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Jazz Age: The Goofus Five (California Ramblers) - I Can't Give You Anything But Love, 1928

1,719 views · Published 18 May 2017 · 3:13 · Indexed 30 October 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2017 · Music

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The Goofus Five And Their Orchestra (California Ramblers) - I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Baby), Fox-Trot (Fields-McHugh) from "The Blackbirds of 1928" with Vocal Refrain, Okeh 1928 (IUSA)

NOTE: One of the musical icons of the Roaring Twenties, is played by one of the best and most prolific American East Coast dance bands  of ther Jazz Age. Formed in Ohio by banjoist Ray Kitchenman in 1921, the California Ramblers (whose “Western coastal” name was purely a promotional humbug) were one of the very first big bands on record to aim for dance music with strong jazz overtones. The band had Stan King on drums - an early playing partner of Benny Goodman's, on bass saxophone was Adrian Rollini, a musical genius who could shine on multiple instruments, also the Dorsey brothers and Red Nichols served to create  a really outstanding society dance band with real bite and verve. Interestingly, the California Ramblers hired trumpet man Bill Moore, one of the first African American jazz musician to work with a white band. 

Besides their name California Ramblers, they recorded under some pseudonyms,  such as the Golden Gate Orchestra (the name also used by several other bands) and The Goofus Five – a smaller set, designed for rather studio-oriented instrumental performances with a strong coloring of improvised jazz. 

Although their time was brief, with several of their members going on to other jobs by decade's end, the California Ramblers stand as the quintessential American white dance band of the 1920s.

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