By Ate van Delden
(from the liner notes of Ray Miller and his Brunswick Orchestra 1924-1929 on Timeless Records)

During the l920's, Ray Miller was a well-known, highly respected bandleader whose orchestra made many recordings for various companies; it was featured on-the-air for most of that decade. Like Paul Whiteman, Ted Lewis and a few others he usually had top jazz musicians amongst his personnel. Most of his records sold extremely well and are not particularly rare today, although a handful remain sought-after collector's items. Despite all this very little is known about Ray Miller himself.

Ray Miller's musical career started with him being at the right time in the right place. That was in 1916 when he was a singing waiter at the Casino Gardens in Chicago. This restaurant happened to be the place where the Original Dixieland Jazz Band appeared before they went to New York and where they wrote musical history. Upon the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's success, Ray decided to try his luck along the same lines, and he followed them to the Big Apple. There he started his first band called the Black and White Melody Boys that was six pieces including himself on drums. As long as the jazz craze stayed on, they played in the style of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Ray was even able to hire a musician who had been a member of the first white band to go north from New Orleans, trombonist Tom Brown of Brown's Band from Dixieland. Brown was essential to produce the Original Dixieland Jazz Band sound in Ray Miller's band, as some records that were made in these early years for several companies demonstrate.

By 1922 Brown had returned to New Orleans and Miller moved away from the old sound to a style that was in-line with the newer, larger bands. By the end of 1923, his band was playing the newest hits in the latest style and was offered an exclusive recording contract by Brunswick, then one of the three largest recording companies in the USA. That first band included well-known names like Earl Oliver, Ray Lodwig and Andy Sanella and from its very beginning it produced many jazz-flavored recordings.

By this time, in St. Louis, Frank Trumbauer was recovering from stress caused by an over-successful adventure in the band booking business, and looking for a new break. In his biography, "Tram" related that Ray Miller showed up to ask him to join his band on sax and, in order to make it more attractive, he added that he had already hired the highly celebrated, ex-Memphis Five trombonist Miff Mole. As it happened, Miller had given Miff the same information about Trumbauer.

However, both joined. First Frank arrived on March 21, 1924, when Ray had an engagement in the Paradise Club in Newark, New Jersey and one week later he participated in the record date that produced Come On Red!. As a signature Frank contributes a 32 bar solo that cannot be mistaken for anybody else's. His style had been set. Ray Miller was particularly happy to have this upcoming genius in his band, so on Frank's 23rd birthday, on May 30th, Ray gave him a gold watch with inscription. This period proved to be an important one for Ray Miller. Not only did he hire these important musicians for his band, but he also started his own booking office, called Cosmopolitan Orchestras, Inc. of which he was president. One I. Jay Faggin (also spelled Faggan and Fagan) was company secretary, and Mike Speciale (today mainly remembered as leader of his own dance band) was office manager. The new company's introductory ad in Variety of April 30, 1924 mentioned the discovery of the Mound City Blue Blowers. Frank Trumbauer had known the group from St. Louis, but he could only get Ray's interest when he offered to pay their cost to travel to the East coast. Apparently Miller's booking agency had a relationship with Brunswick records, since other bands they contracted were those of Ben Bernie and King Oliver.

On May 31, the Ray Miller band opened at the Beaux Arts Cafe in Atlantic City, which is when Miff joined officially, having already participated in the April 23rd recording session.

On Lots O' Mama, Tram solos first with some Rudy Wiedoeft-styled novelty playing. This is followed by a solo from the two piano players, Harry Perella and Tom Satterfield. The latter wrote most of the band arrangements and (like Perella) later joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. The last solo is for Miff Mole, who is as obvious as Trumbauer. The outstanding Mama's Gone, Goodbye has Ray Miller's two star players doing a solo duet for sax and trombone and an impressive final ensemble. The scene for I Can't Get The One I Want is set with an intro containing breaks by Miff Mole and Frank Trumbauer, Andy Sanella is the bass clarinet player. The solos on Red Hot Mama are by trumpeter Roy Johnston, well known from Collegians and California Ramblers fame, and Harry Perella. Two takes exist of Doodle-Doo-Doo. We have chosen the previously un-reissued one with the best Trumbauer solo. This title also features clarinet player Larry Abbott both as a soloist and with fine contributions to the ensemble sound. Less audible, but also an important addition to Ray Miller's band, was pianist Rube Bloom, who by this time had replaced Perella. The 1925 Brunswick catalog names Ray Miller's band as one of their exclusive artists and adds that they are playing a permanent engagement at "Broadway's new million dollar ballroom, The Arcadia", This New York dance spot was formerly called the Blue Bird and owned by Miller's aforementioned business partner, I. Jay Faggan. Faggan is one of those backgrounders in jazz history: not only did he have the Arcadia, but at various other moments during the decade, he owned such famous ballrooms as the New York Roseland and Harlem's Savoy ballroom, as well as other ballrooms in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Chicago. He opened the rebuilt Arcadia on October 2nd, 1924 with the help of the orchestras of Ray Miller, Harry Reser and Carl Fenton.

