JOE VENUTI & EDDIE LANG

Sessions & Timeline

1917 - 1923

Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang SESSIONS & TIMELINE 1917-1923 includes entries requiring further research and are referred to as RFR.

1917 - 1922

1917-1922: Joe Venuti-violin & Eddie Lang-guitar, RECORDING SESSION, Edison Bell.

Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang are alleged to have recorded cylinders, and discs of Italian popular music for Edison Bell.

JOE VENUTI

  • “(We) recorded in Philadelphia about 20 cylinders (1917-1918) and 50 sides (1919-1920) of Italian popular music (mazurkas, waltzes, polkas, tarantellas, Neapolitan songs) for Edison Bell and published in 64,000 series." (20)

  • “We recorded twenty cylinders, and twenty-five discs of Italian popular music for Edison Bell.” (1)

  • “I made my first records in 1920. We were the first to make baroque music (in jazz).” (5)

  • “Eddie and I, back in in 1921, we used to drive to New York and record the old cylinder records.” (2)

  • “In 1919, we made cylinder recordings of Wildcat and Stringing The Blues for Edison.” (1)

Note: Part of Venuti folklore, these recordings, if they ever existed, have yet to turn up. No such recordings or data exist in the Edison archives.

1917 - 1918

Drummer Chick Granese had a trio at Shott’s Café at 12th and Filbert Streets in Philadelphia in 1917 and 1918. His violinist was fifteen-year-old Joe Venuti. After midnight closing, they would stop by Eddie Lang’s house. Eddie could always be found playing his mandolin on the front steps during the summer nights. (CHICK GRANESE) (3)

Chick and Joe suggested that Eddie get himself a banjo and join their trio. Eddie agreed and picked up a six-string guitar-tuned banjo. Soon he was also playing guitar in the group. (CHICK GRANESE) (3)

1919

1919, February: Salvatore Massaro joins Philadelphia Musicians Union Local 77 (subs accepted February 20, 1919). (44)

1919, March 7: Salvatoro Massaro (Eddie Lang) was elected to Philadelphia Musicians Union, Local 77. (44)

1919, summer: In 1919 Joe joined Burt Eslow’s (sic) band at the Knickerbocker Hotel (Tennessee Avenue & Boardwalk) in Atlantic City while Eddie continued playing club dates in Philadelphia. (CHICK GRANESE) (3)

NOTE

  • SEE May-September 1923 entry.

1919, September: Salvatoro Massaro (Eddie Lang) attends South Philadelphia High School, year 4. (21)

1919, September: Giuseppe Venuti attends South Philadelphia High School, year 3. (21)

1919, September 16: Joe Venuti, 16th birthday.

1919, October 25: Eddie Lang, 17th birthday.

1920

1920, c. Spring: Joe Venuti with Chick Granese’s five-piece band, Rankin Beach, New Jersey, followed by a string of one-nighters in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. (CHICK GRANESE) (3)

1920: Eddie Lang joins Charlie Kerr's Orchestra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (3)

EDDIE LANG

  • “After leaving school, my first real job on the violin came when Charlie Kerr signed me up to play with him for four years … then Charlie decided he wanted me to play banjo.” (6)

1920, Salvatore Massaro adopted the stage name Eddie Lange/Ed Lange after a local professional basketball star named “Eddie Lang.” (3) 

  • To this day, no information about this local sports figure has been uncovered. (RFR)

1920, September: Giuseppe Venuti attends South Philadelphia High School, year 4. (21)

1920, September 16: Joe Venuti, 17th birthday.

1920, October 25: Eddie Lang, 18th birthday.

1921

1921: Charles Kerr Orchestra, Eddie Lang- banjo & violin, @ Al White’s Dance Hall, 10th & Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (3)

c. 1921: Eddie Lang meets his future wife, Kitty Rasch, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (39)

KITTY LANG GOOD

  • “I had met Eddie when I first went into a road company of the (Ziegfeld) Follies in 1920-21. Eddie was playing banjo with Charlie Kerr’s Band in Philadelphia, and I was staying at the hotel.” (39)

1921, September 16: Joe Venuti, 18th birthday.

1921, October 25: Eddie Lang, 19th birthday.

