Blues

The Piano Blues Vol. 21 - Unissued Boogie 1938-1945 (1984)

2015-11-16T17:03:48Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 21 - Unissued Boogie 1938-1945 (1984)


1. Meade Lux Lewis - Honky Tonk Train Blues
2. Albert Ammons - Pine Top's Boogie Woogie
3. Meade Lux Lewis - Yancey Special
4. Joe Turner & Pete Johnson - Low Down Dog
5. Albert Ammons - Boogie Woogie Stomp
6.Albert Ammons & Meade Lux Lewis - Jumpin' Blues
7.Meade Lux Lewis - Honky Tonk Train Blues
8. Albert Ammons & Meade Lux Lewis Double Up Blues
9. Joe Turner & Meade Lux Lewis - Roll 'em
1o. Meade Lux Lewis - Boogie Woogie
11. Joe Turner & Meade Lux Lewis - Low Down Dog
12. Albert Ammons - Suitcase Blues

Meade Lux Lewis – piano (1,3,6,7,8,9,10,11)
Albert Ammons – piano (2,5,6,8,12)
Pete Johnson – piano (4)
Joe Turner – vocals – (4,9,11)
Lonnie Johnson – guitar (12)
John Lindsay – bass (12)
Tom Taylor – drums (12)

Boogie-Woogie,” generally associated with the piano, wasn’t the sole form of blues or jazz inspired by ragtime, but it was arguably the most direct descendant of the compositions and style of Scott Joplin. While usually categorized as a form of the blues, however, boogie-woogie is considerably more upbeat in mood. What sets it apart is the division of hands that goes into its performance, with the right hand engaging in improvisatory movements while the left hand maintains a constant beat. As it evolved during the early half of the 20th Century, it became more associated with “swing.”

Albert Ammons (1907-1949) was considered one of the fathers of boogie-woogie, and became one of its best-known practitioners, many of whose recordings remain available, including on YouTube. Performing primarily in his native Chicago, with a period in New York where he collaborated with Pete Johnson, Ammons was a gifted pianist whose up-tempo style detracted from the nature of the blues but succeeded in establishing its own genre of music. In fact, so up-tempo was his piano playing that his style was given another moniker not traditionally associated with the blues: stomp. So popular and respected did Ammons become, that he was given the privilege of performing the first recording for the newly established jazz record label Blue Note. He died at the age of 42. --- enotes.com

One of the three great boogie-woogie pianists (along with Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson) whose appearance at John Hammond's 1938 Spirituals to Swing concert helped start the boogie-woogie craze, Meade "Lux" Lewis was a powerful if somewhat limited player. He played regularly in Chicago in the late '20s and his one solo record of the time, "Honky Tonk Train Blues" (1927), was considered a classic. However, other than a few sides backing little-known blues singers, Lewis gained little extra work and slipped into obscurity. John Hammond heard Lewis' record in 1935 and, after a search, found Lewis washing cars for a living in Chicago. Soon, Lewis was back on records and after the 1938, concert he was able to work steadily, sometimes in duets or trios with Ammons and Johnson. He became the first jazz pianist to double on celeste (starting in 1936) and was featured on that instrument on a Blue Note quartet date with Edmond Hall and Charlie Christian; he also played harpsichord on a few records in 1941. After the boogie-woogie craze ended, Lewis continued working in Chicago and California, recording as late as 1962, although by then he was pretty much forgotten. Lewis led sessions through the years that have come out on MCA, Victor, Blue Note, Solo Art, Euphonic, Stinson, Atlantic, Storyville, Verve, Tops, ABC-Paramount, Riverside, and Philips. ---Scott Yanow, Rovi

Pete Johnson was one of the three great boogie-woogie pianists (along with Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis) whose sudden prominence in the late '30s helped make the style very popular. Originally a drummer, Johnson switched to piano in 1922. He was part of the Kansas City scene in the 1920s and '30s, often accompanying singer Big Joe Turner. Producer John Hammond discovered him in 1936 and got him to play at the Famous Door in New York. After taking part in Hammond's 1938 Spirituals to Swing Carnegie Hall concert in 1938, Johnson started recording regularly and appeared on an occasional basis with Ammons and Lewis as the Boogie Woogie Trio. He also backed Turner on some classic records. Johnson recorded often in the 1940s and spent much of 1947-1949 based in Los Angeles. He moved to Buffalo in 1950 and, other than an appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, he was in obscurity for much of the decade. A stroke later in 1958 left him partly paralyzed. Johnson made one final appearance at John Hammond's January 1967 Spirituals to Swing concert, playing the right hand on a version of "Roll 'Em Pete" two months before his death. ---Scott Yanow, Rovi

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Piano Blues Vol. 20 'Some piano player, I'll tell you that' Barrelhouse Years 1928-1933 (1984)

2015-11-02T17:08:00Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 20 'Some piano player, I'll tell you that' Barrelhouse Years 1928-1933 (1984)


1.- Pine Top Smith - Pine Top's Boogie Woogie 
2.- Sparks Brothers - Down On The Levee
3.- Speckled Red - The Right String but The Wrong Yo Yo
4.- 'Boodle It' Wiggins - Evil Woman Blues
5.- Turner Parrish - Fives
6.- Pinetop & Lindberg - Louisiana Bound
7.- Lonnie Clark - Broke Down Engine
8.- Cow Cow Davenport - Slum Gullion Stomp
9.- 'Montana' Taylor - Indiana Avenue Stomp
10.- Pine Top Smith - East Chicago Blues
11.- Speckled Red - The Dirty Dozen no. 2
12.- 'Jabo' Williams - Fat Mama Blues
13.- Henry Brown & Ike Rodgers - Blind Boy Blues
14.- Bert M. Mays - You Can't Come In
15.- Pine Top Smith - Pine Top Blues
16.- Davenport & Smith - Alabama Strut

