The role of syncopated music as a morale booster in the US Armed Forces during World War One is long overdue closer scrutiny. With the notable exception of the military career of black bandleader James Reese Europe (which has been exhaustively covered in Reid Badger's biography 'A Life In Ragtime'), little has been written about the music and the musicians who brought jazz to Europe before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Most of these groups were contingents of military bands whilst others were brought over as part of theatrical entertainment troupes organised by non-military organisations such as the YMCA. Whilst most left no recorded evidence of their activities, some groups such as the Scrap Iron Jazz Band and the US Army Ambulance Service Jazz Band did, the latter being recorded, somewhat surprisingly, by the doyenne of Italian operatic record labels, Fonotipia. (Mark Berresford)

In 2002 the Association for Recorded Sound Collections announced, that upcoming issue of the ARSC Journal will be out shortly and includes: Research in Progress: The Fonotipia Ledgers - 1904-1939/Roger Beardsley”[1]. I had consequently been in touch with Roger, who had access to the ledgers of the Fonotipia recording sheets where he found mysterious references to a "Jazz Band USA”[2]. At that time I had been unable to provide any useful information. In 50-plus years of active record collecting I had never seen any such disc. In 1984 I had visited Adriano Mazzoletti in Rome, who had published the first edition of "Il Jazz in Italia – Dalle origini al doppoguerra” the year before[3]. Adriano had likewise never heard of this band, nor of the recordings. He has since published a new, revised and greatly expanded edition[4]. But although Adriano is an extremely diligent researcher, 20 years of search did not add much to his knowledge. When interviewed by Adriano the well-known jazz banjoist Vittorio Spina related that he remembered to have heard an American orchestra at the Rome YMCA, directed by one Sergeant Griffith, a pianist - but at that time Spina was 13 years of age and his memories were vague. [5]Other names that are mentioned for the 1917-1918 period are Eddie Solloway and Mons Smith, and the "Orchestra of General Pershing”. But the identity of Fonotipia’s Jazz Band USA remained a mystery. In the discographical appendix to his book Adriano now lists some 18 titles in an M.69000 catalog series (xPh.5000 matrix series) but still admits that „Jazz Band USA” to him is a „formazione sonosciuta”…[6]

In 2006 I received an invitation to attend the thirty-fifth Annual Canadian Collectors’ Congress in Toronto. While there, Mark Miller graciously presented me with a copy of his magnificent new book, "Some Hustling This”[7]. Besides his other qualities, Mark is an expert in ‘internetting’ and there found a reference to the Jazz Band USA that all previous researchers had overlooked:John R. Smucker, Jr. "The History of the United States Army Ambulance Service with the French and Italian armies, 1917, 1918, 1919”. [8]According to Smucker, the American Field Service, volunteers who provided ambulance service for the French Army before the United States entered the war, was incorporated into the US Army Medical Department in 1917. Redesignated as the US Army Ambulance Service, it continued to serve with the French for the remainder of the war. Some of the volunteers served with the Italian Army in Italy. Once the United States officially joined the war in 1917, the newly created US Army Ambulance Service superseded the function of this and various other volunteer ambulance groups and attracted most of their personnel. American medical assistance to Italy included 30 sections of the US Army Ambulance Service, sent in June 1918. Half of the sections were very shortly withdrawn for service in France. [9] The 30 sections of the Ambulance Service sent from the United States (from the training grounds at Allentown) on June 13, 1918, for duty with the Italian Army, comprised 76 officers and 1641 men. [10]

