King Porter - Special Request (re-up)

Side 1:
01. Russel St Hussel
02. Porter's Ball
03. Shuffling Boogie
04. Russell Street Hustle
05. King Porter Special
06. Bar Fly
07. Come On In
08. Battle Ax

Side 2:
01. Charlie The Boogie Man
02. Bumps Boogie
03. Hey Little Brownie
04. Should Have Rationed Myself
05. Chidtlin' Ball
06. Don't Let Fletcher Getcha
07. Special Request
08. I've Tried

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A re-up (with new cover and label scans) for a fine set of swingin' jump blues. Unusually, this compilation features sides by two completely different artists using the same moniker - "King Porter."

Side 1 features the Detroit based King Porter who was trumpeter James Poe. The two earliest sides, "Russel St. Hussel" and "Porter's Ball" (released in June / July 1948) are rumoured to have Paul Williams present on alto sax, but his name isn't among the musicians named on the label of the release.

Wild Bill Moore is very much present on the remaining Detroit sides. "King Porter Special" / "Shuffling Boogie" (King 4267 - released in February / March 1949) and "Russel St. Hustle" / "Bar Fly" (King 4295 - probably released June / July 1949) were possibly recorded for the local JVB label but sold on to King for release. The Detroit group recorded for King in Cincinnati on June 7th 1949, with one single, "Battle Ax" / "Come On In" being released on King 4333 in January 1950.

Meanwhile in California another King Porter band, led by trumpeter Vernon, "Jake" Porter (who would found the Combo label in the early '50s) was recording for Imperial and this outfit is featured on Side 2. Among the musicians were Marshall Royal, Gene Porter, Gene Philllips, and Bumps Myers. They were part of a group of musicians who recorded for several record companies under various identities, i.e as Gene Phillips and His Rhythm Aces for Modern, and on Imperial as Lloyd Glenn and His Joymakers or King Porter.

The final two tracks in the compilation are a bit of a puzzle. "I've Tried" / "Special Request" was released on West Coast label 4 Star in October 1952, but it's uncertain which of the two combos recorded these sides, or perhaps it was a third outfit using the King Porter name.

It's all good, clean jumpin' and jivin' fun!

Big Jim Wynn - Blow Wynn Blow (Re-up)

Side A:

01. Ee-Bobaliba

02. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz

03. I Want A Little Girl

04. Cherry Red

05. Rock Woogie

06. Shipyard Woman

07. J.W. Bop

08. In A Rhapsody In Minor

Side B:

09. Blow Wynn Blow

10. Jelly Kelly Blues

11. Fat Meat

12. Farewell Baby

13. Put Me Down Blues

14. I'm The Boss (At My House)

15. Goofin' Off

16. Down To The Ocean

Download from here:

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Original post (8th May, 2010) is here:

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/big-jim-wynn-blow-wynn-blow.html

In response to a request for a re-up, here is West Coast tenor sax and baritone sax player Big Jim Wynn. The original post contains extensive background information on Big Jim as well as original release information on the tracks in this LP.

More information has come to light since the original Big Jim Wynn post regarding the origins of "Ee-Bobaliba" / "Be Baba Leba" / "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re -Bop!" See this post: Lionel Hampton - Leapin' With Lionel for information on Tina Dixon's claim to the copyright, which may conflict with Big Jim Wynn's claim to be the originator of one of R&B's biggest hits of 1945/46.

This re-up contains an improved version of one of the original label scans, plus the volume on these tracks has been boosted. And like all the re-ups, the files are now password-free.

The Great Gates - West Coast R 'n B 1949-1955 (re-upped)

Side A:

01. Rocking Time

02. Farewell Baby

03. Ain't Got No Money

04. Race Track Blues

05. Change Your Ways

06. Rock Me

07. Blue After Hours

08. Central Rocks

Side B:

09. Rock Me Baby

10. Checkin' Up Blues

11. Home Town Boy

12. Teardrops Are Falling

13. Come Back Home

14. Sad And Lonesome

15. Evening Blues

16. Later After Hours

Download from:

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Original post (26th March 2008):

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/great-gates-west-coast-r-n-b-1949-1952_9942.html

More California R&B, but with a rather more basic sound than the music featured in some of the recent posts on the blog. Edward "The Great Gates" White was a Philadelphia born blues singer who grew up in Southern California. He started recording for various LA labels in the late 1940s, often accompanied by sax player Marvin Phillips (of later Marvin and Johnny fame) and pianist Richard Lewis. The sleevenotes on the back cover by Professor Hi! Jinx give a good account of the career of "The Great Gates."

