An Archive of Early Jazz on 78 RPM
In tribute to Caitlyn Clark, Hannah Stuelke, Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall, Sydney Affolter, and the entire 2023-24 Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball team as they play the national championship game against South Carolina today. Best of luck!
Go Hawks!
Recorded by the Hav-Ray Orchestra.
Conductor: Jack Shaindlin.
Released as Hav-Ray 1151.
Here’s a fun 78 rpm 6″ record that was custom-made for children. Each record included the name of the child in the recording.
At the 1:00 mark, Santa asks “Whose chimney is this, my little elf?” and a guy with a Long Island accent chimes in over a cheap microphone: “It’s TIM’S chimney, Santa Claus.”
My guess is this poor guy had to manually dub each record, chiming in at the appropriate point in the pre-recorded soundtrack.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Thanks for all the comments and support this past year on the channel. I’ve got lots of great jazz records to post in 2023 so stay tuned.
“I Don’t Want To Be Drunk”
Cancioneros Tapatíos accompanied by Orquesta Edgardo Acosta.
Recorded in Los Angeles, California, circa January 1929.
Released as Columbia 3482-X.
Another great haunting track for your 78 rpm Halloween playlist.
German-born pianist Hans Barth takes on Edward MacDowell’s composition from the 1880s: “Witches’ Dance”.
Recorded in Camden, New Jersey on December 4, 1926.
Released as Victor 20396 in January, 1927.
Stayed in print in the Victor / RCA Victor catalog until 1944.
One of the most famous songs in Europe during WWII was recorded before the war began in 1938 by Italian-born singer Rina Ketty (whose birth name was Cesarina Picchetto).
The song tells of a woman’s faithful waiting for her lover to return. It is understandable how this song would appeal to soldiers in the field as they faced the daily horrors of war but were comforted by the thought of a steadfast loved one who would await their return after the war.
J’attendrai I will wait
Le jour et la nuit Day and night
J’attendrai, toujours I will wait always
Ton retour Your return
This record famously is played on a phonograph during a scene in the movie Das Boot, by request from the U-boat’s captain during a lull in the fighting due to a heavy storm.
This Pathé, by its label sticker, appears to have been purchased at a record store in Huy, Belgium. I believe it is the original pressing – and it is amazing that it survived the war and somehow made its way to an institutional collection in South Dakota, where I found it earlier this year.
While the sticker obscures the label, I love such historical ephemera and think it adds to its character and charm.
Violin Solo by Greek violinist Athanasiou Makedonas
Recorded in New York, NY ca. August 1919.
Released as Columbia E-4878
Matrix 85380-1
Many jazz guitarists from Eddie Lang to Charlie Byrd were inspired by Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia, who helped establish the guitar as a solo instrument capable of much more than rhythmic accompaniment.
This beautiful recording was made less than a year before his American performance debut at New York’s Town Hall on January 8, 1928.
Recorded in London on May 20, 1927.
Released as Victrola 6767.
A Victor home recording made by an unidentified female and “Dr. Frank” Jones while on what sounds like a lovely vacation in California during the summer of 1931.
It’d be pretty cool to figure out who this was and get a copy to their descendants! It was found in an album with a collection of Little Wonder records in a thrift store in Iowa in March of 2022.
At 78rpm the voices sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks, so slowed it down until it sounded close to normal – which came out to be around 60-62 rpm.
Transcript:
Side I
“This is Friday, July 11, 1931. Hello, Uncle Jim and Mrs. Woolsey and Dorothy. Well, here we are in Long Beach. It is cool on the ocean, but back a mile or so, it’s plenty hot. I had (weenies? Wheaties?) for supper last night and I thought of you. We just went to the big boat California – it arrived from New York. It was wonderful. We saw Etsy Bowne(?) and Mrs. Springfield and Leila(?). Mrs. Springfield says she feels better now. We are going to visit (?) this afternoon. We went to Tijuana, Mexico last Monday. I am glad I live in the Good ole’ U.S.A. I never knew how I loved the grand old flag – and how much it really meant to us all. We are going to start north to Portland about next Wednesday. We expect to stay a day or so in Oakland and may stop in San Francisco a day. We are going up the Redwood drive – they say it is one of the most beautiful drives in the world. Mother hasn’t done very… but very little back seat driving, although, um… at times she has done… there’s been a little (?) in the backseat as we crossed over the big Nevada mountains. We wish you all were here with us. I wonder how my Sunday school class is coming along. I visited…”
Side II
“(?) will say something to you.”
“Hello Jim, Mrs. Woolsey and Dorothy. Well, here we are, and uh, everything’s fine – mother’s gained about five, ten pounds and (?) has gained about the same and we’re on our way up north – I guess, uh, Wednesday. We want to stop, uh, see (?) if we have time although we saw her on the way down – they have a beautiful home and uh… everybody’s getting along fine up there. We expect to go on through Glacier Park and down through the Yellowstone Park and we’ll probably be home, oh uh, the last of August – maybe about the first of September. Well, it’s good and hot if you get away from the coast then, I wish you was out here and lots of love to all of you and this is Doctor Frank.”
#victorhomerecording #homerecording #audiopostcard
Recorded on January 7, 1913.
Released as Columbia A1289 in May 1913.
“Nobody” was a wildly popular song written by Bert Williams and Alex Rogers in 1905. It became Williams’ signature tune – and he was very closely associated with it his entire career.
The song represents the struggles black performers experienced and the discrimination they endured during the time it was written.
Sales of this record exceeded 100,000 copies and stayed in the Columbia catalog for over two decades.