Sweet & Hot Dance Bands Vol. 2

[Durium]

SWEET & HOT DANCE BANDS Vol. 2 (Victor Recordings 1927 – 1931) -

AUDIO PARK APCD-6019 [information: Tohru Seya (seya@emc.tsukuba.ac.jp) www.audiopark.gr.jp ]

Ace In The Hole (a) / Waitin’ For Katie (b) / Memphis Blues (b) / I’m Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now © / Hoosier Sweetheart © / Slow River © / Crazy Words-Crazy Tunes (d) / A Little Birdie Told Me So (e) / Tiger Rag (f) / Miss Annabelle Lee (g) / When The Morning glories Wake Up In The Morning (h) / Lonely Melody (j) / San (j) / Harlem Twist (k) / A Peach of a Pair (l) / Sweet Jennie Lee (m) / Lonesome Lover (n) / Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone (n) / When I Take My Sugar To Tea (n) / I Should Have Known Better (o)

(a) Al Katz & His Kittens (1926) / (b) Ben Pollack & his Orchestra (1927) / © Jean Goldkette & his Orchestra (1927) / (d) Irving Aaronson & his Commanders (1927) / (e) Roger Wolf Kahn & his Orchestra (1927) / (f) Charles Dornberger & his Orchestra (1927) / (g) Ted Weems & his Orchestra (1927) / (h) Jacques Renard & his Cocoanut Grove Orchestra (1927) / (j) Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra (1928) / (k) Red Nichols & his Orchestra (1928) / (l) Gus Arnheim & his Orchestra / (m) The High Hatters (1930) / (n) Bert Lown & his Biltmore Orchestra (1931) / (o) Ted Black & his Orchestra (1931)

This second CD of the Japanese label “Audio Park” in the series “Sweet & Hot Dance Bands” is a continuation of the first volume, that was released some years ago. (APCD-6011). Most bands on this compilation are well known jazz-influenced dance bands from the late 1920s and early 1930s; bands with famous bandleaders like Ben Pollack, Jean Goldkette, Paul Whiteman, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Red Nichols and Ted Weems. The musicians weren’t often satisfied about the results, Richard Sudhalter says in his book “Lost Chords”, because the record supervisors decreed what titles and arrangement were commercially interested. The recordings “never showed more than a fraction of what we could do ” and “they never let us record our best arrangement ”. Nowadays, 75 years later, we still can enjoy these white band recordings, all made for Victor, and we shall have to live with the knowledge that the bands sounded live “hotter” as musicians later claimed. For the fanatical collector the recordings don’t bring surprises, besides the perfect sound quality. Nearly all recordings have been reissued on (now rare) LPs; some are to find on CDs. This compilation gives, together with volume one, a balanced view on the recordings Victor offered the US during this period. Don’t forget to find a copy !!

Keep swinging

Hans Koert

Edited November 27, 2004 by Durium