Joseph Samuels

Practically nothing seems to be known about Joseph Samuels as a person, and the dates of his birth and death have long remained unknown to jazz historians.

An article published in the May 1919 issue of The Tatler indicates he was born in Tennessee, studied under Campanari at the College of Music of Cincinnati, and was concert master for Henry W.

After this he went on to record for several other companies, beginning with Emerson, Grey Gull, and Arto in 1920, continuing with Edison in 1921 and with Gennett, Federal, and Banner in 1922.

[2] In particular, for Okeh, these small jazz-oriented Samuels groups also accompanied several black singers, male as well as female ones, including names such as Lucille Hegamin, Mamie Smith and Clarence Williams.

For his dance band as well as his jazz group recordings, Samuels seems to have relied mainly on the same nucleus of fellow musicians, many of them nearly as little known as their leader.

On trombone was Ephraim Hannaford, who had earlier been a member of the religious community called "House of David" and had worked in the various well-known musical aggregations within that group.

His best known work is probably Brother Low Down, written with singer Al Bernard and recorded by Bert Williams among others.

At least Levy, Farberman and Hannaford also took part in recordings with other well-known bandleaders of the 1920s such as Sam Lanin, Ben Selvin, Arthur Lange, Harry Reser and Fred Rich.