THE COMPLETE EDDIE LANG
SOLO RECORDINGS
The complete Eddie Lang solo recordings include all known tracks made under the guitarist's name. This collection features his solo performances, orchestral recordings, and duets with Lonnie Johnson. The recordings highlight Lang's remarkable talent in various genres, including jazz, pop, classical, and blues.
Commentary on the recordings is provided by Richard Hadlock (RH), Marty Grosz (MOG), Mike Peters (MP), Dick Sudhalter (RMS), and Scott Wenzel (SW). All but one of the tracks (Walkin’ The Dog-OKeh Test Pressing) are sourced from The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions published by Mosaic Records in 2002. Many of the recordings were derived from metal parts, while others come from pristine 78 RPM records. Doug Pomeroy expertly handled the audio restoration.
PART ONE
April 1, 1927-May 15, 1929
EDDIE LANG
NYC, April 1, 1927
Eddie Lang-guitar, Arthur Schutt-piano
80692-A Eddie’s Twister (Lang)-OKeh 40807
In EDDIE’S TWISTER, Lang makes the most of this original, a 32-measure composition, in the AABA pop-tune format, that favors the flatted sixth chord. Compared to the cascades of notes produced by today’s electric-guitar wizards, his choruses may sound naïve, almost simplistic. It’s clear that Eddie is interested in quality rather than quantity, stressing an intense attack and a vibrant tone. Thus he causes this seemingly trivial piece to come to life. Along the way we are treated to a spicy blues break at the end of the first bridge, and a succession of augmented triads at the same juncture in his second chorus. Pianist Arthur Schutt, a superb technician famous in his own right, keeps to himself in the background. (MOG)
EDDIE LANG
NYC, April 1, 1927
Eddie Lang-guitar, Arthur Schutt-piano
80693-A APRIL KISSES (Lang)-OKeh 40807
The beguiling waltz, APRIL KISSES, is just about as far removed from Eddie’s preoccupation with the blues as he could get. It could readily pass for the work of one of the Italian fretted-instrument virtuosi who recorded in the ‘20’s and the ‘30’’s. It must have brought a smile to the faces of the Massaro’s in South Philly. It’s a delicious piece of fluff that Eddie embroiders with crystalline 30-second note runs and rich chord voicings. Schutt’s accompaniment is discreet to the point of vanishing. (MOG)
In passages such as his introductory cadenza to APRIL KISSES, Lang tosses of sixteenth-note and thirty-second-note single-string runs with precision and ease. Sometimes he changed the angle of the pick or the position of the stroke in relation to the fingerboard to achieve special sounds. (RH)
ED LANG
NYC, May 28, 1927
Guitar Solo
Eddie Lang-guitar
80940-B Prelude (Rachmaninoff Op. 3, No. 2)-OKeh 40989
Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1892, PRELUDE had, by 1927, become a staple of student piano recitals, its first three notes a cliché that drew snickers when quoted out of context. Lang’s adaptation of this “classical” piece is in keeping with the usage of turn-of-the-century banjoists who often included light classics in their repertoires. Nevertheless, Eddie was one of the first jazz musicians to venture into the realms of so-called “serious” music. According to his wife Kitty, he sent hours practicing this piece; time well spent.
The number is transposed from the piano key of C# minor up to E-minor in order to utilize the guitars’ low E-string. In Eddie’s hands, the number loses much of its somber pomposity becoming an engaging sequence of rapidly shifting harmonies. Note that he begins the piece using a pick, changes to finger style and winds up again using a pick.
Whether Eddie was familiar with the early recordings of Andres Segovia, the first modern exponent of the classical guitar, is open to question. I tend to believe he was, for the Spaniard’s reputation was worldwide. Segovia would make his American debut at New York’s Town Hall in 1928. According to the late Bill Priestly, an ardent amateur guitarist, “they were all there”” meaning the likes of Eddie Lang, Dick McDonough, Carl Kress, etc., the finest plectrists on the New York scene.
