Big Road Blues

Show notes:

With the exception of two sides by Champion Jack Dupree, today's show really starts in the post-war era when the city's first blues and R&B singers started getting on record. The New Orleans pre-war blues scene was not well documented on record outside of early performers like Richard "Rabbit" Brown, Lizzie Miles and Blu Lu Barker. As Neil Slaven writes about the city's history: "New Orleans has always been a music city. Most would have it jazz was its most significant invention, formed around the dawn of the twentieth century and passed on to the rest of America and the world thereafter. Some, perhaps with a little less fervor, point to the city's long blues traditions and the explosion of rhythm and blues in the 1950's. In fact the two are inextricably bound together, branches of the same tree, sharing sharing a common ancestry that laid down some of its roots at the turn of the nineteenth century …Such was the impact of jazz over the next decades, that blues progressed unseen in the salons of a thriving bordello district for the entertainment, but not distraction, of whores and their clients. When they weren't dispensing refinement, pianists would gather at dives like Tudlom's Tonk, where rolling the horses, which was what boogie woogie called for its repetition and prancing tempos, was the coming thing. Most of the tonks, cribs and barrel houses were located in what was called the Battlefield, and over the years, that's where you'd find Drive 'Em Down (Willie Hall) who taught Jack Dupree, Joseph 'Red' Cayou, Tuts Washington, Fats Pichon, Udell Wilson and Joe Robichaux, known as Joe Daggers." It's that heritage behind today's featured piano players.

Even in the 1940's the scene was dominated by jazz and dixieland bands like Kid Thomas, Billie and De De Pierce, George Lewis and John Handy. During the 1940's and into the 1950s a distinctly New Orleans approach to blues and R&B emerged. Usually piano-driven and backed by inventive rhythms that showed the marked influence of second-line marching and brass bands, New Orleans blues and R&B developed a rolling, joyous feel that captured the rollicking feel of the city. As author John Broven writes: "The freewheeling, happy-go-lucky music is known as the New Orleans Sound, which has its roots in the original beat of the old parade bands of the nineteenth century. Whether it's rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, soul or modern jazz, the parade beat is the ubiquitous common factor, the foundation, if you like." And as record producer Marshall Sehorn said: 'This is the home of the second line, that extra syncopated beat that has been in existence ever since the first black man picked upa tambourine."

There's a distinct emphasis on the piano blues, particularly in the formative years of the New Orleans blues scene of the 40's. Three figures dominated, and set the tone for, New Orleans rhythm and blues in the 1940s: Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, and Dave Bartholomew. Fats Domino will play a larger role in our second New Orleans installment but we play two sets apiece by Longhair and Bartholomew. Other pianists heard today include Champion Jack Dupree and Paul Gayten plus a slew of talented singers, most famously Roy Brown, Cousin Joe and Larry Darnell plus a batch of fine little remembered figures from the Crescent City's past.

We open the show with two sides by Champion Jack Dupree from 1940 and 1941. Dupree grew up in New Orleans' Colored Waifs' Home for Boys (Louis Armstrong also spent his formative years there). Learning his trade from barrelhouse 88s ace Willie "Drive 'em Down" Hall, Dupree left the Crescent City in 1930 for Chicago and then Detroit. By 1935, he was boxing professionally in Indianapolis, battling in an estimated 107 bouts. In 1940, Dupree made his recording debut for Chicago A&R man Lester Melrose and OKeh Records. Dupree's 1940-1941 output for the Columbia subsidiary exhibited a strong New Orleans tinge despite the Chicago surroundings; his driving "Junker's Blues" was later cleaned up as Fats Domino's 1949 debut, "The Fat Man."

Born in the Crescent City, Roy Brown grew up all over the place: Eunice, LA (where he sang in church and worked in the sugarcane fields); Houston, TX; and finally Los Angeles by age 17. His seminal 1947 DeLuxe Records waxing of "Good Rockin' Tonight" was immediately ridden to the peak of the R&B charts by shouter Wynonie Harris and subsequently covered by Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more early rock icons. Roy Brown didn't have to wait long to dominate the R&B lists himself. He scored 15 hits from mid-1948 to late 1951 for DeLuxe.

Growing up in New Orleans, Cousin Joe began singing in church before crossing over to the blues. Guitar and ukulele were his first axes. He eventually prioritized the piano instead, playing Crescent City clubs and riverboats. He moved to New York in 1942, gaining entry into the city's thriving jazz scene (where he played with Dizzy Gillespie, Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and a host of other luminaries). He recorded for King, Gotham, Philo (in 1945), Savoy, and Decca along the way, doing well on the latter logo with "Box Car Shorty and Peter Blue" in 1947. After returning to New Orleans in 1948, he recorded for DeLuxe and cut a two-part "ABCs" for Imperial in 1954 as Smilin' Joe under Dave Bartholomew's supervision. But by then, his recording career had faded. For today's program we spin two tracks,"It's Dangerous To Be A Husband" and "Little Woman Blues",  from the only session from the period that was actually recorded in New Orleans.

Paul Gayten, a seminal figure in New Orleans rhythm & blues, led a varied career in the music business as a bandleader, producer, label owner, and one-time overseer of the West Coast operation of Chess Records. A nephew of blues-piano legend Little Brother Montgomery, Gayten once led one of the top bands of New Orleans, but he gave up the performing life in 1956 to turn his attention to production and eventually to his own California-based Pzazz label. Gayten wrote Larry Darnell's 1949 classic "For You My Love" and recorded a few Top Ten hits of his own for Regal and DeLuxe (1947-1950), some of them with vocalist Annie Laurie who shines on our selection, "Annie's Blues."

