Bluebird B-6415 – Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 1927/1928

Posted on February 8, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Please note: this article dates to Old Time Blues’ first year and does not meet the standard of quality to which more recent postings are held. Thank you for your understanding.

In celebration of fifty “likes” on our Facebook page, we’ll have a jubilee here at Old Time Blues, and what better way to than with the hot jazz of Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Orchestra on two of their hottest for Victor records.

Bluebird B-6415 was recorded on two separate occasions, the first side on March 26, 1928 and the second on December 19, 1927, both in New York City. The “A” side was originally issued on Victor 21580 and “B” on Victor 21490 and again on 22985.

Given the two record dates, the two sides feature different personnel in the band. The first includes Arthur Whetsel, Bubber Miley, and Louis Metcalf in the trumpet section, “Tricky Sam” Nanton on trombone, Barney Bigard on clarinet and tenor sax, Otto Hardwicke on clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, and bass sax, Harry Carney on clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, and baritone sax, Duke Ellington on piano, Fred Guy on banjo, Wellman Braud on string bass, and Sonny Greer on drums. The second features Miley and Metcalf on trumpets, Tricky Sam on trombone, Rudy Jackson on clarinet and alto sax, Otto Hardwicke and Harry Carney on all the same reeds as the first side, and Ellington, Guy, Braud, and Greer in the same positions as the previous.

One of Ellington’s best, “Jubilee Stomp” was played in 2011’s The Artist, albeit on a disgustingly inaccurate phonograph.

Jubilee Stomp, recorded March 26, 1928 by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.

On “Blue Bubbles”, Ellington shares composer credit with Bubber Miley, and the piece bares some stylistic resemblance to another of Miley’s works, “Black and Tan Fantasy”.

Blue Bubbles, recorded December 19, 1927 by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.

Victor 20552 – Memphis Jug Band – 1927

Posted on February 5, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Please note: this article dates to Old Time Blues’ first year and does not meet the standard of quality to which more recent postings are held. Thank you for your understanding.

On this day, February 5, we remember Will Shade, leader of the Memphis Jug Band, on the 118th anniversary of his birth on that day in 1898. Unfortunately, this disc by his illustrious Memphis Jug Band has seen a lot of action in its eighty-nine years of existence, and is in pretty poor condition, but, as is the case with many jug band records, it’s quite uncommon, and this is the best copy I was able to procure. “Audible but muffled” is the description given to the record by its previous owner, and the music sort of fades between “almost decent” and “downright lousy”. Oh well. Nonetheless, here it is.

Victor 20552 was recorded February 24, 1927 at the McCall Building in Memphis, Tennessee, the first two sides from the Memphis Jug Band’s first recording session, and their first issued record. The band includes Will Shade on guitar and harmonica, Will Weldon on guitar, Charlie Polk on jug, and Ben Ramey on kazoo.

“Stingy Woman” may or may not play a little cleaner than the flip side, which unfortunately isn’t saying a whole lot, and was recorded second in the session. Apparently the original owner wasn’t a fan of Will Weldon, going by their defacement of the label.

Stingy Woman, recorded February 24, 1927 by the Memphis Jug Band.

“Sun Brimmers” takes its name from Will Shade’s nickname, Son Brimmer, and perhaps was intended to be titled “Son Brimmer’s Blues”. This was the first side recorded by the Memphis Jug Band.

Sun Brimmers, recorded February 24, 1927 by the Memphis Jug Band.

Updated with improved audio on June 21, 2017.

Okeh 8511 – “Texas” Alexander – 1927

Posted on January 22, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Going back now to the music of America’s roots, I offer a classic albeit worn blues record by great bluesman “Texas” Alexander.

Alger “Texas” Alexander was born in Jewett, Texas on September 12, 1900. Playing at functions in the Brazos River bottomlands of his home state, he sometimes worked with contemporary and fellow Texas blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson. Alexander traveled to New York City to make his first recordings for Okeh Records in 1927, and made many further recordings back home in Texas. Unable to play any musical instrument, he was backed on his recordings by various sidemen and groups, including the Mississippi Sheiks for one session. Although Alexander has long been cited as serving five years in the penitentiary in Paris, Texas for the 1939 murder of his wife, modern research yields no evidence of that being true, as no records exist of Alexander serving, and in fact, no prison ever existed in Paris, Texas. More likely, Alexander served on a county work farm for publicly singing songs with lewd lyrics. Texas Alexander continued to record in the 1940s, and made his last recordings with Benton’s Busy Bees in 1953 before dying of syphilis the next year.

