This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And for today I dug once more in my vinyl collection of re-issue albums, mostly European pressings from the eighties. An era when Rhythm & Blues was to be rediscovered and in Europe several labels specialized in, mainly, forties and fifties material. Labels with names like Krazy Kat, Official, Jukebox Lil, Mr. R&B and Charly. And from the latter I have an LP of Louis Jordan with quite a few very interesting early tracks and from that recorded in 1941 the Saxa-Woogie. Here is the man that needs no further introduction - Louis Jordan.
01 - Louis Jordan - Saxa-Woogie
02 - Cootie Williams feat. Eddie Vinson - Things Ain't What They Used To Be
Both singer and orchestra are obvious to recognize at least for me. That Wooo-howl in his blues is typical for Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson and the orchestration and the wah-wahing trumpet is typical for Cootie Williams. You heard Things Ain't What They Used To Be, a composition of Duke Ellington with a whole lotta instrumental intro before Vinson sets off his blues. I found this on an album on the London-based Affinnity label, a division of Charly records, in a series that apparently was named Big Band Bounce Boogie and the title of this album was Echoes of Harlem. The recording was from January 6 of 1944.
Amd we jump to 1952 with Lucky Millinder and his band with a recording he did for the King label with the obscure Pigmeat Pederson on lead. From a 1989 compilation album of Millinder sides for King in the early fifties on the Danish Official label, here is Please Be Careful When I'm Gone
03 - Lucky Millinder - Please Be Careful
04 - Joe Morris - Beans And Cornbread
(jingle)
05 - Luke Jones - What You Bet
06 - Big Joe Turner - Bump Miss Susie
Bump Miss Susie of Joe Turner and on the LP I took this from a famous quote of Joe Turner who'd seen himself, as a middle-aged man, suddenly being advertized as Rock 'n Roll artist alongside the white teenage artists, and he said 'rock 'n roll is just a different name for the same music I've been singing all my life'. Now as for the songs he may be right but his later output on the Atlantic label sounds pretty much different from his earlier material, though still old-fashioned compared to the rock 'n roll. This though is from before the craze shook the nation, from 1951.
Before that you heard West Coast band leader Luke Jones and from the liner notes of the 1986 Krazy Kat album I learned that Jones played the saxophone in the bands of Buck Clayton, Lionel Hampton, Roy Milton, and here he lead his own little combo the Four Joes, that included Red Mack on the trumpet and vocal on this one, Chuck Barksdale on the bass, George Vann on the drums, and I know him from some great blues that I found on a CD recently, and pianist, singer and comedienne Betty Hall Jones.
Then before the jingle you got Joe Morris with his cover of Louis Jordan's Beans and Cornbread and that was on an album of the Swedish Saxophonograph label featuring saxophonist Johnny Griffin. Well I said cover of, but the two versions were released at the same time and Joe Morris took the composer credits on his version. Most likely he had heard Jordan doing it on stage as he usually tried out his new stuff there before recording it - with this likely effect, that some other musician walks away with it. Anyhow it was Jordan and not Morris who got the big hit with it.
Next King Perry with a song on Kilroy, the man who put his sign 'Kilroy Was Here' everywhere and I remember the doodles of the bald man peeping over the wall very well - you could find them virtually everywhere until maybe some ten, twenty years ago when the gimmick, that had been around since the war, suddenly faded. There are quite a few forties blues on this legendary man whose history goes back to a late thirties shipyard inspector. Well in this one he's to blame for drinking all the singer's beer and whine, and making his girlfriend very, very happy.
I found it on an 1986 album on the Krazy Kat label from England. Here is King Perry with Kilroy Was Here.
07 - King Perry - Kilroy Was Here
08 - Jay McShann - One Woman's Blues
From an album titled Hootie's Kansas City Blues you got Jay McShann's orchestra with the One Woman's Blues and the vocals on this, well who else can that be but Walter Brown. Despite the title this was recorded in Chicago in November of 1941. The liner notes on this one seem to be able to tell nothing in a thousand words - pretty typical for these albums where the notes had to seem elaborate but rely on very shallow research. This one was from 1983 on the British Charly label.
