Stokowsky's 1921 Tannhäuser Overture

Lengthy, complex classical compositions posed difficulties for record companies in the pre-1925 acoustic era. A 12-inch record side could only contain four-and-a-half or (at the most) five minutes of music, so longer compositions had to be split over multiple record sides. And the acoustic recording process was fairly kind to strong vocalists, but was woefully inadequate in terms of capturing the timbre of instrumental ensembles. Orchestral music fared particularly poorly in the acoustic era, with record companies generally limiting orchestras to short, familiar warhorses, often edited to fit on one record side.

But as I've mentioned before, Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, understood the recording process better than most musicians. His are some of the best-sounding orchestral recordings of the acoustic era. And while he mostly offered shorter works and single movements (designed to fit on one record side) for his acoustic records, he was bold enough to record some longer pieces with the Philadelphia Symphony before it was common to do so.

Stokowski had been making records for four years when he recorded Wagner's 13-minute "Tannhäuser Overture" in late 1921. It's spread over three single-sided Victor Red Seal discs - sold separately, since the concept of the record "album" only became common with the advent of electrical recording. Stokowski leads the Philadelphians in a magnificent reading of Wagner's piece; its impact overcomes the limitations of the archaic recording process.

I have combined the three sides into one file below. The original issues are:

Part One - Victor 74758: matrix C-22808, take 10; recorded November 7, 1921
Part Two - Victor 74759: matrix C-22814, take 7; recorded December 5, 1921
Part Three - Victor 74768: matrix C-24999, take 2; recorded November 7, 1921.

All parts were recorded in Victor's Camden, New Jersey studios.

Philadelphia SO/Stokowski: Tannhäuser Overture

Gene Fosdick's Hoosiers - Complete

Gene Fosdick's Hoosiers was one of several excellent jazz bands that seemed to spring up from the fertile ground of the Midwest in the early 1920s. The Hoosiers recorded nine sides (at four sessions) for Vocalion in late 1922 and early 1923. An alternate take of one of the sides also exists: the version of "Farewell Blues" issued in Europe on the Beltona and Homocord labels is different than the Vocalion take. The nine Vocalion recordings were reissued as one side of an LP on the excellent reissue label Retrieval in 1979, but the music of the Hoosiers remains little-known. And to my knowledge, the European "Farewell Blues" has never been issued with the Vocalions.

Describing Fosdick's Hoosiers as a Midwestern band may not be really accurate. Fosdick was from Liberty, Indiana, but his recordings were all made in New York City. The personnel is not known in its entirety, and the names listed in the Rust discography are obscure, for the most part. Besides the leader's clarinet and saxophone, Rust lists Joe Rose on cornet, duo pianists Gerald Finney and Will Lanin, Ray McDermott on banjo, and drummer John Sonin. And then there's Gene Fosdick's younger brother Dudley; more about him later.

In his notes to that Retrieval LP, Mark Berresford puts forth a personnel that includes members of the Original Memphis Five, including cornetist Phil Napoleon, for all but the first session. Before I was aware of that, the clarinetist on the last session sounded remarkably like the OM5's Jimmy Lytell to me.  In any case, the personnel does differ from session to session, as does the musical approach.

The first two sessions feature a well-integrated three-piece saxophone section, and the style leans toward hot dance music, although jazz breaks and solos are featured. The passages featuring the two pianists, seemingly playing the same instrument, are some of the most dated elements of the first session. By the third session, there are two "melody" reeds, doubling clarinet and various saxes. The bass instrument seems to be a bass saxophone until the last session, when a tuba takes over the bass duties. By that last session, the Hoosiers have become an unabashed jazz band, and all pop/dance elements have fallen by the wayside. The European take of "Farewell Blues," taken from a German Homocord record, is broadly similar to the Vocalion version, but differs in enough details to let us know that there was some real improvisation going on. The reverse of the Homocord is "Railroad Man" - the same take as on Vocalion.

