AWOL

Sorry for being AWOL for a while, but rest assured that I haven't given up on this blog yet. I've still got Chick Bullock all the way to 1940 to post! Work has been getting the better of me for a while, and now the World Cup keeps throwing wrenches into my gears. When people say that this country 'stops' for football, it's an understatement. When the national team plays, it's a state holiday. No joke. That means that my work gets rescheduled or cancelled, which means that I have to hustle that much more to pay the bills. I haven't even had time to collect any new jazz finds! Anyway, I'll try to get to the requests for re-uploads this week. And who knows, maybe I'll get around to posting something new. Thanks for your patience.

Hello Gorgeous

Time flies, only it hasn't been fun putting in 60-70 hours/week. Well, here at last is some more Chick Bullock with Volume 2 of 1932. I've got several of these on 78s, and the Waring tunes appear elsewhere, however for expediency I've opted to pull all of these from mp3s that I've acquired from other sources. I think my hard drive with my Bullock rips is stored away at the moment, and these are all I have access to at the moment, and it's been too long since I've posted more tunes from my favorite artist of the era. Some of these tunes are rather mundane with bland arrangements, but then there are some really nice gems. It would be hard to equal the versions by the Mills Brothers', but both Shine and I Heard are very nice. Dixie and Business in F are nice and jumpy, as they should be, backed by Gene Kardos and His Orchestra. A different Kardos version of the latter is available elsewhere in the blog. Oh, Monah features Dick Robertson backed by a chorus that includes Chick Bullock, which may be the only time he sang back-up (he did trade verses with Cab Calloway on one tune). Another tune, If You Were Only Mine, has a melody that I swear is used in another Bullock recording. I think it may be Crying Myself To Sleep, but I could be mistaken. So much of the music from this era blurred the lines between originality and plagiarism, if not wipe them out altogether. It's amazing that it wasn't known as the Litigious Age. Another enjoyable side is Is I In Love, I Is, backed again by the Kardos orchestra. Listeners may be more familiar with the Dick Robertson version, as he also recorded many of the same tunes presented here. Well, enough of my drivel. On to the music, and let's hope the next installment isn't so far off. *Note: I suggest deleting the image in the download in favor the one above. Enjoy! +

Tracks

21 April 1932 Chick Bullock and His Levee Loungers

01 - Hello Gorgeous
02 - Dixie

21 April 1932 Gene Kardos and His Orchestra

03 - Business In F
04 - Oh, Monah (with Dick Robertson)

13 May 1932 Lou Gold and His Orchestra

05 - Hummin' To Myself

13 May 1932 Gene Kardos and His Orchestra

06 - Is I In Love  I Is!
07 - Why Don't You Get Lost

13 May 1932 Carolina Club Orchestra

08 - Goofus
09 - I Beg You Pardon Mademoiselle

2 June 1932 Studio Orchestra

10 - When You Are Getting Along with Your Gal
11 - Who Besides Me Sits Beside You
12 - When We Ride On The Merry-Go-Round

22 June 1932 Ted Black and His Orchestra

13 - In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town

25 June 1932 Chick Bullock and His Levee Loungers
Mannie Klein-t/Jimmy Dorsey-cl/Matty Malneck-vn/Joe Meresco-p/Carl Kress-g/Artie Bernstein-sb/Stan King-d

14 - Shine
15 - I Heard
16 - The Night When Love Was Born
17 - If You Were Only Mine

27 June 1932 Waring's Pennsylvanians

18 - Holding My Honey's Hand
19 - Old Man Of The Mountain

1 July 1932 Chick Bullock and His Levee Loungers

20 - Rain, Rain, Go Away

Happy Repeal Day (pt. II)

This is a bit of a repeat post (the first!) because I wanted to mark two occasions, albeit with different music to share.

First off, it's Happy Repeal Day! This day, 80 years ago, the United States Congress repealed the 18th Amendment - known as the Volstead Act - when Utah became the 36th state to ratify what is now the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution. This restored control of alcohol to the states. Although Andrew Volstead sponsored the bill, the 18th Amendment was the work of the Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler who conceived and drafted the bill.

