This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
Thank you for being with me again, and once more you'll get a great selection from the four decades that you always get your mixed bag of music from - the roaring twenties to the rocking fifties.
And the first one for today comes from 1951 - a great rocker on the RCA label of saxophonist and singer Big John Greer. Greer was the saxman in the band of Lucky Millinder and as a sideman he honked on sides of Wynonie Harris and Bull Moose Jackson. His solo career brought some modest hits - mostly because RCA was slow in releasing them and others had recorded the tune too - and then, one number 2 hit in '52, Got You On My Mind.
But here he is with Woman Is A Five Letter Word.
01 - Big John Greer - Woman Is A Five Letter Word
02 - Herbert Woo Woo Moore - Something's Wrong
Recorded in '53 in New Orleans for the Mercury label that was Herbert Woo Woo Moore with Something's Wrong and it seems this was the only recording he done for the label.
And we stay in the Crescent City with a 1955 recording for the Imperial label of guitarist Pee Wee Crayton. Crayton was from texas but he recorded all over the country - with Modern in Hollywood, Imperial from New Orleans, Vee-Jay in Chicago and the Philadelphia based Jamie label. Here he is with I Got News For You.
03 - Pee Wee Crayton - I Got News For You
04 - Flat Foot Floogie Boys & Slim Gaillard - Sploghm
Slim Gaillard was that together with Slam Stewart with a goodie titled Sploghm on the OKeh label and with that we take a dive back to the days just before the war, 1940. On this you hear the typical trademark style of Slam Stewart, singing together with his double bass that played with the bow.
The two teamed up together in '37 and they were tremendously popular in New York and later on the West Coast.
Slim Gaillard was, that is according to himself, born on Cuba. The US census says something else though and tracks him down to Alabama and Pensacola, FL, as the son of a Jewish merchant and an African-American mother. Whether he grew up on Cuba, and if the life stor the always told of himself is true we don't know, it tells that he sailed the seas with his father, was left behind on a Greek island at the age of 12, travelled with ships to Beirut and Syria, and took a ship back to Cuba, that is, that's what he thought, but it went to the US and he ended up in Detroit where he done some odd jobs such as transporting bootleg liquor, trying a boxing career and work for an Armenian general store - and he took music classes.
After seeing Duke Ellington he decided to move to New York to try his luck in music - and he found success together with Slam Stewart with his songs full of nonsense lyrics that he dubbed Vout-o-Reeney.
The next one also is just from before America's involvement in the war. From February 1941 on the Decca label here is pianist Erskine Butterfield with the Monday's Wash.
05 - Erskine Butterfield - Monday's Wash
06 - Effie Smith with Jimmie Grissom & The Blenders - It's Been So Long
(jingle)
07 - Bea Booze - These Young Man Blues
08 - Eddie Durham - Magic Carpet
From 1940 on Decca the Magic Carpet of the band of Eddie Durham, the pioneer on the electrical guitar and the mentor of Charlie Christian. In an interview done in the seventies, Durham recalls that Christian was just a not-so-good pianist when he taught him the techniques of the guitar, on the beat-up five dollar acoustical guitar that Christian got himself. That was in '37, and just a year later Christian played in Benny Goodman's band.
In '35 Durham played on what must be the first recording of an electrical guitar, with the band of Jimmy Lunceford. There were no electrical guitars available, Durham was experimenting with a sound pickup in the wooden guitar that he had for that. He had a small amp, but for gigs the pickup was connected to the sound system directly. Solos went better than the rhythm work because when he played too loud, he blew the fuses of the system. That's how the guitar solo originated, and by '35 Durham was the only guitarist known for playing solos in a jazz band.
His best work are the Kansas City Five sessions with musicians from Count Basie's band. With, and after his time with Basie, Durham more and more specialized on arranging work, and he left the guitar behind - but his mark on the style of playing was set.
You got more - before Eddie Durham that was These Young Man Blues of Bea Booze and the pianist on this one is Sammy Price. That also was on the Decca label, all from the 8500 Sepia series.
