Customer Reviews

Crazy Words Crazy Tune

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There was no finer hot dance band in the land during the 1920s than the California Ramblers, who recorded under several psudonyms but most frequently as "The Golden Gate Orchestra." A driving rhythm section and outstanding work from bass sax genius Adrian Rollini make the Ramblers sides infectiously bouncy, truly capturing the spirit of the times. This set compiles some of their best Edison sides from 1925 through the very last gasps of Edison recording in the fall of 1929. It is wonderful to hear these transferred at the proper speed/proper pitch; some previous reissues of Edison Ramblers material used 80 rpm transfers of late acoustic recordings that were in fact recorded at closer to 78 rpm than 80 rpm (it is a fallacy that all Edison Diamond Discs were recorded at 80 rpm). The results (on the Biograph lps and even the later CD reissues, which could easily have corrected the pitch problem!) were a desecration of music that was extremely well-recorded for its day.

The only annoyances here are rather skimpy notes and the lack of a proper discography; Document says they will post a discography on their website, but as of mid-March this has yet to happen.

Bottom line: if you love 20s hot dance, you'll like this collection. Or... you can pay upwards of $50 apiece for the original discs on eBay! That makes this set a real bargain!