Eddie Lang
ESSENTIALS
1924-1933
Eddie Lang’s professional career spanned ten-plus years. He was very active in that period, working in Broadway pits, vaudeville, radio, film, nightclubs, hotels, concerts, and the recording studio. His recording catalog consists of over 400 sessions and finds him in the company of just about every genre of music available at the time: from pop, jazz, and blues to classical and novelty.
From a number of those categories, we offer a handful of audio and video examples that showcase the artistry of this extraordinary talent.
We’d like to hear from you. Do you have ESSENTIAL Eddie Lang? If so, share it with us, tell us why your selection is ESSENTIAL Eddie Lang, and we’ll post it to venutilang.com for all to see and hear.
1925, March 25 (Wed): Eddie Lang-guitar, Brunswick RECORDING SESSION, NYC (5).
McKenzie’s Candy Kids (Mound City Blue Blowers)
Red McKenzie-comb, Dick Slevin-kazoo, Jack Bland-banjo, Eddie Lang-guitar.
612W BLUES IN F (McKenzie-Lange (sic))-Brunswick 2908 A
SOURCE: Sensation Records, Jeff Healey-producer, 2001.
The Mound City Blue Blowers started as a trio (McKenzie, Slevin, Bland), scored early success with their first recording (February 1924, ARKANSAS BLUES, Brunswick Records), and became a hot ticket in vaudeville. With the addition of Eddie Lang on guitar in August of that year, the threesome, now a quartet, took on a new dimension of performance and repertoire, moving from novelty to an ensemble of substance. With Lang on board, a fuller sound surfaces, advanced harmonies decorate each song, guitar solos are added to the front line, and original blues tunes take center stage. Author Richard Hadlock correctly identifies what is at the core of this transformation, “Eddie, like comb player McKenzie, knew how to get inside a blues and express himself convincingly in this essentially Southern idiom.” (4)
The bulk of the MCBB’s recordings consist predominantly of original 12-bar blues & original pop songs. All are instrumentals. (11) A Brunswick test of IF YOU NEVER COME BACK (unreleased), features the earliest example we have of McKenzie’s singing. (10)
It is with the Mound City Blue Blowers that Eddie Lang emerges as a distinct guitar soloist, fusing advanced harmonies and rhythms, and a dazzling technique with the blues. BLUES IN F shows him to be as much a jazz guitar pioneer as he is a genuine blues player. In this slow funky 12-bar, Lang’s single-string guitar chorus, washed in bent notes (which he wrestles with throughout), expresses all that we’ve come to expect from a modern day blues guitarist. This is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, blues guitar solo. How did a twenty-two year old Italian from south Philly get this deep inside the genre a century ago?
Here's Lang’s BLUES IN F guitar solo (F natural-excerpted)
Note: As the title states, you would assume BLUES IN F would be played in the key of F (natural), but you’ll find the original issues play a half tone higher in F# (sharp). Is this a result of a tuning issue during the recording session (the guitar & banjo tuning a half tone higher?), or did the band play the blues in F (natural), but the disc was mastered a half tone higher?
email and tell us what you think … mike@venutilang.com
The original issue (in F# (sharp) is followed by a pitch-corrected version in F (natural).
1925, October 29 (Thu): Eddie Lang-guitar, banjo, Columbia RECORDING SESSION, NYC (10).
Ross Gorman and His Earl Carroll Orchestra
W141214-3 I’M SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD-Columbia 498-D
SOURCE: venutilang.com
1926, c. March 22 (Mon): Eddie Lang-guitar, Perfect RECORDING SESSION, NYC (10).
We Three
Red Nichols-cornet, Arthur Schutt-piano, Eddie Lang-guitar, Vic Berton-drums.
106747 TRUMPET SOBS-Pathe 36464B
SOURCE: venutilang.com
1926, March 24 (Wed): Eddie Lang-guitar, Columbia RECORDING SESSION, NYC (10).
