Blues Texas Blues Texas Blues - Volume 6
Texas Blues - Volume 6
Texas Blues - Volume 6
01. Wrong doing woman 02. If I be lucky 03. Better wake up baby 04. Real fine girl Joe "Papoose" Fritz - vocals, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone + band. Houston, Tx. March 1950 05. Please get me off your mind 06. I love you my darling 07. I'm so sorry 08. Bad bad women blues 09. I've tried not to love you 10. Lady Bear boogie Joe "Papoose" Fritz - vocals, alto saxophone Willie Johnson - piano Goree Carter - guitar Don Cooks - bass Ben Turner - drums. Houston, Tx. September 1950 11. Please my darling 12. They were right Joe "Papoose" Fritz - vocals, alto saxophone Goree Carter - guitar Connie Mc Booker - piano Bill Harvey - tenor saxophone + band. Houston, Tx. December 1950 13. Make her see things my way Joe "Papoose" Fritz - vocals, alto saxophone Bill Harvey - tenor saxophone Goree Carter - guitar + band. Houston, Tx. January 1951 14. Summer's coming on 15. I'm not suspicious but Joe "Papoose" Fritz - vocals, alto saxophone + band. Houston, Tx. February 1951 16. Honey honey 17. The woman I love Joe "Papoose" Fritz - vocals, alto saxophone Geno Washington - piano James Von Streeter - tenor saxophone Devonia Williams - piano Pete Lewis - guitar Albert Winston - bass Leard Bell - drums. Houston, Tx. October 1953 18. Good doctor, sweet soul 19. Aww she's a stepper 20. I'm a stepper Joe "Papoose" Fritz - vocals, alto saxophone + band. Houston, Tx. 1966 21. Rebop boogie 22. Happy home blues D.C. Bender - vocals, guitar. Houston, Tx. 10 June 1949 23. I'm going upstairs 24. Cold blues D.C. Bender - vocals, guitar Big Son Tillis - guitar. Los Angeles, Ca. 1953 25. Boogie Children 26. Woke up this morning D.C. Bender - vocals, guitar Earl Gilliam - organ Big H. Williams - guitar Ivory Lee Semien - drums Houston, Tx. June 1967 27. D.C.'s freeze up D.C. Bender - guitar Big H. Williams - bass Ivory Lee Semien - drums Houston, Tx. 16 July 1967
This 6th opus of our Texas blues series brings two artists representing two very different styles of Texas blues.
Joe Fritz, nicknamed "Papoose" probably for some Native American origins (?) was born in Houston 13th November 1924 and made quite a long career playing the saxophone and sometimes singing in front of his own band, very typical of the then very popular Texas R&B. His whereabouts and life are little known although he had followed on the road and in studios big Texas blues names like Junior Parker, Huey Smith and Albert Collins. Fritz has also recorded more than twenty tracks under his own name for Modern, Sittin' In With, Peacock or Jet Stream from 1950 to the late 1960's. To my knowledge, he unfortunately has never been interviewed and we know the place and the date of his death (12 June 1983 in Houston) thanks to him being a WWII veteran! Whatever, we have tried to gather all his recordings but, despite our efforts, a few are still missing.
On the other hand, D.C. Bender (in fact Dick C. Bendy) is deeply rooted in the down home Texas blues tradition harking back to the 1920's and Blind Lemon, Texas Alexander or Little Hat Jones. Born at Urbana 19th June 1924 from a sharecropping family, D.C. learned guitar thanks to a neighbor bluesman Hardy Gibson. At a very young age, he left the farm and made a living playing in the Texas/Louisiana juke joints or in the streets of cities like Houston, meeting and playing with other local bluesmen like Luther Stoneham, Smokey Hogg, Wright Holmes or, chiefly, with his cousin Sam Lightnin' Hopkins. This is Hopkins who brought D.C. to producer Bill Quinn who recorded him as a solo artist in 1949 under the moniker of D.C. Washington! The following years, Bender teamed with another deep local bluesman Big Son Tillis and the two tried their luck as far as Los Angeles where they recorded a first rate session for J.R. Fullbright's Elko label in 1953. Unfortunately, those records went nowhere and D.C. came back to Houston, joining drummer Ivory Lee Semien's band with whom he waxed a last session in 1967. D.C. Bender died in Houston 11th August 1982. ---Gérard Herzhaft, jukegh.blogspot.com
download (mp3 @320 kbs):