[Tradjazz] Musicians & Buffs

[William P. Taggart]

George,
 
THANK YOU for this contribution to the dialogue on the Tradjazz list....
Please keep on keepin' on!   :-)
 
ATB,   Bill

________________________________

From: GeoHunt1 at aol.com [mailto:GeoHunt1 at aol.com] 
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:55 AM
To: tradjazz at list.okom.com
Subject: Re: [Tradjazz] Musicians & Buffs


Hi Bruce:
 
"Old Time Jazz."  I just thought, for a guy at a "radio station" playing
records there is no older jazz than the Original Dixieland Jazz (Jass)
Band.  They were the first jazz band from New Orleans to record their
music, and they did it in the biggest recording city - New York - with
the two biggest record labels - Victor and Columbia. Columbia got the
band into their studio first, on January 30, 1917, and then Victor
recorded the band on February 26, 1917.  None of those first Columbia
"takes" were of high enough quality to press, and Victor got their
records into shops first, in March 1917.  Give credit to Victor Sound
Engineer Charles Souey for getting it right; Columbia didn't. Columbia
got the band back in their studios in May and released the records for
sale in September 1917. Remember, in both cases, the recording engineers
were using one acoustic horn to capture an entirely new musical sound.
 
The first Victor black label record of the Original Dixieland Jass Band
paired LIVERY STABLE BLUES and DIXIELAND JASS ONE STEP.  
 
The ODJB was 5 young musicians from New Orleans who learned how to play
jazz by listening to the black musicians play it at the whore houses in
New Orleans' Storyville District, but they had never worked in that red
light district.  The real guys didn't record until King Oliver's Creole
Jazz Band (with Louis Armstrong on second cornet) recorded in the dinky
studio of Starr Piano Company's Gennett Records in the back-water town
of Richmond, Indiana, on April 5, 1923.
 
Don't belittle the 5 young white guys.  They wrote and recorded dozens
of their own songs, and the "real" black guys in New Orleans played all
of them.  The ODJB was really pretty good, you should play some of their
records (I suppose you already have).  Their aforementioned record was
their only 1917 Victor release.  In 1918 they issued 5 Victor records
with the following 10 songs:
AT THE JAZZ BAND BALL
OSTRICH WALK
SKELETON JANGLE
TIGER RAG
BLUIN' THE BLUES
FIDGETY FEET
SENSATION RAG
MOURNIN' BLUES
CLARINET MARMALADE
LAZY DADDY
 
Every one of those songs had been written by ODJB band members.  
 
George Hunt
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