Perfect Records
Perfect Records was a United States-based record label founded in 1922 by Pathé Records to produce cheap 78 rpm discs. Many issues of Perfect records were pressed in red-brown shellac as opposed to the common black shellac of the era. Pathes acoustic recording technique was to record performances on a giant cylinder and this didnt degrade the sound quality, but records produced this way tended to have a lot of rumble that was not detected by wind-up phonographs of the day. Their slogan on the sleeve was Better records cant be made. From the start, Perfect Records were popular and sold well, the Pathe and Perfect labels were part of the merger that created the American Record Corporation in July 1929. The label was revived in 1993 by Dean Blackwood and issued recordings pressed on 78 r. p. m, vinyl by Sun City Girls, Charlie Feathers, Junior Kimbrough, The Balfa Brothers, and John Fahey
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert resort city in Riverside County, United States, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 55 mi east of San Bernardino,107 mi east of Los Angeles,123 mi northeast of San Diego, the population was 44,552 as of the 2010 census. Palm Springs covers approximately 94 square miles, making it the largest city in the county by land area, golf, horseback riding and tennis in the nearby desert and mountain areas are major forms of recreation in Palm Springs. The city is famous for its mid-century modern architecture and design elements. Archaeological research has shown that the Cahuilla people have lived in the area for the past 350–500 years, the Cahuilla name for the area was Se-Khi. The alternating non-reservation sections were granted to the Southern Pacific Railroad as an incentive to bring rail lines through the open desert, presently the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is composed of several smaller bands who live in the modern day Coachella Valley and San Gorgonio Pass areas.
The Agua Caliente Reservation occupies 32,000 acres, of which 6,700 acres lie within the city limits, as of 1821 Mexico was independent of Spain and in March 1823 the Mexican Monarchy ended. With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the region was ceded to the United States in 1848, one possible origin of palm in the place name comes from early Spanish explorers who referred to the area as La Palma de la Mano de Dios or The Palm of Gods hand. The earliest use of the name Palm Springs is from United States Topographical Engineers who used the term in 1853 maps, other early names were Palmetto Spring and Big Palm Springs. The first European resident in Palm Springs itself was Jack Summers, fourteen years later, the Southern Pacific railroad was laid 6 miles to the north, isolating the station. By 1885, when San Francisco attorney John Guthrie McCallum began buying property in Palm Springs, the area was named Palm Valley when McCallum incorporated the Palm Valley Land and Water Company with partners O. C.
He asked Dr. Welwood Murray to establish a hotel across the street from his residence, the crops and irrigation systems suffered flooding in 1893 from record rainfall, and an 11-year drought caused further damage. The city became a resort in the 1900s when health tourists arrived with conditions that required dry heat. Because of the heat, the population dropped markedly in the summer months, Early illustrious visitors included John Muir and his daughters, U. S. Vice President Charles Fairbanks, and Fanny Stevenson, widow of Robert Louis Stevenson, Murrays hotel was closed in 1909, nellie N. Coffman and her physician husband Harry established The Desert Inn as a hotel and sanitarium in 1909. It was expanded as a hotel in 1927 and continued on until 1967. Coffman herself was a force in the citys tourism industry until her death in 1950. James Wonders of the Colorado Desert was followed in 1920 by J. Smeaton Chases Our Araby, Palm Springs and the Garden of the Sun, which served to promote the area
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the one which was widely used. The soundtrack was not printed on the film itself, but issued separately on phonograph records, the discs, recorded at 33 1⁄3 rpm and typically 16 inches in diameter, would be played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film was being projected. Many early talkies, such as The Jazz Singer, used the Vitaphone system, the name Vitaphone derived from the Latin and Greek words, for living and sound. The Vitaphone trademark was associated with cartoons and other subjects that had optical soundtracks. Wente had created in 1916 and greatly improved in 1922, the business was established at Western Electrics Bell Laboratories in New York City and acquired by Warner Bros. in April 1925. Warner Bros. introduced Vitaphone on August 6,1926 with the release of their silent feature Don Juan, the feature was preceded by a program of short subjects with live-recorded sound, nearly all featuring classical instrumentalists and opera stars.
