[Dixielandjazz] Cliff Edwards (was Bailey's Lucky Seven)

[Bill Haesler]

Steve  Barbone commented:
>  Dan Levinson and I are firmly of the opinion that the solo is Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) doing a Vocal. There are similar vocals of his on other records. But how did he get that sound?

Dear Steve,
Forgive the delay, things are hotting up here in the lead up to Christmas, with too many interruptions.
I kept out of the Baileys Lucky Seven discussion, as the link you provided says it all about the group, it's associates and Sam Lanin.
To Jack Mitchell's advice about the OM5 being a working band I can add that in 1919 it was booked by the Keith-Orpheum vaudeville circuit for a coast-to-coast tour for all major cities across the US until 1921.
So far as Cliff Edward's vocalising is concerned, I have always believed that it is vocalising in the manner of Bert Williams and his contemporaries rather than his white peers.
I have just played my considerable collection of Edwards' recordings from the first ("Virginia" with Ladd's Black Aces in 1922) and into the 1930s and reconfirmed my long-held opinion that the 'singing' is exactly that. Singing and vocal effects.
It was his unique trademark, so why would he bother with mechanical kazoo-like devices. 
 
Extract from http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6489
"Born: June 14, 1895 | Died: 1971 | Instrument: Ukulele 
	Cliff Edwards got his start in show business as a teenager in St. Louis where he sang in movie theatres and saloons. While singing in the saloons he began to accompany himself on the ukulele and developed a style of improvised singing, which he called “effin”. “Effin” sounds a lot like the human voice imitating a hot trumpet or kazoo solo. Edwards had a wonderful voice with at least a three octave range and he would inject his “effin” solos into his songs in the same way that a Jazz musician would take a solo.
A good argument can be made that Edwards 1922 recordings with Ladds Black Aces and Bailey's Lucky Seven are the first recorded examples of scat singing, but some Jazz critics would disagee and point back to Gene Greene's 1911 Victor recording “King of the Bungaloos”. Between 1913 and 1918 Edwards struggled to make a living traveling with carnivals and doing menial labor to get by.
	In 1917 he moved to Chicago where he took a job as a singer in the Arsonia Café going to tables and singing and playing the ukulele for tips. It was here that he started using the stage name of “Ukulele Ike”. The pianist at the club was Bob Carlton who had written a novelty song that he called “Ja Da”. Cliff became a sensation singing the song and he and Joe Frisco, a stuttering comedian and dancer, formed a vaudeville act that was successful enough to end up playing at the Palace in New York City.
	Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, 1895-1971, was a major vaudeville and Broadway star in the 1920s, a small, beaming fellow who played the ukulele and indulged in a unique type of high-pitched scat- singing which he called “effin”. Fortunately he chose not to be billed as Cliff “Effin” Edwards."

Very kind regards,
Bill.