The record changer (Feb-Dec 1948)

by ROBERT PECK JR. It is only fair to state plainly at the outset of this opus that it is intended for those who not only like jazz for its legitimate musical kicks, but who are actually so debased and so disrespectful of the capital "A" in Art as to get a little low-grade fun out of record collecting for its own sake. Our subject has nothing to do with the ethnic inferences of an over-blown reed, the influences of the habanera on ragtime, or how many brass men can stand on a counterpoint. We are going to talk about labels and numbers — so don't say I didn't warn you, aesthetes ! If you are one who has spent many a dusty hour digging through stacks of old records with the laudable aspiration of coming up with an Oliver Gennett or an Ellington Blu-Disc, you have pawed over ton after ton of platters bearing labels such as Pa the, Perfect, Jewel, Banner, Regal, Cameo and others, which preserve in their worn wax such imperishable gems of melody as / Wonder How I Look When I'm Asleep and / Fuw Down and Go Boom!, rendered (according to said labels) by symphonic groups yclept "The Missouri Jazz Band," "Sam Lanin's Troubadours," "The Varsity Eight," "The Golden Gate Orchestra" and a hundred others who never adorned a booker's list as actual performing units. persisted; painstakingly listing thousands of tunes, band names, label names, serials and masters, whether the record had any interest for a collector or not. I have, in fact, been attempting to reconstruct the whole Mills Music list, or at least as much of it as possible. And brother, what a chore it has turned out to be ! Why go to all this trouble? Well — bear in mind that in the twenties a lot of trumpeters were being influenced by a lot of other trumpeters, which is a polite way to say that they tried in some cases to sound as much like the other guy as possible. When cases of this appear on records, it's often easy to guess wrong as to the performer when there is perhaps only a little eightbar snatch to judge from. Now if you are a Nichols collector, you probably want all the genuine Nichols choruses you can find, and you would prefer not to include, through misapprehension, a couple of sides which sound Nicholsish, but which were actually the work of Joe Blow. Our problem with the Mills records, then, is to try to find some system which will at least indicate (if not actually prove in all cases) which of several performers is playing on a particular job. And the most promising way to approach that end (in the absence of external evidence such as Gill illinq around with the mills PART ONE OF A THREE PART SURVEY Perhaps, now and again, out of idle curiosity, you have spun one of these classics on the squeaky second-hand-store music box, just on the off chance that something interesting might turn up. Generally, you will have lifted the tone-arm after a dozen grooves or so, rather than to waste further time on the jerky commercial phrasings which have squealed forth. But chin up ! Don't give in so easil> — once in a while there is something worth hearing. Your correspondent has been messing around with these oft-despised platters for ten years or more. During that period, his long-suffering ears have been affronted by all manner of foul vocals, canned arrangements, kazoo-toned horns, and even an occasional violin or accordion obbligato, perish forbid ! But in spite of all, he has heroically Rodin's notebook in which he kept the records of the dates he arranged for the Pollock sidesmen) is to attempt to define probable recording sessions by checking adjacent masters. This is the idea behind my entire reconstruction program, and in some cases I have already been able to prove (at least to my own satisfaction) that it works out. But this first communication on the subject with the outside world is in the nature of a cry for help. Over the decade, I have discovered just enough about what went on in the Mills establishment to permit some apparently practicable theories to begin to take shape ; but they cannot be properly assessed as to their value for our purposes without all the amplifications, corrections, additions and comments on the data already collected that I can wring out of the rest 1948 15