Some of them were musicians, and they had rehearsed as a „jazz band” by the time they landed at Genoa. To be more precise, there had been three different jazz bands connected with the USAAS, one was founded while still in the US,[11] another one was founded after arrival in Italy, and a third was founded in France after Armistice. To quote Smucker: „The fact that many men have said they heard the American Jazz Band, it is well to clear up here the point that there were a total of three jazz bands within the United States Army Ambulance Service. One was a Jazz Band incorporated in the Kernell-Fechheimer show, „Good-Bye Bill,“ which had its run in America before the Italian Contingent left for overseas. Then the American Jazz Band was formed in Italy and was sponsored by the YMCA, but played in Italy and France while still in the ambulance service. The third Jazz Band was a part of the great Kernell-Fechheimer show produced in France, entitled, "Let's Go!“. … we feel it is only fair to identify the men who made up the American Jazz Band: R. C. Mustarde, violin; Doc Neale, bass viol; Pat Emerick, drums; [Charles B.] Chuck Barlow, banjo; Norm Kennedy, banjo; Charlie Keck, viola; Charlie Paulik, violin; Art Decker, vocal[12]; Allen Mattox, ukulele; Charlie Hamp, piano, sax, vocal and leader … One of the principal functions of the Ambulance Service in Italy, and of the 332nd Regiment, was propaganda and morale building. … one of the duties at the various section headquarters was to fly high the American flag so that all who passed could see it. … Even the uniform was kept distinctive with canvas leggings and campaign hats, so that the American forces could be easily identified. Travel was encouraged, and Jazz Hamp's Band was hauled around here and there to play "distinct American music“ in many public places. The climax came when shortly after the cease fire, this Jazz Band played for the Venetians, from gondolas being propelled by gondoliers up and down the canals” [13]

Mark Miller comments: “A picturesque setting, certainly, but one in which the musicians would have indulged their penchant for physical comedy at some risk.’[14]Indeed, their antics were their ‘greatest entertainment feature’, according to the Paris Edition of the New York Herald, which took note of the band four months later on the eve of its departure for the Riviera via Bordeaux and Biarritz. ‘Instead of sitting calmly on the stage,’ the Herald report continued, ‘its members dance, roll over, embrace each other and do various acrobatic acts without missing a note, the whole effect being whimsical and full of surprise.’ [15]No similar account of the band’s music has survived; nor apparently have the 17 recordings that it made in December 1918 for the Fonotipia company in Milan. The preponderance of violins and banjos in its instrumentation is in any event less than promising, as is the list of pop tunes that it recorded – Darktown Strutters’ Ball aside[16].” [17]

“During the early part of November following the Austrian Armistice, Colonel Percy L. Jones, Chief of Service, made a visit with some members of his staff to the Italian Contingent. … the members of the Ambulance Service presented an entertainment in honor of Colonel Jones. The music was furnished by the famous USAAS Band and the Jazz Band, formerly with the „Good-Bye Bill“ show….Even before the fighting at the Front had come to an end[18], Col. Franklin had set the wheels in motion by calling together the men from each section who had made up the Jazz Band in the Kernell-Fechheimer show, „Good-Bye Bill.“ These men had in most eases brought along their instruments, and in fact had entertained with the Oberlin College Octette[19] on board the „Joe Green.“ There certainly was no dearth of talent in the whole Italian Contingent. The Mechanics Detachment had a „Barbershop Quartet.“ (Some said better at singing than at fixing GMCs) which were booked for entertainment in many towns and hamlets throughout Italy, and came to fame even in the Genoa Opera House. This quartet was made up of Stanley Bates, tenor; Myles Standish, lead; Ralph Smith, baritone; and Clarence Bates, bass”. [20]

“We have an on-the-spot account of this famous Jazz Band: ‘A Lt. Van Doren … at the suggestion of Sergeant Hamp, who was at Headquarters in Mantova, propositioned Lt. Colonel Franklin to recall the men in the Jazz Band from their various sections, and after equipping them and rehearsing in Milano, to make a tour of Italy as guests of the State Department, just to let the Italians know there were American soldiers in Italy. The Consul at Como engineered this with the State Department. Some of the fellows were reluctant to leave their sections, and this character (Van Doren), who acted as liaison, had to use his best salesmanship on one in particular. All of this took time. … The problem of finances arose--- who was going to foot the bill? This was solved in Treviso where in the company of a London Daily Mail reporter named White, an American reporter named Hemingway, we met a YMCA secretary named Pepin from Detroit. Pepin called his headquarters in Paris, France, and secured permission to spend 20,000 Lire for our expenses. … We arrived in Milano on that fateful day, November 11, 1918, and the people were mad with joy. None of us had a button on our tunics when we, in the wee small hours, finally made it to our hotel. We augmented our equipment in Milano as some of us played more than one instrument. We rehearsed some more and then played in the hospitals for convalescents in the area around Lago Como and several very large charity bazaars in Milano. Our own ambulance sections were first on the official tour. Every section was visited and some had moved up pretty close to Trieste. …We then had our only chance to see Venice on this trip, and we played 'Down in Honky Town,' going under the Rialto Bridge in two big gondolas tied together.” Other places mentioned were Torino, Firenze, Napoli … „We crossed over to the Adriatic Coast--- where the most memorable stop was at Foggia, a U.S. Naval Air Contingent, who had had no mail since they moved in there in August of 1917, and seemed to be forgotten men. The Italian Tour ended with our playing at Rimini, Ravenna and Bologna … Then back to Milano for some recordings for the Società Italiana di Fonolipia [sic]”[21].

