Transcription Mystery Disc #122

This acetate is clearly labeled "Burt + Jono Piano Boogie" The cursive is mostly readable, but it does lack a date. The disc has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm. The label type, Wilcox-Gay Recordio Type 4B is well dated by Phonozoic to 1947/1948 giving us a ball park answer. The B-side has numerous splits straight down the grooves destroying what little data may have been left there. The A-side is broken up into odd tracks complete with false starts and abrupt stops. Toward the last few rotations there is even a chunk of acetate stuck atop the grooves blocking the needle. Worse yet.. the recording goes up and over the mini-sim card-sized lump.

Burt's Boogie Woogie


I've pieced it all together into the track below. Three beeps separate the two distinct-ish tracks. All the other strange stops and starts are indigenous to the disc. While it is mostly piano, a brass instrument, possibly a trumpet counts off the bass line in the early part of the track.  The audio was pretty good, I just had to edit out the pops. If you were curious, boogie-woogie is a percussive style of piano playing that became popular in the late 1930s. Structurally it's characterized by a consistent bass 8th notes. It's part of the roots of rock n' roll and well worth reading about. More here.