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 the story of the Session label - a small-scale label based in Chicago, owned by Phil Featheringill and David W. Bell, that operated from the Session Record Shop in the Chicago Loop. The shop was specialized in old-style jazz, rare, out of print records and of course the pressings of the Session record label, that both re-issued out-of-print jazz oldies and did new recordings, mostly with an old-fashioned sauce.
The earliest recordings of the label must have been for Alonzo Yancey, the brother of the more famous Jimmy Yancey and as good on the piano. Documentation fails but probably these recordings have been done at a house party in the fall of 1943, and not in the marathon piano session of Jimmy, that was done in December of that year. From the Alonzo session comes this catalog number 10-15, that was released much later, in early 1947. Here is Alonzo Yancey with Everybody's Rag.
01 - 10-015 - Alonzo Yancey - Everybody's Rag
02 - 10-001 - Jimmy Yancey - Jimmy's Rocks
And that was Jimmy Yancey with Jimmy's Rocks, from the third session of the Session label, that I feature today, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. In between probably came a session with the mysterious blues pianist Jesse Young, but only a hint of that session exists on paper. No master is known and if ever issued, no copies survived. It's unlikely this Jesse Young ever recorded again.
As for the December session of Jimmy Yancey, some with his wife Estelle as Mama Yancey, that must have been like a marathon. It had twenty takes, and all of these recordings have been extensively re-issued. This was done as number 10-001, the first of the ten-inch record series, and next I'll play number 12-003, from their 12 inch series.
Indeed - Session records had a twelve-inch series, discs that could hold 4 1/2 minutes of music instead of the somewhat more than three of regular 10 inchers. The larger shellac records broke even more often than the 10 inch records, but Session records issued the first three 12-inchers as a box set titled This Is Jimmy Yancey, pressed on vinylite and sold for the unbelievable high price of eight dollars and fifty cents. Well for that, you had virtually unbreakable records - and part of the pressings have been done in red vinyl probably to get 21st century collectors raving mad.
From that expensive box - here are Jimmy and Mama Yancey with the traditional Pallet On The Floor.
03 - 12-003 - Jimmy Yancey and Mama Yancey - Pallet On The Floor
04 - 10-006 - Cripple Clarence Lofton - In The Mornin'
(jingle)
05 - 10-014 - Cripple Clarence Lofton - Policy Blues
06 - 12-010 - Trummy Young - Hollywood
More from the Session label - after the twelve-incher of the Yancey couple, you got two of Cripple Clarence Lofton, also done in December of 1943. The piano instrumental was In The Mornin' and after the jingle Lofton sings the Policy Blues - both on 10 inch shellac.
Then finally came trombonist Trummy Young with a combo with two saxophones, a pianist, bass and percussion with Hollywood. Young had worked for Earl Hines and Jimmie Lunceford where he done some great solo performances - plus as a singer of a few comedy songs with the band.
Next a recording done in New York - it's unknown if Phil Featheringill was in New York in March of '44 or that he somehow acquired the masters. It features the colorful Mezz Mezzrow - a white musician who tried to identify himself with the African-American community, to the extent that one day when he was arrested, he insisted to be locked up in the Black wing of the county jail. Mezzrow was notorious for the marijuana cigarettes that he sold so many of, that for a short time Mezzrolls was the slang name for them.
His personality, and his saucy autobiography Really The Blues made up for that he was a somewhat mediocre clarinettist. Here he is with his trio with Milk For Mezz.
07 - 10-008 - Mezz Mezzrow - Milk for Mezz
08 - 10-007 - Art Hodes - Feather's Lament
Feather's Lament of the same combo as the previous one, but on the label billed as the trio of the band's pianist, the Ukrainian refugee Art Hodes. The title is a punch back to the famous jazz critic Leonard Feather - for the biting sarcasm that he used in Metronome Magazine to ridicule the recordings of Hodes and Mezzrow.
But then, Feather was more the modernist type and he hardly had any interest for the more traditional jazz that came from the Session label. From the modern jazz guys, these traditionalist got named moldy figs, a name they soon wore with pride. And do I wonder why a jazz authority of such a standing lowered himself by scolding people who apparently have a different taste, with words like these sound like an amateur band entertaining in an air shelter. Us, we'll face the bombs. Funny sarcasm maybe, but the revival of New Orleans traditional jazz was unstoppable and appealed to many fans of old jazz.