Eddie didn’t live long enough to delve further into the classical repertoire. His acolytes, Kress and McDonough did. Their DANZON (1933) and Kress’ compositions for a solo album (1939) incorporated classical materials. (MOG)
ED LANG
NYC, June 9, 1927
Guitar Solo
Eddie Lang-guitar
80941-D A Little Love, A Little Kiss (Fysher-Ross-Silesu)-OKeh 40989
Eddie Lang’s treatment of A LITTLE LOVE, A LITTLE KISS, is one of his most enchanting recordings. It’s not at all jazzy and quite brief, consisting of a ten-bar introduction, an eight-bar verse, a 32-bar chorus, ending with a recap of the introduction, all played very freely or “molto rubato.” Eddie’s Gibson L-4 (a steel string instrument with a carved top and a sound hole) enables him to elicit just the proper amount of vibrato. Sprinklings of rapid runs enliven the legato melody. It’s a charming vignette which, in the hands of Eddie Lang, sounds deceptively simple – the sign of a master musician. (MOG)
ED LANG
NYC, October 21, 1927
Eddie Lang-guitar, Frank Signorelli-piano
81559-A Melody Man’s Dream (Lang-Signorelli)-OKeh 40936
Lang based MELODY MAN’S DREAM, an improvisation in D-major, on the chords of SWEET GEORGIA BROWN. The slowed-down tempo allows his firm attack and rich tone to shine. The introduction, consisting of chromatic 13th chords, was ultra-hip in 1927. Again, as in EDDIE’S TWISTER, Lang employs an economy of means to put his ideas across. It’s as though he was dreaming of playing trumpet on the guitar. After Signorelli’s six-measure interlude, Lang introduces a sequence of chords, fourths, and thirds, and Signorelli cuts loose for four measures. The DREAM ends with an eight-bar coda. If, after 70 years, this improvisation may strike us as a bit naïve, we should remember that Lang’s jazz guitar solos were first, and as such, had a profound influence in bringing the guitar to the fore. And naïve or primitive or whatever, they are always musical.
ED LANG
NYC, October 21, 1927
Eddie Lang-guitar, Frank Signorelli-piano
81560-B Perfect (Lang-Signorelli)-OKeh 40936
PERFECT is another Lang original in the 32-measure pop-tune format. As in MELODY MAN’S DREAM, a piano interlude halfway into the performance gives the listener a respite from the guitar sound. Lang returns for eight measures of forceful middle-register picking, then takes the chorus out, ending on the placid fifth of the tonic chord F major. (MOG)
ED LANG
NYC, March 29, 1928
Guitar Solo With Piano by Frank Signorelli
Eddie Lang-guitar, Frank Signorelli-piano
400182-B Rainbow Dreams (Lang)-OKeh unissued/Parlophone R 208
Guitar Solo ED LANG with Piano Accompaniment
RAINBOW DREAMS is Lang’s sweetest composition, a nostalgic ballad rendered with a 1920’s lilt. A dazzling cadenza draws the listeners' attention. The chorus that follows is built on descending ninth chords that lend the piece a melancholy tone. Unlike the compositions of many guitarists, which emphasize technical wizardry at the expense of the melody and which suffer from harmonic prolixity, Lang’s creations never lose sight of the underlying theme, nor are they overstuffed with arcane harmonics. In this case, the harmonies, while quintessentially guitaristic, support the wistful mood. Signorelli’s barrelhouse piano boding keeps the proceedings from lapsing into sentimentality. (MOG)
1928 Gibson Guitar Catalog
ED LANG
NYC, March 29, 1928
Guitar Solo With Piano by Frank Signorelli
Eddie Lang-guitar, Frank Signorelli-piano
400183-B Add A Little Wiggle (Yellen-Ager)-OKeh 41134
Guitar Solo With Piano by Frank Signorelli
A chorus line “pep-stepper” from the Broadway music Rain or Shine, ADD A LITTLE WIGGLE begins with Lang single-stringing the verse in E-major, a comfortable key for the guitar with its lowest and highest E strings and its open A and B strings. After two jolly guitar choruses in E, Signorelli makes a four-bar modulation down a half-step to Eb, Lang wades in with chords utilizing Bb pedal notes. I can only guess that he tuned his A (fifth) string up one-half step during the piano interlude, a nifty feat if you can pull it off in time. It seems Eddie did. (MOG)
1928 “Rain or Shine” Broadway Pit Band-Joe Tarto Autograph Book
EDDIE LANG
NYC, September 27, 1928
Eddie Lang-guitar, Rube Bloom-piano
401158-C Jeannine I Dream Of Lilac Time (Gilbert-Shilkret)-OKeh 41134
A triple session (of sorts) with Venuti’s Blue Four (THE BLUE ROOM & SENSATION) sandwiched between two Lang guitar features. Eddie made his way early to the studio to record a guitar solo that OKeh intended on coupling with ADD A LITTLE WIGGLE, a feature he previously recorded in March. Eddie chose a pretty waltz, JEANNINE I DREAM OF LILAC TIME, from Lilac Time, a 1928 First National Picture. Eddie has been taking traditional and popular songs and giving them a solo guitar treatment since he was a kid in South Philadelphia. His ability to do so was just another facet of his extraordinary gifts as a guitarist. Eddie’s interpretations ranged from a straight reading of the theme to reworking the piece with various embellishments. JEANNINE falls within the former as the guitarist delivers a plaintive reading of the verse and two choruses of the melody. This is the kind of stuff OKeh would market to the parents of America’s jazz-crazy kids. (MP)
EDDIE LANG
September 27, 1928, Eddie Lang-guitar, Frank Signorelli-piano
401161-A I’ll Never Be The Same (Kahn-Malneck-Signorelli)-OKeh unissued/Parlophone R 1778
For the final selection of the date, Frank Signorelli (whose name is listed on the file card) replaces Bloom on I’LL NEVER BE THE SAME. There can be a couple of reasons for the switch in piano players: Bloom had another date and had to leave after the Blue Four session, or Eddie requested “Cheech” as his accompanist on the Signorelli-penned title. Venuti claimed he wrote this “Venuti-ish” style melody and “sold it to Signorelli for twenty-five potatoes.” Who knows! (MP)
BLIND WILLIE DUNN
Guitar Solo With Piano
NYC, November 5, 1928
Eddie Lang-guitar (Blind Willie Dunn), Frank Signorelli-piano, Justin Ring-chimes.
