[Revision Note: The tune has been identified as “Ohh-Ah-De-De-De” (see comments)]
Here is another one of the little video clips my friend Otto Flückiger made in the 1980s and 1990s. Here we have Wild Bill Davis’s quartet playing an unidentified fast tune at the intimate Q4 jazz club in Rheinfelden, Switzerland on October 30, 1988. I especially like the playing of guitar legend Dickie Thompson here and the charming way in which Otto intercut photographs now and then to get rid of disturbing camera movements.
Besides Wild Bill and Thompson the other band members are saxophonist Dave Young and drummer Clyde Lucas.
[Revision note: Thanks to Ehsan Khoshbakht and Dani Gugolz the complete personnel has been identified.]
Bill Doggett (1916–1996) started out on piano. In 1947, he took Wild Bill Davis’ place in Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five and slowly became famous for his organ playing in this band. He started his own band in 1951, first as a trio, later with one or two saxophones and a guitar added. Up to the late fifties Doggett made a series of LPs for King Records, followed in the early sixties by albums on Warner Bros. and Columbia after which the spotlight turned away from his as his brand of organ playing fell out of fashion with the dance as well as the jazz crowd.
But Doggett kept on playing and in the mid-seventies he became quite popular in France, where Black and Blue records published a couple of LPs with Doggett.
So here is another clip from the July 1978 Newport Jazz Festival on tour in the Cimiez Gardens in Nice which was filmed by a french TV station. It’s Bill Doggett on organ, the legendary David “Bubba” Brooks on tenor, guitarist Pete Mays (he is also singing on other tracks from this gig), Larry Trott on electric bass and Howard Overton on drums playing Doggett’s 1956 megaseller “Honky Tonk”.
Jo Jo Adams (circa 1918–February 27, 1988) was one of the most colorful persons on the R’n'B scene of post war Chicago. A short biography by Dave Penny can be found here. Adams recorded for small labels like Hy-Tone, Aristocrat, Parrot, he also worked as MC in different clubs in Chicago.
One of my favorite sessions by Jo Jo Adams is the one he did with almost forgotten Chicago tenor saxophonist Tom Archia in July 1947 (read more about Tom and this session on the Tom Archia page of the Red Saunders Research Foundation). Here’s Jo Jo singing “Drinking Blues” on a copy of Aristocrat 801:
Adams was mostly known for his flamboyant personality, his risqué songs and his colorful dresses – with long coat tails that he swung around while dancing. Here you get a chance to see Jo Jo in action as part of William Alexander’s 1949 movie “Burlesque in Harlem (sometimes dated as having been made in 1953 or 1954, but Alexander had moved to London in 1950). Unfortunately Adams is only accompagnied by a piano – and how I wish it would be Tom Archia’s Combo! And sound and video are slightly asynchroneous on my source.
But hey: Better Jo Jo Adams with a piano and asynchronous sound than no Jo Jo Adams at all!
With sadness i received the news of tenor saxophonist Red Holloway’s passing yesterday, aged 84 (details can be found here). I met Red three or four times during the last fifteen years, as he was playing in Europe every other year. In the last ten years or so he was playing with the Blue Flagships band (look here for a video clip from 2002 with Jimmy Coe and Red Holloway). I remember Red Holloway as a very sweet gentleman. I fondly think of one afternoon in the mid nineties when Red was playing in Basel or some place near Basel – I guess with the Frank Muschalle Trio. Read more »
In 1940 bassist Dallas Bartley (1916–1979) joined Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five. After he left Jordan in 1943 he formed his own band, Dallas Bartley’s Small Town Boys. With his band he recorded for Coral (September 1944), Cosmo (1946) and National (1947). His band also can be seen in a couple of soundies filmed in 1945.
Here they are playing “You Fine And Healthy Thing”:
The reason why I exactly choose this Dallas Bartley clip to present here, is my interest in Chicago trumpet player King Kolax who in jazz circles is mostly known because young John Coltrane played in his big band for a while in 1947 – you can find more about Kolax at the Kolax page at the Red Saunders Research Foundation. While googling around for Kolax material, I found out that it was composed jointly by Bartley and Kolax!
But what about the personnel?
Although different discographies say that the trumpeter player and singer is Walter Fuller, it definitely is Bill Martin, about whom you may learn more on the Hy-Tone page of the Red Saunders Research Foundation.
What about the alto player?
