my new CD acquisition, I think Wild Root would be proud

[The Wolf]

I just got a compact disc of Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra with music from 1920 to 1935. It has 22 songs including "Whispering", "St. Louis Blues", "Felix the Cat" and "Rockin' Chair". The musicians include Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, the Dorsey brothers, Jack Teagarden and, of course, Bing Crosby is in there.
I would tell you the price but it was so good I can't believe it.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Sefton]

That's great stuff. Paul Whiteman made some wonderful music. I have a collection of his 20s work called "Shakin' the Blues Away".
I think you might also enjoy early Bing Crosby. There is a 2 CD set called "The Lost Columbia Sides" that's from 1928-1934.

 

[artdecodame]

I just got a compact disc of Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra with music from 1920 to 1935. It has 22 songs including "Whispering"...

That's my favorite Whiteman song!

This one is great for other 20's jazz, too:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ef=sr_1_5/102-5955807-0870542?ie=UTF8&s=music

 

["Doc" Devereux]

I love Whiteman's stuff, but my favourite recording has to be the 1928 version of Rhapsody in Blue with George Gershwin playing the piano part - he attacks that thing like it had said something nasty about his mother!

And my favourite Whiteman story (which might be a little off-topic, but indulge me):

Back in the late '20s, Larry Adler was trying to start his career as a professional musician and since there aren't all that many auditions going with you play the mouth organ (his preferred term for it) he'd play beneath the dressing room window of various bandleaders to see if he could get their attention. One night this paid off, and Whiteman called him in to play.

The dressing room was pretty full, with people lounging around relaxing after a hard night's work, cigarette smoke in the air and maybe the occasional glass of iced tea that might interest the boys from the Treasury Department - an after-gig moment that every musician here will recognise. So young Larry gets to stand in the middle and play to Whiteman, some of the band, and a few of their friends. He blows, and he's pretty good (after all, this is Larry Adler we're talking about even if he is young). People like it. Whiteman likes it, and the King of Jazz looks at the kid and asks what he thinks of modern music. They talk for a while and finally Whiteman drops the toughie: "What about Rhapsody in Blue?"

Now Rhapsody's going down a storm. Critics, musicians, the public: everybody loves it. Larry loves it too, but knows that an opinion in line with everyone else won't be remembered so he takes a gamble:

"I can't stand it!" He says, and proceeds to point out where the piece could be better, and what doesn't work, and goes on for what is probably just a little bit too long on the subject. As he speaks Whiteman's listening, nodding, and giving the kid some credit for not holding back given the company he's in - after all, Whiteman's one of the main reasons for Gershwin's fame. But eventually Larry stops talking, and the room is silent. Whiteman looks him up and down, leans back in his chair and turns to look at the tall, thin man who's been standing in the corner of the room watching the whole performance.

"He doesn't like your music, George!" Says Whiteman, and the room collapses into laughter.

Adler and Gershwin later became friends (Larry even played the solo part on Rhapsody at one point), but I heard Larry tell that story not long before he died and he still remembered just how small he felt at that moment!

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

I just got a compact disc of Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra...

If you find you really like his style, you should check out this movie, has Bing Crosby & the rhythm boys (though I have to say Whiteman takes a bit too much credit as "the kind of jazz" for my tates )

From IMDB: Plot Summary for The King of Jazz (1930): This revue presents its numbers around the orchestra leader Paul Whiteman...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021025/

(Also I thought Whiteman plays himself in the 1950 movie "Young Man with a Horn" about the life of Bix B., with Harry James' orch. featured, but can't find him in the cast... tho it was a small part, and they show even Louis Armstrong as being in there uncredited (!))

