All of the music selections presented here are from my personal collection of 78's. To listen to an individual selection, simply click on the record label.

Tommy Dorsey & his orchestra - HMV B.8565 OA.95145

Recorded in 1937. One of my greatest heroes may not be neglected: trombonist and bandleader Dorsey (19/11/1906- 26/11/1956). I have this well-known tune many times on CD but on a grating 78rpm it sounds very different. The velvety soft and long drawn sounds that he produced gave him the nickname "Sentimental gentleman of swing". How sensitive his play might be, in daily live he was known as a troublesome man chasing everything in order to reach success. And he succeeded. He started from the end of the twenties, in the Dorsey Brothers, together with his brother Jimmy (alt sax), but due to the numerous quarrels, he went on his own in 1935 and produced one hit after the other. However, when in 1953 the attention for bigbands is fading, financial reasons forced him again to co-operate with his brother. Three years later he dies as an embittered man...

Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra with Vocal Refrain (Frank Sinatra!) - HMV B.D.1166 OA.048479

Recorded March 29th, 1940. Strange to say, an edition that does not mention Frank Sinatra on the label, although Francis Albert S. (1915-1998) became very popular in 1940 -1942 singing with Dorsey. His first good contract was with Harry James and with him he recorded in 1939 "All or nothing at all" but this record became a flop. In the meantime he got a better contract with Dorsey. The James/Sinatra recording was released again, this time under the name of Dorsey, and it was an instant hit being succeeded in the following years by numerous others. Sinatra, being of the opinion to be better of, went solo. This recording, dated March 29th, 1940, shows how much Sinatra did learn from Dorsey's melancholy trombone…

Django Reinhardt, Acc. par Louis Gaste (Guitare) et D'Hellemes (Contrebasse) - Swing SW.7a - OLA.1952

Recorded in Paris, September 9th, 1937.
This guitarvirtuoso was born in a gipsy caravan on 23 January 1910 in Belgium. As a child he learned to play first the banjo and later the guitar.He lost the use over two fingers of his left hand in a fire in his caravan (see the scars on his hand on the foto), but nevertheless he developped a magnificant style of playing. He became known in Paris in 1930 and in 1934 formed a quintet with violinist Stéphane Grapelli, the Hot Club de France, Europe's most original jazz group. The relations between Grapelli, a dandylike person, and Reinhardt, illiterate, were somewhat strained. The quintet disbanded when war broke out. After the war Reinhardt's career and level was never the same as before. He died, only 43, on 15 May 1953 in Fontainebleau in France.

Deanna Durbin (Vocal, accompanied by Charles Previn & his Orchestra) - Brunswick (DLA.2093) 03125-A

Recorded August 29, 1940. Deanna was born as Edna Mae Durbin on December 4th, 1921 in Canada and became an instant sensation as a teenager in Hollywood because of her superb singing, pretty face and unspoilt personality. From her feature film début in 1937 until well into the midforties, any film she made was a quaranteed succes. Deanna's versions of operatic arias swelled record sales; her fanclub became the world's biggest, but she left Universal in 1949, saying "I'm tired of playing little girls. I'm a woman now, I can't run around forever being the little Miss Fix-It who bursts into song. I want to get out of Hollywood and get a fresh approach." She retired at the top and settled in France where she died in April 2013.

The Animal Trainer & The Sardine Song (Charles Chaplin)

Charles Chaplin (HMV OSB 3788 - X 7891)

Two songs from Chaplin's last American film "Limelight" in which he played the role of the older clown Calvero, whose best days are over in showbizz. The songsequences were shot in January 1952 at the RKO-Pathé studios. Chaplin evidently took particular delight in creating the wonderful pastiches of Edwardian music hall songs and acts. In "Oh for the life of a sardine" he perfectly parodied the vocal style of George Bastow, one of the last "lions comiques".He must, however, have found most satisfaction with "Animal Trainer", for here, after more than thirty years of trying, he at last managed to introduce into a film the flea circus business he had first performed on the set of "The Kid".