Ross Gorman and His Earl Carroll Orchestra
W141861-2 I’D RATHER BE THE GIRL IN YOUR ARMS-Columbia 615-D
SOURCE: venutilang.com
1926, c. November 4 (Thu): Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
The Red Heads
Red Nichols-cornet, Arthur Schutt-piano, Eddie Lang-guitar, Vic Berton-drums.
N107193 GET A LOAD OF THIS (Lange (sic)-Nichols)-Pathe 11347
SOURCE: venutilang.com
1926, c. November 15 (Mon): Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC (11)
Ross Gorman and His Orchestra
2193-C IDOLIZING-Cameo 1063
SOURCE: Cameo 1063, Jeff Healey Collection.
1927, January 12: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Red Nichols and His Five Pennies
Red Nichols-cornet, Miff Mole-trombone, Jimmy Dorsey-clarinet, alto sax, Arthur Schutt-piano, Eddie Lang-guitar, Vic Berton-drums.
E4387W HURRICANE-Brunswick 3550 (Take 2)
1927, January 20: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Boyd Senter
Boyd Senter-clarinet, Jack Russell-piano, Eddie Lang-guitar
W80316-A BAD HABITS-OKeh 40755-B
1927, February 1: Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra
BVE 37586-3 LOOK AT THE WORLD AND SMILE-Victor Unissued
SOURCE: Bix Restored, Sunbeam Records BXCD 1-3, 2000.
1927, February 4: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra with Bix and Lang
Bix Beiderbecke-cornet, Bill Rank-trombone, Frank Trumbauer-c-melody sax, Jimmy Dorsey-clarinet, alto sax, Paul Mertz-piano, arranger, Eddie Lang-guitar, Chauncey Morehouse-drums.
W80393-B SINGIN’ THE BLUES-OKeh 40772-B
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
This band is made up of the best hot players from the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, with the fortuitous addition of Eddie Lang. SINGIN’ THE BLUES was to become one of Bix Beiderbecke’s masterpieces, his solo much admired and imitated. It is, arguably, the first “definitive “ballad” statement in recorded jazz. Slow-drag blues numbers existed but they projected a vastly different mood and were less interesting harmonically than ballads.
Since the ‘30’s, ballads have been slowed to a glacial ooze. SINGIN’ THE BLUES was a pop tune and is performed at a moderate dance tempo. It’s amazing that it doesn’t come apart halfway through, since there’s no bass (or tuba, or bass sax), no drum set, only cymbals (engineers were afraid that drums would be too noisy), and the piano is barely audible.
Lang furnishes a running commentary that’s letter perfect, alternating between rhythm chording, oompah bass, arpeggios, and barbershop-style tenor lines (so-called after the “tenor” voice in male singing groups). But it cannot be said that he pushes the band by vigorously marking the time. That function is assumed by the horn players who articulate time through their melodic phrasing, a trait that many early jazzmen shared. They had grown up playing for dancers who wanted to hear the beat, not just from the rhythm instruments, but from the melody instruments as well.
Lang’s accompaniment, though secondary to the lead horns, is scarcely less important. In this kind of linear embellishment, Lang is second to none; he seems to have an uncanny feeling for the musical mot juste, doing not too much and not too little. (MOG) (1)
1927, April 1: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang-guitar, Arthur Schutt-piano.
W80693 APRIL KISSES (Lang)-OKeh 40807
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
The beguiling waltz, APRIL KISSES, is just about as far removed from Eddie’s preoccupation with the blues as he could get. It could readily pass for the work one of the Italian fretted-instrument virtuosi who recorded in the ‘20’s and the ‘30’’s. It must have brought a smile to the faces of the Massaro’s in South Philly. It’s a delicious piece of fluff that Eddie embroiders with crystalline 30-second note runs and rich chord voicings,. Schutt’s accompaniment is discreet to the point of vanishing. (MOG) (1)
In passages such as his introductory cadenza to APRIL KISSES, Lang tosses of sixteenth-note and thirty-second-note single-string runs with precision and ease. Sometimes he changed the angle of the pick or the position of the stroke in relation to the fingerboard to achieve special sounds. (4)
1927, May 4: Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang
Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, Arthur Schutt-piano.
