The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 268

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 welcome back again, my faithful listeners, welcome to the show that will bring you the best of Rhythm & Blues, old jazz and blues from the years when times were hard and music was your only consolation. But for that - what a great music it was. And today you'll get 'em older and older as the hour goes by, cause we'll start in the rocking fifties and close 'em down in the roaring twenties.

And we start with Lafayette Thomas, the nephew of Jesse 'Babyface' Thomas. He was from Shreveport, LA and moved to San Francisco in '47 where he joined the band of Jimmy McCracklin and in the fifties he recorded under various names for different labels. This was recorded in '55 for the Hollywood label but it went unissued. Here is Lafayette Thomas with the Weekend Blues.

01 - Lafayette Thomas - Weekend Blues
02 - Larks - Rockin' In The Rocket Room

From 1954 on the Lloyds subisdiary of Apollo records, you got Rocking in the Rocket Room - and that delicious middle of the song the group shows all of its vocal tricks - and it pretty much catches the vibe when you're rock 'n roll dancing with a high octane girl and during the dance you fall in love with her.

We're talking about the Larks, a vocal group around tenor Gene Mumford, in fact the second incarnation of the group as the first group had disbanded in 1953. Mumford re-grouped a new Larks, and with that he still had the advantage of being signed to the Apollo label. But Apollo owner Bess Berman had new plans for the group, changing the sound more into a popular format, trying to get them sold to the much bigger audience of white teenagers.

In the next recording an unknown artist - that is, in 1970 rock 'n roll researcher Barret Hansen was exploring the vaults of the Specialty label and he came across tapes that were cut in Shreveport, LA, in 1951 and '52, with Big Joe Williams, Country Jim Bledsoe, Clarence London, Pete McKinley and another, unnamed country blues singer.

Now label owner Art Rupe never had much interest for country blues, and nearly all of the recordings had remained unissued. So when Hansen compiled the re-issue album Dark Muddy Bottom for Specialty, he had to come up with a name for this unknown bluesman - and he dubbed him Pinebluff Pete - as he said, his style sounded like from Arkansas. It wasn't until many years later that Hansen confessed having made up that name.

Later more tracks from this unknown bluesman were released, the compilers of the albums all convinced that it was the name he went by in the fifties. One of them is this Number 4 Boogie. Here is that unknown man dubbed Pinebluff Pete.

03 - Pinebluff Pete - No. 4 Boogie
04 - Peppermint Harris - Lord Have Mercy

(jingle)

05 - Lightnin' Hopkins - Have To Let You Go
06 - Peter Warfield - Morning Train Blues

That were four in a row, a lot of great music - after Pinebluff Pete, you got on the Sittin' In With label Peppermint Harris with Lord Have Mercy. Peppermint Harris was discovered by label owner Bob Shad - be it that he mixed up his name. Harrison Nelson was his real name and he used the nickname of Peppermint, and as Peppermint Nelson he'd recorded for the Houston based Gold Star label.

You got more - after the jingle, well who else could that be but Lightnin' Hopkins. From '47 on the Aladdin labe that was Have To Let You Go. It was on Aladdin that Hopkins started, after a talent scout of the label had heard him play on Houston's Downling Street. Hopkins was taken to Los Angeles to record for Aladdin, but in '47 he returned to Houston to record for the local Gold Star label and later for Sittin' In With, and he rarely left his hometown, but for an occasional out-of-town recording date or performance on sixties blues festivals.

Then finally that piano blues was Peter Warfield with the Morning Train Blues and he recorded that for Roy Milton's Miltone label somewhere around 1947.

Next up a pianist and songster whose fame was not in one of the hotbeds of Rhythm & Blues - but in Reno, NV, where her husband, Bud Harris owned the first Black-owned casino-nightclub and hotel named Lillettes Rhythm Club - so named after her. Lillette Harris by then already had worked with greats such as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. Her story is kept alive by her daughter who produced a small-scale musical show devoted to Lillette's Rhythm Club that tours the country, and a documentary film named Glamour On The Keys.

At the time she used either the stage name of Lillette Thomas or her husbands's name Harris, but in jazz circles she's better known as Lillette Jenkins-Wisner - under that name she performed all over the country and abroad and in places along the Florida Gulf coast.

In '46 she did a session for the Sterling label, with a few sessions musicians that on the label were billed as her boys or her escorts. From that session here she is with Down It And Get From Around It.