401292 (Norfolk) Church Street Sobbin’ Blues (warm-up)-OKeh test groove
401292-C (Norfolk) Church Street Sobbin’ Blues (Lada-Crawley-Nunez)-OKeh 8633
Why “Blind Willie Dunn”? Because this number and THERE’LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE were issues as part of OKeh’s “race” series targeted at black customers. Perhaps the management felt that “Eddie Lang” wouldn’t register as a typically “black” name. And, of course, a white man wasn’t supposed to be able to understand the “black” blues idiom. Lang was playacting. He had a genuine feeling for the blues guitar style as it was practiced in the 1920s. On (NORFOLK) CHURCH STREET SOBBIN’ BLUES, Eddie states the 12-bar theme twice, supported by Signorelli’s bumptious piano, after which his ringing guitar harmonics usher in a 16-bar strain a fifth higher. All the while, a constant chime recalls the tolling of a church bell. Eddie reprises the opening theme, closing with a ritardando wind-down.
We can be thankful that Eddie Lang’s sumptuous tone has been preserved on recordings. The sort of sound that he and his guitars produced is virtually impossible to come by nowadays when every jazz guitarist depends upon an amplifier to distort his instrument’s natural qualities. (MOG)
BLIND WILLIE DUNN
Guitar Solo With Piano
NYC, November 5, 1928
Eddie Lang-guitar (Blind Willie Dunn), Frank Signorelli-piano, Justin Ring-chimes.
401293-B There’ll Be Some Changes Made (Overstreet-Higgins)-OKeh 8633
Eddie Lang was fond of beginning his solo recordings with cadenzas, which are technically elaborate improvisations in free time. They call attention to the performers and announce the piece of music to follow. His cadenzas were usually based on Southern European models, in this case, drawing on Spanish influences. But where is THERE’’LL BE SOME CHANGES MADE going? To Andalusia? Are we going to hear a habanera? Hardly: Eddie is freaking us out. A few flourishes from Signorelli’s piano, and we’re on our way to the South Side of Chicago.
The tune is taken at a slower tempo than was customary. It’s more of a vocal tempo, allowing for the guitar’s notes to ring like a singer’s syllables. Eddie gracefully articulates the melody over puissant piano chords. He turns up the heat in his second chorus and moves to a higher register. His two choruses are the essence of simplicity, demonstrating a firm attack and a superb tone that has seldom been equaled. Over the past 70-plus years, jazz guitar playing has become more complex, more embellished, and more convoluted, but hardly more elegant. (MOG)
LONNIE JOHNSON AND BLIND WILLIE DUNN
NYC, November 17, 1928
Guitar Duet
Lonnie Johnson-guitar, Eddie Lang (Blind Willie Dunn)-guitar
401338-B Two Tone Stomp (Johnson-Lang)-OKeh 8637
TWO TONE STOMP means that it’s a peppy piece that modulates between D-major and G-major. It’s fashioned of the simplest materials, allowing Johnson free rein. His was a blues-oriented style not conversant with complicated harmonies. Johnson considered himself a player of “City Blues.” He had recorded with Louis Armstrong in Chicago and with Duke Ellington and McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (under the title of “Chocolate Dandies”) in New York. And although he couldn’t approach Lang’s harmonic sophistication, he wasn’t limited just to 12-bar blues progressions. He and Lang were able to find simple chord structures that worked. The results are multifaceted, a potpourri of folk, blues, and jazz idioms, a mixture that later surfaced in “Western Swing” bands.
