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 I bring you back to the year 1940 with releases of the Bluebird label. While in Europe the war was building up, no-one in America got the sense that within a year the country would get involved by an attack of the Japanese. There's hardly any trace to be found in the blues of the day, of any kind of worries about the war - the subjects rather were what they always used to be.
My set for today starts where I left you a few months ago when I did my first Bluebird set. On number 8590 of the catalog a vocal group named the Five Breezes. Here are the Minute And Hour Blues.
8590 - Five Breezes - Minute And Hour Blues
8595 - Bob White - I'm The Woogie Man
Bluesman Bob White with I'm The Woogie Man and while there were quite a few musicians with that name in pre-war music - I found an Irish folk and a hillbilly singer, this Bob White seems to have got just one release on the Bluebird label. You got number 8595 of the catalog.
The next one is a jump to number 8599. How come I don't play the numbers continuously - well Bluebird did not have a separate list for Rhythm & Blues like Decca had. The Bluebird releases had hillbilly, pop and gospel mixed on one label and so you'll find country singers like Montana Slim, the Happy Valley Boys and the Modern Mountaineers in between the blues.
But on 8599 is Washboard Sam with Just Got To Hold You Tight.
8599 - Washboard Sam - Just Got To Hold You
860Walter Davis - Drop Me A Line Or Two
(jingle)
8609 - Jimmie Noone - They Got My Number Now
8610 - Sonny Boy Williamson I - Welfare Store Blues
A whole lotta music was that, four in a row and after Washboard Sam you got Walter Davis with Drop Me A Line Or Two. Davis was based in St. Louis where a lot of pre-war bluesmen were and he mainly was a recording artist. According to his buddy Henry Townsend he didn't travel the juke joints in the South or done the Chicago or St. Louis clubs - and that is pretty unusual, but according to Townsend his name was often misused to bill other blues artists. Instead, Davis did perform in St. Louis hotels, often together with Townsend.
But you got more. After the jingle that harsh voice was Ed Thompson backed by the band of Jimmy Noone who did the clarinet on this one. You heard They Got My Number Now and that number was 8609 in the catalog.
Now Jimmy Noone is most remembered for his Apex Club Orchestra, that was an influential twenties ensemble that played in Chicago until '29 when the club was raided and closed down. Noone's New Orleans style jazz had a special flavor - it had no brass instruments in it. Not only did a young Benny Goodman listen to his music, and Nat King Cole while still a kid, but Maurice Ravel credited Noone for inspiring him to compose his world famous Bolero.
These takes with Ed Thompson were done in the only session he did for Bluebird.
Then I have to account for the last one I plaued - that was the Welfare Store Blues of Sonny Boy Williamson - the First that is, the Chicago based bluesman, 'cause in 1940, the other one still lived and worked in the Deep South.
Next number 8614 on the list - one more of the Five Breezes. Here is My Buddy Blues.
8614 - Five Breezes - My Buddy Blues
8615 - Memphis Slim - Empty Room Blues
The Empty Room Blues of Memphis Slim on Bluebird 8615. It was Lester Melrose who gave John Len Chatman his moniker - before he had used his father's name Peter Chatman. For the credits of the songs he wrote he kept on using this name. Memphis Slim also played the piano on many a session of other Bluebird artists - and especially Big Bill Broonzy.
Next a veteran of the blues scene. Victoria Spivey had a recording career that dates back to 1926 when she'd left Houston for St. Louis, and she got recorded for the OKeh label. In the thirties she toured with Louis Armstrong and she did several New York revues - including the famous Hellzapoppin'. Many of her twenties blues had a dramatic atmosphere, with heavy-sounding piano work and good lyrics. For me, her duets with Lonnie Johnson stand out.
Here she is with a 1940 recording and in this one she refers to her first recording, the Black Snake Blues. On Bluebird 8619, Moaning the Blues.
