This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And for today some releases of the Mercury label from 1946 and '47. I did a show on the label a few months back and I covered the very start of the label, and today I start where I left you last time, somewhere in '46 and the first for today is from a great saxophonist and blues shouter, Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson. By now he had his own band to accompany him, and this is Rhythm & Blues at its best. Here he is with the Old Maid Boogie.
00 - 8028 - Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson - Old Maid Boogie
00 - 8029 - Bill Samuels & the Cats 'n Jammer Three - Candy Store Jump
Today I feature some releases of the Mercury label and this is number 8029 of the label - the Candy Store Jump of the Cats 'n Jammer Three - the group of Bill Samuels. They were formed after Nat King Cole's trio, but they did smooth ballads, instrumentals, and hot jive numbers rather than the cocktail lounge style of Cole. The group was one of the first acts that Mercury signed, and they disbanded in 1948. Samuels tried some solo work and eventually another trio, but he never got the success of the three years he did the Cats 'n Jammer three - and that was named after the Katzenjammer kids, a newspaper comic.
Next Jimmy Witherspoon backed by the band of Jay McShann and you'll get, on Mercury 8032, Gone With The Blues.
00 - 8032 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Gone With The Blues
00 - 8035 - Dinah Washington - I Want To Be Loved
(jingle)
00 - 8037 - Bill Samuels - I Know What You're Puttin' Down
00 - 8038 - Red Caps - Jack You're Dead
That were four in a row - after Jay McShann you got I Want To Be Loved and that voice was Dinah Washington. Mercury recorded and released a lot of the pop songs and smooth jazz ballads that we know her so well of, but they have little to do with the blues or Rhythm & Blues. In this you must have recogized the famous doowop ballad that Savannah Churchill had together with the Sentimentalists on the Manor label, a label that I spotlighted just a few weeks ago.
Then after the jingle, that was one more of Bill Samuels and his Cats 'n Jammer Three on Mercury number 8037 - you heard I Know What You're Puttin' Down. And then finally the vocal group the Red Caps with Jack, You're Dead and this group has been around in different line-ups and under different names from the mid-thirties - the Red Caps were named after the railway station porter uniforms.
For the next one another great blues of Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson. On Mercury 8039 here he is with Bonus Pay.
00 - 8039 - Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson - Bonus Pay
00 - 8040 - Albert Ammons - Kilroy Boogie
Albert Ammons hammering the 88s with the Kilroy Boogie and that was on number 8040 in the catalog of Mercury, the label I spotlight today, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Mercury was founded in 1945 in Chicago by Irving Green and Berle Adams and two more, Adams had repesented many Chicago musicians including Louis Jordan. Green had a record pressing company and decided to start a record company together with that.
Now Mercury worked in all fields of music, but their jazz and Rhythm & Blues efforts of the mid-forties are best remembered, and into the sixties jazz was released on their flagship label. The label still exists and it has never gone out of business, not even temporarily.
It's the 8000 rhythm series that they started with, and that, I'm playing now in a second show dedicated to Mercury, the first was a few months ago. And for the next one you'll get Jimmy Witherspoon again, backed by the combo of Jay McShann. On number 8041 of the catalog, here is All My Geets Are Gone.
00 - 8041 - Jimmy Witherspoon - All My Geets Are Gone
00 - 8042 - Bill Samuels - Where's My Baby
Where's My Baby and with that you got the third record of Bill Samuels and his Cats 'n Jammer Three. And the next two will be Dinah Washington - I told you that most of the stuff that Mercury released are pop ballads that I think are of no interest for this program. But the catalog numbers 8043 and 8044 brought two recordings of her that were made in December of 1943 in New York with the orchestra of Lionel Hampton and they had been released before on the Keynote label. Most well-known are her versions of the Leonard Feather compositions Evil Gal Blues and Salty Papa Blues - I'll play the flips today so here are Homeward Bound and I Know How To Do It.
