.

The Mills Brothers, John Charles (b. Oct. 19, 1910, Piqua, Ohio, U.S.—d. Jan. 24, 1936, Bellefontaine, Ohio), Herbert (b. April 2, 1912, Piqua—d. April 12, 1989, Las Vegas, Nev.), Harry (b. Aug. 19, 1913, Piqua—d. June 28, 1982, Los Angeles, Calif.), and Donald (b. April 29, 1915, Piqua—d. Nov. 13, 1999, Los Angeles), American vocal quartet that was among the most unique & influential in the history of both jazz and mainstream popular music.

The Mills Brothers began as a barbershop quartet—which was perhaps only natural, as their father, John H. Mills (1882–1967), owned a barbershop. They gave their first public performances in variety shows on the radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. In about 1930 they moved to New York City, where they became the first African American singers to have their own national radio show. Billed as “Four Boys and a Guitar” and accompanied only by brother John’s guitar, they could sound like a full jazz band, particularly on such numbers as “Tiger Rag,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Bugle Call Rag.” Each brother specialized in an “instrument”: they imitated two trumpets, a trombone, and a tuba. They were also a hit on records & in live performances, and they appeared in several films, including The Big Broadcast (1932) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).

John C. Mills’s sudden death in 1936 was a blow to the close-knit siblings, and they almost dissolved the act. Fortunately, their father took over his son’s role, and the group continued without any loss in popularity (although it was necessary to employ an outside guitarist).

John H. Mills retired in 1956, & the brothers continued as a trio, recording and performing regularly into the 1970s. The act came to an end after Harry’s death in 1982, but Donald Mills in his last years performed the group’s hits with his son, John H. Mills II.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Judy Garland - Dear Mr Gable (1937)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-08 | Performed by: Judy Garland With Harry Sosnik And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Judy Garland

Full Song Title: Dear Mr. Gable (You made me love you)

Recorded in: September 24th 1937 Los Angeles, California

Judy Garland, original name Frances Ethel Gumm, (born June 10, 1922, Grand Rapids, Minnesota, U.S.— died June 22, 1969, London, England), American singer and actress whose exceptional talents & vulnerabilities combined to make her one of the most enduringly popular Hollywood icons of the 20th century.

Frances Gumm was the daughter of former vaudevillians Frank Gumm & Ethel Gumm, who operated the New Grand Theatre in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where on December 26, 1924, at age 2 1/2, Frances made her debut. In 1932—by that time a 10-year-old singing sensation—she received her first rave review from the entertainment news magazine Variety, & two years later, at the suggestion of the comedian George Jessel, she adopted the surname Garland. (She chose the first name Judy shortly thereafter, from the popular 1934 Hoagy Carmichael song of that name.) In September 1935, Judy Garland was signed by the world’s largest motion-picture studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), without a screen test.

Her first film appearance as a contract player for MGM was in the short Every Sunday (1936). Her other early films included Pigskin Parade (which she made while on loan to Twentieth Century-Fox in 1936) & Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), in which she sang “You Made Me Love You.” That was the first of many trademark songs. She began her popular screen partnership with Mickey Rooney in Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937); the pairing continued through Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), Babes in Arms (1939), Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), & Girl Crazy (1943).

Garland’s winning combination of youth, innocence, pluck, & emotional openness is seen to good advantage in two of her best-known films: The Wizard of Oz (1939) & Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). In the former, her heartfelt expression of vulnerability & youthful longing in what would become another signature song, “Over the Rainbow,” helped make the film one of the most beloved movie classics. It also brought Garland her first & only Academy Award, a special award with a miniature statuette for “outstanding performance by a screen juvenile.” She played her last juvenile role in Meet Me in St. Louis, directed by her future husband Vincente Minnelli (with whom she had a daughter, Liza). In it she sang such hits as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” & “The Boy Next Door.”

Of the 21 additional films she made in the 1940s, perhaps The Harvey Girls (1946) & Easter Parade (1948) are the best known. Despite placing in the Top Ten box office three times during the 1940s, making more than $100 million for the studio, & being considered the studio’s greatest asset, Garland was granted an early release from her MGM contract in September 1950, following completion of Summer Stock (1950). The following year she returned to the stage, with triumphant performances at the London Palladium & New York’s Palace Theatre.

Her film career has long overshadowed her success as a recording artist, but from 1936 to 1947 she cut more than 90 tracks for Decca Records, & she made a dozen record albums for Capitol Records between 1955 & 1965. She frequently made the best-seller charts from 1939 to 1967, working with such top arrangers as Mort Lindsey, Nelson Riddle, Jack Marshall, & Gordon Jenkins. These recordings reveal her sensitivity and intelligence as an interpreter of popular song.

During the mid- to late 1960s, Garland concentrated on concert performances & made appearances on the top television variety & talk shows of the day. Garland continued working until her death at age 47 by accidental barbiturate overdose. Her funeral in New York City drew 22,000 mourners.

Harry Sosnik (born July 13, 1906 Chicago, Illinois, — died March 22, 1996 Bronx, New York)

He was educated at the American Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano with Kurt Waniek, harmony with Arthur Olaf Anderson, & composition with Leo Sowerby. He also studied composition at the Juilliard School of Music with Vittorio Giannini, & studied composition with Ernst Toch & Siegfried Landau. For many years he composed, arranged, & conducted scores, vocal & instrumental music, theme songs, & jingles for radio & for television shows, specials, & commercials. During his career he was musical director for Decca Records, & vice-president in charge of music for ABC. Sosnik also joined Ted Bates and Co., an advertising agency, as musical director, & in June 1963 he was placed in charge of all music used in commercials. He later was with Ambroad Music Services Corporation in New York.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ben Pollack’s Pick A Rib Boys - You Made Me Love You (1937)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-08 | Performed by: Ben Pollack’s "Pick A Rib" Boys

Vocalist: Peggy Mann

Full Song Title: You Made Me Love You (I didn't want to do it)

Recorded in: September 21st 1937 Los Angeles, California

Flip side of: youtu.be/1Zvr5_wJdLY

Ben Pollack (born June 22, 1903 – died June 7, 1971) was a popular American drummer and bandleader from the mid-1920s through the swing era. His eye for talent led him to employ musicians such as Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Glenn Miller, Jimmy McPartland, and Harry James. This ability earned him the nickname the "Father of Swing".

Ben Pollack was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He played drums in school and formed groups on the side, performing professionally in his teens. He joined the Harry Bastin Band and then the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the 1920s. In 1924 he played for several bands, including some on the west coast, which ultimately led to his forming a band, the 12-piece Venice Ballroom Orchestra, there in 1925. In 1926, he had a band named the Ten Californians, which had some performances broadcast on WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Pollack formed his own band in 1926. Over time the band included Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden, and Jimmy McPartland. One of the earliest members of his band was Gil Rodin, a saxophonist whose business acumen served him well later as an executive for the Music Corporation of America.

In 1926, Pollack began recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company. A 1927 newspaper ad promoted "a new Victor organization – Ben Pollack and His Californians."

Pollack left Victor in late 1929 and recorded for Hit of the Week (1930), the dime store labels (Banner, Cameo, Domino, Lincoln, Perfect, Romeo) (1930–1931), Victor (1933), Columbia (1933–1934), Brunswick, Vocalion and Variety (1936–37), and Decca (1937–1938).

From about 1928, with involvement from Irving Mills, members of Pollack's band moonlighted at Plaza-ARC and recorded a vast quantity of hot dance and jazz for their dime store labels — Banner, Perfect, Domino, Cameo, Lincoln, Romeo — under the names Mills' Merry Makers, Goody's Good Timers, Kentucky Grasshoppers, Mills' Musical Clowns, The Lumberjacks, Dixie Daises, The Caroliners, The Whoopee Makers, The Hotsy Totsy Gang, Dixie Jazz Band, and Jimmy Bracken's Toe Ticklers. Combining Pollack's regular recordings with these side groups made Pollack's one of the more prolific bands of the 1920s and 1930s.

Pollack's band played in Chicago and moved to New York City in 1928, having obtained McPartland and Teagarden around that time. This outfit enjoyed immense success, playing for Broadway shows and winning an exclusive engagement at the Park Central Hotel. Pollack's band was involved in extensive recording activity at that time, using a variety of pseudonyms in the studios. The orchestra also made a Vitaphone short subject sound film.

Pollack, in the meantime, had fancied himself as more of a bandleader-singer type instead of a drummer. To this end, he signed Ray Bauduc to handle the drumming chores. Benny Goodman and Jimmy McPartland left the band in mid-1929. They were replaced by Matty Matlock on clarinet and Jack Teagarden's brother, Charlie, on trumpet. Eddie Miller was also signed as a tenor saxophonist in 1930.

The band broke up in 1934. Many of its members soon formed a group led by Bob Crosby, brother of Bing Crosby.

Pollack formed a new band with Harry James and Irving Fazola. With James he wrote the hit "Peckin'".

Pollack and Doris Robbins, who had no children, were divorced in 1957. In later years, after suffering a series of financial losses, Pollack grew despondent and hanged himself in his home in Palm Springs in 1971. He was buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Margaret Dunlap (née Germano, born September 28, 1918 – died August 13, 1988), better known as Peggy Mann, was an American Big Band singer who was prominent in the 1930s and 1940s. She worked with the likes of Henry Halstead, Ben Pollack, Larry Clinton, and Teddy Powell, and also as a solo act, before retiring from the music industry in the early 1950s. Mann was born in Yonkers, New York. A review in Billboard magazine referred to her "captivating manner that has made her a favorite song stylist."

Mann was a replacement singer for Joan Edwards on the radio version of Your Hit Parade.

Mann married Roderick Dunlap in 1971 in Washington D.C., and the couple returned to living in Yonkers after Mann's stint in Los Angeles. He predeceased her in July 1987. Mann died at her home in Yonkers, New York in August 1988 at the age of 69.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ella Fitzgerald and the Mills Brothers - Big Boy Blue (1937)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-07 | Performed by: Ella Fitzgerald and the Mills Brothers

Vocalist: Ella Fitzgerald & the Mills Brothers are vocal mimicking instruments

Full Song Title: Big Boy Blue

Recorded in: January 14th 1937, New York

Flip side of: youtu.be/nspf-ud10Ik

Ella Fitzgerald, in full Ella Jane Fitzgerald, (born April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.— died June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California), was an American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range & rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades.

As a child, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, but when she panicked at an amateur contest in 1934 at New York City’s Apollo Theatre & sang in a style influenced by the jazz vocalist Connee Boswell instead, she won first prize. The following year Fitzgerald joined the Chick Webb orchestra; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgerald’s guardian when her mother died. She made her first recording, “Love and Kisses,” in 1935, and her first hit, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” followed in 1938. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his band until it broke up in 1942. She then soloed in cabarets & theatres & toured internationally with such pop and jazz stars as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, & Dizzy Gillespie. She also recorded prolifically.

During much of her early career she had been noted for singing & recording novelty songs. Her status rose dramatically in the 1950s when jazz impresario Norman Granz became her manager. From 1956 to 1964 she recorded a 19-volume series of “songbooks,” in which she interpreted nearly 250 outstanding songs by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, & Johnny Mercer. This material, combined with the best jazz instrumental support, clearly demonstrated Fitzgerald’s remarkable interpretative skills. Although her diction was excellent, her rendition of lyrics was intuitive rather than studied. For many years the star attraction of Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert tours, she was also one of the best-selling jazz vocal recording artists in history.

Fitzgerald’s clear tone & wide vocal range were complemented by her mastery of rhythm, harmony, intonation, & diction. She was an excellent ballad singer, conveying a winsome, ingenuous quality. Her infectious scat singing brought excitement to such concert recordings as Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin & was widely imitated by others. She garnered 14 Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement. She also received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1979) & the National Medal of Arts (1987).

In 1993, however, her career was curtailed following complications stemming from diabetes, which resulted in the amputation of both her legs below the knees.She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.

The Mills Brothers, John Charles (b. Oct. 19, 1910, Piqua, Ohio, U.S.—d. Jan. 24, 1936, Bellefontaine, Ohio), Herbert (b. April 2, 1912, Piqua—d. April 12, 1989, Las Vegas, Nev.), Harry (b. Aug. 19, 1913, Piqua—d. June 28, 1982, Los Angeles, Calif.), and Donald (b. April 29, 1915, Piqua—d. Nov. 13, 1999, Los Angeles), American vocal quartet that was among the most unique & influential in the history of both jazz and mainstream popular music.

The Mills Brothers began as a barbershop quartet—which was perhaps only natural, as their father, John H. Mills (1882–1967), owned a barbershop. They gave their first public performances in variety shows on the radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. In about 1930 they moved to New York City, where they became the first African American singers to have their own national radio show. Billed as “Four Boys and a Guitar” and accompanied only by brother John’s guitar, they could sound like a full jazz band, particularly on such numbers as “Tiger Rag,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Bugle Call Rag.” Each brother specialized in an “instrument”: they imitated two trumpets, a trombone, and a tuba. They were also a hit on records & in live performances, and they appeared in several films, including The Big Broadcast (1932) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).

John C. Mills’s sudden death in 1936 was a blow to the close-knit siblings, and they almost dissolved the act. Fortunately, their father took over his son’s role, and the group continued without any loss in popularity (although it was necessary to employ an outside guitarist).

John H. Mills retired in 1956, & the brothers continued as a trio, recording and performing regularly into the 1970s. The act came to an end after Harry’s death in 1982, but Donald Mills in his last years performed the group’s hits with his son, John H. Mills II.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Aldo Visconti - Tornerai [You will return] (1937)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-04 | Performed by: Aldo Visconti con orchestra dir. dal M.o Mariotti

Vocalist: Aldo Visconti

Full Song Title: Tornerai

Recorded in: 1937

Emilio Renzi, also known by the stage names Aldo Visconti and Marcello Ferrero (born Faenza, November 2, 1908 - died Turin, October 3, 1990), was a popular Italian tenor of the 1930s.

A light lyric tenor with a small but well-projected voice and remarkable musicality, he studied singing and score reading with tenor Andrea Toscani and maestro Emilio Piccoli.

He made his debut on December 28, 1932, at the Teatro Martinetti in Garlasco, where he played the leading role in Gounod's Faust under the direction of maestro Ghiglia. In 1937, at the Teatro Carignano in Turin, he performed as the Contino del Fiore in Crispino e la comare with Afro Poli, followed by the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto with Mercedes Capsir and Carlo Galeffi, Zorzeto in Il campiello with Magda Olivero and Poli, and Ramiro in La Cenerentola with Capsir, Ernesto Badini, and Italo Tajo.

He sang multiple times at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and in the main Italian theaters, receiving acclaim from the audience. Thanks to his particularly phonogenic voice, he performed in various opera and operetta productions at EIAR (now Rai), the Italian radio broadcasting company.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Renzi gained great popularity, known not only to opera enthusiasts (he took part in the recording of the first complete opera on 78 rpm records for Cetra, Norma, conducted by Gino Marinuzzi) but also in the field of popular music. Under the pseudonym Aldo Visconti, he became famous for recording hundreds of songs, including a rich series of so-called "regime songs."

In 1939, he married the young soprano Marcella Ferrero.

At the conclusion of World War II, the tenor from Faenza encountered closed doors in Italian theaters as a result of his sympathies towards the fascist regime. It wasn't until the early 1950s that he made a comeback to singing, securing a chorus role at Rai in Turin, where he remained for sixteen years. Despite being able to continue performing in concerts even at the age of seventy, he was never able to recapture the same level of success he had once attained.

He died in Turin late at night on October 3, 1990, from a heart attack.

Mario Mariotti, (born 1899 in Paris, France - died 1975 Milan, Lombardy, Italy) was a multi-talented artist. In addition to being a composer, he excelled as a conductor and a songwriter.

In 1931, he married Meme Bianchi, an exceptional soprano renowned for her vocal abilities (1907-2000), and they were blessed with a daughter named Marcella Mariotti, who later pursued a career as an actress.

One of Mario's notable roles was as the director of the Odeon record label, where his wife Meme recorded her songs. While he had an accomplished career, Mariotti's involvement in scoring Euro-westerns was limited to just one film from the 1950s, "The Little Sheriff," which he co-scored alongside Federico Bergamini.

Sadly, Mario Mariotti passed away in Milan, Italy, in 1975.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Al Bowlly - Ill Do My Best To Make You Happy (1932)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-04 | Performed by: Ray Noble And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Al Bowlly

Full Song Title: I'll Do My Best To Make You Happy

Recorded in: September 8th 1932, London Great Britain

Raymond Stanley "Ray" Noble (born 17 December 1903 – died 2 April 1978) was a popular English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, songwriter, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor, he also performed in the United States.

Albert Allick Bowlly (born 7 January 1898 – died 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African–British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930's in Britain.

Born on 7 January 1899 in Mozambique, Albert first became interested in music when living in Johannesburg where he grew up. By his teens, he was 'music mad', running a barber's shop by day and spending his evenings singing and playing banjo and ukulele. In 1922, Bowlly joined Jimmy Clark's and Edgar Adeler's dance band organization and a year later went on tour with Adeler's band before joining the Jimmy Lequime Orchestra in India, firstly as banjoist and later as vocalist. It was in Germany, in 1927, that Bowlly made his first recordings and established his reputation as a singer.

