Search - Ed Kirkeby :: The Columbia House Bands: Ed Kirkeby, Vol. 1

EXCEPTIONAL STUDIO DIRECTOR

Barry McCanna | Normandy, France | 11/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ed Kirkeby is a little-known name, but it's true to say that but for him our recorded legacy would have been the poorer. As a recording manager at Columbia he showed his musical leanings early on by his active involvement with the California Ramblers, whose recordings he supervised (not forgetting the Little Ramblers, the Vagabonds, the Five Birmingham Babies, the Goofus Five and the Varsity Eight).



In January 1927 he began recording for Okeh under the pseudonym of Ted Wallace with a group drawn largely from the ranks of the California Ramblers. Of particular interest are trumpeter Chelsea Quealey, Bobby Davis on alto sax, and Adrian Rollini on bass sax (all of whom would be playing at the Savoy Hotel in London before the year was out).



Starting in mid-1927, this compilation draws mainly on those Okeh recordings, many of which were issued also in England, but concludes with three other recordings he directed which were issued under the title Tommy Bohn Penn-Sirens Orchestra. Some of them are popular songs of the day, which are given the hot treatment by these accomplished musicians, but others were written as jazz tunes.



There's a full liner note and discography, and sound is satisfactory but not outstanding. I've shown four stars but would like to be able to squeeze in another half."