The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 217

Legends Mix

This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.

Yeah, great, wonderful, thank you, thank you it's so great to have you as my audience again here on another show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and I will spotlight the twenties, the thirties, the forties and the fifties again in a great show full of the best of Rhythm & Blues. I'll get through them someway chronologically and the first one is from 1926. Accompanied by the Black 'n Blue Four this is Margaret Johnson with When a Gator Hollers Folks Say It's a Sign of Rain.

01 - Margaret Johnson - When a Gator Hollers Folks Say It's a Sign of Rain
02 - Clarence Williams - For Sale (Hannah Johnson's Big Jack Ass)

Now that is an odd track - up to the end it's instrumental and then a voice just tells you that Hannah Johnson's Big Jack Ass is for sale. Well that's the title of this 1933 recording for Vocalion of the band of Clarence Williams. Williams ran - apart from one of the leading bands - a succesful sheet music publishing house and he managed several vaudeville shows, bars and dance venues on New Orleans' Rampart street. In the 20s he was producer and A&R man for OKeh's New York branch where he also led the studio band.

Probably his most famous sides are when he had two of the greatest of jazz in his band - Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong and both excel on the soprano saxophone and the trumpet or cornet in a lot of records from just before electrical recording began.

And we stay in the deepest of the Depression with a 1931 recording for the ARC labels - here is Cab Calloway with the Creole Love Song - a.k.a. the Creole Love Call.

03 - Cab Calloway - Creole Love Song (Creole Love Call)
04 - Lovin' Sam Theard - That's Chicago's South Side

(jingle)

05 - Blind Teddy Darby - Low Mellow
06 - Lonnie Johnson & Blind Willie Dunn - Bull Frog Moan

And that was a whole lotta music from the Depression years - after Cab Calloway's Creole Love Song you got from 1938 on Vocalion That's Chicago's South Side of Lovin' Sam Theard. Theard was a comedian, songwriter and singer and he recorded under several names - like Sam Tarpley, Lovin' Sam from Down in 'Bam and Spo-Dee-O-Dee, and the most famous song he wrote must be I'll Be Glad When You're Dead - better known as You Rascal You. His own version was overshadowed by the cover of Louis Armstrong - and there's also a 1931 Betty Boop cartoon featuring Armstrong in this song. These Betty Boop shorts are pretty weird - and for this one, the depicion of African savages nowadays seem quite racist to our eyes.

You got more - after the jingle that was Blind Teddy Darby in a '33 recording titled Low Mellow - a blues that later was covered by Sunnyland Slim. This Teddy Darby version is a simple and uncomplicated blues that quickly grew on me after I played it a few times.

Then finally that great acoustic guitar duet, that were Blind Willie Dunn and Lonnie Johnson and that was the Bull Frog Moan from 1929. Acoustic guitar instrumentals are quite rare but these two done some greats in a few sessions for OKeh.

The next one is recorded in 1939 for the Solo Art label but by then it was not released - it showed up on an album on the Riverside label. Pianist Cripple Clarence Lofton was one of the great Chicago boogie woogie pianists - together with Pinetop Smith, Jimmy Yancey and Maede Lux Lewis.

Lofton was an energetic performer and dancer - he did walk somewhat with a limp but that never prevented him from being a professional tap dancer. He also owned a Chicago night club in the forties.

Here he is with the Lofty Blues.

07 - Cripple Clarence Lofton - Lofty Blues
08 - Richard & Welly Trice - Come On In Here Mama

From '37 Carolina blues brothers Richard & Welly - or Willy - Trice on Decca with Come On In Here Mama. Richard or Rich Trice also recorded under the name of Little Boy Fuller for the Savoy label. For Decca they did only one session that brought this record that was released in '37 and another one around 1939 or '40.

