What 78 are you spinning right now ?

[jeffcrom]

Well, after a visit to an Atlanta record store where I've bought 78s in the past (but had pretty much picked over what the owner had out), I'm apparently exchanging saxophone lessons for records - the owner just got an alto. He let me go through a bunch of records he had in the back, and I walked out with a dozen. Among them:

Lester Young - Three Little Words/Neenah (Mercury, 1950). I don't know what it is, exactly, but Prez sounds so good on 78.

Cliff Jackson's Village Cats - Quiet Please/You've Got Me Walkin' and Talkin' to Myself (Black & White 12" vinyl pressing); with Sidney Bechet and the DeParis brothers.

Earl Hines and His Orchestra - Louise/When I Dream of You (Sunrise, 1947). There are some good players in the Fatha's big band, but he and vocalist Johnny Hartman are the only soloists.

Sid Catlett and the Regis All Stars - Blues in Room 920/Blue Skies (Regis). Regis was a subsidiary of Manor. This record looks good, but the surface is noisy as hell. The blues was also issued under Edmond Hall's name on Delta, with a different flip side. I've got that record, too, and it sounds much better.

Johnny Hodges - Come Sunday/Wham! (Clef, 1952). Just gorgeous.

And to an antiquarian like me, this one is in some ways the most interesting:

Prince's Band - St. Louis Blues/Hesitating Blues (Columbia 12", 1915). This record, in excellent shape, was the first recording of "St. Louis Blues" ("Hesitating, too). It's a pretty formal, even kind of plodding, but it's very interesting to hear.

[paul secor]

Good trade! Hope that both of you get what you want.

[jeffcrom]

Bix with Goldkette and Whiteman - six records. The winners were Whiteman's "Because My Baby Don't Mean Maybe Now" on Columbia and "You Took Advantage of Me on Victor. Then some blues:

Tommy McClennan - She's Just Good Huggin' Size/My Little Girl (Bluebird)

Washboard Sam - Diggin' My Potatoes/Back Door (RCA Victor)

JIm Jackson - Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues (Vocalion). With stickers on both labels - Paramount Record Store, 247 E. Trade St., Charlotte, North Carolina.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Joe Liggins - Honeydripper Part 1 Honeydripper Part 2 Parlophone UK R 3124- repetitive RnB sides. sadly W Jackson on credits is not Willis Jackson

Goodness! I had no idea this came out in Britain!

Little Willie Jackson was himself

MG

[Clunky]

Ted Wallace Campus Boys- "Hittin the bottle/ Little white lies" - (Columbia) 2254-D.

Two decent sides with Jack Purvis on trumpet . These sides aren't on the Jazz Oracle set, which I really ought to get.

[jeffcrom]

I'm not going to list them separately - it's late and I'm lazy - but today I spun all my Boyd Senter 78s. I have half a dozen, on Perfect, Okeh, British Parlophone, Vocalion, and Victor, recorded from 1924 to 1929. Boyd is pretty corny (his saxophone and trumpet playing is better than his more common clarinet playing, in my opinion), but he usually had some pretty good musicians with him. Eddie Lang is on all but two of these except the earliest one, the Perfect, and both Dorsey brothers are on about half of them. Like much early jazz, some excellent jazz is scattered among the forgettable moments. All in all, I enjoyed the 36 minutes or so of Boyd.

This was followed by three by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, starting with his first record:

Osage Stomp/Get With It (Vocalion, 1935)

Steel Guitar Rag/Swing Blues (Okeh, 1936)

Roly Poly/New Spanish Two Step (Columbia, 1945)

In terms of cross-cultural fertilization, Wills is as interesting as Elvis Presley - and his music is much better, in my opinion. I now feel a little guilty about my copy of "Osage Stomp" - when I just Googled it to confirm the year, I found a recent Ebay auction where it sold for $132. When I found my very nice copy, the record store owner asked me what I thought it was worth. I said five bucks, which is about what I thought at the time, and that's what he charged me.

[Clunky]

Celestin's Tuxedo Jazz Orch. -" Give me some more/ I'm satisfied you love me" (Columbia) 14200D ,

one side is badly worn and pretty much unlistenable for the first 40 seconds or so. "I'm satisfied..." Is much better but still V at best. A bit of history . Mine for £2. Ok I think.

