Ford Dabney’s Band

As a founding member of the all-Black Clef Club, Washington DC-born-and-raised Ford T. Dabney helped revolutionize 1910s society dance music with his chief collaborator, James Reese Europe. In 1916, his syncopated orchestra began a multi-year residency with Flo Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic, an after-hours show staged in New York’s New Amsterdam Theatre rooftop garden. Subsequently, Dabney’s Band made several dozen records for the Aeolian-Vocalion Company, pioneers in vertically-cut longer-playing records. When Prohibition forced the Frolic to close, Dabney moved on musically as well as professionally, making a few standout jazz records for the famed Paramount label. Highlights of the 48 tracks on these two CDs include “That’s It,” “The Dancing Deacon,” “Bugle Call Blues,” “Lassus Trombone,” “Slidin’ Sid,” “Rainy Day Blues,” and “Camp Meeting Blues.” Notes in the 36-page booklet by Tim Brooks, author of Lost Sounds. Read more
List price: $28.99

Fifty-four tracks by 43 artists, and 60 pages of in-depth commentary and analysis: Lost Sounds is a monumental achievement that stretches back to the faint beginnings of commercial recordings and travels to the brink of the Jazz Age to trace the contributions of black artists on American records. Sometimes noisy and raucous, sometimes quiet and austere, these recordings demonstrate the deep involvement and lasting influence of African Americans in the nascent recording industry. Read more
List price: $29.99