I've added a few extra details below just to "tidy up", as it were. I was unable to find the release dates of all of the discs featured in this compilation. I did, however, come across The Great Gates 1956 release "Jump, Jump, Jump" in my music library, on the 1980s LP "Aladdin Magic" which I downloaded from the excellent The Blues Years blog. You can listen to that track below and if you go over to The Blues Years to download the LP, don't forget to leave a "thank you" comment. Tell 'em the Be Bop Wino sent ya!

Obscure arcane knowledge for the initiated -

Release Details of tracks:

01. Rocking Time - Rex Hollywood 28025

02. Farewell Baby - Rex Hollywood 28025

03. Ain't Got No Money - Recorded In Hollywood 199, Combo 16

04. Race Track Blues - Selective 108

05. Change Your Ways - Selective 108

06. Rock Me - Kappa 110

07. Blue After Hours - Kappa 110

08. Central Rocks - Recorded In Hollywood 199, Combo 16

09. Rock Me Baby - 4 Star 1504

10. Checkin' Up Blues - 4 Star 1504

11. Home Town Boy - Selective 103

12. Teardrops Are Falling - Miltone 5271, Gotham 253

13. Come Back Home - Miltone 5271, Gotham 253

14. Sad And Lonesome - 4 Star 1475

15. Evening Blues - 4 Star 1475

16. Later After Hours - Selective 103

Releases in chronological order:

Late After Hours / Home Town Boy - Selective 103 - released June / July 1949. No.8 "Most Played Juke Box Rhythm & Blues Records" chart, 17th September 1949.

Race Track Blues / Change Your Ways - Selective 108 - released November 1949.

Rock Me / Blue After Hours - Kappa 110 - released ?

Teardrops Are Falling* (aka Cold Blooded Blues) / Come Back Home - The Great Gates & His Wampus Cats - Miltone 5271, Gotham 253 - released ? Originally titled "Cold Blooded Blues" on Miltone, retitled "Tears Are Falling" on Gotham.

Evening Blues / Sad And Lonesome - 4 Star 1475 - released June, 1950.

Checkin' Up Blues / Rock Me, Baby - 4 Star 1504 - released August, 1950.

Rocking Time / Farewell Baby - Great Gates & His Hollywood All Stars - Rex Hollywood 28025 - released ?

Ain't Got No Money / Central Rocks - Recorded In Hollywood 199, Combo 16 - released 1952.

In November 1955 The Great Gates recorded four sides for Aladdin but only one single was released, "Jump, Jump, Jump" / "Darling" (Aladdin 3310) in February 1956. On March 3rd 1956 Billboard reviewed "Jump, Jump, Jump" as follows: "Rocking, upbeat number may find favor with the young rock and rollers." As you can hear below, it was in fact a clone of Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock."

From the LP "Aladdin Magic", Pathe Marconi 1986.

Ivory Joe Hunter - 7th Street Boogie

Side 1:

01. 7th Street Boogie

02. Blues At Sunrise *

03. Boogin' In The Basement

04. Reconversion Blues

05. High Cost Low Pay Blues

06. Grieving Blues

07. Siesta With Sonny

08. Send Me Pretty Mama

Side 2:

01. I Quit My Pretty Mama

02. Woo Wee Blues

03. Don't Fall In Love With Me

04. What Did You Do To Me

05. I Got Your Water On

06. SP Blues

07. Leave Her Alone

08. Don't You Believe Her

*Ivory Joe Hunter with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers

Download from:

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Go West, young man! Ivory Joe Hunter ('twas his actual name) was one of a number of Texas pianists / singers who moved to California during and after World War Two and helped kick start the growth of R&B on the West Coast. Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon and Little Willie Littlefield all spring immediately to mind.

