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Roaring 1920s: Clyde Doerr & His Orch. - Suez, 1923

3,706 views · Published 10 August 2013 · 3:08 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2013 · Music

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Clyde Doerr & His Orchestra -- Suez, Fox Trot, Victor 1922 (USA)

NOTE: Clyde DOERR (1894 -1973) - born in Coldwater, Michigan; American saxophonist and bandleader. Doerr opened with violin at the age of eight but he switched to saxophone in high school. He began working professionally in a Detroit dance band, then continued his formal studies at King Conservatory in San Jose, CA. Before 1919, he found a new home in San Francisco. His career lurched between academia and the swinging night life, when he blew saxophone in a combo at Techau's Tavern. This was where the superb bandleader Art Hickman heard him one night, and invited Doerr to join his orchestra. Doerr met Bert Ralton in this band and the two playing partners established an historic saxophone section. 

Hickman took the group to New York City after conquering the Bay Area music scene. The Biltmore Hotel hosted the sensational West Coast dance band, and recording began at Columbia and the outstanding saxophon duet Doerr & Ralton had been immortalised on several sides (e.g. "Dance It Again With Me" or "Rose of Mandalay"). Shortly thereafter, Doerr formed his own orchestra that would serve  - thanks to an assist from Paul Whiteman -  as "house band" for both New York City's Club Royale and Chicago's Congress Hotel. In 1919 Doerr's Club Royal Orchestra enjoyed first Victor recordings and in addition to appearing on the radio, Doerr and his Orchestra would also tour the country via the vaudeville circuit. Doerr's recording of "Dapper Dan" with "The Sheik of Araby" was such a smash that former booster Whiteman lost interest in the friendship and a nasty rivalry began. Other superb records followed in the Victor contract including "The Sneak!," meanwhile Doerr also cooked up Clyde Doerr & His Orchestra sides for both Victor and Columbia. In 1925 Doerr's orchestra started recording,  into the late 1920s also for Cameo, Lincoln, Romeo, Edison. Out of this period came a good deal of music written for early sound films. 

However, after the collapse of the music-market in Autumn 1929 -- Doerr's band instantly disappears from the scene. His activities in the following decades represent more of a struggle: he gets temporarily hired by other bands, he teaches music to aspiring saxophonists, he even goes through four years of chiropractic school, eventually opening a chiropractic office. In 1943, unable to find a permanent job, he travelled back to California. He lived with his sister in San Jose, working for the lock company, eventually becoming chief inspection for precision grinding in Oakland and doing that work into the 1970s. 

I dedicate this clip to our YT friend Dzegher, with whom I share insatiable love for those "oriental" foxtrots and shimmies, from the accoustical recording era.

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