This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Yeah, thank you, thank you, it's so great to be with you again and I'm glad that you found your way back to my program. And I promise I won't disappoint you - this show will bring you the best of Rhtyhm & Blues.
And today I'll start with a goodie of Duke Ellington that was recorded in 1930 for the Brunswick label. The band was credited as the Jungle Band, on some re-issues just as Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. Vocal is done by Irving Mills. Here is the Home Again Blues.
01 - Duke Ellington - Home Again Blues
02 - Washboard Serenaders - Washboard Get Together
Also from 1930 the Washboard Get Together of the Washboard Serenaders - a nice party record featuring Clarence Profit on the piano and and the voices of Gladys Bentley and Bruce Johnson. It was released on Victor and it got a re-release on the Bluebird label six years later.
The Washboard Serenaders was a group somewhat related to the Wahsboard Rhythm Kings - it shared some of the personnel, like Teddy Bunn and Clarence Profit and the track was re-released on a CD box set on the Washboard Rhythm Kings - itself a loose combination of top notch musicians that got recorded under different names. The next one is also from that CD box and on the original issue and on some labels it was billed to the Chicago Hot Five - there was nothing Chicago on the group by the way - it was recorded in Camden, NJ with New York based nusicians - but it shares none of the personnel of the previous one. Here is Blues In My Heart.
03 - Washboard Rhythm Kings - Blues In My Heart
04 - Buddy Johnson - New Please Mr. Johnson
(jingle)
05 - Cab Calloway & The Palmer Brothers - Blues In The Night
06 - Slim Gaillard - Voot Boogie
Four in a row - after the Washboard Rhythm Kings came a re-recording of Please Mr. Johnson from 1941 on Decca - that was Ella Johnson fronting the band of her brother Buddy - a long lasting combination of a top orchestra with a female singer with a wonderful voice. It's not as strong as the first version, where her vulnerable way of singing makes it a very convincing plea, not to play these blues so sad.
Buddy Johnson is one of the very few big bands that survived both the end of the swing era and Rock 'n Roll specializing on Rhythm & Blues instead of going into serious jazz - for what that may be. He did very well with that and that sultry voice of Ella for sure will have helped him. But also the recordings without her, they sound very right for the time they were done.
You got more - after the jingle the band of Cab Calloway together with the Palmer Brothers from 1942 on the OKeh label. The history of the Palmer Brothers goes back to 1928 when they were already active in vaudeville theatres, in the Apollo in Harlem and the Cotton Club. Their first recording was the Ghost of the Freaks on the ARC label. They'd been working with the great big bands before - Earl Hines and Count Basie - and in '41 they hooked up with Cab Calloway for two recording sessions, a few soundies and a year of gigs together.
Clarence Palmer made his name in the fifties with the Jive Bombers, also a vocal group that we remember most for their recording Bad Boy - a rework of Lil Hardin Armstrong's composition Brown Gal from 1936.
And then finally I have to account for the last one I played, the Voot Boogie of Slim Gaillard, recorded in September of 1945 for J. Mayo Williams' independent record company - but released on the Queen label after a trade-off of a whole bunch of his masters.
For the next one we go to a lady and her post-war base was one of the less obvious places to find a barrelhouse boogie woogie pianist - Reno, NV. She done a half year stint in the Carlton lounge and then in what was advertised as the first black nightclub, casino and hotel in Reno - Lillette's Rhythm Club. Her releases on the Sterling record label got a positive review in Billboard magazine as very suitable for what Billboard called 'the Harlem Hotteries'.
So here is Lillette Thomas with Boogie Woogie Time Down South.
07 - Lillette Thomas - Boogie Woogie Time Down South
08 - Bogan's Birmingham Busters - Everything Is Rhythm Now
From 1937 - Hot jazz of Bogan's Birmingham Busters, a group from Birmingham, AL and this is from their only session that brought two records issued on Vocalion. The Busters were the band of Lucille Bogan's son Nazareth Jr. Lucille managed the band after she retired from her own music career. Nazareth Jr., with his band, they moved to California after the war and in 1948, just a few months before her death, Lucille followed him.
