[Dixielandjazz] Correct Recordong Speed

[Stephen G Barbone]

1920s Jazz: At 78 RPM?  (This from Neville Dickey)

Many of us assume that old jazz recordings were made just as we hear  
them. Richard Alabone writing in the journal of the City of London  
Phonograph and Gramophone Society Ltd (CLPGS) begs to differ:

Over the years there has been considerable controversy in jazz circles  
regarding the correct speed of old jazz records; there seems to be  
something wrong. In the jazz press there has been discussion about  
particular records: should they be played a bit faster or a bit  
slower? I am of the opinion that this discussion was way off the mark,  
and believe that most recordings during the 1920s were deliberately  
mastered at about 58 RPM! Many jazz lovers consider this an outrageous  
suggestion and will not even consider the possibility. On the other  
hand, some will say the records all sounded manic. What is the truth?

Sixty years ago I had a wind-up gramophone and used to play a trumpet

along with th recordings of Louis Armstrong. The only way I managed,  
was to turn the speed control to very slow, that is about 58 RPM,  
making the key lower by about two and a half musical tones. Nowadays I  
re-record CDs on to cassette on a karaoke machine, which has variable  
speeds, and have now studied much of the popular recorded jazz of the  
twenties, and this discrepancy persists. From the Original Dixieland  
Jazz Band in 1921, to the West End Blues of Louis Armstrong in 1929,  
the recordings were deliberately made to sound fast and jazzy, it was  
good for business as the records sold well. The musicians liked it,  
because improvised playing at a relaxed slow speed was much easier,  
and led to fewer mistakes and expensive re-takes.

If this really was the case, the questions to be addressed are: Why  
has this not come to light before? Why was it such a well kept secret?

In 1925, it was not a secret. Gramophones had a governor control to  
set the speed where you liked. This new music had to sound jazzy and  
people played it at the speed they needed to dance the Charleston.  
Perhaps the first band to be recorded in this way was the Original  
Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) and everyone liked it. The records sold  
well and although the label said 78 RPM no one complained, so from  
then on jazz was recorded at 58 RPM which was fine for about 10 years.  
After that, the governor control mechanisms became obsolete, but jazz  
lovers had become used to the music sounding this way; jazzy and fast.

Today if we see '78 RPM' on an old shellac, it is played at 78; no  
questions are asked. In fact, any suggestion that jazz recordings of  
the 1920s are all too fast is generally met with surprise and  
disbelief. But I have re-recorded a selection of tracks at 58 RPM with  
each one followed by a few bars at 78, and most listeners are amazed  
and convinced at the time, although they might not be so sure later,  
while some older jazz lovers cannot change their years of  
indoctrination and are hard to convince. Clearly there is something  
amiss with the speed of 1920s jazz. By 1929 it seems that the  
recording speed started to be altered: Bix Beiderbecke's recordings in  
New York, April 1928, were slightly faster, but it was only after 1930  
that the Armstrong recordings were approaching 78 RPM. Even today the  
speed of some popular music is incorrect.

Analysis is made more difficult by the fact that the speed sometimes  
varied during the cutting of a track due to more power being needed on  
the outside grooves, or during loud passages. Also, there was  
absolutely nothing standard about this; the speeds seem to vary from  
56.6 to 60.2 RPM for no very good reason. It seems that all records  
were made in easy keys, and very slow, allowing musicians time to  
improvise. Jazz playing is not rehearsed note for note, nor written  
down, even though most have head arrangements and some, for example  
the later Beiderbeckes, had written backing for spontaneous jazz  
improvisations.

During the Armstrong Hot 5 and 7 recordings they played in a  
deliberatly relaxed style which sounds fine at 78 RPM; but at 58 RPM  
Armstrong's vocals appear to be somewhat ponderous, and sung at the  
lower end of his range, which I believe was all quite deliberate. On  
the other hand, Lil Hardin's vocals seem fine at 58, but sound mouse- 
like at 78 RPM. Interestingly, a large cymbal was used for these  
recordings which achieved a wonderful but false sound at 78 RPM.

The speed of a batch of Armstrong Hot 5 recordings, made by Okeh in  
early 1926, has been investigated by Norman Field who concluded that  
all these records were recorded at 82.17 RPM so should be replayed  
even faster than 78 RPM. In my opinion this particular set of  
recordings was made at 60.2 RPM. Clearly Norman and I have not been  
able to agree on this point, but we do agree that 'there was something  
curious going on' and that 78 RPM was not the recording speed.

Although my wind-up gramophone has long since gone, I listen to jazz  
on CDs, but it is easy to check the recording speed. This can be done  
by noting the key at 78 RPM, by playing my cornet with the record,  
then varying the speed to find the key that sounds plausible, noting  
the key in order to find the pitch difference in semitones at the two  
speeds. A quick calculation using the ratio of frequencies of musical  
notes, from an acoustic table, gives me the speed at which the disc  
was cut. For example,Dippermouth Blues by King Oliver in 1923, is in C  
at 78 RPM, but appears to be correct in the key of G. C is 523.25  
cycles/sec, and G is 392 cycles/sec, so the original cutting speed is  
78 x 392, divided by 523.25; that is 58.4 RPM. The question then  
arises: Why were all the records cut at about 58 RPM? The answer is  
that any intermediate speed would result in some very unlikely keys at  
78; whereas at 58 to 75 equates to all keys being reduced by one flat,  
for example G to C.

Many musicains and jazz enthusiasts to whom I have spoken have mixed  
feelings about the theory that all recordings were made at such a slow  
speed. My analysis of possible keys indicates that all the records  
were made at approximately 58 RPM, at which speed they sound relaxed  
and carefully improvised. Where there is no proof or written evidence,  
it is only the recordings themselves that can tell the true story.  
First, listen to a track at 58 RPM, which sounds perfectly plausible;  
then follow it by the last few bars again, but at 78 RPM, and you will  
probably be quite convinced.