Benjamin Albert Rolfe worked in vaudeville and the motion picture business before starting a dance orchestra in New York City in 1926. While many of their releases over the course of their three year recording career with Edison Records were sweet dance music, there are a number of titles that are quite hot – “Deep Hollow” being one of them.
Hot trumpet, trombone, and bass sax solos can be heard within a delightful arrangement that ends with a few wild punctuations by an unruly slide whistle of some kind.
Edison Diamond Discs were electrically recorded with microphones starting with Edison 52089 in 1927, and while the sound quality was not quite as good as Victor Orthophonic or Columbia Viva-tonal, it was a step above the old acoustic method of recording. But the change came too late for the Edison company, and by late 1929, they got out of the record business entirely. Thus, these later 52000 series Edisons are quite scarce.
Recorded in New York City on May 14, 1928.
Released as Edison 52319.
Credits:
B.A. Rolfe (“Trumpet Virtuoso”) – trumpet
Other players are unidentified, though Rolfe was known to record with players such as Phil Napoleon, Andy Sannella, Ross Gorman, and Tony Colicchio.