W81058 DOIN’ THINGS (Venuti-Lang)-OKeh 40825
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
A classic Venuti-Lang composition receives an equally first-class interpretation during this May 4th recording session, the other title being GOIN' PLACES. The duo, now a trio, are joined by "The Baron," pianist Arthur Schutt. (Schutt came by this handle due to his tailored wardrobe and ever-present flower in his lapel). A veteran of the orchestras of Paul Specht, Don Voorhees, and Roger Wolfe Kahn, he was a superb piano player, composer, and arranger. At the time of this session, Venuti, Lang, and Schutt were currently on the "millionaire maestro's" (RWKahn) payroll. The engineers place the piano way off the microphone, but its presence does allow Eddie to modify his role. With Schutt now picking up the guitarist's former duties of laying down a harmonic and rhythmic bed, Lang is now free to offer a counter line to Venuti, provide an inventive accompaniment ala SINGIN' THE BLUES, and take a single-string solo. Venuti and Lang, who are placed very close to the single microphone, the violinist standing, Lang most probably on a high stool, appear to float over the harmonic din of the distant keyboard.
Joe and Eddie give a nod to impressionist Claude Debussy on DOIN' THINGS. Besides borrowing a phrase from LE FILLE AUX CHEVEAU DE LIN, they adapted many of his (and Maurice Ravel's) harmonies which they incorporated into their styles. This Debussy "lick" also saw life in the first four bars of OUT OF BREATH (AND SCARED TO DEATH OF YOU), a tune by Johnny Mercer (his first published song) and composer Everett Miller. (MP) (1) (2023mp)
Note: One of the group's many "original" compositions is DOIN' THINGS, which pianist Arthur Schutt developed from Debussy's MAID WITH THE FLAXEN HAIR. (4) There is no citation to support Hadlock's claim. (2023mp)
1927, May 13: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Frank Trumbauer and His Orchestra
Bix Beiderbecke-cornet, Bill Rank-trombone, Frank Trumbauer-c-melody sax, Don Murray-clarinet, tenor sax, Doc Ryker-alto sax, Irving Riskin-piano, Eddie Lang-guitar, Chauncey Morehouse-drums, harpophone.
W81083-B I’M COMING, VIRGINIA-OKeh 40843
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
If a more perfect symbiosis between guitar and jazz band than this exists, then I haven’t heard it. Not only is I’M COMING, VIRGINIA one of our most poignant popular songs, it is, in this performance, a vehicle for one of jazz music’s greatest moments. Bix Beiderbecke’s gorgeous solo and Eddie Lang’s touching accompaniment cannot be improved upon. If Lang had never made another record, his work here would have assured him a niche in the jazz pantheon.
His single-string replies to Trumbauer’s introductory notes, his sparse phrases during the transition from F-major to F-minor that sets up the verse and his ascending run at the coda are highlights of his sympathetic guitar work,. He plays throughout as if he can read Bix’s mind and concludes the masterpiece with ethereal high notes, daunting false harmonics the he executes flawlessly. This achievement of Bix and Eddie on May 13, 1927, reminds us that we cherish music because it says what words cannot. (MOG) (1)
1927, May 28: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Eddie Lang
Eddie Lang-guitar.
W80940 Prelude (Rachmaninoff Op. 3, No. 2)-OKeh 40989
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1892, PRELUDE had, by 1927, become a staple of student piano recitals, its first three notes a cliché that drew snickers when quoted out of context. Lang’s adaptation of this “classical” piece is in keeping with the usage of turn-of-the-century banjoists who often included light classics in their repertoires. Nevertheless, Eddie was one of the first jazz musicians to venture into the realms of so-called “serious” music. According to his wife Kitty, he sent hours practicing this piece; time well spent.
