Key to the Highway   KSCU 103.3fm

2019-10-27 (repeat of 2016-09-28)

Louis Jordan                          
Frankie Lee Sims
Big Maybelle
John Littlejohn

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Once again, I must announce a change in my airtime hours.  I figured by taking a late show on Sunday, there would be no one following me and I could pursue expanding beyond the allotted three hours to almost five but, to my surprise, a very pleasant group of young gentlemen came in last show with the idea that they had a 10-12PM timeslot.  I gave over the microphone at that time but we came up with an amiable compromise that the weeks I aired they would instead go to an 11PM-1AM shift.  I may be able on occasion to get in before 7PM and continue the five hour plan, but I guess we can just figure my show will bleed into the hours before and after my scheduled 7-10PM.  I had a good time hanging out with them after the last show for about an hour and will likely do the same this week.  To be clear, I will be starting today’s show around 7PM.

Due to problems with my Windows Media Player, today’s show is a repeat of the music I used about three years ago.  It proved to be a popular one as I received an inordinate number of calls regarding Louis Jordan, as it should be because, after a quick set of his earliest material, all the songs on his next two sets charted #1.  The man had an astounding 26 #1s, seven #2s and ten #3 among his voluminous output spanning all of the 40s into the mid-50s.  And the other three artists ain’t too shabby either!  If I have time after all this before the next guys come in, I still have stuff I didn’t get around to last show.  The following are the essays from that 2016 airing.     enjoy        

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There were at least two factors in the collapse of the Big Band Swing era.  One was the fact that touring during the World War II years was just no longer practical for many of the large bands with such things as gas rationing and the tire shortage.  As Dave Bartholomew saw things, "It got too costly to keep up a big band.  Band leaders had to scale down so they could keep working and keep making money, and they had a lot to do with the evolution of the sound."  Smaller bands also meant smaller clubs could also support live music, for both spatial and financial reasons.  Another factor was that the musicians were feeling stifled in the large orchestras. Just as the name itself implies, there was not enough room for improvisation when everything had to be orchestrated.  Add to that the fact that most black Americans felt that the whole Big Band Swing movement had been hijacked from their culture and turned into a white bread commercial product.  In general, two new directions were taken as the smaller combos were formed.  One was the birth of bop, which falls out of the area of our discussion at the moment, and the other would be the paring down and returning to a more blues-based form that would be called jump blues, or in general an early form of rhythm and blues.

The archetypal performer of this new art form would be alto saxist Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.  He was born in Brinkley, Arkansas on July 8th, 1908 and became involved in music at an early age.  His father was skilled in many instruments: "My papa was a fine musician, and he played just about all the horns.  But as little as he was -- five feet three inches and about 105 pounds -- I think the instrument he liked best was the bass. ... He had a band for close to thirty years.  I started off with him myself when I was about seven years old playing clarinet".  Jim Jordan played on several occasions with Fat Chappelle's Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a group which could claim in its membership such notable artists as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.  Louis performed with the Minstrels as well, starting as a musician and dancer in his pre-teens, all the way into his time at Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock, which he left in 1928.

Louis went to New York City in 1929, where he met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb and participated in two recording sessions for him on the Brunswick label in June of that year.  Unable to find enough work, Louis returned to Little Rock, then in 1932 moved east with the family, eventually settling in Philadelphia.  Louis also had recording sessions backing Louis Armstrong in December of 1932 and two sessions for Clarence Williams in 1934.   About this time, Louis started living in New York City, whose union required six months residency before becoming eligible for membership and therefore able to play the big gigs.  Until then he was able to keep working with drummer Joe "Kaiser" Mitchell's band in out of town, even out of state clubs.   He joined Webb's swing orchestra fulltime in the autumn of 1936 as an altoist and one of the singers, as Webb was becoming one of the hottest commodities in New York.  Among the recordings Louis made with Webb was the extremely popular Ella Fitzgerald tune, "A Tisket, a Tasket".  With the expanding role taken by Fitzgerald, who was only 16 years old when Webb took her under his wing in 1934, Louis' opportunities to sing were diminishing and in the summer of 1938, Louis left the ensemble.  According to Jesse Stone, "I was doing arrangements for Chick Webb at the time, and Louis was playing third alto in Chick's band.  He asked Chick could he sing, and Chick said yeah.  Louis said, 'Well, Jesse's gonna make a couple arrangements for me.'  So I made the arrangements.  He tried 'em out one night and he went over great.  Chick didn't like that.  He wouldn't call the tunes again after that.  So Louis quit.  I encouraged him, told him that if he wanted to sing, he should get away from Chick.  He took my band, and they became the Elks' Rendez-vous Band, the group on his first recordings."  Louis' first recording session under his own name was for Decca Records on December 20th, 1938, and for their third session on March 29th, 1939, the same personnel acquired its long-enduring name Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.  Tympani drums (the correct spelling) took up a lot of space and the band only used them on stage the three years they played at the Elks, "but we held on to that name, even when the five was actually seven or eight men." 

One break came when the band was booked into Chicago's Capitol Lounge in May of 1941 as the second-billed act behind the Mills Brothers and also featured Maurice Rocco.  The shows were broadcast on WGN radio, and the crowds kept increasing; according to Jordan, "the Capitol Lounge couldn't hold two hundred people.  But they would have a hundred twenty sittin' down and maybe a hundred eighty standin' at the bar.  After that booking, I was gone."  The club's stage was so small that the piano player had to play standing up, which pleased the crowd so much that Rocco began to perform similarly and became billed as the "Stand-Up Pianist', a tradition later taken up by Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis to much success. 

As Louis' new manager, Berle Adams, explains, the lounge "would not pay more than scale.  And scale then was thirty-five a man per week -- a dollar per working hour -- plus a dollar extra for the leader.  I closed the deal.  It was a big accomplishment for me personally.  After Jordan opened, I received an increase in salary from twenty dollars a week to thirty-five.  I was quite pleased."  Adams continued, "Then we had a problem.  Jordan came to me to say that he had to quit; he just couldn't live on sixteen dollars a week.  Then I discovered that Jordan couldn't get the musicians to come to Chicago unless they got forty dollars a man.  So he was taking the money out of his salary and paying each man five dollars above what the lounge paid.  When I learned this, I went to the owners and had them fire the band. ...  But when they received their notice, the band went to the union, and the union summoned Jordan on the ground that he was playing for below scale. ...  I had read the musicians' contract and union bylaws.  I found a technicality that prevented Jordan from being fined.  But as a result of the interrogation, we learned that the troublemaker in the band was the bass player. ...  So I gave Louis the money to send the bass player back to New York -- that was required when you brought a musician away from his home base."

Regarding the next job Adams got them, at the Fox Head Tavern in Cedar Rapids, he recalled, ''Now, they were not in New York or Chicago.  They were not known, and they could make fools of themselves.  That was where they developed all the novelty songs that later made Jordan."  Indeed, unlike session habits of the day, when Jordan went into the studio he picked songs that had been proven on the bandstand to have a known popularity.  Louis' personality shone onstage, and his charismatic mugging enhanced more than just the novelty numbers.

Jordan's first hits were "Knock Me a Kiss" and "Outskirts of Town", released together on a 78 in January of 1942.  While both sides received much jukebox play and the record sold well, they were quickly copied by other artists on different labels so Louis' versions didn't make the charts.

