Centuries of Sound (James M Errington)

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free.

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

It’s the 1920s, prohibition has kicked in, jazz bands are playing Chicago speakeasys, this is the year the revolutions around the world are matched by a revolution in music, but hold on – wasn’t this all done a few years ago? Are we not already firmly in the jazz age? Well, yes and no. 1917-1919 is an era of its own, a mini preview jazz age if you like, bands playing as raucously as they can with as many novelty sound effects as they can feasibly cram in there, often with very enjoyable results, but something usually considered essential has been missing – the flavour we usually call “the blues” or later “soul.”

The story of the blues as popularly understood involves pre-Civil-War slave chants and proto-gospel singing gradually mutating into a formalised style of guitar music played by poor blind black men in the Mississipi Delta. While some parts of this are in some ways accurate, as an origin story it is not only incorrect, but erases the women who should, if anything, be at the very centre of the story. So, let’s try to redress that, a bit.

To start at the beginning, the roots of the blues do indeed seem to lie with the songs of the slaves, but as far as documented history is concerned, the more important immediate antecedent is the music of the stages of black vaudeville in the southeast USA in the first two decades of the century. This was black pop music, undocumented by the upper-middle-class businessmen of New York, who would rather travel around the world than go down to Georgia. Much of the music played in these places was written and published elsewhere, including in New Orleans and Tin Pan Alley in New York. The idea of putting the word ‘blues’ in the title of a song dates back to at least 1908, with Antonio Maggio’s ‘I Got The Blues’ – but the craze for naming your song “The [something] Blues” doesn’t seem to exactly indicate a shift in the music being played. Many of these songs, like “Memphis Blues” and “Dallas Blues” were ragtime pieces – others were simply pop songs – but it wasn’t until songs like W.C. Handy’s “St Louis Blues” and “Yellow Dog Blues” began to be repurposed as jazz numbers that the association with this new wave of music became fixed.

The “blues” which appears apparently fully-formed in this mix is from a different, but connected strand. The earliest signs of this are perhaps in 1902, when Ma Rainey “The Mother of the Blues” wrote her first song about a woman having lost her man. Her performances on the “tent show circuit” inspired a host of copycats, and by the 1910s even Tin Pan Alley writers were putting together similar numbers, for white women singers to perform in character. Many were inspired to start similar acts, including Mamie Smith, a young singer who performed at clubs in Harlem.

As the initial wave of dixieland jazz crested and began to recede, W. C. Handy found himself to be one of the country’s most in-demand songwriters, and in a position to lobby record companies to record music for the new generation of black consumers who owned phonographs. Mamie Smith was the first to be recorded. On August 10th 1920 (her second session) she was was joined by a group of musicians quickly christened the “Jazz Hounds” and performed a Perry Bradford song titled “Crazy Blues”

It’s hard to overstate what an impact this recording had. No longer was the sound of black America constrained by the expectations of the white upper-middle-class recording market. The record sold over 75,000 copies within a month, and its label Okeh Records realised there was a huge market out there for what it termed “race records.” Initially these were largely copycat pieces from similar singers, but it would only be a few years until this meant Louis Armstrong, Clarence Williams, Lonnie Johnson and King Oliver. The copycat pieces weren’t at all bad either, as there was quite the stock of talent out there for those asking for a blues singer with a jazz backing band. As well as Mamie there would soon be recordings from Bessie Smith, Lucille Bogan, Sara Martin, Victoria Spivey and Ma Rainey – this is an era now known for “classic female blues” – a genre which certainly deserves to have a less pedantic name.

Crazy Blues, then; a genuine watershed moment, and a genuinely brilliant record.

Tracks

0:00:17 Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds – Crazy Blues 0:03:44 Yerkes’ Happy Six – Shake Your Little Shoulder 0:06:33 Lucille Hegamin – Jazz Me Blues 0:08:58 Paul Whiteman – Wang Wang Blues 0:12:15 Marion Harris – I Ain’t Got Nobody 0:14:28 George Gershwin – Swanee 0:16:03 Al Jolson – Swanee 0:18:37 All-Star Trio – Swanee 0:19:33 Louisiana Five – Clarinet Squawk 0:22:19 Wilbur Sweatman’s Original Jazz Band – Think of Me Little Daddy 0:23:46 Arthur Collins – Old Man Jazz 0:25:55 George Hamilton Green Novelty Orchestra – Oriental Stars 0:28:04 Ada Jones and Steve Porter – Backyard Conversation Between Mrs. Reilly and Mrs. Finnegan (Excerpt 1) 0:28:16 Noble Sissle – Great Camp Meetin’ Day 0:30:54 Rudy Wiedoeft + Orchestra – Saxema 0:33:28 Milo Rega’s Dance Orchestra – Young Man’s Fancy 0:36:33 Plantation Jazz Orchestra – Murder 0:39:04 Aleister Crowley- The Call Of The First And Second Aethyr (Excerpt 1) 0:39:23 Marika Papagika – O Marcos Botsaris 0:40:33 Mozmar Caire Orchestra – Raks Baladi Hag Ibrahim (Country Dance) 0:43:24 Original Dixieland Jazz Band – Soudan 0:46:26 Aleister Crowley- The Call Of The First And Second Aethyr (Excerpt 2) 0:46:55 Zeki Duygulu – Karciar Taksim 0:48:00 Abe Schwartz – National Hora Pt.2 0:50:27 Joseph Shlisky – Omar Rabi Elozor 0:53:29 Kandel’s Orchestra – A Freilachs von Der Chuppe (A Happy Dance from the Wedding Ceremony) 0:55:34 Mishka Ziganoff – Odessa Bulgar 0:56:50 Columbia Saxophone Sextette – Crocodile 1:00:08 Calvin Coolidge – Gov Coolidge for Vice President 1:00:21 Art Hickman – Love Nest 1:01:49 Mamie Smith – Don’t Care Blues 1:04:46 Yerkes’ Novelty Five – Bo La Bo 1:06:22 Raderman’s Jazz Orchestra – Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me 1:08:32 Ted Lewis – When My Baby Smiles At Me 1:10:09 Harry Raderman’s Jazz Orchestra – Peacock Walk 1:12:52 Warren G Harding — Speech 1:13:10 Bert Williams – When The Moon Shines on The Moonshine 1:15:46 Max Fells’ Della Robbia Orchestra – La Veeda 1:18:20 Orquesta Felipe Valdes – Bombo Camara 1:19:37 Ben Hokea – Honolulu March 1:22:11 Hawaiian Trio – Hawaiian Twilight 1:24:51 All-Star Trio – Oh! By Jingo! 1:26:47 Yerkes’ Blue Bird Orchestra – Scandal Walk 1:29:39 Louisiana Five – Weeping Willow Blues 1:31:44 George Gershwin – Singing The Blues 1:33:28 Leopold Stokowski & The Philadelphia Orchestra – Beethoven Symphony no 8 in F Movement 2 1:36:33 Will Fyffe – I Belong To Glasgow 1:40:29 Carl Fenton – On Miami Shore (+ Rudy Wiedoeft) 1:42:16 Ada Jones and Steve Porter – Backyard Conversation Between Mrs. Reilly and Mrs. Finnegan (Excerpt 2)

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free.

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Blood on her hands… …I’m not that nice… …there’s one viewer you care about… …it’s not that serious… …what’s your deal, man?… …I use my white woman’s voice… …you can’t dance around it… …no sweat, no tears… …enemy of the people… …don’t think we can be friends… …shut the hell up… …let me cloak my wrist… …but it’s good to know… …is there a single soul out there listening?… …people have all sorts of ideas… …you have the cheek to call us savages… …barbies on the kid and they flex with the gang… …I guess we proved you wrong… …I never voted for you… …never or now… …claire said you were brutal… …we have lots of history… …never again… …I’m doing it because I feel sorry for you… …one-sided news stories plaguing our country… …it’s just unbelievable… …cut off some friends, where they go… …this system is insane… …I don’t have any feelings… …I’m a flawed human being… …spread my wings in these noxious skies… …you have created this monster… …I don’t think you’re thinking anything… …laurel… …I guess neither one of us… …this a celly, that’s a tool… …a life without despair is a life without hope… …I felt like I didn’t know her… …does the president believe he is above the law?… …the company I keep is not corporate enough… …ain’t no surprises in the repertoire… …the memory of making love… …fuck trump… …it seemed so odd though, how they so cocky… …why are you scared of me?… …history will judge us… …this meeting of two dictators… …it’s not your property… …what you reap is what you sow… …it’s like this mad riddle… …you don’t need to be scared… …do not mention that you think that you are jesus christ… …let it be the day the pain stop… …this is a good conversation… …I know no one will save me… …I’ll try not to sound too awful, but… …I don’t care what I’ve been told… …I don’t see any reason why it would be… …fuck it, I did my time… …the self-inflicted wounds of your own imagined democratic choices… …eager and unashamed… …I just wanna fly… …truth isn’t truth… …to the bottom of a made up ocean… …only a fool folds a winning hand… …blind are the brokers and the unskilled workers… …that is all, that is all, there is nothing else… …his weight was heavy… …I wanna smell you, even from far away… …double agents atcha door… …a hit dog will holler… …I’m a breath of drop and the sea nears me… …it’s dull as hell… …when two worlds collide, two things happen… …no one is leaving, now this is your home… …only thing on my mind was death… …the internet looked at him and said yes… …it’s called transparency… …if you miss it, that’s that… …I know it’s hard to be an optimist when you trust least the ones who claim to have the answers.

Tracklist – Just the music

0:00:20 Geoff Barrow & Ben Salisbury – Excerpt from “Annihilation” OST 0:00:51 Mount Eerie – Distortion 0:01:07 MGMT – When You Die 0:02:02 Ravyn Lenae – Sticky 0:03:58 Grace Vonderkuhn – Worry 0:05:54 Anna von Hausswolff – The Truth, the Glow, the Fall 0:07:27 Tune-Yards – Colonizer 0:09:07 Spice – Tik Tak 0:10:41 Hoodboi – Glide feat. Tkay Maidza 0:13:13 Nilufer Yanya – Thanks 4 Nothing 0:15:29 Leif – Number 13 0:17:14 JPEGMAFIA – 1539 N. Calvert 0:18:47 Kero Kero Bonito – Only Acting 0:22:50 E Ruscha V – Who Are You 0:24:03 ionnalee – Blazing 0:24:52 Simmy ft. Sun-EL Musician – Ubala 0:26:51 Peach – Silky 0:29:40 700 Bliss – Cosmic Slop 0:31:05 Stormzy – Brit Awards Performance 0:31:34 Loski – Cool Kid 0:33:41 Andrew W.K. – Music Is Worth Living For 0:36:20 Jon Hopkins – Emerald Rush 0:40:05 Natalie Prass – Short Court Style 0:42:16 Doja Cat – Go To Town 0:44:46 Novelist – Stop Killing the Mandem 0:45:50 Peggy Gou – It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) 0:47:21 Bicep – Opal (Four Tet Remix) 0:49:31 Grouper – Parking Lot 0:52:00 Sarah Davachi – Hours in the Evening 0:53:08 Hammock – Build a Castle (Reinterpretation) 0:55:32 Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Solarised Sound 0:58:01 Tyler, The Creator – OKRA 0:59:42 Jimothy Lacoste – Subway System 1:02:08 Gila – 106 Slipper 1:03:09 Jean Grae & Quelle Chris – Peacock 1:04:33 Henry Kaiser – Spoonful 1:04:50 Sons of Kemet – My Queen Is Ada Eastman 1:08:23 Cazzu – Chapiadora 1:10:31 Kali Uchis – In My Dreams 1:12:00 Autechre – All End 1:14:40 KAREN MEAT – Overdwelled 1:17:13 Donato Dozzy – Cleo 1:19:16 Róisín Murphy – All My Dreams 1:21:17 DJ Koze – Pick Up 1:22:45 Valee – Womp Womp (feat. Jeremih) 1:24:16 Childish Gambino – This Is America (Video Version) 1:26:35 Joy O, Ben Vince – Transition 2 1:28:04 Simian Mobile Disco – Defender (feat. The Deep Throat Choir) 1:29:33 Laura Jean – Girls On The TV 1:33:56 MEUTE – You & Me (Flume Remix) 1:37:33 Pusha T – If You Know You Know 1:39:22 Daphne & Celeste – BB 1:43:14 Melody’s Echo Chamber – Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige 1:46:30 Lizzo – Boys 1:48:31 YOTA ft. MF DOOM – Drop the Bomb 1:50:05 Colin Stetson – Steve 1:51:34 Low – Fly 1:55:54 Hilary Woods – Sever 1:57:42 BLACKPINK – DDU-DU DDU-DU 1:59:30 DeJ Loaf feat. Leon Bridges – Liberated 2:01:56 Sophie – Immaterial 2:03:31 Koelsch & Tiga – HAL 2:06:19 Ella Mai – Boo’d Up 2:08:43 Emily Harrison – I’d like to thank the Academy (Tips on getting Prozac from your GP) 2:09:12 Mr Twin Sister – Jaipur 2:12:13 Denzel Curry – Black Balloons 2:14:31 Charli XCX – Focus 2:17:00 Mitski – Nobody 2:19:23 Moses Sumney – Rank & File 2:20:55 Yves Tumor – Noid 2:23:00 Daniel Avery – Quick Eternity (Four Tet Remix) 2:24:11 Daveed Diggs – Blindspotting – End Rap Scene 2:26:11 CHVRCHES – Out of My Head (feat. Wednesday Campanella) 2:28:55 Christine and the Queens – 5 Dollars 2:30:47 Kink – Perth (Dusky Remix) 2:31:35 Mac Miller – What’s the Use (feat. Thundercat) 2:35:00 Diana Gordon – Wolverine 2:36:16 Oh Sees – Sentient Oona 2:40:25 mewithoutYou – Julia (or, ‘Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses) 2:42:29 Louis Cole – When You’re Ugly 2:44:21 Paul Woolford feat. Kim English – Hang Up Your Hang Ups (The Only One) (CamelPhat Remix) 2:45:35 Szun Waves – Temple 2:47:30 Thom Yorke – Unmade 2:50:00 Tim Hecker – This Life 2:50:59 Suede – Roadkill 2:52:45 Illingsworth – Greens 2:53:50 Miljon – What Does It Take 2:55:50 Julia Holter – I Shall Love 2 3:00:02 Shackleton – Wakefulness & Obsession 3:02:01 Bruce – What 3:03:35 Low – Tempest 3:05:46 AdriAnne Lenker – Symbol 3:07:54 Sigrid – Sucker Punch 3:10:23 Lafawndah – Joseph 3:11:22 Marie Davidson – Work It 3:13:52 Lando Chill – Peso (feat. Quelle Chris & REY) 3:15:26 Toro y Moi – Freelance 3:17:16 Sam Wilkes – Tonight feat. Sam Gendel, Louis Cole & Brian Green 3:20:47 Daughters – Long Road No Turns 3:23:31 Neneh Cherry – Natural Skin Deep 3:25:07 Lone – Pulsar 3:26:20 Makaya McCraven – Mantra 3:27:47 Kelly Moran – Radian 3:29:07 Octo Octa – Beam Me Up (To The Goddess Mix) 3:30:57 The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Merrie Land 3:34:08 Zuli – Nari (feat. Abyusif, Mado $am, Abanob, R-Rhyme) 3:35:20 Earl Sweatshirt – Nowhere2go 3:36:37 Jonathan Personne – Comme Personne 3:38:18 The 1975 – Love It If We Made It 3:41:53 Holly Herndon & Jlin (feat. Spawn) – Godmother 3:43:10 Beta Librae – Problem Solving Program 3:45:10 Lubomyr Melnyk – Barcarolle 3:47:50 Andrew Bird – Bloodless

Tracklist – Everything

0:00:16 “Annihilation” Ending Scene 0:00:20 New Year Times Square 0:00:37 Interview with Peter Kirkham 0:00:51 Mount Eerie – Distortion 0:01:07 MGMT – When You Die 0:01:47 Jake Tapper – cuts off Trump adviser 0:02:02 Ravyn Lenae – Sticky 0:03:46 Oprah Winfrey – Golden Globes speech 0:03:58 Grace Vonderkuhn – Worry 0:05:36 The Commuter – “Fuck You” Scene 0:05:54 Anna von Hausswolff – The Truth, the Glow, the Fall 0:07:22 Teacher gets arrested at Vermilion Parish School 0:07:27 Tune-Yards – Colonizer 0:08:59 Harvey Weinstein attacked at Scottsdale Restaurant 0:09:07 Spice – Tik Tak 0:10:23 TV Host on “Shithole Countries” 0:10:41 Hoodboi – Glide feat. Tkay Maidza 0:12:57 Jeff Flake – Trump battered and abused the truth 0:13:13 Nilufer Yanya – Thanks 4 Nothing 0:15:17 Piers Morgan clashes with Ash Sarkar 0:15:29 Leif – Number 13 0:16:53 Ex-GOP chair – shut the hell up 0:17:14 JPEGMAFIA – 1539 N. Calvert 0:18:43 John Humphrys 0:18:47 Kero Kero Bonito – Only Acting 0:22:03 Scene from “Loveless” 0:22:50 E Ruscha V – Who Are You 0:23:54 The Onion – Reviews Fifty Shades Freed 0:24:03 ionnalee – Blazing 0:24:41 Black Panther – End Credits Scenes 0:24:52 Simmy ft. Sun-EL Musician – Ubala 0:26:45 Emma Gonzalez – A student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 0:26:51 Peach – Silky 0:29:15 Andrew Neil on Jeremy Corbyn Accusations 0:29:40 700 Bliss – Cosmic Slop 0:31:05 Stormzy – Brit Awards Performance 0:31:34 Loski – Cool Kid 0:33:26 Andrew W.K. – In Your Darkest Moments 0:33:41 Andrew W.K. – Music Is Worth Living For 0:36:02 OC college condemns faculty member 0:36:20 Jon Hopkins – Emerald Rush 0:39:48 Scene from “Claire’s Camera” 0:40:05 Natalie Prass – Short Court Style 0:41:52 The Onion – Parody ad from “A Very Fatal Murder” 0:42:16 Doja Cat – Go To Town 0:44:43 You Were Never Really Here – Clip – Senator 0:44:46 Novelist – Stop Killing the Mandem 0:45:45 “Annihilation” Ending Scene 0:45:50 Peggy Gou – It Makes You Forget (Itgehane) 0:47:13 The square – Tourette syndrome scene 0:47:21 Bicep – Opal (Four Tet Remix) 0:49:03 Cambridge Analytica secret recording 0:49:31 Grouper – Parking Lot 0:51:00 Emma Gonzalez – March for Our Lives speech 0:52:00 Sarah Davachi – Hours in the Evening 0:53:08 Hammock – Build a Castle (Reinterpretation) 0:54:58 Isle Of Dogs – Fetch It scene 0:55:32 Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Solarised Sound 0:56:31 Sinclairs script for stations 0:57:40 RWW News – We Have Been Dominated By Homosexuals 0:58:01 Tyler, The Creator – OKRA 0:59:35 Happy As Lazzaro 0:59:42 Jimothy Lacoste – Subway System 1:01:49 Clip from “Thoroughbreds” 1:02:08 Gila – 106 Slipper 1:02:50 James Comey Interview 1:03:09 Jean Grae & Quelle Chris – Peacock 1:04:33 Henry Kaiser – Spoonful 1:04:50 Sons of Kemet – My Queen Is Ada Eastman 1:08:10 Scene from “The Rider” 1:08:23 Cazzu – Chapiadora 1:09:54 Michelle Wolf – White House Correspondents Dinner 1:10:31 Kali Uchis – In My Dreams 1:11:19 Crap students in Cambridge 1:12:00 Autechre – All End 1:13:42 TMZ staffer vs Kanye West 1:14:40 KAREN MEAT – Overdwelled 1:17:03 Clip from “Dead Souls” 1:17:13 Donato Dozzy – Cleo 1:19:07 Yanny v Laurel 1:19:16 Róisín Murphy – All My Dreams 1:21:17 DJ Koze – Pick Up 1:22:45 Valee – Womp Womp (feat. Jeremih) 1:24:16 Childish Gambino – This Is America (Video Version) 1:26:09 First Reformed Clip 1 1:26:35 Joy O, Ben Vince – Transition 2 1:27:41 First Reformed Clip 2 1:28:04 Simian Mobile Disco – Defender (feat. The Deep Throat Choir) 1:29:33 Laura Jean – Girls On The TV 1:33:45 Clip from “Burning” 1:33:56 MEUTE – You & Me (Flume Remix) 1:37:01 Peter Alexander refuses to give in to Sarah Sanders 1:37:33 Pusha T – If You Know You Know 1:39:06 Clip from “McQueen” 1:39:22 Daphne & Celeste – BB 1:43:03 Clip from “Shoplifters” 1:43:14 Melody’s Echo Chamber – Quand Les Larmes D’un Ange Font Danser La Neige 1:46:30 Lizzo – Boys 1:48:26 Robert De Niro says F – — Trump at Tony Awards 1:48:31 YOTA ft. MF DOOM – Drop the Bomb 1:50:01 Clip from “Hereditary” 1:50:05 Colin Stetson – Steve 1:51:23 Audio Of Screaming Children Shows Effect Of Donald Trump Policy 1:51:34 Low – Fly 1:55:33 Geraldo Rivera and Hannity – Erupt Over Border Policy 1:55:54 Hilary Woods – Sever 1:57:25 Fox News Host Calls Trump-Kim Summit a Meeting of Two Dictators 1:57:42 BLACKPINK – DDU-DU DDU-DU 1:59:20 Alison calls the cops 1:59:30 DeJ Loaf feat. Leon Bridges – Liberated 2:01:21 Danny Dyer on Brexit 2:01:56 Sophie – Immaterial 2:03:19 Interview with former ICEgov spokesperson James Schwab interrupted by a surprise visit from government agents 2:03:31 Koelsch & Tiga – HAL 2:06:06 Clip from “Leave No Trace” 2:06:19 Ella Mai – Boo’d Up 2:08:43 Emily Harrison – I’d like to thank the Academy (Tips on getting Prozac from your GP) 2:09:12 Mr Twin Sister – Jaipur 2:11:54 Clip from “Sorry To Bother You” 2:12:13 Denzel Curry – Black Balloons 2:14:24 Eighth Grade – Truth or Dare Scene 2:14:31 Charli XCX – Focus 2:16:45 Eighth Grade – Conversation Scene 2:17:00 Mitski – Nobody 2:19:11 C-SPAN thanks Russia for interfering in our elections 2:19:23 Moses Sumney – Rank & File 2:20:42 Trump Putin Press Conference clip 1 2:20:55 Yves Tumor – Noid 2:22:42 Trump Putin Press Conference clip 2 2:23:00 Daniel Avery – Quick Eternity (Four Tet Remix) 2:24:11 Daveed Diggs – Blindspotting – End Rap Scene 2:26:11 CHVRCHES – Out of My Head (feat. Wednesday Campanella) 2:28:20 Stewart Lee on Social Media (Content Provider) 2:28:55 Christine and the Queens – 5 Dollars 2:30:42 Reckless London driver threatens to run over cyclists 2:30:47 Kink – Perth (Dusky Remix) 2:31:35 Mac Miller – What’s the Use (feat. Thundercat) 2:34:39 Clip from “Madeline’s Madeline” 2:35:00 Diana Gordon – Wolverine 2:36:14 Clip from “Minding the Gap” 2:36:16 Oh Sees – Sentient Oona 2:40:06 Rudy Giuliani Declares Truth Isn’t Truth 2:40:25 mewithoutYou – Julia (or, ‘Holy to the LORD’ on the Bells of Horses) 2:42:00 Clip from BlacKkKlansman 2:42:29 Louis Cole – When You’re Ugly 2:44:16 Clip from “Support The Girls” 2:44:21 Paul Woolford feat. Kim English – Hang Up Your Hang Ups (The Only One) (CamelPhat Remix) 2:45:21 Brexit Central editor Jonathan Isaby being dismantled by a former trade negotiator 2:45:35 Szun Waves – Temple 2:47:04 Crazy Rich Asians – Mahjong With Auntie Eleanor 2:47:30 Thom Yorke – Unmade 2:49:29 Chinese vlogger records her own arrest 2:50:00 Tim Hecker – This Life 2:50:48 Trouble in Beijing 2:50:59 Suede – Roadkill 2:52:30 Ash is Purest White betting scene 2:52:45 Illingsworth – Greens 2:53:35 Scene from Green Book 2:53:50 Miljon – What Does It Take 2:55:50 Julia Holter – I Shall Love 2 2:59:45 Hurricane approaching 3:00:02 Shackleton – Wakefulness & Obsession 3:01:53 Clip from “Mandy” 3:02:01 Bruce – What 3:03:27 Highlights from Senate hearings with Kavanaugh and Ford 3:03:35 Low – Tempest 3:05:46 AdriAnne Lenker – Symbol 3:07:44 Scene from “Monrovia Indiana” 3:07:54 Sigrid – Sucker Punch 3:10:13 Clip from “First Man” 3:10:23 Lafawndah – Joseph 3:11:14 Jennifer Holdsworth 3:11:22 Marie Davidson – Work It 3:13:37 Clip from “Can You Ever Forgive Me” 3:13:52 Lando Chill – Peso (feat. Quelle Chris & REY) 3:15:19 Clip from “mid90s” 3:15:26 Toro y Moi – Freelance 3:17:10 Ryanair Racist 3:17:16 Sam Wilkes – Tonight feat. Sam Gendel, Louis Cole & Brian Green 3:20:20 A hit dog will holler 3:20:47 Daughters – Long Road No Turns 3:22:53 Riot Scene from “Roma” 3:23:31 Neneh Cherry – Natural Skin Deep 3:24:53 Clip from “Museo” 3:25:07 Lone – Pulsar 3:26:08 Jordan Peterson on his all-beef diet 3:26:20 Makaya McCraven – Mantra 3:27:37 Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Intro to Surly Joe song 3:27:47 Kelly Moran – Radian 3:28:25 Clip from “Bros: After The Screaming Stops” 3:29:07 Octo Octa – Beam Me Up (To The Goddess Mix) 3:30:19 Leave Voter Breaks Into Tears As He Apologises For Backing Brexit 3:30:57 The Good, The Bad & The Queen – Merrie Land 3:33:55 JRM You Haven’t Got A Clue 3:34:08 Zuli – Nari (feat. Abyusif, Mado $am, Abanob, R-Rhyme) 3:35:06 Widows Movie Clip – I Know Why 3:35:20 Earl Sweatshirt – Nowhere2go 3:36:20 Hunting scene from The Favourite 3:36:37 Jonathan Personne – Comme Personne 3:38:04 Clip from “The Wild Pear Tree” 3:38:18 The 1975 – Love It If We Made It 3:41:08 The 1975 – The Man Who Married A Robot 3:41:53 Holly Herndon & Jlin (feat. Spawn) – Godmother 3:42:27 Trump threatens shutdown in heated meeting with top Democrats 3:43:10 Beta Librae – Problem Solving Program 3:44:58 Clip from “Free Solo” 3:45:10 Lubomyr Melnyk – Barcarolle 3:47:47 Clip from “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” 3:47:50 Andrew Bird – Bloodless 3:50:52 Deedee Megadoodoo – Local News Fails Again

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

“The parties were bigger. The pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, the liquor was cheaper.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

If you could chose any era to live in, the decades between 1910 and 1950 would probably not be the most immediately appealing. Aside from two world wars, a great depression, and the worst pandemic in history, the era was marked by civil unrest, often for good cause, but whose benefits would not be felt until the dust settled many years later. However, in the middle of this maelstrom, we have a period of peace and prosperity, a boomtime for the creative arts, in short “the twenties” – a decade which is shorthand for a cornucopia of culture in the way “the thirties” and “the forties” absolutely aren’t. “Golden times” like these are usually best treated with a pinch of salt – most people tend to be to some degree nostalgic about their youth, particularly writers – but perhaps this time we can take it a little more seriously. The shift which seems to have happened in this time seems if anything like the half-century was saving up its changes and released them all at once while the sun was shining and it wasn’t otherwise occupied.

The dawning of universal suffrage surely had a role here. Even more so, the population of the world shaking itself loose from the incredible suffering of the 1910s. But perhaps the greatest part was played by a series of innovations – some of them technological (as we will get to in a few years) and some the unintended consequences of an ill-thought-out law – prohibition.

From January 17th, 1920, when the Volstead Act went into effect, the USA saw a nationwide ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The sheer logistics of such a thing in a country with such a tradition of alcohol consumption when anyone with minimal expertise could make their own, well, it didn’t make any sense and it still doesn’t. Organised crime immediately began to take over the alcohol business, and consumption shifted from the old bars and hotels to speakeasies. The managers of these places had no stock in the entertainment establishment, and no interest in going through the process of booking well-known vaudeville acts, who probably wouldn’t want to be seen there anyway.

Instead, they hired jazz bands. Touring / recording groups from around the country had residencies in clubs in Chicago and New York where they could practice and innovate every night in front of an audience. The nascent genre, which had been coasting for a few years after its initial explosion, suddenly got a new lease of life. The likes of Armstrong, Ellington and Fats Waller developed their sound in front of sometimes multi-racial audiences. The often regressive instinct of proprietors to be “respectable” had dissipated – what role could censorship ever play in a place whose entire existence was already illegal, and paid for with bribes?

This isn’t to say that all of this has yet seeped through the cracks into recorded media. While (inspired by the success of “Crazy Blues”) Okeh were releasing their series of “race records,” they were still exclusively operating out of New York, and their competitor Paramount Records would not start releasing this sort of recording until the following year. The rest of the music industry was still firmly stuck in the 1900s, releasing the sort of sentimental ballads and d-grade operetta they had been since they’d formed, likely the same singers and the same management too. Occasionally they would put something out by a dance band, and occasionally they would strike gold, but such things do not seem to be generally part of the business plan.

So as far as the mix is concerned, we are still operating on the margins, but the margins are expanding, cracks are forming, soon this wonderful infection is going to be irresistible in its spread.

Tracks

0:00:17 Harry E. Humphrey – Santa Claus hides in your phonograph (Excerpt 1) 0:00:32 American Symphony Orchestra – Ride of the Valkyries 0:01:30 Harry E. Humphrey – Santa Claus hides in your phonograph (Excerpt 2) 0:01:41 Zez Confrey – Kitten On The Keys 0:04:42 Shelton Brooks & Co. – Darktown Court Room 0:04:50 The Jazz Hounds – Royal Garden Blues 0:07:47 Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds – ‘U’ Need Some Lovin’ Blues 0:10:40 Justine Roberts – The Shop Girl (Excerpt 1) 0:10:50 Ladd’s Black Aces – Aunt Hagar’s Children’s Blues 0:14:01 Justine Roberts – The Shop Girl (Excerpt 2) 0:14:11 Lucille Hegamin – Wabash Blues 0:17:24 John Riley – Casey Departing to Congress 0:17:29 Fletcher Henderson – There Ain’t No Nothin’ 0:20:39 Isham Jones – Wabash Blues 0:23:37 Yerkes’ Happy Six – Yokohama Lullaby 0:25:32 Carl Fenton with Rudy Wiedoeft – Biminy Bay 0:28:45 Sergei Esenin – Confessions Of A Hooligan (Excerpt 1) 0:29:16 Luigi Russolo – Serenata 0:31:14 Sergei Esenin – Confessions Of A Hooligan (Excerpt 2) 0:31:30 Jacob Gegna – A Tfileh fun Mendel Beilis 0:34:58 Claudia Muzio – Sei Forse L’angelo Fedele 0:37:42 Bucca-Perez Co. – Nofriu al Telefono 0:37:52 Agustín Barrios – Tarantella 0:40:10 Achilleas Poulos – Kamomatou 0:42:06 Bucca-Perez Co. – Nofriu Buscevicu 0:42:18 Doumoua Ellaini – Aicha 0:43:13 Grupo Pixinguinha – Domingo Eu Vou Lá 0:45:14 Grupo Do Moringa – No Rancho 0:47:41 Warren G. Harding – Opening of Limitation of Armaments Conference 0:47:55 Michael Coleman – Bag of Spuds 0:48:44 Ford Hanford – My Old Kentucky Home 0:49:20 Kandel’s Orchestra – Kandel’s Bulgar 0:51:21 Marcus Garvey – Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Excerpt 1) 0:51:36 Eubie Blake – Sounds Of Africa 0:53:07 Marcus Garvey – Objects of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Excerpt 2) 0:53:32 Rudy Wiedoeft’s Californians – Jabberwocky 0:56:45 Gene Rodimichs Orchestra – Home Again Blues 0:58:45 Edgar A. Guest – Wait Till Your Pa Comes Home 0:59:26 Al Weston & Irene Young – At The Circus 1:01:34 Maurice Chevalier – Je N’ Ose Pas 1:04:10 Bert Williams – Unexpectedly 1:05:41 William Cahill – Dinnie Donohue on Prohibition 1:05:55 Sam Moore and Horace Davis – Laughing Rag 1:08:26 Empire Vaudeville Co. – Down At Finnegan’s 1:08:36 Ethel Waters’ Jazz Masters – Bugle Blues (introducing Old Miss Blues) 1:11:11 Original Dixieland Jazz Band – St Louis Blues 1:14:23 Lanin’s Southern Serenaders – Shake It & Break It 1:17:19 Fletcher Henderson – Unknown Blues 1:18:46 Paul Whiteman – Humming 1:21:11 Green Brothers – Moonbeams 1:23:51 Newport Society Orchestra – Yoo Hoo 1:25:43 Benson Orchestra Of Chicago – Ain’t We Got Fun 1:28:49 Brown and Terry Jazzola Boys – Saxophone Blues 1:30:45 James P Johnson – Keep Off The Grass 1:33:02 Sissle’s Sizzling Syncopators – Low Down Blues 1:35:34 Justine Roberts – The Shop Girl (Excerpt 3) 1:35:44 Mamie Smith – Lovin’ Sam From Alabam’ 1:38:19 Harry E. Humphrey – Santa Claus hides in your phonograph (Excerpt 3)

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free.

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

In a moment I will press the ‘publish’ button on this post, the RSS feed will be updated, the show will be updated on different podcast apps, and people all over the world will be able to hear this mix. It’s a bit glib to say we take all of this for granted, that’s what the progress of technology is all about, after all, but still, imagine someone in 1922 in the place you live – most of this music would be completely inaccessible to them. They might be rich enough to own a phonograph, but the chances they would have something like this collection of new sounds is astronomically small. If I’m making a soundtrack of what people are hearing around the world then this still isn’t really it.

But things are still changing at an increasing speed (aren’t they always?) For one, radio is finally taking off, a good 25 years after its initial “invention” (putting scare quotes around that because it’s such a minefield I don’t know where to even begin.) Strangely enough there were effectively audio broadcasts as far back as the 1890s, with music and speech transmitted down phone lines, but these never took off as a mass medium. The best claim to being the first real radio station is perhaps 2XG in New York, which was using a vacuum-tube transmitter to make news and entertainment broadcasts (gramophone records) on a regular schedule as early as 1915, and even broadcast the result of the 1916 presidential election. This was, naturally, over a small area of the city, probably picked up by a small number of hobbyists, and disappeared from the airwaves as the USA became involved in the First World War. By 1922, though, a wide range of stations had sprung up around the USA, the Marconi company opened 2MT and 2LO in London and CFCF in Montreal, and music stations were broadcasting in Paris and Buenos Aires. What tantilising recordings do we have from this? The answer is, apparently none whatsoever, not even the merest scrap, nothing substantial for another five years. Nobody thought to put a recording gramophone in front of a radio receiver. They did, however, record radio parodies on disc, and that’s something at least.

This is a music-based show, so I shouldn’t neglect developments in this area. The majority of this mix is concerned with a massive expansion of classical female blues, with a knock-on explosion of resurgent jazz, but we’ll have plenty of time to discuss this next time. More interesting perhaps are two simply transcendent recordings from Alexander Campbell “Eck” Robertson. Robertson was born in Arkansas, grew up in Texas, and began learning the fiddle from the age of five. He spent 18 years working as a jobbing musician at medicine shows, a piano tuner, an accompaniment for silent movies and at country fiddling contests. At a reunion of confederate soldiers in 1922 he met 74-year old fiddler Henry C. Gilliland, and the two of them decided to audition for the Victor Talking Machine Company. The resulting records made no great waves at the time, but in a historical context they are just astonishing, not simply country music five years before it supposedly started to be recorded, but such perfect sounds that they seem to be a door to an unknowable world of regional music prior to the invention of electrical recording.

This is also the “stride piano” mix – not such a wild departure as it represents the natural bridge from ragtime piano to jazz piano, but a music which thankfully has its pioneers reasonably-well represented. James P. Johnson and Fats Waller both appear here, on their own and accompanying the blues singers. If we want to take away one single picture from this year, it would again be these people playing somewhere in a smoky speakeasy. That wouldn’t be a fair representation, of course, but really, what is? Tracks

0:00:20 Joe Hayman – Cohen Listens in on the Radio 0:00:27 Frederic Lamond – Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 ‘Emperor’ 0:02:10 Monroe Silver – Cohen on the Radio 0:02:23 Edith Wilson – Rules And Regulations ‘signed Razor Jim’ 0:05:33 Joe Hayman – Cohen Buys a Wireless Set 0:05:39 Ladd’s Black Aces – Virginia Blues 0:08:30 Sophie Tucker – High Brown Blues 0:11:36 Prof. Charles H. Collins – Victor Records for Health Exercises 0:11:59 Frank Guarente’s Georgians – Chicago 0:14:35 Sara Martin & Fats Waller – T Ain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do 0:17:24 James P. Johnson – Carolina Shout 0:20:04 Eva Taylor – Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home 0:22:58 Fats Waller – Birmingham Blues 0:25:54 The Virginians – Blue 0:27:41 Johnny Dunn’s Original Jazz Hounds – Four O’Clock Blues 0:30:45 Mamie Smith – New Orleans 0:33:42 Ethel C. Olson – The Larson Kids Go Bathing (Excerpt 1) 0:33:59 Henry C. Gilliland And A. C. (Eck) Robertson – Arkansaw Traveler 0:36:53 Eck Robertson – Sally Gooden 0:39:57 Ethel C. Olson – The Larson Kids Go Bathing (Excerpt 2) 0:40:15 Rudy Wiedoeft – Saxema 0:41:44 New Orleans Rhythm Kings – Bugle Call Blues 0:44:03 Carl Fenton – Kitten On The Keys 0:46:24 Zez Confrey – Coaxing the Piano 0:49:03 Gilbert Girard – Santa Claus Tells of Mother Goose Land (Excerpt 1) 0:49:15 Original Memphis Five – Strutting At The Strutters Ball 0:52:13 Conchita Piquer – El Florero 0:55:13 La Argentinita – Una Vida De Mujer 0:55:30 Salgado do Carmo & Eugenio Cibelli – Fado popular 0:58:36 Agustín Barrios – Minueto 0:59:26 Robert Trucksess – Flow gently sweet afton & Bonnie, sweet Bessie 1:00:51 Gilbert Girard – Santa Claus Tells of Mother Goose Land (Excerpt 2) 1:01:08 Original Dixieland Jazz Band – Bow Wow Blues 1:04:21 Edith Wilson and Johnny Dunn’s Original Jazz Hounds – Old Time Blues 1:06:07 Alberta Hunter – Down Hearted Blues 1:09:07 Ethel Waters – ‘Frisco Jazz Band Blues 1:12:32 Ed Gallaher & Al Shean – Mr Gallagher And Mr Shean 1:14:53 Anna Hoffman and Jacob Jacobs – Chana Pesel furht in an Automobile (Excerpt 1) 1:15:15 Anton Günther – Wu de Wälder haamlich rauschen 1:16:52 Anna Hoffman and Jacob Jacobs – Chana Pesel furht in an Automobile (Excerpt 2) 1:17:15 W. C. Handy’s Memphis Blues Band – St. Louis Blues 1:18:41 Lucille Hegamin – He May Be Your Man But He Comes To See Me Sometimes 1:20:41 The Cotton Pickers – Hot Lips 1:23:04 The Original Memphis Five – Ji-Ji-Boo 1:25:01 Carl Fenton + Rudy Wiedoeft – Georgia 1:26:47 Ethel Waters’ Jazz Masters – Tiger Rag 1:29:53 Guy Maiere and Lee Pattison – Espana Rhapsody 1:32:40 The Original Sacred Harp Choir – The Christian Warfare 179 1:33:32 Shimizu Itoko – Yasugi Bushi 1:35:18 Marika Papagika – Olympos Ke Kisavos 1:37:57 Monroe Silver – Cohen Becomes a Citizen 1:38:00 Harry Kandel’s Orchestra – Kiever Bulgar 1:40:33 Semen Kirsanov Reads Velimir Khlebnikov – Not To Panel! 1:40:59 Naftule Brandwein – Kallarash 1:44:08 Georgel – La Garçonne 1:45:13 Maurice Chevalier – Pas Pour Moi 1:47:40 Okeh Laughing Record – Okeh Laughing Record 1:50:29 Amelita Galli-Curci – Rimsky-Korsakov- Sadko – Song Of India

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free.

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

The early history of jazz can seem like a puzzle whose pieces don’t fit together. We’ve been through the initial explosion, led by groups of copycat, mostly white groups, playing their raucous novelty version of the music. We’ve heard those groups begin to refine and be assimilated into dance orchestras who were pretty much going that way anyway. We’ve heard the sudden craze for female blues singers, and the launch of lables specialising in “race records.” But where are, you know, the actual jazz bands though all of this? Six years of jazz and they still don’t seem to be recording.

Well 1923 is the year where that finally changes. The people running those “race record” labels know very well that they can’t rely entirely on the barrel-house mama craze, and those backing bands contain a wealth of (by now) unignorable talent. Joseph “King” Oliver would be the most obvious example. Born and raised in Louisiana, he started playing in proto-jazz bands almost as soon as such a thing existed. From 1908 he played in Storyville, the red light district of New Orleans, and from 1910 the band he led with Kid Ory was one of the most popular in the city. Storyville, one of the few unsegregated places in the USA, was where jazz really took form, and when it was closed down in 1918, King Oliver led the exodus to Chicago. With the start of prohibition and the rise of the speakeasies, he found himself leading the most successful band in what equated to the Storyville of the Midwest. And who did he send for from New Orleans? Cornet prodigy Louis Armstrong.

Louis, a New Orleans native, had been raised in poverty by his grandmother. He did odd jobs for the Karnoffskys, a family of Lithuanian Jews, including selling coal in Storyville, where he first heard this new music being played. Sent to juvenile hall at the age of 12 for firing a blank round from a gun into the air, he practised his cornet skills in their band. A few years after release he was making a name for himself in dance bands and on the riverboats which travelled up and down the Mississippi, enough so that King Oliver heard of his talents and invited him to join his band on second cornet.

The recordings Oliver and Armstrong contribute to this mix are in Oliver’s name only, but Dipper Mouth Blues is named after Armstrong, its soloist – Dipper Mouth being the nickname that later morphed into Satchel Mouth, then Satchmo. Recorded in Richmond, Indiana (a town associated with the Ku Klux Klan), the group were paid little for the recording, and had to put up with crude equipment and a tiny studio. Bearing all of this in mind, the two songs here are near-revelatory – but much better is to come later in the decade.

Across in New York, former home of the last wave of recording artists, another jazz boom was taking place. We have no Duke Ellington so far, but another band leader of the 1930s was already putting out records. Fletcher Henderson was born and raised in the south, moved to New York to work as a lab chemist and study for a master’s degree, but found himself made musical director of Pace and Handy Music Co within a year. In this role he played accompaniment to blues singers, including Ethel Waters. In 1923 he was recording on his own – his is one of two versions of West Indian Blues, a song which attracted a certain amount of controversy for its lyrics being written in a faux patois, which its singer, Esther Bigeou, did not speak.

We are still deep in the blues explosion, of course. While Mamie Smith is still recording, Bessie Smith (no relation) has become the premier performer – The Empress of The Blues, as Mamie was already The Queen. Edith Wilson with her Jazz Hounds are putting out some pioneering jazz records, and even old-timers like Sophie Tucker are getting in on the craze. Sara Martin performs with a novel guitar blues backing (the kind of thing which will be mainstream blues in a decade or so). My favourite, though, might be Marion Harris, as much a gospel and opera performer as a blues one, and here performing the spiritual ‘Deep River’ with breathtaking soul.

Tracks

0:00:18 No Artist Listed – Morse Code Record. Part 1 (Excerpt 1) 0:00:35 King Oliver – Snake Rag 0:03:46 No Artist Listed – Morse Code Record. Part 1 (Excerpt 2) 0:03:54 Cotton Pickers with Billy Jones – You Tell Her I Stutter 0:06:49 Edgar Guest – A Heap o’ Livin’ 0:06:58 Bessie Smith – Aggravatin’ Papa 0:10:04 Sara Martin – I Got What It Takes To Bring You Back (Excerpt 1) 0:10:21 Sara Martin – Atlanta Blues 0:13:11 Sara Martin – I Got What It Takes To Bring You Back (Excerpt 2) 0:13:57 Edith Wilson and Johnny Dunn Original Jazz Hounds – Evil Blues 0:17:14 Art Landry – Rip Saw Blues 0:19:56 Fletcher Henderson – West Indian Blues (Seven Brown Babies) 0:21:52 Esther Bigeou – West Indies Blues 0:24:39 Monroe’s String Orchestra – Old Lady Old Lady 0:26:10 Rosita Quiroga – Sollozos 0:29:24 Isa Kremer – Dwie Guitarre 0:30:16 Bishop Leadbetter of Sydney Australia – To Those Who Mourn (Excerpt 1) 0:30:35 Yossele Rosenblatt – Tal 0:32:33 Bishop Leadbetter of Sydney Australia – To Those Who Mourn (Excerpt 2) 0:32:51 Pablo Casals – Hebrew Melodies Op. 47 0:34:24 Naftule Brandwein’s Orchestra – Doina 0:36:38 Bessie Weisman – Vu Iz Mayn Yukel (Where is My Yukel) 0:38:34 Ignacy Ulatowski – Niemowa Kapelmaister (Excerpt 1) 0:38:41 Jacob Hoffman With Kandel’s Orchestra – Doina And Hora 0:40:55 Ignacy Ulatowski – Niemowa Kapelmaister (Excerpt 2) 0:41:00 Naftule Brandwein – Heyser Bulgar 0:44:05 Fred & Adele Astaire – Opening Dialogue 0:44:46 Fred & Adele Astaire – Whichness Of The Whatness 0:47:34 Eva Taylor – Oh Daddy Blues 0:50:12 Clarence Williams – Achin’ Hearted Blues 0:53;05 Sophie Tucker – You’ve Got To See Mama Every Night 0:55:47 Vic Meyers – Shake It And Break It 0:58:42 Frank Guarente’s Georgians – Learn To Do The Strut 1:01:28 Woodrow Wilson – Armistice Day Radio Address (Excerpt 1) 1:01:50 Marian Anderson – Deep River 1:04:55 Woodrow Wilson – Armistice Day Radio Address (Excerpt 2) 1:05:09 Huston Ray – Concert Fantasie 1:06:28 Anon (central Javanese gamelan) – Tedhak Saking 1:07:39 Clay Custer – The Rocks 1:09:10 Clara Smith – Kind Lovin’ Blues 1:12:09 Jelly Roll Morton – New Orleans Joys 1:14:54 Mamie Smith – I’m Gonna Get You 1:17:49 Abe Lyman – Weary Weazel (Tiger Rag) 1:21:00 Will Rogers – Will Rogers’ First Political Speech 1:21:21 Irving Kaufman with Bailey’s Lucky Seven – Yes, We Have No Bananas 1:23:54 King Oliver – Dipper Mouth Blues 1:26:06 Thomas Morris – Original Charleston Strut 1:28:50 Virginians – He May Be Your Man 1:31:59 Willy Derby – Loe Loe Ja Moe (Maggie Yes Ma) 1:33:31 Sara Martin & Sylvester Weaver – I’ve Got to Go and Leave My Da 1:36:07 Sylvester Weaver – Guitar Blues 1:39:00 Eck Robertson – Ragtime Annie 1:42:23 Fiddlin’ John Carson – The Old Hen Cackled & The Roosters Gonna Crow 1:44:12 Henry C. Gilliland And A. C. (Eck) Robertson – Turkey In The Straw 1:47:09 King George V of England – Empire Day Message 1:47:14 Pipe Major Henri Forsyth – Bagpipe Selection 1:47:59 Queen Mary of England – Empire Day Message 1:48:18 Marika Papagika – Ah! Giatre Mou 1:50:02 Edgar Guest – Ten Little Mice 1:50:24 The Benson Orchestra of Chicago – Dreams of India 1:52:14 New Orleans Rhythm Kings – Millenberg Joys 1:53:42 Rosetta Crawford – Down on the Levee Blues 1:56:00 Benny Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra – Elephants Wobble 1:59:06 Ida Cox – I’ve Got The Blues For Rampart Street 2:01:51 Sidney Bechet – Kansas City Man’s Blues 2:04:45 Fletcher Henderson – Do Doodle Oom 2:07:23 Clarence Williams’ Blue Five – Wild Cat Blues 2:10:20 Mamie Smith – Lady Luck Blues 2:13:28 Virginia Liston – Bed Time Blues 2:15:54 Bessie Smith – ‘Baby Won’t You Please Come Home 2:18:47 Norfolk Jazz Quartette – Sad Blues 2:19:54 Isham Jones – Farewell Blues

I’ve been in a couple of pub quizzes over Zoom recently, and have put together a round of my own to share with friends & family. Now I’ve done it a couple of times, I thought I might as well share it for anyone to use. Feel free to adapt to suit, or just play it yourself and see how well you do.

Here are clips of ten tracks. For each track they should guess the year and the country. The years are from the following list, none are duplicates, but there is one extra.

1917 1928 1933 1941 1958 1968 1973 1981 1999 2009 2014

…and here are the countries. Again, none is a duplicate, but there is one extra.

Armenia Brasil Cuba France Japan Romania Slovakia South Africa UK USA West Germany

Here is the mp3 with each clip, or you can stream it below.

Each clip is worth 10 points – half a point for the correct year, half a point for the correct country.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Keep scrolling down for the answers.

1. Kraftwerk – Ananas Symphonie (West Germany, 1973) 2. B-Complex – Beautiful Lies (Slovakia, 2009) 3. Elias and His Zig-Zag Flutes – Ry-Ry (South Africa, 1958) 4. Chakra – Free (Japan, 1981) 5. Grupo De ‘La Alegria’ – El Tambor De La Alegria (Cuba, 1928) 6. Fanfare Ciocarlia – Sirba de la Lasi (Romania, 1999) 7. Jean Jacques Perrey – E.V.A. (France, 1968) 8. Zabelle Panosian – Mir Khor Babge Kerezman (Armenia, 1917) 9. Herivelto Martins – Grande Otelo Praça Xi (Brasil, 1941) 10. Groucho Marx – The Laws Of My Administration (USA, 1933)

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original recordings from a single year. If you want higher bitrate downloads, a bonus podcast with discussion of the recordings, extra bonus mixes and much more, please support me on Patreon for just $5 per month, and keep the project ad-free.

MP3 download | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

“It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang that is often so stimulating to a composer (I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise) that I suddenly heard–and even saw on paper–the complete construction of the Rhapsody from beginning to end. …I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America–of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.” – George Gershwin

“As to the true origins of the cakewalk, it is believed to have begun at about the same time as minstrelsy, around 1840, with slaves parodying the formal dances of their masters. These burlesques came to be mimicked in minstrel shows. After the Civil War, when blacks entered minstrelsy, they assumed parts in the minstrels’ cakewalk. As Terry Waldo puts it in his book This Is Ragtime: “By the time the ragtime era began in 1896, the cakewalk was being performed by blacks imitating whites who were imitating blacks who were imitating whites.” I’m sure that the gist of this wonderful little observation can, without much squinting, be applied to the whole of popular culture” – Nick Toches ‘Where Dead Voices Gather’

I have two people for you to look at today, two white men (one of whom is actually a Mr Whiteman) who stood on the shoulders of black musicians to get a clear view of the outline of the American 20th Century (or at least its first half.) One is, rightfully, remembered as an epoch-defining composer, the other remembered less well, and even then often with a mild embarrassment or outright dismissal. Both, though, were important pieces in our puzzle, and it’s in 1924 that their paths meet, and they make the astonishing recording which holds this mix between its two sections.

Born in a second-floor tenement in Brooklyn to Russian / Lithuanian Jewish parents, George Gershwin was named after his grandfather, a Russian army mechanic from Odessa. Growing up in the Yiddish theatre district, George and his three siblings were exposed to music from an early age, and four all took it up, either as a hobby or as a career. Leaving school at 15, George found work as a song plugger, promoting music at a music publisher by playing it on the piano. He soon began composing his own songs, and in 1919 had a massive hit with ‘Swannee’ – made popular by Al Jolson, another New York Lithuanian Jew, and by now perhaps the most popular non-opera singer in the world. At the start of the 1920s, he began writing successful Broadway musicals with his brother Ira and the established writer William Daly.

Though Paul Whiteman was almost a decade the senior of George Gershwin, his career was then at an earlier stage. Born in Denver, he played without any great distinction in a couple of orchestras before joining that ever-surprising source of musical mimicry and innovation, a US Navy marching band. While his band took less in the way of plaudits than that of James Reece Europe, he nevertheless finished the First World War as a successful band leader and within a couple of years had brought his own Paul Whiteman Orchestra to New York to begin recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

An important thing to remember is that Gershwin was no more a classical composer than Whiteman was a classical musician. Both were New York music business operators, working on their next project. The fact that they broke out of the expectations handed down to them is perhaps the most astonishing thing about Rhapsody in Blue.

Whiteman and Gershwin had this in common – they were both adopters and popularisers of jazz. One way to view this would be to say they were taking advantage of this new genre, watering it down in order to make money. Another would be to say they were defenders and cheerleaders for music which polite society found dangerous, uncivilized and frightening. Working in the same circles, the two first collaborated in 1922, when Whiteman managed to get Gershwin’s jazz-opera hybrid piece Blue Monday into a show called George White’s Scandals, for which he was the musical director. This did not go particularly well, the piece was dropped after a single performance, but the two clearly realised there was potential in their collaboration, and seem to have kept in touch.

Rhapsody in Blue was written, at short notice, for Whiteman’s all-jazz concert “An Experiment in Modern Music” at Aeolian Hall in New York in February 1924. The requested piece was intended to demonstrate the progress of jazz, from its “primitive” form to the “sophisticated” version played by, um, Whiteman’s band. Gershwin went very much off-piste with this idea, presenting little more than an unrelated sketch to Whiteman’s arranger shortly before the concert. The piano parts were still unwritten, and Gershwin himself agreed to join the band and improvise these parts as he saw fit, signalling to the band when they should join in again. It’s a testament to his skills that this worked at all, and contrary to expectations it was the highlight of a successful night and motivation to extend to a series of concerts. Sergei Rachmaninov, violinist Fritz Kreisler and conductor Leopold Stokowski, three figures we will be hearing more from, were all present that night.

Aeolian Hall was not far from the Kentucky Club, where Duke Ellington played, and Roseland, home to Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra. Were George and Paul going there in the evenings? Possibly. The truth is that Rhapsody in Blue (its title inspired by Whistler’s Nocturne In Blue And Green)  only takes its inspiration from a few elements of jazz and blues, while leaving seemingly vital parts aside. More than a portrait of American music, it is perhaps better described as an aural portrait of the sounds of New York, its rhythms and noises, its harmonies, its stories. It has a kind of constant bubbling-up excitement and listening to it sometimes I feel there is the potential to imagine what would later be described as “the eight million stories in the naked city” within. For this mix I’ve taken the first and last sections from their contemporary recording (the middle section was not used this time) and put them at either end of my overview of music from the year.

Rhapsody in Blue is a view of the future as much as it is one of the past – but to follow Gershwin’s train metaphor, it is a vision of a line down which America would not travel. The bubbling stew from which jazz and blues have just emerged would not now allow their music to transform into a codified, respectable, professionalized standard. The momentum was with the improvisors, like Louis Armstrong, with bawdy Hokem songs and divinely inspired hymns played on improvised equipment. Thousands of musicians across the country were about to be given the chance to record on new electrical devices, and within a few years this will sound like the past. Even as a representation of 1924, Rhapsody in Blue seems slightly quaint – aside from that opening clarinet note, there is little to represent the seedy environment in which jazz had been born and was currently flourishing.

Perhaps Paul Whiteman had a better handle on this, in a sense, as he immediately returned to making a more polite form of the music with occasional toe-dips into the murkier depths – it was a niche that needed filling, and he did it well, earning the sobriquet “The King of Jazz” (as Arthur Collins had been “The King of the Ragtime Singers”) – Duke Ellington even said that “Paul Whiteman was known as the King of Jazz, and no one as yet has come near carrying that title with more certainty and dignity.” Aside from this one recording, his body of work now seems something less than essential, but he at least managed to avoid spoiling his reputation with petulance and resentment, as Nick LaRocca did. He dies at the end of 1967, with”Daydream Believer” by The Monkees at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Gershwin, of course, didn’t stick around so long, dying from a brain tumor in 1937. By then his reputation was assured, of course. Not only had he written standards like I Got Rhythm, Embraceable You, Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off, Someone to Watch Over Me, They Can’t Take That Away From Me and Fascinating Rhythm, and so on, he had put together the opera Porgy & Bess, featuring an all-black cast, including Paul Robeson, and maybe his most enduring piece, Summertime.

Tracks

0:00:17 WLAG – National Defense Day (Excerpt 1) 0:00:22 Paul Whiteman & His Concert Orchestra (the composer at the piano) – Rhapsody In Blue, Part 1 0:04:44 Wolverine Orchestra – Fidgety Feet 0:07:07 WLAG – National Defense Day (Excerpt 2) 0:07:13 Bessie Smith – Hateful Blues 0:10:12 J.D. Harris – The Grey Eagle 0:11:34 Fiddlin’ John Carson – Dixie Boll Weevil 0:13:24 Vernon Dalhart – Prisoner’s Song 0:16:37 Ernest V. Stoneman – The Titanic 0:18:41 Jasper Bisbee & Beulah Bisbee-Schuler – Opera Reel with Calls 0:20:34 Honorable James M. Curley – The Elks’ Eleven O’Clock Toast 0:20:59 Whistler and his Jugband – Jerry O’Mine 0:22:29 Emile Berliner – To His Grandson Bobby Frank (Excerpt 1) 0:22:33 Emmett Miller – Anytime 0:24:40 Emile Berliner – To His Grandson Bobby Frank (Excerpt 2) 0:24:43 Cliff Edwards – Fascinating Rhythm 0:27:07 Green Brothers – Fascinating Rhythm 0:28:52 Johnny Bayersdorffer and his Jazzola Novelty Orchestra – I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone 0:31:33 International Novelty Orchestra – Hey Hey And Hee Hee (with Rudy Wiedoeft) 0:33:32 Sioux City Six – Flock O’ Blues 0:36:08 George Mcclennon’s Jazz Devils – New Orleans Wiggle 0:38:32 Trixie Smith – Choo Choo Blues 0:41:04 Clarence Williams’ Blue Five – House Rent Blues (The Stomp) 0:43:59 Margaret Johnson – Absent Minded Blues 0:46:55 Johnny De Droit and his New Orleans Jazz Orchestra – The Swing 0:48:51 Calvin Coolidge – Speech 0:49:10 Virginia Liston – You’ve Got The Right Key But The Wrong Keyhole 0:57:18 King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band – London (Cafe) Blues 0:54:59 Arcadian Serenaders – Bobbed Haired Bobby 0:57:09 Oliver Naylor’s Seven Aces – Ain’t That Hateful 0:59:58 Charleston Seven – Nashville Nightingale 1:02:34 Johnny Dunn – Johnny Dunn’s Cornet Blues 1:03:35 Marion Harris – It Had To Be You 1:06:48 Jimmy Blythe – Chicago Stomp 1:09:39 Ted Weems and His Orchestra – Traveling Blues 1:12:06 Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra – Copenhagen 1:14:05 Fry Million Dollar Pier Dance Orchestra – Whom Do You Love 1:16:36 Billy Jones & Ernest Hare – I’m Gonna Bring A Watermelon To My Girl Tonight 1:18:30 Doc Cook – Scissor Grinder Joe 1:20:07 Edith Wilson – How Come You Do Me Like You Do? 1:21:53 Ma Rainey with The Pruitt Twins – Dream Blues 1:23:33 Sylvester Weaver – Guitar Rag 1:26:30 Sophie Tucker – Mama Goes Where Papa Goes (in Yiddish) 1:28:33 Yetta Zwerling – Yankele Karmantshik (Yankele Little Pickpocket) 1:30:09 Naftule Brandwein – Wie Bist Die Gewesen Vor Prohibition? (Where Were You Before Prohibition?) 1:33:11 Lady Cantor Madam Sophie Kurtzer – Kiddush 1:35:03 Emma Liébel – Pars 1:36:57 Georgius – La Plus Bath des Javas 1:39:51 FT Marinetti – La Battaglia di Adrianopoli (Excerpt 1) 1:40:08 George Olsen and his Music with Rudy Wiedoeft – Sax O Phun (take 3) 1:42:06 Wolverine Orchestra – Big Boy 1:44:52 Ray Miller and His Orchestra – Red Hot Mama 1:47:35 Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra – Someone Loves You After All 1:50:51 The Red Onion Jazz Babies – Of All The Wrongs You’ve Done To Me 1:52:13 Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra – South 1:54:54 Bessie Smith – Rainy Weather Blues 1:57:45 Butterbeans & Susie – Construction Gang 2:00:50 Alf. Taylor and His Old Limber Quartet – Brother Noah Built an Ark 2:02:47 Sam Manning – Amba Cay La (7.5 Trinidad string band, cut out 1:37 to 2:39) 2:04:42 Juan de la Cruz y Bienvenido Leon – Que Partes el Alma – Rumba Son 2:06:14 Niño de Cabra y Ramón Montoya – Que Te Quise Con Locura (Malagueña) 2:08:17 Gaspare Marrone e Co. – Santa Genoveffa 2:08:28 Fatimah Bent Meddah And Kouider – Adhouh, Adhouh, Pt. 1 2:10:18 Sitt Wedoudah al-Manyalawiyyah with Sami al-Shawa – Asmar Helwah ya nas uhibuh 2:12:13 King George V – Speech at the opening of the British Empire Exhibition – 23 April 1924 2:12:26 Berlin State Opera Orchestra – Mahler Symphony #2 (Resurrection) 2:15:11 Bucca & Co. – Nofrio dal Barbiere 2:15:15 Orchestra, A. Paganucci director – 2nd record, Sept. 15, 1924 2:16:19 FT Marinetti – La Battaglia di Adrianopoli (Excerpt 2) 2:16:27 Staatskapelle Berlin – Bruckner- Symphony No. 7 2:17:00 Bellini Ensemble Unique – Moonlight Sonata 2:18:03 Gaspare Marrone e Co. – Santa Genoveffe Parte 3a. (‘Ntra la Sirva Erranti) 2:18:10 Paul Whiteman & His Concert Orchestra (the composer at the piano) – Rhapsody In Blue, Part 2

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year from 1953 to the present day. Download full mixes, bonus materials and more for just $5 per month at patreon.com/centuriesofsound. Thanks for listening.

MP3 sample download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Have you see the videos of people hearing for the first time? Seen that look on their faces? Well that’s you, today. We have reached 1925, the year the microphone replaced the recording horn and the sideways electrical impulse replaced the hill-and-dale physical analog. The tinniness has gone, low and high sounds are reproducible, and no longer are we trapped in the narrow boundaries of reproducible sound. In theory, all audible sound can now be captured.

