Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra / Do It
Again!
Al Jolson / April Showers
Isham Jones & his Orchestra / On The Alamo
Fanny Brice / Second Hand Rose
Ernest L. Stevens & his Dance Trio / Chicago
Marion Harris / Some Sunny Day
Zez Confrey & his Orchestra / Kitten on
the Keys
Lucy Isabell Marsh & Royal Dadmun / Song
of Love
Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra / Hot Lips
Billy Murry / Jimbo-Jambo
The Virginians / Early In The Morning Blues
Irving & Jack Kaufman / Mister Gallagher
and Mister Shean
Carl Fenton & his Orchestra / Nola
The Serenaders / A Kiss In The Dark
Aileen Stanley / Sweet Indiana Home
Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra / I’ll Build
A Stairway To Paradise
Al Jolson / Angel Child
Ted Lewis & his Band / Georgette
Henry Burr / My Buddy
The Virginians / I Wish I Could Shimmy Like
My Sister Kate
Billy Murray / Stumbling
Isham Jones & his Orchestra / The World
Is Waiting For The Sunrise
Irving Kaufman / When You And I Were Young
Maggie Blues
Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra / Three
O’Clock In The Morning
At times you can find an
auditory time machine that will suddenly transport
you to another place or time. Putting this
CD on is taking a trip to a bygone era filled
with speakeasies, flappers, and dominated
by the Model T. Louis Armstrong was a young
man barely starting out with King Oliver,
Kaiser Wilhelm had been recently defeated
in The War to End All Wars, Babe Ruth had
just led the New York Yankees to their first
World Series, and the English speaking world
was filled with an exuberance and optimism
that could barely contain itself. The frenetic
energy of the men and women of the 1920s certainly
was reflected in the music that could only
recently be shared in any way except wholly
transitory live performance. Contained herein
is an audible snapshot of a world filled with
new possibilities.
With only one exception (the
version Three O’Clock In The Morning was actually
rerecorded in 1926 due to the success of the
original 1922 recording) these are all original
recordings made in 1922, an era that predates
even such basic sound equipment as the microphone.
These recordings were made originally with
the musicians setting themselves up around
a recording horn and playing the side over
and over again until they got their best performance
with a good balance that the crude equipment
of the day could play back in a recognizable
way.
Considering the age of these
recordings, and the Paleolithic conditions
that they were recorded under, the sound quality
is amazing. There is absolutely no way to
take these for new recordings, however the
recordings are quite nicely preserved, with
the fidelity probably near the original. The
selections by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra
are especially good, and as he is among the
most important musicians in the early days
of the Big Band era, at least in spreading
the popularity of that music, it is nice to
be able to hear such care given to those works.
I was not previously familiar
with the non-jazz artists contained here,
such as Lucy Isabelle Marsh, Billy Murray,
or Irving & Jack Kaufman. However the
liner notes, which are very well written and
informative, gave me the context I needed
to understand the light opera and vaudeville
recordings that were also popular, even if
they were essentially lost to time. That imposed
discovery was both fun and interesting, and
definitely adds to the completeness of this
album.
In short, to the musicologist,
the fan of early jazz, the historian, or the
musically adventurous, this is an entertaining
album filled with relatively important recordings.
Musically representative of the early days
of recorded sound, and beautifully restored,
I would recommend it highly.
Patrick Gary