The Golden Gate Orchestra was a dance band that used elements of jazz, à la Paul Whiteman, and recorded for Edison during the mid-'20s. They specialized in popular music of the period, doing highly danceable renditions of tunes such as "The Charleston," "Manhattan," and "Hallelujah," and aimed their records primarily at white audiences. The latter fact has always made them suspect as a true jazz ensemble in the minds of many scholars, but that output also made them important in helping to popularize jazz. The Golden Gate Orchestra was, in fact, an offshoot/alias for the California Ramblers, a ubiquitous ensemble of the period formed by banjoist Ray Kitchenman in 1921. Their personnel -- like that of the Ramblers, who hailed from Ohio and never got near California in their ramblings (any more than the Golden Gate Orchestra got to San Francisco) -- was always highly fluid, but presumably included the key members of the Ramblers, such as drummer Stan King and saxman Adrian Rollini. And for all of their dubious credentials as a true jazz ensemble, they did merit a first-rate reissue of their music by no less an outfit than Document Records, which has plumbed depths of blues and gospel that most major labels won't touch. ~ Bruce Eder