For the next one a tribute to African American movie stars. There are very few songs about the black stars of the silver screen. Cleo Brown was a great pianist but not everyone will appreciate her high-pitched, tiny voice - that contrasted with her strong personality. For three decades she had great success with her somewhat bawdy blues and songs, until she quit singing for religious reasons in the early fifties.
As for her piano-playing qualities, she's often compared to Fats Waller and that I think is completely right. Here she is, Cleo Brown with When Hollywood Goes Black And Tan.
09 - Cleo Brown - When Hollywood Goes Black And Tan
10 - Big Three Trio - It's all over now
Willie Dixon with his Big Three Trio recorded in 1951 and released on the OKeh label, that just that year had been revived as the Rhythm & Blues label of Columbia. Before, Columbia had maintained a Race series on their flagship label, but that never got very succesful. The OKeh label had been around since 1916 and from '26 it was owned by Columbia that off and on used the label as their subsidiary.
This incarnation of OKeh lasted until 1970 and in the sixties it became famous for its Chicaco soul recordings, most notably with compositions of Curtis Mayfield.
As for Willie Dixon, the OKeh releases mark the end of the Big Three Trio, the jive group of Dixon together with Ollie Crawford and Leonard 'Baby Doo' Caston. Before they had been on Columbia's main label. Dixon went to work for the Chess label as a talent scout, songwriter and session musician - playing the double-bass.
Next the combo of Jack McVea fronted by Estelle Edson. On the Black & White label here is My Business Is C.O.D.
11 - Jack Mcvea & Estelle Edson - My Business Is C.O.D
12 - Jimmy Grissom & The Blenders - Frank Bull's Boogie
On Roy Milton's Miltone label Jimmy Grissom with Frank Bull's Boogie that was the flip of some issues of Jimmy Grissom's I'll Miss You - on other issues it was paired with the Playboy Blues.
Jimmy was the cousin of Dan Grissom, singer in the band of Jimmie Lunceford. Jimmy got his share later working with Duke Ellington - but he's most remembered for his hit Once There Lived A Fool that he done in 1950 for the Recorded In Hollywood label, and that got a re-release on the King label. The song got a succesful cover with Savannah Churchill.
Next on the Derby label the band of Cootie Williams with Eddie Mack. Here is Divorce Me C.O.D.
13 - Cootie Williams - Divorce Me COD Blues
14 - Flennoy Trio - Hey lawdy mama
Hey Lawdy Mama of the Flennoy Trio on the obscure Melodisc label. Melodisc was a record company in Hollywood set up in 1945 and they'd contracted a few great artists from the Los Angeles scene, but it burned down to the ground in '46 and that was the end of it.
Pianist Lorenzo Flennoy - the leader of the trio - had led a full-size big band in the thirties that often played Central Avenue's Club Alabam and in these days he was nicknamed Mr. Central Avenue. For Melodisc and before for the Excelsior label he done quite a smaller outfit - this is the typical jive trio setting of piano, guitar and double-bass modeled after the success of Nat King Cole.
Next a somewhat forgotten blues shouter, Bob Merrill and he has fronted quite a few top bands - Jay McShann, Cootie Williams, Dallas Bartley and Sam Taylor. Here he is with Cootie Williams with the Inflation Blues.
15 - Bob Merrill - Inflation Blues
15 - Cozy Eggleston - Cozy's Boogie
17 - Willie Dixon - Walkin' the blues
And this laid-back Walking the Blues of Willie Dixon was on the Checker label - the subsidiary of Chess - and it was from mid-'55. As I told you before today, Dixon was merely a songwriter and talent scout for the label than a performing artist and there's only three singles credited to him and one for instrumental backup of the El-Rays.
Before that Walking the Blues, Cozy's Boogie of Cozy Eggleston from 1952 on the States label and that went under different titles - Fish Tail or Cozy's Beat on various re-issue compilations. So if you know it under another name, that's possible.
And these two mark the end of today's show full of the best of Rhythm & Blues ranging today from 1930 to '55 - that's twenty-five years of great music, all put in one show. I hope you liked it. Well you can let me know of course - feedback is greatly appreciated at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And all of today's information is on the website of this program and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. You'll have to scroll down all the way to show number 222 - that's three times 2 - for today's episode.
There will be more great music after a week. Until then, keep your head up high and be on the lookout for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!