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 we witness the birth of a great label for the Rhythm & Blues, Mercury. It was started in 1945 with a race music series that was numbered 8000 and from that series I play today. I'll tell you more about the succesful start of this label later, I'll play you the very first issue on the series now. And that is an instrumental of trumpet wizard Rex Stewart, he'd just quit the orchestra of Duke Ellington to go out for his own and this is one of these efforts that showcase his antics on the trumpet. Here he is with the Jug Blues.
8001 - Rex Stewart - Jug Blues
8002 - Jay McShann - Hootie Boogie
Jay 'Hootie' McShann with the Hootie Boogie and that was recorded in 1945, and released as Mercury 8002 - the second release of the brand new independent record label from Chicago - but not just another indie. The label was started by two jazz fanatics, Irving Green, who'd been in the plastics industry for quite a time, and booking agent Berle Adams. They started out big by opening two large-scale pressing plants in Chicago and St. Louis, with automated equipment that was designed by Irving Green. The plants had a capacity of 700,000 disks per week on a 24/7 three-shift work schedule. With still a short on skilled workmen, so shortly after the war, the company hired and trained women for working in the pressing plant.
Berle Adams was the man with the contacts in the jazz and Rhythm & Blues world and that served the new company well. Soon they had the cream of the Rhythm & Blues under contract and that made a real jump start for the company. It enabled them to become a big player in the pop world from 1947, but their major smash was when they embraced the new microgroove long-playing record formats and released get real big with classical recordings from the early fifties.
Of course, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, it's the Rhythm & Blues that we're interested in so today I concentrate on that very first year that brought a wealth of great Rhythm & Blues in - both new musicians under contract, as masters leased and bought from other companies. Like the next one, Julia Lee who was under contract with Capitol records, but she got a few releases for the Mercury label like the next one. Here she is on Mercury 8005 with her Show Me Missouri Blues.
8005 - Julia Lee - Show Me Missouri Blues
8006 - Bill Samuels & the Cats 'n Jammer Three - That Chick's Too Young To Fry
(jingle)
8007 - Albert Ammons feat. Mildred Anderson - Doin' The Boogie Woogie
8009 - Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson - Too Many Women Blues
Four in a row, four great goodies from the early Mercury label. After Julia Lee's blues, you got Bill Samuels and his Cats & Jammer Three, a very versatile group that could do anything from great vocal ballads to great jive songs. Just compare this version to the big hit Louis Jordan had with it just a few months before - he made a completely different version of it.
You got more - after the jingle Albert Ammons hammered his piano on Doin' The Boogie Woogie with vocals of Mildred Anderson recorded in April of 1946. And last was Eddie Cleanhead Vinson backed by his own large band, with - well many men would call that a luxury problem - too many women showing their interest in him. The Too Many Women Blues was number 8009 of the brand new Mercury label that I spotlight here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
And the next one in the catalog is another big name in Rhythm & Blues. Queen of the blues she dubbed herself - here is Dinah Washington with Oo Wee Walkie Talkie.
8010 - Dinah Washington - Oo Wee Walkie Talkie
8011 - Helen Humes - Jumpin' On Sugar Hill
Helen Humes did a session with the band of Buck Clayton that yielded some great blues and this is one of them. On Mercury 8011 that was Jumpin' On Sugar Hill. Humes had just left the West Coast based Philo label where she done some of her finest blues.
And for the next in the catalog we return to Bill Samuels and his vocal group the Cats & Jammer Three, that took its name from a comic in a newspaper, the Katzenjammer Kids. They were both a smooth vocal quartet and a jive group, and they could sound like Nat King Cole's trio, the Ink Spots, or the Cats and The Fiddle or the West Coast based Four Blazes. The whole legacy of the group is to be found on a CD of the Classics series. Unfortunately it was short-lived, in 1948 the group broke up and Bill Samuels did just a few recordings since.
So enjoy their presence on the Mercury roster. Here is Port Wine.
8012 - Bill Samuels & the Cats 'n Jammer Three - Port Wine
8013 - Julia Lee - Dream Lucky Blues
On Mercury 8013 Julia Lee with the Dream Lucky Blues, the flip of her famous song on the marijuana Lotus Blossom, that I played a few times already here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Julia Lee is most known for her postwar dirty blues, but I'd be doing her wrong crediting her only with that - she done much better songs and Lotus Blossom was one of them. Born in 1902 she was a middle-aged woman when she got most of her success, but there are some earlier recordings of her around with her brother George Lee. I'll play them in later shows for you.
The next one we get Jay McShann again, here fronted by Charles 'Crown Prince' Waterford. Waterford would soon be followed up by Jimmy Witherspoon but he and McShann recorded again on several later occasions. Here is the Crown Prince Boogie.
8014 - Jay McShann feat. Crown Prince Waterford - Crown Prince Boogie
8016 - T-Bone Walker - My Baby Left Me
Well with that typical style on the electrical guitar that unmistakably was T-Bone Walker. You got My Baby Left Me, recorded in December of 1945 and released on Mercury 8016. T-Bone Walker was ranked number 67 in Rolling Stones Magazine's list of greatest guitarists of all time - much lower than B.B. King, and he'd said of Walker that first time he heard him play, he thought Jesus Christ had returned to play the guitar.
And next up is an obscure vocal group - not everything Mercury released was solid gold. This is a cover of an answer song to Lucky Millinder's Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well. Bull Moose Jackson had done that answer song for the Queen label, titled I know Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well. Here is the version of the Four Bluejackets.
8017 - Four Bluejackets - I Know Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well
8018 - Jay McShann feat. Jimmy Witherspoon - Roll on Katy
And for the third time that is Jay McShann, now with Jimmy Witherspoon as his front man. You got Roll On Katy and that was number 8018 in the catalog. Jay McShann had a large band before the war, but unfortunately very few recordings were made with his full outfit. Decca manager Jack Kapp thought McShann rather fit in the Rhythm & Blues. The band broke up when McShann was drafted for the war and later he never re-established it - his outfit backing Jimmy Witherspoon is a sextet.
And we make a little jump to number 8022 with Albert Ammons. I Don't Want To See You is sung by Jack Cooley with the boogie-woogie on of the master.
8022 - Albert Ammons feat. Jack Cooley - I Don't Want To See You
8025 - Myra Taylor - The Spider and The Fly
8027 - Myra Taylor - Take It Easy, Greasy
And two goodies of Myra Taylor make up for the end of this special on the first issues of the Mercury label - you got The Spider and The Fly on catalog number 8025 and on 8027 Take It Easy, Greasy. Myra Taylor had one of the longest lasting careers in show business, starting as a teenager in the early thirties and having her final performance in July of 2011 in the Jardine nightclub in Kansas City, with the Wild Women of Kansas City. She was 94 years old then, just a few months before she died in a geriatic center in her hometown.
And so I hope you liked today's show and well feedback is greatly appreciated. Let me know, the address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And all of today's show you can find it back on the website of the show. Do a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. For this show, go to number 193 in that long list of episodes. Of course, you can also see what will be on for next week.
For now I'm done, so have a rocking day. There will be more great Rhythm & Blues next week. Hope to see you then, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!