This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And it's instrumentals time today here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. So much of the best Rhythm & Blues was done without singing and I thought it's time again to dedicate a whole show to them. No lyrics and not too much talk from me, after all I know you came here for the music so let's start off with a great easy double-sider of Sonny Thompson and somewhere in the middle I'll flip that King 78 fast as lightning. Here is Cotton Ball.
01 - Sonny Thompson - Cotton Ball
02 - Sil Austin & Red Prysock - Kenny's Blues
And so you got over ten minutes of great easy-going instrumental music. Sil Austin and Red Prysock with Kenny's blues from a 1959 10'' Mercury LP, a nice little treasure in my collection.
From another 10 inch LP, a on the Baton label from 1955, comes the Lindy Rock of Frank 'Floorshow' Culley. The album called Rock & Roll instrumentals for dancing the Lindy Hop features five instrumentals of Frank Culley on the A-side and five from Buddy Tate on the flip. Listen - and dance the Lindy Hop to this little gem. Here is Lindy Rock.
03 - Frank 'Floorshow' Culley - Lindy Rock
04 - Gene Ammons - Cha Bootie
Great instrumentals here, today spotlighted on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, where usually you will only get 'em in the background while I'm talking. And I know I'm doing them wrong just using them for that. You heard Gene Ammons with the Cha Bootie.
More instrumental delight - here is Plas Johnson with the Dungaree Hop.
05 - Plas Johnson - Dungaree Hop
06 - T.J. Fowler - Back Biter
From Detroit, T.J. Fowler and his band with the Back Biter. It was recorded in 1952 and released on the Savoy label. Before that he'd been recording for various obscure labels.
Though Detroit had a lively Rhythm & Blues scene, little of it has been recorded as the city didn't have succesful record labels - that is until Berry Gordy shook things up and founded his Motown label in 1959. But that was when Rhythm & Blues were over and soul was just emerging.
So let me treat you with another double-sider. From 1957 on the Baton label comes Noble Watts with Easy Going.
07 - Noble Watts - Easy Going Pt 1
07 - Noble Watts - Easy Going Pt 2
08 - Gone All Stars - Down Yonder Rock
Down Yonder Rock from 1958 - that were The Gone All Stars, the house band of the Gone label and other labels that were owned by George Goldner - Rama, Gee, Gone, End, Gold Disc, Mark X and Roulette. That man owned a whole lot of record labels but he lost them all to pay off his gambling debts.
We're going back in time to the year 1948 when Gene Ammonds recorded Dues in Blues as the flip of Odd en Dow for the Mercury label. Before going for a solo career Ammons had worked for King Kolax and Billy Eckstine and for a short while his own band included Miles Davis - so from the beginnings he worked with the great names and finally became one himself.
Listen to Dues in Blues.
09 - Gene Ammons - Dues In Blues
10 - Art Pepper Quartet - Brown Gold
Brown Gold - that was the Art Pepper Quartet and I found this track on a cassette titled Stompin' at the Savoy, that was a giveaway with the New Musical Express in 1982 - a teaser for re-issue albums of Savoy recordings. Nice stuff on it, that and it had a re-release as a CD in 2003 on the Giant Steps label.
Next Burnie Peacock, the alto saxophonist in many bands like Lucky Millinder's, Jimmie Lunceford, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton and Count Basie. Charmaine, that I'm going to play, was recorded in 1951 for the King label.
11 - Burnie Peacock - Charmaine
12 - Sil Austin - Yipe
Yipe was the title of this tune of Sil Austin that I found on a Mercury Wing album, that is a re-issue of a 1957 album with recordings that were done in April and May of that year. While this album is full of hot Rhythm & Blues honkers, Sil would soon change towards a more pop sound with his 1959 hit Danny Boy featuring strings and a choir. But as I said, this album is still great R&B.
Next a pretty colourful musician and entertainer, Washboard Bill and on the next track he indeed plays the washboard. As a child he worked in the local saw mill of Dupont, FL, and lived with his mother and siblings in an abandoned box car, and later they moved to the farm of their grandfather in Sanford.
He has been a railroad worker, and during the depression he was a homeless drifter who finally ended up in New York where he built his first, washboard based "musical contraption" as he called it, singing and telling jokes on the Harlem street corners or small parties. His first real musical session was with folk musician Pete Seeger, and for his unique style and sound with that washboard contraption he got a recording contract with King records where he cut a few sides. He also worked, uncredited, for sessions with Victoria Spivey, Champion Jack Dupree, Mickey and Silvia, Sugar Blue, King Curtis, Bill Doggett and Harry Belafonte.
With his own formed band he played the summers in New York and the winters in Palm Beach, FL where he performed for the Rockefellers and the Kennedys. But after serving some time in jail for an attempt to kill his abusive son-in-law, his health left him and he went to West Palm Beach where, on a street corner, he would play his contraption, and later the banjo or ukelele singing and telling jokes as the King of Rhythm & Comedy. He received the Florida Folk Heritage Award in 1992 and left this world in 2003 at the age of 98 years old.
From him, from his King sessions, the instrumental In the morning.
13 - Washboard Bill - In The Morning
14 - Joe Liggins & his Honeydrippers - Tanya
15 - Pete 'Guitar' Lewis - Ooh Midnight
Pete 'Guitar' Lewis with Ooh Midnight, a wonderfully easy going after hours tune from the King label and before the jingle you got the great Joe Liggins with his band the Honeydrippers and that instrumental was titled Tanya and it's so typical for Liggins' sound.
Well pretty much in the same mood as Ooh Midnight, and from the same King album, comes the influential left handed guitar player Bill Jennings with What's New. He has been a band member of Louis Jordan's Tympany Five and he worked with Wild Bill Davis, Jack McDuff, and Bill Doggett. Listen to my last tune for today, What's New.
16 - Bill Jennings - What's New
And with Bill Jennings we end another episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, that featured instrumentals only today. Instrumentals usually fill up the silence behind my voice when I tell you the stories of the musicians and the music that I play, but I think they deserve more exposure than that.
I hope you enjoyed today's selection and if so, or if not, or if you have any comments, questions or so, just send an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or go to my website, just do a google search on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. As for now, byebye and have a wonderful day. No have a rocking day. See you next time where I will play more of that great Rhythm & Blues of the forties and fifties, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!