The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 138

Decca releases, spring 1940

This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.

And today's musical journey brings us to the year 1940 and the studios of Decca. My regular listeners, you will have noticed that every now and then I take the effort to spell out the catalog of this label's race series and play about everything that was released and well all of the recordings today were released in the spring of 1940 and most of them were recorded just shortly before.

And to start with where I left you last time, and that is a recording of Peetie Wheatstraw. On Decca 7778 this is the Pocket Knife Blues.

7778 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Pocket Knife Blues.wav
7779 - Franz Jackson and His Jacksonians - Elephant Swing.wav

The Elephant Swing of clarinet and sax player Franz Jackson and His Jacksonians. He's maybe somewhat underrated among the Chicago jazz scene of the thirties and forties though he played with the greats of his time. Now he made that up by establishing a highly succesful band in 1957, the Original Jass All-Stars - jass spelt the old-fashioned way with a double S - and by actively playing concerts until the age of 95 - he died in May, 2008.

Next on Decca 7780, pianist and organist Tiny Parham with what would become his last session in the studio. He died in '43, according to Billboard Magazine, on the job while playing in a hotel in Milwaukee, WI. Here is his Frogtown Blues.

7780 - Tiny Parham - Frogtown Blues
7781 - Sam Price & His Texas Blusicians - Sweepin' The Blues Away

(jingle)

7782 - Johnnie Temple - Fireman Blues
7783 - Georgia White - Papa Pleaser

Four in a row - after the organ work in Tiny Parham's Frogtown blues you got that easy shuffling instrumental, that was sweepin' The Blues Away of Sam Price. Sammy Price was the house pianist for Decca's New York studio but he also did some music as a leader of his own combo the Texas Blusicians that you heard now. It included saxophonist Don Stovall and trumpeter Emmett Berry.

Then you got Johnnie 'Geechie' Temple with his Fireman Blues on Decca 7782 and finally the Papa Pleaser of Georgia White. Both were musicians who were closely tied to Decca and they both recorded extensively for the label.

Next Bill Gaither who recorded for Decca as Leroy's Buddy in honor of his close friend Leroy Carr who had died in 1936. From him the Greyhound Blues.

7784 - Leroy's Buddy (Bill Gaither) - Greyhound Blues
7785 - Pistol Shootin' Blues - Roosevelt Sykes

The Pistol Shootin' Blues of Roosevelt Sykes released as Decca 7785 where on the label he was billed as the Honeydripper. He had used this name for a long time, and even set up a band named the Honeydrippers when in 1945 Joe Liggins unintentionally hijacked the name. Well, that is, I guess it was unintentionally as Honeydripper was common slang for a sweet lover, and Liggins had written a tune with that title in the early forties that was the night-closer of his band. It became the smash hit of 1945, one of the greatest Rhythm & Blues hits of the forties. When others started to record Liggins' song to try and cash a little on his success, Roosevelt Sykes followed with a highly unsuccesful attempt and on that he started to state that he was the real honeydripper.

Next Frankie Halfpint Jaxon with Be Your Natural Self on Decca 7786.

7786 - Frankie Halfpint Jaxon - Be Your Natural Self
7788 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Chicago Mill Blues

The Chicago Mill Blues of Peetie Wheatstraw, one of the 161 sides he done for various labels. William Bunch as his real name was came on the musical radar when he moved from either Mississippi or Arkansas to St. Louis and there he soon developed his stage persona, Peetie Wheatstraw, the High Sheriff from Hell or the Devil's son in law. The demonic association gave him a tough and hardened image pretty similar to rap artists. He's said to have been like that in reality too - it had become his way of life. Together with his outright strong lyrics and singing style he pretty much has created his own legend.

Now most blues of Wheatstraw only included his own piano playing and a guitarist - like Kokomo Arnold or Lonnie Johnson. Only on his last recordings, like this one, trumpeteter Jonah Jones played with him. Peetie Wheatstraw died about a year and a half after this recording in a car accident.