Following an invitation to join Fred Elizalde's band at the Savoy Hotel as vocalist and guitarist, described as 'the most advanced group playing in Britain at the time', Al Bowlly arrived in London in July 1928. Bowlly toured and recorded with Elizalde's band, while adding to his rather meager income with freelance work. From late 1930, he became a regular vocalist with Ray Noble's New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, HMV's house band, and recorded more than 200 songs with the group by 1934, including 'Goodnight, Sweetheart' and 'The Very Thought of You', which helped him become increasingly recognized as a solo singer.

In January 1931, Bowlly met another bandleader, Roy Fox, Musical Director of the Decca Record Company. Over the next twenty months, Bowlly recorded more than 150 titles with Decca, and in spring 1931 became a member of Fox's new band, established at the Monseigneur Restaurant in the basement of 215-217 Piccadilly. With its popular house band, the Monseigneur soon became one of London's most fashionable attractions with shows broadcast on the BBC every Tuesday, and by the end of the year Bowlly had become one of Britain's top band singers. Known for his originality, Bowlly's good looks and charisma were admired by men and women alike. Lew Stone's new Monseigneur Dance Orchestra, which replaced Fox's band, had a major influence on Bowlly's career, encouraging him to perfect his technique and relieving him of guitar playing duties so he could concentrate on his singing. Bowlly's first record with Stone, 'Nightfall'/'Rain, Rain Go Away' (October 1932), was the first in a series of over a hundred set down in 1932-38. At the peak of his career in 1933 his signature tune was 'Some of These Days', though his rendition of 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' became even more popular.

Between September 1934 and December 1936, Bowlly toured America with Ray Noble, and made a number of recordings, the best-known being 'My Melancholy Baby' (March 1935). It was a busy time. He was given his own NBC radio series, recorded (unused) footage for a film, The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935), and met his idol, Bing Crosby. Despite his popularity and high earnings, Bowlly was unhappy and disappointed; frustrated at his inability to strike out as a solo star and homesick for London. During his stay in England, Bowlly was struck by illness and he lost his voice, in August 1937 he left England to have a throat operation in New York.

By January 1938, Bowlly had returned to London with a renewed energy and made a number of recordings, including a series with Lew Stone which is seen to equal or even surpass those of 1932-34. In all, he recorded just over 600 78rpm records between 1927 and 1941. He also made broadcasts with Stone's band, continuing to do so until 1941, and in 1938-39 made a series of high-quality recordings with the bandleader Geraldo, including 'Never Break a Promise'. However, times were changing - 'society' dance bands were becoming increasingly unfashionable and the outbreak of the Second World War meant there was less work around.

On the morning of 17 April 1941 - a night of very heavy bombing in London's West End - Bowlly was one of three residents of Dukes Court killed by the blast of a landmine which fell in nearby Jermyn Street and blew in the block's windows. He was found lying next to his bed, having refused to retreat to the building's shelter. Bowlly was buried in a communal grave at Westminster City Council cemetery, Hanwell.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Al Bowlly - Love Is The Sweetest Thing (1932)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-04 | Performed by: Ray Noble And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Al Bowlly

Full Song Title: Love Is The Sweetest Thing

Recorded in: September 8th 1932, London Great Britain

Flip side of: youtu.be/FpLVxyw2-fs

Raymond Stanley "Ray" Noble (born 17 December 1903 – died 2 April 1978) was a popular English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, songwriter, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor, he also performed in the United States.

Albert Allick Bowlly (born 7 January 1898 – died 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African–British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930's in Britain.

Born on 7 January 1899 in Mozambique, Albert first became interested in music when living in Johannesburg where he grew up. By his teens, he was 'music mad', running a barber's shop by day and spending his evenings singing and playing banjo and ukulele. In 1922, Bowlly joined Jimmy Clark's and Edgar Adeler's dance band organization and a year later went on tour with Adeler's band before joining the Jimmy Lequime Orchestra in India, firstly as banjoist and later as vocalist. It was in Germany, in 1927, that Bowlly made his first recordings and established his reputation as a singer.

Following an invitation to join Fred Elizalde's band at the Savoy Hotel as vocalist and guitarist, described as 'the most advanced group playing in Britain at the time', Al Bowlly arrived in London in July 1928. Bowlly toured and recorded with Elizalde's band, while adding to his rather meager income with freelance work. From late 1930, he became a regular vocalist with Ray Noble's New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, HMV's house band, and recorded more than 200 songs with the group by 1934, including 'Goodnight, Sweetheart' and 'The Very Thought of You', which helped him become increasingly recognized as a solo singer.

In January 1931, Bowlly met another bandleader, Roy Fox, Musical Director of the Decca Record Company. Over the next twenty months, Bowlly recorded more than 150 titles with Decca, and in spring 1931 became a member of Fox's new band, established at the Monseigneur Restaurant in the basement of 215-217 Piccadilly. With its popular house band, the Monseigneur soon became one of London's most fashionable attractions with shows broadcast on the BBC every Tuesday, and by the end of the year Bowlly had become one of Britain's top band singers. Known for his originality, Bowlly's good looks and charisma were admired by men and women alike. Lew Stone's new Monseigneur Dance Orchestra, which replaced Fox's band, had a major influence on Bowlly's career, encouraging him to perfect his technique and relieving him of guitar playing duties so he could concentrate on his singing. Bowlly's first record with Stone, 'Nightfall'/'Rain, Rain Go Away' (October 1932), was the first in a series of over a hundred set down in 1932-38. At the peak of his career in 1933 his signature tune was 'Some of These Days', though his rendition of 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' became even more popular.

Between September 1934 and December 1936, Bowlly toured America with Ray Noble, and made a number of recordings, the best-known being 'My Melancholy Baby' (March 1935). It was a busy time. He was given his own NBC radio series, recorded (unused) footage for a film, The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935), and met his idol, Bing Crosby. Despite his popularity and high earnings, Bowlly was unhappy and disappointed; frustrated at his inability to strike out as a solo star and homesick for London. During his stay in England, Bowlly was struck by illness and he lost his voice, in August 1937 he left England to have a throat operation in New York.

By January 1938, Bowlly had returned to London with a renewed energy and made a number of recordings, including a series with Lew Stone which is seen to equal or even surpass those of 1932-34. In all, he recorded just over 600 78rpm records between 1927 and 1941. He also made broadcasts with Stone's band, continuing to do so until 1941, and in 1938-39 made a series of high-quality recordings with the bandleader Geraldo, including 'Never Break a Promise'. However, times were changing - 'society' dance bands were becoming increasingly unfashionable and the outbreak of the Second World War meant there was less work around.

On the morning of 17 April 1941 - a night of very heavy bombing in London's West End - Bowlly was one of three residents of Dukes Court killed by the blast of a landmine which fell in nearby Jermyn Street and blew in the block's windows. He was found lying next to his bed, having refused to retreat to the building's shelter. Bowlly was buried in a communal grave at Westminster City Council cemetery, Hanwell.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
_______
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Al Goodman And His Orchestra - Yours Sincerely (1929)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-04 | Performed by: Al Goodman And His Orchestra -

Full Song Title: Your Sincerely

Recorded in: April 1929 New York, New York.

Flip side of: Coming soon..

Alfred Goodman (born August 12, 1890 – died January 10, 1972) was a conductor, songwriter, stage composer, musical director, arranger, and pianist.

Goodman was born in Nikopol, Ukraine. His father, Tobias Goodman, was a cantor in a synagogue in Odessa. Goodman sang in a choir when he was 5 years old and had become fluent in reading music by age 6. When he was about 7, the family left Russia to escape a pogrom*. Disguised as farmers, they made their way to Romania. There they lost their money but escaped to the United States and settled in Baltimore. Goodman graduated from Baltimore City College and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He earned money by playing piano for films at the Pickwick Theatre in Baltimore.

Goodman worked as a musician in a nickelodeon and chorus boy in one of the Milton Aborn's operettas. Before he was 20, Goodman began working in Chicago as orchestrator for M. Witmark & Sons, a music publishing company. He moved to Los Angeles, where he began conducting in addition to composing and arranging. There, he met Al Jolson, which led to his going to New York to become Jolson's conductor.

Goodman was first introduced to musical comedy by the late Earl Carroll, who persuaded him to collaborate in producing his musical, So Long Letty. The success, followed by the hit "Sinbad," which he produced with Al Jolson, led to positions as orchestra conductor for many Broadway productions including the highly successful Flyin’ High, The Student Prince, and Blossom Time. In all, during this period of his career, Goodman directed over 150 first-night performances and became one of the Great White Way's most popular conductors. He debuted as a musical director on Broadway with Canary Cottage (1917), and his final Broadway production was Hold on to Your Hats (1940).

He was in such demand that it was not uncommon for him to conduct the orchestra of a show for the first few performances, and then hand the baton over to another while he prepared for a new production. In addition to his many assignments as one of RCA Victor's most talented conductors and arrangers, Goodman was kept busy directing the music for radio network shows.

Goodman wrote some memorable songs such as "When Hearts Are Young", "Call of Love" and "Twilight". He also worked on several musicals such as The Band Wagon, Good News and Ziegfeld Follies.

Goodman was married to Fannie Sneidman. He died in New York City in 1972.

* Pogrom is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Grammophon Orchester - Onkelchen sei doch nicht böse [ Uncle dont be angry ] (1916)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-04 | Performed by: Grammophon Orchester

Vocalist: Unknown

Full Song Title: Onkelchen sei doch nicht böse

Recorded in: 1916 , Berlin Germany

The Grammophon-Orchester, also known as the Gramophone Orchestra, was a collective term used to refer to various artists that recorded for the record label Deutsche Grammophon Aktiengesellschaft Berlin. Deutsche Grammophon, founded in 1898, is a German music label that has played a significant role in the recording and distribution of shellac music in the early 20th century.

The Grammophon-Orchester played a vital role in Deutsche Grammophon's recording activities, providing the musical accompaniment for numerous artists and soloists who recorded under the label. These orchestras were carefully selected and constituted some of the finest ensembles in Germany. They were renowned for their high level of musicianship, precision, and interpretation of the German folk repertoire. But unfortunately they are mostly not acknowledged on the records. This makes it very difficult to find out more about the artists and the lives they lived.

This song is from "Das Fräulein vom Amt (The Miss from the Office)" by Jean Gilbert, Okonkowski Georg and Franz Arnold. Premiered in 1915 at the Theater des Westens at Kantstraße 12 in Berlin, Germany.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Grammophon Orchester - Maria, O Marie (1916)

the1920sand30s 2023-07-04 | Performed by: Grammophon Orchester

Vocalist: Unknown

Full Song Title: Maria, O Marie

Recorded in: 1916 , Berlin Germany

Flip side of: youtu.be/iC12eG3PCBU

The Grammophon-Orchester was a collective term used to refer to various artists that recorded for the record label Deutsche Grammophon Aktiengesellschaft Berlin. Deutsche Grammophon, founded in 1898, is a German music label that has played a significant role in the recording and distribution of shellac music in the early 20th century in Germany.

The Grammophon-Orchester played a vital role in Deutsche Grammophon's recording activities, providing the musical accompaniment for numerous artists and soloists who recorded under the label. These orchestras were carefully selected and constituted some of the finest ensembles in Germany. They were renowned for their high level of musicianship, precision, and interpretation of the German folk repertoire. But unfortunately, they are mostly not acknowledged on the records. This makes it very difficult to find out more about the artists and the lives they lived.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra - Stairway To The Stars (1939)

the1920sand30s 2023-05-05 | Performed by: Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Bob Eberly

Full Song Title: Stairway To The Stars

Recorded in: June 16th, 1939 - New York, New York

Jimmy Dorsey , byname of James Francis Dorsey, (born Feb. 29, 1904, Shenandoah, Pa., U.S.— died June 12, 1957, New York, N.Y.), was an American musician who both independently and with his brother Tommy led one of the most popular big bands of the swing era. He was also a highly talented saxophone and clarinet player.

Along with his brother, Dorsey received his first musical training from his father, who was a music teacher and marching band director. He played both clarinet and alto saxophone and began playing in several bands with Tommy when they were both teenagers. In 1920 they formed their own combo, Dorsey’s Novelty Six. By 1922 the group, now known as Dorsey’s Wild Canaries, was well-known in the Baltimore, Md., area and was among the first jazz bands to broadcast on the radio. During this time Jimmy played sometimes alone, sometimes with Tommy in jazz groups, in big bands, and even in pit bands for Broadway musicals. In 1927 the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra began recording with an ever-changing group of musicians. Their hits included such songs as “Coquette” (1928) and “Let’s Do It” (1929), the latter featuring singer Bing Crosby. Their recordings from the late 1920s and early ’30s reveal their mastery of both the smooth popular styles that dominated their output and the more raucous Dixieland style appreciated by jazz fans.

By 1934 the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra had become a stable, full-time band, and the following year they recorded an impressive list of hit songs (including “I Believe in Miracles,” “Tiny Little Fingerprints,” and “Lullaby of Broadway”), many of them featuring Bob Crosby (Bing’s younger brother) on vocals. However, the band broke up in May 1935 after Tommy left the bandstand during a live performance because he and his brother disagreed over the tempo of a song.

Dorsey stayed with the remains of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, forming the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in late 1935. Within a few years he emerged as one of the top bandleaders of the day. Throughout its existence, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra played mostly mainstream popular music, although such numbers as “Major & Minor Stomp,” “Mutiny in the Brass Section,” and “Waddlin’ at the Waldorf” revealed that the group had mastered the swing style. Dorsey’s band broke up in 1953, a casualty of changing popular taste in the postwar years.

In addition to being a very successful bandleader, Dorsey was a highly respected jazz musician, in demand as a soloist from his earliest professional years. He was one of the top reed players of the era, and latter-day saxophone greats, including Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, readily acknowledged his influence.

In 1947 Jimmy and Tommy reunited to play themselves in the fictionalized autobiographical film The Fabulous Dorseys. Tommy then hired Jimmy to be a soloist and band member in his own band in 1953, after Jimmy’s band had broken up. For a few months the band called itself The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, featuring Jimmy Dorsey, but then returned to its original name, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. From 1954 to 1956 the brothers successfully hosted the television program Stage Show (on which Elvis Presley made his TV debut). After Tommy’s death in 1956, Jimmy continued to lead the band until his own death in 1957.

Robert Eberly (born Robert Eberle; July 24, 1916 – died November 17, 1981) was an American big band vocalist best known for his association with Jimmy Dorsey and his duets with Helen O'Connell. His younger brother Ray was also a big-band singer, making his name with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.

Eberly was born Robert Eberle but changed the spelling of his surname slightly to the homonymous Eberly. His younger brother Ray was also a big-band singer, most notably with Glenn Miller's orchestra. Their father, John A. Eberle, was a policeman, sign-painter, and tavern-keeper. Another brother, Al, was a Hoosick Falls, New York, village trustee.

Eberly was hired by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1935 shortly after winning an amateur hour contest on Fred Allen's radio show and shortly before Tommy Dorsey left the band to form his own group. Eberly stayed with Jimmy Dorsey and would be a fixture with the orchestra until drafted into the service late in 1943. Eberly was married to Florine Callahan from January 23, 1940 until his death in 1981. He died of cancer in 1981 in Glen Burnie, Maryland, at the age of 65.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra - Whisper While We Dance (1939)

the1920sand30s 2023-02-04 | Performed by: Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Bob Eberly

Full Song Title: Whisper While We Dance

Recorded in: June 16th, 1939 - New York, New York

Flip side of: youtu.be/IDDcXFNI5b4

Jimmy Dorsey , byname of James Francis Dorsey, (born Feb. 29, 1904, Shenandoah, Pa., U.S.— died June 12, 1957, New York, N.Y.), was an American musician who both independently and with his brother Tommy led one of the most popular big bands of the swing era. He was also a highly talented saxophone and clarinet player.

Along with his brother, Dorsey received his first musical training from his father, who was a music teacher and marching band director. He played both clarinet and alto saxophone and began playing in several bands with Tommy when they were both teenagers. In 1920 they formed their own combo, Dorsey’s Novelty Six. By 1922 the group, now known as Dorsey’s Wild Canaries, was well-known in the Baltimore, Md., area and was among the first jazz bands to broadcast on the radio. During this time Jimmy played sometimes alone, sometimes with Tommy in jazz groups, in big bands, and even in pit bands for Broadway musicals. In 1927 the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra began recording with an ever-changing group of musicians. Their hits included such songs as “Coquette” (1928) and “Let’s Do It” (1929), the latter featuring singer Bing Crosby. Their recordings from the late 1920s and early ’30s reveal their mastery of both the smooth popular styles that dominated their output and the more raucous Dixieland style appreciated by jazz fans.

By 1934 the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra had become a stable, full-time band, and the following year they recorded an impressive list of hit songs (including “I Believe in Miracles,” “Tiny Little Fingerprints,” and “Lullaby of Broadway”), many of them featuring Bob Crosby (Bing’s younger brother) on vocals. However, the band broke up in May 1935 after Tommy left the bandstand during a live performance because he and his brother disagreed over the tempo of a song.