Les Fancourt’s and Bob McGrath’ “Blues Discography 1943–1970″ suggests that it is Porter Kilbert. Below you see a picture of Kilbert taken from a 1961 Quincy Jones concert clip. I would say it is well possible that it is the same man – 16 years later.
“Blues Discography 1943–1970″ does not mention the tenor player:
Who can this be? A possibility would be Joshua Jackson, who according to ”Blues Discography 1943–1970″ recorded with Bartley for Cosmo. Does anyone have a photo of Jackson and could compare it to the one above?
Following “Blues Discography”, the pianist is Bob Mosely, is that true?
Unfortunately I can not extract a better picture from the clip. So what about the drummer?
According to ”Blues Discography 1943–1970″ this is Jack Parker. But if you look at the bass drum you see a logo that seems to be made from the letters H, L and B. This points to the drummer being Hillard L. Brown, who according to this page, was a member of Bartley’s band in 1945. He later had his own band, which Bill Martin joined later.
Just received the sad news that singer Etta James has passed from Leukemia today, a few days before her 74th birthday. I would have liked to upload a small musical tribute to Etta, but I have to leave the house soon to start my work as DJ Crown Propeller at the Helsinkiklub in Zürich (Geroldstrasse 35). I surely will be doing a small tribute to Etta during the evening, so you might want to come. The evening’s band is Nadja Zela with Mr. Fisch & The Sea Shanty Singers (hereby strongly recommended).
When you think of the Chicago style of playing the tenor saxophone in the 1940s and 1950s – strongly influenced by Lester Young – you will surely think of Gene Ammons. Others that come to the mind of those in the know are Tom Archia, Claude McLin and Von Freeman.
An almost forgotten figure from that school of blowing way behind the beat is Dick Davis (April 15, 1917 – January 19, 1954) about whom you may learn a lot from the Miracle page of the Red Saunders Research Foundation.
Dick Davis at an unknown date.
From Galen Gart’s First Pressings
Before we reach the small sensation announced in the title of this post, I offer you a clip of the Dick Davis Combo playing “Memphis Train” from Miracle 109, recorded around January 1947. The personnel: Dick Davis: ts; Sonny Thompson: p, Eddie Calhoun: b; Jimmie Hoskins: dr. The voices to be heard on this special train are by the band members.
Richard “Dick” Davis was born in Jackson, Mississippi, his family moved to Chicago in 1924. On graduating in 1938 – he was schooled by legendary Capt. Walter Dyett – Davis went to work as a professional musician. His first engagement with a name band was with Doc Wheeler’s Sunset Royals from 1938 on:
Doc Wheeler and his Sunset Royals in 1941: Joe Murphy: dr, Cat Anderson: tp, Jesse Brown: tp, Jimmy Harris: tp; Al Lucas: b, Dick Davis (ts), Cornelius Ringi: as, Bobbie Smith: as, Sam “The Man” Taylor: ts,
Nat Allen: tb, Doc Moran: tb. Originally published in New York
Amsterdam News, May 2, 1942. Taken from Franz Hoffmans Jazz Advertised
After World War II Davis was soon leading his own band , which was first billed as “Richard E. Davis & His Gold Coast Swingsters” or “Richard Davis & His Westcoast Swingsters”.
From the Chicago Defender, February 23, 1946.
Taken from Franz Hoffmann’s Jazz Advertised
From the Chicago Defender, July 13, 1946.
Taken from Franz Hoffmann’s Jazz Advertised
In summer 1946 Davis, with a combo that also featured fellow tenor saxophonists Eddie Chamblee and Tommy Jones, recorded a track called Tenor-Mental Moods which was released on two different copies of Miracle 101 (One had Sorry We Said Goodbye as the flip, the other Blues In My Heart. Benson Jump/Memphis Train from January 1947 then was the next record under Davis’ name.
In 1948, Davis’ group was the house band of the New Savoy for a while:
From the Chicago Defender, March 6, 1948.
Taken from Franz Hoffmann’s Jazz Advertised
From the Chicago Defender, May 8, 1948.
Taken from Franz Hoffmann’s Jazz Advertised
In late spring or summer 1949 Davis recorded for Ivin Ballen’s Gotham label with a band consisting of himself, pianist John Young, who had started his career in Andy Kirk’s orchestra, Eddie Calhoun and Buddy Smith. The signing of Dick Davis was announced in Billboard, April 16, 1949. The session resulted in Gotham 182 (You Tell Me/Double Talk). Unfortunately I never heard this record (if you have a copy, please let me know!). All I could manage is to steal a screenshot from an ebay auction – notice Davis singing on this side:
The Dick Davis Combo on Gotham 182. Does anyone have a copy?