00 - 8043 - Dinah Washington - Homeward Bound
00 - 8044 - Dinah Washington - I Know How To Do It
I Know How To Do It of Dinah Washington and that was recorded in '43 with Lionel Hampton and released on Mercury 8044.
And next the brothers Cliff and Claude Trenier in their first recordings backed by the band of Gene Gilbeaux. These two were the heart of what in the fifties became the famous Treniers, the family band that brought us some strong precursors of Rock 'n Roll - and Bill Haley said that it were the Treniers made him decide to go and record rock 'n Roll.
This has no hint at all of Rock 'n Roll - its delivery made me first think this was the Louis Jordan version until I compared it with his version. Well you can hear the Louis Jordan influence yourself. Here they are - with Buzz Buzz Buzz.
00 - 8045 - Trenier Twins - Buzz Buzz Buzz
00 - 8046 - Walter Brown - Sloppy Drunk
Sloppy Drunk and you heard Walter Brown and a quartet taken from Jay McShann's band backed him up. Brown had been with McShann before but he'd been replaced by Jimmy Witherspoon, mostly because of his drugs and alcohol abuse, that made him too unreliable to work with. Brown would never get the success he achieved with McShann in the early forties, and the recordings he did between '47 and '51 didn't sell. One of these recording dates was in '49, where he reunited with McShann once more, now for the Capitol label. In 1956 he died of his addiction to alcohol, heroin and benzedrine.
Next on Mercury 8047 one of my favorite female singers. Here is Helen Humes with her Jet Propelled Papa.
00 - 8047 - Helen Humes - Jet Propelled Papa
00 - 8048 - Gene Ammons & his Sextet - Red Top
Gene Ammons with a vocalese version of Red Top - and he would do several more recordings of this classic, some with, some without the lyrics. Now these lyrics weren't in the original composition - and the art of adding lyrics to instrumentals is called vocalese.
Red Top originally was written by Ben Kynard, one of the saxophonists in the band of Lionel Hampton, with the title in honor of his wife who'd colored her hair red. The vocalese was Gene Ammons' - and it sold so much better that he went away with the credits and it was suggested that Ammons had written it for his wife. The official copyright credits - as registered with BMI - they go to both men.
The great artists of vocalese were Eddie Jefferson, Babs Gonzales and King Pleasure - and there's a version of this Red Top of this King Pleasure too. Now not all instrumentals were that suitable for adding lyrics - making some of them true tongue-breakers. And I must say, the vocal lyrics on Red Top do sound a little unnatural, constructed - making it a typical example of vocalese, where someone tried, but not succeeded to enhance a great composition with lyrics. Or in other words - I rather stick to the instrumental version.
There are numerous examples of vocalese in jazz and a few in Rhythm & Blues - Jimmy Forrest's Night Train is an example of that, where the executives of United records got themselves a part of the royalties by putting some pretty obvious lyrics on the music. I played a great version of them sung by the Four Blazes in a show long time ago, and I promise I'll play it in the next show again. It does show off that a vocalese can sound pretty good - even with bland lyrics.
I got time for one more. On Mercury 8049 here is Jimmy Witherspoon, backed by Jay McShann with a song on the kinda lady that tries to convince the men to buy her her drinks. Here are the Bar Fly Blues.
00 - 8049 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Bar Fly Blues
And with the Bar Fly Blues of Jimmy Witherspoon we've come to the end of this episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - featuring the Mercury label in 1946 and '47. A label that started like so many independent labels, but it proved to be a mainstay in the music industry. How come that some independent labels do and others don't make it to a major - it must be a combination of good enterpreneurship and probably a little luck.
Now just if you missed some of today's story, you know you can always find it back at the website of this program - find it simply with a web search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first in the results. Today's show got number 235 but of course you can search for the word Mercury in the episodes list - this is the second show dedicated to the label.
On my site you can also see what'll be on for next week, and find out how to provide feedback - that is, sending e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Feedback is greatly appreciated.
Time's up for now, and next week there will be more great rhythm & blues. So I hope to catch you then, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!