The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 239

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.

And I'm happy to see you back again listeners, to have you here, at the radio for another hour of the best of Rhythm & Blues, old style jazz and pre-war blues from the roaring twenties to the rocking fifties - when life was hard and the music was great.

And I start in these rocking fifties today with Billy Wright - a young rising star of rhytm & Blues and he was a great influence on his friend Little Richard. Now I said young rising star, but his age had been disputed all of his career - estimates about his year of birth differ from what he claimed himself - 1932 - to as far back as 1918. It makes the difference of a teenager or a man in his mid-thirties. Now considering he was a close friend of Little Richard, I think it most likely that he was of the same age.

Well here he is, anyhow, with a New Way Of Lovin'.

01 - Billy Wright - New Way Of Lovin'
02 - Joe Turner - Story To Tell

From 1950 Big Joe Turner backed by the band of Dave Bartholomew, and a young Fats Domino on the piano, with Got A Story To Tell. Well of course this was taken in New Orleans, the residence of Bartolomew. Turner traveled the country, always on tour, and wherever he laid his hat was his recording studio. He's been on countless record labels spread all over the nation, and so while he was in the Crescent City, he recorded these sides for Imperial.

Next from 1949 on the Capitol label the great guitar work of T-Bone Walker. Here he is with She's My Old Time Used To Be.

03 - T-bone Walker - She's My Old Time Used To Be
04 - Willie Jordan and his Swinging Five (Champion Jack Dupree) - Cecelia Cecelia

(jingle)

05 - Jimmy Liggins - Dark Hour Blues
06 - Lucky Millinder feat. Rosetta Tharpe - Rock Me

That was on the Decca label the orchestra of Lucky Millinder fronted by sister Rosetta Tharpe. This Rock Me actually is a gospel, Rock Me In The Cradle Of Thy Love, recorded in 1941. It was a smash hit and a great influence to rock 'n roll artists nearly two decades later.

Rosetta did her gospel music with Lucky Millinder and boogie-woogie pianist Sammy Price for Decca, and on stage with Cab Calloway, that was in the famous Cotton Club. She also played the electrical guitar and these days that was regarded as a typical man's instrument. Well with the conservative churchgoing gospel people she quickly fell out of favor, performing the music of the Lord in sinful nightclubs backed by jazz bands - remember that Cab Calloway's greatest success was wit his Minnie the Moocher songs, about a life full of drugs. But Sister Rosetta's audience loved it and her records sold well. Later, she got widely recognized as an innovative musician, and leading rock 'n roll artists, such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash have credited her as a major influence. It gave her the name of the Godmother of Rock 'n Roll.

Well you got more - before Rosetta Tharpe that was from 1952 the Dark Hour Blues of Jimmy Liggins, on the Specialty label credited as Jimmy Liggins, his guitar and the Drops of Joy Orchestra. Now that's a mouthful - but it didn't help selling the record. He always remained in the shadow of his brother Joe, never got to achieve his level of success.

Then I have to account for what was before the jingle - well that was Champion Jack Dupree with an apparent attempt to cash a bit on the success - or is it a parody - of Louis Jordan's Caldonia. Cecilia Cecilia was that, recorded in 1946 on the Alert label and the label credits Willie Jordan and his Swinging Five - with vocals of Willie Jordan - in fact it were Dupree and Brownie McGhee and a few session musicians.

For the next one, on the Juke Box label, a great drummer and blues shouter - George Vann - with the Going Home Blues, backed by the band of pianist Sylvester Scott.

07 - George 'The Blues Man' Vann - Going Home Blues
08 - Jack McVea - Boilermakers Boogie

The boilermakers boogie of Jack McVea from 1947 on the Black & While label - that credited the band as Jack McVea's Door Openers after his smash hit Open The Door Richard of '46. McVea's band served as the studio band for the Black & White label, backing up many of the recordings. Before, he'd been a few years in the band of Lionel Hampton and there he played alongside Illinois Jacquet. The small combos he led after he left in '43, they proved to be succesful on the many venues on Los Angeles' Central Avenue. And like so many of his generation, his career didn't survive the rock 'n roll era, but fortunately Disney came to the rescue, offering him a 25 year job as a clarinetist in the Royal Bachelors jazz band in Disneyland.

