Earl Fuller's Jazz Band "Slippery Hank / Yah-de-dah" 78 RPM Victor (18321) 1917

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You are bidding on Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band's recording of "Slippery Hank" on 78 RPM disk on Victor Records (18321).  Recorded on June 4, 1917, it is backed with "Yah-De-Dah", which was recorded at the same session.   The disk is in excellent condition.

Earl Fuller (1885–1947) was a pioneering American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, composer and instrumentalist. Fuller helped to initiate the popularity of jazz in New York City shortly before America's entry into World War I. He also had an ear for talent, and discovered Ted Lewis and Teddy Brown.

According to an unpublished autobiography by Ted Lewis, Lewis and his "clown band" was playing at the boardwalk at Coney Island; this was a group that had evolved from a circus band and included cornetist Walter Kahn, trombonist Harry Raderman and drummer John Lucas—at that time the "clown band" did not have a pianist. Sometime towards the end of the summer, Fuller approached Lewis' clown band and offered to hire them into Rector's. The contract they signed in September 1916 still survives, and shows that what became "Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band" was signed, as a whole, into Rector's at one time. Trading in their clown costumes for tuxedoes, Fuller's Jazz Band was an immediate success, and appeared at Rector's a few months before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band made its acclaimed debut at Reisenweiber's Restaurant in January 1917. The Novelty Orchestra—playing rags, schottisches, waltzes, polkas and two-steps—alternated sets with the more raucous jazz band. While the jazz band was exciting, only the bravest dancers could contend with its tempo. So the resulting show was a successful balance between the revolutionary rhythm of jazz and more sedate material that was friendlier to dancers. According to the 1917 Christmas ad, Fuller also maintained two other groups, his "Celebrated Society Orchestra" and "Earl Fuller's Combination Seven," but of these only the first group is known on recordings through a single Victor side.

The Novelty Orchestra recorded for the first time for Columbia on June 1, 1917 and the jazz band three days later for Victor. Fuller's groups remained busy in the recording studios through February 1919, recording for Victor, Columbia, Edison, Emerson and Starr/Gennett. There is some controversy as to whether Fuller functioned as pianist in the jazz band; some sources contend that the pianist in the Earl Fuller Famous Jazz Band was actually Ernest Cutting, rather than Fuller.[11] However, the Victor ledgers show Fuller as pianist, at least on sides made for that company