Gus Haenschen, an executive for the Brunswick label as well as an accomplished pianist, recorded some very tasty dance music under the name of "Carl Fenton" during the early to mid 20s - this is one of the more interesting ones. The arrangement takes its cue
from the "Saint Louis Blues", in that it starts out sounding like a tango then breaks into a jazzy two-beat. The tune was written by Frank Jaxon and Don Kendall in 1922, and recorded by Haenschen's aggregation in March of 1923. The Brunswick engineers did a good
job here, capturing a mellow sound despite the limitations of the acoustic equipment. This particular copy got played quite a bit, but what damage there was could be cleaned up pretty well with standard noise reduction - the sample we have here is a very nice
treat for the ears. (More about Gus Haenschen can be read at Tim Gracyck's web site.)
