'Basin Street blues'--Benny Goodman and his orchestra, 1931.

[Viva-Tonal]

This must have been a popular, sought-after record in the 1930s, given it was reissued twice within five years after it was originally released.

Recorded on 9th February 1931, this was originally released on Columbia 2415-D, as by 'The Charleston Chasers'. It was later reissued on Okeh 41577 circa 1935, and circa 1936 on Brunswick 7645. The listings at 78discography.com show 17096 as the master number for 41577 and for 7645 for this recording. 17096 is a dubbing from the original master.

The label on my Brunswick disc shows this as by Benny Goodman and his orchestra.

Luckily, my copy of 7645 is pressed not from that dub, but from the original Columbia matrix, number W.151292-2.

Among the musicians on this recording: Gene Krupa, drums; Arthur Schutt, piano; Benny Goodman, clarinet; Jack Teagarden, trombone and vocals.

http://www.box.net/shared/3qdexz12me

Enjoy!

[Wolfe]

Seems to be popular number on CD reissues as well, and not without merit. It's a nice performace.

Thanks for posting.

[Viva-Tonal]

You're welcome!

[WDC]

Oh, the Charleston Chasers are a great indicator for good music on the record!

[MordEth]

Thanks for sharing this. This is an earlier version than the recording on Victor 25258 (which I believe was made in 1935), correct?

I think that I prefer the Victor pressing, of which beaumonde gave me a nice transfer, but they’re both good versions.

— MordEth

[Viva-Tonal]

Both sides of Victor 25258 were recorded 22 November 1935.

Here's where I got this information: http://78discography.com/vic25000.html

[Wolfe]

This must have been a popular, sought-after record in the 1930s, given it was reissued twice within five years after it was originally released.

Recorded on 9th February 1931, this was originally released on Columbia 2415-D, as by 'The Charleston Chasers'. It was later reissued on Okeh 41577 circa 1935, and circa 1936 on Brunswick 7645. The listings at 78discography.com show 17096 as the master number for 41577 and for 7645 for this recording. 17096 is a dubbing from the original master.

Biltmore 1098 is also a dub of this record.

[syncopeter]

This is the first recording of the famous intro that Glenn Miller wrote especially for this session. It is my all time favourite version of this number.

[Henry]

The wiki tells part of the "story" (pun intended: see below): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basin_Street_Blues

There were actually two Storyvilles, one for whites and one for blacks. I used to live near the site of the latter, on Gravier near Liberty. White Storyville was located along Basin Street, one block west (lakeside) of, and parallel to, N. Rampart St., and stretching on out to the present-day Municipal Auditorium and Louis Armstrong Park, itself the site of Congo Square in the 19th century. The "houses" were closed down in 1917, when, according to some sources, the US Navy put the area off limits. The song's reference to "where the dark and light folks meet" acknowledges the presence of mixed race "ladies"; octoroons seemed to be highly desired for the trade. When I lived in NO in the mid-'50s, there was not a trace of the old Storyville that one sees in photographs: every building had been demolished. The Southern Railway passenger terminal anchored the Canal Street end of Basin Street, and the tracks ran in a reserve down the center of the wide street, with vehicular traffic on either side. Basin Steet derives its name from the canal basin that terminated what came to be known as the Old Basin Canal; the basin was approximately where the Municipal Auditorium and Armstrong Park are today. The other end of the canal was at Lake Pontchartrain. Imagine what Katrina would have made of that!

It's worth knowing that the composer of "Basin Street Blues" was Spencer Williams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Williams), a New Orleans native who also composed "Mahogany Hall Stomp" and several other jazz standards. Mahogany Hall was a "house" on Basin Street run by the infamous madam Lulu White (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lulu_White).

Thanks to Viva-Tonal for posting the recording. Jack Teagarden is one of the jazz legends who had a long career, and played with many greats, including Armstrong. Big T was a double-threat man: sing and play with equal ease, as he does on this recording (which, incidentally, is mostly not in classic 12-bar blues form, despite the title. The only 12-bar section is Goodman's first solo, over stop time; the rest is a series of 8-measure phrases).