Wartime restraints culminating on April 25th of 1942 brought a rationing of shellac down to 30% of the record-making material the companies had used in 1941, followed quickly in July by the American Federation of Musicians' strike refusing to allow union members to make any recordings.  Louis' last pre-strike recording date was a nine track session on July 24th of 1942, and since Decca was among the earliest to come to agreement with the AFM, he was back in the studio on October 4th, 1943.  That marathon session in July produced Louis' first Number One hit, "What's the Use of Getting Sober (When You Gonna Get Drunk Again)", hitting the Harlem Hit Parade on November 14th of 1942 and staying there for 14 weeks.  While unable to record in the studio, Jordan was popular enough to be able to make several Soundies -- three minute movies that theater patrons could pay to view -- and often appeared on the Armed Forces Radio Service's Jubilee worldwide radio broadcasts to the military, both on their own as well as backing other artists.

From his first session back, Louis had another Number One with "Ration Blues", which stayed on the R&B charts for 21 weeks beginning in mid-December1943, and then also made the pop chart and hit Number One on the Folk and Western (Country) chart.  "Deacon Jones", from the same session, only hit the Country chart, topping out at #7.  Jordan was now a true crossover artist and a draw nationwide, pleasing audiences everywhere he went on his many tours during the mid-40s, while basing himself out of Los Angeles.

To avoid the occasional racial tensions when artists appeared before mixed audiences, Billboard reported on July 22nd, 1944, that Jordan "recently played two dates in Oakland, California, where he drew 4,200 colored dancers at the auditorium and 2,700 whites at Bill Sweet's the following night" and would continue dual settings in several of the cities on his tour.

When Adams bought out his partner Lou Levy, the contractual agreement was that Adams would manage Jordan, but all his songs would be published by Levy's company, Leeds Music.  But for the song "Caldonia", Louis listed the author as his current wife Fleecie Moore. Levy would recall, "they put Louis Jordan's wife's name on the song and gave it to another publisher.  But actually Jordan and Adams both got outsmarted. When the Jordans got divorced, Louis tried to get the song back and his ex-wife thumbed her nose at him."  Even though Jordan had done the song in a highly popular movie short of the same name, Decca was reluctant to release it due to the remaining restrictions on shellac.  It wasn't until Woody Herman and Erskine Hawkins each successfully released their versions that Decca finally put the original into circulation.  Due to Decca's hesitation, the Jordan disc only reached #6 on the Pop chart, while Herman's got to #2 and Hawkins' made it to #12; on the Harlem Hit Parade, Jordan was able to sustain at #1 for seven weeks during its six month run and Hawkins took the tune to the number two spot while charting for ten weeks.  As for the Jordan-Moore marriage, it came to a violent end when, early on Sunday morning, January 26th, 1947, as Jordan put it, "We had a quarrel when I came home from work.  I got into bed and turned out the light.  Next thing I know, I felt the knife go into my chest.  This is the second time Fleecie cut me.  There's not going to be another time."

In October of 1945, for the first time since his days with Chick Webb, Louis was again recording with Ella Fitzgerald.  Their Caribbean-flavored duet "Stone Cold Dead in the Market" would be the first of six #1 hits he would have in 1946 including its follow-up, Choo Choo Ch- Boogie, which spent an astounding 18 weeks at #1.  Jordan's foray into feature length movies began with the June 14th, 1946 debut of "Beware", a 55-minute melodrama which Newsweek reviewed on July 8th: "The presence of Jordan, who has just made his third personal appearance at the Paramount Theater in New York, assures 'Beware's' box office success.  The most successful negro film to date was 'Caldonia', another Astor production with Jordan and his Tympany Five."

Three Monday sessions in fifteen days in 1947 (November 24th, December 1st and 8th) produced 13 songs as once again the record companies were facing another strike scheduled for the first tick of the clock in 1948.  That year would not be a particularly good one for Jordan, what with no recording sessions, recurring bouts of illnesses brought on by his years of rigorous touring schedules, slipping record sales...  But when it came to live performances, Louis could still pack 'em and please 'em.  San Francisco bay area promoter John Bur-Ton was to say in March, after booking a series of one-nighters, that "Louis Jordan will make me more money than any four other attractions I can get."

Louis wasn't the only one beginning to physically suffer.  As Adams explained, "I was the president and founder of Mercury Records and I became ill.  Had a problem with my spine.  Sold my stock in the company because I had to move to California. ...  I didn't want to travel as much as I had.  My doctor didn't think it was advisable. ... and I decided to give up the band.  When I sat down with Louis to explain my thinking, I never forgot the look on his face.  His reaction was, 'You think I'm over the hill.'  I responded, 'How can that be?  You still have one hit record after another.  Your income is tremendous.  Your percentages are high, and you can work as many days of the year as you please.'  But he kept staring at me and shaking his head.  "You're too smart to walk out on something that's that good.  You must see something in the future.'"

Exhausted and thinking that his old friend and manager abandoned him because he had lost confidence in him, Louis announced plans to retire when his contract with Decca was due to expire in March of 1951.  But Louis had no other way of making money, so he renewed his contract for another three years.  Now that he was no longer advised by Adams, Jordan disbanded the Five, something he had done numerous times in the past, but this time created a full-blown orchestra.  But the pulse of the people, particularly the black people, had long since left behind the Big Band music and only the best known and most well established few were achieving any success at all.  Even though Louis went back to the smaller format for recording sessions, his hit-making heyday was behind him; not because his song quality had diminished any, but because the ears of the youth were turning to the developing rock 'n' roll, a music that Louis was so much an influence upon.

When it became apparent that Decca was not going to renew Louis' contract, he signed with Aladdin   According to keyboard man and arranger Bill Doggett, "No one ever got real close to Louis, although the public thought he was just the friendliest, warmest guy.  Actually, he was a very decent and fair man, just kind of cold."

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John Littlejohn was born John Wesley Funchess on April 16^th 1931 in Lake, Mississippi.  His father was not a musician (it was his friend, Henry Martin, who first taught young John the guitar), but he was a gambler and one night part of his winnings was a guitar which John would pick up.

In his youth, John’s parents worked on a pecan and peach farm where John would earn forty cents a day hauling water to the workers.  In 1946, John and his brother left home for nearby Jackson to where they earned $1.25 a day working on an ice truck, listening to the Blues being played at some of their delivery stops.  John and a friend moved along to Arkansas in 1949 to chop cotton and there were recruited to pick cherries in New York state, but neither were adequate pickers and they moved on to Rochester, New York.  There John got a good job driving a bulldozer but, when the construction company had completed the job and offered him $200 a week in Florida, he chose to not return to the south and instead took a Greyhound bus to Gary, Indiana, in hopes of finding good paying work in the steel mills.  Unfortunately, all that could be found was a $40 a week job working at a service station which he held onto for six months.

It was 1951 and the northern industrial migration had brought lots of black workers wishing to hear the music of the Delta, albeit in a more electric way so, even though he hadn’t played guitar since leaving home, John saved enough money to get a guitar, amp and microphone and set about making music.  Not long after a six-month practice period, John had assembled a band that was playing seven nights a week around Chicago and its suburbs.  Their popularity soon got them a gig at the 99 Club in Joliet, Illinois, working weekends only but earning more than ever before.  They held it for three years.  In Gary, he met up with Joe Jackson, the patriarch of the Jackson 5, and John’s band occasionally backed the boys up in rehearsal sessions.

