Sultans of Swatting (and a quiz!)

Well...I've been rather busy with the Great Brunswick Radio Project...transferring around 140 12-inch transcription 78s of early (1929-31) "canned radio" shows recorded for the National Radio Advertising Co. by Brunswick. Each record contains around five minutes of a show...a fifteen-minute show used three sides, a half-hour, six.

Most of the shows in this stash are incomplete...a stray part here and there...and there's a lot of rather dated staples of early radio, light classical music, forgettable string ensembles, and the like. However, there were a handful of decent jazz-influenced pop sides and some interesting ethnic material recorded in Europe.

Some of the material therein was quite interesting, as we shall see.

For a number of years, I've been fond of a silly ditty (from the 1930 musical comedy/sci-fi movie Just Imagine)...best remembered from the old Victor record by McKinney's Cotton Pickers:

64608-2 Never Swat A Fly McKinney's Cotton Pickers Vi 23020

Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 99 times
NYC, 4 November 1930: Don Redman, conductor; Joe Smith, Rex Stewart, Langston Curl, trumpets; Ed Cuffee, trombone; Don Redman, Benny Carter, Edward Inge, Prince Robinson, reeds; Todd Rhodes, piano; Dave Wilborn, banjo; Billy Taylor, tuba; Cuba Austin, drums; Bill Coty, vocal. The clarinet soloist is a young Benny Carter.

Catchy little tune, no? Apparently Maria (d'Amato) Muldaur liked it too...she recorded it twice, with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and a solo version on her children's album around 20 years later.

Anyway...I noticed there were two new (new to me, anyway) versions of this song lurking in the radio discs I was transferring. I couldn't resist sharing them, if only to share the extra verses! Here they are:

XE-35018 (excerpt) Never Swat A Fly The Mirth Quakers from Mirth Quakers, show P, part 4

Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 55 times
NYC ca. 4 November 1930: Jerry Macy, Norman Brokenshire, vocal; perhaps Murray Kelner, violin and others.

Notice how they changed the lyrics from "with you" to "with Sue!" not that anything's wrong with that!

XE-35335 (excerpt) Never Swat A Fly Irving Kaufman from Novelty Special, show J, part 2 Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 54 times

NYC 7 November 1930: Irving Kaufman, vocal, personnel uncertain, but my guess is that the band contains Mike Mosiello, trumpet; Andy Sannella, alto sax; and Joe Venuti, violin. Kaufman muffs the words "Here is the motto," somehow getting it "Here is the mos' moto." Interesting that Brunswick didn't do a retake. They probably figured that the record would be played once over the air, and that would be it...the records were supposed to be returned or destroyed.

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Here's another little treat from another of these shows...

Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 44 times

Can you guess what it is? It's not a fly, nor a mosquito. Or, perhaps, where it was recorded? A tiny clue can be heard in the background.

Again, hats off to all correct answerers...and a lifetime supply of Uncle Eugene's Special Aged Peanut Butter Sandwiches to the first correct one.

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Oh....nobody has identified the mystery pianist from the last post...apparently it's not in the Lord Jazz Discography. It's an interesting record, even if one of the sides seems to be a set piece, without any real improvisation in it. Sure wish I knew who it really is.