When Ivory Joe arrived in Oakland, California in 1942, he was already an experienced club pianist, deejay and bandleader. He formed a jump band while performing at Slim Jenkins' club on 7th Street in Oakland, but was unable to attract the attention of any of the new West Coast record labels that were springing up. His first record, "Blues At Sunrise" was therefore recorded for his own short lived label, Ivory. It became a hit when it was picked up by Exclusive, reaching number 3 in the R&B charts at the end of 1945. In 1946/7 Ivory Joe issued singles on Pacific, a label in which he was a co-owner.

Sales of the Pacific records were poor, so Joe sold his masters to 4 Star who re-issued some sides which had originally appeared on Pacific and also gave a first time issue to some of Joe's hitherto unreleased masters. It was a reissue, "Pretty Mama Blues" (Pacific 637, 4 Star 1254) which became Joe's biggest success so far, reaching number 1 on the R&B chart in September 1948. By this time Joe had been recording for King for a year. He stayed with them until August 1949, having hits with "Don't Fall In Love With Me", "What Did You Do To Me", "Guess Who" / "Landlord Blues", and "Jealous Heart."

In October 1949 Joe started recording for MGM and hit it big, reaching the number 1 R&B spot with "I Almost Lost My Mind." His next MGM disc, "S.P. Blues" was a top ten hit and he was back at number 1 again with "I Need You So." "It's A Sin" was a lesser hit but as all of these chart successes came in 1950, Ivory Joe Hunter was the 3rd top selling R&B artist of that year, ahead of such luminaries as Roy Brown, Dinah Washington and Louis Jordan. There were no more hits on MGM and in 1954 Ivory Joe signed with Atlantic Records where he recorded more hit material, most noticeably "Since I Met You Baby" which was an R&B and pop hit in 1957. In the same year he had another hit with "Empty Arms."

In 1959 he recorded for Dot without much success and the 1960s were spent label hopping but without achieving any significant sales. He did, however, have a more productive time as a songwriter in both the Soul and Country & Western fields. A successful appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1970 led to recording sessions for Epic and Paramount, but in late 1973 he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Ivory Joe Hunter passed away in November 1974.

Most of the above info is from an article by Dik De Heer on rockabilly.nl. Additional information from Big Al Pavlow's "R & B Book" and Bill Millar's sleevenotes to this LP. There is an extended essay on Ivory Joe Hunter by Bill Millar in his excellent book "Let The Good Times Rock."

Article by Dik De Heer:

http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/ivory_joe_hunter.htm

Original release details:

01. 7th Street Boogie - Pacific 601

02. Blues At Sunrise - Originally on Ivory, then Exclusive 56

03. Boogin' In The Basement - Pacific 602

04. Reconversion Blues - Pacific 601

05. High Cost Low Pay Blues - Pacific 630

06. Grieving Blues - Pacific 634

07. Siesta With Sonny - King 4220

08. Send Me Pretty Mama - King 4424

09. I Quit My Pretty Mama - King 4326

10. Woo Wee Blues - King 4455

11. Don't Fall In Love With Me - King 4220

12. What Did You Do To Me - King 4232

13. I Got Your Water On - King 4347

14. SP Blues - MGM 10618

15. Leave Her Alone - MGM 10663

16. Don't You Believe Her - MGM 10818

Many of the Pacific sides were re-released on 4 Star.

Explore further with:

"Jukebox Hits 1945 - 1950" on Acrobat,

"Blues, Ballads & Rock 'N' Roll" - collection of Atlantic sides on Ace,

"Woo Wee!" - collection of King sides on Ace.

And, joy of joys, Bill Millar's book "Let The Good Times Rock" is still available at reasonable prices on Amazon marketplace. A rippingly good read.

Big Jim Wynn - Blow Wynn Blow

Side A
1. Ee-Bobaliba
2. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz
3. I Want A Little Girl
4. Cherry Red
5. Rock Woogie
6. Shipyard Woman
7. J.W. Bop
8. In A Rhapsody In Minor

Side B
1. Blow Wynn Blow
2. Jelly Kelly Blues
3. Fat Meat
4. Farewell Baby
5. Put Me Down Blues
6. I'm The Boss (At My House)
7. Goofin' Off
8. Down To The Ocean

A pioneering R&B saxman on both tenor and baritone, Big Jim Wynn could consider himself unlucky on two counts. First off, while working the LA nightspots with his small jump band in the mid 1940s he wrote an infectious ditty called “Ee-Bobaliba” which became a staple of his act. Such was its popularity with the club audiences, Big Jim even renamed his band the “The Bobalibans.”