“Electrical recording had manifold consequences that affected a range of musical, engineering and business developments” – Susan Schmidt Horning – Capturing Sound

Of course, it’s not really all like that. For a start, at least half of these recordings are still made on old analogue equipment. Even the electrical recordings are still, let’s say, experimental. Sound engineers, some with decades in the business, had to re-learn the very fundamentals of how recording worked, and instead of hanging things across the room to resonate the sound were now having to shift to muffling and dampening. Nobody seems to have yet realised that you can get right up close to the microphone and make quiet things loud. But they will.

“The development of electrical recording made it possible to reproduce a much larger spectrum of sound; pianists, drummers and bassists could finally be heard without undue modulation. Nevertheless, the microphone had its own quirks, and may have also affected jazz performance.” Mark Katz – Capturing Sound

On this website, I make sound collages. These are not a new invention. Here we are in 1925, and pioneering Soviet film-maker Dziga Vertov is putting together audio with remarkable dexterity, in the form of “sound poems,” and “verbal montage structures.” – though his most famous film, Man With A Movie camera, produced at the dawn of the sound film era, is entirely silent.

“I had an idea about the need to enlarge our ability for organized hearing. Not limiting this ability to the boundaries of usual music. I decided to include the entire audible world into the concept of ‘Hearing.’” – Dziga Vertov

The dance known as the ‘Juba’ was originally brought by slaves from the Kongo to Charleston, South Carolina. In 1923 it was adapted for a stage play called Runnin’ Wild, with music by (black) stride piano king James P Johnson. The song, and the dance, were called “The Charleston,” known popularly for being danced by lines of (white) flappers in whitewashed recreations of this still-turbulent decade.

“The sound was somehow harsher, with a brightness that almost sounded like the radio. “The Edison has some air and detail, a little bit more roundness,” Devecka said. “The victor is a little bit more like cardboard cutouts. It’s like a photograph that doesn’t have quite the right contrast range.” …The Victor’s sound was impressive, but there was something ultimately more pleasant about the Edison sound” – Greg Milner – Perfecting Sound Forever

The expanded audio range of electrical recording is not its only benefit. The microphone, even in bulky early varieties, was much more portable than the recording horn. Suddenly it was possible to travel anywhere in the world and record – and let’s not forget the poorer parts of the USA, full of local folk and roots music, all untouched and ready. We are just a little too early to get the full force of this explosion, but can’t you feel it already?

Tracklist

0:00:25 Dziga Vertov – Radio Ear – Radio Pravda (Excerpt 1) 0:00:38 Joseph Cherniavsky & Yiddish American Jazz Band – Chasene Niginim 0:03:41 Victor – Victor constant note record No 21 (Excerpt 1) 0:03:42 American Concert Orchestra – Extracts from the ballet- suite Scherazada 0:06:07 John Henry & Blossom – My Wireless Set 0:06:17 Clarence Williams’ Blue Five – Cake Walking Babies from Home 0:09:10 Dziga Vertov – Radio Ear – Radio Pravda (Excerpt 2) 0:09:26 Fred Longshaw – Chili Pepper 0:11:11 Gus Visser – Gus Visser and His Singing Duck 0:11:15 Sam Manning – Sly Mongoose 0:13:17 Original Cast – The Green Archer Silent Serial Promotional Record (Excerpt 1) 0:13:19 Paul Whiteman – Charleston (take 8) 0:14:59 James P. Johnson – Charleston (South Carolina) 0:16:46 Benson Orchestra Of Chicago – Riverboat Shuffle 0:18:10 Dziga Vertov – Radio Ear – Radio Pravda (Excerpt 3) 0:18:28 Fletcher Henderson and his Orchestra – T N T 0:21:15 Original Cast – The Green Archer Silent Serial Promotional Record (Excerpt 2) 0:21:19 Clara Smith – Shipwrecked Blues 0:24:29 Bessie Smith – My Man Blues (Spoken word section) 0:24:57 Bessie Smith – He’s Gone Blues 0:27:50 Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five – My Heart 0:30:12 Phil Baker’s Bad Boys – How Can You Look So Good (Spoken intro) 0:30:56 Duke Ellington’s Washingtonians – I’m Gonna Hang Around My Sugar 0:33:55 Charlie Poole – Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down Blues 0:36:44 Frank Ferera – The Farmer’s Dream 0:38:15 Dziga Vertov – Radio Ear – Radio Pravda (Excerpt 4) 0:38:33 Sexteto Habanero – Loma De Belen 0:41:34 Shelton Brooks & Company – The Spiritualist 0:41:46 Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra – Kater Street Rag 0:44:16 Uncle Dave Macon – Old Dan Tucker 0:47:16 Billy Mayerl – Jazzaristrix 0:49:04 Victor – Victor constant note record No 21 (Excerpt 2) 0:49:05 Wilhelm Kempff – Beethoven Piano Sonata No.23 Op.57 0:51:29 Revelers – Oh Miss Hannah 0:53:46 Dziga Vertov – Radio Ear – Radio Pravda (Excerpt 5) 0:54:02 Leipzig Gewandhaus Wind Quintet – Hindemith Kleine Kammermusik 0:56:00 Osip Mandelshtam – Gypsy Girl (Excerpt 1) 0:56:16 Harry Kandel’s Orchestra – Di Terkishe Khasene 0:59:25 Rita Ambadsi – Hanumakia 1:02:40 Cheikh Amin Hasanayn – Surah Al-Haaqqa, Pt. 1 1:02:51 Dahi Ben Walid – Soubhanak Allah 1:04:26 Ghulam Haider – Sindhi Song- I Play Music In The Bazaar 1:04:33 Golden Gate Orchestra – Red Hot Henry Brown 1:05:42 Dora Carr – Cow-Cow Blues 1:08:29 Hersel Thomas – Suitcase Blues 1:10:08 Billy Jones & Ernest Hare – Why Aren’t Yez Eatin’ More Oranges (Excerpt 1) 1:10:47 Billy Jones & Ernest Hare – As A Porcupine Pines For It’s Pork 1:12:21 Billy Jones & Ernest Hare – Why Aren’t Yez Eatin’ More Oranges (Excerpt 2) 1:12:33 Al Jolson – I’m Sitting On Top Of The World 1:14:27 Roy Smeck – Laughing Rag 1:15:49 Carl Sprague – When the Work’s All Done This Fall 1:18:41 Bix & His Rhythm Jugglers – Davenport Blues 1:21:25 Osip Mandelshtam – Gypsy Girl (Excerpt 2) 1:21:34 Kandel’s Orchestra – A Laibediga Honga (A Lively Honga) 1:23:33 Dziga Vertov – Radio Ear – Radio Pravda (Excerpt 6) 1:24:16 Tamara Tsereteli – Dorogoi Dlinnoyu 1:25:38 Gertrude Lawrence – Poor Little Rich Girl 1:28:30 Marcelle Meyer – Trois Mouvements Perpétuels 1:32:38 Art Gillham – Hesitation Blues 1:34:35 Ethel Waters – Sweet Man 1:37:26 Josephine Baker – I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight 1:38:45 Roger Wolfe Kahn and his Hotel Biltmore Orchestra – Bam Bam Bamy Shore 1:40:37 Irving Kaufman – Yes Sir, That’s My Baby 1:41:57 Calvin P. Dixon – Who Is Your God? Part I (Excerpt 1) 1:42:14 Fiddlin’ John Carson & Moonshine Kate – Welcome To The Travelers Home No-2 1:43:23 Calvin P. Dixon – Who Is Your God? Part I (Excerpt 2) 1:43:52 The Blue Ridge Duo (Gene Austin and George Reneau) – Lonesome Road Blues 1:45:39 Percy Glascoe – Steaming Blues 1:46:55 Ben Bernie and His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra – Sweet Georgia Brown 1:48:16 Fletcher Henderson & His Orchesta – Carolina Stomp 1:51:24 Tercato Yoyo – El Cangrejito 1:52:52 Orquesta Típica F. Canaro con canto – Besos de Miel 1:54:01 Fritz Kreisler & London Symphony Orchestra – Mozart Violin Concerto No 4 (1st mvt) 1:56:06 Joseph Cherniavsky’s Yiddish American Jazz Band – Kale Bazetzns (Seating Of The Bride) 1:58:31 Josie Miles – Mad Mama’s Blues 2:01:22 Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five – Put It Where I Can Get It 2:04:04 The Original Jazz Hounds – 1620 to 1865 Uncle Ephs Dream 2:05:45 Oliver Naylor’s Orchestra – Slowin’ Down Blues 2:08:01 Sippie Wallace – Baby, I Can’t Use You No More 2:10:57 Shelton Brooks & Company – Work Don’t Bother Me 2:11:09 San Francisco Symphony Orchestra – Wagner: Parsifal Prelude 2:15:40 Paul Robeson – Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen 2:18:14 Maggie Jones – Suicide Blues 2:19:34 Dziga Vertov – Radio Ear – Radio Pravda (Excerpt 7)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

For the inaugural Centuries of Sound radio podcast I’m joined by Sean Spencer (not pictured) as I delve into the first 35 years of sound recording, including lines drawn in soot with feathers, a wasp trapped in a bottle, a talking clock, three versions of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and the first (accidentally) recorded swearword.

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a cut-down 30 minute mix, for the full two-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month.

MP3 sample download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

We’ve been waiting for a year like this for a long time; when the limitations of technology and the music business would finally be advanced enough to get out of the way and let the music speak for itself. It could not have come at a more fortuitous time – the jazz age is right at the point of moving from fun novelty to full-blown art-form, country folk is undergoing a wave of exploration, and vaudeville and the speakeasies are soaking up and celebrating all the developments of this exciting era.

We start the mix with one of the founding fathers of jazz, and mentor to Louis Armstrong, King Oliver. Here with his new Chicago-based group the “Dixie Syncopators” he plays high-octane dance tune “Deep Henderson” – the group would continue a residency at the Plantation Cafe until it burned down in 1927.

Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ was one of the first orchestral pieces given the full electrical recording treatment – it really brings home what a revolution has happened in sound recording in the last couple of years. The piece started at the outbreak of the first world war in 1914, and the premier was held during its final weeks in 1918. It’s hard not to feel that ‘Mars’ is inspired by the incomprehensible, industrial carnage of those grim years.

Plenty is written about the “blues roots” of American music, but this year we have plenty to demonstrate that “church roots” or “gospel roots” might be just as important. The Birmingham Jubilee Singers were organised by Charles Bridges, a trainer of gospel quartets from Alabama. The group included the extremely deep voice of one Ed Sherrill. “He Took My Sins Away” is a particularly strong example of the innovative a capella techniques practised in churches in the Southern states of the USA. Reverend J.M. Gates one of the most prolific preachers of the pre-war era, recording over 200 sermons. Death’s Black Train Is Coming” was recorded in front of his participating congregation in Mount Calvary Baptist Church for Columbia Records after their state-of-the-art electric recording system was shipped down especially for this purpose – it sold more than 35,000 copies.

New Orleans Creole pianist Jelly Roll Morton is another of the founding fathers of jazz. By 1926 he was recording with a group called The Red Hot Peppers. Doctor Jazz is one of the best examples of the early New Orleans jazz sound, using counterpoint, pre-written stop-time breaks and improvised solo passages – truly a feast within a few minutes, and the pinnacle of this particular sound.

“Masculine Women! Feminine Men!,” performed here by journeyman singer Irving Kaufman, often turns up on lists of the earliest queer records, though it should be stressed that this is accidental. The lyrics are intended as a sardonic look at changing fashions, but the effect is detached and wry rather than offended, leading to a reasonable implication that things like sexuality and gender are ripe for exploration, generally not a big deal, and basically fine to play with – a nice introduction to the changing social mores of the time.

The craze for female blues is on the wane by 1926, but Ethel Waters has stuck around, this time without her backing band. “Make Me a Pallet on the Floor” is a folk blues, dating back to the 19th century, but its status as a standard only became fixed with this recording.

There is plenty to say about Duke Ellington elsewhere, just to note here that we have his earliest recording of East St Louis Toodle-Oo, which is usually acknowledged as his first classic. This isn’t the best recording of the track – we’ll be hearing another quite soon – but still stands out in its sheer sonic originality, even in this semi-developed form.

The tango was taking off in Argentina at this time, and the form was also having a huge influence in the old world, particularly Eastern Europe and Western Asia. We have a couple of examples here, from Greece and Turkey. Ibrahim Özgür, from Istanbul, declared the music he wrote was dedicated to the love letters sent by his female fans.

Portable electronic recording is already recording plenty of country folk music in the USA. Our first examples of this are Carl T. Sprague with a particularly morbid cowboy song, and Uncle Dave Macon with the white equivalent to the gospel tracks featured here: that is, much less adventurous in terms of harmonies, and dedicated to mocking the theory of evolution the year after the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Abe Lyman’s version of Papa Charlie Jackson’s “Shake That Thing” is a magnificent bit of raucous Chicago-style jazz, as hot as you get – you can only imagine the effect it would have on a dancefloor just eight years after the end of the first world war. Another hot jazz piece follows this, with Erskine Tate’s Vendome Orchestra – another Chicago outfit, this features a guest appearance from Louis Armstrong on cornet. Erskine’s only contribution is shouting the title at the start.

Then we have The Dixieland Jug Blowers, an example of a jug band – groups formed in the urban south who blew on jugs for lack of real instruments, and Ben Bernie, an old-time vaudeville band leader jumping whole-heartedly onto the jazz bandwagon.

Drop The Sack from Lill’s Hot Shots is Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, operating under a pseudonym to bring Louis’s wife (piano player Lil Hardin Armstrong) to the forefront. Louis’s cornet with Johnny Dodds’ clarinet really do their best to overcome this fairly limited song and make something really special.

“Arizona” Juanita Dranes was a blind female gospel singer, and pioneer of the use of piano in gospel music. Her passionate, earthy, rough, nasal voice and her wild piano playing went on to have a great deal of influence, but mostly outside the world of church music.

The Savoy Havana Band was one of the big two British dance bands of the 1920s, formed by American saxophonist Bert Ralton, and featuring pianist Billy Mayerl, and young American saxophonist, Rudy Vallée, whose dreams of becoming a singer were roundly mocked by his band-mates.

Next we have some more old world tangos – a soulful Arabic piece from Farid & Asmahan and a hauntingly familiar-sounding tune from Greek singer Toula Amvrazi. Also soulful, but not in the tango tradition, is Said El Kurdi from Iraq, and we have passion from Iranina Morteza Ney-Davud – traditions which are undeservedly obscure in the west today.

At the age of 51, Fritz Kreisler was already regarded as perhaps the greatest violinist in the world in 1926, and his recordings had already had a great deal of effect in the use of vibrato from a new generation of musicians, eager to copy his style. At this point he was living in Paris, and playing around Europe, here with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra – but he would emigrate to the USA as Hitler seized power in Germany.

“The Laughing Policeman” is a British remake of George W Johnson’s “Laughing Song,” one of the best-selling records of the 1890s, and will be instantly familiar to UK listeners. Music hall artist Charles Penrose followed it up with The Laughing Major, The Laughing Curate, The Laughing Steeplechaser, The Laughing Typist, and The Laughing Lover, to diminishing returns.

The Happiness Boys was one of the most popular radio programs of the 1920s, and though radio was barely recorded in the 20s, we at least have novelty recordings from its two stars, Billy Jones and Ernie Hare, who also sang their novelty songs on disc. “What? No Women!” is another song of the times featuring possible transgressive undertones, maybe? Or am I imagining this?

Sol HoÊ»opiÊ»i was one of the pioneers of the Hawaiian steel guitar, and on Farewell Blues he stretches the instrument to its limits, producing chicken squawking and pecking noises with the strings and the body. Nick Lucas was another pioneer of the guitar, though a more traditional one. Nevertheless, he has a decent claim to be the first jazz guitar soloist, and here accompanies himself on one of the biggest hits of the year, “Bye Bye Blackbird.”

Mandolin player Chris Bouchillon was also a pioneer – not so much with the mandolin, though, more with his distinctive half-singing-half-talking vocals, which he described as “Talking Blues.” If it sounds familiar, it’s because the style was picked up wholesale by Bob Dylan and others in the 1960s, and it feels slightly disconcerting to hear someone sing like that in 1926. Sam McGee, another pioneer guitar player, here presents a style which would also be picked up by folk musicians in the 1960s, though he would have a much better career, playing in a duo with his brother Kirk and becoming fixtures at the Grand Old Opry through the next few decades.

We will be hearing more from Gene Austin, one of the first crooners, but here we have him only starting to explore the new style made possible by electrical microphones.

Violinist Joe Venuti, here playing as ever with Eddie Lang, was an Italian-American jazz musician. I find Venuti and Lang’s records unbelievable because they sound just like the Hot Club De France a decade later.

Johnny Hamp’s Kentucky Serenaders were a jazz band active since the precious decade, but only making inroads into recording at this point. They were from Pennsylvania rather than Kentucky, apparently the name is taken from their performances “My Old Kentucky Home.” This is the first of two tracks featuring the sound of tap dancing, the second being from a young Fred Astaire, here performing with his (then equally famous) sister Adele. At this point both were famous for stage performances – with the start of sound film the following year Fred would audition for Paramount, and be turned down as “unsuitable for films.”

Another Jelly-Roll Morton recording, The Chant, features a brilliant performance from Kid Orly on trombone – it’s a rare cover version for Morton, and was written by Mel Stitzel of white jazz group The New Orleans Rhythm Kings.

“Heebie Jeebies” is a landmark track for Louis Armstrong, featuring a famous scat singing section. A legend says that Louis dropped his lyric sheet and improvised the vocal solo, thereby inventing scat singing, a claim disproved immediately by the existence of recorded scat singing at least 15 years prior – however the record was still very influential in the development of vocal jazz.

We have a long-awaited trip to Latin America with Cuban Son band Sexteto Occidente, a short-lived group, but one whose records and members would go on to define the genre. From Argentina we have already heard early tangos, but here we have a couple of pieces from the earlier Argentinian folk music tradition – one from Rafael Iriarte and Rosendo Pesoa, and another from Alfredo Pelaia.

The NuGrape Twins were a bizarre gospel duo from Georgia who decided not to sing about God but to voluntarily make an advertising jingle for a regional soft drink, also called NuGrape, and which is still available there today. Their story is a bit too much to go into here, but can be found in a lot more detail here – – http://nadiaberenstein.com/blog/2015/4/3/got-plenty-imitation-but-theres-none-like-mine-heavenly-nugrape

Back to the jazz, then, we have the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra, a radio jazz band from Kansas City, a superb piece from multi-instrumentalist Art Landry’s jazz band, and a fourth appearance from Louis Armstrong, here again guesting with Erskine Tate’s Vendome Orchestra on “Static Strut”

Back over to Europe, we have a novelty jazz piece from the other big UK band leader, Bert Firman (by no coincidence the regional musical director for Zonophone Records), and something a bit more substantial from Romanian violin virtuoso GrigoraÈ Ionică Dinicu, a breathtakingly beautiful piece called Ciocârlia, composed by his grandfather AngheluÈ Dinicu

Cortot, Thibaud and Casals were already three of the most celebrated and widely-recorded classical musicians in the world, and all in their mid-40s already, but it wasn’t until 1926 that new technology allowed them to live up to their potential as recording artists. Here their playing is at once light and suffused with great depth.

More jazz then, from trombonist Brad Gowans, an early release from future superstar band leader Fletcher Henderson, and a rare lead recording from George McClennon, adoptive son of Bert Williams and virtuoso novelty clarinet player, probably a holdover from the last age but here sounding right up to date.

“In the Pines” AKA “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” is one of those American murder ballads with an unknown, presumably ancient lineage – it had been around at least fifty years before this, perhaps its first definitive recording, by Dock Walsh. Another link to the old folk tradition of the rural USA is provided by Uncle Bunt Stevens, whose style apparently reflects music played prior to the American Civil War.

A couple of European superstars are next – Maurice Chevalier, a big stage and screen name in France already, and from Spain, Pablo Casals, perhaps the greatest cellist of all time – I can’t help think the mournful style of this recording anticipates somehow his exile from his home country under Franco.

And finally, Paul Robeson, one of the defining performers of his age, here putting absolutely everything into a performance of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”

Anyone still with me? Well done, it’s been quite the journey this time, thank you for listening.

Tracks

0:00:22 The Savoy Orpheans – Radio Christmas 1926 (Excerpt 1) 0:00:40 King Oliver And His Dixie Syncopators – Deep Henderson 0:03:44 Edward B. Craft – The Voice from the Screen (Excerpt 1) 0:03:56 Gustav Holst with London Symphony Orchestra – Mars from The Planets 0:07:04 Birmingham Jubilee Singers – He Took My Sins Away 0:08:16 Rev. J. M. Gates – Death’s Black Train Is Coming 0:09:56 Jelly-Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers – Dead Man Blues 0:10:12 Jelly-Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers – Doctor Jazz 0:13:33 Al Jolson – April Showers (Intro) 0:13:38 Irving Kaufman – Masculine Women! Feminine Men! 0:15:17 Ethel Waters – Make Me A Pallet On The Floor 0:16:51 Rev. S.J. ‘Steamboat Bill’ Worell – The Prodigal Son 0:19:51 Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra – East St Louis Toodle-Oo 0:22:30 Banat Chemama, Malouf, Leila Sfez, Fritna Damon, Habbiba Msika, Louisia Tounsia… – Habibi Ghab (Leila Sfez) 0:22:51 Danae & Panos Visvardis – Aishe 0:25:45 Ibrahim Özgür – Son nefes 0:27:54 Compagnia Columbia – Il Funerale di Rodolfo Valentino (Excerpt 1) 0:28:17 Carl T. Sprague – O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (The Dying Cowboy) 0:29:45 Uncle Dave Macon – The Bible’s True 0:31:08 Edward B. Craft – The Voice from the Screen (Excerpt 2) 0:31:15 Abe Lyman – Shake That Thing 0:34:12 Erskine Tate’s Vendome Orchestra – Stomp Off, Let’s Go 0:36:00 Dixieland Jug Blowers – House Rent Rag 0:38:02 Ben Bernie & His Hotel Rooswelt Orchestra – Hello! Swanee, Hello 0:39:59 Lill’s Hot Shots – Drop That Sack 0:41:34 Rev. J.M. Gates – Death Might Be Your Santa Claus (Excerpt 1) 0:42:31 Arizona Dranes – It’s All Right Now 0:44:26 Rev. J.M. Gates – Death Might Be Your Santa Claus (Excerpt 2) 0:45:14 Taskiana Four – Creep Along, Moses 0:47:04 Rev. J.C. Burnett – The Downfall of Nebuchadnezzar 0:48:11 The Savoy Havana Band – Turkish Towel 0:49:43 Farid & Asmahan – Ishak ya boulboul 0:51:36 Toula Amvrazi – Sultana 0:54:17 Morteza Ney-Davud – ‘Oshshaq, Bayat Esfahan (Homayun) (Excerpt 1) 0:54:43 Said El Kurdi – Kassem Miro 0:56:20 Morteza Ney-Davud – ‘Oshshaq, Bayat Esfahan (Homayun) (Excerpt 2) 0:56:46 Sally Hamlin and Myrtle C. Eaver – The Sugar-Plum Tree (Excerpt 1) 0:56:55 Fritz Kreisler & Berlin State Opera Orchestra – Mendelssohn Violin Concerto e-moll Op.64 0:58:48 Sally Hamlin and Myrtle C. Eaver – The Sugar-Plum Tree (Excerpt 2) 0:59:05 Charles Penrose – The Laughing Policeman 1:01:28 George Formby – I Was A Willing Young Lad 1:01:40 Billy Jones & Ernest Hare – What? No Women! 1:03:05 Sol HoÊ»opiÊ»i’s Novelty Trio – Farewell Blues 1:04:31 Nick Lucas – Bye Bye Blackbird 1:06:00 Chris Bouchillon – Hannah 1:07:32 Sam McGee – The Franklin Blues 1:08:58 Vernon Dalhart – Ain’t-Ya Comin’ Out To-Night? 1:10:57 Gene Austin – Ya Gotta Know How To Love 1:13:31 Joe Venuti – Stringin’ The Blues (1) (+ Eddie Lang) 1:15:58 Johnny Hamp’s Kentucky Serenaders – Black Bottom 1:18:33 Fred Astaire – Half Of It Dearie Blues (+ Adele Astaire & George Gershwin) 1:21:18 Jelly-Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers – Sidewalk Blues 1:21:33 Jelly-Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers – The Chant 1:23:43 Louis Armstrong And His Hot Five – Heebie Jeebies 1:25:51 King Oliver’s Jazz Band – Wa Wa Wa 1:27:28 Sexteto Occidente – Miguel, Los Hombres No Lloran 1:30:16 Iriarte and Pesoa – Libertad 1:31:35 Alfredo Pelaia – Chinita 1:32:58 Dick Henderson – Introduction 1:33:00 NuGrape Twins – I Got Your Ice Cold Nugrape 1:35:44 Bessie Smith – Jazzbo Brown From Memphis Town 1:37:32 Dick Henderson – “She has the advantage of me…” 1:37:37 Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra – Brainstorm 1:40:24 Art Landry and His Orchestra – Slippery Elm 1:41:27 Erskine Tate’s Vendome Orchestra – Static Strut 1:43:32 Bert Firman & His Band – You Got ‘ Em 1:44:55 Stanley Roper – Impressions Of London (Excerpt) 1:45:12 GrigoraÈ Dinicu – Ciocârlia 1:47:54 Cortot, Thibaud and Cassals – Schubert Trio No. 1 in B Flat – Op. 99 1st Movement 1:49:10 The Revelers – Blue Room 1:51:06 Gowan’s Rhapsody Makers – I’ll Fly To Hawaii 1:52:01 The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra – Stampede 1:54:33 George Mcclennon’s Jazz Devils – While You’re Sneaking Out 1:56:48 Joe Candullo and His Everglades Orchestra – Brown Sugar 1:59:51 Dock Walsh – In The Pines 2:01:24 Uncle Bunt Stephens – Candy Girl 2:02:08 Maurice Chevalier – Moi Je Fais Mes Coups En Dessous 2:04:08 Pablo Casals – Saint- Saens – Le Cygne (The Swan) 2:06:11 Compagnia Columbia – Il Funerale di Rodolfo Valentino (Excerpt 2) 2:06:38 Paul Robeson – Swing Low Sweet Chariot 2:08:43 The Savoy Orpheans – Radio Christmas 1926 (Excerpt 2)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

“This time James and Sean take a trip back to the 80s — the 1880s that is. Aside from the original music we have celebrity appearances from Arthur Sullivan, Johannes Brahms, William Ewart Gladstone and Queen Victoria herself (possibly) — plus some very drunk old Englishmen (not us)”

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original music and sounds from a year in history. Right now we’re up to 1926. To download full mixes and a get host of other benefits for $5 per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a cut-down 30 minute mix, for the full two-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month.

MP3 sample download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Over the last few years, writing these descriptions has often felt like an act of persuasion, an apology for poor sound quality and poor selection of available recordings, sweetened with some historical background to try to make the sounds accessible. There’s always plenty of music I love buried inside, but naturally I understand that getting past the hiss, the awful recording medium, the lack of quality musicians, the control of everything by a small group of New York businessmen who at best are indifferent to good music… well, it’s not easy to reach out to your listeners with what feels like a leap of faith, every time.

It’s 1927, and all of that is out the window, I might as well just put out this collection of astonishing music, as it can easily do the job of selling itself. This is an explosion of sound the likes of which have not been experienced before or for that matter since.

One of the many people responsible for this was Ralph Peer, talent scout for the Victor Talking Machine Company. For two months in 1927 he took his portable recording studio on the road, visiting cities through the southern United States. Between the 25th of July and the 5th August he was in residence in Bristol, Tennessee. The Ernest Stoneman, J.P. Nester and Tenneva Ramblers recordings made here would alone have made these sessions notable, but the discovery of the two acts which came to define “country music” are the reason this is referred to as the “Big Bang.”

Jimmie Rogers, “The Singing Brakeman” or “The Blue Yodeler” arrived at the sessions with a group in tow (the Tenneva Ramblers) but decided just at the right moment to go solo with his unique mix of country folk, vaudeville-inspired songwriting and yodelling. The song recorded, “Blue Yodel”, would go on to sell half a million copies, make Jimmie a superstar for the rest of his short life, and inspire musicians across the rest of the century.

The other great discoveries of the sessions were The Carter Family – A.P. Carter, his wife Sara Carter and his sister-in-law Maybelle Carter, who all made a precarious journey from Maces Spring, Virginia, while Sara was heavily pregnant, in order that they could record at the sessions. The combination of A.P.’s gathering of folk songs, Sara’s heavenly voice and autoharp and Maybelle’s revolutionary guitar-playing has proved to have as great a legacy as Jimmie Rodgers, if not greater.

The joy of the Bristol Sessions is not its uniqueness, quite the opposite. As you’ll be able to hear from this mix, there were many musicians throughout the USA and the world who were being recorded for the first time. With records still a luxury item unavailable to the working class, and radio still in its infancy, these artists each seem to have something to offer which was previously undiscovered. Everyone has their influences, of course, but this is the one moment where you’re hearing amateurs with a lifetime’s experience inventing their own music, suddenly being able to make the records which would lead to the next generation being able to swap influences and formulate the genres which we all know – for now though, everything is itself and nothing really belongs to anything else, it’s impossible to put anything in a box, the jazz is all blues is all folk is all country is all gospel.

And gospel music, or rather Christian music (it would be ridiculous to try to claim this disparate group of recordings represented “a genre”) is a massive force in this mix. The South was (and still is) a very religious place, and the church is one of the few places people could get together and express themselves. We have a full range of religious recordings here, from impassioned baptist sermons, to the religious folk music of Alfred Karnes and the almost Sufi-like meditative bliss of Washington Phillips, whose divinely inspired pieces, played on an unknown zither-like device of his own making, are some of those rare pieces of music so beautiful that it is truly hard to imagine their being of this world.

Just to scratch the surface of some of the other music being made around the world, 1927 is also the year Zonophone started recording West African musicians in London in order to try to open up this previously undiscovered market. I’m in danger of overusing the word ‘unique’ so let’s just say that everything I’ve said about the southern USA can be applied tenfold here – countless centuries of music are being dipped into for the first time, and far from being an ethnographic curiosity, nothing could be more shockingly direct.

And oh, I didn’t talk about Jazz, in what might be the greatest year of the jazz age! Why can’t things peak separately? Let’s focus on Bix Beiderbecke, as this is really his year – he opens this mix with his revolutionary piano piece (he was a cornet player) ‘In A Mist’, and features on at least five other tracks in one way or another. It’s impossible for me to write about him without putting this quote here, so I’m just going to do it.

“Bix Beiderbecke. The first great white jazz musician. Cornet player. Born in Davenport, Iowa, March 1903. Drank himself to death. Died August 1931, aged 28. Amazing man. They say his playing sounded like bullets shot from a bell.” –”‰Trevor Chaplin, The Beiderbecke Affair, episode 1: “What I don’t understand is this…” by Alan Plater.

And what else? I’ve barely started, I can’t ever really do this music justice, all I can do is get this mix out there and hope people will listen, enjoy and share.

Tracks

0:00:22 Bix Beiderbecke – In A Mist (Bixology) 0:03:03 The Harlem Footwarmers – That Jungle Jamboree 0:06:03 Al Jolson – Excerpt from ‘The Jazz Singer’ 1 0:06:10 Washington Phillips – Lift Him Up That’s All 0:08:52 Mrs. L. Reed; Mrs. T.A. Duncans – Light in the Valley (Excerpt 1) 0:09:01 Alfred G. Karnes – I Am Bound for the Promised Land 0:11:04 The Carter Family – The Poor Orphan Child 0:14:25 Jimmie Rodgers – Blue Yodel 0:16:36 Ben Simmons – (Blank) 0:17:00 Ben Simmons – Mu Kun Sebor Wa Wu 0:18:29 Prince Zulamkah – Ligiligi 0:19:01 The West African Instrumental Quintet – Adersu No. 2 0:22:02 Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang – At The Jazz Band Ball 0:24:50 Al Jolson – Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye 0:26:50 Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven – Twelfth Street Rag 0:29:09 Thomas A. Edison – Mary Had a Little Lamb 0:29:23 Savoy Orpheans – Vo Do Do De O Blues 0:32:36 Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra – Fidgety Feet 0:35:28 Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski – Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Excerpt 1) 0:36:07 Steva Nikolič – Arnautka 0:38:23 Osip Mandelshtam – Gypsy Girl (Excerpt 1) 0:38:32 Tetos Demetriades – Miserlou 0:40:42 Osip Mandelshtam – Gypsy Girl (Excerpt 2) 0:40:49 Marika Papagika – Ti Se Méli Esénane 0:42:24 Dajos Béla and His Dance Orchestra – Jalousie 0:43:19 Iriarte-Pesoa – Instrumental – Pericón Por María 0:44:56 Domingo Aguirre – Atamisqueña 0:46:06 Orquesta Gelix Gonzalez – Cabaniguan 0:47:14 Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra – Singin’ the Blues (Till My Daddy Comes Home) 0:50:13 Jelly-Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers – The Pearls [Take 2] 0:52:15 Memphis Jug Band – Memphis Jug Blue Take 1 0:55:00 Bobbie Leecan’s Need-More Band – Washboard Cut Out 0:56:43 Henry Thomas – The Fox And The Hounds 0:59:16 DeFord Bailey – Pan American Blues 1:00:31 Tenneva Ramblers – The Longest Train I Ever Saw 1:02:10 J. P. Nestor – Train On the Island 1:03:23 Mead Lux Lewis – Honky Tonk Train Blues 1:05:57 Rev. A.W. Nix – Black Diamond Express to Hell 1:07:56 Rev. T.E. Weems – If I Have a Ticket Lord Can I Ride 1:09:36 Waring’s Pennsylvanians – Hello Swanee Hello 1:10:58 Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys – Sweet L’il – Ain’t She Sweet (take 2) 1:12:32 Al Jolson – Excerpt from ‘The Jazz Singer’ 2 1:12:37 Jack Smith – Birth Of The Blues 1:13:52 Bessie Smith – Backwater Blues 1:15:46 Robert Hicks (Barbecue Bob) – Mississippi Heavy Water Blues 1:17:04 Chris Bouchillon – Born In Hard Luck 1:20:18 Long ‘Cleve’ Reed And Little Harvey Hull (The Down Home Boys) – Mama You Don’t Know How 1:21:43 Calvin Coolidge – Presentation Speech 1 1:21:56 Duke Ellington And His Kentucky Club Orchestra – East St. Louis Toodle-oo 1:24:59 Ed Lang – A Little Love a Little Kiss 1:26:54 Tram Bix & Lang – For No Reason At All In C 1:29:13 Calvin Coolidge – Presentation Speech 2 1:29:39 Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven – Potato Head Blues 1:30:42 Sylvians – I Need Lovin’ 1:32:15 Jelly-Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers – Wild Man Blues 1:34:25 Charles Lindbergh – Speech Part 1 1:34:43 Banjo Joe – My Money Never Runs Out 1:36:20 Charles Lindbergh – Speech Part 2 1:36:51 Charlie Parker & Mack Woolbright – Ticklish Reuben 1:37:26 Burnett & Rutherford – Ladies On the Steamboat 1:38:51 Obed Pickard of Station WSM Na – The Old Grey Horse 1:40:47 South Georgia Highballers – Blue Grass Twist 1:42:02 Frank Hutchison – The Last Scene Of The Titanic 1:43:34 Sylvester Weaver – Damfino Stump 1:44:59 Ernest Stoneman & Hattie Stoneman – Mountaineer’s Courtship 1:46:11 Uncle Dave Macon and His Fruit-Jar Drinkers – Sail Away Ladies 1:47:35 Jaybird Coleman – Mistreatin’ Mama 1:49:12 Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Was The Night — Cold Was The Ground 1:52:11 Mrs. L. Reed; Mrs. T.A. Duncans – Light in the Valley (Excerpt 2) 1:52:36 Washington Phillips – Denomination Blues 1:53:52 Elder J.E. Burch – The Church and the Kingdom 1:55:59 Rev. T.E. Weems – God Is Mad With Man 1:56:24 Rust College Quartet – Hallelujah 1:57:44 Rev. Webb – Moses Was Rescued by a Negro Woman (Excerpt 1) 1:58:04 Sister Mary Nelson – Judgement 1:58:53 Rev. Webb – Moses Was Rescued by a Negro Woman (Excerpt 2) 1:59:04 Chhunnu Khan – Sarod Instrumental 2:01:59 Truett & George – Ghost Dance 2:03:05 Andrés Segovia – Tremolo Study 2:04:20 Septeto Machín – El Guateque 2:06:08 Estudiantina Oriental De R. Martinez – Nanore 2:09:07 Wilmoth Houdini – Good Night Ladies And Gents 2:11:11 Domingo Justus – Buje 2:11:43 Douglas Papafio – Kuntum 2:12:58 Demir Cholakov – Selska Svadba [Village Wedding] 2:14:12 Abe Schwartz’s Orchestra – Rusihe Sher 2:16:19 Frank Hutchison – Logan County Blues 2:18:35 Al Bernard Accom. by Goofus Five – Hesitation Blues 2:20:29 Memphis Jug Band – Sometimes I Think I Love You 2:22:48 The Traymore Orchestra – Soliloqui 2:24:18 Miff Mole & his Molers – Davenport Blues 2:25:37 Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra – Crying All Day 2:27:37 Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra – My Pretty Girl 2:29:16 The Original Wolverines – Royal Garden Blues 2:31:26 Duke Ellington And His Washingtonians – Black and Tan Fantasy 2:34:47 Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orch. – Moten Stomp 2:35:38 Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five – Hotter Than That 2:37:17 Gene Austin – My Blue Heaven 2:39:24 Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski – Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Excerpt 2)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

“Another journey into the history of recorded sound with James and Sean. This time we delve into the vaults for 1890 and 1891, explore the pop music of the gilded age, and hear the voices of P.T. Barnum, Florence Nightingale, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.”

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original music and sounds from a year in history. Right now we’re up to 1926. To download full mixes and a get host of other benefits for $5 per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a cut-down 45 minute mix, for the full three-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month.

MP3 sample download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

In Chicago, Al Capone was at the height of his powers in 1928, but, as we always must, let's go on a wild tangent to look at the dull metal structures which loomed hundreds of feet over his head. In February, work began on a new transmitter site for WMAQ Radio in Chicago. WMAQ already had a powerful transmitter in the city, but since it was built in 1922 a brace of skyscrapers (The Chicago Temple Building, The Civic Opera House, The Pittsfield Building) had sprung up around it, reducing its reach to less than half the city. The new transmitter had five times the power of the old, fortunate for the city as this was also the year that WMAQ got hold of two white actors, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, to play the roles of Amos and Andy in a new radio sitcom. The show would soon become the biggest name in radio, staying on the air for over 30 years, and all the more notably so because its two lead characters were black.

It was, of course, not really in the spirit of the nascent civil rights movement to have this sort of audio blackface as the most mainstream of entertainments, but, despite the embarrassed moving-on of generations of musical historians, minstrelsy was still very much a visible force a decade into the jazz age. Godsen and Correll had come from that world, so had Al Jolson, and so had Emmett Miller, a more obscure figure, who still managed to straddle the worlds of minstrelsy (he wore and performed blackface), jazz (he sang blues songs and performed with jazz musicians) and country (his yodel predated that of Jimmie Rodgers.) Things at this time are messy - messy can be good, genre boundaries seem to stifle innovation more than guide it - and the wonderful and the repellent can be so entangled as to be inseparable.

Over in that other hotspot of the decade, New York, for example, Duke Ellington was performing at the legendary Cotton Club. The name of this establishment was chosen as evocative of the old days of the deep south - it was in fact no less than an antebellum-themed nightclub, with a whites-only policy as far as customers were concerned. Decorations on the walls presented black people either as slaves or jungle savages. On stage, of course, was an a-to-z of famous black performers - Ellington, Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, and soon Cab Calloway, all performing for rich white New Yorkers.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was the resident bandleader of the club, encouraged to play "jungle music," yet he could not have fitted less the role if he tried. A classically trained upper-middle-class pianist from Washington DC, he was nicknamed 'Duke' by the friends he made when he ventured out into the world of jazz, a joke about his sophisticated clothing, which was hardly typical of a jazz musician.

Ellington may not have really made any "jungle music" but 'The Mooche' does seem to capture the dark, seedy underworld of the 1920s like nothing else. It's impossible for me to hear it and imagine a dull audience of rich white stiffs at their theme pub, it's more like the theme to a dingy speakeasy where something terrible is about to go down.

Tracklist

0:00:22 Rudy Wiedoeft - Radio Program (Excerpt 1) 0:00:24 Duke Ellington And His Orchestra - The Mooche 0:03:33 John A. Scott & Mr. Greenfield - Radio program for WAAM, Newark, New Jersey (Excerpt 1) 0:03:46 Mississippi John Hurt - Ain't No Tellin' 0:06:39 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 1) 0:06:50 Rev. Edward W. Clayborn - A Letter From Father 0:09:44 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 1) 0:10:19 Johnny Noble's Hawaiians Featuring M. K. Moke - Hilo March 0:12:10 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 2) 0:12:25 Grupo De 'La Alegria' - El Tambor De La Alegria 0:15:48 Red Nichols - WAAM Edison Radio Disc (Excerpt 1) 0:16:07 Pierre Pinchik - Rozo D'shabbos 0:18:44 George Bernard Shaw - Fox Movietone Newsreel (Excerpt 1) 0:18:57 Cow Cow Davenport - Cow Cow Blues 0:22:01 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 2) 0:22:17 Eddie Cantor - Makin' Whoopee! 0:23:33 Emmett Miller - Lion Tamers (Excerpt 1) 0:24:05 Emmett Miller - I Ain't Got Nobody 0:27:09 Emmett Miller - Lion Tamers (Excerpt 2) 0:27:33 Fletcher Henderson - Come On Baby 0:30:23 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 3) 0:30:52 Duke Ellington - Black Beauty 0:32:51 Red Nichols - WAAM Edison Radio Disc (Excerpt 2) 0:33:07 Ethel Waters - Do What You Did Last Night 0:35:44 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 3) 0:36:00 Joseph Moskowitz, A. Olshanetsky's Orchestra - Die Neie Sirba (The New Bulgar) 0:38:50 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 4) 0:38:59 Grigoraș Dinicu - Hora Staccato 0:40:23 John A. Scott & Mr. Greenfield - Radio program for WAAM, Newark, New Jersey (Excerpt 2) 0:40:39 Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five - A Monday Date 0:41:06 Chicago Footwarmers - Brush Stomp 0:42:55 George Bernard Shaw - Fox Movietone Newsreel (Excerpt 2) 0:43:20 Henry Thomas - Bull Doze Blues 0:45:17 Dallas String Band with Coley Jones - Hokum Blues 0:47:23 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 5) 0:47:41 The Washingtonians - Take It Easy 0:50:12 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 6) 0:51:00 Pelegongan of Kuta - Gonteng (djawa) pengwak solo 0:52:38 Gong Of Belaluan - Kebyar Ding III - Oncang-Oncangan (Excerpt 1) 0:53:36 Angklung Of Sidan - Lagu 'ngisep dublag' 0:54:15 Gender Wayang Of Kuta - Angkat Angatan 0:54:51 Gong Of Busungbiu - Lagu 'tabuh gari' 0:55:21 Gong Of Belaluan - Kebyar Ding III - Oncang-Oncangan (Excerpt 2) 0:55:42 Walt Disney Animation Studios - Steamboat Willie (Excerpt) 0:56:14 Yahyâ Zarpanje - Mâhur 0:57:23 Isa Kremer - Oi Abram 0:58:14 Lucy German - Di Eybike Mame 1:00:24 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 7) 1:02:03 Joseph Falcon - Lafayette 1:04:58 Cleoma Breaux & Joseph Falcon - Le Vieux Soulard et Sa Femme 1:06:36 Charlie Bowman & His Brothers - Moonshiner & His Money 1:09:42 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 8) 1:09:49 John Mugat - Bukay 1:11:10 James 'Son' Thomas - Jon Jo Ko 1:12:09 Nicholas DeHeer - Edna Buchaiku 1:13:34 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 9) 1:13:46 Pine Top Smith - Pine Top's Boogie Woogie 1:17:04 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 4) 1:17:09 Bennie Moten - Get Low Down Blues 1:18:37 Rudy Wiedoeft - Radio Program (Excerpt 2) 1:18:41 Irving Aaronson And His Commanders, Vocal Refrain Irène Bordoni - Let's Misbehave 1:20:07 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 10) 1:20:19 Irving Kaufman (with Vaughn DeLeath) - You Took Advantage of Me 1:22:14 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 11) 1:22:40 Roane County Ramblers - Hometown Blues 1:24:04 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 5) 1:24:16 Jimmie Rodgers - In The Jailhouse Now 1:26:26 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 12) 1:26:44 Victoria Spivey - Dope Head Blues 1:28:58 Rudy Wiedoeft - Radio Program (Excerpt 3) 1:29:00 Bertha Idaho - Graveyard Love 1:31:06 Red Nichols - WAAM Edison Radio Disc (Excerpt 3) 1:31:21 Washington Phillips - Mother's Last Word To Her Son 1:33:46 Reverend Johnny Blakey - Warming By The Devil's Fire (Excerpt 1) 1:34:13 Arizona Dranes - He Is My Story 1:36:03 Reverend Johnny Blakey - Warming By The Devil's Fire (Excerpt 2) 1:36:42 Daniels-Denson Sacred Harp Singers - Coronation 1:37:25 Reverend Johnny Blakey - Warming By The Devil's Fire (Excerpt 3) 1:37:58 Dixie Jubilee Singers - Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho 1:39:44 The Denson Quartet - Christian Soldier 1:39:58 George Bernard Shaw - Fox Movietone Newsreel (Excerpt 3) 1:40:18 Blind Willie Johnson - Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed 1:41:43 Gladys Bentley - Wild Geese Blues 1:43:17 Nellie Florence - Jacksonville Blues 1:44:36 Johnson-Nelson-Porkchop - G. Burns Is Gonna Rise Again 1:44:51 William Harris - Kansas City Blues 1:46:31 Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley - Every Day In The Week Blues 1:48:07 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 13) 1:48:26 Jack Smith - Miss Annabelle Lee 1:50:30 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 14) 1:50:52 Gay Ellis And Her Novelty Orchestra - You're The Cream In My Coffee 1:51:59 Helen Kane - I Wanna Be Loved By You 1:53:11 Joe Venuti's Blue Four - Goin' Home 1:56:13 Bix Beiderbecke and His Gang - Wa-Da-Da (Ev'rybody's Doin' It Now) 1:58:08 Benny Goodman and His Boys - That's A Plenty 1:59:18 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 15) 1:59:27 Louis Armstrong And His Savoy Ballroom Five - St. James Infirmary 2:02:28 Victoria Spivey - Blood Thirsty Blues 2:04:48 Mississippi John Hurt - Louis Collins 2:06:09 Dick Justice - Cocaine 2:08:10 The Carter Family - John Hardy 2:09:42 George 'Chicken' Wilson & Jimmy 'Skeeter' Hinton - Chicken Wilson Blues 2:10:22 Tom Morrison - The Connaught Reel - The Shephard's Daughter 2:12:24 Michael Coleman - Lord McDonald's (reels) 2:14:00 Packie Dolan And His Melody Boys - Lasses Of Donnibrook 2:14:28 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 16) 2:14:42 Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers - Kansas City Stomps 2:17:33 John A. Scott & Mr. Greenfield - Radio program for WAAM, Newark, New Jersey (Excerpt 4) 2:17:43 Giovanni Vicari - Occhi di Bambola 2:19:16 Agustín Barrios - Junto a tu Corazón 2:20:07 Mario Reis - Jura 2:21:04 Rosita Quiroga - Oíme Negro 2:22:36 Marek Weber - Crepuscule Tango 2:23:32 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 17) 2:23:37 Ethel Waters - My Handy Man (+ Clarence Williams) 2:26:32 Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra - There Ain't No Sweet Man (Worth the Salt of My Tears) 2:29:59 Fred Elizalde & His Music - Crazy Rhythm 2:31:13 Frank Trumbauer and His Orchestra - Bless You Sister 2:32:43 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 6) 2:33:10 Harry McClintock - Big Rock Candy Mountain 2:37:10 Old South Quartette - Oysters And Wine At 2 A.M. 2:37:48 Sol Hoopii & His Novelty Quartette - E Mama Ea 2:39:38 Red Nichols - WAAM Edison Radio Disc (Excerpt 4) 2:39:45 Fritz Kreisler - Indian Lament (Dvorak-arr Kreisler) 2:40:36 Parush Parushev - Zemetresenie V Bulgaria [Earthquake In Bulgaria] 2:41:03 Mordechai Hershman - Akavyo Ben Mahalalel 2:43:03 Abe Schwartz Orchestra - Unzer Toirele 2:45:25 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 7) 2:45:58 Houdini - Uncle Jo' Gimme Mo' 2:47:44 Lionel Belasco Orchestra - Blow Wind Blow 2:49:05 Monk Hazel - High Society 2:51:25 Kumasi Trio - Pen Pen Sin Pen 2:52:55 The Harlem Footwarmers - Diga Diga Doo 2:55:44 The Washingtonians - Jubilee Stomp 2:56:30 McKinney's Cotton Pickers - The Chocolate Dandies 2:57:39 Charles Johnson's Paradise Ten - Hot-Tempered Blues 2:59:13 Hattie Burleson - Jim Nappy 3:00:42 Tampa Red - Through Train Blues 3:02:54 Palmer Mcabee - Lost Boy Blues 3:03:48 Stripling Brothers - The Lost Child 3:05:06 Weems String Band - Greenback Dollar 3:06:06 Clapham & Dwyer - A Day's Broadcasting (Excerpt 8) 3:06:55 Harold Collins and his Orchestra - Fashionette 3:07:45 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 18) 3:07:49 Joe Venuti - Eddie Lang - Wild Cat 3:09:13 Roger Wolfe Kahn - She's A Great Great Girl 3:10:58 King Oliver - Four Or Five Times 3:12:38 Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers - Madison Street Rag 3:13:44 John A. Scott & Mr. Greenfield - Radio program for WAAM, Newark, New Jersey (Excerpt 5) 3:14:06 Paul Robeson - Ol' Man River (+ studio orchestra) 3:16:46 George Bernard Shaw - Fox Movietone Newsreel (Excerpt 4) 3:17:14 Ukulele Ike (Cliff Edwards) - (I'm Cryin' `cause I Know) I'm Losing You 3:20:03 John A. Scott & Mr. Greenfield - Radio program for WAAM, Newark, New Jersey (Excerpt 6) 3:20:07 Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra - Basin Street Blues 3:22:22 The Happiness Boys - Twisting The Dials (Excerpt 19)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

More audio time travel adventures from James and Sean. This time we cover the years 1892 and 1893, the world’s fair in Chicago, a couple of notorious murderers, some rude jokes about Frances Folsom (the wife of the President of the USA), and some popular music hall songs, which may not be as innocent as they seem.

Centuries of Sound is a monthly mix of original music and sounds from a year in history. Right now we’re up to 1928. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a cut-down 45 minute mix, for the full 180-minute version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

It's rare for a decade to top and tail itself as well as the 1920s does. Ten episodes ago we saw the introduction of prohibition, gangsters and speakeasies, Mamie Smith, classic female blues and the race records boom. By 1929, whatever the feeling on the ground, everything sounds very different on record. We have sound film, radio stations and electrical recording technology. No longer is the record industry confined to New York - engineers are now travelling around the USA, recording sounds, spreading their influence across the world. And while we are not operating at quite the pace of 1927 now, as we head into 1929 there are few signs that anything is slowing down.

It is unlikely that most of the musicians here were watching the stock market, but as with all the other external factors above, it was about to have a huge impact on their work. In the summer of 1929 some financiers warned that the market was slowing down, though this was not thought to be a cause for great concern. Economist Irving Fisher, featured in this mix, commented that "stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." By September, however, there was a clear downward trend, with the London Stock Exchange crashing on the 20th. On the 24th October, now referred to as Black Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange also crashed, though it was the still-unmatched 25% two-day fall of the 28th and 29th which saw the most damage done.

The effect on the music business was devastating. Some analyses have record sales falling by 95% over the next couple of years - and there was no way that the majority of labels were going to survive that sort of shock. For the majority of performers, for whom this was already a part-time gig, this was the end of their professional careers. Some would manage to move to radio, or the movies, the two still-profitable fields of entertainment during the great depression, but for many of these artists, these are the last records they would make.

So it's tempting to think of the music in this mix as something of an end-of-term party, but it isn't really true. As far as anyone was concerned, it was business as usual, and if anything most artists seem a little more polished, and in some cases even restrained - though there is still plenty of passion here. The relentless innovation and experimentation of the last two years is still present, but it's being recorded in a more careful, more deliberate way - from small-scale almost field recordings to professional studios, this is the absolute peak of engineering for quite a few years to come.

So that was the 1920s, then - maybe not the best decade for recorded music overall, but easily the one with the greatest improvement from start to finish.

Tracks

0:00:20 Movietone Newsreel - Trooping the Colour (Excerpt 1) 0:00:38 Various - Early Sound Footage of Kyoto, Japan (Excerpt 1) 0:00:57 James Joyce - Anna Livia Plurabelle (Finnegans Wake) (Excerpt 1) 0:01:03 Victor Symphony Orchestra feat. George Gershwin - An American In Paris (Excerpt 1) 0:01:56 Burns and Allen - Lambchops (Excerpt 1) 0:02:24 Duke Ellington & His Cotton Club Orchestra - Cotton Club Stomp 0:04:46 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 1) 0:04:54 Fats Waller - Handful Of Keys 0:07:35 Laurel & Hardy - Unaccustomed As We Are (Excerpt 1) 0:07:47 Bessie Smith - Kitchen Man 0:09:24 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 2) 0:09:36 Bing Crosby - Spell Of The Blues 0:11:59 Walter Ripman MA - Good Speech Lecture (Excerpt 1) 0:12:07 Jack Payne BBC Dance Orchestra - Riding On A Camel In The Desert 0:14:45 James Joyce - Anna Livia Plurabelle (Finnegans Wake) (Excerpt 2) 0:14:58 Messrs. Vyas Bros. - Jalatharangam-Mandolin Duet- Bhupali 0:18:02 David Lloyd George - Unemployment (Excerpt 1) 0:18:06 Don Azpiazu & His Havana Casino Orchestra - El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor) 0:21:34 Domingo Aguirre - El Gato De Aguirre 0:22:36 Horacio Paolantonio and Alfredo Pelaia - Uruguayita 0:23:28 Agustín Barrios - La Catedral 0:24:43 Movietone Newsreel - Trooping the Colour (Excerpt 2) 0:24:51 Sekiya Toshiko - Field Thorns 0:27:15 Various - Early Sound Footage of Kyoto, Japan (Excerpt 2) 0:27:27 Sato Chiyako - Beniya no Musume 0:28:05 Various - Early Sound Footage of Kyoto, Japan (Excerpt 3) 0:28:33 Hotaru Koi - Sekiya Toshiko 0:29:59 Various - Early Sound Footage of Kyoto, Japan (Excerpt 4) 0:30:32 Blind Willie Dunn - Jet Black Blues 0:33:32 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 3) 0:33:50 Jelly-Roll Morton and His Orchestra - Burnin' The Iceberg 0:35:39 Laurel & Hardy - Unaccustomed As We Are (Excerpt 2) 0:35:54 Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra - Ain't Misbehavin' 0:38:32 John Carson & Moonshine Kate - Okeh Medicine Show (Excerpt 1) 0:38:41 Charlie Poole - If The River Was Whiskey 0:40:00 AA Milne - Reads from Pooh's Corner (Excerpt 1) 0:40:31 Bert Ambrose - Tip Toe Through The Tulips 0:41:58 Ramsay MacDonald - Unemployment (Excerpt 1) 0:42:04 Blind Sammie - Travelin' Blues 0:45:05 Robert Wilkins - That's No Way To Get Along 0:46:12 Freeman Stowers - Railroad Blues 0:47:44 Jimmie Rodgers - Waiting For A Train 0:50:25 Eddie Mapp - Riding The Blinds 0:51:13 British Pathe - Monologue from Henry V (Excerpt 1) 0:51:24 Tampa Red's Hokum Jazz Band - My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll 0:53:47 Emmett Miller & Bud Blue - Okeh Medicine Show (Excerpt) 0:54:48 Ethel Waters - Get Up Off Your Knees 0:57:32 Burns and Allen - Lambchops (Excerpt 2) 0:57:57 Alberta Hunter - My Particular Man 0:59:37 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 4) 0:59:48 The Jungle Band - Jungle Jamboree 1:02:46 David Lloyd George - Unemployment (Excerpt 2) 1:02:49 Jabbo Smith's Rhythm Aces - Jazz Battle 1:04:47 John Carson & Moonshine Kate - Okeh Medicine Show (Excerpt 2) 1:05:22 Andy Kirk 12 Clouds Of Joy - Mess-A-Stomp 1:06:06 Jelly Roll Morton - Pep 1:07:45 Fats Waller - Numb Fumblin' 1:08:16 James Ensor - Discours prononcé à l'occasion de son exposition rétrospective au Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles en 1929 (Excerpt 1) 1:08:25 Amadie Breaux, Ophey Breaux & Cleoma Breaux - Ma Blond Est Partie 1:09:45 James Ensor - Discours prononcé à l'occasion de son exposition rétrospective au Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles en 1929 (Excerpt 2) 1:09:53 Bartmon Montet - Je Me Suis En Alle 1:10:35 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 5) 1:10:44 Fred Sugar Hall - I Faw Down And Go Boom (vocal - Arthur Hall) 1:12:02 Burns and Allen - Lambchops (Excerpt 3) 1:12:33 Fred Rich - Singin' In The Rain 1:14:54 Song Mei-Ling - Newsreel Speech 1:15:00 Nicholas DeHeer - Ewuri Beka 1:15:49 Victor Symphony Orchestra feat. George Gershwin - An American In Paris (Excerpt 2) 1:18:03 Henry Newbolt - Vitai Lampada (Excerpt) 1:18:27 Stokowski - Stravinsky 'Rite of Spring' 1:19:33 Alfred Hitchcock - Knife scene from Blackmail 1:19:57 Lizzie Miles - I Hate A Man Like You (+ Jelly Roll Morton) 1:21:42 Henry Newbolt - Drake's Drum (Excerpt 1) 1:21:58 Ricardo Borges de Sousa, João de Matos & Eduardo Alves - Fado Espanhol E Alexandrino 1:23:12 G. de Sousa & S. Freire - Variações sobre o fado corrido 1:25:20 Maria Alice - O Louco 1:27:13 João Pernambuco - Sonho De Magia 1:28:13 João de Matos & Eduardo Alves - Fado de outros tempos 1:29:39 Margaret Bondfield - Speech (Excerpt 1) 1:29:59 Abd-ol-Hoseyn Shahnazi - Mavara'-an-Nahr (Rast!Panjgah) 1:30:14 The Jungle Band - Tiger Rag 1:33:06 Burns and Allen - Lambchops (Excerpt 4) 1:33:11 Seven Gallon Jug Band - Wipe Em Off 1:35:46 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 6) 1:35:58 The Bubbling Over Five - Don't Mistreat Your Good Boyfriend 1:37:18 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 7) 1:37:34 Bowman Sisters - Old Lonesome Blues 1:38:35 Alabama Sacred Harp Singers - Present Joys 1:39:23 Rev. D. C. Rice and Congregation - In The Battlefield For My Lord 1:41:29 Rev. J.M. Milton - The Black Camel of Death 1:43:56 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 8) 1:44:21 Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band - The Indian Tom Tom 1:45:26 Roy Harvey & Leonard Copeland - Lonesome Weary Blues 1:48:17 John Carson & Moonshine Kate - Okeh Medicine Show (Excerpt 3) 1:48:27 Dallas String Band with Coley Jones - Shine 1:49:44 James Joyce - Anna Livia Plurabelle (Finnegans Wake) (Excerpt 3) 1:49:57 The Carter Family - John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man 1:51:49 AA Milne - Reads from Pooh's Corner (Excerpt 2) 1:51:56 Gid Tanner & His Skillet-Lickers - It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' 1:53:03 Emmett Miller & Moonshine Kate - Okeh Medicine Show (Excerpt) 1:53:13 Earl Hines - Everybody Loves My Baby 1:54:28 Walter Ripman MA - Good Speech Lecture (Excerpt 2) 1:54:37 Arthur Miles - Lonely Cowboy Part 1 1:54:56 Luis Russell - New Call Of The Freaks 1:57:04 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 9) 1:57:17 Joe Venuti - Running Ragged (Blue Four) 1:59:22 Ramsay MacDonald - Unemployment (Excerpt 2) 1:59:56 Bessie Smith - St.Louis Blues 2:01:47 Margaret Bondfield - Speech (Excerpt 2) 2:02:01 Clara Smith - It's Tight Like That 2:05:10 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 10) 2:05:28 Roosevelt Sykes - Boot That Thing 2:07:32 Meade Lux Lewis - Honky Tonk Train 2:09:30 Walter Ripman MA - Good Speech Lecture (Excerpt 3) 2:09:45 Rudy Vallee - Baby Oh Where Can You Be? 2:12:56 James Joyce - Anna Livia Plurabelle (Finnegans Wake) (Excerpt 4) 2:13:01 Frank Stokes - I Got Mine 2:14:25 British Pathe - Monologue from Henry V (Excerpt 2) 2:14:31 Walter Page's Blue Devils - Squabblin' 2:17:31 Burns and Allen - Lambchops (Excerpt 5) 2:17:55 Karol Stoch - Na Lysej Polanie (On Lysej Polana) 2:19:37 Julie Marsellaise - Yama Na Chauf Haja Tegennen 2:20:51 Mussolini - Movietone Speech 29 Jan 1929 2:21:13 Blind Blake - Hastings Street 2:22:27 Melvin Dupree - Augusta Rag 2:23:12 Interviews With Elderly People Throughout The US (Excerpt 11) 2:23:31 Louis Armstrong And His Savoy Ballroom Five - Mahogany Hall Stomp 2:26:41 Movietone Newsreel - Trooping the Colour (Excerpt 3) 2:26:49 Irving Fisher - Speech 2:26:56 Sergei Rachmaninov & Philadelphia Orchestra - Piano Concerto N°2 in C minor Op.18 - III. Allegro scherzo 2:28:12 Eddie Cantor - Tips On The Stock Market (Excerpt 1) 2:28:23 Jabbo Smith's Rhythm Aces - Till Times Get Better 2:30:10 Eddie Cantor - Tips On The Stock Market (Excerpt 2) 2:30:28 Victor Symphony Orchestra feat. George Gershwin - An American In Paris (Excerpt 3) 2:30:43 James Joyce - Anna Livia Plurabelle (Finnegans Wake) (Excerpt 5) 2:30:54 Movietone Newsreel - Closing Theme

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

James and Sean continue their voyage into the distant history of sound recording. This time we cover the years 1894 and 1895, a time of popular unrest, great literature, and a burgeoning wax cylinder market, with at least two songs bound to be familiar to listeners in the present day. Also, as ever, plenty of Americans with moustaches, middle initials and banjos.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it's only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a cut-down 60 minute mix, for the full 180-minute version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

The crash has happened, then, the music industry has gone down with the Dow, and there's no sign of anyone reviving it. I therefore approached this year with low expectations. Perhaps we would have music of the standard of say 1925, just with higher production standards. I was wrong.

