This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Yeah, and again some stunning Rhythm & Blues for you to enjoy today and I wanna start with a group that I opened the show with before - the Washboard Rhythm Kings, or Washboard Rhythm Boys as they are billed on this 78 on the Victor label from 1930. Magical old-style jazz that I got a lot to tell about, but I'll do that after I play the song. Now first listen carefully to this pretty special song. Here is Hummin' To Myself.
01 - Washboard Rhythm Boys - Hummin' to Myself
A stunning record - and it got so much in it that need my words to praise it. And maybe most exceptional was that outtro - and I mean the syncopation of the trombone in it. Just listen... the first thing that came in my mind was the ska and reggae rhythms that got over the world in the early eighties, when the Jamaican sound became popular all over the world. And I've been searching all of my old records from back then, 'cause I used to have one where the horn section had taken over from the typical guitar backbeat, and that sounded pretty much like this but I can't figure out what it was. If anyone got a clue - send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.
There's more to tell about this song. The musicians - and they were some of the finest of their time - they were put together in the studio to record, but they weren't an existing band that toured. For every session, the personnel changed - and with that, you can say it was rather some kind of brand name of Victor, than that it was a band. The loose combination of musicians changed labels throughout the thirties and with that, the name varied too. Generally, they're named the Washboard Rhythm Kings in re-issue programs on CD.
Now not being a coherent group at all, they did the popular tunes of the moment and that's what a lot of their repertoire is made of. This one didn't have an African American background and so were a lot - in fact there's just a few blues among them. There are many versions around of Humming To Myself and most of them feature crooning singers and far from exciting arrangement - that is, to my taste.
But the singer in this one, Steve Washington, convincingly shouts out that he's got the blues for the lack of interest of people for his song and he delivers it in a way that is closer to gospel than to the singing fashion of early thirties' secular music. I often told you about the mixing of gospel elements and singing style in Rhythm & Blues as an innovation of the fifties, well, in that case this song predates that for some two decades.
To get back to that reggae connection that some hear, and some don't recognize. One of the radio stations that bring my program is a reggae station and with that, they recognize the influence of Rhythm & Blues on the making of the Jamaican styles ska and reggae in the fifties and sixties. Now I'm not gonna tell you that this song ever was important in that. It was long forgotten by then. But syncopation - or off-beat beats - are an essential part in jazz and it's just the way it's done in this outtro by the trombonist, that got me make the connection to a ska or reggae song that I know I heard a lot of times, some thirty-five years ago, but I just can't name it anymore.
I'm gonna play two more tunes that have elements of much later styles - without being connected with it in any way. The first is a recording of the Harlem Hamfats and I want you to listen to the percussion in the piano break. I know exactly that same rhythm occurs in a seventies and eighties music style of Surinam, a small South-American country - located east of Venezuela - and it's got a typical Caribbean culture. That style is called Kaseko and even the way of drumming has a name - they call it the 'skratchi' - meaning scratching. I know the music just because my wife was born there - it never got over the world like reggae did. Again it's obvious that there's no connection between the Hamfats song and the style of that small country.
Then after that you'll get Joe Turner and Pete Johnson with their famous Roll 'em Pete from 1938. Many call that the first Rock 'n Roll record ever, but what they forget is that it predated the backbeat fad in Rhythm & Blues for ten years and I'm convinced that it didn't play a role of any importance - compared to the hit Good Rocking Tonight of Wynonie Harris, that did ignite the newest fashion in Rhythm & Blues, that eventually made Rock 'n Roll happen.
But first the Harlem Hamfats with Root Hog Or Die with that wonderful percussion in the piano break. Enjoy.
02 - Harlem Hamfats - Root Hog Or Die
03 - Joe Turner & Pete Johnson - Roll 'Em Pete
(jingle)
04 - Cab Calloway - Aw You Dawg
05 - Louis Jordan - Saxa-Woogie
And after that long story you got a whole lotta music - and I have to account here for the two after the jingle here. First that was Cab Calloway - who else could that be - from 1931 with Aw You Dawg and that was released on Brunswick and several labels of the ARC group such as Perfect, Banner and Oriole.
And then the last one was Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five with the Saxa-Woogie on Decca from 1941.
And for the next one we go to a blues of Jimmy McCracklin from 1945 and he recorded that for the obscure Preview label. Here is the Street Loafin' Woman.
06 - Jimmy McCracklin - Street Loafin' Woman
07 - Four Blazes - Chicago Boogie
The Chicago Boogie of the West Coast group the Four Blazes and that was a recording they did for the AFRS Jubilee radio show, a program aimed at the armed forces overseas. Just like this program, it was syndicated - that means recorded before distribution and broadcasting. Just now, I transfer an mp3 over the internet to my radio stations, where in these days 16 inch 78 rpm records were distributed together with the military supplies to the armed forces overseas. Yeah - times changed and things got easier.
