The esteemed leader of the Nathan Glantz Orchestra came from an era of American musical history when bandleaders made as many records as possible, sometimes under their real names, sometimes under someone else's real name, and sometimes under the name of someone who didn't even exist. In the 20s, Glantz had one of the most prominent orchestras in New York City. The Hollywood Dance Orchestra was quite often the Glantz aggregation, while the Roy Collins Dance Orchestra, behind a series of hits, was a name utilized not only by Glantz but by the Joseph Samuels Orchestra. This was apparently something of a tradition with these bandleaders, as the year before both Glantz and Samuels pretended to be the Continental Dance Orchestra. The actual process behind the '20s recording situation is basically sort of mundane, beginning naturally with the business practices of recording companies. A firm would hire a "leader" to arrange a session. The only obligatory talent of a leader would be the state of mind to contact a group of musicians for this date, and pay them. Sessions such as these would be happening back to back. A trumpet player might be staying on for the session scheduled after a Glantz date he was hired for, only for the next session the trumpet guy was the one hired as leader. It just so happened he wanted a good C-melody saxophone for his date, so he hires Glantz -- as a sideman. The resulting confusion means it is quite often next to impossible to track the activities of bands and musicians from the 1910s and '20s. Some of the most famous sides actually released under the name of the Nathan Glantz Orchestra include the dark, probing "Ask Her When Shadows Fall" on the Ajax label, the endearing "Dearie" on Champion, and "Sitting in a Corner" for Edison. Tallying up all the different names, Glantz played his stack of saxophones on more than 100 different recording sessions between 1916 and 1927. This great performance was recorded in 1925.