To quote from a publicity folder: “The Società Italiana di Fonotipia dedicate this catalogue of Italo-American propaganda Programme to the United States Ambulance Service with the Italian Army, as a mark of gratitude for the kind and valuable assistance obtained through the courtesy of Colonel E. E. Persons and Lt. Colonel C. P. Franklin, Chairman of the Entertainment Committee.”[22] Smucker continues “This company, with headquarters in Milano, put out a special collection of records containing 20 numbers by the Oberlin College Octette, and 6 numbers by the Octette with the Italian 7th Infantry Regiment Band.[23] The leader of the Octette was Valentine W. Gerrish. In this same collection of records there were 18 numbers by the American Jazz Band (U.S. Army Ambulance Service), whose director was Charles W. Hamp”

During the month of December 1918, the band went to the recording studios almost daily, the last date being December 18^th. „Mr. Pepin was so enthusiastic with the reception we had received, and Colonel Franklin who joined us for the Florence and Rome part of the trip, was so immensely pleased, that Pepin, with Franklin's blessing, began to look around for other worlds to conquer. So on December 21, 1918, the United States Army Ambulance Service Jazz Band, Detached, arrived at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. [24] Our headquarters was the YMCA in Paris, and with that as a hub, we became the spokes to reach out to all points where there were American troops, except the Riviera. About April 1919, we set at St. Aignan and were discharged from the army and joined the YMCA at $166.00 per month and expenses, and travelled far and wide to nearly every country, playing in hospitals and at state functions. We had had enough by August and returned to the States as civilians.“

It should be noted that after the departure of the Jazz Band for France, on 21 December 1919, and again on 22 and 23 January 1919 further unissued titles in English language were recorded in Milano by one Lewis (with piano accompaniment), Mrs. Eliza Berry, Mrs Crystal Waters and Paul B. Flood, who may or may not have been connected with the USAAS. It is likely that they were, as Crystal Waters can be traced on SS TOURAINE that carried US Army personnel back from Le Havre, departing on 16.04.1919 and arriving at New York on 25.04.1919. The passenger record indicates she was born at Chico, Ill., in 1887, age 32y, single, and her address is given as 2343 London Street, Los Angeles[25]

A show put on in France was entitled "Let's Go!" It attempts to portray in lyrical form, some of the incidents on which this Franco-American friendship is based. … Following rehearsals outside of Paris, the show went on the road, playing to packed houses opening in Tours, a week's run at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris, then visiting the concentrated troop areas such as Saint-Nazaire, Bordeaux, Nevers, Dijon, Aix le Bains, Nice, and sketches at Brest--- and on the U.S.S. St. Louis on their way home, the troupe helped to produce. ‘From Brest to Broadway.’ [26]

“Within five months after the signing of the Armistice, over one-half of the United States Army Ambulance Service had been demobilized and plans had been made for the demobilization of the remainder. [27] According to Smucker, „many of the men who entered the Army Ambulance Service in France took advantage of a general order which permitted them to be discharged in Europe. These men, with their completed records, were sent from the base camp to the St. Aignan discharge camp. As a matter of fact, the old volunteer sections all had a limited number of their original personnel still in the service when they arrived at the base camp, and many of these men desired to stay in Europe. Relatively, more men in the United States Army Ambulance Service were affected by the order permitting discharge in Europe than was the case with any other organization of the American Expeditionary Forces … the first contingent to leave for America sailed from Brest on March 15, 1919… The second returning contingent left Brest only 5 days later, on March 20; … On March 26, a contingent left the same port: The remainder of the veteran sections sailed in contingents varying in size from 10 to 25 sections, and all were out of France before the end of April, 1919.”[28].

