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).