Get on Board Little Children - The Modern Gospel Recordings

"The train waiting at the platform is the gospel train to glory! Get on board, little children, get on board! If Modern Records never approached the gospel field in the systematic way they did the blues one, they still captured some great performances. The Rev. C C Chapman (The Travelin' Shoes Man) and The Faith Temple Choir cut their solitary classic record for Modern - their On My Way is backed by jazzy organ, propulsive drumming and fervent handclapping. The Four Star Quartet's single recording Steal Away To Jesus was made in 1952 but never issued until now. The Echoes Of Zion sides were originally recorded for the Gerald label and bought by Modern in 1950. The sides here by this exciting Atlanta group showcase their use of switch lead singers on traditional songs such as Jacob's Ladder and On The Battlefield. The authoritative voices of the Revs Louis H Narcisse and James Earle Hines are also featured as are the sophisticated harmonies of The Smith Jubilee Singers, the San-Francisco-based Swanee River Quartet and the preacher-with-flock recording of the Rev G W Killens and his Mount Calvary Congregation recorded during a service at the Oakland City Auditorium. Killens is reported as saying "Once in a while, I like to hear the church sing" and on Father, I Stretch My Arms To Thee, they do just that and to stunning effect."

B.B. King - The Vintage Years

My heart groans, the sky is crying -- another icon of my age has passed. The King is dead--Long Live The King ...NY Times obit

King was born in a small cabin on a cotton plantation outside of Berclair, Mississippi, to Albert King and Nora Ella Farr on September 16, 1925.

In 1930, when King was four years old, his father abandoned the family, and his mother married another man. Because Nora Ella was too poor to raise her son, King was raised by his maternal grandmother Elnora Farr in Kilmichael, Mississippi. Over the years, King has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist's vocabulary. His economy and phrasing has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. King has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop, and jump into a unique sound. In King's words, "When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille." King grew up singing in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael. At the age of 12, he purchased his first guitar for $15.00 although another reference indicates he was given his first guitar by his cousin, Bukka White. In 1943, King left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play guitar with the Famous St. John's Quartet of Inverness, Mississippi, performing at area churches and on WGRM in Greenwood, Mississippi.

In 1946, King followed his cousin Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee. White took him in for the next ten months. However, King shortly returned to Mississippi, where he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit, and returned to West Memphis, Arkansas, two years later in 1948. He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop a local audience for his sound. King's appearances led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten-minute spot on the legendary Memphis radio station WDIA. King's Spot became so popular, it was expanded and became the Sepia Swing Club.

Initially he worked at WDIA as a singer and disc jockey, gaining the nickname Beale Street Blues Boy, which was later shortened to Blues Boy and finally to B.B. It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker. "Once I'd heard him for the first time, I knew I'd have to have [an electric guitar] myself. 'Had' to have one, short of stealing!", he said.

In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which did not chart well. "My very first recordings [in 1949] were for a company out of Nashville called Bullet, the Bullet Record Transcription company," King recalls. "I had horns that very first session. I had Phineas Newborn on piano; his father played drums, and his brother, Calvin, played guitar with me. I had Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch on tenor sax, his brother, Thomas Branch, on trumpet, and a lady trombone player. The Newborn family were the house band at the famous Plantation Inn in West Memphis."

Performing with his famous guitar, Lucille King assembled his own band; the B.B. King Review, under the leadership of Millard Lee. The band initially consisted of Calvin Owens and Kenneth Sands (trumpet), Lawrence Burdin (alto saxophone), George Coleman (tenor saxophone), Floyd Newman (baritone saxophone), Millard Lee (piano), George Joyner (bass) and Earl Forest and Ted Curry (drums). Onzie Horne was a trained musician elicited as an arranger to assist King with his compositions. By his own admission, he cannot play chords well and always relies on improvisation. This was followed by tours across the USA with performances in major theaters in cities such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit and St. Louis, as well as numerous gigs in small clubs and juke joints of the southern US states.

In the winter of 1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. In order to heat the hall, a barrel half-filled with kerosene was lit, a fairly common practice at the time. During a performance, two men began to fight, knocking over the burning barrel and sending burning fuel across the floor. The hall burst into flames, which triggered an evacuation. Once outside, King realized that he had left his guitar inside the burning building. He entered the blaze to retrieve his beloved guitar, a Gibson hollow electric. Two people died in the fire. The next day, King learned that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. King named that first guitar Lucille, as well as every one he owned since that near-fatal experience, as a reminder never again to do something as stupid as run into a burning building or fight over women.

