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What Do We Get
From Boston?

Five Birmingham Babies

Adrian Rollini, Bobby Davis , Irving Brodsky , Red Nichols, Stan King , Tommy Fellini

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This recording was produced in New York City on April 14th 1925 featuring Red Nichols trumpet, Bobby Davis clarinet, alto, & soprano sax, Irving Brodsky piano, Adrian Rollini bass sax & goofus, Tommy Fellini banjo, and Stan King drums.

"What Do We Get From Boston?" was composed by William Raskin and Frank Silver. -Though Silver wrote a number of other hits, none of his songs would even come close to the success of his famous collaborative effort with Irving Cohn "Yes, We Have No Bananas." All the same he was living well on a substantial amount of royalties before losing it all in the 1929 stock market crash.

Born in New York City on June 28th 1903 and raised in Larchmont, New York, Adrian Francis Rollini displayed a great musical aptitude almost immediately and began lessons on miniature piano at the age of two.

He playing a fifteen-minute recital at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel when he was four billed as child prodigy "Professor Adrian Rollini".

By his mid-teens Adrian was leading his own band comprised of other neighborhood boys, dropping out of high school in his third year to pursue music full time.

Although he was a pianist first Adrian Rollini would become equally skilled on numerous instruments including drums, xylophone, and perhaps most importantly bass saxophone.

When he was sixteen Rollini caught his big break gaining professional employment as a member of Arthur Hand's pop jazz group the "California Ramblers" managed by Ed Kirkeby.

Adopting the bass saxophone it was with the "Ramblers" and their sub groups the "Little Ramblers", "Goofus Five", "Five Birmingham Babies" and "University Six" that he established himself as a primer jazz man in New York appearing prominently on hundreds of recordings.