Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy

Rick Kennedy

Description

Musical grassroots in the Heartland

Excerpt: Read the foreword and introduction from Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy Videos: Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy book trailer Rick Kennedy interview on PBS's History Detectives (appears at 31:48 mark) Podcasts: Rick Kennedy interview on WFIU's Night Lights (appears at 10:36 mark)

In a piano factory tucked away in Richmond, Indiana, Gennett Records produced thousands of records featuring obscure musicians from hotel orchestras and backwoods fiddlers to the future icons of jazz, blues, country music, and rock 'n' roll. From 1916 to 1934, the company debuted such future stars as Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoagy Carmichael, while also capturing classic performances by Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Uncle Dave Macon, and Gene Autry. While Gennett Records was overshadowed by competitors such as Victor and Columbia, few record companies documented the birth of America's grassroots music as thoroughly as this small-town label. In this newly revised and expanded edition of Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy, Rick Kennedy shares anecdotes from musicians, employees, and family members to trace the colorful history of one of America's most innovative record companies.

Foreword by Ted Gioia
Gennett Records Timeline
Introduction

1. A Music Dynasty in Victorian Indiana
2. A New Wind Is Blowing through Chicago
3. Jazz Hysteria in the Hoosier State
4. Old-Time Music in the New Electronic Era
5. When Gennett Records Gets the Blues
6. Yet the Music Lives On

Suggested Listening: Fifty Classics by Gennett Records
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Index of Songs

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• Indiana
• Richmond
• Jazz
• Stardust
• Bix Beiderbecke
• Hoagy Carmichael
• Jelly Roll Morton
• Music
• Louis Armstrong
• History
• History of classical music traditions
• Gennett Records
• Criticism
• Multiple signal classification
• Popular music

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 08 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9780253007698
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

JELLY ROLL, BIX, AND HOAGY
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION
Delightful history of Gennett Records, its parent the Starr Piano Company of Richmond, Indiana, in the 1920s, and the birth of recorded jazz . . . For jazz followers, not tobe missed. A huge success.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
A labor of love if ever there was one. . . . [Gennett] helped get everything started, and we are in Rick Kennedy s debt for paying it due tribute.
JONATHAN YARDLEY, WASHINGTON POST
Lively and anecdotal history . . .
JAZZTIMES
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington Indianapolis

This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, Indiana 47404-3797 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931
2013 by Richard L. Kennedy First edition published 1999
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kennedy, Rick, [date] author.
Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy : Gennett Records and the rise of America s musical grassroots / Rick Kennedy; foreword by Ted Gioia. - Revised and expanded edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references, discography, and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-00747-6 (paperback : alkaline paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-00769-8 (e-book) 1. Starr Piano Company. Gennett Record Division. 2. Sound recording industry - United States. 3. Jazz - History and criticism. I. Gioia, Ted. II. Title.
ML 3792. S 73 K 45 2013
781.6409772 63 - dc23
2012034910
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
FOR DICK REYNOLDS

The studio was primitive, the room wasn t soundproof, and just outside was a railroad spur with switch engines puffing away noisily. Yet this obscure recording studio in a small Indiana city saw a history-making parade of musicians. They made the name of the Hoosier Gennetts one of the greatest names in recorded music, and the gold-lettered Gennett label is one to collect.
HOAGY CARMICHAEL

Contents
Foreword by Ted Gioia
Gennett Records Timeline
Introduction
1 A Music Dynasty in Victorian Indiana
2 A New Wind Is Blowing through Chicago
3 Jazz Hysteria in the Hoosier State
4 Old-Time Music in the New Electronic Era
5 When Gennett Records Gets the Blues
6 Yet the Music Lives On
Suggested Listening: Fifty Classics by Gennett Records
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Index of Songs

