Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Here is a rare example of a very early direct cut "acetate" disc recording, featuring a piano version of "Tiger Rag", made in London in c. 1933. This is not a "dub" but a direct cut recording in a recording studio.
Whoever the pianist is, he's pretty good. In fact, I'm wondering if this is a piano duet (two pianists at the same piano?) as there seems to be too much going on across the keyboard for even the most dexterous performer. Perhaps the pianists out there could give their opinion on this.
Interestingly, the first 16 bars of the second chorus quote part of Dorsey's famous "Tiger Rag" alto sax solo, which he recorded several times with various dance bands, as well as an individual alto sax solo with accompaniment for Decca in London in 1930. The quote the pianist uses can be heard in the last chorus of Dorsey's Decca recording.
This is almost certainly the second oldest example of a piano recording of "Tiger Rag". The first was by Art Tatum, recorded at Brunswick studios in New York on March 21st, 1933 (Brunswick 6543). On the other side of the acetate disc, the same pianist (or pianists) plays the song "Sweep", which was composed by Vivian Ellis in 1933. So we know that the recording cannot be earlier than 1933. It could possibly be 1934, but in that year the Marguerite Sound Studios became Marguerite Sound System (subsequently abbreviated to M.S.S), so 1933 seems more likely as the date of the recording.
The Marguerite Sound Studios were founded by Cecil Watts at the start of the 1930s, operating from 99a Charing Cross Road (the building still exists). Originally, Watts and his wife would hand coat the aluminium substrate discs, but later on, as the process was refined and production increased, this was carried out by a coating machine.
As M.S.S., Marguerite Sound System became well known as makers of acetate discs, supplying the BBC, recording companies and the general public. The company also manufactured associated disc cutting/recording equipment, including portable disc recorders for the BBC, such as the Midget Recorder used by war correspondents during World War II. M.S.S. was sold to EMI in 1961 and production was closed down shortly afterwards (EMI already manufactured disc cutting machines). By then, magnetic recording tape and tape recorders had almost completely superseded acetate discs and disc cutting machines.
The use of the word "acetate" in connection with these discs is actually a misnomer, since the coating, or lacquer, is in fact made of nitrocellulose not acetate. The fact that acetone was added to the nitrocellulose to make the lacquer might explain why the discs became known as "acetates" rather than "lacquers", but there appears to be no definitive answer to this conundrum.
In conclusion, I would like to thank fellow collectors/researchers Norman Field and Mike Thomas for their help.
Here is a rare example of a very early direct cut "acetate" disc recording, featuring a piano version of "Tiger Rag", made in London in c. 1933. This is not a "dub" but a direct cut recording in a recording studio.
Whoever the pianist is, he's pretty good. In fact, I'm wondering if this is a piano duet (two pianists at the same piano?) as there seems to be too much going on across the keyboard for even the most dexterous performer. Perhaps the pianists out there could give their opinion on this.
Interestingly, the first 16 bars of the second chorus quote part of Dorsey's famous "Tiger Rag" alto sax solo, which he recorded several times with various dance bands, as well as an individual alto sax solo with accompaniment for Decca in London in 1930. The quote the pianist uses can be heard in the last chorus of Dorsey's Decca recording.
This is almost certainly the second oldest example of a piano recording of "Tiger Rag". The first was by Art Tatum, recorded at Brunswick studios in New York on March 21st, 1933 (Brunswick 6543). On the other side of the acetate disc, the same pianist (or pianists) plays the song "Sweep", which was composed by Vivian Ellis in 1933. So we know that the recording cannot be earlier than 1933. It could possibly be 1934, but in that year the Marguerite Sound Studios became Marguerite Sound System (subsequently abbreviated to M.S.S), so 1933 seems more likely as the date of the recording.
The Marguerite Sound Studios were founded by Cecil Watts at the start of the 1930s, operating from 99a Charing Cross Road (the building still exists). Originally, Watts and his wife would hand coat the aluminium substrate discs, but later on, as the process was refined and production increased, this was carried out by a coating machine.
As M.S.S., Marguerite Sound System became well known as makers of acetate discs, supplying the BBC, recording companies and the general public. The company also manufactured associated disc cutting/recording equipment, including portable disc recorders for the BBC, such as the Midget Recorder used by war correspondents during World War II. M.S.S. was sold to EMI in 1961 and production was closed down shortly afterwards (EMI already manufactured disc cutting machines). By then, magnetic recording tape and tape recorders had almost completely superseded acetate discs and disc cutting machines.
The use of the word "acetate" in connection with these discs is actually a misnomer, since the coating, or lacquer, is in fact made of nitrocellulose not acetate. The fact that acetone was added to the nitrocellulose to make the lacquer might explain why the discs became known as "acetates" rather than "lacquers", but there appears to be no definitive answer to this conundrum.
In conclusion, I would like to thank fellow collectors/researchers Norman Field and Mike Thomas for their help.