Dorsey stayed with the remains of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, forming the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra in late 1935. Within a few years he emerged as one of the top bandleaders of the day. Throughout its existence, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra played mostly mainstream popular music, although such numbers as “Major & Minor Stomp,” “Mutiny in the Brass Section,” and “Waddlin’ at the Waldorf” revealed that the group had mastered the swing style. Dorsey’s band broke up in 1953, a casualty of changing popular taste in the postwar years.

In addition to being a very successful bandleader, Dorsey was a highly respected jazz musician, in demand as a soloist from his earliest professional years. He was one of the top reed players of the era, and latter-day saxophone greats, including Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, readily acknowledged his influence.

In 1947 Jimmy and Tommy reunited to play themselves in the fictionalized autobiographical film The Fabulous Dorseys. Tommy then hired Jimmy to be a soloist and band member in his own band in 1953, after Jimmy’s band had broken up. For a few months the band called itself The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, featuring Jimmy Dorsey, but then returned to its original name, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. From 1954 to 1956 the brothers successfully hosted the television program Stage Show (on which Elvis Presley made his TV debut). After Tommy’s death in 1956, Jimmy continued to lead the band until his own death in 1957.

Robert Eberly (born Robert Eberle; July 24, 1916 – died November 17, 1981) was an American big band vocalist best known for his association with Jimmy Dorsey and his duets with Helen O'Connell. His younger brother Ray was also a big-band singer, making his name with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.

Eberly was born Robert Eberle but changed the spelling of his surname slightly to the homonymous Eberly. His younger brother Ray was also a big-band singer, most notably with Glenn Miller's orchestra. Their father, John A. Eberle, was a policeman, sign-painter, and tavern-keeper. Another brother, Al, was a Hoosick Falls, New York, village trustee.

Eberly was hired by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1935 shortly after winning an amateur hour contest on Fred Allen's radio show and shortly before Tommy Dorsey left the band to form his own group. Eberly stayed with Jimmy Dorsey and would be a fixture with the orchestra until drafted into the service late in 1943. Eberly was married to Florine Callahan from January 23, 1940 until his death in 1981. He died of cancer in 1981 in Glen Burnie, Maryland, at the age of 65.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ruby Newman And His Orchestra - Music, Maestro, Please! (1938)

the1920sand30s 2023-02-04 | Performed by: Ruby Newman And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Roy Morton

Full Song Title: Music, Maestro, Please!

Recorded in: May 17th, 1938 - New York, New York

Ruby Newman (Born 1902 - died Sept. 20 1973) was a popular high society band leader of the 1930's.

Born in Boston, Newman would later become music director and vice president of CBS radio and serve as a conductor for CBS for many years. His band performed several times at the White House for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as for other presidents.

During his career, Newman had recording contracts with RCA Victor 1932 - 1938 and Decca records 1932 - 1940 and performed throughout the world.

The 1920’s was a romantic era in music, Newman’s band would entertain at gala debutante parties, Harvard class reunions, wedding receptions, bar mitzvahs, society balls and waltz parties. It was the era of big bands nostalgically remembered as a time of high fashion and dancing in ballrooms across America.

Newman, a violinist, played events primarily for the rich and famous at the Somerset and Copley Plaza Hotels and enjoyed a long run at the Ritz-Carlton where Lawrence Berk would accompany him on piano.

His band utilized a violin section but no trumpet section and Ruby frequently played violin solos with the band. He married Cela Gomberg in 1938 a gifted concert violinist from Boston.

Ruby Newman died in 1973.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ella Fitzgerald - I Let A Tear Fall In The River (1938)

the1920sand30s 2023-01-29 | Performed by: Chick Webb And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Ella Fitzgerald

Alto Saxophone: Louis Jordan

Full Song Title: I Let A Tear Fall In The River

Recorded in: 1938

William Henry "Chick" Webb (born February 10, 1905 – died June 16, 1939) was an American jazz drummer who led one of the dominant big bands of the swing era. Its swing, precision, & popularity made it the standard of excellence to which other big bands aspired.

He went to New York City in 1924 & formed his own big band in 1926; in its early years it included such players as alto saxophonists Benny Carter & Johnny Hodges. Throughout the 1930s, steady engagements at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem helped Webb maintain a stable roster of band personnel & develop ensemble discipline.

His drumming, noted for swing, taste, & virtuoso technique, was the band’s foundation. His work was perhaps particularly impressive in light of his short physical stature due to a curved spine. From 1933 Edgar Sampson’s arrangements (“Blue Lou,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy”) gave the band distinctive character. Though it included no major soloists, Webb’s band regularly defeated the other major swing bands in musical contests. It reached its heights of popularity after the teenaged Ella Fitzgerald began recording such novelty songs as “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” with it in 1935.

After his death in 1939 (he died from tuberculosis), Ella Fitzgerald led the Chick Webb band until she left to focus on her solo career in 1942, causing the band to break up. Art Blakey & Duke Ellington both credited Webb with influencing their music. Gene Krupa credited Webb with raising drummer awareness & paving the way for drummer-led bands like his own. Webb's thundering solos created a complexity & an energy that paved the way for Buddy Rich (who studied him intensely) and Louie Bellson.

Ella Fitzgerald, in full Ella Jane Fitzgerald, (born April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.— died June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California), was an American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range & rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades.

As a child, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, but when she panicked at an amateur contest in 1934 at New York City’s Apollo Theatre & sang in a style influenced by the jazz vocalist Connee Boswell instead, she won first prize. The following year Fitzgerald joined the Chick Webb orchestra; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgerald’s guardian when her mother died. She made her first recording, “Love and Kisses,” in 1935, and her first hit, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” followed in 1938. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his band until it broke up in 1942. She then soloed in cabarets & theatres & toured internationally with such pop and jazz stars as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, & Dizzy Gillespie. She also recorded prolifically.

During much of her early career she had been noted for singing & recording novelty songs. Her status rose dramatically in the 1950s when jazz impresario Norman Granz became her manager. From 1956 to 1964 she recorded a 19-volume series of “songbooks,” in which she interpreted nearly 250 outstanding songs by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, & Johnny Mercer. This material, combined with the best jazz instrumental support, clearly demonstrated Fitzgerald’s remarkable interpretative skills. Although her diction was excellent, her rendition of lyrics was intuitive rather than studied. For many years the star attraction of Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert tours, she was also one of the best-selling jazz vocal recording artists in history. During the 1970s she began to experience serious health problems, but she continued to perform periodically, even after heart surgery in 1986.

Fitzgerald’s clear tone & wide vocal range were complemented by her mastery of rhythm, harmony, intonation, & diction. She was an excellent ballad singer, conveying a winsome, ingenuous quality. Her infectious scat singing brought excitement to such concert recordings as Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin & was widely imitated by others. She garnered 14 Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement. She also received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1979) & the National Medal of Arts (1987).

In 1993, however, her career was curtailed following complications stemming from diabetes, which resulted in the amputation of both her legs below the knees.She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ella Fitzgerald - MacPherson Is Rehearsin (1938)

the1920sand30s 2023-01-28 | Performed by: Chick Webb And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Ella Fitzgerald

Alto Saxophone: Louis Jordan

Full Song Title: MacPherson Is Rehearsin'

Recorded in: 1938

Flip side of: youtu.be/M7ueVpcGCBA

William Henry "Chick" Webb (born February 10, 1905 – died June 16, 1939) was an American jazz drummer who led one of the dominant big bands of the swing era. Its swing, precision, & popularity made it the standard of excellence to which other big bands aspired.

He went to New York City in 1924 & formed his own big band in 1926; in its early years it included such players as alto saxophonists Benny Carter & Johnny Hodges. Throughout the 1930s, steady engagements at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem helped Webb maintain a stable roster of band personnel & develop ensemble discipline.

His drumming, noted for swing, taste, & virtuoso technique, was the band’s foundation. His work was perhaps particularly impressive in light of his short physical stature due to a curved spine. From 1933 Edgar Sampson’s arrangements (“Blue Lou,” “Stompin’ at the Savoy”) gave the band distinctive character. Though it included no major soloists, Webb’s band regularly defeated the other major swing bands in musical contests. It reached its heights of popularity after the teenaged Ella Fitzgerald began recording such novelty songs as “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” with it in 1935.

After his death in 1939 (he died from tuberculosis), Ella Fitzgerald led the Chick Webb band until she left to focus on her solo career in 1942, causing the band to break up. Art Blakey & Duke Ellington both credited Webb with influencing their music. Gene Krupa credited Webb with raising drummer awareness & paving the way for drummer-led bands like his own. Webb's thundering solos created a complexity & an energy that paved the way for Buddy Rich (who studied him intensely) and Louie Bellson.

Ella Fitzgerald, in full Ella Jane Fitzgerald, (born April 25, 1917, Newport News, Virginia, U.S.— died June 15, 1996, Beverly Hills, California), was an American jazz singer who became world famous for the wide range & rare sweetness of her voice. She became an international legend during a career that spanned some six decades.

As a child, Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, but when she panicked at an amateur contest in 1934 at New York City’s Apollo Theatre & sang in a style influenced by the jazz vocalist Connee Boswell instead, she won first prize. The following year Fitzgerald joined the Chick Webb orchestra; Webb became the teenaged Fitzgerald’s guardian when her mother died. She made her first recording, “Love and Kisses,” in 1935, and her first hit, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” followed in 1938. After Webb’s death in 1939, she led his band until it broke up in 1942. She then soloed in cabarets & theatres & toured internationally with such pop and jazz stars as Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, & Dizzy Gillespie. She also recorded prolifically.

During much of her early career she had been noted for singing & recording novelty songs. Her status rose dramatically in the 1950s when jazz impresario Norman Granz became her manager. From 1956 to 1964 she recorded a 19-volume series of “songbooks,” in which she interpreted nearly 250 outstanding songs by Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, & Johnny Mercer. This material, combined with the best jazz instrumental support, clearly demonstrated Fitzgerald’s remarkable interpretative skills. Although her diction was excellent, her rendition of lyrics was intuitive rather than studied. For many years the star attraction of Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic concert tours, she was also one of the best-selling jazz vocal recording artists in history. During the 1970s she began to experience serious health problems, but she continued to perform periodically, even after heart surgery in 1986.

Fitzgerald’s clear tone & wide vocal range were complemented by her mastery of rhythm, harmony, intonation, & diction. She was an excellent ballad singer, conveying a winsome, ingenuous quality. Her infectious scat singing brought excitement to such concert recordings as Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin & was widely imitated by others. She garnered 14 Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement. She also received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1979) & the National Medal of Arts (1987).

In 1993, however, her career was curtailed following complications stemming from diabetes, which resulted in the amputation of both her legs below the knees.She died in her home from a stroke on June 15, 1996, at the age of 79.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Shirley Ross And Bob Hope - Thanks For The Memory (1938)

the1920sand30s 2023-01-28 | Performed by: Shirley Ross And Bob Hope

Full Song Title: Thanks For The Memory

Recorded in: 1938

Flip side of: youtu.be/EFdFR-p2KEU

Shirley Ross (born Bernice Maude Gaunt, January 7, 1913 – died March 9, 1975) was an American actress and singer, notable for her duet with Bob Hope, "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938. She appeared in 25 feature films between 1933 and 1945, including singing earlier and wholly different lyrics for the Rodgers and Hart song in Manhattan Melodrama (1934) that later became "Blue Moon".

Blonde, vivacious and obviously talented, Shirley Ross had the promisings of a big musical film star, but her career remained strictly second-string throughout her fairly short career. She is best remembered through her pairing with an entertainment legend. Shirley was afforded the opportunity of duetting with Bob Hope on the songs "Thanks for the Memory" in the splashy musical The Big Broadcast of 1938 (February 11, 1938) and "Two Sleepy People" in the film Thanks for the Memory (November 11, 1938).

Shirley was born Bernice Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska in 1913. Her family moved west and she attended Hollywood High School, later studying at UCLA. Blessed with a gorgeous musical instrument, and an adept piano player as well, Shirley went on to sing with Gus Arnheim's band on the west coast, appearing at all the swanky clubs of the day, including the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, while making a decent name for herself on radio. She also appeared in a west coast production of "Anything Goes".

MGM initially scooped her up, making her unbilled debut in the Jean Harlow starrer Blonde Bombshell (1933). She continued on just as obscurely in the films Hollywood Party (1934), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), The Girl from Missouri (1934), The Merry Widow (1934), and Age of Indiscretion (1935), but was finally promoted to a minor featured role in the classic earthquake epic San Francisco (1936) with Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald, in which Shirley sang "Happy New Year".

In 1936, she found more visible work over at Paramount and spent the next few years there paired up vocally and romantically with either Bing Crosby or Bob Hope in their popular vehicles - The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936), Waikiki Wedding (1937), Thanks for the Memory (1938), Paris Honeymoon (1939), and Some Like It Hot (1939). Though most were trifling, insignificant time fillers, she was a diverting beauty and quite serviceable in them. She was even given the chance to top-line a few of her own movies such as Prison Farm (1938), Sailors on Leave (1941), and A Song for Miss Julie (1945), which was her swan song.

After leaving pictures, Shirley Ross was little heard or seen. Married first to agent John Kenneth 'Ken' Dolan, then to Everett S. 'Eddie' Blum, she had three children - two sons and a daughter.

She died in Menlo Park, California of cancer in 1975.

Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (born May 29, 1903 – died July 27, 2003) was a British-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films—54 in which he starred. These included a series of seven Road to... musical comedy films with Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner.

In addition to hosting the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host, Hope appeared in many stage productions and television roles and wrote 14 books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" was his signature tune.

Hope was born in the Eltham district of southeast London. He arrived in the United States with his family at the age of four, and grew up near Cleveland, Ohio. After a brief stint in the late 1910s as a boxer, Hope began his career in show business in the early 1920s, initially as a comedian and dancer on the vaudeville circuit, before acting on Broadway. Hope began appearing on radio and in films starting in 1934. He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating. He helped establish modern American stand-up comedy.

Between 1941 and 1991, Hope made 57 tours for the United Service Organizations (USO), entertaining active duty U.S. military personnel around the world. In 1997, the United States Congress passed a bill that made Hope an honorary veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. Hope appeared in numerous television specials for NBC during his career and was one of the first users of cue cards.

Hope retired from public life in 1998 and died on July 27, 2003, at the age of 100.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Shirley Ross And Bob Hope - Two Sleepy People (1938)

the1920sand30s 2023-01-26 | Performed by: Shirley Ross And Bob Hope

Full Song Title: Two Sleepy People

Recorded in: 1938

Shirley Ross (born Bernice Maude Gaunt, January 7, 1913 – died March 9, 1975) was an American actress and singer, notable for her duet with Bob Hope, "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938. She appeared in 25 feature films between 1933 and 1945, including singing earlier and wholly different lyrics for the Rodgers and Hart song in Manhattan Melodrama (1934) that later became "Blue Moon."

Blonde, vivacious and obviously talented, Shirley Ross had the promisings of a big musical film star, but her career remained strictly second-string throughout her fairly short career. She is best remembered through her pairing with an entertainment legend. Shirley was afforded the opportunity of duetting with Bob Hope on the song "Thanks for the Memory" in the splashy musical The Big Broadcast of 1938. The song, of course, became Bob's beloved signature tune.

Shirley was born Bernice Gaunt in Omaha, Nebraska in 1913. Her family moved west and she attended Hollywood High School, later studying at UCLA. Blessed with a gorgeous musical instrument, and an adept piano player as well, Shirley went on to sing with Gus Arnheim's band on the west coast, appearing at all the swanky clubs of the day, including the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, while making a decent name for herself on radio. She also appeared in a west coast production of "Anything Goes".

MGM initially scooped her up, making her unbilled debut in the Jean Harlow starrer Blonde Bombshell (1933). She continued on just as obscurely in the films Hollywood Party (1934), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), The Girl from Missouri (1934), The Merry Widow (1934), and Age of Indiscretion (1935), but was finally promoted to a minor featured role in the classic earthquake epic San Francisco (1936) with Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald, in which Shirley sang "Happy New Year".

In 1936, she found more visible work over at Paramount and spent the next few years there paired up vocally and romantically with either Bing Crosby or Bob Hope in their popular vehicles - The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936), Waikiki Wedding (1937), Thanks for the Memory (1938), Paris Honeymoon (1939), and Some Like It Hot (1939). Though most were trifling, insignificant time fillers, she was a diverting beauty and quite serviceable in them. She was even given the chance to top-line a few of her own movies such as Prison Farm (1938), Sailors on Leave (1941), and A Song for Miss Julie (1945), which was her swan song.

After leaving pictures, Shirley Ross was little heard or seen. Married first to agent John Kenneth 'Ken' Dolan, then to Everett S. 'Eddie' Blum, she had three children - two sons and a daughter.

She died in Menlo Park, California of cancer in 1975.

Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (born May 29, 1903 – died July 27, 2003) was a British-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films—54 in which he starred. These included a series of seven Road to... musical comedy films with Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner.

In addition to hosting the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host, Hope appeared in many stage productions and television roles and wrote 14 books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" was his signature tune.

Hope was born in the Eltham district of southeast London. He arrived in the United States with his family at the age of four, and grew up near Cleveland, Ohio. After a brief stint in the late 1910s as a boxer, Hope began his career in show business in the early 1920s, initially as a comedian and dancer on the vaudeville circuit, before acting on Broadway. Hope began appearing on radio and in films starting in 1934. He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes that were often self-deprecating. He helped establish modern American stand-up comedy.

Between 1941 and 1991, Hope made 57 tours for the United Service Organizations (USO), entertaining active duty U.S. military personnel around the world. In 1997, the United States Congress passed a bill that made Hope an honorary veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. Hope appeared in numerous television specials for NBC during his career and was one of the first users of cue cards.

Hope retired from public life in 1998 and died on July 27, 2003, at the age of 100.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ruby Newman And His Orchestra - Rainbow In The Night (1938)

the1920sand30s 2023-01-18 | Performed by: Ruby Newman And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Roy Morton

Full Song Title: Rainbow In The Night

Recorded in: May 17th, 1938 - New York, New York

Flip side of: youtu.be/LtWFF6y15uA

Ruby Newman (Born 1902 - died Sept. 20 1973) was a popular high society band leader of the 1930's.

Born in Boston, Newman would later become music director and vice president of CBS radio and serve as a conductor for CBS for many years. His band performed several times at the White House for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as for other presidents.

During his career, Newman had recording contracts with RCA Victor 1932 - 1938 and Decca records 1932 - 1940 and performed throughout the world.

The 1920’s was a romantic era in music, Newman’s band would entertain at gala debutante parties, Harvard class reunions, wedding receptions, bar mitzvahs, society balls and waltz parties. It was the era of big bands nostalgically remembered as a time of high fashion and dancing in ballrooms across America.

Newman, a violinist, played events primarily for the rich and famous at the Somerset and Copley Plaza Hotels and enjoyed a long run at the Ritz-Carlton where Lawrence Berk would accompany him on piano.

His band utilized a violin section but no trumpet section and Ruby frequently played violin solos with the band. He married Cela Gomberg in 1938 a gifted concert violinist from Boston.

Ruby Newman died in 1973.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Count Basie And His Orchestra - Time Out (1937)

the1920sand30s 2022-12-17 | Performed by: Count Basie And His Orchestra

Full Song Title: Time Out

Recorded in: September 8, 1937 New York, New York

William James "Count" Basie (born August 21, 1904 – died April 26, 1984) was an African-American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams

William Basie was born to Lillian and Harvey Lee Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano; in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living. She paid 25 cents a lesson for Count Basie's piano instruction.

The best student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by touring carnivals which came to town. He finished junior high schoo but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies.

Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellington's drummer in 1919, Basie switched to piano exclusively at age 15. Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardson's "Kings of Syncopation". When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians, where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, and played at the Hong Kong Inn until a better player took his place.

The following year, in 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to match the level of those led by Duke Ellington or Fletcher Henderson. Where the Blue Devils were "snappier" and more "bluesy", the Moten band was more refined and respected, playing in the "Kansas City stomp" style. In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music. Their "Moten Swing", which Basie claimed credit for, was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music, and at one performance at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the theatre opened its door to allow anybody in who wanted to hear the band perform.

At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Right from the start, Basie's band was known for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in "duels". Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.

Basie's career lasted from 1924 to 1984. That's 60 years of keeping peoples feet tapping.

Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984, at the age of 79.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Count Basie And His Orchestra - Our Love Was Meant To Be (1937)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: Count Basie And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Earl Warren

Full Song Title: Our Love Was Meant To Be

Recorded in: September 8, 1937 New York, New York

Flip side of: youtu.be/-wGreyn0iiQ

William James "Count" Basie (born August 21, 1904 – died April 26, 1984) was an African-American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two "split" tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison, plunger trombonist Al Grey, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams

William Basie was born to Lillian and Harvey Lee Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano; in fact, she gave Basie his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living. She paid 25 cents a lesson for Count Basie's piano instruction.

The best student in school, Basie dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by touring carnivals which came to town. He finished junior high schoo but spent much of his time at the Palace Theater in Red Bank, where doing occasional chores gained him free admission to performances. He quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to the acts and the silent movies.

Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. Discouraged by the obvious talents of Sonny Greer, who also lived in Red Bank and became Duke Ellington's drummer in 1919, Basie switched to piano exclusively at age 15. Greer and Basie played together in venues until Greer set out on his professional career. By then, Basie was playing with pick-up groups for dances, resorts, and amateur shows, including Harry Richardson's "Kings of Syncopation". When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians, where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore, and played at the Hong Kong Inn until a better player took his place.

The following year, in 1929, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to match the level of those led by Duke Ellington or Fletcher Henderson. Where the Blue Devils were "snappier" and more "bluesy", the Moten band was more refined and respected, playing in the "Kansas City stomp" style. In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who notated the music. Their "Moten Swing", which Basie claimed credit for, was an invaluable contribution to the development of swing music, and at one performance at the Pearl Theatre in Philadelphia in December 1932, the theatre opened its door to allow anybody in who wanted to hear the band perform.

At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, moved from Kansas City to Chicago, where they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom. Right from the start, Basie's band was known for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, Basie placed them on either side of the alto players, and soon had the tenor players engaged in "duels". Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.

Basie's career lasted from 1924 to 1984. That's 60 years of keeping peoples feet tapping.

Count Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984, at the age of 79.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Lale Andersen - Drei Rote Rosen [Three Red Roses] (1939)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: Lale Andersen mit kleinem Ensemble

Full Song Title: Drei Rote Rosen

Recorded in: August 2,1939

Flip side of: youtu.be/WM1Wac7sd-c

Lale Andersen (born 23 March 1905 – died 29 August 1972) was a German chanson singer-songwriter and actress born in Lehe (now part of Bremerhaven). She is best known for her interpretation of the song Lili Marleen in 1939, which by 1941 transcended the conflict to become World War II's biggest international hit. Popular with both the Axis and the Allies, Andersen's original recording spawned versions, by the end of the War, in most of the major languages of Europe, and by some of the most popular artists in their respective countries.

Andersen was born in Lehe and baptized Elisabeth Carlotta Helena Berta Bunnenberg, but known informally as ‘Liese-Lotte’—a diminutive of her first two names—to friends and family; this continued after her first marriage when she was known as ‘Liselotte Wilke’.

In 1922, aged 17, she married German Impressionist painter Paul Ernst Wilke (1894–1971). They had three children: Björn, Carmen-Litta, and Michael Wilke (1929–2017) the youngest of whom also enjoyed a career in the German music industry. Shortly after the birth of their last child, the marriage broke up. Leaving the children in the care of her siblings Thekla and Helmut, Andersen went to Berlin in October 1929, where she reportedly studied acting at the Schauspielschule at the Deutsches Theater. In 1931, her marriage ended in divorce. Around this time, she began appearing on stage in various cabarets in Berlin. From 1933 to 1937, she performed at the Schauspielhaus in Zürich, where she also met Rolf Liebermann,who would remain a close friend for the rest of her life. In 1938, she was in Munich at the cabaret Simpl, and soon afterwards joined the prestigious Kabarett der Komiker (Comedians' Cabaret) in Berlin.

While at the Kabarett der Komiker, she met Norbert Schultze, who had composed the music for "Lili Marleen". Andersen recorded the song in 1939, but it would only become a hit when the Soldatensender Belgrad (Belgrade Soldier's Radio), the radio station of the German armed forces in occupied Yugoslavia, began broadcasting it in 1941. "Lili Marleen" quickly became immensely popular with German soldiers at the front. The transmitter of the radio station at Belgrade, was powerful enough to be received all over Europe and the Mediterranean, and the song soon became popular with the Allied troops as well.

Andersen was awarded a gold disc for over one million sales of "Lili Marleen" [His Masters Voice – EG 6993]. It is thought that she was awarded her copy after the end of World War II. A copy of this particular gold disc owned by the "His Masters Voice" record company was discarded during the renovation of their flagship store on Oxford Street, London, during the 1960s where, hitherto, it had been on display. However, the disc was recovered and is now in a private collection. Nazi officials did not approve of the song and Joseph Goebbels prohibited it from being played on the radio. Andersen was not allowed to perform in public for nine months, not just because of the song but because of her friendship with Rolf Liebermann and other Jewish artists she had met in Zurich. In desperation, she reportedly attempted suicide.

Andersen was so popular, however, that the Nazi government allowed her to perform again, albeit subject to several conditions, one of which was she would not sing "Lili Marleen". Goebbels did order her to make a new "military" version of the song (with a significant drum) which was recorded in June 1942. In the remaining war years, Andersen had one minor appearance in a propaganda movie and was made to sing several propaganda songs in English. Shortly before the end of the war, Andersen retired to Langeoog, a small island off the North Sea coast of Germany.

Andersen died of liver cancer in Vienna on 29 August 1972, aged 67, and was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering. Her ashes are buried in Dünenfriedhof (i.e. Sand Dunes Cemetery), on Langeoog Island.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Lale Andersen - Lied Eines Jungen Wachtpostens (Lili Marlen) [Song Of A Young Guard] (1939)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: Lale Andersen mit kleinem Ensemble

Full Song Title: Lied Eines Jungen Wachtpostens (Lili Marlen)

Recorded in: August 2,1939

Lale Andersen (born 23 March 1905 – died 29 August 1972) was a German chanson singer-songwriter and actress born in Lehe (now part of Bremerhaven). She is best known for her interpretation of the song Lili Marleen in 1939, which by 1941 transcended the conflict to become World War II's biggest international hit. Popular with both the Axis and the Allies, Andersen's original recording spawned versions, by the end of the War, in most of the major languages of Europe, and by some of the most popular artists in their respective countries.

Andersen was born in Lehe and baptized Elisabeth Carlotta Helena Berta Bunnenberg, but known informally as ‘Liese-Lotte’—a diminutive of her first two names—to friends and family; this continued after her first marriage when she was known as ‘Liselotte Wilke’.

In 1922, aged 17, she married German Impressionist painter Paul Ernst Wilke (1894–1971). They had three children: Björn, Carmen-Litta, and Michael Wilke (1929–2017) the youngest of whom also enjoyed a career in the German music industry. Shortly after the birth of their last child, the marriage broke up. Leaving the children in the care of her siblings Thekla and Helmut, Andersen went to Berlin in October 1929, where she reportedly studied acting at the Schauspielschule at the Deutsches Theater. In 1931, her marriage ended in divorce. Around this time, she began appearing on stage in various cabarets in Berlin. From 1933 to 1937, she performed at the Schauspielhaus in Zürich, where she also met Rolf Liebermann,who would remain a close friend for the rest of her life. In 1938, she was in Munich at the cabaret Simpl, and soon afterwards joined the prestigious Kabarett der Komiker (Comedians' Cabaret) in Berlin.

While at the Kabarett der Komiker, she met Norbert Schultze, who had composed the music for "Lili Marleen". Andersen recorded the song in 1939, but it would only become a hit when the Soldatensender Belgrad (Belgrade Soldier's Radio), the radio station of the German armed forces in occupied Yugoslavia, began broadcasting it in 1941. "Lili Marleen" quickly became immensely popular with German soldiers at the front. The transmitter of the radio station at Belgrade, was powerful enough to be received all over Europe and the Mediterranean, and the song soon became popular with the Allied troops as well.

Andersen was awarded a gold disc for over one million sales of "Lili Marleen" [His Masters Voice – EG 6993]. It is thought that she was awarded her copy after the end of World War II. A copy of this particular gold disc owned by the "His Masters Voice" record company was discarded during the renovation of their flagship store on Oxford Street, London, during the 1960s where, hitherto, it had been on display. However, the disc was recovered and is now in a private collection. Nazi officials did not approve of the song and Joseph Goebbels prohibited it from being played on the radio. Andersen was not allowed to perform in public for nine months, not just because of the song but because of her friendship with Rolf Liebermann and other Jewish artists she had met in Zurich. In desperation, she reportedly attempted suicide.

Andersen was so popular, however, that the Nazi government allowed her to perform again, albeit subject to several conditions, one of which was she would not sing "Lili Marleen". Goebbels did order her to make a new "military" version of the song (with a significant drum) which was recorded in June 1942. In the remaining war years, Andersen had one minor appearance in a propaganda movie and was made to sing several propaganda songs in English. Shortly before the end of the war, Andersen retired to Langeoog, a small island off the North Sea coast of Germany.

Andersen died of liver cancer in Vienna on 29 August 1972, aged 67, and was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering. Her ashes are buried in Dünenfriedhof (i.e. Sand Dunes Cemetery), on Langeoog Island.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

The Mills Brothers with Louis Armstrong - The Old Folks At Home (1937)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: The Mills Brothers with Louis Armstrong

Full Song Title: The Old Folks At Home

Recorded in: New York, June 29, 1937

Flip side of: youtu.be/2kkxeyNbHPc

The Mills Brothers, John Charles (b. Oct. 19, 1910, Piqua, Ohio, U.S.—d. Jan. 24, 1936, Bellefontaine, Ohio), Herbert (b. April 2, 1912, Piqua—d. April 12, 1989, Las Vegas, Nev.), Harry (b. Aug. 19, 1913, Piqua—d. June 28, 1982, Los Angeles, Calif.), and Donald (b. April 29, 1915, Piqua—d. Nov. 13, 1999, Los Angeles), American vocal quartet that was among the most unique and influential in the history of both jazz and mainstream popular music.

The Mills Brothers began as a barbershop quartet—which was perhaps only natural, as their father, John H. Mills (1882–1967), owned a barbershop. They gave their first public performances in variety shows on the radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. In about 1930 they moved to New York City, where they became the first African American singers to have their own national radio show. Billed as “Four Boys and a Guitar” and accompanied only by brother John’s guitar, they could sound like a full jazz band, particularly on such numbers as “Tiger Rag,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Bugle Call Rag.” Each brother specialized in an “instrument”: they imitated two trumpets, a trombone, and a tuba. They were also a hit on records and in live performances, and they appeared in several films, including The Big Broadcast (1932) and Broadway Gondolier (1935).

John C. Mills’s sudden death in 1936 was a blow to the close-knit siblings, and they almost dissolved the act. Fortunately, their father took over his son’s role, and the group continued without any loss in popularity (although it was necessary to employ an outside guitarist). They continued mostly in the hot-jazz style, with a strong emphasis on scat singing and instrumental imitations, and made records with such artists as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Boswell Sisters. The Mills Brothers had their biggest hit in 1943 with “Paper Doll,” which sold more than six million records and was also a best seller as sheet music. In the mid-1940s they dropped the instrumental imitations and became a more-conventional vocal group, backed by a regular rhythm section or an orchestra. Their later hits included “You Always Hurt the One You Love” (1944), “Glow Worm” (1952), and “Opus One” (1952).

John H. Mills retired in 1956, and the brothers continued as a trio, recording and performing regularly into the 1970s. The act came to an end after Harry’s death in 1982, but Donald Mills in his last years performed the group’s hits with his son, John H. Mills II. Their sound became identified with an era, and many of their recordings were later used on the sound tracks of movies, including Raging Bull (1980), Pearl Harbor (2001), and Being Julia (2004).

Louis Daniel Armstrong (born August 4, 1901 — died July 6, 1971) was a masterful trumpet player and beloved entertainer in the 20th century. He rose above the hardship and challenges of poverty from a young age and the racism he was subjected to throughout his life to become one of the most influential musicians of his genre.

He played a key role in the development of one of the early 20th century's most important new styles of music: jazz. Though he mostly kept quiet about racial discrimination, much to the disapproval of fellow Black Americans, Armstrong sparked controversy when he spoke out publicly against segregation in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.

Armstrong's inventiveness and improvisational techniques—along with his energetic, dazzling style—have influenced generations of musicians. One of the first to perform scat-style singing, he is also well-known for his distinctive, gravelly singing voice. Armstrong wrote two autobiographies, becoming the first Black jazz musician to write an autobiography, and appeared in more than 30 films.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ambrose & His Orchestra - The Night Rides (1936)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra

Full Song Title: The Night Rides

Recorded in: 1936

BBenjamin Baruch Ambrose ( born 15 September 1896 – died 11 June 1971), known professionally as Ambrose or Bert Ambrose, was an popular English bandleader and violinist of the late 1920s and 30s. Ambrose became the leader of a highly acclaimed British dance band, Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra, in the 1930s.

Ambrose was born in Warsaw in 1896 whilst it was part of Russia. At some time after, the family moved to London. They were Jewish; his father being a 'Dealer in rags' in the 1911 UK Census where Ambrose was named as 'Barnett' (a "Violin musician student"). He began playing the violin while young, and traveled to New York with his aunt. He began playing professionally, first for Emil Coleman at New York's Reisenweber's restaurant, then in the Palais Royal's big band. After making a success of a stint as bandleader, at the age of twenty he was asked to put together and lead his own fifteen-piece band. After a dispute with his employer, he moved his band to another venue, where they enjoyed considerable popularity.

Whilst at the Palais Royal, on 5 June 1918, he registered for the Draft (Local Board Division 169, City of NY NY, 144 St Nicholas Ave; Registration 232). He gave: date of birth 11 Sept 1896; place of birth Warsaw, Russia; nationality Russian; father's birthplace Grietza, Russia; place of employment Palais Royal 48 St & Broadway; nearest relative Mrs Becky Ambrose, Mother, 56 "Blaksley" St London England. He signed Bert Ambrose. The registrar recorded: medium height; medium build; brown hair; brown eyes; no physical disability that would render him exempt.