The number is transposed from the piano key of C# minor up to E-minor in order to utilize the guitars’ low E-string. In Eddie’s hands, the number loses much of its somber pomposity becoming an engaging sequence of rapidly shifting harmonies. Note that he begins the piece using a pick, changes to finger style and winds up again using a pick.
Whether Eddie was familiar with the early recordings of Andres Segovia, the first modern exponent of the classical guitar, is open to question. I tend to believe he was, for the Spaniard’s reputation was worldwide. Segovia would make his American debut at New York’s Town Hall in 1928. According to the late Bill Priestly, an ardent amateur guitarist, “they were all there”” meaning the likes of Eddie Lang, Dick McDonough, Carl Kress, etc., the finest plectrists on the New York scene.
Eddie didn’t live long enough to delve further into the classical repertoire. His acolytes, Kress and McDonough did. Their DANZON (1933) and Kress’ compositions for a solo album (1939) incorporated classical materials. (MOG). (1)
1928, November 15: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Texas Alexander
Alger (Texas) Alexander-vocal, Lonnie Johnson-guitar, Eddie Lang-guitar
W401331-A THE RISIN’ SUN-OKeh 8673
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
The guitar duo of Lonnie Johnson & Eddie Lang (as Blind Willie Dunn) makes its first studio appearance as accompanists for Alger “Texas” Alexander, one of the few blues shouters who didn’t accompany himself. It was the first and last time Eddie backed a rural blues singer. (Lang & Johnson would make the first of their duet recordings two days after this session). First a field hand, then a Dallas warehouse worker, he’d sing on street corners during the day and in bars and dives at night. It was said he carried a guitar with him, hoping to run into someone who could play the instrument and provide accompaniment, unable to play himself.
Word of his slow-moaning blues style traveled from Dallas to New York, and OKeh Records sent for him in August 1927 and again in November 1928. Lonnie Johnson was the first to be tasked with trying to accompany the singer as “Texas” tended to skip bars while singing, potentially leaving his accompanists in the dust if they weren’t quick to recover. Alexander’s rough, country style plays hob with the strict 12-bar meter of the blues.
Johnson is playing a 12-string flat-top guitar. The 12 strings share the customary tuning of the six-string instrument, E-A-D-G-B-E, except that there are two strings for each note as on a mandolin. The bass strings are tuned in octaves, and the treble strings are in unison. The aim is to produce volume and sustain. The result is a metallic, jangling tone, replete with whining notes and clashing overtones, properties favored by blues guitarists.
On the other hand, Lang employs his carved top instrument strung with heavy-gauge strings over a high action, providing a fat, robust tone suited to his full-chord orchestral style. His resonant bass notes are a foil to Johnson’s metallic treble tone.
Lang and Alexander resort to formula to back Alexander. WORK OX BLUES (the other title from this session) and THE RISIN’ SUN are set in the key of D-major. Both begin with four-bar guitar intros, after which Alexander sings a chorus, followed by a Lang solo in each instance. Then, there are two more vocal choruses (Texas hums one of THE RISIN’ SUN choruses), and Johnson takes a solo to the conclusion. Alexander squeaks by, always early, whereas 99 out of 100 blues stylists sing as far behind the bar the beat as they can. The guitars take the final chorus, guaranteeing that everyone will end together. (MOG & MP) (1) (2023mp)
1929, March 5: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra
Louis Armstrong-trumpet, Jack Teagarden-trombone, Happy Caldwell-tenor sax, Joe Sullivan-piano, Eddie Lang-guitar, Kaiser Marshall-drums.
