Interracial Jazz Recording (#51): Daisy Martin and the Tampa Blue Jazz Band

Daisy Martin, like other early black female singers, was a veteran of vaudeville, tent shows and musical theatre. She was among the first wave of vaudeville/blues shouters to record, but only recorded 16 sides. Daisy has a forceful and penetrating voice with a fair amount of vibrato. She was well known enough to compete in a blues-singing contest on January 20, 1922, with Lucille Hegamin, Alice Leslie Carter and eventual winner Trixie Smith at the Manhattan Casino in New York City. Noble Sissle was master of ceremonies.

Joseph Samuels Jazz Band

                            

Could not find a solo picture of Daisy Martin

    

Here she is accompanied by  the Tampa Blue Jazz Band, which was actually a pseudonym for the Joseph Samuels Jazz Band. Samuels played reeds and violin and various bands he organized under different names recorded something like 400 sides between 1919 and 1925. 

"Honolulu Lou" is a piece of exotica-all the rage at the time. The tune is carefully arranged, but there is some spirited blowing. Cornettist Jules Levy, Jr. was the son of a British-born cornet virtuoso and like Levy Sr. performed and recorded as a soloist in concert and military style. You can hear him in that context here.

Daisy Martin acc. by Tampa Blue Jazz Band (Pseudonym for Joseph Samuels Jazz Band): Daisy Martin (vcl) acc by Jules Levy, Jr. (cnt) unknown (tb) Joe Samuels( cla, bassax) ... (cl,bassax) Larry Briers (p) unknown (d). New York, c. August 1 & 2, 1921.

• How long, how long [Absent blues]- Okeh 8009;
• Sweet daddy (hold me closer all the time)- Okeh 8010;
• Honolulu Lou- OK 8010;
• I didn’t start to love you (until you stopped loving me)-Okeh 8009

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