Pine Top Smith – piano, vocals (1,15)
Aaron ‘Pinetop’ Sparks – piano (2,6,10)
Speckled Red – piano, vocals (3,11)
Bob Call – piano (4)
Turner Parrish – piano (5)
Lonnie Clark – piano, vocals (7)
Cow Cow Davenport – piano (8,16)
'Montana' Taylor – piano (9)
'Jabo' Williams – piano, vocal (12)
Henry Brown – piano (13)
Bert M. Mays – piano, vocals (14)
Milton Sarks – vocals (2,6,10)
'Boodle It' Wiggins – vocals (4)
Unknown mandolin (7)
Ike Rodgers – banjo (13)
Mary Johnson – speech (13)
Ivy Smith – speech (16)

Pianist Speckled Red (born Rufus Perryman) was born in Monroe, Louisiana, but he made his reputation as part of the St. Louis and Memphis blues scenes of the '20s and '30s. Red was equally proficient in early jazz and boogie-woogie -- his style was similar to Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery. Although born in Louisiana, Speckled Red was raised in Hampton, Georgia, where he learned how to play his church's organ. In his early teens, his family -- including his brother Willie Perryman, better known as Piano Red -- moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Throughout his childhood and adolescence he played piano and organ, and by the time he was a teenager he was playing house parties and juke joints.

In the mid-'20s Red moved to Detroit, where he played various nightclubs and parties. After a few years in Detroit he moved back south to Memphis. In 1929 he cut his first recording sessions. One song from these sessions, "The Dirty Dozens," was released on Brunswick and became a hit in late 1929. He recorded a sequel, "The Dirty Dozens, No. 2," the following year, but it failed to become a hit. After Red's second set of sessions failed to sell, the pianist spent the next few years without a contract -- he simply played local Memphis clubs. In 1938 he cut a few sides for Bluebird, but they were largely ignored.

In the early '40s Speckled Red moved to St. Louis, where he played local clubs and bars for the next decade and a half. In 1954 he was rediscovered by a number of blues aficionados and record label owners. By 1956 he had recorded several songs for the Tone record label and began a tour of America and Europe. In 1960 he made some recordings for Folkways. By this time, Red's increasing age was causing him to cut back the number of concerts he gave. For the rest of the '60s he only performed occasionally. Speckled Red died in 1973. --- Michael G. Nastos, Rovi

Aaron and Marion Sparks made a small number of records during the years 1932-1935 and deserve wider recognition for having introduced "61 Highway Blues," usually associated with Mississippi Fred McDowell, and "Every Day I Have the Blues," a staple of the genre credited to Memphis Slim and forever linked with Count Basie and his star vocalist Joe Williams. Their "I Believe I'll Make a Change" also established a trope that would soon become an essential component in the blues standard "Dust My Broom." Born to Sullie and Ruth Gant on May 22, 1908 in Tupelo, MS, the boys later took on the surname of Ruth's second husband, Carl Sparks. Aaron was a child prodigy who learned the blues from an elderly backroom whiskey peddler named Arthur Johnson. After the family relocated to St. Louis in 1920, Aaron received formal musical training at school and later developed his abilities as a blues and barrelhouse pianist by performing in speakeasies. The Sparks Brothers were dark-skinned identical twins who grew to nearly six feet tall. Aaron is remembered as fairly docile, while Marion's hot temper often embroiled him in fistfights. Both men dealt in bootleg liquor and had police records to prove it. Marion in particular was busted more than 50 times; mostly for gambling, drinking, and disturbing the peace. Their first records were cut in Atlanta, GA on February 25, 1932, using the nicknames Pinetop (Aaron's way of hopefully identifying himself with Clarence Pinetop Smith) and Lindberg, which spoke to Marion's oft-noted ability to dance the Lindy Hop. On August 2, 1933 The Sparks Brothers and several singers from St. Louis followed Roosevelt Sykes to Chicago for a Victor/Bluebird session during which the opening line from "Every Day I Have the Blues" (sung by Elizabeth Washington on "Whiskey Blues") and "61 Highway" made their first appearance on records. On August 24, 1934 Marion Sparks recorded as Flyin' Lindburg with fiddler Bill Lowry and pianist Peetie Wheatstraw. The Sparks Brothers' last known recording date took place on July 28, 1935. Paired with guitarist Henry Townsend, Aaron recorded as Pine Top and Marion as Milton Sparks. Aaron sang on his own sides (one of which is the earliest recording of "Every Day I Have the Blues" under that title) and two of Marion's performances have piano accompaniment by Walter Davis. Aaron continued to gig throughout the region, working the 88s at innumerable house parties; in St. Louis saloons with names like the Hole in the Wall and the Dirty Inn, and gigging all over Bloomington, IL with fellow pianist Arthur Henderson. Theories abound as to how much longer Aaron lived after July 1935; the most generous estimate suggests he lasted another ten years before succumbing to alcoholism and other occupational hazards. After serving time for manslaughter following a fracas at a dance in 1936, Marion settled down, got a steady job with a construction crew, and became a mild-mannered, churchgoing husband. He passed away in 1963. Aside from two sides on which Aaron backed Charlie Specks McFadden, the complete recordings of The Sparks Brothers were reissued on one CD by the Document label in 1994. --- arwulf arwulf, Rovi

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Piano Blues Vol. 19 - Play It For Your Mama: Barrelhouse Women 1925-1933 (1984)

2015-10-26T17:01:15Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 19 - Play It For Your Mama: Barrelhouse Women 1925-1933 (1984)