In 1922, he returned to London, where he was engaged by the Embassy Club to form a seven-piece band. Ambrose stayed at the Embassy for two years, before walking out on his employer to take up a much more lucrative job in New York. After a year there, besieged by continual pleas to return from his ex-employer in London, in 1925 he was finally persuaded to go back by a cable from the Prince of Wales: "The Embassy needs you. Come back—Edward".

This time Ambrose stayed at the Embassy Club until 1927. The club had a policy of not allowing radio broadcasts from its premises, however, and this was a major drawback for an ambitious bandleader, largely because the fame gained by radio work helped a band to gain recording contracts (Ambrose's band had been recorded by Columbia Records in 1923, but nothing had come of this). He therefore accepted an offer by the May Fair hotel, with a contract that included broadcasting.

During his time at the Embassy, he married "Kathryn Lucille otherwise Kitty Brady" a 24 y.o. Irish-American, from New Jersey, on 20 January 1924. Oddly, he is named and signed as "Bernard Ambrose" a 27 y.o. "Musical Director" on the certificate. They had two daughters: Patricia S (1931) and Monica J (1933).

Ambrose stayed at the May Fair for six years, during which time the band made recordings for Brunswick Records, HMV and Decca. He teamed up with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and an American harmony song trio, the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce (aka, Three X Sisters) to record songs including "My Heart Stood Still" and other tunes. This period also saw the musical development of the band, partly as a result of Ambrose's hiring of first-class musicians, including Sylvester Ahola, Ted Heath, Joe Crossman, Joe Jeannette, Bert Read, Joe Brannelly, Dick Escott and trumpeter Max Goldberg.

In 1933, Ambrose was asked to accept a cut in pay at the May Fair; refusing, he went back to the Embassy Club, and after three years there (and a national tour), he rejected American offers and returned to the May Fair in 1936. He then went into partnership with Jack Harris (an American bandleader), and in 1937 they bought a club together (Ciro's Club). For three months they even employed Art Tatum there, some think the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived. Ambrose and Harris alternated performances in Ciro's until a disagreement led to the rupture of their partnership. Ambrose then worked at the Café de Paris until the outbreak of World War II, when he again went on tour.

After a short period back at the May Fair Hotel, he retired from performing in 1940 (though he and his orchestra continued to make records for Decca until 1947). Several members of his band became part of the Royal Air Force band, the Squadronaires, during the war.

On 11 June 1971 during the recording of one of Kirby's television programmes (at the Yorkshire Television studios) Ambrose collapsed, dying later the same night in Leeds General Infirmary. He was buried in the Bushey Jewish Cemetery, Hertfordshire.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Ambrose & His Orchestra - Hide And Seek (1936)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra

Full Song Title: Hide And Seek

Recorded in: 1936

Flip side of: youtu.be/hoCnB4PJ4ys

Benjamin Baruch Ambrose ( born 15 September 1896 – died 11 June 1971), known professionally as Ambrose or Bert Ambrose, was an popular English bandleader and violinist of the late 1920s and 30s. Ambrose became the leader of a highly acclaimed British dance band, Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra, in the 1930s.

Ambrose was born in Warsaw in 1896 whilst it was part of Russia. At some time after, the family moved to London. They were Jewish; his father being a 'Dealer in rags' in the 1911 UK Census where Ambrose was named as 'Barnett' (a "Violin musician student"). He began playing the violin while young, and traveled to New York with his aunt. He began playing professionally, first for Emil Coleman at New York's Reisenweber's restaurant, then in the Palais Royal's big band. After making a success of a stint as bandleader, at the age of twenty he was asked to put together and lead his own fifteen-piece band. After a dispute with his employer, he moved his band to another venue, where they enjoyed considerable popularity.

Whilst at the Palais Royal, on 5 June 1918, he registered for the Draft (Local Board Division 169, City of NY NY, 144 St Nicholas Ave; Registration 232). He gave: date of birth 11 Sept 1896; place of birth Warsaw, Russia; nationality Russian; father's birthplace Grietza, Russia; place of employment Palais Royal 48 St & Broadway; nearest relative Mrs Becky Ambrose, Mother, 56 "Blaksley" St London England. He signed Bert Ambrose. The registrar recorded: medium height; medium build; brown hair; brown eyes; no physical disability that would render him exempt.

In 1922, he returned to London, where he was engaged by the Embassy Club to form a seven-piece band. Ambrose stayed at the Embassy for two years, before walking out on his employer to take up a much more lucrative job in New York. After a year there, besieged by continual pleas to return from his ex-employer in London, in 1925 he was finally persuaded to go back by a cable from the Prince of Wales: "The Embassy needs you. Come back—Edward".

This time Ambrose stayed at the Embassy Club until 1927. The club had a policy of not allowing radio broadcasts from its premises, however, and this was a major drawback for an ambitious bandleader, largely because the fame gained by radio work helped a band to gain recording contracts (Ambrose's band had been recorded by Columbia Records in 1923, but nothing had come of this). He therefore accepted an offer by the May Fair hotel, with a contract that included broadcasting.

During his time at the Embassy, he married "Kathryn Lucille otherwise Kitty Brady" a 24 y.o. Irish-American, from New Jersey, on 20 January 1924. Oddly, he is named and signed as "Bernard Ambrose" a 27 y.o. "Musical Director" on the certificate. They had two daughters: Patricia S (1931) and Monica J (1933).

Ambrose stayed at the May Fair for six years, during which time the band made recordings for Brunswick Records, HMV and Decca. He teamed up with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, and an American harmony song trio, the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce (aka, Three X Sisters) to record songs including "My Heart Stood Still" and other tunes. This period also saw the musical development of the band, partly as a result of Ambrose's hiring of first-class musicians, including Sylvester Ahola, Ted Heath, Joe Crossman, Joe Jeannette, Bert Read, Joe Brannelly, Dick Escott and trumpeter Max Goldberg.

In 1933, Ambrose was asked to accept a cut in pay at the May Fair; refusing, he went back to the Embassy Club, and after three years there (and a national tour), he rejected American offers and returned to the May Fair in 1936. He then went into partnership with Jack Harris (an American bandleader), and in 1937 they bought a club together (Ciro's Club). For three months they even employed Art Tatum there, some think the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived. Ambrose and Harris alternated performances in Ciro's until a disagreement led to the rupture of their partnership. Ambrose then worked at the Café de Paris until the outbreak of World War II, when he again went on tour.

After a short period back at the May Fair Hotel, he retired from performing in 1940 (though he and his orchestra continued to make records for Decca until 1947). Several members of his band became part of the Royal Air Force band, the Squadronaires, during the war.

On 11 June 1971 during the recording of one of Kirby's television programmes (at the Yorkshire Television studios) Ambrose collapsed, dying later the same night in Leeds General Infirmary. He was buried in the Bushey Jewish Cemetery, Hertfordshire.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Sophie Tucker - My Yiddishe Momme Part 1 (1928)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: Sophie Tucker with Ted Shapiro And His Orchestra

Full Song: My Yiddishe Momme Part 1

Recorded in: 1928

Sophie Tucker (born Jan. 13, 1886 – died Feb. 9, 1966) was a Russian-born American singer, comedian, actress, & radio personality. Known for her powerful delivery of comical & risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in the U.S. during the first half of the 1920's. She was known by the nickname "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas".

Tucker was born Sofiya "Sonya" Kalish in 1886 to a Jewish family in Tulchyn, Russian Empire. They arrived in Boston on September 26, 1887. The family adopted the surname Abuza before immigrating, her father fearing repercussions for having deserted the Russian military. The family lived in Boston's North End for eight years, then settled in Hartford, Connecticut & opened a restaurant.

At a young age, she began singing at her parents' restaurant for tips. Between taking orders & serving customers, Tucker recalled that she "would stand up in the narrow space by the door & sing with all the drama I could put into it. At the end of the last chorus, between me & the onions, there wasn't a dry eye in the place."

In 1903, around the age of 17, Tucker eloped with Louis Tuck, a beer cart driver, from whom she later derived her professional surname. When she returned home, her parents arranged an Orthodox wedding for the couple. In 1905, she gave birth to a son, Albert. However, shortly after Albert was born, the couple separated, & Tucker left the baby with her family to move to New York City.

After she left her husband, Willie Howard gave Tucker a letter of recommendation to Harold Von Tilzer, a composer & theatrical producer in New York. When it failed to bring her work, Tucker found jobs in cafés & beer gardens, singing for food & tips from the customers. She sent most of what she made back home to Connecticut to support her son & family.

In 1907, Tucker made her first theater appearance, singing at an amateur night in a vaudeville establishment. The producers thought that the crowd would tease her for being "so big & ugly." Tucker also began integrating "fat girl" humor, which became a common thread in her acts. Her songs included "I Don't Want to Get Thin" & "Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love."

In 1909, Tucker performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. Though she was a hit, the other female stars refused to share the spotlight with her, & the company was forced to let her go. This caught the attention of William Morris, a theater owner & future founder of the William Morris Agency. Two years later, Tucker released "Some of These Days" on Edison Records, written by Shelton Brooks. The title of the song was used as the title of Tucker's 1945 biography.

In 1921, Tucker hired pianist & songwriter Ted Shapiro as her accompanist & musical director, a position he would keep throughout her career. Besides writing a number of songs for her, Shapiro became part of her stage act, playing piano on stage while she sang, & exchanging banter & wisecracks with her in between numbers. Tucker remained a popular singer through the 1920s & became friends with stars such as Mamie Smith & Ethel Waters, who introduced her to jazz. Tucker learned from these women & became one of the early performers to introduce jazz to white vaudeville audiences.

In 1925, Jack Yellen wrote "My Yiddishe Momme", a song which became strongly identified with her & was performed in cities which had a significant Jewish audience. Tucker said "Even though I loved the song, & it was a sensational hit every time I sang it. I was always careful to use it only when I knew the majority of the house would understand Yiddish. However, you didn't have to be a Jew to be moved by 'My Yiddishe Momme'." The song was banned in Nazi Germany.

By the 1920s, Tucker's success had spread to Europe, & she began a tour of England, performing for King George V & Queen Mary at the London Palladium in 1926. Tucker re-released her hit song "Some of These Days", backed by Ted Lewis & his band, which stayed at the number 1 position of the charts for five weeks beginning November 23, 1926. It sold over one million copies & was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

In the early 1930s, when vaudeville was beginning to seem passé, Tucker turned to nightclubs, while many of her fellow vaudevillians either attempted the movies or slid into oblivion. She made several films, but she preferred live audiences, & she played to them with great success for more than 30 years.

Tucker died of lung cancer & kidney failure on Feb. 9, 1966, aged 80, in her Park Avenue apartment.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Sophie Tucker - My Yiddishe Momme Part 2 (1928)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-14 | Performed by: Sophie Tucker with Ted Shapiro And His Orchestra

Full Song: My Yiddishe Momme Part 2

Recorded in: 1928

Flip side of: youtu.be/VXZDbtnLAbc

Sophie Tucker (born Jan. 13, 1886 – died Feb. 9, 1966) was a Russian-born American singer, comedian, actress, & radio personality. Known for her powerful delivery of comical & risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in the U.S. during the first half of the 1920's. She was known by the nickname "The Last of the Red Hot Mamas".

Tucker was born Sofiya "Sonya" Kalish in 1886 to a Jewish family in Tulchyn, Russian Empire. They arrived in Boston on September 26, 1887. The family adopted the surname Abuza before immigrating, her father fearing repercussions for having deserted the Russian military. The family lived in Boston's North End for eight years, then settled in Hartford, Connecticut & opened a restaurant.

At a young age, she began singing at her parents' restaurant for tips. Between taking orders & serving customers, Tucker recalled that she "would stand up in the narrow space by the door & sing with all the drama I could put into it. At the end of the last chorus, between me & the onions, there wasn't a dry eye in the place."

In 1903, around the age of 17, Tucker eloped with Louis Tuck, a beer cart driver, from whom she later derived her professional surname. When she returned home, her parents arranged an Orthodox wedding for the couple. In 1905, she gave birth to a son, Albert. However, shortly after Albert was born, the couple separated, & Tucker left the baby with her family to move to New York City.

After she left her husband, Willie Howard gave Tucker a letter of recommendation to Harold Von Tilzer, a composer & theatrical producer in New York. When it failed to bring her work, Tucker found jobs in cafés & beer gardens, singing for food & tips from the customers. She sent most of what she made back home to Connecticut to support her son & family.

In 1907, Tucker made her first theater appearance, singing at an amateur night in a vaudeville establishment. The producers thought that the crowd would tease her for being "so big & ugly." Tucker also began integrating "fat girl" humor, which became a common thread in her acts. Her songs included "I Don't Want to Get Thin" & "Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love."

In 1909, Tucker performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. Though she was a hit, the other female stars refused to share the spotlight with her, & the company was forced to let her go. This caught the attention of William Morris, a theater owner & future founder of the William Morris Agency. Two years later, Tucker released "Some of These Days" on Edison Records, written by Shelton Brooks. The title of the song was used as the title of Tucker's 1945 biography.

In 1921, Tucker hired pianist & songwriter Ted Shapiro as her accompanist & musical director, a position he would keep throughout her career. Besides writing a number of songs for her, Shapiro became part of her stage act, playing piano on stage while she sang, & exchanging banter & wisecracks with her in between numbers. Tucker remained a popular singer through the 1920s & became friends with stars such as Mamie Smith & Ethel Waters, who introduced her to jazz. Tucker learned from these women & became one of the early performers to introduce jazz to white vaudeville audiences.

In 1925, Jack Yellen wrote "My Yiddishe Momme", a song which became strongly identified with her & was performed in cities which had a significant Jewish audience. Tucker said "Even though I loved the song, & it was a sensational hit every time I sang it. I was always careful to use it only when I knew the majority of the house would understand Yiddish. However, you didn't have to be a Jew to be moved by 'My Yiddishe Momme'." The song was banned in Nazi Germany.

By the 1920s, Tucker's success had spread to Europe, & she began a tour of England, performing for King George V & Queen Mary at the London Palladium in 1926. Tucker re-released her hit song "Some of These Days", backed by Ted Lewis & his band, which stayed at the number 1 position of the charts for five weeks beginning November 23, 1926. It sold over one million copies & was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

In the early 1930s, when vaudeville was beginning to seem passé, Tucker turned to nightclubs, while many of her fellow vaudevillians either attempted the movies or slid into oblivion. She made several films, but she preferred live audiences, & she played to them with great success for more than 30 years.

Tucker died of lung cancer & kidney failure on Feb. 9, 1966, aged 80, in her Park Avenue apartment.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Hollywood Dance Orchestra - I Saw Stars (1934)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-03 | Performed by: Hollywood Dance Orchestra

Full Song Title: I Saw Stars

Recorded in: August 17, 1934

Flip side of: youtu.be/PnJtNQxOQB0

The Hollywood Dance Orchestra was a pseudonym for a great number of dance bands. The American dance band who recorded "I Saw Stars" under this pseudonym was Joe Haymes And His Orchestra.

Joseph Lawrence Haymes (born February 10, 1907 – died July 10, 1964) was an American jazz bandleader and arranger.

Born in Marshfield, Missouri, United States, Haymes relocated with his family to Springfield, Missouri, after his railroader father was killed in an accident. Joe attended Greenwood Laboratory School in Springfield and was a drummer in the local Boy Scout Band; as a youth he also learned the piano. Entering Drury College in 1926, he played locally with his own dance band, before being hired as arranger by Ted Weems in 1928 and leaving school. Haymes arranged the hit "Piccolo Pete", among many others, for Weems, setting a new, highly jazz-informed style for the orchestra.

Haymes struck out on his own again in 1930, leading a band in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Billed as "a Ted Weems unit", Haymes continued to write Weems' arrangements. During 1931, the vocal trio The Merry Macs toured with the band. Relocating to New York City by 1932, the Haymes orchestra was briefly one of the country's hottest dance bands, with a particular knack for jazz novelties and recording on all three major labels, but in late 1933 he sold the band to actor-leader Buddy Rogers, beginning a habit of selling orchestras to others.

Early in 1934, Haymes put together a swing group with assistance from arranger Spud Murphy, but after Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey split in 1935, Tommy arranged a deal with Haymes to take over the latter's group. Haymes himself hired several of Charlie Barnet's musicians for a new band, which recorded for ARC from 1935 until 1937, but was only modestly successful.

Haymes toured as an arranger with Les Brown in 1938, re-formed in 1939, and then found work writing and arranging anonymously for radio. He was briefly inducted into the U.S. Army in 1942, where he served as a medical orderly. On his return, he continued arranging for Hollywood studios from the 1940s into the late 1950s, interrupted by spells with Phil Harris and Johnnie Lee Wills. Haymes' chief employer during the 1950s was Lawrence Welk's television show, although he sometimes performed solo in the Los Angeles area playing at piano bars.

In 1960, he relocated to Dallas, Texas, then home to several semi-retired bandleaders (Ted Weems chief among them) who occasionally employed his scoring skills. Never married, Haymes died of heart failure at age 57.