King meanwhile toured the entire "Chitlin' circuit" and 1956 became a record-breaking year, with 342 concerts booked. The same year he founded his own record label, Blues Boys Kingdom, with headquarters at Beale Street in Memphis. There, among other projects, he produced artists such as Millard Lee and Levi Seabury.

In the 1950s, B.B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music, amassing an impressive list of hits including "3 O'Clock Blues", "You Know I Love You," "Woke Up This Morning," "Please Love Me," "When My Heart Beats like a Hammer," "Whole Lotta Love," "You Upset Me Baby," "Every Day I Have the Blues", "Sneakin' Around," "Ten Long Years," "Bad Luck," "Sweet Little Angel", "On My Word of Honor," and "Please Accept My Love." In 1962, King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records, and this hence into his current label, Geffen Records. In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois.

The RPM Blues Story

RPM was a subsidiary of Modern Records, one of the major blues and R&B labels of the '50s. One Day's 2014 compilation The RPM Blues Story focuses on the imprint's best blues sides, with everything recorded in the late '40s and '50s. Lots of big names -- B.B. King, Lowell Fulson, Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Slim, Johnny "Guitar" Watson -- are present on this collection, all doing raw, vital work that is matched nicely by the lesser-known names here. It all results in an excellent (and affordable) primer on one of the best R&B/blues labels of its time. AMG

Get On Board Little Children

Our Sunday Gospel moment - sorry to have missed church last week. KC

1.  Smith Jubilee Singers / Just A Little Talk With Jesus (2:10)
2. Rev. Louis Narcisse / Why Should I Worry (2:48)
3. Lillian Holmes & Madam Wesley Mae Walker / Jesus Said If You Go (2:38)
4. Four Star Quartet / In My Savior's Care (2:44)
5. Prof. James Earle Hines & His Goodwill Singers / Heavenly Highway (2:59)
6. Echoes Of Zion / Those Chiming Bells (2:33)
7. Swanee River Quartet / The Sun Will Never Go Down (2:57)
8. Smith Jubilee Singers , Dig A Little Deeper
9. Echoes Of Zion , I Took My Masters Hand
10. Prof. James Earle Hines & His Goodwill Singers , God Rode In The Windstorm
11. Swanee River Quartet , Take Your Burdens To The Lord
12. The Harmonizers , I John Saw
13. Echoes Of Zion , King Jesus Is Listening
14. Madam Ira Mae Littlejohn , I Wanna See Jesus
15. Prof. James Earle Hines & His Goodwill Singers , Daniel
16. Echoes Of Zion , I'll Rest After Awhile
17. Smith Jubilee Singers , Lord Remember Me
18. Swanee River Quartet , On The Battlefield For The Lord
19. Rev. G. W. Killens , Father, I Stretch My Arms To Thee
20. Rev. C. C. Chapman & The Faith Temple Choir - On My Way (Part 1)
21. Rev. C. C. Chapman & The Faith Temple Choir - On My Way (Part 2)
22. James Earle & His Goodwill Singers , Get On Board Little Children
23. Echoes Of Zion , Climbing Jacob's Ladder
24. Madam Ira Mae Littlejohn , Go Devil Go
25. The Harmonizers , Satisfied
26. Four Star Quartet , Steal Away To Jesus
27. Swanee River Quartet , Brother Noah
28. Echoes Of Zion , A Charge To Keep I Have

Al King & Arthur K. Adams - Together

  Cliff found this Ace cd which pairs Al King, a West Coast blues guy whom he had been investigating, with Arthur K. Adams, a West Coast blues guy whom I had developed an interest in. Both these guys, like a Ray Agee or Jessie Belvin, are illustrative of the development of West Coast soul out of the uptown blues pioneered by T-Bone Walker, Lowell Fulson and Charles Brown.

Al King was born Alvin K. Smith in Monroe, Louisiana in 1926. Like many WWII vets he was cut loose in 1947 in the Southern California area. He first began working in the Los Angeles R&B scene, first with John Dolphin and later with Johnny Otis, but he eventually migrated north to Oakland where he hooked up with guitarist Johnny Heartsman and producer Bob Geddins.

