ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Henry Busse and His Orchestra, with Vocal refrain by Knox Pugh and chorus - You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’, Fox Trot (Russel-Young-Meyer), Victor 1931 (USA)
NOTE: Henry BUSSE was a Germany born, American dance bandleader, trumpet and violin player. Born in 1894 on the farm near Magdeburg in Germany, to the multigenerational “Oooompah” band players. In his childhood, he played trumpet in his uncle’s local band. Perhaps it was reason why, after several failed attempts, he finally managed to run away from his home in 1912 and embarked on a ship to the United States. Rousted by the police for sleeping in Grand Central Station, unable to speak English, he found a job on a boat heading to California. He acquired some English on his trip, what enabled him to get job in Hollywood as an extra in Keystone Cop movies. He also played trumpet in a movie theatre pit band, until in 1917 he joined the popular dance orchestra Frisco Jass Band. Living in the post-WW1 America and discriminated because of his strong German accent, he finally formed his own dance orchestra Busse’s Buzzards, which even successfully recorded four sides. In later years, he joined Paul Whiteman’s orchestra, where he performed alongside Tommy and Jimmie Dorseys, Roy Bargy, Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer. In 1926, during the orchestra’s tour in Europe, Busse discovered a song written by a German composer Robert Katscher, which later in the States he offered Buddy DeSylva to write English lyrics to. It’s how was created one of great American hits “When Day Is Done”. Recorded in 1927 by Paul Whiteman & his Orch. and Whispering Jack Smith, the song made Henry Busse famous. Busse stayed with Whiteman until 1928, when he left and formed his own group The Henry Busse Orchestra, which was more of a sweet dance band than a jazz band and had a very successful career. Yet it was only in the Swing era, when Busse hit his peak, performing with his another ensamble Henry Busse and the Shuffle Rhythm Band. His music was often berated by Down Beat magazine, Busse and his band appeared in an MGM color movie in 1935 called Starlit Days at the Lido, filmed at the Ambassador Hotel along with Clark Gable and in the movie Lady Let's Dance, Busse had a speaking part. Henry Busse and his Orchestra continued to record and perform up until his death in 1955, at an undertaker's convention at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, while he was playing with the Shuffle Rhythm Band.
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The tune “You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’ was a soundtrack melody composed for the 1931 “Merrie Melodies” cartoon, the first one that hasn't got Foxy in it, replaced by another brief character, Piggy (who lasted only through three new films, though). The music was played by Abe Lyman’s band (according to other sources - by Gus Arnheim’s Cocoanut Grove Orch.). The film is a wild, surrealistic trip through the swingin' nightlife of the big city with a drunken, joyriding Piggy. Piggy takes his girlfriend Fluffy out to see a jazz band. She likes it, but he doesn't and gives the raspberry to the bandleader and yells, "You don't know what you're doin'!" Then he gets up and tries to show him the right way to run a band. Three drunken ducks in the balcony heckle him. He yells back and one of the ducks jumps on stage. They all get drunk. Piggy and Fluffy try to go outside and attempt to ride home, but everything in the city becomes loopy and wavy... with the buildings and lampposts coming to life! The final dialogue sums it up: "Whoopee."
Therefore, the slideshow is made of several photos of the nighttime in New York in the 1930s.
