One unusual orchestra of this period, however, remained
intact barely long enough for any recording company to set down its music in wax. This was the Morton-Handy Band, headed
by both Jelly Roll Morton and William Christopher Handy. The personnel included, besides pianist Morton and cornetist
Handy, cornetist Tig Gray, trombonist Roy Palmer, bassist Baby Williams, banjoist Walter Dixon, drummer Johnny Bell; the
clarinet posts were held by Jimmie O’Bryant, Horace Eubanks and one who is remembered by his contemporaries only as
“Balls”. The date of the band is about 1923, the place, Chicago, where it was organized for
tours throughout the Midwest. As might be expected, disputes soon arose over the “rights” position and billing of the two
leaders. That they were temperamentally incompatible soon became evident: the venture collapsed after, at the most, two
months. The band did however, play some engagements in the Chicago area; but, as is so often the case, recording company
talent scouts were not so alert (or perhaps it was the recording companies’ executive attitude that frowned on Jazz?).
I have not been able to locate the precise address of The New York
Recording Laboratory in Chicago. Adam Dubin and Tom Fischer have confirmed that there are no entries in both the 1923 and
1924 Chicago City Directories, nor the Telephone Directories from this period. Robert Morritt, who specialises in the
history of recording companies, says that it was common during this period for record companies to hire hotel rooms and
ballrooms, or other similar locations to carry out ‘field’ recordings, until they established their own permanent studios.
Chicago recording sessions by The New York Recording Laboratory were contracted out to Marsh Recording Laboratories
Inc., the Rodeheaver Record Company and other independent studios.
|
|
The building, formally known as The Webster Hotel,
is now called Webster House and has been converted into apartments. The lobby is quite bare, but otherwise
apparently has not been altered too much, with the checkout desk and mailboxes in place as well as a lot of very
characteristic 1920s ornamental plaster work. The Ballroom, where the 1926 Red Hot
Peppers recordings were made, has not been used for anything in several years. If what I was told was true,
it most recently functioned as a restaurant. It is situated on the first floor and is accessible from the
lobby about seventy feet from the entrance.
The Webster Hotel’s place in jazz history would have
been secured if only the Morton recordings had been made there. But other jazz artists recorded there too, including
the Ben Pollack band (with Benny Goodman), the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, the Dixieland Jug Blowers (with Johnny Dodds on
some titles), and Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, as well as blues singer Sodarisa Miller. During its several
months of using the Webster Hotel, Victor also recorded dance bands, ethnic groups, humor, gospel music, concert and
military band music and popular music vocals.
Note: The Chant 36241 - 1 is a Mel Stitzel composition and is wrongly credited to Morton on the dubbed French issue of
Hot Jazz Club of America # HC45.
|
|
38663 - 1
38663 - 2
38664 - 1
|
|
|
Victor 21064 - A
1st issued on LP
Victor 21064 - B
|
|
Bernard F. Reilly of the Chicago Historical Society has checked the Chicago classified and regular telephone directories for 1926 and 1927. According to these sources The Victor Talking Machine Company occupied the following addresses.
1045 West Monroe Street - 1926.
The Webster Hotel, 2150 Lincoln Park West - 1926.
952 North Michigan Avenue - 1927.
The Victor Recording Sheet for the 4th June 1927 session, courtesy of
Roger Richard, shows that the recordings took place at the Victor Talking Mach. Recording Lab. Chicago Ill. It was
usual for the studio clerk to type in the location address. However, in this instance, no detailed street address is
given.
Warren ‘Baby’ Dodds, talking about this particular session, has stated that . . . “They were recorded in the Chicago
Victor studios on Oak Street near Michigan Avenue, and the acoustics there were very good. It was one of the
best studios I ever worked in . . .”
Bernard Reilly has not been able to trace a
listing for the location mentioned by ‘Baby’ Dodds. However, Oak Street does intersect with North Michigan Avenue and there may have been an entrance from Oak Street to the Victor complex at 952 North Michigan Avenue.
The Master Dispositions are: D = Destroy. M = Master. HI = Hold Indefinitely. Note the spelling of Louis Armstrong’s name as co-composer for Wild Man Blues.
|
LEVEE SERENADERS
Vocal Chorus by Frances Hereford
|
The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co.
