Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show spotlights a decade in the vibrant, swinging  Los Angeles blues scene between 1942 and 1952. The West Coast had a thriving blues and jazz scene in the 1940’s and 50’s with most of the activity centering around the Los Angeles, Richmond, Oakland and San Francisco Bay areas. The Black population swelled in the 1940′s, due to large manpower needs to work in the U.S. defense industry during World War II. These new arrivals needed entertainment, of course, and the local jazz and blues club scene heated up quickly. From approximately 1920 to 1955, Central Avenue was the heart of the African-American community in Los Angeles. Like New York City’s 125th Street or Memphis’s Beale Street or Chicago’s South Side, Central Avenue was one of the world capitols of nightlife, of jazz, rhythm & blues, of black culture and society.

I’ve devoted several shows to the West Coast blues scene of this period but many of today’s artists I haven’t played before. The bulk of today’s recordings come from three excellent recent reissues: the 4-CD collection on JSP, Jump ‘n’ Jive: Rare West Coast R&B 1945-1954 which collects several obscure and rarely anthologized sides, Cake Walkin’ : The Modern Recordings 1947-1948 on the Ace label which collects terrific sides drummer Al Wichard and his swinging sextet and Blues Belles With Attitude!!, also on the Ace label, which gathers together some gritty blues ladies who recorded for the Modern label, many of the sides previously unreleased.

Jump ‘n’ Jive: Rare West Coast R&B 1945-1954 draws together sides from West Coast artists Charlie “Boogie Woogie” Davis, Dick Lewis, King Porter, Roy Milton, Lloyd Glenn, Calvin Boze, Jimmy Liggins, Gene Phillips and Poison Gardner. From the notes: “Several  musicians  -  Jake  Porter, Gene Phillips and Marshal  Royal  - are common to many of these cuts, but the collection’s jewels are recordings by Charlie ‘Boogie Woogie’ Davis, Richard ‘Dick’ Lewis and Leon ‘Poison’ Gardner. Little is known of them but collectors have long treasured their records. Few of these 78s were ever reissued on LP let alone on CD until now: of  the 101 tracks over half are by this trio of artists. With the eight titles by Lloyd  Glenn they represent the first batch of releases on Imperial  Records’ 5000 ‘race records’ series which began in 1947.”

Virtually nothing is known about vocalist/pianist Charlie “Boogie Woogie” Davis who cut two dozen sides in L.A. at three sessions in 1947. Davis is a fine big voiced singer who could pound the 88′s and was blessed with a  swinging combo featuring the outstanding trumpeter Jake Porter. Porter moved to L.A. in 1949 where he performed in the clubs with Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, Flether Henderson and others. He was an in-demand session artist working with Saunders King, Lloyd Glenn, Gene Phillips and others. He also cut a handful of sides under his own name in 1948 and 1949. Richar “Dick” Lewis  cut some two-dozen sides for Imperial and Aladdin between 1947 and 1954. From the notes:  ”Once again biographical information is  sparse with only brief mentions in Billboard and the  knowledge of other sessions he worked on.” Pianist Poison Gardner is another shadowy figure who seems to have been a major attraction in L.A. He cut two-dozen sides for Imperial between 1945 and 1947.

The Wichard tracks come from the terrific recent reissue on Ace, Cake Walkin’: The Modern Recordings 1947-1948. Al Wichard was born in Welbourne, Arkansas, on August 15th, 1919 but the steps by which he arrived in Los Angeles as a drummer in 1944 remain shadowy. He managed to record with Jimmy Witherspoon and Jay McShann within weeks of his arrival, and in April 1945 was the drummer on Modern’s first session, accompanying Hadda Brooks. This CD consists entirely of sessions made under his own name. Thirteen tracks have vocals by Jimmy Witherspoon while others feature vocalist Duke Henderson and guitarist Pee Wee Crayton. All these sides were cut between 1945 and 1949. Witherspoon is in magnificent form throughout, including our selections,  “Geneva Blues”,  “Good Lover Blues” and “T.B. Blues.” Henderson wasn’t quite in Spoon’s league, few were, but he turns in the high octane “His Majesty’s Boogie” and the superb low-down performance on  “Gravels In My Pillow” as he boasts:

They call me the devil’s stepchild, they say I’m just no good (2x)
They say I’m rotten from the start, wouldn’t be no other way if I could

We also spin a pair of Wichard’s instrumentals including the gentle swing of “Junction Drive” featuring superb piano from McShann and an impressive, but unknown guitar player, and the blistering “Boogie Woogie Basement” featuring some incredibly wild guitar by Pee Wee Crayton with Wichard pounding away mightily in the background. If anything, the other Crayton spotlight, “Boogie Woogie Basement”,  is even wilder and one I promise to play on an upcoming show.

