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Roaring Twenties: Ray Miller & His Orch. - Lots O'Mama, 1924

1,744 views · Published 18 October 2016 · 3:10 · Indexed 20 October 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2016 · Music

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Ray Miller & His Orchestra – Lots O’Mama, Fox-Trot (Schoebel), Brunswick 1924 (USA)

NOTE: Ray Miller (b. in 1896 in Reading, Pennsylvania – d. in 1974 in Reading, Pennsylvania)  American bandleader who was popular during the 1920s. Ray Miller started his musical career in 1916, when he moved to Chicago to work as a singing waiter at the Casino Gardens in Chicago, where he met the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. It is supposed, Miller featured on drums with ODJB and followed them to New York City. After some time, he formed his own dance band, billed as The Black and White Melody Boys, which performed in vaudeville and recorded several sides before disbanding c. 1920. Miller completed another orchestra whose members included at different times several first row musicians e.g.  Miff Mole (trombone), Roy Johnston (trumpet), Rube Bloom  (piano),  Frank Trumbauer, Andy Sannella (saxophones). The orchestra recorded for Columbia and OKeh, before signing an exclusive contract with Brunswick Records in 1923. They played jazz-influenced music and held residencies at the New York Hippodrome and Arcadia Ballroom in New York and performed in Atlantic City. In 1924, the orchestra became the first jazz band to play at the White House, where they performed with Al Jolson at a campaign rally for President Calvin Coolidge. In 1927, after Miff Mole and Trumbauer left, Miller moved his base to the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati, Ohio and performed regularly for the radio station WLW. In 1928 he formed a new band in Chicago, which included trumpeter Muggsy Spanier and clarinetist Volly De Faut. Miller’s band  recorded regularly for Brunswick until 1930 and he left the musical business soon thereafter. It is believed, Ray Miller invested heavily into the Stock Market before 1929, and lost a good deal of money after the markets crashed in October of that year. He returned to his home in Reading, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1974.

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