Hittin' The Ceiling

I've wanted to post this for a long time, and now it's been a full 15 years since it was first released and this blog is nearly 5 years old. It feels like a good time. Not enough can be said about this box set, in my view. And that's not merely for the several Chick Bullock sides, though that surely only boosts the overall value. The track and artist selection is exceptional, the sides are very clean, and the book is very informative as well as pure eye candy for audiophiles of this era. I heartily recommend picking up a copy for yourself, you won't be disappointed. "Bear Family Records presents an 88-track anthology of what are now termed Depression Era phonograph recordings cut between May 31, 1929, and April 10, 1940. This stretch of time takes in the last few months of the U.S.A.'s already flawed and disintegrating prosperity, the devastating Wall Street crash of October 29, 1929, and the nation's agonizingly gradual economic recovery throughout the 1930s. Musically, this massive compilation maps the mainstream mingling of real jazz with the predominant dance band and pop vocal aesthetic of the decade. Even months before the day when, as visiting Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca put it, the New York Stock Exchange "...lost various billions of dollars, a rabble of dead money that slid off into the sea," Tin Pan Alley composers were already fixating upon what was to become the ever more elusive pursuit of happiness by penning an almost alarming number of "happy" songs, such as "Get Happy" and "Happy Days Are Here Again." As the social fabric of a nation came apart at the seams and swiftly began to unravel, a subgenre of melodies with conspicuously comforting and persistently optimistic lyrics filled the air with phrases like "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams," "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries," and "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee." Sobering responses to the disparity between harsh realities and sugary reassurances included "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," "Remember My Forgotten Man," "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum," "Cheer Up! Smile! Nertz!" (almost angrily delivered by an exasperated Eddie Cantor), and a remarkably cynical opus entitled "It Must Be Swell to Be Laying Out Dead." With the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 and the implementation of his New Deal programs (see Louis Armstrong's "W.P.A."), a series of frustratingly slow-paced improvements inspired monetarily motivated ditties with giddy titles like "We're in the Money," "We're Out of the Red," "What Have We Got to Lose?," "Buy America!," and the quaintly romantic "With Plenty of Money and You," sung to perfection near the end of this collection by the Ink Spots. The Great Depression has inspired a number of fascinating musicological retrospectives; this one belongs among the best of the lot." (Allmusic.com). Enjoy! +

Tracks

01 - Smith Ballew Orchestra - Hittin' The Ceiling
02 - Ambrose Orchestra - I'm In The Market For You
03 - Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra - Happy Days Are Here Again
04 - Marion Hardy Alabamians - Song Of The Bayou
05 - Eddie Cantor - Eddie Cantor's Tips On The Stock Market
06 - Hotel Pennsylvania Music - A Cottage For Sale
07 - Ted Wallace & His Campus Boys - Get Happy
08 - Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra - Sweeping The Clouds Away
09 - McKinney's Cotton Pickers - Laughing At Life
10 - Sam Lanin's Orchestra - It's A Great Life (If You Don't Weaken)
11 - Hotel Pennsylvania Music - Cheer Up Good Times Are Coming!
12 - Eddie Cantor With Phil Spitalny's Music - Cheer Up!
13 - Ted Lewis Orchestra - Singing A Vagabond Song
14 - Jack Teagarden Orchestra - Son Of The Son
15 - Al Jolson - Hallelujah! Im A Bum
16 - Annette Hanshaw - Big City Blues
17 - Blue Steele Orchestra - There's A Tear For Every Smile In Hollywood
18 - Ruth Etting - Ten Cents A Dance
19 - Ruth Etting - Cigarettes Cigars
20 - Johnny Marvin - Just A Gigolo
21 - Libby Holman - Love For Sale
22 - Smith Ballew Orchestra - We Can Live On Love

Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams

Continuing with the Classics motif ...  "This is the first volume in the Classics label's chronological profile of vocalist Mildred Bailey. It documents the beginning of her recording career with 24 titles she waxed for the Parlophone, Okeh, Brunswick and Victor labels between October 5, 1929 and August 11, 1932. ... In 1913, the family moved to Spokane, where Mildred and her brothers befriended a boy named Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby. By the age of 17, Mildred was living with relatives in Seattle and working as a singer demonstrating songs in a sheet music store. She entered showbiz using the surname of her first husband, Ted Bailey. After developing her skills by singing in speakeasies and over the radio in the Northwest, Mildred Bailey married a bootlegger named Benny Stafford and moved to Los Angeles where she began attracting a lot of attention by singing in nightclubs on the Sunset Strip. (Legend has it she also operated her own highly acclaimed illicit microbrewery.) In 1925, Crosby and Al Rinker dropped out of college, hopped in a Model T and drove from Spokane to Hollywood where Mildred showed them around and hooked them up with her best showbiz contacts. By October 1926 Crosby and Rinker were working for society bandleader Paul Whiteman. Teamed with Harry Barris in a trio nationally recognized as The Rhythm Boys, they eventually expressed their gratitude by introducing Mildred Bailey to Whiteman in 1929. Whiteman hired her at once; her voice was soon heard on national radio broadcasts and by 1930 she was his highest-paid performer. (The ethical nadir of her discography occurred on November 30, 1931 when Whiteman had her sing "That's Why Darkies Were Born.") Apart from four attractive sides cut with the Casa Loma Orchestra in September 1931, most of the recordings making up this segment of Mildred Bailey's chronology involve either the Paul Whiteman Orchestra or smaller ensembles largely composed of musicians who were affiliated with the self-styled "King of Jazz." Mildred's first two session bands were led by guitarist Eddie Lang and saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer, with cornet passages by Andy Secrest that were carefully patterned after the style of Bix Beiderbecke, who had made his last recording with the Whiteman orchestra only weeks earlier on September 13, 1929. Beiderbecke's combined absence and presence are eerily evident. It's obvious why Mildred Bailey caught on so quickly as a vocalist; all of her best traits -- sweetness, charm, passion and poise -- were evident from the very beginning. Tougher than Annette Hanshaw and gutsier than Ruth Etting, sometimes Mildred let loose like a sassy American girl; on "I Like to Do Things for You" she even sounds like Helen Kane. At her best, Mildred Bailey was a gifted interpreter of ballads and topical amusements; her superb abilities as a jazz and pop vocalist are well represented by this first volume of her complete recorded works." (Allmusic.com) Enjoy! +

Tracks

01. What Kind o' Man is You
02. I Like to Do Things For You
03. Blues In My Heart
04. You Call It Madness
05. When It's Sleepy Time Down South
06. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams (and Dream Your Troubles Away)
07. When It's Sleepy Time Down South
08. Can't You See
09. My Goodbye to You
10. Too Late
11. Georgia on My Mind
12. Concentratin' on You
13. Home
14. Lies
15. That's Why Darkies Were Born
16. 'Leven Pounds of Heaven
17. I'm Sorry, Dear
18. All of Me
19. Dear Old Mother Dixie
20. Hot Cha Medley
21. Stop the Sun, Stop the Moon
22. Strangers
23. I'll Never be the Same
24. We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye

Smoke Rings

According to a different biography on the internet, the Casa Loma Orchestra actually did play at the Toronto hotel. Conflicting stories - who ya gonna believe? All I know is that Glen Gray's band put out some nice sides during the 1930s and 1940s. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Smoke Rings
2. Black Jazz
3. Tired Of It All
4. Maniac's Ball
5. Clarinet Marmalade
6. For You
7. Dixie Lee
8. Casa Loma Stomp
9. Under A Blanket Of Blue
10. I Got Rhythm
11. New Orleans
12. Here Comes The British
13. My Man (Mon Homme)
14. Ol' Man River
15. Shadows Of Love
16. Limehouse Blues

Maniac's Ball

Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, named for a Toronto hotel where they never actually played, was one of the top dance bands of the 1930s that inspired many other bands for their swinging music. Cover scans are here. Enjoy. +

Tracks

1. Maniac's Ball
2. Linger A While
3. The Man I Love
4. Can't We Be Friends
5. White Star Stomp
6. Loveless Love
7. Stompin' Around
8. Black Jazz
9. Limehouse Blues
10. Sunny Disposish
11. Wolverine Blues
12. Copenhagen
13. Ol' Man River
14. Chinatown My Chinatown
15. Should I
16. Walkin' The Dog