[Dixielandjazz] Demise of "The" Jean Goldkette Band

[Steve Barbone]

dingle at baldwin-net.com wrote (polite snip)

>> Steve wrote:
 
>> A) Perhaps the Goldkette Band was the first to die because of economics. It
>> became too top heavy. best players, highest salaries, superb music. They
>> bested the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1927 as you might recall. Yet
>> a year or so later they were forced to disband. Why? They had become
>> victims of their own success and no venue could afford them and proof
>> that the music is not enough.

> Don answered
> I tend to disagree with much of this exanple he gave. Since my dad was with
> the Goldkette office and at the time they went to New York was still workng
> with the Victor Band, the main JG "hot" band of that time, I have had the
> opportuinity to know a bit more of this story from a source that could not be
> much closer.
> 
> The main thing about the band's (Victor) demise is that Whiteman litterally
> outbid Goldkette for the "stars" who left to join that band. But the Goldkette
> office kept many good bands going for many years mre inteh Detrit area. Among
> them the Orange Blossoms which became the Casa Loma, The Owen Bartlett Orch,
> the Chuck Wollcott Orch, led by a man who later moved to Disney studio  and
> directed music for Mickey Mouse and friedns for many years. Goldkette also
> managed the McKinney's Cotton Pickers under leadership of Don Redmond and they
> headquartered into the early 30' in the Goldkette-owned Graystone Ballroom. (A
> Graystone museum if located today in Detroit.)

I could be wrong as I've been wrong before. :-) VBG. But remember I was
talking about "The" Jean Goldkette Orchestra, not the later spin-offs.

Richard Sudhalter in "Lost Chords" stated the following opinions in his
chapter on Big Bands. (This book is a "must read" for OKOM fans)

"By mid 1927 things had reached a point where the Goldkette Orchestra was
attracting less and less high-paying work; its parent organization was no
longer able or willing, to meet a three thousand dollar weekly payroll.
Shortly after the "Clemintine" recording date the band broke up, with Bix,
Trumbauer, Murray, Rank, and Moorehouse joining Adrian Rollini in a brief,
ill fated band at a New York nightclub BEFORE (emphasis mine) throwing in
their lot with Paul Whiteman." . . .

"But for those who heard it, particularly musicians, there was only one
"Goldkette Band - the matchless combination of individuals which for one
brief year captivated the world of hot dance music."

Sudhalter also faults the band members themselves for refusing to put on a
show, thinking that the music alone would suffice. "We were strictly a
musicians band", Doc Ryker told writer Amy lee in 1940. "We played the way
we wanted to and didn't care whether the people liked it or not. The 'boys'
just couldn't - and wouldn't do hokum."

They beat Henderson, but later as Sudhalter points out; "they fared poorly
in musical encounters with such modest competition as the New England based
entertainment oriented bands of Barney Rapp and Mal Hallett. As Spiegle
Wilcox rather wryly put it; 'we got our hand from the musicians, but Hallett
got his from the crowd.'". . . a dance orchestra, regardless of its skill or
musical orientation, is a business. And without a regular and faithful
audience it becomes little more than a conceit, an excuse in self
indulgence." 

In short, Sudhalter believes that "economics" led to the demise. The
"Goldkette" Band did not attract enough audience to meet its payroll.

Interestingly enough, when shortly thereafter, Goldkette formed McKinney's
Cotton Pickers, (hiring Don Redman away from Henderson), it was, as Don
points out, a huge success. An all black band, and owing much of their
success to musicianship similar to the original Goldkette Orchestra, they
were also, as opposed to their predecessor, a top drawer entertainment unit.

As Don says, Goldkette had several bands out there, but the best one died
shortly after being formed. No doubt Goldkette learned a lot from that.

Indeed, the music is not enough.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone