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 feature the Manor label, a New York and later New Jersey operation that brought us the famous songs of Savannah Churchill, the Brown Dots, the Cats and the Fiddle and also jazz greats such as Luis Russell, Dizzy Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins. Today I cover the first year of the label, and most recordings have been done in 1944 and '45.
I'll get you more details on both the label and the artists later, but first issue number 1002 of the label and that is the band of Oscar Pettiford backing Rubberlegs Williams. Here they are - straight from the 78 - with the Worried Life Blues.
00 - 1002 - Oscar Pettiford feat. Rubberlegs Williams - Worried Life
00 - 1004 - Savannah Churchill - Daddy Daddy
Savannah Churchill with her self-penned Daddy Daddy, from before she had found her succesful sound backed by the vocal group the Sentimentalists. The label says Savannah Churchill and her orchestra - but that band was Benny Carter's, and she had toured with him in the months before. When this exactly has been recorded I don't know as Carter had moved to California in '43 while Savannah's association with the Manor label came in '45.
Just before the 1942-44 record ban she done her very first recordings for Joe Davis label with Jimmy Lytell's band - also a few very cool blues that sound pretty much different from her succesful Sentimentalists sessions.
Now these Sentimentalists started out as Deek Watson and the Brown Dots. Deek Watson had been with the Ink Spots - by far the most succesful vocal group of the early forties, but the war had drafted some of the members, and in the meanwhile Watson had left to start his own competing group also named the Ink Spots. A lawsuit for who owned the right to the succesful Ink Spots brand was settled out of court and Watson was denied using that name - so he changed his Ink Spots to Brown Dots. By then his struggling vocal group sounded pretty poor - but by the time they entered the studio for Manor, well they'd managed to get a nice sound.
Here they are on Manor 1005 with Thirty One Miles For a Nickel.
00 - 1005 - Deek Watson & The Brown Dots - Thirty One Miles For a Nickel
00 - 1006 - Luis Russell - Boogie In The Basement
(jingle)
00 - 1010 - Tab Smith feat. Trevor Bacon - Rosa Lee Blues
00 - 1012 - Slam Stewart - Hop, Skip And Jump
Manor is often listed as a jazz label and this Hop Skip and Jump of Slam Stewart definitely fits in that category. On this one - and many recordings of him - you can hear his signature gimmick, playing the bass with the bow and humming his voice one octave higher at the same time.
You got more - before that you heard Trevor Beacon backed by Tab Smith's combo with the Rosa Lee Blues. During and just after the war Smith freelanced and got on many different record labels as a sideman. About the time this was recorded, he was switching towards leading a small combo and specializing in rhythm & blues - that is, for as far as there was a difference between that and jazz. We might forget that now, but by then the lines - if there were any - they were very thin and the word Rhythm & Blues had still to be invented.
Then I have to account for what was before the jingle - that was the Boogie in the Basement of the band of Luis Russell. Well we know him primarily for the years he co-led the band with Louis Armstrong, from 1935 to '43, but what you heard now was another band that he led since.
Luis Russell was born in Panama in an Afro-Caribbean family and his father was a music teacher. At age seventeen, he won 3000 dollars in a lottery that he used to move to New Orleans. In these days that was an quite a little money so it must have given him a good headstart.
Next is one more of Savannah Churchill and here she's backed by the band of Al Kilian. Here is I Can't Get Enough Of You.
00 - 1014 - Savannah Churchill - I Can't Get Enough Of You
00 - 1022 - Luis Russell - Garbage Man Blues
The Garbage Man Blues of Luis Russell and that was on Manor number 1022.
Today I spotlight the Manor label, a jazz and Rhythm & Blues label from the mid-forties. Manor was owned by Irving Berman, a record shop owner in Newark, and it's there where he set up a tiny record company named Regis. It was 1943, the recording strike of the American Federation of Musicians was still in effect but that didn't apply to singers, so the first recordings on Regis were acappella gospels and spirituals. Later, when the Manor label was alreay running, he setup office in New York on 57th street.
