Swan Records (jazz label)

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Label of 78rpm Swan Record by Phil Napoleon's jazz band, recorded on April 1946. SwanRecordNapoleon.jpg
Label of 78rpm Swan Record by Phil Napoleon's jazz band, recorded on April 1946.

Swan Records (aka Swan Recording Co. Inc.) was an American record company and label that was founded in 1946 and closed the same year. Sometime before 1959, Swan went out of business. In 1950, Mercury acquired 16 masters once owned by Swan, all being of Phil Napoleon. [1] In 1946, Swan listed its address at 1600 Broadway, Room 1003, New York, New York.

Mercury Records record label

Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. In the United States, it operates through Island Records; in the UK, it is distributed by Virgin EMI Records.

Phil Napoleon American jazz musician

Phil Napoleon, born Filippo Napoli, was an early jazz trumpeter and bandleader born in Boston, Massachusetts. Ron Wynn notes that Napoleon "was a competent, though unimaginative trumpeter whose greatest value was the many recording sessions he led that helped increase jazz's popularity in the mid-'20s." Richard Cook and Brian Morton, writing for The Penguin Guide to Jazz, refer to Napoleon as "a genuine pioneer" whose playing was "profoundly influential on men such as Red Nichols and Bix Beiderbecke."

Contents

History

The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord lists 18 recording sessions that took place from January to April 1946. Les Schriber, Sr., who had founded Black & White Records in 1943 and sold it in 1945, went to work for Swan, but left sometime around October 1946. [2] Sometime around November 1946, Swan appointed Jesse J. Trilling as Secretary-Treasurer of Swan. [3]

The Jazz Discography is a print, CD-ROM, and online discography and sessionography of all categories of recorded jazz — and directly relevant precursors of recorded jazz from 1896. The publisher, Lord Music Reference Inc., a British Columbia company, is headed by Tom Lord and is based in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. The initial 26 of 35 print volumes, which comprise the discography, were released from 1992 to 2001 in alphabetic order. In 2002, The Jazz Discography became the first comprehensive jazz discography on CD-ROM.

Black & White Records was an American record company and label that was founded by Les Schreiber in 1943. It specialized in jazz and blues. When the label was sold to Paul and Lillian Reiner, it moved from New York City to Los Angeles. The catalogue included music by Art Hodes, Cliff Jackson, Lil Armstrong, Barney Bigard, Wilbert Baranco, Erroll Garner, Jack McVea, and Willie "The Lion" Smith.

Artists

Emperors of Jazz

Lou McGarity was an American jazz trombonist, violinist and vocalist born in Athens, GA, perhaps most noteworthy for his works with Benny Goodman throughout the 1940s. During this period and throughout his career McGarity also collaborated often with Eddie Condon. In the 1950s McGarity worked with artists such as Neal Hefti, Cootie Williams and Muggsy Spanier. McGarity also was a studio musician for Arthur Godfrey on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts television show.

Joe Dixon was an American jazz reed player.

Peanuts Hucko American jazz musician

Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko was an American big band musician. His primary instrument was the clarinet but he sometimes played various saxophones.

Sal Franzella Quintet

Anthony C. Mottola was an American jazz guitarist who released dozens of solo albums. Mottola was born in Kearny, New Jersey and died in Denville.

Napoleon Emperors

Vernon Brown (musician) American musician

Vernon Brown was an American jazz trombonist.

Frank Signorelli was an American jazz pianist of the 1920s.

Chuck Wayne American jazz guitarist

Chuck Wayne was a jazz guitarist. He came to prominence in the 1940s, and was among the earliest jazz guitarists to play in the bebop style. Wayne was a member of Woody Herman's First Herd, the first guitarist in the George Shearing quintet, and Tony Bennett's music director and accompanist. He developed a systematic method for playing jazz guitar.

Don Redman and His Orchestra

Hot Lips Page American jazz musician

Oran Thaddeus "Hot Lips" Page was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader born in Dallas, Texas, United States. He was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist.

Dick Vance was an American jazz trumpeter and arranger.

Harold "Money" Johnson was an American jazz trumpeter.

Rhythmaires

Selected extant discography

Don Redman and His Orchestra

Side A: "Midnight Moods"
Side B: "Mickey Finn"
Released on Onyx (nl) LP 220; OCLC   3585846
Released on PickUp 1002 [5]
Side A: "Carrie Mae Blues"
Side B: "Dark Glasses"
Sides A & B released on Onyx (nl) LP 220; OCLC   3585846
Sides A & B released on PickUp 1003 [5]
Sides A & B released on Foxy 9007 [6]

Rhythmaires

Side A: "On The Level"
Side B: "Russian Lullaby"
Side A: "Say, Old Man, Watcha Ya Doin'?"
Side B: "I Got Rhythm"
Side A: "Sweet Lorraine"
Side B: "Just Jammin'"

Emperors of Jazz

Side A: SWFD-12-7 (matrix) "Royal Garden Blues"; OCLC   27986148
Side B: SWFD-12-6 (matrix) "Nobody's Sweetheart"
Side A: SWFD-10-4 (matrix) "Muskrat Ramble"; OCLC   27977258
Side B: SWFD-10-2 (matrix) "Clarinet Marmalade"
Side A: SWFD-10-1 (matrix) "At The Jazz Band Ball"; OCLC   27977486
Side B: SWFD-12-5 (matrix) "Figety Feet"
Side A: SWFD-12-8 (matrix) "Tiger Rag"; OCLC   27986112
Side B: SWFD-10-3 (matrix) "Little Emperor Blues"

Phil Napoleon's Emperors

Side A: "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate"
Side B: "I'll Never Be The Same"

See also

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References

  1. "Merc Takes Swan Disks for LP's," Billboard , July 8, 1950, pg. 13
  2. "Music – As Written: New York," Billboard , October 12, 1946, pg. 34
  3. "Music – As Written: New York," Billboard , November 30, 1946, pg. 32
  4. Bassically Speaking: An Oral History of George Duvivier, by Edward Berger, Institute of Jazz Studies (1993), pps. 238 & 462; OCLC   28587065
  5. 1 2 "Don Byas — Part 1:" (of 2) "American Recordings 1938–1946," by Cornelis Jan "Kees" Hazevoet, PhD, (University of Lisbon), September 17, 2010; (second source: "Don Redman January 29, 1946," Discography J-Disk, Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University)
  6. Luck's In My Corner: The Life and Music of Hot Lips Page, by Todd Bryant Weeks, Routledge (2008); OCLC   241305198