This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And legends is what I'll play this week again, as well as some obscurities as today I'll feature the instrument that was iconic for the R&B of the forties and fifties, an instrument that like not others coloured and spiced the music of African Americans of that age, the instrument that I love most and that I'm learning to play myself - the saxophone. So brace yourself for some great honking from the greatest saxophone players. But before I do all the blabla, let's start off with some great music. Here's Buddy Johnson's orchestra, from december 1954, with Johnny Burdine on sax, telling you what I am - crazy bout a saxophone.
01 - Buddy Johnson Orch - Crazy 'Bout A Saxophone
Crazy bout a saxophone - that was the Buddy Johnson orchestra, with Buddy himself on lead vocal.
Play a forties or fifties R&B record and nine out of ten you will find a saxophone in it. Both the sax break, mostly just over half of the record, as the riffs accompanying the singers, and surely in the many instrumentals the saxophone was played in a hard and exciting way that is maybe best described as honking. It was quite ususal to have more sax players in the band, nearly always a tenor, sometimes a baritone sax and occationally an alto.
In this parade of sax players, I'll start off with Eddie Chamblee - one of those many quality sax players who didn't achieve much success with their own bands. From 1948 I will play Cradle Rock, which was released on Miracle records. In 1952 he backed up a few sessions of the Four Blazes, one of Chicago's hottest vocal combos, but they didn't have a sax player when on stage. In the studio of United records, where both Eddie and the Four blazes were signed, he did some excellent sax work for them. One of these cuts, Mary Jo, went number 1 on the R&B chart, effectively displacing Lloyd Price's monster hit Lawdy miss clawdy from the top. As the second tune you will get the similar-sounding Ella Louise with - as said - some great sax work from the great Eddie Chamblee.
02 - Eddie Chamblee - Cradle Rock
03 - Four Blazes - Ella Louise
Most sax players were self-made man. Earl Bostic from Tulsa, OK, was one of the few who really studied for their music - he had a degree in music on Xavier university in New Orleans and learnt to play several string and wind instruments. It must have given him a broader perspective that turned in favour for him later in his career when he had world hits with Flamengo, Liebestraum and Song of the Islands, all non-R&B stuff. Here I'm playing a few early recordings from him: Don't You Do It from 1950 and Rockin' And Reelin' from 1951 feat. Clyde Terrell on vocals.
04 - Earl Bostic - Don't You Do It
05 - Earl Bostic - Rockin' And Reelin'
Great party music, Rocking and reeling, Earl Bostic
Next on this show is Wild Bill Moore with We're gonna rock. Within a few weeks the big recording ban of the American federation of musicians would begin when Wild Bill Moore and his band recorded this for Savoy Records in December 1947. It features T.J. Fowler on piano and Paul Williams on the baritone sax and Bill Moore on tenor and a band chant of "we're gonna rock, we're gonna roll". This song, though it didn't make more than #14 on the R&B charts, is considered one of the classic forerunners of Rock 'n Roll.
06 - Wild Bill Moore - We're Gonna Rock
07 - Sax Mallard - The Mojo
Now that was a well-worn piece of shellac. The Mojo by Sax Mallard. Like the record that I played before that, this was recorded in December 1947 and released on Aristocrat records that later became Chess Records. Oett 'Sax' Mallard was a former classmate of Nat 'King' Cole and he'd played in Cole's band but while the latter ended up on the west coast, Mallard returned to Chicago and played in various bands. This was from his very first session as a band leader, the flip of Let's Love again, a classic style ballad.
Next on is Big Jay McNeeley. Let me just read a description of a gig in Minneapolis - from the liner notes on the 'Best Of' LP on the Saxophonograph label: The customers were jammed together like subway passengers. There wasn't a seat to be found. They screamed and hooted and clapped their hands, and Big Jay responded in kind, twisting his giant body into outrageous contortions, stomping a foot - sometimes both feet - his glistening mouth clamped around the black tenor mouthpiece. He wriggled violently out of his suit jacket without missing a beat. He flopped on his back, held the horn high towards the ceiling and honked deliriously. Let's hear!
08 - Big Jay McNeely - 3-D
09 - Big Jay Mcneely - Just Crazy
Wow - What a dirty sounds he gets out of that saxophone. Big Jay McNeeley with 3-D and Just crazy.