Littlejohn did not get the opportunity to record until 1968 when the slide guitarist put out singles for several record labels.  Later in the year, he recorded this album followed up by four unreleased tracks for the Chess label.  A few releases from local companies followed and in 1985 he was able to put together the So-called Friends album for the label Rooster Blues.  Shortly afterward, John fell into ill health and passed away almost a decade later from kidney failure on February 1^st 1994 at the age of 62.

Here is something I cannot verify but it seems I read a long time ago regarding the album we hear today.  Arhoolie Records’ owner Chris Strachwitz, based right here in the Bay Area’s El Cerrito, wanted to put his label into more than just the acoustic Blues it was noted for and approached Buddy Guy to do a session but, most likely for contractual reasons, Buddy declined and recommended Littlejohn.  Don’t take that to the bank because I can’t come up with where I read it, but I don’t think my mind is capable of fabricating the story.

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When I first came into radio, before I took a regular time slot 25+ years ago, I was still earning my living tending bar and I had one buddy / customer who put together a cassette of all kinds of his favorite Blues from his 45s.  He wrote short notes about the songs or artists and I remember one said something like, “It’s cracked but it still plays!”  Many of them were stuff I was well aware of, but one of the hidden gems was a thing called Walking with Frankie from the Ace label.  I haven’t looked for a long time for that tune, but when I found this compilation I promptly burned a copy for Marvelous Marv.

Frankie Lee Sims is about as different in his style from Louis Jordan as any artist I could think of for today’s show, with a twangy, crude, country electric Blues style.  He is believed to have been born on April 30^th 1917 in New Orleans, Louisiana despite his claiming February 29^th 1906, because 1906 was not a leap year.  Both his parents, Henry Sims and Virginia Summuel, were guitarists, and his uncle, Texas Alexander, was an often recorded Bluesman, but his most notable relative was his cousin Lightnin’ Hopkins, who has as many discs in my collection as anyone except maybe John Lee Hooker, and I have never really been a Hopkins fan.

The family moved to Marshall, Texas, in the late twenties but, shortly after learning to play guitar from Little Hat Jones, Sims left home at the age of twelve to sing his Blues.  By the late thirties, having graduated college, he was working weekdays teaching at a Palestine, Texas, school while playing dances and parties on the weekends.

After three years service in the Marines during World War II, Frankie Lee made Dallas, Texas, his home, devoting all his time to his music.  Besides gigging with Texas Bluesmen like T-Bone Walker and Smoky Hogg, Sims put out two singles for the Blue Bonnet label in 1948 before hitting regionally with Lucy Mae Blues (also the title of this CD) in 1953 for Specialty Records, the only one of his nine singles to reach even that status.  The songs on today’s collection are from his time with Specialty, which ended by 1957.

Frankie then moved to Ace Records where he was successful with Walking with Frankie and She Likes to Boogie Real Low.  Frankie later recorded with Lightnin’ and other musicians, but by the mid-60s he was out of all but the most local earshot.  Chris Strachwitz got Sims into a recording studio for his El Cerrito-based Arhoolie label in 1969, but on May 10^th 1970, Frankie Lee’s health had deteriorated to the point that he passed away from pneumonia back in Dallas at the age of 53.

From the liner notes of this disc, Frankie discusses departing Dallas.  “I left there and went to Chicago, that where me and Muddy Waters, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Little Milton, Etta James, we all played at the Regal Theater on 42^nd and South Parkway in Chicago for about three months, and then we went to American Bandstand, me and Jimmy McCracklin.  King Curtis put out a record called the Soul Twist, I’m the one playin’ the guitar on that.”  To fit this into a time line, soul Twist came out in 1962.

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I have a full show prepared for today but am strongly considering pre-empting a portion of it in favor of checking some of the new discs that have come to the station, so it is likely we will not hear Frankie Lee Sims or Big Maybelle, and maybe not even the last Louis Jordan set but, just in case, I will still take the time to introduce you to the artist born as Mabel Louise Smith on May 1^st 1924 in Jackson, Tennessee.  Mabel’s earliest public singing took place in her church’s choir but she soon became enamored of Rhythm and Blues, turning professional in 1936 with Dave Clark’s Memphis Band.  She also toured with the popular all-female International Sweethearts of Rhythm before signing on with Christine Chatman’s Orchestra with whom she did her first recording in 1977.  She also recorded with Tiny Bradshaw’s Orchestra between 1947 and 1950.

Her first solo session was released as by Mabel Smith for the King label in 1947.  It was in 1952 when signed to Okeh Records that their producer, Fred Mendelsohn, gave her the name Big Maybelle and their first release, Gabbin’ Blues, climbed to #3 on Billboard’s R&B listing, followed in 1953 by two more platters, Way Back Home (#10) and My Country Man (#5).  Jerry Lee Lewis took her 1953 Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On and two years afterward made it one of the classic Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rockabilly masterpieces. 

Also known as America’s Queen Mother of Soul, Maybelle moved to Savoy Records in 1955 where her 1956 #11 disc Candy would be recognized in 1999 with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.   1957 found her appearing at New York City’s Apollo Theater, while her rendition of Jazz on a Summer’s Day was filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival as she shared the stage with Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington.

Even though she was out of her prime by the 60s, Maybelle was recorded by several more labels, but she only made the R&B charts twice more -- 1966’s Don’t Pass Me By at #27 and her 1967 remake of the ? and the Mysterions hit 96 Tears, which climbed to #23 as well as getting on the Pop list at #96,  Maybelle died in a diabetic coma on January 23^rd 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 47.  When Epic Records released The Okeh Sessions it won the 1983 W.C. Handy Award for best Vintage or Reissue Album of the Year.  She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011.  The selections played today are another fine example of the 52CD box set which I strongly recommend every time I play from it, ABC of the Blues.

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For Your Information

To listen to KSCU on a computer, use either iTunes or WinAmp for the media player.

To listen to KSCU on a smart phone use either the NextRadio or TuneIn apps.

The studio phone number is (408) 554-KSCU or, for the digitally inclined 554-5728 but, as always, make sure no one is speaking on the air before you dial.

The mailing address for sending CDs, et cetera, is:

KSCU Local Music

500 El Camino Real

Santa Clara, CA

95053

KSCU radio’s studio is located in the basement of Benson Hall

KSCU’s Sunday morning Blues rotation has the Jakester, Mister G, Dave the Blues Dude and the Bluesevangelist between 9AM and 1PM.  Sherri Jones does her Blues show between 10:30AM and 12:30PM on Saturdays.  And, of course, me!

The best way to reach me is by email at coyledon@yahoo.com (my computer’s autocorrect adds a letter t, so if that shows up here please remove it before trying to contact me; apparently, cotyledon is some kind of botanical term).  I do send out my blog via email so, if you would like to be added to that list, just give me your address and I’d be happy to do so, otherwise all my writings going back to 2014 are still available at key2highway.blogspot.  I do recommend the direct email to let you know when I will be on, especially now that I will occasionally waiver from the second and fourth week of each month format.  Thank you all for your continued support.  Feel free to call me during the show; it gets lonely in the dungeon.