I've barely mentioned Dudley Fosdick, whose name has to be in the running for the least jazz-musician-like moniker ever. At only 20 years of age, he was in some ways the star of the first two sessions. (He doesn't appear on the last two dates.) In spite of the fact that his chosen instrument was the mellophone, that awkward cousin of the French horn, he became far more well-known that his brother and had a long career in music. To jazz buffs, he is probably best known for his contributions to records by Red Nichols and Miff Mole. His solo on "One Night In June" is a wild, virtuoso statement, and pretty advanced for 1922.

Here are the complete recordings of Gene Fosdick's Hoosiers in chronological order, with recording dates and details about the source records. The usual caveats concerning 78 RPM records apply: the records are in various states of wear, and there is surface noise. I have been sparing with noise reduction. I wish all the records had been in as good condition as "Railroad Man."

Novermber, 1922; NYC

10312            One Night in June (Vocalion 14473)
10313            Lost (A Wonderful Girl) (Vocalion 14473 - a different copy from the above)

December, 1922; NYC

10525            You've Got to See Mamma Ev'ry Night (Vocalion 14496)

January, 1923; NYC

10635            Peggy Dear (Vocalion 15403)
10636            Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (Vocalion 14496)
10641            Apple Sauce (Vocalion 15403)

March, 1923; NYC

11025             Farewell Blues (Vocalion 14535)

11026             Farewell Blues (Homocord B359 - as Homocord Jazz Band)

11027 or 8     Railroad Man (Blues) (Vocalion 14585 - reverse is by Ben Bernie Orchestra)

11030             Aunt Hagar's Blues (Vocalion 14535)

An Early Attempt at HIP

In the classical music world, the acronym HIP stands for historically informed performance. HIP attempts to use the performance style and instrument designs of the period during which each performed work was composed.


An early manifestation of the HIP movement was the American Society of Ancient Instruments, founded in 1929 by Ben Stad. Stad, a Dutch-born, Philadelphia-based musician,  became interested in early string instruments while still in Holland, and amassed a collection of early Baroque-era viols. The personnel and instrumentation of the ensemble, which was nearly a "family band," was:

Ben Stad - viola d'amore
Joseph Brodo - quinton (five string viol)
Josef Smit - viola de gamba
Maurice Stad - bass de viole
Flora Stad - harpsichord.

The Society recorded a fair amount for Victor during the 1930s, and some of these recordings have made it into the digital realm. However, Victor album M 271, titled Bach-Handel Album, has not been available digitally, and it's an interesting one. The specially-designed album book holds three ten-inch records and one twelve-incher. The album's musical centerpiece is a Suite by Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, one of the most accomplished of Johann Sebastian Bach's sons. The three-movement Suite, which is not identified by key or opus number, is spread  across two of the ten-inch records and one side of the larger disc.

The other side of the twelve-inch record has a Sinfonia from the elder Bach's Cantata #35, Geist und Seele. The final ten-inch disc contains a rather odd choice for a string ensemble: Handel's Firework Music. Handel's suite was written for a large ensemble of winds and percussion; at the request of King George II, there were "no fiddles" at the premiere.

Which brings us to the question of how "historically informed" these recordings are. Research into early music was in its infancy in 1935, and Stad seemed to feel that playing these compositions on instruments from the time (or slightly before the time) of their composition was good enough. Without knowing more about the C.P.E. Bach Suite, I can't judge the "accuracy" of this performance. But the Bach cantata excerpt is obviously an arrangement, since the original scoring included oboes. And the performance of the Firework Music by a small consort of viols is, well, simultaneously charming and ridiculous.

But this was a noble attempt for the time, and it makes for enjoyable listening, whether it's historically accurate or not. My copy of this album, found at an estate sale a few years ago, is in very nice condition. The records are pressed on "Z" shellac, the higher-quality material Victor used for some classical pressings in the mid-1930s. For what it's worth, all four records are pressed from "A" stampers - meaning that they are early pressings of these records. Victor often went through scores of stampers for popular records; I wonder if they ever wore out the "A" stampers of this album, which probably had a limited appeal.

I have joined the parts of the first two movements of the C.P.E. Bach Suite, since they were each spread over two sides. Apologies for the slight rumbles at the beginning of the third movement and of the cantata "Sinfonia" - these are caused by a slight warp in the twelve-inch record.

