Roger Wolfe Kahn and his orchestra.."Say Yes Today"..1928

Roger Wolfe Kahn led a popular US band in the 1920s.His family were multi millionaire bankers, his wealthy background instilled into him a sense of self confidence.
At age 16,he bought out a band for himself,retaining the ex-leader as arranger.He then bought himself a nightclub where the band played.His fame spread and his records sold well.
Kahn had some brilliant personnel in his band eg,Venuti,Lang,Miff Mole,Vic Berton, etc etc.Yet viewed retrospectively the music rarely rose above ordinary(in my opinion) in spite of the personnel
In 1931 Kahn suddenly lost interest in the music business,disbanded and took up aviation instead.In 1928 RWK wrote one of my favourite songs of the 20s...Crazy Rhythm.Many great versions of this song were recorded,but RWK's own version is decent but pedestrian compared to other bands (listen to Fred Elizalde version).Say Yes Today has a nice medium pace flow to it,with a gorgeous melody.It has a long Venuti solo in the mid part.followed by Miff on trombone
A Walter Donaldson composition,who himself after having endless international hits from 1917,but after 1931 he kept composing but never had a hit again (very curious)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• roger
• wolfe
• kahn/us
• dance
• bands/1920s
• music/nostalgia/walter
• donaldson/joe
• venuti

[bill3murr]

a very nice rendering of this tune....i also find ruth etting's version very good. love venuti and lang...and the gang here. thanks.

[davidglow3]

@bill3murr Very pleased you liked it.l have not heard the R.Etting version and will look it up.....

[HarborGuy]

Best band money could buy at the time and it was.

[MsTappingtoes]

Soooo enjoyable! Thank you for this fine upload!