Next in the parade of saxophones is Jim Wynn - During the war he had his band known as the Bobalibans - after a song Jim had written, 'Ee-Bobaliba' that was a great success for Helen Humes in 1945, but Jim was never credited as the songwriter. Jim Wynn was known for his frantic style and performance on stage. He would kick, dance, strut, go down on his knees, roll over and thus provide his own show while honking his wild solos. A young sax player by the name of Big Jay McNeeley reportedly copied Jim's antics to perform on stage for himself -- well that was just what I told you before the last two tunes. For now: Blow wynn Blow and Down to the Ocean, featuring Bernie Anders on vocal.
10 - Big Jim Wynn - Blow Wynn Blow
11 - Big Jim Wynn feat. Bernie Anders on vocal - Down To The Ocean
Spotlight now on Joe Liggins. He was a member of Sammy Franklin's orchestra but he started his own band when Franklin didn't want to play his self-penned song The Honeydripper. The song, at a length of some fifteen minutes, served as a climax for the gigs of his new band. When recorded in the studio for the Exclusive label it was cut down to six minutes to be divided over two sides of a 78 - after all the maximum capacity was about three minutes. It sold two million copies, and it was on #1 of the R&B chart for 18 weeks which is still, though shared with Louis Jordan, a record for the R&B charts. Joe Liggins had instantly become a big star and the follow-ups for Exclusive and later Specialty records sold well. From him, Blow Mr Jackson - here, on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
12 - Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers - Blow Mr. Jackson
13 - Freddie Mitchell - 3 Strikes You're Out
Three strikes you're out - that was Freddie Mitchell and his band.
Next up is Frank 'Floorshow' Culley with Speed Limit. I took that track from a British re-release of a what was originally 1955 Baton 10'' LP. The liner notes tell a funny story about this rather obscure saxophonist who led his own band at the age of 15 and got his nickname for his gymnastic performances on stage. In Natchez, MS, he and his band got stuck without money and they arranged to play in the local movie theatre to earn some cash. He began to play his sax in the streets of town and led, like the pied piper, the growing audience straight into the theatre where they had sold-out performances for weeks.
14 - Frank 'Floorshow' Culley - Speed Limit
15 - Willis 'Gatortail' Jackson - Later for the Gator
Later for the gator, from another guy with an odd nickname - Willis 'Gatortail' Jackson - he got it after a session where he recorded the instrumental 'Gator Tail' that filled both the A and B-side of the record, a two-part frantic honkathon.
In that pile of albums I have, cherish an 80s French re-issue of a 1954 Alladin LP with another great saxman who by now is completely forgotten, but he was hot in the clubs of New York early fifties with his band that consisted mostly of brothers and sisters of his. I'm talking about Lynn Hope, nicknamed Turbanhead, for the turban he wore on stage. He - and his siblings - were sincere, converted muslims and Lynn later went for his pilgrimage to Mecca. They were definitely an exotic appearance on stage and most of his music was either exotic or romantic in nature. So - in the middle of all the honkers that I played in this episode of the Rocking Dutchman, here's the moody instrumental The Scrunch. It's from 1957 and so it must have been added to the re-issue version of the album as it can't possibly have been on a 1954 album. Here is Lynn Hope.
16 - Lynn Hope - The Scrunch
17 - Hal Singer - Cornbread
Hal Singer was that, with Cornbread, a solid number 1 on the R&B charts in 1948 on the Savoy label and his biggest hit.
As we reach the end of this episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, I want to spotlight the tune that serves as the intro for the program, as it's an obscurity by all means.
I found it on the flip of an odd 45 on the dooto label. The label credited the instrumental to Kirk Kirkland while the A-side was a song of a vocal group called the Cufflinks - It's too late now. Now the story starts somewhere in the summer of 1957. According to Marv Goldberg, who maintains a website with all kinds of information on Rhythm & Blues called the R&B Notebook, the dooto label had one song leftover from an earlier session and another session would have to provide the flip. Now that session never came because all of the band members were sick and by October the group had fallen apart. Only one of them, Robert Truesdale, showed up and he is the guy playing the saxophone that they put on the flip. Something more must have gone wrong as the record label credits Kirk Kirkland as the sax player and the title of the tune, saxaphone rag contained a misspelling in the saxophone - an a after the x. So here is not Kirk Kirkland but Robert Truesdale, with the saxaphone rag.
Kirk Kirkland - The Saxaphone Rag
And the saxaphone rag marks the end of another episode of the Rocking Dutchman. I hope you have enjoyed all that honking and if so - or if not - please drop a line to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or find me on the web, just do a google search for the legends of the rocking dutchman and my site will show up fist. As for now - byebye and have a great day. No - have a rocking day. See you again next time, when I'll play more of that great music from the fourties and fifties - on the next episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.