McHUGH-FIELDS: Doin’ the New Low Down (3 tks). Diga Diga Doo (2 tks). Futuristic Rhythm (2 tks). Out Where the Blues Begins. PALMER: Don’t Mess Around With Me (2 tks). BERNARD-BLACK-FISHER: Dardanella. PALMER-MILLS: I Couldn’t If I Wanted To. RIDDICK-SMITH: Since You Went Away. PETTIS-MILLS: What a Night. HANDY: St. Louis Blues. VAN EPS: Some Fun. WALLER-RAZAF-BROOKS: Can’t We Get Together? (2 tks). Sweet Savannah Sue (2 tks). Ain’t Misbehavin’. CARMICHAEL: Harvey. March of the Hoodlums. Stardust / various musicians, including Jimmy McPartland, Al Harris, ct; Bill Moore, Mannie Klein, Phil Napoleon, Leo McConville, tpt; Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Miff Mole, tb; Fud Livingston, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Pee Wee Russell, cl; Jack Pettis, C-sax; Gil Rodin, Arnold Brilhart, a-sax; Larry Binyon, t-sax; Vic Breidis, Frank Signorelli, Hoagy Carmichael, pno; Eddie Lang, gt; Dick Morgan, Dick McDonough, bjo; Harry Goodman, Joe Tarto, tuba; Ben Pollack, Chauncey Morehouse, dm; Elizabeth Welch, voc; Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, tap dancing/voc / Retrieval RTR 79082
In the late 1920s there were three “recording-only” jazz bands that sold decent amounts of their records: The California Ramblers, The Chocolate Dandies, and Mills’ Hotsy-Totsy Gang. Although the first two had sometimes starry lineups of jazz soloists, I never really cared for most of their discs because the arrangements were stocks and not very interesting. The Hotsy-Totsy Gang, on the other hand, generally used interesting charts.
The first dozen sides on this compendium are played by the Ben Pollack Orchestra, meaning that we get young Benny Goodman, Jimmy MacPartland, Jack Teagarden and such neglected pioneers as saxists Jack Pettis and Larry Binyon. Oddly, the one Pollack band member missing here is trombonist Glenn Miller, whose excellent arrangements these most certainly are. Considering the fact that Victor Records, their usual label, generally stifled the Pollack band’s jazz quotient, it’s really nice to hear them playing with such brio here.
Another pleasant surprise, in tracks one, three and four is the singing of one Elizabeth Welch. When you think of how God-awful many 1920s “jazz” singers were, it’s nice to hear someone who could actually swing. The alternate takes, made for the German market, omitted the vocal in Doin the New Low Down entirely and the full-chorus vocal in Diga Diga Doo because they were in English.
One thing that impresses you immediately with this release is the stupendous remastering job. Each and every track sounds crystal clear; the treble isn’t muffled, the bass isn’t tubby, Pollack’s cymbal work is at just the right level of crispness. My hat’s off to audio restoration wizard Harry Coster!
Goodman and Teagarden, who inexplicably sat out the first session, are present in the latter two sessions, but in the third fellow-New Orleansian drummer Ray Bauduc, who later rose to prominence in Bob Crosby’s Dixieland-styled band, replaces Pollack on drums. Miller is also gone as arranger, replaced by such competent but less interesting talents as Bob Haring (also a bandleader at the time), Don Wilkinson, Elliott Jacoby and Irving Mills himself. An interesting presence is Dick Morgan on banjo. For those who don’t know, Morgan was later a comedy star for Spike Jones’ City Slickers, where he was familiarly known as “Icky Face.” Pollack sings on Dardanella in his typically sappy style—he was a fine drummer but an over-sugary singer—but the record is salvaged by the hot ensemble chorus that follows it. Mills sings on I Couldn’t If I Wanted To, and although his voice was a bit thin he could swing. On this one we hear a rare alto sax solo by Goodman and a full-chorus of trombone from Big T. Since You Went Away is a sappy ballad that even McPartland’s Bix-like fills behind Mills’ vocal couldn’t save, but Jimmy’s later solo on it is fine.
Ironically, Mills’ arrangement of Futuristic Rhythm is pretty snappy, not bad for a guy who was mostly a music publisher and promoter. Smith Ballew, a well-known singer-bandleader of the time, pops in as vocalist. He’s not as corny-sounding as Pollack but not as hip as Mills. McPartland and Goodman have a chase chorus but play it fairly straight, as does Teagarden in his eight bars. This session, however, sounds more like a jam session and less like the Pollack band than normal.
The next session features a combo which was pretty much the (studio recording only) Dorsey Brothers’ band of the time: Bill Moore on trumpet. T.D. on trombone and occasional second trumpet, J.D. on clarinet and alto sax, Al Goering on piano and Merrill Kline on bass. Surprisingly, the band sounds funkier and more relaxed than the Pollack group; there’s a particularly interesting violin-muted trumpet duo on Since You Went Away, and second pianist Jack Cornell surprises with some really hot accordion playing on both this track and St. Louis Blues. Tommy’s trombone fills really swing, but Jimmy’s clarinet just plays virtuosic arpeggios.
After this, we hear a band with two fine trumpeters, Mannie Klein and Phil Napoleon, the great Miff Mole on trombone, Larry Binyon back on tenor, Frank Signorelli on piano, Joe Tarto on bass and Chauncey Morehouse on drums. The anonymous arranger, if there was one, just gives us standard-sounding arrangements. The best solos on Some Fun are brief ones by Mannie Klein and Mole. The first takes of Can’t We Get Together and Sweet Savannah Sue are spoiled by the nasal, insipid singing of one Lillian Morton. Signorelli’s piano takes the chorus on the non-vocal (German) takes. By and large, however, this was a session with more jazz promise than it delivered, a real disappointment.
Two months later we get mostly the same band except with only one trumpet (the notes don’t indicate whether it’s Klein or Signorelli) and the addition of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson tap dancing and singing. Robinson almost sounds like a jazz drummer on Ain’t Misbehavin’, creating wonderful arabesques with his feet. In his vocal he rewrites the lyrics to suit himself, also leaving out notes and beats. A surprisingly jazzy performance from a dancer who was basically known as merely an entertainer. Doin’ the New Low Down was one of Bojangles’ showcase numbers from Blackbirds of 1928. I remember hearing this record on an LP of hits from Blackbirds many moons ago; it’s wonderful to hear it once again.
A little over two weeks later, the same band is back—this time with Leo McConville as second trumpet and both Jimmy Dorsey and Pee Wee Russell added—to back rising star Hoagy Carmichael on three of his own numbers, the most famous of which is, of course, Stardust. The arrangements are much snappier than in July, with Carmichael’s hot ragtime piano (he never was a real jazz player) and vocals prominent. Harvey is just a cute novelty tune but March of the Hoodlums is a fairly hot number with excellent McConville and Klein trumpet solos, an interesting chromatic break, and fine solos by J.D. on alto and Russell on clarinet. This version of Stardust is not the song’s premiere—that was a piano solo by Carmichael—but it’s probably the first band recording ever made. It’s played fairly straight at the original medium-bright tempo (later slowed down by Isham Jones, who made it a hit) but is still an interesting curio.
All in all, then, a mixed bag with a few mediocre tracks and one really poor session but also some very interesting tracks and moments. I teeter on recommending it because ‘20s jazz has a very specialized but narrow audience, yet the highs on this set tend to outweigh the lows.
—© 2017 Lynn René Bayley
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