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American Dance Bands

Joseph C. Smith and the Birth of the
American Dance Orchestra

By Allan Sutton

Note: Portions of this material are excerpted from author’s American Dance Band Encyclopedia, which is currently in development for publication in 2009.

Among the early 78s most likely to be encountered by collectors are the Victor recordings of Joseph C. Smith’s Orchestra. They are not easy listening for modern ears — sonically top-heavy, rhythmically stiff, and played with strict adherence to the score, without a hint of improvisation. Given the records’ shortcomings, it is easy to overlook the fact that Smith’s was a significant transitional group, bridging the gap between the brass-band renditions of dance numbers that were the norm in the early 1900s, and the more sophisticated dance bands of the 1920s.

Various birthdates in 1881 and 1883 have been cited for Joseph Cyrus Smith, none of them based on particularly reliable evidence. By 1900, however, Smith’s presence in New York City is well documented. Like B. A. Rolfe — another future dance-band leader — Smith got his start in the musical profession by providing orchestral arrangements for turn-of-the-century revues and musical comedies.

Joseph C. Smith on Broadway

The first documented production for which Smith provided arrangements was “The Show Girl,” a musical comedy that opened at Wallack’s Theater on May 5, 1902, and closed after sixty-four performances. Some confusion has surrounded Smith’s involvement in the theater, as a well-known dancer and choreographer of the same name was also active in New York during the period. They are not, however, the same individual. Dancer-choreograpaher Smith continued to work in that capacity long after musician Smith had formed his own orchestra.

There followed a succession of New York productions for which Smith supplied orchestrations and arrangements, including “A Pair of Pinks” (58th Street, 1904); “Not Yet, but Soon” (American, 1907); and “My Little Friend” (New Amsterdam, 1913).

Joseph C. Smith, c. 1919 Bain Collection, Library of Congress

“My Little Friend” appears to have been the last stage production for which Smith supplied arrangements. His name appears on no known playbills after that production, suggesting he made a career change at around that time. The Brunswick monthly supplement for March 1923 states that Smith’s orchestra began to perform at New York’s Plaza Hotel in 1914. While Smith’s name does not appear in Plaza’s newspaper advertisements of the period, there is no compelling reason to doubt the Brunswick account. Smith’s orchestra is mentioned in a New York Times report for February 4, 1916, as having performed for a war charity benefit at the Plaza Hotel. 1

The Formation of Joseph C. Smith's Orchestra

Smith formed his orchestra at an auspicious time. The pre-war dance craze was in full swing, fueled by the popularity of dancers Vernon and Irene Castle. The Victor Talking Machine Company, having heretofore assigned most dance numbers to various “military” bands, had been quick to capitalize on the Castles’ popularity. The company enjoyed an unexpected success with their first releases by Europe’s Society Orchestra, a black group from the Clef Club under the direction of James Reese Europe that served as the visiting “hot” unit at the Castle House. The recordings supposedly were made under the supervision of the Castles, although nothing the Victor files confirms either their presence or Europe’s in the studio. Victor also signed the Castle House’s resident orchestra, an entirely different white group under the direction of Frank W. McKee, which proved to be much less popular than Europe’s group.

With the Clef Club group not available to make further recordings, and McKee failing to sell, Victor next turned to Joseph C. Smith who, in the words of recording engineer Herbert O. Sooy, “fell in line with the public’s approval.” Sooy went on to note in his memoirs, “The renditions by Mr. Smith’s Orchestra seemed to be even more pleasing to the dance public than those of any dance organization we had so far, and this made us all feel good, because pleasing the public, naturally, was our meal ticket.” ²

The Victor Years

The instrumentation of Smith’s original group is not known. However, by the time his orchestra filled its first Victor session on September 25, 1916, it consisted of cornet, trombone, bass clarinet, two violins (one played by Smith himself), cello, piano, string bass (only faintly audible on the recordings), and drums. Aside from Smith and pianist Hugo Frey (another veteran of the Broadway musical-comedy scene), no personnel were listed in the Victor files.

While Smith’s string-heavy instrumentation was hardly unique —McKee, for one, had already recorded with a similarly constituted group, and on Europe’s 1913–14 Castle House recordings the lead was carried by the stings (albeit on a far grander scale than Smith) — it struck a responsive chord with record buyers who until now had danced to the ponderous beat of the Victor Military Band and its ilk.

