Music suggestions 20's 30's big band & jazz?

[V.C. Brunswick]

Manhattan (1925)

The Knickerbockers (Ben Selvin)

[video=youtube;lUPLD0u7BEY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPLD0u7BEY[/video]

The California Ramblers

[video=youtube;d2rDsY-zge4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2rDsY-zge4[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Knickerbockers (Ben Selvin) -- From Now On (1929)

[video=youtube;poL02nD6DlA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poL02nD6DlA[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Carl Fenton's Orchestra -- You Told Me To Go (1925)

[video=youtube;hcPJkSF4KXM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcPJkSF4KXM[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The High Hatters -- In My Little Hope Chest (1930)

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Leo Reisman and his Orchestra -- I Still Belong To You (1928)

[video=youtube;BSn3E4XLtF4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSn3E4XLtF4[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

1. Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees -- Don't Play With Fire (1937)
2. Belle Baker with Carroll Gibbons -- The Continental (1935)
3. Morton Downey -- Love Is A Dreamer (1929)
4. Richard Himber and his Ritz Carlton Orchestra -- Monday In Manhattan (1935)
5. Jay Freeman and his Orchestra -- That's What You Mean To Me (1936)

[video=youtube;vj4ur9a241c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj4ur9a241c[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Eddy Walis und sein Orchester -- Wenn Ich Die Blonde Inge (1929)
(If I Were Blonde Inge)

[video=youtube;aU0Yr-M_b8A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU0Yr-M_b8A[/video]

 

[Futwick]

I really like Yazoo's "Jazz the World Forgot" series. I play it quite a lot even though I've had the CDs forever. Some of it isn't really so forgotten such as Jelly Roll Morton. You can get Morton anthologies anywhere but some of the bands in this series I've never been able to find anywhere or I might have found another anthology that included a number from them. There is also "An Anthology of Big Band Swing" with a nice selection and a nice booklet to go with it. There is a series of V-Disks made in WW2 out there. I have a few of them--Les Paul, Fats Waller and Kay Kyser, for example. If you go to OTRCAT, they sell some rare live recordings of bands from the 20s through at least the 40s. One CD I bought from them was rare music broadcasts from the 1920s where the DJ isn't really a DJ because he has no discs to play. He introduces a song and a live band plays it right there. It's very interesting stuff. But they sell CDs of bands playing at big hotels which were popular venues in those days. OTRCAT stuff is cheap like $5 per CD so it's worth getting. One really interesting CD that I bought from OTRCAT is called something like "Charlie & His Orchestra" and features good quality recordings of a German jazz band from the NAZI era doing the big jazz hits of that day except that the lyrics have been replaced with Nazi propaganda. It's very well arranged and played. You kind of get the feeling this band probably didn't want to do it but it was the only jazz they were allowed to play so they had to settle for it. But it's a great war document to have and I recommend anyone interested in WW2 to get it. Only $5.

I don't know how you feel about Western swing but I love it and I highly recommend the Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys Tiffany Transcriptions. Luckily, I have a very cool record store in my area that specializes in stocking this kind of stuff otherwise, you may have to order it online. I'm sure Amazon carries it.

I also love Spike Jones and there's plenty of Spike Jones CDs out there. I have several which I copied from a friend who got them somewhere. Gosh, there's so much stuff available from that period that so few people ever bother to listen to--Ella Mae Morse, Stan Kenton, Art Tatum, Lester Young, Freddie Slack, T-Bone Walker, Spade Cooley, Merle Travis, Jazz at the Philharmonic, Mary Lou Williams, Emmett Miller, George Gershwin piano rolls, etc. Gems gleaming in the dust of history just lying there largely ignored. It's such a shame.

Anyway, I am a jazz musician (double bass) so maybe I can help out anyone with questions about this old jazz (although I'm fairly knowledgeable about most eras of jazz).

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Savoy Plaza Band -- A Precious Little Thing Called Love (1929)

[video=youtube;lVKVO5_85QA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVKVO5_85QA[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Ben Bernie and his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra -- I've Got A Feeling I'm Falling (1929)

 

[Futwick]

Jelly Roll Morton "Sweet Man" piano roll December 1925:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwLmkjDqzQM

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Jelly Roll Morton "Sweet Man" piano roll December 1925:

Here's my favorite Jelly Roll Morton recording:
Someday Sweetheart (1926)

 

[Futwick]

Yes, that's a nice piece. I think I have everything Morton ever recorded on CD. I have all my CDs--a very large library--all ripped onto a terabyte portable disc so I can take my whole CD collection with me anywhere I go. I have everything from 1880s recordings to latest stuff that I can tolerate listening to --which isn't much. By the way, anybody who wonders about these Victor labels from the mid to late 20s, the "VE" means the disc MUST be played on an orthophonic system. This system was meant for electrical recordings. It's confusing because I don't think the orthophonic systems were necessarily electrical but were made for electrical recordings. It had a 9-foot horn folded up inside the cabinet so that the bass frequencies could be heard. Apparently, you couldn't play the VE recordings on systems meant for non-electric recordings.

The following is Ray Noble with Al Bowlly. This song was featured in "The Shining" and I imagine most posters here know it by heart. I do it on the uke at open mics where NOBODY recognizes it. Go figure. I bought three CDs worth of Noble and Bowlly from CD Universe--a very good source for those who haven't used them. Great stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP9Uubvm91I

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The one by Ray Noble and Al Bowlly that I can't seem to find is June Time Is Love Time recorded in 1931.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The one by Ray Noble and Al Bowlly that I can't seem to find is June Time Is Love Time recorded in 1931. Midnight, The Stars & You could also be heard in the 1934 film Babbitt which starred Guy Kibbee.

 

[Futwick]

The one by Ray Noble and Al Bowlly that I can't seem to find is June Time Is Love Time recorded in 1931.

It's on "Ray Noble - In London 1930-1934, Vol. 3- You Ought to See Sally on a Sunday". It's one of the CDs I ordered from CD Universe. They are a very nice resource and I recommend them to everybody who has any interest in jazz at all.

 

[Futwick]

Btw, would you know the third song they play in "The Shining" when Jack is in the restroom talking to Delbert Grady? When they first come in, they are playing "Midnight, the Stars and You." Then they play "It's All Forgotten Now." But what is that next one? I don't think I have that one. Really boils my bottom.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The third song is Home by Henry Hall and his Gleneagles Hotel Orchestra with a vocal by Maurice Elwin.

 

[Futwick]

Oh. So that isn't even Ray and Al. That explains it. Thanks.

 

[Futwick]

Here's the scene in question so people know what I'm referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vulNlhUI6m0