[paul secor]

I'm not going to list them separately - it's late and I'm lazy - but today I spun all my Boyd Senter 78s. I have half a dozen, on Perfect, Okeh, British Parlophone, Vocalion, and Victor, recorded from 1924 to 1929. Boyd is pretty corny (his saxophone and trumpet playing is better than his more common clarinet playing, in my opinion), but he usually had some pretty good musicians with him. Eddie Lang is on all but two of these except the earliest one, the Perfect, and both Dorsey brothers are on about half of them. Like much early jazz, some excellent jazz is scattered among the forgettable moments. All in all, I enjoyed the 36 minutes or so of Boyd.

This was followed by three by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, starting with his first record:

Osage Stomp/Get With It (Vocalion, 1935)

Steel Guitar Rag/Swing Blues (Okeh, 1936)

Roly Poly/New Spanish Two Step (Columbia, 1945)

In terms of cross-cultural fertilization, Wills is as interesting as Elvis Presley - and his music is much better, in my opinion. I now feel a little guilty about my copy of "Osage Stomp" - when I just Googled it to confirm the year, I found a recent Ebay auction where it sold for $132. When I found my very nice copy, the record store owner asked me what I thought it was worth. I said five bucks, which is about what I thought at the time, and that's what he charged me.

I'm not into 78s, but $132 seems way out of line to me. I'm sure the record store owner was happy to get $5.

[jeffcrom]

I came home from San Antonio with a dozen 78s. To my disappointment, at least half of them were in significantly worse condition than they appeared in the dimly-lit store where I bought them. I even threw one away - it was too warped to play. But rather than dwell on the negative, here are the good ones:

Vess Ossman - Creole Belles (Victor Monarch single-sided). This was perhaps the gem - the pioneer recording banjoist playing my favorite "cakewalk" rag. The recording is announced at the beginning, in the manner of the earliest days of recording; it was made in 1902, and my copy (like the one pictured) was pressed in 1904.

Lizzie Miles - Second Hand Daddy/A Good Man is Hard to Find (Conqueror, 1928). With the original Conqueror sleeve.

Snub Mosely's Band - Blues at High Noon/Between You and the Devil (Decca, 1942). With Buster Smith on alto.

Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys - San Antonio Rose/The Convict and the Rose (Vocalion, 1938)

and three late-40s/early 50s conjunto records on Texas labels:

Los 3 Reyes - Secreto de Amor/Mala Movida (Falcon)

Chris Sandoval - Pobre Corazon/Parte en Dos mi Corazon (Ideal)

Conjunto San Antonio Alegre - Comprende Amor Comprende/Si Me Quieres ven Conmigo (Corona)

[JSngry]

Lester Young - Three Little Words/Neenah (Mercury, 1950). I don't know what it is, exactly, but Prez sounds so good on 78.

The man's sound was so big that it took those bigass grooves to properly capture all of it. People don't often think about Pres as having a "big" sound, but dude, he moved some air. Maybe even more than some, maybe even all. Lots of air either way. Just not as "brightly" as people had before. He maybe "sounds" "ethereal" or some such, but its really about as "ethereal" as getting swallowed up, totally swallowed up by somebody's soul coming over you through the vibrations of air not of your own making. It doesn't hit you, it envelopes you. If it was unholy, it would be like getting slimed, but it's not unholy. It's Lester Young. No slime involved, and besides, slime don't penetrate. Lester Young does. Lester Young can fuck you up like that.

But anyway, that's why them bigass grooves deliver the goods more better - because there's that much soundair there, if not even more.

[jeffcrom]

Lester Young - Three Little Words/Neenah (Mercury, 1950). I don't know what it is, exactly, but Prez sounds so good on 78.

The man's sound was so big that it took those bigass grooves to properly capture all of it.

This evening, in tribute to the small part of my ancestry which is Irish, I spun some Irish records for St. Patrick's Day:

Patrick Scanlon (accordion) - Keel Row & Money Musk/Father O'Flynn & Haste to the Wedding (Columbia, 1917; 1919/20 pressing)

John Taylor (fiddle) - Devil's Dream Reel/Speed the Plow Reel (Victor, 1921)

James McCool - The Low Back'd Car (Victor one-sided, 1905). This song was quite a hit for Victor, and it remained in print for many years. I have a collection of old record catalogs from the 78 era, and "Low Back'd Car" is still listed in my 1925 Victor catalog. Mine is the orignal pressing, but the later pressings certainly must have sounded better, due to improvements in the material used to press records.

Peter Conlon (accordion) - Keel Row/Rose in the Garden (Columbia, 1917; 1926 pressing)

"Tom Shannon" - That Tumble Down Shack in Athlone/"James McBride" - Molly Brannagan (National Music Lovers, 1919-21). The budget NML label almost always used pseudonyms for the recordings they leased from other labels; in this case, they used two different pseudonyms for the same singer, Charles Harrison.

