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 mix of the best of Rhythm & Blues from decades gone, when life was hard and the music was great. African-American music from before Rock 'n Roll struck the nation, the roots of all of our modern popular music.
And I wanna start with the musical genius who often is credited for inventing soul music - Ray Charles. But way before he had his big hits for the Atlantic label, just after he'd moved from Florida to the city most remote from the Sunshine State, Seattle, he teamed up with local musicians Gossie McKee and Milton Garret. It was a line-up modeled after Nat King Cole's succesful trio. Now Ray Charles always said he wanted to sound like Nat King Cole, but his troublesome blues actually were closer to the style of Charles Brown. From Ray Charles last name - Robinson, and the Mc from Gossie McKee, they formed the name McSon Trio, but the name got corrupted on their very first single for the Down Beat label as Maxin trio.
It was in Seattle's jazz club The Rocking Chair that Jack Lauderdale, executive of Down Beat records, scouted the trio and they were brought to the studio the very next day. Confession Blues was the very first record, and it made it to number five on Billboards Rhythm & Blues hit list. First on today's playlist is the second record of Ray Charles on the Down Beat label. Here is the Blues Before Sunrise.
01 - Ray Charles - Blues Before Sunrise
02 - Eddie Vinson - Peas And Rice
Peas and rice of Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson, a composition of Milt Larkin and that was on the King label, recorded in 1950. Saxophonist Vinson started in Milt Larkin's band back in the late thirties. In Cootie Williams band he could first excel as a blues shouter with his typical vocal tricks that the kept on using, also on this goodie.
Next a T-Bone Walker recording from December 1947, recorded in that frenzy month before the '48 strike of the American Federation of Musicians. The record companies were stockpiling masters not to run out of material for the next year but it turned out they had way too much. This was one of the tracks that didn't get on record until years later, in 1958 on a Capitol album.
Here is I Wish You Were Mine.
03 - T-Bone Walker - I Wish You Were Mine
04 - Smokey Hogg - Long Tall Mama
(jingle)
05 - Big Mama Thornton - How Come
06 - Wild Bill Moore & Shifty Henry - Boulevard Boogie
From 1945 saxophonist Wild Bill Moore together with Wilbert Baranco on the piano in Shifty Henry's band. You got the Boulevard Boogie and that was on the Apollo label. Moore was one of many musicians that started a career as a boxer. He was born in Texas but by the late thirties he lived in Detroit where he won the Golden Gloves of Michigan in 1937. By 1945 he had landed in Los Angeles where he played in the clubs of Central Avenue and did session work with Crhistine Chatman, Helen Humes, Slim Gaillard and as a member of Shifty Henry's all stars backing Duke Henderson.
You got more - from 1955 Big Mama Thornton with How Come on the Peacock label, and before the jingle, that was the Long Tall Mama of Smokey Hogg, recored in December of 1947 in Houston for the Modern label.
And we stay in 1947, just half a year before, with Wynonie Harris. After his separation with Lucky Millinder he had signed for the Philo label, that later became Aladdin. It's for this label where he recorded the next one, the Big City Blues.
07 - Wynonie Harris - Big City Blues
08 - Buster Bailey Rhythm Busters - Light Up
And with that we jumped into the late thirties with Buster Bailey and his Rhythm Busters - you heard Light up and that was recorded in '38 for the Vocalion label. Bailey had played the clarinet and the soprano saxophone for many years, he started in W.C. Handy's band at the age of fifteen in 1917. Since then he was a member of some great bands - Erskine Tate's Vendome Orchestra, King Oliver's Creole Jazz band and the band of Fletcher Henderson and as a sideman with Perry Bradford, Clarence Williams, Noble Sissle, John Kirby and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band. The Rhythm Busters were musicians from that same circle, including saxophonist Pete Brown, bassman John Kirby and trumpeter Charlie Shavers.
You'll get more pre-war stuff later, but first from 1951 Oh What a Face of Sticks McGhee. Granville McGhee got his nickname for pushing his disabled brother Brownie McGhee in a cart with a stick. Sticks is most remembered for his Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee that he first did in 1946 for J. Mayo Williams Harlem label, but he re-recorded in two years later for Atlantic where it became a big hit. In both versions, the lyrics were cleaned and the word spo-de-o-dee came for the M-word that I can't use in this decent, G-rated program.
But here is anoher song, Oh What A Face.
09 - Sticks McGhee - Oh What A Face
10 - Jimmy Witherspoon - In The Evening
The slow, after hours atmosphere with the orchestra of Buddy Tate - you heard In The Evening. It was recorded in November of 1947 for the Supreme label and the lead voice is Jimmy Witherspoon. This made it to number 5 in the Rhythm & Blues list - just after Witherspoon's number one hit Ain't Nobody's Business that he done with Jay McShann.