Best wishes,
Stu
____________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Hollywood Dance Orchestra - Somebody Cares For You (1934)

the1920sand30s 2022-08-03 | Performed by: Hollywood Dance Orchestra

Full Song Title: Somebody Cares For You

Recorded in: March 16, 1934

The Hollywood Dance Orchestra was a pseudonym for a great number of dance bands. The American dance band who recorded "Somebody Cares For You" under this pseudonym was Victor Young and His Orchestra.

Albert Victor Young (born August 8, 1899 – died November 10, 1956) was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor.

Young is commonly said to have been born in Chicago on August 8, 1900, but according to Census data and his birth certificate, his birth year is 1899. His grave marker shows his birth year as 1901.

He was born into a very musical Jewish family, his father being a tenor with Joseph Sheehan's touring opera company. After his mother died, his father abandoned the family. The young Victor, who had begun playing violin at the age of six, and was sent to Poland when he was ten to stay with his grandfather and study at Warsaw Imperial Conservatory (his teacher was Polish composer Roman Statkowski), achieving the Diploma of Merit. He studied the piano with Isidor Philipp of the Paris Conservatory. While still a teenager he embarked on a career as a concert violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Juliusz Wertheim, assistant conductor in 1915–16.

When he graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory, World War I prevented him from returning to the US, so he remained in Poland (which was occupied by the Germans), earning his keep by playing with the Philharmonic and in a quartet and a quintet. He also gave lessons. His future wife, Rita Kinel, who met him in late 1918, used to smuggle food to him, for he had neither enough money to buy it nor time to eat it.

He returned to Chicago in 1920 to join the orchestra at Central Park Casino. He then went to Los Angeles to join his Polish fiancée, finding employment first as a fiddler in impresario Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre Orchestra then going on to be appointed concert-master for Paramount-Publix Theatres. After turning to popular music, he worked for a while as violinist-arranger for Ted Fio Rito.

In 1930, Chicago bandleader and radio-star Isham Jones commissioned Young to write a ballad instrumental of Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust", which had been played, up until then, as an up-tempo number. Young slowed it down and played the melody as a gorgeous romantic violin solo which inspired Mitchell Parish to write lyrics for what then became a much-performed love song. Bing Crosby recorded it at least three times: in 1931, 1939, and 1942.

In the mid-1930s, he moved to Hollywood where he concentrated on films, recordings of light music and providing backing for popular singers, including Bing Crosby. His composer credits include "When I Fall in Love", "Blue Star (The 'Medic' Theme)", "Moonlight Serenade (Summer Love)" from the motion picture The Star (1952), "Sweet Sue, Just You", "Can't We Talk It Over", "Street of Dreams", "Love Letters", "Around the World", "My Foolish Heart", "Golden Earrings", "Stella by Starlight", "Delilah", "Johnny Guitar" and "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You".

Young was signed to Brunswick in 1931 where his studio groups recorded scores of popular dance music, waltzes and semi-classics through 1934. His studio groups often contained some of the best jazz musicians in New York, including Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, and others. He used first-rate vocalists, including Paul Small, Dick Robertson, Harlan Lattimore, Smith Ballew, Helen Rowland, Frank Munn, The Boswell Sisters, Lee Wiley and others. One of his most interesting recordings was the January 22, 1932, session containing songs written by Herman Hupfeld: "Goopy Geer (He Plays Piano And He Plays By Ear)" and "Down The Old Back Road", which Hupfeld sang and played piano on (his only two known vocals).

In late 1934, Young signed with Decca and continued recording in New York until mid-1936, when he relocated to Los Angeles. For Decca, he also conducted the first album of songs from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, a sort of "pre-soundtrack" cover version rather than a true soundtrack album.

He received 22 Academy Award nominations for his work in film, twice being nominated four times in a single year, but he did not win during his lifetime. He received his only Oscar posthumously for his score of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). Thus, Victor Young holds the record for most Oscar nominations before winning the first award.

Young died on November 10, 1956, in Palm Springs, California, after a cerebral haemorrhage at age 57. He is interred in the Beth Olam Mausoleum in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California.

Best wishes,
Stu
____________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians - Ukulele Moon (1930)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-26 | Performed by: Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians

Full Song Title: Ukulele Moon

Recorded in: 1930

Flip side of: youtu.be/ucA1XRkuvy4

Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo (born June 19, 1902 – died November 5, 1977) was a Canadian-American bandleader, violinist, and hydroplane racer.

Lombardo formed the Royal Canadians in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor, and other musicians from his hometown. They billed themselves as creating "the sweetest music this side of Heaven." The Lombardos are believed to have sold between 100 and 300 million records during their lifetimes,

Lombardo was born in London, Ontario, Canada, to Italian immigrants Gaetano Alberto and Angelina Lombardo. His father, who had worked as a tailor, was an amateur singer with a baritone voice and had four of his five sons learn to play instruments so they could accompany him. Lombardo and his brothers formed their first orchestra while still in grammar school and rehearsed in the back of their father's tailor shop. Lombardo first performed in public with his brother Carmen at a church lawn party in London in 1914. His first recording session took place where cornetist Bix Beiderbecke made his recordings—in Richmond, Indiana, at the Gennett Studios—both during early 1924. While playing at the Music Box in Cleveland, Lombardo met Lillibeth Glenn. They married in 1926.

After that solitary Gennett session, they recorded two sessions for Brunswick; a rejected session in Cleveland in late 1926, and an issued session for Vocalion in early 1927. The band then signed to Columbia and recorded prolifically between 1927 and 1931. In early 1932, they signed to Brunswick and continued their success through 1934 when they signed to Decca (1934–35). They then signed to Victor in later 1935 and stayed until the middle of 1938 when again they signed to Decca. In 1938, Lombardo became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Between 1941 and 1948, their sister Rose Marie, the youngest of seven siblings, joined the Royal Canadians as the band's first and possibly only female vocalist.

Although Lombardo's "sweet" big-band music was viewed by some in the jazz and big-band community of the day as "boring, mainstream pap," trumpeter Louis Armstrong regularly named Lombardo's band his favorite orchestra.

On November 5, 1977, Lombardo died of a heart attack. Another source says he died "of a lung ailment." His wife, who died in 1982, was at his bedside when he died in Houston Methodist Hospital. He's interred at the Pinelawn Memorial Park in East Farmingdale, NY.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians - Babys Birthday Party (1930)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-23 | Performed by: Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians

Full Song Title: Baby's Birthday Party

Recorded in: 1930

Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo (born June 19, 1902 – died November 5, 1977) was a Canadian-American bandleader, violinist, and hydroplane racer.

Lombardo formed the Royal Canadians in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert and Victor, and other musicians from his hometown. They billed themselves as creating "the sweetest music this side of Heaven." The Lombardos are believed to have sold between 100 and 300 million records during their lifetimes,

Lombardo was born in London, Ontario, Canada, to Italian immigrants Gaetano Alberto and Angelina Lombardo. His father, who had worked as a tailor, was an amateur singer with a baritone voice and had four of his five sons learn to play instruments so they could accompany him. Lombardo and his brothers formed their first orchestra while still in grammar school and rehearsed in the back of their father's tailor shop. Lombardo first performed in public with his brother Carmen at a church lawn party in London in 1914. His first recording session took place where cornetist Bix Beiderbecke made his recordings—in Richmond, Indiana, at the Gennett Studios—both during early 1924. While playing at the Music Box in Cleveland, Lombardo met Lillibeth Glenn. They married in 1926.

After that solitary Gennett session, they recorded two sessions for Brunswick; a rejected session in Cleveland in late 1926, and an issued session for Vocalion in early 1927. The band then signed to Columbia and recorded prolifically between 1927 and 1931. In early 1932, they signed to Brunswick and continued their success through 1934 when they signed to Decca (1934–35). They then signed to Victor in later 1935 and stayed until the middle of 1938 when again they signed to Decca. In 1938, Lombardo became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Between 1941 and 1948, their sister Rose Marie, the youngest of seven siblings, joined the Royal Canadians as the band's first and possibly only female vocalist.

Although Lombardo's "sweet" big-band music was viewed by some in the jazz and big-band community of the day as "boring, mainstream pap," trumpeter Louis Armstrong regularly named Lombardo's band his favorite orchestra.

On November 5, 1977, Lombardo died of a heart attack. Another source says he died "of a lung ailment." His wife, who died in 1982, was at his bedside when he died in Houston Methodist Hospital. He's interred at the Pinelawn Memorial Park in East Farmingdale, NY.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Coleman Hawkins & Django Reinhardt - Avalon [Rose] (1935)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-23 | Performed by: Coleman Hawkins

Full Song Title: Avalon (Rose)

Recorded in: March 2, 1935 - Paris, France

Guitar – Django Reinhardt
Piano – Stéphane Grappelly

Coleman Hawkins, in full Coleman Randolph Hawkins, (born November 21, 1904, St. Joseph, Mo., U.S. — died May 19, 1969, New York, N.Y.), American jazz musician whose improvisational mastery of the tenor saxophone, which had previously been viewed as little more than a novelty, helped establish it as one of the most popular instruments in jazz. He was the first major saxophonist in the history of jazz.

At age four Hawkins began to study the piano, at seven the cello, and at nine the saxophone. He became a professional musician in his teens, and, while playing with Fletcher Henderson’s big band between 1923 and 1934, he reached his artistic maturity and became acknowledged as one of the great jazz artists. He left the band to tour Europe for five years and then crowned his return to the United States in 1939 by recording the hit “Body and Soul,” an outpouring of irregular, double-timed melodies that became one of the most imitated of all jazz solos.

Hawkins was one of the first jazz horn players with a full understanding of intricate chord progressions, and he influenced many of the great saxophonists of the swing era (notably Ben Webster and Chu Berry) as well as such leading figures of modern jazz as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Hawkins’s deep, full-bodied tone and quick vibrato were the expected style on jazz tenor until the advent of Lester Young, and even after Young’s appearance many players continued to absorb Hawkins’s approach. One of the strongest improvisers in jazz history, Hawkins delivered harmonically complex lines with an urgency and authority that demanded the listener’s attention. He was also a noted ballad player who could create arpeggiated, rhapsodic lines with an intimate tenderness that contrasted with his gruff attack and aggressive energy at faster tempos.

Hawkins gave inspired performances for decades, managing to convey fire in his work long after his youth. From the 1940s on he led small groups, recording frequently and playing widely in the United States and Europe with Jazz at the Philharmonic and other tours. Despite alcoholism and ill health, he continued playing until shortly before his death in 1969.

Django Reinhardt, original name Jean Reinhardt, (born January 23, 1910, Liberchies, Belgium—died May 16, 1953, Fontainebleau, France), guitarist who is generally considered one of the few European jazz musicians of true originality.

Reinhardt, who was of Roma (Gypsy) parentage, traveled through France and Belgium as a boy and young man learning to play the violin, guitar, and banjo. The loss of the use of two fingers of his left hand after a caravan fire in 1928 did not impair his remarkable aptitude for the guitar. In 1934 he became coleader, with violinist Stéphane Grappelli, of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, a group whose many records are greatly prized by connoisseurs. In his only visit to the United States, in 1946, Reinhardt toured with the Duke Ellington orchestra.

For most of his career Reinhardt played in the swing style that reached its peak of popularity in the 1930s. Perhaps his most lasting influence on jazz was the introduction of solos based on melodic improvisation, at a time when guitarists generally played chorded solos. His inimitable improvisations, particularly those in slow tempos, were often a curious but beguiling blend of Roma and jazz sounds. Among his guitar compositions transposed into orchestral works are “Nuages” and “Manoir des mes rêves.”

On 16 May 1953, while walking from the Gare de Fontainebleau–Avon Station after playing in a Paris club, he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage. It was a Saturday, and it took a full day for a doctor to arrive. Reinhardt was declared dead on arrival at the hospital in Fontainebleau, at the age of 43.

Stéphane Grappelli ( born 26 January 1908 – died 1 December 1997, born Stefano Grappelli) was a French-Italian jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his eighties.

For the first three decades of his career, he was billed using a gallicised spelling of his last name, Grappelly, reverting to Grappelli in 1969. The latter, Italian spelling is now used almost universally when referring to the violinist, including reissues of his early work.

Grappelli died in Paris on 1 December 1997, suffering heart failure after a series of minor cerebral attacks.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Coleman Hawkins & Django Reinhardt - Star Dust (1935)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-23 | Performed by: Coleman Hawkins

Full Song Title: Star Dust

Recorded in: March 2, 1935 - Paris, France

Guitar – Django Reinhardt
Piano – Stéphane Grappelly

Coleman Hawkins, in full Coleman Randolph Hawkins, (born November 21, 1904, St. Joseph, Mo., U.S. — died May 19, 1969, New York, N.Y.), American jazz musician whose improvisational mastery of the tenor saxophone, which had previously been viewed as little more than a novelty, helped establish it as one of the most popular instruments in jazz. He was the first major saxophonist in the history of jazz.

At age four Hawkins began to study the piano, at seven the cello, and at nine the saxophone. He became a professional musician in his teens, and, while playing with Fletcher Henderson’s big band between 1923 and 1934, he reached his artistic maturity and became acknowledged as one of the great jazz artists. He left the band to tour Europe for five years and then crowned his return to the United States in 1939 by recording the hit “Body and Soul,” an outpouring of irregular, double-timed melodies that became one of the most imitated of all jazz solos.

Hawkins was one of the first jazz horn players with a full understanding of intricate chord progressions, and he influenced many of the great saxophonists of the swing era (notably Ben Webster and Chu Berry) as well as such leading figures of modern jazz as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Hawkins’s deep, full-bodied tone and quick vibrato were the expected style on jazz tenor until the advent of Lester Young, and even after Young’s appearance many players continued to absorb Hawkins’s approach. One of the strongest improvisers in jazz history, Hawkins delivered harmonically complex lines with an urgency and authority that demanded the listener’s attention. He was also a noted ballad player who could create arpeggiated, rhapsodic lines with an intimate tenderness that contrasted with his gruff attack and aggressive energy at faster tempos.

Hawkins gave inspired performances for decades, managing to convey fire in his work long after his youth. From the 1940s on he led small groups, recording frequently and playing widely in the United States and Europe with Jazz at the Philharmonic and other tours. Despite alcoholism and ill health, he continued playing until shortly before his death in 1969.

Django Reinhardt, original name Jean Reinhardt, (born January 23, 1910, Liberchies, Belgium—died May 16, 1953, Fontainebleau, France), guitarist who is generally considered one of the few European jazz musicians of true originality.

Reinhardt, who was of Roma (Gypsy) parentage, traveled through France and Belgium as a boy and young man learning to play the violin, guitar, and banjo. The loss of the use of two fingers of his left hand after a caravan fire in 1928 did not impair his remarkable aptitude for the guitar. In 1934 he became coleader, with violinist Stéphane Grappelli, of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, a group whose many records are greatly prized by connoisseurs. In his only visit to the United States, in 1946, Reinhardt toured with the Duke Ellington orchestra.

For most of his career Reinhardt played in the swing style that reached its peak of popularity in the 1930s. Perhaps his most lasting influence on jazz was the introduction of solos based on melodic improvisation, at a time when guitarists generally played chorded solos. His inimitable improvisations, particularly those in slow tempos, were often a curious but beguiling blend of Roma and jazz sounds. Among his guitar compositions transposed into orchestral works are “Nuages” and “Manoir des mes rêves.”

On 16 May 1953, while walking from the Gare de Fontainebleau–Avon Station after playing in a Paris club, he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage. It was a Saturday, and it took a full day for a doctor to arrive. Reinhardt was declared dead on arrival at the hospital in Fontainebleau, at the age of 43.

Stéphane Grappelli ( born 26 January 1908 – died 1 December 1997, born Stefano Grappelli) was a French-Italian jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his eighties.

For the first three decades of his career, he was billed using a gallicised spelling of his last name, Grappelly, reverting to Grappelli in 1969. The latter, Italian spelling is now used almost universally when referring to the violinist, including reissues of his early work.

Grappelli died in Paris on 1 December 1997, suffering heart failure after a series of minor cerebral attacks.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Josephine Baker - Doudou (1936)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-20 | Performed by: Joséphine Baker

Full Song Title: Doudou

Recorded in Paris, October 1936

Josephine Baker (born 3 June 1906 - died 12 April 1975) (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalized French Joséphine Baker) was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent and civil rights activist. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

To say that Josephine Baker was ahead of her time is a grand understatement. Her success as a dancer and singer as an entertainer, electrified Europe in the 1920s. There, she became the queen of the stage, the most photographed woman in the world. However, critical and public response in her homeland, the United States, was far less enthusiastic. Mired in racial prejudice, both overt and covert, American society could not tolerate the concept of a strong, sophisticated black woman commanding so much attention. In a review, following a particularly sensual performance with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1936, the venerable New York Times called Josephine Baker a "negro wench." Sadly, it would be many more decades before she would find any acceptance in her native country.

