Martin-Aires - The broken record

ARC master B 18472-1, rec. New York, January 3 1936.
Vocal trio, likely including Elmer Feldkamp, with Freddy Martin's orchestra.
A very early recording by this Freddy Martin "house" group, published at a time when they were still called "The Martinettes". They changed that very soon, however - maybe they were mistaken for a girl group a little too often?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• 1920s
• 1930s
• close
• harmony
• American
• male
• vocal
• trio
• Martinaires
• Martin-Aires
• Martinettes
• Freddy
• Martin
• dance
• novelty
• Brunswick

[dairyman716]

Eine zerbrochene Schallplatte ist immer sehr ärgerlich. Ich hoffe, diese Exemplar bleibt davon verschont.

[kr103]

Na, ich will's hoffen! Nachdem vor zwei Wochen das Nachbarhaus (mit 10 Parteien!), das sich mit unserem Wohnzimmer eine Wand teilt, vollständig ausgebrannt ist, bin ich schon mal froh, dass keine geschmolzenen Schallplatten zu verzeichnen sind - da wäre zerbrochen noch einen Hauch besser. Toi! Toi! Toi!

[cvwtzhaar]

I like how they try to imitate a broken record, clever concept.

This is kind of off topic but do you have any records of Happy Felton and his orchestra?

[kr103]

Sorry, nothing in my collection. Happy Felton can be seen in a music short for Warner Brothers in 1938, though, featuring a girl trio called the "Three Reasons", and I have a record of them singing with Dick Todd - but I guess that's kind of off topic, too?

[RatPfink66]

Terry Shand, one of Freddy's 2 pianists, frequently sang solo with the band and may well be part of the trio.

Vocal groups with the big bands were, of course, often slap-dash affairs composed of any 3 or 4 musicians who could keep harmony. Except for separate groups that weren't part of the band, most did not even have names.

[kr103]

You are perfectly right that there were quite a few vocal groups that did not deserve that name - but I think in case of the Martin-Aires the sound of the trio is remarkably consistent over the years, so even though the trio most likely consisted of orchestra members, it seems that it were the same three. You may well be correct with Shand, but as I don't collect dance band records without vocal groups, I have no recording to compare and can't find anything on Youtube in decent sound quality.

[pax41]

I just posted a Martin song with Shand as the vocalist.

[marsmoke]

I believe Freddy recorded "It Couldn't Please Me More" from Cabaret in the Sixties. Do you perhaps have that?

[althazarr]

Thanks for sharing such a neat record! Freddy Martin had some really great recordings.

[cvwtzhaar]

I was just curious because i have never heard his orchestra before.