Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

The California Ramblers were a popular and prolific jazz group from the 1920s, that recorded hundreds of songs under many different record labels throughout the 1920s. Three of the members of the band, Red Nichols, Jimmy Dorsey, and Tommy Dorsey, would go on to front big bands in later decades.

The original bandmembers were from Ohio, but chose the name California Ramblers because they thought people would be less inclined to listen to a jazz band from the Midwest. The "Ramblers" came from the name of one of the venues where they had played, the "Ramblers Inn" in Pelham, New York. The band was instantly successful, and would remain well-known throughout the decade. Perhaps the most prolific recording group in the 1920s.

The Ramblers recorded originally for Columbia Records, and then, in conjunction with their manager Ed Kirkebey, agreed to waive all royalties to Columbia for the right to record for other companies under different names. They recorded for nearly every independent label in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., using over 100 unique aliases.