This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And I know you've been waiting a whole week for this moment to come again, listeners, for that hot Rhythm & Blues, that old time jazz and the blues - all from before Rock 'n Roll struck the nation, when life was hard and the music was good.
And I wanna start in 1940 with a great musician from New Orleans, a wizard on the soprano saxophone and the clarinet - Sidney Bechet. Now postwar Rhythm & Blues rather relied on the bigger saxophones - the alto, the tenor and even bigger - before the war the soprano was pretty common.
Bechet was from a middle class Creole-of-color musical family and of all instruments he tried, he chose the clarinet. While on one of his many tours in Europe, he got to know the soprano saxophone and on that instrument he developed himself a style completely different from the clarinet.
Bechet now is considered one of the greats, but during the Depression and in the forties he experienced hard times to get work. Finally he tried his luck in Europe, and he found great success in France, and he stayed there for the rest of his life.
Here he is with his band the New Orleans Feetwarmers, on the Bluebird label with the Preaching Blues.
01 - Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Feetwarmers - Preachin' Blues
02 - Sammy Price - Black Cat Bone
Sammy Price on the piano backing up Sweet Georgia Brown on this Decca recording from 1941, the Black Cat Bone. Now the melody harks straight back to the twenties, actually, this sounds pretty close to the Black Snake Blues of Victoria Spivey. The composition is registered to this obscure Sweet Georgia Brown, whoever she may be, a name that pops up in the Decca catalog of the early forties every now and then.
And we stay with the Decca catalog, where we find a recording of Buddy Johnson and his band, backing up an obscure girl trio the Mack sisters, a close harmony group apparently modeled after the succes of the Andrews sisters. I guess Decca saw some potential in them as they released them on the 8000 'Sepia' series, dedicated to recordings of African-Americans that had potential to cross over to the white audience. They never got the recognition of the Andrews though.
Here they are with Swing along with me.
03 - Mack Sisters - Swing Along With Me.wma
04 - Ollie Shepard - It's Low Down Dirty Shame
(jingle)
05 - McKinney's Cotton Pickers - I found a new baby
06 - Richard 'Rabbit' Brown - James Alley Blues
Back from 1927 the James Alley Blues blues of Richard 'Rabbit' Brown, a bluesman and ballad singer from New Orleans where he lived in the roughtest part of town, an area named the Battlefield - and James Alley was in the heart of it. It's also the street where Louis Armstrong was born.
Of Brown we don't know very much. He was born in 1880 somewhere in Louisiana and he played the clubs and busked the streets of the Crescent City where he died in 1937. The six takes he done for Victor, most dealt with the harsh neighborhood he lived in. Some suggest he also done gospel under the name of Blind Willie Harris, but there's no more evidence on that but a strong similarity in the singing style.
You got more - before Brown, that were McKinney's Cotton Pickers, one of the leading hot jazz bands of the twenties and early thirties. The band was started in 1922 in Springfield, OH and later moved to Detroit. At some point they landed in New York where they did a lot of recordings for Bluebird and Victor - but the record executives demanded they'd play the popular tunes of the day, cause they sold better. This I found a new baby from '29 is one of them - but in a way that only the Cotton Pickers could play.
And then I have to account for what I played before the jingle, that was, from 1937 Ollie Shepard with It's Low Down Dirty Shame - released on Decca.
And we stay with the pre-depression blues for a moment with a recording of Texas Alexander on the Okeh label. Here is the Work Ox Blues.
07 - Texas Alexander - Work Ox Blues
08 - Al Cooper - See What I Mean
Great swing on the Decca label, of the Savoy Sultans of Al Cooper - you heard See What I Mean. They got their name for their long-time stint at the famous Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue - a huge and glamorous place of 10,000 square feet spanning the second floor of a whole block, with two bandstands, and its interior painted in pink, with walls full of mirrors and colored lights. Other than the Cotton Club, the audience in the Savoy was mixed - well, it was more popular with the black community, but definitely not exclusively. But you didn't get in without an jacket and tie or a fancy dress.
And some more swing from Decca with the band of Joe Brown. Here is the Red Bank Romp.
09 - Joe Brown - Red Bank Romp
10 - Bill Johnson And His Musical Notes - Stuff In D Flat.rm
More great instrumental stuff - Stuff in D Flat as the title of this one goes and you heard Bill Johnson And His Musical Notes. This was released on J. Mayo Williams' Harlem label in 1946. The Musical Notes were a jive group around Gus Gordon and Bill Johnson - before saxophonist and clarinet player in the band of Erskine Hawkins - he also arranged music and was one of the names credited for composing the classic Tuxedo Junction and Swingin' On Lenox Avenue.
Next a song on the prison that fifteen years of marriage have been to Pearl Bailey. On the Columbia label here she is with Fifteen Years And I'm Still Serving Time.
11 - Pearl Bailey - Fifteen Years
12 - Lillie Mae - Lovin' Man Blues
Lillie Mae Kirkman, a Chicago blueswoman who'd before recorded under the name of Ramona Hicks for the Bluebird label. The band that accompanies her is Memphis Slim and his House Rockers and it was taken for the Miracle label in December of 1947. Kirkman may have been billed as the Queen of the Blues in ads for local clubs, she never got national recognition.
Mext an instrumental that was released on Roy Milton's Miltone label. In fact, it was Roy Milton's Solid Senders on the recording, but it's credited to their saxman, Buddy Floyd. Here is Just Before Sunrise.
13 - Buddy Floyd - Just Before Sunrise
14 - Big Three Trio - Money Tree Blues
Great vocal stuff of the group of Willie Dixon - the Big Three trio. It was taken for the Columbia label in November 1947 - you heard the Money Tree Blues. We may know Dixon for his work for the Chess label and a lot of songwriting - I think his records with this trio are some of his best. The Big Three Trio was formed similar to the trio of Nat King Cole, that is a pianist, in their case Leonard 'Baby Doo' Caston, on guitar Bernardo Dennis who was later replaced by Ollie Crawford, and Willie Dixon on the upright bass. They were not just a vocal group, rather a good jive group that did a vocal trio like you just heard as easily as a raging boogie woogie instrumental.
Now Willie Dixon is the one who made it to the greats of the blues - but we should not forget that Baby Doo Caston initially convinced Dixon to start in music, and he was a driving force behind the Big Three Trio. When he left in 1952, and Dixon started to work for the Chess label, that broke up the trio.
And from that Chess label comes my next record. Recorded in 1955 here is Willie Mabon with Lucinda.
15 - Willie Mabon - Lucinda
16 - T.J. Fowler - T.J. Boogie
And that was the T.J. Boogie of T.J. Fowler, a great party record released on National in 1949 but recorded earlier for the local Sensation label. T.J. was named just with these initials that didn't stand for a first and middle name. He grew up in Detroit where his father owned a dance hall and he got a musical education. Most of his recordings have been done between 1948 and '53 but he played the clubs of the Motor City throughout the fifties. In '59 he helped Berry Gordy to set up his Motown label but in the sixties he retired from the music scene and worked as a landscaper.
With this record, my show of today has come to an end. You will have to wait another week for more Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, and if you're curious what will be on for next week, or you want to read back what I told you today - just go to my web site. Google will lead you there when you just search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
And of course feedback is much appreciated. You can e-mail me with questions, comments or fanmail, the address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And I promise you, everyone sending me e-mail will be replied.
For now time's up so have a rocking day, and just don't get the blues. See you next week, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!