jazz piano find HERMAN CHITTISON TRIO 1947 session ACETATE record SY SYMS WIFE

$

28

HERMAN CHITTISON TRIO jazz piano find! 1947 session ACETATE record SY SYMS WIFE!

This is the first time this item has been offered for sale correctly described.

Original vintage
Carl Fischer Electrical Transcription
10" 78rpm Acetate Recording Disc

"I've Been So Wrong For So Long" (1:54)
"I Wonder, I Wonder" (1:47)
July 25, 1947
Herman Chittison Trio
Ruth Holland, vocals

(Both songs were released earlier in 1947
-- "I’ve Been So Wrong" by Dinah Shore
and "I Wonder, I Wonder" by Louis Armstrong)

From the personal archive of Sy Syms,
mens clothing retail magnate,
famous for his advertising slogan,
"An educated consumer is our best customer."
and building a highly-profitable New York Stock Exchange-listed retail chain.

"Ruth Holland" was the stage name of Sy Syms' wife.

Herman "Ivory" Chittison is considered by many jazz aficionados to be among the top-tier jazz pianists of the 20th century, though less known than others. From 1933 to 1941 he lived and performed outside the United States, in Europe, Egypt and India.

Chittison was one of the earliest and most important ambassadors of American jazz in Europe.

Wishing to escape the escalating World War, he returned to the United States in 1941, and formed a very popular Harlem trio. For the next twenty years he was continually recording and performing, frequently at major clubs in Manhattan and the Eastern United States.

He also became a radio star. For seven years (1943-1950) the radio program Casey, Crime Photographer featured Chittison playing jazz piano at the Blue Note Club, Casey's informal headquarters.

His performance in The Blue Note each week gave the bar a distinctive musical atmosphere -- similar to Dooley Wilson at Rick's Cafe Americaine in Casablanca, a film that was in theaters at the time of the program's premiere.

Young jazz enthusiasts tuned in to the program each week to hear what Chittison was doing in the background. Among the eager fans of the program was Thelonious Monk, who had idolized Chittison for years and based his early style on Chittison's.

This recording is dated July 25, 1947, during the period Chittison was a regular on the radio show, and features him and his trio performing two songs with singer Ruth Holland, a working singer who would soon marry Sy Syms.

She performed on radio, television and in vaudeville theater concerts, recorded songs for Universal newsreels, and as a soloist with the Glenn Miller Singers and Miller alumnus Tex Beneke's orchestra.

There's another name handwritten on the label: Lee Stewart.

He's an interesting guy. He was an original co-host of American Bandstand on television, in 1952, before Dick Clark took over the show. He also played "Mad Man Muntz" in television commercials for Muntz Televisions -- a zany pitchman.

The real "Mad Man Muntz" was a colorful entrepreneur who played himself on radio ("I buy cars high and sell them low! Why do I do it? It's more fun that way!") and created a rather impressive empire of used car lots, low-cost televisions (deriving the design by removing circuitry from televisions until they stopped working then putting the last piece back and selling them in urban areas near broadcast towers), an advanced automobile sedan similar to the Tucker, and later, with 4-track music cartridges and projection televisions.

At the time this recording was cut in 1947, Stewart was a talent rep for the Nunemaker Artists' Bureau, so it is likely that Ruth Holland was represented by him.

In 1947, her future husband, Sy Syms (known as Sy Merns at the time) was a recent graduate of New York University, having studied broadcasting and communications, and from 1948-1950 worked in radio broadcasting, as a production man with WINS New York, a sports play-by-play announcer for WDYK Cumberland, Maryland, and program director for WMON Montgomery, West Virginia.

A worthy addition to even the most advanced collection of jazz recordings.

Condition: The record plays without skipping, but has hiss, crackle and pops throughout. Listen to the samples to evaluate its quality. There is significant palmitic acid formation, heavy on the "I Wonder" side but not that bad on the "So Wrong" side. See photographs. The Carl Fischer labels have detached from both sides revealing the Audiodisc label underneath.

I have additional records from Sy Sym's personal archive, unique acetates he obviously saved because they represent the earliest broadcast work he did, years before he got into the clothing business and used his experience to create one of the most successful long-running retail commercials in advertising history.

On one from 1948, he reads the late baseball scores, then does a commercial for Barney's, his future competition in the mens clothing business.

I will only be selling these on eBay. If you are interested in getting descriptions in advance and notices when they are listed, send me a message.

Listen to samples of this record now...

"I’ve Been So Wrong"
  download audio

"I Wonder, I Wonder"
  download audio

All photographs are of actual item.

Full refunds cheerfully given for any item that I have misdescribed.