W401689-B KNOCKIN' A JUG-OKeh 8703
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
At a musicians get-together that welcomed Louis Armstrong back to New York after and almost three-and-a-half year absence, Eddie Condon persuaded Tommy Rockwell, OKeh’s recording director, to record a group of black and white jazzmen, selected from among the distinguished guests. The celebration lasted into the wee hours and when it broke up, the drummer, Kaiser Marshall recalled, “I rode the boys around in my car in the early morning hours and we had breakfast around six so we could get to the studio at eight. We took a gallon jug of whiskey with us.”
Armstrong was slated to record with members of the Luis Russell Orchestra, and it had been arranged that the mixed group would record first. However, the instigator, Eddie Condon, never one to decline a drink, had passed out. Hence we see him credited as co-composer of KNOCKIN’ A JUG but don’t hear the banjo.
Eddie Lang’s two-bar vamp introduces the piece, an improvised 12-bar blues in Bb. Jack Teagarden, feeling no pain, leads off with two rough-hewn, impassioned choruses. The recording balance leaves much to be desired. Marshall, playing first with sticks on the rim of the snare drum, and then switches to brushes, is too close to the microphone. Joe Sullivan’s piano is almost lost in the distance.
Lang opts to accompany in single-note lines as he was wont to do on blues dates when a piano was present. He’s plucking the strings with his fingers instead of picking them with a plectrum, a common enough technique on a gut strung instrument. But Lang is playing an arch-top Gibson L-5 equipped with the heavy gauge steel and bronze-wound strings that he favored. Common sense would have dictated the use of a pick in order to give the guitar maximum presence in the face of horns and drums, as was his custom on any number of band sessions. Why he chose the softer finger-style remains a mystery.
Lang’s guitar chorus is a model of relaxed economy. During the ensuing solos, first by tenor sax and then piano, he plucks bass notes. Not until Armstrong enters over an organ background by trombone and tenor sax does he strum chords, though it’s difficult to hear them.
Armstrong begins in the lower register, working his way upward, producing two of his most soulful blues choruses. They rank among the finest of his improvisations and have been hailed as landmarks of his voluminous recorded output.
In a gesture of magnanimity, Armstrong subsequently invited a recovered Eddie Condon to join him for the session which followed. (MOG) (1)
Note: Eddie Lang was not known to have been a drinker, as it only exacerbated his chronic stomach problems. Pianist Jess Stacy sheds light on what Lang's "tonic" of choice may have been. "Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang were at the Silver Slipper (in Atlantic City, summer 1926 - 2023mp), and I'd bought all their records in Chicago. In those days, you got in trouble if they found booze on you, but "pot" was still legal; in fact, it was better for you than most of the rotgut bathtub gin, and when Eddie Lang found I'd brought two Prince Albert tins of it with me, he stayed so close it got stuffy." (9) (2023mp)
1930, March 10: Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, Los Angeles, CA.
Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra
W149810-1 HAPPY FEET-Columbia 2164-D
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
Its production problems solved at last, Universal (Pictures) again sent for the Whiteman Orchestra, and filming finally began on The King Of Jazz. Using Columbia’s Los Angeles studio, the band promptly recorded some tunes from the film: regrettably, the only HAPPY FEET evoked by Ferde Grofe’s overly busy arrangement seems to be those of the elderly dowager, petticoats held high as she flees a mouse (a scene from the film); but there’s at least room for a jivey Rhythm Boys vocal backed strongly by Lang, and short solo appearances for (Izzy) Friedman (on tenor sax), (Andy) Secrest (on cornet) and an especially jubilant Venuti. (RMS) (1) (2023mp)
1930, November 19: Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Fred Rich and His Orchestra
W404555-B CHEERFUL LITTLE EARFUL-Odeon ONY 36165
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
Eddie and Joe kick off a buoyant CHEERFUL LITTLE EARFUL, and conductor Rich joins regular pianist Frank Signorelli for some energetic four-hands dueting. The accordionist is Cornell Smelser, an active studio man of the time to able to deal respectably with at least a simulacrum of “hot” playing. (RMS) (1)
1931, July 8: Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
The Boswell Sisters
The Boswell Sisters-vocal, Mannie Klein-trumpet, Tommy Dorsey-trombone, Jimmy Dorsey-clarinet, alto sax, Joe Venuti-violin, Arthur Schutt-piano, Eddie Lang-guitar, Joe Tarto-bass, Stan King-drums.
