The "Cowslip Waltz" was an island hit in 1929, recorded at the then brand new TIKI Studio on Casino Island on February 13th by Ignatz Kokonino and the Spontones.  Ignatz was a singer and songwriter, and his sidemen, the "Spontones" consisted at that time of Denis LaRoue on accordion and Roger "scrappy" Jackson on ukulele.  The Cowslip Waltz achieved brief popularity in the U.S. and the lyrics were quoted by George Herriman in a Krazy Kat sunday strip dated May 6, 1936.

The Spontones later grew to include Franklin Franklin on upright bass, Jack Russel on drums, and Vladok Smitrikov on violin.  They were sometimes joined by a Spontoon native who played a bamboo flute with them during live performances but never in the recording studio, and whose name has been lost to history.  They were a very popular club band throughout the archipelago during the 1930's.

The recording which I found in a trunk at a flea-market and now have in my posession is a previously unknown metal-disk record from TIKI.  My guess is that it was a studio sound check, since it contains a very rough-sounding "rehearsal" version of the Cowslip Waltz in which the accordion is poorly miked and Ignatz's singing is off beat.  In fact, it sounds at one point as if none of the three musicians are together at all, and it finishes with Ignatz Kokonino whistling into the microphone, which he did not do in the final "hit" version of the song.  The disk is not dated, but I presume it immortalizes a "warm-up" of the band and the studio engineer testing out the equipment and the microphone set-up just prior to recording the 1929 single that would make the Spontones an island favorite for the next decade.

The final recorded version of the Cowslip Waltz, plus two later numbers that included the larger, six-man group, can be heard on the Rhino Records compilation "Pacific Syncopation:  Jazz of the Island Nations 1930 - 1945."

 Historical note:  metal disks were a studio recording method employed before the development of audio tape;  they are extremely durable and have a remarkably clean sound since they are not as susceptible to damage as the more fragile wax, resin, or vinyl recording media of the day.

jw kennedy

In e-mail correspondence about the Spontones, your Spontoon website editor let jw kennedy know that I would enjoy hearing this legendary music group. jw kennedy replies:

That's what you think.

...Don't get your hopes up for some exotic South Pacific rhythms, because as I may have mentioned before, this recording is actually pretty awful, and it's not really "island" music; it's just music that was played on the island.  None of the band members, except the anonymous bamboo flutist, were Spontoon natives.  Ignatz Kokonino styled himself as a sort of "Don Ho"-esque long-time resident, but he was originally American.  He came to Spontoon around 1925, apparently dodging the backers of a failed Vaudeville show which he had been responsible for in the early 20's.  It was called, near as I can tell from the available source material, "Wally Moisenberger's Amazing Revue" and the headline act was a chorus-line of tap dancing fleas. Other acts included the Ballet of the Elephant Man, a juggling octopus, a badger singing classical arias, a spider & fly comedy duo, an enchanting songstress named "Lilly Papillon" (who would later go on to perform twice on Broadway) and something very vague called the "Reptile Pantomime" which wasapparently so disagreeable that audiences left during it.  The show was very ingenious in a lot of ways, but it quickly went bankrupt, and the director, Moisenberger, skipped town.

It's probable that neither "Wally Moisenberger" nor "Ignatz Kokonino" were his real name, but what does it matter?  He was an able showman who found his niche crooning songs to tourists and pilots in the upscale nightclubs of the Spontoon Islands.

jw kennedy

© 2003 JW Kennedy