This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And for today the first year of the Chicago label that brought us the Four Blazes, Tab Smith, Robert Nighthawk and the immortal classic Night Train of Jimmy Forrest - and of course I'm talking about the United label. I'll get you more about the label that was set up by record boss Lew Simpkins - but first things first and that is of course the music. And so you'll get the very first issue of the label, recorded in July of 1951. Here is Roosevelt Sykes with Fine And Brown.
101 - Roosevelt Sykes - Fine and Brown
102 - Robert Nighthawk - Kansas City
A cover of Jim Jackson's 1927 classic - that was Kansas City of Robert Nighthawk. Nighthawk is most remembered as a Delta Blues man, but this is much more urban sounding like all of his outings on United.
Nighthawk, he was born Robert Lee McCollum in Helena, AK and now most bluesmen, they were on Helena's KFFA in the famous King Biscuit show, but he had is own show, together with pianist Pinetop Perkins, sponsored by Brightstar, that was a competing brand of flour.
His sessions for United were the last of his stay in Chicago and in '52 he returned back to the South with his wife Hazel Momon and his following of other women - he seems to have been married to several women at the same time, and had relationships and children with yet others.
Most of his life before his long-time stint in Chicago he'd wandered the South. The Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale still keeps his suitcase that left there - and you can still stay at the place, that is drenched with blues history. It wasn't only the place to stay for many bluesmen, but also, when it was still a hospital, where Bessie Smith died after her tragic car accident in '37. Bessie's hospital room still is still devoted to her as a small museum.
As today I feature the United label's first releases, we'll go to number 103 in the catalog now and that is for saxophonist J.T. Brown, here on the United label billed as Nature Boy Brown. Now he was unlike many Chicago sax players that could do the finer jazz one day and the other day honk in a Rhythm & Blues band. The liner notes of the Delmark CD on Nature Boy Brown say, he wasn't enough of a sophisticated saxophonist to play the bebop bands, but he honked some great party music and he was a good blues shouter too. Well you'll get him here with a slow blues titled the Blackjack Blues.
103 - J.T. Brown - Blackjack Blues
105 - Robert Nighthawk - Take It Easy Baby
(jingle)
106 - J.T. Brown - Rock 'Em
107 - Tab Smith - Can't We Take A Chance
Can't We Take A Chance - you got Tab Smith, the smooth saxophonist who had a stunning 24 singles for the United label plus a 10'' LP - in total he got 85 tracks recorded. Smith was one of the better saxmen of his time, with a good phrasing but on United, many of his sides were Tin Pan Alley classics and some of them sound a bit on the cheesy side. You'll get more of him in this show, and I'll choose some that, well, I think fit better in my show. The next one will be one of them.
But first I have to account for two more that I played - that party honker that came before Tab Smith is one more for John T. 'Nature Boy' Brown and I think this fits him at his best. Just play it loud and you'll get a happy feeling instantly.
And then before the jingle - that was Robert Nighthawk again with Take It Easy Baby, a remake of his '37 blues he done for the Bluebird label. Well this sounds much more urban than that thirties platter.
Well I promised you, more Tab Smith with a nice uptempo instrumental - here is the Boogie Joogie.
108 - Tab Smith - Boogie Joogie
109 - Tiny Grimes - Rockin' The Blues Away
Tiny Grimes, a guitarist who normally was based in New York and during a stay in the Windy City for a few months he recorded a few sides for the United label. You heard Rocking The Blues Away and on the track played his New York mates Red Prysock on the saxophone and Freddie Redd on the piano. This is the flip of Solitude, the Duke Ellington jazz standard.
Today I feature the United label, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, and that was founded in 1951 by Lew Simpkins - the former co-owner of the Miracle label and he was also involved in the Premium label. But in '53 he died and he left the company for his business partner Leonard Allen, and he was new to the music business. He was assisted by the A&R man Samuel Smith - in the company known as Smitty - and the secretary miss Harris. Then, Al Smith did a lot of work preparing the sessions, and the musicians usually rehearsed in the basement of his home before they were taken to the studio. But Smith who led a band never had a formal position with the label, and he was just on a handful of sessions for United. Smith did record for many other labels.
Like so many Chicago indies, the company did not have its own studio. They had most of their sessions cut at Universal Recording, a studio that worked for many Rhythm & Blues labels. A few sessions were made with Boulevard Studios, perhaps in order to save money.
