This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And thank you for that wonderful applause - I'll make sure not to disappoint you. I'll just play the best of Rhythm & Blues from four great decades and they start with the roaring twenties today - when actually no-one ever had heard of Rhythm & Blues - that was a word invented in 1948 by Billboard Magazine's Jerry Wexler, the soon-to-be executive of Atlantic Records. Back in the twenties it were blues and jazz - or its common denominator, race music, meaning music aimed at African Americans.
It was in 1920 when OKeh released the first blues ever caught on record and that was a smash success. This is from '23 and by then records of female blues singers had become pretty common. Here is Bessie Smith with the classic Porter Grainger composition Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do.
01 - Bessie Smith - Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do
02 - Rosa Henderson - He May Be Your Dog But He's Wearing My Collar
He May Be Your Dog But He's Wearing My Collar - you heard Rosa Henderson, and on the piano Fletcher Henderson - not related. This 1923 goodie was on the Vocalion label. Between '23 and '26 she did some 100 recordings and after 1932 she retired from music, taking a job in a department store.
On this one Fletcher Henderson plays the piano without his band, but he led a considerable outfit that played the Club Alabam and the Roseland with much succes - with from '24 Louis Armstrong in his band and the great arranger Don Redman.
Well Louis Armstrong stayed with Henderson for just one year. On the next one you'll hear him leading his own Hot Five. From 1927 on the Okeh label here is the Savoy Blues.
03 - Louis Armstrong - Savoy Blues
04 - Clara Smith - Don't Advertise Your Man
(jingle)
05 - Lil Johnson - River Hip Papa
06 - Barrel House Annie - Must Get Mine In Front
Barrelhouse Annie with a 1937 recording Must Get Mine In Front on the Vocalion label and somewhere it's been suggested that this was Aletha Dickerson - and she once was the secretary of producer J. Mayo Williams with the legendary Paramount label in the late twenties, and later she'd taken over producing.
Now Dickerson did play piano on a few Vocalion recordings, but the whole thing seems pretty unlikely to me. First of all - there's here own testimony. Aletha wrote several letters to Max Vreede, the writer of a history of the Paramount label and she said not to remember ever having recorded with someone using that name - and that would make no sense when you'd been that singer yourself. And also she told him that the had a thorough disliking of the popular hokum of the twenties. Now this is evolved eight years from that late twenties style but the many sexual innuendos in Barrelhouse Annie's song - also in this one - they don't fit with the image I got from her when I did research on her when for show on Dickerson somewhat a year ago.
The songwriter credits are shared with her and Mary Mack, and she did do a recording session with Mack so it is possible that Mack was this Barrelhouse Annie and then it may be Dickerson on the piano.
Long story - and you got more than this. Also on Vocalion, the one before Barrelhouse Annie was Lil Johnson with River Hip Papa and before the jingle, that was Clara Smith with a wise advice - Don't Advertise Your Man, cause it will make your friends interested in him. It was in 1924 when she did that for the Columbia label.
Next is a 1928 classic that made it to a smash hit for Little Richard in 1957. Keep A-Knockin' An you Can't Get In is credited to Perry Bradford and J. Mayo Williams as a songwriter, but most likely Williams involvement in writing was none. It was pretty common these days that producers registered songwriter's credits to themselves to earn more on the sales of the tune, and Mayo Williams was no exception. Perry Bradford was a songwriter, so his involvement is more likely.
This version of James 'Boodle It' Wiggins and Bob Call is as far as I know the first one and it was done for the Paramount label. Here it is.
07 - Bob Call - Keep A-Knockin' An you Can't Get In
08 - Memphis Minnie - I'm Selling My Pork Chops (but I'm Giving My Gravy Away)
From 1935 Memphis Minnie on the Bluebird label with I'm Selling My Pork Chops (but I'm Giving My Gravy Away). By then she'd just divorced Kansas Joe McCoy and she'd become a top attraction in Chicago. During the second half of the decade she recorded for Decca, Vocalion and Bluebird. Now her style was unsophisticated but it was powerful and she'd earned her respect among the bluesmen in the Windy City. Or as Big Bill Broonzy said it - she could pick a guitar and sing as good as any man I've ever heard.