The Bach-Handel Album was recorded in Victor's Camden, New Jersey Studio No. 2 on May 6, 1935.

C.P.E. Bach: Suite, Movement 1 - Allegro Moderato (Victor 1714)
C.P.E. Bach: Suite, Movement 2 - Andante Lento Molto (Victor 1715)
C.P.E. Bach: Suite, Movement 3 - Allegretto (Victor 8720, side one)

J.S. Bach: Second Sinfonia from Cantata 35 (Victor 8720, side two)

Handel: Firework Music - Allegro (La Rejouissance) / Largo alla Sicilliana (La Paix) (Victor 1716, side one)
Handel: Firework Music - Bourree / Minuet / Minuet No. 2 (Victor 1716, side two)

Klezmer Swing by Dave Tarras

I featured a record by the great klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras in an earlier post. A later set of Tarras records have been more written about than actually heard: his 1946 Savoy klezmer swing discs.

Another fine clarinetist, Sam Musiker, became Tarras's son-in-law in 1941, when he married Brouny Tarras. Musiker was as adept at playing jazz as klezmer; he had been a member of Gene Krupa's big band. Musiker and Tarras came up with the idea of putting out some records which combined straight klezmer with swing. Musiker did the arrangements, being careful to feature Tarras only during the klezmer sections, since the older clarinetist never developed much of a feel for jazz.

Musiker and Tarras sold Herman Lubinsky, the owner of Savoy Records, on the idea. The ensemble is often described as a "big band," but it seems to consist of a small saxophone section, one or two trumpets, Tarras's clarinet, and rhythm section. Musiker gets some pretty rich textures out of the saxophone section, though - he makes the most of the instruments available.

I have seen these sessions dated as "1946 and 1947," and one source claims that five records resulted from the the two sessions. Michel Ruppli's Savoy label discography makes it clear that there were eight sides recorded, resulting in four records, and that the two sessions were held on April 1 and May 5, 1946. The records were issued in a special international series as Savoy 8001 through 8004. Only three other records, Italian songs by Frankie Melton, were ever issued in Savoy's 8000 series. The first two records have a label credit to "Lou Lockett's Orch.," but Mr. Lockett's contribution to the records is unclear.

The Savoy sides didn't make much of a splash at the time. According to Tarras, they were too traditional for jazz fans and too modern for klezmer fans. Since they records didn't sell well, they are somewhat difficult to find these days; it took me years to track down the complete set. Two of the sides have been reissued on Yazoo's CD collection of Tarras's work, but the rest have remained elusive.

But here at last are the complete Savoy klezmer swing sessions by Dave Tarras, presented as originally issued. The first two records are from the April 1 session; the others are from May 5. Apologies - there are a couple of skips toward the end of "Send David" that I could not eliminate, even after much experimentation with different size styli and tracking weights.

Savoy 8001: Good Luck (Moseltuf)
                     Hebrew Dance

Savoy 8002: Eli Eli
                     Let's All Dance

Savoy 8003: Freilachs
                     Send David

Savoy 8004: Kosatchok
                     Komarinska 

"Little" Records by Wilbur Sweatman

Pioneering jazz clarinetist Wilbur Sweatman (1882-1961) often gets a bad rap, in my opinion. Almost every mention of him in the jazz literature points out that part of his act involved playing three clarinets at once. (Yes, that's hokey, but it was probably pretty entertaining.) In recent years there has been more recognition of his many recordings, though. From 1918 to 1920 Sweatman's Original Jazz Band was Columbia's answer to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Columbia released 24 sides by Sweatman during this period; they all appear on the archival label Archeophone's CD Jazzin' Straight Through Paradise.

Before the Columbia period, Sweatman recorded for Emerson and Pathe, and after 1920 for Gennett, Edison, Grey Gull, Victor, and Vocalion, making for an impressive recording career which lasted from 1916 to 1935. (And that's not counting a possible cylinder recording made for a Minneapolis department store in 1903 or 1904.) And during many of Sweatman's Columbia sessions, he also made sides for the Little Wonder label - more on that later.

