This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And again a whole lot of stomping and rocking Rhythm & Blues for the next hour here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. And today I'll start with a great double sider of Earl Bostic. Now in most cases two sides of a 78 were filled with two halves of one song. In this case the story was a little different: in March of 1946 part 1 was recorded, and released as Gotham 104, part 2 in June of the same year and released on Gotham 111. So originally it was a sequel rather than a double sider. On a King re-release they were put together on one disc in 1947. Here is That's The Groovy Thing.
01 - Earl Bostic - That's The Groovy Thing
02 - Al 'Cake' Wichard Sextette & Jimmy Witherspoon - Connie Lee Blues
Jimmy Witherspoon and his Connie Lee Blues and he was backed up by Al Cake Wichard and his sextet and this was recorded for the Modern label in December 1947, as so much was recorded in that month, just before the 1948 recording ban of the American Federation of Musicians started.
And the same story is for the next song, same label, same last weeks of 1947, of the blind sax player Little Willie Jackson. He'd played with Joe Liggins in San Diego in the thirties in Liggins' band the Creole Serenaders and also was part of Liggins' Honeydrippers. The December session in 1947 for Modern was with the whole Honeydrippers band minus Joe Liggins himself - and that explains for the style that so much sounds like the Honeydrippers on the Exclusive label.
Here is Little Willie Jackson with Baby.
03 - Little Willie Jackson - Baby
04 - Big Sis Andrews And Her Blues Destroyers - That Ain't the Way to Do It
(jingle)
05 - Blue Lu Barker - Trombone man blues
06 - Marion Abernathy - Ee Tid Ee Dee
Three ladies who made great Rhythm & Blues but their names don't ring a bell anymore to most people. You heard Marion Abernathy nicknamed The Blues Woman with Ee Tid Ee Dee from 1949 on the King label.
Before that you got New Orleans singer Louise "Blue Lu" Barker with her Trombone man blues, a nice double entendre song. She recorded for the Capitol label and according to the numbering this must have been recorded either in the end of 1947 or 1949.
And before the jingle you got Big Sis Andrews who recorded for the same label with the band that accompanied her dubbed either as the Blues Destroyers, the Blues Busters or the Hucklebusters. You heard That Ain't the Way to Do It from 1948.
More pretty unknown musicians with the next one, Gay Crosse and his Good Humor Six, and they were active somewhere in the Cleveland area. Now the band's name isn't very well known but for a short while it included one of the great saxophonists - John Coltrane. According to a letter he wrote to his mother he'd joined the band to get some money together to buy himself a new saxophone - his old one was lost somehow. Coltrane apparently isn't satisfied with his employer according to the letter, that was printed in a book titled The John Coltrane Reference. Thanks all-knowing Google, for putting books on-line just in case the great big internet doesn't know.
So listen to Tired Of Being Shoved Around - Gay Crosse and his Good Humor Six, featuring John Coltrane on sax, from 1952 on the Republic label.
07 - Gay Crosse - Tired Of Being Shoved Around
08 - Pee Wee Crayton - Rockin' The Blues
From the Modern label in 1950 Rockin' The Blues, that was Pee Wee Crayton. This was at the height of his career, after his '48 smash hit Blues After Hours. And though this is a nice attempt, Pee Wee was one of the many Rhythm & Blues artists that didn't survive the rock 'n roll craze. Still in 1954 he was influential enough to be one of the first to test the brand new Fender Stratocaster that guitar inventor Leo Fender gave him to play.
Next one of the first releases of the Specialty label. In 1947 Art Rupe signed Joe Lutcher and Blues for Sale was one of the outcomes of that. Yet Rupe wanted Lutcher to record slow blues - different from what I'll play here - and that was the reason that Lutcher also recorded for Capitol where his sister Nellie was signed. It was for that label that he had his '48 hit "Shuffle Woogie", a few months later followed by the "Rockin' Boogie" for competitor Specialty - all of them must have been recorded in the previous year as 1948 was the year of the recording ban.
Here is Joe Lutcher on Specialty with Blues For Sale.
09 - Joe Lutcher - Blues For Sale
10 - Nellie Lutcher - My New Papa's Got To Have Everything
And from sax player Joe Lutcher to his sister Nellie with My New Papa's Got To Have Everything, recorded in December 1947 for Capitol, one of these typical light-hearted songs. She wrote most of her songs herself and managed to keep the copyright revenues for herself. When her popularity waned she went to work for the Hollywood local of the American Federation of Musicians and she invested her money in real estate.
I want to go on with Walter Brown who definitely was less succesful in the long term. He had his best days in Jay McShann's band and we know him of course for his big hit Confessin' the blues. After leaving McShann, Brown recorded for King, Signature and Mercury but with no success, and he died in 1956 of his drug addicition.
From somewhere in this solo career you'll get Work Don't bother me that went unreleased at the time.
11 - Walter Brown - Work Don't Bother Me
12 - Tiny Kennedy - Early In The Morning Baby
And the rooster introduced Big Tiny Kennedy with Early In The Morning Baby, an early issue of Sam Phillips' Sun label. Now Jesse Kennedy was big rather than tiny and I don't know how these two contrasting adjectives got into his nickname. Now he had a pretty short career in Rhythm & Blues, from '49 with Jay McShann's band to a 1955 session for the Groove label and after that he quit the music scene.
Next from 1947 the Grandfather of Rhythm & Blues as he's being called, Roy Milton and his band the Solid Senders featuring the great piano work of Camille Howard. They've worked together for a long time, from the thirties when Milton established his band, to the mid-fifties when his success waned and Howard retreated from the music business.
Roy Milton also had his own record label Miltone and they are much valued by record collectors, not only for what's in the grooves, but also for what was in the middle - hip and funny cartoons of William 'Alex' Alexander and that gave label their label the nickname The Cartoon Label.
From Roy Milton - on Specialty - the True Blues.
13 - Roy Milton - True Blues
14 - Wild Bill Moore - Bubbles
Wild Bill Moore - the saxophonist that always does the outtro of my program - with Bubbles. He'd been a professional boxer in the late thirties but he also played the saxophone - first the alto, from 1944 the tenor. His "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll" from December 1947 is one of those many records that's being mentioned for first rock 'n roll song and one of the first songs on Alan Freed's Moondog radio show in 1951.
More instrumental work with Red Prysock and his Purple Wail from 1957 on Mercury.
15 - Red Prysock - Purple Wail
16 - Sax Kari - Hush Your Lyin' Mouth
17 - Smiley Lewis - Rootin' And Tootin'
And Smiley Lewis completes the hour with Rootin' And Tootin' from 1958 on Imperial. Before that you got one of the many answer songs to Ruth Brown's Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean - Sax Kari and his Ballin' Blues Band with Hush Your Lyin' Mouth. And I hope you liked today's mixed bag of goodies that I selected for you. Of course you can let me know - the e-mail address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And if you want to review today's playlist or read back what I told you today, you can find that on my web site and the easiest way to go there is by doing a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Time's up for now have a rocking day and I hope to see you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!