This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Lola, you succesfully woke up the bunch, thank you. Today's set is a mix of leftovers from other shows - most of them sets on record labels. With sets on record labels, I usually play one side per issue number, so that makes for a lot of flipsides that I still had to play. And that's what my set's been made of today.
And I first go to a show I did over a year ago - on J. Mayo Williams' independent labels Harlem, Chicago, Southern and Ebony. Ultra-rare stuff as these records hardly sold, and they're still awaiting a re-issue program. And add to that, most of the artists are extremely obscure.
From that show here is on the Chicago label, Lee Brown with My Little Girl Blues
01 - C104B - Lee Brown - My Little Girl Blues
02 - 8004 - Mozelle Alderson - Sobbin' The Blues
The very own style of blues of Mozelle Alderson and her pianist Judson Brown - you heard Sobbin' The Blues and with that we stayed with J. Mayo Williams with that other record label he had owned, back in 1927, the legendary Black Patti label. It was named after the nickname of an African American opera singer around the turn of the century, Sissieretta Jones.
Black Patti records were sold from a mail order catalog and that - together with their age - explains for how rare they are. Still most of them have been re-found and they've been re-issued on various compilations of early blues. Glad they did, 'cause the 78s sell for tenthousands of dollars on E-Bay.
I got one more for today on this legendary label. Here is Elnora Johnson with I Like That Thing (Called The Black Bottom)
03 - 8033 - Elnora Johnson - I Like That Thing (Called The Black Bottom)
04 - 30003 - Memphis Minnie & Lil Son Joe - True Love.mp3
Memphis Minnie and her husband Lil Son Joe with a recording they did for the Columbia label, released in '45 and I did a special on that label some weeks ago. True Love was the title of this, pretty much not like a title for a blues - most deal with the troubles of no-good men or women.
Like the next one. On the same label, and from the same show is the Bad Acting Woman of Big Bill Broonzy. Here it is.
05 - 30023 - Big Bill Broonzy - Bad Acting Woman.mp3
06 - 19 - Johnny 'Man' Young - Let Me Ride Your Mule
A year ago I did a show on the Old Swing Master label and this blues, Let Me Ride Your Mule of Johnny 'Man' Young was one of the records that I played the flipside of, My Baby Walked Out On Me. The Old Swing Master was a small and rare label owned by Chicago studio owner Egmont Sonderling, and he started pressing and selling records himself when one of his customers, the Vitacoustic label, went bankrupt and the only way to get something back of the nearly 14,000 dollars the label owed him, is to get the money out of the masters that were still in his office, and that he succesfully had kept out of the hands of the IRS.
Now the problem was, that this was in 1948 and '49. 1848 was the year of the strike of the American Federation of Musicians and all labels had recording like crazy in the last month of '47, not to run out of music to release while the strike lasted. It turned out that they'd been recording far too much, and '47 masters hardly had no selling value, and so he had to release them himself. Sonderling also released masters of other labels who owed him money.
Local DJ Al Benson lent his nickname Old Swing Master to the label and made sure the records got airplay. It didn't turn out to be a succes anyhow - records of the label are pretty rare. In 1950 Sonderling closed down his label and sold the studio to start radio stations in Chicago and New York.
Al Benson started a new record label, Parrot, in 1953 and I did a show on that one too. I played the flip titled Rebecca in that show, so here the other side. Blues shouter and comedian Doctor Jo Jo Adams, backed up by Red Saunders and his band - one of the great attractions of the famous Club DeLisa in Chicago. That daring arrangement is from a local musical genius who had just changed his name from Sonny Blount into Sun Ra. Here is Call Me Baby.
07 - 788 - Jo Jo Adams - Call Me Baby.wav
08 - 184 - Big Memphis Marainey - Call Me Anything But Call Me
From the legendary Sun label of Memphis this was a blueswoman dubbed Big Memphis Marainey with Call Me Anything But Call Me - and she had nothing to do with the real Ma Rainey who was dead for fifteen years when this was recorded. The real name of this lady was Lillie Mae Glover, the daughter of a preacher and as a young teenager she ran away from home to join a medicine show - they were still around in 1920. Later she settled in Memphis and got advertised as the queen of Beale Street.