E 36911-A IT'S THE GIRL-Brunswick 6151B
SOURCE: Collectors Classics COCD-21, 1994.
1932, January 15: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Eddie Lang
Guitar Accompaniment by Carl Kress
Eddie Lang-guitar, Carl Kress-guitar
B 11134-A PICKIN' MY WAY (GUITAR MANIA PT 1) (Lang-Kress)-Brunswick 6254
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
PICKIN’ MY WAY and its companion piece, FEELING MY WAY, rank as the first orchestrated guitar duet in jazz. These duets were intended to take advantage of the popularity the two-piano teams enjoyed on the radio in the early ’30s. “If two pianos,” went the thinking, “why not two guitars.”
Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang had cut a series of duets beginning in 1928, but they consist of Johnson predominantly soloing while Lang strums rhythm. In PICKIN’ and FEELING, on the other hand, the accompaniment assures greater importance and complexity; the players switch parts, and there are worked-out interludes and modulations.
Five years younger than Lang, Carl Kress played banjo and four-string guitar with Red Nichols, The Dorsey Brothers, Paul Whiteman, Fred Rich, and the Mound City Blue Blowers. In 1930, he took up a six-string guitar using his own idiosyncratic tuning that included a bottom Bb string, lower than the guitar’s usual low E-string. This added bass range and his open-spaced low register made him an ideal partner in a duet setting. He would, in effect, emulate the function of the pianist’s left hand while his partner played in the upper register, suggesting the right hand’s role. Kress was celebrated for his rapid chord solos picked on the top three or four strings.
Here (PICKIN’ MY WAY), Lang starts with a four-measure intro, a sequence of chords moving through a cycle of fourths, and states the single-note theme, while Kress backs him up with a stride style.
Chorus number two finds Kress taking over the lead with chords while Lang picks a bustling eight-note bass line. They modulate down one tone, and Lang again picks out the lead (this time in minor), with Kress contributing a chordal break before Lang resumes his solo. They wind up back in the original key with a replay of the first half of Kress’ chord solo topped by a tag. This kind of interaction of parts and sequences is similar in form to the stride piano compositions of the ’20s and ’30s and became the model for guitar duets to follow.
A ”none-genuine-without-this-signature” cadenza by Eddie Lang sets FEELING MY WAY into motion, Eddie leading the first chorus in A-major. Then, quite abruptly, the piece shifts to F-major with Kress assuming the melody, again picked in chords, while Eddie’s bass line scampers underneath. Another sudden shift back to the original A-major and a reprise of the first chorus, Eddie getting bluesy at the bridge.
The January 15th version was rejected for technical reasons. Some notes are shadowed by an unusual resonance at certain places in the performances, a sort of simultaneous echo. I am told this could have resulted from a defective (disc) cutter.
Just one month later, the two guitarists remade the piece. The second version is technically sound and musically almost identical to the first performance. I was first exposed to these duets through a collector who had them on original 1932 pressings marked “for theatre use.” They were to be played at 33 1/3 rpm from the inside out. In the ’30s, one could hear similar small-combo jazz transcriptions played over movie house sound systems during intermissions.
