This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And another great mix of Rhythm & Blues for this week, from times long gone, when life was hard and the music was great. You could either hear the music on the juke box, on your own victrola phonograph or catch it live in the local juke joint or - when the music was somewhat more upscale - one of the great clubs in town. And for the latter you might find Sammy Price somewhere in a Chicago club, with his band the Texas Blusicians. This great instrumental is on the Decca label where he had most of his recordings, from 1942. Here is Teed Up.
01 - Sam Price - All teed up
02 - Al Cooper - Gettin' In The Groove
And we stayed on the Decca label with this goodie. From 1938 Al Cooper and his Savoy Sultans with Gettin' In The Groove, from 1938. The Savoy Sultans were the regular band of the Savoy Ballroom, from 1937 to '47.
The Savoy was a spacious and upscale venue on Lenox Avenue in Harlem, a place where both white and black could hang out. Skin color was irrelevant - as long as you could dance and you were dressed immaculately. It's one of these many places with a magic name that don't exist anymore - it was demolished together with another legendary Harlem venue, the Cotton Club, to make space for a housing project, and only a plaque between 140th and 141st Street reminds us of the place where the Lindy Hop was born and the greats of swing played.
As for the Savoy Sultans, they only got their recognition for the praise Dizzy Gillespie gave them, but on many of their recordings, the horns sound somewhat out of tune - and part of their records were issued on the Sepia series or even the Race series where most swing got on the popular series. That indicates that the Decca did not regard this band as a top notch combo.
For the next one we'll stay on the race series of Decca but with a very obscure singer - she made only one single for Decca, back in 1936. Justine Lamar is being accompanied by an equally obscure combo - Dot Scott's Rhythm Band.
Now funny thing is, I often google for pictures of artists I play on here, and it yielded the cover of an album - I thought. Lately, these music services such as Spotify of Deezer, they have some kinda virtual albums and this cover was one of them - containing the only two sides of that Decca single. So here it goes - Justine Lamar with That'll Never Work With Me.
03 - Justine Lamar - That'll Never Work With Me
04 - Lead belly - The Bourgeois Blues
(jingle)
05 - Joe Brown - Beaumont Street Blues
06 - Big Boy Teddy Edwards - Lovin' Blues
That were four in a row - after Justine Lamar you got folk singer and bluesman Leadbelly with the Bourgeois Blues. Now this song has some communist oriented lyrics, but whether Huddie Ledbetter - as his real name was - really had communist sympathies is unlikely. He *was* a friend of Richard Wright, the writer who was, back in the thirties, a member of the Communist Party, but he also wrote a campaign song for Wendell Willkie, a Republican cadidate for president.
A three-page article in Life Magazine of April 1937 - including a full-page color picture of the musician - depicts Ledbetter as a criminal who got his way out of prison by pleasing governors with songs adressed to them in a musical plea to get him released - and twice this worked. Leadbetter served time in prison for murder and attempt to murder, and he was pardoned twice after serving his minimum time, for good behavior. His association with John and Alan Lomax, the father and son who did so much good work recording blues and folk musicians in the pre-war period, set his name as a folk musician. While out of prison he made fame with the folk affectionados but he never lived to see the great folk revival of the sixties - he died in 1949 at the age of 61.
You got more - after the jingle came the Beaumont Street Blues of Joe Brown and his band, a pretty underrated saxophone player whose name pops up in the postwar bebop scene, but here he is with a nice swing number that was released in 1940 on the Decca Sepia series.
Then finally that blues was the Lovin' Blues of Big Boy Teddy Edwards and for that we made a big dive back to 1930 - and that was straight from a 78 of the Vocalion label.
Next a 1946 recording of Bertha 'Chippie' Hill - the Charleston Blues. For the time it sounds terribly old-fashioned, in a style harking back to the thirties. But who cares now - all that I play is old-fashioned. So here is the Charleston Blues.
07 - Bertha 'Chippie' Hill - Charleston Blues
08 - Champion Jack DuPree - Bad Health Blues
From 1941 on the OKeh label the Bad Health Blues of Champion Jack DuPree. Dupree was from New Orleans and he earned his nickname for his career as a professional boxer once he'd moved to Chicago, brought into the sports by the great Joe Louis himself. Dupree won the Golden Gloves but by 1930 he returned to the blues and got introduced to Lester Melrose, the influential producer of blues for several labels including OKeh.
For the next one we go to one of the very few bluesmen of the thirties who wasn't black. Blind Willie Dunn is a pseudonym of Salvatore Massaro, from an Italian-American family from Philadelphia, but he's better known as Eddie Lang. As Blind Willie Dunn he teamed up with Lonnie Johnson. A white man playing the blues was unheard of in 1929 when this was recorded, and he must have chosen that bluesman's name for commercial reasons and to conceal the mixed-race nature of the group, that also incorporated King Oliver, Hoagy Carmichael and J.C. Johnson. Here they are as Blind Willie Dunn's Gin Bottle Four with the Jet Black Blues.
09 - Blind Willie Dunn's Gin Bottle Four - Jet Black Blues
10 - Camille Howard Trio - Ferocious Boogie
And with that we made a big jump of two decades, with the Ferocious Boogie of Camille Howard on the piano and members of Roy Milton's Solid Senders to what was billed as the Camille Howard Trio. It was recorded in 1950 for the Specialty label.
And next up is Andrew Tibbs backed up by Tom Archia and his All Stars, recorded in October of 1947 for the Aristocrat label. Here he is with the Same Old Story.
11 - Andrew Tibbs - Same Old Story
12 - Gene Phillips - Hey Now
*Recorded somewhere in '47 this Louis Jordan soundalike song was done by Gene Phillips - you heard Hey Now. But Gene Phillips rather was influenced by T-Bone Walker than Jordan - you just wouldn't tell from this record.
And for the next one here is Oscar Pettiford with a combo that included Dizzy Gillespie, Shelly Manne, Don Byas, Al Casey, Bill Coleman and Vic Dickenson. A great double-sider - here is the Empty Bed Blues.
13 - Oscar Pettiford - Empty Bed Blues
14 - Bob Merrill - Wrong Neighborhood
The Wrong Neighborhood - you heard the orchestra of Cootie Williams, fronted by blues shouter Bob Merrill and it was recorded for the Capitol label in 1946.
And for the next one we go to the breakthrough record of Percy Mayfield - first released on the Supreme label in 1947 and when that went bust, it saw a re-release on the Hollywood-based Dolphin label. Here is Two Years Of Torture.
15 - Percy Mayfield - Two Years Of Torture
16 - Ella Johnson - Don't Shout At Me, Daddy
Don't Shout At Me Daddy - from as late as 1958 that was the band of Buddy Johnson fronted by sister Ella and they recorded this for the Mercury label. Only 2 minutes and a few odd seconds short, this had gone a typical length for late fifties records, about a full minute less than in the forties and before.
And with that we end today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. I hope you liked today's set, that spanned a good three decades, and of course you can let me know and send me an e-mail. All feedback is greatly appreciated - rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com is the address. And all of today's story is to be found on the website - find it with a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. Today's show is number 186 in that list of shows I done already. Of course, the site will also tell what'll be on for next week.
Cause that's how long you're gonne have to wait for your next shot of Rhythm & Blues. Until then, don't get the blues. Have a rocking good time, and I hope to see you next time here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!