All the sides on the Ace CD Blues Belles With Attitude!! were cut for the Modern label. 18 of these sides are previously unissued and a further eight that have not seen prior CD release. This is a terrific collection spotlighting fine, obscure singers like Edna Broughton who we hear on Percy Mayfield’s “Two Years Of Torture” featuring a superb T-Bone Walker inspired guitarist, Effie Smith’s jumping “It’s Great To Be Rich” sporting another smoking, uncredited guitar player, and the tough Pearl Traylor on “Play Boy Blues” with great trumpet from Howard McGhee. We also spin Del Graham with Johnny Ingram’s band on ” Mr T 99″ an answer song to the Jimmy Nelson hit. There were a number of these kind of answer songs including Donna Hightower’s “I Ain’t In The Mood” in answer to John Lee Hooker and Cordella De Milo’s “Ain’t Gonna Hush” in answer to Big Joe Turner. All these singers were criminally under recorded, making these previously unissued sides all the more valuable.

We feature two tracks spotlighting guitarist Chuck Norris. Norris worked in Chicago until the mid-’40s, when he moved out to the West Coast. He soon became one of the in-demand musicians in Hollywood backing artists such as Ray Agee, Charles Brown, Floyd Dixon, Roy Hawkins, Duke Henderson, Helen Humes, Etta James, Pete Johnson, Litle Willie Littlefield, Percy Mayfield, Johnny Otis, Johnny Watson, Jimmy Witherspoon and many others. From time to time he did sessions on his own for labels like Atlantic, Mercury, Imperial, Aladdin and others between 1947 and 1953. Today’s tracks find him backing Big Jim Wynn on “West Coast Lover” and Pete Johnson’s “Rockin’ After Hours. “

Saxophonist and bandleader Jim Wynn was born Texas, but grew up in Los Angeles. Playing tenor saxophone, he began his professional career with Charlie Echols and was a sideman on hundreds of West Coast recordings, including a long association with Johnny Otis. As a bandleader (often billed as Big Jim Wynn), he recorded sporadically from 1945 to 1959 with a dozen different labels, including 4 Star/Gilt Edge, Modern, Specialty, Supreme, and Mercury. Wynn switched to baritone sax later in his career, and continued working as a sideman into the 1970′s.

Pete Johnson was one of the three great boogie-woogie pianists (along with Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis) whose sudden prominence in the late ’30s helped make the style very popular. He was part of the Kansas City scene in the 1920s and ’30s, often accompanying singer Big Joe Turner. Producer John Hammond discovered him in 1936 and got him to play at the Famous Door in New York. After taking part at Hammond’s 1938 Spirituals to Swing Carnegie Hall concert in 1938, Johnson started recording regularly and appeared on an occasional basis with Ammons and Lewis as the Boogie Woogie Trio. He also backed Turner on some classic records. Johnson recorded often in the 1940s and spent much of 1947-49 based in Los Angeles. He moved to Buffalo in 1950 and, other than an appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, he was in obscurity for much of the decade. A stroke later in 1958 left him partly paralyzed. Johnson made one final appearance at John Hammond’s January 1967 Spirituals to Swing concert, playing the right hand on a version of “Roll ‘Em Pete” two months before his death.

Born in Philadelphia, Jimmy “T-99″Nelson started his career in Oakland, where he met and was influenced by Big Joe Turner. Blessed with a booming voice and a hip delivery, Nelson cut a swath of fine sides for Modern’s RPM and Kent imprints in the early 50′s and 60′s but only scored big with his signature “T-99 Blues.” After getting dropped from Modern Nelson bounced through a number of small labels before giving up music in the 60?s. It wasn’t until the 80?s that he decided to refocus his energies on music, playing locally and making some guest appearances on record and appearing at festivals. After many trials and tribulations Nelson finally made his long awaited comeback record with 1999?s Rockin’ And Shoutin’ The Blues on Rounder, followed by two more on his own Nettie Marie label. I never got the chance to see him live but did manage to interview him twice, and of the numerous interviews I’ve done, they remains among my favorite.  Jimmy passed in 2007.

Charles “Crown Prince” Waterford was from Jonesboro, Arkansas. He sang with Leslie Sheffield’s Rhythmaires and Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy before beginning his career as “The Crown Prince of the Blues” in Chicago in the 1940s. Waterford shouted the blues for labels like Hy-Tone, Aladdin and Capitol. In 1949, he joined the King stable. In the 1950’s he recorded for small companies and later dedicated his life to the Church and became known as Reverend Charles Waterford. Waterford also passed in 2007.