On TWO TONE STOMP, Lang keeps to a supporting role while Johnson displays his “running water” style to good advantage, moving between 16-measure sections in D and G. (MOG)
LONNIE JOHNSON AND BLIND WILLIE DUNN
NYC, November 17, 1928
Guitar Duet
Lonnie Johnson-guitar, Eddie Lang (Blind Willie Dunn)-guitar
401339-B Have To Change Keys To Play These Blues (Johnson-Lang)-OKeh 8637
HAVE TO CHANGE KEYS TO PLAY THESE BLUES follows a similar pattern (to TWO TONE STOMP). It’s a slower tempoed blues that once again switches between D and G. Lang gets a chorus, but his accompanying figures are just as exciting to the ear. The difference in instruments is readily apparent: Johnson’s light gauge strings giving a twangy, nasal tone, while Lang’s heavy-gauge strings furnish a rich, dark, contrasting bass. (MOG)
BLIND WILLIE DUNN'S GIN BOTTLE FOUR
NYC, May 1, 1929, Recording Time 1:30pm-unk
Tommy Dorsey-trumpet, Eddie Lang-guitar (Blind Willie Dunn), Lonnie Johnson-guitar, J.C. Johnson-piano (TBD), unknown orchestra bells, percussion.
401842-B Jet Black Blues (J.C. Johnson)-OKeh 8689 (unknown vocal)
401843-B Blue Blood Blues (J.C. Johnson)-OKeh 8689 (unknown mouth percussionist)
How did this zany session happen, and why? Of course, Eddie Lang and Lonnie Johnson would be recording for OKeh in the not-too-distant future; perhaps they were rehearsing a few licks. And maybe the pianist was J.C. Johnson, composer of LOUISIANA, DUSKY STEVEDORE and TAKE YOUR TOMORROW. If it was, had he dropped by to plug some of his new songs? The session has an off-the-wall atmosphere, as though they were just kidding around and a recording engineer had them cut two tunes for laughs.
JET BLACK BLUES has Johnson and Lang establishing a wistful mood with Eddie’s six strings answering Johnson’s 12. Somewhere far away, there’s a drummer, and up closer to the microphone a person is banging on what sounds like an empty packing crate and then pinging on a glockenspiel or toy xylophone. The muted trumpet sounds like Tommy Dorsey, who, though he may have been a “sentimental gentleman” on trombone, was a “dead-end kid” when he picked up the trumpet. The piano enters with a Wallerian run, but don’t get excited; it’s not Fats. There’s a quasi-Armstrong scat vocal borrowed from WEST END BLUES. And then the trumpet, off-mic, wails it out. (MOG)
BLUE BLOOD BLUES isn’t a blues at all, but a series of improvisations on a 32-bar pop-tune chord sequence, coincidentally identical to that of YOU CAN’T CHEAT A CHEATER, which Tommy Dorsey recorded on trumpet a week earlier. The horn is followed by Johnson’s guitar backed by a ratchet sound. This and other percussion effects lend the performance a loony-tunes atmosphere. A two-bar Lang break brings on a mystery scat singer who resumes his percussion chores as the trumpet concludes, but not until someone tacks on a coda: “shave and a haircut, two bits” struck on a bottle, cymbal and something unknown. It’s all a mystery. Call in the DNA technicians. I give up. (MOG)
BLIND WILLIE DUNN'S GIN BOTTLE FOUR
NYC, May 7, 1929
Guitar Duet
Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Dunn
Lonnie Johnson-guitar, Eddie Lang-guitar (Blind Willie Dunn)
401865-A Guitar Blues (Johnson-Lang)-OKeh 8711
For some reason, only GUITAR BLUES was recorded on this day, but we should be grateful that at least this one track survived. Listed on the label as “Blind Willie Dunn’s Gin Bottle Four,” it’s just Johnson and Lang who, although each has a distinctive sound, weave their lines so perfectly on this lively blues it might take you a measure of two before you realize where Johnson’s solo ends and Lang picks up. (SW)
LONNIE JOHNSON AND BLIND WILLIE DUNN
NYC, May 8, 1929
Guitar Duet
Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Dunn
Lonnie Johnson-guitar, Eddie Lang-guitar (Blind Willie Dunn)
401869-A A Handful Of Riffs (Johnson-Lang)-OKeh 8695
401870-A Blue Guitars (Johnson-Lang)-OKeh 8711
Lonnie Johnson’s never-ending flow of invention is in full bloom on A HANDFUL OF RIFFS and BLUE GUITARS, leaving Lang to be the sole accompanist. Johnson was farther ahead in solo conception than the other blues guitarists of his generation and, with the addition of Master Lang providing a solid background, was able to take full advantage of his ever-fertile ideas. (SW)
LONNIE JOHNSON AND BLIND WILLIE DUNN
NYC, May 15, 1929
Guitar Duet
Lonnie Johnson and Blind Willie Dunn
Lonnie Johnson-guitar, Eddie Lang-guitar (Blind Willie Dunn)
401866-D Bull Frog Moan (Johnson-Lang)-OKeh 8695
A few mock croaks from Lang begin this “moan” that again demonstrates the camaraderie between Johnson and Lang. Johnson is not as inventive as in some of the earlier sessions but nonetheless is facile in his display of the blues. Meanwhile, Lang is content to dutifully carry out his role as an impeccable rhythm man, paving the way for Johnson’s imagery. (SW)