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Jordan for President
Barnacle Bill the Sailor
Jake What a Snake
You Run Your Mouth and I’ll Run My Business
But I’ll Be Back
I’m Alabama Bound
   Louis Jordan   16mins

How Much More Long

Treat Me Wrong
Slidin’ Home
Catfish Blues
Kiddeo
Reelin’ and Rockin’
Dream
Dust My Broom
   John Littlejohn   30mins

What’s the Use of Getting Sober

         (When You Gonna Get Drunk Again)
Ration Blues
G.I. Jive
Mop!  Mop!
Caldonia
Buzz Me
Don’t Worry ‘Bout That Mule
Choo Choo Ch’Boogie
   Louis Jordan   22mins

I’ve Got a Feelin’

Rain Down Rain
Gabbin’ Blues
One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show
Way Back Home
Please Stay Away From My Sam
Don’t Leave Poor Me
   Big Maybelle   19mins

Ain’t That Just Like a woman

         (They’ll Do It Every Time)
Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens
Texas and Pacific
Jack, You’re Dead
Boogie Woogie Blue Plate
Run Joe
Beans and Corn Bread
Saturday Night Fish Fry
Blue Light Boogie
   Louis Jordan   31mins

Lucy Mae Blues

Don’t Take It Out on Me
Married Woman
Jelly Roll Baker
Hawk Shuffle
Raggedy and Dirty
Yeh, Baby
Long Gone
Cryin’ Won’t Help You
Frankie Lee’s 2 O’clock Jump
   Frankie Lee Sims   27mins

Stone Cold Dead in the Marketplace

Ain’t Nobody’s Business
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
   Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald   8mins

Key to the Highway   KSCU 103.3FM 

2019-10-13    7PM to midnight   

Otis Rush

Gene Ammons

Albert Ammons

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Another show extended to five hours!  I must confess to the fact that I am not as satisfied with the playlist as I usually feel.  Part of that would be because it was hard to find diversity in the piano work of Albert Ammons, especially when one of only two sources is a compilation set with the title Boogie Woogie.  Nobody loves a rollicking Boogie more than me, and each track here is noticeably different, but even I can hear a monotony when there is no change in tempo, as occurs after our first grouping, so, in order to alleviate that somewhat, I broke the second half hour into two fifteen minute sets, the first with Ammons solo and the next together with Pete Johnson.

There are probably more father / son musicians where both had long and substantial careers, but the only pair that comes to my mind is the Ammons family.  I believe there was only one session that they recorded together, in 1946 just three and a half years before Albert’s passing as they both backed singer Sippie Wallace.  Gene’s style of Jazz saxophone, at least in this period in his career, is not the rowdy Bop style I prefer but, instead, a much more mellow, perhaps a better word would be subtle, display of his artistic talents with a warm tone difficult to find elsewhere.

All we need now is a dominant Blues guitarist, and Otis Rush certainly fits that requirement without disappointment, so sit back, read the profiles, and make your own opinions.

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But, before you get too comfortable, I thought I’d mention a couple of upcoming shows I have in mind.  My friend Johnnie Cozmik, who alternated with me for about fifteen years on my Wednesday afternoon KKUP show, will be releasing a new CD in time for the Christmas rush and, as he has for as far back as I can remember, he is giving me the privilege of being the first to air the new disc.

Johnnie has just gotten back from touring the southernmost tip of South America and will soon be off to Russia, but we will find time to get together next month, likely November 10^th, and he will debut a live Argentinian version of his J.C. Smith Band.  Now, I’m not a very good interviewer but Johnnie is such a great crowd pleaser whether it be in front of a live audience or a radio microphone that I’m sure it will be a fun time unless, of course, Johnnie tells too many of his jokes.

And something I had in mind from my earliest radio days was to have live bands in the studio but, without a good sound man, it just never came off right so I gave up on the idea.  I discussed this with Gil de Leon when I relieved him last week and he is willing to man the mixing board when the Canadian harmonica master Harpdog Brown has an off day in his tour on December 8^th.  Most impressive is that Dog won’t be promoting a show in the area because he skips from Sacramento right to Santa Barbara this time, he just loves to turn people on to good music, something I can relate to.  More on the Dog as the day draws nearer.

And Monday is Thanksgiving Day in Canada so best wishes to my cousin and his family in Vancouver, who was there a few years back when we met Mr. Brown.  Thanksgiving in October, and on a Monday?  How weird are those Cannucks?  Oh yeah, I’m still one!  Happy Thanksgiving to my brother and niece, and you too, Dog!

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Born April 29^th 1934 in Philadelphia Mississippi and migrating to Chicago in 1949, the left handed Otis Rush, along with Magic Sam and Buddy Guy, was credited with establishing the West Side guitar sound, but his career did not run a parallel course.  Although he had a #6 hit on the Billboard R&B chart with his first release, the Willie Dixon penned and produced I Can’t Quit You Baby, his career stalled soon thereafter despite his continued popularity on the Chicago club scene.  The tune, also the first release for Eli Toscano’s Cobra Records, was recorded in 1956 while Dixon was between stints as A&R man for Chess Records, and Otis had seven more well received releases in his two years at Cobra, including All Your Love (I Miss Loving), which was apparently written in the car as he was approaching the Cobra studio, Double Trouble, My Love Will Never Die and my particular favorite, Keep on Loving Me Baby.  But when Cobra went bankrupt in 1959, Chess Records signed him up in 1960 but only gave him the opportunity to record eight tracks and released two singles; those four sides and two more were released in 1969 on Door to Door, an album shared with the similarly small number of recordings Chess made of another southpaw, Albert King.  Otis went into the Duke Records studio in 1962, but only the single Homework was released.

Rush had five tracks from 1965 included on the second volume of Vanguard’s excellent trilogy Chicago / The Blues / Today!, and then it was not until 1969 that Atlantic’s subsidiary Cotillion recorded his Mourning in the Morning album produced by Michael Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites, both at that time with the Electric Flag.  Things appeared to be on a brisker pace when he recorded Right Place, Wrong Time for Capitol in 1971 but the company declined to release the album.  Rush was finally able to buy the master and rights, releasing it in 1976 on P-Vine Records but only in Japan before Bullfrog Records put it out in the states. 

As Bill Dahl made note for the All Music Guide, “Nevertheless, his esteemed status as a prime Chicago innovator was eternally assured by the ringing, vibrato-enhanced guitar work that remained his stock in trade and a tortured, super-intense vocal delivery that could force the hairs on the back of your neck upwards in silent salute. If talent alone were the formula for widespread success, Rush would certainly have been Chicago's leading Blues artist.  But fate, luck, and the guitarist's own idiosyncrasies conspired to hold him back on several occasions when opportunity was virtually begging to be accepted.”

Otis’ parents, O.C. Rush and Julia Boyd, were farmers with seven children.  He taught himself guitar at the age of eight and occasionally sang in local church choirs.  Once he moved to Chicago he worked outside music until his gigs became more than occasional. 

In a 1993 interview with Jas Obrecht for Guitar Player Magazine, Otis was asked if anybody in particular inspired him.  “Yes.  That was Muddy Waters.  He didn’t do anything.  He just sit there and play.  My sister took me to listen to him at the Zanzibar, on the West Side here in Chicago.  Okay.  I’d just arrived and I didn’t know nothin’ about guitar.  I just had one at home.  So I’d come here to visit my sister and then go back to Philadelphia, Mississippi – that’s my home.  I came here and said, ‘Whoa.  This is for me!’  I heard Muddy, and I said, ‘Give me a guitar!’  So I went home and started practicin’.”

