Australian Jazz Museum is the home to a thousands of jazz recordings from not only Australia but also from all around the world. The oldest jazz record in our collection is the 1917 victor 78 of “The Original Dixieland Jass (sic) Band”. In fact this is the oldest jazz record in the world!

While one of our members at the museum was going through some of our old assets in the museum, he came across some discs that were older than the above mentioned 1917 record. While not actually Jazz, they are that ancestors to jazz. How we got these records itself is an interesting story.

Back in 2000 we were contacted by Miss Hilary Bullock who hoped to find a home for a collection of 27 rare records from 1915s. She got this records from the sister of James Stuart, Miss Bullock’s uncle. James Stuart died at an early age of 18 and his sister took care of this records afterwards. She died in 1992 at the age of 103 and then came into the hands of Miss Bullock.

It’s almost hard to believe that these records are still in a good quality considering they are more than 100 years old.

Firstly there are two numbers by the Hedges brothers and Jacobson. Charles Frederick Hedges (1886-1920), his bother Elven Everettson (1882-1931), and Jesse Jacobson (1882-1959) joined as the Hedges Brothers and Jacobson in 1910 in San Francisco. They accepted a music-hall contract in England, where they became leaders in creating a trend for American ragtime singing. This prepared the society for the arrival of Jazz after the First World War. The trio reordered 8 songs for Columbia in 1912-13 and disbanded at the end of the contract.

There are ten numbers by The American Ragtime Octette. This was an American group that visited Britain in 1912. These items were all recorded in England and were accompanied on the Piano by Melville J. Gideon.

There are four numbers by The American Quartet. This was a four member vocal group that recorded for various companies in United States in 1899-1925. The personnel of the band varied over the years. But the most famous line comprised John Bieling, first tenor: Billy Murray, a second tenor; Steve Porter, baritone; and William F. Hooley, bass; this group recording for victor from 1909-1913. The group’s final recording, Alabamy Bound was recorded in 1925, just before Victor switched from acoustic to electrical recording.

There are 28 numbers recorded by The three Rascals. They performed at the Hippodrome in Bristol in 1913 and here in Australia, in Bathurst in 1922 where they were described as “The greatest act in Vaudeville”

All but two discs in the collection have piano accompaniments but Melinda’s Wedding Day sung by Collins and Harlin has an orchestra. The disc was recorded in the USA. Collin and Harlan were American entertainers very popular for their performance of “coon” and rag time songs. They were also among the first on introduce Jazz band for Victor in April 1917. Most of them have a ragtime quality with the accented beats. Alexender’s Ragtime bands was written in 1911 so the version we have would be one of its first performances.

Jumbo records were the cheap popular label of the Fonotipia Company. This was an Italian corporation that began issuing Jumbos in England in 1908. Winner records were a product of Edison Bell whose discs began production in England in 1909.  The company introduced the winner label in July, 1912 which lasted until 1933. Decca then bought the label and issued some until 1935. Of other remaining labels in this collection Zonophone and HMV later combined under the EMI banner and, like Columbia, continued on to modern times.

Several of the records in this collection were single sided like most of very early discs.

The above is an excerpt from an article written by Ken Simpson-Bull in our August 2015 Magazine. (VJAZZ 67)