Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show is not nearly as narrowly focused as our usual shows but there’s certainly plenty of great music. In fact, after putting this one together I already have enough left over material for a couple of sequels. On tap today is a wide variety of live recordings from radio broadcasts, club dates and concerts spanning from 1939 to 1978.

I’ve culled recordings from a variety of sources including quit a number from radio broadcasts. The oldest track is by a youthful sounding Big Joe Turner with pal Pete Johnson on piano from a Café Society aircheck from 1939. This come from a fascinating collection on Document called Live Rare Live Cuts featuring airchecks from Café Society by Meade Lux Lewis, Billie Holiday, Albert Ammons and others. Café Society was a New York City nightclub opened in 1938 in Greenwich Village by Barney Josephson to showcase African American talent. Also from a radio broadcast is Blue Lu Barker’s “Georgia Grind” with a superb band featuring husband Danny Barker and Pops Foster among the accompanists, come from a radio broadcast. Barker didn’t have the greatest range but is a charming singer and does a fine job on this number which she recorded commercially for Decca in 1939. We open the show with recordings by Louis Jordan who was at the height of his popularity during World War II and recorded prolifically for the Armed Forces Radio Service and the V-Disc program. By 1942, the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) sent 16-inch, 33 rpm vinyl transcription discs to the troops, mostly radio shows with the commercials edited out. Moving up to the 1950’s we play a pair of recordings from the collection Johnny Otis Show: Vintage 1950’s Broadcasts from Los Angeles. This is a fascinating document based around air checks and live broadcasts from 1950s radio and television shows in which Otis was the radio DJ, host, and/or one of the performers.

Speaking of Johnny Otis we move up nearly twenty years to 1971 and spotlight a pair of cuts from the outstanding Johnny Otis Show Live At Monterey. The record features terrific performances by Roy Milton, Big Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Esther Phillips, Roy Brown, Pee Wee Crayon and Cleanhead Vinson. As good as Esther Phillips was at this show she was simply stunning on Burnin’ recorded live at Freddie Jett’s Pied Piper in Los Angeles recorded in 1969 and issued on Atlantic the following year. I’ve written about Esther before, have been playing her music for years and always felt she was a vastly underrated blues singer. Esther may have been versatile for her own good, tackling country, soul, - all supremely well- but she sang the blues with astonishing depth and if you know anything about her life you know she lived the blues. The chapter on Esther in Johnny Otis’ Upside Your Head! Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue is one of the saddest musical chronicles I’ve ever read. We also spotlight a few other tough woman blues singers like Sugar Pie DeSanto from the 1978 San Francisco Blues Festival, Bertha “Chippie” Hill from a 1946 radio broadcast and Etta James. The Etta cut comes from Etta Rocks The House, recorded live at Nashville’s New Era Club in 1963, and has to rank as one of the toughest, roughest club dates ever committed to record.

Going back some twenty years prior to the above mentioned Johnny Otis concert we feature some recordings from concerts organized by Gene Norman. Norman put together concerts called “Blues Jubilees” in Los Angeles in 1949, 1950 and 1955. Fortunately recordings exist of some of these concerts including performances by Dinah Washington, Helen Humes, Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon. I can’t help but hope other recordings exist and will one day see the light of day. Norman was certainly ahead of his time and it wasn’t until the blues revival of the 1960’s and into the 1970’s that the blues festival came into it’s own. The Newport Folk Festival was the prime showcase for rediscovered artists like Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Bukka White, Skip James and just about everyone else. Another festival spotlighted today is The Ann Arbor Blues Festival which began in 1969 and was expanded in 1972 to include jazz thus becaming the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival.

As mentioned the Newport Folk Festival played a huge role in bringing rediscovered to a wide audience but these artists also played a smaller circuit of coffeehouses, colleges and clubs. Another figure who emerged after a long absence was Scrapper Blackwell who was rediscovered living in Indianapolis, and was prevailed upon to resume playing and recording. Our two selections stem from a live concert at Indianapolis’ 1444 Gallery from September 20, 1959 available on Document’s Scrapper Blackwell 1959 - 1960. Sadly Blackwell was murdered during a robbery attempt in 1962 shortly after cutting the magnificent Mr. Scrapper’s Blues for Bluesville.

A few other recordings worth mention are a bit rough on the recording side but are invaluable documents including atmospheric performances by Little Johnnie Jones, Muddy Waters and Slim Harpo. Outside of Otis Span, Johnny Jones was one of the best post-war Chicago piano man and it’s a shame he recorded only a handful of sides under his own name. Thankfully Norman Dayron had the presence of mind to record Jones when he played at the Fickle Pickle in 1963 along with Billy Arnold. Live in Chicago with Billy Boy Arnold on Alligator is a msut have for piano fans and fans of Chicago Blues. The same can be said of Folk Festival of The Blues (also issued as Blues From Big Bill’s Copacabana) recorded on July 26, 1963 at a WPOA live radio broadcast emceed by local Chicago disc jockey Big Bill Hill emanating from the Copacabana Club. This features Buddy Guy’s band as the backup band for everybody, augmented by pianist Otis Spann on some amazingly raw and powerhouse blues. The Muddy Waters tracks in particular are simply stunning. Moving from the club to the street we feature tracks by Robert Nighthawk and Johnny Young recorded live on Chicago’s Maxwell Street. The recordings come from the amazing And This Is Maxwell Street a this three disc set features the street recordings from the 1964 Mike Shea film documentary, And This Is Free, plus a bevy of previously unreleased performances of equal landmark merit. The bulk of the performances feature Robert Nighthawk but also Johnny Young, Carey Bell, James Brewer, Big John Wrencher and others.