[78-L] Barbary Coast Orchestra

[78records at cdbpdx.com]

Thanks for the info.  I did find the piano player, Storfer, was Herb Storfer, co-founder and one time president of the Jazz Foundation of America.  Not much else about the rest of the guys (girls?).  

CDB

--- On Mon, 6/1/09, Mark L. Bardenwerper, Sr. <citroenid19 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> From: Mark L. Bardenwerper, Sr. <citroenid19 at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Barbary Coast Orchestra
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Date: Monday, June 1, 2009, 1:30 PM
> 78records at cdbpdx.com
> wrote:
> > I just picked up some studio recordings by the Barbary
> Coast Orchestra, recorded Dec 7, 1942.  
> >
> >   
> You put these on YouTube...
> http://www.youtube.com/user/cdbpdx
> 
> Also
> http://www.samswansen.com/barbary.htm
> 
> Still exist
> http://hop.dartmouth.edu/assets/pdf/notes-fall07-bcje.pdf
> 
> During the band years, many college bands, amateur and 
> semi-professional, worked their ways through college in
> this manner.
> 
> Hal Kemp was discovered by Specht, who booked them on
> cruise lines 
> during the summer in the early 20's. Specht may have worked
> with this 
> band too.
>  From http://www.samswansen.com/barbary.htm
> 
> "The rest of 1929-30 at Dartmouth was a musical hodgepodge.
> Yes, it was 
> a big movie year. /The Broadway Melody /was full of hit
> songs, including 
> “You Were Meant For Me.” Big bang programs were
> crowding the evening 
> hours on radio. Record buyers had a choice of “When
> You’re Smiling” by 
> gravel-voiced Louis Armstrong, “Am I Blue” by Ethel
> Waters, or “Moanin’ 
> Low,” which Libby Holman sang in a new style as the first
> great torch 
> song. Nick Lucas rode lightly through “Tiptoe Through the
> Tulips” 
> (faithfully copied a generation or two later by Tiny Tim).
> Fats Waller 
> talked to his piano with “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” Rudy
> Vallee hypnotized the 
> girls with “I’m Just a Vagabond Lover.” Hoagy
> Carmichael’s immortal 
> “Stardust” got its third and best recording (even
> without a vocal) by 
> Irving Mills and his Hotsy Totsy Gang, with Miff Mole,
> Jimmy Dorsey, Pee 
> Wee Russell, and Hoagy himself on piano.
> 
> The *Barbary* *Coast* was much in evidence at party time.
> They starred 
> at the Statler during the Harvard-Dartmouth game weekend,
> although until 
> the last minute the band was touted as a prime attraction
> at the rival 
> ball at the Copley Plaza. At fall House Parties the *Coast*
> held forth 
> at Tri Kap. They were then signed for the first Green key
> prom in March. 
> Over the Christmas holiday they were picked from a large
> group of 
> Eastern college *orchestra* candidates for the nine-day
> West Indies 
> cruise of the Cunard liner /S.S. Carmania./ The band
> included Johnny 
> Hahn '30, leader, Jeff Jeffrey, George Sarles, Paul
> Freeman, Frank 
> Hodson, Frank Marks, and Gene Hammett ’33, a talented
> freshman sax 
> player who later led the band. For the Carnival Ball, the
> *Barbary* 
> *Coast* held forth in the Trophy Room at the gymnasium
> while Paul 
> *Specht* and his *orchestra* played in the cavernous gym
> upstairs."
> 
> -- 
> Mark L. Bardenwerper, Sr. #:?)
> Technology, thoughtfully, responsibly.
> Visit me at http://www.candokaraoke.com
> 
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