1.Cow Cow Davenport & Ivy Smith - State Street Jive
2.Doretha Trowbridge - Slavin' Mama Blues
3.Margaret Thornton - Texas Bound Blues
4.Elzadie Robinson - St. Louis Cyclone
5.Mary Johnson - Mean Black Man Blues
6.Lucille Bogan - Coffee Grindin' Blues
7.Margaret Whitmire - That Thing
8.Ida May Mack - Good-bye Rider
9.Lillian Miller - Kitchen Blues
10.Elzadie Robinson - The Santa Claus Crave
11.Alderson & Beck - State Street Special
12.Evelyn Brickey - Down In The Valley Blues
13.Mary Johnson - Black Men Blues
14.Elizabeth Washington - Riot Call Blues
15.Mary Johnson - Morning Sun Blues
16.Lil Johnson - Never Miss Your Jelly

Cow Cow Davenport – piano (1)
Pinetop Sparks – piano (2,14)
Blind James Beck – piano (3,11)
Bob Call – piano (4,10)
Henry Brown – piano (5,13)
Arnold Wiley – piano (7)
K.D. Johnson – piano (8)
Hersal Thomas – piano (9)
Ruben Walker – piano (12)
Judson Brown – piano (15)
Charles Avery – piano (16)
Unknown pianist (6)
Ivy Smith – speech (1)
Doretha Trowbridge – vocals (2)
Margaret Thornton – vocals (3)
Elzadie Robinson – vocals (4,10)
Mary Johnson – vocals (5,13,15)
Lucille Bogan – vocals (6)
Margaret Whitmire – vocals (7)
Ida May Mack – vocals (8)
Lillian Miller – vocals (9)
Mozelle Anderson – speech (11)
Evelyn Brickey – vocals (12)
Elizabeth Washington – vocals (14)
Lil Johnson – vocals (16)
Tampa Red – guitar (6)

Blues singer Mary Johnson got her start in show business as a teenager in St. Louis. She frequently worked with Blues singer and guitarist Lonnie Johnson and in 1925 they were married. They had six children together and divorced in 1930. For some reason they never recorded together. She continued to perform predominantly in the St. Louis area up until the mid-1940s. After leaving show business she was active in the church and worked in a hospital. Johnson was sometimes billed as "Signifying Mary". ---redhotjazz.com

1920s blues vocalist Elzadie Robinson hailed from Shreveport, Louisiana, but remained in Chicago, after going there to record. Her recordings span 1926-29, and during that time she worked with several pianists including Bob Call, and her regular accompanist and fellow Shreveport native, Will Ezell. Elzadie Robinson chiefly recorded for the Paramount label, but also cut several sides for Broadway under the alias Bernice Drake. ---Joselyn Layne, Rovi

In A Left Hand Like God: A Study of Boogie-Woogie Peter Silvester wrote: "Henry Brown was a living model for the qualities most apparent in the St. Louis boogie-woogie style. He employed an economic left hand of single notes or sparse chords for slow numbers and a rumbustious walking bass for faster ones." Brown learned to play the piano from the "professors" of the notorious Deep Morgan section of St. Louis.

Brown worked clubs such as the Blue Flame Club, the 9-0-5 Club, Jim's Place and Katy Red's, from the twenties into the 30's. He recorded for Brunswick with Ike Rogers and Mary Johnson in 1929, for Paramount in ‘29 and ‘30, behind singer Alice Moore in 1929 and 1934 as well as backing others such singers as Jimmy Oden, Bessie Mae Smith and others.

Judson Brown only made one solo recording in 1930, "You Don't Know My Mind Blues", and had to share the b-side of his one and only 78 with Freddie "Redd" Nicholson performing his "Tee Roller's Rub". Brown did appear on some recordings by Mary Johnson for Brunswick the same year as well as backing singers Mozelle Alderson, Madelyn James, Charlie Nickerson and Jenny Pope. The singers he worked with suggest a Memphis background but according to researcher Bob Eagle he was from Georgia and merely passed through Memphis, ending up in Chicago, where he died in 1933. --- sundayblues.org

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The Piano Blues Vol. 18 - Roosevelt Sykes and Lee Green 1929-1930 (1981)

2015-10-19T15:59:44Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 18 - Roosevelt Sykes and Lee Green 1929-1930 (1981)

Roosevelt Sykes
1.- Roosevelt's Blues
2.- Ten And Four Blues
3.- Henry Ford Blues
4.- Poor Boy Blues
5.- All My Money Gone
6.- Home Of Your Own
7.- Lost All I Had
8.- The Way I Feel

Lee Green
9.- Railroad Blues
10.- Number 44 Blues
11.- If I Get Drunk
12.- Dud-Low Joe
13.- All My Money Gone
14.- Death Bell Blues
15.- The Way I Feel
16.- Maltese Cat Blues

Roosevelt Sykes – vocals, piano (1-8)
Oscar Carter – guitar (3,5,8)
Harry Johnson – guitar (4,6,7)

Lee Green – vocals ,piano (9-16)
Unknown guitarist (13,15)

Roosevelt Sykes (January 31, 1906 – July 17, 1983) was an American blues musician, also known as "The Honeydripper". He was a successful and prolific cigar-chomping blues piano player, whose rollicking thundering boogie-woogie was highly influential.

Born in Elmar, Arkansas, Sykes grew up near Helena but at age 15, went on the road playing piano with a barrelhouse style of blues. Like many bluesmen of his time, he travelled around playing to all-male audiences in sawmill, turpentine and levee camps along the Mississippi River, gathering a repertoire of raw, sexually explicit material. His wanderings eventually brought him to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met St. Louis Jimmy Oden.