Elsewhere in this blog is a copy of Bob Miller's "Page Mr. Volstead" (the flip side is "Five Cent Glass of Beer"), the namesake for this blog. I've been neglecting this site, though not out of desire. In my work (self-employed) one has to take any and all jobs that come down the pike, so I have. "No excuse, Chester!" I agree. There are still quite a number of great albums to be uploaded, as well as Chick Bullock. I believe that I left off in early 1933, and he recorded into 1940. So rest assured that there is more to come.

The other occasion is that this blog has survived 5 years. Gadzooks! Who'd a thunk it? Know that rumours of this blog's demise are premature. Today's share is a surprise because I have never yet shared anything from this label. I have several others, but I really do encourage people to order cd's from the label (the link is on the main page of this blog). It is an excellent company that has reissued a lot of music that we fans of the genre would be without otherwise. So, enjoy it while it lasts. I may not even reactivate the link once it is expired. So get it while you can. Enjoy! And Happy Repeal Day! +




(photo of a bartender 80 years ago today, serving the first two legal beers at a bar in Minneapolis, MN)

See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have

Another set of Teddy Grace for those who didn't get enough with the last one. It's really a shame that her career was so short. Grace joined the WACs in WWII and strained her voice so much in bond and political rallies, that for years after she could barely even speak. "Even veteran swing collectors might be unaware of the enjoyable recordings that the unfortunately obscure but very talented Teddy Grace made during her relatively brief career. This valuable CD has 22 of the 30 selections that she made as a leader (leaving off two sessions) and finds Grace very much at ease, whether interpreting swinging, lesser-known material, a series of high-quality blues, or period pieces. The supporting cast -- which includes such notables as cornetist Bobby Hackett, trumpeters Charlie Shavers and Max Kaminsky, trombonist Jack Teagarden, clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman, and pianist Billy Kyle, among others -- speaks for the high esteem in which she was held during the era." (Allmusic.com) Enjoy! +

Tracks

01. I've Taken a Fancy to You
02. I'll Never Let You Cry
03. Goodbye, Jona
04. Tears in My Heart
05. Love Me or Leave Me
06. Downhearted Blues
07. Crazy Blues
08. Monday Morning
09. Betty and Dupree
10. Arkansas Blues
11. Down Home Blues
12. Gulf Coast Blues
13. Oh Daddy Blues (You Don't Have No Mamma at All)
14. You Don't Know My Mind
15. Low Down Blues
16. Graveyard Blues
17. Hey Lawdy Papa
18. Mama Doo-Shee
19. Gee, But I Hate to Go Home Alone
20. Sing (It's Good for Ya)
21. See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have
22. I'm the Lonesomest Gal in Tow

Turn On That Red Hot Heat

What can I say, it's been that busy. Here's one that may be a little more obscure to many, with info from the liner notes. "Back in the 1930s and 40s, the "girl singer" (as they were then called) perched on the bandstand, usually next to the "boy singer" - keeping time with the music with her hands, feet and shoulders, rising every so often to do a vocal chorus or two at the microphone at centre stage. When she was through, she went back to her seat. Rarely, if ever, was she allowed to sing an entire song. The bandleader was the star, and singers had secondary roles: sometimes, it seems, they were hired as an afterthought, or as a decoration. There were literally hundreds of female band singers. They made countless personal appearances, often traveling by bus, which was where they often ate, slept, and put on their makeup. It wasn't unusual to be the sole female in a whole troupe of musicians. ....

Teddy Grace, from Arcadia, Loo-zee-anna, joined the Mal Hallett Orchestra in 1934, after a brief sting with the bands of Al Katz and Tommy Christian. The response to her personal appearances with Hallett were sensational, to put it mildly! She made the cover of Orchestra World in June of that year. Very few women pushed bandleaders off the covers of music magazines in those early days. The Hallett Orchestra was chiefly a "territory" band based out of Boston, with Hallett himself known as "New England's Dance King."

