Monday 31 January 2011

KB-30 - ARROW 1102

BOBBY ART and his Wisconsin Dutchmen
54/55
KB-30A - Pickle Polka   (Art Publ.)
KB-30B - (No Info)
ARROW 1102
Eau Claire, WI


(Band from Elkhart Lake, WI)


Tuesday 25 January 2011

KB-24 - NORTH STAR 2002

ART FITCH and his Polka Dot Boys
54/55
KB-24A – Kapootzer Polka   (BMI)
KB-24B – Lapaloma   (BMI)
NORTH STAR 2002
1936 University Ave, St Paul, MN

Nothing on Art. Doubt if he's the writer/composer of some great jazz discs recorded in the late 20's and early 30's. I suppose it's possible, but I can't imaging going from that to recording polka on some tiny little Minnesota label. But … stranger things have happened.








Sunday 23 January 2011

KB-22 - SOMA LP MG 1201

DOC EVANS TRIO
54/55  (Rec in 54)
KB-22A - “Classic Jazz At Carleton” Side One
KB-22B - “Classic Jazz At Carleton” Side Two
SOMA LP MG 1201
Minneapolis, MN

Classic Jazz Trio doing what they do best. Drummer is especially nimble with the sticks. Band features Doc Evans, Jax Lucas and Knocky Parker.









Wednesday 12 January 2011

KB-11 - KAY BANK LP 11

St. PAUL SEMINARY CHOIR
54/55
KB-11A - Audi Benigne Conditor
             Jerusalem, Convertere
             In Monte Oliveti
             Tristis Est Anima Mea
             Elce Vidimus Eum
             Omnes Amici Mei
KB-11B - Velum Templi Scissum Est
             Tenebrae Factae Sunt
             Sicut Ovis
             Jerusalem Surge
             Plange Quasi Virgo
             O Vos Omnes
KAY BANK LP 11
Minneapolis, MN


There were a few releases by Rev. Francis A Missia featuring his choirs and some of them have the same LP front cover. I'm guessing this may be the case here too.




Saturday 8 January 2011

KB-7 - SOMA 1072

JOE PLUMER and Orchestra
57??
KB-7A - Casey's Old Time Waltz   (North Star Publ.)
KB-7B - Paul Bunytan Schottishe   (North Star Publ.)
SOMA 1072
119 North 9th St, Minneapolis, MN   (Amos Heilicher)


Note KB number is different between this and North Star 2001. Also A and B sides alternate. The issue number suggests a 1957 release, so perhaps it was simply remastered for 45rpm. Or it’s simply a numbering error. And ... was this issued as SOMA 1027?) A side states “Casey’s Melody” which is Casey Aslakson, so perhaps this is a different take. Casey originally recorded this for Victor Records in 1931.




Wednesday 5 January 2011

KB-4 - NORTH STAR 2001

JOE PLUMER and Orchestra
54
KB-4A - Paul Bunytan Schottishe   (North Star Publ.)
KB-4B - Casey's Old Time Waltz   (North Star Publ.)
NORTH STAR 2001
1936 University Ave, St Paul, MN

No info on artist except he was reasonably prolific in the Polka field and made quite a few releases during the 50’s.





Sunday 2 January 2011

KB-1 - ARROW 1101

BOBBY ART and his Wisconsin Dutchmen
54
KB-1A - Dutch Treat Polka   (Art Publ.)
KB-1B - Swallow Waltz  (Art Publ.)
ARROW 1101
Eau Claire, WI


Band were from Elkhart Lake, WI. There seems to be more than one band called the Wisconsin Dutchmen, or at least the personnel were interchangeable.




Saturday 1 January 2011

KB-0 - NORTH STAR 2007

JEANNIE ARLEN and the Vocalarks - Willie Peterson Orch
54
KB-0A - Summer Love   (BMI)
KB-0B - Right Side Up, Upside Down   (BMI)
NORTH STAR 2007
1936 University Ave, St Paul, MN

Jeannie Arlen Peterson was married to Willie Peterson.
This should have been KB-8 (apparently)

Here's a segment of her obituary printed from the Star Tribune on 23 Jun 2013

"Listeners in 40 states were serenaded by her swinging voice on WCCO Radio. Twins fans and players were roused by her organ playing at Met Stadium. And millions of music lovers have been moved by the tunes her five children played with Bob Dylan, Prince, Bonnie Raitt and other stars.

Jeanne Arland Peterson had one of the most extraordinary careers in Minnesota music. From her start as a teenage pianist in a department store to her swan song concert last December, Peterson, 91, was a living timeline who bridged the golden age of radio with the era of MTV and the advent of the iPod. She died Sunday of natural causes at the Castle Ridge nursing home in Eden Prairie.
Lowell Pickett, proprietor of Minnesota’s renowned Dakota Jazz Club, called her “a world-class pianist — the delicacy, the intricacies, the musical ideas and the technique.”
Famed pianist Marian McPartland once encouraged her to move to New York to make it big but Peterson opted to stay in Minnesota and raise her family.
“She was absolutely on a level with many of the nationally named artists,” said longtime Twin Cities jazz broadcaster Leigh Kamman, who followed Peterson’s career since she was 15. “She did not want to travel. Being with her family kept her out of the national scene on a grand scale and probably kept her from a recording contract.”
At her final public performance last December at Hopkins Center for the Arts, Peterson appeared frail as she was escorted to the piano by her two daughters. But once at the keyboard, she seemed at home. Her timing was impeccable, her melodies ornate and her sense of swing intact. She even improvised a funky piano solo, jamming with her kids on the 1970s R&B chestnut “What You Won’t Do for Love.”
“My age doesn’t change,” she told the Star Tribune in 2006. “I started [playing piano] when I was 3 and I just kept going. I feel very young.”
Born in Minneapolis, Jeanne Arland got her start at 15, demonstrating piano sheet music at the downtown Minneapolis Dayton’s store, and quickly graduated to gigs in ballrooms and nightclubs, doing schoolwork between sets.
For more than two decades she was the featured vocalist on WCCO Radio — which in those days could be heard coast-to-coast — backed by her husband, Willie Peterson, who led the station’s orchestra. After he died of cancer in 1969, she took over his gig as Minnesota Twins organist at the old Met Stadium in Bloomington.
Although staying in Minnesota limited her career options, she became close friends with singing star Peggy Lee and performed with comedian Bob Hope, crooner Perry Como and such jazz stars as Roy Eldridge. One highlight was a 1958 concert at Met Stadium, where she was featured vocalist in an all-Gershwin program by the Minneapolis Symphony (later the Minnesota Orchestra), under the direction of pioneering jazz conductor Paul Whiteman.
She kept busy, playing organ for Old Log Theater’s children’s shows, performing at society parties and trade shows, in nightclubs and concert halls. In 1988, she got a chance to tour the Soviet Union with Women Who Cook, an all-star Twin Cities female band whose members were young enough to be her children.


“Jeanne learned ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ in Russian. She worked so hard on it and the audience was so taken by it,” said singer Jearlyn Steele, who was part of that tour. “Whenever any of us wanted to complain, she would say, ‘We’re here for a purpose.’ Who better to remind us than Mother Music?” — the group’s pet nickname for her."