In 1929 he was spotted by a talent scout and sent to New York to record for Okeh Records. His first release was "'44' Blues" which became a blues standard and his trademark. He quickly began recording for multiple labels under various names including 'Easy Papa Johnson', 'Dobby Bragg' and 'Willie Kelly'. After he and Oden moved to Chicago he found his first period of fame when he signed with Decca Records in 1934. In 1943, he signed with Bluebird Records and recorded with 'The Honeydrippers'.

In Chicago, Sykes began to display an increasing urbanity in his lyric-writing, using an eight-bar blues pop gospel structure instead of the traditional twelve-bar blues. However, despite the growing urbanity of his outlook, he gradually became less competitive in the post-World War II music scene. After his RCA Victor contract expired, he continued to record for smaller labels, such as United, until his opportunities ran out in the mid-1950s.

Roosevelt left Chicago in 1954 for New Orleans as electric blues was taking over the Chicago blues clubs. When he returned to recording in the 1960s it was for labels such as Delmark, Bluesville, Storyville and Folkways that were documenting the quickly passing blues history. He lived out his final years in New Orleans, where he died from a heart attack on July 17, 1983.

Leothus Lee Green, also known as Pork Chops, was an early contemporary of Little Brother Montgomery and a mentor to Roosevelt Sykes. Born in Mississippi around 1900, Green worked as a clothes presser in Vicksburg while perfecting his piano technique. Soon Leothus was traveling throughout the Lower Mississippi River Basin, earning a living by playing piano for the people. Montgomery knew him in Vicksburg, and claimed to have taught him the "44 Blues" in Sondheimer, LA, back in 1922. Sykes first heard Green in 1925 playing his own loosely improvised ragtime, waltz, blues, and jazz accompaniments for silent movies at Miller's Theatre in West Helena, AR. Green taught the then jazz-oriented Sykes how to really play the blues, and the two men became traveling and gigging companions, circulating throughout the region for several years, often simultaneously performing on opposite sides of the same town. Green made his first four recordings in Richmond, IN, for Gennett and Supertone on July 10, 1929, just weeks after Sykes cut his first sides for OKeh in New York. Excepting for a brief excursion to New York in August 1937, Green performed and recorded mainly in or near Chicago. He cut 24 sides for Vocalion in 1929 and 1930, and 14 titles for Decca between August 1934 and September 1937. His last records were made for the Bluebird label in Aurora, IL, on October 11, 1937. Although primarily a bluesman, he was capable of quoting ragtime novelties, shifting into boogie-woogie, and running stride-like jazz passages. Little is known about the life of Leothus Lee Green; his death is believed to have occurred around 1945. --- btstor.cc

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The Piano Blues Vol. 17 - Paramount Vol.2 1927-1932 (1982)

2015-10-12T15:55:45Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 17 - Paramount Vol.2 1927-1932 (1982)


1. Jabo Williams - Pratt City Blues
2. Henry Brown - Eastern Chimes Blues
3. Freddie Brown - Raised In The Alley Blues
4. Skip James - 22-20 Blues
5. Raymond Barrow - Walking Blues
6. Charley Taylor - Heavy Suitcase Blues
7. Barrel House Welch - Dying Pickpocket Blues
8. Louise Johnson - Long Way From Home
9. Louise Johnson - On The Wall
10. Charley Taylor - Louisiana Bound
11. Barrel House Welch - Larceny Woman Blues
12. Meade Lux Lewis - Honky Tonk Train Blues
13. Will Ezell - Playing The Dozen
14. Freddie Brown - Whip It To A Jelly
15. Henry Brown - Deep Morgan Blues
16. Jabo Williams - Jabo Blues

Jabo Williams – piano (1,16)
Henry Brown – piano (2,15)
Freddie Brown – vocals, piano (3,14)
Skip James – vocals, piano (4)
Raymond Barrow – piano (5)
Charley Taylor - vocals, piano (6,10)
Barrel House Welch - vocals, piano (7,11)
Louise Johnson - vocals, piano (8,9)
Meade Lux Lewis – piano (12)
Will Ezell – piano (13)

St. Louis-based barrelhouse pianist Jabo Williams is known only by the eight sides he cut in Paramount's Grafton, WI studio in May 1932. This was towards the end of the Paramount concern; Williams' records were circulated in low quantities and didn't have very wide distribution. The assumption that Williams was born in Pratt City, AL is based on references in his "Pratt City Blues," but the only thing definitely known about him outside of his recordings is that he was referred to Paramount by Jesse Johnson, a record store owner based in St. Louis. Recognition of the singularity of his playing among collectors was noted early; in the '40s and early '50s some of his tracks were re-released on the American Music, Steiner-Davis, and Jazz Information labels, all concerns directed at collectors. However this recognition apparently did not come early enough for Jabo Williams himself to be rediscovered, or even for his true first name to be known. --- Uncle Dave Lewis, Rovi

Henry Brown left Tennessee for St. Louis, MO, at the age of 12 and took up the piano while still in school. His playing style, an economical form of piano blues, was taught to him by a Deep Morgan Street blues player known to the public only as "Blackmouth." Brown later worked with St. Louis Jimmy Oden and trombonist Ike Rogers; with Rogers and guitarist Lawrence Casey, he formed a trio called the Biddle Street Boys. He recorded sides (often in tandem with Rogers) with Mary Johnson, among others, in between playing in clubs around St. Louis, where he lived most of his life and worked regularly right up through the mid-'70s. ---Bruce Eder, Rovi

Louise Johnson was a barrelhouse pianist and girlfriend of Charlie Patton’s who went to Grafton, Wisconsin to make records for Paramount with Patton, Willie Brown and Son House. She cut four sides at that session, her sole recorded legacy. ---sundayblues.org