Up to now the two (and a half) Miracle Records and Gotham 182 were the only known records under Davis’ name. But two weeks ago I spotted a mysterious Dick Davis record on ebay that has not been documented in any of the standard blues, r’n'b and jazz discographies before – and I managed to acquire it. Wandering Blues/Down Home which might well have been originally recorded on the Gotham session was released on Carl Burkhardts Gateway Records apparently sometime in 1952. Up to now only two issues were known on the Gateway R’nB series: Gateway 5005 by Chuck Huguely with Johnny Smith’s Orchestra and Gateway 5002 by Chicago drummer Jump Jackson (if you have one of these two, again please let me know!).
So here is one side of the elusive Gateway 5001.
Apparently what makes this record a small sensation besides it’s rarity is, that it carries the only example of pianist John Young singing – which apparently he did not like to do, as he told ted Panken in this double interview (with Von Freeman):
John Young: The Quality Lounge was on 43rd Street. So if you know anything about 43rd Street, you know it wasn’t on the uppity-uppity-uppity-up. The Quality Lounge, I was in there with a fellow named Dick Davis who played tenor saxophone. I was the piano player, the drummer’s name was Buddy Smith, Eddie Calhoun was on bass. And I was singing.
Ted Panken: Singing, too.
John Young: But at that time I had laryngitis. When (?) asked me to sing, I suddenly developed a case of laryngitis. All three of them called it “lyingitis” — because it was a gitis that never left. But the Q was cool . . . Like I say, it was a relaxed joint. You could come in there with tennis shoes on if you wanted to. It wasn’t nothin’ uppity, you know. And it was on 43rd Street. We had a good time in there for a number of years …
From September 1951 on until his passing from lobar pneumonia in January 1954 Davis played with King Kolax’ band, accompanying Joe Williams, Johnny Sellers, Danny Overbea, the Flamingos and other Chicago singers for labels like Checker and Chance (look at the Red Saunders Research Foundation about Kolax for more information about Davis’ doings in Kolax’ band.
Some of these days I will maybe put the flipside of Gateway 5001 up on this blog well – Down Home is a slow instrumental blues featuring solos by Davis and Young as well as Calhouns prominent bass work. Until then!
In 2002 the swiss newspaper company Ringier organized a small tour with the Blue Flagships band featuring guest artist Rusty Zinn on guitar, singer Carrie Smith and R’n'B saxophone legends Jimmy Coe and Red Holloway. On September 14 2002 parts of the concert at Teatro di Locarno in Locarno were filmed by my friend, the late Otto Flückiger. Here we have them playing Flying Home featuring solos by Jimmy Coe and Red Holloway. Read more »
I know some of you have – as I do – a faible for idiosyncratic r’n'b saxophonist Lynn Hope. Hope was born in Birmingham, Alabama on September 26, 1926 and nobody seems to know what ever became of him (or do you?).
UPDATE (sept. 21, 2011): The day of Lynn Hope’s passing has been established as February 24, 1993 (see comments)
Down in Otto’s archives I found some gorgeous photos of Lynn. These were published in an unidentified publication – which therefore is also undated. I decided to present them here. Read more »
After reading my entry on Cecil Payne’s Hippy Dippy, Dani Gugolz has sent me this ultra rare photo of Brownie McGhee (left) and Cecil Payne at the club Jazzland in Vienna, Austria:
(click to enlarge)
Thanks, Dani! The photographer of this shot from an unknown date in the mid-seventies is not identified. Brownie McGhee recorded with Cecil Payne on Payne’s second session for Decca on November 25, 1949. Here McGhee was named “Henry Johnson”, a pseudonym he used at different times in his career. The full band:
Leonard Hawkins (tp), Cecil Payne (as, bar, ldr), Ray Abrams (ts), Billy Taylor (p), John Simmons (b), Joe Harris (dr), Brownie McGhee (“Henry Johnson”) (voc).
McGhee sang on two tracks, the mock sermon The Worst Is Yet To Come and the slow blues Angel Child, on which Cecil Payne plays alto sax. You can hear Angel Child here:
The music is taken from an original 78 rpm copy of Decca 48127 from the Otto Flückiger Collection. Dani has also send me a better version, but it’s on my other computer right now. But this one sounds fine enough, i think. Enjoy!