Going by the name Little Otis, his first gigs were as a solo act at the Club Alibi in 1953.  He formed his own group around 1955 and played Chicago’s South and West Side scenes, again including the Club Alibi along with the Jazzville Club and the 708 Club leading up to his Cobra dates.  They allowed him to tour one-nighters in Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida.  He also was a frequent performer on the Big Bill Hill show on Oak Park, Illinois’ WOPA radio and an in-demand session sideman through the end of the decade.  In the early 60s he toured with Jimmy Reed’s band on one-nighters through the south and played with T-Bone Walker when he played Chicago’s Regal Theater around 1962, then with Little Richard at the City Opera House circa 1963. 

Since the mid-60s Otis’ gigs expanded beyond the Chicago city limits including Europe, most notably a tour with the American Folk Blues Festival in 1966.  He played the 1969 University of Wisconsin Blues Festival in Madison and the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969 and 1970 and again in 1972 and 1973, with some of the 1972 show put out on Atlantic Records.  Rush appeared at New York’s Apollo Theater around 1970 and the Notre Dame Blues Festival in South Bend, Indiana 1970 and 1971.  He toured Iowa, played San Francisco’s Fillmore West and recorded the long unreleased album at the city’s Capitol studio, all in 1971.  Additional noteworthy appearances included Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Philadelphia Folk Festival held in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, in 1972.

1974 found Otis touring Europe as part of Jimmy Dawkins’ band, parts released on the Black and Blue’s Screamin’ and Cryin’, and under his own name in Japan 1974 into 1975, again portions coming out on the Trio label. Back in the states, he had an active 1975, appearing at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and the Midwest Blues Festival at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend and recording Cold Day in Hell for Delmark with the1976 follow-up So Many Roads.  In 1977 Rush was back in the Bay Area while touring the coast, playing at San Francisco’s Coffee House and taking part in Tom Mazzolini’s Blues by the Bay radio show on KPFA in Berkeley.  He was in Europe again that year with a stop at France’s Nancy Jazz Festival; portions of a Swedish show can be found on Sonet’s Troubles, Troubles.  Rush received a pair of Downbeat Magazine’s International Critics Awards as an artist deserving wider attention, in 1975 in the Rock / Pop / Blues group category and 1978 for Soul / R&B artist, but by decade’s end he ceased performing and recording. 

He made his return with a set at the San Francisco Blues Festival and its related 1985 live album Tops and the ensuing tour but Otis’ woes, often self-inflicted, were not over.  After Rooster Records had spent a lot of money to set up a session in 1986, which also featured Louis Myers, Lucky Peterson and Casey Jones, Rush complained that his amp was not sounding right and walked out, causing the label to dump the project.  In 1991 Alligator acquired the American rights to Sonet’s Troubles, Troubles and overdubbed Lucky Peterson’s keyboards, cutting out much of Otis’ work on the set released as Lost in the Blues.

Around the same time P-Vine brought out Blues Interaction – Live in Japan 1986 for its Japanese audience and the European Evidence Music released Live in Europe, but I believe that one also reached the American market.  All these live albums had kept Otis’ name somewhat familiar, with most of them solid presentations but with a sameness of sound.

But in 1994 he was back in the studio after a sixteen year layoff to record cover tunes except for the title track, Ain’t Enough Comin’In,  With tight backing by the band, the Mercury album was a winner in critic’s ears.  Four years later, the House of Blues label released Any Place I’m Going which garnished Rush his first Grammy as the Best Traditional Blues Album of 1998 and gave the new label credibility.  Otis’ performing continued until 2003 when he suffered a debilitating stroke. 

In the dozen years since Rush had to quit performing, five live performances have been released.  I do not have Delmark’s All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise Fools Pub Chicago, Blue Express Records released Live … and in Concert from San Francisco from a 1996 show with DVD video released as Live Part 1, P-Vine’s Chicago Blues Festival 2001, or Rockbeat Records’ Double Trouble LIVE Cambridge 1973, but I can strongly recommend the Eagle Rock Entertainment CD Live at Montreux 1986 where Rush and his band do five strong numbers before calling up Eric Clapton for another pair and Luther Allison joining them all for the closing number.

.  Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made June 12^th Otis Rush Day as Otis made an appearance at the 2016 Chicago Blues Festival in Grant Park, unable to play but happy to be honored in his hometown with his family surrounding him.  Complications from the stroke took his life on September 29^th 2018 at the age of 83.

Rush had reached the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984 and Rolling Stone Magazine rated him #53 among their 100 Greatest Guitarists.  A few months prior to his passing, on April 20^th 2018, the Jazz Foundation of America bestowed upon Otis a Lifetime Achievement Award “for a lifetime of genius and leaving an indelible mark in the world of Blues and the universal language of music”.

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Albert Ammons was in the forefront of the Boogie Woogie piano craze that took hold of the nation from the late 20s into the 40s and has been a staple to just about every Blues or Jazz pianist since.  He was born March 1^st 1907 to parents who both played the piano, learning to play the instrument by the time he was ten years old.  The fact that his father was also interested in the style made sure it was ever-present in the family home where Albert’s friend Meade Lux Lewis would come over to join him in practice.  Albert learned his chords by watching the keyboard on their player piano.  By the time he was twelve he was playing the Blues under the influences of Jimmy Blythe, the brothers Alonzo and Jimmy Yancey, Hersal Thomas, and Clarence “Pinetop” Smith.  Smith would become a direct influence when he lived in the same house as Ammons and Lewis. 

Albert was a percussionist in his teens with a drum and bugle corps and soon after was playing with Chicago’s club bands.  He worked in the early 20s as a driver for Chicago’s Silver Taxicab Company, renewing his friendship with Lewis who was also a cabbie, and the two worked out together on the upright piano in the cab yard, finding after hours gigs, sometimes individually and sometimes as a piano duo.  Albert had his own group, the Rhythm Kings, and by 1934 they were working at the Club De Lisa, a gig that lasted two years.  They recorded Swanee River Boogie, which sold over a million platters for Decca Records in 1936, as well as Boogie Woogie Stomp, described as “the first twelve bar piano based Boogie Woogie”.

Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis were a tandem at John Hammond’s grandiose Spirituals to Swing concert held at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1938.  Among about a dozen stellar acts selected for the show was Blues shouter Big Joe Turner, backed only by his piano playing partner Pete Johnson.  Both acts hit it off with the crowd as well as each other.  Joe and Pete opted not to return immediately to Kansas City but took up residency at the Café Society with Ammons and Lewis as the Boogie Woogie Trio with Turner as their front man.  Although Clarence Smith had a hit in 1929 with an instrumental he titled Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie, giving the style a name, these three served as a major impetus in propelling Boogie Woogie as a style incorporated into most of the big bands nationwide, and Benny Goodman is known to have jammed with Ammons.

