Music of the 1920s

Since we have a thread on the music of the 50s, I wonder why we don't have a thread on the music of three decades prior.

This thread could be about any type of music from the time (jazz, blues, country, jug band) or, if it's too generic, just the jazz and dance band music of the era.

So does anybody like any music from the 20s? Or am I the only one?

I'm not very familiar with this decade, to be honest, but I am a fan of Duke Ellington and he recorded some great stuff in the 20s. Like "The Mooche". I wish there were more information on Baby Cox, the vocalist on that song.

I really like Duke Ellington's earlier, pre-1933 or so stuff. Take this version of "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," from 1932...

Now that is good music.

But the thread can include anything, from red-hot jazz to megaphone crooning...

EDIT: Music up until 1935 or so is also OK, because it was culturally within the 20s.

edited 11th Nov '13 8:43:31 PM by Aldo930

There was some interesting stuff going on in the classical arena. It was the Gershwins' heyday, of course, but Stravinsky and Bartók were still producing major works around then. The '20s were also when the first major works of serial music got created—Berg's Wozzeck premiered, Webern wrote most of his major Lieder, and Schoenberg spent much of the decade composing Moses und Aron, which is one of the most conceptually astonishing things I've ever seen (the plausible, salesmanlike Aaron sings in a gorgeous tenor; the stuttering, God-haunted Moses—the star—doesn't freaking sing).

edited 12th Nov '13 2:11:10 PM by Jhimmibhob

Y'know, I've never really liked George Gershwin. Or Cole Porter, or Rodgers and Hart, or anything that's part of the so-called "Great American Songbook."

I prefer some of the lesser known songwriters of the era - Jack Yellen and Milton Ager, De Sylva, Brown and Henderson, Edgar Leslie, Walter Donaldson...

As for the rest, I'm not familiar with classical music.

edited 12th Nov '13 12:22:11 PM by Aldo930

From a 1929 movie

The Sheik of Araby from 1922

Ah, yes, "The Sheik of Araby." There were a lot of Middle-Eastern themed songs around the period. They were called "oriental foxtrots."

Here's a few other interesting ones you might like:

Palesteena and Rebecca Came Back from Mecca. These two are by a 20s style revival band called the New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra.

Burning Sands. The lyrics are here.

Have you ever heard that church bell toll?

"Rebecca Came Back From Mecca" was originally sung in a vaudeville accent.

A vaudeville Jewish accent, no less. The song itself is about a nice Jewish girl who converts to Islam and what happens when she returns home...

She "converted to Islam?" I always thought the words: "full of new ideas" meant that she adopted new "customs."

She "converted to Islam?" I always thought the words "full of new ideas" meant that she adopted new "customs." (what were seen as Turkish customs anyway).

Well, it's just my interpretation of the song...

More songs with a Middle Eastern theme:

Egyptian Ella From a decade later but still Middle-Eastern themed

Bedouin Love Song Earlier, but I believe it was still popular.

edited 15th Nov '13 3:58:36 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

"Egyptian Ella" is a great song. I don't think you could get away with the lyrics today, though...

The song's author, Walter Doyle, also wrote "Mysterious Mose"...

edited 15th Nov '13 4:16:08 PM by Aldo930

And this is another good Middle Eastern themed song:

No and you wouldn't be able to get away with "Palasteena" either (the implication that a Dreadful Musician like Lena is acceptable in Israel/Palestine because her music is so bad and Palestinian music is barely musical.)

edited 15th Nov '13 8:04:27 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

I'm thinking that, like much of the stuff from that period, the "Rebecca" song is designed to be taken on a lot of different levels, from the innocuous to the salacious.

What would people today make of the line "All the girls they dress like Lena / Some wear oatmeal or farina"?

I have heard if you sing some of the lines in a vaudeville Jewish accent they become more... "dirty," let's say.

edited 15th Nov '13 6:23:40 PM by Aldo930

Fats Waller, rocking the church organ in 1927.

edited 16th Nov '13 5:50:13 AM by MidnightRambler

Not very hot, but still very fun.

I haven't heard much of Fats Waller. I do know he made a recording of "Persian Rug" (the last song I posted above) with a quartet called the Louisiana Sugar Babes. There is a bassoon solo in that version.

Found it. The bassoon solo is AWESOME. We need more bassoon solos in music.

Yes, truly. The bassoon is a great instrument. (Also, that's the only time I've ever heard a bassoon solo described as "awesome.")

Note how none of the song is improvised upon, yet it's still great! I have another version by Robert Crumb's band, the Cheap Suit Serenaders, featuring a musical saw solo.

On another note, here's an incredibly fun piece of 1920s dance music:

Featuring solos on xylophone, accordion, banjo and slide guitar.

edited 16th Nov '13 8:02:52 PM by Aldo930

Bump'd.

The song that predicted Skype nearly 80 years ahead of time, "If I Had a Talking Picture of You":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLjQRCb-ktM

I listen to a lot of 30's music, not a whole lot from the 20's though. Except this song.