8619 - Victoria Spivey - Moaning The Blues
8625 - Florida Kid - Lazy Mule Blues
One of the tracks from that one session that Ernest Blunt did for the Bluebird label under the name of the Florida Kid. His style is pretty much copied from Peetie Wheatstraw, including the ooh-well-well and the sometimes nearly talking style. Good blues, but perhaps Lester Melrose realized that he wasn't original enough and he wasn't invited in the studio again. And with that he faded back into the obscurity that he came from.
Next another veteran of the music scene - be it that he didn't record until 1939. He'd been around in the clubs all over the country and even in Europe pounding his boogie-woogie for over twenty years but the interest of the recording companies came with the boogie-woogie craze. He also was a sportsman - he'd played for the Chicago All-Americans baseball team during world war I and he worked as a groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox.
Nost of his recordings are piano solos but on these Bluebird recordings he sings the blues. Here he is with Cryin' In My Sleep.
8630 - Jimmy Yancey - Cryin' In My Sleep
8634 - Hot Lips Page - Evil Man's Blues
The Evil Man's Blues of Hot Lips Page, a composition of Leonard Feather. Feather does the piano, Hot Lips Page of course the trumpet and singing and guitar was Teddy Bunn on this very first recording of his classic - that is, you may know it as the Evil Gal Blues cause that's how it became a classic - sung by Etta Jones, Albinia Jones, Dinah Washington and Aretha Franklin.
Leonard feather was a British-Jewish jazz critic, journalist and songwriter and in 1935 he settled in New York and he perfectly blended in the jazz and blues scene of the Big Apple. Leonard Feather wrote about jazz in all kind of publications, starting with the British magazine Melody Maker where he wrote columns. It was in that quality that he got to interview Louis Armstrong - and the two remained close friends since.
As a jazz and blues journalist Feather promoted both styles and also he wrote a lot of classic blues - the Blow Top Blues and How Blue Can You Get are his too.
Well this goodie stands out with the fabulous trumpet work of Hot Lips Page - it instantly has become one of my favorites.
Next on Bluebird 8635 a blues of Tampa Red. Here is It Hurts Me Too.
8635 - Tampa Red - It Hurts Me Too
8639 - Cats And The Fiddle - One Is Never Too Old to Swing
One Is Never Too Old to Swing - and that's a fact. You got the Cats and the Fiddle, a Chicago vocal group and before they entered the Bluebird studio, for the first time in 1939, they had a movie career - they appeared in Too Hot To Handle starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, the Duke Is Tops, The Two-Gun Man from Harlem, and Going Places starring Louis Armstrong - and also several shorts. But it were their records that established them as a vocal group. This recording from their second Bluebird session features Tiny Grimes on a four-string electrical tenor guitar.
Next Lil Green and she's probably best known for her first recording of the female blues classic Why Don't You Do Right that she done in '41. Lil Green died pretty young, but exactly how young is subject to discussion - her birth date is given anywhere between 1901 and 1919, and that makes the age when she died in 1954 anywhere between a mature 53 years old and a way too young 34.
But on this one she was still well alive. Here she is with Give Your Mama One Smile.
8640 - Lil Green - Give Your Mama One Smile
8644 - Washboard Sam - Dissatisfied Blues
8645 - Memphis Slim - Shelby County Blues
And very little time is left after these three, after to Lil Green you got on Bluebird 8644 the Dissatified Blues of Washboard Sam and the Shelby County Blues of Memphis Slim ends today's show that was dedicated to the Bluebird label - one of the two leading labels for Rhythm & Blues and especially in Chicago. The label where Lester Melrose did the A&R for - and in another show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman I'll spotlight this important and illustrous person.
If you want to read back today's story you can go to my website, and easiest way to get there is to search Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. This is show number 209 in the episodes list. And if you want to let me know whether you liked the show, you can provide feedback at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.
Next week I'll be there to provide you with another shot of Rhythm & Blues. Hope to see you then, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!