The Hoodoo Man; That Tango Tokio; Rockin' the Boat; Husia Siusia--Polka

 

More 78s from my own collection.  The Internet Archive provided me with the year--1915--for Slavicek Polka, performed by Brusek's Band 106 years ago, though I could also have found it here.  But I think I was using "Slavicek Polka" in my search, and the DAHR lists it simply as "Slaviček."  You'll have that.

Oh, and we're having winter in spring.  It must be below freezing out there.  No, wait--35.  I was wrong.  Then again, that's 35 in the nearest village, and it may be colder here.  But April weather is always wonky--just usually not this wonky.

Back to topic, the most recent item on today's playlist is 1928's Husia Siusia--Polka and Wiejski Oberek by the Pulaski Instrumental Trio, which seems to be an accordion, saxophone, and some stringed instrument.  The DAHR is no help--it simply says "instrumental group."  Well, yeah.  Husia Siusia has a bit of a Tiger Rag feel at the start, and that third instrument is really prominent--much moreso than on the flip.  But, once you've heard the strumming on the first side, it'll be easier to catch on the oberek selection.  I'm told that "oberek" is pronounced "Oh-bear-ick," in case you wondered.  Musically, obereks are very lively waltzes, though "dances in ternary meter" sounds more music-professor.  The second most recent 78 is from 1927--Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra's Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, and Roger Wolfe Kahn's Just the Same--and, of course, Roger had the best studio musicians money could buy at the time, such as Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti, who are on this side in a big way, stealing the show at about 1:02 into things.  The Shilkret side has nice, fat bass and the kind of natural echo that can only be gotten in a concert hall.  Well, back in 1927, anyway.

And, if you're in the mood for a turkey-trot tango, we have The Victor Military Band's 1913 gem, That Tango Tokio, complete with a loud train whistle in one of the strains.  You almost have to wonder what our great-grandparents were smoking.  Great side, and though the flip is sort of interesting, I found it too tame compared to the tango, so I left it out.  Maybe later. Jumping back to the start of our playlist, we have two 1924 Paul Whiteman gems, both superbly arranged by Ferde Grofe--The Hoodoo Man and It Had to Be You.  The double-time portion on the latter is a charming surprise.  Some would call the touch "dated," but what do we expect a 1924 dance record to sound like?  Modern?  Then we drop back a year for Aileen Stanley and Billy Murray, who give us You've Got to See Mama Ev'ry Night (a standard) in their best fake-"colored" fashion, and it's such a fun performance and such a superbly tuneful number that I guess all we can say is, "It was 1923."  We can't go back and fix it...  There's so much fabulous music from the 1890s-1930s that was just plain incorrect in one way or another (lyrics, performance, sheet music art, etc.), but the best of it is impossible not to love. Sweetie Mine--from a 78 so worn, I didn't expect to get a useable file--is one major change in mood from the jazzy Just the Same, and I considered altering its position in the playlist, but then I decided the contrast in styles is kind of fun--from 1927 to 1917, and from electrical back to acoustical.  From a hot dance side to a Cohan-style one-step.  You just know that a major stylistic flip occurred in pop music between these two numbers.  Sometimes, all it takes is a decade.

Happy Heine is from the pen of J. Bodewalt Lampe, the composer of the famous rag, Creole Belles, and I had assumed Heine was about a German character, but the sheet music image depicts a Dutch boy.  Yet the music quotes Du, Du, Liegst Mir Im Herzen, so...?  I dunno.  (But did I ever claim I did?)  My rip turned out amazingly well, considering the surface abuse this early Victor disc has bravely endured the past 115 years (but not on my watch), and if this music doesn't have you thinking of Hogan's Heroes, then you're not from my generation.  One more polka to go--from 1918, this time--and it's an accordion duet credited on the label to... no one.  Discogs to the rescue--the not-quite-Myron-Floren key ticklers are J. Jacobson and Henry Magnuson, and I don't feel like correcting my ID tag typo (I capitalized A), especially since I just got done fixing the Pulaski Instrumental Trio sides.  (I had to fix a fade and change "Wiejksi" to "Wiejski," which means "rustic" or "country.")  I've redone the zip three times now, and that's my unofficial limit. The two Columbia Band sides are amazing--the first, New Colonel March, features unbelievably good 1902 fidelity, all nice and full, and the flip, My College Chum Waltz, was too good a title not to feature, even in case the music flunked the course.  Happy to say, the music is marvelous--all quotations from college songs of the time, with some unexpected variations in the familiar airs.  Getting the credit is Theo. Moses Tobani, composer of the ultra-famous light work, Hearts and Flowers.

Oh, and the Columbia Band again, from 1903, with an astounding version of Moritz Moszkowski's famous Spanish Bolero.  Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra is wonderful, as usual, in two 1918 sides--Hugo Frey's Rockin' the Boat and a medley from the Broadway musical, The Girl Behind the Gun.  The latter was an earlier version of Kissing Time, I just found out.  Ohhhhh-kay.

I love the banjo/piano combination on the Paul Biese Novelty Orchestra side of 1919 (the once-standard Oh!, which sold a million copies in its 1953 Pee Wee Hunt version), and just the lovably archaic sound in general.  Our playlist ends with two delightfully arranged numbers from Prince's Dance Orchestra, which genuinely sounds like a dance orchestra (and not a marching band imitating one).  The selections are Afghanistan and Mohammed, the former pretty timely, what with the pullout announcement by President Biden.  Neat bit of planning on my part.  No, not really--the side just happened to show up when I was pulling 78s for this post.  But what a clever piece of timing it would have been.

To the shellac...

DOWNLOAD: 78s for April 24, 2021

The Hoodoo Man (Nacio Herb Brown; Arr: Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, 1924

It Had to Be You (Kahn-Jones; Arr: Grofe)--Saie

That Tango Tokio--Medley Turkey Trot--Victor Military Band, 1913

Husia Siusia--Polka--Pulaski Instrumental Trio, 1928

Wiejski Oberek (The Village Oberek)--Same

You've Got to See Mama Ev'ry Night (Billy Rose-Con Conrad)--Aileen Stanley-Billy Murray, 1923

Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong (Rose-Raskin-Fisher)--Nat Shilkret and the Victor O., V: Jack Shilkret and Chorus, 1927

Just the Same (Walter Donaldson-Joe Burke)--Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra, 1927

Sweetie Mine--Medley One-Step (Stamper)--Conway's Band, c. Patrick Conway, 1917

Happy Heine--Characteristic March and Two-Step (Lampe)--Arthur Pryor's Band, 1906

Rockin' the Boat (Hugo Frey)--Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra, 1918

The Girl Behind the Gun--Medley One-Step--Same

Harvest Feast (Polka)--Accordion Duet (J. Jacobson and Henry Magnuson), 1918

New Colonial March (Hall)--Columbia Band, 1902

My College Chum Waltz (Theo. Moses-Tobani)--Columbia Band, 1905

Spanish Bolero (Moszkowski)--Columbia Band, 1903

Slavicek Polka (Nachtigallen Polka)--Brousek's Band, 1915

Oh!--Medley Fox Trot (Gay-Johnson-Bridges)--Paul Biese and His Novelty Orchestra, 1919

Afghanistan (Donnelly)--Prince's Dance Orchestra, 1920

Mohammed (Mary Earl)--Same

Lee