1925 is still a good year to look to though, these two mixes are linked by a common thread; Russian documentary film-maker Dziga Vertov. As the cut-up sound collages he made in 1925 influenced the jagged sound of that year's mix, so a series of samples from his documentary "Enthusiasm" - along with pieces from Walter Ruttman's pioneering audio montage "Wochenende" - form the backbone of this also fairly harsh / jagged mix.

This time, however, the explosion in sound film has given me a lot more in terms of audio samples to cut up and push together. By "a lot more" I mean that the diverse qualities and sheer volume of source material which has gone into this mix made it feel like a huge project on its own. I feel like I've just lived through 1930. It was a fascinating time, this might well be the best mix I've made, but I also feel exhausted and emotionally drained by the experience. I am confident that this feeling doesn't come through in the mix, by the way.

Normally here I would write a longer blurb, but this time, well, sorry, that's it, but here's the music, go listen to it.

Tracklist

0:00:21 MGM Studios - Lion's Roar 0:00:27 Groucho Marx - Animal Crackers (Excerpt 1) 0:00:29 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 1) 0:00:37 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 1) 0:00:50 Louis Armstrong - Dear Old Southland 0:04:05 James Sibley Watson - Tomatos Another Day (Excerpt 1) 0:04:08 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 2) 0:04:25 Jonuzi Me Shoket - Vome Kaba 0:05:23 M. Nguyen Van Minh-Con - Nam Nhi-Tu 0:06:09 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 2) 0:06:24 Irving Mills Hotsy Totsy Gang - Deep Harlem 0:08:04 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 3) 0:08:16 George Bernard Shaw - New Talk To Movietone (Excerpt 1) 0:08:34 Big Bill Broonzy - Hip Shakin' Strut 0:11:29 Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont - Animal Crackers (Excerpt 2) 0:11:45 Barbecue Joe and his Hot Dogs - Tar Paper Stomp (Wingy's Stomp) 0:13:30 Jean Harlow - Hells Angels (Excerpt 1) 0:13:46 Lucille Bogan - They Ain't Walking No More 0:15:45 James Sibley Watson - Tomatos Another Day (Excerpt 2) 0:16:02 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 3) 0:16:06 Cyganska Orchestra Stefana - Cyganske Vesilia, Pt. 4 0:17:23 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 4) 0:17:46 Lotte Lenya - Alabama Song 0:19:10 Marlene Dietrich - Blue Angel Screentest (Excerpt 1) 0:19:15 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 5) 0:19:30 Marlene Dietrich - Falling In Love Again 0:21:03 Marlene Dietrich - Ich Bin Von Kopf Biss Fuss 0:22:29 Marlene Dietrich - Blue Angel Screentest (Excerpt 2) 0:22:31 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 6) 0:22:54 Louis Davids - Kleine Man (soundtrack) 0:23:48 Albert Einstein - Einstein Speaks (1930 Movietone Moment) 0:23:58 Comedian Harmonists - Wochenend Und Sonnenschein 0:25:06 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 7) 0:25:15 Lotte Lenya - Denn wie man sich bettet, so liegt man 0:27:17 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 8) 0:27:31 Joe Venuti - Wild Dog 0:28:55 British Pathe - The Greatest Road Race Ever! (Excerpt 1) 0:29:00 Casa Loma Orchestra - San Sue S 0:30:57 British Pathe - Giant British Air Liner (Excerpt 1) 0:31:06 Fletcher Henderson - Chinatown My Chinatown 0:32:59 Unknown Performers - Unknown (Cantonese) 0:33:08 Nai Po & Thai Royal Page Military Brass Band - Pleng Khrawp Chakara Wan Thao Tawn Abu Hassan Taeng Ngan 0:34:42 Mr. Muean & Ms. Aet, The Sak Som Peo Ensemble - Srey Sroh Mien Thrung 0:36:00 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 4) 0:36:17 Jimmie Davis - Doggone That Train 0:37:42 British Pathe - Giant British Air Liner (Excerpt 2) 0:37:56 Jimmie Rodgers - Hobo Bill's Last Ride 0:40:27 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 5) 0:40:35 Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers - Money Never Runs Out 0:42:13 Edward G. Robinson - Little Caesar (Excerpt 1) 0:42:23 Cab Calloway and His Orchestra - The Viper's Drag 0:45:42 Greta Garbo - Anna Christie (Excerpt 1) 0:45:56 The Jungle Band - Tiger Rag (Part II) 0:47:23 Groucho Marx - Animal Crackers (Excerpt 3) 0:47:25 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 6) 0:47:29 Askari Wa K.A.R. Ya Sita (6th K.A.R.) - Kofia Nyekundu 0:49:24 Mbaruk Talsam - Comic Sketch 0:50:21 Richard Ábé Brown Band - Bārā Sānābo Bārā 0:51:35 John Gilbert - Speech in front of the court in Redemption (Excerpt 1) 0:51:42 Caluza's Double Quartet - Imini Ifikile 0:52:47 Blind Willie Johnson - John The Revelator 0:54:31 Rev. D.C. Rice - We Got the Same Kinda Power Over Here 0:56:31 Elder Curry - Memphis Flu 0:58:31 Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers - Thou Carest Lord, For Me 0:59:16 James A Fitzpatrick - Movie Horoscope (Excerpt 1) 0:59:25 Jack Hylton - Great Day 1:00:45 Santa Claus - Meets Calvin Coolidge 1:00:57 Paul Whiteman - Ragamuffin' Romeo 1:02:39 Elinor Glyn - Explains IT! (Excerpt 1) 1:02:57 Ethel Waters - Three Little Words 1:05:51 Anne Sullivan - Newsreel Footage 1:06:01 Jack Payne BBC Dance Orchestra - My Baby Just Cares For Me 1:07:17 Jack Payne BBC Dance Orchestra - Will Anybody Here Have A Drink? 1:08:55 GrigoraÈ™ Dinicu - Ca Pe Luncă 1:11:29 Greta Garbo - Anna Christie (Excerpt 2) 1:11:32 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 9) 1:11:53 Josephine Baker - J' Ai Deux Amours 1:13:26 Lucienne Boyer - Dans La Fumée 1:15:26 British Pathe - Great Danes (Excerpt 1) 1:15:47 Maurice Chevalier - Livin' In The Sunlight 1:17:54 Georgius - Je suis blasé 1:19:33 Pola Illéry & Albert Préjean - Sous les toits de Paris 1:19:45 Ruth Etting - Ten Cents A Dance 1:21:57 James Sibley Watson - Tomatos Another Day (Excerpt 3) 1:22:14 Boswell Sisters - That's What I Like About You 1:24:13 Charles Farrell - Love Scene from Liliom (Excerpt 1) 1:24:24 Luis Russell & His Orchestra - Panama 1:27:40 Laurel & Hardy - Scene from The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (Excerpt 1) 1:27:47 Ben Tobier And His California Cyclones - Hot And Heavy 1:30:15 President Cosgrave - British Pathe Newsreel (Excerpt 1) 1:30:29 Fred Astaire - Puttin On The Ritz 1:32:02 British Pathe & Albert Einstein - Relatively Speaking … He's Delighted! 1:32:13 Ben Selvin - Happy Days Are Here Again 1:34:06 Robert Montgomerie - The Big House (Excerpt) 1:34:10 Memphis Jug Band - Cocaine Habit Blues 1:36:56 Reichsprassident Von Hindenburg - Am Rhein! Aka Reichsprafident (Excerpt 1) 1:37:07 Chuck Darling - Blowing Blues 1:37:54 Dilly and his Dill Pickles - Pickin' Off Peanuts 1:39:21 Emmett Miller - Sam's New Job (Excerpt) 1:39:37 Yank Rachel With Sleepy John Estes & Jab Jones - Sweet Mama 1:41:12 Greta Garbo - Anna Christie (Excerpt 3) 1:41:15 Mississippi Bracey - You Scolded Me And Drove Me 1:42:59 British Pathe - The Fastest Game In The World 1:43:09 Roy Harvey & Jess Johnson - Jefferson Street Rag 1:45:18 Calvin Coolidge - Meets Santa Claus 1:45:28 Lil McClintock - Don't Think I'm Santa Claus 1:46:32 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 10) 1:46:47 Son House - My Black Mama, Pt. 1 & 2 1:48:41 Willie Walker - South Carolina Rag 1:50:56 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 6) 1:51:25 Walter Page - Blue Devil Blues 1:54:07 Helen Keller & Anne Sullivan - 1930 Newsreel Footage (Excerpt 2) 1:54:35 Carmen Miranda - Deixa Disso 1:55:35 James A Fitzpatrick - Movie Horoscope (Excerpt 2) 1:55:44 Orquesta Tipica Porteña - Esponjita 1:56:50 British Pathe - Soccer Again 1:56:57 California Rambers - The Peanut Vendor 1:59:24 British Pathe - Great Danes (Excerpt 2) 1:59:30 Joe Venuti's Blue Four - Raggin' The Scale 2:00:40 George Bernard Shaw - New Talk To Movietone (Excerpt 2) 2:00:57 Fritz Kreisler - Liebesleid (Kreisler) (Love's Sorrow) 2:02:07 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 11) 2:02:37 Llaqi Me Llautte - Havazi I Dy Motrave 2:03:20 Norma Shearer & Chester Morris - The Divorcee (Excerpt 1) 2:03:54 Madame Hafize & Selim - Sta Triya (Treshe (In Three) Dance) 2:04:21 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 7) 2:04:39 James Sibley Watson - Tomatos Another Day (Excerpt 4) 2:04:53 King Oliver - Mule Face Blues 2:07:46 Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont - Animal Crackers (Excerpt 4) 2:08:06 Bix Beiderbecke Orchestra - I'll Be A Friend With Pleasure 2:09:39 Red Nichols & His Five Pennies - Bug-A-Boo 2:12:47 British Pathe - The Greatest Road Race Ever! (Excerpt 2) 2:12:53 Louis Armstrong - St. Louis Blues 2:13:56 Cab Calloway - St. Louis Blues 2:16:03 Charles Farrell - Love Scene from Liliom (Excerpt 2) 2:16:04 Frankie Trumbauer & His Orchestra - Get Happy 2:18:28 Groucho Marx - Animal Crackers (Excerpt 5) 2:18:33 James P Johnson - Jingles 2:20:30 Jack Payne BBC Dance Orchestra - Any Rags Bottles Or Bones 2:21:02 A.A. Gray & Seven Foot Dilly - Streak of Lean, Streak of Fat 2:22:14 Greta Garbo - Anna Christie (Excerpt 4) 2:22:17 Jimmie Rodgers - Those Gambler's Blues 2:24:58 John Gilbert - Speech in front of the court in Redemption (Excerpt 2) 2:25:09 Geeshie Wiley - Last Kind Words Blues 2:26:23 Edward G. Robinson - Little Caesar (Excerpt 2) 2:26:31 Giftiddle Jim - Paddlin' Blues 2:29:43 Laurel & Hardy - Scene from The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (Excerpt 2) 2:29:51 Charley Patton - High Water Everywhere (part 1) 2:31:41 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 12) 2:32:05 Delta Big Four - We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun 2:33:03 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 8) 2:33:11 Cheikha Tetma - Guenene Tini 2:33:28 Urbano A. Zafra & Mauro Baradi - Danza Filipina 2:35:02 Elinor Glyn - Explains IT! (Excerpt 2) 2:35:12 Sak Som Peo Ensemble - Phleng Boran 2:37:02 James Sibley Watson - Tomatos Another Day (Excerpt 5) 2:37:15 Los Jardineros - Conversacion 2:38:24 George Bernard Shaw - New Talk To Movietone (Excerpt 3) 2:38:32 António Landeiro - Variações Sobre o Fado Corrido Em Ré Maior 2:39:50 Jean Harlow - Hells Angels (Excerpt 2) 2:39:55 Fred Rich - I Got Rhythm (vocal Smith Ballew) 2:42:21 Charles Farrell - Love Scene from Liliom (Excerpt 3) 2:42:33 The Jungle Band - Mood Indigo 2:44:46 Reichsprassident Von Hindenburg - Am Rhein! Aka Reichsprafident (Excerpt 2) 2:44:50 Barbecue Joe and his Hot Dogs - Tin Roof Blues 2:45:36 Missourians - Swingin' Dem Cats 2:47:00 Bennie Moten - Bouncin' Round 2:48:15 President Cosgrave - British Pathe Newsreel (Excerpt 2) 2:48:20 Joe Venuti - I've Found A New Baby 2:51:14 James Sibley Watson - Tomatos Another Day (Excerpt 6) 2:51:28 Willie Brown - Future Blues 2:52:58 Bayless Rose - Jamestown Exhibition 2:54:45 Groucho & Zeppo Marx - Animal Crackers (Excerpt 6) 2:54:50 The Deauville Syncopators - Cheerful Little Earful 2:56:36 Elinor Glyn - Explains IT! (Excerpt 3) 2:56:55 Helen Kane - How Are You? 2:57:41 Newsreel - Hells Angels Premiere 2:58:00 Dziga Vertov - Enthusiasm! The Dombass Symphony (Excerpt 9) 2:58:14 Julius Meytuss - Dnieprostroi, The Dnieper Hydro-electric Power Station 2:59:17 Walter Ruttmann - Wochende (Excerpt 13) 2:59:36 Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra - 1812 Overture Op. 49 3:00:39 George Bernard Shaw - New Talk To Movietone (Excerpt 4) 3:00:57 Ben Bernie - Au Revoir Pleasant Dreams 3:02:30 Lewis Milestone - All Quiet on the Western Front (Excerpt)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

James and Sean use their audio archeology skills to take you on another time travel adventure with original recordings from the distant past. This time we visit 1896 and 1897, hear the birth pangs of something not yet called ragtime, find out the true origins of ‘The Laughing Policeman’ and hear some jokes so rude that the performer was actually sent to jail.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only the first 45 minutes. For the full 160-minute version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

It almost certainly goes without saying that the great depression was difficult time for many people around the world, but in any reshuffling a few unexpected cards will come to the top of the deck. In this darkest year of the period, a few artists were at the apex of their success, and for whatever reason the music and films they made seem to have fixed themselves in the popular consciousness better than anything from the previous few years.

In our just-passed golden age, Cab Calloway hadn't been doing that well. After a few years of touring around the USA with his more successful band-leader sister Blanche, he'd set himself up in New York with his own group, but following a disastrous debut at the Savoy Ballroom, they split up. Forced to take a job as a singer in the musical Connie's Hot Chocolates, he found a new band, and by 1930 they were the star attraction at The Cotton Club, and about to release the first million-selling single by an African-American artist.

Minnie The Moocher was not entirely an original piece, in the way that nothing really is. The bulk of it was sourced from a much earlier song called Willie the Weeper, and many of the adaptations had already been made in a 1927 version by Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon. Even the sleazy, funky style of Calloway's band was lifted largely from his sister Blanche, who would also do scat singing not far from the "hi de hi de hi de ho" refrain. But there's no denying that Cab himself is an electrifying presence, even ninety years later - where Louis Armstrong is warm and welcoming, he's aggressive, preening and feline in a way we won't really get again until the birth of rock & roll. The song is pretty shocking too - beneath the flimsiest of euphemistic slang terms it's a story about cocaine and opium use and open displays of female sexuality, and you have to wonder how many listeners got that - I would wager the answer is "surprisingly many" — though perhaps not Al Bowlly, whose version I probably won't be including in the 1932 mix.

1931 was a bumper year for this sort of thing in Hollywood too. Though the censorship regimen The Hays Code was officially adopted in 1930, it wouldn't really be taken seriously until 1934, and it feels like producers were going as far as they could before someone stopped them. High profile movies this year include morally-ambiguous gangster pictures Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, stories about a secretary-turned-prostitute (Safe In Hell), lurid parties (Dance, Fools, Dance) and open mockery of religion (The Miracle Woman.) This was a massive year for horror movies too, with the release of the classic versions of Dracula, Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde and Frankenstein, the latter directed by James Whale, an openly-gay British man whose career would later be derailed by his open conflict with Hitler a few years before the rest of the western world joined in.

Hollywood might have been having a golden age, but the same cannot of course be said about the record business - in fact movie musicals were really the only growth area for musicians this year. While some companies had remained afloat in 1930, further economic shocks from Germany had now done for what was left of their business. Of course important bandleaders were still being recorded, but the expeditions to record across The South had mostly withered and died.

The vital exception to this is the guitar blues coming out of the Mississippi Delta. Skip James from Bentonia, Mississippi and Son House from Lyon, Mississippi both managed to make their way to Grafton, Wisconsin, to record for Paramount Records - the songs they recorded were some of the final echoes of the explosion of 1927, but they resonated more than almost any others, and after 30 years away from the microphone for both performers, their discovery by blues fans in the early 1960s would make them a vital piece in the development of music in the remainder of the century.

Tracklist

0:00:23 Will Rogers - Bacon, Beans, and Limousines (Excerpt 1) 0:00:29 Cab Calloway and His Orchestra - Minnie The Moocher 0:03:36 James Cagney - The Public Enemy Piano Scene (Excerpt 1) 0:03:42 Harlem Footwarmers - Rockin' in Rhythm 0:06:03 Colin Clive - Frankenstein (Excerpt 1) 0:06:31 The Boswell Sisters - It's You 0:09:35 The Mills Brothers - Nobody's Sweetheart Now 0:11:57 Isaac Pitman - Pitman's Gramophone Course (Excerpt 1) 0:12:03 Jazz-Band Sam Libermann - Sandeman 0:14:26 Will Rogers - Bacon, Beans, and Limousines (Excerpt 2) 0:14:32 Hazekiah Jenkins - The Panic Is On 0:16:54 Will Rogers - Bacon, Beans, and Limousines (Excerpt 3) 0:17:13 Bessie Smith - Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl 0:18:40 Bessie Smith - Safety Mama 0:20:04 James Cagney - The Public Enemy Piano Scene (Excerpt 2) 0:20:10 Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra - Lazy River 0:23:14 Johnny Mack Brown - Berk Jarvis' Inspirational Speech from The Great Meadow (Excerpt 1) 0:23:23 Skip James - Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues 0:25:22 Johnny Mack Brown - Berk Jarvis' Inspirational Speech from The Great Meadow (Excerpt 2) 0:25:38 Duke Ellington Orchestra - Creole Rhapsody 0:30:13 Chants Populaires Tahitiens - Chant D´Amour 0:31:03 Sol K. Bright - Tomi Tomi 0:33:08 Ronald Colman - Arrowsmith (Excerpt 1) 0:33:14 Fatma El Chameya Sudaneya - Gawadallah 0:34:30 DJelouwei Wenike Ahlanon - Pantanon 0:34:57 Fredric March - Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Excerpt 1) 0:35:38 Kju Pora - Ke Tre Urat Për Matanë (Across Three Bridges) 0:36:19 Peter Lorre - Kangaroo Court Scene from M 0:36:48 Alexander Mossolov - Zavod, Symphony Of Machines 0:38:09 Colin Clive - Frankenstein (Excerpt 2) 0:38:22 Albert Whelan - My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies 0:41:08 Groucho Marx - Monkey Business (Excerpt) 0:41:17 Toña La Negre - El Cacahuatero 0:43:05 Mahatma Gandhi - 1931 Oct 20 - English (Excerpt 1) 0:43:14 Paul Robeson - River Stay Away From My Door 0:44:57 Beans Hambone & El Morrow - Beans 0:46:43 Laurel and Hardy - One Good Turn (Excerpt 1) 0:46:50 Gene Autry - Do Right Daddy Blues 0:48:53 Will Rogers - Bacon, Beans, and Limousines (Excerpt 4) 0:48:59 Willie Brown - Future Blues 0:50:19 James Dunn - Scene from 'Bad Girl' 0:50:29 Skip James - Cypress Grove Blues 0:52:24 Skip James - Devil Got My Woman 0:54:10 Rev. Emmet Dickenson - Hell and What It Is (Excerpt 1) 0:54:18 Bryant's Jubilee Quartet - I'll Be Satisfied 0:55:39 Mahatma Gandhi - 1931 Oct 20 - English (Excerpt 2) 0:55:52 Maddilla Satyamoorthy - Violin Instrumental- Parimala Rangapathey (Kambhoji) 0:57:04 Mahatma Gandhi - 1931 Oct 20 - English (Excerpt 3) 0:57:09 Jimmie Rodgers & The Carter Family - Jimmie Rodgers Visits The Carter Family 1:00:23 Jimmie Rodgers - Mississippi River Blues 1:01:49 Ramsay Macdonald - Speaks To The Nation (Excerpt 1) 1:01:54 Leroy Carr - Papa's On The House Top 1:03:22 David Lloyd George - Speaks To The Nation (Excerpt 1) 1:03:24 The Baltimore Bell Hops - Hot And Anxious 1:04:21 Don Redman - Shakin' The African 1:06:58 Claudette Colbert - The Smiling Lieutenant (Excerpt) 1:07:09 Mississippi Sheiks - Bed Spring Poker 1:08:51 Will Rogers - Bacon, Beans, and Limousines (Excerpt 5) 1:09:09 Slim Smith - Bread Line Blues 1:12:22 Arthur Henderson MP - General Election 1931 1:12:36 Al Bowlly accompanied by orchestra - I'd Rather Be A Beggar With You 1:14:23 Norma Shearer & Robert Montgomery - Private Lives (Excerpt) 1:14:29 Cab Calloway and His Orchestra - Kicking The Gong Around 1:16:57 James Cagney - The Public Enemy Piano Scene (Excerpt 3) 1:16:59 Noble Sissle and His Orchestra - The Basement Blues 1:20:11 Bela Lugosi - Scene from Dracula (Excerpt 1) 1:20:14 Seger Ellis - Montana Call 1:23:31 Jean Renoir - La Chienne (Excerpt) 1:23:42 Les Freres Péguri - Enivrante 1:25:00 René Clair - À nous la liberté 1:25:12 Uncredited Pinpeat Ensemble - Teb Bantom (Cambodia) 1:26:01 Pierre Laval - Speech About His Forthcoming German Visit 1:26:10 Fujiyama Ichiro - Sake ha Namida ka Tameike ka 1:27:40 FT Marinetti - Sintesi Musicali Futuriste 1:28:14 D. Busuttil u il Cumpanija Musica V.Ciappara - Festa ta Rahal 1:29:11 Carlo Satariano - Maddalena 1:29:25 Adolfo Carabelli Y Su Orquesta Tipica - Me Vuelves Loco 1:31:08 Fredric March - Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Excerpt 2) 1:31:15 Washboard Rhythm Kings - Call Of The Freaks 1:33:59 Wallace Beery - The Champ 1931 (Ending scene) (Excerpt 1) 1:34:15 Ted Lewis and his Band - Dallas Blues 1:36:34 Glen Gray and his Orchestra - Casa Loma Stomp 1:39:25 Albert Whelan - Pass! Shoot!! Goal!!! 1:41:31 The Mills Brothers - Tiger Rag 1:43:23 Laurel and Hardy - One Good Turn (Excerpt 2) 1:43:35 Bing Crosby And The Mills Brothers - Dinah 1:45:11 Ronald Colman - Arrowsmith (Excerpt 2) 1:45:20 Wilmoth Houdini - I Need a Man 1:47:34 Edward, Price of Wales (future King Edward VIII) - Speech on trade with Argentine 1:47:40 Cuarteto Flores - Cecilia 1:49:40 Ramsay MacDonald - General Election 1931 1:49:55 Julio J. Martínez Oyanguren - Jota 1:52:27 Adolphe Menjou - The Front Page Ending scene (Excerpt 1) 1:52:32 G.Cefai - Imhabba fuk il bahar 1:54:24 Rev. Emmet Dickenson - Hell and What It Is (Excerpt 2) 1:54:46 Sam Collins - Lonesome Road Blues 1:55:58 Wallace Beery - The Champ 1931 (Ending scene) (Excerpt 2) 1:56:06 Sexteto Okeh - Estrella De Oriente 1:57:35 James Cagney - The Public Enemy Piano Scene (Excerpt 4) 1:57:41 Clyde McCoy & His Orchestra - Sugar Blues 2:00:32 Marlene Dietrich - Jonny 2:01:41 Comedian Harmonists - Mein Lieber Schatz Bist Du Aus Spanien 2:04:25 Ambrose And His Orchestra - Yes, Yes ('My Baby Said Yes') 2:05:30 James Cagney - The Public Enemy Piano Scene (Excerpt 5) 2:05:35 Jacques Renard & His Orchestra - As Time Goes By 2:07:01 Isaac Pitman - Pitman's Gramophone Course (Excerpt 2) 2:07:18 Akropong Singing Band - Monyi Moho Adi 2:08:29 Marguerite and Razanatsoa - Dia Veloma I Said Omar 2:10:21 Rev. F. W. McGee - Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room 2:13:00 Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk - Daniel Saw the Stone 2:14:22 Rev. Emmet Dickenson - Hell and What It Is (Excerpt 3) 2:14:37 Willie Walker - Dupree Blues 2:16:21 Son House - My Black Mama - Part I 2:18:11 Ramsay Macdonald - Speaks To The Nation (Excerpt 2) 2:18:18 A. Kostis - I Filaki ine Scholio 2:19:21 Bela Lugosi and A Wolf - Scene from Dracula (Excerpt 2) 2:19:38 Josef Pizio - Pidkamecka Kolomyjka 2:20:15 Adolphe Menjou - The Front Page Ending scene (Excerpt 2) 2:20:29 Middle Georgia Singing Convention No. 1 - Bells of Love 2:21:48 Boswell Sisters - Shout, Sister, Shout 2:22:48 Clark Gable - Possessed (Excerpt) 2:22:49 Sato Chiyako - Kage o Shitaete 2:23:44 Winston Churchill - General Election 1931 (Excerpt) 2:23:51 Kyle Wooten - Choking Blues 2:25:37 Ted Lewis & His Band feat. Fats Waller - Royal Garden Blues 2:28:32 Mahatma Gandhi - 1931 Oct 20 - English (Excerpt 4) 2:28:46 Louis Armstrong - Stardust 2:32:18 The Charleston Chasers - Basin Street Blues 2:34:43 British Pathe - The Crisis! (1931) 2:34:46 Adolphe Menjou - The Front Page Ending scene (Excerpt 3) 2:34:48 Al Bowlly with Ray Noble & His Orchestra - Goodnight Sweetheart

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

This compilation of Christmas recordings spans an era which includes the entirety of WW1 and the influenza pandemic of 1918/1919, but of course you wouldn't guess it from the contents. The only reminder perhaps is the two different versions of "Silent Night", which was famously sung by opposing sides in the trenches at Christmas 1914.

I'm presenting this in two formats - a mix, which is on my main feed at centuriesofsound.com and as a compilation, which is only available to patrons. Join my patreon at patreon.com/centuriesofsound and get a load of bonus content like this, as well as helping this site to survive in these very difficult times.

Here is the tracklist, the same for both versions.

00:00 Harry E. Humphrey - Santa Claus Hides In Your Phonograph 03:17 Choir Of The Royal Court Opera With Orchestra And Church Bells, Acc. Harmonium, Bells - Silent Night, Holy Night 06:07 Gilbert Girard - Santa Claus Tells of Mother Goose Land 07:43 Band - Christmas Memories 11:41 Nebe-Quartett - O Tannenbaum 13:31 Albert Whelan - Scrooge's Awakening 15:44 Edison Concert Band - Bells Of Christmas 19:55 Thomas Edison - Mr. Edison's Christmas Greetings 24:05 George Hamilton Green Novelty Orchestra - Moonlight Waltz 27:36 George Islon - Christmas Eve In The Old Homestead 30:06 Edison Mixed Quartet - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 33:07 Metropolitan Quartet - Christmas, Christmas, Blessed, Blessed Day 36:34 Bransby Williams - The Street Watchman's Christmas 40:29 Edison Concert Band And The Edison Mixed Quartet - Ring Out The Bells For Christmas 44:40 Carol Singers - Joy To The World 47:06 Yolande Noble And Percy Clifton - Buying The Christmas Dinner 49:20 Robert Gayler - Christmas Eve- a Fantasie On Old German Christmas Carols 52:17 Manuel Romain - Christmas Time Seems Years And Years Away 54:14 Harry E. Humphrey - The Night Before Christmas 57:35 Elizabeth Spencer, Harry Anthony And James F. Harrison - Silent Night

Merry Christmas!

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only the first 55 minutes. For the full 170-minute version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

I have spent the last month inhabiting 2019, and it was a strange, alienating, disconcerting, but also surprisingly peaceful experience. As you will hear, it was hardly a lost age of innocence, but for a year which only finished 12 months ago it felt very distant indeed. So much has happened in 2020, and so much has already gone on in these few days of 2021, that the events of this recent period seem already to have disappeared prematurely into the memory hole. Maybe this is all for very good reasons and 2019 is the least interesting of all years right now. Maybe this mix will be ignored, and with good reason, which is a shame, as I think it may be one of the best so far, but it may be a few years before anyone feels like listening to it.

I should put a brief warning here - the mix not only contains swears and raunchiness, there are also some parts from about 1:17 to 1:22 which may be upsetting to just about anyone. It felt wrong to leave them out. I may get around to making a PG version, but it depends on whether I can find the time. So for now, consider yourself warned.

0:00:00 Hildur Guðnadóttir - 12 Hours Before 0:00:36 Floating Points - Falaise 0:02:04 Clipping. - Blood Of The Fang 0:04:35 Шакке (Schacke) - Кислотный Пипл (Kisloty People) 0:05:57 Charlotte Adigéry - High Lights 0:08:43 Yung Baby Tate feat. Kari Faux - Hot Girl 0:10:21 Cate Le Bon - Daylight Matters 0:12:24 Neon Indian - Toyota Man 0:15:05 Algiers - Can The Sub_Bass Speak? 0:18:52 Black Country, New Road - Sunglasses 0:23:16 Scratcha Dva X Gage - Piffd 0:24:46 Charli XCX & Christine And The Queens - Gone 0:27:17 Roisin Murphy - Incapable 0:29:55 Fka Twigs - Cellophane 0:33:21 Little Simz feat. Cleo Sol - Selfish 0:34:56 Ocean Wisdom - Blessed (feat. Dizzee Rascal) 0:38:14 Sampa The Great, Ecca Vandal - Dare To Fly 0:41:13 Zlatan - This Year 0:43:30 Busy Signal - Balloon 0:45:44 Aldous Harding - The Barrel 0:47:31 Lil Nas X - Old Town Road (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus) [Remix] 0:49:48 Billie Eilish - Bad Guy 0:51:29 Tom Blip & Swordman Kitala - Kitala Beat 0:53:20 Taso & Siete Catorce - 2 For $20 0:53:33 International Teachers Of Pop - The Ballad Of Remedy Nilsson 0:56:39 Dave - Streatham 0:57:38 Alessandro Cortini - Let Go 0:59:17 Snapped Ankles - Rechargeable 1:01:25 Cassetteboy - Boris Johnson 1:01:31 Ice Cream - Peanut Butter 1:03:37 Equiknoxx - Brooklyn 1:05:29 Peggy Gou - Starry Night (Original Mix) 1:07:48 Xhz - Jazz 2 Jazz 1:10:58 Four Tet - Only Human 1:12:06 Octo Octa - I Need You 1:14:20 Jocelyn Pook with Greta Thunberg - You Need To Listen To Us 1:15:54 W. H. Lung - Nothing Is 1:17:30 Hildur Guðnadóttir - 12 Hours Before 1:19:13 Caterina Barbieri - Fantas 1:21:00 Christopher Tignor - Your Slow Moving Shadow, My Inevitable Light 1:21:40 Purple Mountains - Nights That Won’t Happen 1:24:12 Sulli - Goblin 1:26:00 Gang Starr - Family And Loyalty (feat. J. Cole) 1:26:55 Von Bikräv - Casse Des Murs 1:27:37 Stormzy - Vossi Bop 1:29:22 Bas - Amnesia (feat. Ari Lennox & Kiddominant) 1:30:47 Brittany Howard - Stay High 1:33:22 Richard Dawson - Jogging 1:36:50 Lizzo - Juice 1:39:14 Whodat - Funeral Song 1:40:23 Nilufer Yanya - Paradise 1:42:38 Shura - Bklynldn 1:45:36 Bremer/Mccoy - DrÃ¥ber 1:47:01 Celer - Our Dream To Be Strangers 1:48:06 Lingua Ignota - Do You Doubt Me Traitor 1:48:51 Rhyw - Biggest Bully 1:50:32 Jubilee - Disconnected 1:52:26 Kosh - Keep Hope Alive 1:55:52 DJ Seinfeld - Electrian 1:57:22 Squarepusher - Vortrack (Fracture Remix) 2:00:07 Jay1 - Your Mrs 2:00:54 Lady Leshurr - Your Mr 2:01:32 Denzel Curry - Ricky 2:02:46 Doja Cat - Rules 2:04:30 Jai Paul - Do You Love Her Now? 2:06:21 Greentea Peng - Mr. Sun (Miss Da Sun) 2:07:41 Hatchie - Stay With Me 2:10:01 Tame Impala - Patience 2:12:59 Shamba - Idgaf 2:14:41 Krept & Konan - Ban Drill 2:19:43 Precolumbian & Estoc - Cct02 2:19:55 Tzusing & Hodge - Electrolytes 2:12:44 Lady Lykez - Muhammad Ali Remix Ft Lioness 2:23:02 Megan Thee Stallion - Cash Shit (feat. Dababy) 2:24:15 Normani - Motivation 2:25:45 Ciara - Thinkin Bout You 2:27:47 Dua Lipa - Don't Start Now 2:29:21 Rapsody Ft D'angelo & Gza - Ibtihaj 2:31:49 Bush Tea - Wiyah Waist 2:32:38 Luke Temple - Henry In Forever Phases 2:35:18 Devendra Banhart - Kantori Ongaku 2:37:14 M83 - A Bit Of Sweetness 2:40:33 Angel Olsen - Lark 2:42:44 Ose - Is It Love? 2:43:36 The Lasso - Oscillations 2:45:13 Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society - Finite 2:47:24 Anthony Naples - Benefit 2:48:47 Coldplay - Arabesque

There will shortly be a full tracklist with samples used for completionists posted in the comments below

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

As we are coming towards the end of the 19th Century, I present an overview of the music and history of 1898 and 1899 — minstrel shows, vaudeville, cakewalk, the horribly-named “coon songs” and an exciting new genre called “ragtime.”

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only the first hour. For the full three-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Half a decade ago the United States was in the midst of an explosion in recorded music on a scale not heard before or since. The inception of that revolution - a change in recording technology allowing studios and record labels to spring up everywhere and anywhere - took a couple of years to filter through. In the same way, the death of that same revolution, the collapse of the recording industry at the start of the great depression and the closure of those studios and labels, also took a couple of years to fully filter through. Now we have arrived at 1932 and it's all over. The wide variety of roots music, whether labelled country, blues or folk, is no longer being recorded, with the exception of a few of the biggest stars. Likewise, recorded jazz is now the preserve of the biggest bandleaders, or as backing groups for the resurgent movie business.

So why then is this mix one of the longest so far? The answer comes down more to the process of putting the thing together than the qualities of the year itself. With less to choose from in the USA, my attentions shifted to the rest of the world, and it turned out that there was plenty out there. We start out on our trip in the Caribbean, where Calypso and other forms of music are now being recorded professionally and regularly for the first time, thanks to people like record-shop owner and entrepreneur Eduardo Sa Gomes in Trinidad.

Then we have a few tangos, first of course from South America, but then also from Eastern Europe, where artists like Jean Moscopol were blending this new music with traditional local flavours like klezmer and rembetika.

The UK has a greater representation in this mix than in any since 1907 (or maybe even 1888) - while the economic situation was nearly as bad here as in the USA, a couple of powerful record companies as well as the BBC ensured that music recording was actually experiencing something of a boom. The UK records here - including the marvelously sinister version of "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" and Noel Coward's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" - are easily a match for anything made in the 20s.

All of this also seems to be the case for France, for whom 1932 seems to be a key year on compilations. Next we explore Arabic music, from Tunisia to Iraq, and India, where truly otherworldly traditional musics are being properly recorded for the first time.

It's always been my intention to show the whole world in these mixes, but this last half-decade the music from the USA has understandably overwhelmed in its quality and variety. Let's take this brief lull to appreciate that there was a whole world out there, much of it telling stories about the 1930s which are lost in the great narratives of the depression and the buildup to the next war.

Tracklist

0:00:30 The Philadelphia Orchestra, Conducted By Leopold Stokowski - Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder (Excerpt) 0:03:34 The Three Keys - Jig Time William Butler Yeats - Introduction (Excerpt) 0:05:52 Cab Calloway And His Orchestra - Reefer Man Jewel Robbery (Excerpt) 0:08:50 The Mills Brothers - Old Man Of The Mountain John Barrymore - Clip from A Bill of Divorcement 0:10:38 Duke Ellington And His Famous Orchestra - It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) 0:12:28 The Boswell Sisters - It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) The Most Dangerous Game (Excerpt 1) 0:14:51 Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Feetwarmers - Shag Trouble in Paradise (Excerpt) 0:18:10 Lew Stone with Al Bowlly - My Woman 0:21:18 Groucho Marx - I'm Against It 0:24:32 Fred Astaire with The Leo Reisman Orchestra - Night And Day I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (Excerpt 1) 0:27:31 Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra - Hobo, You Can't Ride This Train 0:30:24 Jimmie Rodgers - Hobo's Meditation Amelia Earhart Radio Broadcast (Excerpt) 0:32:35 Mike Hanapi & The Ilima Islanders - Hilo Hula 0:34:37 Leona Gabriel - Liva Scarface (Excerpt 1) 0:37:28 Lionel Belasco and His Orchestra - Depression (Pasillo) 0:38:46 L'orchestre Typique Martiniquais - Eugenie 0:40:44 Orchestre Typique Martiniquais Charlery-Delouche - Ti Roro 0:42:31 Orchestre Creole Delvi - Edamyso 0:45:11 Silvio Caldas - E Ela Não Jurou The Most Dangerous Game (Excerpt 2) 0:46:16 Las Cuatro Huasas - La Papa Araucana Tarzan the Ape Man (Excerpt) 0:48:35 Xavier Cugat - Carmen De Cabaret Intimate Interviews - Bela Lugosi (Excerpt 1) 0:49:51 Jean Moscopol - Mai Spune-Mi Inca-Odata Intimate Interviews - Bela Lugosi (Excerpt 2) 0:51:37 Aleksandr Vertinskiy - Klassicheskiye Rozy Intimate Interviews - Bela Lugosi (Excerpt 3) 0:53:40 Carl Theodor Dreyer - Excerpts from "Vampyr" Intimate Interviews - Bela Lugosi (Excerpt 4) 0:55:50 London Symphony Orchestra With Yehudi Menuhin, Conducted By Edward Elgar - Elgar Violin Concerto (Excerpt) 0:57:26 Ríta Abadzí - At Tsambíkous Teké 0:58:41 Giórgos Michalópoulos - Olympus And Kissavos 0:59:59 Ioannis Chalkias - Minore Tou Teke 1:00:55 William Butler Yeats - The Lake Isle of Innisfree 1:01:50 Arthur Schnabel - Beethoven Sonata No 31 In A Flat Major, Op 110 Moderato Cantabile Molto Espressivo King George V The first ever Royal Christmas Message (Written by Rudyard Kipling) (Excerpt 1) 1:03:22 Bert Ambrose & His Orchestra - The Clouds Will Soon Roll By David Lloyd George speech (Excerpt 1) 1:05:15 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra - Teddy Bear's Picnic King George V The first ever Royal Christmas Message (Written by Rudyard Kipling) (Excerpt 2) 1:06:54 Noel Coward - Mad Dogs And Englishmen Hilaire Belloc - Tarantella (Excerpt) 1:08:44 George Formby - Old Kitchen Kettle / I Told My Baby With The Ukulele / Let's All Go To Reno 1:11:43 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra - Here Comes The Bogey Man A Farewell To Arms (Excerpt) 1:13:39 Ray Noble And His New Mayfair Orchestra, Vocal Al Bowlly - Love Is The Sweetest Thing A Bill of Divorcement (Excerpt 1) 1:15:29 Josephine Baker - Ram Pam Pam Boudu sauvé des eaux (Excerpt) 1:17:05 Damia - La Veuve 1:18:05 Madame Maiotte Almaby Et Orchestre Des Waddy's Boys - Coeur Moin Dans Piment 1:20:39 Guerino Et Son Orchestre Musette & Django Reinhardt - Gallito 1:22:09 Medard Ferrero - Mazurka Fantasie 1:23:10 Mireille et Jean Sablon - Les Pieds Dans L'eau 1:24:33 Pills et Tabet - C'est Un Jardinier Qui Boîte 1:26:56 Lys Gauty - L'amour Qui Passe A Bill of Divorcement (Excerpt 2) 1:29:35 Yehudi Menuhin - Paganini Kreisler Caprice No. 24 1:30:04 Cheikha Tetma - Ach Hal Men Ijarra 1:33:01 Musique Citadine De Tlemcen, Algerie - Musaddar 1:35:11 Musique Savante De Bagdad, Irak - Abûdhiyya 1:36:33 Musique Citadine De Tunis, Tunisie - Danse De La Ghayta 1:38:43 William Butler Yeats - The Fiddler of Dooney 1:39:17 Gajananrao Joshi Of Aundh - Violin Instrumental- Bihag 1:41:08 Mr. Musiri Subramania Iyer - Nagumomu Ganaleni (Part 1) 1:43:09 Desamangalam Subramania Iyer - Veena Instrumental- Sankarabharanam Part 1- Ragam 1:44:07 B.S. Krishnamurthi Sastrigal - Gottuvadyam Instrumental- Pullikalabamayeil Kavad I Chinthu Shanghai Express (Excerpt) 1:48:00 Kouta Katsutaro - Shima No Musume The Clairvoyant Record (Excerpt) 1:49:54 Joe Sanders - Southology Herbert Hoover - Nomination Speech (Excerpt) 1:51:20 Mildred Bailey - Georgia On My Mind Frankin D Roosevelt - Nomination Speech (Excerpt) 1:53:32 Rudy Vallee - Brother Can You Spare A Dime Frankin D Roosevelt - Campaign Speech (Excerpt) 1:55:54 Paul Robeson - Ol' Man River (+ Victor Young Orchestra) Frankin D Roosevelt - Acceptance Speech (Excerpt) 1:59:05 Charlie Kunz Solo Medley - Lovely To Look At, Etc. The Marx Brothers - Excerpts from Horse Feathers 2:02:33 Roger Wolfe Kahn - Fit As A Fiddle The Marx Brothers - Excerpts from Horse Feathers 2:06:21 James & Martha Carson - I'll Fly Away Island of Lost Souls (Excerpt) 2:08:42 The Carter Family - Little Moses Freaks (Excerpt) 2:10:43 Cab Calloway And His Orchestra - How Big Can You Get? Love Me Tonight (Excerpt) 2:15:00 Glen Gray & His Casa Loma Orchestra - Black Jazz 2:17:33 Duke Ellington And His Famous Orchestra - Lot O' Fingers (Fast And Furious) Laurel & Oliver Hardy - Towed in a Hole (Excerpt 1) 2:19:43 Big Bill Broonzy - How You Want It Done? Laurel & Oliver Hardy - Towed in a Hole (Excerpt 2) 2:22:59 Tommie Bradley - Nobody's Business If I Do 2:24:35 Ruby Glaze & Hot Shot Willie - Searching The Dessert For The Blues 2:26:30 Pinetop And Lindberg - I Believe I'll Make A Change 2:29:28 Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell - Gone Mother Blues Oldest Recording of ABC Radio - 1932 Melbourne Cup (Excerpt 1) 2:31:23 Mississippi Sheiks - New Stop And Listen Oldest Recording of ABC Radio - 1932 Melbourne Cup (Excerpt 2) 2:33:29 Don Redman & His Orchestra - I Got Rhythm Red Dust (Excerpts) 2:35:50 Sidney Bechet And His New Orleans Feetwarmers - Maple Leaf Rag I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (Excerpt 2) 2:38:57 Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra - Take Me Away From The River Scarface (Excerpt 2) 2:42:13 Earl Hines & His Orchestra - I Love You Because I Love You Mae West - Night After Night (Excerpt) 2:45:10 Louis Armstrong And His Orchestra - The New Tiger Rag If I Had a Million (Excerpt) 2:48:38 The Boswell Sisters - Everybody Loves My Baby 2:50:57 The Mills Brothers with Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - Diga Diga Doo 2:53:23 The Mills Brothers - Goodbye Blues (Radio Broadcast) The Old Dark House (Excerpt) Intimate Interviews - Bela Lugosi (Excerpt 5) British Pathe - Adolf Hitler's presidential campaign (Excerpt) British Pathe - Amidst A Nation's Rejoicing (Excerpt) The Mummy (Excerpt) 2:56:40 Joe Venuti - Beale Street Blues (+ Eddie Lang & Vocal - Jack Teagarden) Grand Hotel (Excerpt) 2:59:55 Noel Coward - The Party's Over Now / Let's Say Goodbye 3:01:53 Bing Crosby - Let's Put Out The Lights And Go To Sleep

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

A journey through the history of recorded sound with James and Sean. This time we reach the 1900s, and hear Arthur Collins, Vess L Ossman, Arthur Pryor, and other stars of the late Victorian era. We even have a recording of Franz Joseph I of Austria & Hungary, made on a piece of wire. Join us as we travel back in time to a forgotten land of sound.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only the first hour. For the full three-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

One of the most successful theatrical productions of the 1890s was a touring spectacle called "The South Before The War." Here is how it was originally advertised.

Those of use who knew the “Souf befo’ the Wah,” as the children of Ham put it, and who know what plantation life really was [like] before our great internecine struggle, and such of us as have not had our opinions colored by the Harriet Beecher Stowe class of literature, but can recall the happy days and pleasant nights spent by the darkies in the cotton fields and cane brakes, will have an opportunity of seeing and living over again those happy times at–theatre by witnessing the inimitable performance given by Whallen and Martell’s big South before the War company.

From our lofty vantage point it's easy to be appalled by this description. With our 130 years' worth of hindsight, the debate is no longer about whether this show was right or wrong, but about exactly what mix of self-delusion and cynical self-interest went into it. In truth, the main difference between then and now is that we have learned not to say the quiet part loud. Nostalgia has its claws in us more than ever, from strictly-playlisted hits radio stations, to the obsessive sequeling and rebooting of movies and TV series, to politicians telling us they will make our countries "great again" - a phrase which is itself recycled from recentish history

Nostalgia is, almost by definition, a warm, comfortable thing. Life can be very stressful, and if people want to escape that by diving into a nostalgic pool filled with their best memories, then who can really blame them? It would seem pretty churlish to insist on shocking them out of their reverie with a difficult truth, they are surely in no mood to be lectured. The problem comes when this occasional retreat becomes an addiction, when it spills out of our personal lives into the world in general, and taints the way we see not just the past, but the present.

So far these mixes have concerned years which are generally beyond all living memory, and in 1933 this seems to have shifted profoundly. From a modern vantage point we are now in the lead-up to the Second World War, a time which still looms very large in British culture, and it is becoming difficult to find any kind of popular history which covers the time from any other perspective. In the real USA of 1933, the nostalgia industry is creating itself. These may be the darkest days of the great depression, but they are also the heady heights of the golden age of Hollywood. According to the artefacts I've gathered here, this was a nation as addicted to escapism as any other. The style and glamour of films and music this year are so sparklingly positive that at a glance there is no depression, no looming war, but a world in the full bloom of peace and prosperity.

Under the surface, though, there is a certain sadness lurking. This hedonistic escapism leaves open the question of - from what exactly are they escaping? Fred & Ginger's relationship to music is an all-in, devotional ritual. Tex Ritter sings a tribute to whisky, Bessie Smith prefers a pigfoot and a bottle of beer. Al Bowlly compares his love to a decadent, unhealthy indulgence. For Ethel Waters, her disappointing love-life presents itself as stormy weather to be endured. Everywhere people are jumping head-first into pleasures and obsessions, and it's left to a handful of country and blues singers to deal with the troubles of the world as it is now. Jimmy Rodgers is in the depths of despair, and Lightnin' Washington is, literally, a prisoner working on a chain gang in Texas, during the dust bowl.

So here's a year-long chunk of the past, then, a place which seems dead-set on creating its own nostalgia of the present, with little in the way of soul-searching or truth. It's basically harmless, but let's not pretend this is a real picture of how people were feeling in 1933, "how they wanted to feel" will just have to do.

Track list

0:00:30 Maurice Jaubert - If The Kids Are United (Zéro De Conduite) (Clip from Employees Entrance) 0:01:18 Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - Toby 0:04:36 Mae West & Cary Grant - Clip from "She Done Him Wrong" 0:05:01 Estrellas Hababeras - Buey Viejo (Clip from Dinner at Eight) 0:08:20 Art Tatum - Tiger Rag 0:10:33 Lightnin' Washington - Long John (Clip from Design For Living) 0:13:21 Ethel Waters - Stormy Weather 0:16:14 Comedian Harmonists - Ohne Dich (Stormy Weather) (Clip from The Little Rascals - Mush & Milk) 0:17:46 Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire - Music Makes Me (Clip from 42nd Street) 0:20:02 Casa Loma Orchestra - White Jazz (Clip from newsreel announcing the end of prohibition) 0:23:27 Tex Ritter - Rye Whiskey, Rye Whiskey (Clip from Footlight Parade) 0:24:56 Bessie Smith - Gimme A Pigfoot And A Bottle Of Beer (Clip from Baby Face) 0:28:05 Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster - Bay Rum Blues Roots (Clip from Duck Soup) 0:32:18 Groucho Marx & Margaret Dumont - The Laws Of My Administration (Clip from Burns & Allen Routine) 0:34:04 Billy Cotton - Skirts (Clip from 42nd Street) 0:36:10 Sol Hoopii's Novelty Quartette - Hula Girl 0:39:11 Kanui & Lula - Tomi Tomi 0:41:19 Noi Lane - Hawaiian Ripple 0:42:57 Carmen Miranda - Alvorada (Samba) (Clip from Murders In The Zoo) 0:45:19 Enrique Bryon Y Su Orquesta - Las Maracas De Cuba 0:48:20 Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra - High Society / Dusky Stevedore (clip from Bombshell) 0:52:02 Ray Noble - It's Bad For Me (Vocal - Al Bowlly) (Clip from Dinner at Eight) 0:53:47 Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra - Sophisticated Lady 0:57:21 Art Tatum - Sophisticated Lady (Clip from Universal Newsreel about Cecil H. Dill doing hand-farts) 0:58:48 Rudi Schneider - Trance-Breathing 0:58:53 Maboudana & Badolo - Chant Dâ´invitation A La Danse 0:59:23 Kurt Engel - Xylophonismus 1:00:38 Miss Columbia - 19 No Haru 1:01:14 Ichimaru - Tenryuu Kudareba 1:03:40 Kouta Katsutaro - Tokyo Ondo (Clip from Gabriel Over the White House) 1:05:03 Marianne Oswald - Complainte De Kesoubah (Clip from Gabriel Over the White House) 1:07:10 Hoagy Carmichael - Cosmics 1:07:33 Robert Frost - Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 1:08:28 Georg Kulenkampff - Tambourin Chinois (Kreisler) (Clip from The Invisible Man) 1:09:59 Fletcher Henderson - King Porter Stomp (Clip from I'm No Angel) 1:11:53 Benny Goodman & His Orchestra with Billie Holiday - Your Mother's Son-In-Law 1:13:32 Joe Robechaux - Jig Music (Clip from Duck Soup) 1:17:15 Henry Hall B.B.C. Dance Orchestra - The Wedding Of Mr. Mickey Mouse (Clip from Walt Disney's Three Little Pigs) 1:20:25 Mae Questal & Cab Calloway - You Gotta Hi De Ho (Clip from Burns & Allen Routine) 1:22:15 Boswell Sisters - Shuffle Off To Buffalo 1:24:19 Bing Crosby - Someone Stole Gabriel's Horn (Clip of Fiorello H. La Guardia Attacks Tammany Hall) 1:25:54 James 'Iron Head' Baker - Black Betty 1:26:29 Ashley & Foster - The Rising Sun Blues (Clip of Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugural address) 1:27:44 Big Bill Broonzy - How You Want It Done? (Clip from Franklin Roosevelt - Fireside Chat #1, On the Banking Crisis) 1:29:50 Salty Dog Sam - Lonesome Road Blues 1:30:47 Josh White - Blood Red River 1:32:40 Fernando Vilches - Flor De Petenera (Clip of nazis burning books) 1:35:47 Paul Robeson - Swing Low Sweet Chariot (Clip from Einstein Speech at the Royal Albert Hall London) 1:37:42 Arthur Schnabel - Sonata No 22 In F Major, Op 54 Ii Allegretto (Clip from Morning Glory) 1:39:25 Ethel Waters - Don't Blame Me (Clip from Dinner at Eight) 1:42:41 Al Bowlly Acc. By Orchestra Directed By Carroll Gibbons - Night And Day 1:44:18 Ambrose & His Orchestra - Night And Day (Clip from Calvacade) 1:45:32 Harry Roy - Bugle Call Rag (Piano Duet - Ivor Moreton & Dave Kaye) 1:48:09 Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - Moten Swing (Clip from Employees' Entrance) 1:50:14 The Lone Star Cowboys - Just Because 1:51:28 Prairie Ramblers - Shady Grove (Clip from The Private Life of Henry VIII) 1:53:02 Ashley & Foster - East Virginia Blues (Clip from Calvacade) 1:54:53 Jack Kelly & His South Memphis Jug Band - Cold Iron Bed Dark 1:57:57 Rudyard Kipling - France 1:58:16 Guerino Et Son Orchestre Musette & Django Reinhardt - Brise Napolitaine (Clip from Zéro De Conduite) 2:00:53 Eddie South - Nagasaki 2:02:43 Midge Williams - Lazy Bones (Clip from The Bitter Tea of General Yen) 2:05:59 The Mills Brothers with Bing Crosby - My Honey's Lovin' Arms (Clip from International House) 2:07:45 Dorsey Brothers - By Heck (Clip from Duck Soup) 2:11:07 Cab Calloway And His Orchestra - Zah Zuh Zah 2:13:03 Spike Hughes And His Orchestra - How Come You Do Me Like You Do? 2:16:05 Wilmouth Houdini and his Humming Bird - Trinidad Hurricane 2:18:26 Lionel Belasco - The Treasury Fire (Clip from The Mayor of Hell) 2:20:05 Blind Willie Mctell - Savannah Mama (Clip from King Kong) 2:21:29 Jimmie Rodgers - Gambling Bar Room Blues 2:23:27 Cliff Carlisle - Mouse's Ear Blues (Clip from Burns & Allen Routine) 2:25:06 Carter Family - Gold Watch And Chain 2:26:32 Bradley Kincaid - Dog And Gun (An Old English Ballad) (Clip from Calvacade) 2:28:52 Joseph Schmidt - Jetzt Spielen Hull Dich In Tand Nur (Pagliacci) (Clip from The Testament of Dr Mabuse) 2:31:01 Wanda Landowska, Harpsichord - Variation 17 2:32:51 The Three Ginx - On A Steamer Coming Over (Clip from Employees' Entrance) 2:34:44 Eddie Condon - Madame Dynamite 2:36:35 Joe Robechaux - Ring Dem Bells 2:38:20 Joe Venuti & His Blue Six - The Jazz Me Blues 2:39:33 Benny Carter Orchestra - Swing It (Clip from Laurel & Hardy - Sons of the Desert) 2:41:18 Cliff Edwards - It's Only A Paper Moon (Clip from Queen Christina) 2:43:22 Marta Eggerth - Ave Maria (Schubert) (Clip from Employees' Entrance)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

James and Sean take you on a journey back to the year 1901 to listen to original, unmediated, often completely unacceptable recordings from the early days of the gramophone. This time we have rousing sort-of proto-proto-proto-jazz, stunning vocal acrobatics from a Russian soprano, vaudeville comedy which may or may not have stood the test of time, and our first recording from Japan. Some fascinating and often genuinely good stuff rescued from the vaults after 118 years — come join us!

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only the first hour. For the full version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

Away with dull care, the day is set fair,A wireless set near, to bring us good cheerOlden days had different ways,Their pleasures then were fewer;Modern days will get my praise,Our wireless ways are newer.A sterling time, a whirling time,A record time, or Father Time,The daily times that Big Ben chimesAre radio times.

Once upon a time they played thatBut that was long agoThen they started singin' thatBut they got tired of that, you knowNow here's a little tune that's goin' 'roundYou can hear it all over townThey're singin'.

Hear this fat boy blowing his horn?He's been a bug since the day he was bornHis favorite jittersauce is ryeWe'll drink it till the day he diesToot your whistle and ring your bellOl butchy wutchy time or tellDont you worry you just mugYou'll always be a jitterbug.

I went down to the landingTo see if any boats were thereAnd the fareman told meCould not find the boats nowhereThe big boat ease up the riverAre turnin' 'round an 'roundLord, I'm 'on get me a good girlOr jump overboard an drown

And you'll find while you're dancingThat there's a rhythm in your heart and soulA certain rhythm that you can't controlAnd you will do the continental all the timeBeautiful music, dangerous rhythmBeautiful music, dangerous rhythm.

Tracks

0:00:00 Percussion Ensemble Cond. By Nicolas Slonimsky - Ionisation0:00:22 Malinke Musicans, Mali - War Song, Harp with Drums0:01:15 Sukru Tunar - Huzzam Taksim0:02:04 Dorothy Melton - I Want Jesus To Walk With Me0:03:22 Sergei Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini(Excerpt from WABC Twenty Crowded Years A Radio Review of the Years 1914-1934)0:05:37 Hot Club De France - Tiger Rag(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)0:08:19 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra (Vocal - Dan Donovan) - Radio Times(Excerpt from It Happened One Night)0:10:27 Sexteto Pellin - A Goya Le Dio La Gripe(Excerpt from Viva Villa!)0:13:11 Trio Armonico - Ausencia(Excerpt from Viva Villa!)0:16:25 Big Bill Broonzy - Mississippi River Blues(Excerpt from commentary on Yankees vs Tigers at Navin Field)0:18:52 Duke Ellington And His Orchestra - Solitude(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)0:22:10 The Delmore Brothers - Brown's Ferry Blues(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)0:24:59 Lucille Bogan - Shave 'em Dry(Excerpt from Tarzan and His Mate)0:26:44 Jimmy Durante - Inka Dinka Doo(Excerpt from Alpha the Robot)0:30:01 Blanche Calloway - Growlin' Dan0:32:46 Cab Calloway And His Orchestra - Jitter Bug0:35:05 Chick Webb & His Orchestra - What A Shuffle0:37:55 Gertrude Stein- If I Had Told Him; A Completed Portrait of Picasso0:39:09 Arthur Schnabel - Sonata No 21 In C Major, Op 53 'waldstein' I Allegro Con Brio0:40:47 Robert Frost - Birches0:43:47 Avro Kinderkoor Jacob Hamel - Kleppermarsch(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)0:45:19 Billy Merrin's Commanders - We'll Make Hay While The Sun Shines (Vocal - Sam Browne)0:47:23 Jack Buchanan and Geraldo - Brewster's Millions Medley(Excerpt from Colorful Ports of Call)0:49:44 Django Reinhardt - Dinah(Excerpt from Discours De Gaston Doumergue)0:52:23 Maurice Jaubert - Underwater Dance from L'atalante(Excerpt from Leopold III Roi Des Belges Prete Serment)0:53:50 Hot Club De France - I Saw Stars(Excerpt from Colorful Ports of Call)0:54:52 Tuareg Musicans, Mali - Marriage Song0:55:14 Bambara Kora Musican, Mali - Song for Chief(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)0:56:34 The Lion - Wanga0:58:08 Wilmoth Houdini - Blow Wind Blow(Excerpt from Kid Millions)1:00:25 Bert Ambrose - Let's Make Love(Excerpt from Of Human Bondage)1:02:09 Carroll Gibbons - Let's Fall In Love(Excerpt from Of Human Bondage)1:05:46 Márkos Vamvakáris - Koroido(Excerpt from H. H. The Aga Khan)1:08:26 Stellakis Papazoglou - I Lachanades(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)1:09:49 D. Góngos Or Bayiadéras - Hash Smoking Chicks1:11:08 Márkos Vamvakáris - Kápote Ímouna Ki Egó(Excerpt from 4th Herald Tribune Womens Forum on Current Issues)1:12:46 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra - Wild Ride(Excerpt from Newsreel of Krishnamurti in Sydney)1:15:07 Pandit Omkarnath Prakur - Garawa Mayi Sang Lage Pt 1(Excerpt from Newsreel of Krishnamurti in Sydney)1:17:47 Udi Hrant - Cifte Telli1:19:23 Munir Nurettin Selcuk And Sadettin Kaynak - Cikar Yuclerden1:20:34 Mahmut Celalettin - Neva Hicaz Gazel(Excerpt from Bright Eyes)1:21:35 Ko Bok-Soo - Tahyangsal-i(Excerpt from The Scarlet Pimpernel)1:24:08 Kouta Katsutaro - Sakura Ondo(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)(Excerpt from Dictators Meet Newsreel)1:25:58 Joe Mccoy - Evil Devil Woman Blues(Excerpt from The Black Cat)1:27:17 Lucille Bogan - Pig Iron Sally(Excerpt from It Happened One Night)1:29:08 Papa Charlie Jackson - Scoodle Um Skoo(Excerpt from Disney's The Grasshopper and the Ants)1:30:40 Memphis Jug Band - Gator Wobble(Excerpt from The Barretts of Wimpole Street)1:32:58 Benny Goodman - Cokey(Excerpt from George Gershwin Radio Broadcast)1:34:19 Boswell Sisters - Alexander's Ragtime Band(Excerpt from WWJ Ty Tyson NY Yankees vs Detroit Tigers)1:36:48 Lew Stone And His Band - Canadian Capers(Excerpt from George Gershwin Radio Broadcast)1:38:14 Bing Crosby - I'm Hummin' I'm Whistlin' I'm Singin'(Excerpt from Kid Millions)1:40:19 Jimmy Grier - Goofus(Excerpt from Disney's The Grasshopper and the Ants)1:42:34 Gid Tanner And His Skillet Lickers - Hawkins Rag1:44:30 Edgar Lee Masters - Lucinda Matlock1:45:20 Amedie Ardoin - Aimez-Moi Ce Soir(Excerpt from Here Comes the Navy)1:47:44 Benny Goodman & His Music Hall Orchestra - Bugle Call Rag(Excerpt from Colorful Ports of Call)1:51:00 Fats Waller - African Ripples(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)1:54:27 Austin Coleman With Joe Washington - Good Lord (Run Old Jeremiah)1:56:46 Sin Killer Griffin - The Man Of Calvary (Easter Service)1:56:55 Leadbelly - Irene1:58:05 Lightnin' Washington - Black Gal(Excerpt from Imitation of Life)1:59:06 Sam McGee - Railroad Blues(Excerpt from Twentieth Century)2:00:58 Chick Webb's Savoy Orchestra - Stompin' At The Savoy(Excerpt from The Thin Man)2:02:48 Adrian Rollini (Vocal - Clay Bryson) - Got The Jitters2:04:43 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - The Continental(Excerpt from L'Atalante)2:06:15 Ray Noble (Vocal - Al Bowlly) - You Ought To Be In Pictures(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)2:10:02 Al Bowlly Accompanied By Small Orchestra - That's Me Without You(Excerpt from George Formby - John Willie At The Licence Office)2:11:40 George Formby - Believe It Or Not(Excerpt from George Formby - John Willie Goes Carolling)2:13:26 Leslie Sarony - What Can You Give A Nudist On Her Birthday?(Excerpt from Odor In The Court)2:15:36 Michel Warlop - Presentation Stomp (Orchestre + Django Reinhardt)(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)2:17:50 Luperce Miranda - Naquele Tempo2:19:58 Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken2:20:58 Joe Venuti's Blue Four - Satan's Holiday(Excerpt from Pathe Review of 1934)2:22:55 Boswell Sisters - Object Of My Affection(Excerpt from The Scarlet Empress)2:25:30 Fletcher Henderson - Hotter Than 'ell2:28:24 Edgar Lee Masters - Emily Sparks2:29:07 Coleman Hawkins (Piano - Buck Washington) - On The Sunny Side Of The Street(Excerpt from One Night of Love)2:30:49 Elsie Carlisle - Show Is Over(Excerpt from George Formby - John Willie At The Licence Office)2:32:10 Malinke Musicans, Mali - War Song, Harp with Drums2:32:53 Percussion Ensemble Cond. By Nicolas Slonimsky - Ionisation(Excerpt from Sadie McKee)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

James Errington takes you on another trip into the history of sound recording. This time we’re visiting the year 1902, and will be hearing insanely catchy tin pan alley tunes from the Edwardian Elvis, virtuoso instrumental showpieces, sublime sopranos and a terrifying scene from The Hound Of The Baskervilles.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only the first hour. For the full version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

"Even to mention the 1930s is to evoke the period when human civilisation entered its darkest, bloodiest chapter. No case needs to be argued; just to name the decade is enough. It is a byword for mass poverty, violent extremism and the gathering storm of world war. “The 1930s” is not so much a label for a period of time than it is rhetorical shorthand — a two-word warning from history." - Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian

I am not a historian, but I have a clear enough understanding of what The Thirties means. It starts with the great depression and ends with the world going to war. Bad stuff all round. But sound recordings preserve little of the buildup of fascism in Europe or the struggles of the dustbowl and Hooverville. At this time, more than ever, music seems to be an escape.