Foreword
TED GIOIA
Ask a group of people to name the U.S. cities with the most illustrious musical histories, and they will immediately think of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Someone is sure to mention New Orleans, San Francisco, and Detroit. Nashville will have its advocates, as will its cross-state rival Memphis. Philly and Boston will demand consideration. Perhaps a savvy straggler will offer up Seattle or Austin.
But it is unlikely that anyone will remember Richmond, Indiana.
Yet they should. Over the course of many years studying American music, I have found that my research has taken me again and again to events that took place in this small city on the central eastern border of Indiana. Richmond doesn t even rank among the ten largest cities in the state, let alone the nation. Yet the course of American music was fundamentally changed by the songs recorded within its city limits.
Where do I begin? Perhaps with the recordings of King Oliver s Jazz Band, made in Richmond in 1923 - these were the most influential jazz sides of their day and introduced the world to Louis Armstrong. Then again, if you prefer cool jazz to hot, your focus will shift to the legendary Bix Beiderbecke, whose classic 1924 recordings also came from Richmond. But we can t forget Jelly Roll Morton, the most important jazz composer of the era, who made history in Richmond, collaborating with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings on the first racially integrated jazz recording session.
If your tastes turn to blues, you will also encounter music from this small Midwestern city - for example, Charley Patton s Pony Blues, a recording that single-handedly created the commercial market for Delta blues. By the same token, the market for Texas blues was built by Blind Lemon Jefferson, whose final recordings were made far from the Lone Star State, again in Richmond. The father of black gospel music Thomas Dorsey recorded here, as did country music legend Gene Autry, and the great songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. No matter what style or genre, Richmond was at the crossroads. It may have been a tiny city, but the rest of America danced to its beat.
A company called Gennett Records drew these artists to Richmond, either to record for the label or to take advantage of their studio. An offshoot ofthe Starr Piano Company, Gennett was a family-owned business that took on Victor Records and the burgeoning record industry and not only survived, but prospered - at least until the Great Depression devastated the nation s music business. Gennett s glory days lasted only two decades, but during that period the label was at the forefront of new sounds and styles, recording seminal artists who continue to delight and inspire us in the new millennium.
This is a grand story, and we are fortunate to have Rick Kennedy share it with us. First and foremost, he shares a fascinating account of milestone performances of American music and the iconic artists who created them. But Kennedy realizes that this is also a story about technology and entrepreneurship, about the emergence of a new industry and the evolution of consumer tastes and lifestyles in early twentieth-century America. He draws on all these elements in recounting one of the most dramatic and unlikely success stories of its era.
The first edition of this book, published in 1994, was an important volume, much prized by those who care about this music and the people who made it. But Kennedy now offers a revised and enriched edition, drawing on his ongoing research into Gennett and its role both in its community and in the broader streams of American culture. The result is a definitive account of an important nexus point in our shared musical heritage.
Before I close, let me suggest that this book can be more than just a work of history To some extent, it presents a roadmap and case study that can still enlighten and guide us today The music business in our own time is in crisis, suffering from technological shifts and degraded standards, but even more from a lack of confidence. The people running the industry today are like priests or shamans who have lost their faith - by turning music into a commodity they have forgotten the enchantment and power that comes from a potent, undiluted artistic vision.
The story of Gennett Records, in contrast, is a tale of a business that caught lightning in a bottle - or rather in the grooves of a 78. Gennett sought out the finest artists of the day; the label had faith in their talents and skills, and humility enough to allow them to blossom without a lot of interference from above. Even today, listeners can hear the authenticity and the audacity of this undertaking. And, perhaps, more than ever before, we could use a dose for ourselves.
In good times, we cherish our roots. In bad times, we desperately need to renew them. In either case, the story of some of the deepest roots in our music can be found in these pages.

Gennett Records Timeline
1872
Alsatian piano maker George Trayser and investors James M. Starr and Richard Jackson form the Trayser Piano Co. in Richmond, Indiana.
1878
Company is renamed the Chase Piano Co. after piano maker M. J. Chase replaces Trayser. Factory moves to the Whitewater River in a massive glacial gorge near downtown.
1885
Company is renamed James Starr Co. with Chase s departure. James Starr becomes president, and his brother, Benjamin Starr, runs the expanding factory complex.
1893
Company is recapitalized and renamed Starr Piano Co., with half-ownership acquired by John Lumsden and Henry Gennett, both piano retailers in Nashville, Tennessee.
1903
Gennett family assumes full control of expanding Starr Piano factory in Richmond and its national network of stores. As president, Henry Gennett names his three young sons as officers: Harry, vice president; Clarence, treasurer; and Fred, secretary.
1915
As patents for phonograph and recording technology expire, the Gennett family amends Starr Piano articles of incorporation to expand into phonographs and records.
1916
Gennett family creates the Starr record label and a recording studio in New York City. Starr records and Starr phonographs are sold in the piano stores.
1917
The Gennett record label is created to limit the association with Starr Piano and thus widen the label s distribution channels.
Dominant Victor Records produces the world s first jazz records with releases by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
1919
Gennett Records introduces lateral-cut 78-rpm discs, a technology controlled by Victor, which sues for patent infringement. Other small labels join Gennett in the court fight against Victor.
1921
OKeh Records produces hits by blues singer Mamie Smith to help establish the race records market.
February 11: Victor Records is defeated in U.S. Circuit Court in its patent infringement case against Gennett Records.
July: Gennett family creates a second recording studio at the Starr Piano factory in Richmond, with Ezra Wickemeyer as studio engineer.
1922
April 4: U.S. Circuit Cour