The next one is a track of boogie woogie king Maede Lux Lewis. It was recorded around 1940 but not released at the time. In the CD with complete recordings on the Classics label that I found this goodie on, you can hear that Lewis improvises on virtually anything and shows off his mastering of the piano. Two of the tracks are even played on a harpsichord, and that is an instrument that you'd rather associate with seventeen-century baroque than with the boogie-woogie. But it plays well and in another show I'll get you one of them. This one's on the piano - here is Meade Lux Lewis with the Far Ago Blues.

09 - Meade Lux Lewis - Far Ago Blues
10 - Monette Moore & the Sam Price Trio - Another Woman's Man

Monette Moore belts out the blues - why another woman's man treats you better than your own man. On the piano Sam Price, the long-time pianist for Decca sessions. This was recorded in 1947, a good but somewhat old-fashioned blues for the time. She was about at the end of her career that started in the early twenties with recordings for Paramount and by 1927 she performed at famous Small's Paradise nightclub in Harlem. In '33 she owned her own club, Monette's Place.

This was her last recording session. She moved to Los Angeles where she performed in clubs and in 1961 she played in Disneyland together with the house band the Young Men of New Orleans. She died a year later.

Next the swing orchestra of trombonist Doc Wheeler. His band went under different names - the Florida Collegiates, the Sunset Royals and the Sunset Orchestra. Here is How 'Bout That Mess.

11 - Doc Wheeler And His Sunset Orchestra - How 'Bout That Mess
12 - Joe Turner - Boogie Woogie Baby

From 1948 the Boogie Woogie Baby of Big Joe Turner on the MGM label. This is a typical Joe Turner blues that he made dozens of - but to me they all sound great. Well Billboard wasn't very much impressed - "Turner runs thru an ordinary boogie blues with ordinary small combo backing" the review says - and for the flip Married Woman Blues the reviewer just notes "more of the same".

Now many of Turner's blues sound alike - but all of them do great when you turn up the volume. And one thing's for sure - he managed to stay popular through all of his career, and where most Rhythm & Blues artists lost their appeal to the audience when Rock 'n Roll struck the nation, Turner had a true revival of his career. As a middle-aged man he suddenly was a teenager's idol and essentially with the same blues he always done.

That - in hindsight - makes reviews like these from Billboard, a bit sour.

Next a raging boogie woogie of pianist T.J. Fowler and his band. It was recorded in '49 for the Detroit based Sensation label and leased to the National label. Fowler did most of his recordings and gigs in the Motor City where he had his family and some business interests. In the late fifties he helped Berry Gordy to establish his Motown label.

Here he is with his T.J. Boogie.

13 - T.J.Fowler - T.J. Boogie
14 - King Porter feat. Alton Redd - Should Have Rationed Myself

Some lyrics are just too funny - I ain't good looking but I should have rationed myself for these love-sick women. That was the band of King Porter with drummer Alton Redd singing. And with that we stayed in the Detroit scene, for seven years this Alabama-born trumpeter was the sensation of the Royal Blue cafe, a club with an all-black patronage. Porter had moved to the Motor City in '43 where he established a big band, but in '45 he scaled it down to a quintet. In 1954 he returned to Alabama - and to obscurity.

Next a recording of the band of Johnny Otis with Mel Walker on vocals. From 1950 on the Regent label, here is Helpless.

15 - Johnny Otis - Helpless
16 - Wild Bill Moore - Blues at Dawn

And that was the Blues at Dawn of the man who also does the outtro of my program - Wild Bill Moore with and that tune that I always go out with - that is the Bongo Bounce on the Savoy label from 1947.

There's not just very much time left so I just want to say that I hope you liked today's selection, spanning some three decades of African-American music again and well styles did change through the years but it's all higly original music - the roots and soul of all of our modern popular music. Well you can let me know if you liked it - the e-mail address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com.

All info on my show and today's stories are to be found on my website, and easiest way to get there is to search Google - or any other search engine - for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. This show is number 217 in that long list of shows that I done up to now - and that probably will be expanded with some more when you hear this. I keep on working to get you the best of Rhythm & Blues, also for next week. So I hope to see you again then, here at the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!