If you really want to hear what music from the jazz age can sound like – take a listen to this amazing-sounding test pressing of Vocalion 1263! When the string bass takes a solo at 2:22 you’ll see what I mean!
Probably one of the cleanest 78 rpm records I’ve ever heard! Apparently, U.K. audio engineer John R.T. Davies had gotten a hold of the metal masters and had this pressed up in vinyl. The surface noise is barely audible at all and the purity of sound on this transfer really delighted my ears!
Junie Cobb was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1896 who learned to play a variety of instruments. He moved to Chicago in the early 1920s and played with King Oliver and Jimmie Noone before putting together his own band with his brother, Jimmy, on trumpet.
“Shake That Jelly Roll” is Cobb original – though a Lester Melrose credit appears on the record label – one of the Melrose brothers who owned a music publishing business in Chicago and would often write “lyrics” for instrumental tunes so that they would get part of the royalty.
The tune starts off as though the band were about to play “Copenhagen” – but after a five second fake-out, the band launches into some hot fun, with hype man Junie Cobb braying out rejoinders such as “Oh Look at that Gal Shakin’ that Jelly Roll!” to keep the band fired up.
Recorded in Chicago, Illinois on February 7, 1929.
Originally released as Vocalion 1263.
Credits:
Jimmy Cobb – cornet
Darnell Howard – clarinet, alto sax
Junie Cobb – tenor sax, violin, clarinet, vocals
Bob Waugh – violin
Alex Hill – piano
Eustern Woodfork – banjo
Bill Johnson – string bass
W. E. Burton – drums
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