Tonight I'm listening to a stack of 78s courtesy of...
Bix Biederbecke
The Frankie Trumbauer Orchestra
The Paul Whiteman Orchestra
Bing Crosby
Bunny Berigan and His Orchestra
The Les Brown Orchestra
Gene Krupa
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra
And some stuff from the early to mid 1920s from artists I never heard of.
I have better sounding recordings of some this stuff on CD that was sources from the original metal parts, like the Bix and Trumbauer sessions on Brunswick, Okeh, and Vocalion that was issued by Mosaic Records. But there is something to be said for playing these old 78s. Handling them is like touching a piece of history. Yeah, sounds silly I know.
Here's a couple of great examples. I never heard of Art Fowler. A little research showed that this record was issued in 1926. It's a couple of sides of stride piano tunes. The sound quality is fair because the record is pretty worn. But it is listenable, even enjoyable, at moderate to low volume. That is where I put it for records made prior to 1930 because a lot of them are worn...but interesting and still worth a listen.
This Okeh record of Vaughn De Leath is one of the oldest 78s I own. It was issued in 1921. You can run your fingers over it and barely feel the grooves...but surprisingly it sounds pretty good given its age.
In some ways buying these old relics is more satisfying than running down a minty copy of some 1950s or 60s jazz record.
--Jerome
