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From
1858-1949
Click On Their Photos
These are just a few of the bands who played the soundtrack of our lives from 1858-1940's
HEAR THEM AGAIN...
You can check out their music right here.
The Early Years
An MMHC Blast From The Past
Coming Soon
OLE BULL
The man many still call Norway's greatest musician.. In the 18th Century Minnesota was like a second home to him and he is honored with a statue in Loring Park
JOHN PHILLIP SOUZA
When Wilber Foshay was celebrating the opening of the largest concrete building this side of the Mississippi River, he commissioned John Philip Sousa to create a march. But then the stock market tanked...
CEDRIC ADAMS
During college, Cedric Adams played drums in a campus band he called the Cedric Adams Famous Yellow Jackets Dance Band. He also worked for Northrup King as a traveling salesman selling seeds for several summers. The highlight of 1930 was meeting Bernice Niecy Linont of Virginia, Minnesota. In 1931 they eloped to Sisseton, South Dakota, and later had a formal ceremony in Virginia. Cedric and Niecy were parents of three sons, David, Cedric, Jr. (Ric), and Stephen.
Cedric Adams had a knack for making people feel he was interested in them, and this helped him in his newspaper and broadcast career. He had the loyalty of people for his noontime and 10 p.m. news broadcast. Pilots said they could always tell when Cedrics program was over, because so many lights turned off. Cedric Adams got to know Arthur Godfrey well. He had a five minute spot on Arthur Godfreys show where Ramona Gerhart played music and Cedric said a few words. In the days of early national TV, Cedric traveled to New York City to fill in for Arthur Godfrey on Talent Scouts and other programs. Cedric Adams daily Minneapolis Star newspaper column, In This Corner, was very popular for 31 years. Two of his often-used headings were Into Each Life a Little Rain Must Fall and Thoughts While Shaving. The last column was published February 19, 1961, the day after Cedric died. Cedric had curiosity, sentimentality, and a long memory. He took little things and made them interesting and humorous.
Cedric Adams had a knack for making people feel he was interested in them, and this helped him in his newspaper and broadcast career. He had the loyalty of people for his noontime and 10 p.m. news broadcast. Pilots said they could always tell when Cedrics program was over, because so many lights turned off. Cedric Adams got to know Arthur Godfrey well. He had a five minute spot on Arthur Godfreys show where Ramona Gerhart played music and Cedric said a few words. In the days of early national TV, Cedric traveled to New York City to fill in for Arthur Godfrey on Talent Scouts and other programs. Cedric Adams daily Minneapolis Star newspaper column, In This Corner, was very popular for 31 years. Two of his often-used headings were Into Each Life a Little Rain Must Fall and Thoughts While Shaving. The last column was published February 19, 1961, the day after Cedric died. Cedric had curiosity, sentimentality, and a long memory. He took little things and made them interesting and humorous.
LEIGH KAMMAN
For many people, that voice — a perfect radio voice, resonant and intimate — defined decades of Saturday nights. As Gerry Mulligan played and Alice Babs sang in the background, Kamman spun stories full of images, setting a mood: “And here we are, floating down through the night, from London to … wherever you want to go.” In the cities and small towns across Minnesota, people stayed up past their bedtimes to hear where Kamman would take them. (And many misheard his name for years as “Lake Hammond.”)
“To describe jazz in the spoken language of English for me is a challenge,” Kamman once told MPR. Although his language was sometimes florid and his sentences labyrinthine, his narrative, and his love for the music and its makers, lured us in.
“To describe jazz in the spoken language of English for me is a challenge,” Kamman once told MPR. Although his language was sometimes florid and his sentences labyrinthine, his narrative, and his love for the music and its makers, lured us in.
ANDREWS SISTERS
the Andrews Sisters, singing trio, one of the most popular American musical acts of the 1940s. The group’s renditions of swing tunes in close harmony sold millions of copies; the act was also hugely popular in live performance and in film. The sisters were LaVerne Sofia Andrews (b. July 6, 1911, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.—d. May 8, 1967, Brentwood, California), Maxene Angelyn Andrews (b. January 3, 1916, Minneapolis—d. October 21, 1995, Boston, Massachusetts), and Patricia Marie (“Patty”) Andrews (b. February 16, 1918, Minneapolis—d. January 30, 2013, Los Angeles, California).
