This is my blog where I write about music, jewelry, and myself. Vaudeville, burlesque, blues, jazz, songs about baltimore, novelties, and whatever else I feel like posting. Mostly from my own LPs and 78s. Subscribe via any of the methods in the right-hand column. Please do not link directly to the mp3 files.
Show Biz: From Vaude To Video narrated (part 2 of 4)
non related image. I have this poster.
Part 2: 1920 To 1929 THE ROARING TWENTIES with the actual voices and music of The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Sophie Tucker, Paul Whiteman, George Gershwin, Irving Caesar, Franklin Bauer, Maurice Chevalier, Charles King, Helen Kane, Gene Austin, Wendel Hall, Vaughn De Leath, Jones & Hare.
George Jessel
Show biz Part 2
RCA Victor (1953)Next time: Part 3: 1929 To 1940 WHEN WALL STREET LAID AN EGG Part 4: 1940 To Date FROM TV TO 3-D Labels: jazz era
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Autumn Serenade
Happy November Sunday. Next week I'll hole up in the kitchen baking pies and swaying around to mellow old big band songs like this one. With the mild air outside and the smell of leaves I can't stop myself from remembering this same time of every notable year before this one. I had a great weekend actually. I went to see the Jesus Lizard and Double Dagger on Friday, and enjoyed company of old friends before a good show. On Saturday I went to see Twilight : New Moon and laughed a lot. I took my dog on long walks. I could wistfully remember this weekend next year, perhaps.  Harry James and his Orchestra
Autumn Serenade
Columbia 36838 (1945)Labels: big band, jazz era
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return of the Japanese China Night
 This is a piano-roll disc of "Scott Joplin's New Rag," on ebay. I wish it was a 78. I need to look and see if that song was ever recorded from a contemporary piano roll or on a 78. I have the version of Max Morath playing it and I like it a lot. I never learned any ragtime aside from The Entertainer. Outside of that it was all classical stuff, and I regret that. If I'd known about jazz when I was young enough to learn things I'd have learned to play it. I was recording some songs with this guy Tim Kaye a few years ago and he had the sheet music for all of Scott Joplin's songs, so I made him play it for me. And he did, because he can actually read music. Like.. look right at it and play it. There's a lot of people in the world who can do that but I've only ever met a few and I envy them all. If I could still learn things I'd learn "Scott Joplin's New Rag." But I'd also be happy to have an old scratchy record of it. No lovely clear tones recorded on a nice piano in the 1970s. I like having things on 78 because all the best music is on 78rpm records. I've known this from the first time I noticed them being played, at the Circle Bar in New Orleans, around Christmas 2000 or 2001. I finally found a few podcasts catering to my tastes. Unfortunately I don't think most of them are still being updated. I really like Shellac Stack but it hasn't been updated in months and seems defunct. It's good and always averages in the 45-50 minute range. The Sound of 78s is about as good but its only about 20 minutes long. The Antique Phonograph Music program on WFMU is over an hour but some of that hour is the beginning of the show after it. Plus, there's not archives of the show except in RealAudio. And now, an update on China Night. I noticed tonight that I have another record with the exact same song... sung in English. And the singer is "Grace Amemiya." Searching her name turns up very little but it's nice to know anyway. A friend commented that the song can be attributed to "Hamako something and the Columbia Orchestra." These answers probably consolidate somehow. It is with great regret that I warn you that the record is scratched. So I also put up the B-Side, a song which reminds me of an old Disney fairy tale cartoon.  Grace Amemiya
China Night
Apple Song
late 1940s - Nippon ColumbiaLabels: international, japanese, jazz era, podcasts
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Stars Salute Irving Berlin
 The Stars Salute Irving BerlinMay as well paste the link to this here. This was one of the first CDs I bought when I wanted to know more about old timey music. I knew Irving Berlin's name because Eva Cassidy sang his songs on "Live at Blues Alley." I got many new favorites and became aware of the awkward truths about the era I was discovering ("Shakin The Blues Away"). Apparently this CD is out of print because it's only sold used for $40 on Amazon. So here it is, for a limited time only. Labels: jazz era
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unicornmeat muxtape
I forgot.. I made a unicornmeat mix on " muxtape." It's a neat site but you have to be at your computer I guess and I never listen to music at my computer. i wish it would turn the whole thing into one long mp3. Anyway unicornmeat.muxtape.comLabels: jazz era
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Headin for Baltimore..?
