This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And legends again today, all taken from that big pile of re-issue LPs that I still have to sort out and catalog - it seems that I never will find time for that. Just browsing around always leaves for a great mixed bag of goodies, and that's no different today. What about this wonderful gem that I found on a dusty Buddy Johnson LP, with one of the most amazing voices of the big band era, Buddy's sister Ella. Recorded in 1947, here is You'll get them blues.
01 - Buddy Johnson - You'll Get Them Blues
02 - Count Basie - Sent For You Yesterday
From 1938 Count Basie's orchestra with Sent for you yesterday, recorded in New York with vocals of Jimmy Rushing and I found this on a musicassette on the Affinity label.
From an album on the Saxophonograph label titled Mr. Cleanhead Steps Out, Eddie Vinson with I took the front door in. Vinson had worked with Cootie Williams orchestra for years from the early forties, but the personnel on this 1947 recording was unknown to the producers of this LP. According to Cootie Williams Eddie Vinson had just come from Houston and he had troubles finding his way in New York so Williams had to take care of the young singer.
Listen to his I took the front door in - on of these wryly funny lyrics that Mr. Cleanhead was good in.
03 - Eddie Cleanhead Vinson - I Took The Front Door In
04 - Cootie Williams - Gotta Do Some War Work
And another one from Cootie Williams, Gotta Do Some War Work from January 1944 and that features the voice of Charles Cootie Williams himself and Eddie Vinson does the sax on here.
I want to continue with Roy Milton and his solid senders with the Little Boy Blue that was recorded in Los Angeles in 1947 and it features the piano work of Camille Howard. I must have this more than one time but this came from a Swedish LP somewhere from the mid-eighties titled Big Fat Mamas. Listen to the Little Boy Blue.
05 - Roy Milton - Little Boy Blue
06 - Wynonie Harris - Lovin' Machine
The Loving Machine - who else can that be but Wynonie Harris using the horn intro of his big hit Good Rocking Tonight but the subject was what he's good in - risky blues but the lyrics are pretty much nonsense.
Next a great instumental from 1945. Buddy Banks with Banks Boogie was recorded in Los Angeles in December 1945 and issued on the Excelsior label. Ulysses Buddy Banks was one of these many artists who came from Texas and moved to the west coast to merge into the thriving jazz and R&B scene and in 1945 he formed his own combo that had pretty much its very own sound with the trombone of Wiley Huff and in this one Earl Knight plonking the ivories. Listen to Banks Boogie that I found on a 1989 LP on the Danish Official label.
07 - Buddy Banks - Bank's Boogie
08 - Red Mack - Just Like Two Drops Of Water
Red Mack on the trumpet and singing Just Like Two Drops Of Water, recorded in 1951 in Los Angeles, and that comes from an album of the Krazy Kat label, that according to the sleeve notes was issued to point up the error in viewing blues and jazz as a dichotomy.
Well I guess they're right stating that there's a continuum and I prefer to call that Rhythm & Blues - a new term that was coined by Jerry Wexler in 1948 to market what used to be called race music but gradually that as a term was seen as offensive. Well sticking labels on anything is often tricky and lots of people call the music that I play here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman either jazz or rock 'n roll.
I don't - because with each of these two most people have different music in mind than what I feature on here. And often when I use the term Rhythm & Blues nothing really springs in mind with them. Naming a few great artists - say Louis Jordan, Joe Liggins, Wynonie Harris or Joe Turner doesn't either and that again proves what my daughter Renee says in the intro of this program - with the rise of Rock 'n Roll the Rhythm and blues faded into oblivion.
Well these re-issue albums of the eigties did a first attempt to revive that forgotten music and you can tell from the sleeve notes that a lot of information was just lost for the editors. They pretty often have to admit that they had blanks that they couldn't fill in. A lot of research was done since, and there is that all-knowing google that helps me finding information that I can tell you. Yet today I merely rely on the sleeve notes of the eighties re-issue albums that I'm playing from today.