LUCILLE HEGAMIN
A musical pioneer who was among America’s first wave of jazz and blues recording artists in the 1920s, Lucille Hegamin was born Lucille Nelson in Macon, Georgia, on November 29, 1894. She grew up singing in church and at the age of fifteen joined a tent-show touring company performing standards of the day. She traveled around the country until 1914 when she settled in Chicago, Illinois. She made a living in nightclubs as a pop, blues, and jazz singer, working with a number of popular musicians of the period, including pianists Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton. She occasionally used the alias Fanny Baker and was known to many on the club circuit as “The Georgia Peach.” While in Chicago she met and married pianist Bill Hegamin. The couple eventually settled in New York City, New York in 1919.
RED ALLEN
Composer, conductor, singer, occasional actor, an trumpeter in the orchestras of Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory (with which he toured Europe), John Handy, King Oliver, Luis Russell, Fletcher Henderson, Fate Marable and George Lewis, as well as the house band at the Cafe Metropole in New York. He also formed his own sextet, and made many records. He joined ASCAP in 1958, and his popular music compositions include "Siesta at the Fiesta"; "Red Jump"; "Pleasing Paul"; "Algiers Stomp"; "Get the Mop"; and "Ride, Red, Ride".
JUDY GARLAND
It was Judy Garland, not Bing Crosby, who inherited Al Jolson's mantle as America's premier 20th-century entertainer. Possessing both the voice and pure show-biz sensibility for the requisite broad gesture, her own emotional vulnerabilities also gave a special depth to every single performance.
SIX FAT DUTCHMEN
The Six Fat Dutchmen was an American polka band, formed around 1932 by Harold Loeffelmacher in New Ulm, Minnesota, United States. The band was known mostly for playing the "Oom-pah" style of polka music that originated from Germany and the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia. They were regular performers at the then-famous George's Ballroom in New Ulm, and were voted Number One Polka Band for seven years in a row by the National Ballroom Operators Association. Compilations of their music continue to be produced and sold, more than 70 years after the band's founding
CASALOMA ORCHESTA
The Casa Loma Orchestra was an American dance band active from 1929 to 1963.[1] Until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands. With the decline of the big band business following the end of World War II, it disbanded in 1947. However, from 1957 to 1963, it re-emerged as a recording session band in Hollywood, made up of top-flight studio musicians under the direction of its most notable leader of the past, Glen Gray.[1] The reconstituted band made a limited number of appearances live and on television and recorded fifteen LP albums for Capitol Records before Gray died in 1963
SUNSET VALLEY BARN DANCE
The Sunset Valley Barn Dance was an American country music radio and later television program broadcast by KSTP of St. Paul, Minnesota, which ran for nearly 20 years, starting in 1940.
SWING CITY
Swing City, 1682 Rice Street in St. Paul featured Rook Ganz. Bob Patrin has done a great deal of research on this place; these are notes from conversations with Bob. Swing City goes back to about 1928, owned by a man named Quarterman. It started as a garage, then branched out to sodas, then to the City Limits Tavern, probably in 1933 at the end of Prohibition and then to Swing City.
Frank Fietek, was discharged from the Army in 1945. He had lied about his age to get in, and was found to be too old. He received a certificate to start a business, and he took it to City Hall with the intent to own a tavern. He was given Quarterman’s license and took over Swing City, renaming it Frank and Marie’s Tavern,
The mobsters (allegedly Kid Cann) were ticked off. Although they were hanging out at Happy Hollow (see above) across Rice Street, they wanted control of Swing City as well, and were incensed when Frank turned down $2,000 in cash that his bagmen had offered him for the place. They offered “insurance,” but Frank declined. The bagmen tried to get to Frank through Marie by giving her an expensive alligator bag, but Frank still said no. Frank – whether on purpose or unwittingly – even riled the mob when his ad in a Hudson’s map was bigger than that of the mob-run McCarthy’s in St. Louis Park. One night at closing the bagmen kidnapped Frank, took him out to County Road D, broke both his legs, and left him on the road to be run over.
He could never walk again
Frank Fietek, was discharged from the Army in 1945. He had lied about his age to get in, and was found to be too old. He received a certificate to start a business, and he took it to City Hall with the intent to own a tavern. He was given Quarterman’s license and took over Swing City, renaming it Frank and Marie’s Tavern,
The mobsters (allegedly Kid Cann) were ticked off. Although they were hanging out at Happy Hollow (see above) across Rice Street, they wanted control of Swing City as well, and were incensed when Frank turned down $2,000 in cash that his bagmen had offered him for the place. They offered “insurance,” but Frank declined. The bagmen tried to get to Frank through Marie by giving her an expensive alligator bag, but Frank still said no. Frank – whether on purpose or unwittingly – even riled the mob when his ad in a Hudson’s map was bigger than that of the mob-run McCarthy’s in St. Louis Park. One night at closing the bagmen kidnapped Frank, took him out to County Road D, broke both his legs, and left him on the road to be run over.