From him to a bluesman.. and his influence that was to become huge in the Rock 'n Roll era, as Elvis covered several of his songs. This was one of them. The King of Rock 'n Roll did it in 1956 in a smooth performance - but this gritty ditty was recorded a whole decade before. It's Arthur Big Boy Crudup that I'm talking about - and here is So Glad You're Mine.
11 - Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - So Glad You're Mine
12 - Sonny Boy Williamson - Pontiac Blues
The Pontiac Blues of Sonny Boy Williamson - Sonny Boy the second that was, from 1951 on the Trumpet label from Jackson, MS. This Aleck 'Rice' Miller took the name of an existing Chicago bluesman John Lee Curtis Williamson, better known as Sonny Boy, and the reasons why are not clear. One legend has it that he tried to escape conviction for stealing a mule that he'd painted white to conceal that it was his neigbors - but the paint wasn't rain proof. Now that's a story of a kind that's hard to believe. Fact is, that on the legendary King Biscuit Time radio program on KFFA of Helena, AK, he was billed Sonny Boy Williamson.
The owner of the Trumpet label, Lillian McMurry, had heard of this bluesman with his legendary sounding name and she brought him to Jackson, MS. It took her years to find out about his borrowed name. Sonny Boy Williamson the 2nd became Trumpet's greatest asset. Unfortunately, Miller was ill-mannered and he had a short temper - but for some reason McMurry always helped him out of trouble and even gave him advances on his royalties.
And it's a long journey from small-town Mississippi to the Big Apple. Next up a blueswoman whose name so much sounded like a stage name that long time, blues scholars thought it was - she was mixed up with Muriel Nichols, a Philadephia-born singer. Cause for the mix up was a record of J. Mayo Williams' Harlem label where Nichols was billed as Muriel Bea Booze Nicols. But Booze was the real name of the singer who was four years younger and born in Baltimore, MD. For Decca she recorded a number one hit just before the big strike of the American Federation of Musicians that started in August of 1942 - a cover of Ma Rainey's See See Rider where she was backed up on piano by Sammy Price. Now Price does the 88's on this one as well. Here is Bea Booze with So Good.
13 - Bea Booze - So Good
14 - Bill Gaither - Rainy Morning
The Rainy Morning Blues of Bill Gaither - and in these days he recorded under the name of Leroy's Buddy in honor of his good friend Leroy Carr who'd died in '35 of kidney disease after a short life of heavy drinking. Gaither done over a hundred recordings for OKeh and Decca, often backed up by George "Honey" Hill on the piano.
Next a song about a gambling game that had come over from Mexico, back in the 19th century, and that brought many players to poverty. On the legendary Black Patti label from back in 1927, here is the obscure Kid Brown with Bo-Lita.
15 - Kid Brown and His Blue Band - Bo-Lita
16 - Rosetta Howard & the Harlem Hamfats - Stay Away From My Door
Stay away from my door, and that unmistakably were the Harlem Hamfats backing Rosetta Howard. The studio band was put together by Decca producer J. Mayo Williams as the house band of Decca's race division, but soon they got popular in their own right after their smash hit Oh Red, that became somewhat of a blues standard.
And there's time for one more, so let's hear Bessie Smith with one of her vaudeville like songs full of double entendre - here she is with her Kitchen Man.
17 - Bessie Smith - Kitchen Man
The Empress of the Blues - Bessie Smith and with her we end today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Smith joined the traveling band of Moses Stokes in 1912, an outfit that already had Ma Rainey, and soon worked with other artists and she became the regular attraction of the '81' Theatre in Atlanta. She signed with Columbia in 1923 and this goodie was on that label, from 1929. Her records sold well and so did her performances for the Theater Owners Booking Association or T.O.B.A.
Her career was effectively ended though by the Depression, when times were tough for record companies, and the advent of talking movies, that made vaudeville theatre less popular. She did record a few blues for OKeh in the thirties, backed up by a combo of swing musicians, but they were not succesful. Bessie died in 1937 in a car accident.
And with that we end today's show - a mix of great goodies from the twenties to the mid-fifties as you're used from me. I always try to please you with some of the best music that's around - and I hope you liked it. Of course you can let me know - drop me an e-mail at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Then there's my web site where you can read back all the information I gave you today - a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman directs you straight to the home page. This was show 187 in that list of shows that I done up to now.
Next week I'll get you another shot of Rhythm & Blues. Until the, stay safe and don't get the blues. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!