Smith’s first session produced two issued titles — “Money Blues,” composed by band member Hugo Frey and issued on Victor 18165; and a waltz, “Song of the Night,” issued on twelve-inch Victor 35593. Twenty-two more issued titles followed within the year, but it appears that Smith’s Victor contract was not renewed in the autumn of 1917. By that time, Smith’s orchestra was facing competition at Victor from a new musical arrival: the Original Dixieland “Jass” Band. While the ODJB’s roots were in New Orleans taverns and dance halls, Smith’s were in the musical theater. Despite the sensation surrounding the ODJB’s first records, Smith’s more polished — some might say bland — approach still held considerable appeal for the many conservative record buyers who disliked jazz.

On November 20 of that year, Smith’s orchestra filled its first and last Columbia session, from which “When You Come Back” and “Calicoco,” both composed by Hugo Frey, were released on Columbia A2460. The disc does not seem to have been a good seller, and on May 8, 1918, Smith returned to the Victor fold, where he would remain until March 16, 1922. Among the dozens of titles produced during that four-year span was a “laughing trombone” version of W. C. Handy’s “Yellow Dog Blues” (Victor 18618), which discographer Brian Rust has aptly characterized as “a somewhat nightmarish treatment.” ³ Harry Raderman was recruited to play the trombone part, according to the Victor files, but was not a regular member of the Smith orchestra. At the time, he was leading his own orchestra at the Bal Taberin.

In the late ’teens, Smith broke with tradition a bit when he began to feature vocal choruses on his recordings. It is not clear whether the idea was his own or that of Victor management, although the choice of vocalists provides a clue. The anonymous singers, who included Harry Macdonough, Billy Murray, and Arthur Fields, were chosen entirely from Victor’s studio artists and were not member of Smith’s orchestra. The choice of Macdonough, who made the first vocal chorus with Smith’s orchestra, is particuarly telling; at the time, he was in charge of artists and repertoire at Victor's New York studio.

Smith’s success quickly rendered brass-band dance records obsolete. In January 1918, the ubiquitous Victor Military Band (by then under the direction of Edward King) recorded its last dance selections. At Columbia, Charles Prince’s prolific studio band was giving way to independent dance orchestras like those of Earl Fuller and Harry Yerkes, while at Aeolian-Vocalion, Ford Dabney was proving that black dance orchestras could be every bit as innocuous as their white counterparts.

Victor’s signing of the Paul Whiteman orchestra in August 1920 marked the beginning of the end for Joseph C. Smith at that company. While Whiteman’s early instrumentation was quite similar to Smith’s, it boasted two trendy new elements: a reed section, and a small core of “hot” players who could be called upon to lend some semblance of jazz to the proceedings. Smith assiduously avoided anything even remotely suggesting “hot” playing, but he did respond to the Whiteman challenge by adding several reeds to the ensemble, to no avail. In 1921, Victor issued fourteen Smith titles; in 1922, that number dropped to four.

The Brunswick Years

Decidedly out of style and no longer in demand at Victor, Smith signed with Brunswick in or around September 1922, and his first Brunswick release was listed in November of that year, for a December release. ⁴  The Brunswick files do not list personnel, but notes contained on several surviving 1923 session cards state that seven musicians were used — a smaller group than Smith had used on his later Victor recordings.

At around the same time as Smith’s Brunswick signing, a “Smith’s Orchestra” began to appear in the New York Times’ radio logs, at first broadcasting over station WGY in Schenectady, New York. It has not yet been possible to confirm that this was Joseph C. Smith’s Orchestra; however, the absence of “Smith’s Orchestra” from the U.S. radio listings from February through October 1924, when Smith is known to have been in Canada, suggests that this was his group.

Brunswick released nineteen Smith titles between late 1922 and his last session on May 23, 1923 — some by his full orchestra and some by his trio, a salon-type group specializing in tangos and consisting of violin, cello, and piano. The records were not particularly interesting, and none appears to have been a good seller. Brunswick did relatively little to promote the orchestra; the 1924 annual catalog, which was rife with photos of Brunswick’s most popular dance bands, did not even picture the group.

