[78-L] Duke Records (c1945 label) questions

[Han Enderman]

I have label scans of Duke 110, 113 & 5502-A.

5502-A is Sunset Jubileers, Male Quartet: I Don't Know Why, I Have To Cry 
Some Time
(this is the exact spelling of credit & title).
Black label (name Duke over lyre), with address 218 Riverdale Ave., Bklyn 
12, N.Y.

Bruyninckx gives:
SUNSET JUBILEE SINGERS
Sacred singing : no details
New York, c. May 1946
Handwriting on the wall     Haven 515, Duke 5502
My time has come   - , 5501
I don't know why I have to cry sometime 525, 5502
New Jerusalem   - , 5501
Note : The Duke issues as "Sunset Jubileers of Brooklyn".

About 115: Listed by Blackstone for September.../...Fantasy, but poss. 
unissued
(only 112 in Delaunay, and 115 untraced, according to Xanadu 208 Bebop 
revisited 6
LP notes) and only known from the 1-sided pressing turned up by Phil Schaap
(yes people, rewrite his biography...).
The LP notes state that Shad "offered" Socolow the session, so I assume Shad
owned the label (no proprietor in ARLD).
ARLD gives 1945 dates for 110/114 and ca.46 for 5501.

About COSMO: In 2010 I saved the following remarks by Geoffrey Wheeler,
and can add that I have never seen a label picture of Socolow's 902
(who has and will send a scan?), which is not listed in the discographies 
and
pres. is same as Duke 112:

"Cosmo Records were 78s manufactured by Cosmopolitan Records Inc. of New
York City in the mid-1940s. While the label featured a mix of artists,
including a few vocalists, most of its recordings were by big bands at
a time when big bands were fading. Among the bands on its roster were
those of Hal McIntyre, Tony Pastor, Henry Busse, Larry Clinton, Bobby
Byrne, Del Courtney,  and Enrico Madriguera in its 451 to around 555
range, its 701 to 729 range (large number of Larry Clinton and Tony
Pastor records), two records in its Cosmo 901-902 "Jazz Series" (Trummy
Young and Frankie Socolow), and Charlie Barnet on Cosmo 513, a
re-release of "New Redskin Rhumba" and "Cherokee" that were also issued
on National 25001 and Cardinal 25001. As can be seen from the
bandleader names, these were artists who had previously been on the
Bluebird label (Hal McIntyre, Tony Pastor, Larry Clinton), Decca (Henry
Busse, Bobby Byrne), Vocalion/Okeh (Del Courtney), and Victor (Enric
Madriguera). McIntyre, Pastor, and Clinton were no longer on Bluebird
because RCA Victor had ended the "popular" Bluebird range. In the case
of the other artists, their respective labels had moved past them in
terms of the types of music they wanted to offer. Unlike many of the
artists issued on the Master Records label, who were products of the
1920s, not the 1930s when they were recorded, the artists issued on
Cosmo were still names familiar to current record buyers. For jazz
listeners, Trummy Young Cosmo 901 comes up fairly often, but Frankie
Socolow Cosmo 902 virtually not at all. Just like Socolow on Duke."

han enderman
===
>>> I've been looking for some information on the mid-1940s jazz label, 
>>> Duke.
Most of the information online redirects to the 1950s R&B label.

My questions are a) how many issues were there and b) what was the 
relationship (if any) to the Cosmo label?
Here's the scanty amount of information I've uncovered so far:

I've seen an advertisement in Billboard, May 19, 1945:
Duke Record Company, 769 Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn 12, NY lists records 110, 
112

An LP (Xanadu 208) says that Bob Shad may have produced the sessions.

Here is the discographical information from Lord, supplemented with some 
additional sleuthing:

Trummie Young & his Lucky Seven (rec NYC 5/2/1945)
Trummy Young, Buck Clayton, Ike Quebec, Kenny Kersey, Slam Stewart,  Lord 
Byron (Mike Bryan), Jimmy

Crawford.
DU4900A Good 'N' Groovy (Quebec) Duke 110
DU4901A I'm Living For Today - vTY (Trummie Young) Duke 110
DU-4900-B Rattle And Roll (Clayton) Duke 111 (also issued on Cosmo JS-901)
DU-4901-B Behind The Eight Bar (Kersey) Duke 111 (also issued on Cosmo 
JS-901)

Frankie Socolow and his Duke Quintette (rec NYC 5/2/1945)
Freddie Webster, Frank Socolow, Bud Powell, Leonard Gaskin, Irv Kluger. May 
2, 1945.
DU4903 The Man I Love (Gershwin) Duke 112
DU4905 Reverse The Charges (F. Webster) Duke 112
unknown mx September In The Rain (Warren-Dubin) Duke 115 (single-sided)
unknown mx Blue Fantasy (unissued)

I've seen Duke 110 and 112, but none of the others. Was Duke 111 issued at 
all? It turns up on Cosmo.

It seems odd that Duke 115 would have been issued as a single-sided record. 
That sounds more like a test pressing to

me.
Philip Fukuda
---
also this session:

Freddie Green And His Kansas City Seven:
Buck Clayton (tp) Dicky Wells (tb) Lucky Thompson (ts) Sammy Benskin (p)
Freddie Green (g) Al Hall (b) Shadow Wilson (d) Sylvia Sims (vcl)
New York, May 7, 1945
du4907    I'm in the mood for love    Duke 113, Elsa (Nor)EP1, Swingtime 
(It)ST1005, Classics (F)968 [CD]
du4909    Sugar hips    Duke 113, Elsa (Nor)EP1, Swingtime (It)ST1005, 
Classics (F)968 [CD], Musica Jazz

(It)MJCD1103 [CD]
     Get lucky    Duke 114
     I'll never be the same        -
Note: Rodney Richardson is usually listed as the bass player for the
above session but Duke 113 shows Al Hall on the label and there seems no
reason to doubt this.
Classics (F)968 [CD] titled "Buck Clayton 1945-1947"; rest of CD by Buck 
Clayton, J.C Heard, Canada Lee.
(j.vein)
---
ARLD lists Duke as operating at 769 Rockaway Avenue, Brooklyn, in May 1945 
as
per the Billboard ad. Cosmo was on 5th Avenue in New York. No connection I 
can
see with Duke unless some unissued masters were sold to Cosmo when Duke shut
down..? I have that Trummy Young on Cosmo, with an orange label...
dl
<<<