Next from 1941 Walter Brown backed by the piano of Jay McShann with Hootie's Ignorant Oil. The ignorant oil is the whiskey, and it's a known fact that both Brown and McShann knew their way with the liquor. Only Brown also was addicted to the heroin, and that made him so unreliable to work with, that McShann eventually had to fire him. The same happened to that genius saxophonist of the band, Charlie Parker, who could completely mess up performances high on the horse.

Now just few of the recordings of McShann had his whole band playing. The next one only got McShann on the piano and Gus Johnson with the percussion. Here is on the Decca label Hootie's Ignorant Oil.

09 - Jay McShann feat. Walter Brown - Hootie's Ignorant Oil
10 - Lionel Hampton - The Pencil Broke.wav

And we stay with the Decca label with the band of Lionel Hampton with the Pencil Broke and it's Hamp himself singing and of course doing the vibraphone break. Hampton was released in the popular series and advertized in Billboard between the pop stars of the moment - together with Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Dick Haymes and Jimmy Dorsey.

The same was the matter for Louis Armstrong also making it to Decca's popular series in 1941. Now Armstrong had gotten such a status that he could stay in the finest hotels where these days no black man was ever allowed - that is, as a guest. Only very few of his era got to achieve that - and to think that he spent his childhood in the poorest of orphanages in New Orleans.

Here he is with Yes Suh.

11 - Louis Armstrong - Yes Suh!
12 - Lil Johnson - Hottest Gal In Town

The Hottest Gal In Town recorded in 1936 for the Vocalion label, that was Lil Johnson, a blueswoman from the Chicago scene backed up by Black Bob on the piano. Johnson recorded a bunch of pretty risque blues including Hot Nuts, get them from the peanut man and Press My Button, Ring My Bell with the suggestive lyrics Come on baby, let's have some fun, Just put your hot dog in my bun.

Now - she's one of them blues singers that we don't know anything about but her recording career. After she got into the studio for the last time in '37, she disappeard off the radar and the same counts for her life before her first session with Vocalion in 1929 and the years between '29 and '35 when she didn't record.

For the next one we dive further into the history of African-American music. In the twenties, pianist Richard M. Jones recorded for Victor, Gennett, Paramount and for Columbia's subsidiary OKeh, and there he got a job as a supervisor for the Race department of the Chicago branch, working extensively with Louis Armstrong. He later did similar work for Decca, working for J. Mayo Williams, and up to his death in '45 for Mercury.

This was recorded as Richard M. Jones and his Jazz Wizards for Victor. Here is the African Hunch.

13 - Richard M. Jones - African Hunch
14 - Sam Robinson - Come Around The Corner

Recorded in 1926 for OKeh, that was the obscure Sam Robinson with Come Around The Corner. Apart from a few recordings for that label, there's little documented about him.

And we stay with OKeh and in the year 1926 with the next goodie - unfortunately the only surviving record is a bit scratchy, especially in the intro. Here's Victoria Spivey on her best with her haunting blues style - listen to the Big Houston Blues.

15 - Victoria Spivey - Big Houston Blues.wav
16 - Clarence Williams - I Like To Go Back In The Evening.wav

(jingle)

17 - Fletcher Henderson - Old Black Joe's Blues.wav
18 - Trixie Smith - Railroad Blues.wav

Now - it don't happen too often that I can squeeze 18 tracks in the hour, guess I haven't been talking that much as I do normally. Well that were four in a row, after Victoria Spivey that you got Clarence Williams with I Like To Go Back In The Evening in an unreleased vocal version done for Vocalion in 1933 with Eva Taylor singing and her husband Clarence Williams blew the jug and he scratched the washboard.

Then came the jingle and the Old Black Joe's Blues of Fletcher Henderson, a recording from 1928 for the ARC labels. There's been an earlier version from 1923 but that was acoustically recorded and sounds just much less good.

Well you did get an acoustical recording from me, the last one, that was Trixie Smith and she cut that for Paramount in early 1925, the Railroad Blues.

Well through the decades recording technology got much better but I hope you don't mind throwing in a pre-'25 recording, I know they sound much less but I think they got great music too. Well you can let me know - feedback is greatly appreciated. You can send e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And then, all of today's information is on the website of your favorite program, just search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first in the search results. This is show number 239, you're gonna need this number to easily find this episode.

Time's up for now, so I hope to see you again, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!