This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And today I'll continue where I left you a few weeks ago, when I played some of the tunes that sit on my old-fashioned, stick-shaped mp3 player that kept me from sleeping in the plane back from Florida. There's was a whole lot more that I put on that thingy to spice up the long haul and I continued using it for the daily bus rides to and from my work.
Anyhow I stuck in in my computer and took some random stuff from it - and that'll have to do for today's playlist. You hear it right listeners - I really saved on the effort of selecting music. Now before you turn the dial to select another radio station - I can only promise you you'll get the same stomping, honking and hollering Rhythm & Blues that you always get. And to show why not start with a good double-sider of Saunders King. Here is SK Jumps a.k.a the Summertime Boogie.
01 - Saunders King - Sk Jumps (Summertime Boogie)
SK Jumps - the Summertime Boogie - and I think this must be an unreleased version of this song, as the version that made it to a 1952 single on the RPM label is considerably shorter. Saunders King did some great blues, including his immortal S.K. Blues in the forties though his singing style was soft and soothing, sometimes crooning rather than shouting the blues.
That brings me to a song of Tiny Bradshaw where he definitely croons his way to the Six Shooter Junction. This was from 1946 on the Manor label.
02 - Tiny Bradshaw - Six Shooter Junction
03 - Louis Jordan - Caldonia
A true classic this one, Louis Jordan and his immortal Caldonia, a huge hit and covered by numerous artists since. Now often I wondered whether Jordan's Caldonia, that was released in 1945 on Decca, was the inspiration of a character in a still running comic book series from Belgium, Willy Vandersteen's Suske and Wiske, and that character was aunt Sidonia, introduced in the stories in '46. Really all of Jordan's description of Caldonia fits that woman - the great big feet, she's tall lean and lanky and of course the big hard head - and the similarity in the name of course. Anyhow I can't hear this tune without the vision of Aunt Sidonia in my head.
Now from one of the greatest names in Rhythm & Blues to a pretty obscure blueswoman. Kitty Stevenson worked in the late forties with Todd Rhodes and his orchestra and she made some recordings for the Vitacoustic label in December of 1947, just before the 1948 recording ban, and the bankruptcy of the label. The masters made a detour along Chicago's obscurest of record labels before being released, under a misspelled name, on the Chance label in 1952 - but by then miss Stevenson had passed away in a Detroit hospital after a short illness. Listen to her Comes the day.
04 - Kitty Stevenson - Comes the day
05 - Al 'Cake' Wichard Sextette & Duke Henderson - Gravels In My Pillow
Recorded for the Modern label in the same month as Kitty Stevenson's song, December of '47, you heard Duke Henderson backed up by Al 'Cake' Wichard and his band, that was somewhat of the house band of the Modern label. Gravels in my pillow and sure that must be uncomfortable.
Next another lady - Martha Davis and this was on the Coral label recorded probably somewhere at the end of '52 or early '53. In these days she did a musical comedy show with her husband Calvin Ponder billed as Martha Davis and spouse that played the Blue Angel in New York. There are some good soundies of them two on Youtube that are guaranteed to raise a smile, the big lady on the piano and her clownesque, skinny tall man on the bass behind her. He's got no lines, but his facial expressions tell as much as his missus on the piano does.
Listen to No Deposit, No Return.
06 - Martha Davis - No Deposit, No Return
07 - Hot Lips Page - I Keep Rollin' On
Hot Lips Page was that from 1944. I keep rollin' on was released on the Savoy label and well it shows off again what a great singer and trumpeter he was. He was born in Dallas, TX and appeared in the Kansas City music scene with the orchestra of Bennie Moten and later on-and-off with Count Basie's band - but just before Basie got national success Hot Lips Page quit and left for New York to pursue a solo career - we're talking December '36 now. Well he was a smash success in Harlem in Small's Paradise, by then one of the most succesful clubs with a racially integrated audience. In a few years he led several combos - apart from extensive recording - he cut over 200 sides during his career.
Next a guitarist and bluesman who is one of the less recognized key figures in the transition of Rhythm & Blues to Rock 'n Roll. I'm talking about Goree Carter. Born in 1930 he was of a newer generation, and still a teenager when he recorded his epic Rock Awhile that, like so many others, is nominated for being the first Rock 'n Roll record. Now Rock Awhile may not have been a commercial success, but its intro is often used by Chuck Berry and his overdriven guitar sound became popular with the Rock 'n Roll artists.