Next from another Charly album T-Bone Walker with a recording done in Hollywood in the summer of 1947. Here is Your Wig Is Gone.
09 - T-Bone Walker - I Know Your Wig Is Gone
10 - Paul Gayten feat. 'Broadway Bill' Cook - Broadway's on Fire
Broadway Bill Cook fronts the combo of Paul Gayten with Broadway's on fire from a session in New York in 1950. Broadway Bill was a local DJ and artists' manager from Newark whom Gayten picked up while he worked in the Big Apple and played the Apollo and the Savoy - but he does a good blues on here too.
From New Orleans born Paul Gayten to Fats Domino is a small step. The 10 inch LP that I took this from, on the Imperial label, is actually one of the few American pressings, most of the albums I'm doing today are from Europe. The album has no liner notes, and features Fats Domino, Big Jay McNeely, Smiley Lewis, Dave Bartholomew and James Sugar Boy Crawford. From this album you get Fats Domino with '44'.
11 - Fats Domino - '44'
12 - Griffin Brothers - I Wanna Go Back
Buddy Griffin did the vocals on this 1952 song of the Griffin Brothers, originally recorded for the Dot label. I got this from an album from 1985 of the Ace label, and it features songs with Margie day and Tommy Brown together with the Griffin Brothers as well as a few instrumentals.
Next a track from an album titled The Later Roy Milton, that I unfortunately don't have the sleeve of. It features some of his recordings for Doo-Tone. Now I did find a label scan from a DJ promo 45 and that says: The orchestra background has that beat that the kids are demanding. Strong instrumental solo's (...) with Camille Howard scoring heavily on the piano. This side is a hit potential.
Well listen for yourself. Here is I Can't Go On.
13 - Roy Milton - I Can't Go On
14 - Chuck Norris - Hey Everybody
Chuck Norris was that with Hey Everybody that he recorded in December of 1950. It's from an album titled The Fabulous Swing Jump Blues Guitar of Chuck Norris and the liner notes are signed by "the bootlegger" and that suggests no good about the ligitimateness of this record - well though mostly bootlegged albums hardly have no liner notes.
A lot of the tracks on my re-issued albums are instrumentals and so I want to do a few of them before the hour is done. So next an instrumental of Red Prysock from an album where the liner notes are an interview that he did for another great of fifties Rhythm & Blues, Paul "Huclebuck" Williams in 1983. From that album, a recording from 1952, titled Jackpot.
15 - Red Prysock - Jackpot
16 - Earl Bostic - Earl Blows A Fuse
Earl Bostic Blows A Fuse from a Charly album with the same title, with instrumentals of Bostic from the late forties to the late fifties. This one was from '49 and according to the sleeve notes this was recorded in Cincinnatti for the King label in a session that included Roger Jones on the trumpet and Count Hastings on the tenor sax - the Earl did the alto.
Next from an album of the Swedish Jukebox Lil label Jack McVea with a recording from 1946 in Los Angeles. He has a nice line-up for his band that goes by the name of the Allstars that included trumpet work by Jesse Perdue and Russell Jacket, and Wild Bill Moore on the tenor sax. Well these albums do have a lot of session data that makes up for the often crappy liner notes - though on this album the writer does a fair job.
Listen to the F Minor Boogie of Jack McVea.
17 - Jack McVea - F Minor Boogie
18 - Joe Lutcher - Mojo Jump
The Mojo Jump of Joe Lutcher ends the four instrumentals that marked the end of my show for today. A show where I spun some vinyl instead of either CDs or cracking shellac, re-issue albums mostly from European labels from the eighties. And I hope you liked what was spinning in a moderate 33 RPM today, what came from the microgrooves of my collection of re-issue albums, a collection that I still have to catalogue for myself.
Well of course you can let me know what you thought of it and send me an e-mail. The address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And if you want to read back what I told you today, review the playlist or see what's on the menu for next week, it's all on my web site and easiest way to get there is a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
Well today's show is done, so I wish you a nicely rocking day. See you next time, when I play more great Rhythm & Blues, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!