The King of Hot-Cha

Using the Original Dixieland Jazz Band as their initial role model, the brothers Harry and Sydney Roy formed and perfected a hot little jazz band in London, England, from 1921 to 1930. After disbanding, they put together a larger ensemble in 1931, now led by the personable Harry Roy, "the King of Hot-Cha." In 1997 the Living Era label brought out a more or less chronologically arranged sampler of Harry Roy's recordings made in London between May 1933 and April 1940, with two pianists adding an extra dimension to the band. The hot jazz taproots are resoundingly evident on "Bugle Call Rag" (the band's signature theme song), "That's A-Plenty," "Maple Leaf Rag," and "King Porter Stomp," as well as Roy's own "No Name Rag" and "The Roy Rag." "Sarawaki" was named after the state of Sarawak in Borneo, where Roy's wife, Elizabeth, grew up as a member of the last white family to control the region in the name of British colonial rule. This "exotic" number fits nicely with a medley of "Chinatown" and "Limehouse Blues"; both recordings draw upon the 1920s stylistic convention of the Oriental fox trot. There are a number of harmless, wholesome, and at times sentimental vocals by pianist Ivor Moreton, timpanist Bill Currie, and Kay Harding. Some of these performances are downright campy. "Bugle Call Rag" begins with someone imitating a British drill sergeant; "La Cucaracha" has a group vocal adorned with an exaggerated operatic "Mexican" tenor voice; "Let's Have a Jubilee" comes on like a music hall pit orchestra curtain raiser; "Lullabye of Broadway" lives up to its Hollywood origins; and "Heigh-Ho!" gets the ultra-silly treatment with the title pronounced like "Hey-Ho!" Drummer Ray Ellington hazards a goofy attempt at scat singing on "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go (With Friday on Saturday Night)?," while during the theatrically comical "I Want the Waiter (With the Water)" (a lively routine that sounds a lot like something from Michael Flanders & Donald Swann), Monia Liter solos using the Hammond Novachord, an early electronic sound synthesizer that fit over the piano keyboard and simulated the sound of a tinny electric organ with the switches set on "clavichord." This surprisingly entertaining package of British dance music from the 1930s has enough real jazz behind it to warrant closer inspection, except of course for those who consider themselves too cool for such innocent merriment.