Van Dyke Records was a budget American record label which operated in 1929 and 1930. Van Dyke was a subsidiary of

Grey Gull Records Grey Gull Records was a record company and label founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1919. The company was started by Theodore Lyman Shaw, a member of a wealthy and prominent family from Wellesley, Massachusetts whose ancestors included Civil Wa ...

of Boston, Massachusetts and releases duplicated material found on the parent label. Despite claims of quality found on the label, the record was cheaply manufactured, and marketed to record dealers as a budget record with a high profit margin for the dealer. Accordingly the playing surface is noisy, and the recordings are often over-modulated. Other than

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

by Clarence Williams and Cliff Jackson, most Van Dyke records were dance band numbers by Grey Gull's house band, which included

Mike Mosiello Mike Mosiello (full name ''Michele Alphonso Mosiello'') (December 2, 1896 – June 3, 1953) was an Italian-born American trumpet player. Biography Mosiello was born in Frasso Telesino in Italy into a musical family. His father, Tobia Mosiello, ...

Andy Sannella Anthony George "Andy" Sannella (March 11, 1900 – December 10, 1962) was an American musician and bandleader. Andy Sannella was born in Brooklyn, NY. His father Anthony and mother Lucia were both Italian immigrants. Sannella was a multi-instru ...

, and

Charles Magnante Charles Magnante (December 7, 1905 – December 30, 1986) was an American piano-accordionist, arranger, composer, author and educator. His artistry helped raise the image of the accordion from an instrument considered suitable only for folk ...

. The text on the label of Van Dyke 78 discs proclaimed "Each Record a Masterpiece". An unusual feature of the Van Dyke label was that the four-digit matrix number was split between two lines on the left side. Initially the Van Dyke catalog number mirrored the Grey Gull catalog number, with an added "7" or "8" appended to the beginning. By its second year of existence the couplings no longer matched the parent company, and there was no relation between Van Dyke's numbering (now divided into several separate numbering blocks) and Grey Gull's. Nonetheless, all material continued to originate from Grey Gull. There was some effort made to obscure the origins of Van Dyke. When Grey Gull ceased operations in 1930, Van Dyke records also were no longer produced. However, substantial quantities of the product were exported to England over the next few years, by an unknown distributor.

References

External links

Van Dyke Records
on the Internet Archive'
Great 78 Project
{{Authority control American record labels Record labels established in 1929 Record labels disestablished in 1932 Jazz record labels

See also

References

External links