This band was led by American-born trumpet player Crickett Smith, about whom unfortunately not much biographical data is available. In order to escape from National-Socialism in Europe, he traveled to India, where he took the baton of one of the bands performing at Bombay's Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. In 1936 he took over the main bandstand at this luxurious venue. The same year, he recorded a tune with a local theme, especially intended for the city's local audience. According to Naresh Fernandes, who wrote a wonderful reference book about the Golden Age of Jazz in India (Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay’s Jazz Age, Roli Books) writes: "The melody and lyrics of “Taj Mahal” had been composed by Mena Silas, a Baghdadi Jew whose family had lived in Bombay for at least a generation, if not longer. By 1935, two of his productions, Queen of Hearts and The Isle of Dreams, had been performed by the Bombay Amateur Dramatic Club. They didn’t lack ambition. The Isle of Dreams, for instance, was a musical comedy about the king of a cannibal island who also owns a restaurant in London. It had a cast of 50 and put Ken Mac’s Bohemians in the orchestra pit of the Royal Opera House. But Silas was unhappy trying to build his dreams with the part-time actors of the Bombay stage. “The lack of talent in Bombay—anyone who has tried to stage a show knows how difficult it is even to get a chorus together—makes it impossible for me to stage shows on the scale I wish,” he told a reporter. Instead, he formed an orchestra of ten musicians to perform his own compositions. His vocalist was Signe Rintala, a Finnish woman who sang in 25 languages. (...) Silas had a talent for writing topical tunes. In 1929, as sound was being introduced into the movies, he celebrated with “Talkies the Whole of the Day”. In 1944, when urgency about protecting war-time secrets was intense, he cautioned, “Don’t Be a Talkie”. Silas was still making music in Bombay in 1948, when he complained to The Illustrated Weekly of India that dance-music composers in India had fewer chances of making it big than their counterparts in New York or London. Despite Silas’ reservations about his prospects, “Taj Mahal” was probably more influential than he recognized.". As said before, this iconic side was recorded in 1936, featuring a vocal by Creighton Thompson. Besides Smith, other personnel included: Roy Butler, tenor saxophone, clarinet; Sterling Conoway, guitar; Tony Gonsalves, bass; Rudy Jackson, alto saxophone and clarinet; George Leopardi, trombone; Luis Pedroso and Jimmy Smith, drums, as well as Teddy Weatherford, piano.
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Music