Gennett Records

Gennett Records – A spin-off of Richmond’s Starr Piano Company, Gennett Records had studios in Richmond and New York and made records from 1917 to 1934. While its earliest recordings were acoustic, Gennett started making electric recordings in 1925. Although the New York studio was in operation first, some of the most significant jazz and blues recording sessions of the 1920s took place in Richmond. By the 1920s, Richmond’s Gennett was a broad-based musical empire on South First Street. One of the first jazz groups to record in Richmond was the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, which cut its first sides there in 1922. In the subsequent year, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band with Louis Armstrong recorded there as did Jelly Roll Morton. Other jazz notables who recorded in Richmond during the 1920s included Bix Beiderbecke with the Wolverines, Red Nichols with the Syncopating Five, Hoagy Carmichael and the Collegians, Tommy Dorsey with Bix and His Rhythm Jugglers, Earl Hines and Muggsy Spanier with Lois Deppe’s Band, and Mary Lou Williams. Also, sessions that combined Jelly Roll Morton and the New Orleans Rhythm Kings resulted in the first interracial recordings in the country. Among the many blues singers who passed though were Delta musicians Charley Patton and Big Bill Broonzy, boogie woogie pianist Cow Cow Davenport, and jug band entertainer Georgia Tom (later known as the Gospel great Thomas Dorsey). Burgeoning “Hillbilly” acts, such as Gene Autry, were also welcome at Gennett. In fact, Gennett followed the lead of other independent labels by recording a wide range of recordings including vaudeville, opera, and spoken word.