Meade Lux Lewis was born in Chicago, Illinois and helped establish boogie-woogie as a major blues piano style in the 1930s and 1940s. Lewis took the rollicking piano form out of the clubs and cat houses and onto the concert stage in 1938 where its fast-flowing rhythms and charging solos delighted audiences and eventually laid the groundwork for rhythm & blues and later rock & roll. Lewis was a master boogie-woogie craftsman. He was heavily influenced by such boogie-woogie pioneers as Jimmy Yancey and Pine Top Smith. Lewis recorded "Honky Tonk Train Blues," his signature piece and a standard in the boogie-woogie repertoire, in 1927, though it wasn't released by Paramount Records until two years later. ---aaregistry.org

William Ezell, also sometimes billed as Will Ezell, was a popular blues pianist and recording artist, and a ubiquitous figure in the Paramount Records operation of the 1920s and early '30s. A technically brilliant pianist, showing the strong influence of jazz as well as blues in his work -- and with some similarities to the playing of Jimmy Blythe -- his roots were originally thought to be in Texas. More recently, however, would-be biographers have traced him to Louisiana, in the Shreveport area. He played venues in Detroit and Chicago, and was also known for his performances in the south -- Little Brother Montgomery apparently remembered his work, as did Walter Davis who, according to Bob Hall and Richard Noblett, recalled him working as an accompanist to Bessie Smith. He was a busy figure at Paramount, not only cutting a significant number of sides of his own, but also serving as the pianist-in-residence for a large number of other artists, and a general handyman and go-fer -- among his other functions, according to Hall and Noblett, he was given the task of accompanying the body of the label's best-selling artist, Blind Lemon Jefferson, for burial in Dallas. ---Bruce Eder, Rovi

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The Piano Blues Vol. 16 - Charlie Spand 1929-1931 (1981)

2015-10-06T15:53:48Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 16 - Charlie Spand 1929-1931 (1981)


1.- Soon This Morning
2. - Thirsty Woman
3. - Got To Have My Sweetbread
4. - Evil Woman Spell
5. - Good Gal
6.- Got Good Stuff
7. - Room Rent Blues
8. - Ain't Gonna Stand For That
9. - Back To The Woods
10. - Dreamin' The Blues
11. - Georgia Mule
12. - Big Fat Mama
13. - Mistreatment Blues
14. - Levee Camp Man
15. - Fetch Your Water
16. - Hard Times Blues

Charlie Spand – vocals, piano
Blind Blake – guitar (1,8,9,15)
Josh White – guitar (5)

Next to nothing is known about barrelhouse pianist Charlie Spand -- the 33 scattered tracks which comprise his recorded legacy are virtually the only concrete proof that he even existed. Although his exact origins are unclear, his 1940 recording "Alabama Blues" contains references to his birth there; academics also offer his earlier performances of "Mississippi Blues" and "Levee Camp Man" as strong evidence of a connection to the Delta. However, Spand first made a name for himself as a product of the fecund Detroit boogie-woogie scene of the 1920s; between 1929 and 1931, he cut at least 25 tracks for the Paramount label, duetting with Blind Blake on a rendition of "Moanin' the Blues." His trail is next picked up in 1940, when he recorded eight final tracks in Chicago backed by Little Son Joe and Big Bill Broonzy; at that point, however, Spand seemingly vanished into thin air, and his subsequent activities both in and out of music remain a mystery. --- Jason Ankeny, Rovi

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The Piano Blues Vol. 15 - Dallas 1927-1929 (1980)

2015-09-30T16:17:15Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 15 - Dallas 1927-1929 (1980)


1. Texas Bill Day & Billiken Johnson - Elm Street Blues
2. Whistln' Alex Moore - Heart Wrecked Blues
3. Billiken Johnson & Neal Roberts - Frisco Blues
4. Texas Bill Day - Goin' Back To My Baby
5. Hattie Hudson - Doggone My Good Luck Soul
6. Billiken Johnson & Fred Adams - Sun Beam Blues
7. Whistln' Alex Moore - Blue Bloomer Blues
8. Texas Bill Day - Good Mornin' Blues
9. Whistln' Alex Moore - They May Not Be My Toes
10. Texas Bill Day & Billiken Johnson - Billiken's Weary Blues
11. Billiken Johnson & Neal Roberts - Wild Jack Blues
12. Whistln' Alex Moore - West Texas Woman
13.Bobbie Cadillac - Carbolic Acid Blues
14. Texas Bill Day - Burn The Trestle Down
15. Billiken Johnson & Neal Roberts - Interurban Blues
16. Whistln' Alex Moore - Ice Pick Blues

Bill Day – vocals, piano (1,4, 8,14)
Whistln' Alex Moore – vocals, piano (2,7,9,12,16)
Neal Roberts – vocals, piano (3,11,15)
Willie Tyson – piano (5,6,15)
Billiken Johnson – vocal effects (1,3,6,10,11,15)
Hattie Hudson – vocals (5)
Fred Adams – vocals (6,15)
Bobbie Cadillac – vocals (13)
Coley Jones – guitar (1,4,8,14)
Blind Norris – guitar (7)
Octave Gaspard – bass (6,15)

Dallas was the home of a number of distinctive piano players and singers they accompanied. Among them were Texas Bill Day, Neal Roberts, Willie Tyson, Whistlin’ Alex Moore and singer Billiken Johnson.

