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.

Perfect 0252 – Walter Roland – 1933

Posted on February 2, 2016 by R. Connor Montgomery

Recorded in the deepest depths of the Great Depression, I offer to you these two boogie woogie piano tunes from the brief recording career of the skilled Alabama blues man Walter Roland.

Walter Roland was born in December of either 1902 or 1903 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama—the twentieth of December is most often given as his birth date. He was working as a musician by the 1920s, playing both piano and guitar and singing. Though Roland remained an active musician until the end of his life, he recorded only a few times in the 1930s. In 1933, Roland traveled to New York with guitar player Sonny Scott to record for the American Record Corporation, and would return twice between then and 1935. During those trips, he recorded solo, and also played as an accompanist with Lucille Bogan and Joshua White, as well as part of the “Jolly Jivers” with Scott and Bogan. Some of his records were released under the pseudonym Alabama Sam. After returning home, Roland did not make another recording, but continued to play music. By the 1950s, he was a farmer, but sometimes worked as a street musician. Sometime in the 1960s, he was blinded by buckshot after trying to break up an altercation between neighbors, and he retired in the later part of that decade. Roland died of lung cancer October 12, 1972 in Fairfield, Alabama.

Perfect 0252 was recorded over two consecutive days on July 19 and 20, 1933 in New York City, Roland’s second released disc from his ARC sessions. It got an honorable mention in 78 Quarterly’s famous “Rarest 78s” column. These ARC race records seldom turn up in very good condition, and this one is no exception, but thankfully, despite a few brief blasts of noise, the music is still prominent.

Roland’s first number is the classic “Early This Morning (‘Bout Break of Day)”, his own version of Charlie Spand’s “Soon This Morning”. Unfortunately, the text on the label has faded away completely, leaving only the faintest trace of what was originally printed. This side was recorded on the July 20 date. Roland also recorded the same tune the previous day, accompanying his guitar-playing associate Sonny Scott.

Early This Morning (‘Bout Break of Day), recorded July 20, 1933 by Walter Roland.

On the flip side, Roland plays and sings “House Lady Blues”, a piano blues masterpiece. This one was recorded on the earlier date of July 19.

House Lady Blues, recorded July 19, 1933 by Walter Roland.

Updated with improved audio on April 26, 2018.

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.

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.

Paramount 14012 – Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra – 1927

Posted on December 18, 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.

In celebration of the 118th anniversary of Smack Henderson’s birth, here is a record I searched for long and hard, before I was fortunate enough to find this 1940s John Steiner reissue. This near mint dub trades some of its audio fidelity for a much cleaner and smoother surface than I’d be likely to find on the original Paramount issue, which was once speculated in 78 Quarterly to have “less than ten copies.”

Paramount 14012 was recorded May 11, 1927 in New York City and was originally issued on Paramount 12486. This issue is a 1948 dub made by record collector and producer John Steiner. The band features the talent of Joe and Russell Smith on trumpet, Benny Morton on trombone, Buster Bailey and Don Redman on clarinet and alto sax, Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax and clarinet, Fletcher Henderson on piano, Charlie Dixon on banjo, June Cole on tuba, and Kaiser Marshall on drums. The label erroneously credits Tommy Ladnier, who does not play on this record.

“Swamp Blues” tops my list of all-time favorite jazz recordings, and was the reason for my purchasing the record.

Swamp Blues, recorded May 11, 1927 by Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra.

Perhaps even hotter than the previous, “Off to Buffalo” is another superb jazz side, not to be confused with the similarly titled Warren and Dubin song “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” from Forty-Second Street.

Off To Buffalo, recorded May 11, 1927 by Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra.

Updated with Improved audio on June 19, 2017.