And traditional jazz definitely was the music of veteran Richard M. Jones - from the generation of Clarence Williams, Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. He had a session on March 23 of 1944 with musicians of his generation, that included Preston Jackson, Darnell Howard and Baby Dodds - a bunch of middle aged men enjoying making the music they always loved. And you can hear that. Here is the New Orleans Hop Scop Blues.
09 - 12-006 - Richard M. Jones - New Orleans Hop Scop Blues
10 - 10-010 - Ben Webster - Perdido
The jazz classic Perdido done by Ben Webster and that was recorded in New York in March of 1944. Most sources list another date than the Mezz Mezzrow recording, but if the owner of the label Phil Featheringill travelled to New York for them, it's more likely they were done on the same day.
The combo included Big Sid Catlett on drums and the other record from the session was released as Sid Catlett quartet for the side that Webster did play on. The flip was only the pianist, bass player and drummer doing the classic I Found A New Baby and the drum solos of Catlett are out of this world. Reviews were very positive in most magazines, except for Metronome, that seemed to give sour comments to every release of the Session label - or sometimes acid is the better word.
Judge for yourself, I'd say, here is Sid Catlett and his trio with I Found A New Baby.
11 - 10-009 - Sid Catlett - I Found A New Baby
12 - 12-009 - Session Six - We Want in the Act
A wonderful piece of improvisation with the Session Six on a twelve inch platter - this was titled We Want In The Act. The combo was a group of little known musicians from the Chicago scene but it's for sure a great effort. One of the two records that came from this April 1944 session sadly never showed up again.
Sessions next recording date was with saxophonist Pete Brown, later in April of 1944. From that session I play the twelve-incher Jim's Idea. A second record was announced in the press but it probably never saw daylight. Here is Jim's Idea.
13 - 12-012 - Pete Brown - Jim's Idea
14 - 12-015 - Punch Miller - Muscle Shoals Blues
And another record on 12 inch shellac with jazz veteran Punch Miller - you got the Muscle Shoals blues. The release came two years after the recording date.
There were two more sessions, one highly obscure improvisation session of pianist and bassman Jimmy Jones and John Levy, that probably never was issued, and a session with trombonist J.C. Higginbotham, yielding two records that I couldn't lay my hands on, or at least a soundfile.
The Session label originally had the same mission as the Session Record Store, that is to sell rare and out-of-print jazz classics, and there were re-issue records on the Session label with the greats of the mid-twenties - such as Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and Bix Beiderbecke. In '46 these re-issues were pressed again, now on a label simply named Reissue, !also by Phil Featheringill.
Now during the years that Featheringill was active in music, he also wrote in jazz magazines. He was the correspondent for Chicago in Metronome, the same magazine that dissed Session's recordings in sour reviews. He also helped producing a special issue of Jazz Quarterly devoted to old-fashioned hot jazz. He not only wrote articles but also spiced them up with his drawings that are, eh, well, call them unique.
By then, we're talking 1945 then, he organized traditional jazz sessions in Chicago venues, but he'd quit recording. In '46, he moved to the West Coast and kept his business as a mail order for his wartime recordings and re-issues. By the end of '47 he quit the business entirely and moved to New York. The masters and inventory of the business seem to have been lost, except for the Alonzo Yancey masters that showed up at an auction in 1990, after the death of Featheringill's second wife. The business partner in the early days of the label, Dave Bell, he seems to have vanished in obscurity.
And that's all about the label that I can tell you now, cause time's up. I hope you liked today's story, and most of it I got from the knowledgeable Red Saunders Research Foundation that did a web page on the Session label. Feedback is greatly appreciated, and the address is the usual, rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And all of the story that I told you today, you can get it from my website, and you'll get there easily with a Google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. In the episodes list look for the Session label or show number 272.
As usual you'll get the records and sides that I didn't play today, in future Legends Mix shows, and the next one will be next week. So do stop by then, for more Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!