 Baltimore Society Orchestra
Headin' For Baltimore
(1922)I wonder if this song was entitled after selecting a phrase from a bag. Or maybe just a city name from a bag. Or maybe there's a version with lyrics that I haven't heard. Anyway whatever. According to this site, "the Dixie Daisies was a recording pseudonym used by Cameo Records and its subsidiary label Romeo for many Sam Lanin recordings." You may recall Sam Lanin from this other unicornmeat post. Labels: baltimore, jazz era
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Cross My Heart Mother
 Baltimore Society Orchestra
Cross My Heart Mother, I Love You
(1925?)The other side of this record is a song credited to "The Tricky Ten", which was otherwise known as "Eddie Peabody's Dance Orchestra", and had another recording on Oriole in 1925. Baltimore Society Orchestra also has a recording from 1925 called "I Miss My Swiss." That's basically all I know. Labels: baltimore, jazz era
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Baltimore Bounce mellow for springtime
 Erskine Hawkins and his Orchestra
Baltimore Bounce
1938This is the kind of song I can never have too many of. It's nothin special but nice background music for when the mood strikes. 1938... just on the cusp of when this kind of music loses my interest. Erskine Hawkins doesn't get much action on Wikipedia and Sammy Low doesn't have an entry at all. Sorry dudes. I'll try to get more songs of theirs to keep the flame alive. The brief alien cellphone interference at the beginning of the song is left in to convey the ambiance of my surroundings a bit. Labels: baltimore, jazz era
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noise reduced for your pleasure
 Sam Lanin and His Orchestra
Vocal Chorus: Scrappy Lambert
The Song Is Ended
1929?Ruth Etting down there hit it big with this Irving Berlin song but I like the Annette Hanshaw version best. I put this record through the surface noise reduction ringer in Cool Edit. That's what I use. I think I need a new needle. I grabbed the record from the Salvation Army a few years ago, because it's brown. Labels: jazz era
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Don't bother to stop me if you've heard this one.
 Eubie Blake and His Shuffle Along Orchestra
Baltimore Buzz - Fox Trot
Victor 18791-A, 1921I love 78s that say what type of song they contain.. Fox Trots always do. And of course old ragtime and blues songs made sure to have the words "rag" or "blues" right in the title. I guess that's because people went out and bought records without hearing them more often. Nowadays we demand to hear it before we buy it... or own the song without buying it at all. This here song is by the famous Eubie Blake who was of course from Baltimore and now has the Jazz and Cultural Center named for him. Despite living a block away for most of my Baltimore existence, I never stepped foot in the place. I'm glad it exists nonetheless. Below the song title it says "Introducing 'In Honeysuckle Time'". I guess that never caught on. I chose this song because it has the word "Baltimore" in the title. I've decided I'm going to start posting a lot of Baltimore-related songs. Actually I might have decided that a long time ago, I can't remember. I've been in the habit of seeking out 78s that mention or originate from Baltimore for quite some time now. So for all I know I've posted this song before. That's liable to happen from time to time, knowing me. Labels: baltimore, jazz era
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I Like A Guy What Takes His Time
Mae West: A Guy What Takes His Time (1933) A Guy What Takes His Time (1955) Here we have two versions of one of my favorite Mae West songs, "A Guy What Takes His Time." The first version was recorded in 1933, and is available on several of the common Mae West CDs. She sings the song in the movie "She Done Him Wrong," although it is highly cropped due to film censorship. Watching Mae sing these songs in her films is strange... she rolls her eyes and smiles as she purrs "ooooh," and it sounds really weird. The second version I don't like so much. I found this 1950s Mae West record "The Fabulous Mae West," which features a few of her hits re-recorded, as well as some new-ish songs. The production just doesn't suit her. Her songs are better when presented more simply... one would imagine them being performed in a sleazy saloon or nightclub. Singing with a big full band doesn't have the same effect. In the 1930s version of "A Guy What Takes His Time," the character singing is Lady Lou (aka Diamond Lil.) In the 1950s version, the character singing is Mae West. By the time she recorded it she was already pushing 60 years of age. 
