February 26, 2020: On February 26, 2020—103 years ago today—the Original Dixieland Jass Band entered the studio to record a pair of tunes for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Just a couple of weeks later, the "Dixie Jazz Band One Step" and "Livery Stable Blues" were released as flip sides on a 78 RPM record.[1]
The five-piece band “had just taken up residence at Reisenweber’s Café, a swanky eatery on 8th Avenue, near Columbus Circle—coincidentally, now the home of Jazz at Lincoln Center” in New York, New York.[2] Later that year, they changed the spelling in the name from “Jass” to “Jazz.” You can hear Livery Stable Blues on YouTube.
While the band is little remembered, the Camden, New Jersey-based Victor Talking Machine Company would go on to have a huge impact on the recording industry. HistoricCamdenCounty.com states that in 1896, "29-year-old machinist Eldridge Johnson invented the spring mechanism that made recorded music a commercially viable possibility. By 1900 he was manufacturing recorded music on the flat disks we would come to know as ‘records.’”[3]
The company quickly became an industry leader but faced challenges when another new technology emerged: radio. Some thought with music on the radio there would be no need for people to buy records. In 1929, Johnson sold the company to the radio industry giant RCA (Radio Corporation of America). One key innovation resulting from the merger was that RCA began marketing radios and phonographs in the same unit. You could then hear a song on the radio, buy the record, and play it when you wanted.[4]
The new firm eventually created the RCA Victor record label.[4]
Today, you can buy original Victor Talking Machine Company phonographs on e-Bay.[5]
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