1922

1922: Charles Kerr Orchestra, Eddie Lang- banjo & violin, @ Al White’s Dance Hall, 10th & Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (3)

1922, Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. introduces the L-5 archtop guitar. (10)

  • Introduced in 1922, the Gibson L5 is the precursor of the modern archtop guitar. It was the first archtop to feature f-holes, which allowed it to project through the horn-dominated bands of the day. Its strong, full, warm sound was an immediate and overwhelming success that turned the heads of makers, players, and listeners alike. (10)

1922, c. July: Nick Lucas records two guitar solos; “PICKIN’ THE GUITAR” and “TEASING THE GUITAR, Perfect Records, NYC. (8) 

"The Crooning Troubadour and His Guitar" recorded his two feature guitar pieces several times (1922, 1923, 1932). The first of its kind, these pioneer guitar recordings undoubtedly influenced Eddie Lang and other emerging guitarists. Though Lucas was not a jazz guitarist, he was a creative and natural player. With his skill set in place as early as 1922, these two selections contain the rudiments for playing the instrument in the Jazz Age. Two samples below display his abilities on the guitar.

Nick Lucas' Ukulele Trio performs JI-JI-BOO; Lucas starts on the ukelele, then at 1:22, he switches to guitar. At 1:41, he plays a two-bar chord break reminiscent of what Lang would do a few years later. At 2:22, Lucas returns with the guitar rhythm to significant effect.

BIT BY BIT, YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART, recorded in Chicago with the Oriole Orchestra, has Lucas starting on banjo, then switching to the guitar, where he’s featured (@ 1:31) in a series of breaks playing chord runs and single-string solos. 

Lucas’ ability to creatively accompany himself while singing was his passport to a solo career that quickly got him out of the band business and onto a sparkling solo career in vaudeville, nightclubs, Broadway, films, radio, and television, rubbing shoulders with celebrities and royalty.

His recording career spanned from test cylinders for Thomas Edison in 1912 to the stereophonic age in 1980, with total disc sales of over 80 million copies. It is doubtful that anyone in popular music has had a longer recording career that spanned seven decades. (27)

Note: For more about Nick Lucas, nicklucas.com is a terrific site dedicated to this guitar pioneer and entertainer. 

1922: Joe Venuti with Paul Whiteman ?

JOE VENUTI

  • “We started with Whiteman in 1922.” (9)

  • “I played with Paul Whiteman six years. Like in 1922 Paul paid me $150 a week. 1923 he gave me $300 a week. 1924 I was making $600 a week.” (9)

Venuti’s comments shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Allan Sutton’s superb research brings interesting details regarding the music business and band bookings in the first half of the twenties. (26) 

In 1921, Paul Whiteman established his orchestra booking agency, which eventually numbered over ten ensembles, including Zez Confrey, Joe Raymond, Charles Dornberger, and Henry Busse. Busse’s Whiteman contingency was Busse’s Buzzards, a small, short-lived unit from the main Whiteman orchestra. By 1923, Whiteman’s booking agency had expanded to the point that it managed orchestras nationwide. In early 1924, it changed its name to United Orchestras, Inc. 

Note: Having spent a year and a half in Detroit leading orchestras for Jean Goldkette’s booking agency, Venuti’s first recording session upon returning to the East Coast in August 1925 was with Busse’s Buzzards, a Paul Whiteman outfit, led by trumpeter Henry Busse. Considering the violinist’s reputation for fronting bands, playing club dates with this ensemble and other Whiteman groups in the fall of 1925, possibly as early as 1922, is plausible.

1922, September 16: Joe Venuti, 19th birthday.

1922, October 25: Eddie Lang, 20th birthday.

1923

1923, January 18 (Thu): Eddie Lang-banjo, Victor RECORDING SESSION, Camden, New Jersey (23).

Charlie Kerr Orchestra 

WHEN HEARTS ARE YOUNG-Victor matrix-Trial 1923-01-18-02-Victor Records unissued.

RUSSIAN FOX TROT-Victor matrix-Trial 1923-01-18-03-Victor Records unissued.

  • Instrumentals, one take each.

NOTE

  • Presumably the first recordings made by the Charlie Kerr Orchestra.

  • Acoustic recording session.

  • The existence of this disc has not been confirmed, nor is there documentation to confirm Eddie Lang’s presence.

