Here's another set of jazz records that can't really be considered rare, but which are somewhat obscure. The Varsity Seven was a studio band of all-star jazz players who made two sessions (December, 1939 and January, 1940) for Eli Oberstein's Varsity label. Despite the high quality of the music, these sessions have only been reissued sporadically (on Savoy and other labels) and are not well known.
Oberstein was something of a shady figure in the record business. He worked for Victor Records for a decade beginning in 1929, after which he left to form the United States Record Corporation, whose main labels were Varsity and Royale. Varsity was the discount label, selling for 35 cents per disc, while Royale records sold for the more standard 75 cents. Many of the early Varsity releases were drawn from the catalogs of dormant labels like Paramount, Gennett, and Crown - whether the titles were legally licensed or not.
But Oberstein also wrangled some fairly big pop and jazz names into recording for Varsity, including Harry James and Buddy Clark. Along the way, he recorded The Varsity Seven. I haven't been able to come up with much background information on how these sessions came about, but I assume that they were organized by either Benny Carter or Leonard Feather. Carter was always a reliable choice to organize a casual jazz session, and one of the tunes is his composition. Feather also wrote one of the tunes, and he usually managed to work one of his compositions into record dates that he arranged.
In any case, the band is top-notch and the music is generally excellent. "Easy Rider," from the first session, was selected by George Simon of Metronome magazine as one of the best records of 1940: "Coleman Hawkins' tenor leads an all-star group that hits a fine tempo and boasts of a magnificent vocal by Jeanne Burns and some good Danny Polo clarineting."
Most contemporary listeners will be less enthralled with Ms. Burns' vocalizing than Simon was. But the mighty blues singer Joe Turner sings on two titles from the second session. And if Jeanne Burns is not really magnificent, the band certainly is. I was particularly impressed with the solo contributions by guitarist Ulysses Livingston, whom I knew as a solid rhythm guitarist, but not as a soloist.
The great Benny Carter mostly plays his secondary instrument, trumpet, here, only offering an alto saxophone solo on "Scratch My Back." That makes this session another example of what a wonderful trumpet player Carter was. Incidentally, Carter is listed on the labels as "Billy Carton," presumably because he was under contract to the Vocalion label at the time.
So here are a couple of wonderful sessions that reside in that no-man's land of obscurity in which so much classic jazz finds itself. I have presented the music in order of recording.
Danny Polo - clarinet
Coleman Hawkins - tenor sax
Joe Sullivan - piano
Ulysses Livingston - guitar, vocal asides (2)
Artie Shapiro - bass
George Wettling - drums
Jeanne Burns (1, 3, 4), Joe Turner (5, 6) - vocals
December 14, 1939, NYC:
Scratch My Back (Leonard Feather)
January 15, 1940, NYC:
A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
Pom Pom (Benny Carter)