Don Juan was able to draw huge sums of money at the box office, after its financial failure, Paramount head Adolph Zukor offered Sam Warner a deal as an executive producer for Paramount if he brought Vitaphone with him. Harry eventually agreed to accept Sams demands, dance band leader Henry Halstead is given credit for starring in the first Vitaphone short subject filmed in Hollywood instead of New York. Carnival Night in Paris featured the Henry Halstead Orchestra and a cast of hundreds of costumed dancers in a Carnival atmosphere, from the perspective of the cast and crew on the sound stage, there was little difference between filming with Vitaphone and a sound-on-film system. In the early years of sound, the cameras and their operators were enclosed in soundproofed booths with small windows made of thick glass. Cables suspended the microphones in fixed positions just above camera range, the recording machines were usually located in a separate building to completely isolate them from sound stage floor vibrations and other undesirable influences.
The audio signal was sent from a monitoring and control booth to the recording room over a heavy shielded cable. Synchronization was maintained by driving all the cameras and recorders with synchronous electric motors powered from a common source, except for the unusual disc size and speed, the physical record-making process was the same one employed by contemporary record companies to make smaller discs for home use. The recording lathe cut an audio-signal-modulated spiral groove into the surface of a thick round slab of wax-like material rotating on a turntable. If problems were found, the scene could be re-shot while everything was still in place, a Vitaphone-equipped theater had normal projectors which had been furnished with special phonograph turntables and pickups, a fader, an amplifier, and a loudspeaker system. The projectors operated just as motorized silent projectors did, but at a speed of 24 frames per second. When the projector was started, it rotated the linked turntable, the Vitaphone process made several improvements over previous systems, Amplification – The Vitaphone system used electronic amplification based on Lee De Forests Audion tube
Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records is a blues and jazz record label known for its low-cost releases in the 1930s and 1940s. Founded by RCA Victor during the Great Depression, Bluebird concentrated on producing and selling music inexpensively and it created what came to be known as the Bluebird sound, which influenced rhythm and blues and early rock and roll. The label was begun in 1932 as a division of RCA Victor by Eli Oberstein, Bluebird competed with other budget labels at the time. Records were made quickly and cheaply, the Bluebird sound came from the session band that was used on many recordings to save money. The band included such as Big Bill Broonzy, Roosevelt Sykes, Washboard Sam. Many blues musicians were brought to Bluebird by Lester Melrose, a talent scout, in these years, Bluebird became the home of Chicago blues. Bluebird recorded and reissued jazz and big band music and its roster included Ted Weems, Rudy Vallée, Joe Haymes, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Shep Fields, and Earl Hines. During the World War II years, Victor reissued albums by Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, bluebirds roster for country music included the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, Bradley Kincaid.
It reissued many titles by Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, after World War II, Bluebird was retired and its previously released titles were reissued on the standard RCA Victor label. In the 1950s RCA Victor revived Bluebird for certain jazz releases and reissues, childrens records, in the mid-1970s it was again reactivated by RCA for a series of 2-LP sets of big band and jazz reissues produced by Frank Driggs. RCA Victors entry into the market was the 35c Timely Tunes. 40 issues appeared from April to July 1931 before the label was deleted, the first Bluebird records appeared in July 1932 along with identically numbered Electradisk records, test-marketed at selected Woolworths stores in New York City. These 8 discs may have sold for as little as 10c, Bluebird records bore a black-on-medium blue label, Electradisks a blue-on-orange label. Electradisks in the 2500 block were dance-band sides recorded on two days in June 1932, the few records in that block that have been seen resemble Crowns, leading to speculation that all were recorded at Crown.
The 2500 series may have been for only in New York City. In May 1933 RCA Victor restarted Bluebird as a 35c general-interest budget record, numbered B-5000 and up, most 1800-series material was immediately reissued on the Buff label, afterwards it ran concurrently with the Electradisk series. Another short-lived concurrent label was Sunrise, which may have made for a store chain. Few discs, and essentially no information, survive and Electradisk were discontinued early in 1934, leaving Bluebird as RCAs only budget priced label
Chico Marx
Leonard Marx, known professionally as Chico Marx, was an American comedian, bandleader and film star. He was a member of the Marx Brothers and his persona in the act was that of a charming, dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat. In virtually every film that includes the trio of the Marx Brothers, Chico is seen working with Harpo Marx. Leonard was the oldest of the Marx Brothers to live past early childhood, in addition to his work as a performer, he played an important role in the management and development of the act in its early years. He was born on March 22,1887 in Manhattan, New York City, billing himself as Chico, he used an Italian persona for his onstage character, stereotyped ethnic characters were common with vaudevillians. His non-Italian-ness was specifically referred to three times on film, in Duck Soup, when Chico impersonates Groucho but retains his accent, Margaret Dumont asks what happened to his voice.