Next from 1940 on the Bluebird label the band of Harlan Leonard. Leonard came from the thriving Kansas City scene but when his band moved to Chicago he got in trouble with the almighty Musicians union and he had to break up his band the Kansas City Skyrockets. His new band just named The Rockets lasted until '42 when the war drafted his men - and at some point it included Charlie Parker, but he got fired for lack of disciplin.
After the war Leonard dropped out of music and started working for the IRS. Well here he is with My Gal Sal.
09 - Harlan Leonard - My Gal Sal (They Called Her Frivolous Sal)
10 - Erroll Garner - Twistin' The Cat's Tail
A young Erroll Garner was that with Twistin' The Cat's Tail and that was from 1945 on the Black & White label. Garner is widely regarded as one of the greats of the jazz piano but in '45 the musicians union didn't let him become a member as he couldn't read music. Garner never learned - but it wasn't until 1956 that the union allowed him in - as a honorary member. Not being member of the union could seriously hamper your career these days.
Garner was from Pittsburgh and in '44 he moved to New York to pursue a career in the thriving jazz scene of the Big Apple. This session for the Black & White label was before the label was sold and moved to Los Angeles. And we stay on the piano and with the New York days of the label with the next one - Cliff Jackson with Quiet Please.
11 - Cliff Jackson - Quiet Please
12 - Helen Humes - Voo-It
On the Philo label from 1945 Helen Humes with Voo-It - a poplular blues of the moment on the West Coast. There's also two versions of Marion Abernathy around but that sultry voice of Helen Humes - I think it's superb.
And the next one today on the playlist is a goodie of Lionel Hampton and his band. From 1946 on the Decca label here is Adam Blew His Hat.
13 - Lionel Hampton - Adam Blew His Hat
14 - T-Bone Walker - Goodbye Blues
From 1947 the Goodbye Blues of T-Bone Walker on the Black & White label and it's not a coincidence that I play several titles from that label today. Recently I done a special on the label, and these are, say, leftovers, records that I could not play then, and well you can see that that doesn't mean it's material of lesser quality.
T-Bone had just returned from Chicago where he'd been the sensation of the Rhumboogie cafe, and he done some records for the label, that bore the name of the club. Back on the West Coast he signed with Black & White for more great recordings.
Next a nice goodtime jump blues of Joe Lutcher. It was recorded in 1947 for the Capitol label. Joe Lutcher has long time been forgotten as a Rhythm & Blues artist, mainly because he categorically refused to talk about his involvement with the devil's music after he got involved with the 7th Day Adventist church in the fifties. He was the brother of Nellie Lutcher, and he joined her on the Capitol label after some sessions with Specialty.
Lutcher was close friend with Little Richard and well he denied talking his friend into quitting Rock 'n Roll at the very height of his career, but it's a fact that the two teamed up together preaching the word of the Lord touring the country as The Little Richard Evangelistic Team.
Here he is in his earlier days with the Lucy Lindy Boogie.
15 - Joe Lutcher - Lucy Lindy Boogie
16 - Jackie Brenston - Fat Meat is Greasy
And once more I'm done filling the hour with hot Rhythm & Blues, and some talk about it - guess my stories are getting too long cause lately I'm having more and more troubles squeezing in the seventeen tunes - again, I didn't succeed today. Hope you still liked it and well you can let me know and send e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Feedback is greatly appreciated. And all of today's story, you can find it back at my website and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it'll show up first. You're gonna need this show's number - that is 226.
O yeah - I still have to account for what I just played, that was Fat Meat is Greasy of Jackie Brenston. Well time's really up now, so I hope to see you again next week, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!