By the time he recorded “Rhythm King”, Ben Bernie had already made it big in Vaudeville, co-written “Sweet Georgia Brown” and had a few other #1 hits to his name. He had also participated in the first broadcast of NBC (as a radio station). Bernie’s radio broadcast career was very much intertwined with his recording career, as his musical variety show would begin in the 1930s. This composition of his was released in 1928. It serves as a wonderful demonstration of why Bernie had earned such attention by this point. His charisma was apparent, and his composition work is very calculated and deliberate.
This track doesn’t waste much time with an instrumental introduction, it leaps right in to inviting the audience to listen to “the rhythm king” and how each instrument will cause them to “rock like a chair”. The middle section of the song features some wonderful scatting over sparse instrumentation, but soon lapses so the listener can appreciate the rhythm king’s work. What follows does not dissapoint-while it is a tad brief, the energy of what is being presented is so lively that it backs up what the orchestra has been promising. The blend of the instruments here proves that Bernie and his bandmates had an acute understanding of what made this genre tick, and that their leader’s work on Vaudeville had evolved and paid off. The lyrics compliment the melody, and do not distract the listener with a separate story. Here, the music IS the story. In that sense, it is different from all else I’ve covered here thus far. Perhaps its a tad about ego, and Bernie acknowledging the power he wielded over an audience. Yet, it could still be read as an ode to the power of jazz to render audiences captivated. Here’s hoping it continues to captivate.
Music Through the Mists of Time 