estott wrote:
gramophone-georg wrote:
Some of the Lombardo 1920s Columbia Viva Tonal sides are actually quite hot. "The Cannonball", "I'm More Than Satisfied", "Waitin' For Katy" and "Under The Moon" come to mind.
The earlier Gennett sides are hot too, but almost impossible to find. They did a Vocalion disc as Louisville Rhythm Kings "Mississippi Mud" (the flip side title escapes me) that is also hot.
Not a lot of people know that Louis Armstrong was a huge Lombardo fan (and vice versa). You can hear the Lombardo influence on a lot of the "New Sebastian" orchestra sides on OKeh.
I agree with the above- the older the better. Some of his Orthophonic sides can be very nice, like the novelty "The Broken Record" (I love you/I you/ I love you). Eventually he moved to "The Sweetest Music This Side Of Heaven" and became musically much less interesting.
There was just something about Decca.
Previously great bands signed with Decca and became snoozers... Armstrong, Lombardo, Ted Weems, Isham Jones... Bing Crosby was a very capable jazz/ scat singer before moving to Decca to become The Old Groaner. The Andrews Sisters early sides with Leon Belasco on Brunswick were quite jazzy, too... then they, too, signed with Decca and became "personalities" rather than artists, in my opinion.
And yet, there were exceptions. Most Dorsey Brothers Deccas are great and Glenn Miller's Decca sides are a real treat. Miller actually had a quite serious jazz oriented band in 1935-38, first with Columbia, then Brunswick, then Decca. For some reason, Miller went to Victor but acted like he went to Decca, LOL.