Swing High,
- Cousin Hepcat

 

[The Wolf]

That is a fun movie, Cousin

I believe it was early Technicolor. It even has risque jokes.
The cover for the video is funny because Paul Whiteman was the star and Bing has a small part but now he's the celebrity people know.
fftopic: Kinda like early Jack Nicholson movies re-packaged or the new release of Yellowbeard which looks like it is Cheech and Chong movie but is actually a Graham Chapman movie.
Thanks to everyone for the responses.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[LizzieMaine]

I *love* King of Jazz -- it's got everything. Great music, bizarre production numbers, Oswald the Rabbit, and a guy playing the Stars and Stripes Forever on a bicycle pump. All in luscious shades of salmon and turquoise.

My favorite Whiteman recording of the moment is a 1929 side -- "If I Had A Talking Picture of You." It's a very jaunty arrangement of a wonderful song, with a swingy vocal by a very young Bing Crosby. Just about any Whiteman side from 1929-33 is first-class, but this one always makes me smile.

 

[CharlieH.]

I first heard Paul Whiteman's band on a documentary about popular music and I just loved it. I got lots of favourites, but the ones that stick out are Sweet And Lowdown and Nola. I find them to be somewhat hypnotising, particularly the trombone solos.

 

[FedoraGent]

I just got a compact disc of Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra with music from 1920 to 1935. It has 22 songs including "Whispering", "St. Louis Blues", "Felix the Cat" and "Rockin' Chair". The musicians include Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, the Dorsey brothers, Jack Teagarden and, of course, Bing Crosby is in there.
I would tell you the price but it was so good I can't believe it.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

This would just kill you...but I have 78s of that stuff. Wolf, we're going to have to get together and I'll bring them and my bonifidie (slang) Victrola.

Lots of fun.

Jon

 

[jake_fink]

Peices of The King of Jazz are available right here on this series of magnificent tubes, the internets. Check out Redhotjazz.com:

http://www.redhotjazz.com/kingofjazz.html

Whiteman is the right name for this guy, he blandified jazz for the masses, bleached the flour and sliced it thin. His great contribution to dance music, if not jazz, was to move commercial dance music away from the heavy, brassy miltary and oompah sound toward a sweeter, warmer woodwind. But he did work with immensely talented people like the previously mentioned Beiderbecke, Bing, Teagarden et al. Whiteman was a publicity hog while the real talent behind this orchestra was the truly great, though unsung Ferde Grofe, who was Whiteman's pianist and arranger. He arranged Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for Whiteman, and while it put Gershwin and Whiteman on the map forevermore Ferde Grofe is barely recognized at all, even today, among fans of that magical piece. Grofe was also an accomplished composer, and contributed more of the clasically tinged, longer type of arrangement to Whtieman's repertoire. The Grand Canyon Sweet is barely remembered, though it has popped up on a number of film soundtracks.

With 22 songs from his entire output, they are bound to be the best, and at their best the Whiteman Orchestra was very good indeed, but if you don't already have them, please get Beiderbecke's earlier recordings with The Wolverines, Jean Goldkette and Frank Trumbauer, which are the absolute height of accomplishment among white jazz bands of that period. Before he became a sloppy drunk playing occassional solos for Whiteman, Bix Beiderbecke was a musician to be reckoned with.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

please get Beiderbecke's earlier recordings with The Wolverines, Jean Goldkette and Frank Trumbauer, which are the absolute height of accomplishment among white jazz bands of that period. Before he became a sloppy drunk playing occassional solos for Whiteman, Bix Beiderbecke was a musician to be reckoned with.

Both Beiderbecke and Trumbauer play amazing solos on "Three Blind Mice" built around the old nursery rhyme. sandwiching a rather everyday banjo solo.

excellent!

bk

 

[feltfan]

Potatohead on the Victrola

Love those Whiteman "Potatohead" label 78s. I have a
pile of them and they're all good from that period.
Have a look at the label here (thanks, I believe, to someone
on the Lounge):

http://www.dismuke.org/how/prev10-02.html

Scroll down a bit and you'll see a scan of the
cartoon of Whiteman on the label.

 

[The Wolf]

Thanks, Jake

Good information and good advice.

Sincerely,
The Wolf