This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And another great mix of tunes from the decades of pre-Rock 'n Roll Rhythm & Blues - the thirties, forties and fifties. I got a lot of variety in the set for today, from the big band of Count Basie to the solo piano of Alex Moore and from the raw blues of Calvin Frazier to the gospelish delivery of Hank Ballard - the style that shaped the soul music of the sixties. So often we emphasize the way rock 'n roll was born from Rhythm & Blues that we'd nearly forget that other offspring - soul.
So here is, to start with, Hank Ballard with his band that we later got to know as the Midnighters. They started as the Royals though. Here is their Get it.
01 - Royals - Get It
02 - Alex Moore - Lillie Mae Boogie
And I mentioned him too in the intro of this show - pianist Alex Moore with his rollicking Lillie Mae Boogie, that he recorded for the RPM label in 1951 in his hometown of Dallas, TX. The guitar was Smokey Hogg and this take went unreleased by the time and first saw daylight in 1969 on a compilation album of Texas blues. Now Moore's first recordings were in 1930 for Columbia, but still this was just his third time he saw the interior of a recording studio. The second was for Decca in '37. In between he played clubs and parties in Dallas and he seldomly left his home town.
Well dedicated to the same woman, or a woman with the same name, is this Lillie Mae of Calvin Frazier from the same year, recorded in Toledo OH for the pretty obscure New Song label, that seems to have had two issues in 1951 and re-opened in '58 for another nine 45's in four years. Lillie Mae, according to his biography, was the name of his second wife so I wonder if there was any relation to that pianist who hardly ever seems to have left Dallas - it's unlikely records from that tiny local label in Ohio has made it all the way to Texas. Well I guess it was coincidence.
So here is Calvin Frazier with Lillie Mae.
03 - Calvin Frazier - Lillie Mae
04 - Count Basie feat. Jimmy Rushing - Georgianna
(jingle)
05 - Gladys Hill - Please Don't Touch My Bowl
06 - Charles Brown - Rollin' Like A Pebble In The Sand
You got four in a row, after Calvin Frazier's Lillie Mae, the fourth that I mentioned in the intro of today's show - Count basie. Mister Five By Five Jimmy Rushing was the vocalist of this song titled Georgianna and he earned his nickname for his size - he was so short and fat that he measured five feet in any direction. Well maybe that was a little exaggerated but who cares - it creates another legend. The Count recorded it for Decca in 1938.
Then from 1953 on the Peacock label the band of Al Gray that provided a whole lotta instrumental backup for Gladys Hill and the title of that goodie was Please Don't Touch My Bowl. Then finally, and you may have recognized his typical style, the great Charles Brown and what a sheer contrast with the blues before. Well I promised you variety so you get it in all contrasts that you can think of. Brown recorded this for the Aladdin label in 1952.
And for the next one we jump back to the late thirties with the house band of Decca's race series, the part of the label that the important producer J. Mayo Williams was responsible for. The Harlem Hamfats were the first band ever put together by a producer for recording purposes only, and for sure they got popular for the short time they existed. They played under their own name but they also backed up singers like Johnny Geechie Temple and Rosetta Howard. Here they are with a great example of their typical sound, here is Sales Tax On It
07 - Harlem Hamfats - Sales Tax On It
08 - Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson - Sweet Lovin' Baby
Sweet Lovin' Baby of Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson and that was released on a 1958 album titled Clean Head's Back In Town and the whole album has been re-released several times on vinyl and CD, latest in 2001. I can't find it in earlier discographies so I can't tell you when it was recorded and how long it had been unreleased until Vinson's album came out. What I do know is that this is so typical for his vocal delivery that earned him his contract with Cootie Williams who gave him his breakthrough as a blues shouter. That was in 1942 and from '45 Vinson has led his own combos.
Next a man who's better remembered for his work as a music teacher and mentor of high school bands in Houston, but here he led his own combo. Here is "Prof" Conrad Johnson with a song on Houston's musical main street - Howling On Dowling.
09 - Conrad Johnson - Howling On Dowling
10 - Claude Hopkins Orchestra - It's Too Big Poppa
Well that was a great dirty blues sung by Orlando Robertson and Claude Hopkins and his band. It's Too Big Poppa and well that's what you hear when overhear the neighbors.