Red Mack was a west coast vocalist who also played piano, organ, trumpet, cornet and drums. He fronted bands that cut sides for Gold Seal, Atlas and Mercury at sessions recorded in 1945, 1946 and 1951. Mack is heard to fine effect on the humorous “Mr. Big Head:”

You said your wife was fine, when you lived down on the farm (2x)
Now you got the big head, and a glamor girl on your arm
Well you making more money, and that’s a fact
You won’t drive nothing baby, but those big fine Cadillacs
Well your head is big and you think you own the moon
Well I’m tellin’ you fool, your head will go down sore

Mack’s sides have been collected, along with those of his contemporary Luke Jones, on the Krazy Kat LP Luke Jones & Red Mack – West Coast R&B 1947-1952. Luke Jones was a bandleader, alto and baritone sax player and clarinettist who was born in Louisiana but as an infant moved to Los Angeles. From the late 1930′s he was involved in the LA scene, playing for Lionel Hampton and Roy Milton before forming his own jump trio with pianist Betty Hall Jones and drummer/blues shouter George Vann. Between 1946 and 1949 he cut some two-dozen sides for the Atlas and Modern labels

Also on the Krazy Kat label is The Great Gates  – West Coast R’ n B 1949-1955.  Edward Gates White aka “The Great Gates” enjoyed a recording career as an R&B vocalist from 1949 to 1955, before changing to recording jazz organ instrumentals. He continually shifted between various small West Coast labels such as Selective, Kappa and Miltone. Gates was a smooth big voiced singer heard today on the moody “Late After Hours” backed by a killer little combo featuring the cooking tenor of Marvin Phillips and the smoldering “Teardrops Are Falling” featuring an excellent uncredited band with a superb guitarist.

Read Liner Notes

Tenor sax blower Buddy Banks began his career in California and played with all the best West Coast Orchestras. In 1945 he formed his own sextet. The band began recording by backing singer Marion Abernathy for the Juke Box label and in its own right for the tiny Sterling label. The band went on to record for Excelsior, United, Modern and Specialty through 1949.The band employed some fine vocalists including Fluffy Hunter, Baby Davis, Marion Abernathy and Bixie Crawford. The obscure Davis belts it out “Happy Home Blues” while Hunter storms through the rocking “Fluffy’s Debut.” It’s a shame both singers recorded so little. All these tracks come from the excellent LP Happy Home Blues issued on the Official label.

After wartime service Calvin Boze settled in Los Angeles and, as singer and trumpet player, heavily influenced by Louis Jordan. Boze first recorded in 1945, but his biggest successes came with Aladdin Records after 1949. In May 1950 he released “Safronia B”, which made it to made #9 on the Billboard R&B chart in June 1950.

Pioneering R&B guitarist Saunders King had his first hit in 1942 with “S.K. Blues.” It also features one of the earliest examples of electric blues guitar, the style for which T-Bone Walker would soon be famous. King recorded for the Aladdin, Modern, and Rhythm labels. He may have made a greater impact in the burgeoning West Coast blues scene of the ’40s but was saddled with numerous personal problems including the suicide of his wife in 1942, a serious wound from a .45-caliber pistol fired by his landlord in 1946, and his serving time at San Quentin prison for heroin possession. King retired from music in 1961 and dedicated time to the church. In 1979, he briefly came out of retirement to play on his son-in-law Carlos Santana’s Oneness album. He passed away on August 31, 2000 at his Oakland home. He was 91.

-Al ‘Cake’ Wichard Sextette: Cake Walkin‘ (PDF review from Blues & Rhythm Magazine website)

-Blues Belles With Attitude!! (PDF review from Blues & Rhythm Magazine website)

Show Notes:

The West Coast had a thriving blues and jazz scene in the 1940’s and 50’s with most of the activity centering around the Los Angeles, Richmond, Oakland and San Francisco Bay areas. The Black population swelled in the 1940s, due to large manpower needs to work in the U.S. defense industry during World War II. These new arrivals needed entertainment, of course, and the local jazz and blues club scene heated up quickly. From approximately 1920 to 1955, Central Avenue was the heart of the African-American community in Los Angeles. Like New York City’s 125th Street or Memphis’s Beale Street or Chicago’s South Side, Central Avenue was one of the world capitols of nightlife, of jazz, rhythm & blues, of black culture and society.

