Interracial ??? Jazz Recording (#25) Goldkette or McKinney?

This is one of those recording sessions whose history is somewhat confusing. The question here is, which of two powerhouse Detroit bands played the session: Jean Goldkette's Orchestra (white) or McKinney's Cotton Pickers (black)? Let's look at it more closely.

Harold Stokes

Don Redman

It's accepted that black arranger/saxophonist Don Redman was the arranger. In an interview with Charles Delaunay in 1946, Redman said that "Birmingham Bertha" was played by the full McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. According to him, it was the Goldkette orchestra which should have recorded these titles, for which he had written the arrangements. But on their way from Detroit to Chicago, the Goldkette band bus broke down and the orchestra couldn’t make it to the Victor studio for the first part of the session. Since Redman and the Cotton Pickers were in Chicago (and familiar with the tunes), Redman says they replaced the Goldkette band. 

However, the Victor recording sheet for this session lists Jean Goldkette’s orchestra and not McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. The 3 saxes and 2 trombones match typical Goldkette recording bands of the time. There are also two strings listed and the Cotton Pickers had none.

In any case, one member of the Goldkette band was surely present: Harold Stokes. Stokes was a pianist and accordionist who had led the Goldkette Band. He was not on the Goldkette bus, had travelled to Chicago in his own car and could therefore participate. His hot accordion playing on the recording is unmistakeable. If what Redman says is correct, the presence of the white Stokes would make it an interracial session.

It's a measure of the parity of these great bands that there can be disagreement on who is performing. You'll see from the info below, that Rust says it was McKinney’s Cotton Pickers.

McKinney’s Cotton Pickers: John Nesbitt, Langston Curl (tp) Claude Jones (tb) + other (tb) Don Redman (as,arr) George Thomas (ts) 2 vln, Harold Stokes (accor), Todd Rhodes (p) Dave Wilborn (bj) Ralph Escudero (tu) Cuba Austin (d) Kay Palmer (vcl) Jean Goldkette (dir) Chicago, July 27, 1929.

• I’m refer’n’ just her ‘n’ me (unissued).
• Birmingham Bertha (kp vcl)- Vic 22077, RCA (F)741088, PM42407, GAPS 080, Timeless (Du)CBC1-084; Note: According to Don Redman (reported in the Timeless liner notes) the above was recorded by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers because the Goldkette orchestra was unable to make it to Chicago for the date.

All entries are from my book “As Long as They Can Blow: Interracial Jazz Recording and Other Jive Before 1935.”

Browsing the 1927 Victor Catalogue

On the DuPlex Mystery Jazz Hour of 12.1.16 I played a variety of music offered by the Victor record company in 1927-jazz, jug band, blues, country, tango.

LISTEN HERE
All tunes are from 1927, recorded for Victor.

‪Duke Ellington - "East St Louis Toodle-oo"
‪Dixieland Jug Blowers - "Don't Give all the Lard Away!"
Benny Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - "Moten Stomp"
‪Orquesta Tipica Victor - "Tandas" 
‪Julius Daniels - "Ninety-Nine Year Blues"
‪Ben Pollack & His Orch. - "Waitin' For Katie"‬
‪Bobbie Leecan's Need-More Band "Washboard Cut Out"
‪Jelly Roll Morton Trio w.  Johnny Dodds & Baby Dodds‬-"Wolverine Blues"
‪Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra feat. Bix Beiderbecke - "Slow River"
‪Coon-Sanders Nighthawks - "Sluefoot"
‪Elizabeth Smith  w. Rex Stewart-cornet‬ "Police done tore my Playhouse Down"
‪Ross de Luxe Syncopaters- "Believe Me, Dear"
‪Clifford Hayes' Louisville Stompers "Blue Guitar Stomp"
‪Fats Waller & Alberta Hunter "Beale Street Blues"
Jimmie Rodgers - "Blue Yodel"
Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight ‬-"Red Onion Drag"
‪Fletcher Henderson "Variety Stomp"

Sampling Pre-Jazz Vocals

A previous post dealt with one stylistic element of jazz: vibrato. I said I would next concentrate on vibrato in jazz vocals, but before we get there, let's set the foundation by looking at some music that was recorded in the pre-jazz era.


Jazz qua jazz wasn't recorded until the late teens and blues until the early 20's, but beginning in the 1890's, some of the styles that were grist for the jazz mill did find their way onto cylinders and discs: string and brass band music, "parlor" songs, ragtime, ethnic, vaudeville, minstrel and concert hall music. It's a partial record, but we'll try to get a sense of where vibrato and other expressive elements used in vocal jazz came from by listening to some influential vocalists who recorded during the first couple of decades of the twentieth century. Yes, instrumentalists always influence vocalists and vice versa, but we'll leave that tangle for future posts. Also, although it's clear that recordings of music from places like the Caribbean and South/Central America had an influence on jazz, I won't go into music with vocals targeted for foreign-language groups.

Enrico enjoys a smoke

Whether or not classical music was a formative element for jazz is a dense enough subject for a separate posting, but "popular" it indisputably was. Operatic tenor Enrico Caruso was a superstar; the first artist to make a million copy-selling recording. Chances are that if you find a pile of 78's in your attic, a Caruso is among them. Given the population in 1904, one out of eighty people in the US owned this disc which, to my ears, is stylistically what we might expect from a twenty first century singer like Pavarotti.


Many early recordings fall under the light classical/parlor music/Stephen Foster umbrella. Practitioners often came from an operatic tradition, but used vibrato with a lighter touch. Soprano Nellie Melba is a good example, as you can hear here.

The inspiration for Peach Melba

A more direct line to a jazz style can be drawn from the vocal music that was derived from minstrelsy, vaudeville, ragtime, or some combination of those. Clarice Vance is credited as developing the naturalistic, almost vibrato-free style which influenced many other popular singers. She reminds me of Blossom Dearie. Here's "Goodbye to Johnny":



Bert Williams was probably the most well-known African-American stage/vaudeville performer and recording artist from the turn of the 20th century until about 1920. Stylistically, this recording is an archaic and modern amalgam, with comedic effects, stuttering and trombone smears, with a subtle undertone of emotionality. 

Last of the Red Hot Mamas

Sophie Tucker was influenced by Clarice Vance, but was more directly connected to the black musical community. She hired black singers as coaches and black composers to write for her act. Here's one of her early recordings, "Reuben Rag," which takes off from the venerable folksong "Reuben and Rachel" that some of us learned in grammar school. Sophie was hot. I would say that in 1910, this was as modern as it got.


As time took a toll on Tucker's voice, she increasingly laid on the vibrato, but she explored time in a very jazz-like way: