Search - Irving Mills & His Hotsy Totsy Gang :: Irving Mills, Volume One

Hot music from Irving's Mills

JJA Kiefte | Tegelen, Nederland | 03/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Once more it was a review by the dependable Barry McCanna that put me on the trail of the two volumes of Irving Mills' recorded ouput under his own name, and both are very enjoyable, with vol. 2 having a slight edge over vol. 1. Mills is of course famous for his managing of Duke Ellington (and as non-cooperative co-composer of many of Duke's tunes, which brought Mills in more than the Duke, reason for their parting of ways in 1939), Cab Calloway and the Mills' Blue Rhythm Band. (To Mills' credit: the men in all three bands were among the most highly paid and best treated black musicians in the band business.) Between 1928-1931 he also directed a number of recordings under his own name, using a variety of up and coming white jazz musicians, such as the Dorseys, Manny Klein, Phil Napoleon, Bill Moore, Eddie Lang and the complete Ben Pollack band (which included Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden). While the inclusion of all the vocal and non vocal issues of no less than seven numbers may be for the sake of completeness, I could at least have dispensed with the singing of a very young and shrill sounding Elisabeth Welch and a lady called Lilian Morton and the two terrible titles, which perhaps should not have been included at all, 'What a Night' and 'St Louis Blues'.

Booklet info and remastering are of the highest order however and so four stars is certainly in order."

DIGGA DIGGA DO WITH THE HOTSY TOTSY GANG

Barry McCanna | Normandy, France | 12/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Irving Mills was a big wheel in the New York music scene, who helped promote songs and musicians. He may have been less than philanthropic in that activity, but it's redeemed by the fact that he had a good ear for both. That is very much in evidence here, the first volume of recordings made under his name with his joyously-named studio group, the Hotsy Totsy Gang.



The musicians used were those available at the time, and at the second date comprises virtually the entire Ben Pollack orchestra. Most of the titles sre presented in both the vocal and non-vocal take, the latter being designed for the Continental market. The first two vocals are distinguished as being by Elizabeth Welch. Remastering is by the great John R.T. Davies. This is joyful late twenties music, before the advent of the Great Depression, which effectively changed recording companies' approach."