Some former band members can be traced on Ellis Island passenger lists several months later.[29] Among those that left Brest on 03.07.1919 aboard SS Cap Finisterre and reached American soil on 13.07.1919 were the following:

Charles E. Keck, from Champaigne, Ill., b. 01.12.1896 at Decatur, Ill., age 23y, single, Army Discharge

Allen Mattox, from 368 W. 46 St, New York City, b. 11.09.1892 at Atlanta, Georgia, age 27y, US Army Discharge

Ronald C. Musidide [sic recte: Mustarde[30]], from 411 Winthrop Ave, New Haven, Conn., b.08.02.1892, age 25y, single

None of the others could thus far be identified on Ellis Island passenger lists. Unless they stayed in Europe they may have been aboard military vessels that did not leave traces at Ellis Island. Charles W. Hamp made a number of sides in California and New York between 1925 and 1930 as ‘The California Blue Boy’ for Sunset, Columbia and OKeh. [31] None of the other band members seems to have returned to the studios again.

The obscure United States Army Ambulance Service Jazz Band (attached to the Italian Army), although they recorded, is apparently of less historical significance than the black and white bands that served and recorded in France – notably James Reese Europe and the regimental band of the 15^th New York Infantry (attached to the French Army), or the Scrap Iron Jazz Band (attached to the British Army). However, their recording of Darktown Strutters’ Ball just might compare favourably with the same title recorded a couple of months earlier by the band of the 158^th regiment under A. R. Etzweiler [32] - if it could be found…

“The Band Plays On”, presumably aboard the SS Giuseppe Verdi, about June 1918 [picture presumably provided by Charles B. Barlow, USAAS Section 563]

“USAAS Jazz Band”, Charles W. Hamp (director), probably Milano, about December 1918 [picture presumably provided by Charles B. Barlow, USAAS Section 563]

“Oberlin Octette”, Valentine W. Gerrish (director), probably Milano, about December 1918 [picture presumably provided by Charles B. Barlow, USAAS Section 563]

“The American Jazz Band in Paris”, about November 1918 [picture presumably provided by Charles B. Barlow, USAAS Section 563]

“Let’s Go Troupe”, presented by the US Army Ambulance Service with the French Army under the Auspices of the Y.M.C.A., about November 1918 [picture presumably provided by Charles B. Barlow, USAAS Section 563]

JAZZ BAND USA [U.S. Army Ambulance Service Band: R. C. Mustarde, Charlie Paulik (violin); Charlie Keck (viola); Doc Neale (bass viol); Charlie Hamp (piano, sax, vocal and leader); Allen Mattox (ukulele);. Charles B. „Chuck” Barlow (banjo); Norm Kennedy (banjo); Pat Emerick (drums); Art Decker (vocal)]. The instrumentation on a photo is: 2 violins, saxophone, 2 banjos, drums and ?vocal/director.

OBERLIN COLLEGE OCTET [Valentine W. Gerrish (director), others unidentified]

BANDA 70^o REGG. FANTERIA [70th Italian Infantry Regiment Band] While this band recorded extensively for Fonotipia from November 1918, we list only the accompaniments for the Oberlin College Octette, made on 16.12.1918]

xPh5223 Bagdad – Oriental Foxtrot „from N.Y. Winter Garden” (Milton Ager, Jack Yellen) 69328

xPh5199 It’s a long way to Tipperary – Onestep (Jack Hudge, Harry Williams) –vocAD-OC8 69304

xPh5203 Kentucky babe – Negro Lullaby (Adam Geibel, Richard Henry Buck) -vocOC8 69308

xPh5211 Brown October Ale.Drinking song from "Robin Hood” (Reginald de Koven,Harry B. Smith)-vOC8 69316

xPh5220 God save the King (Traditional, attributed to Henry Carey) -voc OC8 69325

xPh5221 It’s a long way to Tipperary – Onestep (Jack Judge, Harry Williams) -voc OC8 69326

xPh5215 Keep the home fires burning – March (Ivor Novello,Lena G. Ford) -voc OC8 69320

