Sunday, November 10, 2013

The Dick Lucke Band: Still searching for their special, syncopated sound!

Richard Lucke, Multi-instrumentalist, band leader, recording artist, great grandfather, enigma.
Photo taken at Bloom Studio, Chicago. Family collection.
Dick Lucke Band photo From Duncan Scheidt's book on jazz, The Jazz State of Indiana
Dick Lucky and his Arcadians, The Dick Lucke Band, Dick Lucke and His Syncopators: I am still searching for recordings, under any of these and other possible names! The band and its several incarnations had a legendary sound which generations of Dick Lucke's descendants have heard only stories about. The Lucke Band toured vaudeville and recorded on vinyl during the 1920's and 1930's. They were associated with and recorded for Conn Instruments, and according to a June 1925 Variety magazine article found online and shown below, they also recorded at the Hollywood Record Company in 1925:

"Lucke Recording. Los Angeles, June 2, 1925. Dick Lucke and his Arcadians at the Hillstreet last week made several recordings for the Hollywood Record Co. in Hollywood. They are under contract with that concern to turn out 20 sides per year."

Hopefully soon we'll be tapping our feet to their syncopated tunes!

Dick Lucke and his Arcadians. Photo courtesy of Duncan Scheidt. 
Variety, June 1925. Found on archive.org, via the Library of Congress.
https://archive.org/details/variety79-1925-06