CHARLIE KERR

August 11, 1890, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – October 7, 1976, Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida

Charlie Kerr was an American jazz drummer who led a jazz orchestra bearing his name in Philadelphia beginning in the early 1920s. In 1922, Kerr led his orchestra in the first radio remote broadcast of a dance band from the Café L'Aiglon, Philadelphia, via W.I.P. radio. Throughout the 1930s, his orchestra continued broadcasting on stations W.F.I. and WLIT, which merged as WFIL in 1935. During the 1930s through World War II summers, his orchestra performed in Cape May City, New Jersey. Kerr retired from music in the late 1940s and opened his furniture store in Miami. (18)

1923, c. January: Charlie Kerr's Orchestra, Eddie Lang- banjo & violin, @ Al White's Dance Hall, 10th & Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (3) @ Café L'Aiglon, Fifteenth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (3), with radio broadcasts over W.I.P. Tuesday and Saturday evenings. (13)

Score to Store. Philadelphia, Jan. 14 - A quarter of a century ago Charlie Kerr’s band started a new trend for dance bands in having his music broadcast from the then famous Café L’Aiglon in town. It was the first dance remote in history of radio via WIP, and the industry was then in its crystal set stage. The first number to go out over the airwaves was the then popular Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight? Today, 25 years later, maestro Kerr has discarded his baton and is selling bedposts and other furniture in his own store in Miami. (16)

1923, March 8 (Thu): Eddie Lang-banjo, Edison RECORDING SESSION, NYC (25).

Charlie Kerr’s Orchestra

8872-A,B,C GOOD MORNING DEARIE-Master Edison 51070

  • Instrumental.

  • Two-2 bar banjo breaks, lots of banjo rolls throughout the recording.

8873-A,B,C A SILVER CANOE-Master Edison 51070

  • Instrumental.

  • Lots of banjo rolls throughout the recording.

NOTE

  • Acoustic recording session.

  • Eddie Lang’s first (documented) recording session. 

1923, April 3 (Tue): Eddie Lang-banjo, Edison RECORDING SESSION, NYC (25).

Charlie Kerr’s Orchestra

8903-A, B IN A CARAVAN-Edison unissued. 

8903-C IN A CARAVAN-Master Edison 51147

  • Instrumental.

  • Eddie Lang is not featured.

8904-A, B GONE! (BUT STILL IN MY HEART)-Edison unissued. 

8904-C GONE! (BUT STILL IN MY HEART)-Master Edison 51147

  • Instrumental.

  • 16 bar stop chorus banjo solo.

NOTE

  • Acoustic recording session.

1923, April 26 (Thu): Eddie Lang-banjo, Edison RECORDING SESSION, NYC (25).

Charlie Kerr’s Orchestra

8944-A,C NO ONE LOVES YOU ANY BETTER THAN YOUR M-A-DOUBLE M-Y-Master Edison 51164 

8944-B NO ONE LOVES YOU ANY BETTER THAN YOUR M-A-DOUBLE M-Y-Edison unissued.

8944 NO ONE LOVES YOU ANY BETTER THAN YOUR M-A-DOUBLE M-Y-Edison 4764 CYLINDER-unissued.

  • Instrumental

  • Eddie Lang is not featured.

8945-A MAD (‘CAUSE YOU TREAT ME THIS WAY)-Edison unissued. 

8945-B MAD (‘CAUSE YOU TREAT ME THIS WAY)-Master Edison 51167

  • Instrumental

  • Eddie Lang is not featured.

NOTE

  • Acoustic recording session.

1923, c. April-May: Eddie Lang (tenor banjo & six-string guitar) with Charles Kerr and his W.I.P Broadcast Orchestra band photo, PAPA, BETTER WATCH YOUR STEP (12).

1923, May-September: Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Note: There needs to be more data regarding this event, as presented by the sources below.

Bert Estlow had a steady summer gig in Atlantic City, and either or both Venuti & Lang joined him during 1919-1923. (RFR)

RICHARD DUPAGE

  • In 1919 Joe joined Burt Eslow’s (sic) band at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Atlantic City while Eddie continued playing club dates in Philadelphia. (3)

JOE VENUTI

  • “Eddie and I played our first real professional job together at a place in Atlantic City in 1921 (3) with Bert Estlow, a piano player. When we had time off we used to go to hear and sit in with the Scranton Sirens. But we never played any jazz on the job with Estlow, we would go in the men’s room and play for them there ... Rube Bloom, who recorded with us later, first heard us there. So did Red Nichols, who was always scouting around looking for musical talent. (4)

RICHARD HADLOCK

  • Lang and Venuti worked a dance job with pianist Bert Estlow’s quintet at Atlantic City’s L’Aiglon restaurant in 1921 or 1922. (19)

