Broadway Bell-Hops w/ Bix Beiderbecke "Here Comes Fatima" Harmony #279-H B (1926)

The Broadway Bell-Hops recorded for Columbia Records between 1926 and 1928. The Harmony label was an imprint of Columbia and began releasing records in August 1925. Columbia records cost 75 cents in 1925 and Harmony records were a bargain at just 50 cents. Harmony released the same songs that were on Columbia but often under different artist names or pseudonyms. "Sam Lanin's Red Heads" on Columbia were the "Broadway Bell-Hops" on Harmony. The label ran through June 1932 when the recording industry all but collapsed due to the Depression. Harmony only released acoustically recorded tracks so much of the sound is "tinny" compared to real life.

Here is Sam Lanin (far left with clarinet) during an acoustic recording session for Gennett in 1923. Note that the musicians are playing into a horn and not a microphone.


Sam Lanin's Broadway Bell-Hops hosted a number of musicians including Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer along with vocalists like Jack or Irving Kaufman. Bix Beiderbecke was one of the greatest trumpet players of the era. In 1931, Beiderbecke tragically drank himself to death aged 28. In 1927, a year after this recording, Lanin and a number of prominent band leaders underwent a series of lawsuits claiming that they possessed a monopoly on much of the recording industry.

The acclaimed song writer Cliff Friend wrote the melody for "Here Comes Fatima" and Lew Brown of George White's Scandals fame penned the lyrics. Sam Lanin most likely did the arrangement. Bix Beiderbecke is featured here on coronet and Jack Kaufman on vocals. "Here Comes Fatima" is about a Turkish exotic dancer who partied a little too hard. Unable to resist her alluring dance, men were advised to hide the "white rock" and stay away when she came around.

"Turn out all the bloodhounds, Keep that vamp away;
Here comes Fatima, with her ta-ra-boom-dee-ay!"

Jack Kaufman - Vocal
Bix Beiderbecke - Trumpet
Frank Signorelli - Clarinet
Dick Johnson - Alto Sax
Miff Mole - Trombone
Joe Tarto - Sousaphone
Tony Colucci - Banjo
Vic Berton - Percussion

Sources:
Tim Gracyk, Popular American Recording Pioneers, 1895-1925, (Haworth Press: New York, 2000), 215-223, 320.
Brian Rust, The American Record Label Book, (Arlington House: New York, 1978), 146-147.
Red Hot Jazz-http://www.redhotjazz.com/bellhops.html
Dismuke-http://dismuke.org/how/prev10-02.html
78RPM Online Discographical Project-http://www.78discography.com/Har1.htm
Arab Kitsch-http://arabkitsch.com/directory/here-comes-fatima