Jazz 1937: The music of Striptease

My obsession with 1937 doesn’t stop with the strippers — it also includes the music they danced to. Jazz and striptease, as you might expect, had a very close relationship in this era; you’ll find several of the Stripteasers of 1937 also touring with bands at some point in their career. Since I began this project, my favorite record shop quest has been 1920-1940s jazz, especially compilations. These discs — every one a winner — feature a lot of amazing music, including (but, more importantly, not limited to) the Jazz legends/tunes known to this day.

The Jazz/Striptease relationship is a topic worthy of an in-depth investigation, but today I was inspired to post by the liner notes of a recent purchase, which included two performers also featured in the Collector Cards: Louise “Jota” Cook and Baby Cox.

“Dancer-singer Baby Cox was one of the headliners. Best remembered today for her growling vocal duets with Bubber Miley’s trumpet on a couple of classic Ellington records, she was, in the words of Emerson Harper, a reed player in LeRoy Smith’s band, “a petite, cute dancer who went into a shake number that would make some of these modern twisters look like they were standing still.” Another dancer, Louise “Jota” Cook (”what she did with her stomach,” said trumpeter and sometime dancer Ray Nance, “would make you seasick”), was featured in The Rain Dance, which, according to the reviews, she performed with great seriousness. “Little Egypt… had nothing on Louise Cook, who..: had very little on herself.” -Liner Notes, Souvenirs of Hot Chocolates

Souvenirs of Hot Chocolates (Columbia, 1978) includes songs written by Thomas “Fats” Waller, Andy Razaf, Harry Brooks and performed by Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Edith Wilson, and The Harlem Footwarmers, and comedy sketches from the 1929 production by Eddie Green, performed by Green with Billy Higgins and Co., all recorded in 1929.

Another gem from the liner notes: a dig on burlesque in one of the reviews: “…if the rest of Hot Chocolates lived up to its dancing, it would be the show of shows [but] some of it is the plain ordinary torso-tossing from the downtown burlesque shows.” It also captures in one sentence a conundrum that faced many burlesque shows of the era: “…the reviewers expressed distaste for the ribald humor of the skits and double-entendre songs and it appears that some of these were trimmed or toned down as the run progressed. But the producers knew only too well that such material found favor with the audiences…”

The full treasure trove is cataloged below. I recommend all of them.

• Benny Goodman: The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert
  Recorded 1938
  Columbia

• Chick Webb 4: Ella Swings the Band 1936.1939 (Jazz Heritage Series Vol. 28)
  Rec. 1936-1939
  MCA

• The Chocolate Dandies 1928-33
  Rec. 1928-1933
  DRG (Test Pressing)

• Dixieland Classics: a jazztone society classic
  Rec. 1938-1944
  Jazztone

• Ella Fitzgerald sings the Gershwin Song Book Vol. 1
  Rec. 1950s
  Verve

• Ella Fitzgerald sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book vol. 1
  Rec. 1950s - 1960s?
  Verve
  Lots of songs from the 30s on both

• Fats Waller ’34/‘35
  Rec. 1934-1935

  RCA Victor

• Fats Waller: fats plays, sings, alone and with various groups (Do You Like Jazz 18)

  Rec. 1922-1932

  CBS

• Giants of Traditional Jazz: Sidney Bechet, Mutt Carey, Wild Bill Davison, Edmond Hall, Ben Pollack

  Rec. 1944-1952

  Savoy

• The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World

  Pablo Records

• The Greatest of the Big Bands Vol. 7: “Hot Lips” Page - Les Hite - “Doc” Wheeler

  Rec. 1938-1942

  RCA Victor

• History of Jazz Vol 1.: Jazz Panorama of the 20’s

  Rec. 1921-1953

  Joker

• The Human Orchestra: Rhythm Quartets in the Thirties

  Rec. 1932-1940

  Chanka Lanka

• The Jazz Greats: Folk Blues (Giants of Jazz Vol IV)

  Rec. 1920s-1940s?

  Mercury

• Jazz: The Bebop Era

  Rec. 1942-1951

  Columbia

• Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers Vol 2

  Rec. ?

  Jolly Roger

• The Lester Young Story Vol. 1

  Rec. 1936-1937

  Columbia

• Little Club Jazz: Small Groups in the 30’s

  Rec. 1922-1941

  New World Records

• San Antonio Jazz: 1935-1936 Boots and His Buddies

  Rec. 1935-1936

  Tax

• The Swing Era (12 Box Sets)

  Rec. 1970-1984

  Time Life

  I wouldn’t have gotten these if I’d seen that all the recordings were “re-creations,” but still an interesting collection, especially the accompanying books.

• The Territory Bands

  Rec. 1935-1937

  Tax

• BONUS (from the Wrong Era)

  Music to Strip By: Party Fun Songs from the Golden Age of Burlesque played by “Bald” Bill Hagen and his Trocaderons
  Rec. 1966, most of the tunes are from the 50s & 60s

  Somerset