Brunswick 7062 – Kansas City Frank – 1929

Posted on January 30, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

For a portion of the 1930s and 1940s, the pianist on this pair of solos was mistakenly believed to be that of Jelly Roll Morton. In actuality, it was a friend of Jelly Roll’s, Frank Melrose, a Chicago jazz and blues piano man. Last time we here heard from Frank, he was tearing it up with E.C. Cobb and his Corn-Eaters on Victor.

Franklyn Taft Melrose, the second youngest of the Melrose siblings that included the music publishers (and part-time shysters) Walter and Lester, was born November 26, 1907 in Sumner, Illinois. As a teenager, Frank left home and drifted to Missouri, where he took up in St. Louis, and later Kansas City. An admirer of Jelly Roll Morton, through his brothers’ business Frank was able to meet his idol, and the two reportedly befriended each other and played together on occasion. Melrose recorded sporadically in the 1920s and 1930s, making solo records for Brunswick, Gennett, and Paramount, and with bands such as the Kansas City Tin Roof Stompers, the Beale Street Washboard band, and Wingy Manone’s Cellar Boys, frequently a part of racially integrated groups. On Labor Day of 1941, Frank was found dead on a Chicago street corner, cause uncertain, with his face beat up beyond recognition. His last words were reported as “Bud Jacobson”, with whom he made his last recordings, earlier that year.

Brunswick 7062, part of the 7000 race record series, easily recognizable by their distinctive lightning bolt styled labels (not to mention the record number), was recorded March 8, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, by Frank Melrose on piano, using the nom de disque “Kansas City Frank”. Frank had recorded these two of his own compositions a month earlier in Richmond, Indiana for Gennett. According to Brian Rust, the drummer was Tommy Taylor, who had previously accompanied Melrose on his Gennett session of the same tunes. The 78 Quarterly estimates “less than 20” copies of this record, though the accuracy of that claim is dubious.

The famous cartoonist and record collector R. Crumb made a comic, published in 1979’s Best Buy Comics about Melrose named after “Pass the Jug”, which Frank plays on this record. If you listen real closely to the brief drum solo at at one minute, fifty-five seconds, you can hear a whistle in the background that sounds like a bird chirping.

Pass the Jug, recorded March 8, 1929 by Kansas City Frank.

Presumably composed as a tribute to his friend and idol, Jelly Roll Morton, on the flip-side, Frank plays “Jelly Roll Stomp”. I’m not sure whether you could technically call this boogie woogie or not, but it’s not far off.

Jelly Roll Stomp, recorded March 8, 1929 by Kansas City Frank.

Updated on June 24, 2016.

Victor V-38023 – E. C. Cobb and his Corn-Eaters – 1928

Posted on December 10, 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.

On a cold winter day in the Windy City eighty-seven years ago, one of my favorite jazz records was recorded. The only record made under this band name, it is by a racially integrated group made up of some of the finest, if rather obscure, Chicago jazz musicians.

Victor V-38023 was recorded December 10, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. The band includes the superb talent of Jimmy Cobb on cornet, Junie C. Cobb on tenor sax and clarinet, “Kansas City Frank” Melrose on piano, and Jimmy Bertrand on drums and xylophone. Some sources claim it’s Punch Miller on cornet, but Cobb seems like the more likely candidate. The artist credit is listed in Victor’s ledgers as “Junie C. Cobb and his Corn-Eaters”, it was changed to the “E” that appears on the label for unknown reasons (or at least unknown to me); perhaps someone misheard “Junie” as “Eunie”, though he was given correct composer credit on the label.

“Barrell House Stomp” is one of my all-time favorite sides. Pay special attention to the duet between Kansas City Frank on piano and Jimmy Bertrand on xylophone.

Barrell House Stomp, recorded December 10, 1928 by E. C. Cobb and his Corn-Eaters.

“Transatlantic Stomp”, a composition by reed man Junie C. Cobb, doesn’t disappoint either.

Transatlantic Stomp, recorded December 10, 1928 by E. C. Cobb and his Corn-Eaters.

Okeh 8312 – Bertha “Chippie” Hill – 1926

Posted on December 6, 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.

It seems wrong that this place called “Old Time Blues” has featured staggeringly few blues records thus far, and after that previous incursion of popular music, I think it’s high time to work some actual old time blues into the schedule. Here’s a classic record by Bertha “Chippie” Hill featuring the work of a very familiar trumpeter.

Bertha Hill was born in 1905 in Charleston, South Carolina, she entered vaudeville in the 1910s, working with “Ma” Rainey and Ethel Waters in the TOBA circuit and the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. Hill was given the nickname “Chippie” at age 14, referring to her young age at the time. She entered the recording industry in 1925 and only recorded until 1929, making 23 sides total. After retiring from music in the 1930s to raise her children, Hill made a comeback in the late 1940s. Tragically, she was struck and killed by a hit and run driver in New York City in 1950.

On Okeh 8312, a laminated “TrueTone” recorded February 23, 1926 in Chicago, Bertha “Chippie” Hill sings “Trouble In Mind” and “Georgia Man”, accompanied by Richard M. Jones on piano and the incomparable Louis Armstrong on trumpet.

Richard M. Jones’ “Trouble In Mind” is an excellent (albeit melancholy) song, delivered wonderfully by Hill. The label on this side looks pretty darn bad, but fortunately what actually matters, the playing surface that is, is not too bad at all.

Trouble In Mind, recorded February 23, 1926 by Bertha “Chippie” Hill.

“Georgia Man” is a much lighter-hearted piece, trading the dreary theme of laying one’s head on a railroad line for a more raunchy one involving “jelly roll”. The label’s a lot prettier on this side, and it might play just a little bit better, too.

Georgia Man, recorded February 23, 1926 by Bertha “Chippie” Hill.

Updated with improved audio on June 23, 2024.

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.

Columbia 2745-D – Art Kassel and his Kassels in the Air – 1933

Posted on November 12, 2015 by R. Connor Montgomery

A view of the Century of Progress Exposition, pictured on a contemporary travel brochure.

November 12 marks the eighty-second anniversary of the date that the 1933 Chicago “Century of Progress” World’s Fair was intended to close, though it proved so popular that it was continued through October 31, 1934. It ran for more than seventeen months from its opening on May 27, 1933. This beautiful Royal Blue Columbia record (pressed in blue shellac) was presumably sold as one of the enormous multitude of souvenirs available at the fair (which I also collect, in addition to all these phonograph records).

Columbia 2745-D was recorded on January 10, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, about four months before the World’s Fair opened to the public. Art Kassel was a popular Chicago-based bandleader recording somewhat extensively, beginning in the 1920s and continuing until at least the 1940s.

The official song of the Century of Progress Exposition is fully titled “(Where Will You Be) In 1933”, though the label only lists the latter part of that. This side is somewhat typical of the “cheer up” songs so prevalent in the first few years of the Great Depression, complete with Ted Lewis imitator.

In 1933, recorded January 10, 1933 by Art Kassel and his Kassels in the Air.

John Philip Sousa’s “A Century of Progress March” bears the additional historical distinction of being the great march composer’s last composition before his death in 1932.

A Century of Progress March, recorded January 10, 1933 by Art Kassel and his Kassels in the Air.

Updated on May 27, 2017, and with improved audio on June 6, 2018.