07 - Lillette Thomas & her Escorts - Down It And Get From Around It
08 - Bea Booze - These Young Men Blues

Young men are no good - they got no money and no experience. You got These Young Men Blues of Bea Booze - a name that long was thought to be a chosen stage name. She was being confused with another musician, Muriel Nichols, but recent research proved they were not the same and Beatrice Booze was her real name.

Source of the confusion was a cover of See See Rider, that both Bea Booze and Muriel Nichols had done, but the label of Nichols version credited her as Muriel 'Bea Booze' Nichols - producer Mayo Williams apparently wanted to cash a little on the success the real Bea Booze had with the record - she made it to number one on the Billboard list.

Next one of the greats of Delta blues - Willie Brown. He played together with Charlie Patton and Son House, and later with Robert Johnson as a sideman and he seems to have been more comfortable with that role as playing solo. He did record under his own name - a session in 1930 for Paramount made it to ten sides, six of them were released, but just one record, so two songs, survived.

Later, in 1942, Brown was recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress, again together with Son House. From that session, here he is with Ragged And Dirty.

09 - Willie Brown - Ragged And Dirty
10 - Wingy Carpenter - Rhythm Of The Dishes And Pans

The Rhythm Of The Dishes And Pans of the band of Wingy Carpenter. Theodore Carpenter lost one of his arms due to an accident in his early teens - hence his nickname and there were more one-armed trumpeters. In '39 he settled in New York, working with Skeets Tolbert and recording under his own name for Decca. This was recorded in 1940 and despite his handicap he proved to be able to get all kinds of sounds out of his horn - and a perfect showcase of his antics on the instrument is his Preaching the Trumpet.

Next on the melody of Things Are Coming My Way the obscure Jimmy McLain with his only release on Vocalion. From 1938 here is Keep Your Fly-Trap Closed.

11 - Jimmy McLain - Keep Your Fly-Trap Closed
12 - Alice Moore - Just Sitting Here Wondering

St. Louis blueswoman Alice Moore was that with Just Sitting Here Wondering - and she had a very own sound in all of her recordings - that were a series of sessions in the late twenties for Paramount and some sessions for Decca. This one is part of her Decca material, recorded in 1935. Her blues are immediately recognized with her typical voice and her eerie melodies, and also, in a few of her Paramount sides she's being accompanied by an accordion - a very rare instrument in the blues, but it well fits her sound.

Quite a contrast with the next record, that's from 1932 on the Victor label. Goodtime depression jazz with the Washboard Rhythm Kings, a loose combination of studio musicians that recorded for several labels onder different names. Here is the Depression Stomp.

13 - Washboard Rhythm Kings - Depression Stomp
14 - Barbecue Bob - Going Up The Country

Barbecue Bob with Going Up The Country - and this was a bluesman with a career cut short due to his untimely death due to tuberculosis and a pneumonia. Bob was a well-known musician in the Atlanta blues scene, and his nickname was a marketing gimmick inspired by his job at a barbecue joint. In his short recording career, he laid down 68 sides, mostly blues, but also a few traditionals and spritual songs.

Next a great goodie - My Handy Man of Victoria Spivey together with the Blue Five of Clarence Williams - and the song, first done by Ethel Waters, proved to be a mainstay, that is, it became popular in covers in the seventies and onwards. As for the pre-war years I found only three versions. I suggest you look up the version of Alberta Hunter that she did live in Berlin in 1981 - a great performance by the grand old lady.

But here is Victoria Spivey with her version of My Handy Man.

15 - Victoria Spivey - My Handy Man

And the hour gone by just without noticing - time flies when you're listening to good music. That was My Handy Man of Victoria Spivey on the Okeh label, recorded in 1928, backed by Clarence Williams and his Blue Five.

And I hope you liked my selection as much as I did compiling it - and I have to confess listeners, the selections in these unthemed shows are sometimes pretty random, I just make sure I got something from every decade between the roaring twenties and the rocking fifties. Well with so much great music, it's hard to go wrong. Of course, you can let me know what you liked about it, and send e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

Then I have to point you to my website, where you can find all about today's show and look forward to what's on the menu for next time. The easiest way to get to my site is type Legends of the Rocking Dutchman in Google and it will show up first. Once in, this was show number 268 on the episodes list.

And that's all for now, folks. Next week I'll get you more great Rhythm & Blues, so be sure to tune in again, for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!