Collecting Early Jazz 78’s

[epigramophone]

My son is a classically trained professional clarinettist who admires Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, but he had never heard of Ted Lewis until I played his recording of Yellow Dog Blues. He was impressed.

[Marc Hildebrant]

I try to add some jazz history, when possible, to my Podcasts (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1449838). If you want some great information, check out the book "The Story of Jazz) by Marshall Stearns.

Edison had Flecher Handerson record music (Linger Awhile) and many more jazz recordings than most people know.

Marc

[Edisonfan]

I try to add some jazz history, when possible, to my Podcasts (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1449838). If you want some great information, check out the book "The Story of Jazz) by Marshall Stearns.

Edison had Flecher Handerson record music (Linger Awhile) and many more jazz recordings than most people know.

Marc

Interesting, because I thought Edison was not a fan of Jazz or more popular music, but instead the music he grew up listening too. It was more likely people working for Edison who allowed Jazz to be recorded. I only have a very small number of records of Jazz on Edison. One cylinder and two Diamond Discs.

[Edisonfan]

I did a little more research: Library of the University of California Santa Barbra Discography of American historical recordings.

By all accounts, Edison—almost completely deaf—could sense vibrations and therefore “hear” enough in order to pass judgment on the quality of a performer. This implies that perhaps it wasn’t Edison’s taste in music that influenced his recorded repertoire, but instead his self-proclaimed ability to pass judgment on a singer or instrumentalist’s artistic worth. However, Edison seemed to have been more concerned with purity of tone. Additionally, he was deeply concerned and critical of vocal vibrato.

[gramophone-georg]

My son is a classically trained professional clarinettist who admires Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, but he had never heard of Ted Lewis until I played his recording of Yellow Dog Blues. He was impressed.

If memory serves, he is impressed by Jimmy Dorsey on that number, actually.

[Marc Hildebrant]

With regard to the story about Edison and Jazz music...There are many rumors about how Edison did not like any music except the type " nobody else" liked and as such the Edison Music business failed.

I tend to believe that there were many reasons that the Diamond Disc sales dropped from 1923 onward that were not related to the selection of music material. I have found many fun, early and late jazz numbers in the records I have from the Diamond Discs and will continue to add them to my Podcast.

Keep in mind that the jazz form of music went through a long development stage, and as such many of the foxtrot songs from the early 1910's and 20's, that today sound mild, were at the time early jazz music.
Again, the book by Marshall Stearns should be read to understand how "wide" a subject "jazz" is.

Marc

[CarlosV]

Interesting, because I thought Edison was not a fan of Jazz or more popular music, but instead the music he grew up listening too. It was more likely people working for Edison who allowed Jazz to be recorded. I only have a very small number of records of Jazz on Edison. One cylinder and two Diamond Discs.

Edison issued records of the Memphis Five, Phil Napoleon, Earl Oliver, and several dance band foxtrots had what we call hot solos, much like the production of other labels of the period. The major difference with respect to other labels is that Edison did not have "race" departments like Columbia and Victor, with records (and distribution) dedicated to the Afro-American consumer. One evidence is the absence of Afro American blues singers throughout the peak of its popularity: as far as I know only Eva Taylor recorded two sides for Edison, at the tail end of the blues craze. The other blues recorded by Edison were sang by white vaudeville singers like Al Bernard. This makes me assume that Edison's personal musical tastes only had a marginal effect on its output, and the type of music Edison recorded was more a consequence of market choices than anything else.

[VanEpsFan1914]

With regard to the story about Edison and Jazz music...There are many rumors about how Edison did not like any music except the type " nobody else" liked and as such the Edison Music business failed.

I tend to believe that there were many reasons that the Diamond Disc sales dropped from 1923 onward that were not related to the selection of music material. I have found many fun, early and late jazz numbers in the records I have from the Diamond Discs and will continue to add them to my Podcast.

Keep in mind that the jazz form of music went through a long development stage, and as such many of the foxtrot songs from the early 1910's and 20's, that today sound mild, were at the time early jazz music.
Again, the book by Marshall Stearns should be read to understand how "wide" a subject "jazz" is.

Marc

I had to wonder if perhaps the Edison phonograph was just too complicated to sell cheaply and, since Victor's 78rpm format could be made in a cheaper machine, the lower-income "race" and "hillbilly" markets were able to just grab a regular 78rpm machine to draw from all that. The Edison did well for tone but if Victor is selling records by the Skillet Lickers and you want some of your own mountain music on record, it really doesn't matter how Anna Case records fared in a Tone Test.

Also, Victor was pouring out classical records, which had that end of the market.

The Edison records, had they been released around 1915 as a co-released line of high quality lateral 78s with the selections from Diamond Disc & cylinder, might've been ok as they could have ramped up that aggressive marketing in the 1920s and then held on through the '30s. But that's just a hunch.

[epigramophone]

My son is a classically trained professional clarinettist who admires Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, but he had never heard of Ted Lewis until I played his recording of Yellow Dog Blues. He was impressed.

If memory serves, he is impressed by Jimmy Dorsey on that number, actually.

The list of personnel on that recording includes both Ted Lewis and Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet.

[Marc Hildebrant]

I had always believed that the Dorsey brothers only played trombone.

Learned something new every day!

Marc