Joe "Mr. Google Eyes" August was born Joseph Augustus on September 13, 1931, and gained his formative musical experience as a member of the First Emmanuel Baptist Church choir, but found himself most deeply attracted to the blues. He eventually earned a steady gig at the local Downbeat Club, appearing opposite Roy Brown.Although Brown, Paul Gayten, and Annie Laurie were the first New Orleans R&B artists to enter the recording studio, Augustus was not far behind, making his debut for the black-owned Coleman Records with 1946's "Poppa Stoppa's Be-Bop Blues"; he was still just 15 years old at the time, and accordingly the label proclaimed him "Mr. Google Eyes — the world's youngest blues singer."His contract was then bought out by Columbia. The twenty track collection, The Very Best, is well worth tracking down.

Working in his hometown of New Orleans, Dave Bartholomew helped develop and define the sound of rhythm & blues in the late 40's and 50's. He was a bandleader, trumpet player, songwriter, producer, arranger, talent scout, businessman, and more. Although he never made the pop charts under his own name, Bartholomew was a key figure in the transition from jump blues and big-band swing to rhythm & blues and rock and roll. Bartholomew is most famous for having discovered and produced Fats Domino, with whom he produced and wrote songs for through the 50's and beyond. But he’s worked with a who’s-who of New Orleans R&B figures: Smiley Lewis, Lloyd Price, Shirley & Lee, Earl King, Roy Brown, Huey “”Piano”” Smith, Chris Kenner, Robert Parker, Frankie Ford, James Booker, Jewel King, James “”Sugar Boy”” Crawford, Tommy Ridgley and more. Bartholomew may be more well known for the famous artists he worked with but also prolifically under his own name between 1947and the early 60's, laying down and impressive body of work for a several different labels like DeLuxe, Imperial and King, almost all recorded in his hometown of New Orleans. His records featured the cream of New Orleans musicians like Earl Palmer, Ernest McClean, Edgar Blanchard, Lee Allen, Alvin “Red” Tyler, Frank Fields and others.

Professor Longhair grew up on the streets of New Orleans, tap dancing for tips on Bourbon Street with his running partners. Local 88s aces Sullivan Rock, Kid Stormy Weather, and Tuts Washington were early influences. Longhair began to take his playing seriously in 1948, earning a gig at the Caldonia Club. Longhair debuted on wax in 1949, laying down four tracks (including the first version of his signature "Mardi Gras in New Orleans," for the Dallas-based Star Talent label. Union problems forced those sides off the market, but Longhair's next date for Mercury the same year produced his first and only national R&B hit in 1950, the hilarious "Bald Head." The pianist made great records for Atlantic in 1949, Federal in 1951, Wasco in 1952, and Atlantic again in 1953 plus other scattered small label sides through the 50's.

Larry Darnell was born in Columbus, OH and achieved local fame as a gospel singer the age of 11.When he was 15 he left home to tour as a dancerwith a burlesque road show. When company funds were low, Darnell did not hesitate when offered a steady gig in New Orleans as a singer at the famous Dew Drop Inn. He stayed on for several years, and gradually developing a persona that began to attract quite a following. One night in 1949 Darnell's act was caught by Fred Mendelsohn, co-founder and A&R director for the Regal record label. Mendelsohn, later recalled: "Darnell was doing a song called 'I'll Get Along Somehow' originally popularized by Andy Kirk. He added a recitation that sent the dames screaming and hollering." Darnell was hired on the spot and whisked up to Newark where three titles were cut in early September 1949 and issued on 78-rpm records bearing the Regal label. Presented in two parts, "I'll Get Along Somehow" made it to number two on the Billboard R&B chart not long after "For You My Love" hit number one, staying up there for eight weeks.

Texas-born R&B singer Jewel King moved to New Orleans in the mid-forties. By 1948 she began to make a name for herself as she worked many local clubs like the Club Rocket, the Club Desire and the Dew Drop. In that year she had her first recording session, for DeLuxe Records, but these tracks ("Go Now" and "Passion Blues") were never issued. Her next visit to a recording studio (Cosimo's, the only studio in New Orleans) took place on November 29, 1949. This was the first session that Dave Bartholomew produced for Imperial. It was a split session with Tommy Ridgley, who recorded "Shrewsbury Blues" (Imperial 5054), his very first single. One song from the session, "3 x 7 = 21", was released in January 1950 and climbed to # 4 on the R&B charts. Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" also charted at this time and Imperial honcho Lew Chudd set up a national tour for the two acts, with King headlining. At the last minute, Jewel bailed out because her husband /bandleader (Jack Scott) refused to let her tour without his band. Bartholomew told her she was making a big mistake and left without her, with Tommy Ridgley as a replacement.

Dave Bartholomew

Chubby Newsome was originally from Detroit but found recognition in New Orleans where she was a regular performer in the late 1940s. She was discovered by Paul Gayten at the famous Dew Drop Inn. She was soon signed to the DeLuxe label where she recorded her signature tune "Hip Shakin' Mama", and also "He May Be Your Man" with Gayten's band. Newsome signed with Regal in 1949 cutting several serssions for the label in the early 50's.

The Mercury label cut some fine sessions in New Orleans between 19490 and 1953. The sessions began with William B. Allen, who owned a radio supply store at Orleans and North Robertson streets and also distributed Mercury records in New Orleans. In late 1949 Allen talked to Mercury’s main office about recording black artists in New Orleans. Among those recorded were Professor Longhair, Alma Monday, Little Joe Gaines, George Miller & His Mid-Driffs, Ray Johnson and Herbert ‘Woo Woo’ Moore among others.