Muddy Water - Jack Hylton's Hyltonians (Al Starita's Kit-Cat Band) - HMV B. 5298 - HOT!

A hot jazzy side from Al Starita's Kit-Cat Band, issued under the name "Jack Hylton's Hyltonians". Expert arranging by Ray Noble, and vocals from Al Starita.
This was the second to last recording session the Kit-Cat Band did under the Hyltonians name - two weeks later they were at Columbia recording under their own name in Wigmore Hall. See "Magnolia" on my channel for that!

THE KIT-CAT BAND (JACK HYLTON'S HYLTONIANS):

Al Starita: cl, as, v, dir: / Tom Smith, Edwin Knight, t, / Ted Heath, tb, / Billy Ternent: as,/ George Smith: cl, ts, / Eric Siday, Jean Pougnet, vn, / Harry Berly: vl / D. Cameron, vc / Sid Bright, p / Len Fillis, bj, g / Alfred Field, bb, / Eric Little: d.

Hayes, Middlesex. May 17th, 1927

Category:

Music

Tags:

• hot jazz
• 1920s
• muddy water
• jack hylton
• al starita
• hmv
• gramophone
• swimming
• mississippi moan

[syncopeter]

These records are surprisingly rare. In 30 years I only came across one copy and that was completely beat up. The sound is rather flat, not your fault, but I think it was recorded on location with a portable set. Portable between quotation marks, because the set weighed in at a hefty 200 lbs.

[mojoman4147]

@syncopeter I found this on eBay for £1.99. I think this qualifies as a bargain! It was quite beaten up, and warped a bit - the audio you hear here is the right groove wall, the left one was just so noisy

[Panachord]

I think you got some good sound out of that HMV record. I have this on LP but haven't played it for years. I had forgotten how good this was.

[VictrolaJazz]

This is certainly a hot, up-tempo version of this tune!

[78Upm]

@syncopeter HMV always seemed to have a problem with the (sound) quality of their records. The main reason for this was of course the poor material they used. Some of the HMV recordings (esp. the big names like Jack Hylton...) were also issued in Germany on Electrola. They never sound as bad. A quite worn Electrola still sounds better than a "shop copy" HMV in most cases. Nevertheless this is a great recording of course!

[syncopeter]

I think I payed rather more for my copy. HMV had a serious problem with their pressing during this period. It is believed they tried to make the records less prone to breaking, but it resulted in huge surface noise caused by micro blistering because the cotton flock they mixed in was so hygroscopic. I had an album of classical music that was virtually unplayable even though it was old dealer stock and had never seen a needle.