In the USA Ella Fitzgerald is singing with Chick Webb's band, Billie Holiday is performing with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman has made swing the universal music of American youth, Tommy Dorsey has turned jazz into mainstream entertainment. In France, Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grapelli are already recording in the Hot Club. In Hollywood, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers are performing in Top Hat, The Marx Brothers in A Night At The Opera, and "Gold Diggers of 1935" introduces the Lullaby of Broadway.

This was a hard mix to make, too much good material and none of it really standing out from the crowd. In the end I jammed it all in and let it spread out. The result is surprisingly varied throughout (it was easier not to front-load with such a varied selection available) and I think it works, but will let you be the judge of that.

Is this an accurate picture of the mid 1930s? I cannot say, but it certainly doesn't feel like a world of darkness and despair.

Track list

0:00:00 Centuries of Sound - 1935 Audio Collage Intro(Clip of HMV Weather Effects - Wind)(Clip from Hitler Youth Rally Speech from Triumph Of The Will)(Clip from NBC Joe Louis vs Max Baer)(MGM Lion Roar)0:01:09 Tommy Dorsey & His Clambake Seven - The Music Goes 'Round And 'Round(Clip from Top Hat)0:05:31 Fred Astaire - Isn't This A Lovely Day(Clip of Carl Sandburg)0:08:39 Lydia Mendoza - Palida Luna(Clip of Robert Benchley - David O. Selznick 'Your New Producer' Short Film)0:11:24 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - St. Louis Blues0:14:28 Boswell Sisters - St. Louis Blues(Clip of Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera)0:15:21 Fats Waller - Truckin'(Clip from No Ghosts)0:18:13 Mills Blue Rhythm Band - Harlem Heat(Clip from Stoopnagle and Budd - If We Supervised Radio)0:21:51 Hoosier Hot Shots - I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones(Clip from Review of 1935)0:23:37 Kokomo Arnold - How Long How Long Blues(Clip from NBC ATMOTA - Personal Liberty and the Modern State with Lawrence Dennis & Lena Madison Phillips)0:26:07 Omolo Washiembu - N. Odera (Luo; Kenya)(Clip from Review of 1935)0:27:45 Benny Goodman Orchestra - Eeny Meeny Miney Mo(Clip from Marihuana)0:29:43 Memphis Minnie - Selling My Pork Chops(Clip from Marihuana)0:32:38 Leslie Hutchinson - Anything Goes(Clip from NBC WEAF Let's Dance - Benny Goodman)0:34:15 Nat Gonella - Tiger Rag0:36:32 Nakano Tadaharu & Columbia Rhythm Boys - Tiger Rag(Shirley Temple Organ Grinder's Swing Scene from The Littlest Rebel)0:38:09 Chick Webb & His Orchestra - Down Home Rag(Clip from Hollywood Extra Girl)0:39:54 Chick Webb & His Orchestra with Ella Fitzgerald - I'll Chase The Blues Away(Clip from Review of 1935)(Clip from EIAR Benito Mussolini - Italy Invades Ethiopia)0:42:34 Oum Kalthoum - Lehy Ya Zaman Kana Hawaya(Clip from CBS Calling All Cars)0:44:22 Udi Hrant - Hicaz Taksim(Clip from James Weldon Johnson - The Creation)0:44:50 Georges Boulanger - Avant De Mourir (My Prayer)(Clip from Carl Sandburg - The People, Yes)0:47:52 Professor Wali Ullah Khan - Sitar Instrumental(Clip from Mad Love trailer)0:49:22 Wingy Manone & His Orchestra - Black Coffee(Clip from A Night at the Opera)0:51:55 Tiger - Marabella Wedding(Clip from CBS Calling All Cars)0:53:23 Giorgos Batis - I Filakes Tu Oropu(Clip from The 39 Steps)0:54:44 Xavier Cugat - Mama Inez(Clip from Review Of The Year 1935)0:57:02 Hildegarde - Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup0:59:35 Jean Sablon with Django Reinhardt - Darling Je Vous Aime Beaucoup(Clip from PTT Leon Degrelle Denonce Les Scandales En Belgique)1:02:49 Josephine Baker - Reves1:05:19 Maurice Chevalier - Les Mirlitons(Clip from A Party On A California Isle Avalon, beside the bay)1:07:26 Winnifred Shaw & Dick Powell - Lullaby Of Broadway1:08:25 Boswell Sisters - Lullaby Of Broadway1:09:10 Winnifred Shaw & Dick Powell - Lullaby Of Broadway(Clip from Bing Crosby Studio Dialogue)1:10:37 Bing Crosby - Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle(Clip from Bing Crosby Studio Dialogue)1:12:27 Stéphane Grappelli's Hot Four - I Got Rhythm(Clip from Review Of The Year 1935)(Clip from Screen Interview With Sheffield Wednesday)(Clip from Cup Final 1935)(Clip from Interview With Captains)1:17:08 Egbert Moore - M.C.C. vs. West Indies(Clip from Review Of The Year 1935)1:20:12 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra (Vocal Dan Donovan) - Mickey's Son And Daughter(Clip from The 39 Steps)1:22:40 Western Brothers - We're Frightfully BBC(Clip from W.C. Fields in David Copperfield)1:25:29 Noel Coward - Don't Put Your Daughter On The Stage Mrs. Worthington(Clip from David Copperfield)1:27:25 George Formby - Fanlight Fanny(Clip from The Three Stooges in Uncivil Warriors)1:29:41 Goebble Reeves The Texas Drifter - The Cowboy's Dizzy Sweetheart(Clip from Chevrolet Ad)1:32:35 The Ink Spots - Your Feet's Too Big(Clip from A Night at the Opera)1:36:10 Lucille Bogan - Barbecue Bess(Clip from Financing The American Family)1:38:48 Bunny Berigan - Chicken And Waffles(Clip from Billy Costello - I'm Popeye The Sailor Man)1:41:00 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Osage Stomp1:43:32 Fănică Luca - TudoriÈ›o, Nene(Clip from Métodos Infalíveis Para Acabar Com A Insônia)1:45:51 Michel Warlop Et Son Orchestre - Strange Harmony(Clip from NBC ATMOTA - Has the New Deal Promoted or Retarded Business Recovery)1:48:20 Petit Mirsha - Vieni Vieni (+ Django Reinhardt)1:50:18 3 Flutes & Vocal - Kuadinkro Bessueba1:50:49 Lawrence Tibbett - Summertime(Clip from Carl Sandburg - The People, Yes)1:53:12 He Zemin & Huang Peiying - Big Idiot Buys A Pig1:54:02 Ms. Taeng, Ms. Sam, Ms. Huch & The Ensemble Of Mr. Soi Sang Wan - Cha Pi1:55:06 Jesse Stacy Piano Solo - In The Dark(Clip from Amelia Earhart - A Womans Place in Science)1:56:46 Billie Holiday - I'm Painting The Town Red(Clip from Down the Gasoline Trail)1:59:04 Big Joe Williams - 49 Highway Blues(Clip from Chevrolet Ad)2:00:57 Louis Prima & His New Orleans Gang - Chinatown, My Chinatown(Clip from ComiColor Balloon Land)2:03:22 Benny Goodman - King Porter Stomp(Clip from Review Of The Year 1935)2:05:35 Django Reinhardt & The Hot Club De France Quintet W Stéphane Grapelli - Djangology(Clip from Flash Gordon 27/04/35 - On the Planet Mongo)2:08:50 Jorgos Batis - O Buffedsis(Clip from Gangster Puts Underworld On Spot For You)2:10:44 Cripple Clarence Lofton - Strut That Thing2:13:23 Elizabeth Austin - Sail Gal (Ring Game)2:13:37 David Pryor - Roll 'im On Down (Bahamian Launching Song)2:14:32 Harry Roy - Temptation Rag (Piano Duet - Ivor Moreton & Dave Kaye)(Clip from Review Of The Year 1935)(Clip from Emperor Haile Selassie delivers speech on Italian invasion)2:16:02 Arthur Schnabel - Sonata No 29 In B Flat Major Op 106 'hammerklavier' Iv Largo - Allegro Risoluto(Clip from Huey P Long Share the Wealth speech)2:18:53 Leo Soileau's Four Aces - La Valse De Gueydan(Clip from Review Of The Year 1935)2:20:56 Giorgos Katsaros & Yorgos Katsaros - Mana Mou Ime(Clip from A Midsummer Night's Dream)2:24:10 The Carter Family - Can The Circle Be Unbroken (Bye And Bye)2:25:39 The Lone Star Cowboys - Just Because2:26:59 Milton Brown & His Brownies - Down By The O-Hi-O(Clip from Huey P Long VFW Speech)2:29:46 Meade Lux Lewis - Honky Tonk Train Blues(Clip from Baldwin Speech - Himley Hall)2:31:23 Duke Ellington - Showboat Shuffle2:32:49 Duke Ellington & Billie Holiday - Symphony In Black; A Rhapsody of Negro Life(Clip from Sylvia Scarlett)2:36:05 Raymond Quecedo - Duke And Duchess Of Kent(Clip from Hitler Youth Rally Speech from Triumph Of The Will)(Clip from Jewish Demonstration Against Hitler in New York)2:38:35 Samuel Malavsky - V'shomru(Clip from The 39 Steps)2:41:36 Big Bill Broonzy - Good Liquor Gonna Carry Me Down(Clip from Como Dormir - Métodos Infalíveis Para Acabar Com A Insônia)2:44:06 Leadbelly - Mr. Tom Hughes' Town(Clip from CBS Calling All Cars)2:45:11 Xavier Cugat And His Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra - Begin The Beguine(Clip from Dangerous)2:47:12 Septeto Machín - El Guateque(Clip from Mad Love)2:48:56 Len Fillis Hawaiians - Blue Hawaiian Sky2:50:56 Adrian Rollini - Jazz O' Jazz (Vocal - Jeanne Burns)(Clip from Naughty Marietta)2:52:59 Cleo Brown - Me And My Wonderful One2:55:36 Teddy Wilson - What A Little Moonlight Can Do (Billie Holiday + Benny Goodman & Ben Webster)(Clip from Henry Hathaway)2:57:37 Louis Armstrong - You Are My Lucky Star(Clip from British Pathé - Ten Stone Baby…Teased With Chocolate)3:01:18 Coleman Hawkins & Ramblers - I Only Have Eyes For You(Clip of White House Christmas Tree Lighting)3:03:13 Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb and His Orchestra - Rhythm And Romance(Clip from Les Miserables)3:06:12 Wingy Manone - House Rent Party Day(Clip of Groucho and Chico Marx in A Night at the Opera)3:09:33 Willie ' The Lion ' Smith - Swing Brother Swing(Clip from The 39 Steps)(Clip from CBS Calling All Cars)(Clip from Gangster Puts Underworld On Spot For You)3:12:23 Fats Waller - Lulu's Back In Town(Clip from Roberta)3:15:06 Ray Noble Orchestra - Top Hat3:17:38 Fred Astaire - Cheek To Cheek(Clip from Picnic Panic)3:19:32 Frank Froeba & His Swing Band - The Music Goes Round And Round(Clip from KNX Radio Revival Hour (12-29-1935) Charles Fuller)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Another journey back in time with original recordings from the year 1903. This episode features sounds from as far afield as Tanganyika, Moscow, Kyoto and New York, and songs about cars, ducks, and bread and marmalade. Introduced by James Errington..

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. This is a sample of the mix for 1936, and includes the section for January only. To hear the rest of the mix, come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound, where I will be releasing the mix in two parts for $5 and above patrons, or come to centuriesofsound.com, where the entire mix will be streamable from the 14th of June 2021. Thanks to all of my patrons who have so far kept this show going, ad-free, through the first 75 years of sound recording.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

January

0:00:00 NBC Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Symphony No.7 In A Major Op. 92. Ii. Allegretto(Clips from 1936-01-03 Opening Day of 74th Congress)0:00:34 Busch Quartet - String Quartet No. 12 In E Flat Op. 127(Clip from My Man Godfrey)(Clip from AT&T Archives Introduction to the Dial Telephone)0:02:21 Gene Krupa - Swing Is Here (+ Benny Goodman)(Clip from Rose Marie)0:05:16 Ink Spots - Stompin' At The Savoy0:06:17 Benny Goodman & His Orchestra - Stompin' At The Savoy(Clip from Reefer Madness)0:08:28 Memphis Minnie - New Orleans Stop Time0:11:21 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Steel Guitar Rag0:14:08 Ciro Rimacs Rumba-Orchester - Maxixe-Carioca

February

(Clip from Disorder in the Court)0:15:58 Lion - Four Mills Brothers(Clip from Le Vrai Jeu)0:18:41 Charles Trenet - Tout Est Au Duc(Clip from Anthony Adverse)0:20:56 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli - Limehouse Blues0:23:38 W. H. Auden - On This Island0:24:27 Benjamin Britten, Stuart Legg and John Grierson - Nightmail0:27:35 The Benny Goodman Quartet - Tiger Rag (Take 1)(Clip from Cain & Mabel)0:30:37 Ella Fitzgerald feat. Chick Webb And His Orchestra - Sing Me A Swing Song (And Let Me Dance)(Clip from Rose Marie)0:32:24 Jones-Smith Incorporated - Lady Be Good0:35:29 Slim & Slam - The Flat Foot Floogie

March

0:38:15 Robert Johnson - Cross Road Blues (Take 2)(Clip from 1936-03-01 King Edward VIII - The first broadcast to the Empire as King)0:41:18 Fred Astaire - Let's Face The Music And Dance (Soundtrack)(Clip from 1936-03-01 King Edward VIII - The first broadcast to the Empire as King)0:43:27 Barney Bigard And His Jazzopaters - Caravan(Clip from 1936-03-07 PTT Albert Sarrault Proteste Contre Loccupation De La Rhenanie)0:44:27 Josephine Baker - Mayari0:46:20 Sukru Tunar - Suzinak Taksim0:47:05 Sukru Tunar - Karslama(Clip from 1936-03-xx Winston Churchill - The Loaded Pause)0:49:09 Ramadan Lolov - Orientalski Kyuchek(Clip from 1936-03-19 NBC ATMOTA - The Supreme Court and the Constitution)0:50:49 Milton Brown - Somebody's Been Using That Thing(Clip from Pathe Review of 1936)

April

0:52:37 Phil Green - Nobody's Sweetheart (Ballyhooligans)(Clip from 1936-04-02 NBC ATMOTA - Will Unionization Promote Industrial Recovery)0:54:31 Kōichi Sugii - Kiso Takashi0:57:15 Walter De La Mare - Nod0:58:15 Roy Acuff and his Crazy Tennesseeans - Great Speckled Bird(Clip from 1936-04-16 NBC ATMOTA - Will the Machine Dominate Man)1:00:14 Lonnie Glosson - Arkansas Hard Luck Blues(Clip from 1936-04-16 NBC ATMOTA - Will the Machine Dominate Man)1:03:11 Harlem Hamfats - Weed Smoker's Dream(Clip from 1936-04-17 PTT Maurice Thorez)1:06:31 Edith Piaf - Je Suis Mordue(Clip from John Wayne in The Lawless Nineties)1:08:10 Sri Ma Keow & Chai Wat - Courting The Woman From Chiang Mai

May

(Gennett Sound Effects - Rainfall and Thunder)(Clip from 1936-05-01 Adolf Hitler Speech at Krupp Factory in Germany)1:09:18 NBC Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Symphony No.7 In A Major Op. 92. Ii. Allegretto(Clip from 1936-05-09 EIAR Benito Mussolini - Vincere)(Clip from 1936-05-09 EIAR Reports End Of Ethiopian War)1:10:03 Pablo Casals - Excerpt from Suite No. 2 In D Minor(Clip of Spencer Tracy in Fury)1:10:59 Anestis Delias - Sura Ke Mastura(Clip of Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl)1:13:00 Septeto Anacaona - Despúes Que Sufras(Clip from Dodsworth)1:16:02 Meade 'Lux' Lewis - Celeste Blues(Clip from Camile)1:18:03 Mary Lou Williams - Corny Rhythm(Clip from Reefer Madness)1:21:15 Albert Ammons - Nagasaki(Clip from The Story of Louis Pasteur)1:23:05 Little Brother Montgomery - Farish Street Jive1:24:23 W. H. Auden - May

June

1:25:17 Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra - Pennies From Heaven(Clip from After The Thin Man)1:28:35 Georgia White - Get 'em From The Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)(Clip from 1936-06-12 Alfred M Landon Speech)1:30:25 Fats Waller & His Rhythm - It's A Sin To Tell A Lie(Clip from 1936-06-26 CBS Democratic Convention)1:34:54 Louis Armstrong - Mahogany Hall Stomp(Clip from 1936-06-26 CBS Democratic Convention)1:13:16 Bo Carter - Cigarette Blues1:39:34 Robert Johnson - They're Red Hot(Clip from Rembrandt)1:41:07 Lil Johnson - Sam The Hot Dog Man(Clip from Tarzan Escapes)1:43:12 Lead Belly - Pig Meat Papa(Clip from The Story of Louis Pasteur)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for February and March. For the full 3.5-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

As we journey through the 20th century, another parallel progression is taking place. In the now little remembered days of, 1901, this project involved collecting whatever meagre heavily-mediated artefacts survived and trying to knit them together into a narrative which felt like it made sense. For the long-forgotten years of the Edwardian era, this made sense, but as the devastation of the First World War started, the inadequacy of the sources available became suddenly stark. Who were these dance bands playing hot ragtime, and why were they so completely oblivious to the events going on in Europe? There was a forced myopia, and we just had to put up with it.

But then we had jazz, blues, country, electrical recordings, sound films, radio, newsreels; all expanding the pool of available sounds, cross-fertilizing, widening the pallet. As you know, of course, another war is now approaching. Perhaps it would be hyperbole to say the distant rumbles can be felt throughout these recordings, perhaps this is all in my interpretation and in yours, but this mix does feel to me like a picture of a year, not just a picture of a year's music.

This, naturally, adds complications. I know very little of the lives of the musicians featured so far. Their contribution has been the joy their music can bring, and at this distant a perspective everything else about their lives - though likely very interesting - is not relevant to the project. This mix, on the other hand, includes the voices of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. To leave them out entirely would be to paint a sanitised picture of the year, but it is vital not to let them set the agenda. I have tried, to the best of my ability, to present them each briefly, with appropriate mournfulness or mockery. I can't promise that I've always achieved this as well as I would like, but I promise I have tried.

This tracklisting has been divided up month-by month in order to be more easily digestible.

January - Swing Is Here

0:00:00 NBC Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Symphony No.7 In A Major Op. 92. Ii. Allegretto(Clips from 1936-01-03 Opening Day of 74th Congress)0:00:34 Busch Quartet - String Quartet No. 12 In E Flat Op. 127(Clip from My Man Godfrey)(Clip from AT&T Archives Introduction to the Dial Telephone)0:02:21 Gene Krupa - Swing Is Here (+ Benny Goodman)(Clip from Rose Marie)0:05:16 Ink Spots - Stompin' At The Savoy0:06:17 Benny Goodman & His Orchestra - Stompin' At The Savoy(Clip from Reefer Madness)0:08:28 Memphis Minnie - New Orleans Stop Time0:11:21 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Steel Guitar Rag0:14:08 Ciro Rimacs Rumba-Orchester - Maxixe-Carioca

February - Nightmail

(Clip from Disorder in the Court)0:15:58 Lion - Four Mills Brothers(Clip from Le Vrai Jeu)0:18:41 Charles Trenet - Tout Est Au Duc(Clip from Anthony Adverse)0:20:56 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli - Limehouse Blues0:23:38 W. H. Auden - On This Island0:24:27 Benjamin Britten, Stuart Legg and John Grierson - Nightmail0:27:35 The Benny Goodman Quartet - Tiger Rag (Take 1)(Clip from Cain & Mabel)0:30:37 Ella Fitzgerald feat. Chick Webb And His Orchestra - Sing Me A Swing Song (And Let Me Dance)(Clip from Rose Marie)0:32:24 Jones-Smith Incorporated - Lady Be Good0:35:29 Slim & Slam - The Flat Foot Floogie

March - There May Be Trouble Ahead

0:38:15 Robert Johnson - Cross Road Blues (Take 2)(Clip from 1936-03-01 King Edward VIII - The first broadcast to the Empire as King)0:41:18 Fred Astaire - Let's Face The Music And Dance (Soundtrack)(Clip from 1936-03-01 King Edward VIII - The first broadcast to the Empire as King)0:43:27 Barney Bigard And His Jazzopaters - Caravan(Clip from 1936-03-07 PTT Albert Sarrault Proteste Contre Loccupation De La Rhenanie)0:44:27 Josephine Baker - Mayari0:46:20 Sukru Tunar - Suzinak Taksim0:47:05 Sukru Tunar - Karslama(Clip from 1936-03-xx Winston Churchill - The Loaded Pause)0:49:09 Ramadan Lolov - Orientalski Kyuchek(Clip from 1936-03-19 NBC ATMOTA - The Supreme Court and the Constitution)0:50:49 Milton Brown - Somebody's Been Using That Thing(Clip from Pathe Review of 1936)

April - Will the Machine Dominate Man?

0:52:37 Phil Green - Nobody's Sweetheart (Ballyhooligans)(Clip from 1936-04-02 NBC ATMOTA - Will Unionization Promote Industrial Recovery)0:54:31 Kōichi Sugii - Kiso Takashi0:57:15 Walter De La Mare - Nod0:58:15 Roy Acuff and his Crazy Tennesseeans - Great Speckled Bird(Clip from 1936-04-16 NBC ATMOTA - Will the Machine Dominate Man)1:00:14 Lonnie Glosson - Arkansas Hard Luck Blues(Clip from 1936-04-16 NBC ATMOTA - Will the Machine Dominate Man)1:03:11 Harlem Hamfats - Weed Smoker's Dream(Clip from 1936-04-17 PTT Maurice Thorez)1:06:31 Edith Piaf - Je Suis Mordue(Clip from John Wayne in The Lawless Nineties)1:08:10 Sri Ma Keow & Chai Wat - Courting The Woman From Chiang Mai

May - Play Faster!

(Gennett Sound Effects - Rainfall and Thunder)(Clip from 1936-05-01 Adolf Hitler Speech at Krupp Factory in Germany)1:09:18 NBC Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Symphony No.7 In A Major Op. 92. Ii. Allegretto(Clip from 1936-05-09 EIAR Benito Mussolini - Vincere)(Clip from 1936-05-09 EIAR Reports End Of Ethiopian War)1:10:03 Pablo Casals - Excerpt from Suite No. 2 In D Minor(Clip of Spencer Tracy in Fury)1:10:59 Anestis Delias - Sura Ke Mastura(Clip of Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl)1:13:00 Septeto Anacaona - Despúes Que Sufras(Clip from Dodsworth)1:16:02 Meade 'Lux' Lewis - Celeste Blues(Clip from Camile)1:18:03 Mary Lou Williams - Corny Rhythm(Clip from Reefer Madness)1:21:15 Albert Ammons - Nagasaki(Clip from The Story of Louis Pasteur)1:23:05 Little Brother Montgomery - Farish Street Jive1:24:23 W. H. Auden - May

June - Red Hot

1:25:17 Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra - Pennies From Heaven(Clip from After The Thin Man)1:28:35 Georgia White - Get 'em From The Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)(Clip from 1936-06-12 Alfred M Landon Speech)1:30:25 Fats Waller & His Rhythm - It's A Sin To Tell A Lie(Clip from 1936-06-26 CBS Democratic Convention)1:34:54 Louis Armstrong - Mahogany Hall Stomp(Clip from 1936-06-26 CBS Democratic Convention)1:13:16 Bo Carter - Cigarette Blues1:39:34 Robert Johnson - They're Red Hot(Clip from Rembrandt)1:41:07 Lil Johnson - Sam The Hot Dog Man(Clip from Tarzan Escapes)1:43:12 Lead Belly - Pig Meat Papa(Clip from The Story of Louis Pasteur)

July - Now You're Singing With A Swing

1:44:34 Jesse James - Southern Casey Jones(Clip from Green Pastures)1:46:41 Hall Negro Quartet - I've Heard Of A City Called Heaven1:47:30 Elder Otis Jones - O Lord I'm Your Child1:49:30 Mahmut Celalettin And Udi Marko - Yuzu Pembe(Clip from AT&T Archives Introduction to the Dial Telephone)1:50:44 Cuarteto Marcano - Sucedio Lo Que Tenia Que Suceder(Clip from Disorder in the Court)1:52:39 Billie Holiday - Summertime(Clip from 1936-06-30 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia - Addresses League of Nations)(Clip from Ten Year Old Boy Pilot)1:55:50 Benny Goodman - Bugle Call Rag(Clip from Mr Deeds Goes to Town)1:58:48 Louis Prima And His New Orleans Gang - Sing, Sing, Sing2:00:40 RCA - First Television Broadcast July 7, 1936

August - Quite Beyond the Reach of Young Women

2:04:28 Benny Goodman Trio - Tiger Rag(Clip from 1936-07-28 DRF Jessie Owens Interview)2:06:54 Johnny Rodríguez Y Su Orchestra - Mulatica(Clip from 1936-07-31 RRG Radio - Olympic Fire Handed Over At The Czech-German Border)2:10:01 Karlo - Vladaisko Horo(Clip from 1936-08-16 Olympic Sports In Berlin)2:11:59 Stuff Smith Onyx Club Boys - I Hope Gabriel Likes My Music(Clip from 1936-08-16 Olympic Sports In Berlin)(Clip fom 1936-xx-xx RRG Edgar Stahff - The Olympic Games And Foreign Germans)2:14:50 Andy Kirk & his Twelve Clouds - Lotta Sax Appeal(Clip from Sabotage)2:18:08 King Radio - Texilia(Clip from The World's Tallest Man Robert Wadlow)2:19:39 George Formby - When I'm Cleaning Windows2:21:18 George Formby - Quickfire Medley(Clip from Winterset)

September - My Hours Are Slumberless

2:21:42 Teddy Wilson - Blues In C Sharp(Clip from 1936-08-30 Franklin D. Roosevelt - I Hate War Speech)2:25:03 Hal Kemp - Gloomy Sunday(Clip from 1936-xx-xx Leon Trotsky - On Stalins Moscow Trials)2:27:36 Busch Quartet - String Quartet No. 12 In E Flat Op. 127(Clip from 1936-xx-xx PCPT Josef Stalin - On Germany)(Clip from 1936-xx-xx PCPT Josef Stalin - Will Do His Duty)(Clip from 1936-xx-xx PCPT Josef Stalin - Workers Paradise)2:28:42 Walter De La Mare - Song Of Shadows2:29:15 Barney Bigard (Duke Ellington) - Clouds In My Heart(Clip from Pathe Review of 1936)2:31:16 Stellio Et Son Orchestre Creole - Encore Cinq Minutes Veux-Tu!(Clip from 1936-xx-xx BBC Chamberlain On Tax Hikes For Armaments)2:32:47 Ink Spots - Christopher Columbus2:34:28 Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers - The Gypsy

October - Vote For Mr Rhythm

(Clip from 1936-10-01 FDR Speech DNC Pittsburgh)2:38:02 Chick Webb And His Orchestra - Vote For Mr. Rhythm(Clip from 1936-10-02 WCFL City Series Game 2 Chicago Cubs vs Chicago White Sox)2:40:41 Riki Miyagawa - Yume Miru Kokoro(Clip from 1936-10-03 NBC World Series Game 3 NY Giants vs NY Yankees)2:42:46 The Spirits Of Rhythm - My Old Man2:44:28 Putney Dandridge - Skeleton In The Closet(Clip from Hra Bublinek)2:45:48 Márkos Vamvakáris - Mávra Mátia Mávra Frýdia(Clip from Mon Père avait raison)2:47:04 Charles Trenet - Vous Oubliez Votre Cheval(Clip from 1936-10-28 FDR Fiftieth Anniversary Of Statue Of Liberty)2:48:46 Georges Boulanger - La Trioletta7(Clip from Disorder in the Court)2:50:20 Lew Childre - It Don't Do Nothing But Rain(Clip from 1936-10-31 Franklin D. Roosevelt - I Welcome Their Hatred)

November - Isn't Jazz Just A Lot Of Noise?

2:52:23 J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers - John Henry Was A Little Boy(Clip from 1936-10-31 Houdinis Final Seance)2:54:09 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra - Rusty And Dusty(Clip from 1936-11-02 The First BBC Programme)2:56:03 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Basin Street Blues(Clip from NBC ATMOTA)(Clip from 1936-11-16 Winston Churchill - The Causes of War)3:00:10 Hackberry Ramblers - J'ai Pas Bien Fey(Clip from 1936-11-30 British Pathe - Crystal Palace Fire Aka Great Fire Destroys Crystal Palace)3:01:46 Marian Anderson - Heav'n, Heav'n(Clip from 1936-11-26 NBC ATMOTA - What Does the Public Want in Music)3:02:43 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli - I Can't Give You Anything But Love(Clip from 1936-11-26 NBC ATMOTA - What Does the Public Want in Music)3:06:18 Duke Ellington - In A Sentimental Mood(Clip from 1936-11-26 NBC ATMOTA - What Does the Public Want in Music)3:07:56 Mahmut Celalettin - Neva Ussak Gazel(Clip from 1936-11-26 NBC ATMOTA - What Does the Public Want in Music)

December - No Regrets

3:09:45 Orchestre Del's Jazz Biguine - Nain Cochon(Clip from 1936-11-26 NBC ATMOTA - What Does the Public Want in Music)3:12:45 Mildred Bailey - Long About Midnight(Clip from 1936-12-11 King Edward VIII - Abdication Speech)3:16:30 Blind Boy Fuller - I'm A Rattlesnakin' Daddy(Clip from Alastair Cooke on Katherine Hepburn)3:18:13 Tino Rossi - Le Mur De Ton Jardin3:21:10 W. H. Auden - A Bride in the 30's3:23:06 Busch Quartet - String Quartet No. 12 In E Flat Op. 127(Clip from 1936-12-29 MBS First Coast To Coast Broadcast)3:24:42 Futaba Akiko & Columbia Rhythm Boys - Biroudo No Tsuki(Clip from The Petrified Forest)3:27:07 Billie Holiday - No Regrets

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

James Errington takes you on another journey back into the forgotten history of recorded sound, this time joined by Liam Higgins, playing cylinders and shellac all from the year 1904. Aside from the usual brass band, banjo and proto-ragtime and barbershop music, you can listen to the last castrato, find out what a ‘gamp’ is and hear a lengthy excoriation of the worst Olympic Games of all time.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3.5-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

Recorded music has a centre of gravity, and it's usually New York. Now and again, though, we have seen it temporarily shift - to New Orleans and to Chicago, and now, in one of the peak years of swing, we find ourselves in Paris, near to the closing moments of the Third Republic, with two Belgian-Romani guitarists, a French-Italian violin player, a French double-bass player and a French guitarist. This group of musicians recorded under a variety of names (and with a host of other musicians) but are best-remembered as Quintette du Hot Club de France.

The most well-known of this Quintette is almost certainly Django Reinhardt. Born to Romani-Belgian parents, Django played the guitar (initially a banjo-guitar) from the age of 12, but otherwise had little in the way of education. He was almost-completely illiterate until late into his life, and managed to spend a year in New York despite speaking no English. If that were not enough disadvantages to be dealing with, in 1928 he suffered severe burns after his caravan caught fire, and ended up spending 18 months in hospital, losing two of the fingers on his left hand. With only three fingers left to form chords, Django had to devise for himself an entirely new way to play the guitar. Inspired by Eddie Lang, the father of jazz guitar (sadly the two never played together as Lang died during a routine tonsillectomy in 1933) he was soon traveling throughout France, playing in any bar or club that could pay him. It was in one of these that he first met jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli.

I remember seeing Stéphane Grappelli on TV when I was very young, and was impressed enough to ask for an LP, which I did not really listen to. Nevertheless, it was my first introduction to jazz. Grapelli's French mother died when he was five, and his Italian father was drafted into the army when he was six. He was passed first to Isadora Duncan's dance school, then to a Dickensian orphanage, and only rescued when his father returned at the end of the war. Like Reinhardt, Grapelli had an instrument bought for him at the age of 12 - a violin bought by his father after pawning a suit - and while he did attend the the Conservatoire de Paris for a time, he was mostly self-taught. Aside from a short spell where he bafflingly shifted to piano, Grapelli's life from the age of 15 was spent mostly playing violin professionally, first in a silent movie theatre, and after a few years in concerts put on by a student organisation for the promotion of jazz in France, the "Hot Club de France"

Reinhardt and Grapelli's playing is still, 85 years later, without equal. Their antecedents are, naturally, Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti, but while that pair made some beautiful records, the way the Hot Club stretch this simple combination of instruments into such a vast array of styles, displaying such effortless virtuosity, well, it's just breathtaking. Reinhard combines the melodies of Lang with the faster rhythms of Romani music, turning this formerly decorative, textual instument into the lead, the centre of the sound. At times his playing is dizzyingly avant-garde, but often also distinctly melodic in a very late-20th-century sort of way. Grapelli, meanwhile, grabs anything Reinhard throws at him, his improvisation described by Yehudi Menuhin as "like one of those jugglers who send 10 plates into the air and recovers them all.”

Well, I still haven't written anything about Michel Warlop, or Josephine Baker, or Charles Trenet, or Rina Ketty, all recording in Paris this year, and yes, of course there was still a great deal going on elsewhere, and, well, you'll just have to listen to find out.

January

0:00:00 Maurice Jaubert - Dream Sequence from Un Carnet De Bal(Clip of Elizabeth Lomax)(Clip from Double Wedding)(Clip from On The Air)0:00:52 Benny Goodman & his Orchestra - Sing, Sing, Sing(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)0:04:22 The Raymond Scott Quintette - Powerhouse(Clip from 1937-01-05 NBC Opening Day of 75th Congress)0:06:52 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli - Mystery Pacific(Clip of NBC chimes)0:08:52 The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet - Found A Wonderful Savior(Clip of 1937-01-18 CBS March of Time)0:11:20 Xavier Cugat - Bim Bam Bum(Clip of 1937-01-18 CBS March of Time)0:13:26 Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra - China Stomp (Chinatown, My Chinatown)(Clip of 1937-01-18 CBS March of Time)0:16:15 Ivor Moreton & Dave Kaye - Polly & Nola(Clip of 1937-01-27 WFBR Xmitting WSM - Flood Coverage)

February

0:19:11 Duke Ellington And His Orchestra - Caravan(Clip from Orson Welles Screen test)0:21:52 Django Reinhardt - Improvisation / Sweet Georgia Brown(Clip from 1937-02-06 MBS Kay Kyser Live from the Trianon Ballroom Chicago)0:26:56 Jimmie Lunceford - For Dancers Only(Clip from On The Air)0:28:40 Udi Hrant - Huzzam Taksim(Clip from On The Air)0:29:51 Vulkana Stoyanova - Dimo Na Rada(Clip from 1937-02-27 Seabiscuit - Santa Anita)0:32:04 Jimmie Revard & His Oklahoma Boys - Fox And Hounds(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)

March

0:34:53 Atilla The Hun - Roosevelt In Trinidad(Clip from 1937-03-04 FDR Second Inaugural Address)0:37:43 Benny Goodman Quartet - Bei Mir Bist Du Schon - Part 20:38:33 Andrews Sisters - Bei Mir Bist Du Schon(Clip from 1937-03-18 MBS Duke Ellington Live from the Cotton Club)0:42:02 Cootie Williams (Ellington) - Pigeons And Peppers(Clip from 1937-03-18 MBS Duke Ellington Live from the Cotton Club)0:45:26 Billie Holiday - My Man(Clip from The Shadow - Circle Of Death)0:48:41 Robert Johnson - Me And The Devil Blues (Take 2)(Clip from Marked Woman)0:51:11 Artie Shaw - Blues Part 1(Clip from A Day At The Races)

April

0:53:07 Peetie Wheatstraw - Peetie Wheatstraw Stomp(Clip from The Cinnamon Bear)0:55:40 Count Basie - Exactly Like You(Clip from 1937-04-18 CBS We The People Dinosaur Tracks)0:58:33 Ciro Rimac - Yo Me Ba(Clip from 1937-04-18 CBS We The People Dinosaur Tracks)1:01:40 Kucuk Nezihe Hanim And Sukru Tunar - Agladim Aci Cektim(Clip from 1937-04-18 CBS We The People Dinosaur Tracks)1:03:29 Michel Warlop - Taj Mahal (Orchestre + Django Reinhardt)(Clip from 1937-04-19 PTT General Franco Cree La Phalange Espagnole a Salamanque)1:07:02 Secco's Gitano's - Hora(Clip from A Day At The Races)1:09:10 Hoosier Hot Shots - Goofus

May

(Clip from Maytime)1:11:57 Vanvakaris Markos - Taksimi Zeimpekiko(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)(Clip from 1937-05-06 WLS Hindenberg Disaster Herbert Morrison)1:15:31 Frank Churchill, Paul J. Smith & Leigh Harline - Magic Mirror(Clip from 1937-05 RRG Cpt Hans von Schiller - Lakehurst Memorial Service)1:16:36 Marlene Dietrich - Lili Marlene(Clip of Charles Laughton)1:18:19 The Caresser - Edward The VII(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)1:20:18 Executor - Reign Of The Georges(Clip of Charles Laughton)1:21:51 Fats Waller - Tea For Two(Clip of 1937-05-20 Tommy Woodrooffe on a Royal Navy Fleet Review)1:25:15 Django Reinhardt - Swing Guitars

June

1:26:19 Frank Churchill, Paul J. Smith & Leigh Harline - I'm Wishing1:27:34 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers - Let's Call The Whole Thing Off(Clip from Pathe Gazette Presents The Derby 1937)1:30:08 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Right Or Wrong(Clip from Saratoga)1:33:07 Harlem Hamfats - Root Hog Or Die(Clip from Meet the Girl who Became a Man, Australian Cinesound newsreel)1:35:17 Sosyete Boumba, Marileanne Joseph - Ezili Si Ou Mande Manje, Map Bayou Li(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)1:36:38 Septeto Anacaona - Oh! Marambé Maramba(Clip from Angel)1:37:26 Peter Kreuder - Shall We Dance (Solisten)

July

(Clip from On The Air)1:39:02 Rex Stewart And His 52nd Street Stompers - Back Room Romp(Clip from Easy Living)1:41:58 Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra - Sun Showers(Clip from 1937-07-09 Red Barber - Joe Dimaggio Radio Call)1:45:19 Ink Spots - Swing High, Swing Low(Clip from 1937-07-20 MBS WOR Marconi Memorial Program)1:46:56 T. V. Ramaswami Sastrigal, Vikatam Vidwan, Thiruvisalur - Sky Lark Squirrel Country Oil Mill Red Bird(Clip from 1937-07-20 MBS WOR Marconi Memorial Program)1:47:18 Elsie Carlisle - So Many Memories(Clip from 1937-07-20 MBS WOR Marconi Memorial Program)1:48:41 Loumé Fréice Of The Sosyete Viyolon - En Avant Simple(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)1:49:14 Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Boléro

August

(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)1:52:16 Akasaka Koume - Asama No Kemuri(Clip from Song at Midnight)1:53:50 Zhou Xuan - When Will You Return?(Clip From 1937-08-27 NBC KGU Interviews With Refugees From China Sino-Japanese War)1:55:40 Koichi Sugii - Setsu Kagoshima Ohara1:58:39 Amaunalik K’âvigak’ - Song In A Fable1:58:48 Raymond Scott - War Dance For Wooden Indians(Clip from The Shadow 37-11-28 Circle Of Death)(Clip from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs)2:01:51 Count Basie - Boogie Woogie(Clip from Dead End)2:04:57 Jones-Smith Incorporated - Shoe Shine Boy

September

(Clip from Dime a Dance)2:08:02 Nadezhda Zlateva - Slushai Malka Mome2:09:59 Maurice Jaubert - Dream Sequence from Un Carnet De Bal2:12:53 Charles Trenet - Je Chante2:15:23 Josephine Baker - Toc Toc Partout (+ Rogers)2:17:30 Lou Bandy - Conference Vakantie2:17:49 Rina Ketty - Le Clocher D' Amour(Clip from Pepe le Moko)2:19:07 Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Mabel

October

2:23:13 William Butler Yeats - The Lake Isle of Innisfree2:24:20 Arthur Schnabel - Sonata No 4, E Flat Major, Op 7 Largo, Con Gran Espressione2:26:24 Virginia Woolf - The Recorded Voice Of Virginia Woolf2:26:45 Carroll Gibbons - There's A Lull In My Life (Vocal - Anne Lenner)(Clip from 1937-10-12 NBC Fireside Address FDR)2:29:42 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli - Chicago(Clip from 1937-10-13 CBS Benny Goodman Live from the Hotel Pennsylvania)2:33:24 Benny Goodman Quartet - Avalon(Clip from Dime a Dance)2:36:10 Rof Acuff - Steel Guitar Blues(Clip from 1937-10-22 NBC Ben Davis Jr)2:39:36 Ella Fitzgerald feat. Chick Webb And His Orchestra - When I Get Low I Get High(Clip from Movietone Reviews A Memorable Year 1937)(Clip of Amelia Earhart On The Future Of Women In Flying)(Clip from Krazy's Race of Time)2:42:34 The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet - Golden Gate Gospel Train

November

2:45:03 Robert Johnson - Love In Vain Blues (Take 1)(Clip from Angel)2:47:32 Kemani Nubar - Bahriye Cifte Telli(Clip from 1937-11-20 NBCB Believe it or Not Colonel Stoopnagle)2:49:20 Markos Vamvakaris - Oli I Rembetes Tu Dunia(Clip from One Hundred Men and a Girl)2:51:42 Patsy Montana - I Wanna Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart(Clip from Lost Horizon)2:53;34 Group Of Haitian Men And Women, Saul Polinice, Louis Marseille, Ciceron Marseille - Papa Legba Ouvri Baryè-A2:54:16 W.M. Stepp - Bonaparte's Retreat(Clip from Around The Corner - How Differential Steering Works)2:56:00 Big Joe Williams - Rooting Ground Hog(Clip from Way Out West)(Clip from A Star Is Born)(Clip from Stage Door)(Clip from Marked Woman)(Clip from Easy Living)(Clip from Young & Innocent)(Clip from Nothing Sacred)(Clip from A Damsel In Distress)(Clip from You Only Live Once)(Clip from A Day At The Races)(Clip from The Hurriicane)(Clip from The Good Earth)3:00:31 Yenz' Inqab' Intombi (Zulu; South Africa) - Evening Birds

December

(Clip from 1937-12-12 NBC TCSH Mae West)3:01:57 Roy Rogers - Cowboy Night Herd Song(Clip from 1937-12-12 NBC TCSH Mae West)3:03:40 George Formby - Hi Tiddley Hi Ti Island(Clip from 1937-12-12 NBC TCSH Mae West)3:05:29 Bing Crosby - Sweet Lelani(Clip from 1937-12-12 NBC TCSH Mae West)3:08:10 Teddy Weatherford - Ain't Misbehavin' (Piano Solo)(Clip from 1937-12-12 NBC TCSH Mae West)3:10:20 A Jam Session At Victor - Honeysuckle Rose(Clip from 1937-12-12 NBC TCSH Mae West)3:13:25 Willie ' The Lion ' Smith - I'm All Out Of Breath(Clip from 1937-12-12 NBC TCSH Mae West)3:16:08 Michel Warlop - Christmas Swing (+ Django Reinhardt & Louis Vola)(Clip of NBC chimes)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Another sonic adventure through time with James Errington, this time joined by guests Dominic, Joanne & Adam to listen to the sounds of 1905 and discuss such pressing topics as skeleton xylophones, the hubris of Dick Dastardly, melancholy in Spanish music, the latter-day lack of songs about bears in pop music and, for some reason, collared doves, which are definitely a type of pigeon.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3.5-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

Ten stories from 1938

Part One - The Famous Carnegie Hall Concert

1938 opens with perhaps the most famous Jazz concert of all time. Every five years it is my duty to report that "Jazz has gone mainstream" but this might really be it - never before has the genre been so accepted as a national music across spectra of race and class, and after a brief plateau, it's all going to splinter and decline (commercially - certainly not artistically!) from this point on. The concert at Carnegie Hall January 16th was held by Benny Goodman - a clarinettist and band leader who looked, and dressed, like a befuddled office clerk in a Howard Hawks movie - and an all-star ensemble. Goodman had already been recording in a trio with drummer Gene Krupa, pianist Teddy Wilson, and a quartet also featuring Lionel Hampton, and took the opportunity to massively expand on this with every other big name of the day. It's hard to convey the novelty of a racially-integrated jazz act playing in public at all, let alone in Carnegie Hall. Such a thing would have been completely unthinkable even five years earlier.

Much like Paul Whiteman's 1924 concert which introduced Rhapsody in Blue, the show began with a history of jazz - this time with a marginally more accurate starting point of the "dixieland" era of the early 20s. Then through the two hours the pace began to build with a number of special guests, including the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras, until finally the Goodman Quartet blitzed through their hits. The program had been wisely planned, with muted reception for the first half an hour winding up to demands for several encores at the end. Three recordings were made, two acetates and one set of aluminium discs - this may seem like a minor detail, but it has been important to the making of this mix because the lower-fidelity acetates were the source for the 1950 LP of the concert, and the CD version currently available is a direct rip from the higher-fidelity aluminium master, which archivist Phil Schaap put together in the late 1990s, and which I find to be almost unlistenable because he apparently refused to do any kind of restoration work, resulting in scraping and hissing noises being present through most of the two CDs. For this mix, then, I have combined the two versions, adding extra fidelity to sections of the old record and doing mostly eq-based noise reduction on the CD version. It still isn't perfect, but right now it's the best sound you're going to get.

Part Two - Countless Blues

The late thirties, after the death of Robert Johnson, is one of the least-heralded eras for the blues - but it really shouldn't be. Half a decade before jazz artists started playing jump blues, here we are with electric guitars, boogie-woogie rhythms and dance arrangements. Call it one of the many births of rock & roll if you like - there's certainly a great deal here which wouldn't feel out of place in the fifties, Georgia slide blues from Tampa Red and Georgia White, Chicago blues from Washboard Sam, Piedmont blues from Blind Boy Fuller and proto-R&B from Big Bill Broonzy and Jazz Gillum.

Part Three - Mein Rhythmus

A European tour, starting in the music halls of England, then Finnish accordion, Romanian violin and German dance bands, before settling down into a five-track exploration of French singers. Charles Trenet gives us one last taste of optimism before the events of 1939, Edith Piaf on the other hand, has a military song. Rina Ketty, an Italian, sings "J'attendrai" ("I will wait"), a translation of an Italian song, which later became emblematic of World War II, summing up the anxious longing of women awaiting the safe return of their sons and husbands from the war. Deanna Durbin was another immigrant to France, though luckily for her she was still in Hollywood at this point - and there's Marie-Jacques Renée "Jacotte" Perrier, aged only 13, performing with the Hot Club De France - we will be hearing more from them in time. We finish our European tour with Johnny & Jones, Jewish jazz-pop artists from Amsterdam, both of whom would sadly become some of the final victims of the Holocaust.

Part Four - Algiers

This selection of Middle-Eastern and African music begins in Bulgaria, before moving on to Turkey (including Turkish-Armenian oud virtuoso Udi Hrant) and Algerian singer Cheikh Zouzou. The 1938 movie Algiers (a remake of 1937 French film Pépé le Moko) depicted a fantasied version of the native quarter of Algiers known as the Casbah - while it is certainly guilty of exoticism, and possibly a lot worse, the film is notable for bringing Hedy Lamarr to the attention of American audiences. The African section features Africans in Brasil, recorded by Mário de Andrade, and East African and Nigerian recordings about which I can find very little information — please let me know if you have anything on these artists.

Part Five - Vitalogy

A tour around the Caribbean and elsewhere, we start with Carmen Miranda, perhaps the biggest star ever to come from Brasil's Samba scene - she would move to the USA and begin her screen career the following year. Off then to Cuba, with "Guantanamera," perhaps the best-known song from the island, with lyrics by the Cuban poet José Martí and music by Joseíto Fernández, and another adaptation of Son music by Xavier Cugat for the American public. We have a trio of recordings from Trinidad, where Portuguese music promotor Sa Gomes is doing his best to support, record and promote the genre - one track from Carnival's Vagabonds is a tribute to the man himself - and a little Hawaiian music, now finally fading away from the popularity and influence it has had for the last two decades.

Part Six - Stepping Into Swing Society

The first of two overviews of Swing in 1938, this one begins with some gospel music and preaching (of course this is not swing, but bear with me) in order to introduce "Reverend Sachmo" who kicks off some of the hotter jazz selections from the year. Famous names here include Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Chick Webb and Tommy Dorsey - the only slightly more obscure name is that of Pee Wee Russell. The chapter concludes with a few novelty swing records, from two different groups of Hot Shots and the Raymond Scott Quintette.

Part Seven - War of The Worlds

Certainly the most famous episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Orson Welles' adaptation of H.G. Wells' (no relation) science fiction novel caused a scandal on broadcast when it allegedly caused panicked listeners to flee to the hills. The people actually fleeing or even complaining in vast numbers appear to have been an invention of some sort, certainly the main change when the dust settled was that Orson Welles was now well-known nationwide and able to pick up his first directing work, and I'm sure everyone knows what that is. From my POV the most interesting thing about War of the Worlds is the way it combines fantastic elements with an imitation of a standard radio programme with breaks for a live broadcast of light music. Here we have most of the first half of the drama, with the music swapped for more interesting lighter dance music from 1938, plenty of it from the UK, and at least some of it re-used later by Leyland Kirkby for his The Caretaker project.

Part Eight - Did You Ever Milk A Cow?

Folk and country music has had as hard a time as country blues over the course of the great depression, but it is also finding ways to adapt to the new world. Some, like the Hackberry Rambers are working with a niche market, Some, like the Dezurik Sisters, are making as an extreme an impression as possible to grab as much attention as they can (despite being a fairly traditional yodelling record, "Arizona Yodeler" is one of the most out there things in the entire mix.) For the most part, however, this is a run-through of the early days of "western swing" - essentially just swing made by white musicians in the former wild west, with the horns sometimes (but not always) switched for fiddles, and, as of this year, electric guitars.

Part Nine - When The Sun Sets Down South

Drawing towards our conclusion, this chapter covers some of the more relaxed and vocal swing records of the year, including some of the biggest hits. Ella Fitzgerald adapted A-Tisket, A-Tasket from a nursery rhyme, and Count Basie joined in the fun with his "Stop Beatin' 'round The Mulberry Bush" - selections from Billie Holiday are also notably relaxed and reassuring in tone, especially when compared to her recordings from 1939. It isn't all smooth classics here, though. Django Reinhardt provides one of his most curious recordings, Sugii Kōichi has more Spanish-tinged Japanese lounge jazz, and Bob Haggart & Ray Bauduc play Big Noise From Winnetka, one of those records you've known all your life, but never knew the name.

Part Ten - Munich

Much of the time spent on this mix was dedicated to trying to judge the tone of this final section. I can't promise that it has been done perfectly, but practice was needed, considering everything I will need to include on the next seven mixes. One of the worst crimes of the nostalgia business is to transform the worst traumas our civilization has suffered into light entertainment, and for this reason I didn't feel it appropriate to mix coverage of Hitler's rise with any sort of jazz. Instead, the events of late 1938 - the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Munich peace conference, the triumphant hubris of Neville Chamberlain and, it turns out, the British and international media - seem to fit better with the more sombre classical music recorded this year.

For all the creative energy released in 1938, it is ultimately a year remembered for its complacency, not just that of the British government, but from a western world which feels it is through the worst, while a "quarrel in a far away country, between people of whom we know nothing" is not something worth worrying about. Next year we will see that focus being sharply pulled.

Tracklist

Part One - The Famous Carnegie Hall Concert

0:00:00 Carl Stalling - Warner Brothers Intro0:00:20 The Benny Goodman Orchestra - China Boy(Clip from Pygmalion)0:04:10 The Benny Goodman Orchestra - Dizzy Spells0:08:33 The Benny Goodman Orchestra - Sing Sing Sing (With A Swing)(Clip from You Can't Take It With You)

Part Two - Countless Blues

(Clip from Review Of The Year)0:13:02 Georgia White - The Blues Ain't Nothin' But…!!!(Clip from Peg-Leg Pedro)0:15:44 Big Bill Broonzy - Trucking Little Woman(Clip from How To Undress In Front Of Your Husband)0:17:10 Kansas City Six - Countless Blues(Clip from The Shadow 38-02-13 The House Of Horror)0:20:07 Bob Crosby - Honky Tonk Train Blues(Clip from Andy Hardy)0:22:01 Blind Boy Fuller - Step It Up And Go(Clip from A Slight Case of Murder)0:23:16 Tampa Red - Rock It In Rhythm(Clip from Bringing Up Baby)0:25:23 Jazz Gillum & His Jazz Boys - Reefer Head Woman(Clip from How To Undress In Front Of Your Husband)0:27:17 Washboard Sam - Don't Leave Me Here(Clip from La Bete Humaine)(Clip from Four Daughters)0:29:51 Blind Boy Fuller - Get Your Yas Yas Out(Clip from Always Goodbye)0:32:13 Hudson 'Tampa Red' Whittaker - Forgive Me Please

Part Three - Mein Rhythmus

(Clip from A Christmas Carol Trailer)0:35:02 Tommy Trinder - I Don't Do Things Like That(Clip from Adele England - Chestnut Tree)0:37:00 George Formby - In My Little Snapshot Album(Clip from The King's Speech)0:38:56 Viola Turpeinen - Kahden Venheessä(Clip from Kerensky interview)0:40:14 Georges Boulanger - Tokay(Clip from BBC Interview with Sigmund Freud)0:42:14 Heinz Munsonius - Mein Rhythmus0:43:30 Heinz Rühmann - Ich Brech Die Herzen Der Stolzesten Fraun0:44:21 Charles Trenet - Boum!0:46:13 Jacotte Perrier + Hot Club De France - Les Salades De L' Oncle Francois(Clip from La Femme du Boulanger)0:48:25 Rina Ketty - J' Attendrai(Clip from Port of Shadows)0:50:28 Edith Piaf - Le Fanion De La Legion0:52:05 Deanna Durbin - Les Filles De Cadix(Clip from Lou Bandy - Conference Vergeten)0:53:18 Johnny & Jones - Lied Van Den Slangenbezweerder (Snake Charmer)

Part Four - Algiers

0:54:51 Vulkana Stoyanova - Dimo Na Rada0:56:55 Udi Hrant - Kurdili Hicazkar Taksim(Clip from "The Speech Of Ancient Egypt, 18th Dynasty")0:58:00 Cheikh Zouzou - Gheniet Ben Soussan, Pt. 7(Clip from Algiers)1:00:37 Kemani Haydar Tatliyay - Arap Oyun Havasi1:02:09 Mário De Andrade - Instrumentos Do 'Caboclinho Índios Africanos'1:02:23 J.P. Nyangira - Hongo Owiti1:04:28 Godwin Scotland - Adelebo Ilu Eko(Clip from Algiers)

Part Five - Vitalogy

1:05:37 Carmen Miranda - Boneca De Pixe(Clip from The Citadel)1:07:05 Cuarteto Caney - Guajira Guantanamera1:09:53 Xavier Cugat - La Paloma(Clip from The Adventures of Robin Hood)1:13:35 The Caresser - Clear The Way When The Bamboo Play1:15:23 The Lion - Vitalogy1:15:45 Carnival's Vagabonds - We Want Sa Gomes(Clip from Jezebel)1:16:34 Mannie Klein's Swing-A-Hula's - Hoolihi Oe Ke Ike Mai

Part Six - Stepping Into Swing Society

(Clip from Angels With Dirty Faces)1:20:17 Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet - John The Revelator1:21:22 Rev. Benny Campbell - You Must Be Born Again1:22:43 Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra - When The Saints Go Marching In(Clip from American Air Record - Interview With Pilot)1:24:20 Pee Wee Russell - I've Found A New Baby(Clip from Alexander's Ragtime Band)1:25:45 Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra - Downhome Jump(Clip from The Sisters)1:28:20 Duke Ellington - Stepping Into Swing Society(Clip from Bringing Up Baby)1:31:17 Tommy Dorsey - Boogie Woogie(Clip from Bringing Up Baby)1:33:21 Count Basie - Jumpin' At The Woodside(Clip from Mr Moto's Gamble)1:36:28 Chick Webb & His Orchestra - Harlem Congo1:39:38 Joe Daniels Hot Shots - Limehouse Blues(Clip from Too Hot To Handle - Trailer)1:42:44 Hoosier Hot Shots - The Girl Friend Of The Whirling Dervish(Clip from Bringing Up Baby)1:45:04 Raymond Scott Quintette - The Happy Farmer

Part Seven - War of The Worlds

(Clip from War of the Worlds)1:48:03 Russ Morgan - What Do You Know About Love(Clip from War of the Worlds)1:49:53 Leslie Hutchinson - It's De Lovely(Clip from War of the Worlds)1:51:18 Geraldo - You're As Pretty As A Picture(Clip from War of the Worlds)1:56:06 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Pray For The Lights To Go Out(Clip from War of the Worlds)1:59:24 Harry Roy - Highland Swing (Vocal - Ray Ellington)(Clip from War of the Worlds)2:06:08 Unknown Mahafaly - Flute Solo (Ampanihy, Madagascar)(Clip from War of the Worlds)2:08:11 Prof. Anukul Ch. Das - Piano Instrumental- Ramprasad Sen(Clip from War of the Worlds)2:12:26 Bruno Walter & Wiener Philharmoniker - Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9(Clip from War of the Worlds)2:20:42 Artie Shaw And His Orchestra - Nightmare(Clips from Orson Welles Press Conference)

Part Eight - Did You Ever Milk A Cow?

(Clip from The Adventures of Robin Hood)2:24:24 Hackberry Ramblers - Fais Pas Ca(Clip from Adele England - Chestnut Tree)2:26:06 Coon Creek Girls - Old Uncle Dudy (Keep Fiddling On)(Clip from Merrily We Live)2:28:30 The Monroe Brothers - Have A Feast Here Tonight(Clip from Boys Town)2:29:30 Dezurik Sisters - Arizona Yodeler2:31:52 Cliff Bruner - When You're Smiling2:33:31 Light Crust Doughboys - Pussy Pussy Pussy(Clip from Test Pilot)2:37:05 Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans - Wabash Cannonball(Clip from Holiday)2:38:40 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Liza, Pull Down The Shades(Clip from Mind The Doors)2:41:12 Judy Garland - Cry Baby Cry

Part Nine - When The Sun Sets Down South

2:43:42 Count Basie - Stop Beatin' 'round The Mulberry Bush(Clip from AT&T - Operator)2:45:38 Ella Fitzgerald feat. Chick Webb And His Orchestra - A-Tisket, A-Tasket2:48:10 Sidney Bechet & Noble Sissle's Swingsters - Blackstick(Clip from Kerensky interview)2:50:56 Duke Ellington - Pyramid (Part 2)(Clip from Four Daughters)2:54:09 Andy Kirk & Mary Lou Williams - Twinklin'(Clip from You Can't Take It With You)2:56:40 Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra - Any Time At All(Clip from CBS WBBM World Series Game 2 NY Yankees vs Chicago Cubs)2:58:13 Django Reinhardt - Improvisation No. 2(Clip from CBS WBBM World Series Game 2 NY Yankees vs Chicago Cubs)(Clip from The Lady Vanishes)3:00:18 Bob Haggart & Ray Bauduc - Big Noise From Winnetka3:02:59 Sugii Kōichi - Kusatsu-bushi(Clip from NBC ATMOTA - Is an Economic Plan for World Peace Available?)3:05:21 Fats Waller - Waterboy3:05:34 Django Reinhardt - Appel Indirect (Appel Direct)(Clip from A Slight Case of Murder)3:08:30 Noble Sissle's Swingsters - When The Sun Sets Down South3:11:33 Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra - When You're Smiling3:14:21 Hot Lips Page - Rock It For Me3:17:10 Billie Holiday - You Go To My Head(Clip from A Slight Case of Murder)

Part Ten - Munich

3:20:02 The Lord Executor - Poppy Day(Clip from Inside Nazi Germany March of Time newsreel)3:21:26 Pablo Casals - No. 1 In G - I- Prelude (Moderato)(Clip from Inside Nazi Germany March of Time newsreel)3:22:44 Pablo Casals - Dvorak Cello Concerto In B 03 Allegro Moderato(Clip from Inside Nazi Germany March of Time newsreel)(Clip from Inside Nazi Germany March of Time newsreel)(Clip from 1938-02-03 NBC ATMOTA - What Does Democracy Mean?)3:24:53 Bruno Walter & Wiener Philharmoniker - Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9(Clip from Hitler In Vienna - British Pathé)(Clip from German Propaganda Film)(Clip from Winston Churchill - 'We Must Arm' Speech)3:27:38 Herbert Von Karajan - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Ouvertüre Zu 'die Zauberflöte' (Excerpt 1)(Clip from Review Of The Year)(Clip from Peace Four Power Conference)(Clip from Neville Chamberlain - Speech On His Return From The Munich Conference)(Clip from Peace Four Power Conference)3:30:17 NBC Symphony Orchestra - Adagio For Strings Op.11(Clip from Adolf Hitler - on the occasion of the german occupation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia)(Clip from 1938-12-01 NBC ATMOTA - Is an Economic Plan for World Peace Available?)(Clip from 1938-12-08 NBC ATMOTA - How Should the Democracies Deal With the Dictatorships?)3:35:03 Herbert Von Karajan - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Ouvertüre Zu 'die Zauberflöte' (Excerpt 2)(Clip from Review Of The Year)3:36:00 Flanagan & Allen - Umbrella Man(Clip from You Can't Take It With You)3:38:36 Ella Logan - Adios Muchachos3:40:12 Carl Stalling - Warner Brothers Outro(Clip from Angels with Dirty Faces)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. This is one of the ten chapters in the full version of Centuries of Sound 1938To get the whole mix as a podcast, and a load of other extras, sign up for five dollars per month at http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

Certainly the most famous episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Orson Wells' adaptation of H.G. Wells' (no relation) science fiction novel caused a scandal on broadcast when it allegedly caused panicked listeners to flee to the hills. The people actually fleeing or even complaining in vast numbers appear to have been an invention of some sort, certainly the main change when the dust settled was that Orson Wells was now well-known nationwide and able to pick up his first directing work, and I'm sure everyone knows what that is. From my POV the most interesting thing about War of the Worlds is the way it combines fantastic elements with an imitation of a standard radio programme with breaks for a live broadcast of light music. Here we have most of the first half of the drama, with the music swapped for more interesting lighter dance music from 1938, plenty of it from the UK, and at least some of it re-used later by Leyland Kirkby for his The Caretaker project.