About a month before at the Cinderella Ballroom, another band had opened in New York, The Wolverine Orchestra with Bix Beiderbecke. The story has been told many times how these men wanted to hear their idol Miff Mole. Therefore they had to go to the Hippodrome Theatre, where Ray Miller's band played, under the name of the Arcadia Orchestra. First Miff had some misgivings about the Wolverines' loud-voiced enthusiasm, but it proved to be genuine and he and Tram were invited to the Cinderella, where they sat in with the Wolverines later that night. This is where Frank Trumbauer heard Bix Beiderbecke for the first time. Shortly after this event, they made their first record together, for Gennett in New York, to the chagrin of Carl Fenton, Brunswick's recording director, with whom Ray Miller had an exclusive contract. Fenton happened to walk in during the Gennett session and wasn't much pleased.

A few days after their Gennett sidestep with Bix, Miff and Tram were with Ray Miller in the Brunswick studio again to resume their regular series of recordings. Me And The Boyfriend has solos by Miff and Tram as well as Johnston. Tessie is quite straight but for Tram's inspired solo. On the other hand, the arrangement of That's My Girl is hotting it up from the start. Tram jumps in nicely, Mole takes his turn, with some of his trademarks, leading into a steaming final ensemble. This side is a fine demonstration of the easy swing this group of musicians had developed. Red Hot Henry Brown features a similar drive, It has solos by Roy Johnston, Larry Abbott, Frank Trumbauer and Miff Mole. The last recording session by this star studded band was in April 1925 when it produced Phoebe Snow. It features a striking duet for the two trumpets as well as Mole and Tram's last solos with this band. By this time both had received offers from Roger Wolfe Kahn, but despite Kahn's high salaries, they did not accept. They stayed with Miller until he wanted to go on the road. Then Miff went to join Ross Gorman's band together with Red Nichols and Tram left New York to join, with Bix, the great Jean Goldkette Orchestra. Their departure meant a complete change of the band's personnel. When the next selection Spanish Shawl was recorded, half a year later, nearly all the names were new. Some uncertainty exists as to which is the band on this title. Ray's band recorded it, not for Brunswick but for its sister label Vocalion, on November 9th, 1925 using their infamous "Light Ray" recording system but the title was later transferred to Brunswick. The tune was re-recorded by a studio band under the direction of Louis Katzmann, but comparison with other Miller recordings from the same period strongly suggests that the Miller version was actually issued. In a 1958 interview, black trombone player Wilber de Paris mentioned that he had once recorded with Ray Miller, which may have been around this time.

I Want You To Want Me To Want You has a known personnel and no longer suffers from the poor recording method. Here we find trumpeter Charlie Margulis, who would join Paul Whiteman later and, interestingly enough, clarinet player Volly de Faut, who had recorded with Jelly Roll Morton a year before. He is clearly audible on clarinet in the final ensemble and the feeling is that the fine alto sax solo earlier in the arrangement could also be his. In September 1926, Ray Miller made his final recording in New York. His whereabouts till October 1927 are unknown but by that time he had moved to Cincinnati for an engagement at the Hotel Gibson. Ray probably went to Cincinnati in order to be close to its radio station WLW founded in 1922. This station could be heard all over the US and for a while in 1934 it actually was the most powerful radio station in the world, when, transmitting with 500 kW, it could be received in places as far as Buenos Aires. Ray recorded several times while at the Gibson under the name of Ray Miller's Hotel Gibson Orchestra, but for the first recording session he had to take his band to Chicago.

