Sweet Georgia Brown Bernie Ben 1925
Ben Bernie (1891-1943) was an American jazz violinist and radio personality. By the age of 15 he was teaching violin, IIn 1922 he joined his first orchestra and would later have his own band called "The Lads." Bernie appeared with his band in the early DeForest Phonofilm sound short Ben Bernie and All the Lads (1923), featuring pianist Oscar Levant. He toured with Maurice Chevalier and also toured in Europe. Bernie's orchestra recorded prolifically during the 1920s and 1930s, and his became one of the most famous of its day on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1925 Ben Bernie and his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra did the first recording of Sweet Georgia Brown, a tune of which Bernie was co-composer, and which became a jazz standard.
Jack Pettis, who had joined the band in 1924 (formerly the reedplayer of the highly influential New Orleans Rhythm Kings with whom he recorded during 1922-23) took an impressive solo in this "Sweet Georgia Brown," having the distinction of being one of the first jazz soloists on film.