[Dixielandjazz] Record Company Screw-ups

[Marek Boym]

On 23/11/2010, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
>  From Blended.com: (among their list of the 20 biggest record company
> screw=ups of all time) For more of the list see:
> www.blender.com/lists/61239/20biggestrecordcompanyscrewupsofalltime.html?p=4
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
>
> #17 Thomas Edison disses jazz, industry standards
> America’s most famous inventor, and the creator of the phonograph,
> also had his own record label: National Phonograph Company, later
> Edison Records. Naturally, it was the biggest one around at first but
> made two fatal errors. One was that Edison Records worked only on
> Edison’s players, while other manufacturers’ conformed to the industry
> standard and worked interchangeably. The other was that Edison let his
> personal taste govern Edison releases—and he hated jazz: “I always
> play jazz records backwards,” he sniffed. “They sound better that
> way.” So after releasing the world’s first jazz recording—Collins and
> Harlan’s “That Funny Jas Band From Dixieland”—the company spurned the
> craze in favor of waltzes and foxtrots.



Not quite!
Just look up The California Ramblers and se how many of their records
were issued by Edison.  Or The Cotton Pickers (I believe that was the
pseudonym of The Memphis Five on Edison).
A friend of mind actually possesses a one-sided about quarter-inch
thick jazz Edison 78.
Cheers



 Edison Records folded in
> October 1929.
>
> By the way, listmates, to hear what is called the first jazz band to
> record above, go to the below site and click on one of the various
> blue colored links:
>
> http://www.archive.org/details/fjasband1916
>
>