Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show spotlights many recordings by Johny Otis’ band as well as featuring many of the talented performers that passed through his band. Johnny Otis began his musical career in 1939 as a drummer with Count Otis Matthew’s West Oakland House Rockers. In 1943, at the recommendation of Nat “King” Cole and Jimmy Witherspoon, he moved to Los Angeles to join Harlan Leonard’s Kansas City Rockets at the Club Alabam. By 1945 he was leading his own band, and had his first big hit that year with “Harlem Nocturne”. In 1948 he joined with Bardu and Tila Ali, and Johnny Miller to open The Barrelhouse in Los Angeles, which was the first nightclub to feature Rhythm & Blues exclusively. In 1950 he had ten songs that made the Top 10 on Billboard Magazine’s Best Selling Retail Rhythm & Blues Records list. With this success, he went on the road with his California Rhythm & Blues Caravan, and became the hottest musical attraction in black America. In the early 1950′s, remaining active as a writer, performer, and producer, Johnny began a radio career and became one of the most popular disc jockeys in southern California. His early radio broadcast success led to a weekly variety show on television. “The Johnny Otis Show” was on TV in Los Angeles for eight years. Johnny Otis discovered many legendary Rhythm and Blues singers such as Esther Phillips, Willie Mae “Big Momma” Thornton, Etta James, and the Robins (who later evolved into the Coasters), all of who were at one time featured vocalists in his band. His band also sported geart guitarists in Pete “Guitar” Lewis and later Jimmy Nolen. He also discovered Sugar Pie DeSanto, Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, Jackie Wilson, and Little Willie John. He produced, and with his band played on the original recording of “Hound Dog” with “Big Momma” Thornton, produced and played on Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love”, produced some of Little Richard’s earliest recordings  and  played the drums on Charles Brown’s first major hit “Driftin’ Blues” in 1946. Below is some background on some of today’s featured artists.

The Robins were formed when Ty Terrell Leonard and the Richard brothers Billy and Roy met at Alameda High School in San Francisco in 1945, and formed the “A-Sharp Trio” (no recordings). The trio came to Hollywood a year later, and in 1949 they were joined by Bobby Nunn, who worked at Johnny Otis’ club “The Barrelhouse” in Watts. The group began recording in 1949 and through 1950 cut sides for Aladdin and Savy backed by Johnny Otis’ band.

In 1949 singer Mel Walker was discovered by Johnny Otis and joined his band, singing with Otis until around 1953. On many recordings he featured in duets with Little Esther (Phillips), and also recorded with The Robins. Cathy Cooper was another singer with Otis’ band who cut a few sides in 1947 with Otis’ band before Little Esther came on the scene.

In 1948 Little Esther Jones won an amateur contest in Los Angeles, singing Dinah Washington’s “Baby Get Lost” at a nightclub belonging to bluesman Johnny Otis. Otis recalls her debut at his club The Barrelhouse hosted by popular disc jockey Hunter Hancock: “As the talent show began, Hunter called me to the microphone. Johnny he said, All week long you’ve been raving to me about a new young girl singer you’ve discovered. Yeah, Hunter, I found her singing down on 103rd. Street at the Largo Theatre. I want you all to hear her tonight, here she is, Little Esther Jones. Esther sang the blues, the crowd went nuts, and that night, thirteen-year-old Little Esther began her historic, bittersweet career. …She instantly became the teenage favorite among Black music lovers. Everywhere we went, from coast to coast, thousands of adoring fans lined up to see and hear Little Esther.” Otis brought the 13-year-old into the studio for a recording session with Modern Records and added her to his live revue. Billed as “Little Esther,” and sounding mature beyond her years, she recorded “Double Crossing Blues” with Johnny Otis, selling 400,000 copies before her 14th birthday. The record hit number one on the charts making Little Esther the youngest female singer to have a #1 hit on the R&B charts. More successful singles followed including “Mistrustin’ Blues” (#1 R&B), “Misery,” “Cupid Boogie” (#1 R&B), and “Deceivin’ Blues” (#4 R&B). A traveling review called the Savoy Records Barrelhouse Caravan of Stars hit the road for a series of one nighters across the South in early 1950 drawing huge crowds. The show included The Johnny Otis band, The Robins, Little Esther, Mel Walker, and Redd Lyte. Proving the sudden star power of Little Esther, she came in number one in a poll of the national juke box operators for best jazz and blues performer for the year of 1950.

