This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Wonderful, wonderful it's so great to have you here again at the radio listening to my show that like always is full of great blues, old-time jazz and stomping Rhythm & Blues. It's all in today's show and I'll span a time range again of several decades, starting in 1927 and ending in the fifties.
And that starting '27 tune - well you'll get two from that year - first a recording on the legendary Paramount label. Here is Lucille Bogan with the Cravin' Whiskey Blues.
01 - Lucille Bogan - Cravin' Whiskey Blues
02 - Helen Humes - Black Cat Blues
Fourteen years she was, a young teenager singing these mature blues in a way that she could immediately compete with her grown-up contempraries. That was Helen Humes with the Black Cat Blues on the OKeh label from 1927. Helen had done an amateur contest a year before and she was introduced to OKeh talent scout Tommy Rockwell by the guitarist in the band that accompanied her, Sylvester Weaver. This is one of the outcomes of that first session in St. Louis - she did a second one two years later in New York.
It wouldn't be until 1937 that she got into the studio again, a few pop songs with the orchestra of Harry James. In the years in between, she'd done her high school, a financial course, and worked at a bank, and other normal jobs. While she visited friends in Buffalo, she was asked to sing a few songs in a local club - and that led to a long time stint with a nice pay - still in the Depression - with the band of Al Sears.
Her real fame came after she'd been on the road with Count Basie for four years, and after she moved to Los Angeles in '44.
Next some good old-time jazz with the Maxwell Street Stomp of Punch Miller. This was recorded in 1929 for the Gennett label.
03 - Punch Miller - Maxwell Street Stomp
04 - Ethel Waters - Frankie and Johnnie
(jingle)
05 - Roosevelt Sykes - Are You Unhappy
06 - Sonny Boy Williams - Reverse The Charges (71222)
Four in a row - after Punch Miller's jazz stomp, that was the story of Frankie and Johnnie of Ethel Waters, recorded in 1938 for the Bluebird label. Frankie and Johnnie is a song that had been around for quite a while, reportedly inspired on a murder case in 1899 in St. Louis, some link it even to a much older actual murder story, from 1832 in North Carolina. The version as we know it now, was published in 1925 as Frankie and Albert and in '27 under its current title, but there had been several publications before under different titles. Frankie, by the way, is the woman in the story, killing her husband out of jealousy.
The popular '25/27 sheet music version has some 250 recordings - and this is just one of them.
You got more - after the jingle that was Roosevelt Sykes with Are You Unhappy and that comes from a 1942 recording session for Columbia, just before the 1942-44 recording strike. The record went unreleased at the time and I found it on one of the Document CDs dedicated to him.
And then the last I played was the 1942 Decca version of Reverse the Charges of pianist Sonny Boy Williams - one of the many artists taking the name of Sonny Boy - and this song got a re-recording for the Superdisc label after the war, with a more modern sounding jump band, under the name of Sunny Williams.
And I said there were more artists taking the name of Sonny Boy and the next one is another one. This bluesman, that like the two most known Sonny Boy Williamsons plays the harmonica, he recorded this for the Miltone label in 1947 - but no copies on this label have ever been found back. It got a re-release on the Gotham label in '51 but the single was billed to Wright Holmes - who did the flip of that Gotham platter.
This Sonny Boy Johnson is from Richmond, TX and here he is with Quinsella.
07 - Sonny Boy Johnson - Quinsella
08 - Lil Green - My Mellow Man
And we stayed in the early forties with a recording of Lil Green done in January of 1941 for the Bluebird label - you got My Mellow Man. Lil Green died young in 1954, about the age of 35 and that may well be the cause that she's been overlooked for a long time as one of the greats of the blues. She was, and she made fame with her 1940 hit Romance in the Dark and in '41 with Why Don't You Do Right, that's become a female blues classic - that is, after Peggy Lee made it her first hit fronting Benny Goodman. The song was written by Joe McCoy, a re-write with new lyrics from a '36 hit with the Harlem Hamfats, the Weed Smokers Dream.
Next a pretty unknown bluesman named the Florida Kid - his real name was Ernest Blunt and it's not sure whether he indeed was from Florida. He done only one session with Bluebird and soon was to be forgotten again. Here he is with That's All Right Baby.