The Four Provinces Orchestra - The Fairy Reel & Sheehan's Reel/The Seven Step & Shoe the Donkey (Victor, 1926)

The Four Provinces Orchestra - The Drummer Boy/Fish and Chips (Columbia, 1929). One source describes the Four Provinces Orchestra as "the first of many great Philadelphia Irish dancehall bands." The lyrics to "Fish and Chips" are pretty interesting, promoting both "jazz from Americay" and Sinn Fein.

I also have a 1922 78 on the Canadian Starr Gennett label of the Starr Gennett Military Band playing "Orange" marches and anthems. Don't think I'll play that one today....

[jeffcrom]

I've picked up some particularly nice early jazz 78s recently:

Original Dixieland Jass Band - Darktown Strutters' Ball/Indiana (Columbia, 1917). An early pressing, judging by the spelling of the band's name. I don't have this take of "Indiana" on LP or CD - not sure if that really matters with this band.

New Orleans Rhythm Kings - Mr. Jelly Lord/Clarinet Marmalade (Gennett, 1923). From the session with Jelly Roll Morton. I got this fairly cheaply, I think because there's a chip in the rim - which luckily doesn't make it to the first groove, so who cares?

Chubb-Steinberg Orchestra - Because They All Love You/Willie Creager and His Orchestra - Show Me the Way (Gennett, 1925.) Worthwhile mostly for Wild Bill Davison's hot cornet with the Chubb-Steinberg band - this was one of his earliest recordings.

The Arkansas Travelers - That's No Bargain/The Emperors - Go Joe Go (Harmony, 1927). The Arkansas Travelers were Red Nichols' Five Pennies, more or less; The Emperors were a large band led by Phil Napoleon.

Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers - Black Bottom Stomp/The Chant (Victor, 1926). More surface noise, but also a more vibrant sound than either of my CD reissues of these sides.

[Clunky]

I've picked up some particularly nice early jazz 78s recently:

Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers - Black Bottom Stomp/The Chant (Victor, 1926). More surface noise, but also a more vibrant sound than either of my CD reissues of these sides.

I've this combination on a near mint HMV from what I understand to be the original UK issue ( not sure where that dates it). The Morton Victors benefit enormously from 78 playback IMO. Very strong sound , also louder than perhaps some which makes it's survival all the more welcome.

[Clunky]

Two Brunswick 78s bought today as I didn't have much time to root around.

Golden Leaf Quartette- I wouldn't mind dying/ Every time I feel the Spirit- (Brunswick 7050) USA. Gospel foursome recorded Birmingham Alabama Nov. 1928.

Red Nelson- Streamline Train/Crying mother blues ( Brunswick) UK. Sepia Series , selected by Bill Elliot. Decent boogie woogie vocal/ piano sides. Not sure of recording date.

[mjzee]

Which turntables do you use to play your 78's? (If this is covered on prior pages, my apologies.)

[jeffcrom]

Which turntables do you use to play your 78's? (If this is covered on prior pages, my apologies.)

I use a late-60s Miracord with a Grado 78 cartridge. Like Clunky, an inexpensive ten-band equalizer is part of my 78 rig. I keep it set to compensate for the RIAA curve built into my mid-70s amplifier, since 78s didn't use the RIAA curve. For particular noisy 78s, cutting down the 8KHz band cuts down on the noise without hurting the sound of the original recording too much.

One of these days I want to get a table designed for 78 collectors with speed adjustment and the ability to play both lateral and vertically-cut 78s. But maybe that's not a good idea - then I would just start buying vertically-cut 78s, like Edisons. And they take up even more room that standard lateral records.

[Clunky]

As Jeff says I use an equaliser to correct the sound. I occasionally fiddled about with its settings but largely leave it as it is no matter what 78s I'm playing. I've paid no attention to the various curves each manufacture was thought to observe and just use my ear.

My Lenco GL75 has variable speed from 16 through 83 but I just stick to 78. I think I've relatively few that play at other speeds such as 80 etc. The Lenco is 40 years old. These were widely distributed around the world. Check out Lenco-heaven for all the modifications that owners have tried. Mine's has a Linn arm but more importantly an Ortofon 5E cartridge which allows for interchangeable stylii. So the same cart allows LP and 78 playback with only stylus force needing adjustment. I've two 78 stylii , both 32mil but one's conical the other elliptical. It's just a mater of experimentation to see which works best. Both come from Expert Stylus here in the UK and are very much better than the stock 78 stylus from Ortofon. These made a huge difference to the sound, with less surface noise and a much stronger music signal. Having a mono button on your amp helps but I believe a Y converter does the same thing. Collapsing the signal to mono is vital IMO.

