1930's Music

[Bingles]

I've been watching the series "Wind at My Back" on DVD which takes place in the 1930s. Often they have a radio playing in the background and I love the music... only I'm not sure the genre of music they would have listened to in the 30s. It's after ragtime music but before jazz and swing really took off.

Anyone know much about 1930s music? Bands/Artists - hits of the era?

Thanks!

 

[Shangas]

You're probably thinking of hot & sweet jazz. That came around in the 1920s. It was the transitional period between Dixieland of the 1910s and big-band/swing of the 1930s. Hot & sweet jazz was a mishmash of both styles.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Dance band music -- it's the root that swing evolved from, the main difference being that swing depends more on hot improvisation than dance music. There were swing-oriented bands around before 1935 -- they just weren't *called* that, they were more often called "hot dance" bands. Some bands could be be hot or standard dance bands depending on the record.

Start with Paul Whiteman -- while there will always be fundamentalist Pecksniffs who turn up their nose at him because a press agent dubbed him the "King of Jazz" at a time when that word didn't have the narrow meaning it does today, he was without question the King of Dance Music in the twenties and thirties. If you enjoy Whiteman, you'll also enjoy Isham Jones, Abe Lyman, Ben Bernie, George Olsen, Leo Reisman, Ray Noble, Richard Himber, Johnny Green, Eddy Duchin, Hal Kemp, George Hall, Ozzie Nelson, Bert Lown, Enric Madriguera, Bernie Cummins, Vincent Lopez, and on and on and on and on.

You'll recognize the style when you hear it -- it's refined and elegant, with an emphasis on the song rather than on the performance. It's an ideal setting for the popular songs of the thirties -- the true Golden Age of the American Popular Song. This is how those songs were introduced to the world, and it's still a satisfying way to enjoy them.

 

[Bingles]

Thanks very much!!! *tips hat*

 

[HodgePodge]

During the credit reel of each episode, do they not list any of the music that was used (aside from the title theme)? I have never understood how movies/tv are allowed to get away with not crediting songs they use. I know they still had to pay for the rights, but why the heck do some songs deserve honourable mention, yet others (often the more interesting ones) aren't acknowledged?

 

[gdc]

From http://www.jazzstandards.com/history/index.htm

Despite the effects of the Great Depression, the period from 1929 to 1940 is the era where the majority of jazz standards originated. During this decade there were a great many excellent songwriters contributing well-crafted material for Broadway shows (and for movie musicals) such as George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin , Hoagy Carmichael, and Walter Donaldson, to name just a very few whose material rose above the standard Tin Pan Alley fare.

Although many, many Standards were written in the 1930's and adapted by musicians for live performance and recording, the public wouldn't hear the material en masse for several years.

These were the hits of the 1930's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_in_music

With few exceptions the hits have been forgotten but the 1930's gave us a lot of classic tunes. The 'Great American Songbook' is full of material from that decade.

As a jazz musician it is interesting when watching old movies to hear just how different these songs were originally performed from the way they are usually played today.

 

[Shangas]

Listen to LizzieMaine.

She has listed several great bandleaders in her posting. I don't think you could go wrong with recordings from any of those. And certainly not Ray Noble (a personal favourite of mine).

 

[Stanley Doble]

Radio generally played very square, middle of the road type music.Light classics and dance band music were popular. There were regular programs of classical music by big name conductors especially on weekends.

Hot swing and jazz were rare and only got air play late in the period, basically in the forties, and were a small part of the broadcast day.

Soap operas, dramas, comedies and more serious non musical programs took up a lot of air time too.

It's hard to describe what a Godsend radio was to shut ins, and people in isolated and rural areas. Even in towns and cities it was cheap entertainment, news and information for the people.

 

[gdc]

Lizzie, you have dug deep into the vault for those names. :eusa_clap
I found this site by searching '1930's bands'. Don't know why the aforementioned names didn't make this list:
http://music.toptenreviews.com/bands/list-1930s-bands.htm

The distinction between 'improvised' and 'dance' music has some validity but listening to some Count Basie from the late 30's is interesting. After a radio broadcast from Kansas City and recording session produced by John Hammond, Basie moved to NY in 1936 or 1937. With a strong rhythm section playing solid fours the horns improvised within the form without losing the groove. His music is largely based on simple riffs or hooks over blues changes. What it lacks in sophistication it more than makes up for in swinging like nothing else.

 

[vitanola]

"Deep in the vault"?

Miss Maine has listed artists whose records will be found in most any accumulation of discs of that period. Of course records of the early 1930's are pretty thin on the ground these days, but then they were never common, for the phonograph industry nearly collapsed in the Depression. Record sales in 1932 were but 5% of those in the boom years of 1927 and 1928, and didn't really recover until the Swing Era was well underway.

