There's A Small Hotel

(Now with 3 times the posts of last month!) Here's another entry from the Columbia Best of the Big Bands series. From Wiki: "At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he formed his own campus jazz group, the Carolina Club Orchestra. The band recorded for English Columbia and Perfect/Pathe records in 1924-5. This first group toured Europe in the summer of 1924 under the sponsorship of popular bandleader Paul Specht. Kemp returned to UNC in 1925 and put together a new edition of the Carolina Club Orchestra, featuring fellow classmates and future stars John Scott Trotter, Saxie Dowell, and Skinnay Ennis. In 1926, he was a member of the charter class of the Alpha Rho chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia  music fraternity, installed on the Carolina campus in February of that year. In 1927 Kemp turned leadership of the Carolina Club Orchestra over to fellow UNC student Kay Kyser  and turned professional. The band was based in New York City, and included Trotter, Dowell, and Ennis, and a few years later trumpeters Bunny Berigan and Jack Purvis joined the group. The sound was 1920s collegiate jazz. Kemp once again toured Europe in the summer of 1930. This band recorded regularly for Brunswick, English Duophone, Okeh and Melotone Records.

In 1932, during the height of the Depression, Kemp decided to lead the band in a new direction, changing the orchestra's style to a that of a dance band (often mistakenly referred to as "sweet"), using muted triple-tonguing trumpets, clarinets playing low sustained notes in unison through large megaphones (an early version of the echo chamber effect), and a double-octave piano.

One of the main reasons for the band's success was arranger John Scott Trotter. Singer Skinnay Ennis had difficulty sustaining notes, so Trotter came up with the idea of filling in these gaps with muted trumpets playing staccato triplets. This gave the band a unique sound, which Johnny Mercer jokingly referred to as sounding like a "typewriter." The saxes often played very complex extremely difficult passages which won them the praise of fellow musicians. Vocalists with the band at this time included Ennis, Dowell, Bob Allen, Deane Janis, Maxine Gray, Judy Starr, Nan Wynn, and Janet Blair. During the 1930s, Kemp recorded for Brunswick, Vocalion and (RCA) Victor records. Hal Kemp, Kay Kyser and Tal Henry were often having a Carolinian reunion in New York. All three were great musicians from North Carolina and enjoyed the olde' time get together, according to the newspaper from Chapel Hill, NC where Hal and Kay were in school." Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Got A Date With An Angel
2. Ah! But I've Learned
3. Shuffle Off To Buffalo
4. It's Winter Again
5. Forty-Second Street
6. Long About Sundown
7. Serenade For A Wealthy Widow
8. You're The Top
9. I've Got You Under My Skin
10. Lullaby Of Broadway
11. From The Top Of Your Head
12. Where Or When
13. I Can't Get Started
14. There's A Small Hotel
15. Pennies From Heaven
16. With Plenty Of Money And You

Vocals: Skinnay Ennis on all tracks except Bob Allen (10, 12) and Maxine Gray (14, 15).

All Or Nothing At All

Although Chick Bullock was a popular vocalist during the 1930s, rumor has it that the skinny kid from Hoboken, NJ featured here was capable of singing for his supper, too. Volume three in this French series starts off with four tracks performed with Harry James and His Orchestra, with whom "the Voice" made his big break before Tommy Dorsey lured him away. With the exception of the final four tracks here, all are live airchecks that unlike today's "stars" who use technology to make their voices sound on key, Frank Sinatra could more than carry a tune. Dorsey had a big hit with Marie, vocalized by Jack Leonard, but I think Sinatra gives it a good turn as well. Full scans are included in this one. Enjoy. +

Tracks

Harry James and His Orchestra
1. From The Bottom Of My Heart
2. To You
3. From The Bottom Of My Heart
4. All Or Nothing At All

Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra
5. A Lover Is Blue
6. Careless
7. I've Got My Eyes On You
8. East Of The Sun
9. My Melancholy Baby
10. After All
11. I've Got My Eyes On You
12. Polka Dots And Moonbeams
13. Deep Night
14. Whispering
15. The Sky Fell Down
16. On The Isle Of May
17. It's A Blue World
18. The Fable Of The Rose
19. Marie
20. I'll Get By
21. East Of The Sun
22. I'll Never Smile Again
23. This Is The Beginning Of The End
24. Imagination
25. Yours Is My Heart Alone
26. Yours Is My Heart Alone

All tracks are airchecks except tracks 23-26.

Beefsteak Charlie

Jonah Jones was a trumpeter who broke in with Horace Henderson's band, later working with Stuff Smith, Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson and later spent most of the 1940s with Cab Calloway's band. The first six tracks here are with Dick Porter and His Orchestra, with Jones on trumpet, Joe Marsala (cl), Dick Porter (p, v), Eddie Condon (g), Wilson Ernest Myers (b), and George Wettling (d). The Allmusic.com entry for this suggests that for the sake of rarity, the Porter sides are worthy of inclusion, but that Porter is a lousy Fats Waller rip-off of the highest degree. So much so, that Porter closes Track 5 with a completely out-of-context ad-libbed line cribbed from a different Waller tune. In many of the other tunes however, Jones shows off his ability to give out some real good swing. A scan of the session info is included in the folder. Enjoy. +

Tracks

Dick Porter and His Orchestra
1. Sweet Thing
2. (I'd Like To See Grandpa) Swingin' To A Swing Tune
3. Swing, Boy, Swing
4. May I Have The Next Romance With You?
5. There's No Two Ways About It
6. Poor "Robinson Crusoe"

Jonah Jones Sextet
7. Lust For Licks
8. Just Like A Butterfly
9. B.H. Boogie
10. 12th Street Rag

Milton Hinton And His Orchestra
11. Broadway Holdover
12. Bass Pandemonium
13. Everywhere
14. Beefsteak Charlie

Jonah Jones and His Orchestra
15. Rose Of The Rio Grande
16. You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me
17. Hubba Hubba Hub
18. Stompin' At The Savoy