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 a spotlight on the instrumentals that normally just spice up my talking aqs background music. They deserve more exposure - and so here it goes and I wanna start with a phenomenal band of the forties. Now all-female big bands, there had been more of them, but not only this was the only racially integrated all-female band, but also of great fame, often outplaying the great names like as Erskine Hawkins and Earl Hines in so-called battles of the bands in venues such as Chicago's Rhumboogie club.
Originally it was a high school band of a school for the poor in Piney Woods, MS, mostly African-American orphaned children, and they were sent on the road to raise funds for the school. Now that way, they soon got national recognition and after the band cut its ties with the school, also other members got in. In '43 it had a Chinese saxophonist and one from India, a clarinetist from Mexico and the trumpeter was born in Hawaii - and also a few white musicians. That caused them big problems while touring the South, where such mixed bands were taboo.
Also, they may have been a sensation wherever they played, but their earnings were way below average and they never got on record during their existance. While in Los Angeles, they did quite a few soundies though and some recordings for the Armed Forces overseas - and these later were re-released on record, when the feminist movement rediscovered them.
So let's play one of them. Here are the International Sweethearts of Rhythm with Lady Be Good.
01 - International Sweethearts of Rhythm - Lady Be Good
02 - Ike Quebec - Topsy
From 1945 on the Blue Note jazz label Ike Quebec and his Swing Seven. Quebec was saxophonist in quite a few bands including Cab Calloway, Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins. Here he leads his own group - and for the Blue Note label he also was a talent scout and arranger.
Next another sax player, and he never made it into the decade of the saxophone, the forties, as he died in 1941 in a car crash. Would he have lived longer, I'm sure he would have been considered one of the greats of the saxophone, like Lester Young or Coleman Hawkins. Chu Berry plyed in the bands of Fletcher Henderson and Cab Calloway but he also played as a sideman and four sessions where he was credited as a leader. This comes from his 1938 session for the Commodore label. Here is Forty Six West Fifty Two.
03 - Chu Berry - Forty Six West Fifty Two
04 - Lester Young - Lester Blows Again
(jingle)
05 - Tab Smith - On The Sunny Side Of The Street
06 - Eddie Chamblee - Goin' Long
Four saxophonists were that - after Chu Berry you got Lester Young with Lester Blows Again and that was from 1945 on the Aladdin label. Then after the jingle you got, from 1952, Tab Smith with the Sunny Side Of The Street - and Smith was the most prolific artists on the United label - with his 24 singles he did a fifth of United's output, and even more recordings went unreleased - making a total of 85.
Then finally saxophonist Eddie Chamblee with an instrumental from 1957 on the Mercury label. By then he had married his highschool sweetheart Dinah Washington - but for her it was her fifth marriage, and it wouldn't be her last. Her marriage with Eddie Chamblee didn't last long and he had to find out that Ruth Lee Jones - her real name - was someone else than Dinah Washington had become.
For the next one another saxophonist, Joe Houston, and when the honking style of saxophone playing got in fashion, he switched from alto to tenor sax and switched to that style. The next one is a fine example of that. From 1955 on the Imperial label, here he is with the Guided Missile.
07 - Joe Houston - Guided Missile
08 - Hot Lips Page - Rockin' At Ryans
From 1944 the band of trumpeter Hot Lips Page and that featured Lucky Thompson on the saxophone. Texas-born Oran Page landed in Kansas City in 1931, by then a hotbed for the emerging swing scene. He joined Bennie Moten's band and often appeared in the orchestra of Count Basie, but he chose not to stay with the Count and go out on his own. Now like Basie, he went to New York to find his luck. But Page never got as successful as Basie, but he did make over two hundred recordings, and he also backed up many a session, like Wynonie Harris on his groundbreaking Good Rocking Tonight and Pearl Bailey on her version of the Huclebuck.
Next another great of that Kansas City scene, Jay McShann. He lead a large scale big band but that's been recorded only on a handful of sides - Decca producer Jack Kapp saw more future in him as a blues pianist. So most recordings were done with only a few members of the lineup. After the war and the '42-44 recording strike of the American Federation of Musicians, the era for the big bands was over. And so we can only get an impression of what McShann's band could do. Here he is, from 1941, with the Sepian Bounce.
09 - Jay McShann - Sepian Bounce
10 - Tom Archia - Macomba Jump
The Macomba Jump of Tom Archia, from October of 1947 on the Aristocrat label from Chicago. Archia was born in Texas and joined Milt Larkin's band in 1940 - by then the biggest band in Houston. He moved to Chicago when the whole Larkins outfit had a nine-month stint in the Rhumboogie club - following T-bone Walker who'd played off the roof of the joint.
This Macomba Jump was named after the Macomba Lounge, owned by Leonard Chess - the owner of the Aristocrat label and of course we know him of the Chess label that followed up Aristocrat.
Next on the Prestige label from 1955 - the Blue Roller of Gene Ammons.
11 - Gene Ammons - Blue Roller
12 - King Perry & The Pied Pipers - Voot Rock
The Voot Rock of King Perry & The Pied Pipers on the Melodisc label and that was from 1946. Melodisc was a small label from Hollywood, picking up on the thriving Rhythm & Blues and jazz scene on Los Angeles Central Avenue and it's roster was promising, but unfortunately the building burnt down to the ground and it was never re-opened.
Next another great of the Los Angeles scene - Jack McVea, most remembered for putting the music under the comedy sketch Open The Door Richard, but in fact - a good jazz and Rhythm & Blues saxophonist and band leader. Here he is with a 1947 release on the Black & White label with Bulgin' Eyes.
13 - Jack McVea - Bulgin' Eyes
14 - Lennie Lewis - Blue Flame
Straight from the 78, The Blue Flame of Lennie Lewis recorded for the Queen label in 1946 - Queen being the race music subsidiary of the King label. At some point in '47 it merged with the King label, that until then had specialized on hillbilly.
For the next one we go to the Atlantic label with Joe Morris, by then somewhat the house band of the label. From 1951 here he is with the Midnight Grinder.
15 - Joe Morris - Midnight Grinder
16 - Ace Harris - Jam On Toast
(jingle)
17 - Todd Rhodes - Specks
18 - Louis Jordan - I Found A New Baby
And a whole lotta music that was again, after Joe Morris you got pianist Ace Harris with the Jam On Toast, released in 1948 on the Hub label. Harris by then had just left the outfit of Erskine Hawkins where he'd been the pianist for three years - and he would rejoin the Hawk back in 1950.
The after the jingle you got Todd Rhodes with Specks, a single he did for the King label in 1954 and then finally, the last one was an instrumental performance of Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five that he did for the Armed Forces overseas in the AFRS Jubilee show. I Found A New Baby - an old jazz classic from the twenties, and there's a great version out there, from 1925, of Ethel Waters that I promise to play next week here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
Well yes, time's up so I can only tell you my e-mail address where you can leave any feedback - well appreciated - and of course on my web site there's all that I told you today written in a transcript of this show, plus the playlist and of course you can also see what'll be on the menu for next week. Do a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up immediately. In that long list of episodes, this was show number 171.
Next week there'll be another show, so tune in again for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!