Every early jazz enthusiast knows the name Gennett–one of the early record labels that pops up constantly in lists of the 1920s recordings of the greats, like Victor, Okeh, National and so many others that went out of business during the Great Depression. But early jazz aficionados know as well that there was something very special about Gennett Records…that the little shack at the north end of Starr Piano Company’s property in Richmond, Indiana–next to the railroad tracks so they had to stop recording when the train came through–that rather rustic recording studio cut the first sides of the greatest jazz men of the age. Yeah, the recordings aren’t that good; but they are the earliest: the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoagy Carmichael, among many more. There’s a lot to the Gennett Records story. Ken and company focus on one small part of it: those amazing years in the mid-1920s when it was all happening…not in New York, Chicago, or New Orleans, but in a little town in the middle of Indiana.
Ken notes, "Don't be alarmed at the number of songs that call themselves the "blues" -most of them aren't! They just liked to use that in the title...This is going to be a great jazz - based show!!!"
| Tin Roof Blues (1923) Paul Mares (m) |
| That's A-Plenty (1914) Ray Gilbert (w) Lew Pollack (m) |