OKEH RECORD SESSIONS 9.1.1925
100 years ago today, a group of college boys who were spending their summer playing for dances on the rooftop garden ballroom at The George Vanderbilt Hotel in Asheville, NC, stepped into the makeshift studio of OKeh Records to record 2 songs.
Ralph Peer and OKeh Records came to Asheville to record fiddlers, banjo pickers, guitarists, and singers who could perform the dance tunes, ballads, love songs, blues, and gospel music of the region. More about that can be found here:
https://www.exploreasheville.com/historic-asheville-sessions
The majority of that recording session is old time string music.
But two songs by that college dance band, THE CAROLINA CLUB ORCHESTRA, made it to wax.
They were “COLLEGIATE” & “ROSE OF THE NILE.”
On November 6th, RUSS WILSON’S 10 KINGS OF JAZZ will play those 2 tunes (along with others, of course) for the first time in 100 years at the opening ceremonies for the 4 day “Asheville Sessions” celebrations. We’ll be giving a one hour performance at The Funkatorium on 11/06/25. After that event, the entire band will be at The Crow & Quill playing hot jazz and celebrating my birthday!
A big thanks to Colin Hancock and Scott A Silbert for their magnificent work in transcribing these recordings.
A big thanks to Kevin Coffey for the 1925 newspaper clipping
and a big thanks to Richard Emmett for allowing us to be a part of this wonderful event.
MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL
RW
#AshevilleSessions100 #GeorgeVanderbiltHotel #HistoricAsheville #OKehRecords #CentennialJazz #AshevilleMusic #HistoryInWax #OldTimeStringBand