These recordings find King back in L.A. singing in front of Maxwell Davis' band and recording for the Biharis at a time roughly concurrent with Albert King's run at Stax. I don't think there is much doubt that the first track, 'My Name Is Misery', shows some influences from Albert's 'Born Under A Bad Sign'.

You couldn't tell from this cover here, but while King is in his early 40's at the time of these tracks, Arthur K. Adams is nearly 20 years his junior. Adams was born in Medon, Tennessee in 1943, but by 1959 he was touring as a backup singer for Gene Allison who abandoned the teenager in Dallas, Tx. Adams worked his way up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth scene, gaining a good reputation both as a singer and guitarist; he was a mere 21 when he moved to Los Angeles in 1964. Within a couple years Adams found his way to Kent/Modern and the Biharis where his first project was as a rhythm filler on B.B. King's 'The Jungle'. That cover picture with the fellah in the hammock and the red guitar?...not B.B. at all, it's Adams!

While at Modern Adams was used to fill out some of their unfinished B.B. King tracks as well as contributing some killer guitar to sessions by Larry Davis and the above Al King tracks. Adams eventually became a first call session guy in the L.A. studios, contributing to hits by the Jackson Five, Quincy Jones and countless others. He also worked extensively in T.V. and movies (he is the guitarist behind Bonnie & Clyde) and as a frequent contributor to the Jazz Crusaders.

The Traveling Record Man; Historic Down South Recording Trips

A RERUN REQUEST FOR POPPACUBBY!

A taste of the material gathered during these legendary road trips thru the South that lead to the discovery of many artists and the preservation of many others who would be otherwise lost. There are actually 5 volumes which follow this one if there appears to be any interest.

"The bulky title of this disc was sparked by its documentation of recordings assembled by Joe Bihari of Modern Records on scouting trips through the South for talent between 1948 and 1953. (Starting in 1952, the young Ike Turner also worked for Modern in this capacity.) Just two of the names on this 24-track anthology are famous: Howlin' Wolf, represented by an audition acetate of "Riding in the Moonlight" (first issued in 1991), and Elmore James, whose two cuts appeared on an Ace box set in 1993. Some other names -- like Smokey Hogg, Lil' Son Jackson, and Joe Hill Louis -- will catch the eyes of in-the-know blues experts, but for the most part even those with extensive blues collections will be mostly or totally unfamiliar with most of the artists. This is raw, Southern, just-post-World War II blues, caught in its transition from its rural roots to something more electric and citified. Certainly it's rawer than much commercially released blues of the time, and in fact about half of it was either previously unissued, or not first issued until many years later on other specialist collections. It's not that unhoned, though, and there's decent variety within the genre, from rollicking piano blues and juke-joint harmonica-driven numbers to mournful slow tunes that sound barely off the farm. Actually Arkansas Johnny Todd's "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You" sounds like it's still on the farm. But at the other extreme, Sunny Blair's "Please Send My Baby Back Home" (aka "Step Back Baby") is as well-produced and full-sounding as many a 1953 full-band electric Chicago blues single. This is not for everyone, certainly, but as a reflection of the sounds being unearthed as labels brought musicians from out-of-the-way Southern locales into the commercial world, it has considerable value. And the music is solid, if not as gripping as the best records in these styles. The fidelity is imperfect, as many of the tracks were taken from acetates or 78s, but has been cleaned up considerably by modern technology." AMG

Johnny Guitar Watson - Hot Just Like TNT

And yet more JGW on a July Request Rerun:

More evidence of the genius of Johnny Guitar Watson. Did I mention before that he was a quadruple threat artist? Not just a fine singer and a killer guitar player, but a wailing saxophonist and a boogie woogie style piano player too. Chances are he had even more tricks in his bag but these are the ones I know about. There is very little overlap here, but I notice now that the Keen tracks are also included here.

"...28 track comp includes all of his original singlecuts for RPM/ Modern from the '50s plus six previously unreleased bonus tracks, 'Hot Little Mama', 'Dee's Boogie', 'MyBaby And Me', 'You've Been Gone Too Long' and two versionsof 'Come On Baby' (guitar version & sax version). Other 22:'Hot Little Mama', 'I Love To Love You', 'Don't Touch Me','Too Tired', 'Lonely Girl', 'Ain't Gonna Hush', 'Those Lone-ly, Lonely Nights', 'Oh Baby', 'Someone Cares For Me', 'GiveA Little', 'Ruben' (piano version & guitar version), 'LoveMe Baby', 'She Moves Me', 'Three Hours Past Midnight' + 7..."