And from the same Krazy Kat album comes the next track that features a long-lasting anc close friend of Red Mack that I played before. Luke Jones led a band in the late forties, called the four or five Joes, that fetured Red Mack on trumpet and another great but forgotten name of the forties, Betty Hall Jones on the piano. Recorded in 1947 here is Luke Jones with the Disc Jockey Blues.
09 - Luke Jones - Disc Jockey Blues
10 - King Porter - Don't Let Fletcher Getcha
From another album on the Danish Official label Don't let the Fletcher Getcha by... some King Porter who is a mystery that the compiler of this album tries to resolve. There was a James King Porter, whose name really was James Poe, a west coast trumpet player who had played in various bands and whose artist name was taken from a jazz standard the King Porter Stomp that probably was composed as far back as 1905 but wasn't recorded until the mid twenties, and Benny Goodman made it a huge hit in 1935.
The sleeve notes say that they cannot trace this James Poe with certainty to the Detroit and Los Angeles recordings of two or three different bands using the name of King Porter.
We had a 1947 or 48 recording for the Detroit based Paradise label, then an all different band featuring Wild Bill Moore that recorded for the JVB label that shortly after was taken over by King records of Cincinnati, and it was that band that got the name of the King Porter all-stars. And finally a band led by Vernon Jake Porter, also a trumpetist, that recorded around 1947 on Imperial in Los Angeles.
And to make confusion complete, Dave Penny who wrote the liner notes say he is not sure whether all, or even any of the tracks feature James Poe, the session notes on that same album say he is on all of them. Well I don't know either but this is pretty typical for the quality of sleeve notes on these albums.
Back to a bit more certain ground with a 1956 or 57 LP of the budget label Tops that started as a company buying up jukebox records to be sold second-hand, later recording albums themselves, of either newcoming of past fame artists, pretty cheesy stuff actually and among them this little gem of Joe Houston and his Rockets. The album had the little original title Rock & Roll and from that the Tall Gal blues.
11 - Joe Houston - Tall Gal Blues
12 - H-Bomb Ferguson - My Brown Frame Baby
H-Bomb Ferguson and what a similarity with Wynonie Harris' or Roy Brown's style. That was My Brown Frame Baby that I took from a musicasette titled Stomping at the Savoy.
Next T-bone Walker with a track that I took from an album of the British Charly label. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1947 here is You're My Best Poker Hand and after that you will get Smiley Lewis with the Real Gone Lover.
13 - T-Bone Walker - You're My Best Poker Hand
14 - Smiley Lewis - Real Gone Lover
(rocking Dutchman jingle)
15 - Varetta Dillard - (That's The Way) My Mind Is Working
16 - Ruth Brown - Hello Little Boy
You heard first Varetta Dillard with (That's The Way) My Mind Is Working and that was recorded in New York in 1953 and after that Ruth Brown, the lady of Atlantic records with Hello Little Boy, from the same year and that was one of the tracks of the album Rocking with Ruth that was issued in 1984 on the British Charly label.
Next - from a re-issue of a 1959 King album titled The Great composer Tiny Bradshaw with the Stack of Dollars.
17 - Tiny Bradshaw - Stack Of Dollars
18 - Jimmy Liggins - Goin' Down With The Sun
And with Jimmy Liggins, the lesser known brother of the famous Joe Liggins, we end another show of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman with tracks from mostly European, 80s re-issue LPs and that contained a lot of great Rhythm & Blues. These were actually the first generation of revived interest in forties and fifties African-American music, the first that dug into the style that formed Rock 'n Roll and all subsequent styles of modern popular music.
And I hope you liked my show and as always you are invited to let me know, send your feedback or questions to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or find me on the web, just do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. I'm done for today, there's no more to squeeze in one hour, so byebye and have a wonderful and rocking day. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!