00:00 Raymond Scott Quintette - The Happy Farmer(Clip from War of the Worlds)00:57 Russ Morgan - What Do You Know About Love(Clip from War of the Worlds)02:47 Leslie Hutchinson - It's De Lovely(Clip from War of the Worlds)04:11 Geraldo - You're As Pretty As A Picture(Clip from War of the Worlds)09:00 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Pray For The Lights To Go Out(Clip from War of the Worlds)12:17 Harry Roy - Highland Swing (Vocal - Ray Ellington)(Clip from War of the Worlds)19:02 Unknown Mahafaly - Flute Solo (Ampanihy, Madagascar)(Clip from War of the Worlds)21:05 Prof. Anukul Ch. Das - Piano Instrumental- Ramprasad Sen(Clip from War of the Worlds)25:20 Bruno Walter & Wiener Philharmoniker - Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 9(Clip from War of the Worlds)33:37 Artie Shaw And His Orchestra - Nightmare(Clips from Orson Welles Press Conference)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Another journey back in time with James Errington bringing you original historic recordings, this time from 1906, the year of the San Francisco earthquake. We have a brace of songs from the brilliant Bert Williams, plenty of music hall and vaudeville, and a performance of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag from Sousa’s Band.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. This is one of the ten chapters in the full version of Centuries of Sound 1938To get the whole mix as a podcast, and a load of other extras, sign up for five dollars per month at http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

One of the worst crimes of the nostalgia business is to transform the worst traumas our civilization has suffered into light entertainment, and for this reason I didn’t feel it appropriate to mix coverage of Hitler’s rise with any sort of jazz. Instead, the events of late 1938 — the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Munich peace conference, the triumphant hubris of Neville Chamberlain and, it turns out, the British and international media — seem to fit better with the more sombre classical music recorded this year.

For all the creative energy released in 1938, it is ultimately a year remembered for its complacency, not just that of the British government, but from a western world which feels it is through the worst, while a “quarrel in a far away country, between people of whom we know nothing” is not something worth worrying about. Next year we will see that focus being sharply pulled.

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

A decade ago, researching another project, I found myself listening to oral histories of the second world war, interviews with people who were children during The Blitz. Their memories, surprisingly, included admissions that they had found the experience to be an exciting one, playing in a semi-ruined, semi-abandoned city. This was the inspiration for a novel (which I think will never be ready for release, no great loss there) - but is it useful as a picture to paint of the time? It challenges a popular perspective, but does it just do this by introducing another, equally unbalanced one?

British culture is awash with unreal memory of the second world war. Popular entertainment of the time has already been forgotten - for those who were born in the decades to follow, the stiffness, forced jollity and now-obscure references make it hard to connect with Arthur Askey or Tommy Handley - but the "blitz spirit," the never-issued "keep calm and carry on" poster and a whole industry of Hitler-based comedy remain cultural touchstones. It's in this spirit that nostalgic collages of the time are assembled - plucky Londoners going about their business cut to the post-war orchestral recording of Vera Lynn singing "We'll Meet Again" This recording seems to hold much less in the way of restless ghosts than the contemporary version with Vera backed by Arthur Young on the Novachord (one of the world's first synthesisers) - but the goal of nostalgia is always to comfort.

Perhaps the best way to address this time is by starting in the manner of the documentary series The World At War (still close to definitive nearly 50 years after its release) which opens with a deadpan monotone describing the arbitrary massacre and destruction of an entire village. It's an act of genuine courage to present some of the worst horrors immediately, challenging the viewers to only keep watching if they are ready for more of this - no glory or heroism, no warm glow, just unspeakable horror, and only an ambiguous way for the horror to be eventually stopped.

I am - thankfully! - not making a documentary about the second world war, but, all the same, the idea of a sound collage of 1939 leaving it out entirely is a ridiculous one. If I layer pop songs of the time behind news clips, then all I am doing is dulling them of all meaning, folding them into this insulting nostalgic view. Equally, if I put stirring, positive music behind political speeches, is that not a tacit endorsement for their place in history? Is it my place to present Churchill, for example, as a hero? And yet I cannot steer clear of manipulation entirely. For the most part I have tried to give news reports and speeches space to breathe, using classical recordings which are less time-bound than pop or jazz, but when I needed to adopt a palette, the flavours were sadness and hope.

But I'm afraid I've been leading you down the garden path a little here. This is a four and a half hour long mix (!) and the second world war doesn't really make an appearance until the last hour. While Europe and East Asia spent the year either at war or in anticipation of war, for the rest of the world, other things were on the agenda. This is the year that swing starts to really split - the smoother styles, more acceptable by white society, were becoming codified in the "Big Bands" of Glenn Miller, Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Band leaders like Louis Jordan and instrumentalists like Pete Johnson were taking inspiration from blues to create an upbeat kind of stripped-down jazz, which would soon be labelled "rhythm & blues", "jump blues" and eventually "rock & roll". Then there were the swing pioneers, looking to break down ideas about rhythm and melody, big names like Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington who were kicking off what would soon become "Bebop". It's a genuinely exciting time for music, and three and a half hours seemed, if anything, not enough to give a real feel of all these ideas in the air.

Of all the recordings featured here, however, the two most notable fit neither into the war, nor the developments in swing. Solomon Linda & The Evening Birds improvised "Mbube" in the only recording studio in Sub-Saharan Africa one day in 1939 - while the song is best-known these days for its adaptation "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", this belies its importance for generations of African musicians. Then there is Billie Holiday's recording of "Strange Fruit" - the only pre-50s recording in Rolling Stone's new top 500 tracks of all time. It's more than I can do to write about it, and even mixing it seemed crude and insulting, instead it sits on its own at the heart of this mix.

Tracklist

0:00:00 Victor Young - Prelude(Clip from BBC Winston Churchill - Ten Weeks Of War)(Clip from The Voder - Homer Dudley Bell Labs)0:00:38 Harry James - Here Comes The Night(Clip from 1939-09-03 BBC Places Of Entertainment To Be Closed)0:01:32 Solomon Linda & The Evening Birds - Mbube(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)0:04:33 Betty Hutton - Ol' Man Mose(Clip from Gone With The Wind)0:07:16 Glenn Miller - In The Mood0:10:49 Al Donahue - In The Mood (Paula Kelly, Vocal)(Clip from Ninotchka)0:11:31 Carmen Miranda - Mama Eu Quero0:13:27 Fats Waller - Ain't Misbehavin'(Clip from The Women)0:17:24 Art Tatum - Tea For Two(Clip from Gone With The Wind)0:19:54 Lionel Hampton - Central Avenue Breakdown(Clip from Young Mr Lincoln)0:23:01 Pete Johnson - Let 'em Jump(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)0:26:31 Billie Holiday - Some Other Spring(Clip from 1939-03-08 BBC Gas Mask Drill)(Clip from A.R.P. - Gas All Clear (Handbells))0:29:40 Willie 'The Lion' Smith - Echoes Of Spring(Clip from 1939-03-15 BBC Chamberlain After Czech Invasion)

0:32:07 Duke Ellington - Sergeant Was Shy(Clip from Only Angels Have Wings)0:34:47 Xavier Cugat - One Two Three Kick Conga(Clip from Ninotchka)0:36:24 The Manhattan Brothers - Thaba Tseu(Clip from Gone With The Wind)0:39:12 Raymond Scott - Oil Gusher(Clip from Bachelor Mother)(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)(Clip from The Cup Final 1939)0:41:24 Benny Goodman Sextet - Flyin' Home0:44:35 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Ida Red0:46:52 The Carter Family - Hello Stranger(Clip from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)0:48:59 Grigoraș Dinicu - Hora Lui Ion Dinicu Și Sârbă Lui Tanţi(Clip from General Franco in Barcelona)0:50:09 Sexteto Flores - Un Besito No Mas(Clip from Hollywood Hobbies)0:53:31 Artie Shaw - Begin The Beguine(Clip from Philo T Farnsworth - The Birth of Television)0:55:27 Carl Stalling - Good Egg(Clip from Beau Geste)0:55:53 Hoosier Hot Shots - Like A Monkey Likes Cocoanuts(Clip from Dodge City)0:57:50 Cats And The Fiddle - I Miss You So(Clip from La Règle du Jeu)

1:00:22 Charles Trenet - Mam'zelle Clioénilmontant(Clip from Le Jour se lève)1:03:51 Georgius - Sur La Route De Pen-Zac(Clip from La Règle du Jeu)1:05:31 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli - Younger Generation(Clip from The Voder - Homer Dudley Bell Labs)1:07:59 Gus Viseur - Swing 39(Clip from Lou Gehrig - Farewell To Baseball)1:10:43 John Kirby - Effervescent Blues1:12:29 Andy Kirk - Twinklin'(Clip of Dr James Naismith - Creator Of Basketball In Rare Interview)(Clip from Eve Ad 2000)(Clip from Blondie Dagwood - Dagwoods New Suit)1:15:60 Count Basie Orchestra - You Can Depend On Me(Clip from Blondie Dagwood - Dagwoods New Suit)1:19:14 Bud Freeman - The Eel1:20:39 Lead Belly - Poor Howard / Green Corn(Clip from Drums Along the Mohawk)(Clip from Goodbye Mr Chips)1:23:45 Ari Barroso, Lamartine Babo - No Rancho Fundo(Clip from Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney - 1939 newsreel footage)1:25:47 King Radio - It's The Rhythm We Want(Clip from Midnight)1:28:28 Ink Spots - If I Didn't Care(Clip from Confessions of a Nazi Spy)

1:32:08 Lagos Mozart Orchestra - Esan Inyong Ikide(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)1:34:07 Flanagan & Allen - Nice People(Clip of WC Fields in You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man)1:35:56 杉井幸一 - おけさ節(Clip from Son of Frankenstein Trailer)1:37:23 Carl Stalling - Rubber Dog1:37:39 Judy Garland - The Jitterbug(Clip from Blondie Dagwood - Dagwood's New Suit)1:39:03 Raymond Scott - Bumpy Weather Over Newark(Clip from Bachelor Mother)(Clip from The Voder - Homer Dudley Bell Labs)(Clip from Breakfast Pals)1:40:07 Ramblers - Drie Kleine Vischjes (Vocal - Wim Poppink)1:41:02 Kay Kyser - Three Little Fishies(Clip from Hollywood Hobbies)1:42:42 Louis Armstrong - Jeepers Creepers(Clip of James Hilton discussing his Goodbye Mr Chips - CBS Radio Interview)1:44:45 Patricia Rossborough - Sunrise Serenade1:46:09 Thaton Ba Hein - Taw Hnit Taung Swe(Clip from Intermezzo)1:48:08 Sukru Tunar - Cifte Telli(Clip from Ninotchka)1:51:08 Joe Turner & Pete Johnson - Roll 'em Pete1:52:55 Sonny Boy Williamson - Good Gravy(Clip from Midnight)1:54:31 Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five - Keep A-Knockin' (But You Can't Come In)(Clip from Gone With The Wind)1:56:20 Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra - Denison Swing(Clip from Stagecoach)1:59:36 Gene Autry - Back In The Saddle Again(Clip from Drums Along the Mohawk)

2:01:42 Ida Cox - Death Letter Blues(Clip of Lincoln's cross examination from Young Mr Lincoln)2:03:21 Jelly Roll Morton - Oh Didn't He Ramble (+ Sidney Bechet)2:06:10 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - This Train(Clip from In Name Only)2:08:45 Mills Brothers - Georgia On My Mind(Clip from Destry Rides Again)2:11:38 Sidney Bechet Quintet - Summertime2:15:26 Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit2:18:47 Perihan Altindag And Rakim Elkutlu - Ne Bahar Kaldi Ne Gul2:20:43 Hanende Agyazar Efendi - Kessik Kerem2:22:05 Tommy Dorsey - Dawn On The Desert(Clip from Philo T Farnsworth - The Birth of Television)(Clip from Ninotchka)(Clip from The Man In The Iron Mask)(Clip from Mr Smith Goes to Washington)2:24:35 Johnny Hodges (Ellington) - Dooji Wooji(Clip from Only Angels Have Wings)2:27:17 Coleman Hawkins - Body And Soul

2:30:14 Larry Clinton; Bea Wain - Deep Purple(Clip from Gone with the Wind)2:32:30 Chick Webb - Undecided(Clip from Swing Dance In Secret)2:35:46 Coleman Hawkins - Fine Dinner(Clip from Midnight)2:38:15 Carmen Miranda - South American Way2:40:02 Dorival Caymmi - O Que É Que A Baiana Tem2:43:00 Francisco Alves - Aquarela Do Brasil2:44:59 The Growler - Trinidad Loves To Play Carnival(Clip from Rules of the Game)2:47:33 The Atilla - La Reine Maribone2:49:26 Cab Calloway & His Orchestra - The Jumping Jive(Clip from Ninotchka)2:51:36 Bram Martin - Chopsticks (Vocal - Bob Howard)(Clip from The Women)2:52:38 Slim Gaillard - Matzoh Balls2:54:45 George Formby - Sweet Sue, Just You2:56:06 Arthur Askey - The Worm2:58:11 Flanagan & Allen - Run, Rabbit, Run

3:00:53 Johnny & Jones - We Hoeven Niet Te Hamsteren3:02:48 Andrews Sisters - Beer Barrel Polka(Clip from The Voder - Homer Dudley Bell Labs)3:05:05 Pyi Hla Pe - Shwe-Tanga3:07:54 Will Bradley Trio - Down The Road A Piece(Clip from Lou Gehrigs 1939 Radio Interview While at the Mayo Clinic on 1340 KROC AM)3:10:57 Fats Waller - Your Feet's Too Big3:13:59 Rex Stewart (Ellington) - Fat Stuff Serenade(Clip from Machine Made Voices)3:15:52 See There Singing Band Kumasi - Anoma Oreko3:17:52 Be Sackey's Band Of Appam - Nkyrinna3:18:41 Kpagon Band Accra - Ba Wo Ni Aya Ye3:20:43 Lead Belly - Fannin Street3:22:25 Pete Johnson - Barrelhouse Breakdown(Clip from The Hunchback of Notre Dame)3:24:00 Andy Kirk And His Twelve Clouds Of Joy - Floyd's Guitar Blues3:27:05 Edward Heyman & The Les Paul Trio - Out Of Nowhere3:29:56 Stephane Grapelli - Baby

3:32:36 Glenn Miller - Moonlight Serenade(Clip from Of Mice and Men)(Clip from Goodbye Mr Chips)3:37:09 Debutantes & MGM Studio Orchestra - Optimistic Voices(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)3:38:02 MGM Studio Orchestra- March Of The Winkies(Clip from 1939-08-27 BBC Czech Ambassador In London On Poland Situation)3:39:08 Toscanini, NBC Orchestra - Beethoven 3 Symph. Funeral March(Clip from 1939-08-28 - CBS Coverage on the Eve of WWII)(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)(Clip from 1939-08-31 BBC Alvar Liddell Reports On German 16 Point Plan)(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)(Clip from 1939-09-01 State Of Armed Conflict With Poland)(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)3:42:40 Pablo Casals - Bach No. 5 In C Minor - I- Prelude (Adagio - Allegro Moderato)(Clip from 1939-09-01 BBC Alvar Liddell Reports The Invasion Of Poland)(Clip from 1939-09-01 BBC Ignace Paderewski On The War Looming Before Poland)(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)(Clip from 1939-09-03 BBC Britain Declares War On Germany)(Clip from 1939-09-03 BBC Prime Minister Chamberlain Declares War On Germany)3:46:24 Max Steiner - The Death Of Melanie(Clip from 1939-09-03 BBC King George VI Addresses The Nation)(Clip from 1939-09-03 BBC Places Of Entertainment To Be Closed)3:50:30 Toscanini, NBC Orchestra - Beethoven 3 Symph. Funeral March(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)3:53:05 Django Reinhardt - Echoes Of Spain(Clip from 1939-09-01 BBC Alvar Liddell Reports On Evacuation Of Children)(Clip from 1939-09-01 BBC S J de Lotbiniére Reports Further On Evacuation)(Clip from 1939-09-01 BBC S J de Lotbiniére Reports Train Now Leaving)3:54:22 Bert Ambrose - Nasty Uncle Adolf (Vocal - Jack Cooper)(Clip from 1939-09-10 BBC Evacuee Message To Parents)3:56:50 Judy Garland - Over The Rainbow(Clip from 1939-10-13 BBC Children's Hour Broadcast By Princess Elizabeth)

4:00:04 Art Tatum - Over The Rainbow4:00:27 MGM Studio Orchestra - Terrified Lion(Clip from Adolf Hitler - Speech - 1939-09-22 - Poland and it's imminent defeat)4:01:01 Max Steiner - Soldiers In Retreat(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)4:02:20 Toscanini, NBC Orchestra - Beethoven 3 Symph. Funeral March(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)4:03:17 Pablo Casals - Bach No. 4 In E Flat - I- Prelude (Allegro Maestoso)(Clip from 1939-10-01 BBC Winston Churchill - The First Month of the War)4:05:27 Golden Eagle Gospel Singers - A Warrior On The Battlefield4:08:02 Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet - Precious Lord4:10:33 Roland Hayes - 'Roun' 'Bout De Mountain4:11:59 Duke Ellington - Informal Blues(Clip from 1939-10-15 (BBC Richard Dimbleby) By a French Road)4:14:21 Art Tatum - Deep Purple(Clip from 1939-11-11 BBC Queen Elizabeth - Fortitude Of Women)4:17:35 John Kirby - Dawn On The Desert4:20:21 Django Reinhardt - Echoes Of Spain(Clip from Review of the Year 1939)4:21:39 Victor Young - The Scroll And The Storm(Clip from 1939-12-18 BBC Winston Churchill - The Sinking Of The Graf Spee)(Clip from HM King George VI - The Royal Christmas Message of 1939)4:23:58 Lale Andersen - Lili Marlen(Clip from HM King George VI - The Royal Christmas Message of 1939)4:27:39 Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again (Novachord - Arthur Young)(Clip from The Roaring Twenties)

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Audio historian DJ James Errington takes you on another time travel adventure, this time to hear some original sounds from 1907, including some wonderful stuff from Enrico Caruso, a few original vaudeville routines and some very premature Christmas cheer.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month, please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. This is one of the four hours in the full version of Centuries of Sound 1939 To get the whole mix as a podcast, and a load of other extras, sign up for five dollars per month at http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

An hour-long soundscape of the first five months of the second world war.

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 4-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

One of the reasons this project started was a musical vacuum. In 2012 I was living in a place where nobody cared much for music of any sort - at best it would be tolerated as a background noise, and generally being noticeable meant being "noisy" and I would be asked to turn it off, or usually not even asked. Soon the headphones were on every day, and sounds became something entirely personal and unsharable. The act of immersion is ultimately a personal one, there is nothing communal about it, so how then to evoke the experience of a single, very traumatic year with a collection of music which most people living through it would not have heard?

The best-selling hit songs of 1940 are not in this mix, either they were recorded in 1939 or they are altogether too lugubrious to be worthy of inclusion. Even if they were all here, the figures that loom largest here - Churchill, Hitler, FDR, Mussolini - would not have cared for them either, and it wouldn't be until the 1960s that there would be a world leader who appeared to be in any way touch with popular culture (you may be surprised to hear his voice appear in this mix) - no, these people only listened to real music, that is "classical" music, and it was fitting therefore that the historical events caused by their actions (I mean, of course, The War) would be accompanied by wordless orchestral sounds. It is fortunate then that this is also the year Disney released Fantasia.

You most likely know Fantasia as a ground-breaking animated film, which is a fair description. From our point of view, however, it is more notable for its sound design, for which the word "revolutionary" seems entirely inadequate. Conductor Leopold Stokowski, already noted for his pioneering recording work, led the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music Concert Hall in Philadelphia in performing a series of pieces. Thirty three microphones were placed around the orchestra, with eight optical recording machines recording. Six channels recorded different sections of the orchestra, while the seventh recorded a mixture of the first six, and the eighth captured the overall sound from a distance. The result is not just the first properly realised stereo recording, it is music recorded with a vibrancy which would genuinely not be equaled in decades. Cinemas were, of course, not ready for this sort of sound, and the film was only initially shown on a limited number of screens which could be properly adapted for the purpose. Wider distribution was hampered also by the running time (over two hours) and the impossibility of distributing anything in Europe in 1940. The result was a financial loss, and reruns were heavily edited, with a more easily usable, but much less special, mono soundtrack. So the astonishing sound we have here was heard by surprisingly few people.

As far as a comment upon the war goes, the violence of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring fits better than any new music written in 1940, but this mix is not without contemporary musical comment on current - or at least recent - events. Most notably, this is the year Alan Lomax sat down with Woody Guthrie and had him expound at length about the horrors of the dust bowl. The resultant recordings formed the basis of his 1940 collection Dust Bowl Ballads, an evocation of a time and place of a sort we haven't really had before. This is also the year of John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath, Ed Murrow's London After Dark and Hitchcock's Rebecca, lending the mix an unvarnished cinéma vérité feel, from time to time. The War Effort and the artifice of propaganda, at least from an American perspective, would not begin until 1942, and we have other troubles in 1941.

And yes, there is also a lot going on in jazz and rhythm and blues this year, but let's talk more about that next time.

Tracklist

0:00:00 Leopold Stokowski - Toccata And Fugue In D Minor (Clip of HG Wells interviewed by Orson Welles) (Clip from The Philadelpia Story) 0:01:06 Woody Herman - The Golden Wedding (Clip of Deems Taylor from Fantasia) (Clip from A Case of Spring Fever) (Clip of Roosevelt Speaking About Cancer Of Nazis And Aid To Britain) (Clip from Review of the Year 1940) 0:03:48 The Florida Kid - Hitler Blues (Clip of 1940-02-27 RSH Lord Haw Haw - British Minister Of Misinformation) 0:07:09 Duke Ellington & His Orchestra - Ko Ko (Clip from How To Improve Immigrants' English) 0:09:50 Abibu Oluwa & His Group - Layiwola Akande (Clip from The Sea Hawk) 0:10:36 Jararaca E Ratinho - Sapo No Saco 0:12:45 Abbott & Costello - Who's On First? 0:15:26 Earl Hines And His Orchestra - Boogie Woogie On St. Louis Blues (Clip from Pinocchio) 0:18:18 Fats Waller - Everybody Loves My Baby 0:21:02 Andrews Sisters - Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar (Clip from The Bank Dick) 0:22:52 Glenn Miller & His Orchestra - Pennsylvania 6-5000 (Clip from The Philadelpia Story) 0:26:13 Will Bradley Trio - Down The Road A Piece 0:29:20 Tommy Mcclennan - Whiskey Head Man 0:31:23 Meade Lux Lewis - Honky Tonk Train Blues (Clip from Strange Cargo) 0:35:34 Bukka White - Special Stream Line (Clip from The Grapes of Wrath) 0:40:04 Woody Guthrie - Lost Train Blues 0:42:23 Woody Guthrie - Breathing In Dust (Speech) 0:44:28 Woody Guthrie - Talkin' Dust Bowl Blues 0:47:02 Woody Guthrie - The End of The World (Speech) 0:48:19 Woody Guthrie - Blowin' Down This Road 0:51:19 Woody Guthrie - Migrants Arrive in California (Speech) 0:53:00 Woody Guthrie - Do Re Mi 0:56:00 Artie Shaw And His Orchestra - Special Delivery Stomp 0:58:38 Norman McLaren - Dots

(Clip from H.G. Wells and Orson Welles interview. Radio KTSA San Antonio on October 28, 1940) 1:00:04 Leopold Stokowski - Rite Of Spring (Clip - Wyndham Lewis - end of enemy interlude) (Clip from H.G. Wells and Orson Welles interview. Radio KTSA San Antonio on October 28, 1940) (Clip from Review of the Year 1940) (Clip of 1940-04-09 RSH Lord Haw Haw - Denmark & Norway Part 2) (Clip from A Case Of Spring Fever) (Clip from 1940-05-11 news) (Clip of Winston Churchill - Speech to Parliament 13 May 1940) (Clip of Winston Churchill - first radio address as prime minister - May 19, 1940) (Clip from Review of the Year 1940) (Clip from 1940-05-28 RSH Lord Haw Haw - Holland & Belgium Invaded) (Clip of Raymond Massey as Abe Lincoln in Illinois) (Clip from Review of the Year 1940) (Clip from 1940-06-03 News with Elmer Davis) (Clip of 1940-06-04 Winston Churchill - We Shall Never Surrender) 1:22:12 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Die Götterdämmerung (Clip of 1940-06-10 Mussolini Speech) (Clip of Winston Churchill - Address to the nation on the RAF) 1:23:55 Emanuel Feuermann With The Philadelphia Orchestra Conducted By Leopold Stokowski - Bloch's Schelomo (Clip of 1940-06-20 News with Elmer Davis) (Clip of 1940-07-04 Arthur Mann) (Clip from Review of the Year 1940) (Clip of 1940-07-14 - BBC - Gardner Dogfight Over England) (Clip of BBC News plus actual air raid on London 1940) (Clip of 1940-08-20 Winston Churchill - House of Commons - The Few) (Clip of 1940-07-04 Arthur Mann) (Clip of Radio Broadcast, London After Dark - Aug 24, 1940) (Clip of Albert Einstein Interview) 1:42:22 Benny Goodman - Bela Bartok , Contrasts Iii - Sebes

(Clip from BBC - It's That Man Again - Tommy Handley) 1:45:10 Flanagan & Allen - There's A Boy Coming Home On Leave (Clip from My Favorite Wife) 1:47:53 Sam Castandet Et Son Orchestre Antillais - La Rue Zabyme (Clip of Jerry Siegel - Radio Interview) 1:50:41 Harry James & Orchestra - Flight Of The Bumble Bee 1:52:26 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Rhythm Futur / Swing De Paris (Clip from The Bank Dick) 1:54:26 Sidney Bechet - Bechet's Steady Rider 1:56:50 Sidney Bechet - Dear Old Southland (Clip of Abbott & Costello - Lion Hunting) 1:57:41 Benny Goodman Sextet - Sheik Of Araby (Clip of Abbott & Costello - Lion Hunting) 2:01:06 Onitsha Native Orchestra - Angelina 2:04:02 Southern Wonder Quartet - I Am A Pilgrim (Clip from The Letter) 2:06:12 Artie Shaw Orchestra - Gloomy Sunday (Clip from Rebecca) 2:10:24 Slavi Velev - Kitka Horo (Clip of F. Scott Fitzgerald reading Shakespeare) 2:12:06 Babaka - Na Dulga Sofra 2:14:53 Lil Green - Romance In The Dark (Clip from Suspense - The Lodger) 2:18:35 Louis Armstrong - You've Got Me Voodoo'd (Clip from The Letter) 2:21:40 Billie Holiday And Her Orchestra - The Man I Love (Clip from Primrose Path) 2:24:44 Ray Noble & His Orchestra - Harlem Nocturne (Clip from The Thief of Bagdad) 2:28:28 Fisk University Jubilee Singers - Blow, Gabriel, Blow 2:29:54 Ink Spots - Whispering Grass 2:32 Tommy Dorsey (Vocal - Frank Sinatra) - We Three (My Echo My Shadow And Me) 2:35:32 Edith Piaf - L'accordeoniste (Clip from How To Improve Immigrants' English) 2:40:15 Quintette Du Hot Club De France Avec Alix Combelle - Les Yeux Noirs (Clip from How To Improve Immigrants' English) 2:42:27 Big Joe - If You Take Me Back 2:44:19 Big Bill Broonzy - Midnight Steppers (Clip from Our Town) 2:46:03 Lead Belly - The Midnight Special 2:48:57 Tampa Red - It Hurts Me Too

2:50:07 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Bob Wills Special 2:52:19 Jimmie Davis - You Are My Sunshine 2:54:05 Adolph Hofner & His Texans - Sam, The Old Accordion Man 2:56:40 Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney - Hollywood Christmas Parade 1940 2:58:08 Al Bowlly - Over The Rainbow 3:00:11 Geraldo (Vocal Dorothy Carless) - I Can't Love You Any More (Than I Do) 3:02:16 Lionel Hampton - Flying Home (Clip from The Philadelphia Story) 3:05:32 Dinah Shore - Mood Indigo (Clip from The Long Voyage Home) 3:07:39 Roswell Sacred Harp Singers - White 3:08:48 The Carter Family - Black Jack David (Clip from Christmas in July) 3:10:30 Luís Americano - Tocando Pra Você 3:11:57 Carmen Miranda - Bruxinha De Pano (+ Almirante) 3:14:28 Los Cadetes Del Swing - Besame Mucho 3:16:39 杉井幸一 - 九連環 3:19:44 Gus Viseur & Son Orchestre - Rosetta 3:20:54 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Cou-Cou (Clip from A Case of Spring Fever) 3:23:33 Hans Busch Orchester - Student Geht Vorbei 3:24:49 Ken Snakehips Johnson (Vocal - Al Bowlly) - It Was A Lover And His Lass 3:26:59 Jazz Gillum - Key To The Highway 3:28:26 Brownie Mcghee - Back Door Stranger (Clip from His Girl Friday) 3:29:59 Don Redman - Chant Of The Weed 3:32:47 Duke Ellington And His Orchestra - Cotton Tail 3:35:53 Ida Cox - You Got To Swing And Sway (Clip from All This, And Heaven Too) 3:36:48 Gamelan Musicians Of Yogyakarta, Java - Babarlajar Mataram 3:39:47 Kirishima Noboru & Kikuchi Akiko - Soshuu Yakyoku 3:43:00 Hot Lips Page, Herbie Fields, Donald Lambert et al. - I'm In The Mood For Love

(Clip from John F Kennedy's First Recorded Interview - 1940 on KROC AM in Rochester, MN) 3:45:35 Leopold Stokowski - The Nutcracker Suite, Op.71a Arabian Dance (Clip from 1940-09-15 BBC 175 German Aircraft Destroyed) (Clip from 1940-09-20 CBS - European News) 3:38:34 Leigh Harline - Lesson In Lies (Clip from Santa Fe Trail) 3:50:12 Jascha Heifetz, Arturo Toscanini & Nbc Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 61 (Clip of 1940-10-05 BBC Robin Duff - in Air Raid Shelter) (Clip of 1940-10-13 BBC Princess Elizabeth & Margaret - Speak To Evacuated Children) (Clip of 1940-10-15 BBC - Blitz Emergency Services) (Clip from Do You Carry Your Gas Mask?) (Clip from Review of the Year 1940) 3:54:26 Leopold Stokowski - A Night On Bald Mountain (Clip from 1940-11-15 BBC - Coventry Loudspeaker Announcement) (Clip from 1940-11-15 BBC Very Reverend RT Howard - Coventry Cathedral Destroyed) (Clip from 1940-12-31 BBC Herbert Morrison - Minister For Home Security) (Clip from 1940-xx-xx BBC - Girl Tells Of Bomb Shelters) (Clip from 1940-12-20 BBC Robin Duff - Sees London Burning) 4:01:35 Beniamino Gigli - Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana Siciliana (Clip from Mr Joseph P Kennedy Says Au Revior) (Clip from Roosevelt Speaking About Cancer Of Nazis And Aid To Britain) (Clip from Siege!) 4:04:23 Leigh Harline - Desolation Theme (Clip from Santa Fe Trail) (Clip from Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse Newsreel) (Clip from Foreign Correspondent) 4:07:22 Ink Spots - Do I Worry? (Clip from They Drive By Night) 4:10:15 Charlie Chaplin - Speech from The Great Dictator 4:13:36 Leopold Stokowski - Toccata And Fugue In D Minor (Clip from Princesses Elizabeth & Margaret Address the Children of Britain)

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

This compilation of Christmas recordings spans the early years of electronic recording, the explosion of radio, sound films and newsreel, the end of the roaring thirties and the great depression.

I’m presenting this in two formats — a mix, which is on my main feed at centuriesofsound.com and as a compilation, which is only available to patrons. Join my patreon at patreon.com/centuriesofsound and get a load of bonus content like this, as well as helping this site to survive in these very difficult times.

Here is the tracklist, the same for both versions.

00:00 The Savoy Orpheans - Radio Christmas (1926) 03:33 Adolph Miles - Adeste Fideles (1926) 06:50 Chor Sw. Lucji - Pasterka (Wesola Nowine) (Christmas Eve At Church) (1927) 09:56 Richard Tauber - O Sanctissima (O Du Frohliche) (1929) 12:40 Andrej Pelak - Pospešte Sem Pastuškovia (Hasten, Shepherds) (1930) 15:48 Joe Gumin And His Orchestra - Jingle Bells (The One-Horse Open Sleigh) (1931) 19:00 Popeye The Sailor - Seasin's Greetinks (1933) 19:13 Ozzie Nelson Orchestra - Christmas Night In Harlem (1934) 22:11 Laurel & Hardy - Clip From Babes In Toyland (1934) 22:21 Paul Whiteman Orchestra - Christmas Night In Harlem (1934) 25:43 Shirley Temple - Clip From Bright Eyes (1934) 26:45 Harry Reser And His Orchestra - Jingle Bells (1934) 29:18 Franklin Delano Roosevelt - White House Christmas Tree Lighting Clip (1935) 29:37 Bing Crosby With Victor Young And His Orchestra - Silent Night (1935) 32:35 Victor Novelty Orchestra - Christmas Eve (Fantasie) (1935) 35:38 British Movietone - Merry Christmas (1935) 36:13 The Chapel Quartet - Oh, Little Town Of Bethlehem (1936) 39:19 Hoosier Hot Shots - Jingle Bells (1936) 42:19 Edith Fellows & Jackie Moran - Clip From And So They Were Married (1936) 42:33 The Madrigal Sisters & Lehman Engel - Jingle Bells (1937) 44:15 Mae Questel (The Betty Boop Girl) - I Want You For Christmas (1937) 46:59 Michel Warlop - Christmas Swing (+ Django Reinhardt & Louis Vola) (27-12-1937) 49:46 Andy Hardy & Family - Christmas Greetings (1938) 51:10 Swing And Sway With Sammy Kaye - (Don't Wait 'til) The Night Before Christmas (La Vispera De Navidad) (1938) 53:53 Reginald Owen - Clip From A Christmas Carol (1938) 54:33 Silly Symphonies - The Night Before Christmas (1933)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for two sections of the mix. For the full 4-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

This section of the mix is a sound collage of original broadcasts and recordings from 1940. The spoken word sections largely concern the war, the music is mainly stereo recordings made by Leopold Stokowski for the Disney movie Fantasia. This is a departure from the largely music-centric format you may be used to, I hope it is of interest.

MP3 download | Apple | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | Radiopublic | RSS

Another adventure into the history of recorded music with James Errington, this time joined by veteran BBC presenter & producer Tony Barnfield to listen to and talk about the sounds of 1908, right at the heart of the era when music hall and vaudeville dominated music on either side of the Atlantic.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound - I make these on my own, in my spare time. To support my work and help the show survive, please consider signing up at patreon.com/centuriesofsound where you can also get full show downloads and a host of other bonus stuff for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

At 7:48am on December 7th 1941, the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii was attacked by 353 Japanese aircraft, launched from six aircraft carriers, precipitating the entrance of the United States into the Second World War.

Major news stories had been covered on the radio before, of course, and radio recordings had been made for more than a decade. Nevertheless, this is by far the most contemporary material available for a breaking news story. Edited down from nearly twenty hours of original recordings, this sound collage presents these events as they occurred from the perspective of a radio listener that day.

Generally I layer music over speech clips, but in this case I have included only music as it was broadcast on that day. The sound quality is therefore unavoidably a lot worse than you may be used to, and the audio is presented without a tracklist.

This episode was partially inspired by Awful Grace Podcast's Again The Never Came, a sound collage from 9/11, an astonishing bit of audio which I would recommend, but with a warning that it includes phone calls from the Twin Towers, which frankly anyone will find distressing.

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full nearly 5-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS

The man in the middle of this picture is my grandfather. Like most young British men in the year 1941, he was serving in the armed forces. In his case that meant the merchant navy, and the Atlantic convoys during the Battle of The Atlantic. The golden rule of the navy, he would later say, was never to volunteer, but breaking this rule to volunteer for "special work" turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made. Sent on a goodwill trip to New York and New Jersey shortly after the Pearl Harbor attacks had drawn America into the war, the sailors were surprised to find themselves treated as heroes. Then one memorable night at Radio City Music Hall, they were invited on to the stage by the new singer with Tommy Dorsey's band, a man so popular that teenage girls ("Bobby soxers" as they would then be called) in the audience screamed as he sang, one Francis Albert Sinatra.

Frank was at this point already, suddenly, the biggest singing star in the USA, topping polls in Billboard and DownBeat magazines, and selling huge amounts of records. Listening to his recordings from this time can instantly tell you why. As much as any singer embarking on an imperial phase, his performances seem not just to be technically and artistically brilliant, but to be utterly effortless, as if he just woke up one morning singing like that. Naturally there was more to his popularity than his voice though. Sinatra would later say that he represented "…the boy in every corner drugstore, the boy who'd gone off drafted to the war" to young women. To many young men, however, this jarred with the fact that he never served himself, despite being the right age. Rumours circulated that Sinatra or unnamed underworld connections had paid a bribe to keep him out of the army, but when files were eventually released it transpired that he was deemed unfit for service for being "not acceptable material from a psychiatric viewpoint" and "emotionally unstable" — quite a contrast to the self-assured artist we think we know.

Sinatra was not, of course, the most exciting musician working in 1941. Not by a long shot. The ridiculous running length of this mix isn't (I hope) down to sloppiness on my part, it's because there's simply too much to fit in here, even after the hour-long Pearl Harbour montage was cut out. 1941 isn't often held up as one of the best years for music, there aren't that many hits here for example, but coming at it chronologically it's obvious that a great bursting and unchaining of creativity is underway. Much of this is from the same people we've heard a great deal from in the last few years. Musicians from Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Jay McShann's bands would jam together through the night at Minton's Playhouse in New York, playing around with complex harmonies, syncopation, chord substitutions. It was music by and for musicians, not intended for the public, and it's only by the most amazing luck that a single recording, heavily excerpted here, survives. Charlie Christian, electric guitarist in the Benny Goodman Orchestra, here shows himself a good few decades ahead of the curve with solos that seem to invent new genres every minute. Sadly he would be dead before 1942 was out, at the age of 25, but the music he birthed would live on, as "bebop." Also prefiguring rock and roll we have astonishing jump blues from Lucky Millinder, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Louis Jordan and Nat King Cole, and from the West coast we have that strange mix of cowboy country and swing jazz then called "Western Swing." And let's not even get started on the explosion of Samba music in Brasil. Even strike action helped out here (as it would very much not do in the following years) - ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) spent most of 1941 in a dispute with radio broadcasters over royalties. As their clients were almost exclusively the white songwriting establishment, the beneficiaries were those of a different race or class, who could now get their songs played on the radio, which then led to more demand for these records to be made.

Musicians in 1941 - no, people in 1941 - were not waiting around for the war to start. They were not putting their lives on hold for the duration. They were playing some of the most original and exciting music we've heard so far. In a half-decade of unimaginable horrors, the dampening down of this spark doesn't rank very high on the list of crimes, but still, it will be a long few years before we can pick up where we left off.

Track list

0:00:00 Kunaisho Shikiburyô Gagakuka - Taishikichô Chôshi (Clip from The Maltese Falcon) 0:01:00 Claude Thornhill & His Orchestra - Snowfall (Clip from Ball of Fire) 0:04:01 Louis Jordan - The Green Grass Grows All Around (Clip from Sullivan's Travels) 0:06:50 Don Byas, Charlie Christian, et al. - Up on Teddy's Hill (Clip from Review of the Year 1941) 0:10:03 Jay Mcshann & His Orchestra - Swingmatism (Clip from Review of the Year 1941) 0:13:22 Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson - Boogie Woogie Man (Clip from Bulova - world's first television advertisement) 0:16:03 Carmen Miranda - When I Love, I Love (Clip from Never Give A Sucker An Even Break) 0:18:54 Dinning Sisters - Louisiana Hayride (Clip from Never Give A Sucker An Even Break) 0:21:51 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Twin Guitar Special (Clip from Tea Making Tips) 0:24:36 Lucky Millinder - Big Fat Mama 0:26:55 Lucky Millinder with Sister Rosetta Tharpe - I Want A Tall Skinny Papa (Clip of Winston Churchill - Give Us The Tools)

0:30:12 Billie Holiday - Solitude (Clip from Citizen Kane) 0:34:41 Lil Green - Why Don't You Do Right (Clip from The Lady Eve) 0:37:35 Ángel D'agostino & Ángel Vargas - El Choclo 0:40:02 Anibal Troilo - Milongeando En El 0:41:56 Ricardo Tanturi - Alberto Castillo - Noches De Colón (Clip from One Foot in Heaven) 0:43:29 Roland Hayes - Xango (Clip from Major Barbara) 0:45:21 Golden Gate Quartet - The Sun Did'nt Shine (Clip from Major Barbara) 0:47:49 Marian Anderson - Crucifixion (Clip from Major Barbara) 0:51:02 Heavenly Gospel Singers - When Was Jesus Born? (Clip from Major Barbara) 0:53:07 The Delta Rhythm Boys - Dry Bones (Clip from Suspicion) 0:56:19 Una Mae Carlisle - Oh I'm Evil (Clip of The German Newsreel) (Clip of 1941-04-27 BBC Winston Churchill - Westward Look The Land Is Bright) 0:58:57 Arthur Rubinstein, Emanuel Feuermann, Jascha Heifetz - Brahms Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8 (Clips from Review of the Year 1941)

1:02:04 Arthur Askey - Thanks For Dropping In Mr Hess (Clip from Never Give A Sucker An Even Break) 1:03:04 The Andrews Sisters - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (Clip from Citizen Kane) 1:05:49 Metronome All-Stars - One O'clock Jump (Clip from Meet John Doe) 1:09:14 Nat King Cole Trio - Hit That Jive, Jack 1:12:04 Bennie Carter Orchestra - Sunday 1:14:47 Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Thelonious Monk et al. - Swing to Bop (Clip from Ball of Fire) 1:20:35 Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Thelonious Monk et al. - Stompin' at the Savoy (Clip from Never Give A Sucker An Even Break) 1:23:32 Don Byas, Charlie Christian, et al. - Down on Teddy's Hill (Clip from Never Give A Sucker An Even Break) 1:25:29 Don Byas, Thelonius Monk et al. - Indiana (Clip from The Maltese Falcon) 1:27:35 Don Byas, Helen Humes, Thelonius Monk et al. - Stardust (Clip from Here Comes Mr Jordan)

1:30:31 Duke Ellington - Take The 'A' Train (Clip from That Hamilton Woman) 1:33:25 Brownie Mcghee - Death Of Blind Boy Fuller (Clip from Sullivan's Travels) 1:35:06 Mckinley Morganfield (Muddy Waters) - Country Blues (Clip of The German Newsreel) (Clip from Review of the Year 1941) (Clip from "Interview With Madame X") 1:38:43 Al Bowlly & Jimmy Messene - When That Man Is Dead And Gone (Clip of Charles Lindbergh On US Non-Intervention) 1:41:58 Joshua White - Defense Factory Blues (Clip from 1941-06-16 BBC Winston Churchill - Broadcast To America) 1:44:46 The Ink Spots - I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire (Clip from 1941-06-22 BBC Winston Churchill - Germany Invades Russia) 1:48:53 Una Mae Carlisle - Blitzkrieg Baby (You Can't Bomb Me) (Clip of 1941-07-03 PCPT Josef Stalin Addresses Nation) 1:51:23 Sydney Errington, Melville Cook - Eccles Sonata In G Adagio (Clip of Dmitri Shostakovich - Radio Message Broadcast) (Clip from Soviet Forces in Action) (Clip from Dorothy Thompson Interview) 1:55:04 Wingie Manone & His Orchestra - Stop The War (The Cats Are Killin' Themselves) (Clip from Dorothy Thompson Interview) 1:57:36 Noel Coward & Orchestra - London Pride (Clip from 1941-07-14 BBC Winston Churchill - Do Your Worst, We'll Do Our Best)

2:01:01 Margaret Eaves With Joe Loss & His Orchestra - ''V'' Stands For Victory 2:03:29 George Formby - Crazy Record (Part 1 & 2) 2:05:38 Peter Igelhoff Ensemble - Dieses Lied Hat Keinen Text (Vocal - Evelyn Künneke) (Clip from George Formby - Crazy Record) 2:07:14 Jetty Paerl - Het Is Koninginnedag 2:08:38 Jacques Gerlagh Combo - In The Mood (Guitar - Eddy Christiani) (Clip from 1941-07-14 BBC General DeGaulle Urges America To Join The Allies) 2:09:56 Jacques Pills - Avec Son Ukulele 2:12:28 Luiz Gonzaga - Vira E Mexe 2:15:20 Anjos Do Inferno - Por Que Será! 2:18:03 Carmen Miranda - Rebola A Bola 2:20:14 Francisco Alves - Canta Brasil 2:21:52 Herivelto Martins - Grande Otelo Praça Xi (Clip from Never Give A Sucker An Even Break) 2:23:38 Glenn Miller And His Orchestra - A String Of Pearls (Clip from The Maltese Falcon) 2:26:51 Tommy Dorsey (Vocal - Sinatra,Haines) - Oh! Look At Me Now (Clip from Ball of Fire) 2:29:08 Xavier Cugat - La Cucaracha

2:32:13 Carl Stalling - Stalling Self-Parody (Clip from Tea Making Tips) 2:32:50 Spike Jones - Red Wing (Clip from The Devil & Daniel Webster) 2:33:35 Fred Lowery - Indian Love Call 2:36:01 Sama No Hosomichi Etc. - Zuizui Zukkorobashi, Tenjin 2:37:49 Fats Waller - Chant Of The Groove (Clip from Ball of Fire) 2:45:29 Les Brown - Celery Stalks At Midnight (Vocal - Doris Day) 2:46:47 Count Basie - King Joe (Vocal - Paul Robeson) 2:50:06 Lena Horne - I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues (Clip from Major Barbara) 2:53:11 Dinah Shore - Mocking Bird Lament (Clip from Man Hunt) 2:55:22 Ella Fitzgerald - My Man (Mon Homme) (Clip from Citizen Kane) (Clip from 1941-08-29 BBC Winston Churchill - These Are Great Days) 2:58:39 Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Troupe - The Crow Flies Back To The Forest (Clip from Review of the Year 1941) (Clip from 1941-09-11 Lindbergh's America First Committee Speech in Des Moines, Iowa) 2:59:47 Artie Shaw - Concerto For Clarinet (Part 2) (Clip from 1941-10-03 RRG Adolf Hitler - Speech On Finland) (Clip from Meet John Doe)

3:04:43 Xavier Cugat - Eco 3:06:19 Joseito Fernandez - Guantanamera (Clip from The Maltese Falcon) 3:09:23 Sugii Kōichi - Jipushī Tango (Clip from The Wolf Man) 3:11:06 Naftule Brandwein - Nifty's Freilach (Clip from 1941-11-11 - BBC - German Attack On British Convoy) 3:14:01 Sidney Bechet - Egyptian Fantasy (Clip from 1941-11-07 BBC Winston Churchill - The Resolution Of The People) 3:15:44 Bert Ambrose - Oasis (Clip from Citizen Kane) 3:18:21 Benny Goodman - Good Enough To Keep 3:20:24 Jay Mcshann - Confessin' The Blues (Clip from Meet John Doe) 3:23:13 Washboard Sam - Evil Blues (Clip from The Little Foxes) 3:26:10 Sister Rosetta Tharpe With Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra - Shout, Sister, Shout 3:28:50 Louis Jordan - Pine Top's Boogie Woogie

3:31:43 Pete Johnson - Death Ray Boogie 3:34:38 Fats Waller - I Wanna Hear Swing Songs 3:35:34 Nat King Cole - I Like To Riff 3:38:19 Big Bill Broonzy - I Feel So Good (Clip from The Little Foxes) 3:40:32 Leadbelly - You Can't Lose Me, Cholly (Clip from The Devil and Daniel Webster) 3:42:34 Adolph Hofner - Cotton-Eyed Joe 3:44:59 Johnny Lee Wills - Milk Cow Blues 3:47:47 The Almanac Singers - Song For Harry Bridges 3:49:52 Mills Brothers - Lazy River 3:52:30 Sons Of The Pioneers - Cool Water 3:53:26 Edmond Hall - Edmond Hall Blues 3:57:36 Donald Lambert - Elegie (Massenet) (Clip from Citizen Kane) 3:59:55 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Dinette (Clip from The Little Foxes)

4:01:50 Artie Shaw And His Orchestra - Frenesi 4:03:06 Nat King Cole Trio - Hit The Ramp 4:06:17 Gus Viseur Et Son Orchestre - Swing 39 4:07:24 Sidney Bechet - 12th Street Rag 4:09:24 John Kirby And His Orchestra - St. Louis Blues 4:12:07 Glenn Miller - Chattanooga Choo Choo (Vocal - Modernaires) 4:15:30 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra - Soundtrack to Jam Session soundie 4:17:01 Festival Swing - Festival Swing 4:20:18 Roy Eldridge With The Gene Krupa Orchestra - After You're Gone (Clip of Sergeant York) 4:23:00 Hans J. Salter & Frank Skinner - The Wolf Man 4:23:15 CBS / NBC / BBC - News Broadcasts from December 7th 1941 4:25:59 Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Day Of Infamy Speech 4:27:54 Various Speakers - Interviews With People in New York City The Day After Pearl Harbor (Clip of 1941-12-09 Adolf Hitler Declaration Of War Against USA) (Clip of 1941-12-28 - RSH Lord Haw Haw (Wm Joyce) Germany Calling Hello North America) 4:31:02 Joshua White - Uncle Sam Says (Clip of 1941-12-17 Japanese Victory Over Singapore) (Clip of 1941-12-16 Fibber McGee & Molly Fibber cuts Xmas Tree) 4:34:27 The Ink Spots - That's When Your Heartaches Begin (Clip from How Green Was My Valley) 4:38:40 Rev. J.M. Gates - Gettin' Ready For Christmas Day (Clip from 1941-12-31 Amos & Andy Christmas Eve) (Clip from 1941-12-24 BBC Winston Churchill - The White House Christmas Tree) 4:40:26 Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra & Pied Pipers - Do I Worry? 4:43:13 Gene Krupa Chicagoans - Drumboogie (Clip from The Devil and Daniel Webster)

More time travel to the earliest days of recorded sound with James Errington, this time joined by Cambridge 105’s own Dave Hammond. This time we go back to 1909 to hear novelty songs about moon-orbiting aeroplanes and juvenile smoking, wildly unpredictable vaudeville routines, “authentic” black music from the deep south played by a former plantation owner, and, not to be missed, the theme tune from the snooker.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 4-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 preview download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

This is the fourth wartime mix, but it's the first without an often jarring disconnect between music and history. The USA's entry into the war at the close of 1941 may not have had an immediate impact upon the course of the conflict, but the impact on popular culture — and particularly on recorded music — is unmistakable. It isn't just the rough-hewn comedy of Spike Jones and Carson Robinson, or the rapidly produced propaganda films, it seems to be knitted into the fabric of American culture. Characters in songs are either heading off to war or waiting for their man to return, radio serials are awash with Nazi spies, and variety shows now function primarily as drives for war bonds.

At the cinema — still of course the gold standard for culture — this is equally evident. 'Casablanca,' as timeless as it may seem, sits very snugly in this particular moment. The city itself was taken by the Allies as part of Operation Torch in November 1942, just around the time the film was first premiered, so when it went on general release in 1943 the setting was already an historical one. Hitchcock's 'Saboteur' is ostensibly a domestic spy drama along the lines of 'The 39 Steps' and 'North By Northwest,' but with the added context of the war this is shifted into a battle between tyranny and democracy, with speeches written by Dorothy Parker and a climactic final battle on the torch of the Statue of Liberty. The top-grossing film of the year was Mrs Miniver, a subdued yet powerful drama about the effects of the war on a rural English housewife, which once again presented a moral of freedom under threat.

The main business of Centuries of Sound is music, of course, and the effect of these shifts on music is profound, and not always in a particularly positive way. In 1941 we heard the first stirrings of rhythm & blues and bebop, in 1942 the former has a few very notable examples (Louis Jordan and Nat King Cole) but is nevertheless diminished, the latter has disappeared almost entirely. Was this a result of wartime censorship, or of conscription of musicians? A greater cause may be the strike by The American Federation of Musicians, which began on August 1st, after a summer of negotiations around royalty payments broke down. This left almost half the year with hardly any professional musicians — and certainly no big bands — recording anywhere in the USA. As we get into 1943 we will hear how musicians managed to circumvent rules to continue performing, and how this changed the course of popular music.

So these four-and-a-bit hours of sound are a little different to the last few mixes, more integrated in feel, but with more in the way of sound collage and re-appropriated radio (the many hours of recordings I trawled for these clips may partially explain the delay in getting this one out.) It also includes nine minutes of a John Cage radio play, a ten-minute 'Casablanca' montage, the best-selling single of all time (possibly) and a load of other things which I am already forgetting. It has been something of a monster to make, but I think it all fits together.

TRACK LIST

0:00:00 Wilhelm Furtwängler And The Berlin Philharmonic - Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Excerpt) (Clip from The Hitchhiker) (Clip from Went The Day Well) (Clip from Woman of the Year) (Clip from Let's Pretend) (Clip from Went The Day Well) 0:01:37 Carl Stalling - Orchestra Gag (From 'Hobby Horse Laffs') (Clip from The Major and The Minor) 0:02:10 Gene Krupa - Let Me Off Uptown (Clip from To Be Or Not To Be) 0:05:22 Spike Jones & His City Slickers - Der Fuehrer`s Face (Clip from Wake Island) 0:08:08 Southern Sons - Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition (Clip from 1942 News Review) 0:11:33 Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - Five Guys Named Moe (Clip from 1942 News Review) 0:14:44 Raymond Scott & His Orchestra - Carrier Pigeon (Clip from The Bing Crosby Show) 0:16:58 João Da Bahiana E Janir Martins - Caboclo Do Mato 0:18:22 Zé Da Zilda E Janir Martins - Seu Mané Luiz (Clip from Sex Hygiene) (Clip from The Man Who Came To Dinner) 0:20:59 Glenn Miller - American Patrol (Clips from CBS News Of The World) (Clip from Casablanca) 0:24:52 Dooley Wilson - As Time Goes By (Clip from Casablanca) 0:28:17 Paul Whiteman Orchestra (Vocal - Billie Holiday) - I Cried For You (Clip from Casablanca) 0:31:59 Benny Goodman Orchestra (Vocal - Peggy Lee) - Why Don't You Do Right? (Clip from Casablanca) (Clips from 1942 News Review)

0:37:01 Bernard Herrmann - Fantasia (Clip from CBS News of The World) (Clip from 'News From Singapore') (Clip from 1942 News Review) (Clip from 'Japanese Relocation') 0:40:17 Kouta Katsutaro - Asu Ha Otachika (Clip from Superman Showdown) 0:42:28 Disney Studio Chorus - Little April Shower (Clip from Bambi) 0:45:38 Rizeli Sadık - Erkek Kadın Oyun Havası 0:47:34 John Cage & Kenneth Patchen - The City Wears A Slouch Hat (Excerpts) 0:56:55 Southern Sons - I'm Free At Last 0:59:37 Wilhelm Furtwängler And The Berlin Philharmonic - Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Excerpt) (Clips from CBS Mobil Gas News Service) (Clip from Saboteur)

1:03:38 Ella Mae Morse & Freddie Slack - The Thrill Is Gone (Clip from The Bing Crosby Show) 1:06:11 Duke Ellington - Main Stem (Clips from Let's Pretend) 1:08:52 Xavier Cugat - Chiu Chiu (Clip from To Be Or Not To Be) 1:11:42 Nat King Cole - Hit That Jive, Jack 1:14:32 Abbott & Costello - Sketch from The Edgar Bergen Show 1:16:47 Gene Autry - Deep In The Heart Of Texas (Clip from Let's Pretend) 1:19:24 Roy Acuff - Low & Lonely (Clip from Hemp For Victory) 1:22:03 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - Home In San Antone (Clip from Tortilla Flat) 1:23:40 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Belleville 1:26:02 Jan Mol Electro Kwartet - Meditatie 1:28:21 Festival Swing - Festival Swing 1942, Part 2 (Clip from The Major & The Minor) 1:32:06 Andy Kirk And His Clouds Of Joy - Take It And Git (Clip from To Be Or Not To Be) 1:35:22 Anne Shelton with Ambrose and His Orchestra - Nightingale (Clips from 1942 News Review)

1:39:01 The Andrews Sisters - Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree (Clips from Jack Benny - (1942-05-03) - Cast Visits Jack At Warner Brothers) 1:42:46 Arthur Askey - It's Spring Again (Clip from Henry Wallace's Four Freedoms Speech) 1:44:56 Kenneth Spencer Hall Johnson Negro Choir - Old Ship Of Zion 1:48:00 J. H. Terrell - Missionary Sermon 1:49:05 Ademilde Fonseca - Tico-Tico No Fubá (Clips from 1942 News Review) 1:51:07 Haeda Katsuhiko - Shinsetsu (Clips from Flying Tigers Battle of Midway) 1:53:53 Carson Robinson - Mussolini's Letter To Hitler (Clip of Hitler Speaking Normally) 1:56:18 Charlie And His Orchestra (Vocal - Carl Schwedler) - Little Sir Echo (Clip from Winston Churchill 'Now We Are Masters Of Our Fate' Speech) (Clip from 1942 News Review) (Clip from Mrs Miniver) (Clip from This Above All) 1:59:29 Mills Brothers - Paper Doll (Clip from Reap The Wild Wind) 2:02:15 Hutch - Jealousy (Clip of Hop Harrigan - The Nazi Bribe) 2:03:55 Concha Piquer - Sevillanes Del Espartero (Clip from Yankee Doodle Dandy) 2:06:32 Glenn Miller - Juke Box Saturday Night (Clip from Superman Showdown) 2:10:24 Muggsy Spanier - Two O'clock Jump (Clip from Bing Crosby Show) (Clip from To Be Or Not To Be)

2:13:27 Spike Jones & His City Slickers - Yankee Doodler (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from Marines In The Making) 2:16:30 Carl Stalling - Stalling: The War Years (Medley) (Clips from Marines In The Making) (Clip from Let's Pretend) (Clip from The Ducktators) 2:19:48 Ted Daffan's Texans - Born To Lose (Clip from Went The Day Well?) 2:21:42 Erskine Hawkins & His Orchestra & Jimmy Mitchelle - Don't Cry Baby (Clip from 1942 News Review) (Clip from News Parade of The Year) 2:25:16 G-Zha Beshovishka - Nado Nadke (Clip from Now, Voyager) (Clip from The Hitchhiker) (Clip from Let's Pretend) 2:29:35 Tampa Red - She Want To Sell My Monkey (Clip from The Wild Wind) 2:31:22 Lonnie Johnson - He's A Jelly Roll Baker (Clip from Tortilla Flat) 2:32:28 Zé Espinguela E Grupo Do Pai Alufá - Macumba De Oxóssi 2:34:39 Carmen Miranda, Nestor Amaral & Bando Da Lua - Aquarela Do Brasil (Film Soundtrack) (Clip from The Man Who Came To Dinner) 2:37:38 Dooley Wilson - Knock On Wood (Clip from I Married A Witch)

2:38:58 Hoagy Carmichael - Stardust 2:41:16 Lester Young Trio - Body and Soul 2:43:20 Billie Holiday With Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra - Trav'lin' Light 2:44:58 Harry James - Sleepy Lagoon (Clip from London 1942) 2:47:50 Flanagan & Allen - Rose O'Day (Clip from London 1942) 2:48:57 George Formby - Homeguard Blues (Clip from London 1942) (Clip from Bomber Crew Gives Interview) (Clip from Let's Pretend) (Clip from I Married A Witch) 2:52:20 Raymond Scott & His Orchestra - Pan American Hot Spot (Clip from Pride of The Yankees) 2:53:50 Xavier Cugat - Jesusita 2:56:37 John W. Bubbles with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra - Shine from Cabin in the Sky OST (Clip from To Be Or Not To Be) 2:59:30 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - It's All Your Fault (Clip from This Gun For Hire) (Clip from Gentleman Jim) 3:02:32 Harry James - Trumpet Blues And Cantabile (Clips from 1942 News Review)

3:06:47 Lionel Hampton - In The Bag (Clips from Sex Hygiene) 3:10:19 Tampa Red - Let Me Play With Your Poodle 3:12:54 Leadbelly - Rock Island Line 3:14:55 The Ink Spots - Who Wouldn't Love You? (Clip from In Which We Serve) 3:17:09 Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - The Chicks I Pick Are Slender, Tender And Tall (Clip from The Hitchhiker) 3:19:42 Fats Waller - Jitterbug Waltz (Clips from Cat People) (Clip from Bambi) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 3:24:54 Disney Studio Orchestra - Gallop Of The Stags,The Great Prince Of The Forest, Man (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from The Great Offensive) (Clip from Wehrmacht Stalingrad Radio Broadcast, Christmas 1942) 3:31:12 Groupo De Totoko Francois - Bololo O Kolilo 3:32:28 Lester Young Trio - Indiana (Clip of Groucho Marx on The Bing Crosby Show)

3:33:58 The Merry Macs - Jingle Jangle Jingle 3:35:14 Roy Acuff - Night Train To Memphis 3:37:59 Ernest Tubb - Walking The Floor Over You (Clip from Chichi Ariki) 3:40:43 David Rose And His Orchestra - Holiday For Strings (Clip from Let's Pretend) 3:43:35 Charles Trenet - Que Reste-T-Il De Nos Amours! 3:46:44 Duke Ellington - Perdido 3:49:50 Ramblers - Ping Pong 3:52:26 Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra - Well, Git It! (Clips from Hop Harrigan - The Nazi Bribe)

3:53:54 Ed Plumb - Wintery Winds (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from RRGO Robert Best Against US Action) (Clip from Hitler Speech on Stalingrad) 3:56:08 Bernard Herrmann - Snow Ride (Clip from The Man Who Came To Dinner) (Clip from The Talk of The Town) (Clips from Mayor Of The Town - A Christmas Carol) (Clip from Amos & Andy Annual Christmas Show) (Clip from Christmas With The 8th Army) (Clip from Holiday Inn) 4:00:07 Bing Crosby - White Christmas (Clip from Fibber McGee and Molly - Listening to Christmas Carols) (Clip from Bing Crosby Christmas Show) 4:04:19 Vera Lynn - The White Cliffs Of Dover (Clip of Bob Burns speech from war concert) 4:07:14 Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra - When The Lights Go On Again (All Over The World)) (Clip from The Talk Of The Town) (Clip from The Hitchhiker) (Clip from 1942 News Review)

Back for the new decade, that decade being the 1910s, audio historian James Errington returns for a deep dive into the sounds of 110 years ago. This time we’re joined by Cambridge 105’s own George Kirkman to listen to some ragtime frolics, eccentricities, proto-barbershop, proto-gospel and some meandering comic monologues.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the second hour of the mix. For the full 4-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

When The American Federation of Musicians was founded in 1896, the wax cylinder was a novelty item owned by a tiny minority of rich households, radio was still a potential technology for (morse code) communication between neighboring buildings, and sound film was little more than a dream. Musicians were paid for performances, songwriters were paid for (easily pirated) sheet music, and the entire concept of "royalties" for recorded music was un-thought-of, or at least unmentioned.

