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
Time: 6pm BST, Sunday 27th June 2021 Place: Cambridge 105 Radio
Audio archivist James Errington takes you on another trip to the early days of recorded sound. This time we visit 1928, a year bursting with energy and creativity, if often in a muddled way, and possibly the first year of rock & roll.
You can listen to the show on 105fm in Cambridge, on DAB digital, on the Cambridge 105 website here, or on any good radio apps, or play the whole extended version on this handy mixcloud player.
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.
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 2 0:38:33 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 Wishing 1:27:34 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 Ohara 1:58:39 Amaunalik K’âvigak’ – Song In A Fable 1:58:48 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 Mome 2:09:59 Maurice Jaubert – Dream Sequence from Un Carnet De Bal 2:12:53 Charles Trenet – Je Chante 2:15:23 Josephine Baker – Toc Toc Partout (+ Rogers) 2:17:30 Lou Bandy – Conference Vakantie 2:17:49 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 Innisfree 2:24:20 Arthur Schnabel – Sonata No 4, E Flat Major, Op 7 Largo, Con Gran Espressione 2:26:24 Virginia Woolf – The Recorded Voice Of Virginia Woolf 2:26:45 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-A 2:54:16 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)
A mix of classical / orchestral music recorded in the years 1934 to 1936, featuring solos from Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pablo Casals and Arthur Schnabel and musicians conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky and Leopold Stokowski.
0:00:00 Percussion Ensemble Cond. By Nicolas Slonimsky – Ionisation (1934) 0:05:30 Leopold Stokowski & Philadelphia Orchestra – Bach Toccata And Fugue In D-Minor (1934) 0:14:51 Sergei Rachmaninoff – Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini (1934) 0:36:59 Arthur Schnabel – Sonata No 21 In C Major, Op 53 ‘waldstein’ I Allegro Con Brio (1934) 0:46:50 Arthur Schnabel – Sonata No 29 In B Flat Major Op 106 ‘hammerklavier’ Iv Largo – Allegro Risoluto (1935) 0:57:52 Georges Boulanger – Avant De Mourir (My Prayer) (1935) 1:00:24 Georges Boulanger – La Trioletta (1936) 1:03:23 Pablo Casals – Suite No. 2 In D Minor (1936) 1:07:04 Busch Quartet – String Quartet No. 12 In E Flat Op. 127 – Ii. Adagio Ma Non Troppo, Molto Cantabile (1936) 1:23:45 Erna Berger, Tiana Lemnitz – Strauss (R)- Der Rosenkavalier – Ist Ein Traum, Kann Nicht Wirklich Sein (1936)
Time: 6pm BST, Sunday 27th June 2021 Place: Cambridge 105 Radio
Audio archivist James Errington is joined by Cambridge 105 Radio’s Emily Dongray to explore the astonishing sounds of the greatest ever year for recorded music; 1927!
You can listen to the show on 105fm in Cambridge, on DAB digital, on the Cambridge 105 website here, or on any good radio apps, or play the whole extended version on this handy mixcloud player
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 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.
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 Savoy 0:06:17 Benny Goodman & His Orchestra – Stompin’ At The Savoy (Clip from Reefer Madness) 0:08:28 Memphis Minnie – New Orleans Stop Time 0:11:21 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Steel Guitar Rag 0:14:08 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 Blues 0:23:38 W. H. Auden – On This Island 0:24:27 Benjamin Britten, Stuart Legg and John Grierson – Nightmail 0:27:35 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 Good 0:35:29 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 – Mayari 0:46:20 Sukru Tunar – Suzinak Taksim 0:47:05 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 Takashi 0:57:15 Walter De La Mare – Nod 0:58:15 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 Jive 1:24:23 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 Blues 1:39:34 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 Heaven 1:47:30 Elder Otis Jones – O Lord I’m Your Child 1:49:30 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, Sing 2:00:40 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 Windows 2:21:18 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 Shadows 2:29:15 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 Columbus 2:34:28 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 Man 2:44:28 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 Jardin 3:21:10 W. H. Auden – A Bride in the 30’s 3:23:06 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
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.
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 Savoy 0:06:17 Benny Goodman & His Orchestra – Stompin’ At The Savoy (Clip from Reefer Madness) 0:08:28 Memphis Minnie – New Orleans Stop Time 0:11:21 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Steel Guitar Rag 0:14:08 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 Blues 0:23:38 W. H. Auden – On This Island 0:24:27 Benjamin Britten, Stuart Legg and John Grierson – Nightmail 0:27:35 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 Good 0:35:29 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 – Mayari 0:46:20 Sukru Tunar – Suzinak Taksim 0:47:05 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 Takashi 0:57:15 Walter De La Mare – Nod 0:58:15 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 Jive 1:24:23 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 Blues 1:39:34 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)
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
Time: 6pm BST, Sunday 23rd May 2021 Place: Cambridge 105 Radio
Audio archivist James Errington is joined by Cambridge 105 Radio’s Emily Dongray to explore the astonishing sounds of the greatest ever year for recorded music; 1927!
You can listen to the show on 105fm in Cambridge, on DAB digital, on the Cambridge 105 website here, or on any good radio apps.