After laying down some more tracks for the Vocalion label in 1938, Ammons again joined with Lewis on January 9^th 1939, two weeks after the Carnegie concert, becoming the first session for a twenty-nine year old recent refugee from Berlin, Albert Lion, whose new Blue Note label went on to become probably the most respected Jazz label for decades to come.  From the session’s nineteen usable masters, twelve cuts were released on 78s, then later on The First Day CD was released, with only two numbers featuring them together while Ammons put down nine solo tunes and Lewis seven (actually eight but one was kept off the CD).  Lewis did five tracks at the session he titled the Blues part one, part two, et cetera, the first four released on two 12-inch discs packaged together in a cardboard cover with artwork and some brief liner notes, making it the first Jazz album of a single artist.  Less than a month later, on February 1^st, Albert was pounding the keys in another band called the Boogie Woogie Trio, this time with trumpeter Harry James, recording Woo Woo for Brunswick.  On April 7^th, he was again in the Blue Note studio with drummer Sid Catlett, bassist Johnny Williams, guitarist Teddy Bunn and at times one or both of the horn men Frankie Newton on trumpet and/or trombonist J.C. Higginbotham, collectively identified as the Port of Harlem Jazzmen.

Ammons cut several sides with Pete Johnson in 1941 for Victor before being sidelined for a while after severing a fingertip in a sandwich preparation injury.  Albert provided a Boogie Woogie backing to the 1941 animated film short Boogie Doodle by Norman McLaren and an Ammons and Lewis duet appeared in the movie Boogie Woogie Dream which starred Lena Horne.  Ammons was in the Commodore studio in 1944 with a band featuring trumpeter Hot Lips Page and tenor sax man Don Byas. 

He returned to Chicago in 1945 where he held steady gigs at the Bee Hive and the Tailspin clubs and occasionally backed singer Sippie Wallace for Mercury recordings, including an April 8^th 1946 session which had his son Gene on saxophone.  He also teamed up in the studio with guitarists Lonnie Johnson or Ike Perkins.  His final sessions were with Lionel Hampton for Decca and he made a special appearance at the White House to perform at Harry Truman’s second inauguration.  Poor health ended his performing days, but just four days before his passing of natural causes he was able to play one tune while at Jimmy Yancey’s home as he was recovering from a temporary paralysis.  Albert Ammons died on December 2^nd 1949 at the age of 42.

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Albert Ammons’ son had a career that lasted through parts of four decades with hits in all of them.  Tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons was born in Chicago on April 14^th 1925.  He attended DuSable High School and was under the tutelage of Musical Director “Captain” Walter Dyett, who had also mentored Nat “King” Cole.  The playing of Lester Young inspired him to take up the saxophone and the other major influence on his early playing was Coleman Hawkins.

In 1942, at the age of seventeen, Ammons took to the road with trumpeter King Kolax’ band, then signed on with vocalist / trumpeter / bandleader Billie Eckstine in 1944.  In the three years he was with the band, Gene was the primarily soloist in an ensemble that, at varying times, included fellow tenors Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Sonny Stitt and Lucky Thompson; he participated in a tenor duel with Gordon on Blowin’ the Blues Away.  When Eckstine ordered straw hats for the band to wear, none would fit the shape of Ammons’ head so Billy named him Jug; he also acquired the moniker The Boss. 

After Eckstine dissolved the group in 1947, Gene assembled one of his own with Stitt and Miles Davis and came up with his first hit, Red Top, which was his wife Mildred’s nickname.  In May of 1949, Ammons replaced Stan Getz in Woody Herman’s band known as the Second Herd.  In 1950 he was involved in multiple tenor battles with Stitt and, in addition to Stitt, his bands in the 50s would include such stellar performers as Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Art Farmer and Duke Jordan.  In the mid-50s his sound was dubbed Soul Jazz.

His bands’ record label history included Mercury between 1947 and 1948, then Aristocrat from 1948 to 1950.  When Aristocrat changed its name to Chess Records in 1950, the new label released two singles simultaneously: Gene Ammons’ My Foolish Heart and Muddy Waters’ Rolling Stone.  Ammons’ disc made Billboard Magazine’s Black Pop Chart.  He did his first sessions for Prestige between 1950 and 1952, recorded for Decca in 1952 and for United in 1952 and 1953.  During the rest of his career he was back with Prestige.

Gene’s career took a major detour when, in 1958, he was convicted on a narcotics charge and was not released until 1960, then again in 1962 where I have read a speculation that he might have been framed but, regardless, he did not get out of Joliet prison until 1969 on this second conviction. Prestige had built up a backlog of material for release and, once back in the studio, he came out with the acclaimed The Boss is Back and had sessions with sax men Dexter Gordon and Cannonball Adderly.  But he wasn’t out of the woods with the law as he was slapped with a parole violation for playing in a club and jailed for 5 months.  Not unlike his father, Gene Ammons died relatively young on August 6^th 1974 from bone cancer at the age of 49..

In Dan Morgenstern’s essay on Ammons in Living with Jazz: A Reader, the author opines, “Gene Ammons was a big, gentle bear of a man who played the tenor sax with a sound and feeling synonymous with soul.” … “The life of this man, who made so many people happy with his music, was scarred with injustice and misfortune.  Yet he and his music remained whole to the very end.”     enjoy

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95053

KSCU radio’s studio is located in the basement of Benson Hall

KSCU’s Sunday morning Blues rotation has the Jakester, Mister G, Dave the Blues Dude and the Bluesevangelist between 9AM and 1PM.  Sherri Jones does her Blues show between 10:30AM and 12:30PM on Saturdays.  And, of course, me!

The best way to reach me is by email at coyledon@yahoo.com (my computer’s autocorrect adds a letter t, so if that shows up here please remove it before trying to contact me; apparently, cotyledon is some kind of botanical term).  I do send out my blog via email so, if you would like to be added to that list, just give me your address and I’d be happy to do so, otherwise all my writings going back to 2014 are still available at key2highway.blogspot.  I do recommend the direct email to let you know when I will be on, especially now that I will occasionally waiver from the second and fourth week of each month format.  Thank you all for your continued support.  Feel free to call me during the show; it gets lonely in the dungeon.

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Tore Up

Right Place, Wrong Time

Easy Go

Three Times a Fool

I Wonder Why

Your Turn to Cry

Lonely Man

Take a Look Behind

Natural Ball

   Otis Rush   36mins

Confirmation

Hittin’ the Jug

Tangerine

Canadian Sunset

Shuffle Twist

   Gene Ammons   29mins

Boogie Woogie Stomp

Chicago in Mind

Suitcase Blues

Boogie Woogie Blues

Untitled Ammons Original

Bass Goin’ Crazy

Changes in Boogie Woogie

Backwater Blues

   Albert Ammons

Twos and Fews

Nagasaki

   Albert Ammons & Meade Lux Lewis   41mins

Me

You’re Killing My Love

Gambler’s Blues

My Love Will Never Die

Feel So Bad

Reap What You Sew

It Takes Time

   Otis Rush   30mins

The Boogie Woogie

Mister Black Man

Shout for Joy

Mecca Flats Blues

Albert’s Special Boogie Woogie

   Albert Ammons   16mins

Lester Leaps In

Twistin’ the Jug

Up Tight

The Breeze and I

Moonglow

The Five O’clock Whistle

Moten Swing

   Gene Ammons   34mins

Cuttin’ the Boogie

Footpedal Boogie

Pine Creek

Movin’ the Boogie

Sixth Avenue Express

   Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson   12mins

Don’t Burn Down the Bridge

That Will Never Do

Somebody Have Mercy

It’s My Own Fault

Homework

Ain’t Enough Comin’ In

My Jug and I

Ain’t That Good News

   Otis Rush   35mins

Key to the Highway   KSCU 103.3FM 

2019-10-06    1-3PM

Various Postwar Blues and R&B

Various 60s Blues and Soul

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I have been asked to fill in this Sunday on the regular two hour Blues rotation and am happy to do it, particularly because it might serve to introduce my new Sunday evening show which is nominally scheduled from 7-10PM but will often be extended to almost midnight.  Because it is kinda short notice and I am working diligently on my blog for the next week’s evening show I have decided to re-air much of the playlist from last week’s show because it struck me as a good sampling of my musical taste.  I include the write-up and playlist of what I plan for this show, although I surely will run out of time for its completion.  If you didn’t get a chance to listen last week, and surely no one stayed for the full five hours, here’s another chance.

