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 the best of Rhythm & Blues, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and for sure, legends is what you're gonna get from me. Like the first one. We know Helen Humes best for her recordings she did with the West Coast labels Philo and Modern, and hits like Be-Baba-Leba and the Million Dollar Secret - but long before, at the age of fourteen, she done two sessions for the OKeh label with guitarist Sylvester Weaver. She'd auditioned in a talent contest a year before and this Sylvester Weaver was guitarist in the accompanying band. It was him who recommended her with OKeh.
So the next one is a very early blues of Helen Humes. From 1927 here is her Garlic Blues.
01 - Helen Humes - Garlic Blues
02 - Tiny Parham - Stuttering Blues
And we stay in the roaring twenties with Tiny Parham - you got the Stuttering Blues that made it to a release on the Victor label as well as on their budget label Bluebird. Parham was one of the many jazz greats from Kansas City and in 1926 he settled in Chicago. Typical for his recordings were a pretty noisy tuba and great violin solos - well no strings in this last one though. He wrote most of the songs he recorded, himself. In 1930 Victor did not renew his contract - like they done with more bands, probably the Depression forced them to to cut cost. There are a few recordings on Decca from 1940 where he plays the organ, and together with the Victor recordings, that's about all there is, just enough to compile two CDs on the Classics label.
As I said - Parham was not the only victim of Victor's cost cutting measures. For Fess Williams 1930 also meant the end of the contract, and in his case, also for his band the Royal Flush Orchestra, that played the Savoy of Harlem up to 1930.
In the next one he squeezes quite a few extraordinary sounds out of his saxophone - with advanced techniques as slap tonguing, and circular breathing. That is blowing out the last wind with a mouth full of air while in the meantime breathing in. That way you don't need to pause for breathing - necessary on all wind instruments. The popping sounds in this one are the result of slap tonguing, that is using your tongue to close the reed in order to create vacuums.
Enjoy it all in Fess Williams' Playing My Saxophone.
03 - Fess Williams - Playing my Saxophone
04 - Mills Brothers - I've Found a New Baby
(jingle)
05 - Royal Rhythm Boys - In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town
06 - Earl 'Fatha' Hines - Easy Rhythm
And that were four in a row - a whole lotta music, after Fess Williams saxophone you got, from 1934, the Mills Brothers with their version of the classic I Found A New Baby. In the fast parts they show off their skills in mimicking muted trumpets - so good that it's hard to believe these are not real trumpets. It was the signature sound for the group - and actually it was by coincidence that they started with it. At an amateur contest baritone Harry Flood discovered he couldn't find his kazoo for the instrumental break, and so mimicking the trumpet was his improvised solution to that problem.
In the 54 years the group existed, they made over two thousand recordings, sold over 50 million records and they were awarded 36 gold records. They appeared in movies, on radio shows and toured all over the world making them one of the most succesful musicians ever.
After the Mills brothers you got the Royal Rhythm Boys, a group around Slim Stewart and Slam Gaillard. This is from 1939 on the Decca label, titled In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town. Slam Gaillard played the stand-up bass and he was known for the gimmick that you heard on this one too - to play it with a bow and hum the melody at the same time.
And then finally you got the band of Earl Fatha Hines with Easy Rhythm from 1940 on the Bluebird label. Hines played the piano in his own band, and was very influential in the jazz world - Count Basie, himself a pianist, named Hines the greatest piano player in the world.
And we stay in 1940 but with something completely different - next up on the playlist is folk and blues singer Leadbelly. From 1940 here he is with Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On.
07 - Leadbelly - Sail On, Little Girl, Sail On
08 - Walter Davis - The Way I Love You
Also from 1940 on Bluebird, that was The Way I Love You of Walter Davis. Davis home base was St. Louis and from there he spent quite a few dates in the studio - he recorded some 180 sides from 1930 to '52. That year he suffered a stroke and he had to give up music - he spent his last ten years working as a night clerk and a preacher.
