The Wisconsin Blues
by Peggy HoehneThe Blues, Jazz, and names like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver, just don't sound like they should have any strong connection with Wisconsin. But they do, and many who are involved in the history of blues and jazz recordings would be able to tell you about that connection.
The story starts in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. First came Mr. F.A. Dennett of Sheboygan. In 1888 he founded the Wisconsin Chair Company. As they grew they moved into making school desks and other items.
In 1913, the Wisconsin Chair Company decided to start making wooden cabinets for the new Edison phonographs. That same year, the second person in this story was hired at the chair factory. He was 14-year-old Arthur Edward Satherley, late of Bristol, England. He left Wisconsin Chair to work for Thomas Edison's company, but returned to Port Washington in 1917, about the time Wisconsin Chair Company formed the subsidiary company, New York Recording laboratories.
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Management decided to boost sales of the phonograph cabinets by producing phonograph records as an incentive to phonograph buyers. Young Satherley found himself in charge of the new operation. He made blank sound discs from clay mixed with shellac, much like the shellac used to protect the new furniture. These were ten- and twelve-inch shellac discs containing up to four minutes of music per side. Arthur Satherley became one of the first Artist and Repertoire (A&R) directors for the new record label, Paramount Records.
He went in search of new talent to record. He discovered he had strong competition from Columbia and Victor records. Today we have many 'niche' markets, but the term was unknown at that time. Satherley created the first niche markets. He began recording music for the immigrants coming into Wisconsin. It was decided that Port Washington-based labels would concentrate on ethnic music, especially German, Scandinavian, and Mexican performers who would appeal to the large immigrant populations in the Midwest, one of Wisconsin Chair's sales territories.
By 1921, Arthur Satherley saw that the African-American market might prove profitable even at a time when radio was taking business away from phonograph sales. Wisconsin Chair's major sales territory outside the Midwest was in the South. Company salesmen searched for local talent and referred them back to Satherley. He was soon recording King Oliver, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Alberta Hunter and many others. In 1922 Paramount began issuing what became known as "race recordings", featuring black artists.
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