6th Floor
Brunswick Building
623 - 633 South Wabash Avenue
Chicago
Illinois
|
21st January 1928
|
Edwin Swayze (tp): Louis Taylor (tb): Walter Thomas (reeds): Jelly Roll Morton (p): Leslie Corley (bj): Hayes Alvis (tu): Walter Bishop (d): Frances Hereford (voc)
|
145759 - 1
145759 - 2
145760 - 2
145761 - 1
145762 - 3
|
|
|
Columbia 14306 - D
Columbia 14306 - D
Columbia 14358 - D
Columbia 14306 - D
Columbia 14358 - D
|
|
Brian G. Andersson, Assistant Commissioner, NYC Department of Records and Information Services has checked the New York City Directories and found the following entry in the 1924 and 1925 edition:
Columbia Phonograph Co. (NY)
H. L. Wilson, Pres., F. J. Ames, Sect., H. C. Cox, Treas.
1819 Broadway and 121 W. 20
The next available year was 1933 - 34 and that directory had the Columbia Phonograph Company located at 55 Fifth Avenue and 121 West 20th Street.
Brian also checked a 1921 map for the 1819 Broadway address and found it was indeed the Gotham Bank Building. It was located on West 59th Street, right on Columbus Circle, with an entrance on Broadway, where demolition is currently (July 2000) taking place of the old New York Coliseum, making way for a new hotel, retail and entertainment complex.
In a personal letter to Roger Richard dated 1969, Herb Flemming recalled that the above recordings took place on the 23rd floor of the Gotham Bank Building. Roger also confirms the spelling of Herb Flemming’s name as shown above.
|
49457 - 1
49458 - 2
49459 - 1
49459 - 2
|
|
Down My Way - Fox Trot
[Jelly-Roll Morton]
Try Me Out - Fox Trot
[Jelly-Roll Morton]
Tank Town Bump - Fox Trot
[ - ]
Tank Town Bump - Fox Trot
[Jelly-Roll Morton]
|
|
Victor V38113 - B
Victor V38113 - A
1st issued on LP
Victor V38075 - B
|
|
The Victor Talking Machine Co. recording Studio No.1 was located in
Trinity Baptist Church, 114 N. 5th Street, Camden, New Jersey. Victor purchased the church in February 1916 and they originally intended it to be used for storage purposes. However, with its fine acoustic qualities, and the three-manual, twenty-one rank Estey Pipe Organ present in the building, the church was converted to a recording studio and named Building #22. The studio was part of the huge Victor manufacturing complex. Victor was taken over by RCA in January 1929. By 1936, all recording in Camden, including this building, ceased because the Delaware River Bridge trains began operations and the deep-ground vibrations wrought havoc with the recordings. The building later served as a gymnasium for RCA employees. Unfortunately the building has succumbed to urban renewal and is now a parking lot.
The identity of the two trumpet players who participated in the above sessions of the 9th, 10th and 12th July 1929, remained unresolved for many years.
However, due to research by Theo Zwicky and Al Vollmer, positive identification of the orchestra members can now be confirmed as Walter Briscoe, Boyd Rosser (tp): Charlie Irvis (tb): George Baquet (cl): Walter Thomas, Paul Barnes (as): Joe Thomas (ts): Jelly Roll Morton (p): Barney Alexander (bj): Harry Prather (tu): William Laws (d) and Nicholas ‘Rod’ Rodriguez (p).
The extra pianist should not be forgotten, even if he does not play on the issued records, he did participate in the rehearsals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Tuesday, 31st October 1939, Jelly Roll Morton appeared as a guest artist on an RCA radio broadcast sponsored by “Sanka Coffee.” On the program, “We, The People”, Morton was interviewed by Gabriel Heatter. Morton then joined the studio orchestra to perform “Tiger Rag.”
In May 1959, Roy Carew, in a letter to Jan van Ellinkhuizen of Holland wrote, [and I quote] . . .
“Yes, I knew about the radio program you mention. The title was We, the People, the first three words of the preamble of the United States Constitution. The program presented people, more or less prominent, who had accomplished worthwhile things, people with special talents, people who had interesting experiences, etc. Jelly sent me a message that he would be on the program, but it reached me the next morning, so I missed the program. His message to me was” . . .
“I will be on We The People program Tuesday Oct. 31st. I am sorry to have to play the Tiger Rag, but it will help & serve some other way, it is considered the biggest program on the air, if possible, tune in.”
