The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 99

Legends Mix

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 a mix of tunes that I hadn't listened to for a long time. You know, when you keep on collecting new stuff you tend to forget what you have more. Now every now and then I select some tunes from my collection of 80s reissue albums for this show, cause that's an easy pile of unorganized stuff that I have somewhere together.

No, it's the well-organized records that are so many that I can only find it with help of a database and I more and more am unable to find anything. Like I have some fragment of a tune in my head, and that's not a useful thing to search on. Or an artist I haven't played in ages simply because I forgot him or her half-and-half. Well then it helps to randomly page through my database and hear what pops up and that's just what I did today.

And the first one of them is a track from a re-issue album that I did categorize, and that seems to be a deadly move since I didn't play it since. Here is Buddy Johnson and his band with Floyd Ryland on the vocals, with You Got It Made and it's from 1955 originally released on Mercury.

01 - Buddy Johnson Orch - You Got It Made
02 - Dinah Washington - West Side Baby

The West Side Baby of Dinah Washington and that was on the Mercury label recorded in November of 1947. Now most stories of Rhythm & Blues singers are stories of short success peaks and long time struggling with no hits, but not for Dinah Washington - whose real name was Ruth Lee Jones. At a young age she signed with Lionel Hampton with whom she did her Evil Gal Blues and Salty Papa Blues. Also her solo career from when she signed with Mercury in 1946 was extremely succesful and from 1950 lots of her hits made it to the pop charts. We lost her though in 1963 at the very young age of 39, when her seventh husband found her dead after she'd taken a deadly combination of sleeping pills.

And another great musician that managed to stay for a long time is Big Joe Turner. From him you'll get the Low Down Dog recorded in November of 1947 on the Aladdin label.

03 - Big Joe Turner - Low Down Dog
04 - Ray Charles - St.Pete Florida

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05 - Homesick James Williamson - Wartime
06 - Wee Bea Booze - So Good

From 1944 on Decca Bea Booze with So good. Bea Booze was signed by Decca in 1942 to compete with Lil Green who recorded for Victor. Yet the first recording ban of the American Federation of musicians from 1942-44 caused that she didn't get to record much for her label. Of her 1942 session, See See Rider became a number one hit on the Harlem Hitparade - the name of Billboard's hit list for race records.

In many sources on the internet or in books you'll find that Bea Booze's real name was Muriel Nichols. This is not true - the misunderstanding was caused by producer J. Mayo Williams who released a version of See See Rider by Muriel Nichols in 1945 for his own Harlem label, credited as Muriel "Bea Booze" Nichols. Now Nichols was born in Philadelphia in 1908 while Beatrice Booze was listed in the 1920 US census as born in Baltimore MD, on March 23 of 1912.

You know, some sources on the internet are useful, like Wikipedia or Allmusic, or Billboard Magazine that is made available with Google Books. But some are just great and one of them is a site that looks like a forgotten bunch of web pages from the nineties, tucked away on a university webserver, belonging to a psychology professor named Robert Campbell. But if you want to know anything in depth on the Chicago music scene, that site, that despite its old-fashioned look still is being maintained actively, is *the* source to look at. And though Muriel Nichols wasn't from the Windy City and neither was she connected to the Chicago scene, I found this story on their site with a great web page on J. Mayo Williams' own record labels.

If you're interested, I put a link on the website or do a google search for the Red Saunders Research Foundation.

Now I played more music before Bea Booze that I have to account for, well you got Homesick James Williamson with Wartime and before the jingle Ray Charles with St.Pete Florida.

Well after so much talk I think it's time again for a little music. From 1946 on the Black & White label, here is Red Light of Red Calleder and his trio.

07 - Red Callender Trio - Red Light
08 - Helen Humes - Blues With Helen

Helen Humes backed up by Count Basie and his orchestra with the Blues With Helen. Helen had teamed up with Basie from 1938, but she wasn't strong enough for the life on the road and so she had to leave the orchestra in '42 for health reasons. Well she got herself a second chance when she moved to Los Angeles and easily blended in the West Coast music scene. She made some great records for the Philo label, later known as Aladdin, and for Modern.

And well just slightly older than this early Helen Humes tune is the next one - but it's so different. The Harlem Hamfats were brought together as the Decca studio band by producer J. Mayo Williams and with that, they were the first band brought together with the sole purpose of recording - either on their own or to back up Decca blues singers.

Now the musicians were from all over the country but not from Harlem - and hamfat was slang for something second rate, and for sure they weren't. Instead, this group made a great contribution to the small group sound that made the small jump blues combos so popular and their music bears the first rhythms of Rock 'n Roll.

Still some of their songs can sound pretty old-fashioned thirties style. Here's such a song - listen to Keep It Swinging Round And Round

09 - Harlem Hamfats - Keep It Swinging Round And Round
10 - Benny Goodman feat. Jimmy Ricks - Walkin' With The Blues

Now that's something completely different from the Harlem Hamfats. You got the pretty odd combination of the sextet of Benny Goodman with Jimmy Ricks, the lead singer of the vocal group the Ravens. Well I think they done a terrific job with this wonderfully orchestrated blues and I can't understand why it remained unreleased at the time.

And I wanna go on with an artist that I've forgotten to play here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman for a long time. It's Bull Moose Jackson, whose dirty blues features some of my earliest shows. Well here he is with Memphis Gal - on the pretty obscure Super Disc label from somewhere 'round '48.

11 - Bull Moose Jackson - Memphis Gal
12 - Wild Bill Moore - Bubbles

Sax honker Wild Bill Moore - who always does the outtro of my show with Bubbles, on the Savoy label released in 1948.

And next on King from 1950 Wynonie Harris with the Triflin' Woman.

13 - Wynonie Harris - Triflin' Woman
14 - Washboard Sam & Big Bill Broonzy - Little City Woman

Two blues legends - Washboard Sam and Big Bill Broonzy. Now this Little City Woman was from 1956 on Chess and for Washboard Sam that was way in the aftermath of his career - he had his big years in the thirties and forties, when he recorded some 160 sides for the Bluebird and Vocalion labels and wrote numerous songs.

Washboard Sam had a hard time, though, keeping up with the changes in urban blues to the electrical guitar, and started working with the Chicago police department in the early fifties, recording only every now and then and this was one of these late sessions. Big Bill Broonzy is said to be his half-brother.

And for the next one I take a dive deep into the history of recorded blues with Bessie Smith and her Empty Bed Blues. We're talking March of 1928 when this double-sider was recorded and the track was released in the thirties both on Vocalion and Columbia. Here are over six minutes of great blues - Bessie Smith.

15 - Bessie Smith - Empty Bed Blues

And with that old blues from '28 I think I have a great ending for today's show. Show number 99 that is, so next week I'll be celebrating the 100th episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - an achievement that I'm quite proud of.

Today's mixed bag again spanned an enormous amount of time, from 1928 to the mid-fifties and whatever changed in society in that time, what didn't change that African American music was exciting and highly original.

So I hope you liked what I played and of course you can always give your feedback on this show, just drop a line at rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com or visit my web site where you can review today's playlist, read back what I told you today and on the page of today's show you'll find a link to the web page of the Red Saunders Research Foundation. And of course you can already take a peek what will be on for next show, number 100. Do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will be top in the results.

As for now time's up so there's nothing more than that I can do but wish you a rocking day. See you next time, where I'll play more of the best Rhythm & Blues, here on the legends of the Rocking Dutchman!