Title given in ledgers as „Home Fires”. Full title would be: "Keep the home fires burning ‘til the boys come home”

On the same date the two titles were also recorded in Italian language by one Pizzi. The masters were destroyed on 15.06.1923

On 22 and 23 January 1919 further unissued titles in English language were recorded by Mrs. Elisa Berry, Mrs Crystal Waters and Paul B. Flood. who – like Lewis – may or may not have been connected with the USAAS. The accompaniments are not indicated in the recording ledgers

Mrs CRYSTAL WATERS –1 / PAUL B. FLOOD –2 / Mrs ELIZA BERRY –3 / PAUL B FLOOD, Waters –4 / Mrs CRYSTAL WATERS, Flood –5

Note: This is presumably: "If he can fight like he can love, good night Germany” (George W. Meyer, Grant Clarke, Howard E. Rogers)

Footnotes

[1] ARSC Journal (Annapolis, Maryland), Fall 2002 issue

[2] Fonotipia, founded in 1904, and owned by the Odeon Werke in Berlin, was a company exclusively specializing in Italian classical vocal and instrumental recordings. Frank Andrews published a history of the company in the Talking Machine Review, starting with issue 40, June 1976. The Historic Singers Trust and Historic Masters Ltd. issued “FONOTIPIA 1904 – 1938”, a CD Rom based on the original Fonotipia ledgers held at the EMI Archive and containing detailed information on virtually all Fonotipia recordings. Published by Symposium Records, the much expanded new second edition is now available [http://www.historicmasters.org/?q=node/3]

[3] Adriano Mazzoletti, “Il Jazz in Italia – Dalle origini al dopoguerra” (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1983)

[4] Adriano Mazzoletti, “Il Jazz in Italia – dalle origini alle grandi orchestre”, p.602 (Torino, EDT, 2004)

[5] ditto, pp.12-15, 60.

[6] ditto, p.602. Discographer Christian Zwarg confirmed that the discs in question must have been issued as 27cm diameter discs in the “X” price category. Operatic recordings had been made with surrounding matrix numbers but, as was the custom at the time, matrix numbers were often allocated not at he time of recording but at the time of processing, and the recording ledgers list many titles without any matrix numbers at all and which remain in all probability unissued [Zwarg to Lotz, 16.11.2005]

[7] Mark Miller, „Some Hustling This! Taking Jazz to the World 1914-1929” (Toronto: Mercury, 2005)

[8] John R. Smucker, Jr. „The History of the United States Army Ambulance Service with the French and Italian armies, 1917, 1918, 1919” (Allentown, PA: Army Ambulance Service, 1967).

http://www.ku.edu/carrie/specoll/AFS/library/2-ww1/Smucker/usaac04.html. This URL has been removed from the internet during 2006, but Alan Albright directed me to the new URL: http://www.ourstory.info/ [Albright to Lotz, 28.10.2006]. Smucker’s 197 page commemorative history was published by the U.S. Army Ambulance Service [USAAS] Association in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the USAAS and the founding of Camp Crane in Allentown, PA).

[9] For information on the Italian operations, see also the U.S. War Department’s Medical Department in the World War, Vol VIII, pp. 941‑944.

[10] Smucker, op. cit.: Chapter Five, The Italian Contingent, "Columbus We Are Here"

[11] Smucker, op. cit.: Reference Notes Covering Italian Operations, Service in Italy: “Section 527 - Regular members of the original USAAC Band in Allentown which accompanied the Contingent to Italy, were James Guilford, piccolo, and Ralph Blakeslee, clarinet.

[12] Smucker, op. cit.: Service in Italy, Section 559: “Lt. Decker, later Major Decker, took command for a short time, then was replaced by Lt. Craft”

[13] Smucker, op. cit.: Chapter Five, The Italian Contingent, "Columbus We Are Here"

[14] “Jazz Band in gondolas delights A.E.F. troops”, New York Herald, Paris edition, 19 February 1919, 2.