By this time Ray Miller had assembled a new band and his stay at the Gibson was mentioned in Billboard magazine, which added a full personnel. Again he had two piano players, one of them Andy Mansfield, This new band actually made records in Cincinnati too, and they turned out to be some of Miller's best; made by a Brunswick mobile recording unit, around February 1st 1928. Interestingly, the same month, Andy Mansfield recorded with a band for Gennett in Richmond, Indiana. On some issues the band was called the Cotton Pickers and several of the men can be identified from the Miller recordings. Miller may actually have engaged Andy Mansfield's local band for his activities around Chicago and this would explain why some other recordings, in particular Weary Blues, have a real territory sound. I Ain't Got Nobody although a fine side, features a dreadful vocal, probably by Miller himself, which frankly would have been better if it was left out.

The four titles recorded in Cincinnati were Is She My Girl Friend, I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate, Sorry and My Honey's Lovin' Arms. Sister Kate has one of the reed players imitating his predecessor Frank Trumbauer. The same tune features an ensemble break that stems from a trombone solo by Kid Ory on a Jelly Roll Morton recording. Bass player Cookie Trantham switches from string bass to brass bass halfway the session. In June 1928, Ray Miller still had the band at the Hotel Gibson, but by the time the next selections were recorded, the Cincinnati engagement had ended. Ray retired to Chicago where he had started his musical career nearly ten years earlier and again he formed a completely new band. On October 1, he opened at the College Inn of the Hotel Sherman. One of the fixtures in any successful band was a "take-off trumpet player; and Ray was lucky to find Chicagoan Francis "Muggsy" Spanier to fulfill that important role for half a year till mid 1929 when Spanier joined Ted Lewis. Muggsy had been a jazz pioneer around Chicago since the earliest Twenties. He had made a few recordings, which now all stand out as landmarks in jazz history. The earliest were by the Bucktown Five, with reed player Volly de Faut. Then followed the first recordings by a group which is now known as the Chicagoans. With Ray Miller, in January 1929, it was decided that Muggsy would be featured on two sides of a hot record and the tunes chosen had already become jazz standards, since they had been launched by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in 1923. Both That's A Plenty and Angry not only feature Muggsy's unforgettable solos, but Jimmy Cannon's clarinet playing is equally impressive, including his low register work. Ray Miller's bass player at this time was Jules Cassard, co-composer with Dudley Mecum of Angry. Back in 1924 both had recorded the tune in Merritt Brunies' little band that succeeded the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the Friars Inn in Chicago. By 1929 Mecum had become a fulltime songwriter and that year a tune that he wrote for WLW radio stations, was arranged by Andy Mansfield. Incidentally, Cassard plays string bass throughout both titles, mostly bowing. Andy Mansfield later became a DJ at Los Angeles' radio station KFI Dudley Mecum too stayed in music for a long time. The personnel for his Ray Miller band was given at a 1950's interview with its tenor sax player Lyle Smith. He mentioned the names of two singers, Bob Nolan and Dick Teela, but only one is heard.

From January 1929, the band started a recurring series of special Brunswick transcriptions for the National Advertising Company, promoting Meadows washing machines.

But also that same month they recorded a regular Brunswick side, which, since its recent rediscovery, has become the subject of intense discussion, The tune is Cradle Of Love and it does not feature one cornet soloist, but two. Without any doubt the first one is Muggsy but it's the other one that presents a puzzle.

California collector and researcher Brad Kay was the first to come up with a theory about this intriguing session and this story, which was first published on Albert Haim's excellent Bix Beiderbecke website (www.bixbeiderbecke.com). The College Inn closed in 1928 and Muggsy Spainer left, but Ray Miller remained a regular visitor to Brunswick's Chicago studios. His jazz output was limited, however. One more title from this period, Harlem Madness also features a heavily Bix-influenced trumpet solo. Ray Miller's story has to end here. The next six months he had two more recording sessions which did not produce anything jazz-worthy At a relatively young age he disappeared from the scene. Presently, nothing is known of his further exploits. He may have lost a lot of money as a result of the economic depression or maybe he lost it at gambling, one of his passions. Hopefully this album will trigger off further research into the life of Ray Miller; he is definitely worth it. If you would like to order the Timeless Records' CD of Ray Miller and his Brunswick Orchestra 1924-1929 you can do so through Worlds Records or direct from Timeless Records.

Thanks to J.E. Knox, Marshall Philyaw and James Gallup for their help with this page. Additional thanks to Scott and Mark of Vintage Music Company If you are looking for great jazz on 78's, visit the Vintage Music Company's homepage (www.vintagemusicco.com)