The Washingtonians / The Arkansas Travellers - Diva 2601 (1927-28)

Recorded just one month after taking up their engagement at the Cotton Club.

Duke Ellington p, a, dir / Bubber Miley, Louis Metcalf t / Joe Nanton tb / Otto Hardwick ss, as, bar / Harry Carney cl, as, bar / Barney Bigard cl, ts / Fred Guy bj / Wellman Braud sb / Sonny Greer d.

Recorded in New York on January 9, 1928.

Red Nichols t / Miff Mole tb / Pee Wee Russell or Fud Livingston cl / Fred Morrow as / Rube Bloom p / Vic Berton d.

Recorded in New York on September 14, 1927.

The Arkansas Travellers - Harmony 505 (1927)

I have had this one since I started collecting 78s years and years ago. To illustrate my naiveity back then, I only picked this record up because I recognized the name 'Ellington' that was in parentheses under Birmingham Break-Down as a big band leader...and also that the records were priced at 10 for a dollar. (I actually thought it was a country record judging by the name of the group!)

The record had been boxed up with countless Autreys, Dalharts & other country & western fodder, never played (by me) and forgotten through one cross country move and then another half way back again over the course of 15+ years...until recently where I thumbed through a box and, this time...realizing that it had been stashed away incorrectly...quickly rescued, cleaned, inserted into a new antique green sleeve and put in its proper place.

According to Rust: Red Nichols t / Miff Mole tb / Fud Livingston cl / Fred Morrow as / Rube Bloom p / Vic Berton d.

Recorded in New York on September 14, 1927.