RED NICHOLS

  • “Early in 1923 we went into the Ambassador in Atlantic City … Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang were working at the Knickerbocker Hotel there, playing with the dinner-concert orchestra.” (4)

  • “I was doing very well, but I got my first opportunity to organize and head a band of my own at the Pelham Heath Inn in New York. It was comprised of Freddy Morrow, alto; Dudley Fosdick, mellophone; Gerald Finney, piano; Joe Ziegler, drums; Joe Venuti and myself. I tried but wasn’t able to get Eddie Lang.” (4)

JOE VENUTI

  • “We were working at the old Alamac Hotel on the Boardwalk and New York Avenue; we couldn’t play too much jazz so we would go into the men’s room, and we’d have a jam session in there, and Red (Nichols) came in and joined us.” (7)

1923, June 27 (Wed): Eddie Lang-banjo, Edison RECORDING SESSION, NYC (25).

Charlie Kerr’s Orchestra

9048-A MY SWEETIE WENT AWAY-Edison unissued.

9048-B,C  MY SWEETIE WENT AWAY-Master Edison 51194

9048 MY SWEETIE WENT AWAY-Edison 51194-R Master, unknown take.

  • Instrumental.

  • Eddie Lang is not featured.

9049-A,B OPHELIA-Master Edison 51194

9049-L OPHELIA-Master Edison 51194, unknown take. 

  • Instrumental.

  • four 2 bar banjo breaks (rolls).

NOTE

  • Acoustic recording session.

1923, July 4: Carmela Tamburro Massaro, Eddie Lang’s Mother, dies (age 56), 738 St. Albans Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (25) 

1923, c. July-August: Eddie Lang (tenor banjo & six-string guitar) w/Charles E. Kerr and his Leighlon Orchestra band photo, INDIANA MOON (Benny Davis/Isham Jones) sheet music, Irving Berlin, Inc. Music Publishers. (11)

1923, August 20: Eddie Lang-banjo, guitar, Artists and Models, a revue in two acts, BROADWAY, Shubert Theatre, Winter Garden Theatre, NYC. (14) (RFR)

Shubert Theatre: August 20, 1923-March 23, 1924.

Winter Garden Theatre: March 24, 1924-May 17, 1924.

  • In August, the guitarist was part of the pit orchestra for a musical comedy, Artists and Models, and he spent the rest of the year in Al Burt’s orchestra at the Blue Bird Dancing Theatre (later renamed the Arcadia Ballroom). 

  • The Shubert Brothers copied Earl Carroll’s successful Vanities revues by offering their own shows that emphasized girls in various stages of undress. The idea for the series came from the annual program sponsored by the Illustrators’ Society of New York. Because they were supposed to be models, the semi-nudes were promoted as artistic, and audiences took the Shubert’s at their word. Frank Fay acted as host, giving the show a bit of class. (15)

  • Opening Night Cast: includes Frank Fay, Lee Morse. (14)

  • Presumably referring to Artists and Models, but the cast for this show did not include Barbara Stanwyck. (3) 

1923: Eddie Lang with Al Burt’s Orchestra @ the Blue Bird Dancing Theatre, Broadway @ 53rd Street, NYC. (RFR)

1923, September 16: Joe Venuti, 20th birthday.

1923, October 25: Eddie Lang, 21st birthday. 

1923, October 25 (Thu): Eddie Lang-banjo, Edison RECORDING SESSION, NYC (25).

Charlie Kerr and his Orchestra

9222-A,B,C OPERATIC MELODIES-Test Pressing Master, Edison unissued.

9223-A,B,C OPEN YOUR HEART-Master Edison 51265

  • Instrumental.

  • Banjo stop-chorus 16 bars, 6 bars piano accompaniment.

NOTE

  • Acoustic recording session.

1923: Vic D’Ippolito band w/Eddie Lang @ the Stanley Theatre, Philadelphia. (Vic D’Ippolito). (3) (RFR)

  • During the Danceland run George Raft, appearing at the Stanley Theatre, asked Vic and Eddie to play on stage with his dance act. (3) 

  • Band led by violinist Val Adley. (3)

  • The band closed at Danceland on New Year’s Eve (December 31), 1923. (3)

KITTY LANG GOOD

c. 1923: “He (Eddie Lang) also bought a home on South 15th Street (South Philadelphia) with his brother (Alexander/Tom) so that his father would have someone to take care of him while he was traveling around.” (17) (RFR)

CITATIONS

1.     Conversations with Joe Venuti 1974-1978 (Mike Peters).

2.     Joe Venuti interview: National Public Radio, conducted by William Moyer, Jazz String Newsletter, January-March 1983, Vol. 2 No. 1.