The title of this song, Chicago Boogie, caused some confusion 'cause there also was a Chicago group the Four Blazes, and that's why the West Coast group often is named the Hollywood Four Blazes or it's named in association with its leader George Crawford.
The outfit from the Windy City was started in the late thirties, and they made an odd record in '47 but they got national recognition in 1952 with a number 1 hit on the United label, titled Mary Jo. That was after tenor Tommy Braden had entered the group and he changed its sound completely. A string of more efforts were done after Mary Jo, and they all sounded very much like the hit song - in fact, it was exactly the same melody with other lyrics and similar arrangements, most of them with the addition of the genius saxophonist Eddie Chamblee. One of these is the next one, the Drunken Blues.
08 - Four Blazes - Drunken Blues
09 - Jimmy DeBerry - Take a little chance
You got Jimmy DeBerry with Take A Little Chance and that was recorded in Memphis on the Sun label - the label of Sam Phillips that made history discovering and recording Elvis Presley. Before that, it was a smallish and pretty unsuccesful Rhythm & Blues label recording local African-American talent - and one of them was Rufus Thomas, the later star of the Stax label of the sixties, where he recorded great soul and funk music. Thomas had had a regional hit with Bear Cat - an answer song to Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog. Now if you'd call it a shameless piece of plagiarism I can go along with that too - and so did the judge in the lawsuit that the Peacock label started against Sun for copyright violation of Hound Dog. A costly mistake - Sam Phillips had to sell his biggest asset - the contract with Elvis - to pay for the fines.
Here we have Rufus Thomas with a release somewhat later than the Bear Cat. Here is Save That Money.
10 - Rufus Thomas - Save That Money
11 - Billy Ward & His Dominoes - Pedal Pushin' Papa
From 1952 on the Federal label the Pedal Pushing Papa of Billy Ward and his Dominoes - and one of these Dominoes was Clyde McPhatter, the lead singer on most of their records - but not this one, that was bass singer Bill Brown. Billy Ward owned the right on the name of the group and he ran it like a boss who could hire, fire and underpay personnel to his liking - and even have them pay fines for not performing up to his standards. It explains for the constant shift of personnel - the group was a nice step-up to fame but with a wage that's insufficient to live on, you just have to move on.
Pedal Pushing Papa and its flip The Bells was a big success - in '53 it hit number 3 on the R&B chart, and The Bells that had McPhatter on lead did better in the jukebox.
And from this vocal group we go to a honking instrumental of trumpeter Joe Morris and his band featuring the saxophones of Johnny Griffin and Bill McLemore - he did the baritone. They recorded this in December of 1948 when the recording ban of the American Federation of Musicians formally still was in effect but no-one cared about it anymore. It was done for the brand new Atlantic label that had started just before the strike took off.
Here is the Weasel Walk.
12 - Johnny Griffin - Weasel Walk
13 - Eddie Williams & his Brown Buddies - Blues For Cuba
Wonderful Latin rhythms in this swinging blues of Eddie Williams & his Brown Buddies, and it featured Floyd Dixon on vocal. This '49 recording was taken straight from a 78 of the Supreme label - and you know listeners every now and then, I spice up the airwaves with some authentic shellac sound. That's what the music started to sound like when you played your 78 over and over again. That is - actually phonographs for home use were nearly exclusively fully mechanical these days, and when played on the radio it was in the poor quality of AM radio.
Well the music sounds much better these days on internet radio - and maybe you're listening with your headphone on or a good quality set of speakers to a sound quality you could only dream of in the forties, even when I put a 78 on the turntable that shows off the marks of its age.
And even when you buy a CD you're not sure you'll get CD quality sound - just when no better recording is available. On re-issue labels that attempt to be complete and extensive, often a 78 is the only available source and well, you can just hear that. Like in the next one, a blues of Buddy Moss from 1935 that was released on the Melotone label. Here he is with See What You Done Done.
14 - Buddy Moss - See What You Done Done
15 - George Noble - Sissy Man Blues
And that makes for another episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, yes listeners, time's up again, and it flies when you're hearing great music. You got the Sissy Man Blues of George Noble as today's last song and that was recorded in March of 1935 for the Vocalion label with boogie woogie pianist Cripple Clarence Lofton accompanying him.
Now you got only fifteen songs in today's show instead of seventeen - guess I've been talking a bit too much telling you stories of thirties musicians that were their time ahead, bands that existed in two cities, a little on the Sun label and the question whether a 78 sounds better in these days than in the forties. Pardon me for that, or if you prefer so, scould me and send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com - positive feedback is also greatly appreciated.
Then all that talk, you can read it back from my web site, and easiest way to get there is a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Once there, this is show 157 to find its playlist and storyline.
And that's all to say for today. I'm gonna hush my blabber mouth and you gotta wait another week for your shot of Rhythm & Blues. So have a rocking day and see you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!