Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

More piano-based and jazz-influenced than anything else, West Coast Blues is really California blues even if most of the main practitioners actually hailed from Texas. There was no pre-war blues activity in California but the the post-war blues era was booming. With the shipyards and aircraft factories desperate for labor during the war years, blacks flocked to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and small towns like Richmond, Fresno, Stockton and Modesto. The non-white population exploded from 80, 000 in 1930 to 462,000 by 1950. Numerous small independent labels popped up in the 40’s to cater to this new market including Aladdin, Swingtime, Modern, Speciality and many smaller outfits who specialized in R&B and blues and would take more chances than the more established labels.

In this week’s feature we spotlight the West Coast piano tradition which was kick started by the inimitable Charles Brown. As Tony Russell wrote: “In the late summer of 1945 Charles Brown recorded “Driftin’ Blues”, a moonlight sonata of rootlessness and uncertainty. It was perhaps the first blues hit of the postwar blues period, and it expanded the language of the blues as dramatically as Leroy Carr’s “How Long - How Long Blues” 17 years earlier.” Brown’s influence was profound, setting the stage for fellow pianists like Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Little Willie Littlefield, Roy Hawkins, Ivory Joe Hunter and Cecil Gant.

Amos Milburn signed with Aladdin in 1946 and had the first of19 Top Ten R&B smashes with 1948′ storming “Chicken Shack Boogie.” In addition to rocking boogies he he could croon in the best Charles Brown manner. In the same mold was Little Willie Littlefield who made his debut in 1948 racking up major R&B hits with “It’s Midnight” and “Farewell.” Floyd Dixon also debuted in 1948 earning many comparisons to his mentor Charles Brown although eventually developing a grittier, more soulful sound than Brown. Dixon hit locally with 1949’s “Dallas Blues.” Aladdin Records acquired Dixon’s contract with Modern in late 1950, immediately pairing him with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers for “Telephone Blues,” his first nationwide hit. Roy Hawkins too made his debut in 1948 although less well remembered than his contemporaries. Hawkins had two major R&B hits: 1950’s “Why Do Things Happen to Me” and “The Thrill Is Gone” the following year.

Due to time constraints we don’t have time to do proper justice to two other fine pianists, Ivory Joe Hunter and Cecil Gant. Gant’s 1944 debut ,”I Wonder,” topped the R&B charts and its flip “Cecil’s Boogie,” was a hit in its own right. Further hits followed and he stayed at the label until switching over to Bullet in 1948. Hunter started his own label, Ivory Records, to press up his “Blues at Sunrise” (with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers backing him), and it became a national hit when leased to Exclusive in 1945. He followed with hit sides for King where he cut his immortal “I Almost Lost My Mind” (another R&B chart-topper in 1950), Atlantic, Vee-Jay, Smash and Capitol.

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