By 1952 United launched a subsidiary named States, and in a future show I'll play from that label as well. But the start of United was fairly succesful - and next is the first killer diller hit for the United label - Jimmy Forrest's Night Train.
It was inspired on Duke Ellington's Happy Go Lucky Local, but the Duke himself had taken the opening riff from a number that one of his saxophonists had recorded - a solo with the title of That's The Blues Old Man. But the writing credits went to Jimmy Forrest and for the pretty bland lyrics that were made on it, Lew Simpkins. Leonard Allen found him honking the number in a club in St. Louis and got him to Chicago to record it.
Here is that famous instrumental. The Night Train.
110 - Jimmy Forrest - Night Train
112 - Grant 'Mr. Blues' Jones - Let's Get High
This was recorded in December of 1951 and relased in March of the next year. Let's Get High with Grant 'Mr. Blues' Jones was that and Jones was a popular singer in the Chicago clubs. Jones had recorded before for J. Mayo Williams' Ebony label and for Decca.
United had several big hits in its first year - and the next one made it number one in '52. The Four Blazes were a jive group very much in the tradition of the early forties. Now just recently bass player and tenor singer Tommy Braden had joined and that changed the sound of the group pretty much. They had been around since the late thirties but recorded only once before, for the Aristocrat label in '47 as the Five Blazes. On this one they're five too, with a guest appearance of saxophone wizard Eddie Chamblee. Here is the only song about a woman who was so hot that she alone could melt the snow in Alaska - here is Mary Jo.
114 - Four Blazes - Mary Jo
115 - Tab Smith - Down Beat
Tab Smith changed his alto for a size upgrade - this was billed Tab Smith His Velvet Tenor on the label - you heard the Down Beat. Tab Smith had worked for Lucky Millinder and Count Basie before he went out of his own. Now he never got involved with bebop, and also not with the new honking style of sax playing but his smooth and velvet style sold well.
And the next one - United 116 - come from one of the oddest bands that I ever stumbled upon, Johnny Wicks Swinging Ozarks. The Ozarks essentially were a jazz band from Louisville, KY fronted by a blues singer and tuba player - John "Preacher" Stephens. Johnny Wicks was the bass man and leader of this strange ensemble and for the session for United they were joined by a violinist "Remo" Biondi - but he's not on the track I'll play now.
These tracks are really hard to find. One made it to a CD featuring all boogie-woogie tracks - and that's the one you'll get from me. Just four of the takes made it to two extremely rare United singles and then the entire output of the sessions were pressed on a 1989 album that is as rare as these singles. But as you can hear this is nice, danceable Rhythm & Blues with a good Rock 'n Roll like feeling. Perhaps 1952 was just two or three years too early for this and Louisville too much out of the center of where Rock 'n Roll happened - it's a shame it went unnoticed. Judge for yourself. Here is the tuba of John "Preacher" Stephens and Johnny Wicks and his Swinging Ozarks with the Jockey Jack Boogie.
116 - Johnny Wicks - Jockey Jack Boogie
119 - Jimmy Forrest - Big Dip
Jimmy Forrest honking the saxophone with the Big Dip on United number 119. Jimmy Forrest had played with Fate Marable, Don Albert, Jay McShann, Andy Kirk and Duke Ellington before going out on his own in the fifties.
And on number 120 of the catalog is Roosevelt Sykes again, and his blues for United sound far more urban than the bawdy juke joint blues that he did in the thirties. The sessions he did for United mark the end of his Chicago career, when the electric blues took over. In 1954 he moved to New Orleans and there was always an audience for him in the clubs of the Crescent City.
Here he is with Raining In My Heart.
120 - Roosevelt Sykes - Raining In My Heart
121 - J.T. Brown - Strictly Gone
125 - Four Blazes - Rug Cutter
The Rug Cutter - orginally a Duke Ellington goodie here done in a great version by the Four Blazes and that was United number 125. The flip of it was a vocalese on the Night Train, and I promise you to do that in the next show. Before that another great party honker of Nature Boy Brown with Strictly Gone.
There's pretty little time left for today, so let me just point you to my website in case you want to read back today's story on the United label - easiest way to find it is a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. This is show number 204 in that long list of shows I done.
On my site you can also find out how to give feedback - or just mail me at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. It's greatly appreciated. And of course what will be on for next week, cause that's just how long you gotta wait for your next shot of Rhythm & Blues. So see you next week, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!