| The Man Who Made the Label a Legend |
|
While managing Starr Piano’s retail store in downtown Chicago in 1922-23, Fred
Wiggins helped to secure the jazz pioneers who visited the primitive Gennett
recording shack on the Whitewater River in Richmond. Later, he helped to steer
the studio in a new direction as a prolific producer of white gospel, hillbilly,
and rural blues music – sounds at the foundation of rock’n’roll.
The beauty is, neither Wiggins, nor the Gennett family who employed him, knew they were being innovative. They were just using their wits to keep the little Indiana record label viable in a brash industry dominated by East Coast titans Columbia, Edison, and Victor. A Richmond native, Wiggins joined Starr Piano in 1907, and worked up the ranks. In the early 1920s, he ran Starr’s Chicago retail store just as young jazz musicians from New Orleans, such as King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Leon Roppolo, Johnny Dodds, and Jelly Roll Morton, were migrating to the Windy City. In 1922, Wiggins invited Fred Gennett, secretary of Starr Piano and manager of its Gennett Records division, to hear the wild New Orleans house band at the Friars Inn, a nightclub frequented by gangsters and near the Starr Piano storefront. It led to a Gennett recording contract for the house band, later called the New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK), and the rush was on. By 1925, Gennett produced dozens of landmark jazz recordings by the NORK, King Oliver (with Armstrong on second cornet), Jelly Roll Morton, and Bix Beiderbecke. At the same time, Gennett Records struck a deal with Chicago’s Melrose Brothers Music, which published sheet music of the jazz songs recorded on Gennett. A music revolution was documented. In 1924, Wiggins returned to Richmond to manage the recording division for Fred Gennett. The late Richard Gennett, Fred’s son, fondly remembered Wiggins as a tall, skinny, outspoken man with a Wheeling stogie permanently in his mouth. “The guy couldn’t whistle a tune,” Richard said in 1991, “but my Pop trusted his judgment. They were very close.” Wiggins and Fred Gennett moved Gennett Records aggressively into discount labels, first by creating the Champion budget label, and then, by supplying millions of records for Sears’ mail order catalogs. Sears focused on rural consumers, leading Wiggins to turn the Richmond studio into a hotbed for “hillbilly” music. He personally secured numerous sessions for Fiddlin’ Doc Roberts, one of America’s first significant country fiddlers. Wiggins agreed to issue Hoagy Carmichael’s original 1927 recording of “Stardust” (then a one-name title) on Gennett. But the Hoosier composer’s second recorded attempt in 1928 of “Stardust” was rejected by Wiggins with a note to the staff, “Already On Gennett. Poor Seller.” In the 1930s, with Gennett Records closed, Wiggins worked for his friend Fred Gennett in a new venture, Gennett & Sons, which sold stainless steel products and supplies at a storefront at First and Main Streets, up the hill from Starr Valley. Wiggins died at age 67 in 1948 while visiting friends at the Elks City Club downtown. In his obituary, the Richmond Palladium-Item cited his long career with Starr Piano with no mention of Gennett Records. The newspaper, like the town itself, had yet to realize that Wiggins and Gennett Records had secured Richmond a place in American music history. Author: Rick Kennedy, author of Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz. This article first appeared in the Starr-Gennett Foundation’s Newsletter, Volume I, Issue 2, Summer 2002. |
|