"Tiny" Parham & His Musicians - Victor 28009 (1928)

From wikipedia...

Hartzell Strathdene "Tiny" Parham (February 25, 1900– April 4, 1943) was a Canadian-born American jazz bandleader and pianist of African-American descent.

Parham was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada but grew up in Kansas City. He worked as a pianist at The Eblon Theatre being mentored by the ragtime pianist and composer James Scott, and later touring with territory bands in the Southwestern United States before moving to Chicago in 1926. He is best remembered for the recordings he made in Chicago between 1927 and 1930, as an accompanist for Johnny Dodds and several female blues singers as well as with his own band. Most of the musicians Parham played with are not well known in their own right, though cornetist Punch Miller, banjoist Papa Charlie Jackson, saxophone player Junie Cobb and bassist Milt Hinton are exceptions.

His entire recorded output for Victor are highly collected and appreciated as prime examples of late 1920s jazz. His style of jazz was comparable to the sophisticated style of Jelly Roll Morton. Parham favored the violin and a number of his records have a surprisingly sophisticated violin solos, along with the typical upfront tuba, horns and reeds. Parham wrote most, if not all of his material.

After 1930 Parham found work in theater houses, especially as an organist; his last recordings were made in 1940. His entire recorded output fits on two compact discs.

Parham died April 4, 1943, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Tiny Parham p / Punch Miller c / Charles Lawson tb / Charles Johnson cl, as / (Papa) Charlie Jackson bj / Quinn Wilson bb / Ernie Marrero d

Recorded in Chicago July 2, 1928

King Oliver & His Dixie Syncopators - Brunswick 3998 (1927)

Excerpted from wikipedia...

The Great Depression brought hardship to Oliver. He lost his life savings to a collapsed bank in Chicago, and he struggled to keep his band together through a series of hand-to-mouth gigs until the group broke up and Oliver was stranded in Savannah, Georgia, where he worked as a janitor at Wimberly's Recreation Hall (526-528 West Broad Street). Oliver died in poverty at a rooming house (508 Montgomery Street), on April 10, 1938. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NY, where he would be joined by other jazz giants such as Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, W. C. Handy, Milt Jackson, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, among others, all of whom owe a great debt to "Papa Joe."

King Oliver, Thomas "Tick" Gray c / Kid Ory tb / Omer Simeon cl, ss, as / Paul Barnes cl, as / Barney Bigard cl, ts / Luis Russell p / Junie Cobb bj / Lawson Buford bb / Paul Barbarin d.

Recorded in Chicago on April 22, 1927.

E.C. Cobb & His Corn-Eaters - Victor 38023 (1928)

From wikipedia...

Franklyn Taft Melrose (November 26, 1907 – September 1, 1941) was an American jazz and blues pianist, who recorded as Kansas City Frank.

He was born in Sumner, Illinois, the younger brother of Walter and Lester Melrose who set up the Melrose Brothers Music Company in Chicago in 1918, and went on to become leading figures in the Chicago blues and jazz scene of the 1920s and 1930s.

Frank’s first instrument was the violin, but he later took up the piano. He was strongly influenced by his brothers’ business partner, Jelly Roll Morton, and in 1924 he left home and began drifting around, playing and settling for short periods in St. Louis, Kansas City and Detroit. He also played occasionally in Chicago clubs with Morton.

In 1929 his brother Lester recorded him performing piano solos which were released under the pseudonym of "Broadway Rastus", and in 1930, following another trip to Kansas City, he recorded "Jelly Roll Blues" and other tunes. These were issued in Brunswick Records’ “race” series under the pseudonym of "Kansas City Frank", and for some years were wrongly assumed to be the work of Morton.

In the 1930s, Melrose continued to play piano in small clubs and bars, either solo or as part of a band, while occasionally working in a factory to support his family. He also recorded sporadically with Johnny Dodds and others.

He played on his last recording session in 1941 with Bud Jacobson's Jungle Kings. He died on Labor Day, 1941, being found dead in the road after apparently being killed in a fracas in a club in Hammond, Indiana.

Jimmy Cobb c / Junie (E.C.) Cobb cl, ts / Frank Melrose p / Jimmy Bertrand d, x. (One website listed Punch Miller as possible cornetist rather than Junie's brother, Jimmy.)

Recorded in Chicago on December 10, 1928.