Raymond Dance Band (Stan Greening’s Band) – Why Do Short Men Like Tall Girls? Fox-Trot (R.Tabbush), Regal 1926 (UK)
NOTE: Stan (Stanley) GREENING (b. 1888 in London – d. 1971 in Clapham, UK) – British band leader, banjoist and music manager, who studied music at the Royal Academy of Music (composition, cello & piano). Before the 1st WW he played cello at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. After the Great War, Stan Greening played for the Diaghilev Ballet at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square. In 1923 he switched to popular music and took up playing the banjo in dance orchestras. In 1924 he started working with record companies (Imperial, Parlophone, Columbia and later the Edison Bell, Homocord, Duophone and several others) “providing” the dance bands for recording sessions of the popular dance tunes of the day. The bands were nick named eg. at Regal records, the \"Corona Dance Orchestra\", similarily, the \"Hannan Dance Band\" on Columbia often covered the musicians contracted by Greening from the Savoy Hotel Orpheans or the Savoy Havana Band, sometimes the Hannan Band sides were also waxed by members of Jack Hylton's orchestra. Greening’s system was simple: he gathered together a group of musicians who would pay him a “dough” in exchange for regular work for which they received payment of c. £3 each per each recording session. Greening used a regular group of musicians over a period of almost ten years. Some worked with him in theatre orchestras as their regular work, others played in regular dance bands at clubs and West End hotels.
Stan Greening discouraged the “advanced” jazz players or musicians associated with the more sophisticated studio groups, therefore the main attraction of the Greening's recordings lies for today’s listener in the typical “period sound” of dance music of the 20s. Towards the end of 1928 there was a marked reduction in Greening’s work for Regal. Also, the appointment of Van Phillips as musical director for Columbia meant the new musicians such as Hal Swain or Billy Cotton contracted to play for the company. Greening’s recording activity began to dry up until it vanished in the early 1930s. He continued to provide bands for gigs and continued as a theatre musician, between 1935-39 he played banjo, guitar and occasionally string bass for various band leaders including Jack Hylton, Debroy Somers, Percival Mackey, Sydney Kyte, etc. He was still active in the music business during the 1950s, playing for the famous shows such as “Porgy and Bess” or “The Threepenny Opera”.