Teddy Grace, who could sing ballads as well as swing tunes with a country, bluesy tinge (added with an occasional growl or yodel) often stopped the show cold - making dancers forget their swinging steps and crowd around the bandstand just to simply watch her, mesmerized." (David McCain). Enjoy! +

Tracks

01 - Rockin' Chair Swing
02 - I've Got Rain In My Eyes
03 - The Trouble With Me Is You
04 - Turn Off The Moon
05 - (Have You Forgotten) The You And Me That Used To Be
06 - Alibi Baby
07 - The Life Of The Party
08 - Turn On That Red Hot Heat
09 - You're Out Of This World To Me
10 - I Want A New Romance
11 - (I've Been) Dispossessed By You
12 - Rock It For Me
13 - I'm Losing My Mind Over You
14 - I'm So In Love With You
15 - I'll Never Let You Cry
16 - You And Your Love
17 - Over The Rainbow
18 - Blue Orchids
19 - What Used To Was Used To Was
20 - The Little Man Who Wasn't There
21 - I Thought About You
22 - Happy Birthday To Love
23 - It's A Whole New Thing
24 - Angry
25 - I Wanna Wrap You Up
26 - Red Wagon

Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Here's the last cd of this set. What Have We Got To Lose? Stringing Along On A Shoestring, When My Ship Comes In and If I Had A Million Dollars all echo what a lot of people were thinking.  Our Penthouse On Third Avenue features one of my favorite singers, who to my ear just seems to sing perfectly. Almost as good as the Bea Wain vocal on Our Penthouse On Third Avenue is the photo of her (sorry, no scan). The editors chose Ramona's version of Raising The Rent because it includes the verse lyrics. Roy Bargy (p), Benny Bonacio (cl) and Bunny Berigan (tr) accompany here. Ramona also sings Now I'm A Lady, which is a tune Mae West sang in a film but never recorded. Gotta Go To Work Again from Ted Wallace is a tune that was used as instrumental background music in the film My Man Godfrey. This version features an unknown male vocal. Chick Bullock makes his appearance on the 3rd of 4 of these cds, so obviously the editors have good taste. Are You Making Any Money? (is all I want to know) was written by Herman Hupfield, of As Time Goes By fame. Even without Chick singing, it's a great tune and is the first song of his I'd ever heard (on another Depression collection found early in this blog). I'm not a big Disney fan, but Artie Shaw really made Whistle While You Work swing. Closing out the decade, the Mills Brothers and Louis Armstrong recorded WPA in 1940, and to close out the entire set is the extremely pollyanish, premature and rather insulting tune (considering it was recorded on February 3, 1930 just 3 months after Black Thursday) Happy Days Are Here Again. According to the liner notes, the song was taken to George Olsen, who was playing the Hotel Pennsylvania, who told his band to "play it to the corpses". It took a few choruses for the audience to warm to the tune. This version is by Ben Selvin and an all but anonymous studio orchestra. The book to this box set features a lot of great pictures of artists, sheet music, magazines, record sleeves, etc. It also has a selected bibliography for reading about the Great Depression, and an even bigger filmography. All in all, this set deserves its place as a resource for any study of the era. Very well done. Enjoy! +

Tracks

01 - Phil Harris Coconut Grove Orchestra - What Have We Got To Lose?
02 - Henry 'Red' Allen - Stringin' Along On A Shoe String
03 - Eddie Cantor - When My Ship Comes In
04 - The Boswell Sisters - If I Had A Million Dollars
05 - Gene Kardos Orchestra - Our Penthouse On Third Avenue
06 - Ramona & Roy Bargy - Raising The Rent
07 - Chick Bullock's Levee Loungers - Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore
08 - Connie Boswell - The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
09 - Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra - Now I'm A Lady
10 - Adrian Rollini & Orchestra - I Gotta Get Up And Go To Work
11 - Ted Wallace Orchestra - Gotta Go To Work Again
12 - Chick Bullock's Levee Loungers - Are You Making Any Money?
13 - Ozzie Nelson Orchestra - Got The Jitters
14 - Don Bestor Orchestra - Rain
15 - The Ink Spots - With Plenty Of Money And You
16 - Teddy Hill - I'm Feeling Like A Million
17 - Red Norvo Orchestra - Slummin' On Park Avenue
18 - Artie Shaw New Music - Whistle While You Work
19 - Louis-Mills Armstrong Brothers - WPA
20 - Kay Kyser & His Orchestra - Hey Pop! I Don't Wanna Go To Work
21 - Horace Heidt & Orchestra - Dawn Of A New Day
22 - Ben Selvin & His Orchestra - Happy Days Are Here Again