Etta James - The Complete Modern and Kent Recordings

Time to tackle the other "Fillmore Girl", the great Etta James. Born January 25, 1938 as Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to a 14 year old mother, Etta was subsequently fostered in often abusive homes for most of her early life; she was moved to The Fillmore with her mother at 12 years old. Like her older cousin Sugar Pie DeSanto, she spent her formative teen years in that cultural hotbed.

In Los Angeles she received some Gospel training from James Earle Hines of St. Paul Baptist Church in South Central. As a precocious young girl in San Francisco, she formed a girl doo wop group called The Creolettes (all the girls were mixed). The group got discovered by Johnny Otis who renamed the group The Peaches, and the then 16 year old lead (not 14 as often cited) became Etta James (a wise choice, Jamesetta Hawkins doesn't exactly roll off the tongue) and signed them to the Bihari's Modern Records.

Otis used the group to record his answer to Hank Ballard's hit 'Work With Me Annie', originally titled 'Roll With Me Henry', it was sanitized to 'Dance With Me Henry' then 'The Wallflower' shortly after release. The young singer apparently had enough input into the final product that she was given a co-writer's credit. The song climbed to #1 on the R&B charts and 'Good Rockin' Daddy' was a solid follow up. White singer Georgia Gibbs, in classic Pat Boone fashion, quickly covered the song and stole the potential crossover hit. Still, Etta was put on Little Richard's tour during the period that he was going nuclear and it was likely there that she first acquired the heroin habit that dogged the rest of her life.

The Biharis were clearly impressed by their singer because they recorded far more sides on her than are normally mentioned in most sources. The release dates actually cross over into the Chess era but they were recorded earlier in L.A. Of the 42 tracks here, 6 or so are dreadful, but the rest are fine West Coast R&B with bands assembled from members of Otis' band or from the Maxwell Davis Orchestra. There are even five songs recorded in New Orleans with Dave Bartholomew and the gang from J & M Studios (Side one, 12, 13, 14 Side two 3, 14). Despite their dogged persistence, the Bihari's never strike gold again with Etta, her next success came in 1960 after signing with Chess and moving to Chicago.

At least one longtime friend claimed that at 16 James was dating label mate B.B. King and that it was for her that King rewrote the lyrics to an earlier song to become the mega-hit 'Sweet Sixteen'. It was also during this time that she first met and sang with Harvey Fuqua, who would later be her steady beau and label mate at Chess.

The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions, Vol. 5; Back in the Alley

Cleaning out the cue this morning, here is the final volume before the links get too old.

 The Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 5: Back in the Alley 1949-1954 focuses on sides cut between 1949 and 1954 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of the sides found their way to releases on the Modern family of labels, though some of them appear here for the first time. The common denominator is record label owner/manager/songwriter Bob Geddins, who was involved in the careers of all of the artists who recorded these 26 tracks. The featured artists include Jimmy McCracklin, James Reed, Johnny Fuller, Roy Hawkins, Lowell Fulson and Walter Robertson.

" While the first four volumes of this series focused on just-post-World War II blues recorded at various locations in the south, this fifth installment turns its focus to somewhat more citified blues cut between 1949 and 1954 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of the sides found their way to releases on the Modern family of labels, though some of them appear here for the first time. But the main common denominator is record label owner/manager/songwriter Bob Geddins, who was involved in the careers of all of the artists who recorded these 26 tracks. Two of the performers, Lowell Fulson and Jimmy McCracklin, had pretty successful careers; one, Roy Hawkins, had some success and notoriety (primarily for doing the original version of "The Thrill Is Gone"); and the others (Johnny Fuller, Walter Robertson, and James Reed) aren't even known to most blues collectors. A collection of such rare cuts -- even the ones by Fulson, McCracklin, and Hawkins will be unfamiliar to most of their fans -- has pretty specialized appeal, as the songs are average to the verge of being clichéd. But it's an acceptable reflection of earthier California blues styles of the era, if hardly the best introduction to the subgenre. A few of the McCracklin tracks (most of which are previously unissued) count among the liveliest items, especially "Josephine" and "I'll Get a Break Someday," which are rawer than the subsequent recordings with which he'd attract most notice. The 1949 Fulson single on the CD is barely urbanized rural blues, and while much of the rest of the disc is more in line with the more refined, more jazzy ballad-tinged form of West Coast blues, it often has a gloomier aura than most such music." AMG