There were several strains of blues that rose to prominence including a moody, after hours brand of piano blues popularized by the inimitable Charles Brown who himself was influenced by Nat King Cole. Brown’s influence was profound, setting the stage for fellow pianists like Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Little Willie Littlefield, Ivory Joe Hunter, Cecil Gant and Roy Hawkins. T-Bone Walker’s influence was to guitar as Brown was to piano. Much of T-Bone’s material had an after hours, jazzy jump blues feel, an influence that would characterize T-Bone disciples like Pee Wee Cratyon, Lafayette Thomas, Gatemouth Brown, Goree Carter, Pete “Guitar” Lewis, Ulysses James and others. There was also a more swinging, jazzy jump blues as performed by artists like Roy Milton, Joe and Jimmy Liggins, Johnny Otis and others.

Los Angeles in the 1940′s became a huge center for rhythm and blues recording. There was a host of labels recording blues and R&B in Los Angeles in the 1940s including Specialty, Imperial, Aladdin, and the umbrella of labels run by the Bihari brothers RPM/Modern/Kent/Flair/Crown were the most notable. Bob Geddins was a key player who operated numerous small labels like Down Town, Big Town, Irma, and others. The first breakout rhythm and blues single, “I Wonder,” was recorded by Private Cecil Gant in a simple basement studio and released in 1944 on Gilt Edge Records, a short-lived L.A. indie. When “I Wonder” went to the top of Billboard’s race charts, a number of labels sprang up to capitalize on the smooth, cool, Leroy Carr-derived L.A. blues style Gant had popularized.

I’ve done several programs devoted to West Coast blues and today’s show is mostly an excuse to spotlight two exceptional West Coast artists,  Cecil Gant and Gene Phillips who I haven’t featured much on prior shows. Today’s program leans towards the jazzy jump blues side of things, giving you a taste of some of the sounds of Central Avenue during the 1940’s and early 50’s.  The buk of those recordings are draw from several excellent Ace Records reissues documenting the Central Avenue scene including: Mellow Cats ‘N’ Kittens (four volumes) and The Central Avenue Scene (three volumes ).

Cecil Gant, who went by the moniker the G.I. Sing-Sation, was an army private who allegedly got his first break while performing for a war bond rally in 1944. He scored a massive hit the same year with “I Wonder” the first release on the new Gilt-Edge label. The record’s huge success prompted others to form record companies devoted to black music. Gant was a first rate ballad singer in the vein of Nat King Cole and Charles Brown but he was also a superb bluesman who could lay down some storming boogie-woogie. Gant recorded prolifically for the L.A. labels Gilt-Edge and 4 Star and in Nashville, which was probably his hometown, for Bullet, Dot and Decca, meanwhile playing in nightclubs throughout the country. Between 1944 and 1951 he waxed over 150 sides before his untimely death in 1951 at the age of 38. The Blue Moon label has provided an invaluable service by issuing all of Gant’s recordings across seven CD’s.

Gene Phillips was one of the early stars of Modern Records. Phillips was a West Coast session musician who appeared on a myriad of jump blues waxings during the late ’40s and early ’50s before fading from view even before the dawn of rock & roll. In the early 40s he sang and played guitar, was a jump blues specialist and led his own band, the Rhythm Aces. The T-Bone Walker-influenced Phillips recorded extensively for the Modern label from 1947 through 1951.  Phillips’s bandmates were among the royalty of the L.A. scene: trumpeter Jake Porter, saxists Marshall Royal, Maxwell Davis, and Jack McVea, and pianist Lloyd Glenn were frequently on hand. Phillips was a much in demand session guitarist backing stars such as Calvin Boze, Lloyd Glenn, Wynonie Harris, Joe Liggins, Percy Mayfield and many others. Jake Porter of Combo Records, also a well-respected session player,  had this to say about these marvelous Phillips sessions for Modern, “I guess music-wise and musician-wise he had the best musicians on his sessions, and Modern Records’ boss Jules Bihari just loved the stuff. He never rushed time. One thing about Jules I got to say his love was to sit up in the control booth and watch a record being made. He was fascinated. It was just like he was in a trance.” Phillips recordings have been collected by the Ace label on two CD’s:  Swingin’ The Blues and Drinkin’ And Stinkin’.

The Los Angles scene boasted a number of the premier blues shouters including Wynonie Harris,  Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon. Big Joe Turner ventured out to the West Coast during the war years, building quite a following while ensconced on the L.A. circuit. Few West Coast indie labels of the late ’40s didn’t boast at least one or two Turner titles in their catalogs with Turner cutting sides for RPM, Down Beat, Swing Time and MGM mostly backed by long time pianist Pete Johnson. Jimmy WitherSpoon didn’t pursue music professionally until after his WWII stint in the Merchant Marines. When the war was at an end he had the opportunity to join the small band of Kansas City musician Jay McShann working on the West coast during the mid forties. He replaced Walter Brown with McShann and made his very first records with the band for the new Philo label in Los Angeles in 1945. Further records with McShann on the Mercury, Supreme and Downbeat labels followed in the late forties and he eventually signed to the Modern label.

