The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 168

Legends Mix

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

And again some of the best of blues and Rhythm & Blues of the decades where no-one ever had seen teenagers scream hysterically for their idols and no-one ever heard of Rock 'n Roll as a kind of music. And still music was exciting and wonderful. So today's journey into history of African American music starts in 1928 with a rare blues duet. Victoria Spivey and Lonnie Johnson together in this impressive double-sider on the OKeh label - the Black Snake Blues.

01 - Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson - New Black Snake Blues
02 - Bertha Chippie Hill - Trouble In Mind

And even a bit older from 1926 Bertha 'Chippie' Hill with Trouble In Mind and the cornet that backs her up - that was a young Louis Armstrong and on the piano Richard Jones, and he also wrote the song. The song has a lot of versions since, including Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Georgia White, Victoria Spivey, Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone.

Bertha Hill got seven children and she didn't sing through the thirties and early forties to raise them, but she made a comeback om '46. She died a few years later after being run over by a car in New York.

Next Mabel Robinson, backed up by a string ensemble the Four Blackamoors and this recording from 1940 on Decca is one of the tracks that I found on a CD on the Document label titled Jazzin' The Blues. On that same CD also some great tracks of trumpeter Wingy Carpenter and some very interesting material of New Orleans bluesman Creole George Guesnon.

But here's Mabel Robinson and notice the violin on here, the Four Blackamoors definitely had a good fiddler on board.

03 - Four Blackamoors with Mabel Robinson - Romance In The Dark
04 - Harlem Hamfats - Mellow Little Devil

(jingle)

05 - Peetie Wheatstraw - Five Minute Blues
06 - Monette Moore - Keep 'Em Guessing

You got four in a row, after Mabel Robinson you got the Harlem Hamfats with the Mellow Little Devil. Decca producer J. Mayo Williams had put together a few musicians already under contract with him for a studio band meant for backing up blues singers such as Rosetta Howard, Frankie Jaxon and Johnny Temple. But they proved to be succesful in their own right, with the raspy voice of trumpeter Herb Morand and so, in the only three years they existed, they made some fifty records - but they never got on the road or played the clubs of Chicago in that same combination.

Then we stayed on the Decca label for a third goodie and that was the Five Minute Blues of Peetie Wheatstraw, recorded in 1940. Now Wheatstraw was still on the height of his immense popularity in St. Louis when he was killed in a car accident on his 39th birthday, in 1941.

And the last one, that was nearly a decade later. You got Monette Moore with Keep 'em Guessin' and that was one of her last recordings, done in '49 for the Columbia label. Moore had been a popular blues woman in the twenties and thirties and played in many clubs in New York and later Los Angeles.

For the next one we go to the Aladdin studio in Los Angeles, with Oakland-based Saunders King and from him you get, from 1949, the Unfaithful Blues.

07 - Saunders King - Unfaithful Blues
08 - Louis Jordan - House Party

The House Party of Louis Jordan, one of his later cuts as we're talking 1953 when this was released - as always for the Decca label. That is, by this time his popularity was waning and in '54 he moved to the Aladdin label. Jordan still remains by far the most popular African-American artist of all times, measured in record sales, in weeks stay on number one on the R&B hitlist and all kinds of statistics you can think of. Jordan's hits often crossed over to the white audience but the subjects of his songs were typically African-American. With that, he's credited for bringing the slang term chick for woman to the general public.

From the same year is the next one. Faye Adams with I Got To Leave You and that was the flip of her debut single and number one hit Shake A Hand. Disc Jockey Alan Freed dubbed her the Little Gal with the Big Voice - and for sure she has. Here is Faye Adams.

09 - Faye Adams - I've Got To Leave You
10 - Counts & Countess - Rip up the joint

The Counts and Countess - a trio consisting of Alma Smith on piano and vibraphone, guitarist John Fair and bass player Curtis Wilder. They came from Detroit and while on tour they landed in Los Angeles in 1944 where there was plentiful work for a combo with a similar line-up as Nat King Cole's. They stayed playing the clubs of Central Avenue until they disbanded in '48. This Rip Up The Joint was recorded in 1945 for the Hollywood based Melodisc label.

For the next one some some great boogie woogie with Champion Jack Dupree - a recording from 1941 on the OKeh label. Here is the Dupree Shake Dance.

11 - Champion Jack Dupree - Dupree Shake Dance
12 - Piano Red - Just Right Bounce

Piano Red banging the 88s in a recording he did for the RCA label in 1951 and that made it to a solid number 10 on the Rhythm & Blues chart. Willie Perryman as his real name was, he had learned this style in the barrelhouses where he played in the thrirties and just suddenly, after a full decade without recording opportunities and a lack of success, he saw a string of good hits with his recordings for RCA done in an Atlanta radio studio - and these hits were Rockin' With Red, Red's Boogie, The Right String But The Wrong Yo Yo, Laying the Boogie and this Just Right Bounce that you just heard.

Next from 1940 Rhythm Willie a great harmonica version of the St. James Infirmary blues. He retitled it Breathtaking blues.

13 - Rhythm Willie - Breathtaking Blues
14 - One Arm Slim - Crap Shootin' Blues

The Crap Shooting Blues of One Arm Slim, recorded for Vocalion in 1938. Lovell Alexander indeed was missing an arm that made his nickname, not uncommon among bluesmen, like with the word blind, Peg Leg or cripple in their nicknames. A career in music was a likely way to still earn some money while handicapped.

Now I already played a few Decca's today, and here's another one. From 1940 Gene Gilmore with She Got Something There.

15 - Gene Gilmore - She Got Something There
16 - Great Gates & His Wampus Cats - Cold Blooded Blues

Edward Gates White billed as the Great Gates and his Wampus Cats in a recording for the Miltone label, in fact, the last known recording for the label. By then Roy Milton had already ended his interest and cooperation in the label that bore his last name, due to problems with his business partner.

Gates born in Philadelphia in 1918 and moved to California as a kid and stayed active in music until the late fifties when he disappeared off the radar.

And we got time for one more so here is the Humble Road Boogie of Texas based country bluesman Curley Rash. On the Macy's label from Houston, here he is with the Humble Road Boogie.

17 - Curley Rash - Humble Road Boogie

And this little country boogie blues of Curley Rash ends today's show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. A mixed set as always spanning three full decades of the best of African-American music. I hope there was something in it for you and well why don't you let me know and send me an e_mail - the address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.

And all of today's story, the playlist and what's on for next week is to be found on the program's website, and easiest way to get there is to search Google - or another search engine - for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Once in, this is show number 168 in that long episodes list.

For now - I'm done for today. I hope to see you next time, when there's more great Rhythm & Blues to enjoy, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!