We have heard some of the changes that took place over the next 45 years, of course. First there was the invention of mechanical royalties, initially for piano rolls, but later for recordings - these were an improvement for songwriters, who from 1907 received a fee of 2 cents every time their composition was duplicated - a rate which would remain the same until 1978. For performers, however, there was only a fee for playing on the session, so even as the recording industry expanded exponentially with the birth of electrical recordings and much cheaper equipment to play them on, a working musician would see no direct financial benefit to a song they had performed on becoming a hit.

When the great depression hit, most of the record companies collapsed and, for those musicians who did not find other employment, live performances and radio became their sole source of income. For some non-songwriters this may have even represented a pay rise - a gig every night meant a reliable paycheck. For band leaders, musicians were now plentiful and affordable. Why not put together a 20-piece jazz orchestra for your radio show? The musicians would be glad to have a steady job, and the audience, who could not afford new records, would be glad to hear them.

But then, of course, things changed again. Slowly, the economy began to recover. Record companies started increasing production. Radio stations, cutting back due to increased costs, started playing more records. And still performers received no royalties.

On August 1st 1942 the AFM, then representing the majority of professional musicians, announced a strike. No music was to be recorded until the record companies would agree terms to pay performance royalties. The strike had been long-anticipated, and a stockpile of records had been built up, so at first there was no noticeable difference - all the best-known artists were still available in stores. Then, as these started to run out, different plans were put into action. Singers (who were generally not members of the AFM) were paired with vocal groups or non-union pianists - this is why 1943 is the first big year for Frank Sinatra. Old records were re-released - for example Sinatra's pre-fame records with the Harry James Orchestra. The dam had to burst eventually, though, and one by one the record companies agreed terms with the AMA, and recordings gradually began again.

If this strike were the only factor at play in 1943, it would be hard enough to make a full-length music mix, but of course there are further complications. Even before the war began, the economics of running a big band were failing, as star performers were less and less likely to accept minimum wage with the depression over. We will hear plenty of smaller group jazz performances, and their new style (already given the name "be bop") in future episodes, though sadly I only have sprinklings of this for you here. Many musicians were of age to be drafted into the armed forces, and though they may have had the chance to play music there, it was most likely not recorded. Plastics were needed for war industries, and limits were put on the number of records which could be pressed. Even worse hit was fuel, which was rationed to the point that multi-city musical tours were virtually impossible. It seems like the entire record business was put entirely on hold for the duration of the year.

So what do we have here, then? A four-and-a-half-hour mix without any records? Well, no. With much less to work with, I downloaded a huge radio archive, and spent a fair amount of time getting sounds from films. The songs that do appear are "v-discs" recorded for distribution to soldiers, recordings with minimal or acappella backing, movie soundtracks, a few radio performances, and of course a host of music from other countries, mainly ones which were not participating in the war (I believe that for this reason this may be the most South-American mix I've ever made.) More than any other mix so far, this leans heavily into the sound-collage aspect of the project, with large sections free of any music. It was difficult to put this together, but I think it works.

I'll be putting this mix out in 12 parts on this main feed, but for now the single-mix version will be a Patreon-only exclusive. If you would be so kind as to support this project, you can hear the entire year (or rather the entire 4.5 hours) right now over there.

Introduction

(Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clip from WAC Recruits Take Oath of Enlistment) (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from Share The Meat) (Clip from Heaven Can Wait) (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from It's That Man Again) 0:01:08 Spike Jones - People Will Say We're In Love 0:01:23 Lena Horne - Stormy Weather

January

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 0:05:59 Charlie Parker - My Heart Tells Me (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from How To Behave In Britain) 0:09:17 Mildred Bailey - Rockin' Chair (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from Education for Death - The Making of The Nazi) 0:14:36 Efisio Melis - Fiuda Bagadia (Clips from Education for Death - The Making of The Nazi) (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) 0:18:47 Oscar Aleman - Tico Tico No Fuba (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) 0:21:33 Xavier Cugat - Tico Tico (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Screen Guild Players) (Clips from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from The More The Merrier) 0:24:13 Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra - The Moose (Clips from Screen Guild Players) 0:26:46 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Cavalerie (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from Forever and a Day) (Clip from Lum & Abner) (Clip from Screen Guild Players) (Clip from VOA - Deutschsprachige Nachrichten der Stimme Amerikas) (Clip of Herman Goering) (Clip from CBS World News Today)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the second half-hour of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 00:33 Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots - Cow Cow Boogie (Clip from BBCF Ici Londres - Victoire Sovitique Stalingrad) (Clip from BBC - Robert Robinson Reports Victory In Stalingrad) (Clip from BBC - Paul Winterton on Stalingrad) (Clip from BBC - End Of Battle For Stalingrad Eyewitnessed) 04:49 Golden Gate Quartet - Stalin Wasn't Stallin' (Clip of Joseph Goebbels) 08:12 Duke Ellington - Black (Clip from How To Behave In Britain) (Clip from NBC - Bing Crosby Kraft Music Hall WAC Recruitment) (Clip from Orson Welles War Bond Plea) (Clips from Ediphone School Record No.2) (Clips from How To Behave In Britain) 0:20:30 Duke Ellington - Brown (Clips from How To Behave In Britain) (Clip from Cockney Slang) 0:27:53 Duke Ellington - Beige (Clips from How To Behave In Britain) (Clips from Kraft Cheese Spreads Commercial) (Clips from Popeye - Seeing Red, White & Blue) 36:25 Nat King Cole Trio - I Know That You Know

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the third section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from The Human Comedy) 00:52 Yma Sumack con Conjunto Folklórico Peruano de Moisés Vivanco - Cholo traicionero (Pasacalle) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 04:03 Evelyn Künnek - Sing Nachtigall Singe (Clip from Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 08:20 Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? (Clip from The Human Comedy) (Clip from Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman) (Clip from Your Own Victory Garden) 11:11 Nat King Cole & Dexter Gordon - Sweet Lorraine (Clip from Cockney Slang) 15:58 Flanagan & Allen - The Smiths And The Jones (Clips from Cockney Slang) 19:24 George Lewis - New Orleans Hula (Clips from Fighting Men - Kill Or Be Killed) 23:06 Harry Roy - This Is The Army Mr Jones (Clips from Women Of Steel) 26:09 Four Vagabonds - Rosie The Riveter (Clip from Women Of Steel)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the fourth section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from Wings To Victory) 00:55 Miguel Caló and Alberto Podestá - Percal (Clip from Fires Were Started) 04:06 Carlos Di Sarli and Roberto Rufino - Verdemar (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) 06:56 Django Reinhardt - Improvisation No. 3, Part 1 (Clips from Lights Out - Kill) 09:42 Spike Jones - Hotcha Cornia (Clips from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Share The Meat) 12:02 Lionel Hampton Sextet & Dinah Washington - Evil Gal Blues (Clip from Lum & Abner) (Clips from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Cabin in The Sky) 14:48 Shinda Gikombe - Njane Kanini (Clips from I Walked With A Zombie)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the fifth section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from Five Graves To Cairo) (Clip from CBC - Lorne Green Reports Victory In Tunis) (Clip from Five Graves To Cairo) 01:17 Jimmy Yancey - Yancey Special (Clip from Kentucky Derby - Clem McCarthy) (Clip from The Leopard Man) 04:26 Cab Calloway and The Nicholas Brothers - Jumpin Jive 07:32 Charlie Parker & Jay McShann - Cherokee (Clip from The More The Merrier) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clip from The More The Merrier) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clips from The More The Merrier) (Clip of Axis Sally) (Clips from Calvacade of America) (Clips of Axis Sally) 10:34 Carroll Gibbons (Vocals Edna Kay) - Darling (Clip from The Major And The Minor) (Clip from BBC Warsaw Uprising - Eyewitness) 12:52 Freddy Martin & His Orchestra - (Theme From The) Warsaw Concerto (Clip from BBC Frank Gillard Surrender North Africa) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 15:57 Fats Waller and Ada Brown - That Ain't Right (Clips from Calvacade of America) (Clip from BBC - Should the news be in BBC English?)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the sixth section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 0:00:30 The Andrews Sisters - Shoo, Shoo Baby (Clip from My Friend Flicka) (Clips from Ossessione) 0:03:52 Oscar Aleman - Besame Mucho (Clips from My Friend Flicka) (Clip of Juan Peron Speech) 0:05:46 Carlos Di Sarli and Roberto Rufino - Yo Soy De San Telmo (Clips from My Friend Flicka) 0:09:15 Ameerbai Karnataki, Khan Mastana - Door Hato Ai Duniya Walo 0:11:34 Nattiyakkalaye - Sivakavi (Clips from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp) 0:15:39 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Fleur D'ennui (Clips from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the seventh section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 0:00:53 Lead Belly - (Good Night) Irene (Take 1) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 0:03:54 Dorothy Maynor - Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen (Clip from For Who The Bell Tolls) (Clip from BBC - Maurice Shillington Reports - Mussolini Resigns) (Clip from EIAR Announces the Resignation of Mussolini) (Clips from FDR Fireside Chat - First Crack In The Axis) 0:08:49 Frank Sinatra with The Bobby Tucker Singers - Oh What A Beautiful Mornin' (Clip from Commercial for Kraft Mustard) 0:11:52 Carmen Miranda - Lady In The Tutti Frutti Hat (film soundtrack) (Clips from The Ox Bow Incident) 0:16:49 Edith Piaf - Le Brun Et Le Blond 0:19:32 Lord Invader - Rum And Coca-Cola

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the eighth section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 0:00:34 Concha Piquer - Yo No Me Quiero Enterar (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clips from Private SNAFU - Spies) 0:05:26 Duke Ellington & His Orchestra with Ray Nance - A Slip Of The Lip Can Sink A Ship (Clip from The Man In Grey) 0:07:04 Benny Carter and his Orchestra - Poinciana (Clip from BBC - General Patton Enters Messina) (Clip from BBC - Frank Gillard with Town Band in Lentini) 0:11:33 Rueben Solomon & His Jive Boys - Constantly (Clips from Heaven Can Wait) 0:14:44 Jimmy Dorsey (vocal - Kitty Kallen) - They're Either Too Young Or Too Old (Clip from CBC - Mary Churchill Congratulates CWACs) 0:18:23 Anne Shelton - Silver Wings In The Moonlight (Clip from CBS World News Today)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the ninth section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip of BBC - Montgomery Announces Landings in Italy) (Clip from Sahara) 02:17 Ella May Morse & Freddie Slack - Get on Board, Little Chillun (Clips from Dynamite Cargo) 06:08 Big Bill Broonzy - Night Watchman Blues (Clip from Dynamite Cargo) (Clips from BBC - Berlin Bomber) 16:59 The Four Vagabonds - Comin' In On A Wing And A Prayer (Clips from BBC Guy Gibson Interview) 19:49 Dicky Wells and His Orchestra - Linger Awhile (Clip from CAN - Eisenhower Announces Italy's Surrender) (Clip from BBC - Marshall Badoglio - Italy Surrender) 23:05 Spike Jones - Down In Jungle Town (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from Lum & Abner) (Clip from Le Corbeau) 24:30 Yvonne de Trebert - Stop (Clips from Calvacade of America)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the tenth section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clips from Lassie Come Home) 02:07 Charlie Parker - I've Found A New Baby (Clip from Treasury Star Parade) (Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from BBC - Freddy Grisewood Reports Italy At War With Germany) 06:03 Aníbal Troilo - La Cumparsita (Clips from Himmler Speech) 08:45 Sekinomu - Kayanda (Ganda; Uganda) (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from WAC Recruits Take Oath of Enlistment) 10:22 Django Reinhardt - Blues Clair (Clips from Eisenhower War Loans Drive Speech) 13:27 Lead Belly - John Hardy (Clips from It's That Man Again) 15:09 New Mayfair Dance Orchestra - Pedro The Fisherman (Clips from It's That Man Again)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the eleventh section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 00:36 Wild Bill Davison & his Commodores - That's a Plenty (Clips from Here Is Your War) 02:27 Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five - Deacon Jones (Clips from BBC - In Honour of Russia - Mary Lane) 06:04 Yma Sumack con Conjunto Folklórico Peruano de Moisés Vivanco - Waraka Tusuy (Clip from Sahara) (Clip from BBCF - Ici Londres - Messages Personnels) 09:37 Charles Trenet - Douce France (Clip from Amos & Andy - Turkey Trouble) 13:11 Nat King Cole - It's Only A Paper Moon (Clip from Commercial - Waste Kitchen Fats) 14:25 Fats Waller - Up Jumped You With Love

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the twelth section of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

Tracklist

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from BBC - Freddy Grisewood Reports on Tehran Conference) 00:49 The Stuff Smith Trio - Humoresque (Clip from Amos & Andy - Candy for Caroline) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) 03:20 Dicky Wells and His Orchestra - I Got Rhythm (Clip from CBC - Canadian Women Serving Overseas - Marietta McPherson) (Clips from CBC - Wartime Rations Christmas - Dorothy Batchellor) (Clip of Edward R Murrow) 05:40 Nat King Cole Trio - Embraceable You (Clip from Jane Eyre) 09:32 Shamshad Begum & Motilal - O Jaanewale Aaja (Clip from Five Graves To Cairo) (Clips from Mother America) 11:50 Custódio Mesquita - Brejeiro (Clip from Wartime With Bob Hope - The Christmas Package) 13:22 The Andrews Sisters - Sing (Radio Broadcast) (Clip from BBC - King George Christmas Speech) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 17:32 Bing Crosby & The Andrew Sisters - Victory Polka (Clips from CBC - Matthew Hatton - Canadians Attack Ortona) (Clip from Mother America) 19;38 Xavier Cugat - Linda Mujer (Clip from Cockney Slang) (Clip from Amos & Andy - Candy for Caroline) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Dynamite Cargo) (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from Popeye - Seeing Red, White & Blue)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 4.5-hour version please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

When The American Federation of Musicians was founded in 1896, the wax cylinder was a novelty item owned by a tiny minority of rich households, radio was still a potential technology for (morse code) communication between neighboring buildings, and sound film was little more than a dream. Musicians were paid for performances, songwriters were paid for (easily pirated) sheet music, and the entire concept of "royalties" for recorded music was un-thought-of, or at least unmentioned.

We have heard some of the changes that took place over the next 45 years, of course. First there was the invention of mechanical royalties, initially for piano rolls, but later for recordings - these were an improvement for songwriters, who from 1907 received a fee of 2 cents every time their composition was duplicated - a rate which would remain the same until 1978. For performers, however, there was only a fee for playing on the session, so even as the recording industry expanded exponentially with the birth of electrical recordings and much cheaper equipment to play them on, a working musician would see no direct financial benefit to a song they had performed on becoming a hit.

When the great depression hit, most of the record companies collapsed and, for those musicians who did not find other employment, live performances and radio became their sole source of income. For some non-songwriters this may have even represented a pay rise - a gig every night meant a reliable paycheck. For band leaders, musicians were now plentiful and affordable. Why not put together a 20-piece jazz orchestra for your radio show? The musicians would be glad to have a steady job, and the audience, who could not afford new records, would be glad to hear them.

But then, of course, things changed again. Slowly, the economy began to recover. Record companies started increasing production. Radio stations, cutting back due to increased costs, started playing more records. And still performers received no royalties.

On August 1st 1942 the AFM, then representing the majority of professional musicians, announced a strike. No music was to be recorded until the record companies would agree terms to pay performance royalties. The strike had been long-anticipated, and a stockpile of records had been built up, so at first there was no noticeable difference - all the best-known artists were still available in stores. Then, as these started to run out, different plans were put into action. Singers (who were generally not members of the AFM) were paired with vocal groups or non-union pianists - this is why 1943 is the first big year for Frank Sinatra. Old records were re-released - for example Sinatra's pre-fame records with the Harry James Orchestra. The dam had to burst eventually, though, and one by one the record companies agreed terms with the AMA, and recordings gradually began again.

If this strike were the only factor at play in 1943, it would be hard enough to make a full-length music mix, but of course there are further complications. Even before the war began, the economics of running a big band were failing, as star performers were less and less likely to accept minimum wage with the depression over. We will hear plenty of smaller group jazz performances, and their new style (already given the name "be bop") in future episodes, though sadly I only have sprinklings of this for you here. Many musicians were of age to be drafted into the armed forces, and though they may have had the chance to play music there, it was most likely not recorded. Plastics were needed for war industries, and limits were put on the number of records which could be pressed. Even worse hit was fuel, which was rationed to the point that multi-city musical tours were virtually impossible. It seems like the entire record business was put entirely on hold for the duration of the year.

So what do we have here, then? A four-and-a-half-hour mix without any records? Well, no. With much less to work with, I downloaded a huge radio archive, and spent a fair amount of time getting sounds from films. The songs that do appear are "v-discs" recorded for distribution to soldiers, recordings with minimal or acappella backing, movie soundtracks, a few radio performances, and of course a host of music from other countries, mainly ones which were not participating in the war (I believe that for this reason this may be the most South-American mix I've ever made.) More than any other mix so far, this leans heavily into the sound-collage aspect of the project, with large sections free of any music. It was difficult to put this together, but I think it works.

Introduction

(Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clip from WAC Recruits Take Oath of Enlistment) (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from Share The Meat) (Clip from Heaven Can Wait) (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from It's That Man Again) 0:01:08 Spike Jones - People Will Say We`re In Love 0:01:23 Lena Horne - Stormy Weather

January

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 0:05:59 Charlie Parker - My Heart Tells Me (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from How To Behave In Britain) 0:09:17 Mildred Bailey - Rockin' Chair (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from Education for Death - The Making of The Nazi) 0:14:36 Efisio Melis - Fiuda Bagadia (Clips from Education for Death - The Making of The Nazi) (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) 0:18:47 Oscar Aleman - Tico Tico No Fuba (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) 0:21:33 Xavier Cugat - Tico Tico (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Screen Guild Players) (Clips from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from The More The Merrier) 0:24:13 Charlie Barnet and his Orchestra - The Moose (Clips from Screen Guild Players) 0:26:46 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Cavalerie (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from Forever and a Day) (Clip from Lum & Abner) (Clip from Screen Guild Players) (Clip from VOA - Deutschsprachige Nachrichten der Stimme Amerikas) (Clip of Herman Goering) (Clip from CBS World News Today)

February

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 0:29:20 Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots - Cow Cow Boogie (Clip from BBCF Ici Londres - Victoire Sovitique Stalingrad) (Clip from BBC - Robert Robinson Reports Victory In Stalingrad) (Clip from BBC - Paul Winterton on Stalingrad) (Clip from BBC - End Of Battle For Stalingrad Eyewitnessed) 0:33:37 Golden Gate Quartet - Stalin Wasn't Stallin' (Clip of Joseph Goebbels) 0:37:00 Duke Ellington - Black (Clip from How To Behave In Britain) (Clip from NBC - Bing Crosby Kraft Music Hall WAC Recruitment) (Clip from Orson Welles War Bond Plea) (Clips from Ediphone School Record No.2) (Clips from How To Behave In Britain) 0:49:18 Duke Ellington - Brown (Clips from How To Behave In Britain) (Clip from Cockney Slang) 0:56:41 Duke Ellington - Beige (Clips from How To Behave In Britain) (Clips from Kraft Cheese Spreads Commercial) (Clips from Popeye - Seeing Red, White & Blue) 1:05:13 Nat King Cole Trio - I Know That You Know

March

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from The Human Comedy) 1:07:48 Yma Sumack con Conjunto Folklórico Peruano de Moisés Vivanco - Cholo traicionero (Pasacalle) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 1:10:59 Evelyn Künnek - Sing Nachtigall Singe (Clip from Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 1:15:16 Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? (Clip from The Human Comedy) (Clip from Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman) (Clip from Your Own Victory Garden) 1:18:07 Nat King Cole & Dexter Gordon - Sweet Lorraine (Clip from Cockney Slang) 1:22:54 Flanagan & Allen - The Smiths And The Jones (Clips from Cockney Slang) 1:26:20 George Lewis - New Orleans Hula (Clips from Fighting Men - Kill Or Be Killed) 1:30:02 Harry Roy - This Is The Army Mr Jones (Clips from Women Of Steel) 1:33:05 Four Vagabonds - Rosie The Riveter (Clip from Women Of Steel)

April

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from Wings To Victory) 1:35:49 Miguel Caló and Alberto Podestá - Percal (Clip from Fires Were Started) 1:39:00 Carlos Di Sarli and Roberto Rufino - Verdemar (Clip from Lights Out - Kill) 1:41:50 Django Reinhardt - Improvisation No. 3, Part 1 (Clips from Lights Out - Kill) 1:44:36 Spike Jones - Hotcha Cornia (Clips from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Share The Meat) 1:46:56 Lionel Hampton Sextet & Dinah Washington - Evil Gal Blues (Clip from Lum & Abner) (Clips from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Cabin in The Sky) 1:49:42 Shinda Gikombe - Njane Kanini (Clips from I Walked With A Zombie)

May

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from Five Graves To Cairo) (Clip from CBC - Lorne Green Reports Victory In Tunis) (Clip from Five Graves To Cairo) 1:52:41 Jimmy Yancey - Yancey Special (Clip from Kentucky Derby - Clem McCarthy) (Clip from The Leopard Man) 1:55:50 Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers - Jumpin Jive 1:58:56 Charlie Parker & Jay McShann - Cherokee (Clip from The More The Merrier) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clip from The More The Merrier) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clips from The More The Merrier) (Clip of Axis Sally) (Clips from Calvacade of America) (Clips of Axis Sally) 2:01:58 Carroll Gibbons (Vocals Edna Kay) - Darling (Clip from The Major And The Minor) (Clip from BBC Warsaw Uprising - Eyewitness) 2:04:16 Freddy Martin & His Orchestra - (Theme From The) Warsaw Concerto (Clip from BBC Frank Gillard Surrender North Africa) (Clip from Calvacade of America) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 2:07:21 Fats Waller and Ada Brown - That Ain't Right (Clips from Calvacade of America) (Clip from BBC - Should the news be in BBC English)

June

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 2:12:08 The Andrews Sisters - Shoo, Shoo Baby (Clip from My Friend Flicka) (Clips from Ossessione) 2:15:30 Oscar Aleman - Besame Mucho (Clips from My Friend Flicka) (Clip of Juan Peron Speech) 2:18:24 Carlos Di Sarli and Roberto Rufino - Yo Soy De San Telmo (Clips from My Friend Flicka) 2:20:53 Ameerbai Karnataki, Khan Mastana - Door Hato Ai Duniya Walo 2:23:12 Nattiyakkalaye - Sivakavi (Clips from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp) 2:27:17 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France - Fleur D'ennui (Clips from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp)

July

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 2:33:49 Lead Belly - (Good Night) Irene (Take 1) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 2:36:56 Dorothy Maynor - Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen (Clip from For Who The Bell Tolls) (Clip from BBC - Maurice Shillington Reports - Mussolini Resigns) (Clip from EIAR Announces the Resignation of Mussolini) (Clips from FDR Fireside Chat - First Crack In The Axis) 2:41:53 Frank Sinatra with The Bobby Tucker Singers - Oh What A Beautiful Mornin' (Clip from Commercial for Kraft Mustard) 2:44:56 Carmen Miranda - Lady In The Tutti Frutti Hat (film soundtrack) (Clips from The Ox Bow Incident) 2:49:53 Edith Piaf - Le Brun Et Le Blond 2:52:36 Lord Invader - Rum And Coca-Cola

August

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 2:55:00 Concha Piquer - Yo No Me Quiero Enterar (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clips from Private SNAFU - Spies) 2:59:52 Duke Ellington & His Orchestra with Ray Nance - A Slip Of The Lip Can Sink A Ship (Clip from The Man In Grey) 3:01:30 Benny Carter and his Orchestra - Poinciana (Clip from BBC - General Patton Enters Messina) (Clip from BBC - Frank Gillard with Town Band in Lentini) 3:05:59 Rueben Solomon & His Jive Boys - Constantly (Calcutta, 1943) (Clips from Heaven Can Wait) 3:09:09 Jimmy Dorsey (vocal - Kitty Kallen) - They're Either Too Young Or Too Old (Clip from CBC - Mary Churchill Congratulates CWACs) 3:12:49 Anne Shelton - Silver Wings In The Moonlight (Clip from CBS World News Today)

September

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip of BBC - Montgomery Announces Landings in Italy) (Clip from Sahara) 3:16:43 Ella May Morse & Freddie Slack - Get on Board, Little Chillun (Clips from Dynamite Cargo) 3:20:35 Big Bill Broonzy - Night Watchman Blues (Clip from Dynamite Cargo) (Clips from BBC - Berlin Bomber) 3:31:25 The Four Vagabonds - Comin' In On A Wing And A Prayer (Clips from BBC Guy Gibson Interview) 3:34:16 Dicky Wells and His Orchestra - Linger Awhile (Clip from CAN - Eisenhower Announces Italy's Surrender) (Clip from BBC - Marshall Badoglio - Italy Surrender) 3:37:32 Spike Jones - Down In Jungle Town (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from Lum & Abner) (Clip from Le Corbeau) 3:38:56 Yvonne de Trebert - Stop (Clips from Calvacade of America)

October

(Clips from Lassie Come Home) 3:43:18 Charlie Parker - I've Found A New Baby (Clip from Treasury Star Parade) (Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from BBC - Freddy Grisewood Reports Italy At War With Germany) 3:47:14 Aníbal Troilo - La Cumparsita (Clips from Himmler Speech) 3:49:56 Sekinomu - Kayanda (Ganda; Uganda) (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from WAC Recruits Take Oath of Enlistment) 3:51:34 Django Reinhardt - Blues Clair (Clips from Eisenhower War Loans Drive Speech) 3:54:38 Lead Belly - John Hardy (Clips from It's That Man Again) 3:56:20 New Mayfair Dance Orchestra - Pedro The Fisherman (Clips from It's That Man Again)

November

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) 3:59:28 Wild Bill Davison & his Commodores - That's a Plenty (Clips from Here Is Your War) 4:01:18 Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five - Deacon Jones (Clips from BBC - In Honour of Russia - Mary Lane) 4:04:55 Yma Sumack con Conjunto Folklórico Peruano de Moisés Vivanco - Waraka Tusuy (Clip from Sahara) (Clip from BBCF - Ici Londres - Messages Personnels) 4:08:22 Charles Trenet - Douce France (Clip from Amos & Andy - Turkey Trouble) 4:12:02 Nat King Cole - It's Only A Paper Moon (Clip from Commercial - Waste Kitchen Fats) 4:13:13 Fats Waller - Up Jumped You With Love

December

(Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from BBC - Freddy Grisewood Reports on Tehran Conference) 4:15:27 The Stuff Smith Trio - Humoresque (Clip from Amos & Andy - Candy for Caroline) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) 4:18:04 Dicky Wells and His Orchestra - I Got Rhythm (Clip from CBC - Canadian Women Serving Overseas - Marietta McPherson) (Clips from CBC - Wartime Rations Christmas - Dorothy Batchellor) (Clip of Edward R Murrow) 4:20:22 Nat King Cole Trio - Embraceable You (Clip from Jane Eyre) 4:24:16 Shamshad Begum & Motilal - O Jaanewale Aaja (Clip from Five Graves To Cairo) (Clips from Mother America) 4:26:27 Custódio Mesquita - Brejeiro (Clip from Wartime With Bob Hope - The Christmas Package) 4:28:06 The Andrews Sisters - Sing (Radio Broadcast) (Clip from BBC - King George Christmas Speech) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 4:32:16 Bing Crosby & The Andrew Sisters - Victory Polka (Clips from CBC - Matthew Hatton - Canadians Attack Ortona) (Clip from Mother America)

Closing

4:34:22 Xavier Cugat - Linda Mujer (Clip from Cockney Slang) (Clip from Amos & Andy - Candy for Caroline) (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) (Clip from Dynamite Cargo) (Clip from Shadow of a Doubt) (Clip from Review of The Year 1943) (Clip from Popeye - Seeing Red, White & Blue)

Time travel through audio history with James Errington, this time joined by Cambridge 105’s own Kasia Wozniak to listen to the sounds of 1911, featuring Eastern European émigrés Al Jolson, Irving Berlin and Sophie Tucker; the future president of Poland playing some Chopin; scat singing 15 years before it was supposedly invented; a story about three trees and a bunny rabbit and another story where a baby is mistaken for a piano, and hilarity ensues.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

Beginning Halloween Week at Centuries of Sound, here's a mix of Halloween-themed music and spoken word recordings from the pre-electrical era.

This mix is also available in compilation format - to supporters on Patreon, and on the Centuries of Sound Bandcamp page

00:00 Aleister Crowley- The Call Of The First And Second Aethyr (Ca. 1920) 01:21 Original Dixieland Jazz Band - Skeleton Jangle (1918) 04:14 Bert Williams - Never Mo' (1916) 06:52 Sodero's Band - The Vampire. Dance Characteristic (1918) 10:24 Billy Murray - I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark (1908) 12:36 Len Spencer - The Transformation Scene From ''Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde'' (1905) 14:46 Edith Wilson and Johnny Dunn Original Jazz Hounds - Evil Blues (1923) 18:04 Edison Concert Band - Skeleton Dance (1905) 20:17 Arthur Collins - The Goose-Bone Man (1905) 22:24 Unknown Artist - Brown Wax Home Recording of Comic Ghost Stories (Ca. 1910) 24:42 Six Brown Brothers - Ghost of the Saxophone (1917) 27:20 American Symphony Orchestra - Hallowe'en Dance (1909) 29:22 New Orleans Owls - The Nightmare (1926) 32:29 Victor Military Band - Spooky Spooks (1917) 35:12 Abdal Ali - Death Lament (1902) 39:00 Al Weston & Irene Young - At The Circus (1921) 42:24 Unknown Artist - Okeh Laughing Record (1922)

This mix is also available as a compilation for Patreon supporters here and at Bandcamp here. I make Centuries of Sound on my own in whatever scraps of time I can find. Please help me find more scraps by supporting the project (and get a load of extra content too!)

When we think of the great depression of the 1930s, the images which may spring to mind - The Grapes of Wrath, the dustbowl songs of Woody Guthrie - are generally from the 1940s. Popular entertainment of the thirties leaned not on realism, but on escapism. This is the golden age, not only of Hollywood musicals, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers, Busby Berkley routines and screwball comedy, but also of horror movies. So who better to guide us into this mix of Halloween music than Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula from 1931, released the same year as Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and James Whale's Frankenstein, and a year before the first appearance of The Mummy. Aside from the film clips, we naturally have plenty of novelty recordings, original sound effect records, hot jazz, and to close a suite of particularly morbid blues records.

Track listing

00:00 Bela Lugosi - Clip from Dracula (1931) 00:02 Gennett Sound Effects - Rainfall and Thunder (1936) (Clip from Frankenstein - 1931) 00:44 Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski - Toccata and Fugue in D minor (1927) 01:26 Artie Shaw And His Orchestra - Nightmare (1938) (Clip from Dracula - 1931) 04:20 Borrah Minnevitch - The Ghost Walk (1933) 06:40 Manny Gould and Ben Harrison - Scrappy’s Ghost Story (1935) 07:51 Five Jones Boys - Mr Ghost Goes To Town (1936) 10:43 Putney Dandridge - Skeleton In The Closet (1936) (Clip from Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf) 13:19 Prairie Ramblers - Ghost in the Graveyard (1938) (HMV Weather Effects - Wind - 1935) 15:59 New Mayfair Dance Orchestra - The Haunted House (1931) (Clip from The Shadow - Circle of Death - 1937) 19:32 Raymond Scott - War Dance For Wooden Indians (1937) (Clip from The Mummy - 1932) 21:59 Truett & George - Ghost Dance (1927) (Clip from Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 1931) (Clip from Mediale Musik - The Speech Of Ancient Egypt, 18th Dynasty - 1938) 24:55 Washboard Rhythm Kings - Call Of The Freaks (1931) (Clip from Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 1931) 27:50 Victor Arden, Phil Ohman, & their Orchestra - Dancing the Devil Away (1930) (Clip from Reverend Johnny Blakey - Warming By The Devil's Fire - 1928) 31:07 Fletcher Henderson - Hotter Than 'ell (1934) (Clip from Island of Lost Souls - 1932) 34:01 Rev. A.W. Nix - Black Diamond Express to Hell (1927) 34:41 Cab Calloway - The Nightmare (1931) (Clip from Murders in the Zoo - 1933) (Clip from Tomatoes Another Day - 1930) 37:27 Henry Hall BBC Dance Orchestra - Here Comes The Bogey Man (1932) (Clip from The Old Dark House - 1932) 40:39 Bertha Idaho - Graveyard Love (1928) (Clip from Vampyr - 1932) 44:02 Skip James - Devil Got My Woman (1931) (Clip from Bride of Frankenstein - 1935) 47:08 Victoria Spivey - Blood Thirsty Blues (1928) (Clip from Gennett Sound Effects - Night Noises - 1936) (Clip from The Shadow - Circle of Death - 1937) 50:30 Josh White - Blood Red River (1933) (Clip from The Old Dark House - 1932) 53:46 Joe Mccoy - Evil Devil Woman Blues (1934) (HMV Weather Effects - Wind - 1935) (Clip from The Shadow - Circle of Death - 1937) 56:59 Walter Page - Blue Devil Blues (1930) (Clip from Gennett Sound Effects - Rainfall and Thunder - 1936) (Clip from King Kong - 1933)

In this very special episode of Centuries of Sound, sound curator James Errington plays a selection of Halloween-themed recordings from the acoustic recording era, prior to 1927. Be ready for ghosts, skeletons, vampires, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, “The Goose Bone Man” and Mr Halloween himself, Aleister Crowley

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. Please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

00:36 Harry E. Humphrey - Santa Claus Hides In Your Phonograph 03:53 Choir Of The Royal Court Opera With Orchestra And Church Bells, Acc. Harmonium, Bells - Silent Night, Holy Night 06:43 Gilbert Girard - Santa Claus Tells of Mother Goose Land 08:19 Band - Christmas Memories 12:17 Nebe-Quartett - O Tannenbaum 14:07 Albert Whelan - Scrooge's Awakening 16:20 Edison Concert Band - Bells Of Christmas 20:31 Thomas Edison - Mr. Edison's Christmas Greetings 24:41 George Hamilton Green Novelty Orchestra - Moonlight Waltz 28:12 George Islon - Christmas Eve In The Old Homestead 30:42 Edison Mixed Quartet - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 33:43 Metropolitan Quartet - Christmas, Christmas, Blessed, Blessed Day 37:10 Bransby Williams - The Street Watchman's Christmas 41:05 Edison Concert Band And The Edison Mixed Quartet - Ring Out The Bells For Christmas 45:16 Carol Singers - Joy To The World 47:42 Yolande Noble And Percy Clifton - Buying The Christmas Dinner 49:56 Robert Gayler - Christmas Eve- a Fantasie On Old German Christmas Carols 52:53 Manuel Romain - Christmas Time Seems Years And Years Away 54:50 Harry E. Humphrey - The Night Before Christmas 58:11 Elizabeth Spencer, Harry Anthony And James F. Harrison - Silent Night

In this festive edition of Centuries of Sound, audio curator James Errington is joined by his son Theo to check out some Christmas records from the years 1902 to 1924. We have choirs, carols, brass bands, and of course a selection of bizarre novelty Christmas wax cylinders for your Christmas evening listening.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. Please come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

This compilation of Christmas recordings spans the early years of electronic recording, the explosion of radio, sound films and newsreel, the end of the roaring thirties and the great depression.

I’m presenting this in two formats — a mix, which is on my main feed at centuriesofsound.com and as a compilation, which is only available to patrons. Join my patreon at patreon.com/centuriesofsound and get a load of bonus content like this, as well as helping this site to survive in these very difficult times.

Here is the tracklist, the same for both versions.

00:40 The Savoy Orpheans - Radio Christmas (1926) 03:46 Adolph Miles - Adeste Fideles (1926) 07:03 Chor Sw. Lucji - Pasterka (Wesola Nowine) (Christmas Eve At Church) (1927) 10:10 Richard Tauber - O Sanctissima (O Du Frohliche) (1929) 12:51 Andrej Pelak - Pospešte Sem Pastuškovia (Hasten, Shepherds) (1930) 16:00 Joe Gumin And His Orchestra - Jingle Bells (The One-Horse Open Sleigh) (1931) 19:20 Popeye The Sailor - Seasin's Greetinks (1933) 19:26 Ozzie Nelson Orchestra - Christmas Night In Harlem (1934) 22:23 Laurel & Hardy - Clip From Babes In Toyland (1934) 22:33 Paul Whiteman Orchestra - Christmas Night In Harlem (1934) 25:55 Shirley Temple - Clip From Bright Eyes (1934) 26:55 Harry Reser And His Orchestra - Jingle Bells (1934) 29:30 Franklin Delano Roosevelt - White House Christmas Tree Lighting Clip (1935) 29:49 Bing Crosby With Victor Young And His Orchestra - Silent Night (1935) 32:49 Victor Novelty Orchestra - Christmas Eve (Fantasie) (1935) 35:50 British Movietone - Merry Christmas (1935) 36:26 The Chapel Quartet - Oh, Little Town Of Bethlehem (1936) 39:31 Hoosier Hot Shots - Jingle Bells (1936) 42:30 Edith Fellows & Jackie Moran - Clip From And So They Were Married (1936) 42:45 The Madrigal Sisters & Lehman Engel - Jingle Bells (1937) 44:27 Mae Questel (The Betty Boop Girl) - I Want You For Christmas (1937) 47:10 Michel Warlop - Christmas Swing (+ Django Reinhardt & Louis Vola) (27-12-1937) 49:58 Andy Hardy & Family - Christmas Greetings (1938) 51:22 Swing And Sway With Sammy Kaye - (Don't Wait 'til) The Night Before Christmas (La Vispera De Navidad) (1938) 54:06 Reginald Owen - Clip From A Christmas Carol (1938) 54:47 Silly Symphonies - The Night Before Christmas (1933)

Merry Christmas Centuries of Sound Followers!

This is a mix of original Christmas-related records and radio broadcasts from 1939 to 1945. It's also available as a compilation CD for supporters on Patreon here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/76151409

0:00:00 Bernard Herrmann - Snow Ride (1942) 0:00:41 Bing Crosby - White Christmas (1942) 0:03:48 Jimmy Durante - Clip from Christmas Show (1944) 0:04:20 Lionel Hampton - Gin For Christmas (1939) 0:06:48 King George VI - The Royal Christmas Message (1939) 0:07:08 Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney - Hollywood Christmas Parade (1940) 0:08:36 Claude Thornhill - Snowfall (1941) 0:11:32 Winston Churchill - The White House Christmas Tree (1941) 0:11:57 Franklin D. Roosevelt - Christmas Broadcast (1941) 0:12:14 Woody Herman & His Orchestra - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (1942) 0:14:49 Mayor of The Town - Clip from 'A Christmas Carol' (1942) 0:14:53 Christmas with The Eighth Army (1942) 0:16:18 Flanagan & Allen - There's A Boy Coming Home On Leave (1940) 0:18:52 Fibber McGee and Molly - Listening to Christmas Carols (1942) 0:19:45 Glenn Miller Orchestra - Jingle Bells (1941) 0:22:53 Amos and Andy - Clip from Annual Christmas Show (1942) 0:23:41 Heavenly Gospel Singers - When Was Jesus Born? (1941) 0:26:49 The Andrews Sisters - Sing (1943) 0:29:52 Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters - Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1943) 0:32:31 Columbia Workshop Theatre - Clip from "The Plot To Overthrow Christmas" (1944) 0:32:40 Bob Crosby - The Skaters Waltz (In Swingtime) (1939) 0:35:27 Billy Mills & The Orchestra - Jingle Bells (1944) 0:37:05 Erroll Garner with Columbia Workshop Theatre - Great Christmas (1944) 0:41:12 Jimmy Durante - Clip from Christmas Show (1944) 0:41:30 Spike Jones & His City Slickers - Jingle Bells (1944) 0:44:19 Ken Derby & The Kings Men - The Night Before Christmas (1944) 0:50:53 The Mills Brothers - I'll Be Home For Christmas (1944) 0:53:04 King George VI - The Royal Christmas Message (1944) 0:53:22 Lead Belly - Christmas Song (1943) 0:56:01 Amos And Andy - Clip from Christmas Show With Andy As Santa (1944) 0:56:13 Fats Waller - Swingin' Them Jingle Bells (1944) 0:58:54 NBC Studio Orchestra - Clip from Amos & Andy Christmas Show (1944) 1:00:19 Dinah Shore - I'll Walk Alone (Through Every Christmas) (1944) 1:03:02 Life of Riley - Clip from 'Roswell's a Guest for Christmas' (1944) 1:03:21 Kenny Baker, Karen Kemple and Alexander Smallens - Hail To Christmas (1944) 1:05:52 Vick's Matinee Theatre - A Stable in Bethlehem Pennsylvania (1944) 1:06:06 Tex Ritter - Christmas Carols By The Old Corral (1945) 1:08:27 Life of Riley - Clip from 'Roswell's a Guest for Christmas' (1944) 1:08:56 Judy Garland - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (1944)

MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

1944 is a big year. It looms large. This isn't just a recent development either. Listen to these few hours of music and speech and one thing I think you'll pick up is that everyone is very much stuck in the present. There's little in the way of nostalgia, there's hardly any dreaming, everyone seems to be living for the here and the now. Only a couple of years prior "the war" was this imposition on popular culture - now it seems to be the wellspring from which everything goes. Do we need a song about a GI when we've got Cecil Gant the G.I. Sing-Sation? There's this fateful abandon underpinning everything, like they're saying "here we are, we may get through this, we may not, but for now we're going to enjoy every moment" and it's infectious.

You may have also noticed that this mix is called "Part One" - this is perhaps a temporary solution for how sprawling these mixes have become. It's been increasingly difficult to contain all I would like in a single mix, the materials available are getting altogether too much, but more importantly I have discovered vast radio archives for these years, and have spent much too long digging through them for gems. I must have listened to over a hundred hours of 1944 radio broadcasts. So this time we will have three mixes, and as I prepare myself for 1945 I promise I will try to find a new strategy.

January

(Clip from 1944-03-xx NRK News Of Norway) (Clip from 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review) 0:00:00 Lester Young et al. - Jammin' the Blues (Excerpt 1) (Clip of V1 Bomb) (Clips from 1944-12-31 - WOR Year In Review) 0:02:03 Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters - Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive (Clip from Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters - Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive (rejected take)) (Clip from Phantom Lady) 0:04:50 Boyd Raeburn - Hep Boyd (Clip from Arsenic & Old Lace) 0:05:54 Boyd Raeburn - March Of The Boyds (Clips from 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review) 0:07:37 Lead Belly - Mr. Hitler (Hitler Song) (Clips from 1944-01-04 CBC Matthew Halton The Fall Of Ortona) 0:10:28 Mary Lou Williams - Blue Skies (Clips from 1944-01-09 CBS World News Today) 0:13:00 Lata Mangeshkar - Barsaat Mein Humse Mile Tum (Clips from 1944-01-13 - It's That Man Again Navy Show) 0:16:07 Billie Holiday - That Ole Devil Called Love (Clips from 1944-01-16 CBS World News Today) 0:19:13 Dinah Washington - Evil Gal Blues (Clip from 1944-01-26 BBC Wynford Vaughn Thomas In Anzio) 0:22:21 Lester Young et al. - Jammin' the Blues (Excerpt 2)

February

(Clips from 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review) (Clip from Know Your Ally - Britain) 0:26:50 Arsenio Rodríguez & Su Conjunto - El Pirulero No Vuelve Mas (Clip from 1944-02-01 Fibber Mcgee - diamond ring at cut rate price) (Clip from Laura) 0:30:11 Cootie Williams and His Orchestra - 'Round Midnight 0:30:30 Cootie Williams and His Orchestra - Seven Eleven (Clip from 1944-02-05 CAN MacArthur At Flag Raising Ceremony On Manila) 0:34:19 Anjos do Inferno - Acontece Que Eu Sou Baiano (Clip from 1944-02-06 CBS World News Today) (Clips from 1944-02-05 NBC Skelly News Of The World) 0:36:16 Gene Autry - Don't Fence Me In (Clips from 1944-02-06 CBS World News Today) (Clip from Hare Ribbin) 0:39:10 Louis Jordan - Mop! Mop! (Clips from 1944-02-17 - It's That Man Again RAF edition) 0:42:22 Duke Ellington - Johnny Come Lately (Clips from 1944-02-20 CBS World News Today) (Clip from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo) 0:45:51 Andrews Sisters - Straighten Up And Fly Right (Clips from 1944-02-27 CBS World News Today) 0:49:44 Miguel Caló - Sans Souci (Clip from 1944-02-29 Crisco Radio News) (Clip from Supervising Women Workers) 0:53:09 Coleman Hawkins - Rainbow Mist

March

(Clips from 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review) 0:57:00 Lionel Hampton - Hamp's Boogie Woogie (Clips from 1944-03-02 Abbott and Costello Show - Special Guests Blondie & Dagwood) 1:00:31 Roy Eldridge, Pete Brown, Willie Smith, Flip Phillips, Les Paul, Hank Jones, Benny Fonville, Alvin Stoller - Blues (Clips from 1944-03-05 CBS World News Today) (Clips from 1944-03-12 CBS World News Today) 1:06:10 Jussi Björling - Nessun Dorma (Clips from 1944-03-19 CBS World News Today) (Clip from Arsenic & Old Lace) 1:09:24 Trummy Young and his Lucky Seven - Hollywood (Clip from Double Indemnity) (Clips from 1944-03-24 MBS Special A Night In A Foxhole) 1:13:12 Halim El-Dabh - Wire Recorder Piece (Clips from 1944-03-26 BBC Winston Churchill - On Allied Victories) 1:15:41 Noel Coward - Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans 1:18:47 Laurence Olivier - Speech from Henry V 1:20:20 Walter 'Foots' Thomas All-Stars - Out To Lunch 1:23:09 Wynford Vaughn-Thomas - BBC News Report 1:25:05 Harry The Hipster Gibson - 4-F Ferdinand (Clip from 1944-03-xx NRK News Of Norway)

April

(Clip from 1944-04-02 CBS World News Today) 1:28:24 Olavi Virta - Ennen Kuolemaa (Clips from 1944-04-02 World News Today) (Clip from 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review) 1:30:44 Sonny Boy Williamson - Win The War Blues (Clip from 1944-04-17 RSH Germany Calling - We Are Waiting for You) (Clip from Lifeboat) 1:35:00 The Mills Brothers - You Always Hurt The One You Love 1:38:16 Wynford Vaughan Thomas - Springtime At Anzio 1:39:02 Andres Segovia - Minuetto (Clip from Ministry of Fear) 1:40:54 The Nat 'King' Cole Trio - I Realize Now (Clip from To Have And To Have Not) 1:44:22 Cozy Cole - Just One More Chance (Clips from Double Indemnity) 1:48:08 Oscar Alemán - Polvo De Estrellas (Clip from 1944-04-13 - It's That Man Again Army Edition) 1:50:10 Tiny Grimes Quintet - Red Cross (Clip from Abbott & Costello Show - Special Guest Dorothy Lamour) 1:53:18 Billy Butterfield & His Orchestra & Margaret Whiting - Moonlight In Vermont

May

(Clip from 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review) 1:57:07 Josh White - House of the Rising Sun (Clip from 1944-05-05 BBC Richard Dimbleby Watches Airborne Troops) 2:01:04 Charlie Barnet - Skyliner (Clip from 1944-05-13 NBC Skelly News Of The World) 2:04:24 Spike Jones - Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma (Clips from 1944-05-17 BBC Godfrey Talbot in Monte Cassino) 2:07:50 Atahualpa Yupanqui - El Arriero (Clip from 1944-05-25 RRG Heinrich Himmler - Vor Der Waffen SS) 2:11:09 Red Foley - Smoke On The Water (Clips from Know Your Ally - Britain) 2:15:00 Cecil Gant - Cecil Boogie (Clips from 1944-05-18 - Suspense Theater - Donovans Brain) 2:19:08 Ethel Smith - Tico Tico (Clips from 1944-05-15 - Sherlock Holmes - Adventure of the Missing Bloodstains) 2:22:14 Tommy Dorsey & his Orchestra - Opus No. 1 (Clip from Since You Went Away) 2:25:25 Billie Holiday - No More

June

(Clip from 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review) 2:28:25 Al Trace Silly Symphonists - Mairzy Doats And Dozy Doats 2:31:25 Judy Garland - The Trolley Song (Clip from Cover Girl) 2:34:35 Louis Prima - Oh Marie (Clip from Abbott & Costello Show - Special Guest Alan Ladd) 2:37:38 Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Strange Things Happening Every Day (Clip from Going My Way) 2:42:04 Sister Ernestine Washington - If I Could Just Make It In 2:44:39 Dylan Thomas - Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines 2:47:02 Erroll Garner All Stars - Gaslight (Clip from Double Indemnity) 2:49:22 Betty Hutton - It Had To Be You (Clip from The Woman In The Window) 2:52:50 Thyagaraja Bhagavatar & Manmatha Leelaya - Haridas (Clip from Gaslight) 2:54:16 The Nat 'King' Cole Trio - Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You (Clip from 1944-02-20 CBS World News Today) (Clip from 1944-02-27 CBS World News Today)

More time-travel to the early days of recorded sound with James Errington. This time we find out about the interminable history of musical snobbery, hear some immensely beautiful, surprisingly thick Edison diamond discs and hear what Al Jolson and Billy Murray are up to.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

The D-Day landings of the 6th of June 1944 are much too big a story to be covered in the middle of a mix. New recording technology, a wider variety of coverage, and the hoarding and preservation instincts of generations of historians, amateur and professional, have resulted in an unprecedented amount of material being available, around sixty hours all together. From this I've edited for you a tight 82 minute sound collage, taking you from pre-D-Day messages, through the landings, the first reports and dispatches from the field, to the reactions and repercussions the following few days.

Here's what you can hear.

0:00:00 1944-06-06 0330 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:00:15 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast

The Buildup

0:00:33 1944-06-05 BBC European Service With Resistance Messages 0:01:37 1944-06-04 Frank Gillard - Build for D-Day 0:02:20 1944-06-05 FDR Fireside Chat 0:02:33 1944-06-05 Eisenhower's Pre D-Day Announcement to Troops 0:04:13 1944-06-05 BBC Field Marshall Montgomery Address On Eve Of D-Day

The Journey

0:05:08 1944-06-03 BBC Robin Duff On Sealed Ship 0:05:50 1944-06-06 BBC Robin Duff Mid Channel To Normandy 0:06:16 1944-06-08 BBC Allied Troops Prayer Before Invasion 0:06:45 1944-06-08 CAN Travelling With D-Day Convoy 0:07:10 1944-06-06 D-Day Ship Attack

The Assault Begins

0:09:21 1944-06-06 BBC Colin Wills Lands With Infantry 0:09:57 1944-06-08 BBC Robin Duff Five Minutes Before H-Hour 0:10:20 1944-06-08 BBC Robin Duff At Signal For Landing 0:10:45 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review 0:11:22 1944-06-08 BBC British Tank Crew Describes Beach Landing 0:11:48 1944-06-08 BBC UK Soldier Landing Near Coastal Mines 0:12:10 1944-06-08 CAN Recounting The Landing 0:12:41 1944-06-08 CAN The Scene On The Beach (3 Clips) 0:13:32 1944-06-08 CAN US Soldier On The Beach (2 Clips) 0:13:58 1944-06-08 CAN A Handful Of French Sand

The First Reports

0:14:45 1944-06-06 0330 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:14:49 1944-06-06 0300 CBS News Unconfirmed Reports Of Invasion (3 Clips) 0:16:27 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:16:45 1944-06-06 0330 CBS D-Day Broadcast (2 Clips)

The Paratroopers Land

0:17:26 1944-06-06 BBC Chester Wilmot In Glider 0:18:11 1944-06-06 BBC Chester Wilmot Sees Gliders 0:18:36 1944-06-06 CAN Glider Formations Flying Over The Beaches 0:19:45 1944-06-06 BBC Chester Wilmot Reports From Inside British Glider 0:20:09 1944-06-06 BBC Guy Byam Parachutes Into France 0:20:43 1944-06-06 BBC Alan Melville Sees Paratroops 0:21:03 1944-06-08 BBC The 13th Man To Land In France 0:21:15 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review

The Announcement

0:22:29 1944-06-06 D-Day Announcement - BBC Newsflash 0:23:28 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast (3 Clips) 0:25:31 1944-12-31 MBS News 1944 In Review 0:26:59 1944-06-06 0332 NBC D-Day Broadcast

4am to 5am EST

0:27:23 1944-06-06 0415 CBS D-Day Broadcast (4 Clips) 0:28:51 1944-06-06 0400 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:28:58 1944-06-06 0415 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:29:45 1944-06-06 0415 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:30:00 1944-06-06 D-Day Message To Free French Troops

5am to 9am EST

0:30:19 1944-06-06 BBC John Snagge D-Day Has Come 0:30:56 1944-06-06 0500 CBS D-Day Broadcast (11 Clips) 0:34:12 1944-06-06 0540 CBS D-Day Broadcast (4 Clips) 0:36:45 1944-06-06 BBC Eisenhower to Western Europe 0:37:14 1944-06-06 0540 CBS D-Day Broadcast

9am to 12pm EST

0:38:00 1944-06-06 0900 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:39:10 1944-06-06 0930 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:39:42 1944-06-06 0900 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:40:20 1944-06-06 0927 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:40:34 1944-06-06 0930 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:41:00 1944-06-06 0900 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:41:33 1944-06-06 0930 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:42:16 1944-06-06 0927 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:43:13 1944-06-08 CAN Reports From The Beachhead 0:43:31 1944-06-06 0927 CBS D-Day Broadcast (2 Clips) 0:44:10 1944-06-06 US D-Day Bulletin On Landing Success 0:44:23 1944-06-06 1015 CBS Light Of The World

12pm to 4:30pm EST

0:45:33 1944-06-06 Eisenhower's D-Day Broadcast to Western Europe 0:46:16 1944-06-06 1200 CBS Kate Smith Speaks - Prayer For Our Troops 0:46:33 1944-06-06 Crisco News D-Day 0:47:42 1944-06-06 1300 NBC News Reports From London 0:48:01 1944-06-06 1245 CBS D-Day Broadcast (2 Clips) 0:48:36 1944-06-06 1300 NBC News Reports From London

4:30pm to 8pm EST

0:50:04 1944-06-06 1630 0:51:05 1944-06-06 1915 CBS Passing Parade 0:51:35 1944-06-06 1630 0:52:44 1944-06-06 1830 NBCR Fibber McGee and Molly D-Day Broadcast 0:52:57 1944-06-06 1630 NBC D-Day Broadcast 0:53:49 1944-06-06 1830 NBC News Lowell Thomas Reporting 0:54:40 1944-06-06 1800 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:55:04 1944-06-06 1915 CBS Passing Parade 0:55:34 1944-06-06 1800 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:56:42 1944-06-06 Cross Country Reaction to D-Day 0:56:58 1944-06-06 1830 NBCR Fibber McGee and Molly D-Day Broadcast 0:57:49 1944-06-06 1915 CBS Passing Parade 0:57:57 1944-06-06 1630

8pm to Midnight EST

0:58:15 1944-06-06 2000 NBC Dr Goldstein And Ginny Simms 0:58:38 1944-06-06 2130 CBS D-Day Broadcast 0:59:00 1944-06-08 CAN Nighttime Convoy Anti-Aircraft Attack 0:59:40 1944-06-06 2000 NBC Dr Goldstein And Ginny Simms 1:00:08 1944-06-06 2210 NBC Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians 1:01:10 1944-06-06 2130 CBS D-Day Broadcast 1:03:20 1944-06-06 2210 NBC Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians 1:04:00 1944-06-06 2000 NBC Dr Goldstein And Ginny Simms 1:04:27 1944-06-06 2210 NBC Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians 1:05:40 1944-06-06 2130 CBS D-Day Broadcast 1:06:28 1944-06-06 2000 NBC Dr Goldstein And Ginny Simms 1:06:53 1944-06-06 2130 CBS D-Day Broadcast (2 Clips) 1:08:15 1944-06-06 NBC Poem and Prayer for Invading Army 1:10:59 1944-06-06 2210 NBC Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians 1:11:39 1944-06-06 2130 CBS D-Day Broadcast (2 Clips) 1:12:48 1944-06-06 2000 NBC Dr Goldstein And Ginny Simms 1:13:06 1944-06-06 2130 CBS D-Day Broadcast 1:13:42 1944-06-06 2200 NBCR Bob Hope Show 1:14:10 1944-06-06 2210 NBC Fred Waring And His Pennsylvanians

The Next Day And Later

1:14:34 1944-06-08 CBS News D-Day Invasion 1:14:53 1944-06-07 NBCB George Hicks From The Deck Of USS Ancon 1:16:04 1944-06-08 CBS News D-Day Invasion 1:16:19 1944-06-07 CBS Kate Smith Speaks 1:16:59 1944-06-08 CBS News D-Day Invasion 1:17:17 1944-06-17 BBC Frank Gillard Takes Cover 1:17:45 1944-06-12 BBC Richard Dimbleby Reports Flying Over Normandy 1:19:33 1944-06-08 CBC Matthew Halton Welcomed By French Civilians 1:20:12 1944-06-08 BBC Michael Standing On French Civilians 1:20:42 1944-06-14 BBC Alan Melville Hermanville - Church Bells

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. Please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Another adventure back into the early days of recorded sound with James Errington, this time joined by Cambridge 105 Radio’s Maciek Pawlikowski to listen to some of the sounds of 1913, the year of the short-lived hot dance ragtime craze, led by the first all-black orchestra and the couple who brought the foxtrot to prominence.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full nearly four-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Here's what stuck me as I put this mix together: In late 1944 the disconnect between music and everything happening in the world is, from different perspectives, both narrower and wider than it has been before. Narrower because the wartime spirit is no longer enough of a novelty to even be notable - almost nobody is writing music about the war, it has just become a background presence in the way any change in culture does. American troops are in Europe now, and that's already just a fact of life. Wider because, in the earlier days of the war, there was a real, visceral sense of the horrors of the conflict, of an existential threat. This dread hasn't just faded into the background as the allies start to look like victory is inevitable, the dread is missing entirely. They know they can't celebrate just yet, but they are keen to start.

In terms of music, we are jammed in the middle of two eras. The big bands are clearly on their way out, broken by the war, the strike, the inability to tour due to fuel rationing - but also because there are much more interesting sounds out there. The individual musicians in these bands have mostly moved on too, to rhythm & blues, to be bop, or to both. Still at this point they probably have a day job playing big band music, but it's already a heritage industry.

The birth of be bop has been underway for a little while already, we can make a case for it existing as early as 1941, but it's only really now that we can feel it emerging into the record. Next year it will fully emerge, to the extent of being recorded in studios, so best leave it until then.

Rhythm & blues is at full levels of excitement this year - unsurprisingly it sounds like people wanted to have a party. Louis Jordan in particular is producing so many absolute classics that it's a wonder he doesn't get more credit for anything more than being a progenitor of rock & roll - a genre only subtley different to Jordan's "jump blues" but one which he nonetheless had no time for. Just imagine dancing at a live performance by Jodan, Lucky Millinder or Cootie Williams, really who needs rock & roll to happen?

One other aspect I've noticed here is the groove - whether it's Arsenio Rodríguez, J.J. Johnson, Boyd Raeburn, Lester Young or Orquesta Casino De La Playa, there is more music than ever before spreading out and allowing itself to build up slowly. We are still a good few years away from the introduction of the LP, so expect only more of this to come.

Finally, let's not forget that we are still in the early days of the Allied invasion of Europe, and consequently there are many journalists on the continent producing a vast amount of interesting content. I've included plenty of this, while trying not to let it interfere too much with the music. If the news footage isn't much to your taste, please be assured that there will be much less in the post-war year mixes. If that's what you're mainly here for then, well, you're in for a treat today.

