Customer Reviews

Stomp and Swerve: American Music Gets Hot

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This is a pretty interesting and entertaining set of early 20th Century tunes that formed a blueprint for jazz and modern pop music.

Bert Williams fans in particular will have much to shout about. Along with the master himself on "Nobody" (1906), we have two rare recrdings of songs that Williams wrote and performed, but no surviving record exits of Bert performing them himself. The Columbia Orchetra does "You Aint So Warm" which is as catchy as much of Williams' work (it sounds like a twin to the famous drinking song "How Dry I Am"), and Silas Leachman does "The Fortune Telling Man" (Bert's own version of this is now lost). Leachman does an excellent imitation of Williams and those familiar with Bert could easily imagine how the master himself sounded while singing it.

Now for the controversy. Many tunes here reflect the racism of the times. Ernest Hogan (a Black comedian)'s infamous "All Coons Look Alike To Me" (this version is by white comic Arthur Collins) is included and the "N-word" in the chorus jumps right at the modern listener in shock. Racists loved this tune so much that Hogan later apologized for it and when Jack Johnson fought white champ Jim Jeffries in 1910, the band played this song to taunt Johnson. Polk Miller's "Watermelon Party" (with actual Black background singers) also has the "N-word" in the lyrics. Makes you want to slap the ignorant rappers today who still use this term in songs a century later. But it's understood that this stuff is here for historical purposes.

Back to the fun stuff. Country pioneer Uncle Dave Macon makes you wanna shout "YEE-HAH!" and grab your partner and do-se-do to "Old Dan Tucker" (1925). The Original Dixieland Jass band mixes the sounds of the barnyard and juke joints in "Livery Stable Blues" (1917), said to be the first jazz record. Jim Europe uniquely mixes African and European musical styles in "Castle House rag" (1914-check out the drumming!) and Mamie Smith wailes with what is considered the first blues vocal and first popular record among predominantly black audiences "Crazy Blues" (1920, just love the lyric about "the undertaker man"). FYI-Bert Williams recorded "Unlucky Blues" and the classic comedy song "Lonesome Alimony Blues" several months before "Crazy Blues," but who's counting.

In either case, enjoy and don't try to sit still.