The Vanderbilt Hotel in New York, on Park Avenue between 33rd and 34th, had a ballroom and bar called the Della Robbia Room. It was named after one of the premier artisans of the Italian Renaissance, Luca Della Robbia. Max
Fell's band played in that ballroom in the years following World War One (for more information, see
this article in the New York Times from 1993). Fell recorded for Paramount
and Pathe as well as for Edison, though only for a very brief period of about two years: after 1921, there was one more record in 1924 and nothing after that. His was a typical dance band of the period when this record was made at
Edison Labs on February 25 of 1921. The trumpet and banjo are especially bright for this waxing, indicating some experimentation at the Labs, and this recording came out exceptionally lifelike. The tune was written by Walter Donaldson
(prolific writer, penned the evergreen "My Blue Heaven" as well as "There's a Wa-Wa Gal in Agua Caliente") and George Rosey (pianist active through the 1890s and 1900s, wrote "The Motor March" and "Caprice"). The disc from which this
sample was taken had some issues but nothing a light once-over with noise reduction couldn't handle.