Chico replies, maybe sometime I go to Italy, to which Dumont replies, Your dialect is perfect. Fiorello, Well, I wouldnt know about that, Im a stranger here myself. Quentin Quayle, Can you talk Indian. Joe Panello, I was born in Indianapolis, hammer asks him if he knew what an auction was, in which he responds I come from Italy on the Atlantic Auction. He originally started playing only his right hand and fake playing with his left. Chico eventually acquired a better teacher and learned to play the piano correctly, as a young boy, he gained jobs playing piano to earn money for the Marx family. Sometimes Chico even worked playing in two places at the same time and he would acquire the first job with his piano-playing skills, work for a few nights, and substitute Harpo on one of the jobs. In the brothers last film, Love Happy, Chico plays a piano, Lyons plays some ornate riffs on the violin, Chico comments, Look-a, Mister Lyons, I know you wanna make a good impression, but please dont-a play better than me.
In a record album about the Marx Brothers, narrator Gary Owens stated that although Chicos technique was limited, the opposite was true of Harpo, who reportedly could play only two tunes on the piano, which typically thwarted Chicos scam and resulted in both brothers being fired. Groucho Marx once said that Chico never practiced the pieces he played, before performances he soaked his fingers in hot water. He was known for shooting the keys of the piano and he played passages with his thumb up and index finger straight, like a gun, as part of the act. Chico became the manager of the Marx Brothers after their mother, Minnie. As manager, he cut a deal to get the brothers a percentage of a films gross receipts—the first of its kind in Hollywood, for a while in the 1930s and 1940s, Chico led a big band. Singer Mel Tormé began his career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra
MCA Inc.
MCA, Inc. was an American media company. Initially starting in the business, the company next became a dominant force in the film business. MCA, Inc. is the predecessor of NBCUniversal, which since March 2013 is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. MCA was formed in 1924 by Jules Stein and William R. Goodheart, Jr. as Music Corporation of America, MCA helped pioneer modern practices of touring bands and name acts. Early on, MCA booked such prominent artists as King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton for clubs and speakeasies run by legendary notorious Chicago mobsters such as Al Capone and others. Lew Wasserman joined MCA in 1936 at the age of 23 and rose through the ranks of MCA for more than four decades, Wasserman helped create MCAs radio show, Kay Kyser and His Kollege of Musical Knowledge, which debuted on NBC Radio that same year. Following that success, Stein installed Wasserman in New York City in 1937, the company was guided by a codification of Steins pet policies known as The Rules of The Road.
The Rules were passed down from the Prohibition era, Chicago–area MCA to the 1940s Los Angeles–area firm, which focused on representing movie actors. The Rules were next passed to the 1950s generation of MCA talent agents, including Jerry Perenchio, Perenchio is well known for his version of the Rules, which vary from year to year and have some internal contradictions. Its aggressive acquisition of its clientele in all entertainment sectors earned MCA the nickname of The Octopus and this behavior led U. S. Department of Justice agents to investigate not only whether MCA was a monopoly breaking anti-trust laws, but its suspected connections to underworld criminal activities. This investigation continued for the few decades. In 1948, Jules Stein moved up as MCAs first chairman and that year and Wasserman decided to get into a new medium that would, decades later, change the entertainment landscape forever, television. Although many motion picture studios would not touch this new medium, thinking it was just a fad and would fade away, MCA decided to embrace it.
First, the company needed to get a waiver from the Screen Actors Guild, thanks to the newly elected SAG president, Ronald Reagan, MCA was granted a waiver to start producing TV shows. After the waiver was granted, the company formed MCA Television Limited for syndication, prior to 1958, all Revues shows were filmed at the old Republic Pictures studio lot in Studio City, California. In February 1958, MCA acquired Paramount Pictures pre-1950 sound feature film library through a newly created MCA subsidiary, EMKA, Ltd. Also in 1958, MCA bought the 423-acre Universal Studios lot from Universal Pictures for $11 million and renamed it, as well as the television unit. Stein, who by this time was the owner of MCA, decided to take the company public by giving 51% of his ownership of MCA to his employees
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones, the tenor is pitched in the key of B♭, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 and are pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the saxophone are known as tenor saxophonists or tenor sax players. The tenor saxophone uses a larger mouthpiece and ligature than the alto, visually, it is easily distinguished by the bend in its neck, or its crook, near the mouthpiece. The alto saxophone lacks this and its neck goes straight to the mouthpiece, the tenor saxophone is commonly used in classical music, military bands, marching bands and jazz. In concert bands, the plays mostly a supporting role, sometimes sharing parts with the euphonium, horn.