09 - Florida Kid - That's All Right Baby
10 - Coleman Hawkins - What Harlem Is to Me
What Harlem Is to Me of saxophonist Coleman Hawkins - a recording from 1935 for Decca's popular series. Hawkins is one of the earliest swing and jazz saxophonists - and by '35 tenor saxophone solos like on this one were still pretty rare, but he'd been on the big sax from the early twenties with Mamie Smith's jazz hounds and later with Fletcher Henderson. In the thirties he also worked for years in Jack Hylton's orchestra in London but he returned to New York in '39. His version of Body and Soul, rather a free improvisation than a rendition of this pop standard is considered a innoviative landmark recording for the jazz.
And we stay with Decca, but then some ten years later with Louis Jordan - one of Decca's ultimate hit makers. By then he'd landed on the popular series of the label. This is one of his typical happy goodtime numbers - here is from 1944 I Like 'Em Fat Like That.
11 - Louis Jordan - I Like 'Em Fat Like That
12 - Joe Liggins - You Ain't Goin' To Heaven No How
From '45 You Ain't Goin' To Heaven No How of Joe Liggins on the Exclusive label. Joe Liggins and Louis Jordan share the title of having the longest had stay on number 1 of the Billboard Rhythm & Blues ever - both made it 18 weeks, Liggins with his Honeydripper in '45 and Jordan with the Choo Choo Ch'Boogie a year later. This was recorded later than the Honeydripper, but before that hit number one in September, and it must have been hectic days for that relatively small West Coast label.
In the liner notes of a re-issue album I read that at some point he was sent to Leon Rene, the owner of the label, to re-negociate the revenue he got from the Honeydripper. That is, it was Leon's own brother Otis who had advised him to demand a triple of what he got now - and make it retroactive, Otis had told him. Now Liggins had no idea what that meant - but Leon Rene wrote him a check for some 10,000 dollars. Just to get you an idea - a brand new Cadillac Sixty Special was just over 3,000.
Next a recording of Curtis Jones and in 1953 when this was recorded for the Parrot label, he hadn't been in the studio for twelve years. From '36 to '41 he recorded extensively for OKeh, Vocalion and Bluebird - enough to compile 4 CDs for the Document label to cover all of his output. This Flaming Blues was not released at the time. Here it is.
13 - Curtis Jones - Flamin' Blues
14 - Blow-Top Lynn & His House Rockers - Reliefin' Blues
Great party blues on RCA Victor - that were Melvin Smith backed by saxophonist Blow-Top Lynn & His House Rockers - somewhat of an obscure ensemble that made one more single on the label - the Rampaging Mama backed with the Real True Gal.
For another Lynn - Lynn Hope - just some more information is to be found. He was born in '26 in Alabama and started young on the tenor saxophone. He'd been in the band of King Kolax and in 1950 he fronted his own band - mostly family members - and he recorded for Chess, Premium and Aladdin. The whole band consisted of converted Muslims and on stage they all wore turbans - a nice trademark for your daily gigs.
Recorded for Aladdin this is Hope, Skip And Jump.
15 - Lynn Hope - Hope, Skip And Jump
16 - Little Willie Littlefield - Striking On You Baby
From '52 on the Federal label Striking On You Baby of Little Willie Littlefield - and Federal was a subsidiary of the King label. Littlefield was from Texas and he had his first local hit in '49 at the age of 18. It drew the attention of Jules Bihari, of the Los Angeles based Modern Records who'd stayed in Houston to spot talent for the label. The young man was the sensation of the Eldorado ballroom with his very own piano style and soon he was brought to the West Coast for sessions with the Modern label.
We got time for one more and that is Baby I'm Doin' It of Annisteen Allen on the King label from 1953.
17 - Annisteen Allen - Baby I'm Doin' It
And this rocking fifties ditty ends today's compilation that spanned some 25 years as I started with two goodies from '27. Well I hope you appreciated the stuff I played and of course you can let me know and write me an e-mail to tell me how you liked it - feedback is greatly appreciated. The address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.
And all of today's story and the playlist is to be found on the program's web site, and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first in the list of results. This was show number 215 in the episodes list.
For now I'm done - time's up. Hope to see you again next week, when I'll get you another shot of Rhythm & Blues here, on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!