[78-L] Jazz as a Record Catalog Subject

[Rodger Holtin]

Basic Question: When/Where was Jazz a separate category in record catalogs?Secondary observation: Dance diminished as a category

I am fortunate enough to have a handful of Victor Catalogs:

1917

1920

1930

1940

 

The 1917 seems to have been printed in March of 1917 and
shows ‘“Jass” Bands’ as a category listing with the main white pages (Jass in
quotes).  Of course, it lists the first
ODJB record as that’s all there was. 
Same catalog shows eight plus pages of DANCE records broken down into
every little subcategory I’ve ever heard of and then some.  (26 pages of “educational” stuff BTW)

 

The 1920 catalog seems to have been printed in October of
1919 and again it shows JAZZ BAND RECORDS as a category among the white pages
after JARVIS, HAROLD and Jazz Babies by Marion Harris and ahead Jean by Evan
Williams.  Under said category they list
all the 1917-18 ODJBs and the four sides by Earl Fuller.  Each tune is carefully noted as “one-step” or
“fox-trot.”  Same catalog shows again
eight plus pages of DANCE records broken down into every little subcategory
I’ve ever heard of and then some, including 2 ½ pages of fox trots (and 28
pages of “educational” stuff BTW).  Dance
records are shown with full page line per each record giving both titles
(sometimes with composer), both artists if different, record number size and
price.

 

Jumping to 1930, printed November 1929, I see a big
change.  Jazz is nowhere to be found as
any kind of category in 1930.  Dance is
still eight pages, but triple columns, three times as many tunes (with commensurately less detail), categories
considerably pared back, and Fox Trot is now listed first, not alphabetically
as before and all the minor oddities are gone, then segregated by artist (band)
name.

 

The 1940 seems have been printed early in 1941, and again
big changes in that the Dance section is two pages of odd stuff like Adagio
(Gloomy Sunday[!]) Beguine,  Bolero, Mazurka,
Waltz, Stomps.  The Fox Trot is missing
from the list, but every pop tune is shown by the title as “FT” or “Vocadance”
so they are more than well represented. 

 

OK, that’s a quick survey of 23 years of Victor catalogs,
and my observation is that jazz was early recognized as a distinct musical art
form and then got lumped in with all kinds of dance music, presumably as a
quick, easy marketing decision by Victor. 
We do know the earliest ODJB labels carried the legend, ‘”For Dancing”
and the story of the Reisenweber manager making the terse announcement that
“This music is for dancing!” is pretty well known.

 

My Real Question(s):  How did the other companies handle this stuff?  Did any other record company catalog of the Twenties or
Thirties actually label any music as “jazz” or did they all lump it with “dance
music” too?

 

The next newest catalog I have is Schwann from
1970 and jazz is shown as a sub-set of Popular Music, essentially what it was
(if tacitly so) for Victor in 1917-1920.

Rodger



For Best Results use Victor Needles.



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