In jazz ensembles, the plays a more prominent role as a member of a section that includes the alto. Many of the most innovative and influential musicians have been tenor saxophonists. These include Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, the work of younger players such as Michael Brecker and Chris Potter has been an important influence in more recent jazz. The tenor saxophone was one of a family of fourteen instruments constructed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, saxs patent, granted on 28 June 1846, divided the family into two groups of seven instruments, each ranging from sopranino down to contrabass. One family, pitched alternatively in B♭ and E♭, was designed specifically to integrate with the instruments common in military bands. The tenor saxophone, pitched in B♭, is the member of this family. The tenor saxophone, like all saxophones, consists of a conical tube of thin brass. The wider end of the tube is flared slightly to form a bell, at intervals down the bore are placed between 20 and 23 tone holes, these are covered by pads which can be pressed onto the holes to form an airtight seal.
There are two small holes which, when opened, disrupt the lower harmonics of the instrument. The pads are controlled by pressing a number of keys with the fingers of the left and right hands, the tenor saxophone is curved at the top, above the highest tone-hole but below the highest speaker hole. While the alto is usually bent only through 80–90° to make the mouthpiece fit more easily in the mouth, the reed is shaved to come to an extremely thin point, and is clamped over the mouthpiece by the use of a ligature
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo Jack Teagarden, was a jazz trombonist and singer. Born in Vernon, his brothers Charlie and Clois Cub and his father was an amateur brass band trumpeter and started him on baritone horn, by age seven he had switched to trombone. His first public performances were in theaters, where he accompanied his mother. Teagardens trombone style was largely self-taught, and he developed many unusual alternative positions, chief among his contributions to the language of jazz trombonists was his ability to interject the blues or merely a blue feeling into virtually any piece of music. By 1920 Teagarden was playing professionally in San Antonio, including with the band of pianist Peck Kelley, in the mid-1920s he started traveling widely around the United States in a quick succession of different bands. In 1927, he went to New York City where he worked with several bands, by 1928 he played for the Ben Pollack band. Within a year of the commencement of his career, he became a regular vocalist, first doing blues material.
He is often mentioned as one of the best jazz vocalists of the era, his style is like his trombone playing. His singing is best remembered for duets with Louis Armstrong and Johnny Mercer, in the early 1930s Teagarden was based in Chicago, for some time playing with the band of Wingy Manone. He played at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, Teagarden sought financial security during the Great Depression and signed an exclusive contract to play for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra from 1933 through 1938. The contract with Whitemans band provided him financial security but prevented him from playing an active part in the musical advances of the mid-thirties swing era. Teagarden started leading his own big band, in 1946 Teagarden joined Louis Armstrongs All Stars. In late 1951 Teagarden left to lead his own band, co-led a band with Earl Hines. Teagarden appeared in the movies Birth of the Blues, The Strip, The Glass Wall, and Jazz on a Summers Day and he recorded for RCA Victor, Decca, and MGM Records.
As a jazz artist he won the 1944 Esquire magazine Gold Award, was rated in the Metronome polls of 1937-42 and 1945. Teagarden was the performer at the Newport Jazz Festival of 1957. In 1969, Jack Teagarden was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame and he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1985. Other honors have included induction in the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame in 2005 and inclusion in the Houston Institute for Cultures Texas Music Hall of Fame
Bud Freeman
He had a smooth and full tenor sax style with a heavy robust swing. He was one of the most influential and important jazz saxophonists of the big band era. His major recordings were The Eel, Tillies Downtown Now, The Buzzard, influenced by artists like the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and Louis Armstrong from the South, they would begin to formulate their own style, becoming part of the emerging Chicago Style of jazz. In 1927, he moved to New York, where he worked as a musician and band member with Red Nichols, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Ben Pollack, Joe Venuti. One of his most notable performances was a solo on Eddie Condons 1933 recording, The Eel, Freeman played with Tommy Dorseys Orchestra as well as for a short time Benny Goodmans band in 1938 before forming his own band, the Summa Cum Laude Orchestra. Freeman joined the US Army during World War II, and headed a US Army band in the Aleutian Islands and he wrote the ballad Zen Is When, recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet on Jazz Impressions of Japan.
