Roaring Twenties: Golden Gate Orch. (The California Ramblers) - Sweet Man, 1925

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Golden Gate Orchestra (The California Ramblers) – Sweet Man, Foxtrot/Charleston (Roy Turk & Maceo Pinkard) Edison 1925 (USA)

NOTE: The California Ramblers (aka Golden Gate Orchestra) were an important and very prolific white dance band, most active in the East Coast during the 1920s. They recorded hundreds of songs for many different record labels throughout the 1920s. including Edison, Vocalion, Columbia, Okeh, Bluebird, Regal, Puritan. The group was not from California (they never even played in that state) but were formed in Ohio by banjoist Ray Kitchenman in 1921. (According to other sources, founder of The California Ramblers was Wallace T. “Ed” Kirkeby – a nonmusician who served as their agent and manager and who later managed also Fats Waller). Within a short time they became wildly popular specializing in peppy dance tunes of a day – the reason why they are today largely ignored by jazz historians, although The California Ramblers had been unquestionably one of the first bands recording for dance with strong jazz overtones. Known as the Merry Melody Men in 1921, they later recorded as Golden Gate Orchestra, Jerry Mason and his Californians, Meyer’s Dance Orchestra, Palace Garden Orchestra, Louisiana Collegians or the smaller and more jazz-oriented ensembles: The Little Ramblers and The Goofus Five. The band changed personnel many times over its 10 years long history with many soon to be famous young artists appearing for a time, including Glenn Miller, Red Nichols, Adrian Rollini or the Dorsey Brothers. However, dawn of the swing era along with the progress of Great Depression led to the fall of many dance orchestras of the Roaring Twenties, including California Ramblers. The group ended activity in 1931.