He could never walk again
LESTER YOUNG
Lester Willis Young was nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike
PHYLLIS WHEATLEY HOUSE
Founded in 1924, the Phyllis Wheatley House was the first settlement house to serve the social service needs of African Americans in Minneapolis. In the 1930s, it became a center of African American life at a time when racial segregation divided the city.
In the late 1910s, a growing number of young, single women were moving to large cities like Minneapolis, looking for work. Concerns for these women’s personal and moral safety moved many social services agencies to provide them with housing, recreational activities, and other assistance.
While there were many services for young, single white women, segregation prevented their African American counterparts from receiving the same help. In 1920, two social service agencies, the Council on Social Agencies and the Women’s Cooperative Alliance (WCA), noticed the lack of programs for young, single black women.
After considering opening a boarding house for these women, the agencies realized that all of Minneapolis’ African American citizens lacked services. The WCA decided to open the first settlement house for the city’s small, but growing, black community.
Named after Phyllis Wheatley, an eighteenth century enslaved woman who became a well-known poet, the Phyllis Wheatley House opened on October 17, 1924, in the old Talmud Torah Hebrew School at 808 Bassett Place. It was located in a mostly black neighborhood in North Minneapolis.
In the late 1910s, a growing number of young, single women were moving to large cities like Minneapolis, looking for work. Concerns for these women’s personal and moral safety moved many social services agencies to provide them with housing, recreational activities, and other assistance.
While there were many services for young, single white women, segregation prevented their African American counterparts from receiving the same help. In 1920, two social service agencies, the Council on Social Agencies and the Women’s Cooperative Alliance (WCA), noticed the lack of programs for young, single black women.
After considering opening a boarding house for these women, the agencies realized that all of Minneapolis’ African American citizens lacked services. The WCA decided to open the first settlement house for the city’s small, but growing, black community.
Named after Phyllis Wheatley, an eighteenth century enslaved woman who became a well-known poet, the Phyllis Wheatley House opened on October 17, 1924, in the old Talmud Torah Hebrew School at 808 Bassett Place. It was located in a mostly black neighborhood in North Minneapolis.
GABRIEL GARZON
One of Minnesota's first Mexican American Immigrants became a celebrated songwriter in the late 1800's
DOC EVANS
Evans was born in Spring Valley, Minnesota.[2] the son of a Methodist minister. He learned piano and drums as a child, and played saxophone in high school. He graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in English, and played with the Carleton Collegians dance band there. He gave up saxophone in the late 1920s for cornet, and played Dixieland jazz regularly in Minneapolis at that time.
Evans continued to play through the Great Depression, turning down offers to play outside of the Midwest. In 1947, he led the band that played for the opening of Chicago's Jazz, Ltd. club upon being persuaded by clarinetist Bill Reinhardt. He worked in Chicago until 1952, and then embarked on nationwide tours, recording frequently along the way. Evans recorded as a leader for Disc Records in 1947, and for Joco Records, based in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1949-1950.[3] In August, 1953, Evans gave a series of concerts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These concerts were recorded, and issued on LP by Soma Recording Company, based in Minneapolis.[4] Evans also recorded extensively for Audiophile Records.[5]
He returned to Minneapolis and continued playing jazz up until his last recordings in 1975. He also founded the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and conducted it until his death, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Evans continued to play through the Great Depression, turning down offers to play outside of the Midwest. In 1947, he led the band that played for the opening of Chicago's Jazz, Ltd. club upon being persuaded by clarinetist Bill Reinhardt. He worked in Chicago until 1952, and then embarked on nationwide tours, recording frequently along the way. Evans recorded as a leader for Disc Records in 1947, and for Joco Records, based in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1949-1950.[3] In August, 1953, Evans gave a series of concerts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These concerts were recorded, and issued on LP by Soma Recording Company, based in Minneapolis.[4] Evans also recorded extensively for Audiophile Records.[5]
He returned to Minneapolis and continued playing jazz up until his last recordings in 1975. He also founded the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and conducted it until his death, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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