These two pieces made a strong impression on guitarists, initiating a flowering of jazz guitar duets in the ’30s, with the team of Carl Kress and Dick McDonough leading the pack. (MOG) (1)
1932, February 17: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Eddie Lang
Guitar Accompaniment by Carl Kress
Eddie Lang-guitar, Carl Kress-guitar
B 11309-B FEELING MY WAY (GUITAR MANIA PT 2) (Lang-Kress)-Brunswick 6254-B
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
1932, c. March-April: Eddie Lang-guitar, FILM, NYC
Ruth Etting
Ruth Etting-Vocal, Eddie Lang-guitar
A Regular Trouper
WITHOUT THAT MAN
NOTE: 1932, June 1 release date (IMDb)
SOURCE: Vitaphone #1378-1379
Only two examples of Eddie Lang performing live on film with sound; both come from 1932: The Big Broadcast (has Crosby & Lang performing PLEASE, live in a rehearsal studio) and this Vitaphone short.
First, some background.
In March 1932, Ruth completed the last film in her Vitaphone contract, A Regular Trouper. The short portrays the doomed romance of Ruth (as Ruth Eton) and her vaudeville manager, Joe Grant, a fast-talking two-timer who deceives Ruth right under her nose by becoming engaged to Ruth's younger sister, Laura. Everyone in the entire show, of course, sees his duplicity before Ruth does. Etting delivered her lines competently but not entirely convincing. Her song interpretation, as usual, displayed her real strength. Eddie Lang (uncredited), who frequently played guitar on her Columbia presses, jammed with her on a free and bluesy version of "Without That Man," while the train clattered its way to the next town on the tour. Ruth's portamenti were, as usual, fluid and graceful. For five or six bars, the camera caught Ruth's face framed by the guitar's neck and Eddie's shoulder and created an intimate and informal vision of what it was like when two accomplished musicians were at play with each other. Ruth's earlier small band recording of the song the year before (June 9, 1931) seems very mannered and contrived in comparison. (8)
Eddie first recorded with Ruth Etting in December 1928 and continued to do so through the last month of his life (March 1933). His presence here may have been a "recommendation" by her husband & business manager, "Colonel" Martin "Moe The Gimp" Snyder. "The Gimp," a controlling and nasty piece of work, was Etting's appendage for some fifteen years until she divorced him in 1937. (For more Snyder, see Eddie Lang STUDIO CHATTER.)
And now for the gold!
Eddie's brief two-and-a-half-minute appearance in the film has him making a grand entrance into Ruth Etting's train compartment playing an A/E7 vamp on his 1929 Gibson L-5 archtop (block fingerboard) guitar, delivering a line ("hello Ruth"), and then sitting down, effortlessly whipping out a breezy single-string E-minor flourish, and leading her into the song with four-bars of melody … very cool.
Accompanying Ruth Etting singing WITHOUT THAT MAN (MAN replacing GAL in the lyrics), he's filmed playing live in three of the four camera angles (Lang: full, rear, closeup, Etting: closeup-you can see Eddie's right hand in motion here … live). Eddie's closeup is from a fourth camera angle and is an eleven-second insert. It is not live, but this is the money shot! Lang's support is loaded with leading & passing chords; he even incorporates the double-time "herky-jerky" rhythm to better effect than in Etting's recorded version of the song. All in all, this is a lesson in the art of accompaniment.
Note: Cameraman Edwin B. DuPar deserves kudos for capturing the guitarist from three different angles, the only such film record of Lang of this sort. DuPar was Vitaphone's chief cameraman in Brooklyn, New York, and is credited with devising the means for synchronizing action and sound. He later became Warners' resident special-effects technician, creating photographic effects for feature films, was a full-time director of photography, and helped pioneer WarnerColor, the studio's own variation of Eastmancolor. (7)
NOTE: for more Eddie Lang & Ruth Etting, see Eddie Lang STUDIO CHATTER.
1932, May 26: Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, Chicago, Illinois
Bing Crosby
Frank Trumbauer and His Orchestra, Eddie Lang-guitar.
JC 8641-1 SOME OF THESE DAYS-Brunswick 6351
SOURCE: The Complete OKeh and Brunswick Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer and Jack Teagarden Sessions (1924-36), Mosaic Records MD7-211, 2001.