Now Manor's greatest assets proved to be Savannah Churchill and the vocal group of Deek Watson, that started as the Brown Dots, but after Watson left, we know them as the Four Tunes or the Sentimentalists, and they provide backup on the greatest hits of Savannah Churchill. But Manor also issued a few early recordings of Dizzie Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, Slam Stewart and the Cats and the Fiddle. It wasn't only jazz and Rhythm & Blues - also quite some gospel, some hillbilly and white pop bands.
Berman started a third label, Arco, in 1949, moving back to Newark. Then finally after the comany closed down in 1953, some 45's showed up with Manor recordings on a completely obscure label named Kay-Ron. It's not clear what the connection between the outfit of Berman was with this label.
Next on Manor 1026 the Cats and the Fiddle with Romance Without Finance.
00 - 1023 - Cats & The Fiddle - Romance Without Finance
00 - 1026 - Deek Watson & The Brown Dots - Satchelmouth Baby
The Brown Dots again with Satchelmouth Baby and by then - we're talking spring of 1946 - they had reached quite a status - they were ranked 7th in a popularity poll in the Chicago Defender, that over 100,000 readers had sent in their ballots, and they had two fifteen-minutes shows on national radio.
They got national recognition, and later that year they made their appearance in two movies, the comedy Boy, what a girl and Sepia Cinderella - and if you're interested, the whole Cinderella movie is available on You Tube.
Next more Slam Stewart - here he is with Blue, Brown And Beige.
00 - 1028 - Slam Stewart - Blue, Brown And Beige
00 - 1032 - Deek Watson & The Brown Dots - Well Natch
On Manor 1032 the third Deek Watson and his Brown Dots, with Well Natch. They made more singles for the label, so I had to make a choice and I hope you don't mind I selected the uptempo songs, rather than these syrupy and sentimental love ballads that got so much in fashion in the forties.
The next one is something completely different. Oscar Pettiford was the bassist in the jazz group of Dizzy Gillespie, pioneering in bebop at Minton's Playhouse in 1943. Due to the recording strike from 1942-44 there's very little recordings available of this pioneering time.
Here he is with his combo, with Something For You.
00 - 1034 - Oscar Pettiford - Something for You
00 - 1036 - Coleman Hawkins - Step On It
And another great of the small circle of bebop musicians - Coleman Hawkins - but he had a long career before, in the twenties and thirties, including his first stint with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, a long-time association with Fletcher Henderson and sessions with Henry 'Red' Allen, and a five-year stay in London with the band of Jack Hylton. This one was titled Step On It.
For the next one on the Manor catalog - number 1037 - we go back to the Cats and the Fiddle with a great cover of Lucky Millinder's Shorty's Got To Go.
00 - 1037 - Cats & the Fiddle - Shorty's Got to Go
00 - 1038 - June Davis & The Cats & The Fiddle - Gin Misery Blues
00 - 1042 - Dizzy Gillespie - Good Bait
And with Manor number 1042 ends today's show - you got Dizzy Gillespie's combo with Good Bait. Before that one more of the Cats and the Fiddle, this time it's got June Davis with them and you heard the Gin Misery Blues.
That was the first special I did on the Manor label - and in time I'll get you another one, cause you missed out on a few highlights. One of them is the huge hits Savannah Churchill had when backed by the Sentimentalists - the follow-up of the Brown Dots - like the immortal I Wanna Be Loved But By Only You. And another one is also a vocal group gem - the very first recording of the classic I Love You For Sentimental Reasons, also by Deek Watson and his Brown Dots. I promise you that in a soon-to-come show where I play the original versions of classics, I'll feature this one.
I always have to make choices, also in this show, like I told you that I chose the uptempo songs of the Brown Dots instead of their sweet ballads. Well I hope you don't mind I judge on my own taste and of course, you can let me know - send me an e-mail at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Suggestions are welcome and all feedback will be answered.
Today's story and a sneak peek on what'll be on for next week - you can find it on the website of this show, and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. Today's show was number 231 - to find it in that long list of episodes that I did until now but you can also look for the word Manor of course.
Next week I'll get you more great Rhythm & Blues. Until them, have a rocking time and don't get the blues. See you next time, for more Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!