1917. Victor releases the first record of The Original Dixieland Jass Band, and the US Army arrives in France, bringing with its 369th Infantery Regiment a brass band directed by Lieut. James Europe. The band plays in Brest at the time of its arrival, in December of that year, allowing people to hope again for a quick ending of the war and offering them to hear the new american sensation: “jass”.
The band even tours France in february and march 1918, and the Original Dixieland (now) Jazz Band, tours England in 1919. The european jazz age has begun.
At that time, “jazz” in France was considered as the drummer’s complete set (drums, cow bells, cymbales, etc.) [1], and the “jazz band” was a noisy band as opposed to the more as-soft-and-polite-as-possible French dance orchestras. “Jazz” meant uproar for most of the people ! But hopefully not for all, and the major french recording companies quickly offered to record the bands that are already in hand – those wich came with the army – then the american bands that cross the ocean to Paris to entertain a certain population eager for new hype [2].
F. Howard Jackson was a white american pianist. He will later record with the Don Clark orchestra, for Victor, in California, in 1924/1925. But not much else is known about him, sadly.
We also know nothing about the 5 musicians of his band. The archives of Pathé being lost, the names will probably remain unknown for ever, and many questions will never be answered.
But let’s the music talk first, and discuss some issues later. The ragtime-oriented tracks are vivid and lively, even epic in some way, closer to the Jim Europe recordings, obviously, or the early columbia recordings of W.C. Handy than the New Orleans style of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
[11/2021] Below this paragraph is the previous article describing my researches to solve the recording date issues. It is now obsolete but I kept it available to show how researches work sometimes.
Indeed, if we’ll never know exactly when these sides have been recorded, some new informations give us a more accurate period of time.
First was the comment below that gives us a galvanoplasty date of November 1918, with a recording date possibily before the end of the war. That definitively changed the approach of these recordings, now made in 1918, closer to, if not during, the war time.
Soon after, I finally found the missing record. That record didn’t just brough me the missing sides but also an even earlier date of galvanoplasty ! Clearly readable in the run out, “23 10 18” (Oct.23, 1918) confirms that the recording session occured before the end of the war, most probably during the first half of October !
This is probably the earliest galvanoplasty date we’ll ever find for this session, making the F. Howard Jackson the first American “Jazz” band to record in Paris.
Other American “Jazz” bands were already playing in Paris’ cabarets or ballrooms at that time, like the Seven Spades, conducted by Louis Mitchell (at the Alhambra in Dec 1917, then at the Olympia in Jan. 1918), or the Seth Week’s Jazz Band (at the Théatre Caumartin in Oct. 1918). But none of them recorded during their time in Paris.
The F. Howard Jackson Orchestra recording session was followed by one by the 158th US Infantery Band, then by the Marcel’s Jazz Band and the more famous and iconic Scrap Iron Jazz Band.
In a general way, the color of the Pathé labels were indexed with prices, depending on the release date. My 8268 has a black label, wich was reserved to new releases. This copy is then a first press. 8266 has a blue label, wich means it is some later repress, at another price scale.
According to the notes of the highly recommanded french LP “Le jazz en France Vol1: Premiers Jazz bands, Paris 1919-1923” (Pathé-Marconi) – detailed here – the band records for Pathé as early as April 1919. One track of this session, “How’d you like to be my daddy”, appears on the LP. That track was released under the matrix 6287 on Pathé 8267 – that I sadly do not own.
An interesting fact is that Pathé, until the beginning of the electric area, used to handwrite the date of the galvanoplasty on the run out of its records. That gives you the date of the production of the master, but not the date of the recording. Though, it was very common that the records were available in the market as shortly as a month after the recording session, especially when a hype was going on. Recording and release were very close.
These dates appear backwards and are mostly barely visible, at least on my copies. I’ve found some clues, though: “19”. The number is following signs that are no random scratch, but the rest of the date can’t be read anymore. This “19” is the year and confirms the notes. Also, the writing is recognisable on three of my sides: the same person dated the records, most probably the same day.
But on the forth side, “A baby’s prayer at twilight”, the handwritten date in the run out is clearly Sept 25, 1920, and clearly written by someone different from the other sides.
That’s very curious and several reasons can explain this. As we will never know what happened, I’d go for the most simple explanation: for some reason, Pathé did a new master of that side for this repress. In late 1920, the band must have been back home.
But that is just my assumption…my copy should be compared with a first press to confirm it is the same take, or not.
Dating issues put aside, the band recorded very early after the war anyway. That makes me wonder if they came with the army in the first place, or if they were quickly invited to record in Paris to feed the hype. In this case, they must have been spotted in some revue or dance ball in the US, as there is no trace of recordings by Howard Jackson before the war. Once again, my assumption goes to the most simple explanation: the guys must have come with the army.
Considering that the catalog numbers and matrix numbers of these six sides are following each other, I presume the band recorded only these six sides for Pathé, released on these three records at the same time.
[06/2021 update: My assumptions have been confirmed since: Pathé used to do a lot of “disc masters” from the “master cylinder” during a record’s commercial life time. The 09/1920 date for my copy of 8266 indicates that it is a repress.
Also, and more importantly, in the comments below, the owner of a copy of Pathé 8268 reveals that the date of the galvanoplasty of his copy is November 1918, possibly the 22 ! That places the recordings way earlier than expected, most probably in October 1918, before te end of the war ! That’s coherent with the idea of American privates, recording in Paris because they were there.]
If the band is totally unknown today, the three records mentioned here were still available in the Pathé catalog of 1927, and maybe even later. That gives some credit to the idea of a potential success back in the days.
Notes:
[1] In the early 30’s, Martin Cayla, owner of the label Le Soleil, feeling some competition between his traditional folkloric orchestra and the new fashionable jazz bands, eventually hired a drummer, wich is credited as “jazz” on the records.
[2] Each mode brings its lot of mockery: the famous comical singer Alibert mocks the hype in the song “Jazz band…partout !” (“Jazz Band…everywhere !”) in 1921. Listen here.
L o s t S o n g s 
My 8268 was made in November 1918.
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Thanks ! That gives a recording date earlier than expected !
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