He was a member of the Worlds Greatest Jazz Band in 1969 and 1970, in 1974, he moved to England where he made numerous recordings and performances, as he did in Europe. Later in the decade Freeman spent some time on the Isle of Man during part of which he was the guest of well known Manx jazz musician and broadcaster, in addition to this, Freeman presented one of his coats to a son of Jim Caine. Still in the possession of the Caine family, the garment is referred to with affection as the Bud Coat, returning to Chicago in 1980, he continued to work into his eighties. He released two memoirs You Dont Look Like a Musician and If You Know of a Better Life, Please Tell Me, in 1992, Bud Freeman was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame. He was featured in Studs Terkels book, published in 1972, Freemans music still features regularly on various dance band shows. Freeman has been the subject of an edition of Sweet & Swing on Manx Radio. Comes Jazz Battle of Jazz, Vol
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Benny Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician and bandleader, known as the King of Swing. In the mid-1930s, Goodman led one of the most popular groups in America. Goodmans bands launched the careers of many jazz artists. During an era of segregation, he led one of the first well-known integrated jazz groups. Goodman performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music, Goodman was born in Chicago, the ninth of twelve children of poor Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman, came to America in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and his mother, came from Kaunas, Lithuania. His parents met in Baltimore and moved to Chicago before Benny was born, hundreds of houses are unconnected with the street sewer. Money was a constant problem in the family, Bennys father earned at most $20 per week. On Sundays, his father took the children to free concerts in Douglas Park. The following year Benny joined the club band at Jane Addamss Hull House.
By joining the band, he was entitled to two weeks at a summer camp about fifty miles from Chicago. It was the time he was able to get away from the bleak environment of his urban neighborhood. He received two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist Franz Schoepp and his early influences were New Orleans jazz clarinetists working in Chicago, notably Johnny Dodds, Leon Roppolo and Jimmie Noone. Goodman learned quickly, becoming a player at an early age. Goodman made his debut in 1921 at the Central Park Theater on Chicagos West Side. He entered Harrison High School in Chicago in 1922 and he joined the musicians’ union in 1923 and by the age of 14 was in a band featuring Bix Beiderbecke. Goodman attended Lewis Institute in 1924 as a sophomore, while playing the clarinet in a dance hall band. When Goodman was 16, he joined one of Chicagos top bands, when he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar
Lincoln Records
Lincoln Records was an American record label that existed from 1923 to 1930. The bulk of material on Lincoln was dance music by bands assembled from the pool of New York musicians, Lincoln Records filled a market niche for people who wanted inexpensive, danceable records of popular tunes and did not particularly care who recorded them. Lincoln records initially retailed for 50 cents each, the label had a drawing of Abraham Lincoln on the top. Although the labels said that they were made by the Lincoln Record Corporation, New York, the Lincoln Records label debuted in 1924 and was discontinued in 1930. It reappeared in 1949, probably revived by the American Record Corporation which had acquired Cameo years earlier, through the mid-1950s some childrens records and music by less well known artists was released on 45-rpm discs with the Lincoln name. Over the years, of those issued on Cameo and Lincoln. Artists on the label included Salt and Pepper, Ray Hamilton, the Lincoln Dance Orchestra, the Broadway Broadcasters, the Hawaiian Gondoliers, The Rangers, the American Record Label Book by Brian Rust List of record labels
Matty Matlock
Julian Clifton Matty Matlock was an American Dixieland jazz clarinettist and arranger. Matlock was born in Paducah, April 27,1907 and he began playing clarinet when he was 12. From 1929 to 1934, Matlock replaced Benny Goodman in the Ben Pollack band doing arrangements, Matlock was one of the main arrangers for Bob Crosbys band. He stayed with Crosby until the band broke up in 1942, after the dissolution of Crosbys group, Matlock worked in Los Angeles, playing for recordings made by a variety of Dixieland groups. In 1955, he appeared in the film Pete Kellys Blues, Matlock died June 14,1978, in Los Angeles, California. 1,2 &3 With Beverly Jenkins Gordon Jenkins Presents My Wife The Blues Singer