The next one is from 1941 - Chester Boone and his Jumping Jacks. Boone had a long time playing the trumpet in various bands, when in landed in New York in the late thirties where he worked with Louis Jordan and Sammy Price. After his date with Decca, the Jumping Jacks have never been heard of again so I suppose they were a bunch of studio musicians put together for a session - pretty common practice.
Listen to Take Me Back.
09 - Boone's Jumping Jacks - Take Me Back
10 - Erskine Butterfield - Piano Cocktail
From 1945 on the Joe Davis label that was the piano of Erskine Butterfield - you got the Piano Cocktail. Butterfield had a long-time cooperation with Joe Davis, recording with him in the forties and a session in 1956.
And we stay with the piano with Maurice Rocco and his version of W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues - recorded in 1946 for the Guild label. Rocco's real name was Rockhold - he was a succesful show pianist, a top attraction in nightclubs and he toured extensively - all over the world. His gimmick was to always play the piano standing with bended knees - I can't imagine that was a comfortable way to play.
Listen to his St. Louis Blues.
11 - Maurice Rocco - St. Louis Blues
12 - Muddy Waters - Mean Red Spider
Muddy Waters with his very first recording that he did for music producer J. Mayo Williams. Williams had started his own record labels after a long and succesful career with Decca, the Harlem, Chicago, Southern and Ebony labels. He hooked up Muddy Waters with pianist James "Sweet Lucy" Carter and an unidentified clarinettist and saxophonist, and that way he made it sound somewhat like the blues he recorded for Decca before the war - pretty much grown out of fashion since.
The master was sold to the 20th Century label of Philadelphia together with a whole bunch of recordings, and they released it in 1947 under the name of the pianist. Muddy Waters re-recorded the song in '48 for the Aristocrat label and this time, it sounded much more like himself.
The same happened to a recording of Duke Groner - the Blow Top Blues, be it, that the 20th Century label did credit Groner for it. Mayo Williams recorded him somewhere in '47 and the record got released a year later. According to the knowledgeable Red Saunders Research Foundation, this may also have been released on Williams' Ebony label, but if so, a copy of it never surfaced since.
Here is the New Blow Top Blues
13 - Duke Groner - New Blow Top Blues
14 - Memphis Slim - Don't Ration My Love
Recorded in 1946 for the Hy-Tone label that was Memphis Slim with Don't Ration My Love - with on saxophone Cozy Eggleston and "Big" Crawford on the bass. The single got a re-issue for the King label in '49. A lot of the Hy-Tone records ended up in the King catalog, but strangely most titles of Memphis Slim that you find on both labels, have been re-recorded at King. But not this one.
For the next one we go to Memphis with a recording of Doctor Ross at the studio of Sam Phillips. Ross maybe is most remembered as a harmonica player but he started as a one-man band - like Joe Hill Louis, also from Memphis and a regular appearance at Sam Phillips' studio. He carried his harmonica in a doctor's bag - that's what his moniker Doctor came from.
Here is his Country Clown.
15 - Doctor Ross - Country Clown.wav
16 - Dinah Washington - Fine Fat Daddy
Dinah Washington was that with her Fine Fat Daddy and she recorded that in New York in 1951 for the Mercury label. And I just got time for one more so you'll get from me, on the tiny Club 51 label from Chicago, the band of Lefty Bates together with vocal group the Four Buddies in a recording from 1955. Here is Look Out.
17 - Four Buddies - Look Out
And the Four Buddies end this show - the hour went by like crazy again. You may have noticed that the songs came chronologically today - I started with that 1927 goodie of Helen Humes, where she was still a teenager but she sounded all mature already - to this '55 song from a few young men - a whole new generation, the generation that not just witnessed, no, they were part of Rock 'n Roll.
For me that Helen Humes blues was today's absolute highlight - I never spotlighted her early recordings before. I hope you liked it and if so - or if not - well let me know and mail me at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Of course you can find back all the information of today's show at the website of my little program, and that's easy to find, just Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. In that long of episodes that you'll find there, this is show number 198 - we're nearly at two hundred.
Time's up for now, and you'll have to wait a whole week again for another shot of Rhythm & Blues. Until then - don't get the blues. See you next time, where I'll play more great music, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!