(OK, apologies to all those hard-core jazz history types for whom the following post will be about as insightful as the sun rises in the East.)
One of the recordings that got new attention from me when I was in the process of loading my CDs into iTunes was this collection of Marion Harris songs. I am absolutely blown away. Apparantly she was a major recording artist whose career lasted from 1917 to the early 40′s.
The most amazing part of the collection is the immediacy the recordings have. If Wikipedia is to be believed, she had the second recording of It Had to Be You — by eight days. She recorded A Good Man is Hard to Find before Bessie Smith. And long before Eminem, Elvis, or Jolson, she seemed to be appropriating African-American musical material and stylings to translate them to a mass, white audience.
Part of my excitement might come because these recordings are beautifully mastered and restored. And the songs are recorded as fresh artifacts — not as standards. The closest I can express how I’m feeling is that it’s like seeing fresh paint on the Mona Lisa.
| 1. Look for the Silver Lining | Listen |
| 2. They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me | Listen |
| 3. Everybody’s Crazy ‘Bout the Doggone Blues, But I’m Happy | Listen |
| 4. After You’ve Gone | Listen |
| 5. Good Man Is Hard to Find | Listen |
| 6. Jazz Baby | Listen |
| 7. Left All Alone Again Blues | Listen |
| 8. St. Louis Blues | Listen |
| 9. I Ain’t Got Nobody | Listen |
| 10. Sweet Papa, Your Mama’s Getting Mad | Listen |
| 11. I’m Nobody’s Baby | Listen |
| 12. Some Sunny Day | Listen |
| 13. Nobody Lied When They Said That I Cried Over You | Listen |
| 14. I’m Just Wild About Harry | Listen |
| 15. Blue and Broken Hearted | Listen |
| 16. Carolina in the Morning | Listen |
| 17. Aggravatin’ Papa, Don’t You Try to Two-Time Me | Listen |
| 18. It Had to Be You | Listen |
| 19. How Come You Do Me Like You Do? | Listen |
| 20. Somebody Loves Me | Listen |
| 21. Tea for Two | Listen |
| 22. I’ll See You in My Dreams | Listen |
| 23. Man I Love | Listen |
| 24. My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes | Listen |
| 25. Oo-Oo-Ooh! Honey, What You Do to Me | Listen |
