Tarrant Bailey Junior Recording on Youtube

[thereallyniceman]

I spotted a recording that I have never heard, and bet that you ain't either !!!

A great medley of Old Time Tunes...even a snatch of Morley's Georgia Medley in there!!

My research tells me that this was recorded around 1933.

TBj was a great player indeed, and I am proud to have spent time with him.

[Chris Cioffi]

Yes, Shawn, I will when I have a bit of time to upload pictures and scans.

I don't have "Old Time Selections" but I have "More Old Time Selections".

The label on each side states the songs in the medley of selections, but given Marc and you and some of the other folks on the first one "Old Time", there seems to be, as with me listening to the second  one "More Old Time", there seems to be small snippets and phrases of lots of tunes inserted into the overall medley, so I doubt ALL the snippets and quotes of ALL tunes would fit on the label.  I'll have to review this, but possibly only the major parts of the arrangements and/or the ones that feature vocals with full verses or choruses are listed on the labels.

HOWEVER....I just found a '41 BMG with a record review/discography/article on Tarrant Jr. and his recordings, and it has a decent amount of text on his 4 "popular" medleys, which I think are "Old Time Selections", "More Old Time Selections", "Dear Old Home Songs" (all on Imperial label), and the last/first one on the Rex label "Banjo of All Sorts".

All four discs are similar in style, and Tarrant Sr. in one of his columns in a '60's BMG was talking about how well they'ld sell during the folk boom if reissueed.

In that column and other places I read, Tarrant Jr. was talking about how a "normal" banjo record released in the 20's and 30's in England was a good seller at 5,000 copies sold....sort of like a "major" bluegrass band in the 90's here in the USA.

The Imperial and Rex series sold in excess of 40,000 copies each....Imperial did 3 because the first one sold so well, they got him back to do more.

I think they are really great recordings.  At first, they may seem corny, but the more you listen to them, the better they get.

The fidelity on these late English 78's is incredible....a lot like the Victor Orthophonics.  The bass is powerful and very full...they had great tube gear and ribbon mics and disc cutting by the 30's was taken to a high industrial art...I doubt any modern company could replicate the sound of these records and make similar equipment now...really, a lost technology...especially pressing 78 records...there are some very good youtube period documentaries on 78 pressing, and it's extremely interesting....very involved.

Anyway, I think Tarrant does really great on these records...not sure who did the arranging, but the string bass player alternates between pizzacato and arco playing and he must be playing a really nice large full size bass...it just sounds incredible.  

I would imagine some studio orchestra players or possibly folks Tarrant knew were on the records....so far, sounds like to me string bass, piano, trumpet and clarinet, and of course banjo and vocals.

I do wonder who the folks in the band on the records and the British Pathe videos are backing Tarrant up....is it the same orchestra?  Were they some staff band or "cluster" of popular/familiar studio folks who worked together regularly or were A list/first call type of folks similar to how it works in Nashville?  It would be interesting to find out.

Really a full sound for such a small group, especially with the piano being somewhat subdued in the arranging.

On one of the Imperials, Tarrant uses the fancy long ending in C that he used on "Snakes and Ladders" in the British Pathe videos, and I think it's fun to hear him arrange and play the banjo parts with the note/riff choices he picked....

I think they are really wonderful records; I've had the 3 discs out of the 4 I have playing along with a few others on minidisc on repeat the last few weeks...I just love them.

I'll post pics as soon as I have time....I'm not sure if my printer scans well enough to read, so I may have to post pics of the '41 BMG article text.

Happy Christmas,

Chris