Oratorio Chorus – George Frideric Handel’s “Hallelujah chorus – Messiah”
Here is a fantastic early recording of the Hallelujah chorus, from Handel’s Messiah. Originally released on Edison Diamond Disc, (a format which pre-dated even the 78 RMP record!) this remarkable performance by a virtuoso oratorio chorus from 1916 is now available for us to enjoy as an mp3. George Frideric Handel could scarcely have known when he composed this masterpiece in 1741, that it would ever be recorded in any audio format – after all, they didn’t even have electricity yet! I expect he would be amused and delighted to know that anyone in the world can listen to this now.
Born in 1883, Kentucky native Dick Burnett started singing when he was just four years old. He mastered the dulcimer, banjo and fiddle by the age of thirteen. Burnett wrote the great ballad “Man Of Constant Sorrow” which was later covered by Bob Dylan and featured in the hit movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Dick Burnett often recorded and performed with his young protege and fiddle student, Leon Rutherford. Here they are together, on a smokin’ 78RPM side they made for Columbia Records, “Ladies On The Steamboat.”
The Paul Whiteman Orchestra famously pushed the boundaries of jazz by incorporating classical orchestration into big band arrangements. Whiteman commissioned and debuted George Gershwin’s groundbreaking “Rhapsody In Blue” in 1924, and his symphonic jazz style influenced many greats who followed – including Miles Davis, Gil Evans and later Winton Marsalis. Here’s an early recording by Paul Whiteman Orchestra – the classic horn player anthem, “Doo Wacka Doo.”
This sublime acapella performance of the American Negro Spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” was recorded by a group called The Southern Four, in December of 1921. The song was composed around 1860 by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman in southern Oklahoma. Willis was inspired by The Red River, which reminded him of the Jordan River and the Prophet Elijah ascending to heaven in a chariot. The 
Kansas Joe McCoy and his wife Memphis Minnie were stars in the Memphis and Chicago blues music scenes. Together they recorded the hit “Bumble Bee” in 1929 for Columbia Records, and a stack of other great vinyl 78 sides. “Pile Driver Blues” features Kansas Joe singing over their trademark lead and rhythm guitar interplay. Jimi Page and others in the English blues and rock scene would draw heavily on their influence a few decades later.