From there to the lighthearted piano and singing style of Nellie Lutcher singing about her birthplace in Louisiana. On the Capitol label from '47, here is her Lake Charles Boogie.
11 - Nellie Lutcher - Lake Charles Boogie
12 - Cow Cow Davenport - Givin' It Away
All the way back to 1929 with Charlie 'Cow Cow' Davenport and his Givin' It Away and I found that on a 78 on the Supertone label. Now you may remember my special on the Conqueror label some weeks ago, and that label was a store brand of Sears Roebuck's department store, well, Supertone was the forerunner of that label. Sears Roebuck, with their own record label they had a history of great race records, a segment of the record industry that traditionally sold well ever since the early twenties. The label had no A&R man, no roster of artists and no studio facilities, it just had their records custom pressed by Columbia, and in the late twenties also by Gennett, from existing masters that often had been released on the main label as well - but definitely not always.
Cow Cow Davenport himself was an active songwriter, pianist and bluesman until he got a stroke in the early thirties. It was at the deepest of the Depression years and Davenport had no means for recovery or rehab. It wasn't until 1938 when pianist Art Rhodes found him working as a dishwasher and Rhodes helped him out with the medical treatment he needed and helped him to restart his musical career.
As a songwriter he's most remembered for his Cow Cow Boogie and for Louis Armstrong's big hit I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You that he sold the rights to and he never received any royalties or credits for.
Well today we're jumping back and forth through the history of Rhythm & Blues, so next up Floyd Dixon together with Eddie Williams and his Brown Buddies and the Houston Jump that was recorded in 1949 for the Los Angeles based Supreme label.
13 - Eddie Williams & His Brown Buddies - Houston Jump
14 - Hot Lips Page - Uncle Sam Blues
Hot Lips Page with his self-penned Uncle Sam Blues, and he recorded that in '44 for the Savoy Label. Now the main inspiration of this trumpeter may have been Louis Armstrong, but he used his special techniques far more often - like growling and wah-wahing the trumpet - he was a master in that. He'd been playing in the Blue Devils as a teenager and worked with Bennie Moten and Count Basie when he started for his own in '36. Personally I like his output from around 1945 the best. Page has never achieved the status of one of the greatest of the swing and Rhythm & Blues, but I think he deserves to. Unfortunately he died young, at 46 years old under suspicious circumstances, in New York.
Next from 1949 on Decca, Doles Dickens with Find 'Em Fool 'Em and Forget 'Em and that was released just after the tune we know him best of, his song Rock and Roll - one of those Rhythm & Blues songs on the than so popular theme of rocking and rolling. Everyone in that time seems have to invented Rock 'n Roll if you gotta believe the biographies on them. In fact, Dickens was part of a fad in Rhythm & Blues that started around 1947 or '48 and lasted into the early rock 'n roll era of the mid fifties.
Here is Find 'Em Fool 'Em and Forget 'Em.
15 - Doles Dickens & His Quintet - Find 'Em Fool 'Em and Forget 'Em
16 - Georgia White - You Ought To Be Ashamed Of Yourself
From 1940 that was Georgia White and her You Ought To Be Ashamed Of Yourself and she recorded that for Decca. And when I hurry up I got time for two more so I just continue with the great T-Bone Walker with a recording from 1950 for Imperial, here is The Hustle Is On.
17 - T-Bone Walker - The Hustle Is On
18 - Jimmy 'Baby Face' Lewis - Mailman Blues
And Jimmy Babyface Lewis ends this show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman with the Mailman Blues on the Atlantic label from 1949. And so show number 127 has passed by and gone in the blink of an eye. I could well play Rhythm & Blues all day if I had enough time to prepare my shows. But then I got a job and a family as well.
So I hope you still enjoyed that short hour of great music, and of course you can let me know and provide your feedback to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com and also there's my web site where you can find out what will be on for next week or read back the things I told you today. Look for show 127 on my web site, and the easiest way to get there is a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
As for now time's up so have a rocking day and dont'cha get them blues, just play 'em. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!