One strain of blues that rose to prominence in L.A. was a moody, after hours brand of piano blues popularized by the inimitable Charles Brown who himself was influenced by Nat King Cole. Brown’s influence was profound, setting the stage for fellow pianists like Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Little Willie Littlefield, Ivory Joe Hunter and Roy Hawkins.Brown came up in Johnny Moore’s combo. Moore and his younger brother Oscar grew up in Texas and then Phoenix, Arizona, where they both started playing guitar and formed their own string band. In the mid 1930s they relocated to Los Angeles, where Oscar Moore joined the King Cole Trio. Johnny joined and formed several groups, before forming The Three Blazers with two fellow Texans, bassist Eddie Williams and pianist and singer Charles Brown. After the Cole Trio moved from Atlas Records to Capitol in 1943, Oscar suggested to Atlas boss Robert Scherman that he replace them with his brother Johnny’s group. Scherman agreed to record the Blazers if Oscar would play with them, and the recordings were released as by “Oscar Moore with The Three Blazers”. In 1946, they had success with “Driftin’ Blues”, sung by Charles Brown. The group followed up the success of “Driftin’ Blues” with a number of other big R&B. In 1948, frustrated by his lack of recognition and financial reward, Charles Brown left the group for a successful solo career.

Influenced by Albert Ammons, Charles Brown, and Amos Milburn, Little Willie Littlefield made his debut 78 in 1948 for Houston-based Eddie’s Records while still in his teens. After a few sides for Eddie’s and Freedom, he moved over to the Los Angeles based Modern logo in 1949. There he immediately hit paydirt with two major R&B hits, “It’s Midnight” and “Farewell.” Littlefield proved a sensation upon moving to L.A. during his Modern tenure, playing at area clubs and touring with a band that included saxist Maxwell Davis. At Littlefield’s first L.A. session for King’s Federal subsidiary in 1952, he cut “K.C. Loving” (with Davis on sax),which became a big hit for Wilbert Harrison a few years later as “Kansas City.”

The towering figure of West Coast blues was Texas born guitarist T-Bone Walker. Walker was a key figure in the electrification and urbanization of the blues, probably doing more to popularize the use of electric guitar in the form than anyone else. Among his legion of followers was fellow Texan, Pee Wee Crayton. Crayton was from Texas but relocated to Los Angeles in 1935. He signed with the L.A.-based Modern logo in 1948, quickly hitting big with the instrumental “Blues After Hours” which topped the R&B charts in late 1948. “Texas Hop” trailed hit shortly thereafter, followed by “I Love You So.” After recording prolifically at Modern to no further commercial avail, Crayton moved on to Aladdin and, in 1954, Imperial. From there, Crayton cut sides fort Vee-Jay, Jamie, Guyden, and Smash during the early ’60s, Crayton largely faded from view until Vanguard unleashed his LP, Things I Used to Do, in 1971. After that, Pee Wee Crayton’s profile was raised somewhat; he toured and made a few more albums prior to his passing in 1985.

Show Notes:

Today’s program spotlights the tireless contributions of record producer, songwriter, label owner and all around hustler Bob Geddins. Modern Records co-owner Joe Bihari recalled Geddins this way: “Geddins had his own sound. He was a very nice person, he was black, and easy to deal with. A hustler? Well, you’ve got to do something, eh? I think the artists respected Geddins very much. It was like a family up there, yes.” Geddins was the dominant figure in Bay Area blues scene from the mid-1940′s to the mid-1960′s and made hundreds of records over the years on small labels he ran like Down Town, Big Town, Irma, Plaid, Art Tone, Cavatone, and Gedison’s and leased material to other companies bigger companies like Modern and Aladdin. He was also the first to set up a pressing plant in the Bay area. He released records by Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Johnny Fuller, Roy Hawkins, Jimmy Wilson among many others and was involved in the careers of many of these artists. Geddins died in 1991 at age 78.

It’s a bit difficult to get a handle on the West Coast sound, which is not as identifiable as say Chicago Blues but encompasses several different interlocking strands. As Mike Rowe wrote: “Unlike New York and Chicago there had been no blues or any kind of recording industry pre-war …The music as well as the industry was starting from scratch. …It was very often of Do-It yourself triumphing over the most adverse conditions.” The Black population swelled in the 1940’s, due to large manpower needs to work in the U.S. defense industry during World War II. These new arrivals needed entertainment, of course, and the local jazz and blues club scene heated up quickly. Geddins’ brand of blues was decidedly downhome as he told Lee Hildebrand in a 1980 interview: “I make everything I record as sad as possible. …I want black folks to feel the troubles of old times. All the people that have had similar problems are the ones that’s gonna buy those records. A lot of people make like they don’t like the blues but sneak off and play them.”