Pick up Mae West "I'm No Angel," from the amazing Venerable Music site, to hear this and some other great Mae songs. Also, check out the Mae West blog, which is basically my favorite blog ever. Labels: cinema, comedy, glamorous, jazz era, mae west
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The Music Goes Round - "Novelty Song"
The Music Goes Round and RoundRiley-Farley and Their Onyx Club Boys  I think this is an appropriate first "record"-song to post. I recorded this off of my usb turntable. I don't know anything about noise reduction, so I didn't do any. The song skips in the beginning and I couldn't make it not skip. Well anyway. I got two of these Tin Pan Alley records at this gigantic Value Village sale. I love a lot of the songs on these records. Here's what the liner notes say about this song:
"In the early years of the century they were called "nut songs," but as popular music began to be taken seriously, nonsense lyrics set to music began to be termed "novelty songs." The 1930s had its share: "Goofus," "A-Tisket A-Tasket," "Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai, "Flat Foot Floogie," "Hold Tight (Want Some Sea Food, Mama)," "Three Little Fishes," "Hut Sut Song," "Inka Dinka Doo," "I'se A-Muggin," "Knock Knock, Who's There?," "Shoot the Sherbert to Me, Herbert," "Ti-Pi-Tin," and the most popular of all, "The Music Goes Round and Round." It is about as fruitful to attempt to explain flagpole sitting, silly putty, or hula hoops as to try to understand the periodic, apparently universal surge of popularity of songs like these.
West Fifty-second Street in New York was a source of tremendous musical energy during the 1930s [see New World Records NW 250: Little Club Jazz]. The concentration of nightclubs (most of them former speakeasies) on that street employed large numbers of singers, instrumentalists, and bands that consumed and created a great quantity of songs.
In 1935 the renowed Onyx Club began to feature a swing- and Dixieland-oriented small combo led by two veteran dance-band musicians, Eddie Farley (trumpet) and Mike Riley (trombone). The band never took itself quite seriously and resorted to novelty songs and a great deal of on-stage clowning. One of its routines had something to do with the mechanics of a brass instrument. The song was called "The Music Goes Round and Round," and for some profoundly mysterious reason it became one of the biggest hits of the decade. So far, deep analysis of its musical structure, the lyrics, and the performances on the recording has yielded no satisfactory explanation for the song's extraordinary popularity. But, as the sage said, that's show biz."Also, there is apparently a movie about or involving this song. The Music Goes 'Round (1936)Labels: comedy, jazz era
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Singin' The Blues For Bee
I was laying in bed listening to Bix & Tram when I noticed her voice. Something unique about it stirred me to get up and find out who she was.
Bee Palmer.
"I want all of her records," I thought. But there are none to be found.
Bee Palmer, I discovered, was more than a Vocalist and Vaudevillian. Bee was also a stripper. Was she a marked woman? Is this why the record labels never marketed her studio tracks? Or did they really not hear what I hear in her voice? In an era where labels were over-eager to put out new records, Bee Palmer didn't make the cut.
I don't know, but I love the song. I want more Bee Palmer. I want to raise her from the dead, I want to dig through the stories of her contemporaries, the photos and songs, a singular career lost to the chaos of the Jazz Era.
"Vocalist, Dancer, and Vaudevillian Bee Palmer led the first band to be called "The New Orleans Rhythm Kings". This was her accompanying group, and in 1919 included Emmett Hardy, cornet; Santo Peccora, trombone; Leon Roppolo, clarinet, and Palmer's husband Al Seigal, piano.
Palmer was a very magnetic performer, and concidered a sex symbol. Her shimmy dance was highly acclaimed. She was invited to the recording studio repeatedly in the 1920s (after she and the NORK had split ways), but the record companies never saw fit to issue any of the results. A few test pressings have survived, copies of which are circulated amoung collectors."
Singin' The Blues mp3
The Complete OKeh & Brunswick Recordings Of Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer and Jack Teagarden 1924-1936, Mosaic Records
Bix & Tram Boxed Set, JSP Records. Labels: jazz era
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