This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And again a very mixed bag of sounds like I play 'em mostly on here at the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Colorful artists and rare songs and I wanna start with a steady in the Chicago scene who did a lot of session work as a drummer and also as the leader of his own band. Yet still a much forgotten man, be it that a foundation is named after him, a foundation that thoroughly researches the Rhythm & Blues scene of the Windy City in the forties and fifties. Well the musician that it's named after is Theodore Red Saunders and from his band is this instrumental that was released on OKeh in 1951. Here that drum solo of Red Saunders in Boot 'Em Up.
01 - Red Saunders - Boot 'Em Up
02 - Big Maceo Merriweather - Worried Life Blues
And we stay in the Windy City with Big Maceo Merriweather. You heard the Worried Life Blues off the Fortune label and his kinda blues had become pretty popular in the Chicago scene. Hard, down home man-and-guitar blues and a harp screaming through the joint.
From that same circle is the next song of Little Walter who does the harp to back up the obscure Othum Brown. It was recorded in 1947 in a makeshift studio in a music store in Chicago's Maxwell Street, facing a marketplace that attracted lots of local bluesmen to play on the street.
The label that was founded in this music store was named Ora Nelle after a female relative and I'm gonna play the very first release - of two only, numbers 711 and 712. The other ten recorded sides were never pressed to disc and the four that were - just two records - never left the store but for retail customers - the shop was the only place where they were sold.
Well the label has the historical value of being the first to record Little Walter. This comes from a 1974 LP of the label of one of the frequent customers of the shop, George Paulus who went record hunting in the black neighborhoods of town from the early 70s. After years of gaining trust of the owner, Bernie Abrams, he persuaded him to hand over the forteen masters for re-release purposes and that became an LP on the Barrelhouse Label that I happen to have a copy of.
So here are Othum Brown and Little Walter with the Ora Nelle Blues.
03 - Orhum Brown & Little Walter - Ora Nelle Blues
04 - Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell - How Long Blues
(jingle)
05 - Savannah Churchill & Her All-Star Seven - Two Faced Man
06 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Big Apple Blues
The Big Apple Blues of Peetie Wheatstraw and he recorded that in April of 1940 for Decca. Now Peetie Wheatstraw was a stage name where he created a complete persona around, boastful and demonic and this bad guy attitude is a very early example for nowadays rappers.
Before that you got a little gem of Jimmy Lytell and his All Star Seven - with vocals of Savannah Churchill. That is, that's how the song's credited on the original issue of the Beacon label in 1942. A re-issue on Gennett from '44 state Savannah Churchill and her All Star Seven suggesting that the band was hers - and this subtle difference in crediting is typical for the way vocalist were treated before and after the first recording ban of the American Federation of Musicians.
With the strike affecting the instrumentalists and not the vocalists the importance of the latter had gained enormously - it's so much unthinkable that you'd credit the orchestra and not even mention the singer, that it feels very strange finding out that this was common practice before '42. There's enough pre-war big band music around where only thorough research has revealed the name of the singers - or they remain unknown.
Well a lot of things turned around, or say, changed into modern times in the two and a half year that the strike went on, that was, of course, also in the middle of the war, that had its own uprooting effect on American life.
And all of that for the two-faced man of Savannah Churchill. O yeah - I still have to account for the blues that you heard before the jingle - well that were Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell with the How Long Blues.
Well the next one is a blues of Albinia Jones and she recorded this for the National label in what were her most succesful years, the mid-forties. And these are her best I think, with a band that include Dizzy Gillespie on the trumpet, Sammy Price on the piano and Don Byas on the sax.
Here is What's The Matter With Me a.k.a. Don't You Wear No Black
07 - Albinia Jones - What's The Matter With Me (Don't You Wear No Black)
08 - Louis Jordan - I'm Alabama Bound
Alabama Bound - you heard from 1940 Louis Jordan and his Tympani 5 and as always that was released on Decca, still on their race series. Well soon he got moved to the Sepia series - the series for African Americans with crossover potential. Well in higly segregated America that was a true promotion.
Next a blueswoman who remained an obscurity despite the fifty songs she recorded for Vocalion and Okeh, between 1938 and '41. I'm talking about Merline Johnson who had herself billed on record and in the Chicago joints where she sang, as the Yas Yas girl. And her music was as bawdy as her stage name was, dealing with drugs, sex and booze. Tough blues sung with a tough and unlovable voice. Still no-one knows where and when she was born, where she died and anything of her personal life. We have only her music suggesting that she was a wild lady or maybe a salty chick, and in one of them she reveals being born in Mississippi - if the lyrics are true. Seriously, nothing is known about her.
Here is He May Be Your Man.
09 - Yas Yas Girl (Merline Johnson) - He May Be Your Man
10 - Willie Mae Thornton With The Bill Harvey Band - Let Your Tears Fall Baby
Let your tears fall baby - that was Big Mama Thornton and like I think of Merline Johnson but in her own way she was a strong woman that you wouldn't wanna fuss with. On stage she dressed like a man and gave the audience the impression of a dominant, intimidating woman. And intimidating she was to the account of a young Jerry Leiber who had to tell her how his Hound Dog was meant to be sung. "White boy, don't you be tellin' me how to sing the blues" was her answer.
Next from 1947 Ivory Joe Hunter with Boogin' in the Rain released on the Four Star label.
11 - Ivory Joe Hunter - Boogin' in the Rain
12 - Champion Jack Dupree - Angola Blues
From 1940 the Angola Blues and Angola was the Louisiana State Penitentiary known to any criminal as the worst prison in America, where in the thirties torture and abuse were common and fights and racial tensions caused 10% of the population each year to be wounded or killed. You heard Champion Jack Dupree and he recorded that for OKeh where it was his fourth single released.
And we stay in prison for a moment longer, with T-Bone Walker from 1949 on the Capitol label. Here is his Prison Blues.
13 - T-bone Walker - Prison Blues
14 - Leroy Dallas - Jump Little Children
On the Sitting In With label that was Leroy Dallas and this Jump Little Children, well for a New York act this sounds little urban. Leroy Dallas was born in Alabama and he'd played in Chicago for a while when he moved to the Big Apple. For Sitting In With he did a few releases together with Big Chief Ellis and Brownie McGhee.
From the same label Rufus Beacham and his Tampa Toppers with My Baby And Me. Nice lounge style Rhythm & Blues from 1952.
15 - Rufus Beacham & His Tampa Toppers - My Baby And Me
16 - Hubert Robinson - Boogie The Joint
From Houston Hubert Robinson with Boogie The Joint and that was recorded for the tiny local Macy's label. Macy's recorded both Rhythm & Blues and hillbilly, and none of their artists really made it, but the compilation album on Macy's gets a nice insight in Houston's Rhythm & Blues scene.
Well there's still time for one more so here is the Married Woman Blues of Elmore Nixon that he recorded for the Mercury label.
17 - Elmore Nixon - Married Woman Blues
And with the Married Woman Blues we end another episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. It's been fun preparing today's show and I love to tell you these untold stories like of the obscure Yas Yas Girl or that Ora Nelle blues label that I did early in today's show. Well in every point of the history of popular music you will find the great names that last forever and the little gems that didn't make it to the international spotlights but are often most fun to discover. And I hope you liked it as much as I do, well of course you can let me know and e-mail me at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And you can find me on the web where you can review today's playlist and see what will be on for next week. Do a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first in the search results.
Well for now time's up so have a wonderful and rocking day. Hope to catch you next week, where I'll play more of that exciting music called Rhythm & Blues, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!