Introduction

0:00:00 Victor Young - Excerpt from Ministry of Fear (Clip from A Canterbury Tale) (Clip from Tokyo Rose broadcast) 0:00:30 MGM Studio Orchestra - The Most Horrible One (Clip from WOR Year In Review) (Clip from Abbott & Costello Show - Special Guest Alan Ladd) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 0:01:14 Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five - Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby (Clips from NBC at Democratic National Convention) (Clip from Arsenic & Old Lace) 0:05:11 Boyd Raeburn - Little Boyd Blue (Blows His Top) (Clip from "Cross Country Reaction to D-Day") (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from NBC at Democratic National Convention) 0:07:55 Artists Unknown - Jitterbug Instructional Film (Clip from CBC Radio Canada)

July

(Clip of CAN - Herbert on the bombing of Caen) 0:15:22 Dinah Washington - Homeward Bound (Clips from BBC - Frank Gillard & Chester reports from near Caen) 0:19:24 Wally Bastiansz - Suranganaviye (Clip from MBS - Frank Singiser and The News) (Clip from Mutual War News) 0:23:01 J.J. Johnson, Illinois Jacquet, Jack Mcvea, Nat King Cole, Les Paul, Johnny Miller, Lee Young - Blues (Clip from Abbott & Costello Show - Special Guest Harold Peary) (Clips from NBC at Democratic National Convention) 0:30:12 Stan Kenton & His Orchestra - Artistry In Rhythm (Clips from NBC at Democratic National Convention) 0:35:41 Phil Harris - That's What I Like About The South (Clips from NBC at Democratic National Convention) 0:39:59 Arsenio Rodríguez & Su Conjunto - Yo 'Ta Namora (Clips from NBC at Democratic National Convention) 0:44:05 Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land (Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly - D-Day Broadcast) 0:46:26 Tino Rossi - Mon Ile d' Amour (Clip from RL Radio Paris - Attentat Contre Hitler) (Clip from RRG Adolf Hitler - On July 20th Assassination Attempt) 0:49:10 Sergei Provokiev - Except from Ivan The Terrible, Part I

August

(Clips from CBS World News Today) 0:52:03 Duke Ellington - Transblucency (A Blue Fog That You Can Almost See Through) (Clips from Memphis Belle) 0:58:18 Mary Lou Williams - St. Louis Blues (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from MBS News - 1944 in Review) (Clip from Judge Roland Freisler Shouts At Coup Defendant Ervin von Witzleben) (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from RRG Heinrich Himmler - Vor Offizieren Von Volksgrenadier) 1:02:06 Lead Belly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (Clips from NHK The Zero Hour Hosted By Orphan Anne Iva Toguri) (clip from Ministry of Fear) (Clip of Tokyo Rose) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 1:05:05 Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra & Wynonie Harris - Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well? (Clip from BBC Ed Murrow Counts Parachutes in Holland) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 1:09:35 Cecil Gant - I Wonder (Alternate Take 4) (Clips from BBC Richard Wessel On The Liberation Of Paris) (Clip from CAN The Liberation Of Paris) (Clip from RL Radio Paris - Le G) 1:14:13 Coleman Hawkins - Woody'n You (Clips from BBC Robert Reid On DeGaulle Assassination Attempt) (Clip from CBC Matthew Halton The Liberation Of Paris) 1:19:03 Tampa Red - Lula Mae (Clips from CBC Matthew Halton The Liberation Of Paris) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 1:23:09 Charles Wolcott And His Orchestra (Nestor Amaral, Vocal) - Os Quindins De Yayá

September

(Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from BBC Chester Wilmot On Road Outside Brussels) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 1:27:36 Bing Crosby - Swinging On A Star (Clips from CBS World News Today) 1:30:33 Nat 'King' Cole - Straighten Up & Fly Right (Clips from CBS World News Today) 1:33:30 Walter Houston - September Song (Clip from I'll Be Seeing You) (Clip from CBC Kate Aitken - Homefront Fashion Tips) 1:36:47 Mary Lou And Her Chosen Five - Yesterday's Kisses (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clips from Private SNAFU in Censored) (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from NHK The Zero Hour Hosted By Orphan Anne Iva Toguri) 1:40:51 Artie Shaw & His Orchestra - Summit Ridge Drive (Clip from BBC Montgomery Addresses His Troops) (Clip from BBC John Snagge Invasion of Holland) (Clip from CBS Edward Murrow Counts Parachutes In Holland) 1:45:09 Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five - G.I. Jive (Clips from BBC Stanley Maxted Cut Off With Airborn) (Clip from CAN Stanley Maxted Reports As Supplies Drop Over Hartenstein) (Clip from BBC Robert Robbertson Reports On Arnhem) 1:50:49 Spike Jones - Cocktails For Two (Clips from FDR Teamsters Union Address) 1:54:28 Julia Lee - Come On Over To My House (Clips from CBS World News Today) 1:58:45 Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters - A Hot Time In The Town Of Berlin (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from BBC Montgomery Addresses His Troops)

October

2:02:35 Rev Utah Smith - God's Mighty Hand (Clips from CBS World News Today) 2:07:02 Duke Elligton and his Orchestra - I'm Beginning to See the Light (Clip from Inner Sanctum - Death Is A Joker) (Clip from Murder, My Sweet) (Clip from Laura) (Clip from Arsenic & Old Lace) 2:10:09 Harry James and His Orchestra - I'm Beginning to See the Light (Clip from Arsenic & Old Lace) (Clip from Gaslight) 2:13:00 Josh White - John Henry (Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from MBS News - 1944 in Review) 2:17:26 Ernest Tubb - Tomorrow Never Comes (Clip from MBS News - 1944 in Review) (Clips from CBS World News Today) 2:21:26 Sarah Vaughan with Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra - East of the Sun (Clips from CBS World News Today) 2:24:15 Edmond Hall - Tishomingo Blues (Clip from To Have and To Have Not) (Clip from Hail The Conquering Hero) 2:28:59 Carmen Miranda - I Like To Be Loved By You

November

(Clip from BBC Winston Churchill - The Fruits Of 1944) (Clip from BBC Audrey Russell Interviews Bomb Victim) 2:33:11 Ink Spots with Ella Fitzgerald - Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall 2:36:20 Judy Garland & Chorus - You Gotta Get Out and Vote (Clips from CBS Democratic National Committee Program) (Clip from MBS News - 1944 in Review) (Clips from NBC FDR Returns To Washington) 2:44:11 Meade Lux Lewis - Chicago Flyer (Clip from CBS World News Today) (Clip from NBC FDR Returns To Washington) 2:48:20 Andrews Sisters - Rum And Coca Cola (Clips from It's That Man Again) 2:51:44 Zohrabai Ambalewali And Chorus - Rum Jhum Barse Baadarwa (Clips from AFRS Thanksgiving Show - Lionel Barrymore - Dinah Shore) (Clips from BBC Winston Churchill - Americas Thanksgiving Day) 2:57:35 Sons Of The Pioneers - What Are We Gonna Do Then? (Clips from CBS World News Today) 3:00:55 Wee Bea Booze - So Good

December

(Clips from CBS World News Today) (Clip from A Canterbury Tale) 3:05:20 Kansas City Five - Lester Leaps Again (Clips from Life Of Riley - The Christmas Present) 3:08:03 Cootie Williams - Things Ain't What They Used To Be (Clip from Columbia Workshop Theatre - Orson Welles - The Plot To Overthrow Christmas) (Clip from EIAR Benito Mussolini - Discorso) (Clip from Jitterbug Instructional Film) 3:12:35 Mary Lou Williams And Her Orchestra - Man O' Mine (Clip from BBC Robert Barr Ardennes Withdrawal) (Clips from Columbia Workshop Theatre - Orson Welles - The Plot To Overthrow Christmas) 3:17:45 Judy Garland - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Clip from Fibber McGee and Molly - Early Christmas Gifts) (Clip from Duffy's Tavern - Christmas Program With Monty Woolley) (Clip from Fibber McGee and Molly - Early Christmas Gifts) 3:20:14 Orquesta Casino De La Playa - Parampampín (Clip from Jimmy Durante - Christmas Show) (Clip from Amos And Andy - Christmas Show With Andy As Santa) (Clip from GI Journal - Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour) (Clips from Jimmy Durante - Christmas Show) 3:25:41 Glenn Miller - Song Of The Volga Boatmen (Clip from NBC News From Around The World) (Clips from Amos And Andy - Christmas Show With Andy As Santa) 3:28:43 Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter & his Orchestra - I'll Be Seeing You (Clips from Life of Riley - Roswell's a Guest for Christmas) (Clip from Vick's Matinee Theatre - A Stable in Bethlehem Pennsylvania) (Clip from BBC Lord Mountbatten - We Are Not The Forgotton Front) 3:34:30 Frank Sinatra - Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week) (Clip from Amos And Andy - Christmas Show With Andy As Santa) (Clip from New World a Comin' - Christmas Program) 3:39:16 Billie Holiday - Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) (Clip from CBS World News Today) 3:43:10 Ángel D'Agostino - Ángel Vargas - Palais De Glace (Clip from RRG Adolf Hitler - Silvesteransprache) (Clip from A Guy Named Joe) (Clip from GI Journal - Kay Kyser, Connie Haines) 3:45:20 The Nat 'King' Cole Trio - Embraceable You (Clip from Amos And Andy - Christmas Show With Andy As Santa) (Clip from MBS News - 1944 in Review) (Clip from O.T.R - Tokyo Rose) (Clip from Double Indemnity)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full nearly four-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

When I set out to put together this history told through sound, I knew well that at times music would become less important. I didn’t realise that, at a moment when music was taking bold leaps forward, it would nevertheless seem to be very much besides the point. But here we are. It’s 1945 and, while there is some brilliant, revolutionary music in this mix, the history part has risen to the surface. Around half of the runtime here is speech of one sort or another, and for once I cannot imagine it being any other way.

The speech here begins in January 1945, and ends some time in May. In those short four and a half months, the invasion of Germany (from both sides) has taken place, The Americans have landed on Iwo Jima, The Yalta Conference has taken place, Germany has been obliterated and then surrendered, Hitler, Roosevelt and Mussolini have died, and the atrocities carried out by the Nazis have been discovered. To have lived through this time, wherever you were in the world, would have been at the very least disorienting. For the survivors it would determine the next half century. In a sense we are still feeling the reverberations. It would have been ridiculous not to make this the main focus.

The music we have here includes some of the first professional recordings of the music now known as bebop, some jump blues, plenty of other genres from around the time. Some of the music is from early 1945, some is from late 1945. There was no great leap from one half to the other, so please excuse the slightly sloppy compromise here. There will be time to discuss music in part two.

There are horrors to be found in this mix, for sure, but some are so unspeakable that it even seemed disgusting to try to pair them with music of any sort. Even putting them with other, lighter news seemed impossible. As the Allies invaded Germany, attached reporters brought back first hand accounts of the atrocities carried out in concentration camps. Even in audio only form these are harrowing, and editing sections together was a grim, miserable duty, but one that had to be done. These things cannot be left out of our history, so here they are. I have separated them from the rest of the mix – you can find them as a twenty minute epilogue, starting three hours and twelve minutes in. If you don’t feel you can listen to that (and I won’t blame you) then you can stop the mix there.

Tracklist

January

0:00:00 Dizzy Gillespie – Bebop (Clip from 1945 01 17 BBC Will Hay Programme) (Clip from 1945 01 28 CBS World News Today) 0:01:23 Dizzy Gillespie – Salt Peanuts (Clips from 1945 01 06 FDR Fireside Chat On Battle Of The Bulge) 0:04:14 Mary Lou Williams – Taurus (Clip from 1945 01 07 CBS World News Today) 0:06:52 Lionel Hampton – Beulah´s Boogie (Clip from 1945 01 07 CBS World News Today) (Clips from 1945 01 14 CBS World News Today) 0:10:14 Betty Hutton – Stuff Like That There (Clip from 1945 01 14 NBCB Yanks In The Orient) 0:13:10 Bidu Sayao – Bachianas Brasileiras No.5, for voice & 8 cellos (Clips from 1945 01 19 WCCO Noon Newscast – Cedric Adams) 0:16:17 Lata Mangeshkar – Aankhon Ke Taare (Clip from 1945 01 17 BBC Will Hay Programme) (Clip from 1945 01 28 WMCA Healys Open House – Nylon Stockings) 0:18:44 Xavier Cugat – Oye Negra (Clip from 1945 01 30 RRG Adolf Hitler – Last Broadcast) 0:21:02 Johnny Otis & His Orchestra – Harlem Nocturne (Clip from The Body Snatcher)

February

(Clips from 1945 02 09 WEAF Evening News with Don Hollenbeck) 0:24:38 John Halik – Malo Kolo (Clip from 1945 02 12 FDR Returns From Allied Conference At Yalta) 0:27:54 Charlie Parker – Red Cross (Clips from 1945 02 18 CBS World News Today) 0:31:15 Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – Rock Me Mama (Clip from 1945 02 19 CAN Arthur Prim Reports The First Strikes On Iwo Jima) 0:32:57 NBC Symphony Orchestra, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Astrid Varnay – Schoenberg String quartet no. 2 (Clip from 1945 02 19 CAN Iwo Flight Arthur Prim) (Clip from 1945 02 19 CAN Sgt Mawson On Iwo Jima Landings) (Clip from 1945 02 25 CAN Secretary Of The Navy James Forrestal On The Battle Of Iwo Jima) (Clip from 1945 02 xx NBC Battle for Iwo Jima Bud Foster) (Clip from 1945 02 19 MBS On Iwo Battleship Leslie Nichols) (Clip from 1945 02 xx CAN Iwo Jima Underground Fortifications) (Clip from 1945 02 22 Tank Communications In Battle For Iwo Jima) (Clip from 1945 02 25 CAN Bud Foster From Flagship Of Admiral Kelly Turner) (Clip from 1945 02 xx NBC Battle for Iwo Jima Bud Foster) (Clip from 1945 02 25 CAN Secretary Of The Navy James Forrestal On The Battle Of Iwo Jima) 0:41:49 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Texas Playboy Rag (Clip from 1945 02 22 CBS The March Of Time How American Wives Are Faring) (Clips from 1945 02 20 Inner Sanctum – No Coffin for the Dead) 0:44:25 Don Byas and Slam Stewart – Indiana (Clips from 1945 02 20 Inner Sanctum – No Coffin for the Dead) 0:48:18 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – You’ll Always Hurt The One You Love (Clip from 1945 02 22 CBS The March Of Time How American Wives Are Faring) 0:51:13 Duke Ellington – Suddenly It Jumped (Clip from 1945 02 25 NBCB Jergens Journal Walter Winchell)

March

0:55:39 Illinois Jacquet and his All Stars – Jacquet Mood (Clip from 1945 03 01 FDR Last Address Before Congress) (Clip from 1945 03 01 CBC Fred Tilston Wins Victoria Cross For Attack In Germany) 0:58:05 Jay McShann – Trouble in My Mind (Clip from 1945 03 03 MBS Leslie Nichols Reports As Battleship Destroys Plane) (Clips from 1945 03 04 CBS World News Today) (Clips from 1945 03 05 CBC A Soldier At The Breaking Point Matthew Halton) 1:01:21 T Bone Walker – Mean Old World (Clip from 1945 03 08 BBC Ian Wilson Reports Americans Cross The Rhine) (Clip from 1945 03 08 BBC Freddy Grisewood – Remagen Bridge Crossed) (Clip from 1945 03 11 CBS World News Today) (Clip from 1945 03 11 BBC Chester Wilmot Reports From Montgomerys HQ) 1:04:29 Anjos do Inferno – Bolinha De Papel (Clips from 1945 03 08 – It’s That Man Again) 1:06:56 Cozy Cole – Strictly Drums (Clips from 1945 03 15 CBS The March Of Time Report Of Vatican Policies) (Clip from 1945 03 17 CBS Report To The Nation Wendy Barrie) (Clip from 1945 03 22 CBS The March Of Time Black Marketeers In France) 1:11:21 Peggy Lee – Waitin’ For The Train To Come In (Clip from 1945 03 18 CBS World News Today) (Clip from 1945 03 21 BBC Richard Sharpe – General Slims 14 Army In Mandalay) (Clip from 1945 03 22 CBS The March Of Time Black Marketeers In France) (Clip from 1945 03 26 NBC World News Roundup) 1:15:34 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – The Blue Danube (Clip from 1945 03 23 NBC Alka Seltzer News Of The World) 1:18:02 Richard Dimbleby – Reports on Glider Landing, 1945 03 24 (Clip from 1945 03 24 BBC W V Thomas Awaiting To Cross The Rhine) (Clips from 1945 03 25 BBC Robert Barr Reports Winston Churchill Crosses The Rhine) (Clip from 1945 03 25 CAN Stanley Maxted Recounts German Attack On Hamilcar) (Clips from 1945 03 25 CBS World News Today) 1:25:46 Sammy Price – 133rd Street Boogie (Clip from 1945 03 29 CBS The March Of Time The Kitchen Of Tomorrow) (Clip from 1945 03 28 BBC Stuart McPherson Reports From Germany) (Clip from 1945 03 31 BBC British Soldier Released From OFLAG 12B) (Clip from 1945 03 31 BBC Wynford Vaughan Thomas Reports On The Spearhead) (Clip from 1945 03 26 NBC World News Roundup)

April

(Clip from 1945 04 03 NBC War Report on the Battle of Okinawa Bud Foster) 1:30:29 The Rambler Trio feat. Arthur Smith – Guitar Boogie (Clip from 1945 04 05 CBS The March of Time First Recorded Sounds of Mosquitos) 1:35:14 Ssekinomu – Wireless (Clip from 1945 04 05 WBZ Yankee Yarns – Fishing Boat Sunk By U Boat) 1:36:19 Gene Krupa Orchestra – Boogie Blues (Clip from 1945 04 08 CBS World News Today) (Clip from 1945 04 08 BBC Richard Dimbleby Reports on German Civilian Reaction) (Clip from 1945 04 08 CBS World News Today) 1:39:42 Lionel Hampton – Loose Wig (Clip from 1945 04 12 News Death Of FDR CBS ABC) (Clips from 1945 04 12 MBS Fulton Lewis Reports FDRs Death) (Clip from 1945 04 12 NBCB Coverage Of FDRs Death) (Clip from 1945 04 12 WNYC Fiorello La Guardia On FDR) (Clips from 1945 04 12 CBS Don Fisher Coverage Following FDRs Death) 1:45:13 Christine Johnson, Jan Clayton and Chorus – You’ll Never Walk Alone (Clip from 1945 04 12 CBS Bill Henry Reports On Order Of Succession) (Clip from 1945 04 13 BBC News Dora Bateman Commentary On FDRs Death) (Clip from 1945 04 13 CBS World News Today) (Clip from 1945 04 13 NBC News) (Clips from 1945 04 13 CBS Memorial Services For Franklin D Roosevelt) (Clips from 1945 04 13 NBC Reports On FDRs Funeral Train) (Clips from 1945 04 13 Undelivered FDR Speech Given by FDR Jr) (Clip from 1945 04 15 NBC Our Hour Of National Sorrow) (Clip from 1945 04 15 WMCA New World a Coming – 43 Memorial to Franklin D Roosevelt) (Clip from 1945 04 16 President Truman Addesses Congress After FDRs Funeral) (Clip from 1945 04 17 CBS This Is My Best I Will Not Go Back FDR) (Clip from 1945 04 17 President Truman On The Death Of President Roosevelt) 1:56:18 Louisia Tounsia – Ala Bab Darek (Clip from 1945 04 17 CBC Canadian Army Repels Desperate Germans) (Clip from 1945 04 18 CBS Ernie Pyle Killed In Action) (Clip from 1945 04 20 CBC Allied POWs Free At Last RCAF Warren Wilkes) (Clip from 1945 04 21 BBC Red Army Set To Enter Berlin) (Clip from 1945 04 22 CBC Hollland Famine Peter Peter Stursberg) (Clip from 1945 04 22 NBCB WWII News Walter Winchell) (Clip from 1945 04 22 NBC WWII News Drew Pearson) 2:02:32 Big Joe Turner – S. K. Blues Part 1 (Clips from 1945 04 24 BBC Wynford Vaughan Thomas Reports On Bucholz Hall Of Honor) (Clip from 1945 04 24 CBC Spies And Refugees In Allied Territory) (Clip from 1945 04 25 CBC Has Hitler Fled From Burning Berlin Matthew Halton) (Clip from 1945 04 25 BBC Freddy Grisewood Frank Gillard at Torgau Elbe) (Clip from 1945 04 27 2300 NBC WEAF Special US Russia Meet) (Clip from 1945 04 27 NBC Special Broadcast) (Clip from 1945 04 25 BBC Edward Ward Reports From Link Up Lunch At Elbe) (Clip from 1945 04 30 RSH Lord Haw Haw Final Drunken Broadcast) 2:09:39 Duke Ellington – Perfume Suite (Clip from 1945 04 27 BBC Mussolini Partisans) (Clips from 1945 04 27 CBS Edward R Murrow Stalin Speech) (Clip from 1945 04 27 MBS Sigrid Schultz In Ravensbruck) (Clip from 1945 04 28 MBS American POWs interviews) (Clips from 1945 04 28 NBCB News Robert Krupp Reports) (Clip from 1945 04 29 NBC Jergens Journal Walter Winchell) (Clip from 1945 04 30 Scanning The Radio Dial) (Clips from 1945 04 xx CBS Edward R Murrow Delayed Action War)

May

(Clip from 1945 05 04 BBC European Service Interval Signal ID) 2:20:08 Dizzy Gillespie Quintet – Hot House (Clip from 1945 05 01 BBC Stuart Hibberd Announces Hitler Is Dead) (Clip from 1945 05 01 NBCB Bulletin Adolph Hitler Is Dead) 2:22:18 Cecil Gant – Grass Is Getting Greener (Clip from 1945 05 04 AMGH W V Thomas Mock Germany Calling Broadcast) (Clip from 1945 05 01 CBC A Toast At Torgau Matthew Halton) (Clip from 1945 05 03 CBS The World Today Thousands Surrender) (Clip from 1945 05 07 BBC Berlin Has Fallen) 2:27:28 Marlene Dietrich – Ruins Of Berlin (Clip from 1945 05 09 BBC Thomas Cadett Describes The Devastation Of Berlin) (Clip from 1945 05 09 CAN Howard K Smith Reports On Berlins Destruction) (Clip from 1945 05 09 BBC Thomas Cadett Reports From Hitlers Bunker) (Clip from 1945 05 09 CAN Howard K Smith Reports On Berlins Destruction) 2:32:16 Marlene Dietrich – Lili Marleen (Clip from 1945 05 05 CBC Can It Really Be Over Marcel Ouimet) (Clip from 1945 05 08 CBC Paul Triquets Victoria Cross) (Clip from 1945 05 05 CBC Major CF Hoey Wins The Victoria Cross) (Clip from 1945 05 03 BBC W V Thomas On Wehrmacht Surrender In Lauenberg) (Clip from 1945 05 08 CBC Mackenzie King Addresses The Nation) (Clip from 1945 05 05 CBC Can It Really Be Over Marcel Ouimet) (Clip from 1945 05 06 NBCB WWII News Walter Winchell) 2:38:05 Lester Young, Nat King Cole & Buddy Rich – I Want To Be Happy (Clip from 1945 05 06 NBC WWII News Drew Pearson) (Clip from 1945 05 07 NBC HV Kaltenborn Comments On End Of The War In Europe) (Clip from 1945 05 06 NBC WWII News Drew Pearson) (Clip from 1945 05 04 BBC Chester Wilmot Awaits Surrender At Mongomerys HQ) (Clip from 1945 05 07 BBC Thomas Cadett Witnesses Nazi surrender) (Clip from 1945 05 07 CBC Germans Sign Unconditional Surrender Gerald Clark) (Clip from 1945 05 07 WOR News and Jimmie Fidlers Hollywood) (Clip from 1945 05 08 1100 CBS News) (Clip from 1945 05 04 CBS German Cease Fire) (Clip from 1945 05 04 BBC Field Marshall Montgomery Reads The Surrender Terms) 2:46:53 Artie Shaw – Scuttlebutt (Clip from 1945 05 05 MBS Paul Manning) (Clip from 1945 05 07 CBS Noon Hour News) (Clip from 1945 05 07 NBC Reports Germany Surrenders) (Clip from 1945 05 07 MBS Worldwide News) (Clip from 1945 05 07 BBC John Snagge Announces VE Day) (Clip from 1945 05 08 NBC VE Day Proclamations And Commentary) (Clip from 1945 05 08 MBS Gabriel Heatter News Of The World) (Clip from 1945 05 07 CBC Canada Celebrates Victory In Europe) 2:52:24 Red Norvo And His Selected Sextet – Hallelujah (Clip from 1945 05 08 NBCB King George VI On Victory In Europe) (Clip from 1945 05 08 CBS London Picadilly Circus Celebrations Edward R Murrow) (Clip from 1945 05 08 BBC Churchill Speaks At Victory Party Ministry Of Health) (Clip from 1945 05 08 BBC H Marshall Reports As Crowds Celebrate VE Day) (Clip from 1945 05 08 BBC King George VI On Victory) (Clip from 1945 05 08 BBC Montgomery – Remember Those Who Gave Their Lives) (Clips from 1945 05 10 BBC ITMA Victory in Europe edition) 3:03:41 Stan Kenton – It’s Been A Long Long Time 3:06:22 Norman Corwin & Bernard Hermann – Excerpts from ‘A Note of Triumph’ (Clips from 1945 05 07 AFRS VE Day Special Victory Program Many Stars) (Clip from 1945 05 08 CBS George S Patton) (Clip from 1945 05 20 WMCA New World a Coming – 48 The Meaning of VE Day to Negroes) 3:11:02 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner – Shostakovich Sixth Symphony

Epilogue

3:12:55 Richard Dimbleby, Matthew Halton, Edward Murrow, Edward Ward and others – Reports from Nazi Concentration Camps

James Errington takes you on another trip into the ancient history of recorded sound, this time joined by Cambridge native Liam Higgins to review the music scene on both sides of the Atlantic in 1914, the year the lights famously went out all over Europe. This episode includes for the first (and hopefully the last) time, your hosts actually singing. Sorry.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To download full mixes, get early access to the radio podcast, and a get host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the four-hour version please come to centuriesofsound.com to stream, or patreon.com/centuriesofsound for downloads and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Well, we made it! Seven years of Second World War mixes. It has been intense, dramatic, often disturbing, occasionally fun. I don’t think anyone reasonably expected these mixes to have the feel of the nostalgic action films which form so much of the popular memory of the era, but speaking for myself, how miserable this era was to live through wasn’t something I truly appreciated until I’d fully immersed myself in it. Part of this immersion was the downloading of hundreds of hours of original radio broadcasts, and while music has still formed the bulk of these mixes, the bulk of the work – and therefore the heart of these things – has increasingly been in constructing montages of these broadcasts of news events. I wouldn’t say this has exactly derailed things, there was really no alternative, but it limited choices, it imposed a narrative and a structure on each mix. Being free from that – as I was for the second half of this mix – is an absolute joy, and already I can feel my enthusiasm for the project returning.

Musical stars of this mix largely avoided the war. Dizzy Gillespie said to his selective service interviewer “in this stage of my life here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass? So if you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I’m liable to create a case of ‘mistaken identity’ of who I might shoot.” He was classified as 4-F, “not acceptable for military service” – as were Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. Louis Jordan had a hernia, Nat “King” Cole had either flat feet or hypertension, and Frank Sinatra was “not acceptable material from a psychiatric viewpoint.” Conscription being only for men, Mary Lou Williams, Judy Garland, Betty Hutton and Kay Starr were naturally not asked to serve. The only exception to this general rule was Cecil Gant, labelled “The G.I. Sing-sation” on his earliest releases – somewhat ironically as his health was already in a poor state, and he would die in 1951.

Though most did not serve in Europe or The Pacific, there’s no doubt that the end of the war came as a relief to these artists as much as it did the rest of the population, especially as it meant that they would no longer be held back from touring or recording due to lack of fuel or plastics. This new era doesn’t arrive with a wave of celebration, exactly, nor quite a sense of relief. Instead there’s a sense of a new freedom to spread out and express. The musicians recording be bop were doing so not to entertain a dancing crowd, but to explore and enjoy sounds themselves. Jump blues artists were in a sense going completely the other way, but their audiences being smaller and more raucous than those of the big bands, their music was therefore equally expressive and free. Perhaps most representative of all, 1945 saw Mary Lou Williams’s “Zodiac Suite” – a cycle of piano recordings combining jazz (and even be bop) with modern classical music, a record which not only transcends genre, but anticipates the different ways music would be appreciated once long playing records and home stereo systems became standard a decade later.

So this is, in a sense, a fun mix, albeit one that contains, in its first half, events such as the dropping of the atom bomb over Hiroshima. Towards the end, though, you may be hear something awakening. The late 40s aren’t years that live on vividly in the popular imagination, but maybe that’s something that should change.

Intro

0:00:00 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner – Shostakovich Sixth Symphony (Excerpt) (Clip from 1945-08-10-1430-NBC-WEAF-Woman-In-White) (Clip from 1945-08-10-1215-NBC-WEAF-Maggies-Private-Wire) (Clip from 1945-09-23-ABC-Lear-Radio-Show-01—Prophecy) 0:00:53 Dizzy Gillespie – All The Things You Are (Clip from 1945-08-10-1245-NBC-WEAF-The-Music-Room) 0:03:41 Xavier Cugat – Tierra Va Tembla 0:06:49 Fred Allen – It’s In The Bag 0:08:21 Big Maceo – Chicago Breakdown (Clip from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn)

June

0:11:35 Mary Lou Williams – Aries (Clip from 1945-06-xx-WTIC-The-War-Goes-On—USS-Franklin-Survivors-Alfred-E-Amos-of-Hartford–Stanley-J-Olander) (Clip from 1945-06-10-General-Patton-Speech-Los-Angeles) (Clip from 1945-06-12-Guildhall-Address-London) (Clip from 1945-06-22-NBC-Ben-Grauer-Reports-On-Eisenhowers-Homecoming) 0:16:04 Bidu Sayao – Bachianas Brasileiras No.5, for voice & 8 cellos (Clip from 1945-06-xx-WTIC-Bob-Steele-Interviews-Cpl-Charles-Connor–Cpl-Henry-Eaststrich) (Clip from 1945-09-20-Orphan-Anne-Performs-Mock-Sign-On-For-US-Newsreels) (Clip from 1945-08-09-NHK-The-Zero-Hour-Hosted-By-Orphan-Anne-Iva-Toguri) (Clip from 1945-09-20-Orphan-Anne-Performs-Mock-Sign-Off-For-US-Newsreels) (Clip from 1945-06-15-NHK-The-Zero-Hour-Hosted-By-Orphan-Anne-Iva-Toguri) (Clips from 1945-06-xx-VOA-First-Marine-Division—A-Love-Note-To-Tokyo-Rose) 0:21:06 Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five – Caldonia (Clip from 1945-12-25-MBS-In-Review-1945-In-Review) 0:23:45 Erskine Hawkins – Caldonia 0:25:15 Abbott & Costello – Who’s On First? 0:30:12 Stan Kenton & His Orchestra – Artistry In Rhythm (Clip from Lost Weekend) 0:33:14 Stan Kenton – Artistry Jumps (Clip from The Seventh Veil) 0:35:39 Stan Kenton & His Orchestra – Artistry In Rhythm (Reprise) (Clip from And Then There Were None) 0:36:00 Roy Milton & His Solid Senders – Milton’s Boogie (Clip from And Then There Were None) 0:39:06 Oscar Pettiford and his 18 All Stars (feat. Dizzy Gillespie and Don Byas) – Somethin’ for You (Clip from A Walk In The Sun) 0:42:15 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – Caravan (Clip from 1945-06-18-CBS-Wings-Over-Jordan-Interrupted) 0:45:38 The Les Paul Trio – How High The Moon

July

(Clip from The Clock) 0:47:27 Frank Sinatra – Nancy (With The Laughing Face) (Clip from The House I Live In) 0:49:37 Ray McKinley Trio – Sugar (Clip from Welcome Home) (Clip from A Walk In The Sun) (Clip from Welcome Home) 0:53:01 Harry James and His Orchestra – Autumn Serenade (Clip from They Were Expendable) 0:55:46 Illinois Jacquet and his All Stars – Flying Home Part 1 (Clip from 1945-12-25-MBS-In-Review-1945-In-Review) (Clips from Pathe – UK General Election 1945) 0:59:40 Trummy Young and his Lucky Seven – Rattle and Roll (Clip from 1945-07-08-CBS-World-News-Today) 1:01:19 Wynonie Harris – Wynonie’s Blues (Clip from 1945-07-28-MBS-Reports-Army-Bomber-Crashes-Into-Empire-State-Building) (Clip from Alastair Cooke Letter From America) (Clips from 1945-07-28-MBS-Reports-Army-Bomber-Crashes-Into-Empire-State-Building) (Clip from Alastair Cooke Letter From America) 1:07:42 Miguel Caró – Cimarron de ausencia (Clip from 1945-07-29-CBS-World-News-Today) 1:10:20 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Liebestraume 1:13:28 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Roly Poly (Clip from 1945-08-14-NBC-HV-Kaltenborn-Comments-On-Japanese-Surrender) 1:16:15 Nat King Cole – Frim Fram Sauce (Clip from 1945-07-29-Truman-Speaks-Of-Japanese-Rejection-Of-US-Ultimatum)

August

(Clip from 1945-08-05-BBC-David-Lloyd-James-Red-Cross) 1:19:22 Lester Young and his Band – These Foolish Things (Clip from 1945-08-06-Atomic-Bomb-Destroys-Hiroshima) (Clip from 1945-08-06-BBC-Frank-Phillips-Reports-On-Hiroshima-Bombing) (Clip from 1945-08-08-BBC-Nagasaki) 1:23:55 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner – Shostakovich Sixth Symphony (Excerpt) 1:25:43 Sumoni & Party – Soya (Clips from 1945-08-08-CBS-Edward-Morrow-Reports-Russia-Declares-War-On-Japan) (Clips from 1945-08-09-MBS-Gabriel-Heatter-US-Waits-For-Japanese-Surrender) 1:27:33 Luis Vola Del Quinteto Del Hot Club De Francia – Mi Cielo Azul (Clip from 1945-08-10-1100-NBC-WEAF-Japan-Surrender-Offer) (Clips from 1945-08-10-1115-NBC-WEAF-News-announced-as-1145) (Clip from 1945-08-11-NBC-Alex-Dreier-Weekly-News-Analysis) (Clip from 1945-08-10-1130-NBC-WEAF-Barry-Cameron) (Clip from 1945-08-12-MBS-False-Initial-UPI-Report-Of-Japanese-Surrender) (Clip from 1945-08-12-NBC-Story-Behind-The-Headlines—The-False-Peace-Flash) 1:30:49 Stan Kenton and His Orchestra with June Christy – It’s Been A Long Long Time (Clips from 1945-08-14-MBS-Bulletin—Japan-Surrenders) (Clip from 1945-08-15-NHK-Hirohito-Announces-Japanese-Surrender) (Clips from 1945-08-14-CBS-OWI-Hirohito-Speech-Surrendering-Because-Of-A-Bomb) (Clip from 1945-08-14-CBS-Reports-Truman-Accepts-Japanese-Surrender) (Clip from 1945-08-14-CBS-Robert-Trout-Reports-End-Of-World-War-II) (Clip from 1945-08-14-Commentary-On-End-of-the-War) (Clip from 1945-08-15-BBC-Clement-Atlee-Announces-The-Surrender-Of-Japan) (Clip from 1945-08-15-BBC-King-George-VI-To-Empire) (Clips from 1945-08-15-President-Truman-On-Victory) (Clip from 1945-08-15-WOR-Bulletin-Suicide-Of-Japanese-War-Minister) (Clip from 1945-08-15-CBS-Bill-Henry-The-Second-World-War-Is-Over) 1:38:57 Cecil Gant – Jam Jam Blues (Clip from 1945-08-14-KMBC-Live-From-Independence-Missouri) (Clip from 1945-08-14-CBS-Reports-VJ-Day-Celebrations-In-Cinncinati) (Clips from 1945-08-14-1915-1930-MBS-Japanese-Surrender) (Clip from 1945-08-14-1945-2000-ABC-Japanese-Surrender) (Clips from 1945-08-14-2030-NBC-Japanese-Surrender) (Clip from 1945-08-14-CBS-Live-Streets-Of-Hollywood) (Clips from 1945-08-14-MBS-Japanese-Surrender-News-NYC-Crowds) (Clip from 1945-08-14-NBC-Ben-Grauer-On-VJ-Day-Celebrations-In-Times-Square) (Clips from 1945-08-14-WISN-Japan-Surrender-Celebration-Milwaukee) (Clip from 1945-08-15-BBC-British-Crowd-Celebrates-VJ-Day) (Clip from 1945-08-15-BBC-British-Crowd-Sings-God-Save-The-King) (Clip from 1945-08-14-Woman-Describes-VJ-Day-Announcement) 1:53:55 Woody Herman – Apple Honey (Clip from 1945-08-15-AFRS-Command-Performance-Victory-Extra) (Clip from 1945-08-14-CBS-Columbia-Presents-Corwin-Fourteen-August–VJ-Day) (Clips from 1945-08-15-AFRS-Command-Performance-Victory-Extra) (Clip from 1945-08-15-AFRS-Wednesday-With-You—VJ-Day) (Clip from 1945-08-27-Moscow-Radio-Victory-Guns)

September

(Clip from 1945-09-01-General-MacArthur-On-Victory-Over-Japan) (Clip from 1945-09-02-AFRS-Command-Performance-VJ-Day-Special-President-Truman) 2:00:01 The Pied Pipers – Dream (Clip from Brief Encounter) 2:03:56 Dorothy Squires – Coming Home (Clip from 1945-09-19-NBC-Congressional-Medal-Of-Honor—Gen-Jonathan-Wainwright) 2:07:01 Artie Shaw – Hop Skip And Jump (Clip from 1945-09-02-Ernie-Pyle-Bob-Hope-On-The-Wars-End) (Clip from 1945-09-20-NBCB-Between-the-Bookends-Letters-from-Servicemen) 2:10:06 Mukesh – Dil Jalta Hai (Clip from 1945-12-25-MBS-In-Review-1945-In-Review) (Clip from 1945-09-20-CBC-A-Tremendous-New-Force-J-Frank-Willis) (Clip from 1945-11-11 – ‘Quiz Kids’ Radio Program Gets the Scoop on 2 New Elements) (Clips from 1945-09-23-ABC-Lear-Radio-Show-01—Prophecy) 2:12:41 Slim Gaillard Quartette – Atomic Cocktail (Clip from 1945-12-25-MBS-In-Review-1945-In-Review) 2:15:30 Lenny Tristano – What Is This Thing Called Love? (Clip from The Seventh Veil) 2:18:27 Bing Crosby and Judy Garland – Yah Ta Ta Yah Ta Ta (Clip from 1945-08-15-MBS-WOR-BBC-VJ-Day-Gene-Krupa-from-the-Hotel-Astor) 2:21:23 Benny Goodman Sextet – Rachel’s Dream (Clip from 1945-05-05-WHAS-Kentucky-Derby—Ted-Huesing) (Clip from The Bells of St Mary’s) 2:24:42 Jo Stafford – There’s No You (Clip from Brief Encounter) 2:28:08 Billie Holiday – That Ole Devil Called Love 2:30:59 Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker – Lover Man

October

(Clip from 1945-10-28-NBC-Story-Behind-The-Headlines—The-French-Elections) (Clip from Les Enfants Du Paradis) 2:34:58 Charles Trenet – La folle complainte (Clip from Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne) 2:37:03 Django Reinhardt & Glenn Miller’s All Stars – Hallelujah 2:39:35 Stan Kenton – Painted Rhythm (Clip from 1945-10-23-WCOP-Quoting-America—Nuremberg-War-Trials) (Clip from 1945-10-24-BBC-Edward-Stettinius-UN-Conference) 2:42:51 Dizzy Gillespie – Dizzy Atmosphere (Clip from Isle of The Dead) 2:45:40 Bill Stegmeyer and his Hot Eight – Tea For Two (Clip from Roma, città aperta) 2:49:14 Eddy Arnold – Cattle Call (Clip from 1945-06-24-CBS-We-The-People-Red-Cross-Volunteer) 2:51:28 Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys – Blue Grass Special (Clip from I Know Where I’m Going) 2:53:51 Merle Travis – That’s All 2:56:38 Jack Guthrie – Oklahoma Hills (Clip from The Picture of Dorian Gray) 2:59:34 Woody Guthrie – Ludlow Massacre

November

(Clip from 1945-08-11-BBC-NBC-Atlantic-Spotlight-Beatrice-Kay) 3:01:54 Cecil Gant – Little Baby You’re Running Wild (Clip from 1945-11-04-BBC-Sgt-Frank-Foster-On-Building-The-Burma-Railway) (Clip from 1945-11-08-BBC-In-Honour-Of-Russia-Reginald-Watson-Jones) 3:04:40 Mary Lou Williams – Cancer (Clip from 1945-11-14-Gring-Hess–Ribbentrop-Plead-Not-Guilty-At-Nuremberg) (Clip from 1945-11-xx-BBC-William-Joyce-Lord-Haw-Haw-Dismissal-Of-Appeal) 3:07:51 Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – Who’s Been Foolin’ You (Clip from Scarlet Street) 3:10:34 Little Brother Montgomery – Kid Man (Clip from The Picture of Dorian Gray) 3:13:48 Roosevelt Sykes – I’m Her Honeydripper 3:16:35 Joe Liggins – Honeydripper (Part 2) (Clip from The Southerner) 3:20:25 Rubberlegs Williams – That’s The Blues 3:23:18 Julia Lee – Dream Lucky Blues (Clip from Spellbound) 3:26:19 The Duriyapranit Piphat Ensemble & Chorus – Rabam Dawadoeng, Part 2 (Clip from Spellbound) 3:28:49 Cozy Cole – Dat’s Love

December

(Clips from Leave Her To Heaven) 3:32:03 Dizzy Gillespie Sextet – Dizzy Atmosphere (Clips from 1945-12-18-AFRS-Bob-Hope—Christmas-Show-From-San-Francisco-A) 3:36:15 Betty Hutton – Square In The Social Circle (Clip from 1945-12-25-WJR-Stump-Us) 3:39:29 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Black Bottom (Clip from 1945-12-27 – Bird’s Eye Open House with Dinah Shore – Returning Presents with Groucho Marx) 3:42:14 Edmond Hall – Continental Blues (Clip from 1945-12-31-AFRS-New-Years-Eve-Radio-Dance-Party) 3:45:23 Carmen Miranda – Tico-Tico (Clip from 1945-12-31-AFRS-New-Years-Eve-Radio-Dance-Party) 3:48:09 Hadda Brooks Trio – Rocking the Boogie (Clip from 1945-12-31-AFRS-New-Years-Eve-Radio-Dance-Party) 3:51:05 Coleman Hawkins – Rifftide , Body and Soul (Clip from 1945-12-31-AFRS-New-Years-Eve-Radio-Dance-Party) 3:57:16 Dexter Gordon Quintette – Blow, Mr. Dexter (Clip from 1945-12-31-AFRS-New-Years-Eve-Radio-Dance-Party) 3:58:50 Nat King Cole Trio – Come To Baby, Do (Clip of NBC Chimes) 4:01:54 Alfredo De Angelis, Carlos Dante & Julio Martel – Pregonera

Outro

(Clip from Scarlet Street) 4:04:24 Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers – Groovy 4:07:11 Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly – We Hate To Leave 4:08:02 Kay Starr – Love Me Or Leave Me (Clip from 1945-01-07-CBS-World-News-Today) (Clip from 1945-12-25-WJR-Stump-Us) (Clip from 1945-03-26-NBC-World-News-Roundup)

James Errington takes you on another journey into the pre-history of recorded sound — this time joined by Cambridge 105 Radio’s own Alex Elbro to explore the music of 1915, from hot dance ragtime to South-American proto-tango, English music hall comedy and some surprising responses to the first world war.

Centuries of Sound is an independent podcast without any advertising, and it’s only with the support of my patrons that the show can survive. To get access to the full archive of full mixes, radio podcasts, and a host of other benefits for $5 (or local equivalent) per month (and yearly payment is also now available) please come to https://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

In this first of a series of special editions of the Centuries of Sound Radiopod, I’m joined by Simon O’Dwyer of Ancient Music Ireland to talk about music from a time before we had recordings, or even music notation, and hear some reconstructed prehistoric music from his own collection and others.

Simon and Maria’s website is at https://www.ancientmusicireland.com

Their new sound library, Paleosonic, is available at https://www.ancientmusicireland.com/sound-library

It seems like an obvious thing to say that the Second World War was A Bad Time, at least it seems obvious to me. Half a decade of some of the most terrible, miserable events of all time – or more than half a decade, the last war-free mix was 1938 and even that included the ominous events of Munich – and even when things were going the right way for the last couple of years, there was the committing and uncovering of war crimes to deal with. It says something unfortunate about our society that this is the one period we focus on the most – put on a history documentary and there’s a 50/50 chance that it will concerned in some way with WWII. Foolishly, when I started on these mixes I thought it would attract a new audience, but people interested in tanks, military tactics and Hitler’s private life are by no means guaranteed to be also interested in social history and culture of the early 40s – in fact, beyond a couple of totemic songs, the sounds of the era seem to have disappeared from culture more than any time since the dawn of the jazz age. It didn’t help of course that the recording industry was blighted by long-running industrial disputes, lack of resources for recording and touring, with many musicians sent off to fight.

History has not finished by any means in 1946 – this is, of course, the start of The Cold War, the year of the “Iron Curtain” speech – but it has at least faded enough into the background for cultural life to resume. There is a sense here of people getting back on track after a derailment, though if you were dropping in here, you might not even have that sense, so little reference is made to recent events.

We aren’t picking up where we left things in the 30s, of course. The big bands have largely split, and those reforming are already largely nostalgia acts. Their singers have fame and record contracts of their own now, and no need to go on tour with a radio in every home. Tastes have also changed in innumerable ways; blues has become rhythm & blues, swing has become be bop, country has become western swing (all of these much more complicated than that of course – these genres are barely formed, these musicians in dialogue – often literally – with one-another.)

You may find this mix surprisingly relaxed, mellow, yet forward-looking, even futuristic, and more of a world tour than usual. This is deliberate – rather than arbitrarily dividing the year up, the lack of news allowed me to experiment with form a little. As it took shape, I realised that it was settling into a groove that I didn’t really want to disturb – it fitted the feeling of liberation, of finally being able to look to the future, and not dwell on Earthly realities, for the moment.

Part two, of course, has its own distinct feel -but we’ll leave that for next time.

Tracklist

Introduction

0:00:00 Miguelito Valdes With Noro Morales’ Orchestra – Rumba Rhapsody (Clip from BBC war reporters visit to the Netherlands) (Clip from The Big Sleep) 0:02:56 BBC – Television Is Here Again 0:03:33 Dizzy Gillespie Big Band – Things to Come

January

(Clip from BBC – Television Is Here Again) 0:06:51 Henry Red Allen – Count Me Out (Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 0:09:34 Amos Milburn – My Baby’s Booging 0:11:47 Charlie Parker Septet – A Night In Tunisia (Two Versions) 0:15:08 Lennie Tristano Trio – Interlude [aka A Night In Tunisia] (Clip from World News In Review) 0:18:19 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 1 (Clip from War Victims Find Haven In America) 0:21:16 Harry James – You’ll Never Know 0:24:20 Don Byas – Gloria (Philip Larkin – Going) 0:27:18 Coleman Hawkins And Orchestra – You Go To My Head (Alan Lomax – Calypso After Midnight Introduction) 0:31:13 Ella Fitzgerald feat. Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five – Stone Cold Dead In The Market 0:33:50 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Bob Wills Boogie 0:36:52 Nat King Cole Trio – Route 66

February

(Clip from Truman Speaks To Pathe News) 0:39:48 Baron Mingus & His Octet – This Subdues My Passion (Clip from World News In Review) 0:42:41 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Laura (Clip from World News In Review) 0:45:50 Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Happy-Go-Lucky Local 0:48:43 Duke Ellington – Bond Promo 4 0:49:52 Kenny Clarke and his 52nd Street Boys – Epistrophy (Clip from The Big Sleep) 0:52:59 Manik Verma – Charkhi Vale O 0:55:49 Hermanos Huesca – La Bamba (Clip from BBC – Television Is Here Again) 0:59:00 Boyd Raeburn – Body And Soul 1:01:59 Chanteurs A La Croix De Cuivre – Batata Dia Bwanga 1:04:46 Sister Ernestine Washington – God’s Amazing Grace 1:07:32 Billie Holiday – Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?

March

(Winston Churchill – Iron Curtain Speech) 1:09:40 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 1 (Clip from World News In Review) 1:11:36 Tabata Yoshiro – Kaeribune (Clip from Inner Sanctum) 1:13:07 Charles Mingus Sextette (Vocal by Claude Trinier) – Weird Nightmare 1:16:06 Duke Of Iron – Introduction To Ugly Woman / Ugly Woman 1:19:17 Hoagy Carmichael – Huggin’ And Chalkin’ (Clip from Casey Crime Photographer) 1:21:53 Benny Bell & Paul Wynn – Shaving Cream 1:23:13 Clyde Mccoy – Mr Wah Wah 1:25:27 Jimmy Mundy – Bumble Boogie (Clip from Notorious) 1:27:05 Dexter Gordon Quintette – Dexter Digs In 1:29:22 Sacasas – Rumba Negra (Clip from Inauguration of Cannes Film Festival) 1:32:04 El Marios All Girl Rumba Band – Babalu 1:34:27 Xavier Cugat With Miguelito Valdes – Babalu

April

(Clip from World News In Review) 1:37:16 Dizzy Gillespie – Convulsion (Clip from Despotism) 1:39:46 Shalom Katz – Eil Malei Rachmim (Clip from Despotism) 1:42:05 Charles Brown With Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers – You Won’t Let Me Go (Clip from Despotism) 1:45:12 Woody Guthrie – Pastures Of Plenty (Clip from Despotism) 1:47:40 James Baskett – Zip A Dee Doo Dah (Clip from Despotism) 1:49:59 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Jones Polka 1:52:34 Boyd Raeburn and his Orchestra – Boyd Meets Stravinsky 1:55:23 Dizzy Gillespie – Shaw ’nuff 1:58:25 Dinah Washington & Gerald Wilson & His Orchestra – Oo Wee Walkie Talkie 2:00:00 Bing Crosby – Pretending 2:02:38 Sarah Vaughan with John Kirby and his Orchestra – You Go to My Head

May

(Clip of Albert Einstein on Nuclear Weapons and World Government) 2:05:38 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 1 2:06:25 Piphat Phataya-Koson – Homrong Chan Chao (Thailand) 2:08:04 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – Perfume Suite from Date with Duke 2:12:04 Dinah Washington – Joy Juice (Clip from Inauguration Du Festival De Cannes 1946) 2:13:37 Edith Piaf – La Vie En Rose (Clip from A Matter of Life & Death) 2:16:43 Astor Piazzolla & Francisco Fiorentino – Viejo Ciego (Clip from Nye Bevan speech) 2:19:51 Neriman Altindag – Soyledi Yok Yok (Clip from The Best Years of Our Lives) 2:24:11 Chet Atkins – Guitar Blues (Picking The Blue) 2:26:54 Harry Choates – Jole Blon (Clip – British soldier in Greek Civil War) 2:29:38 Unknown Artist – Huculka & Kozachok 2:30:53 Lord Invader – Introduction to Tie-Tongue Baby / Tie-Tongue Baby

June

2:34:38 Macbeth The Great – Introduction to Do Lai Do / Do Lai Do 2:37:38 Oum Kalsoum – Excerpt from Nagh El Borda (Clip of BBC journalist in Greek Civil War) 2:41:23 Erskine Hawkins – After Hours (Clip from A Matter of Life & Death) 2:43:44 Jo Stafford – Come Rain Or Come Shine (Clip from A Matter of Life & Death) 2:47:21 Sarah Vaughan with John Kirby and his Orchestra – It Might as Well Be Spring (Clip from A Matter of Life & Death) 2:50:45 Billie Holiday – No Good Man 2:54:04 The Maddox Brothers & Rose – I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again 2:56:12 Benedito Lacerda & Pixinguinha – Ainda Me Recordo 2:57:30 Peggy Lee – I Don’t Know Enough About You (Clip from “The Seaside Reopens” – Pathe) 3:02:20 Ssekinomu – Ekyalema Nakato 3:02:46 Lusk, Gribble & York – Rolling River

Ending

3:05:00 Julia Lee – Lotus Blossom (Clip from My Darling Clementine) 3:08:27 Teddy Wilson Quartet Quartet feat. Sarah Vaughan – September Song (Clip from Inner Sanctum)

This Centuries of Sound mix comes courtesy of my supporters at patreon.com/centuriesofsound – join them for as little as $5 per month and get a full archive and a host of bonus material.

The 1940s was a scary time, but not really in a way that we can comfortably celebrate at Halloween. Nevertheless there were still a few horror movies being made, and it’s from these that I’ve largely drawn for this mix (the best are of course the works of Val Lewton, a shame there aren’t more.) The most traditionally Halloween-themed musical numbers here are from Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, and along with the lack of Universal Horror monsters except in semi-parody retreads, this seems to indicate that 40s audiences were in no mood to be frightened. If it isn’t already obvious, I’ll leave it to Al Bowlly to explain why.

Tracklist:

This Halloween special was first broadcast in 2022 and features music from 1927 to 1938 and also features my son Milan. To get full downloads and a host of extras, and help the show survive, come to http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

When we think of the great depression of the 1930s, the images which may spring to mind – The Grapes of Wrath, the dustbowl songs of Woody Guthrie – are generally from the 1940s. Popular entertainment of the thirties leaned not on realism, but on escapism. This is the golden age, not only of Hollywood musicals, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers, Busby Berkley routines and screwball comedy, but also of horror movies. Aside from the film clips, we naturally have plenty of novelty recordings, original sound effect records, hot jazz, and to close a suite of particularly morbid blues records.

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

1946 Part Two – That’s All Right For You

In the popular imagination the late 1940s is poorly represented. In the 1930s there’s the great depression (which is also somehow the golden age of Hollywood), then WWII takes place, then [SCENE MISSING], then there’s the 1950s, rock & roll, teenagers, fashion, Hollywood glamour, the beat poets, Rosa Parks, the golden age of TV, and you know I could keep on just listing themes here but I’ll stop. These signifiers make the decade easy to get a grip on, and have been constantly revisited on TV, in films and – of course – in music ever since. For anyone under the age of 66 or so, this mythologised version of the fifties is the only fifties you’ve ever known. The late 40s on the other hand have had no such treatment – I can think of only a handful of films set in the period, all fairly obscure.

How can we begin to transition from one era to another then? The soldiers arrive back from the second world war, everyone settles down to keep quiet and do nothing for five years, then BOOM here we are in the modern age? Well, of course that’s not how it’s going to be. Those cultural threads spread out wide, and as our main concern here is music, the headline here is that the musical movements associated with that later era are not being anticipated in 1946, they aren’t starting to get underway, they are in fact already in full bloom. The headline could even be “1946 – The Year Rock & Roll Started!” – but for reasons I will surely go into later, there is no easy start date.

Though the majority of this mix is rock & roll in all but name, plenty does not fit that pattern. Some is in fact quite traditional pop music, but with artistry and production seemingly years ahead of its time. Jazz selections have been picked with a general feel of bubbling excitement. These songs are not so concerned with dreaming or looking into the future as in part one, but they push into the future by being (for the first time in a long time) fully able to immerse into the now. Most of this mix is dance music, though there are also plenty of calmer breaks.

One final thought before I say “just listen” – the reason many of these performers disappeared in the rock & roll era (as we know it) is that many were simply not around anymore. Big Maceo Merriweather had a severe stroke in 1946, and died in 1953. Sonny Boy Williamson I would be killed in a robbery in 1948. Albert Ammons would survive to play Truman’s inauguration in 1949, but then died later that year. Cecil Gant made it no further than 1951. A disappointing truth is that these are still very tough years, and this small sampling of joy tells just one story from many. I could say the same for any mix, of course, but it seems more important to point it out here.

Ok, so if I haven’t ruined it, just listen. And if you want to chat as you do so, you can join the conversation on discord here – https://discord.gg/jw5vZcN8

Tracklist

0:00:00 Charles Mingus and his Orchestra – Shuffle Bass Boogie (Clip from Notorious) (Clip from Wacky Weed – Andy Panda)

July

(Clip from Television Is Here Again) 0:03:10 Sonny Boy Williamson I – Shake The Boogie 0:05:53 Big Maceo – Chicago Breakdown (Clip from The Story of Menstruation) 0:08:48 June Christy – Willow Weep For Me 0:11:43 Dizzy Gillespie Big Band – ‘Round Midnight 0:15:25 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Fat Boy Rag (Clip from The Big Sleep) 0:18:41 Cousin Joe – Weddin’ Day Blues 0:20:42 Albert Ammons – Jammin’ The Boogie 0:24:39 Dylan Thomas – On The Marriage of a Virgin 0:26:07 Johnny Guarnieri Quartet – Temptation 0:27:00 Lennie Tristano Trio – I Can’t Get Started (Clip from La Belle et la Bête) 0:29:48 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra with Django Reinhardt – Improvisation #2 0:30:47 T-Bone Walker With Jack McVea’s All Stars – Bobby Sox Blues

August

(Clip from Pathe – Very early mobile phone prototype) 0:33:53 Sister Rosetta Tharpe ft. Sam Price Trio – This Train (Clip from A Gruesome Twosome) 0:37:12 Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra – How Big Can You Get, Little Man? (Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 0:40:00 Cecil Gant – Nashville Jumps (Clip from Hair-Raising Hare) 0:42:49 Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup – That’s All Right, Mama (Advertisement for Squibb Dental Cream) 0:44:44 Louis Jordan – Reet Petite And Gone 0:47:17 Freddie Slack & Ella Mae Morse – Pig Foot Pete 0:50:05 Big Joe Turner – Rebecca (Clip from Baseball Bugs) 0:52:54 Roosevelt Sykes – Date Bait 0:55:51 Barry Moral Y Su Orquesta De Jazz – El Boogie Woogie De Artie Shaw 0:58:58 Philip Larkin – Wedding Wind 1:00:10 Charlie Parker Septet – I’ve Always Got The Blues (Clip from Adam Hats) 1:01:49 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Rhapsody From Hunger(y)

September

(Clip from Television Is Here Again) 1:04:02 Tex Ritter – Trouble In Mind 1:06:48 Moon Mullican – New Pretty Blond (New Jole Blon) (Clip from La Belle et la Bête) 1:09:53 Django Reinhardt – Django’s Tiger (Clip from La Belle et la Bête) 1:10:37 Velma Nelson – If I Were A Itty Bitty Girl, Part 1 (Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 1:13:34 Don Byas – How High The Moon 1:16:03 Dizzy Gillespie – Salt Peanuts 1:17:58 Luke Jones – Shufflin Boogie (Clip from The Great Piggy Bank Robbery) 1:20:09 Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson – Juice Head Baby (Clip from Notorious) 1:12:15 Tampa Red & Big Maceo – Crying Won’t Help You (Clip from Interview With Somerset Maugham) 1:25:25 Louis Jordan – Choo Choo Ch’boogie 1:28:06 Pat Flowers – Googie Woogie

October

1:30:55 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 2 (Clip from Final Judgement Read at Nuremberg Trials) 1:35:36 Woody Herman Orchestra (cond. by Igor Stravinsky) – Ebony Concerto Part 2 (Clips of judge sentencing Goering and Hess at Nuremberg) 1:36:55 Duke Ellington – Transblucency 1:39:10 Út Trà Ôn, Hu?, Th?y – Tôn T?n Gi? ?iên (Vietnam) 1:42:32 Tshamumania Anastasie And Singers – Ndumba Wakumi Diekde Dikasa (Luba-Kasai; Congo) 1:45:17 Francisco Canaro & Nelly Omar – Rosa De Otoño (Clip from The Killers) 1:48:19 Les Brown (Vocal – Doris Day) – All Through The Day 1:49:43 The Ink Spots – I Never Had A Dream Come True 1:52:27 Freddie Slack & Ella Mae Morse – Your Conscience Tells You So (Clip from The Big Sleep) 1:55:22 Ella Fitzgerald – I’m Just A Lucky So And So 1:58:13 Lester Young – D.B. (Detention Barracks) Blues (Clip from Hair-Raising Hare) 2:01:21 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France, Avec Stéphane Grappelli – Coquette

November

(Clip from Notorious) 2:04:19 Jack McVea & His Band – Open The Door, Richard 2:07:07 Amos Milburn – Amos’ Blues 2:09:29 Big Maceo Merriweather – Maceo’s 32-20 2:12:16 Joe Turner – My Gal’s A Jockey 2:15:24 Lionel Hampton – Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop 2:18:41 Jay Mcshann – Voodoo Woman Blues 2:22:16 Roy Milton – R.M. Blues 2:24:09 Nat King Cole – You Call It Madness 2:27:05 Charlie Parker – Ornithology 2:28:36 Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson – Mr Cleanhead Steps Out 2:30:00 Lucky Millinder And His Orchestra – Shorty’s Got To Go

December

(Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life) 2:33:31 Merle Travis – Pigmeat Stomp 2:34:45 Delmore Brothers – Freight Train Boogie 2:37:24 Jazz Gillum – Look On Yonder Wall (Clip from Casey Crime Photographer) 2:39:19 Pixinguinha, Benedito Lacerda – 1 X 0 (Clip from Baseball Bugs) 2:40:12 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Hawaiian War Chant (Clip from Baseball Bugs) 2:42:21 Lester Young and his Band – Lover, Come Back To Me 2:44:54 Joe Liggins – Got A Right To Cry 2:48:08 Dan Burley Skiffle Boys – South Side Shake (Clip from Casey Crime Photographer) 2:51:04 Coleman Hawkins – I Mean You 2:52:40 Lionel Hampton – Hamp’s Salty Blues 2:55:48 Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra – Hamp’s Boogie Woogie

Ending

3:02:53 Charlie Parker – Lover Man (Clip from My Darling Clementine) 3:06:17 Charles Trenet – La Mer (Clip from The Killers) (Clip from Baseball Bugs)

Previously at Centuries of Sound:

Christmas 1902-1924: Deep Magic From Before The Dawn Of Time A Holiday Between The Wars, Christmas Records 1926-1938 A Wartime Christmas 1939-1945

If you enjoy my mixes, please consider supporting the show on Patreon for $5 per month – as well as helping me keep going, you will get access to a load of bonus stuff.

The period between the end of the Second World War and the Rock & Roll craze of 1954 may be strangely absent from popular memory on the whole, but when it comes to the Christmas season everything is suddenly reversed. The age of It’s A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, of Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song, The Andrews Sisters’ Winter Wonderland, the hit version of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, and of course Baby, It’s Cold Outside – these all seem to have been set in amber as the prototypical classic American Christmas experience. But meanwhile, of course, Rhythm & Blues, Western Swing, Mambo and Be-Bop are all at their peak, so don’t expect an entirely mainstream Christmas here.

Tracklist

0:00:00 Red Skelton – Clip from Raleigh-Kool Radio Program – Christmas Stories (1946) 0:00:04 Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) (1946) 0:03:11 Jimmy Stewart – Clip from It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) 0:03:50 Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter Orchestra – White Christmas (1947) 0:06:43 Burns & Allen – Clip from Christmas Presents (1946) 0:07:31 Guy Lombardo & The Andrews Sisters – Winter Wonderland (1946) 0:10:09 Abbott & Costello – Clip from Christmas Show (1947) 0:11:24 Frankie Carle & His Orchestra with Majorie Hughes – Little Jack Frost Get Lost (1947) 0:14:02 Gene Lockhart – Clip from Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 0:14:32 Gene Autry – Here Comes Santa Claus (1947) 0:17:02 Life of Riley – Clip from Family Christmas Present (1947) 0:17:05 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth) (1948) 0:20:12 Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show – Clip from Christmas Present (1948) 0:20:23 Andrews Sisters & Danny Kaye – Merry Christmas At Grandmother’s House (1948) 0:22:38 David Niven – Clip from The Bishop’s Wife (1947) 0:23:01 Kay Starr – December (1949) 0:26:21 Unknown – Radio Commercial for Eggnog (1949) 0:26:36 Louis Jordan & Ella Fitzgerald – Baby, It’s Cold Outside (1949) 0:29:15 Much Binding In The Marsh – Clip from Christmas Programme (1948) 0:29:28 Amos Milburn – Let’s Make Christmas Merry, Baby (1949) 0:32:18 Dragnet – Clip from 22 Calibre Rifle for Christmas (1950) 0:32:23 Lionel Hampton Orchestra – Boogie Woogie, Santa Claus (1950) 0:35:04 Matinee with Bob and Ray – Clip from Christmas Season Program (1949) 0:35:08 Henry Jerome and His Orchestra – Sleigh Ride (1950) 0:36:47 Stars Over Hollywood – Clip from A Christmas Carol (1951) 0:36:57 Sauter-Finegan Orchestra – Midnight Sleighride (1952) 0:39:13 Suspense – Clip from The Night Before Christmas (1951) 0:39:35 Weekend Hyttens Kor And Orkester – Bjaldeklang (Jingle Bells) (1951) 0:41:53 Jack Benny Program – Clip from Christmas Shopping (1951) 0:42:26 Jan Garber And His Orchestra – Frosty The Snowman (1951) 0:45:01 Let’s Pretend – Clip from ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1952) 0:45:23 Les Brown Orchestra – Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (1952) 0:47:46 Billy May and His Orchestra – Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo (1954) 0:50:20 Bing Crosby with The Rhythmaires – Sleigh Ride / Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1953) 0:55:30 John Payne – Clip from Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 0:55:54 Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby (1953) 0:59:13 Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet – Clip from The Lost Christmas Gift (1953) 0:59:16 Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters – White Christmas (1954) 1:01:53 Truth or Consequences – Clip from Christmas Show (1947)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

1947 Part One – Cubana Bop

From time to time in music there are sparks which briefly spring to life, then almost immediately fizzle out again, but not without leaving long-lasting reverberations. One of these moments began in the summer of 1947, when 32-year-old dancer, bodyguard, shoeshiner and noted percussionist Chano Pozo arrived in New York on a passenger ship from the rich man’s playground of Havana. Raised in one of the most dangerous slums in Cuba, Pozo had found himself in reform school at the age of 13, only having had three years of education. His crime may have been the accidental killing of an American tourist. While there he learned not only literacy and the Afro-Caribbean religion Santería, but also to play a range of percussion instruments. On release he became a “rumbero” – the beating heart of a musical/dance troop at carnival, and after only a few years he had had become perhaps the most famous one in Cuba. He may have achieved fame, but there was no fortune to be found in working-class Cuba, and in 1947 he decided to move to the USA, where a nascent Cuban music industry was already in place. Band leader Mario Bauza, who already had a good deal of success, arranged a series of recording sessions for Pozo, and at a party at Harlem in September introduced him to Dizzy Gillespie, who was already interested in Cuban music, and who immediately invited him to join his band. Before the end of the month they would be on stage together at Carnegie Hall.