Okeh 8511 was recorded on August 11 and 12, 1927 and is “Texas” Alexander’s second issued record from his first recording session, and probably his best selling Okeh. Alexander is accompanied by the always excellent Lonnie Johnson on guitar. This record, as many, if not most of this type of record are, has seen better days and plays rough. Nevertheless, the music is still audible, albeit over heavy noise.

On the first side, Alexander moans his way through the classic “Long Lonesome Day Blues”.

Long Lonesome Day Blues, recorded August 11, 1927 by “Texas” Alexander.

“Corn-Bread Blues”, a little worse for wear, features that classic line, “they cook cornbread for their husband, and biscuits (or is it ‘brisket’?) for their man.”

Corn Bread Blues, recorded August 12, 1927 by “Texas” Alexander.

Updated with improved audio on July 1, 2017, and again on May 3, 2023.

Supertone 9188 – Chubby Parker – 1927

Posted on November 21, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

For your listening pleasure, after a brief and unintentional hiatus, I offer this fine folk record on this nice Gennett Supertone by WLS artist Chubby Parker.

Frederick R. “Chubby” Parker, born in 1876, was a Chicago-based banjo player and folk singer popular on the National Barn Dance on WLS radio in the 1920s, which was a precursor to the famous Grand Ole Opry. Parker was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and graduated from Purdue in 1898 as an electrical engineer. He reportedly worked as a circus performer, and later as an electrician, patent attorney, and inventor in Chicago before turning to radio. Parker became a very popular performer on WLS and allegedly received almost 3,000 fan letters in one week in February 1927. He left radio and recording after 1931, with one final appearance on WLS in 1936. He died in 1940.

Supertone 9188 was recorded on February 26, 1927 (perhaps the same week he got all those letters) in Chicago, Illinois, recorded by the Starr Piano Company, producers of Gennett Records. Radio station WLS (an acronym for “World’s Largest Store”) was owned by Sears, Roebuck & Company, and they were eager to market records by their popular radio artists on their record labels such as Silvertone and this Supertone.

Parker’s “I’m a Stern Old Bachelor” is probably the first recording of this folk song, but I can’t guarantee it, and I haven’t researched it in depth.

I’m a Stern Old Bachelor, recorded February 26, 1927.

Parker’s excellent “Bib-a-Lollie-Boo” has the distinction of being featured on Dust-to-Digital’s fine multimedia set “I Listen to the Wind that Obliterates My Traces”, and features some gems of lyrics that can be found in the little widget that displays song lyrics at the top of the home page of this site.

Bib-A-Lollie-Boo, recorded February 26, 1927 by Chubby Parker.

Updated with improved audio on June 10, 2017.

Broadway 8114 – Harkins and Moran – 1927

Posted on November 3, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

Please note: this article dates to Old Time Blues’ first year and does not meet the standard of quality to which more recent postings are held. Thank you for your understanding.

I’ve been featuring a lot of jazz recently, and I think it’s about time for a change of pace, so today I offer this old time country record for your enjoyment.

When I bought my VV 4-4 Victrola a while back, along with it came a collection of about sixty or seventy records in the Victrola’s original albums. Most of these records were standard popular fare of the 1920s: Gene Austin, Waring’s Pennsylvanians, and plenty of waltzes. However, as I flipped to the last couple of pages in one album, I discovered three records on the Broadway label, which are always fun to find. One of them was a popular song pairing, the other two were old time fiddle records.

This one, Broadway 8114 is credited to “Harkins and Moran”, an alliterative pseudonym for actual artists Sid Harkreader, fiddle and Grady Moore, guitar. It was recorded in June of 1927 at the Chicago studios of the New York Recording Laboratories (of Paramount fame). It was also issued on Paramount 3023, and “John Henry” was issued on Herwin 75532 with different backing.

The duo’s fine rendition of the old folk song “John Henry” is marred by a large edge flake that necessitated a small amount of audio restoration, but I think it cleaned up fairly well. The same set of lyrics was sung by Harkreader’s associate Uncle Dave Macon in his memorable rendition.

John Henry, recorded June 1927 by Harkins and Moran.

On the flip side, Harkreader and Moore play the classic “Old Joe”, a track that was featured on Volume 2 of Yazoo’s compilation, “Times Ain’t Like They Used To Be: Early American Rural Music”. Real fine fiddle music.

Old Joe, recorded in June 1927 by Harkins and Moran.

Old Joe, recorded June 1927 by Harkins and Moran.

Updated with improved audio on July 20, 2017.