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Fandango, v. 3, issue 3, whole 11, Spring 1946
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FAN-DANGO Vol. III, No. 3 Spring 1946 While No. 11 [stamp] PACIFICON Los Angeles July 4, 5, 6, 7, 194 Join Now $1.00 JAPANESE JAM BURTON CRANE (The following is lifted out of a recent letter from Burton Crane, pretty much without editing and wholly without permission. But then, I thought that it would be a good introduction to one of our newest members. ---FTL)---ooO--- Back in 1933 or thereabouts the Japanese went jazz-mad. Columbia, with a big, prosperous subsidiary here, didn't have much in the United States, so it sent out a lot of old stampers, never dreaming, I imagine, that htey'd ever again be in demand at home. In those days I was an exclusive recording artist for Columbia ((Burton recorded 28 double-faced records of Japanese lyrics to American song hits, back in the days when he was billed as "the Maurice Chevalier of Japan")) and I used to get all the foreign-style music releases every month free. In that way I added to my collection the Dixieland Jazzband stuff, the Original Memphis Five platters, and shoals of discs by various pickup bands with which Benny Goodman was recording at the time, Charleston Chasers, etc. You can pick out that reed as if it were a solo. There were also some grand Muggsy Spanier sides, plenty of Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller (whose best was undoubtedly the 12th Street Rag--or don't you like a lot of piano?) and the famous old backing up of Teagarden's Basin Street and Beale Street, with Benny riding all the way through both. One of my favorites in that lot was (of all things) a Ted Lewis side. Ted spoiled it a little by singing but it had choruses by both Benny and Muggsy and an ensemble which got well off. The tune was "Dip Your Brush in Sunshine". The other side was typical Lew and stank to high heaven. So what happened to that collection of mine? And how large was it? Figure four years at 20 records a month, not counting those I bought, which were largely classical stuff, except for Victor when Benny started making his trios for that company. I probably had 1500 in all. When I went home I sorted out my special favorites and took them with me. When my wife followed in eight or nine months she couldn't see bringing along the whole collection--I can't say I blame her--so she sold the lot, including everything by Stravinsky that had ever been recorded to then. Have you ever heard that Paris Cercle recording of "Quartet for Wind Instruments"? So I do not have the collection. Without the same facilities for collection cheaply, I did nothing much about continuing a collection when I returned to the United States and back there we are probably abandoning not more than 200. Few of them appeal to me save some few Bennys, Artie Shaws, Glenn Millers and Harry Jameses--and even those sound too arranged to suit me the way the old ones did. All during the spring of 1936, out here, I used to have a weekly jam session at the house. We had a bunch of musicians who were working for the recording companies here and didn't have much to do at night, so they'd foregather at my house on Fridays, when my wife was writing her Sunday society column, and turn it loose. On piano we --1--
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FAN-DANGO Vol. III, No. 3 Spring 1946 While No. 11 [stamp] PACIFICON Los Angeles July 4, 5, 6, 7, 194 Join Now $1.00 JAPANESE JAM BURTON CRANE (The following is lifted out of a recent letter from Burton Crane, pretty much without editing and wholly without permission. But then, I thought that it would be a good introduction to one of our newest members. ---FTL)---ooO--- Back in 1933 or thereabouts the Japanese went jazz-mad. Columbia, with a big, prosperous subsidiary here, didn't have much in the United States, so it sent out a lot of old stampers, never dreaming, I imagine, that htey'd ever again be in demand at home. In those days I was an exclusive recording artist for Columbia ((Burton recorded 28 double-faced records of Japanese lyrics to American song hits, back in the days when he was billed as "the Maurice Chevalier of Japan")) and I used to get all the foreign-style music releases every month free. In that way I added to my collection the Dixieland Jazzband stuff, the Original Memphis Five platters, and shoals of discs by various pickup bands with which Benny Goodman was recording at the time, Charleston Chasers, etc. You can pick out that reed as if it were a solo. There were also some grand Muggsy Spanier sides, plenty of Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller (whose best was undoubtedly the 12th Street Rag--or don't you like a lot of piano?) and the famous old backing up of Teagarden's Basin Street and Beale Street, with Benny riding all the way through both. One of my favorites in that lot was (of all things) a Ted Lewis side. Ted spoiled it a little by singing but it had choruses by both Benny and Muggsy and an ensemble which got well off. The tune was "Dip Your Brush in Sunshine". The other side was typical Lew and stank to high heaven. So what happened to that collection of mine? And how large was it? Figure four years at 20 records a month, not counting those I bought, which were largely classical stuff, except for Victor when Benny started making his trios for that company. I probably had 1500 in all. When I went home I sorted out my special favorites and took them with me. When my wife followed in eight or nine months she couldn't see bringing along the whole collection--I can't say I blame her--so she sold the lot, including everything by Stravinsky that had ever been recorded to then. Have you ever heard that Paris Cercle recording of "Quartet for Wind Instruments"? So I do not have the collection. Without the same facilities for collection cheaply, I did nothing much about continuing a collection when I returned to the United States and back there we are probably abandoning not more than 200. Few of them appeal to me save some few Bennys, Artie Shaws, Glenn Millers and Harry Jameses--and even those sound too arranged to suit me the way the old ones did. All during the spring of 1936, out here, I used to have a weekly jam session at the house. We had a bunch of musicians who were working for the recording companies here and didn't have much to do at night, so they'd foregather at my house on Fridays, when my wife was writing her Sunday society column, and turn it loose. On piano we --1--
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