The music that Gillespie and Pozo made together in the next 15 months is so arresting that it’s astonishing that it isn’t better-known. Perhaps the musicianship on display prevented anyone else from easily borrowing. In any case the 75 years since have done nothing to blunt its power. Taking all the unpredictable, stimulatingly jarring musical shapes from be bop and fusing them to this driving, complex Cuban rhythm is nothing short of magical.

The collaboration was cut short prematurely when Pozo was murdered by another Cuban expat outside a Harlem bar, but by that point Pozo and Gillespie had collaborated on Cubana Be, Cubana Bop, Tin Tin Deo and Manteca, all to be featured prominently in these two mixes.

There’s been a bit too much history in Centuries of Sound of late, too many events taking place. This is supposed to be a celebration and exploration of sound. Sure, 1947 traditionally marks the start of the Cold War – and there is one large international event which we’ll get to in part two – but I’m pleased to say there’s little sign of it here. When I listen back to the records (and the sounds) here the joy in experimentation is the biggest takeaway. I hope it is for you too.

If you want to chat as listen, you can join the conversation on discord here – https://discord.gg/5a7f6wqjcJ

Tracklist

0:00:00 Unknown Birds – Birdsong (from Louis Kaufman – Vivaldi Four Seasons intro) (Clip from You Bet Your Life – Secret Word ‘Air’) 0:00:36 Dizzy Gillespie – Cubana Be (Clips from Are You Popular?) (Clip from Easy To Get) 0:02:59 Amos Milburn – Chicken Shack Boogie

January

0:05:25 Charlie Parker Quintet – Bird Of Paradise (Clip from Alastair Cooke – Letter From America – New Year 1947) (Clip from Are You Popular?) 0:08:31 Maddox Brothers & Rose – Honky Tonkin’ (Clip from The Walgreen Show – Groucho Marx/Bob Hope) 0:11:01 Ella Fitzgerald – How High The Moon (Clip from Are You Popular?) 0:14:23 Wild Bill Moore – We’re Gonna Rock 0:16:11 Frank Sinatra & Jimmy Durante – From The Heart 0:20:47 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – William Tell Overture 0:23:54 Sonny Boy Williamson II – Shake That Boogie (Clip from You Bet Your Life – Secret Word ‘Air’) 0:26:53 Sister Rosetta Tharpe And Marie Knight – Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 0:29:19 Julia Lee – Tell Me, Daddy (Clip from Easy To Get) 0:32:18 Little Brother Montgomery Quintet – El Ritmo (Clip from Home Record of a Birthday Party) 0:35:21 Tadd Dameron Sextet – The Chase

February

(Clip from Bob Hope & Bing Crosby – The Road To Hollywood) 0:38:26 Chet Atkins – Canned Heat (Clip from Dark Passage) 0:41:51 Hank Williams – Move It On Over (Clip from Montreal By Night) 0:44:45 Chano Pozo Y Su Orquestra – Rumba En Swing 0:47:18 Dizzy Gillespie – Manteca (Clip from Human Reproduction) 0:50:20 Manhattan Paul & Paul Bascomb Orchestra – Rock And Roll (Clip from Alan Lomax – What Makes A Work Song Leader?) 0:53:18 ’22’ With Little Red, Tangle Eye, & Hard Hair – Early In The Mornin’ (Clip from Alan Lomax – What Makes A Work Song Leader?) 0:55:39 Tangle Eye – Tangle Eye Blues (Clip from Black Narcissus) 0:58:00 John Cage, Maro Ajemian, William Masselos – Three Dances for Two Pianos (Clip from Marlon Brando – Screen Test for Rebel Without A Cause) 0:59:48 Nellie Lutcher – He’s A Real Gone Guy (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) 1:02:51 Vladimir Horowitz – The Hut On Fowl’s Legs (Clip from The Postman Always Rings Twice) (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) (Clip from The Postman Always Rings Twice) 1:06:15 Charlie Parker Quintet – Superman (The Hymn)

March

(Clip from British Movietone Review of the Year) 1:08:48 Band Of The Gold Coast Police – Dagomba (NBC in Chicago ident) 1:11:41 Muddy Waters – I Feel Like Going Home (Clip from Out of the Past) 1:15:01 Betty Hutton – I Wish I Didn’t Love You So 1:17:41 Henry Red Allen – Indiana (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 1:21:34 Ivory Joe Hunter – I Like It (Clip from Oor Willie – The Man With Many Voices) 1:24:13 Johnny Doran – My Love Is In America (Clip from Oor Willie – The Man With Many Voices) 1:27:01 Pete Seeger – Come All Fair Maids (Clip from Don’t Be A Sucker) 1:29:48 Robert Mitchum – Foolish Pride (CLip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:32:59 The Four Aces Of Western Swing – Yodel Your Blues Away (Clip from Lux Radio Theatre – The Jazz Singer) 1:35:46 Freddy Martin & His Orchestra – Managua, Nicaragua (Clip from Lux Radio Theatre – The Jazz Singer) 1:37:12 Edmundo Ros – Manana

April

1:39:10 Ella Logan & Donald Richards – Look To The Rainbow (Introduction) 1:39:27 Annie Laurie – Since I Fell For You (Clip from Black Narcissus) 1:42:21 Thelonious Monk – Who Knows? (Clip from Dark Passage) 1:45:03 Ichimaru – Samisen Boogie (Clip from Shanghai) 1:47:05 Yukie Kubo – Shin Shin Tankoubushi (Coalminer’s Tale) (Clip from Shanghai) 1:49:06 Tabata Yoshiro – Machi No Dateotoko (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:51:59 Gatemouth Moore – Did You Ever Try To Cry (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 1:54:10 Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker – Dizzy Atmosphere (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 1:57:16 Bill Harris And Charlie Ventura – High On An Open Mike (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 2:02:03 Stan Kenton – Peanut Vendor (Clip from Babe Ruth – Farewell To Baseball) 2:06:51 Ted Weems & His Orchestra – Heartaches

May

(Clip from Are You Popular?) 2:09:34 Ray Noble & His Orchestra – Linda (Clip from Shy Guy) 2:13:00 Ernest Tubb – Have You Ever Been Lonely? (Clip from Shy Guy) 2:15:48 Big Maybelle – Sad And Disappointed Girl (Clip from DDT – So Safe You Can Eat It) 2:18:25 Mamica – Nwomboko (Clip from DDT – So Safe You Can Eat It) 2:19:36 Woody Herman – Sabre Dance (Clip from Along Came Daffy) 2:22:10 Cab Calloway – Everybody Eats When They Come To My House (Clip from Along Came Daffy) 2:25:02 Spike Jones – Popcorn Sack (Clip from Easy To Get) 2:27:39 Stick Mcghee – Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee (Clip from Crowing Pains) 2:29:46 The Sons Of The Pioneers & Roy Rogers – Cool Water (Clip from Bob Hope & Bing Crosby – The Road To Hollywood) 2:31:58 Sons Of The Pioneers – Tumbling Tumbleweeds (Clip from The Humpbacked Horse) 2:33:36 Joe Morris – The Applejack

June

(Clip from Don’t Be A Sucker) 2:35:15 Mahalia Jackson – Amazing Grace (Clip from Don’t Be A Sucker) 2:38:24 Louis Kaufman – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Clip from Odd Man Out) 2:41:57 Louis Jordan – Run Joe (Clips from Montreal By Night) 2:45:19 Les Baxter – Radar Blues (Clip from Montreal By Night) 2:48:18 Ernie Harper – Chicago Boogie (Clip from Out of the Past) 2:51:15 Merle Travis – Sixteen Tons (Clip of Albert Camus reading L’etranger) 2:54:12 Line Renaud – Ma Cabane Au Canada (Clip of Albert Camus reading L’etranger) 2:56:40 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France – Diminishing 2:57:36 The Stanley Brothers – Standing In The Need Of Prayer 2:59:23 Jimpson With Men Chopping Trees – No More, My Lord (Clip from Odd Man Out) 3:00:59 Sister Rosetta Tharpe – How Far From God

Ending

(Clip from Odd Man Out) 3:03:15 Ethel Waters – A Hundred Years From Today (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 3:06:13 Big Maceo Merriweather – My Own Troubles (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

1947 Part Two – Boptamism

A baby boom – a notable increase in babies born – may indicate many socio-economic factors at play, but most of these factors are refractions of hope. Hope that there will be a good world for your children to become adults in, hope that you will be able to provide everything they need, hope that the path of your new family will not be littered with traps and nasty surprises. As I write this in 2024, birth rates in western countries have been in decline for decades, but in 1947 we were just on the spike of the “baby boom” which was so notable it gave its name to a generation. Is this then a time of hope? Will this mix sound optimistic and hopeful?

There was an idea at one point that these mixes would provide some sort of historical narrative into the years in question. Was it an idea that I had, or was it thrust on me by the war? It’s truthfully hard to say, I was already arranging things (not music) month by month back in 1939, maybe it’s a habit I’ve slipped into. In any case the arrangement has now become fairly meaningless (with a couple of exceptions I’ll come to in a moment), just a way to break up years into more manageable chunks or chapters, for example October is fairly bop-heavy and December is winding down for the Christmas section.

That’s the second exception in this mix, the first is the independence of India and Pakistan, a large public event with newsreels and speeches to sample, but whose ramifications wouldn’t be as easy to capture. In China the civil war turned a corner, with the Nationalists increasingly looking doomed. Communists also officially took power in Poland. The spread of communism triggered The Truman Doctrine, as good a date as any for the start of The Cold War. Is any of this evident from this mix? Well no, not at all. This of course does not mean that these things are unimportant, it just means that they haven’t yet impacted the cultural record, or at least my cultural record.

The people – the musicians – here were interested in exploring their art, they were interested in entertaining, they were interested in making people dance, they were interested in making something new. All art is in some sense political, and their stretching out in this freedom to create and share tells you something about their mood. The prospect of nuclear war, even of the Korean War, were not yet in the air. So to answer my own question, yes, we are still in the brief window of hope, but we can grasp this from the absence. There are other things to write about than existential dread.

If you want to chat as listen, you can join the conversation on discord here – https://discord.gg/5a7f6wqjcJ

Tracklist

0:00:00 George Melachrino Strings – Serenade (Drigo) (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) (Clip from ITMA – Royal Command Performance) 0:01:20 Dizzy Gillespie – Cubana Bop

July

0:04:24 Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents 0:05:15 Forrest Sykes – Tonky Boogie (Clip from ITMA – Royal Command Performance) 0:08:33 Jo Stafford & Red Ingle – Temptation (Clip from Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents) 0:11:40 Spike Jones – I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (Clip from High-Diving Hare) 0:14:19 Jack Mcvea’s All Stars – Open The Door Richard (Clip from Home Record of a Birthday Party) 0:17:14 Hank Williams – I’m A Long Gone Daddy (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 0:20:01 Utah Smith – I Got Two Wings 0:23:09 Bama – How I Got In The Penitentiary (Interview) 0:23:52 Bama – Stackerlee 0:26:02 Vladimir Horowitz – Variations On A Theme From Bizet’s Carmen (Clip from Dark Passage) 0:28:25 Kenneth Anger – Spoken introduction from ‘Fireworks’ 0:29:21 Barry Ulanov’s All Star Metronome Jazzmen – 52nd Street Theme (Clip from Easy To Get) 0:31:02 Amos Milburn – Down The Road A Piece (Clip from The Walgreen Show with Bob Hope)

August

(Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 0:34:07 Harmonicats – Peg O’ My Heart (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 0:36:45 Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar – Gaud Malhar (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) (Clip from Nehru Speech) (Clip from India Breaks Free – British Pathe) 0:40:51 Sonny Thompson W. The Sharps & Flats – Long Gone (Clip from Shy Guy) 0:43:57 Tampa Red – Let’s Try It Again (Clip from British Movietone Review of The Year) 0:47:01 Dodo Marmarosa – Dodo’s Dance (Clip from British Movietone Review of The Year) 0:50:37 Roy Acuff – Freight Train Blues (Clip from British Movietone Review of The Year) 0:53:16 Signe Flatin – Skuldalsbruri 0:54:45 Kiko Kids – Tom Tom (Clip from Slick Hare) 0:57:43 The Big Three Trio – Signifying Monkey (Clip from Slick Hare) 1:00:47 Louis Jordan – Barnyard Boogie (Clip from The Walgreen Show with Bob Hope) 1:03:40 Tex Williams – Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) (Clip from Shy Guy)

September

(Clip from Fibber McGee & Molly) 1:06:41 The Bopland Boys – Cherokee (Jeronimo) (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:12:04 Julia Lee – Snatch And Grab It (Clip from Easy To Get) 1:14:03 Bull Moose Jackson – I Want A Bowlegged Woman (Clip from Dark Passage) 1:17:16 Todd Rhodes Orchestra – Blues For The Red Boy (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) 1:19:57 Les Baxter – Mist O´the Moon (Clip from Black Narcissus) 1:22:51 Spade Cooley – Oklahoma Stomp (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 1:25:38 Wynonie Harris – Good Rockin’ Tonight (Clip from How To Discipline Children) 1:28:09 Bill Harris All Stars – A Knight In The Village (Clip from Out Of The Past) 1:32:34 Xavier Cugat – Miami Beach Rhumba 1:34:26 Chano Pozo Y Su Ritmo De Tambores – Tambombarana (Clip from Speech to the Berlin Philharmonic) 1:36:55 Astor Piazzolla – Se Armó

October

(Clip from It’s That Man Again) 1:38:46 Wayne Raney – Lost John Boogie 1:41:22 Dizzy Gillespie – Emanon / Things To Come (Clip from Shy Guy) 1:44:51 Dexter Gordon – The Duel (Clip from Out Of The Past) 1:47:16 Lionel Hampton – Mingus Fingers (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 1:50:33 Dodo Marmarosa Trio – Bopmatism (Clip from Easy To Get) 1:53:49 Charlie Parker All Stars – Chasin’ The Bird (Clip from The Jazz Singer – Radio Play) 1:56:37 Thelonious Monk – ‘Round Midnight 1:59:14 Billie Holiday – Solitude 2:02:16 Frank Sinatra – Try A Little Tenderness (Clip from Dark Passage) 2:05:25 The Trenier Twins – Hey Sister Lucy

November

(Clip from British Movietone Review of the Year) 2:07:56 Stella Haskil – Bir Allah (Clip from British Movietone Review of the Year) 2:09:52 Kasagi Shizuko – Airei Kawaii Ya (Clip from Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents) 2:12:24 Sarah Vaughan – I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself a Letter (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 2:14:53 Maddox Brothers & Rose – Milk Cow Blues (Clip from Crowing Pains) 2:18:09 Bill Monroe And The Bluegrass Boys – Blue Grass Breakdown (Clip from Shy Guy) 2:20:50 Roy Brown – Lolly Pop Mama (Clip from Easy To Get) 2:23:08 Jimmy Liggins – Cadillac Boogie (Clip from Easy To Get) 2:25:45 Walter Brown & Jay Mcshann Quartet – W. B. Blues 2:28:11 Albert Ammons & His Rhythm Kings – Swanee River Boogie 2:30:40 T-Bone Walker – Bobby Sox Blues (Clip from Home Record of a Birthday Party) 2:33:27 Leadbelly – Laura

December

(Clip from Odd Man Out) 2:35:30 Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – That’s All Right (Clip from It’s That Man Again) 2:36:36 Tiny Bradshaw – Take The Hands Off The Clock (Clip from Tweety Pie) 2:39:13 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – I Kiss Your Hand Madame (Clip from It’s That Man Again) 2:41:14 Watanabe Hamako – Tokyo No Yoru (Clip from Shanghai) 2:43:13 The Barton Brothers – Cockeyed Jenny 2:44:40 Abbott & Costello – Christmas Tree 2:47:31 Frankie Laine – That’s My Desire (Clip from The Bishop’s Wife) 2:50:49 Sarah Vaughan – The Lord’s Prayer (Clip from Miracle on 34th Street) 2:53:39 Sister Rosetta Tharpe And Marie Knight – Beams Of Heaven (Clip from Miracle on 34th Street) 2:56:19 Nat King Cole Trio – For Sentimental Reasons (Clip from Life of Riley) 2:58:25 Jacob Do Bandolim – Flamengo (Clip from Truth or Concequences)

Ending

3:00:21 Miles Davis – Out Of Nowhere (Clip from The Lady From Shanghai) 3:04:35 Nat King Cole Trio – There I’ve Said It Again (Clip from Monsieur Verdoux) 3:07:45 Cecil Gant – Special Delivery (Clip from Inner Sanctum – Death Bound) (Clip from Danny Kaye – Manic Depressive Presents)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first half-hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

1948 Part One – Something Big Out Of Something Little

It started with Bing Crosby wanting to improve his golf. Bing was a big golfer (in fact he would die on a golf course three decades later) but it was difficult to find the time for it when he was spending four days a week recording radio shows – and because of the time differences he’d often have to perform the whole show twice. Pre-recording had been suggested, but the quality of a half-hour disc side was not up to scratch. (LPs would also be introduced in 1948, but we’re not in 1948 yet) and the radio stations just would not accept it. So for 18 months, there was an impasse. But luckily there was a way out.

At the end of the second world war, Jack Mullin, a member of the US Signal Corps, had been tasked with finding out about German electronics. One day at the headquarters of Radio Frankfurt, he made a discovery. Magnetic recording had been around for nearly half a century at this point, but it always gave a distorted, inadequate sound. Not here. The AEG ‘Magnetophon’ was capable of recording and reproducing sounds to a fidelity completely unheard of before. You could even speed up or slow down tapes without any significant loss. Mullin took two of these machines back to the USA and spent the next couple of years trying to convince anyone that they were of use, until finally Murdo MacKenzie, an assistant to Crosby, was impressed enough to try them out. Within a few months, he was able to record shows in bulk, edit them at his leisure, and spend more of his time playing golf.

A studio musician often used by Crosby was one Les Paul, these days of course better known for his development of the electric guitar, but in the mid 40s more of a jobbing session guitarist. Paul had played a major role in Crosby’s 1945 number one “It’s Been a Long, Long Time,” for example. Crosby showed the new tape-recording devices to Paul and encouraged him to build a studio, where he experimented with the first multitrack tape recordings. Until this point, of course, every record you hear is in essence a live recording. A minor quirk here perhaps is that the two apparently multitracked selections (“Lover” and “What Is This Thing Called Love?”) actually date from before he successfully constructed his multitrack studio, instead they were constructed by recording and altering the speed of acetate discs – on “Lover” for example, that’s eight different Les Pauls playing along at different speeds.

Les Paul wasn’t the only person experimenting with tape recording, of course. In France we also have Pierre Schaeffer, the father of Musique Concrète. Cutting up, rearranging and juxtaposing sounds was not a new idea (is there ever really a new idea?) as you will perhaps remember from the Dziga Vertov sound collages used in the 1925 mix. But Schaeffer’s experiments do mark the start of a movement, and one which will be important to these mixes from now on, starting from this one.

Listening to this mix, you will likely find it noticeably different from those before, and there’s a reason. In this half, inspired by Les Paul, Pierre Schaeffer and even Bing Crosby, as well as the new popular, advertising-supported media, we have a quick-moving cut-up style. This includes all of the year’s news. Next time we’ll be taking a break from all of that in any case.

Tracklist

0:00:00 Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette (Clip from The Red Shoes) (Clip from Edward R Murrow – I Can Hear It Now) (Clip from Unknown Radio show) 0:01:01 Les Paul – Lover (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from NBC Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from The Life of Riley) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial)

January

(Clip from The Jack Benny Program) 0:04:44 Texas Ruby & Curley Fox – Come Here Soon (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from US propaganda film) 0:07:44 Charlie Parker’s All Stars – Constellation (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from US propaganda film) 0:10:16 Raj Kapoor – Solah Baras Ki Bhayee Umariya (Clip from NBC Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clips from NBC News of The World) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from NBC News of The World) (Clip of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from NBC News of The World)

February

(Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from The Life of Riley) 0:16:12 Woody Herman And His Orchestra – Sabre Dance (Clips from CBC – John Fisher on Post-War Europe) (Clips of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette) 0:19:43 Muddy Waters – I Feel Like Going Home (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) 0:23:22 Willy Walden & Piet Muyselaar – Jantje Is Gaan Voetballen (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Pepsodent TV Commercial) (Clip from BBC Archive)

March

(Clip from CBC – The Atom Bomb) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) 0:25:06 Youkoui Bamileké – Ngwop (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from The Life of Riley) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) 0:27:14 Mado Robin – Air De La Reine De La Nuit (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) 0:28:59 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – Ill Barkio (Clip from The Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from US Propaganda Film) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette)

April

(Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 0:32:30 Rose Murphy – Cecilia (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clips from BBC Archive – Budget Day) 0:36:35 Red Ingle & The Natural Seven – Cigareetes, Whuskey, And Wild, Wild Women (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from The Jack Benny Programme) (Clip from US Propaganda Film) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 0:39:45 Astor Piazzolla – Villeguita (Clip from Nederlands In Zeven Lessen)

May

(Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Dennis Day) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from The Life of Riley) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) 0:42:29 Peggy Lee – Why Don’t You Do Right? (Clips from NBC Dewey-Stassen Debate) 0:46:39 Sotiría Béllou & Vasílis Tsitsánis – Péfteis Se Láthi (Clips from NBC Clifton Utley commentary on Palestine) (Clip from newsreel – Haganah Troops Occupy Jaffa) (Clip from Edward M Murrow – I Can Hear It Now) 0:50:30 Dalila Rochdi – Haragli Guelbi, Pt. 1 (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip of Peter Lorre on Spike Jones Show) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech)

June

(Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip of guest appearance by Frank Sinatra) (Clip from Jack Benny Show) 0:54:13 Mukesh & Shamshad Begum – Raat Ko Jee Chamke Taare Aag (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip of Harry S Truman describing the blockade of Berlin) 0:57:55 Elder A. Johnson – God Don’t Like It (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:00:21 Willie Gumede & His Concertina Band – U Gumede (1948 TV Commercial) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from The Life of Riley)

July

(Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clips from BBC Archive) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:04:17 Arthur Smith – Guitar Boogie (Clips from Clement Atlee – The New Social Services and The Citizen) (Clips from National Health Service Story) 1:09:51 Les Paul – What Is This Thing Called Love? (Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from Alastair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:14:07 Roy Hogsed – Cocaine Blues (Clips from BBC – Last German POWs leave the UK) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon)

August

(Clip from Strom Thurmond’s Swimming Pool Speech) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Strom Thurmond’s Swimming Pool Speech) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) 1:18:32 Tex Williams – Drop Dead (Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) 1:20:07 Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique (Clip from What is Television?) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) 1:20:57 Ann Miller – Shakin’ The Blues Away (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clips from BBC Archive) (Clip from 1948 TV Commercial)

September

(Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) 1:24:15 Dave Brubeck – How High The Moon (Clips from BBC Archive) 1:29:32 The Sauceman Brothers – Hallelujah We Shall Rise (Clip from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not) (Clip from What is a Television?) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) 1:31:04 Standard Radio Sound Effect – Canadian Geese (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review)

October

(Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Great Decision) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:33:32 John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson – Stop Breaking Down (Clip from The Jack Benny Program) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Truman Address in St Louis) 1:36:22 Dick Wellstood – So in Love (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) (Clip from Peter Lorre on Spike Jones Show) 1:40:41 Charles Mingus – Mingus Fingus (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique)

November

(Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from 1948 A Year of Decision) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from Newsreel – Results of the 1948 US Presidential Election are Revealed) (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from Cavalcade of 1948) (Clip from NBC Election Night 1948) (Clip from Newsreel – Results of the 1948 US Presidential Election are Revealed) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clips from NBC Election Night 1948) (Clip from Alasdair Cooke Letter From America) (Clip from US Propaganda Film) 1:49:46 Django Reinhardt Et Le Quintette Du Hot Club De France – Just For Fun (Clips from BBC Archive) 1:53:02 Chet Atkins – Dizzy Strings (Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) 1:56:15 ????????? ?????????? , ??????? ??????? – ????????????? ??????? (Clip from BBC – Birth of Prince Charles) (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clips from Cavalcade of 1948) 2:00:03 Lightnin’ Hopkins – Down Baby (Clip from Commercial for Mum Deodorant) (Clip from Commercial for Nestle Quik) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) 2:03:51 Red Ingle – Pearly Maude (Clip from Kraft Music Hall) (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique)

December

(Clip from 1948 Television Commercial) 2:07:08 Julia Lee – Do You Want It? (Clip from Contact Lenses) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Pathetique) (Clip from Banta Trance Speech) 2:11:19 Shona – Shuga (Clips from BBC Archive) 2:14:23 Kasagi Shizuko – Sakura Boogie Woogie (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show) 2:17:42 Shamshad Begum – Kaahe Koyal Shor Machaye (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from What Is Television?) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) (Clip from Bob Hope in Berlin) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from Bob Hope in Berlin) 2:20:45 Flatt & Scruggs – Farewell Blues (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Bob Hope in Berlin) (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby)

Ending

(Clip of Pierre Schaeffer – Etude Violette) (Clip of Banta Trance Speech) 2:24:14 Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra – Oop-Pap-A-Da (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) (Clip from Edward R Murrow – I Can Hear It Now) (Clip from WXQR Halloween Nightmare) 2:29:41 Spike Jones & His City Slickers – None But The Lonely Heart (A Soaperetta) (Clip from The Profit Motive) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from Howdy Doody) (Clip from Fitch Bandwagon) (Clip from Kraft Music Hall) (Clip from NBC Utley Commentary on Palestine) (Clip from Interview with Carmen Miranda)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

1948 Part Two – Move

In part one we saw how tape technology was transforming the sound of the world in 1948. In part two we’ll take a cue from another new development – the long playing record. When I first heard that the LP had been less than twenty years old when Sgt Pepper was released – or just eleven years old when Kind of Blue was released, it seemed hard to believe. I was so accustomed to thinking of music as naturally fitting in this format – two sides of around 20-25 minutes each. But until now, nobody was experiencing music like that. There were “albums” it’s true – there had been since the Edwardian age – but these were “albums” in the “photo album” sense. Booklets of perhaps eight double-sided shellac discs, with sides numbered under the assumption that they would be played as a stack on top of a record player (side one matched with side eight maybe.) These cumbersome things were meant for classical music, and not anything as disposable as jazz. But jazz was one step ahead already. By now of course we have this wave of Be Bop artists, often playing improvised music for hours on end, also very much unsuited to a short side of shellac.

Columbia’s new long playing discs (and RCA Victor’s new 7” singles) do not make up a substantial proportion of this mix, but where last time everything was a tape cut up, this time we’re more in the realm of the sometimes meandering, sometimes slow groove building world made possible by this new medium. This is less of a mix to pay attention to, and more a mix to sit back and enjoy. Which is the way forward? We’ll just have to see. The decade is almost over, we’ve come a long way, but there’s one last shock for us before we reach the heart of the century.

Support the show at http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound Chat about the show at https://discord.gg/3WXKn2xp Full index of episodes at https://centuriesofsound.com

Tracklist

Intro

(Clip from Naked City) 0:00:00 John Cage & Jay Gottlieb – Dream (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from Truth or Consequences) (Clip from Atomic Energy Is Your Business) 0:00:54 Brother Bones And His Shadows – Sweet Georgia Brown (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:03:51 Cold Storage Rhythm – Skokiaan (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:06:24 Blue Ridge Quartet – Hard Times Will Soon Be Over

Part One – Rock

(Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra) 0:09:02 Wynonie Harris – Good Rockin’ Tonight (Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra) 0:11:45 Bill Moore – We’re Gonna Rock (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:14:23 Jimmy Liggins – Cadillac Boogie (Clip from This is Bing Crosby) 0:16:28 Wild Bill Moore – Rock and Roll (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:19:17 Amos Milburn – Chicken-Shack Boogie (Clip from interview with Vera Hall)

Part Two – Move

0:21:23 Crown Price Waterford – Move Your Hand, Baby (Clip from Spike Jones Show) 0:23:06 Milt Jackson & Thelonious Monk – Misterioso (Clip from Exploding Cigarettes Prank) (Clip of Symphony Syd introducing Miles Davis Band) 0:27:26 Miles Davis – Move 0:30:36 Charlie Parker – Relaxin’ at the Camarillo 0:32:54 Hazel Scott – Love Will Find A Way (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948)

Part Three – Mist

0:35:07 Pee Wee King – Bull Fiddle Boogie (Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra) 0:37:43 Rip Ramsey – Wanderers Swing (Clip from interview with Vera Hall) (Clip from Bertrand Russell / Fr Frederick Copleston debate on existence of God) 0:40:24 Kenny Clarke – Algerian Cynicism (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:43:12 Duke Ellington & His Orchestra – Lady Of The Lavender Mist 0:46:27 Thelonious Monk – Evonce (Clip of Helen Keller speaking)

Part Four – Size

(Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 0:49:33 Nellie Lutcher – Fine Brown Frame (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:52:30 Julia Lee – King Size Papa (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:55:09 John Lee Hooker – Boogie Chillen (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 0:58:03 Big Jay McNeeley’s Blue Jays – The Deacon’s Hop (Clip from The Chicken of Tomorrow) 1:00:52 Joe Swift – That’s Your Last Boogie

Part Five – Twist

(Clip from interview with Vera Hall) 1:03:54 Dizzy Gillespie – Prince Albert (Clip from The Treasure of The Sierra Madre) 1:08:43 Paul Williams Sextette – The Twister Pt. 1 1:10:08 Paul Williams Sextette – The Twister Pt. 2 (Clip from Believe It Or Not) 1:11:16 Tuareg Women of Adrar des Iforas – Air de Kel Ajjer (Rhythme Ellehelleh) (Clip from Bertrand Russell / Fr Frederick Copleston debate on existence of God) 1:12:53 Pablo Casals – Manel Sarerra Puigferrer Dubte

Part Six – Run

(Clip of Edward R Murrow) 1:15:39 Louis Jordan – Run Joe (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:17:52 Machito and His Afro-Cuban Salseros – Asia Minor 1:19:50 Henry Salvador – Maladie D’amour (Clip from Red River) 1:22:05 Nellie Lutcher and Her Rhythm – There’s Another Mule In Your Stall (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:24:53 Roy Brown – Mighty, Mighty Man

Part Seven – Rope

(Clip from Bicycle Thieves) 1:27:35 Howard McGhee Sextet with Milt Jackson – Merry Lee (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 1:29:43 Lonnie Johnson – Tomorrow Night (Clip from Kraft Music Hall) 1:32:48 Charles Trenet – Une Noix (Clip from Rope) 1:34:56 John Cage & Jay Gottlieb – Dream 1:37:23 The Trumpeteers – Milky White Way

Part Eight – Hate

(Clip from Bertrand Russell / Fr Frederick Copleston debate on existence of God) 1:39:34 The Pilgrim Travelers – I Want My Crown (Clip from Drunken Angel) 1:42:48 Thelonious Monk – Suburban Eyes (Clip from Key Largo) 1:45:54 Milt Jackson & Thelonious Monk – Epistrophy (Clip from Key Largo) (Clip from Spike Jones Show) 1:49:31 Pee Wee Crayton – Texas Hop (Clip from Brighton Rock) 1:52:13 Victor Silvester – Golden Earrings (Clip from Brighton Rock)

Part Nine – Love

1:54:39 The Orioles – It’s Too Soon To Know (Clip from This Is Bing Crosby) 1:57:32 Paula Watson – A Little Bird Told Me 2:00:08 Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Little Boy, How Old Are You? (Clip from interview with Vera Hall) 2:02:38 Ella Fitzgerald – Robbin’s Nest (Clip from interview with Carmen Miranda) 2:05:55 Line Renaud – Etoile Des Neiges

Part Ten – Mirth

(Clip from Hamlet (Gielgud – BBC Radio)) 2:08:46 Tadd Dameron Sextet – The Squirrel (Clips from Hamlet (Olivier – Film)) 2:12:48 Miles Davis – Budo (Hallucinations) (Clip from Hamlet (Olivier – Film)) 2:17:06 Sonny Thompson – Long Gone, Part 2 (Clip from Macbeth (Welles – Film)) 2:19:59 Wynonie Harris – Blow Your Brains Out (Clip from Macbeth (Welles – Film)) 2:23:43 Charlie Parker – Embraceable You

Part Eleven – Stew

(Clip from The Jack Benny Program) 2:26:31 Hal Singer Sextette – Beef Stew (Clip from The Spike Jones Show) 2:30:13 Camille Howard – X-Temperaneous Boogie (Clip from The Jack Benny Program) 2:32:15 Erskine Hawkins – Corn Bread (CLip from The Jack Benny Program) 2:34:33 Tommy Sargent – Steel Guitar Boogie (Clip from The Original Amateur Hour) 2:37:31 Hazel Scott – Dancing On A Ceiling (Clip from Germany Year Zero)

Ending

(Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) (Clip from Calvacade of 1948) 2:40:25 Nat King Cole – Nature Boy (Clip from Calvacade of 1948) (Clip from The Phil Harris & Alice Faye Christmas Show) 2:43:05 Peggy Lee – Don’t Smoke In Bed (Clip from BBC Archive) (Clip from Top Tunes of 1948) 2:46:14 Russ Morgan – So Tired (Clip from 1948 Year In Review) (Clip from Germany Year Zero)

This time James Errington is joined by John Ashlin to explore the music of 1916. While Europe lies devastated in the midst of the darkest year of the first world war, America is hotting up, with the birth of jazz and blues music imminent, while the old world of Vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley is struggling to adapt.

Support Centuries of Sound and access a treasure trove of bonuses at http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

This Centuries of Sound mix comes courtesy of my supporters at patreon.com/centuriesofsound – join them for as little as $5 per month and get a full archive and a host of bonus material.

Tracks

0:00:00 Jeff Alexander & Alfred Hitchcock – Music to Be Murdered By (1958) 0:01:36 Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You (1956) 0:04:00 Clip from Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956) 0:04:22 Bert Convy – The Monster Hop (1958) 0:06:47 Clip from Diabolique (1955) 0:06:48 Tony & The Monstrosities – Igor’s Party (1959) 0:09:02 Clip from The Fly (1958) 0:09:13 The Hollywood Flames – Frankenstein’s Den (1958) 0:11:18 Clip from Them! (1954) 0:11:35 The Swinging Phillies – Frankenstein’s Party (1957) 0:14:10 Nelson Olmstead – Excerpt from The Mummy’s Foot by Theophile Gautier (1956) 0:14:35 Bob McFadden & Dor – The Mummy (1959) 0:16:32 Clip from Horror Of Dracula Trailer (1958) 0:16:58 The Duponts – Screamin Ball (At Dracula Hall) (1958) 0:19:12 Clip from Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) 0:19:17 Calypso Carnival featuring King Flash – Zombie Jamboree (Back To Back) (1956) 0:21:46 Clip from House on Haunted Hill (1959) 0:22:05 Jack Rivers – Haunted House Boogie (1951) 0:24:47 Clip from The Thing (1951) 0:25:02 The Five Blobs – The Blob (1958) 0:27:29 Clip from Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) 0:27:43 Sheb Wooley – The Purple People Eater (1958) 0:29:53 Nelson Olmstead – Excerpt from The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson (1956) 0:30:05 The Poets – Dead (1958) 0:31:57 Clip from Night of The Demon (1957) 0:32:12 Eartha Kitt – I Want To Be Evil (1953) 0:35:41 Clip from Sleeping Beauty (1959) 0:35:55 Howlin’ Wolf – Evil Is Goin’ On (1954) 0:38:43 Clip from The Quatermass Xmeriment (1955) 0:39:04 Paul J Smith – The Monster! (From 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea) (1954) 0:40:15 Clip from Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) 0:40:25 Akira Ifukube – Horror in the Water Tank (1954) 0:40:40 Clip from The Headless Ghost (1959) 0:41:02 Nightmares – The Headless Ghost (1959) 0:42:41 Clip from Bell, Book and Candle (1958) 0:42:59 Kip Tyler – She’s My Witch (1958) 0:45:13 Clip from Bell, Book and Candle (1958) 0:45:26 Frank Sinatra – Witchcraft (1957) 0:48:09 Clip from The Night of the Hunter (1955) 0:48:16 Gene Vincent – Race With The Devil (1956) 0:50:16 Clip from The Thing That Couldn’t Die Trailer (1958) 0:50:30 The Calvanes – Horror Pictures (1958) 0:52:30 Clip from Horror Of Dracula (1958) 0:53:27 Archie King – The Vampires (1959) 0:55:44 Clip from The Creature With The Atom Brain (1955) 0:56:00 The Zanies – The Mad Scientist (1958) 0:57:50 Einer Nielsen – Phantom Stimmen (1950) 0:58:07 Bobby Christian With The Allen Sisters – The Spider & The Fly (1958) 1:00:09 Clip from House of Wax (1953) 1:00:23 The Revels – Dead Mans’ Stroll (1959) 1:02:48 Dick Jacobs and his Orchestra – Main Title from The Horror of Dracula (1958)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

1949 Part One – The 7″ Mix

2024 has been the year of my 45th birthday (yes, still so young, I know) and the number has set me thinking about the importance of the 45RPM 7” single in my life. I’ve been playing them as long as I can remember, receiving packages of remaindered singles in the 1980s, buying a few every week at Magpie Records in Worcester in the mid-90, traveling with me in a big stripy box as I moved around, and now there they sit on my shelves still, though I don’t have a functioning stereo system now. My LPs, undoubtedly worth more, were left in the locked room of a friend in Southampton nearly 20 years ago and never recovered, it’s annoying, but not something I lose sleep about, the singles are much more important. Beside all the memories, there’s something about the format that seems kind of perfect. Small enough to comfortably carry around, each side just containing a few minutes of music, there’s something at once unfussy and potentially extravagant about both form and content. Singles like the one you see in the picture here often have larger holes, indicating their use in a jukebox, this little disc adaptable enough to be used as a replicable part in any number of mass produced machines. And that of course means b-sides, a chance for the act to try out something new without the risk of a negative reaction, and in many cases the disc would be flipped by a dj, and the b-side could be the hit that changed everything.

In short, the 7” vinyl single is one of the most important inventions of the 21st century, and it all started in 1949, when RCA released their new format, replacing the larger, more brittle shellac discs with a new compound – polyvinyl chloride. As when most new formats are introduced, RCA were engaged in a war with a competitor, Columbia’s 12” vinyl LP – only in this case the two formats had very different niches, and could (after a couple of years) be played by the same equipment, so both survived.

The original 7” single wasn’t in exactly the standard form we know today. The larger, jukebox-sized hole in the centre came as standard, as did coloured vinyl. The idea was that each genre would have its own colour, with red for pop music, green for country, yellow for children’s records, and a confusion of other shades for jazz, R&B, classical and so on. As should be clear to anyone listening to this mix, the differences between these genres were particularly muddy in 1949, and the idea was soon dropped.

The change was not, of course, immediate. Most of the music in this mix was still issued on 78RPM shellac discs, and they would continue to be manufactured all the way through the 50s, and in some countries even into the 70s. But the time was certainly ripe for a cheap, portable, harder to shatter format, and even if rock and roll had not already begun in all but name, early 1950s pop music would also suit it well. We are three years away from the introduction of the UK singles chart, and the 7” record’s abilities and limitations would do a great deal to set the parameters of popular music as we know it.

Track list

Intro

(Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr) 0:00:03 RCA Victor Orchestra – South Pacific Overture (Clip from NBC News) 0:00:33 Jnan Prakash Ghose – Tabla Instrumental

January

(Clip from 1949 Year In Review) (Background from Pierre Schaeffer – Vagotte) (Clip from Dragnet) (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 0:04:00 Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five – Saturday Night Fish Fry 0:06:58 Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs – Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 0:09:58 Tennessee Ernie Ford – Cry Of The Wild Goose (Clip from Harry S Truman Inauguration) 0:13:50 Doris Day – Again (Clips from Harry S Truman Inauguration) 0:16:55 Machito and His Afro-Cuban Salseros – Babarabatiri (Clip from Harry S Truman Inauguration) 0:20:31 Babs Gonzales – Prelude to a Nightmare (Clip from interview with Albert Glenny) 0:22:56 Dizzy Gillespie – Jump-Did-Le-Ba (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 0:25:26 Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly – New York, New York (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) 0:28:39 Charlie Ventura – East Of The Sun (Clip from So Much For So Little) 0:31:50 Evelyn Knight And The Stardusters – A Little Bird Told Me

February

(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 0:34:36 The Angelic Gospel Singers – Touch Me, Lord Jesus (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 0:36:39 Ruth Brown – I’ll Get Along Somehow (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 0:40:11 Fats Domino – The Fat Man (Clip from Dragnet) (Clip from So Much For So Little) 0:42:49 Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 1 (Clip from The Heiress) 0:44:41 Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 2 (Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts) 0:46:00 Jerry Byrd – Steel Guitar Rag (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr) 0:48:56 George Lewis & His New Orleans Music – Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula (Clip from interview with Alphonse Picou and Paul Dominguez, Jr.) 0:51:51 Brew Moore – Gold Rush 0:54:55 Lead Belly – Sugared The Beer 0:55:46 Lead Belly – Salty Dog (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)

March

(Clip from NBC TV News) 0:59:11 Hank Williams – I Just Don’t Like This Kind Of Living (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:02:07 Goree Carter – Back Home Blues (Clip from Jack Benny Show) (Clip from Fred Allen Show) 1:04:10 Myrta Silva & Sonora Matancera – La Tremenduca (Clip from Suspense) (Clip from NBC TV News) 1:07:30 Takamine Hideko – Ginza Kankan Musume (Clip from You Bet Your Life) (Clip from Inner Sanctum) 1:09:06 Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys – I’m Going Back to Old Kentucky 1:09:22 Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys – Blue Grass Stomp (Clip from White Heat) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:11:17 Professor Longhair – Mardi Gras In New Orleans (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:14:27 Bull Moose Jackson – Why Don’t You Haul Off And Love Me (Clip from Inner Sanctum) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:16:17 Betty Hutton – Hamlet (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr) 1:19:27 Noro Morales & His Orchestra – 110th Street And 5th Avenue (Clip from Jack Benny Show)

April

(Clip from Review of News From The Year 1949) (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:22:36 Firehouse Five Plus Two – Everybody Loves My Baby (Clip from Review of News From The Year 1949) 1:25:45 A. Rahman & Columbia Orchestra – Oh, Juita Ku (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:27:46 Elton Britt & The Skytoppers – Candy Kisses (Clip from The Shadow) 1:29:55 Dinah Washington – Baby Get Lost (Clip from The Jack Benny Show) (Radio jingle for Lipton Tea) 1:32:54 South Pacific Original Broadway Cast – I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair 1:36:19 South Pacific Original Broadway Cast – Happy Talk (Clip from Jim & Judy in Teleland) 1:39:49 Todd Duncan and Chorus – A Bird of Passage, Thousands of Miles (Reprise) (Clip from Jour de feté) 1:41:41 Charles Trenet – Mes jeunes années (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) (Clip from So Much For So Little) 1:43:51 Texas Slim – Devil’s Jump (Clip from So Much For So Little) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:45:53 Doris Day – I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed By Anyone But You

May

(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:49:02 Marlene Dietrich – Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (Clips from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines / Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:53:01 Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) – You’re Gonna Miss Me (Clips from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines / Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:56:00 Roberto Firpo – Instrumental – De Mi Arrabal (Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 1:58:14 Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra – I Loves You Porgy (Clip from Review of News for The Year 1949) 2:01:31 Arsenio Rodriguez Y Su Conjunto – Dundunbanza (Clip from Late Spring) 2:03:19 Sanjou Machiko – Karisome no Koi (Clips from Late Spring) 2:08:14 Ichi no Maru – Shamisen Boogie Woogie (Clips from Late Spring) 2:10:25 Jerry Byrd – Steelin’ The Blues (voc. Rex Allen) (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) 2:13:26 The Five Scamps – Red Hot (Clip from White Hot) 2:15:60 TJ Fowler – Tj Boogie (Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)

June

(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines) 2:18:29 Nathan Abshire – Pine Grove Blues (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 2:21:31 Jewel King – 3 x 7 = 21 (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 2:23:33 Big Joe Turner – Jumpin’ at the Jubilee (Clip from A Warning To Travelers) 2:25:13 Noro Morales – Serenata Ritmica (Clip from A Warning To Travelers) 2:28:15 Sugar Chile Robinson – Numbers Boogie (Clip from A Warning To Travelers) 2:30:57 Evelyn Knight – Powder Your Face With Sunshine (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) (Clip from The Shadow) 2:33:25 Frank Floorshow Culley – Central Avenue Breakdown 2:34:37 Carl Stalling – Variations on Johann Strauss (Clip from So Much For So Little) 2:34:45 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Ida Red Likes the Boogie (Clip from You Bet Your Life) (Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts) 2:37:30 Hank Williams – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Outro

(Clip from Suspense) (Clip from White Heat) (Clip from Frank Sinatra interview) 2:41:05 The Robins – If It’s So Baby (Clip from The Shadow) (Clip from NBC News) (Clip from Le Silence De La Mer) 2:44:35 RCA Victor Orchestra – South Pacific Overture (Clip from The Hitchhiker)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month. As it’s the festive season I’ve decided to use the new function on Patreon to do a couple of membership offers. Firstly I’m offering a 10% discount on all tiers, monthly and annual, just go to patreon.com/centuriesofsound and sign up with the promo code 8AA78 – Secondly, if you buy a gift membership for anyone ($5 p/m tier, annual) then I will give you a CD version of the mixes for the year of their birth (only pre-1950/1972/1989)– so cut up into CD-sized chunks each with its own artwork. For gift memberships – patreon.com/centuriesofsound/gift – then send me a message either on Patreon or by emailing james (at) centuriesofsound.com, I will get those to you within three days.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

1949 Part Two – The 12″ Mix

How do you listen to recorded music? I feel like every phase of my life has a different answer here – the record player at home, a Walkman, a Discman, the stereo system I had when I went to university, the mp3 player that went around Asia with me, then years of phones, laptops, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, car stereos. Sometimes I would listen privately, sometimes on speakers, sometimes it would be in the background, sometimes it would have my full attention. These days it seems like, aside from the car radio, all my listening is private, streamed from computer or phone, and something feels missing. Centuries of Sound started when I was in an environment where nobody wanted to listen to music so I had to retreat into this private experience, and have I ever emerged from that? Only through sharing with you, really.

Putting on a longer piece of music, sitting down and just experiencing it – that’s just something I don’t have time for any more. It is something I miss, but it’s also something I can live without. When end of year polls come around, this is why I focus on the tracks. I like things bite-sized, not because I have a short attention span, more because there’s so much out there and only so much time I can spend with it. And yet, this thing, what is it but very long-form listening?

Putting on an LP seems like such a fundamental part of music listening for so many people, it seems odd to note that as we approach the middle of the 20th century, it’s only now that this is really becoming an option. If you were listening to a record before 1949, it was probably a 10” shellac disc with not much more than three and a half minutes of music per side, and unless you had an elaborate disc-changing machine, that’s how long you had before you had to get up and change the record. There were “albums” though, and had been for quite a while. The earliest I can find is a 1907 recording of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s 1892 opera “I Pagliacci,” starring Puerto Rican tenor Antonio Paoli, and supervised in its production by the composer himself. But these were “albums” as in a “photograph album” or a “stamp album” – a large book of separate discs. Frank Sinatra’s first album, 1946’s “The Voice of Frank Sinatra” is in this format, eight songs across four discs.

When Columbia introduced the 33? rpm 12” vinyl LP in late 1948, the focus was naturally on what it could do that shellac records couldn’t. With around 26 minutes per side, the initial focus was naturally on classical music – and of course it helped that buyers of classical music had more money and a taste for better quality recordings – LPs had “microgroove technology” that allowed for higher fidelity. Next followed Broadway shows, the more respectable kinds of jazz, and more sophisticated pop music – Frank again. What did not appear at first was the music made by and listened to by poor black people (R&B) or poor white people (country) – neither were the right sort of market. Of course, as we will be seeing in a decade and a half, their descendants would lean into the LP so much that, well, you know.

If you want to chat as listen, you can join the conversation on discord here – https://discord.gg/5a7f6wqjcJ

Track list

Intro

(Clip from Dragnet) (Clip from The Hitchhiker) 0:00:18 Pierre Schaeffer – Vagotte (Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts) (Clip from Suspense) (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 0:01:16 Miles Davis – Budo (Clip from Inner Sanctum)

July

(Clip from The Shadow) (Clip from Jack Benny Show) 0:04:10 Jay Jay Johnson’s Boppers – Fox Hunt (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1948) 0:07:04 George Shearing – Summertime (Clip from Inner Sanctum) 0:10:13 Charlie Parker – Just Friends (Clip from interview with Alphonse Picou and Paul Dominguez, Jr.) 0:13:54 Lennie Tristano – Wow (Clip) 0:14:05 Lennie Tristano – Intuition (Clip from Review of News for the Year 1949) 0:16:31 James Moody’s Modernists – Tin Tin Deo (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 0:19:28 Blind Willie McTell – Last Dime Blues (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 0:22:52 Professor Longhair – Hey Little Girl (Clip from interview with Alphonse Picou and Paul Dominguez, Jr.) 0:25:11 Francois Awila ye mpangi zandi – Kiboba Kiyma Nkuaku (Kikongo; Congo) (Clip from Passport to Pimlico) 0:27:57 Joe Lutcher – Mardi Gras (Clip from Passport to Pimlico)

August

(Clip from The Hitchhiker) 0:31:21 John Lee Hooker – Boogie Chllen (Clip from 1949 Year In Review Headlines) (Clip from Review of News for the Year 1949) 0:34:53 The Louvin Brothers – Blues Stay Away From Me (Clip from Jim & Judy in Teleland) 0:38:12 Django Reinhardt – Improvisation N°4 (Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts) 0:40:42 Sticks McGhee – Drinkin’ Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee (Clip from Fred Allen Show) 0:43:14 Charlie Parker – Blues (Fast) (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 0:45:58 Charlie Ventura – Introduction 0:46:12 Charlie Ventura – Body And Soul 0:50:13 Tito Puente – Abaniquito (Clip from 1949 Year In Review Headlines) 0:53:13 Wanda Landowska – Prelude II In C Minor (Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra) 0:55:05 Lennie Tristano – Digression (Clip from interview with Alphonse Picou and Paul Dominguez, Jr.)

September

0:58:09 Sidney Bechet – September Song (Clip from Louis Armstrong interview) 1:02:13 Atlantic Quintet – Believe It Beloved (Clip from Louis Armstrong interview) 1:03:45 Lee Konitz Quintet – Fishin’ Around (Clip from Louis Armstrong interview) 1:07:25 George Shearing – Midnight On Cloud 69 (Clip from advertisement for Camel Cigarettes) 1:10:53 Jay Mcshann – You, Cindy Lou (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) (Clip from Review of News for the Year 1949) (Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) 1:13:06 Njembe Gwet Paulemond – Paulemond a Ye Nsinga Ndinga (Clip from The Heiress) 1:15:47 Stanley Black – Jungle Bird (Clip from 1949 Year In Review Headlines) (Clip from 1949 – Year In Review) 1:18:53 Charles Mingus – He’s Gone (Clips from Stray Dog) 1:21:00 Oum Kalsoum – Al Nile (Clip from The Hitchhiker)

October

(Clip from The Third Man) 1:23:10 Anton Karas – The Harry Lime Theme (Clip from The Third Man) 1:25:50 Osvaldo Pugliese – Malandraca (Clip from 1949 Year In Review Headlines) (Clip from interview with Victor Kravchenko) 1:29:07 Pierre Schaeffer – Variations Sur Un Flute Mexicaine (Clip from Review of News for the Year 1949) (Clip of Mao Zedong speech) 1:30:19 Miles Davis – Move (Clip of Bevin Speech) (Clip from The Third Man) 1:31:50 Bismillah Khan & Party – Shehnai instrumental (Clip from Whisky Galore) 1:35:05 Lead Belly – John Henry 1:39:56 Lead Belly – 4, 5 & 9 1:41:02 Amos Milburn – Hold Me Baby (Clip from On The Town) 1:44:10 Ruth Brown – So Long (Clip from Whisky Galore) 1:46:43 Dizzy Gillespie – That Old Black Magic (Clip from Suspense – Ghost Hunt)

November

1:50:07 Ivory Joe Hunter – I Almost Lost My Mind (Clip from Suspense – Ghost Hunt) 1:52:38 Lonnie Johnson – Blues Stay Away from Me (Clip from 1949 Year In Review Headlines) (Clip from 1949 – Year In Review) 1:54:43 Eddie Davis – Mountain Oysters (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 1:56:52 Lightnin’ Hopkins – Jail House Blues 1:59:28 Jerry Byrd – Steelin’ The Chimes (Clip from Fred Allen Show) 2:01:55 Flatt and Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys – That Home Above (Clip from Dragnet) 2:03:33 Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra – Lavender Coffin (Clip of Louis Farrakhan Playing Violin) 2:06:32 Curley Weaver – Trixie (Clip from The Set Up) 2:08:21 Sonny Terry – Riff and Harmonica Jump (Clip from Fred Allen Show) 2:10:56 Lucky Millinder – D Natural Blues

December

(Clip from Sir Alfred Munnings’ valedictory speech at The Royal Academy of Art) 2:13:37 Machito and His Afro-Cuban Orchestra – Tanga (Clip from 1949 Year In Review Headlines) 2:18:52 Wynonie Harris – Sittin’ On It All The Time (Clip from Dragnet) 2:21:40 Pee Wee Crayton – Texas Hop (Clip from Jack Benny Show) 2:23:57 George Wallington Trio – Fairyland (Clip from You Bet Your Life) 2:26:54 Bud Powell – Sweet Georgia Brown (Clip from Whisky Galore) 2:29:52 Lee Konitz – Retrospection 2:32:58 Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar – Desi 2:35:08 Oum Kalthoum – Yalli Kan Yechgeek Adeeni 2:37:12 Shona – Masongano 2:39:45 Jack Armstrong Chevy Chase – The Cott

Ending

(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949) (Clip from 1949 Year In Review Headlines) 2:43:04 The Orioles – Tell Me So (Clips from You Bet Your Life)

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. As it’s the festive season I’ve decided to use the new function on Patreon to do a couple of membership offers. Firstly I’m offering a 10% discount on all tiers, monthly and annual, just go to patreon.com/centuriesofsound and sign up with the promo code 8AA78 – Secondly, if you buy a gift membership for anyone ($5 p/m tier, annual) then I will give you a CD version of the mixes for the year of their birth (only pre-1950/1972/1989)– so cut up into CD-sized chunks each with its own artwork. For gift memberships – patreon.com/centuriesofsound/gift – then send me a message either on Patreon or by emailing james (at) centuriesofsound.com, I will get those to you within three days.

Happy Holidays everyone, here is your new Christmas mix, this one covering the shorter period of 1955-1961. I have been cutting it dangerously close because there was simply so much to pick from, this being the peak period for famous records, as far as the US is concerned at least (though you will notice a few of them missing – the aim here is to make a good mix, not to tick off all the boxes, and certain favourites are, in my opinion, just a little too annoying.) I found this to be quite an odd era, there are rock & roll Christmas records of course, but there were a lot of religious records too, recorded in luxurious high-fidelity as presents for audiophiles, and some truly great jazz records which happened to have a festive theme. So, there are roughly three movements here – a half hour of pop and novelty records, a half hour of a very religious Christmas, and a little under half an hour of cool jazz – if any of these are not your cup of tea, I’ve labelled them below, so you can skip to the part you need.

There will also be a radio version of this show (featuring my son Theo) broadcast on Cambridge Radio (formerly Cambridge 105) on Sunday 22nd December at 19:00 GMT, you can listen by following this link at the right time – https://consoles.radioplayer.cloud/8261297/index.html

I hope you all have a great break, whatever you are celebrating around now, or even if you are celebrating at all. 2024 has been yet another tough year for many, and I hope this is an enjoyable way to finish it.

Part One

0:00:00 Daphne Oram – Winters Journey (Intro) (1956) (Clip from The Apartment – 1960) 0:00:20 Marlene Paula & The Billy Van Planck Orchestra – I Wanna Spend Christmas With Elvis (1956) (Clip of Children Meeting Father Christmas – 1955) 0:02:32 Elvis Presley – Blue Christmas (1957) (Clip from “Men’s Christmas” – 1961) 0:05:01 George Jones – New Baby For Christmas (1957) (Clip from Hancock’s Half Hour) 0:07:31 Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (1958) (Clip from Hancock’s Half Hour – 1957) 0:09:57 Lenny Dee – Mister Santa (1961) (Clip of Children Meeting Father Christmas – 1955) 0:12:04 Ella Fitzgerald – Frosty the Snow Man (1960) (Clip from Lucky Strike Commercial – 1958) 0:14:37 Adam Faith – Lonely Pup (In A Christmas Shop) (1960) (Clip from Timex Watches Commercial – 1958) 0:16:51 Ed ‘Kookie’ Byrnes – Yulesville (1959) (Clip from Hancock’s Half Hour – 1957) 0:19:12 Stan Freberg – Nuttin’ For Christmas (1955) 0:21:32 Tom Lehrer – A Christmas Carol (1959) 0:24:06 Perry Como – Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1959)

Part Two

(Clip from Christmas in Bethlehem – 1961) 0:27:31 Leroy Anderson & His Orchestra – O Come, O Come Emmanuel (1955) (Clip from Christmas in Bethlehem – 1961) 0:29:14 The Louvin Brothers – It’s Christmas Time (1960) (Clip from Christmas in Bethlehem – 1961) 0:32:31 Vera Ward Hall – No Room At The Inn (1959) 0:34:59 Mitch Miller – Coventry Carol (1958) (Clip from Vera Ward Hall – No Room At The Inn – 1959) 0:38:25 Nat King Cole – Away in a Manger (1960) (Clip from Vera Ward Hall – No Room At The Inn – 1959) 0:40:16 John Klein – Gesu Bambino (1959) (Clip from Vera Ward Hall – No Room At The Inn – 1959) 0:44:23 Johnny Mathis – It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (1958) (Clip from Vera Ward Hall – No Room At The Inn – 1959) 0:48:04 Arthur Lynds Bigelow – Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (1956) 0:48:55 Vera Ward Hall – No Room At The Inn (1959) 0:49:49 Chet Atkins – O Come, All Ye Faithful (1961) 0:52:03 Ewan Maccoll – Christmas Rhyme (1957) 0:52:23 Sacred Harp Singers – Sherburne (1959) (Clip from Christmas in Bethlehem – 1961) 0:54:25 The Three Suns – Carol of the Bells (1955) (Clip from Christmas in Bethlehem – 1961) 0:55:47 Stan Kenton – O Tannenbaum (1961) (Clip from Night of The Hunter – 1955) 0:57:41 Percy Faith & His Orchestra – I Wonder As I Wander (1958) (Clip from The Loretta Young Show – Christmas Day, 1955)

Part Three

0:59:52 Laurence Welk – I’ll Be Home For Christmas (1961) 1:01:58 F Navatta, F Mingole – Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle (1955) 1:04:26 Frankie Ervin & The Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers – Christmas Eve Baby (1955) (Clip from “Trying out Turkey Plucking” – 1961) 1:07:06 The Ramsey Lewis Trio – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (1961) 1:09:24 Putipu Band Of Capri – New Year’s Day Tarentella (1955) (Clip from “Men’s Christmas” – 1961) 1:11:45 Duke Ellington – Sugar Rum Cherry (1960) (Clip from “Men’s Christmas” – 1961) (Clip from “Solo Bell-Ringer” – 1961) (Clip from “Men’s Christmas” – 1961) 1:16:01 The Ramsey Lewis Trio – Christmas Blues (1961) (Clip from Borden’s Egg Nog Commercial – 1956) 1:18:59 Emile Ford And The Checkmates – White Christmas (1960) 1:21:15 Father Christmas & Players – Conclusion Of Symondsbury Mummer’s Play (1958)

Support Centuries of Sound and access a treasure trove of bonuses at http://patreon.com/centuriesofsound

At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a placeholder to appear on the podcast feed. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month.

Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.

At the end of 2024 I suddenly found myself immersed in new music again, and while putting together a list of favourites, I thought – why not make a mix? So here it is, very little in the way of speech clips, essentially this is just three hours of pop(ish) music, which eventually I’ll come back round to.

Hope you enjoy it, and 1950 is up next, no worries.

Tracklist

• 0:00:00 Doechii – Denial Is A River
• 0:02:39 Sofie Royer – I Forget (I’m So Young)
• 0:06:40 Kiesza – I Go Dance
• 0:08:45 Charli XCX & Lorde – girl, so confusing
• 0:11:50 Billie Eilish – LUNCH
• 0:14:43 Eirik Hegdal & Eklektisk Samband – Vibratochess
• 0:17:33 Bob Vylan – Hunger Games
• 0:21:09 4am Kru & Papa Levi – Ribena
• 0:23:44 Machinedrum – ‘ZOOM (feat. Tinashe)
• 0:26:32 Low Poly – Automatic
• 0:28:47 Wilkinson & NORTH – Balance
• 0:31:44 Kabin Crew & Lisdoonvarna Crew – The Spark
• 0:34:07 Selecta J-Man & MC Spyda – Foundation Style
• 0:38:14 james K – Blinkmoth (July Mix)
• 0:40:41 Sky Ferreira – Leash
• 0:44:43 Arooj Aftab – Raat Ki Rani
• 0:49:46 Blazers – Deep Waves
• 0:54:36 God Colony & Roy – Loss Is Not Infinite
• 0:58:34 Clairo – Sexy To Someone
• 1:01:57 Laura Marling – Caroline
• 1:05:09 Beth Gibbons – Floating On A Moment
• 1:08:04 Kelly Lee Owens – Dreamstate
• 1:13:10 Jane Panika & Hagop Tchaparian – Alice In Orchidverse
• 1:17:33 A.G. Cook – Soulbreaker
• 1:20:52 aespa ??? – Supernova
• 1:23:43 Ke$ha – Joyride
• 1:26:12 Javiera Mena – Entropia
• 1:29:21 Magdalena Bay – Image
• 1:32:40 Charli XCX & Billie Eilish – Guess
• 1:35:02 salute & Rina Sawayama – ‘saving flowers
• 1:38:25 Dj Brunin XM, MC Pipokinha, Bibi Babydoll – Os Novinhos Que
• 1:40:56 Poppy – they’re all around us
• 1:44:18 Ozoda – Ko’k jiguli
• 1:47:16 Delaporte – Subete La Radio
• 1:49:23 Caribou – Broke My Heart
• 1:52:08 Skrillex, Hamdi, Taichu & Offiah – Push
• 1:54:56 Charli XCX – Von Dutch
• 1:57:07 Mokotron – Waerea
• 1:58:55 Tyler, The Creator – Noid
• 2:01:34 Sade Abu – Young Lion
• 2:04:55 Paul Cousins – Thought Loops
• 2:08:19 Clinic Stars – I Am The Dancer
• 2:14:04 Mica Levi – slob air
• 2:18:38 Yaeji – booboo
• 2:22:10 Maruja – The Invisible Man
• 2:28:03 Blood Wizard – Devil Dressed In Disguise
• 2:31:18 Willow – Symptom of Life
• 2:34:24 Theodora ft. Jeez Suave – Kongolese Sous BBL
• 2:37:04 Sahra Halgan – SHARAF
• 2:40:59 Camila Cabello ft. Playboy Carti – I Luv It
• 2:42:45 Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso
• 2:45:36 Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!
• 2:49:04 Mabe Fratti – Enfrente
• 2:53:01 The Cure – Alone