BACK TO MAIN STUFF SMITH PINK SUB PAGE

CORRECTION TO STUFF SMITH
PURE AT HEART 2

p.51, 6 lines from end: read The same Seine. not The same sage.

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CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS TO
STUFF SMITH AND THE ALPHONSO TRENT ORCHESTRA

pp.6, 11, 12, The Photo
Mike Piggot writes that the unseen horn on the Stroh would be folded back behind it. There are three small screws which
loosen it after playing to enable fitting into the case. When these are loosened the horn is virtually parallel with the body

The possibility also needs to be considered that Smith did not necessarily (always) play the Stroh bass himself
but in string duets with, for example, banjo player Eugene Crooke seated next to him

Venue

see eighth photo described below; we are now sure that the photo was taken on the boat St Paul, summer 1928

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p.13, sixth photo
A sixth photo is printed in
Alan Govenar, Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound (Texas, TAMU Press, 2008)
It depicts the 1924 or 1925 ten-piece orchestra with Trent at the piano and a further inset image of Trent’s head
All instruments are shown with Station WFAA microphone and the caption Trent’s Adolphus Hotel Orchestra
The photo is courtesy Texas African American Photography Archive

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p.13, seventh photo

A seventh photo depicting a mid-1920s eleven-piece Dallas orchestra and their instruments is now known as at November 2020, showing reed player Wendell Hayman playing violin. T at the same shoot as Photo 2 on the cover of “Gilded Kisses” sheet music

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p.13, eighth photo

An eighth photo depicting a 1928 twelve-piece orchestra incl. Stuff Smith, without instruments, seated in wicker chairs, except for Trent kneeling with a tenor sax, is now known as at November 2020. Handbill “Halloween Treat”, “Crystal Circuit Attraction”, Thursday, November 1, 1928, Crystal Dansant, Fifth and Palm Streets, Cincinnati

The photo is clearly taken on a riverboat, i.e., the Saint Paul, prob. summer 1928, but not in the ballroom. Stuff Smith is far right. Our pamphlet photo is surely also taken on the St Paul, on the bandstand

with thanks to Elijah Ward and Michael Fitzgerald for discovering information about Crystal Dansant

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Bibliography

add
Glasrud, B., & Braithwaite, C., eds., African Americans on the Great Plains: An Anthology (Un. Nebraska, 2009)
includes reprint of Rice

add
Donovan, D., “The Stroh Violin”, The Strand Magazine, xxiii/132 (London, January–June 1902), 89–91
early in-depth illus. feature

add
Heaney, Benedict Anthony, “Stroh/Horn Violins: Violins with Horn Attachments, 1899–1949”
online at http://www.digitalviolin.com/StrohViolin1.htm
incl. survey of instruments other than the Stroh

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Itinerary

Mark Miller, who should have been acknowledged in the booklet, has kindly provided
further items drawn in particular from Chicago Defender, National ed., and Billboard

Add or amend

Dallas – Riverside Park auditorium – Trent’s Happyland Jazz Orchestra – nightly or Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays (CD, 5 Jul) – summer 1924

Dallas – Adolphus Hotel (BB, 29 Jan) – definitely incl. January 1927

Lake Charles, La. – eleven men dance tour Texas, Alabama, Louisiana (CD, 21 May 27)

Lexington, Ly. – read: Roseland, not Rosilaud – ?–summer or autumn 1927

St Louis – late October 1927–early November 1927

Reported, surely in error, en route for St Louis to record for Brunswick end October or beginning November 1927 (CD, 29 Oct)

Fourth month at Roseland Casino, Lexington, Ky. (BB, 24 May 28)

Crystal Dansant, Fifth and Palm Streets, Cincinnati, 1 November 1928 (see eighth photo above

Canada – 1929
these are the viewed issues of London Free Press: 22 May, 1 Jun, 5 Jun 1929
these are the viewed issues of Hamilton Spectator: 4 Jul, 18 Jul, 9 Nov 1929
Port Stanley is also noted in (CD, 29 Jun)

Cincinnati – (add CD, 19 Jan) – November 1929–late January 1929

Fort Smith, Ark. (CD, 19 Apr) – one week, April 1930

Syracuse, NY – Playground Park – field day and picnic – also Percy’s Almond Nuts (CD, 12 Jul) – 11 July 1930

Cincinnati (CD, 18 Oct) – October 1930

Dayton, Oh. (CD, 18 Oct) – October 1930

Trent’s address: 3172 E. 85th St, Cleveland, Ohio (CD, 4 Oct 30) – based in Cleveland through 1931

Cairo, Il. – 26th St Hall – dance (CD, 22 Aug) – late August 1931

Boston (CD, 22 Aug) – late August 1931

Fort Smith, Ark. (CD, 19 Dec) – 1931–1932

Eldorado, Ark. – Root Athletic Club – T. K. O. dance – Alphonso Trent with His 14 Piece Victor Orchestra – (invitation card) – 26 February 1932

Eldorado, Ark. – Plaza – dance (CD, 13 Mar) – 25 March 1932

Trent’s address: Eureka Hotel, Memphis, Tenn. (CD, 18 Feb 33)

Cincinnati – after several months tour of the South (CD, 25 Feb) – late February 1933

24 March 1933: Trent not present
pianist almost certainly Leslie Sheffield, definitely not Sherman whose sojourn with Trent was much earlier

Kimball, West Va. (CD, 8 Apr) – 7 April 1933

our dates of Christian with Trent are incorrect: first hired 1935, and add, e.g.
Casper, Wyo. – Al Trent and His Harlem Swingsters – 5 men incl. Christian (gt) (CD, 28 Jan) – 21 January 1939
Fernando Ortiz de Urbina draws our attention to
Broadbent, Peter, Charlie Christian: Solo Flight: The Story of the Seminal Electric Guitarist
2nd ed. (Blaydon on Tyne, 2003) for good information; a 3rd edition is scheduled

Trent active in 1943 (CD, 20 Mar 43)

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