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I actually had an opportunity to meet Howlin’ Wolf face to face around 1970 when I was jamming at Guitar Player Magazine and they asked me to try interviewing one of my idols.  I was way too intimidated as a 21 year old kid to try much at all.  Not only was Wolf imposing in my mind but he also stood a full head taller than me, and I’m 5’11”.  However, his sax player, Eddie Shaw, was also one of my heroes primarily from his time with Magic Sam.  House Rockin’ Boogie was among Wolf’s earliest recordings, before he was committed to the Chess Records label and decades prior to Eddie’s taking over as Wolf’s bandleader.   Eddie was as friendly as Wolf was aloof.  More on Eddie when we open our third set with a Magic Sam tune.

Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald overlapped slightly in their time with drummer Chick Webb’s Swing Big Band.  Every now and then I receive a call stating that the subject matter is inappropriate, particularly regarding violence toward women, but here’s a number about a wife killing her husband!  You have to take into consideration the times; the most absurd, to me, was someone complaining about a reference to Japs when the song (I believe it was by Jordan) was released either during or shortly after WWII.  Come on.

I’ve always said I give the Blues a pretty wide berth with the example that Chuck Berry didn’t sing Dig this Rock ‘n’ Roll, it was Dig these Rhythm and Blues.  Rockin’ at the Philharmonic bears this out to perfection with assistance from Blues stalwarts Willie Dixon on bass and Lafayette Leake sitting down at the piano.

Big Joe Williams plays his original acoustic version of the oft-recorded Baby, Please Don’t Go.  I’ve always loved Them’s remake with Van Morrison.

If you’ve got to throw in a slow Blues, I Held My Baby Last Night is a good choice from Elmore James, the most influential bottleneck guitar stylist.

Mona is one of those signature ditties featuring the Bo Diddley beat.  I don’t often do shout outs but here I’d like to acknowledge my friend Wally Malone who played bass most of the times Bo was on the West Coast.

Jazz/Jump Blues saxophone man Jack McVea had a big hit with his novelty number Open the Door, Richard.

Not too many piano bandleaders on today’s show, but here’s Texan Amos Milburn’s original of a favorite Boogie tune from his long career, Down the Road a Piece.

I always thought the guitar playing Odetta was more of a Gospel singer a la Mahalia Jackson but, at least according to what I have come across, she seems more of a Folk singer and her tune Timber shows off her powerful voice.

While Wynonie Harris was with King Records the label owner Syd Nathan had him do this Country number, Bloodshot Eyes, written by another of his artists; just another way to capitalize on the royalties, but it did become normal to see such crossovers.

Harris got his recording start with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra and the band also gave Sister Rosetta Tharpe full backing as she was simultaneously establishing herself as an acoustic guitar playing Spiritual singer.  Her expansion into the secular field wasn’t taken all that well by her Gospel fans, but I can’t see how anyone couldn’t be impressed with her version of Up Above My Head.  It seems to tag all the bases.

My favorite story about the late 20s spiritual singer Blind Willie Johnson was when the blind man was arrested for unknowingly standing in front of a government office as he sang If I Had My Way, I’d Tear This Building Down, a regular part of his repertoire.  Here we hear his classic Lord, I Just Can’t Keep From Crying, later recorded by Al Kooper and Ten Years After.  Another Johnson tune, What is the Soul of a Man, was sent into space on a Voyager craft.

Big Band leader Tiny Bradshaw had the original of the Train Kapt a-Rolling but Rockabilly artists the Dorsett Brothers revamped the song into the version later performed by Jeff Beck with the Yardbirds and, even later, by Aerosmith.

The piano man Ray Charles was a major musical force as he traversed from Blues to Jazz, often being credited with the birth of Soul, and even added Country to his arsenal mid-career.  Here we have a live version of what must be considered a classic of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but Ray would probably still call it R&B.

Pianist Fats Waller was one of the small number of Black artists who recorded in the 20s to survive the Depression and carry on a long recording career.  It was not uncommon for him to put out a humorous ditty like You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My Business.

When Roy Brown was trying to get his career going, he offered a song he had written on a paper bag to the established Shout styled singer Wynonie Harris.  Never known to be a very pleasant person unless it was in his best interest, Harris scoffed at Brown and discarded the song.  Until Roy released it in his own name, then Harris promptly recorded it and his hit version undercut Brown’s.  Elvis Presley had one of his early hits with Good Rockin’ Tonight in the 50s.

A nice way to end a set is with Ruth Brown’s This Little Girls Gone Rockin’.  The success she had with the newly established Atlantic label caused it to be referred to as The House That Ruth Built.

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Maybe my all time favorite song, period, is by Magic Sam, one of my favorite artists, I Just Want a Little Bit comes from his Delmark album Black Magic which featured for the first time saxophonist Eddie Shaw.  Eddie was brought to Chicago by Muddy Waters but reached my ears through Sam.  When Sam died, Eddie moved on to Howlin’ Wolf’s band.  My friend Johnnie Cozmik befriended Eddie on one of his trips to Chicago and brought him out to the Bay Area a few times to play as a guest artist with his J.C. Smith Band and, of course, this provided several opportunities to get to know the man.  I am not big on gathering autographs but I am the proud possessor of Eddie Shaw’s signature on my well worn copy of the Black Magic album cover.

Not much I can say about Luther Allison that wasn’t in my definitive write-up this July 24^th except that 4:00 O’clock in the Morning is my favorite among Luther’s early material.

I don’t know a lot about Texas guitarist Bee Houston except that he recorded his only album, Busy Bee, shortly after his membership in Big Mama Thornton’s band.  It is a favorite of mine from a somewhat unknown player, particularly Be Proud to be a Black Man.

The only “celebrity” I ever gave a cab ride to in over 25 years was when the sound man at JJ’s called me directly to take Jr. Walker and a couple of his All Stars back to their hotel room.  I’m not big on most Motown music except for Walker’s and it is represented here by Shotgun.

A nice pairing of pianist Memphis Slim and Buddy Guy rocks it up with When Buddy Comes to Town.

How Hound Dog Taylor played around Chicago with only three singles to his name, released in 1954, before Bruce Iglauer actually created Alligator Records around 1970 in order to put him on the market is beyond my level of understanding.  The label’s very first album included She’s Gone, which shows his devotion to the Elmore James slide guitar style.  His stuff always sounded to me like he was playing through a torn speaker.