Pete “Guitar” Lewis joined the Johnny Otis band in 1948 and stayed until 1957. He was discovered by Johnny Otis in 1948 who signed him on the spot after he won a talent contest at his Barrelhouse Club at the Thursday Night Talent Hour. Lewis also cut a batch of fine solo sides for Federal and Peacock which also showcased his considerable singing and harmonica abilities. For Peacock he backed Johnny Ace (most notably “Pledging My Love”), Big Mama Thornton (most notably “Hound Dog”) plus others. Lewis stuck with Otis throughout the 50′s cutting some sides for Otis’ Dig label during this period. He was eventually replaced by Jimmy Nolen in 1957. Lewis went on to play with George “Harmonica” Smith with whom he recorded for Sotoplay. He died of alcohol related problems in the early 60′s.

We play several selection from Dig Records (originally called Ultra Records). Ultra Records was formed in 1955 by Frank Gallo, Eddie Mesner, Leo Mesner and Johnny Otis in Los Angeles California. In February 1956, the name of the label was changed to Dig Records. In 1957, Johnny Otis acquired sole ownership of the Dig Records Label. Dig Records officially issued 41 singles and 4 Long Play albums. These recordings have been issued on CD by the Ace label spread across five volumes.

We conclude the show with a trio of sides from The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey . Thi swas an R&B oldies show in 1970 that featured artists Otis had worked with back in the early days and they were still in fine form. The disc stars Otis, Esther Phillips, Eddie Vinson, Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Roy Milton, Roy Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, and Johnny’s guitar wielding son, Shuggie. This seems to be out of print but is well worth hunting down.

Show Notes:

We cut a wide swath today, tackling blues spanning from 1925 through 1980. The half-dozen tracks from 1980 come from the series Living Country Blues USA. In 1980 two young German blues enthusiasts, Axel Kuestner and Siegfried A. Christmann, came to America with the idea to document the remaining country blues tradition. With their station wagon and portable recording equipment they hit the road spending 2-1/2 months documenting blues, gospel, field hollers and work songs throughout the South. Hundreds of hours of tape was used and the resulting project came out as 14 LP’s on the German L&R label. In 1999 Evidence Records reissued some of these sides domestically as a 3-CD set. These recordings represent one of the last large scale field recording trips to canvas the south.There’s was still plenty of music to be found although it’s interesting to note that two of the great field researchers, Peter B. Lowry and George Mitchell, had both called it it quits in 1980 and after Kuestner and Christmann recordings made in the field has almost become a thing of the past. For many of the artists these were their first recordings and many never recorded again. The set also contains the debut of such artists as Cephas and Wiggins (Lowry recorded them but never issued the sides )and Lonnie Pitchford who went on to greater fame. Some like Hammie Nixon and Sam Chatmon had been pre-war recording stars. Others had learned directly from the blues masters such as Cedell Davis who played with Robert Nighthawk and Arzo Youngblood and Boogie Bill Webb who learned from the legendary Tommy Johnson. The series has finally been issued on CD although the CD’s don’t seem to be available in the US. I was able to get copies of the few CD’s I needed to complete the series and will being doing a whole show devoted to these recordings on November 9th.

Speaking of field recordings we spin some tracks recorded by John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. Among those are Kelly Pace & Convicts of Cummins Farm, Gould, Arkansas singing a wonderful version of  “Rock Island Line.” This was the same prison where Lomax recorded Leadbelly and supposedly Leadbelly picked up the song after hearing this group perform it. The song would become one of his most famous numbers although he didn’t record it until 1937. Willie Ford & Lucious Curtis deliver a terrific slide driven version of “Payday.” John and Ruby Lomax were in Natchez, MS when they made recordings by Lucious Curtis and Willie Ford in October 1940. The town was still in mourning for the victims of a terrible dance-hall fire that April in which over 200 hundred people had died, including most of the Walter Barnes Band. Lucious Curtis and Willie Ford cut fourteen sides that day. From the infamous Angola Penitentiary John Lomax recorded the accomplished Ernest Rogers on the tough “Oh Oh Low Down Dirty Dog” which unfortunately is his sole recording. Moving up to the 1970′s we play a wonderful track by the obscure Rabbit Muse. Muse played ukelele and kazoo and has two 1970′s LPs on the Outlet label which have yet to be released on CD. Our selection, “Jailhouse Blues”, comes from the excellent compilation Western Piedmont Blues. This collection comes from a series of albums issued by the Blue Ridge Institute of Ferrum College, Virginia. I believe there was something like eight volumes in this series (not all blues) which have been issued on CD through the Global Village label. The bulk of the recordings are from the 1970′s and early 1980′s.