Despite the brash and nosey environment the “Dallas blues piano style of Dallas is slow or medium-paced and contemplative in its nature …Blues in the Dallas school is about Dallas; in fact no other blues schools, with the exception perhaps, of Chicago, gives us quite such a picture of the urban life which inspired it. ..These are blues that are intended to be listened to, with words that have a strange folk lyricism about them. Here the piano is used as a complementary poetic instrument, setting off the words and the mood of the blues instead of challenging it with pyrotechnic displays”.

It’s not surprising that the railroad figure prominently in the blues of Dallas. Singer Billiken Johnson was obviously well acquainted with the rail lines as they figure in number of his blues. Johnson is a key figure though he did not play piano. His speciality was vocal effects, and he was considered rather a clown by his blues musician friends. On “Frisco Blues” (a reference to the St. Louis—San Francisco line) Johnson provides the train sounds over the gently rolling piano of Neal Roberts who also sings. Johnson provides the same role on “Sun Beam Blues” (also known as the “Sunshine Special” that ran on the Missouri— Pacific line to St. Louis) evocatively imitating the lonesome train whistle as the unknown Fred Adams takes the vocals. Johnson also vocalizes on “Interurban Blues” which refers to the short haul trains which brought country people into the city. On these tracks Willie Tyson plays piano. Johnson’s vocal effects are also on display on “Billiken’s Weary Blues” with steady piano support from Texas Bill Day who plays in a similar style as the aforementioned Neal Roberts. Johnson surfaces again on Day’s lustily sung “Elm Street Blues” where the pianist sings: “Ellum Street’s paved in brass, Main Street’s paved in gold/I’ve got a good girl lives on East Commerce, I wouldn’t mistreat her to save nobody’s soul/These Ellum Street Women, Billiken, do not mean you no good/If you want to make a good woman, have to get on Haskell Avenue.” The song, as Oliver says, refers “…to the respective success of the black sector of “Deep Ellum”, or Elm Street, which ran by Central Tracks, and the downtown business sector of Main”.

Paul Olive describes Whistlin’ Alex Moore as a “folk blues poet par excellence” and “one of the most poetic blues singers on record, Alex Moore had developed as a remarkable pianist in the purest boogie and blues tradition with an eccentric inventive flair both in his vocals and his playing.” Moore was perhaps the last of the early Texas piano although a couple of others survived long enough to make some latter day recording. --- Jeff Harris, chicagosouthsidepiano.com

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Piano Blues Vol. 14 - The Accompanist 1933-1941 (1980)

2015-09-23T16:01:14Z

Piano Blues Vol. 14 - The Accompanist 1933-1941 (1980)


1. Bumblebee Slim - New Bricks In My Pillow
2. Stump Johnson & Doreatha Trowbridge - Steady Grindin'
3. Lil Johnson - I Lost My Baby
4. Carl Rafferty - Dresser With The Drawers
5. Bill Gaither - Georgia Woman Stomp
6. Charlie McFadden - Times Are So Tight
7. Johnny Temple - What Is That She Got
8. Bumblebee Slim & Memphis Minnie - New Orleans Stop Time
9. Bumblebee Slim - Any Time A Night
10. Mary Johnson - Deceitful Woman
11. Blind Squire Turner - Pitty Pat
12. Doreatha Trowbridge - Bad Luck Blues
13. Lil Johnson - Keep On Knocking
14. Bumblebee Slim - Rough Treatment
15. Kansas City Kitty - Christmas Mornin'
16. Bumblebee Slim - When Somebody Loses

Myrtle Jenkins – piano (1,8,9,14,16)
Pinetop Sparks – piano (2,6,12)
Black Bob – piano (3,13)
Roosevelt Sykes – piano (4)
Honey Hill – piano (5)
Horace Malcolm – piano (7)
Henry Brown – piano (10)
Tom Webb – piano (11)
Unknown piano (15)
Bumble Bee Slim – vocals (1,8,9,14,16)
Unknown guitar (3,9)
James ‘Stump’ Johnson – vocals (2)
Doreatha Trowbridge – vocals (2,12)
Lil Johnson – vocals (3,13)
Unknown guitar, bass (13)
Carl Rafferty – vocals (4)
Bill Gaither – vocals, guitar (5)
Charlie McFadden – vocals (6)
Johnny Temple – vocals, guitar (7)
Mary Johnson – vocals (10)
Teddy Darby – vocals, guitar (11)
Kansas City Kitty – vocals (15)

Lil Johnson (dates and places of birth and death unknown) was an African American singer, who recorded bawdy blues and hokum songs in the 1920s and 1930s. Her origins and early life are not known. She first recorded in Chicago in 1929, accompanied by pianists Montana Taylor and Charles Avery on five songs including "Rock That Thing". She did not return to the recording studio until 1935, when her more risqué songs included "Get 'Em From The Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)", "Anybody Want To Buy My Cabbage?", and "Press My Button (Ring My Bell)" ("Come on baby, let's have some fun / Just put your hot dog in my bun"). She also recorded a version of "Keep A-Knockin'", a song that later became a hit for Little Richard.

From her second session onwards, she hit up a striking partnership with the ragtime influenced pianist "Black Bob" Hudson, who provided ebullient support to Johnson's increasingly suggestive lyrics. In 1936 and 1937, she recorded over 40 songs, mostly on the Vocalion label, some featuring Big Bill Broonzy on guitar and Lee Collins on trumpet. Her other songs included "Was I Drunk", "My Stove's in Good Condition", "Take Your Hand Off It" and "Buck Naked Blues".

