Oriole Dance Orchestra - Blue Shadows

Oriole Dance Orchestra was a pseudonym for Hal Kemp's orchestra. Kemp (1904-1940) was a jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer, and arranger. He died in his 30's in a car accident. Art Jarrett took on leadership of Kemp's orchestra in 1941. Kemp formed his own campus jazz group, the Carolina Club Orchestra. In 1927 Kemp turned leadership of the Carolina Club Orchestra over to fellow UNC student Kay Kyser and formed a professional jazz orchestra of his own based in New York City. One of the main reasons for the band's success was arranger John Scott Trotter. None of the trumpeters could sustain notes and play legitimate tones, so Trotter muted the trumpets and introduced staccato triplets into the charts. This gave the band a unique sound. Kemp's band introduced or promoted numerous popular songs, including "Got a Date With an Angel", "There's a Small Hotel" and "Three Little Fishies". This great record was made in 1928. The wonderful vocal is by the apparently ubiquituous Harold Lambert. Due to the poor state of this disc, I unfortunately had to dim the high frequency range. I apologize for the somewhat less rich sound resulting of it.