We play a a couple of twin spins by guitarists Sylvester Weaver and Guitar Nubbit. Weaver cut over two dozen selections accompanying Sara Martin through 1927.  Sara Martin began her career as a vaudeville singer around 1915 in Illinois. In 1922 she was signed to a recording contract with Okeh Records. Martin was said to have excelled as a live performer and was a star on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920′s. While primarily a popular singer Martin could get low down on the blues and was billed as the “famous moanin’ mama” as well as “the colored Sophie Tucker” reflecting her dual roles as a blues and vaudeville performer. She toured the country until the early 1930′s and recorded with Okeh until 1928. In the early 1930′s Marin retired from show business. She died in 1955. The solo “Penitentiary Bound Blues” features one of Weaver’s best vocals.

Regarding Guitar Nubbit, it was Peter Lowry who brought the obscure bluesman to the attention of collectors. I asked him about this and he offered the following recollection: “Ah, Guitar Nubbit! The year was 1964 and I was a graduate student at Rutgers in Biology. While driving around New Brunswick, NJ, I happened upon a combination shoe shine parlor/record store – it was downstairs half a flight from the front of the four-story house, on the road-side. You essentially went under the porch from the side! I found 45s of often interesting stuff, and not always stuff that I heard on WNJR out of Newark.. They had Nubbit’s single on the Bluestown label (“GA Chain Gang”)… I ended up buying all that they had after hearing the first copy I purchased. Then, I sent a copy to Mike Leadbitter, editor of Blues Unlimited, for whom I was just beginning to write. They were a mystery. Someone traced the label to Chicago (!), and others tried to track down the publishing company. No luck. I don’t remember who finally got onto Skippy White, a Boston DJ, and found out that it was his label (there were a couple more Nubbit discs [Alvin Hankerson], and a couple of singles by Hibbard “Alabama” Watson). They were quite anachronistic for the day! Right up there with Atlantic recording McTell in 1949 – hardly great commercial potential, no matter how good was the music!” I’ve attached below a couple of articles I found on Nubbit.

In addition to the aforementioned Sara Martin, today’s program also spotlights a several excellent blues ladies including Victoria Spivey, Mae Glover, Big Mama Thornton, Olive Brown, Laurie Tate and Lucille Spann. “Dirty T.B. Blues” backed by a crack band is Spivey’s follow-up to her popular “T-B Blues” from 1927 and she also cut “TB’s Got Me” in 1936.  Mae Glover’s sassy, bouncy “I Ain’t Givin’ Nobody None” features the excellent guitar work and spoken accompaniment of John Byrd as Glover tells her man:

I’ll Wash you your clothes in the morning, cook jellyroll at night
When you come, home try to be so doggone nice

She cut two-dozen sides but only one short session with Byrd, a shame as those are her best sides. Moving on up we spin a pair by Big Mama Thornton; “Rockabye” finds Big Mama backed by Johnny Otis’ band with Johnny himself on vibes and some vicious fret work from Pete “Guitar” Lewis while 1967′s “Don’t Do Me This Way” finds her in more soulful vein. I know nothing about big voiced Olive Brown outside the fact that she cut a handful of sides in the the late 1940′s, 50′s and 60′s. “Roll Like A Big Wheel” is a tough rocker sporting a ripping tenor player that comes from the fine LP Don’t Freeze On Me: Independent Womens Blues on the Rosetta Label. Lucille Spann was a fine gospel-inflected singer, although she occasionally indulges in histrionics, who spent most of her in the giant shadow cast by her husband Otis, “Cry Before I Go” is the title track off her very good, and only, album cut for Bluesway in the early 1970′s. Like most of the Bluesway catalog this one remains out of print.

Also worth mention are cuts by two obscure pre-war blues artists, Oliver Cobb and Ollie Shepard. Cobb was a St. Louis trumpet player and singer who patterned himself after Louis Armstrong. He cut one 78 in 1929 for Brunswick and one 78 in 1930 for Paramount. Henry Townsend remembered him many years later: “Oliver Cobb worked around St. Louis quite a bit-he was a pretty famous guy around here. …Oliver Cobb was more jazz than blues. He could play blues, but seemingly his desire was to be in the jazz field. But even at the time he got more call for blues styles. That’s why he got a chance to go up on the session, because he kinf iof put himself into the category of playing the blues, and that’s what was in demand. …He was a great imitation of Louis Armstrong…the closest I’ve heard…” According to Townsend, Cobb drowned shortly after his June 1930 recording session with Paramount. “The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas” is a wonderful risque blues firmly in the Armstrong mold. Despite recording close to four-dozen sides between 1937 and 1941, little is known about singer/pianist Ollie Shepard.Shepard rarely rose above the ordinary by “Drunk Again”, backed by his Kentucky Boys and Lonnoe Johnson, finds him in good voice on this number which is one of best efforts.

Guitar Nubbit – Boston’s Own (Word Doc)

Guitar Nubbit – Re-Living The legend (Word Doc)

Guitar Nubbit – From Blues Unlimited 17 (Word Doc)