The most commonly found discs from the early 1930's are those flexible cardboard "Hit of the Week" discs, which sold for a dime, fifteen cents or a quarter at news stands. With a few exceptions (Duke Ellington waxed a couple HOTW sides under the "Harlem Hot Chocolates" moniker) these records are of little jazz interest, but they are quite good examples of characteristic popular music of the early Depression.

 

[Atomic Age]

If you want to learn a LOT about early 20th century American music, check out Ken Burns' "Jazz". It is a really good documentary.

Doug

 

[Stanley Doble]

"Deep in the vault"?

Miss Maine has listed artists whose records will be found in most any accumulation of discs of that period. Of course records of the early 1930's are pretty thin on the ground these days, but then they were never common, for the phonograph industry nearly collapsed in the Depression. Record sales in 1932 were but 5% of those in the boom years of 1927 and 1928, and didn't really recover until the Swing Era was well underway.

The most commonly found discs from the early 1930's are those flexible cardboard "Hit of the Week" discs, which sold for a dime, fifteen cents or a quarter at news stands. With a few exceptions (Duke Ellington waxed a couple HOTW sides under the "Harlem Hot Chocolates" moniker) these records are of little jazz interest, but they are quite good examples of characteristic popular music of the early Depression.

This brings up an interesting question. What happened to record sales? I had the impression radio killed the phonograph record in the twenties. There was a period of very low sales from the mid twenties to the mid thirties, when electric phonographs and juke boxes sparked a renewed interest in records among the younger crowd whose taste for hot jazz, swing, country, classical and other niches was not being satisfied by the middle of the road radio networks.

Do you have the statistics for record sales in this period?

 

[gdc]

On the contrary, I compliment Miss Maine for her extensive list. :eusa_clap:eusa_clap

However, there are many artists who had extensive careers in later decades who were also popular in the 1930's. Bing Crosby, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington to name a few.

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs-1930s.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug03/jukebox/front.html

And many will be familiar today from YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDpLHNsgyG8

 

[vitanola]

II'm taking the figures off the top of my head, so they are just approximate, but I recall that industry-wide sales peaked in 1920 at somewhere
around 120 million discs, dropped to around forty million in the annus horribilis of 1924, revived with the introduction of electric recording in
1925, peaking at just over 100 million in 1927 or 1928, and then declining to a low of about six million in 1932.

Recovery really coincided with Repeal, at which time the coin-operated automatic phonograph found a place in virtually every new bar and
lounge. The automatic phonograph really was the thing which made the public again record conscious. Then in 1935 Eli Oberstein
over at RCA Victor conceived the idea of the "Victor Record Club" as a scheme to get modern electric phonographs into many homes.
For a commitment to purchase a modest number of Victor records one received a small "record player", a little turntable with an electric
motor and magnetic pickup which could be connected to 'most any modern radio set to make a pretty good electric phonograph.

As I recall record sales reached their previous peak in 1941. During the War money was in overabundance, and with few other goods
available phonograph records reached sales levels which would have been inconceivable a decade earlier, despite a ban on new
recording by the American Federation of Musicians and a shortage of shellac, the basic material of which a standard was made.

 

[vitanola]

Frankly I find Bing Crosby's early (pre-1935) records to be the only ones which I play with any frequency. At the beginning of his career Bing
was a really fine jazz singer. He toned down his jazz stylings after the mid-1930's in a quite successful attempt to broaden his appeal. Bing's 1932 recordings of "Sweet Georgia Brown" (with the Isham Jones Orchestra)[video=youtube_share;dF9kMqOLW9g]http://youtu.be/dF9kMqOLW9g[/video]



and "St. Louis Blues" (with Duke Ellington)[video=youtube_share;asmhkS1wkKw]http://youtu.be/asmhkS1wkKw[/video]



are among the better jazz vocals of the period. His earlier (1928) waxing of "Louisiana" with the Paul Whiteman organisation (featuring a fine cornet solo by Bix Beiderbecke) is, I think, one of the best simple jazz vocals of all time.[video=youtube_share;YFoFIh-wY9U]http://youtu.be/YFoFIh-wY9U[/video]


Now here are couple decent examples of Hit of the Week records, decent, pleasant, middle-of-the-road popular music from the very early 1930's:

[video=youtube_share;11K3ci6XqyM]http://youtu.be/11K3ci6XqyM[/video]

[video=youtube_share;933hgJ3bfl8]http://youtu.be/933hgJ3bfl8[/video]

[video=youtube_share;2rdMIpFG_Rw]http://youtu.be/2rdMIpFG_Rw[/video]

[video=youtube_share;syvLVpPTYEc]http://youtu.be/syvLVpPTYEc[/video]

[video=youtube_share;woCg6_AKp7s]http://youtu.be/woCg6_AKp7s[/video]

The HOTW records are quite typical of the sort of music which was a staple of network radio before the swing music craze of 1935.

