Brother Bones & His Shadows - Tempo 652 (1949)

A pleasant surprise to find this over the holiday weekend!

From wikipedia…

Brother Bones (October 4, 1902 – June 14, 1974) was an American whistling and bone playing recording artist from Montgomery, Alabama. Born Freeman Davis, his late 1940s recording of the 1925 standard "Sweet Georgia Brown," became internationally famous after being adopted as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team in 1952. Despite the success of this record, Brother Bones himself remained relatively unknown.

He died in June 1974, in Long Beach, California, at the age of 71.

Mills Music Masters - Melotone 12091 (1931)

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.

Andrews Sisters - Decca 3598 (1941)

Just uncovered a Decca 3598 in the garage...don't know how I skipped over it in my previous searches.

Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen & His Orchestra recorded in Hollywood on January 2, 1941.