May 1932 found Frank Trumbauer in Chicago, out of the Whiteman orchestra and rehearsing a band of his own. Bing Crosby, appearing at the Oriental Theatre with Eddie Lang and Lennie Hayton, got in touch; he’d scheduled two days of recording toward the end of the month and wanted Mister Tram to take part, rounding out the personnel with a few of his new sidemen. The answer was, of course, yes, and it’s heartening to hear how easily these three – Bing, Tram and Lang – work together. Bing’s scatting on a buoyant SOME OF THESE DAYS evokes Bix strongly, as do half-chorus solos by Tram and Lang. In all, a nostalgic, affectionate session. (RMS) (2)
1933, February 28: Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, NYC
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang’s Blue Five
Jimmy Dorsey-clarinet, alto sax, trumpet, Adrian Rollini-bass sax, goofus, harpophone, vibraphone, Joe Venuti-violin, Eddie Lang-guitar, Phil Wall-piano.
W265068-2 JIG SAW PUZZLE BLUES-Columbia 2782-D
SOURCE: The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002.
For the final Venuti-Lang recording session, Joe and Eddie brought together Jimmy Dorsey and Adrian Rollini, two of the most outstanding instrumentalists of the previous decade. Both Dorsey and Rollini had contributed stunning performances on several earlier Blue Four dates, but they had never recorded together under Joe and Eddie’s leadership until now. The result produced fireworks. It is arguably their best small group session, and with it, Venuti and Lang perfected their concept of interpreting jazz with a wind and string ensemble. All four three-minute sides are a study in small group arranging, interpretation, and collective and individual performance. They use every element of the Venuti-Lang small group formula to perfection. The repertoire has them taking a look back while also making strides forward as they gloriously rearrange two current pop songs (PINK ELEPHANTS, HEY! YOUNG FELLA (WITH THE OLD UMBRELLA), reinvent one classic (RAGGIN’ THE SCALE) and concoct a last-minute original (JIG SAW PUZZLE BLUES).
Fans of the pop group Fleetwood Mac may recognize the title JIG SAW PUZZLE BLUES. In 1968, Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan swiped parts of Jimmy Dorsey’s clarinet solo and built a song around it. The 1933 original features 12 bars of single-string guitar that start bluesy and end in a stream of notes. (MP) (1) (2023mp)
NOTE: The recording session included RAGGIN’ THE SCALE, PINK ELEPHANTS, HEY! YOUNG FELLA (WITH THE OLD UMBRELLA), and JIG SAW PUZZLE BLUES. A must hear!
SOURCES
1. The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002 – with excerpted notes from the collection by Marty Grosz (MOG), Dick Sudhalter (RMS), and Mike Peters (MP).
2. The Complete OKeh and Brunswick Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer and Jack Teagarden Sessions (1924-36), Mosaic Records MD7-211, 2001 – with excerpted notes from the collection by Dick Sudhalter (RMS).
3. Giants Of Jazz, The Guitarists, Biography and Notes on the Music by Marty Grosz and Lawrence Cohn, Time-Life Records, 1980. NOTE: Marty Grosz is responsible for the notes on the music (2023mp).
4. Jazz Masters Of The Twenties by Richard Hadlock, Collier Books, 1965.
5. Brunswick Records: A discography of recordings, 1916-1931, by Ross Laird, Greenwood Press, 2001.
6. www.imdb.com
7. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_B._DuPar
8. Ruth Etting, America’s Forgotten Sweetheart by Kenneth Irwin & Charles O. Lloyd, Scarecrow Pres, 2010.
9. Stacy Still Swings, Jess Stacy, Chiaroscuro Records CR 133, 1974.
10. Jazz Records 1897-1942, 4th Revised and Enlarged Edition, Brian Rust, Arlington House, 1978.
11. Discography updated by Steven Lasker.
NOTE: any additions to the original text have been made purely for clarification and are noted as such as 2023mp.