As I began to upload this week’s piece, I realised that it was article number 54 – which means that this website marked its first anniversary earlier in May without my realising it. When I started the Taj Mahal Foxtrot site, I thought it would allow me to highlight recordings mentioned in the book and to feature tidbits that hadn’t managed to find their way into the manuscript. As it turns out, the website has taken a life of its own.
The site launched on May 21, 2011, with this piece about the African-American drummer Oliver Tines who played with Louis Armstrong in Europe before dying of tuberculosis in Satara in 1938. Since then, it has explored why Mina Kava’s Bombay Meri Hai is popular in Sri Lanka, followed Usha Uthup through her early nightclub years and pored through a book of jazz record art by Manek Davar.
People from around the world have sent me their stories and the stories of their families: Robert Evangelista told me about his father’s Filipino band in Jamalpur in the 1930s; from Italy, Ricardo Fantin sent material about his grandfather, John Abriani, who performed in India in the early 1930s; Patricia Kaden from Cremona told me about how Mena Silas wrote a waltz for her mother (and about how her grandfather shot the film Sabu the Elephant Boy); Penina Partsch described her grandmother’s journey from Calcutta to Hawaii; Maxine Steller from Australia has been sending me treasures every day.
Just when I thought I’d run out of material, the generous Marco Pacci appeared from Italy with an offer to let me feature the records he’s collected over the years. As a result, thanks to so many of you, this website still has a few more months of stories to tell and music to showcase.
Mickey Correa, Frank Fernand, Harry Theodore, George Theodore, unidentified musician, Joe Rich
After last fortnight’s wartime selections by the Hutson Sisters, here are two more fighting tunes. They’re from Marco Pacci’s collection. These are by the Taj Mahal Hotel Dance Orchestra, headed by Joe Theodore of Vile Parle and featuring some of his brothers. They’re among the bands I haven’t been able to discover very much about, though a few months ago, George Theodore’s grandson, who lives in the UK, wrote to this site. He said that his mother told him that the band broke up on the 1940s, after which his grandfather went on the work in the oil industry in the Middle East. But he didn’t know much about his great-uncles or their children.
Then, earlier this week, Maxine Steller found this newspaper clip about George Theodore’s wedding. It describes how the popular band leader George Theodore married Vera Rosario at Our Lady of Rosary Church in Matharpacady (though the date is sadly missing). The reception was at the GIP Mechanics Institute in Byculla.
Chin Up! Cheerio! Carry On! appeared in the 1941 Hollywood film Babes on Broadway and was sung by Judy Garland. Chattanooga Choo Choo became a sensation that same year after it was featured in the film Sun Valley Serenade. It was performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Chin Up Cheerio Carry On by THE TAJMAHAL HOTEL DANCE ORCHESTRA by Taj Mahal Foxtrot
Chattanooga Choo Choo by THE TAJMAHAL HOTEL DANCE ORCHESTRA by Taj Mahal Foxtrot
1 comment
Eine Ergänzung zum Aufenthalt der Taumoe-Familie in Deutschland/Berlin.
Ich bin ein unehelicher Sohn von Tau Moe. Am 23.Juni 1938 hatte meine Mutter einen einmaligen Geschlechtsverkehr mit Moe im Hotel International in der Friedrichstr. in Berlin. Dort arbeitete sie als Zimmermädchen. So steht es in einer Verhandlungsschrift vom 27,6.1939 von der Amttsverwaltung in Berlin-Wedding. Ich wurde am 1.April 1939 in Berlin geboren. Bis zum 18. Lebensjahr wuchs ich in sieben Waisenhäusern und zwei Pflegestellen auf. Jetzt bin ich Rentner und lebe in 17268 Angermünde OT Wolletz, zur Apfelallee 2.
Mein Geburtsname ist Gerd-Dietrich Thom. Ein Pflegevater erteilte mir 1942 seinen Familiennamen, was mir das Leben rettete, weil mein “Erzeuger” nicht arisch war.
Freundl. Grüße
G.Meister