Next two goodies from the Brunswick label of 1931. You will get Gene Campbell with the Main Papa's Blues and That New Kinda Stuff of Lovin Sam Theard.
09 - 7206 - Gene Campbell - Main Papa's Blues.mp3
10 - 7218 - Lovin Sam Theard - That New Kinda Stuff.mp3
(jingle)
11 - 1549 - Percy Mayfield - How Wrong Can A Good Man Be.wav
12 - 1505 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Frogimore Blues.wav
Two blues from the Supreme label, that I did a show on a few months ago. Supreme was founded in the fall of 1947 and that's when this Frogimore blues of Jimmy Witherspoon was recorded. Before that you got How Wrong Can A Good Man Be, the very last issue of the label and by then - we're talking 1950 now - the label had succumbed to financial troubles after losing a lawsuit against Decca for plagiarism on Paula Watson's novelty song A Little Bird Told Me.
The next one is from a special I did on the Miracle label - and that's over a year ago. Here is Memphis Slim with Angel Child.
13 - 145 - Memphis Slim - Angel child
14 - 1536 - Goree Carter - Come On Let's Boogie
Goree Carter with a great boogie blues - Come On Let's Boogie and you got a great sampler of his guitar playing talents in the intro and the break of this goodie. Carter was one of the stars of the Freedom label of Houston, and I did two shows spotlighting the label, one about half a year ago, the other one back in the first year I ran the show.
The next one is not from a special on a record label - I devoted a show on soundies some three months ago. Soundies were short video clips of popular musicians of the time, and you could view them in the Panoram coin machines, that at their heydays were placed in bus stations, soda shops and drugstores all over the country. You had to put a dime in it - twice as much as in the juke box - and you had no choice of what was gonna play next. So you'd better be lucky that is was something as good as the next one. Backed up by Roy Milton and his Solid Senders, here is June Richmond with Ride On, Ride On.
15 - June Richmond - Ride On, Ride On
16 - Roy Milton - Flying Home
Flying Home - the composition of Lionel Hampton done by Roy Milton and his Solid Senders. Miton performed this on an episode of the AFRS Jubilee show, a radio show especially for the armed forces overseas during the war and the aftermath years. Flying Home was done pretty often on the show and for a reason of course, as all soldiers longed to that moment that they would be flying home - or sailing home, as most have returned over sea.
I done a show on this radio show two months ago, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, and these AFRS shows feature live performances of unique combinations of artists and also, from 1942 to '44, they were one of the very few sources of recorded music, as the American Federation of Musicians held their first recording strike, but they'd made an exception for these shows aimed at the troops who defended America. In these shows, a few very unique examples of early bebop jazz can be found - the making of bebop is hardly documented in recordings due to the strike.
The AFRS Jubilee! show was aimed at the African-American units of the armed forces - the US Army these days was as segregated as the Deep South, with the Black units mostly not engaged in combat but for supporting purposes. That was not just quite inefficient, but lots of Blacks who served had the feeling they were denied the chance to fight and defend the country. Only when the personnel shortages on the battlefield became so urgent that it hampered the chances to win the war, African American soldiers were allowed to volunteer for combat - and they did so, on a large scale.
Segregation has been a significant part of American history and it's played a major role in American music. I spent many words, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman to stress the importance of this piece of history, and the key role African American music played in the making of Rock 'n Roll and all subsequent styles of mainstream popular music. Of course you can always share your thoughts on that with me and send me an e-mail at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.
Today's playlist and story, you can find them back on the website of my radio program, and easiest way to find is to do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. To find this show, scroll way down in that long list of episodes to find show number 159 - this one.
For today I'm done - and I wish you a rocking week until the next show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!