2009.001

Purchase

Purchase

Museum Collections.

1939

Good

Notes: From "The Harvard Crimson", March 10, 1939, "Swing" column by Michael Levin: Confirmation of last week's rumors of a huge record war arrives with announcement that Eli Oberstein, formerly record manager of Victor, leaves the company, taking with him Tommy Dorsey, Art Shaw, Larry Clinton, Sammy Kaye, and Dick Todd to form a new record company to be known as Discs Incorporated. General feeling in the industry is that this will seriously impair the Victor line, observes pointing to the atrophy of Brunswick records after Jack Kapp left in 1934, taking Guy Lombardo, Casa Loma, the Dorsey brothers, and other along to form Decca Records. Many feel also that the new line will fail because the bands involved are at or past their peak, and all new material has been pretty well sewed up by Decca and the rejuvenated Columbia Broadcasting Co.-Brunswick outfit. Signs of the intense competition brewing can be seen in the plans of the latter to keep its thirty-five cent Vocalion line, drop the price of Brunswick labels to fifty cents, and put the Columbia classical series out at seventy-five cents. Looks as though the record public is going to be able to just sit around and have better music, recorded with more fidelity, at less money than every before. One of the big eastern colleges has warned its prom committees that no swing will be tolerated at official school dances. If this sort of thing continues, news reports will soon read: "Authorities last night apprehended two men who had in their possession a swing arrangement of Rubenstein's "Melody in F." Police say that the men failed in an attempt to destroy the evidence, and it will be used against them when they appear before the court next Tuesday. It is believed that the men are members of the gang headed by the notorious czar of bootleg swing, Benny (Hot-Fingers) Goodman." Can't you see a new kind of speakeasy--swing-easies"--behind sound proof doors? "Joe sent me"--furtive men carrying hot choruses around in black satchels--"Yeah, the straight stuff's here--Norvo, Basie, they're all beatin' it out downstairs"--black trucks being hijacked for rare records--raids on dives where Louis Armstrong is tearing "Dinah" to shreds? We'll probably all end up playing Mickey Mouse piano with Shep Fields. Disc-ussing: Commodore has put out some very fine records lately, among them a solo by Jess Stacy, who gets all to few opportunities to show what excellent piano he can play. Also recommended highly is "Body and Soul" with Chu Berry (tenor sax) and Roy Eldridge (trumpet). Only trouble with the record is that "Stardust," on the other side, has some of the worst recording this reviewer has ever heard. The turn-table on the recorder was varying so badly when the record was made that it changes key about every thirty seconds ... Listen to the first chorus of Art Shaw's "Rose Room." The rest is not so good. Casa Loma turns loose a rather weird sense of humor, recording "The Old Oaken Bucket" under the title of "Hoboken Bucket" ... Funny thing that Benny Goodman's best records in the last year have been note for note copies of someone else. First, "One O'Clock Jump" (Basie), then "Wrappin' It Up (Fletcher Henderson), "Topsie" (Basie), and now "Sent For You Yesterday and Here You Come Today" (Basie). This latest copy goes to the extent of having Ziggie Elman play Buck Clayton's trumpet solo. It's a very good record, with fine piano by Stacy, and good blues singing by Johnny Mercer; but the rhythm section just can't stay with Basie's and no white man could ever sing the blues like "Rush" (Jim Rushing) can. Ella Fitzgerald sings a clever half-time chorus on Chick Webb's "Undecided" (Decca) ... Good sweet playing by the band and Bob Eberle's singing make Jimmy Dorsey's dise of his own tune "It's Anybody's Moon," successful ... Both "Mary's Idea" by Andy Kirk and "Shorty George" by Count Basie are examples of solid Kansas City swing... Status: OK Status By: dw Status Date: 2009-08-11