Oakland became a blues mecca during the 1940s. The city’s shipbuilding industry boomed in support of World War II, and the consequent profusion of manufacturing jobs and military bases brought a huge influx of African Americans to the Bay Area. Many settled near the shipyards in West Oakland, and a vibrant entertainment district sprang up on Seventh Street, where the blocks were crowded with pool halls, card rooms, and as many as 40 blues clubs, including the Lincoln Theater, Esther’s Orbit Room, and Slim Jenkins’ Place.

Discharged from the Navy in 1945, Fulson found his way to to Oakland, California, where he played small nightclubs. In 1946, he formed a group with pianist Eldridge McCarthy and recorded on Bob Geddins’s Big Town with Geddins leasing his recordings to Jack Lauderdale’s Los Angeles-based Down Beat and Swing Time labels. As Geddins recalled in the book Honkers and Shouters, “Lowell Fulson was the first great bluesman I put on wax …. [I] Bought him an electric guitar and amplifier–cost a hundred and eighty dollars. And he did a lot of rehearsing in the Seventh Street Music Shop.”

Along with Lowell Fulson, who left the Bay Area shortly after he became successful, McCracklin was the biggest name to ever emerge from the Oakland blues scene. He made his first record, “Miss Mattie Left Me,” for the Globe label in Los Angeles in 1945. Two years later in Oakland, he began a relationship with record producer Bob Geddins that would last on and off over the next two decades.

Jimmy Wilson scored a huge hit in California with his 1953 number “Tin Pan Alley” written by Bob Geddins. He was never able to match the record’s success but issued fine sides between 1948 and 1961 on labels such as Aladdin, Cava-Tone, Big Town, 7-11, Rhythm, Chart, Irma, Goldband and finally Duke. He died in 1965 at the age of 42.

Accompanying himself on both guitar and rack harmonica Bonner sung highly personal tales typified in songs like “Life Gave Me A Dirty Deal” and “Struggle Here In Houston.” He won a talent contest in 1947 in Houston that led to a radio spot. He cut his first sides for Bob Geddins’ Irma label in 1957 and next for *Goldband in 1960. Full length albums came about do to the interest of Mike Leadbitter, co-editor of Blues Unlimited, who recorded Bonner in 1967, issuing his full length debut on Flyright. He cut his best work between 1968-69 for Arhoolie Records. A few European tours ensued but by the 70’s he was working outside of music. He died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1978.

Johnny Fuller was a West Coast bluesman who left behind a batch of 1950′s recordings. He was equally at home with low down blues, gospel, R&B, and rock & roll. Making the Bay Area his home throughout his career, Fuller turned in classic sides for Heritage, Aladdin, Specialty, Flair, Checker, and Hollywood; all but one of them West Coast-based concerns. His two biggest hits, “All Night Long” and the original version of “The Haunted House,” improbably found him in the late ’50s on rock & roll package shows, touring with the likes of Paul Anka and Frankie Avalon! By and large retiring from the music scene in the ’60s (with the exception of one excellent album in 1974), Fuller worked as a garage mechanic until his passing in 1985.

Geddins had discovered Roy Hawkins playing in a club in Oakland in 1948. Hawkins and his backing group the Four Jacks were very popular and were doing sell-out business at several Bay area clubs at that time. Geddins rushed Hawkins and his band into the studio to cut some sides to capitalise on their current popularity and released “They Raided The Joint” on Geddins’ Cava-Tone label. After recording some more sides with Hawkins, Geddins sold “It’s Too Late To Change” and “Strange Land” to Modern and Jules Bihari then brought Hawkins and his band to LA to record. Starting in October 1949 through 1954/55 Hawkins’ records were released on Modern. In 1958 Hawkins cut a four-song session for Geddins’ Rhythm label.

James Reed was an exceptional blues singer who cut only ten sides at sessions in 1954, which were issued on Flair, Rhythm, Money and Big Town.

Little Caesar was fine but forgotten vocalist who waxed a couple of dozen sides in the 1950’s including a four-song session for Geddins’ Big Town label.

Willie B. Huff Cut was a terrific downhome blues singer who cut  two sides in 1953 for Big Town and two in 1954 for Rhythm. She turned up at the 1977 San Francisco blues festival before drifting back into obscurity.