But, in Europe, her career flourished. She was a great star. In addition, she lived a life of intrigue and espionage during World War II. She aided the French Resistance by carrying secret messages written on her sheet music, as she traveled on singing tours across Europe. For this she received several medals and awards from the French government. Beyond that, Josephine Baker was an independent woman, who never felt compelled to rely upon a man for financial support. Though married and divorced four times, and despite countless other, more transitory relationships, she raised twelve adopted children, whom she referred to as her "Rainbow Tribe." They were children of different races and ethnicities, whom she was determined to prove could live together in harmonious kinship.Her unbridled sexuality and the unrestrained abandon of her erotically charged dancing style caused an immediate sensation with the Parisian public, who were neither as prudishly conservative nor as racially discriminatory as their American counterparts. Josephine Baker became the talk of Paris, soon commanding the regal salary of $250 a week.

After the run of La Revue Negre ended, Josephine subsequently starred in a show at the Folies Bergere music hall entitled La Folie Du Jour. In that revue she amazed audiences by performing an aggressive Charleston, the "Banana Dance," and swinging from a trapeze, dressed in a skirt comprised of sixteen bananas hanging from a G-String. All of Paris fell under Josephine Baker's exotic spell. Her striking facial features and cross-eyed poses charmed the hearts of the city and the French nation. They called her "La Perle Noire," "the Black Pearl."

Paris in the mid-'20s was alive with the spirit of the Jazz age. Josephine's stunning performances elicited artwork from Alexander Calder and Georges Roualt among many others. It is said that an original print run poster of Le Revue Negre today commands a price as high as $45,000. In 1926, she opened her own nightclub, Chez Josephine, on the rue Fontaine. She also began her recording career, cutting a number of sides for a French label. By 1927, she was earning more money than any other entertainer in Europe, rivaling Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson as the most photographed woman in the world. She made her first movie, La Sirene des Tropiques. Josephine Baker was only twenty-one years of age. Described by Pablo Picasso as a black Venus, a true cabaret star and exotic dancer Josephine Baker was certainly one of the 20th century's most extraordinary characters. Her act wouldn't raise an eyebrow these days but, in the Twenties and Thirties, her unconventionality and sensuality was legendary. She is one of my favorite singers/entertainers of that period. Too bad, they don't make stars like her anymore!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Josephine Baker - Nuit DAlger [Night Of Algiers] (1936)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-20 | Performed by: Joséphine Baker

Full Song Title: Nuit D'Alger

Recorded in Paris, October 1936

Flip side of: youtu.be/6sT6575GpPs

Josephine Baker (born 3 June 1906 - died 12 April 1975) (born Freda Josephine McDonald, naturalized French Joséphine Baker) was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent and civil rights activist. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted France. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant.

To say that Josephine Baker was ahead of her time is a grand understatement. Her success as a dancer and singer as an entertainer, electrified Europe in the 1920s. There, she became the queen of the stage, the most photographed woman in the world. However, critical and public response in her homeland, the United States, was far less enthusiastic. Mired in racial prejudice, both overt and covert, American society could not tolerate the concept of a strong, sophisticated black woman commanding so much attention. In a review, following a particularly sensual performance with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1936, the venerable New York Times called Josephine Baker a "negro wench." Sadly, it would be many more decades before she would find any acceptance in her native country.

But, in Europe, her career flourished. She was a great star. In addition, she lived a life of intrigue and espionage during World War II. She aided the French Resistance by carrying secret messages written on her sheet music, as she traveled on singing tours across Europe. For this she received several medals and awards from the French government. Beyond that, Josephine Baker was an independent woman, who never felt compelled to rely upon a man for financial support. Though married and divorced four times, and despite countless other, more transitory relationships, she raised twelve adopted children, whom she referred to as her "Rainbow Tribe." They were children of different races and ethnicities, whom she was determined to prove could live together in harmonious kinship.Her unbridled sexuality and the unrestrained abandon of her erotically charged dancing style caused an immediate sensation with the Parisian public, who were neither as prudishly conservative nor as racially discriminatory as their American counterparts. Josephine Baker became the talk of Paris, soon commanding the regal salary of $250 a week.

After the run of La Revue Negre ended, Josephine subsequently starred in a show at the Folies Bergere music hall entitled La Folie Du Jour. In that revue she amazed audiences by performing an aggressive Charleston, the "Banana Dance," and swinging from a trapeze, dressed in a skirt comprised of sixteen bananas hanging from a G-String. All of Paris fell under Josephine Baker's exotic spell. Her striking facial features and cross-eyed poses charmed the hearts of the city and the French nation. They called her "La Perle Noire," "the Black Pearl."

Paris in the mid-'20s was alive with the spirit of the Jazz age. Josephine's stunning performances elicited artwork from Alexander Calder and Georges Roualt among many others. It is said that an original print run poster of Le Revue Negre today commands a price as high as $45,000. In 1926, she opened her own nightclub, Chez Josephine, on the rue Fontaine. She also began her recording career, cutting a number of sides for a French label. By 1927, she was earning more money than any other entertainer in Europe, rivaling Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson as the most photographed woman in the world. She made her first movie, La Sirene des Tropiques. Josephine Baker was only twenty-one years of age. Described by Pablo Picasso as a black Venus, a true cabaret star and exotic dancer Josephine Baker was certainly one of the 20th century's most extraordinary characters. Her act wouldn't raise an eyebrow these days but, in the Twenties and Thirties, her unconventionality and sensuality was legendary. She is one of my favorite singers/entertainers of that period. Too bad, they don't make stars like her anymore!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Leo Reisman & His Orchestra - Stormy Weather (1933)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-20 | Performed by: Leo Reisman and His Orchestra

Vocalist: Harold Arlen

Full Song Title: Stormy Weather

Recorded in New York, New York (Studio 2) - February 26th, 1933

Leo F. Reisman (born October 11, 1897 – died December 18, 1961 was an American violinist and bandleader in the 1920s and 1930s.

Born and reared in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, he was of Jewish ancestry; from German immigrants who immigrated to the United States in the 19th century. Inspired by the Russian-American violinist Jascha Heifetz, Reisman studied violin as a young man. After being rejected by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he formed his own band in 1919. He became famous for having over 80 hits on the popular charts during his career. Jerome Kern called Reisman's orchestra "The String Quartet of Dance Bands".

Reisman's first recording was on a 10-inch 78 rpm record for Columbia Records, recorded on January 10, 1921 – the two titles being "Love Bird", with a catalog issue of Columbia A-3366, mx.79634 and the other title being "Bright Eyes", with a catalog issue of Columbia A-3366, mx.79635.

Reisman recorded for Columbia exclusively from July 1923 through March 11, 1929, when he signed with Victor and stayed until October 1933. He then signed with Brunswick and stayed until 1937 when he re-signed with Victor.[3] During his 1929-1933 Victor period, Reisman recorded many lesser-known period Broadway songs, some of which were recorded by no other band. Due to his popularity, he was always one of the prominent bands during his time at Columbia, Victor and Brunswick, and he recorded prolifically.

Reisman also had the habit of featuring composers and Broadway performers as band vocalists, including Harold Arlen, Fred Astaire, Clifton Webb, and Arthur Schwartz. He also featured Lee Wiley in 1931-32 for her first three recordings. More often than not, his vocalists were Frank Luther, Dick Robertson and later Sally Singer and George Beuler. A notable recording from this era was "Happy Days Are Here Again" in November 1929, with vocals by Lou Levin.

Among his more popular hits were his number one recordings of Cole Porter's "Night and Day" (1932) and Con Conrad's "The Continental" (1934), plus Astaire's recording of Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" (1935).

Reisman's was primarily a dance orchestra; he was not a fan of jazz music, but some of his early 1930s 78 RPM recordings were a bit "hot". (However, Reisman employed the legendary trumpet player Bubber Miley in 1930–31, who had been a featured member of Duke Ellington's orchestra.) Reisman worked with Sam Donahue between 1946 - 1951.

Reisman's work on radio included having the Nine o'Clock Revue, a 30-minute weekly program on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1937.

Reisman died in New York City on December 18, 1961, at the age of 64.

Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – died April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including "Over the Rainbow", Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook.

Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, & formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist & singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville & changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 & about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti, Leo Reisman, & Eddie Duchin, usually singing his own compositions.

In 1929, Arlen composed his first well-known song: "Get Happy" (with lyrics by Ted Koehler). Throughout the early and mid-1930s, Arlen and Koehler wrote shows for the Cotton Club, a popular Harlem night club, as well as for Broadway musicals & Hollywood films. Arlen and Koehler's partnership resulted in a number of hit songs, including the familiar standards "Let's Fall in Love" & "Stormy Weather". Arlen continued to perform as a pianist & vocalist with some success, most notably on records with Leo Reisman's society dance orchestra.

Arlen and Anya Taranda married on January 6, 1937, over the objection of their parents, because she was a Gentile and he was Jewish. In 1951, Anya was institutionalized for seven years and died from a brain tumor in 1970Arlen never remarried & died of cancer on April 23, 1986, at his Manhattan apartment at the age of eighty-one.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Don Bestor & His Orchestra - You Must Believe Me (1933)

the1920sand30s 2022-07-20 | Performed by: Don Bestor and His Orchestra

Vocalist: Johnny Russell

Full Song Title: You Must Believe Me

Recorded in New York, New York (Studio 2) - February 26th, 1933

Flip side of: youtu.be/wBr8yTvEzcE

Don Bestor (born September 23, 1889 - died January 13, 1970) was an American bandleader, probably best known for directing the orchestra in the early years of The Jack Benny Program on old-time radio.

Bestor was born September 13, 1889, in Longford, South Dakota (although his birthplace also has been cited as Madison, Wisconsin). His mother was Mrs. Carrie Bestor. His brother, A.L. Bestor, was also a musician, directing the orchestra of the Orpheum Theater in Madison.

Bestor's radio debut occurred in 1922 on KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His orchestra, which was playing at the William Penn Hotel, was broadcast over the station in what was described in his obituary as "the world's first remote control orchestra pickup." He also led orchestras at WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1925 and at WGN in Chicago, Illinois, in 1925-26.By 1928, he and his orchestra were back on KDKA

Bestor's tenure at KDKA ended in 1931. A June 13 newspaper listing had the headline "Don Bestor to Say Farewell: Final Concert to Be Played Over KDKA Sunday at 7:15 P.M."

In 1932, Bestor and his orchestra were in New York City and "on the air over an NBC-WEAF hook-up four nights a week." In the summer of 1933, the group was broadcast "from the 'Show Boat' on Lake George via remote control" over WGY in Schenectady, New York. Bestor's orchestra also provided the music for the Nestle Chocolateers program in 1933.

On April 6, 1934, Bestor became the bandleader for Jack Benny's radio program, The General Tire Show. A statement from the sponsor said, in part, "Good music is an important part of a program such as Jack Benny presents, and critics who have commented on the excellence of the Benny broadcasts give no small part of the credit for their results to the tenor voice of Frank Parker and the intriguing melodies of Don Bestor and his musicians."

When Johnny Green replaced Bestor on the Benny program, a newspaper article noted: "Benny turned Bestor overnight from just another orchestra leader to the one man in America everyone knew wore spats... Bestor just finished a tour of the country on which he billed himself as the band that played with radio's king pin of humor."

Also in 1935, Bestor ran afoul of the musicians' union "because of paying his men under the scale while on the Jack Benny program," but he was reinstated in December.

Bestor had programs on CBS in 1936, on WLW in 1937, and on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1939.

Bestor married Frankie Classen (or Klassen or Klossam), a dancer who was a "favorite of Chicago night club audiences." They had a daughter, Mary Ann. Bestor later married "a jet-set covergirl model," and they had a son, Don Bestor Jr., and a daughter, Robyn. He was also married to Hattie C. Bestor Catton. In 1937, a judge in Illinois ordered Bestor to surrender "insurance policies with a cash value of $3,000" to her "for back support of their 16 year old son, Bartley Bestor."

Mary Ann became an actress and at age 16 "signed for (the) No. 2 company of 'Eve of St. Mark'" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1942.

Bestor died of a cerebral hemorrhage January 13, 1970, in Metamora, Illinois. He was 80.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Heinz Wehner - Du und ich und die Liebe [ You and me and Love] (1938)

the1920sand30s 2022-02-21 | Performed by: Heinz Wehner mit seinem Tanzorchester

Full Song Title: Du und ich und die Liebe

Recorded in: Berlin, 1938

Heinz (Heinrich) Wehner (born May 21, 1908 in Obstfeld in Westphalia – died most likely in January 1945 near Landsberg an der Warthe) was a popular German jazz musician, band leader and with his "Telefunken Swing Orchestra" was considered one of the top European Jazz bands of it's time.

Wehner had been studying music at the Hanover Conservatory since he was twelve and recognized his talent as a violinist and trumpet soloist; Wehner, enthusiastic about the jazz of the 1920s, initially founded a trio in 1925, which he was able to expand into an octet over the next few years. He soon performed with this ensemble not only in the Hanover region, but also in the Bergisches Land and on Norderney.

In 1933 he got the opportunity to perform in the renowned Düsseldorf dance palace "Tabaris". In the same year he performed with a six-piece bar band in the Berlin Ritz Bar. In 1934 he could be heard in the "Europahaus" at the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin, where many well-known jazz and entertainment orchestras were guests at the time. Shortly before this performance, Wehner had been able to win over the well-known Willy Berking as a trombonist, as well as Benny de Weille and the pianist Helmuth Wernicke. From then on he had great success with American swing numbers. As early as 1935, Telefunken, one of the largest German record companies, invited him to his first studio recordings.

The Heinz Wehner Telefunken Swing Orchestra included Herbert Müller (clarinet/alto saxophone), Willy Berking (trombone), Kurt Hoffmann (trombone), Ewald Meyer, Artur Flömer, Helmuth Wernicke (piano), Hermann Scholz, Ronny Niepel and the Austrian Theo Ferstl (trumpet and arrangement), who joined the newly founded German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra (DTU) in 1942. In addition to directing, Wehner usually also took on the singing roles in English and German.

Wehner became internationally known through public appearances, recordings and radio. In issue 12/1937 of the US jazz magazine "Down Beat", the critic Dick McBougall described the Telefunken Orchestra in the jazz magazine as "the best band in the Nazi Reich". Similar praise also came from Sweden. From this point, Heinz Wehner was one of the most popular German-speaking swing musicians in Europe alongside Teddy Stauffer, which was also reflected in the number of his recordings.

In the year of his marriage, 1941, Wehner was sent to Norway to conduct a Wehrmacht orchestra for the Oslo Soldiers' Station to look after the troops and accompanied Lale Andersen in 1942. But he continued to play regularly at the "Delphi Filmpalast" in Berlin during his leave from the front and he also kept recording swing records until the very end. He stayed in Norway with his Wehrmacht orchestra until 1944; then he was transferred to the Eastern Front via occupied Czechoslovakia. A recording made at the end of 1944 with the orchestra of the Czech jazz musician Karel Vlach in Prague is considered to be his last recording. Heinz Wehner was last seen during rearguard action in the Landsberg an der Warthe area on January 21, 1945. In 1958 he was officially declared dead.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Pyotr Leshchenko - Serdtse (1936)

the1920sand30s 2022-02-21 | Performed by: Пётр Лещенко с оркестром [Pyotr Leshchenko with Orchestra]

Vocals: Пётр Лещенко [Pyotr Leshchenko]

Full Song Title: Сердце [Heart]

Recorded in: Bucharest, Romanian 1936

Pyotr Leshchenko (born 2 June 1898 – died 16 July 1954), was a popular singer in the Russian Empire, Romania and later the Soviet Union, is universally considered "the King of Russian Tango" and specifically known for his rendition of "Serdtse" a tango, sung unusually not in Spanish but in Russian.

He was born as an illegitimate child of the Russian Empire in Isayevo village of the Kherson Governorate into a poor and illiterate Ukrainian peasant family. During the First World War, his mother and stepfather moved to Chișinău, which was later united with Romania. He was drafted into the Russian army, and attended an officers college in Kiev. After graduating he was sent to the front, and was wounded soon thereafter, recuperating at a military hospital in Chișinău. He was proficient in numerous languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, German, and others. In his early childhood, he sang in a church choir and learned how to play the 7-string guitar.

After the war, Pyotr, who had never learned a real trade, worked at various restaurants, serving, dish-washing and performing small theatrical acts. He had a soft baritone voice.

After taking some ballet lessons in Paris, he started performing with his Latvian wife Zinaida Zakit, a dancer. Their act was a mixture of ballet, folklore dance and European tango, which was so popular it led to tours to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Germany, and Great Britain. It was at Riga, when he improvised gypsy music and tango singing to make up for the absence of his pregnant wife, that he discovered he could sing in front of an audience. In 1935, he was at the peak of his success. Though he still included old Russian romances, and even Soviet songs (like "Serdtse", which was originally sung by Leonid Utyosov) in his repertoire, songs were now composed for him exclusively (with the tango songs turning Argentine in style and arrangement). One of his favourite non-Russian composers was Jerzy Petersburski, but he also sang work composed by Pavel German, Konstantin Podrevsky and Isaak Dunayevsky. Composers who composed certain songs specifically for him included Oscar Strok, Mark Maryanovsky and Yefim Sklyarov. Many lyrics of Leshchenko songs were written by Boris Fomin.