All her songs were sung in a vigorous and sometimes abrasive way, and have been anthologised on many later blues collections. There is no record of what became of Johnson after her recording career ended in 1937. --- liljohnson.com

Doretha Trowbridge was a blues vocalist based out of St. Louis in the 1930s. In 1933, she was taken to Chicago to record. At times, Trowbridge's voice was accompanied by other St. Louis musicians including James "Stump" Johnson, and pianist Aaron "Pinetop" Sparks. ---Joslyn Layne, Rovi

In early December 1933 Roosevelt Sykes accompanied Carl Rafferty, a man about who we know absolutely nothing, on Mr Carl’s Blues. What we do know is this session was significant in the history of the Blues. Mr Carl’s Blues contains the immortal lines, I do believe, I do believe I’ll dust my broom. And after I dust my broom, anyone may have my room. Many years later, as historian’s dissected Robert Johnson’s songs to understand his influences, it was generally assumed that he based I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom on Kokomo Arnold’s Sagefield Woman Blues. Although the latter has words similar to Mr. Carl’s Blues but was recorded some ten months after Rafferty’s effort. In truth we may never know who ‘did it first’, but recorded evidence points to Mr Carl Rafferty accompanied by Mr. Roosevelt Sykes. --- haveringhavers.blogspot.com

Amos Easton (May 7, 1905[1] – June 8, 1968 ), better known by the stage name Bumble Bee Slim, was an American Piedmont blues musician. Easton was born in Brunswick, Georgia, United States. Around 1920 he left home to join the Ringling Brothers' circus before returning to Georgia, marrying briefly, and then heading north on a freight train to Indianapolis where he settled in 1928. There, he met and was influenced by pianist Leroy Carr and guitarist Scrapper Blackwell. By 1931 he had moved to Chicago, where he first recorded as Bumble Bee Slim for Paramount Records. The following year his song, "B&O Blues", was a hit for Vocalion Records, inspiring a number of other railroad blues and eventually becoming a popular folk song. Over the next five years he recorded over 150 songs for the Decca, Bluebird and Vocalion labels, often accompanied by other musicians such as Big Bill Broonzy, Peetie Wheatstraw, Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie, and Washboard Sam.

In 1937, he returned to Georgia, then relocated to Los Angeles, California, in the early 1940s; he apparently hoped to break into motion pictures as a songwriter and comedian. During the 1950s he recorded several albums, but these had little impact. He recorded his last album in 1962 for the Pacific Jazz label. He continued to perform in clubs around Los Angeles until his death in 1968.

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The Piano Blues Vol. 13 – Central Highway 1933 – 1941 (1979)

2015-09-17T16:12:24Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 13 – Central Highway 1933 – 1941 (1979)


1 	Georgia White - The Blues Ain't Nothin' But...???
2 	Leothus Lee Green - The Way I Feel
3 	Monkey Joe - New York Central
4 	Peetie Wheatstraw - Shack Bully Stomp
5 	Stump Johnson - Don't Give My Lard Away
6 	Eddie Morgan - Rock House Blues
7 	Pine Top - Every Day I Have the Blues
8 	Dot Rice - Texas Stomp
9 	Honey Hill - Boogie Woogie
10 	Tampa Red - Stormy Sea Blues
11 	Eddie Miller - Whoopie
12 	Black Bob Hudson, Memphis Minnie, Bill Settles - Joe Louis Strut
13 	Pine Top - Tell Her About Me
14 	Freddie Shayne - Lonesome Man Blues
15 	Pigmeat Terry - Black Sheep Blues
16 	Georgia White - Territory Blues

Georgia White – vocals, piano (1,16)
Lee Green - vocals, piano (2)
Monkey Joe - vocals, piano (3)
Peetie Wheatstraw - vocals, piano (4)
James ‘Stump’ Johnson - vocals, piano (5)
Eddie Morgan - vocals, piano (6)
Pine Top - vocals, piano (7,13)
Dot Rice & Frankie Black – piano (8)
Honey Hill – piano (9)
Tampa Red - vocals, piano (10)
Eddie Miller - vocals, piano (11)
Black Bob Hudson – piano (12)
Harry ‘Freddie’ Shayne - vocals, piano (14)
Pigmeat Terry - vocals, piano (15)
Ikey Robinson – guitar (1)
John Lindsay – bass (1)
Willie B. James – guitar (3,6,10)
Lonnie Johnson – guitar (4)
Joe C. Stone – guitar (5)
Milton Sparks or Henry Townsend – guitar (7,13)
Scrapper Blackwell – guitar (8)
Memphis Minnie – vocals, guitar (12)
Bill Settles – bass (12)
Unknown bass  (3,4)
Unknown drums (4)

Barrelhouse blues vocalist Georgia White recorded mildly risqué blues songs from the mid-30s through the early '40s including "I'll Keep Sitting on It," "Take Me for a Buggy Ride," "Mama Knows What Papa Wants When Papa's Feeling Blue," and "Hot Nuts." She reportedly moved to Chicago in the 1920s and began working as a singer in the nightclubs during the late '20s. Georgia White first recorded in May 1930 for the Vocalion label with Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra when she sang just one song, "When You're Smiling, the Whole World Smiles With You." White didn't return to the studios until 1935, but recorded regularly from then on through the early '40s for the Decca label. In 1935, she also recorded a couple of songs, including "Your Worries Ain't Like Mine," under the alias Georgia Lawson. From her first sessions until the late '30s, White was accompanied by pianist Richard Jones. The late '30s found White accompanied by blues guitarist Lonnie Johnson. In the late '40s, Georgia White formed an all-women band. She also worked with Big Bill Broonzy from 1949-50, and returned to singing in the clubs during the 1950s. Georgia White's last known public performance was in 1959, after which she retired from the music business. --- Joslyn Layne, Rovi

Aaron "Pinetop" Sparks (1908–1935) was a blues pianist active in St. Louis in the early 1930s. A fine boogie-woogie player, he and his brother Marion also wrote blues songs including the standard "Every Day I Have the Blues"; Pinetop was the first person to record that song, in 1935. He died at age 27 of either poisoning or exhaustion. --- dbpedia.org