Besides the three-clarinet trick, the other thing usually mentioned about Wilbur Sweatman is that he wrote "Down Home Rag," a popular and much-recorded composition, covered by everyone from James Reese Europe to Benny Goodman. "Down Home Rag" was one of the two titles recorded by Sweatman in 1916 for the Emerson label. Emerson issued records in all sorts of sizes, and "Down Home Rag" was issued on five-and-a-half-inch and seven-inch discs. The seven-inch version can be found below. Sweatman is accompanied by the oddly-named "Emerson String Trio," which includes Nathan Glantz on saxophone and Malvin Franklin on piano, along with an anonymous violinist. The flip side of the record, not included here, is "Broadway Chicken Walk" by the Emerson Symphony Orchestra. Sweatman's rendition of his composition is an engaging example of hot ragtime.

In a previous post, I mentioned the Little Wonder label's shadowy relationship to Columbia Records. Columbia pressed these little records for Henry Waterson when he established the discount label in 1914, and the larger label took over Little Wonder completely by 1917. Columbia took care to hide its relationship to Little Wonder, though, and kept the public in the dark about its connection to the low-priced, five-and-a-half-inch discs. But Little Wonder's performers, whose names were almost never listed on the record labels, came exclusively from Columbia's artist roster. Artists were often offered a small amount of money to record shorter versions of the songs they had just recorded at Columbia sessions. Wilbur Sweatman's eight (or nine - one is uncertain) Little Wonder records came about less scrupulously: he was asked to record short "test" versions of his pieces, and expressed surprise when he learned, 35 years later, that these were issued on Little Wonder.

"Jazz Band" is the only artist identification on the labels of Sweatman's Little Wonder records. One record is particularly interesting: "Lonesome Road." This is a song by Will Nash, not the more familiar quasi-spiritual composed by Nat Shilkret and Gene Austin. Sweatman recorded three takes of the song for Columbia on February 5, 1919, but for whatever reason none were ever issued. The one-and-a-half-minute version was issued on Little Wonder, though, making #1092 the only one of Sweatman's Little Wonders that is a unique title without a longer Columbia equivalent. For that reason, "Lonesome Road" is the only Little Wonder side included on the Archeophone CD mentioned above. But Little Wonder issued two takes of the tune, and my copy is a different take from that on the CD.

"Lonesome Road" can be found below, along with a couple of other Sweatman Little Wonder sides. The label was not known for the quality of its pressings and there is wear and groove damage to be found on these recordings. But they are wonderful examples of early New York proto-jazz, and not easy to find on reissues. In addition, Little Wonder issued a record of a studio band (probably Prince's Band) playing a Sweatman composition, "Boogie Rag," in 1917 or so. It's another nice, hot rag, with a forward-looking title - the terms "boogie" or "boogie woogie" would not start becoming common until a decade or so later. This dance-band version of Sweatman's piece is well worth hearing.

I'm not going to list the personnel for the "Jazz Band" sides in detail, because those details are uncertain, and some of the personnel listings I've seen don't match what my ears are telling me in terms of instrumentation. But Cricket Smith, Arthur Briggs, or William Hicks are possibilities for the trumpet chair; John Reeves or Major Smith are likely trombonists, and Dan Parrish is probably the pianist. All were recorded in New York City. Enjoy these scarce Wilbur Sweatman "little" records.

Down Home Rag - Emerson 7161; c. December, 1916

Lonesome Road - Little Wonder 1092; February, 1919

Ev'rybody's Crazy 'bout the Doggone Blues - Little Wonder 851; March, 1918

Kansas City Man Blues - Little Wonder 1192; March, 1919

Boogie Rag - Little Wonder 706; c. 1917

Two James Scott Rags on Edison

James Scott (1885-1938) was part of the triumvirate of great ragtime composers, along with Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb. The title of one of his most famous compositions, "Grace and Beauty," is a good description of his music - it has a personal melodic lilt that gives it a different flavor than Joplin's music. Several of Scott's rags were quite popular in the early decades of the 20th century, and "Climax Rag" became something of a jazz standard. In later years however, Scott and his music were somewhat neglected until the ragtime revival of the 1970s.

