Show Notes: 

Today’s spotlights records put out by Decca between 1934 and 1938 in their 7000 series which was dedicated to “race records” as the labels designated their catalogs.  The following comes from Recording the Blues by Robert Dixon and John Godrich: “By the beginning of 1934 there were, besides the ailing and barely active Jeanette in Columbia concerns, only two companies competing for the race market: ARC and Victor. But that year there emerged a strong new competitor. In the middle of that year, English Decca financed an American company of the same name and put in charge Jack Kapp, who had run Brunswick- Balke-Collender’s race series. Even more important, Jack Kapp brought with him Mayo Williams, as race talent scout. They began recording in New York and Chicago in August and before the end of the year had issued two or three dozen items in their new race series, the Decca 7000s. Whereas the other two companies still maintain 75 cent labels, Victor and Brunswick respectively, in addition to the cheap Bluebird and Vocalion, Decca priced all their records at 35 cents; to cut overhead they began by making just one take of each title. Decca intended to grab as large a share as it could of the once more expanding record market.” Today is the first of two shows devoted to some great records from the series.

One of the most prolific artists to record for Decca’s 7000 series was Kokomo Arnold. Arnold made his first recordings in May 1930 for Victor in Memphis under the name of “Gitfiddle Jim.” Arnold moved to Chicago and made his first Decca session of September 10, 1934 until he finally called it quits after his session of May 12, 1938, Kokomo Arnold made 88 sides. Some of Kokomo Arnold’s songs proved highly influential on other musicians. His first issued coupling on Decca 7026 paired “Old Original Kokomo Blues” with “Milk Cow Blues.” Delta Blues legend Robert Johnson must’ve known this record, as he re-invented both sides of it into songs for his own use — “Old Original Kokomo Blues” became “Sweet Home Chicago,” and “Milk Cow Blues” became “Milkcow’s Calf Blues.” Arnold also did session work backing Peetie Wheatstraw, Roosevelt Sykes, Alice Moore, Mary Johnson and others. The bulk of his recordings were made in the 7000 series.

Peetie Wheatstraw recorded over 160 songs, usually accompanied by his own piano and provided accompaniment on records to numerous others. Between 1930 and his death in 1941 he remained immensely popular for buyers of race records and was a fixture on the vibrant St. Louis blues scene of the 30’s. He cut over fifty sides in the Decca 7000 series.

Guitarist Bill Gaither cut well over a hundred sides for Decca and OKeh between 1931 and 1941 with some forty sides in the Decca 7000 catalog. Gaither was close to the blues pianist Leroy Carr, and following Carr’s death in 1935, he recorded under the moniker Leroy’s Buddy for a time. A fine guitarist who possessed a warm, expressive voice, Gaither was also at times a gifted and inventive lyricist. He was often partnered with pianist Honey Hill. We also hear from Frank Busby, a sensitive singer who cut one 78 (“‘Leven Light City b/w Prisoner Bound”) in 1937 for Decca backed by Bill Gaither.

Sleepy John Estes waxed twenty sides in the Decca 700 series. Around 1915, the Estes family moved to Brownsville, Tennessee, which served as Sleepy John’s base residence periodically for the rest of his life. Brownsville was also home to “Hambone” Willie Newbern, an important early influence, as well as Yank Rachell and Hammie Nixon–musicians with whom Estes partnered at local venues and on professional recordings. Other Brownsville musicians who Estes worked with were pianist Lee Brown and guitarists Son Bonds and Charlie Pickett, all who recorded in the 30’s and all who backed Estes on record. Son Bonds played very much in the same rural Brownsville style that the Estes-Nixon team popularized in the ’20s and ’30s. Bonds cut a total of fifteen sides over five sessions in 1934, 1938 and 1941. Hammie Nixon backs Bonds on the two 1934 sessions while Estes backs Bonds on his last two sessions in 1938 and 1941.On his Decca and Champion sides Bonds was called Brownsville Son Bonds and Brother Son Bonds at his second Decca session which was religious.

We hear from several fine blues ladies who recorded for Decca including Mary Johns, Alice Moore, Trixie Smith and Georgia White among others. Mary Johnson of St. Louis (sometimes billed as “Signifying Mary”) made her debut in 1929, cut just shy of two dozen songs. After these recordings Mary Johnson abandoned the blues for religion. She recorded some religious sides that were issued posthumously. Paul Oliver interviewed her in 1960 for his book Conversation with the Blues.

Alice Moore, or Little Alice, as she was known, achieved a measure of success with her first record, “Black And Evil Blues” cut at her first session 1929 with three subsequent versions cut during the 1930’s. In all she cut thirty-six sides: Two sessions for Paramount in 1929 and nine sessions (the final one went unissued) for Decca between 1934 and 1937. She had the good fortune to record with the city’s best musicians including pianists Henry Brown, Peetie Wheatstraw, Jimmie Gordon, possibly Roosevelt Sykes as well as guitarists Lonnie Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and trombonist Ike Rodgers.

Trixie Smith was born in Atlanta and around 1915 moved north to New York to work in show business. At first, she worked in minstrel shows and on the TOBA vaudeville circuit. In 1922 Smith made her first recordings for the Black Swan label and later that year she won a blues singing contest in New York beating out Lucille Hegamin and others with her song “Trixie’s Blues.” In 1924 Smith made her debut for Paramount, cutting twenty sides for the label through 1926. Trixie recorded a fine session for Decca in 1938 that featured Sidney Bechet and an additional song in 1939.

As usual, we hear from several superb pianists including Lee Green, Henry Brown and the shadowy Jesse James. Lee Green worked as a clothes presser in Vicksburg while perfecting his piano technique. Soon he was traveling and earning a living by playing piano. Little Brother Montgomery knew him in Vicksburg and claimed to have taught him the “44 Blues” in Sondheimer, LA, back in 1922. Sykes first heard Green in 1925. Green taught Sykes how to really play the blues and is usually credited with teaching the “44 Blues” to Sykes. All three men recorded the number;  Sykes and  Montgomery chose to record their versions of “44 blues” at their debut sessions, Sykes cutting it first in June 1929 as “Forty- Four Blues”, Green as “number Forty-Four Blues” in August at his second session the same year and the following year by Montgomery as “Vicksburg Blues.”

Henry Brown worked clubs such as the Blue Flame Club, the 9-0-5 Club, Jim’s Place and Katy Red’s, from the twenties into the 30’s. He recorded for Brunswick with Ike Rogers and Mary Johnson in 1929, for Paramount in Richmond and Grafton in ‘29 and ‘30.

Jesse James was probably Cincinnati-based, as he accompanied titles by Walter Coleman on the same date as his own session, June 3, 1936. James was a rough, two-fisted barrelhouse pianist, with a hoarse, declamatory vocal delivery, equally suited to the anguished “Lonesome Day Blues”, a robust version of “Casey Jones” as “Southern Casey Jones”, “Highway 61” and the ribald “Sweet Patuni”, which was issued much later on a bootleg party single under the title “Ramrod.” There’s conflicting information regarding James; Karl Gert zur Heide collected information that James lived in Memphis in the postwar years and worked and even broadcast out of Little Rock, Arkansas while Pigmeat Jarrett claims he stayed in Cincinnati on Fourth Street, moving to Kentucky around 1955.