As winter sets in here in the Northeast we turn our attention to sunny California circa the late 1940′s and 1950′s and spotlight two fascinating collections of West Coast Blues: The Downhome Blues Session Vol. 5: Back In the Alley 1949-1954 on Ace and Bob Geddins’ Big Town Records Story on Acrobat. These anthologies spotlight the tireless contributions of record producer, songwriter, label owner and all around hustler Bob Geddins. Modern Records co-owner Joe Bihari recalled Geddins this way: “Geddins had his own sound. He was a very nice person, he was black, and easy to deal with. A hustler? Well, you’ve got to do something, eh? I think the artists respected Geddins very much. It was like a family up there, yes.” Geddins was the dominant figure in Bay Area blues scene from the mid-1940′s to the mid-1960′s and was involved in a series of labels including Big Town, Down Town, Cava-Tone, Rhythm, Irma, Art-Tone and others. Many of his records were leased to bigger labels such as Modern. He was also the first to set up a pressing plant in the Bay area. He released records by Lowell Fulson, Jimmy McCracklin, Johnny Fuller, Roy Hawkins, Jimmy Wilson among many others and was involved in the careers of many of these artists.

It’s a bit difficult to get a handle on the West Coast sound which is not as identifiable as say Chicago Blues but encompasses several different interlocking strands. As Mike Rowe wrote: “Unlike New York and Chicago there had been no blues or any kind of recording industry pre-war …The music as well as the industry was starting from scratch. …It was very often of Do-It yourself triumphing over the most adverse conditions.” The Black population swelled in the 1940′s, due to large manpower needs to work in the U.S. defense industry during World War II. These new arrivals needed entertainment, of course, and the local jazz and blues club scene heated up quickly. 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. One strain of blues that rose to prominence was a moody, after hours brand of piano blues popularized by the inimitable Charles Brown who himself was influenced by Nat King Cole. Brown’s influence was profound, setting the stage for fellow pianists like Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Little Willie Littlefield, Ivory Joe Hunter, Cecil Gant and Roy Hawkins. T-Bone Walker’s influence was to guitar as Brown was to piano. Much of T-Bone’s material had an after hours, jazzy jump blues feel, an influence that would characterize T-Bone disciples like Pee Wee Cratyon, Lafayette Thomas, Gatemouth Brown, Goree Carter, Pete “Guitar” Lewis, Ulysses James and others. There was also a more swinging, jazzy jump blues as performed by artists like Roy Milton, Joe and Jimmy Liggins, Johnny Otis and others.

Geddins’ brand of blues was decidedly downhome as he told Lee Hildebrand in a 1980 interview: “I make everything I record as sad as possible. …I want black folks to feel the troubles of old times. All the people that have had similar problems are the ones that’s gonna buy those records. A lot of people make like they don’t like the blues but sneak off and play them.” There was certainly a market for downhome blues as sales of Lightnin’ Hopkins, Smokey Hogg and John Lee Hooker proved. Modern hooked up with Geddins in 1949 and the fruits of that relationship can be found on The Downhome Blues Session Vol. 5: Back In the Alley 1949-1954. This is the fifth volume of Ace’s superb Modern Downhome Blues Sessions, the first four dealing with recordings in the south. The first major reissue of this material was in 1969 and 1970, issued as the Anthology Of The Blues 12-volume LP series on Kent. Ace is very much geared to the collector and they have upped the ante from the original LP’s with excellent remastering, uncovering unissued sides, bringing to light new information about artists and providing meticulous notes.

The latest collection is no exception, boasting exhaustive but fascinating notes from Dave Sax and several unissued alternate takes among the 26 tracks. A doomy brand of blues pervades this collection like the fog that obscures the rain slicked streets and neon signs in those classic film noirs of the 1940′s (yes, I’ve been watching way too many old movies!). Geddins discovery James Reed was an exceptional vocalist delivering downtrodden tales with terrific, minimalist accompaniment on “This Is The End”, “Dr Brown”, “My Love Is Real” and “My Momma Told Me” (the latter two featuring the always outstanding guitar of Lafayette Thomas). Great stuff but why leave out “Roughest Place In Town (Tin Pan Alley)?” The seven sides by Johnny Fuller have a very similar feel as Fuller turns in smoldering performances including the wonderful “Back Home” where he speaks to his his fellow transplanted southerners: “As I sit here, in alone/Yes my mind wonders back, to my home in a little country shack/If you’s born in Texas, Mississippi, New Orleans you can understand just what I mean.” Fuller’s rich, deliberate vocals are equally fine on “Hard Times, “Prowling Blues” and the exceptional “It’s Your Life” one of many variations on the “Tin Pan Alley” theme which Fuller also cut as  “Roughest Place In Town” at another session. No one delivered gloomy blues as magnificently as pianist Roy Hawkins as he demonstrates on “Just A Poor Boy” and “You Had A Good Man” backed by T-Bone influenced guitarist Chuck Norris and the atmospheric tenor of Lorenzo “Buddy” Floyd. Hawkins’ two collections on Ace come highly recommended. By the late 1940′s Jimmy McCracklin was leading a tough little blues combo called the Blues Blasters that excelled in lowdown blues and the more rocking variety. The five cuts here include three unreleased alternate takes. Featuring the great guitarists Robert Kelton and Lafayette Thomas, The Blues Blasters cook on the hilariously shuffling “Couldn’t Be A Dream” that involves “a funny man wearing ladies clothes” and copious amounts of Old Taylor, the blistering “Josephine”  and “I’ll Get A Break Someday” with Robert Kelton really taking flight and Kelton and Thomas together on the down-in-the-alley “I Think My Time Is Here.” Much research has gone into the early McCracklin sides the results of which can be found on the Ace website (PDF). Rounding the set are a pair of fine country blues performances from Lowell Fulson and the excellent harmonica blower and singer Walter Robertson’s two issued sides.