3.     Richard DuPage, Stringing The Blues, Columbia Records, 1962.

4.     Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, New York, Dover Publications, 1955.

5.     Joe Venuti Interview, spring 1978: Cadence, The American Review of Jazz & Blues, Vol. 4, No. 11, November 1978, Taken & Transcribed by Jerry De Muth.

6.     Hello-Rhythm Fiends!, His own story, written for Rhythm by Eddie Lang, World’s Guitar Ace, Rhythm, Vol. V, No. 60, September 1932.

7.     Hear the One About Joe Venuti?, by Joe H. Klee, The Mississippi Rag, August 1975.

8.     The Complete Entertainment Discography from the mid-1890’s to 1942, by Brian Rust with Allen G. Debus, Arlington House, New York, 1973.

9.     Joe Venuti Interview, conducted by William Moyer for National Public Radio, Jazz String Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 1, January-March 1983.

10.  Gibson L-5: Its History and Its Players, by Adrian Ingram, Centerstream Publishing, 1997.

11.  Indiana Moon, Irving Berlin, Inc. Music Publishers, 1923.

12.  Papa Better Watch Your Step, Goodman & Rose, 1923.

13.  The Metronome, June 1923, Conn Instruments Advertisement.

14.  IBDB (Internet Broadway Database). 

15.  Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than ... by Thomas S. Hischak, McFarland, 2009.

16.  Score to Store, Billboard January 21, 1950.

17.  Still A Ziegfeld Girl, Memoirs Of A Showgirl, An Autobiography by Kitty Good. Registered: 136497, Writers Guild of America, unpublished.

18.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward_Kerr

19.  Jazz Masters Of The Twenties, Eddie Lang, by Richard Hadlock, Collier Books, New York, 1965.

20.  Eddie Lang Stringin’ The Blues, Adriano Mazzoletti, Pantheon, 1997.

21.  South Philadelphia High School Archives.

22.  The American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942, Brian Rust, Arlington House Publishers, New Rochelle, New York, 1975.

23.  Victor Ledgers; adp.library.ucsb.edu

24.  Saint Mary Magdalen de Pazzi Church death records, St. Paul Parish, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

25.  Edison Archives-Thomas Edison National Historical Park, including recording ledgers, cash books, artifact descriptions; discs.

26.  American Dance Orchestras, Paul Whiteman, Inc. - A Preliminary Survey of the Whiteman Agency Dance Orchestras by Allan Sutton.

27.  nicklucas.com

28. POPS: Paul Whiteman, King of Jazz, New Century Publishers, 1983.

29. TRAM – The Frank Trumbauer Story, Philip R. Evans and Larry F. Kiner with William Trumbauer, Studies in Jazz, No. 18, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers and The Scarecrow Press, 1994.

30. The New Edition Of The Encyclopedia Of Jazz, Leonard Feather, Bonanza Books, 1960.

31. syncopatedtimes.com/jean-goldkette

32. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrés_Segovia

33. “Fats” In Fact, Laurie Wright, Storyville Publications, 1992.

34. BG On The Record, A Bio-discography of Benny Goodman, D. Russell Connor and Warren H. Hicks, Arlington House, 1973.

35. Ruth Etting, America’s Forgotten Sweetheart, Kenneth Irwin and Charles O. Lloyd, Scarecrow Press, 2010.

36. Bing Crosby, A Pocketful Of Dreams The Early Years 1903-1940, Gary Giddins, Little, Brown and Company, 2001.

37. BIX, Man & Legend, Richard M. Sudhalter & Philip R. Evans with William Dean-Myatt, Arlington House, 1974.

38. Adrian Rollini, The Life and Music of a Jazz Rambler, Ate van Delden, The University Press of Mississippi, 2020.

39. Birth Certificate, City Of Philadelphia, Department Of Records, City Archives, 176861.

40. St. Paul’s Catholic Church, 1900-1903 Baptismal Records book.

41. "Hello-Rhythm Fiends!" by Eddie Lang, Rhythm (UK), September 1932.

42. Tommy Dorsey, Livin’ In A Great Big Way by Peter J. Levinson, Da Capo Press, 2005.

43. louisarmstronghouse.org/biography

44. Feeling My Way, A Discography of the recordings of EDDIE LANG 1923-1933, Raymond F. Mitchell, self-published, 2002.