A series of great  JAZZ Records from early Ragtime to Beb-Bop on 78 rpm Victrola Records

Click here for more great Dealer and Picture RECORD SLEEVES and STORAGE ALBUMS!

More great Jazz and Vocal Records in my other listings!

Orig Issue Victor Batwing  12" 78 rpm 

CONDITION: EXCELLENT MINUS unworn light scuffs, tiny 4 mm scratch on Milicent plays very quiet

A GREAT COPY

SLEEVE IS GOOD, some tattering at right side and bottom edge, but decent shape

Rise to fame
The Castles' initial fame began in Paris, where they introduced American ragtime dances, such as the Turkey Trot and the Grizzly Bear. When the Castles returned to the U.S., their success was repeated on a far wider scale. Making their New York debut in 1912 at a branch of the Cafe de Paris, operated by Louis Martin, who had given them their start in Paris, the duo were soon in demand on stage, in vaudeville and in motion pictures.

In 1914, the couple opened a dancing school in New York called "Castle House" , a nightclub called "Castles By the Sea" on the Boardwalk in Long Beach, New York, and a restaurant, "Sans Souci." At Castle House, they taught New York society the latest dance steps by day, and greeted guests and performed at their club and cafe by night. They also were in demand for private lessons and appearances at fashionable parties. Despite their fame, they often found themselves treated as hired menials; if a rich client was too demanding, Vernon would quote a fee of a thousand dollars an hour for lessons and often get it.

At the time dancing was all the rage in New York, and the most famous dancers were Vernon and Irene Castle. When the Castles met Europe at a private society party where the Clef Club Orchestra was playing, they decided to make him their band leader. They also hired fellow black composer Ford Dabney as their musical arranger.

Europe was instrumental in the premier and success of the Castle's most famous dance creation, the fox trot, which was reputedly adapted from W. C. Handy's Memphis Blues. While with the Castles, he also added a saxophone to his band, giving what had previously been used mainly as a novelty in musical acts the status of a respectable jazz instrument for the first time. Europe and Dabney wrote most of the music for the Castles' dances.

It was the Castles, Irene and Vernon, who changed the world's dancing habits. It is important to note that prior to the Castles, dances and galas were _private_ and held in uppper class homes. Dance Halls were NOT considered proper for polite society. But from about 1910 on, the world's dancing habits changed. The Castles began dancing in _public venues_ and the public became totally enraptured by their performances. Soon, every couple wanted to emulate the Castles, and were dancing - in public. From then onward, - it would be possible for musicians to earn a living, because the major venues found it necessary to hire orchestras so that their guests could dance.

The catalyst for this change was the invention, in 1912, of the "Foxtrot" dance (in embryonic form). Earlier dances of this variety were known under such names as the "horsetrot" and the "fishwalk". From a modern point of view, it is sometimes difficult to discern the "foxtrot" rhythm in these early recordings; especially so if the recording was made by one of the many "military" bands, then so very poipular.

Just one very singular activity served to propel the dance into wide public acceptance, and that was the dance team of "Irene and Vernon Castle".

The Castles did have some competition, of course, the most notable being "Joan Sawyer, a fine dancer who teamed with many different partners. Here's a photo of the Joan Sawyer and John Jarrot, dance team. During the 1910s, Sawyer was one of the most popular female dancers. The Tango was one of the dances that the Castles performed so well. The Castles are often credited with bringing the Tango to America. The Castles - Vernon and Irene, started dancing in 1914, sponsored by Ely Marbury, a prominent member of the Democratic Party. As their career progressed, the Castles, developed still other dances, such as the 'One Step' and the 'Maxixe'. (The Maxixe -pronounced 'machich'- was still another dance introduced by Maurice Mouvet, but he called it the "Machich".) Their dance exhibitions caught the public's fancy, and soon everybody wanted to go to a Dance Hall or Restaurant and do the same "Ballroom" dances. Dances no longer took place just in private homes. One could "go out" dancing. And, the only thing needed was -- a Dance Band.

EARL FULLER

Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band included Walter Kahn on cornet, Harry Raderman on trombone, Ted Lewis on clarinet, and John Lucas on drums. This was the nucleus of the dance orchestra later led by Ted Lewis. Before Fuller's first session, Lewis had been playing with Arthur Stone's Syncopated Orchestra. In the early 1920s, the popular Ted Lewis orchestra consisted of these four musicians in addition to cornetist David Klein, trombonist Frank Lhotak, tuba player Harry Barth, and pianist Frank Ross. This is reported on page 21 of the October 1923 issue of Musical Truth, which was the trade journal for the maker of Conn instruments.

Photographs on sheet music suggest Fuller played piano on these dates though Ernie Cutting may have been the pianist on records (as on other jazz records of the period, piano on Fuller discs is the least audible of the instruments). It was one of the first bands to imitate the Original Dixieland Jass Band though the Frisco Jazz Band made an Edison recording on May 10, 1917, a little earlier than Fuller's jazz ensemble.

"Slippery Hank" and "Yah-De-Dah," cut during the group's first session on June 4, 1917, were issued on Victor 18321 in September 1917. These jazz performances are notably loud, and the musicians use instruments for comic effects. Victor's September 1917 supplement states, "A terrific wail from the trombone starts 'Slippery Hank' (F.H. Losey) on his glide, and the rest of the Jazz Band noises are in kind. And if you think these are all the noises available for a Jazz Band, turn the record over and listen to 'Yah-De-Dah' (Mel. B. Kaufman). The sounds as of a dog in his dying anguish are from Ted Lewis' clarinet. Notice the two little chords at the end of each number. This is how you know for certain that a Jazz Band is playing." Ending records with these "two little chords" had been introduced by the Original Dixieland Jass Band.

His jazz discs sold well, especially "The Old Grey Mare" backed with "Beale Street Blues" (Victor 18369), and, on Victor 18394, "Coon Band Contest" (a rag composed by trombonist Arthur Pryor and recorded by banjoist Vess L. Ossman as well as Sousa's Band as early as 1900) backed with "Li'l Liza Jane," written by Countess Ada de Lachau and arranged by J.L. Burbeck.

Historian and critic Gunther Schuller expresses mixed feelings about the band in Early Jazz (Oxford University Press, 1968), writing on page 184, "The band's ricky-tick rhythms and cornetist Walter Kahn are very hard to take today. Moreover, its performances are structurally monotonous in their exact repetitions. Nevertheless, the band had a crude sort of excitement..." The now- forgotten discs helped define and popularize a new music, jazz, influencing young people who would later, in the 1920s, make important recordings.

In 1918 Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band recorded for Edison several numbers with titles that refer to the new music, including "Jazzbo Jazz" and "Jazzin' Around." The August 1918 issue of Edison Amberola Monthly characterizes "Jazbo Jazz One-Step" on Blue Amberol 3554 as "a real, red- hot jazz dance of the most ultra modern variety," and this may be the first time that a jazz record is promoted as "hot." The jacket for Diamond Disc 50541, featuring Fuller's own composition "Jazz de Luxe," states that the band "was organized just at the time the jazz music became popular in New York, and through its playing of jazz music in Rector's Restaurant, New York City, Earl Fuller's Band became famous." Promotional literature for the same number on Blue Amberol 3610 states, "Until you have heard one of Earl Fuller's 'symphonies in rhythm' you are a novice in the art of appreciating Jazz."