While it seems perfectly reasonable that there might be a blues musician named Eddie Morgan, in reality the only known use of that name in the genre is a phony. There were real jazz horn players named Eddie Morgan, including a trombonist who recorded in the Dixieland style, but the Eddie Morgan credited with several blues records in the Chicago piano style did not actually exist. The question of who was responsible for building the solid "Rock House Blues," sending a romantic message to "My Gal Blues," and maybe even making "Whoopie" is a hot topic among the creatures who gather in the night to discuss essential boogie-woogie piano stylists. --- Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi

Very little is known about Black Bob Hudson, except that he was a ragtime-influenced blues pianist who was active from the 1920's and 1930's, and worked with a who's who of Chicago talent including Big Bill Broonzy, Bumble Bee Slim, Jazz Gillum, Lil Johnson, Washboard Sam, Casey Bill Weldon and Tampa Red. He was the brother of banjoist Ed Hudson, and the two frequented the same circles and recording sessions, and sometimes ended up accompanying the same singers. Both brothers were part of the Memphis Nighthawks, and Bob Hudson was also a member (with Tampa Red and other luminaries) of the Chicago Rhythm Kings. Broonzy and Black Bob cut dozens of sides together between 1934 and 1937 and Black Bob is featured on quite a number of Tampa Red sides between 1934 and 1937 .

Ikey Robinson was an excellent banjoist and singer who recorded both jazz and blues from the late '20s into the late '30s. After working locally, Robinson moved to Chicago in 1926, playing and recording with Jelly Roll Morton, Clarence Williams, and Jabbo Smith during 1928-1929. He led his own recording sessions in 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935. His groups included Ikey Robinson and his Band (w/ Jabbo Smith), The Hokum Trio, The Pods of Pepper, Windy City Five, and Sloke & Ike. Robinson also accompanied blues singers such as Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon, Georgia White, Eva Taylor and Bertha "Chippie" Hill among others. --- sundayblues.org

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The Piano Blues Vol. 12 – Big Four 1933 – 1941 (1979)

2015-09-13T15:58:30Z

The Piano Blues Vol. 12 – Big Four 1933 – 1941 (1979)


1 	–Little Brother 	Farish Street Jive
2 	–Walter Davis 	Big Jack Engine Blues
3 	–Roosevelt Sykes 	Big Legs Ida Blues
4 	–Springback James 	Will My Bad Luck Ever Change?
5 	–Little Brother 	Vicksburg Blues - Part 3
6 	–Roosevelt Sykes 	Low As A Toad
7 	–Springback James 	New Red Cross Blues
8 	–Walter Davis 	I Can Tell By The Way You Smell
9 	–Little Brother 	Shreveport Farewell
10 	–Springback James 	Snake Hip Blues
11 	–Walter Davis 	Sweet Sixteen
12 	–Roosevelt Sykes 	Let Me Hang My Stocking In Your Christmas Tree
13 	–Springback James 	Poor Coal Loader
14 	–Little Brother 	Louisiana Blues - Part 2
15 	–Springback James 	See For Yourself
16 	–Walter Davis 	Frisco Blues

Eurreal "Little Brother" Montgomery – piano (1,5,9,14), vocals (5,14)
Walter Davis – vocals, piano (2,8,11,16)
Roosevelt Sykes - vocals, piano (3,6,12)
Springback James - vocals, piano (4,7,10,13,15)
Henry Townsend – guitar (2,8,11)
Willie B. James – guitar (4,7,11,13,15)

Little Brother Montgomery is often associated with his native Kentwood, Louisiana, or with Chicago, where he spent the majority of his long career, but he was also once the most prominent blues pianist in Mississippi. He inspired a young Willie Dixon in Vicksburg, mentored Otis Spann and Little Johnnie Jones in Jackson, and influenced Skip James, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, Sunnyland Slim, and many others.

Walter Davis was initially primarily a blues singer, with a fairly primitive piano technique, and he played gigs around the southern and mid-western states with guitarist Henry Townsend and pianist Peetie Wheatstraw. When he started recording in the early '30s, he was often accompanied by the great pianist Roosevelt Sykes, but as time went on his confidence and skill grew and he recorded solo, using a distinctive single finger chord hammering style with his left hand, while his right hand played intricate and unpredictable phrases. His voice was one of the best of the Delta blues vocalists, with a rich timbre that gave a warmth and soulful feel, and he wrote some important songs, most notably "M&O Blues".

Chicago blues pianist Frank "Springback" James made records with four different companies during the 1930s, playing and singing in a style that revealed a strong Leroy Carr influence and placed him in league with bluesmen Jimmie Gordon, Walter Davis, Jesse Coleman, Curtis Jones, Walter Roland, Ollie Shepard, Little Brother Montgomery, and Bumble Bee Slim. Blues historian Chris Smith has advanced conjectural theories that Frank's musical roots were in St. Louis, that he may have been born in Alabama, and that his given name was James Hairston. "Springback" was a sexualized nickname similar to Jelly Roll Morton's "Winin' Boy" ("Winding Boy"). Both handles implied that the bearer of the name was a tireless stud. The hottest of James' 18 known recordings, "Springback Papa" is a boogie-woogie charged with stamina that fits well with the copulative connotation. Aside from a handful of unissued sides cut for the Gennett label in 1932, James' complete works (1934-1938) were rescued from oblivion and reissued by Document in 1994. On that collection, James is heard with guitarists Willie B. James and Hobson "Hop" Johnson, drummer Fred Williams, and vocalist George Curry.

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