Leshchenko performed for European nobles and "White" (anti-Bolshevik) Russian émigrés at his own "Leschenko" cabaret in Bucharest (dubbed the "Eastern Maxim's"). The first part of every performance would typically be dedicated to gipsy music, but during the second part Leshchenko would dress up in a tuxedo, with a white silk handkerchief and sing and dance Argentine tango.

In the Soviet Union his work was banned both because he was believed to be a White émigré (which he was not legally) and because the style (tango and foxtrot) was deemed counter-revolutionary. Nevertheless, secretly he was very popular: people would even listen to Radio Tehran to hear his music, '78 records were smuggled into the country from the Baltics, and specialists would bootleg his music onto "ribs" (used X-ray plates). When during the Second World War and the subsequent occupation of Odessa by the Romanian army, Leshchenko was finally able to perform in the country he still considered his own, people would queue for hours on end to buy a ticket to one of his Odessa concerts. It was at Odessa that Pyotr met his second wife, Vera Georgievna Belousova, for whom he would later, back in Romania, divorce Zinaida.

After Romania switched sides in August 1944 and the Soviet army entered Romania, Leshchenko was not arrested, and became the protégé of general Vladimir Ivanovich Burenin, military commander of the Red Army garrison in Bucharest.

In 1951, a week after receiving an official letter granting them permission to settle in the Soviet Union, Vera and Pyotr were arrested by the Romanian police. Vera was extradited to the Soviet Union, where she was condemned to forced labour for amongst other things, "marrying a foreigner". Pyotr was detained in a prison near Bucharest, and then was sent to a forced labor camp at the Danube–Black Sea Canal. Both outlived Joseph Stalin, but Pyotr died in a prison hospital in Târgu Ocna on 16 July 1954, without Vera at his side (she had already been released but did not know her husband was still alive). Some friends present when he died claimed his last words were "Friends, I am happy, for I will return to my fatherland! I am going away, but I leave you my heart." Vera died on December 18, 2009, age 86.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Pyotr Leshchenko - The Merry Fellows March (1936)

the1920sand30s 2022-02-21 | Performed by: Пётр Лещенко с оркестром [Pyotr Leshchenko with Orchestra]

Vocals: Пётр Лещенко [Pyotr Leshchenko]

Full Song Title: Веселые мальчики [Merry Fellows]

Recorded in: Bucharest, Romanian 1936

Flip side of: youtu.be/x_bJKWP6Kr8

Pyotr Leshchenko (born 2 June 1898 – died 16 July 1954), was a popular singer in the Russian Empire, Romania and later the Soviet Union, is universally considered "the King of Russian Tango" and specifically known for his rendition of "Serdtse" a tango, sung unusually not in Spanish but in Russian.

He was born as an illegitimate child of the Russian Empire in Isayevo village of the Kherson Governorate into a poor and illiterate Ukrainian peasant family. During the First World War, his mother and stepfather moved to Chișinău, which was later united with Romania. He was drafted into the Russian army, and attended an officers college in Kiev. After graduating he was sent to the front, and was wounded soon thereafter, recuperating at a military hospital in Chișinău. He was proficient in numerous languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, German, and others. In his early childhood, he sang in a church choir and learned how to play the 7-string guitar.

After the war, Pyotr, who had never learned a real trade, worked at various restaurants, serving, dish-washing and performing small theatrical acts. He had a soft baritone voice.

After taking some ballet lessons in Paris, he started performing with his Latvian wife Zinaida Zakit, a dancer. Their act was a mixture of ballet, folklore dance and European tango, which was so popular it led to tours to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Germany, and Great Britain. It was at Riga, when he improvised gypsy music and tango singing to make up for the absence of his pregnant wife, that he discovered he could sing in front of an audience. In 1935, he was at the peak of his success. Though he still included old Russian romances, and even Soviet songs (like "Serdtse", which was originally sung by Leonid Utyosov) in his repertoire, songs were now composed for him exclusively (with the tango songs turning Argentine in style and arrangement). One of his favourite non-Russian composers was Jerzy Petersburski, but he also sang work composed by Pavel German, Konstantin Podrevsky and Isaak Dunayevsky. Composers who composed certain songs specifically for him included Oscar Strok, Mark Maryanovsky and Yefim Sklyarov. Many lyrics of Leshchenko songs were written by Boris Fomin.

Leshchenko performed for European nobles and "White" (anti-Bolshevik) Russian émigrés at his own "Leschenko" cabaret in Bucharest (dubbed the "Eastern Maxim's"). The first part of every performance would typically be dedicated to gipsy music, but during the second part Leshchenko would dress up in a tuxedo, with a white silk handkerchief and sing and dance Argentine tango.

In the Soviet Union his work was banned both because he was believed to be a White émigré (which he was not legally) and because the style (tango and foxtrot) was deemed counter-revolutionary. Nevertheless, secretly he was very popular: people would even listen to Radio Tehran to hear his music, '78 records were smuggled into the country from the Baltics, and specialists would bootleg his music onto "ribs" (used X-ray plates). When during the Second World War and the subsequent occupation of Odessa by the Romanian army, Leshchenko was finally able to perform in the country he still considered his own, people would queue for hours on end to buy a ticket to one of his Odessa concerts. It was at Odessa that Pyotr met his second wife, Vera Georgievna Belousova, for whom he would later, back in Romania, divorce Zinaida.

After Romania switched sides in August 1944 and the Soviet army entered Romania, Leshchenko was not arrested, and became the protégé of general Vladimir Ivanovich Burenin, military commander of the Red Army garrison in Bucharest.

In 1951, a week after receiving an official letter granting them permission to settle in the Soviet Union, Vera and Pyotr were arrested by the Romanian police. Vera was extradited to the Soviet Union, where she was condemned to forced labour for amongst other things, "marrying a foreigner". Pyotr was detained in a prison near Bucharest, and then was sent to a forced labor camp at the Danube–Black Sea Canal. Both outlived Joseph Stalin, but Pyotr died in a prison hospital in Târgu Ocna on 16 July 1954, without Vera at his side (she had already been released but did not know her husband was still alive). Some friends present when he died claimed his last words were "Friends, I am happy, for I will return to my fatherland! I am going away, but I leave you my heart." Vera died on December 18, 2009, age 86.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Nadezhda Zlateva - Slushai Malka Mome [Listen Little Girl] (1935)

the1920sand30s 2022-02-21 | Performed by: Надежда Златева [Nadezhda Zlateva]

Full Song Title: Слушай Малка Моме [Slushai Malka Mome]

Recorded in: 1935, Bulgaria

I picked up this record a few years ago, it's in poor shape but I tried my best to restore it.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any information about the artist, if someone could fill in the gaps I would be very grateful.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven - Alligator Blues (1927)

the1920sand30s 2022-02-21 | Performed by: Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven

Full Song: Alligator Blues

Recorded in: May 10, 1927, Chicago, IL

Flip side of: Coming soon..

Armstrong, Louis (Cornet)
Thomas, John (Trombone)
Dodds, Johnny (Clarinet)
Armstrong, Lil Hardin (Piano)
St. Cyr, Johnny (Banjo, Guitar)
Briggs, Pete (Tuba)
Dodds, Baby (Drums)

Louis Daniel Armstrong (born August 4, 1901 – died July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist who is among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and different eras in the history of jazz.

Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. He was raised by his mother Mayann in a neighborhood so dangerous it was called “The Battlefield.” He only had a fifth-grade education, dropping out of school early to go to work. An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky family allowed Armstrong to make enough money to purchase his first cornet.

On New Year’s Eve 1912, he was arrested and sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. There, under the tutelage of Peter Davis, he learned how to properly play the cornet, eventually becoming the leader of the Waif’s Home Brass Band. Released from the Waif’s Home in 1914, Armstrong set his sights on becoming a professional musician. Mentored by the city’s top cornetist, Joe “King” Oliver, Armstrong soon became one of the most in-demand cornetists in town, eventually working steadily on Mississippi riverboats.

In 1922, King Oliver sent for Armstrong to join his band in Chicago. Armstrong and Oliver became the talk of the town with their intricate two-cornet breaks and started making records together in 1923. By that point, Armstrong began dating the pianist in the band, Lillian Hardin. In 1924, Armstrong married Hardin, who urged Armstrong to leave Oliver and try to make it on his own. A year in New York with Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra proved unsatisfying so Armstrong returned to Chicago in 1925 and began making records under his own name for the first time.

The records by Louis Armstrong and His Five–and later, Hot Seven–are the most influential in jazz. Armstrong’s improvised solos transformed jazz from an ensemble-based music into a soloist’s art, while his expressive vocals incorporated innovative bursts of scat singing and an underlying swing feel. By the end of the decade, the popularity of the Hot Fives and Sevens was enough to send Armstrong back to New York, where he appeared in the popular Broadway revue, “Hot Chocolates.” He soon began touring and never really stopped until his death in 1971.

The 1930s also found Armstrong achieving great popularity on radio, in films, and with his recordings. He performed in Europe for the first time in 1932 and returned in 1933, staying for over a year because of a damaged lip. Back in America in 1935, Armstrong hired Joe Glaser as his manager and began fronting a big band, recording pop songs for Decca, and appearing regularly in movies. He began touring the country in the 1940s.

The many years of constant touring eventually wore down Armstrong, who had his first heart attack in 1959 and returned to intensive care at Beth Israel Hospital for heart and kidney trouble in 1968. Doctors advised him not to play but Armstrong continued to practice every day in his Corona, Queens home, where he had lived with his fourth wife, Lucille, since 1943. He returned to performing in 1970 but it was too much, too soon and he passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971, a few months after his final engagement at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Al Bowlly - Little Dutch Mill (1934)

the1920sand30s 2022-02-06 | Performed by: Ray Noble And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Al Bowlly

Full Song Title: Little Dutch Mill

Recorded in: 1934

Raymond Stanley "Ray" Noble (born 17 December 1903 – died 2 April 1978) was a popular English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, songwriter, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor, he also performed in the United States.

Albert Allick Bowlly (born 7 January 1898 – died 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African–British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930's in Britain.

Born on 7 January 1899 in Mozambique, Albert first became interested in music when living in Johannesburg where he grew up. By his teens, he was 'music mad', running a barber's shop by day and spending his evenings singing and playing banjo and ukulele. In 1922, Bowlly joined Jimmy Clark's and Edgar Adeler's dance band organization and a year later went on tour with Adeler's band before joining the Jimmy Lequime Orchestra in India, firstly as banjoist and later as vocalist. It was in Germany, in 1927, that Bowlly made his first recordings and established his reputation as a singer.

Following an invitation to join Fred Elizalde's band at the Savoy Hotel as vocalist and guitarist, described as 'the most advanced group playing in Britain at the time', Al Bowlly arrived in London in July 1928. Bowlly toured and recorded with Elizalde's band, while adding to his rather meager income with freelance work. From late 1930, he became a regular vocalist with Ray Noble's New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, HMV's house band, and recorded more than 200 songs with the group by 1934, including 'Goodnight, Sweetheart' and 'The Very Thought of You', which helped him become increasingly recognized as a solo singer.

In January 1931, Bowlly met another bandleader, Roy Fox, Musical Director of the Decca Record Company. Over the next twenty months, Bowlly recorded more than 150 titles with Decca, and in spring 1931 became a member of Fox's new band, established at the Monseigneur Restaurant in the basement of 215-217 Piccadilly. With its popular house band, the Monseigneur soon became one of London's most fashionable attractions with shows broadcast on the BBC every Tuesday, and by the end of the year Bowlly had become one of Britain's top band singers. Known for his originality, Bowlly's good looks and charisma were admired by men and women alike. Lew Stone's new Monseigneur Dance Orchestra, which replaced Fox's band, had a major influence on Bowlly's career, encouraging him to perfect his technique and relieving him of guitar playing duties so he could concentrate on his singing. Bowlly's first record with Stone, 'Nightfall'/'Rain, Rain Go Away' (October 1932), was the first in a series of over a hundred set down in 1932-38. At the peak of his career in 1933 his signature tune was 'Some of These Days', though his rendition of 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' became even more popular.

Between September 1934 and December 1936, Bowlly toured America with Ray Noble, and made a number of recordings, the best-known being 'My Melancholy Baby' (March 1935). It was a busy time. He was given his own NBC radio series, recorded (unused) footage for a film, The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935), and met his idol, Bing Crosby. Despite his popularity and high earnings, Bowlly was unhappy and disappointed; frustrated at his inability to strike out as a solo star and homesick for London. During his stay in England, Bowlly was struck by illness and he lost his voice, in August 1937 he left England to have a throat operation in New York.

By January 1938, Bowlly had returned to London with a renewed energy and made a number of recordings, including a series with Lew Stone which is seen to equal or even surpass those of 1932-34. In all, he recorded just over 600 78rpm records between 1927 and 1941. He also made broadcasts with Stone's band, continuing to do so until 1941, and in 1938-39 made a series of high-quality recordings with the bandleader Geraldo, including 'Never Break a Promise'. However, times were changing - 'society' dance bands were becoming increasingly unfashionable and the outbreak of the Second World War meant there was less work around.

On the morning of 17 April 1941 - a night of very heavy bombing in London's West End - Bowlly was one of three residents of Dukes Court killed by the blast of a landmine which fell in nearby Jermyn Street and blew in the block's windows. He was found lying next to his bed, having refused to retreat to the building's shelter. Bowlly was buried in a communal grave at Westminster City Council cemetery, Hanwell.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

Al Bowlly - The Very Thought Of You (1934)

the1920sand30s 2022-02-06 | Performed by: Ray Noble And His Orchestra

Vocalist: Al Bowlly

Full Song Title: The Very Thought Of You

Recorded in: 1934

Flip side of: youtu.be/nbyYaqx3f60

Raymond Stanley "Ray" Noble (born 17 December 1903 – died 2 April 1978) was a popular English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, songwriter, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor, he also performed in the United States.

Albert Allick Bowlly (born 7 January 1898 – died 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African–British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930's in Britain.

Born on 7 January 1899 in Mozambique, Albert first became interested in music when living in Johannesburg where he grew up. By his teens, he was 'music mad', running a barber's shop by day and spending his evenings singing and playing banjo and ukulele. In 1922, Bowlly joined Jimmy Clark's and Edgar Adeler's dance band organization and a year later went on tour with Adeler's band before joining the Jimmy Lequime Orchestra in India, firstly as banjoist and later as vocalist. It was in Germany, in 1927, that Bowlly made his first recordings and established his reputation as a singer.

Following an invitation to join Fred Elizalde's band at the Savoy Hotel as vocalist and guitarist, described as 'the most advanced group playing in Britain at the time', Al Bowlly arrived in London in July 1928. Bowlly toured and recorded with Elizalde's band, while adding to his rather meager income with freelance work. From late 1930, he became a regular vocalist with Ray Noble's New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, HMV's house band, and recorded more than 200 songs with the group by 1934, including 'Goodnight, Sweetheart' and 'The Very Thought of You', which helped him become increasingly recognized as a solo singer.

In January 1931, Bowlly met another bandleader, Roy Fox, Musical Director of the Decca Record Company. Over the next twenty months, Bowlly recorded more than 150 titles with Decca, and in spring 1931 became a member of Fox's new band, established at the Monseigneur Restaurant in the basement of 215-217 Piccadilly. With its popular house band, the Monseigneur soon became one of London's most fashionable attractions with shows broadcast on the BBC every Tuesday, and by the end of the year Bowlly had become one of Britain's top band singers. Known for his originality, Bowlly's good looks and charisma were admired by men and women alike. Lew Stone's new Monseigneur Dance Orchestra, which replaced Fox's band, had a major influence on Bowlly's career, encouraging him to perfect his technique and relieving him of guitar playing duties so he could concentrate on his singing. Bowlly's first record with Stone, 'Nightfall'/'Rain, Rain Go Away' (October 1932), was the first in a series of over a hundred set down in 1932-38. At the peak of his career in 1933 his signature tune was 'Some of These Days', though his rendition of 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' became even more popular.

Between September 1934 and December 1936, Bowlly toured America with Ray Noble, and made a number of recordings, the best-known being 'My Melancholy Baby' (March 1935). It was a busy time. He was given his own NBC radio series, recorded (unused) footage for a film, The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935), and met his idol, Bing Crosby. Despite his popularity and high earnings, Bowlly was unhappy and disappointed; frustrated at his inability to strike out as a solo star and homesick for London. During his stay in England, Bowlly was struck by illness and he lost his voice, in August 1937 he left England to have a throat operation in New York.

By January 1938, Bowlly had returned to London with a renewed energy and made a number of recordings, including a series with Lew Stone which is seen to equal or even surpass those of 1932-34. In all, he recorded just over 600 78rpm records between 1927 and 1941. He also made broadcasts with Stone's band, continuing to do so until 1941, and in 1938-39 made a series of high-quality recordings with the bandleader Geraldo, including 'Never Break a Promise'. However, times were changing - 'society' dance bands were becoming increasingly unfashionable and the outbreak of the Second World War meant there was less work around.

On the morning of 17 April 1941 - a night of very heavy bombing in London's West End - Bowlly was one of three residents of Dukes Court killed by the blast of a landmine which fell in nearby Jermyn Street and blew in the block's windows. He was found lying next to his bed, having refused to retreat to the building's shelter. Bowlly was buried in a communal grave at Westminster City Council cemetery, Hanwell.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
______________________
Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.