Dan Kildare was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on l3 January l879. In Harlem he met omposer/conductor James Reese Europe (1881-1919). When, in 1910, Europe incorporated the 'Clef Club' as a booking agency and social club for black musicians, Kildare became his Vice President When Europe resigned from the Clef Club later in 1913, Kildare was elected his successor, The date of Kildare's recording debut can be pinpointed as 5 May, 1914. The repertoire used for the two published discs are two waltzes, a maxixe, and a one-step. Although the performances have a noticeable African-American touch, especially when compared with contemporary white bands, they can by no means be described as related to jazz. The records that make up this album are quite rare. Actually, some have never turned up and may remain unissued or were cancelled before release. Others, which had to be used for this documentation, have survived only as rather battered copies. The best of them are line examples of African-American string band music belonging to the same tradition as such later recording groups as the Dallas String Band (see Document DOCD-5162). The music is unambiguously African-American in its rhythmic and expressive characteristics, and the earliest substantial body of such music on record. The recorded material is for the most part popular hits of the day, including several cod-Hawaiian numbers. On many of the records, it sounds as though a conventional banjo is being used alongside an instrument hybrid between banjo and mandolin which is presumably a banjoline. Recordings survive to prove genuine African-American elements in the music, even though the band played for white Londoners rather than for black ghetto dwellers in the States. As it happened, the recordings were advertised simultaneously with the well-known London Columbia discs by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band and consequently the labels refer to Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band, and the tunes (including the 'Missouri Waltz' and the then very popular waltz tune 'Smiles') are identified as 'Jazz Music' - predating Englishman Leonard Feather's lobbying for a jazz waltz by decades.

Track Listing

• Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra - What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For? / Hawaiian Butterfly
• Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra - Down Where The Swanee River Flows
• Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra - The St. Louis Blues
• Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra - The Chinese Blues
• Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band - Missouri Waltz
• Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band - Allah's Holiday
• Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band - Sirens
• Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band - If You Look In Her Eyes
• Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band - Smiles
• Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band - Till The Clouds Roll By
• Dan & Harvey's Jazz Band - Hindustan
• The Versatile Four - Circus Day In Dixie
• The Versatile Four - Araby
• The Versatile Four - Down Home Rag
• The Versatile Four - Winter Nights

Additional Details

Label: Document Records

Genre: Blues

Run Time: 70 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 01/20/07

UPC: 714298562323