[15] “Ambulance Jazz band leaves for the Riviera”, New York Herald, 5 April 1919, 2

[16] Roger Beardsley, ed. Fonotipia 1904-1939 [CD-ROM] (North Thoresby, Lincolnshire, England, 2003)

[17] Miller, op.cit., pp 57-58

[18] The armistice with Austria took effect on November 4^th, 1918

[19] Smucker, op.cit.: Chapter on Section 587: “We guess that Section 587's just claim to fame can be the birth of the Oberlin Octette. From a humble beginning in the horse sheds at the Fairgrounds in Allentown, their rise to the La Scala Opera House in Milan was heart warming. They have records made by The Società Italiana di Fonolipia to prove it”.

[20] Smucker, op. cit.: Chapter Six, Armistice --- Occupation - A Roman Holiday - "Let's Go" --- Home

[21] ditto

[22] Smucker credits Paul Hartzell, USAAS Section 579, “for a flyer of the Societa Italiana di Fonotipia of Milan, covering records made with the Oberlin College Octette and the Jazz Band”

[23] More likely the 70^th Infantry Regiment

[24] “After Italy, a lovely 'Y’ girl named Cornelia O'Dell joined the French tour and later married Norm Kennedy”, ditto

[25] http://www.ellisisland.org. In the “naturalization column” of the passenger list the following information is entered: 2061 Paris, Taken up”.

[26] Smucker, who was himself a member of the chorus, identifies the musicians involved as follows: JAZZ BAND: Pvts. W. W. Winfield, C. C. Eberle, A. Garland, H. E. McReynolds, P. Putnam, Chalmers. Leader --- Sgt. Marvin W. Severn; ORCHESTRA: Sgts. L. Ellsworth, E. J. Krick, Pvts. W. E. Dolan, R. Durney, M. Farley, M. Jacobsen, G. Petterson, E. L. Schofield, S. DeRemer, W. E. Votruba, A. B. Jones, G. H. Moyer, G. Schauffler, H. G. Schauffler, E. M. Bandel, F. Derrick, S. Kaiser, A. Jacobson; Conductors --- Pvt. W. Winfield, Pvt. W. Lewis; SPECIALTY CHORUS GIRLS: Pvt. F. H. Carey, G. C. Demorest, R. Heywood, W. W. Leonard, W. Lomar, E. W. Smith; MEN: Sgts. H. E. Motter, W. T. Dougherty, J. D. Graham; Corp. J. D. Moore, Mech. H. Seaman; Pvt. L. S. Grove, M. C. Dibelka, E. A. Fiero.; CHORUS: Sgt. C. Connor, R. Pease; Corp. J. D. Moore; Mech. M. Clark, J. Smucker, W. Witt, J. Zak; Pvts. D. Bachman, J. Blynn, L. Bromfield, G. Brooks, J. Buffington, H. Colford, M. Dibelka, A. Foster, H. Fellows, J. Green, H. Huncilman, P. Hunter, H. Jewett, H. Killikelly, T. Kimes, C. Landon, R. McGinnis, C. Morgan, J. Mullin, R. Ogden, J. Sinzheimer, O. Strong, G. Thatcher, C. Thompson, B. Wicks, D. Bartholomew, F. Everitt, H. Koopman, D. Richardson, W. Johnson, Chorus directed by Pvt. C. M. King. (None of the above can be traced on Ellis Island passenger lists.)

[27] Smucker, op.cit.: Service in Italy, Chapter on Section 566: “The Section was released from duty with the Italian Army on February 6, 1919, awaiting orders to proceed to Genoa for the trip home, minus some important members of the American Jazz Band”.

[28] Smucker, op. cit.: Chapter Seven - Demobilization

[29] http://www.ellisisland.org

[30] Mustarde had been to Europe before. The Ellis Island documents list him as a passenger on SS Caledonia, which arrived in New York from Glasgow on 05.07.1911. Age 18y, male, single, violinist, address 411 Winthrop Ave, New Haven, Conn.

[31] Brian Rust & Malcolm Shaw (ed), “Jazz and Ragtime Records (1897-1942)”, Volume 1, p. 716 (Denver: Mainspring, 2002)

[32] Olivier Brard & Daniel Nevers, „Le Jazz en France – Jazz and hot dance music discography – selection 3“ (Castelnau: MAD, 1991)