Dixieland jazz story 69 years in the making

Browsing through a collection of second-hand records at a junk shop in Daylesford, a beautiful country town north of Melbourne, Australia, I came across a disc that looked older than me (although only just as it turns out).

A careful study of its artistic sleeve and the vinyl didn’t reveal a date of manufacture, which is most unusual.

The five-track seven-inch EP on the Carinia label is called Jazz á la Carte and features performances by Ray Price and The Port Jackson Jazz Band (Port Jackson is the official name for Sydney Harbour).

The tracks featured on the disc were not recorded in a studio as one might expect, but during a one-off lunchtime performance organised as a publicity stunt for Sydney-based firm W H Paling and Co, which sold instruments, records, and sheet music.

In the early-to-mid 1900s the firm would routinely hire popular bands and singers of the day to perform free concerts, no doubt hoping audience members would buy something on the way out.

My research points to the firm’s opening of a new concert room in 1956 leading to the recording in question. Although Australian Jazz states the record was released 7 November 1958.

According to the record’s sleeve notes, W H Paling & Co advertised a free performance of Dixieland jazz music and no more than 200 people were expected to attend.

By 1pm well over 800 had arrived, packing the concert hall, its foyers, the stairs, and would-be concert-goers even stood on the street straining to hear the band play.

The audience, most of whom stood for the entire recital, is described by the un-named author of the sleeve notes as “young people…business men and women, shopping housewives, and visitors to Sydney – all smiling and tapping their feet to their favourite Dixieland tunes”.

Apparently, influenced by this wave of unbridled enthusiasm from the audience, the band responded in kind eventually attracting “tumultuous applause” from the audience at the end of their performance.

Thankfully, it was all captured by the Bristol Record Company and pressed onto a disc that all these years later still sounds pristine. The quality of the recording has stood the test of time, and clearly this piece of vinyl has rarely been played and was much cared for.

Jazz á la Carte was distributed by Carinia, a firm also worthy of a few words. Carinia was started in 1952 by Polish refugees Michael and Nathalie Kulakowski, and by 1977 was said to be the biggest privately-owned record label in Australia.

Early Carinia releases featured popular Polish songs as the firm had a clear market for them due to a large number of Poles flocking to Australia after WWII. In addition it sold classical recordings, also sourced from Europe.

The firm, also known for its creative record sleeves (which are sort after), shut up shop in 1988. I wonder if the emergence of CDs played a part in the company’s demise… It’s difficult to say without researching it further.

Interestingly, the record label – which features a Chappell & Co sticker – states the music is not for radio broadcast or public performance. Private listening only then…

But what about the band?

Formed in 1944 the Port Jackson Jazz Band went on to be the longest running traditional jazz band in Australia performing into the 1990s, although the line up changed considerably over the years.

Which reminds me of an old saying often quoted by antique dealers… I have a knife that was used by Henry the 8th, it’s had three new handles and five new blades.

Joking aside, Jack Parkes and Ken Flannery are credited as forming the Sydney-based band which made its debut recording in 1945, but may not have been issued. The line-up featured:

• Jack Parkes (trombone)
• Ken Flannery (trumpet)
• Alf Freeney (piano)
• John Sweeney (banjo)
• Duke Farrell (bass, vocals), and
• Mal Cooper (drums)

By 1954 the band’s members had all gone in different directions, but Ray reformed the group in 1955. However, the Jazz á la Carte EP seems to have been lost to time (catalogue number: 45-EPJ-3083) as I can barely find any mention of it.

The line-up at the time of the Jazz á la Carte recording is the Ray Price Trio comprising:

• Band leader / manager Ray Price on guitar
• John Macarthy on clarinet, and
• Dick Hughes piano and vocals

Completing the lineup are:

• Harry Harman, playing bass (but better known at the time for playing the tuba)
• John Sangster of the Graeme Bell Band on drums, and
• Ken Flanners, of the ATN Orchestra, on trumpet

In 1960 the band was part of the first Annual Australian International Jazz Festival. They regularly played as a quartet at a hotel in Sydney – I don’t know which one – but would come together as a seven-piece for concerts or recordings. One of these recordings is Jazz Classics Volume 1.

Although Ray retired in 1982, he occasionally joined the band for reunions. Born 20 November 1921, he died 5 August 1990 aged 68, and two years later the band’s members called it a day.

Thankfully, their music lives on – still enjoyed by the curious – because 69 years after their EP was sold by a shop assistant in a Sydney record store for sixpence ($1.19 in today’s money), here I am reliving what must have been an exciting event. I’d say it was $5 well spent.

Jazz á la Carte:

Side 1

1. WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN (Traditional)
2. CREOLE LOVE CALL (D. Ellington)
3. FIDGETY FEET (la Rocca-Shields)

Side 2

1. THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE SUNRISE (Lockhart-Seitz)
2. THAT’S A PLENTY (Pollock)

Jazz á la Carte is the name of a Duke Ellington 1938 composition, and one wonders if the band also performed this during their performance at Palings, only for it be omitted from the pressing… Let me know if you know.

The above report is to the best of my ability factually correct, but if you know differently then I welcome your corrections via my contact form here. I can’t find any reference for the Bristol Record Company.

Sources and further reading:

• Discog listing here
• Wiki – The Port Jackson Jazz Band
• The Port Jackson Jazz band review by Peter J F Newton (PDF)
• NSW State Library for WH Palings (slow loading page)
• ABC Profile of Cardinia Records and Powerhouse profile here.
• Profile of Willem H Palings
• University of Sydney profile of WH Palings
• Facebook profile of WH Palings with photos

William (Willem) Henry Paling was born in the Netherlands and arrived in Sydney in either 1853 or 1855 – accounts vary. He was one of the few who didn’t venture to the lucky country to prospect for gold, but simply to seek “wider opportunities”.

He was a musician, taught music, opened the New South Wales Academy of Music, imported musical instruments and sheet music for wholesale, and composed the Sydney Railway Waltz. His father made pianos (in the Netherlands).