The Hal Kemp band, including Bob Mayhew, John Scott Trotter and Skinnay Ennis with their 1928 Brunswick hit "I Don't Care" and accompanying Eddie Peabody (banjo and toy violin).
This is too cool. Robert (Bob) Mayhew, the coronet player, was my grandfather on my mother's side. (Also, John Scott Trotter was my mother's godfather) My mom and my aunts were clustered around the computer watching this. Thanks for posting this, man!
+Debra Mayhew I know what you mean. Recently my Grandfather has been having medical issues so we've been moving him out to a home, but we found some of his old albums when we were packing his things. Man oh man, I know everybody is young once, but damn! No glasses, posing with army buddies in WWll looking like he don't give a f*#%. I wish I could have known him back then, considering we like the same music and I'm kind of mature and weird and don't have facebook, so we're both like "God-Dang those rude kids! Always too busy Facebookin" and Twitterin" to learn any manners or social skills!"
+Debra Mayhew Hi Debra I may have contacted you a few years ago. Or maybe your sister. My Great Grandmother was Bernice Mayhew, Callahan Groves. my computer crashed a few years ago and lost my contacts. I have old photographs we would like to maybe share if you like. Have a great Thanksgiving.
+Graham Gibson (VoraciousSloth) Hey Graham. That is so cool that you like the same music as your grandfather! I am so sorry he is having medical issues .... but if you can, pick his brain and ask him what his life was like back then, his greatest joy, favorite instrument, etc. My father, Bob Mayhew, passed away when I was 12 and I never got to ask him about the days playing with Hal Kemp, Paul Whiteman, etc. You know what is the most weird... my father is on RU-vid and none of his kids or grandkids are!!!! :-)
+mpf4434451 Hi there! I believe my sister Teresa chatted with you. Good to connect with you! Who is your great grandfather? We would love any pictures you have, and if Teresa has not sent you pix, we have a ton of Jack, Nye, my father, John Scott Trotter! And she has has contacted someone who has given us a lot of information about the Mayhew boys and the bands they played in. We can share those with you as well. How can we contact you?
+Debra Mayhew He never played an instrument, but just hearing what it was like back then sounds great. People sounded so much happier back then, though people still didn't really have too much of a scope of suffering outside their own countries at that point. Still, everyone seemed so much more innocent, happy and full of hope. Now the people of the world don't see things through such rose-coloured glasses and it is a much bleaker place. I hope this kind of old music makes a huge comeback so the people of today can experience the purity of expression this kind of music represents, rather than the cold, calculating, consumeristic music of today. I was born in 93, but I wish I could have been born in the late 10's or early 20's so I'd be in my prime for the rise of big band, and be young enough to still enjoy the sixties and go to Woodstock with my dad. All my favourite musicians are dead, except for SOME of the members of Pink Floyd.
According to Brian Rust, "The Dance Band Discography 1917-1942", in addition to Bob Mayhew (trumpet), Wendell "Gus" Mayhew (trombone) and Jack Mayhew (clarinet & alto sax) were in the Kemp band in 1928. What a musical family!
The Great Eddie Peabody.....saw him in person several times... played an entire show for me when I was 11 years old at the Lookout House in Covington, KY......a friend of my dad's...... no one like him......great musician, entertainer, wonderful and humble gentleman......top notch in every way. Love you EP !!!!!
In the mid 50's, I played in Hank Karch's Plectrophonic String Orchestra at Wurlitzer's Music Co. in Cincinnati. My guitar teacher was Hank Karch, who told us that he used to tour with Eddie Peabody in a two-man vaudeville show. Hank was able to play his 4-string banjo backwards behind his back and claimed that Eddie taught him how to do it. Hank loved the old banjo and guitar music and in 1955, we won 1st place in the annual AGVA convention in Indianapolis as the best string ensemble. Does anyone out there remember Hank?
Eddie Peabody - He was short, odd-looking, and had a speech defect; yet during the Jazz Age he was a ROCK STAR!! Absolutely worshiped. Here you can see why. His command of these instruments is phenomenal (especially that "Blue Skies" bit). Watch this to see GREATNESS!
@harryoakley According to my mother, he is the one on the left in the very back the beginning, next to the tuba/sousaphone. Bob also played with his brothers Jack and Nye in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Bob also played on Louis Armstrongs albums.
Interesting Bing Crosby-Bob Hope connection here. John Scott Trotter was the band leader on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall/Philco Radio Time radio shows while Skinnay Ennis was the band leader on Hope's Pepsodent show.
I really like the banjo alot but it was preventing Eddie from reaching his full potential as an extremely talented musician. He was meant to play Classical Guitar.