Travels in the 1920s

At some point in late 1923 or early 1924, Smith took his orchestra to Montreal, Canada, where he filled what would be his last known commercial recording sessions, for the Berliner Gramophone Company, Victor’s Canadian sibling. Berliner issued eleven Smith titles, on the HMV-Victor label probably recorded between March 1924 and January 1925, credited to Joseph C. Smith & his Mount Royal Orchestra. Canadian Berliner at that time was still an independent operation and did not lease its masters to the Victor Talking Machine Company; thus, the records were never issued in the United States. There is nothing to distinguish them from other middle-of-the-road commercial dance-band records of the period.

From Montreal, according to correspondence from Brian Rust, Smith took his orchestra to London in late 1925, but made no known recording there.

Smith was back in the United States by June 1927, when the Los Angeles Times reported that “Joe landed in Los Angeles a few weeks ago.” However, it is clear that by that time Smith was perceived as a thing of the past. The LA Times reporter mentioned Smith’s musical accomplishments in passing, but was far more interested in the fact that Smith had purchased the third Chrysler Imperial 80 Phaeton to be sold on the West Coast. The story repeated the claim that Smith had been “one of the top-notchers in musical circles” since 1914, but did not mention whether he has currently conducting an orchestra.” ⁵

A portly Joseph C. Smith in Los Angeles with his
Chrysler Imperial 80 Phaeton, April 1927
Mainspring Press collection

Into Obscurity

Smith apparently made no further commercial recordings after returning to the U.S. His orchestra was featured at the Waldorf-Astoria’s 1931 New Years Eve gala, sharing the bandstand with the Russ Colombo, Alexander Drasein, and Don Juan Havana Casino orchestras. ⁶  After the Waldorf-Astoria event, Smith began a long slide into obscurity.

By 1934, he was reduced to conducting the supper-club orchestra at Sherry’s, a New York restaurant. ⁷  In late 1936 he fronted a band for what was termed “supper dancing” at The Montparnesse, a minor restaurant on New York’s upper East Side. ⁸

In October 1937, Smith’s orchestra opened at the Restaurant Larue, sharing the stand with another 1920s veteran band leader, Eddie Davis. It is intersting to note that the New York Times article in which Smith’s opening was announced devoted much more space to the newly revived Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which had just opened in the revue, “Little Old New York.” ⁹ Smith settled into the Larue for the long term, and was still sharing the stand with Eddie Davis as late as June 1939, offering up what the Times termed “lighter tunes for the dancing.” ¹⁰ After that, however, Smith’s name disappears from the major New York papers.

It is impossible to know what the Joseph C. Smith Orchestra of the 1930s sounded like, given the lack of recordings and eyewitness accounts. Several of Smith's contemporaries, including Emil Coleman, managed to secure recording contracts in the late 1930s and early 1940s, recording bland supper-club arrangements for various minor labels. Based on those recordings, and the venues in which Smith's orchestra played and the clientele to which they catered, it seems likely that his later groups were refined, unobtrusive “society” ensembles, much as his orchestra of fifteen years earlier had been.

Notes

1  “Society Aids in a Triple War Benefit.” New York Times (2/4/1916), p. 9.

2  Sooy, Herbert O. “Memoir of My Career at Victor Talking Machine Company.” Unpublished manuscript, n.d. David Sarnoff Library, New York.

3  Rust, Brian. Jazz Records, 1897–1942, Sixth Edition, p. 1581. Highlands Ranch, CO: Mainspring Press (2002).

4  The Brunswick files for 1922 no longer exist. The September 1922 date is based on the confirmed release date of Smith’s first Brunswick record.

5  “Musician of Fame Buys Car.” Los Angeles Times (6/5/1927), p. 5.

6  “Gayety to Welcome New Year in Tonight.” New York Times (12/31/1931), p. 1. “New Years Eve at the Waldorf-Astoria [ad].” New York Times (12/31/1931), p. 27.

7  “Night Club Notes.” New York Times (10/20/1934), p. 20.

8  “Night Club News.” New York Times (9/12/1936), p. 20]

9  “News and Gossip of the Night Clubs.” New York Times (10/17/1937), p. 184.

10  Strauss, Theodore. “News of Night Clubs.” New York Times (6/18/1939), p. 114.

Document history: Initial version posted 4/30/2008