The next issue of Decca was number 7789, with Sleepy John Estes together with Robert Lee McCoy. Now this McCoy was actually Robert Lee McCollum or perhaps better known as Robert Nighthawk, one of these southern bluesmen who went up North in the thirties. It brought him to St. Louis and Chicago, where he did this recording with Sleepy John Estes - Time Is Drawing Near.

7789 - Sleepy John Estes & Robert Lee McCoy - Time Is Drawing Near
7790 - Lee Brown - My Little Girl

My Little Girl and on the label it says Lee Brown with washboard band. Now that unnamed band featured Henry Red Allen on trumpet, definitely not the least I'd say, and yes it had a washboard player, that was Walter Martin.

Next on Decca 7791 Skeets Tolbert and his band the Gentlemen Of Swing, that used to be the enseble of Snub Mosley until he quit and Tolbert took over leadership. Now where most swing bands were released on the popular series of Decca, Tolbert never made it further than the 7000 series, the race series. Here is his Raz my Taz.

7791 - Skeets Tolbert & His Gentlemen Of Swing - Raz My Taz
7792 - Creole George Guesnon - Black Woman Blues

George Guesnon with the Black Woman Blues. Guesnon was a New Orleans man from Creole descent and after his two-year tour with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels in the late thirties, he struggled finding work and he moved to New York and there he recorded a few sides for Decca. He returned to the Crescent City in '41 and combined music with jobs as a Pullman porter and a job at sea. In the sixties he was part of the Preservation Hall band, the initiative to preserve traditional New Orleans jazz. It still exists as a small-scale venue in the French Quarter.

Next Jimmie Gordon and his Vip Vop Band with a wonderful minor key recording - here is his L&N Blues.

7794 - Jimmie Gordon - L & N Blues
7795 - Frankie Halfpint Jaxon - Take Off Them Hips

Frankie Halfpint Jaxon with Take Off Them Hips on Decca number 7795. Jaxon was more a comedian than a blues singer and on this one he clearly tells us about his preference for long tall women. Now with his 5'2'' I wonder what he needs their height for.

Jaxon had toured in vaudeville from 1910 and he was famous for his female impersonations. It's generally assumed that his full name was Frank Devera Jackson, spelled differently than his stage name, and in his 1917 draft for military service he was listed as actor by occupation.

If that's our man, an application card for a headstone for military veterans and some records in US censuses state that he was born in 1897 in Alabama - though on this application this was handwritten corrected to Missouri - and he died in '53 in California.

Now it's pretty common with the bluesmen and women of the twenties and thirties that there's no more information than the few things we know from recording studio data and advertisements in papers for gigs in local venues, and blues researchers puzzle things together with information that's just likely to be true, but may well be wrong. Just recently a few researchers on the Chicago Rhythm & Blues scene busted an assumption on another Decca star, Bea Booze. It was assumed that this was a stage name for Muriel Nichols, due only to a deliberately wrong piece of information on the label of a record of Nichols. In fact the two were different women and after some digging in old censuses, Bea Booze appeared to be her real name.

So it would't surprise me if one day this Frankie Jaxon turns out to be not Frank Devera Jackson and his whereabouts before and after his professional career would remain unknown.

Well after this long talk there's time for another one, so here is Decca number 7796 and that is once again Honeydripper Roosevelt Sykes with Knock Me Out.

7796 - Roosevelt Sykes - Knock Me Out

And this Knock me Out of Roosevelt Sykes ends today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman where I, again, spelled out some of Decca's discography. Now the fun thing is, that if I would play both sides of all records in that 7000 series that ran from 1934 to '44, I'd have to play over 1,800 of them. Now some seventeen fit in a show, so that would do for over a hundred shows. What's even more fun, is that, compared to other labels, a stunning amount of it has been re-released in some way, so they make for show that's pretty easy to produce.

The Decca race series also make for an authentic insight in African-American music in the two cities that they worked from, New York and Chicago. And I hope you like that insight, well of course you can let me know and send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Then there's my web site where you can find today's story and playlist and what I'm gonna play next week. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. To read back today's story the show number will be of great help for you, that was number 138.

My time's up for today so have a rocking day. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!