Bob Geddins’ Big Town Records Story is a more expansive look at Geddins’ activities with 84 tracks spread over three CD’s and covering blues, vocal groups and a good deal of gospel. Big Town operated from 1945 to 1955, becoming a subsidiary of 4 Star Records in 1953 and also reissued Swing Time Recordings by Lowell Fulson. An in depth look at the label and Geddins is provided by Opal Louis Nations who provides the thick booklet that accompanies the set. Collectors should take not that this set is does not include all the Big Town recordings and a complete discography of the label is difficult due to Geddins’ lax record keeping. Nearly half of the recordings are gospel and while our focus here is blues, i will say that there are some exceptional sides by the Gospel Consolators, the earliest sides by the Pilgrim Travelers, Rising Star Gospel Singers which featured Jimmy Wilson, Southern Travelers and Tommy Jenkins. The aforementioned Jimmy Wilson provides some of the collection’s finest moments including his masterpiece, “Tin Pan Alley.” Written by Geddins (based on a Curtis Jones number) the song is a mesmerizing, dirge like ghetto tale featuring Wilson’s yearning vocals, Que Martyn’s mournful tenor and Lafayette Thomas’ distorted guitar. Wilson never had a hit of equal measure although he cut some masterful ominous blues including the stunning “A Woman Is To Blame” and “Blues At Sundown” from the same session and “I Found Out” and “Trouble In My Home”, all benefiting from the outstanding Lafayette Thomas. These songs alone should be enough to cement Wilson’s reputation as one of the era’s great blues vocalists. He also sounded comfortable on uptempo fare including a reworking of “Oh Red” (Thomas again!) and the swinging “Jumpin’ From Six To Six.” Sadly Wilson succumbed to alcoholism in 1965 at the age of 42. Unfortunately there’s only one Wilson collection on the market, Jumpin’ From Six To Six, which is badly remastered. Little Caesar was another fine but forgotten vocalist who waxed a couple of dozen sides in the 1950′s including a four song session for Big Town which is included here. Little Caesar was a wonderful smooth voiced crooner and witty lyricist who sounds quite a bit like Jimmy Witherspoon. “Big Eyes” is the standout with seriously cynical lyrics: “You got big eyes for me baby/But big eyes won’t pay my rent/If big eyes don’t keep me broke/Big eyes will keep me badly bent/Get a bankroll big as your eyes/And then call me on the telephone.” The remaining three numbers are terrific and it’s a shame there’s not collection of his material available. After listening to these I’ll have to dig out the LP collection I have of him, Lying Woman… Goodbye Baby on the defunct but fondly remembered Route 66 label. Speaking of fine vocalists there’s a pair of superb sides by King Solomon including the moody, harmony laden “Mean Train” and two of the four issued sides by the excellent Willie B. Huff who comes across as a female version of Lightnin’ Hopkins, even covering his “Hello Central” as “Operator 209.” Perhaps the best known artist is Joe Hill Louis who’s two sides for Big Town are included; “Bad Woman Blues” is an exceedingly tough downhome blues while “Hydromatic Woman” is fine but pales in comparison to the version he cut the year before at Sun with Walter Horton.

Johnny Fuller – Its Your Life (MP3)

James Reed – Dr Brown (MP3)

Roy Hawkins – You Had A Good Man (MP3)

Jimmy Wilson- Blues At Sundown (MP3)

Little Caesar – Big Eyes (MP3)

Willie B. Huff – I Love You Baby (MP3)