Fred Van Eps (1878-1960) was an incredibly prolific banjo player in the early days of the record industry, recording for all the major labels and many of the smaller ones. Although he recorded much pop/dance music, he specialized in ragtime, recording dozens of examples of the genre early in the 20th century.

Van Eps turned to two James Scott rags, "Grace and Beauty" and "Ragtime Oriole," rather late in the day for ragtime. He recorded these two pieces for Pathe in September, 1923 and again for Edison the following February. Ragtime was no longer the revolutionary music it had seemed two decades earlier; jazz was now the latest thing. And the influence of jazz seems to have affected Van Eps' performance style: he has replaced the straight 16th notes in the sheet music with a slightly jerky attempt at a jazz "swing." One guesses that the composer would have admonished Van Eps with the title and subtitle of one of his later rags: "Don't Jazz Me - I'm Music."

In any case, it's interesting to hear these performances of Scott's rags performed during his lifetime. Accompanied by John Burckhardt on piano, here is Fred Van Eps, from Edison 51514, recorded in New York City on February 6, 1924:

Grace and Beauty

Ragtime Oriole

Punch Miller in 1944

Ernest "Punch" Miller (1894-1971) was one of those New Orleans trumpet players of around Louis Armstrong's age who were only a step or two behind Armstrong in terms of technique and improvising ability. (Others were Red Allen, Lee Collins, reportedly Kid Rena, who only recorded when past his prime, and supposedly Buddy Petit, who never recorded at all.) Punch (so nicknamed because his sister was Judy) left New Orleans in 1926 and made Chicago his home base for the next 30 years, although he frequently performed with traveling shows. He was no stranger to the Chicago recording studios in the 1920s, appearing on records with Albert Wynn, Tiny Parham, Jimmy Wade, and others. The Chicago nightclub scene kept him busy, and he made a few more recordings in the next couple of decades before returning to New Orleans in 1956.

With the second "New Orleans revival" of the 1960s and the opening of Preservation Hall, Miller became a much-loved elder statesman of traditional jazz, although his trumpet playing during this period was no match for his more youthful performances. His session for the 1962 Atlantic Jazz at Preservation Hall series is a lovely recording, but the trumpeting is far from the fiery near-Armstrong style Miller exhibited earlier in his career.

One mid-career session by Punch has proved to be elusive on reissues - his 1944 date for the Session label. I remember seeing these tracks on a CD at the Louisiana Music Factory in New Orleans, but I was confused about what session they came from, and thought that I already had them. By the time I realized that I "needed" those tracks, the CD was gone. But a year or so ago I got the two 78s from the session at a very reasonable price, so I'm able to present the music here.

Session was a small Chicago jazz label that operated from 1943 to about 1946. (The definitive website about the label is here.) The surfaces of my records are pretty quiet, but the Miller session is not well recorded. The sound is thin and pinched, and there is hardly any low end. I worked on the sound and boosted the bass a little, but you can't boost frequencies that just aren't there. The records have noticeable inner groove distortion, and one of my records has a slight warp which causes an audible "bump" for a few revolutions at the beginning of "West End Blues."

But it's a nice little session, with a quintet made up of mostly fellow New Orleanians. (I've always assumed clarinetist Artie Starks was from Louisiana, but I can find little information about him - surprisingly, since he recorded so frequently.) Miller's playing is strong without being spectacular, the rhythm section is solid, and Artie Starks is, well, himself - his playing always had at least a touch of what they used to call "gaspipe" style. I'm presenting the music in the order in which it was recorded, but "West End Blues" and "Boy in the Boat" were paired on Session 12-014, and "Sugar Foot Stomp" and "Muscle Shoals Blues" were on Session 12-015 - both 12" records. As noted earlier, Artie Starks (spelled wrong on the labels) is on clarinet, Richard M. Jones plays piano, John Lindsay is the bassist, and the drummer is Clifford "Snag" Jones. These sides were recorded in Chicago on June 12, 1944.

West End Blues

Sugar Foot Stomp

Muscle Shoals Blues

Boy in the Boat