Just who are the Mills Music Masters?
My first step was looking them up in Rust's Jazz discography only to find "See Mills Blue Rhythm Band." So I flipped over a few pages to find that there was no listing at all for these sides under that band. I flipped a few more pages to Irving Mills and found the recordings listed...but only the instrumentation was noted...no names.
My next step was to hit the web. I found an excerpt from Google Books,
The Dorsey Brothers: That's It! by Robert Stockdale
, which listed this group as a Brunswick Studio Band.
I found no mention of these recordings under The Dorsey Brothers in
Jazz & Ragtime or
American Dance Band discographies.
Lastly, I pulled the first edition of Mills Blue Rhythm Band on Chronological Classics (#660) from the shelf to see that the first two numbers on the cd were the ones I was searching for.
Does anyone know for a fact which band this is? I definitely don't have the discerning ears that other record collectors have.
Bob Effros tp / Tom Dorsey tp, tb / Jimmy Dorsey cl, as, bar / unknown as, ts / Joe Venuti vn / p / g / Hank Stern or Joe Tarto bb / d / Charlie Lawman v.
Recorded in New York on January 21, 1931.
OR
Wardell Jones, Shelton Hemphill, Ed Anderson t / Harry White, Henry Hicks tb / Crawford Wethington cl, as, bar / Ted McCord cl, ts / Edgar Hayes p, a / Benny James bj / Hayes Alvis sb / Willie Lynch d / Charlie Lawman v.
Recorded in New York on January 21, 1931.
