On The Web For Ten Years!

Robert's Music Page

Old records, spiffed up and streamed to your computer

If you haven't got The Real Player now's the time to get it!
The music you're about to hear is sampled from period disks or cylinders, cleaned up, and streamed from the server to your computer. The disks were sampled using a modern belt-drive turntable adapted especially for playing 78RPM disks, fitted with a 60-micron stylus. The cylinders were tracked with a Stanton cartridge, adapted for vintage cylinder players by Bob Lomas at The Edison Shop. Without his help, I could not be doing this.

The resulting "WAV" sample was processed first with "ClickRepair", which is great shareware written by a mathematics professor in Australia, and then with "Diamond Cut Audio Restoration Tools"; clicks and pops were removed, the "tinny" sound of the acoustically-recorded source equalized a touch, and surface noise was reduced (I've found it a good practice to not remove all of the surface noise - it can take some music with it sometimes!).

A further technical note: some systems have difficulty with the newer Real Players. With that in mind, I've coded these samples so that they are "backward compatible" with RealPlayer 5.0, which can still be downloaded (if needed) by using the link at the top of this page.

You will derive maximum enjoyment from these recordings if you've got a modem connection running 33.6K or better. Click on the one you want to hear, and your Real Player will pop up and play it.

Enjoy!

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"What Could Be Sweeter Than You?"

by Bennie Krueger and his Orchestra

Bennie wasn't really a jazz musician, as his only real claims to fame were a "guest" sax performance on the ODJB recording of "Crazy Blues" and co-authorship of the evergreen song "Sunday." He was a businessman who could play reeds, but he led a very tight band. This side was made at Brunwick studios on October 2nd, 1925, using their early electric recording equipment. No solos to speak of, but that was not his band's stock in trade since they played conservative hotel nightspots: what you will hear are some nicely-played ensemble passages and interplay between sections. This record had been kicked around a bit, and there was lots of crackle in the groove, but running through ClickRepair did some nice things for it. (More samples of Krueger's band can be heard over at Red Hot Jazz.)

 

"My Girl Pearl"

by the Southern Melody Makers

Recorded for the Grey Gull label, on June 15 of 1926, this was the issue on the subsidiary Madison label. The same master was also issued with the title of "In Time of Happiness" by the "Original Dixie Rag Pickers" and also "Charleston Choo Choo" by the "People's Dance Orchestra" so it's anyone's guess as to whether this title is correct and whose band is actually playing here: Paul Bolognese would be a good guess for a bandleader, since his group served as Grey Gull's house band (knowledgeable e-mail on this subject is welcome). The trumpet solo doesn't have the precision of Red Nichols or Earl Oliver but the playing is definitely spirited. Some unusual instruments take solo breaks here, like xylophone and accordion, and it sounds like they had fun making this record. The songwriter is listed as "Lampy," no first name (possibly a mis-spelling of J. Dell Lampe? Again, e-mail confirmation is welcome), who wrote two other songs which only seem to have been recorded on Grey Gull: "See Saw Susan" and "When You Kiss." This was an early electric side, with the usual distortion, and it has crackle for which Grey Gull pressings are known. Some treatment with noise reduction made for a nicer sample.

 

"Some Little Someone"

by Zez Confrey and his Orchestra

February 1 of 1923, Zez and his band recorded this side and several others for Victor. Martin Broones (co-author of "I Only Want One Girl" and "Campus Capers") with Alex Sullivan (co-wrote "Kisses" and "I'll Be Leaving Here With You") had written the tune earlier that year, and aside from one other recording by Vincent Lopez on Okeh it doesn't look it got much exposure. (Another tune of the same title made the rounds in 1928.) This waxing is different than most of Zez's orchestral works, as he takes an extended piano break in the middle: keeping to the spirit of ragtime rather than jazz, he kicks the tune around while staying within the bounds of the original melody. The record was nearly pristine on first glance, but had been played with what was probably a frozen reproducer once, since the loud parts were broken out. Noise reduction took care of the worst of it, making the rest more enjoyable.

 

"The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)"

by Harry Raderman's Dance Orchestra

Written by bandleader Isham Jones and lyricist Gus Kahn, this evergreen has been recorded hundreds of times since it was introduced in late 1923. In later years this song was covered by Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, and hundreds of others. Raderman's band waxed this for Edison Labs a few months after the song's publication, on March 5 of 1924 to be exact, and this is take "B," issued on both cylinder and disc. There's no vocal here: the band was in good form, though playing conservatively with no wild solos, and the arrangement hovers close to the spirit of the Isham Jones original (which you can hear in my archives). The disc itself looked clean though it had some wear in the louder spots. A light amount of noise reduction took care of that.

 

"Someone Else"

by Max Fell's Della Robbia Orchestra

The Vanderbilt Hotel in New York, on Park Avenue between 33rd and 34th, had a ballroom and bar called the Della Robbia Room. It was named after one of the premier artisans of the Italian Renaissance, Luca Della Robbia. Max Fell's band played in that ballroom in the years following World War One (for more information, see this article in the New York Times from 1993). Fell recorded for Paramount and Pathe as well as for Edison, though only for a very brief period of about two years: after 1921, there was one more record in 1924 and nothing after that. His was a typical dance band of the period when this record was made at Edison Labs on February 25 of 1921. The trumpet and banjo are especially bright for this waxing, indicating some experimentation at the Labs, and this recording came out exceptionally lifelike. The tune was written by Walter Donaldson (prolific writer, penned the evergreen "My Blue Heaven" as well as "There's a Wa-Wa Gal in Agua Caliente") and George Rosey (pianist active through the 1890s and 1900s, wrote "The Motor March" and "Caprice"). The disc from which this sample was taken had some issues but nothing a light once-over with noise reduction couldn't handle.

 

Hear all these recordings by clicking the jukebox below

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If you are looking for a recording that used to be posted on this page,
I've moved it to my Archives.

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Requests? Comments? Kudos?

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Click me a message!
(Keep in mind, please, that I am currently limiting my offerings to those recordings on which the original copyrights have expired. Any recordings which have been commercially issued since then will be voluntarily removed when I learn of the re-issue. These files are streamed from the server, and are not intended to be downloaded or duplicated without permission. Also, the opinions and attitudes expressed or implied in these recordings are not necessarily those of the web master.)
 

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rev 6.25.09, RAE Productions Written with VIM