The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions, Vol. 4; Southern Country Blues Guitarists

 I think that this is the volume where the names and song titles are, in some cases,  made up, either earlier by Bihari or later when Kent compiled the first issuance of this material on LP. I did copy all the booklet notes for each of these volumes so you can read the whole story when you have downloaded.

Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 4: The Southern Country blues Guitarists 1948-1952 features recordings mostly recorded in Atlanta and Dallas between 1948 and 1952. This is essentially an expanded version of the original Kent LP Blues From The Deep South. In around 1950 a group of artists sent in a batch of unlabeled acetates that were discovered at Modern in 1970. These recordings have remained a focal point for intense discussion ever since. When these sides were first issued on the Blues From The Deep South LP, so Arkansas Johnny Todd and Leroy Simpson were invented for two sides released. It turns out that Todd is actually Lane Hardin who cut the classic "Hard Time Blues b/w California Desert Blues" in 1935. He also backs Leroy Simpson who still remains a mystery. Other featured artists include Alex Moore, Charlie Bradix, Pine Top Slim, Jesse Thomas, Big Bill Dotson, Little Son Jackson and Smokey Hogg.

The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions, Vol. 3; Memphis On Down

 

 The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol. 3: Memphis On Down focuses on recordings done in the early 1950's in Memphis that Sam Phillips shopped to Modern/RPM in 1950/51, Helena, Arkansas and five cuts by the Dixie Blues Boys which were done in Los Angeles in 1955. The featured artists include Willie Nix, Howlin' Wolf, Walter Horton, Joe Hill Louis, Bobby Bland, Alfred "Blues King" Harris, James "Peck" Curtis, Robert "Dudlow" Taylor and Jim Lockhart.

 "This third volume of raw, Southern (or Southern-style) blues, largely of the early electric sort, concentrates on recordings done in the early '50s in Memphis and Arkansas, though the five Dixie Blues Boys tracks were done in Los Angeles in 1955. Make no mistake about it: despite the presence of a few big names, this is one for the collector. If you want a better listening experience of material from Modern's recordings in the area, you'd be better off with single-artist anthologies of sides cut at the time for the label by Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Walter Horton, Joe Hill Louis, and others. If you've gone through that layer and want a whole lot more, however, this is what you want, digging into some rare and previously unissued tracks, often by artists unknown even to many blues experts. Generally, it documents a time when Southern blues was just making its transition from the rural acoustic form to the citi-fied electric one, albeit in a raw, at times even tentatively clumsy manner. The most satisfying numbers are, unsurprisingly, by the most famous performers, capturing some major performers in their early formative days, including Howlin' Wolf (represented by two 1951 sides); Bobby "Blue" Bland (whose "Drifting From Town to Town," recorded with Little Junior Parker, didn't first see light until 1969); and Walter Horton (heard on his 1951 single "You Tell Me Baby"). Even the tracks by obscure names often include major players as sidemen, such as Howlin' Wolf guitarist Blind Willie Johnson, Matt Murphy (who plays on the Bland cut), and Sonny Boy Williamson. The remaining material isn't up to lost classic status, and in fact it's sometimes forgettable. But there are still some good outings to be heard by Willie Nix (whose "Try Me One More Time," from 1951, comes close to a rockabilly beat) and the more rudimentary Joe Hill Louis (particularly a previously unissued fast version of "Joe Hill Boogie"). Seven of the 26 tracks were previously unreleased..." AMG

The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions, Vol. 2: Mississippi and Arkansas

The story of the Bhari family and RPM - Modern Records is an American tale. The Bihari's were Hungarian Jewish refugees. The six or seven children (it has been a while since I read this) where sent here without their parents with the idea that the eldest would take care of the rest, but the family was split up and scattered across multiple orphanages.

Undeterred the two eldest boys, Jules and Lester, made it out to Los Angeles with the eldest girl as well, if memory serves, and set themselves up in the jukebox industry. Everything was in the family and as each sibling grew old enough to leave their respective orphanages, they were brought to L.A. and into the business. Eventually the entire clan was reunited as their parents had intended.