 

[Bingles]

You have all been a wealth of information! My personal taste in music never really extended back further than the WWII era - with a few exceptions from Bing Crosby.

I found many of the titles Miss. Maine mentioned on Amazon for download and now listen to on my vintage style Internet Radio which plays the songs via a flashdrive.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004YI9HG2/ref=asc_df_B004YI9HG21809347?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B004YI9HG2

 

[Matt_the_chap]

I would also like to recommend Al Bowlly's singing, mostly with some of the British dance bands. In addition, there's various comic songs, including George Formby and those performed by Leslie Sarony, later a part of 'The Two Leslies'. Lew Stone's orchestra, Bix Beiderbecke and Oscar Rabin's dance bands are also rather exciting examples.

In addition, if you want guitar jazz, look up Django Reinhard and his chaps. The Ink Spots are also a very interesting band to listen to and sing exceptionally well. I hope that's been helpful, if eclectic!

 

[Fletch]

I am pretty much besotted with the music of the immediate pre-swing era - which I define as 1930-'34. For my money the first swing recording was Fletcher Henderson's Somebody Loves Me, late in 1930, whereas Benny Goodman's winning a nationally sponsored radio show late in '34 showed the music was ready to become the national sound - even tho it still had no name and no recognized audience.

That said, I approve enthusiastically of the recommendations made upthread - especially by my musical Doppelgängerin, LizzieMaine. I would add two more, nationally popular bands to show that a good measure of Hot Dance was no obstacle to the public of the day: the Casa Loma and Ted Weems.

Besides the well recognized jazz corpus of Black music of the early depression years by Ellington, Calloway, Mills Blue Rhythm Band and many others, there is much excitement to be found in other, now mostly ignored White orchestras, such as Ben Pollack, Clyde McCoy, Joe Haymes, Gene Kardos and Todd Rollins. Rollins in particular is instructive as to what good music you could play in the deep depression years and how little recognition you might get for it - virtually nothing is known about him or his orchestra today.

Finally, a little further perspective into the recording industry of the era - or the lack of one. The great blow was struck not only by the near extermination of a consumerist middle class, but by changing fashion. Having your favorite music on demand was now a passé extravagance. Wasn't it enough to wait for the radio to give you what it wanted, and when?

In 1932, the pit of the depression, RCA Victor sold a little over a million discs. Jimmie Rodgers alone represented 100,000 - a full ten percent of the total, far more than even the biggest name Victor artists such as Paul Whiteman.

Why Rodgers? Because in those lean years only the people who needed music the most were buying it. Jimmie's fans were by and large in the hills, backwoods, and badlands, far from radio and electric power. For them the victrola was not yet an old hat extravagance as it was for the middle classes, but a vital part of a deeply musical culture.

 

[Gingerella72]

Or you could just listen for free at this most excellent internet station:

http://www.cladriteradio.com/

 

[Fletch]

From my music school experience, I have been pretty well indoctrinated in the idea of "teach what to do, but never how to do it." The deepest joys and discoveries seem to require the most frustration - even the embrace of frustration.

The knowledge I laid out a few posts upthread approaches that of the mandarin: it can be shared, even shared generously, but only discreetly. There can be no more broadcasts, no concerts in the park. Too much has changed between the music and our world.

I don't say this to be grandiose - although, admittedly, some of what I have to say can't be expressed without a sort of tablets-on-the-mountain grandiosity and still make any impression at all. It has to be understood that however vital, rhythmic, and joyous the music of the 30s is, there is a sort of eternal veil in front of it.

For one, however vital this music is, it is dead music. Too much time has passed for it to be truly relevant. When you begin to hear anything in it, inevitably, you retreat from the world we know into a solitude and unreality that, for most modern ears, put it beyond the realm of the accessible. The more you hear in it, the less accessible you will be, too. You too will become a mandarin, become self-referential.

For another, the rights to the source material have consolidated into hands more given to censorship than stewardship. Going too far above ground with it, drawing one person too many's attention, could conceivably cause all of it to be taken away. We are dealing, finally, with a kind of samizdat.

However, I will tip my hand in a small way by pointing to a very valuable - and, crucially, overseas - online resource: http://jazz-on-line.com