[78-L] Austin "Skin" Young on original "Ol' Man River"

Kristjan Saag saag at telia.com
Wed Nov 11 12:05:44 PST 2009


I wrote:
> Rust's "American Dance Bands" (1975 edition) doesn't mention Young either,
> not even in the line-up.

Rodger Holtin replied:
> Perhaps it is a statement of artistic value on Rust's part.

---
As far as I know, this is not the way Rust did things. One thing is to sort 
out what is Jazz, what is a Dance Band recording, which artist to include in 
an Entertainment discography - every discographer has to do make those 
decisions.
And Rust's selectiveness, in the various discographies, of who did what on 
the March 1st 1928 recordings, makes sense too. In the Jazz discography he 
only lists the more up-tempo B-side ("Selections from Show Boat"), names all 
instrumentalists (including all the guys in the violin section), not the 
individual names of the choir, however, but the two solo vocalists (Kline & 
Lambert).
In the Entertainment discography (under Robeson) he only lists Paul Whiteman 
& his Concert Orchestra with chorus, and in the Dance Bands discography only 
the instruments used are listed (no names; the full orchestra has been 
listed a few sessions before this one) but the choir is identified, member 
by member, as well as the solo vocalists on "Selections from Show Boat".
Young is mentioned in the sessions immediately before this one, and the 
sessions after; my guess is that Rust didn't have the information about 
Young, and never bothered to listen to the recording.
As for the artistic value of the tenors I'd rather omit Lambert Murphy...
Kristjan 




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