I was fortunate to get down to Monterey for the 1967 Pop Festival.  Among the acts we saw that Sunday evening were the Blues Project, Buffalo Springfield, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, the group we particularly went down there to see The Who and, of course, the American debut of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  If you wish to read all about the day from my perspective you can dig into my blog archives to June 18^th 2017; I think you’ll find it interesting and a little humorous.  But the one artist in retrospect that that I wish I had seen was the ultimate Soul man, Otis Redding.  I believe he died in a plane crash within a year afterward.  Here he sings the Sam Cooke tune Shake, but not the Monterey version because it is one of those live recordings where they edit the tune with the intro to the next song tagged onto the end.  Irritating!

Guitarist Buddy Guy is back, this time with his longtime though occasional harp playing partner Junior Wells on Messin’ with the Kid.  This is not Junior’s original version but one from the must have album, volume one of Vanguard’s Chicago! The Blues Today trilogy.

I was really unaware how long Wilson Pickett’s recording career went until I picked up a full 6CD set of his Atlantic Studio releases.  I kinda lost track as I became immersed in the Blues in the late 60s.  There were lots of excellent vocals to choose from and You Left the Water Running is about as good as it gets.

Perhaps my all time radio ego trip was when I misspoke and said that Earl Hooker was not related to John Lee Hooker.  Just about as soon as I got off the mike I got a call from Michael Osborne, at the time John Lee’s guitar player, to say that John just wanted me to know Earl was his cousin.  John Lee Hooker was listening to my show!  Actually, I knew they were cousins but my mind wasn’t working on all cylinders.  Earl was a versatile guitarist with Country songs mixed into his repertoire, but Boogie, Don’t Blot is unmitigated Blues.  Probably the reason Earl did not become better received was that he never felt comfortable with his singing and used a front man.  Still, he had maybe a dozen albums of his own in addition to his work as a very desirable sideman.

The pairing of Sam and Dave by Stax Records brought about some great Soul duets, not a common practice.  The two wound up with considerable animosity, but they continued long enough to put out a lot of hits.  I think they were my favorite Soul men (pardon the pun), and that’s saying a lot; I Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody was their best effort, in my opinion.   

One thing that kinda surprised me when I looked over this assemblage was the lack of songs written by Willie Dixon since I seemed to have grown up hearing so many of the numbers he penned for the great Chess masters, among others.  At a time when he was doing his A&R work for Cobra records between Chess stints, Willie wrote, produced and maybe even played bass on Otis Rush‘s I Can’t Quit You, Baby.  I always thought of it as the theme song for my bass guitar: I Can’t Quit You but I Got to Put You Down for a While until I finally did quit.

I bought Billy Boy Arnold‘s album which contained You Don’t Love Me No More on the same shopping excursion with a couple of friends to a record store in Mill Valley that I also brought home Hound Dog Taylor’s first; probably my best day’s shopping ever!  I figured it would be worthwhile because of the band behind him: a couple of guys from Magic Sam’s band and the bass player from the first Butterfield albums, Jerome Arnold, Billy Boy’s brother.

The only Blues fiddler on today’s show, Papa John Creach‘s String Jet Rock reminds us why we loved him back in his days with the Bay Area’s Hot Tuna.

Stax Record’s brand of Soul was the style that grabbed me and William Bell was part of that stable that also included Otis Redding and Sam & Dave, whom we have already heard.  His You Don’t Miss Your Water (‘til the Well Runs Dry) is another longtime favorite slow number.

Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam and Texas-born guitarist Freddie King have been my Blues triumvirate since the 60s.  Despite his excellent Blues vocals, it seemed Freddie’s instrumentals garnished the most attention.  With so many to choose from, Remington Ride has been my first choice since it entered my ears, due in part to the fact it was rarely reinterpreted.

Pianist Percy Mayfield was often referred to as the poet laureate of the Blues and a favorite example is his River’s Invitation.  Another of his best known songs is Please Send Me Someone to Love.

Chicago guitarist Jimmy Dawkins acquired the moniker “Fast Fingers” for obvious reasons.  His debut album on Delmark also had Eddie Shaw accompanying him, likely the reason I made the purchase, however it is the bite in his instrumental Gittar Rapp from a decade and a half later that made it my choice for today.

Again, not much can be said about Aretha Franklin that was not included in my August 14^th essay.  We didn’t play Save Me on that show and I find it a strong choice to close this set.     enjoy

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For listening to KSCU on a computer, you need to use iTunes or WinAmp for the media player.

To listen to KSCU on a smart phone use either the NextRadio or TuneIn apps.

The studio phone number is (408) 554-KSCU or, for the digitally inclined 554-5728 but, as always, make sure no one is speaking on the air before you dial.

The mailing address for sending CDs et cetera is:

KSCU Local Music

500 El Camino Real

Santa Clara, CA

95053

KSCU radio is located in the basement of Benson Hall

The best way to reach me is by email at coyledon@yahoo.com (my computer’s autocorrect adds a letter t, so if that shows up here please remove it before trying to contact me; apparently, cotyledon is some kind of botanical term).  I do send out my blog via email so, if you would like to be added to that list, just give me your address and I’d be happy to do so, otherwise all my writings going back to 2014 are still available at key2highway.blogspot.  I do recommend the direct email to let you know when I will be on, especially now that I will occasionally waiver from the second and fourth week of each month format.  Thank you all for your continued support.  Feel free to call me during the show; it gets lonely in the dungeon.

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House Rockin’ Boogie

   Howlin’ Wolf

Stone Cold Dead in the Market Place

   Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald

Rockin’ at the Philharmonic

   Chuck Berry

Baby, Please Don’t Go

   Big Joe Williams

I Held My Baby Last Night

   Elmore James

Mona

   Bo Diddley

Open the Door, Richard

   Jack McVea

Down the Road a Piece

   Amos Milburn

Timber

   Odetta

Bloodshot Eyes

   Wynonie Harris

Up Above My Head

   Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Lord, I Can’t Keep from Crying

   Blind Willie Johnson

Train Kept a-Rollin’

   Tiny Bradshaw

What’d I Say

   Ray Charles

You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My Business

   Fats Waller

Good Rockin’ Tonight

   Roy Brown

This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’

   Ruth Brown   50mins

I Just Want a Little Bit

   Magic Sam

4:00 in the Morning

   Luther Allison

Be Proud to Be a Black Man

   Bee Houston

Shotgun

   Jr. Walker and the All Stars

When Buddy Comes to Town

   Memphis Slim and Buddy Guy

She’s Gone

   Hound Dog Taylor

Shake

   Otis Redding

Messin’ with the Kid

   Junior Wells with Buddy Guy

You Left the Water Runnin’

   Wilson Pickett

Boogie, Don’t Blot

   Earl Hooker

Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody

   Sam and Dave

I Can’t Quit You, Baby

   Otis Rush

You Don’t Love Me

   Billy Boy Arnold

Jet String Rock

   Papa John Creach

You Don’t Miss Your Water

       (‘til Your Well Runs Dry)

   William Bell

Remington Ride

   Freddie King

The River’s Invitation

   Percy Mayfield

Gittar Rapp

   Jimmy Dawkins

Save Me

   Aretha Franklin   63mins