“He would have liked to play some of the tunes he turned over to me, but they wanted the tiger as he played it with his left forearm. I like his version of that number very much, and regret missing the show.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Sunday, 14th July 1940 in New York City, Jelly Roll Morton made a guest appearance on the NBC radio programme The Chamber Music Society Of Lower Basin Street. The unknown NBC “Master of Ceremonies” introduced Morton by announcing: “When the final story of the birth of America’s blues is written, a large chapter undoubtedly will be given over to a musician whose name you all know. He was in New Orleans when the blues began and he took an important part in the event. At the age of twenty he was a piano professor on Basin Street. He wrote music for King Porter; he knew Buddy Bolden and Stalebread LaCoume and he remembers Louis Armstrong in short trousers. And both as a performer and personality, he has been an active American classicist ever since. It is now our privilege to present from our concert stage, Doctor Ferdinand ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton, playing one of his own compositions, Winin’ Boy.”
Morton then joins the studio house band of: Henry Levine (tp); Jack Epstein (tb); Alfie Evans (as); Rudolph Adler (ts); Tony Colucca (g); Harry Patent (b); and Nat Levine (d).
At the conclusion of ‘Winin’ Boy’ the announcer continues: “As an encore, we have asked Doctor Ferdinand ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton to play one of the most famous of all his many compositions, the King Porter Stomp.” Only the drummer, Nat Levine, accompanies Morton on this number. Finally, the announcer says, “Thank you Professor Ferdinand ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton.”
According to an article, which appeared in the February 1946 issue of The Pickup, Morton ignored time cues and played well over his allotted time. The result being that another featured artist, Dinah Shore, was unable to perform a blues arrangement by the then assistant editor of Metronome Leonard Feather.
|
References
|
a
|
Mister Jelly Roll - Alan Lomax, New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1950. Page references are to the 1973 Second Edition (Hard Cover)
University of California Press.
|
b
|
Mr. Jelly Lord - Laurie Wright, Chigwell, Essex, Storyville Publications, 1980.
|
c
|
Father Of The Blues, An Autobiography - W. C. Handy, London, Sidgewick and Jackson, 1957.
|
d
|
Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy - Rick Kennedy, Indiana University Press, 1994.
|
e
|
Esquire's Jazz Book - 1946 - Chapter entitled Chicago Jazz History by Paul Eduard Miller and George Hoefer.
|
|
f
|
Polk, Richmond City Directory for 1923-24 - Doris Ashbrook of Morrison-Reeves Library Services and Jane Holman, Executive Director of Waynet, Inc., Richmond, Indiana.
|
|
g
|
Mary Frechette - Head of Fine Arts Dept, St. Louis Public Library.
|
h
|
Prof. James Dapogny - Letter to Mike Meddings, 30th June 2000.
|
|
j
|
American Record Labels and Companies - An Encyclopedia (1891-1943) -
Sutton & Nauck, Mainspring Press, 2000.
|
|
k |
The Baby Dodds Story - As Told to Larry Gara, Louisiana State University Press,1992.
|
|
m |
The Chicago Defender - 11th October 1924, page 9. Courtesy of Dr. Robert I. Pinsker.
|
q
|
Storyville Magazine - Issue 102, August - September 1982.
|
|
r |
The Chicago Defender - 5th January 1924, page 8. Courtesy of Dr. Robert I. Pinsker.
|
|
s |
The Chicago Defender - 19th June 1926, page 7. Courtesy of Dr. Robert I. Pinsker.
|
|
t |
The Chicago Defender - 27th November 1926, page 6. Courtesy of Dr. Robert I. Pinsker.
|
|
u |
The Chicago Defender - 1st January 1927, page 6. Courtesy of Dr. Robert I. Pinsker.
|
|
v |
MJCD 177 - Volume 9. 1938 - Liner Notes, page 19. Courtesy of Roger Richard.
|
|
w |
The Chicago Defender - 24th November 1923, page 7. Courtesy of Dr. Robert I. Pinsker.
|
|
x |
The Chicago Defender - 20th October 1923, page 7. Courtesy of Dr. Robert I. Pinsker.
|
|
y |
Philippe Baudoin - Letter to Mike Meddings, 3rd September 2001.
|
|
z |
Down Beat - 15th December 1942, page 32.
Courtesy of Prof. Alan Wallace.
|
|
1 |
Storyville 1996-97 - Chapter entitled
Come Listen With Me by Brian Goggin, page 162. Laurie Wright, Chigwell, Essex, 1997.
|