Then I have to account for the one before the jingle, that was It's Been So Long of Jimmy Grissom and his Blenders fronted by Effie Smith and that was on the Miltone label.
The next one is a piano solo from 1939 - it's on the Blue Note label, Albert Ammons with Chicago In Mind.
09 - Albert Ammons - Chicago In Mind
10 - Eddie Miller - Good Jelly Blues
From 1929 that was the Good Jelly Blues of Eddie Miller and this was a blues pianist who worked in the St. Louis and Chicago scenes. Miller is the writer of the classic blues I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water - on a theme that also featured many old-time country songs. There's not so much known on this bluesman - and with this name, several more musicians were around.
Next the great band of Andy Kirk, one of the highlights of the thriving Kansas City swing scene. There probably have been two bands. One that grew out of Terrence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy that was based in Dallas, and when Holder quit in '29, Kirk was elected to be the band leader and he moved it to Kansas City where they played the Pla-Mor ballroom. It looks like Kirk has disbanded this band in the early thirties, and started a new one somewhere in '36 and that made its recordings for Decca.
This is that first incarnation of the band, the Twelve Clouds of Joy - Kirk dropped the word Dark in it. On the Brunswick label here they are with Traveling That Rocky Road.
11 - Andy Kirk & His 12 Clouds Of Joy - Traveling That Rocky Road
12 - Mattie Hardy with Joe Williams & His Chicago Swingers - You're All Right With Me
From a rejected session for Columbia from 1938, that was Mattie Hardy with Joe Williams and his Chicago Swingers and you heard That's Allright With Me. These Chicago Swingers was a loose group of studio musicians, and they accompanied blues singers. I suppose it should have been released on Vocalion, by then the subsidiary of Columbia for the cheaper records. The OKeh imprint was inactive at the time and got back when Columbia lost the rights to the brand Vocalion.
Next from 1929 on the Brunswick label the Chicago-based Dixie Rhythm Kings, a group made up of musicians that featured as sidemen on a lot of other records. I don't know if the group also toured or only came together in the studio - as is with many more of these bands.
Here they are with the Chant.
13 - Dixie Rhythm Kings - The Chant
14 - Papa Charlie Jackson - Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine
Your baby ain't sweet like mine - that was Papa Charlie Jackson and that was from 1926 on the Paramount label. Papa Charlie Jackson was the first male blues singer accompanying himself to record, that was in 1924 for Paramount. Jackson busked at the Maxwell Street Market in Chicago and did club dates. Apart from the recordings in his own name, he also accompanied Ma Rainey and Ida Cox on their recordings. Jackson also was one of the originators of the hokum style, that were rowdy, sexually suggestive and comical blues.
Next a blues of a female singer named Ann 'Sis' Quander - one out of the four recordings that she made. She knew Duke Ellington well, she had performed with him before he got famous. According to Quander in an interview, they'd been together in a New York studio in the early twenties, but the outcome of it was lost. She didn't recall what they recorded and for what record label that would have been.
The recording that I play here, was done without the Duke. On the Perfect label, from 1927, her she is with Mama Is Waiting For You.
15 - Sis Quander - Mama Is Waiting For You
16 - Victoria Spivey - Santa Fe Blues
I guess there's only one blueswoman with a sound like this lady got - and who else can that be than Victoria Spivey. Her heavy piano chords give that distinctive, dramatic appeal to her blues that only stress the unusual melody lines that were unheard of both in her time and ever since. This was from 1926 the Santa Fe Blues and she recorded it for the Okeh label.
Blues like hers stole my heart and I hope you like 'em as much as I do. Well of course you can let me know. Feedback is greatly appreciated and the address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. The link to my e-mail is also provided on my web site, and there you can also find out more about this radio program, all about today's show and what'll be on for next week. I could try to spell out the address but easiest way to get there is to find the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman in Google, Bing, or another web search engine. Ya know listeners, after all these years, they got to know me. Once in, look for show number 245 in the episodes list.
For now I'm done - and I hope to see you again, next week, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!