[Tradjazz] Musicians & Buffs

[GeoHunt1 at aol.com]

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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