Costs ( from 2-3 yrs ago)

1. Lenco £90
2. Linn arm £90
3. Ortofon 5e £50
4. 32 ETD £60
5. 32 CTD £50
6. Radioshak 10 band equal £10
7. DPA phono pre-amp £90

Edited March 24, 2013 by Clunky

[Clunky]

Tempo King and His Kings of Tempo --- "On with the dance/ Ive got you under my thumb". ---(Perfect) USA

Recorded 28 Mar 2027. Quite curious this one, there seems to be little known about Mr King or of his piano player Queenie Ada. As far as I can make out this is probably the line up. Certainly there's very nice clarinet and trumpet , and certainly it sounds like Condon on guitar.

Tempo King ­ (leader, vocal), Marty Marsala ­ (trumpet), Joe Marsala ­ (clarinet), Queenie Ada Rubin ­ (piano), Eddie Condon ­ (guitar), Mort Stuhlmaker ­ (bass), Stan King ­ (drums)

Nothing extraordinary happens but he sings well and the band have a nice swing. He seems to have be compared to Waller. Not really accurate based on these sides which lack any Wallerisms other than the stride of Queenie. These sides aren't on the CD that's been issued. Worth exploring.

[Big Beat Steve]

Red Nelson- Streamline Train/Crying mother blues ( Brunswick) UK. Sepia Series , selected by Bill Elliot. Decent boogie woogie vocal/ piano sides. Not sure of recording date.

Feb. 4, 1936

Originally on U.S. Decca 7171

[Clunky]

Another "obscurity" bought the other day. Unknown to me that is.

Doctor Clayton - "Doctor Clayton's Blues/ Cheating and Lying Blues" - (RCA Victor) 20-2799.

Label states "Reissued by request" so clearly this isn't the original issue but I'd still guess it's from the 40s. Unless this is hyperbole he must have had some following but not many sides seem to have come out. The good Doc's first name appears to be Pete , his voice is a little lighter than some but two good sides and in very nice shiny condition other than a very small edge bite. Good for the £2 I paid.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

'Doctor Clayton says

Doctor Clayton says,

Harlem must be heaven...!

(Jimmy Witherspoon (and probably nots of others before him)

Never heard him but he was kind of proverbial in the black community.

MG

[jeffcrom]

Old time country this evening:

Bill Cox - Death of Frank Bowen/When We Sing of Home (Gennett, 1929)

Bill Cox - Browns Ferry Blues/Long Chain Charlie Blues (Conqueror, 1934)

Bill Cox - Rollin' Pin Woman/Star Boarder Blues (Banner, 1934). These last two are from the same recording session.

Kessinger Brothers - Chicken in the Banyard/Devils Dream (Brunswick, 1928)

Kessinger Brothers - Midnight Serenade Waltz/Boarding House Bells Are Ringing Waltz (Brunswick, 1929)

[Chuck Nessa]

Just setting up my new turntable. Hope I can get an accurate 78 rpm from it. Tests in the morning.

[mjzee]

Just setting up my new turntable. Hope I can get an accurate 78 rpm from it. Tests in the morning.

What brand?

[Clunky]

Three finds from yesterday by blues singers unknown to me. All in pretty good condition which is especially remarkable given that they are blues records which generally seem to be played to death.

Mamie Smith & her Jazz Hounds- If you don't wan me blues/ Mem'ries of you mammy (OKeh) 1920, NYC -

Mamie Smith (v) with Johnny Dunn ©, Dope Andrews (tb), Ernest Elliott (cl), Leroy Parker (vn), Porter Grainger (p)

Another Smith added to my collection. The blues side is better of the two. Interesting.

next.........

Rosetta Crawford - Im tired of fattening frogs for snakes / Double Crossin Papa (Brunswick UK) 03461 NY Feb 1939

Lovely , not heard of her previously

finally.............

Rose Henderson Everyday blues / Hes never gonna throw me down (Perfect 12100) USA , rec. NY December 1923

No image for this one, label states "Soprano" and her first name as Rose not Rosa. Again a very good blues singer.

It tough to choose the winner from these three. Recorded sound quality varies from average acoustic 78 with the Henderson to excellent acoustic recording for the Smith and then average electric recording for the the Crawford. The Henderson probably just edges but they are all fine sides.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Clunky