Red Nichols, cornetist, trumpeter, composer and bandleader from Utah, was influenced by Bix Beiderbecke and made a lot of recordings during his career, especially as ''Red Nichols and his Five Pennies''.
According to Brian Rust, Red Nichols' first recording is ''Jig Walk'', the famous tune written by Duke Ellington and Jo Trent for the 192 5 ''Chocolate Kiddies'' revue, made with ''Van's Collegians'', a small band of the early Peter Van Steeden, Danish-American songwriter and bandleader. The tune was recorded in N.Y. on March, c.5, 1926 on original 78 rpm Pathé 36422 – Mx. 106690, Matrix which was then issued on Pathé 11134 and on Perfect 14603. On the other side of the Pathé 36422 it is: ''Indiana Stomp'' by the ''Original Memphis Five''.
These records are very rare and currently (September 2025) unavailable online, but fortunately the tune has been included, along with other rare Red Nichols recordings, on a CD: "The Rarest Red Nichols Recordings - Vol. 1 - NVSCD 016'', a release on the Nostalgia Records label. You can see the track list in the video and also selecting and searching with Google: ''Angelfire - The Nestor Colletion – Rarest Red Nichols'' or at:
https://www.angelfire.com/music5/tony2003/html/nestor.html .
(Full link in Comments).
Always according to Rust, the personnel of ''Van's Collegians'' was:
Red Nichols, t / Miff Mole, tb / Bobby Davis, as / ? Rube Bloom, p /
? Eddie Lang, bj / ? Joe Tarto, bb / Vic Berton, d.
The photographs and the recording in this video are more then 50 years old. Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "FAIR USE''. The intent of this video is for non profit Historic Preservation, Education.
Joe Tarto (February 22, 1902 - August 24, 1986) was an American jazz tubist and bassist.
Tarto (born Vincent Joseph Tortoriello) played trombone from age 12 before settling on tuba as a teenager. He played in an Army band in World War I, where he was wounded, and received his release in 1919. In the 1920s he worked with Cliff Edwards, Paul Specht, Sam Lanin, and Vincent Lopez, in addition to doing arrangement work for Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb and playing in pit orchestras on Broadway....
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