I would love to get the sheet music and lyrics for this number . . . I have an elderly friend who would be overwhelmed to recieve it . . . anyone have any ideas where I can obtain it?
+NewHampshireBoy There was so much talent way back! Today,we have to listen to "cat-killing" crap by women with too much make-up,,, and too little clothing! I guess that's the only way to get people to come see you!!! LOLOL!!!!
Thast is not necessarily the case. This is from a 16mm copy in my own collection, probably made in the 30's, which explains the loss of quality. The original would have been 35 mm and probably of the same quality as other 1920's Vitaphones - which was superb.
Listen to Aiona's following jazz recordings (which they are, in spite of the Hawaiian sounding titles): "Pahaana", "That Loving Hula", "Hula Girl" and "Keko". There were other guitarists who soloed better than Lang in the 1920's - another example is Elmer Merry from the Georgia Melodians. Listen to his superb guitar solo on "She's Driving Me Wild" (Edison 51598). Carl Kress' "chording" solos were also not as stiff as Eddie Lang's solo work.
If the trumpet player in the back is Bob Mayhew (according to his grandson) the one sitting on the piano must be New Orleans-born Dick Mackie. Kemp would be the one in the blazer on clarinet and Trotter on piano with Skinnay Ennis on Drums. Was it because Peabody was more famous than Kemp at the time that Kemp was not given any credit for his appearance?
Very good to hear from the grandson of Bob Mayhew! he was a very fine trumpeter who recorded many excellent solos not unlike some of Bix Beiderbecke's. Could you tell me which of the trumpeters in the film is your granddad?
Dad was born in 1928 and 8 years later began playing the tenor banjo which he played until his death in 1994. Eddie Peabody was his banjo idol and emulated his playing after him. Yes, dad was quite good and could play virtually anything requested of him by heart be it Ragtime, Dixieland, Big Band and, of course, those original old "American Folk" tunes.
Albert Haim, the eternal Little Professor, once again does not hesitate to steal from RU-vid to make an otherwise completely uninteresting point on his monologue website, namely that this version of "I Don't Care" is hotter than the (Brunswick) recorded version. Wow. Big Deal.
No, it looks like that but the first X is in fact the left leg of the M. It says MCMXXVIII which means 1928. In that year the band also recorded the introduction number "I Don't Care" for Brunswick (on April 20th), while the numbers that Peabody plays are all 1928 hits. Bob Mayhew is the trumpeter sitting on the piano - he left the band a year later. And finally, the Complete American Moving Pictures Copyright Ledger lists this film as being produced in July 1928.
If you look closely - it says : MCMXXVIII. Besides, this is typically 1928 - not 1938; a completely different era. Besides, as I wrote in the text above, the band also recorded "I Don't Care" for Brunswick in April 1928.
Two web sites I looked at agree with you. Who am I to disagree. My apologies. However, every time I look at the title, I see "Copyright MCMXXXVIII" at the bottom. Maybe it's time for new glasses.
It is quite wrong to compare Eddie Peabody with Eddie Lang. Peabody was a vaudeville banjoist, Lang a jazz guitarist. And I have to add that although Lang is generally considered to be the best jazz guitarist of the 1920's and his accompaniments, both with bands and single artists, are indeed superb, his solos have never impressed me.
Thanks for the reply Harry. I was going by the info written by Michael Brooks for the Jazz Oracle set release "Jack Purvis." He wrote: Betty Lou was born on 6th October, 1927. Shortly afterwards he was hired by Hal Kemp... At first he played trombone... and was billed as "Jacques Purvis." Kemp trumpeter Bob Mayhew was about to join Paul Whiteman, so his brother Gus was brought in on trombone and Purvis moved over to the trumpet section, changing his name as well as his instrument." - Michael Brooks, October, 2002.
According to ADBORAF Purvis was not in the band when they recorded this number for Brunswick, which must have been around the same time, summer 1928. They give Bob Mayhew and Earl Geiger as trumpeters and Wendell Mayhew on trombone. I also looked up Purvis' movements in this period in "Who's Who Of Jazz" , which says: "Jack Purvis was with Whitey Kaufman until 1927 and then sailed to Europe with George Carhart in July 1928 and joined Hal Kemp in October 1929. Ergo, it is possible but very unlikely that Purvis is in this film.
Well, I have to disagree about Peabody. Elsewhere on RU-vid there are videos of Harry Reser, Nick Lucas a.o. they all show off their technique and mastery of the banjo. It's vaudeville, not jazz and not comparable to Lang. And as for Lang "starting from a much lower knowledge base and could not build on what others had learnt before"; that goes for most jazz musicians of the 1920's and is no excuse for Lang to be a rather stiff soloist. Andy Iona soloed better on several of his records.
