This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Bringing again a nice mix of the best of Rhythm & Blues here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, from a time when life was hard and the music was great. And that starts with a nice mover from 1947 of Nashville-based Sherman Willams and his band, recorded for the Bullet label. Here is Take A Ride.
01 - Sherman Williams - Take A Ride
02 - Roosevelt Sykes & His Original Honeydrippers - Mama Mama
And also from 1947 that was Roosevelt Sykes and his Original Honeydrippers with Mama Mama, and he recorded that for RCA Victor. Sykes always had used his moniker Honeydripper, but ever since 1945, with that monster hit the Honeydripper of Joe Liggins, he had to state everywhere that he was the original Honeydripper. It's clear that this very much annoyed Sykes. Well Sykes been around much longer, he had his recording debut back in '29 with his 44 Blues that now is considered a standard.
Sykes spent most of his more succesful years in Chicago. He recorded there for Decca and Bluebird, RCA Victor and later for the United label until his succes started to fail him. He went to New Orleans and there he found enough work in bars and clubs.
And from Chicago we go to Nothern California. Saunders King was based in Oakland that had a nice Rhythm & Blues scene and he done most of his recordings for the San Francisco based Rhythm label. From 1949 here he is with the Stay Gone Blues.
03 - Saunders King - Stay Gone Blues
04 - Smiley Turner - When a Man Has the Blues
(jingle)
05 - Rubberlegs Williams - Have You Ever Sit Thinking
06 - Albinia Jones - Give It Up Daddy
Four in a row - after Saunders King you got the band of Teddy Buckner fronted by Smiley Turner and that was When A Man Has The Blues and that was recorded in '49 for the Mercury label. Teddy Buckner did some jump blues with his band but his heart was with old-style New Orleans jazz and dixieland and he got the chance to do that when he joined the band of Kid Ory in 1949.
You got more - after the jingle that was Rubberlegs Williams with Have You Ever Sit Thinking. Williams in his time was more famous as a dancer than that we know him now for singing with the band that first recorded Miles Davis and with pianist Clyde Heart and beboppers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. His nickname was for his dancing style and he was a regular performer at the Apollo and the Cotton Club performing his moves and before he was popular for his vaudeville performances.
And then the last one of them four - Albinia or Albennie Jones, as she was credited on the label, with Give It Up Daddy and she did that for Decca backed by Sammy Price and Trio - as so read the ad in Billboard of February 7 of '48.
Next Atlanta based saxophonist Fred Jackson and he is best known for his work in the band of Little Richard in the early fifties. Here he is with Duck Fever.
07 - Fred Jackson - Duck Fever
08 - Four Clefs - Take It and Git
The Four Clefs with their version of Andy Kirk's number one hit Take It And Git, released on the Bluebird label in 1942. They have been around some thirty years, most of the time in Chicago and unlike some other of these vocal and jive groups they never got in soundies or in movies, just a few appearances on the radio - and then 41 sides they did for Bluebird and that's what makes that I still can play them seventy years later, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Now none of the records of the Clefs ever made it to the charts but RCA Victor re-released several of them in the late fifties - including this one.
Next a lament on the - apparently - changing times in Harlem. Harlem Ain't What It Usta Be was done in 1940 for Decca by Skeets Tolbert and his Gentlemen of Swing, with vocals of Clarence Easter. Here they are.
09 - Skeets Tolbert & His Gentlemen Of Swing - Harlem Ain't What It Usta Be
10 - Rosetta Howard & The Harlem Hamfats - You Done Turned Salty On Me
Also on Decca the Harlem Hamfats fronted by Rosetta Howard with You Done Turned Salty On Me. The group initially was made for backing up blues artists like Howard but soon they got a hit of their own with Oh Red. But as a group they never toured or played the clubs of Chicago - they came together only in the studio - they were selected by J. Mayo Williams, the influential producer of Decca's Race series. The gritty clarinet work of Odell Rand and then you had trumpeter and singer Herb Morand, now his voice was as raw as his trumpet could sound. They made the very own sound of this group that loved to sing about sex, drugs and booze - much in the tradition of thirties blues.
And the title of the next one suggests blue clouds of marijuana smoke, but in fact it's a piano solo of the great Fats Waller. On the Bluebird label from 1934, here he is with the Viper's drag.
11 - Fats Waller - Viper's Drag
12 - Don Albert - Rockin' And Swingin'
Recorded in San Antonio in 1936 that was the band of Don Albert with Rockin' and Swingin' and he led one of these territory bands from Texas. Now he was pretty popular at the time and he played in the best clubs but he only cut eight sides on record, for Vocalion. In '39 he had to give up leading a band for economic reasons, and from the mid-forties he managed a nightclub in San Antonio. He made some modest comeback in the fifties.
And next the band of Nazareth Bogan jr. - the son of Lucille Bogan. After 1935 Lucille never recorded but she did manage her son's band, Bogan's Birmingham Busters. This was recorded in their hometown, Birmingham AL. With Johnny Bell on vocals, here are, on the Vocalion label from 1937, Bogan's Birmingham Busters with She Caught the Boat.
13 - Bogan's Birmingham Busters feat. Johnny Bell - She Caught the Boat
14 - Hightower's Night Hawks - Squeeze Me
And that was a dive into 1927 with Squeeze me of Hightower's Night Hawks - or Lottie Hightower and her Eudora Night Hawks in full. This was on the legendary Black Patti label and records of that label, they are as rare as live dodos. The track did made it to a re-release on the Champion label under the name of Duke Randall and his Boys.
Next the Chicago based Williams’ Washboard Band - one of the many names of the loose group of top notch musicians that's mostly called the Washboard Rhythm Kings. From 1933 on the Victor label, here is Hard Corn.
15 - Washboard Rhythm Kings - Hard Corn
16 - Stovepipe Johnson - Devilish Blues
The Devilish Blues, one of the only four recorded songs of the bluesman calling himself Stovepipe Johnson, apparently after the confederate army officer who wrote history, misleading the enemy by putting up stovepipes as fake cannons when they raided the town of Newburg, IN, with a force of only 35 men - and they won the battle. Of the Bluesman Stovepipe Johnson I know much less - no more than that he recorded with Georgia Tom - in this one - and in a session with clarinettist Jimmy Noone and Earl Hines on the piano. This Devilish Blues was from 1928 recorded for the Vocalion label.
And there's time for one more and that will be the folk and blues singer Jim Jackson. He was a bluesman of an early generation, born in 1884 and he became a regular appearance on medicine shows. His first record, the Kansas City Blues sold so well that Victor and Vocalion did several recording sessions with him - either in Chicago or New York as in Memphis. He retired from music in 1930 and died seven years later in his hometown of Hernando, MS.
Here he is with his Kansas City Blues from 1927.
17 - Jim Jackson - Kansas City Blues
And that marks the end of another show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman with a mix I hope you liked. Well of course you can let me know and send me an e-mail - the address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And on my website you will find today's story and all about my radio program - including what'll be on for next week. Just do a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and you'll find it on top of the search results. This was show 207 in that long list of episodes that I done up to now.
Well time's up, folks, so don't have the blues. There's something to look forward to, a new shot of Rhythm & Blues, and so I count on it to see you again, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!