Goree Carter came in the music scene just as the rock fad in Rhythm & Blues had started off with Wynonie Harris' version of Roy Brown's Good Rocking Tonight, that used a strong back beat that was taken from the gospel. Well, Carter managed very well to adapt the new style that you you'll fiend in many of his songs, alongside great more traditional styled blues. For both, I can recommend you the album Essential Blues that was issued on the Master Classic label in 2009. From that album you will get Seven Days - here is Goree Carter.
08 - Goree Carter - Seven Days
09 - Wynonie Harris - Bite Again, Bite Again
Wynonie Harris - what a blues shouter. Bite Again, Bite Again was that and that was recorded for the King label just a few days before Christmas of 1947 - again in that recording frenzy that came before the 1948 musicians strike of the AFM, where the record companies tried to make sure they'd have enough masters to survive the strike. Well this is the third record that I play from December of 1947 - I play music from that single month very often here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. It's perhaps the center of the quintessential years of Rhythm & Blues, and also it's amazing how much was produced in that single month.
Well let's just throw in a fourth recording of that month - an instrumental of Al 'Cake' Wichard and his sextet. Listen to his 'Piece of Cake'.
10 - Al 'Cake' Wichard Sextette - Piece Of Cake
11 - Al Smith Orchestra - Last call
Last Call - the Al Smith Orchestra and that was recorded in January of 1953 in Chicago's Universal Recording Studios for Chance records, and after that the masters were licenced to the Meteor label but they still went unreleased at the time. I took this from volume 4 of a 1977 Japanese LP titled Chance Vintage Blues and R&B. The saxes on this were Cliff Davis, Red Holloway and McKinley Easton who did the baritone, that guitar solo was Lefty Bates and that great organ work was Horace Palm.
Next another of the great names of Rhythm & Blues. This was on the National label from 1946. Listen to It's a Low Down Dirty Shame - also known as the Playboy Blues. Here is Big Joe Turner.
12 - Big Joe Turner - It's A Low Down Dirty Shame (Playboy Blues)
13 - Big Tiny Kennedy - 'Taint Right
Big Tiny Kennedy was that on the Groove label, with 'Taint Right and with that we made a jump to 1955. Groove was the not-so-very succesful subsidiary of RCA in their attempt to go and play a major role in the Rhythm & Blues market of the fifties. It was in operation from 1954 to '56. RCA revived the label in the sixties with another sixty releases.
Tiny Kennedy was anything but tiny - Trumpet Records boss Lillian McMurry described him as big and fat when he recorded in her studio in 1952. Before he'd worked with Jay McShann and later went recording for the Sun label of Sam Phillips. After his session for the Groove label in 1955 we've never heard of him again.
Next Todd Rhodes who was already in his fifties when he recorded Your Daddy's Doggin' Around for the King label. Rhodes had been around in the music scene from the twenties, most notably as a member of McKinney's Cotton Pickers, but he didn't record for over a decade until 1946, first for local Chicago labels, later for King. Here is Your Daddy's Doggin' Around.
14 - Todd Rhodes - Your Daddy's Doggin' Around
15 - Helen Humes - Ee Babaleeba Boogie
Apparently meant as a follow-up song of her succesful Be Baba Leba from 1945. You heard Helen Humes with the Ee Babaleeba Boogie but I think this went unreleased as it doesn't show up in the discography of the Philo and Aladdin label. I found it on a CD titled Boogie Blues to Rock 'n' Roll Part 1, that is, I often buy these albums as soundfiles on music services like Deezer, Amazon or Spotify. The big advantage is that you can choose the tracks you want, skip the ones you already have and thus often pay less then buying the whole album for the three songs you're interested in. But then, they come without the liner notes that often are very hard to find.
Next up pianist Hadda Brooks with her Brooks Boogie from 1952 on the OKeh label. By then she had appeared in several movies after her succesful appearance in the film Out of the Blue in 1947, that she got on recommendation of Benny Goodman. She would also become the first African-American woman to host her own show on TV on a Los Angeles station in 1957.
Listen to Brooks' Boogie.
16 - Hadda Brooks - Brooks' Boogie
And Hadda Brooks ended today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. I only got one hour and in fact that is way too short for such great music. Well there's a next time when I hope to find you again then. I hope you liked my selection and if so, or if you feel the urge to comment on my show, just let me know and drop me an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. You can also find me on the web, and review today's playlist or anticipate on what's on next time. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first.
As for now, time's up so have a rocking day. See you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman where I'll play more of that great Rhythm & Blues.