In 1945 Helen Humes (accompanied by the Bill Doggett Octet) recorded a version for the new LA indy label Philo. “Be-Baba-Liba” as it was now called was one of the biggest R&B hits of the year, but as Miss Humes took composer credits, not a cent wended its way to Big Jim’s pocket. To add insult to injury, Lionel Hampton recorded a version called “Hey! Ba-ba-re-bop” which became the second top selling R&B record of 1946, tucked in behind Louis Jordan’s “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie." Composer credits for the rewrite were taken by Curly Hammer and Lionel Hampton, so once again Big Jim got zilch.

Big Jim and his band recorded his song for 4 Star in late 1945, but despite a fine lead vocal by Claude Trenier, this version remained in the shadows of the “cover” versions by Humes and Hampton. Big Jim’s version is a great jump record, but the problem was that the combination of nonsense syllables and standard blues verses lent itself to rewrites and the subsequent loss of composer credits and record sales to more established acts.

In fact Big Jim Wynn was destined never to have a hit record, despite doing the rounds of the LA indies such as 4 Star, Gilt Edge, Modern, Supreme and Specialty as well as the major label Mercury. Apart from writing “Ee-bobaliba”, Big Jim is probably best remembered by R&B fans for providing the backing on many of T-Bone Walker’s fine recordings for Imperial in the early 1950s. The two had first played together in the LA club scene as far back as the late 1930s when T-Bone was doing a dance act. Big Jim’s band not only worked in the studio with T-Bone but also accompanied him on the road. As the band included Eddie Davis on tenor sax, Big Jim moved over to baritone sax.

Big Jim’s live act was something to behold as he pioneered many of the tricks which would be taken up by more renowned “honkers.” As George Moonoogian says in his sleevenotes: “He would kick, dance, shuffle, strut, go down on his knees, roll and literally provide his own mini-show on stage, all the while blowing wild solos on his sax. He was the first of the Los Angeles area sax players to perform these antics on stage …” And here bad luck struck a second time, as one Cecil J. McNeely was a regular spectator at Big Jim’s shows and “borrowed” his act to carve out a (thank God) long career as king of the tenor sax wildmen.

As the fifties wore on, Big Jim concentrated more and more on session work, with the occasional foray on the road backing acts such as Etta James and Richard Berry. Even in the 1970’s, and now aged well over sixty, he was still appearing live with the Johnny Otis show and managing to tear up the audience with his wild stage shenanigans. As he said in an interview: “One of my desires is to live to be a hundred. I try to keep in shape by exercise and eating health foods…” Well they do say that bad luck comes in threes. Within a year of that interview he was dead.

This 1985 LP was issued on the “Whiskey, Women and …” label, which was a joint enterprise run by the magazine of the same name and Mr R&B records. I only ever did find one issue of the “Whiskey, Women and …” magazine, in the Glasgow branch of Tower Records. The magazine (which was indescribably brilliant), the record shop, and the record company are, like Big Jim Wynn himself, no longer with us.


Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps.

Download from here:

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1. Ee-Bobaliba (4-Star 1026, 1945)
2. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz (4-Star 1026, 1945)
3. I Want A Little Girl (4-Star 1025, 1945)
4. Cherry Red (Gilt Edge 528, 1945)
5. Rock Woogie (Gilt Edge 528, 1945)
6. Shipyard Woman (Gilt Edge 527, 1945)
7. J.W. Bop (Supreme 1509, 1948)
8. In A Rhapsody In Minor (Gilt Edge 531, 1945)
9. Blow Wynn Blow (Supreme, 1509, 1948)
10. Jelly Kelly Blues (Gilt Edge 531, 1945)
11. Fat Meat (Specialty 312, 1948)
12. Farewell Baby (Supreme, 1522, 1948)
13. Put Me Down Blues (Specialty 312, 1948)
14. I'm The Boss (At My House) (Million 2004, 1954)
15. Goofin' Off (Supreme 1522, 1948)
16. Down To The Ocean (Million 2004, 1954)

Recommended purchase:

The 4 CD set “Honk for Texas” on the JSP label (JSP7760) has one CD entirely devoted to Big Jim Wynn, plus 10 tracks on another CD shared with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. You’ve just gotta buy this one!