Over time, Jules and Saul grew frustrated with the inability of their distributors to keep them supplied with the quality 'country blues' that they found was selling on their boxes and realized that they could make money on both ends of the game if they started making their own records. They managed to build their own studio, pressing and distribution facility all in one. Now they needed artists and while they mined some of the local talent in L.A., they had a fair amount of competition there. They found some people to record through Bob Geddins up in Oakland, but they needed more to grow the label.

This is where youngest brother Joe Bihari comes in. Joe and the youngest sister had been sent to orphanages in New Orleans and so grew up amongst the sounds of the Crescent City. Where as his older siblings viewed this solely as a business to be milked for as much cash with as little outlay as possible (Jules would brag about making thousands off of sessions that cost him nothing but a bottle of whiskey and a cheap whore), Joe actually knew the music and what he was hearing and could tell if it was good or not. That is how Joe became the choice to go on these talent seeking road trips through the South.

I don't recall the details of how Joe found the teenage Ike Turner, but the ambitious and talented youngster was a godsend for sure. There is no way that Bihari could have found the people he did without Ike and the music world of today would be a very different landscape without the contributions of Ike Turner. It is also true that no other member of the Bihari family would have been able to tolerate driving around and staying with a black man other than the New Orleans raised Joe.

Other than perhaps Cleanhead Love, most of the fellows on this particular volume are documented real people, but on some of the later sets the names and song titles are completely made up due to the haphazard record keeping, both on the road and back at the Modern headquarters.

The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions, Vol. 1; Arkansas & Mississippi

 You got your first taste of these sessions with Traveling Record Man but that was just the tip of the iceberg, there are 5 subsequent volumes! Many of these artists are only known through these field recordings made by Joe Bihari and Ike Turner as they drove through the deep South scouting for talent. Not every guy is some unknown genius or anything like that, but in most cases you can certainly hear why they recorded them.

" The Modern Downhome Blues Sessions Vol.1: Arkansas and Mississippi 1951-1952 features recordings that Joe Bihari and his young talent scout Ike Turner made between November 1951 and January 1952 in North Little Rock, Arkansas and in Greenville and Canton, Mississippi. The featured artists include Elmore James, Boyd Gilmore, Drifting Slim, Junior Brooks, Sunny Blair, Houston Boines, Charley Booker and Ernest Lane."

Roy Hawkins - Bad Luck And Forgotten Thrills

 "If ever an artist had a right to claim the blues, it was Roy Hawkins. Born in Texas, he migrated to California in the late '30s, and by the mid-'40s the piano playing Hawkins was a fixture on the West Coast jazz and R&B scene. A car accident left him with a paralyzed arm, however, ending his piano career, but he was a subtle songwriter and singer, and his autobiographical "Why Do Everything Happen to Me" was a high-charting R&B hit in 1950.

The following year another Hawkins original, "The Thrill Is Gone," attracted some attention, but not as much as B.B. King's cover version would get some 20 years later in 1970. Even then Hawkins continued to be snake bit, since royalties from King's hit version of "The Thrill Is Gone" were mistakenly assigned to a pair of writers who had written a completely different song with the same title.

By the mid-'50s, Hawkins was essentially a forgotten man as far as the music business was concerned, and although he recorded sporadically through 1961, he never managed anything beyond regional success. Even the year of his death is up for debate, but is believed to have been in 1973.

His complete obscurity is baffling, really, since his recorded work was always consistent, even compelling and poetic. Bad Luck Is Falling: The Modern, RPM and Kent Recordings, Vol. 2 follows Ace Records' first volume of Hawkins' collected work, 2000s The Thrill Is Gone, and collects what's left of his tracks for the various Bihari Brothers imprints (Modern, RPM and Kent) between 1949 and 1961, as well as four tracks from his 1948 session for Down Town Records, the masters of which were in turn leased to Modern. An alternate take of "The Thrill Is Gone" from 1951 is here (the released single version is on The Thrill Is Gone), and Hawkins gives the song a much more ominous and less-resigned feel than King's big-band version.

 Other highlights include a fine cover of Percy Mayfield's "What a Fool I Was," a lovely version of Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's "September Song," a rendition of Richard M. Jones' oft-covered "Trouble in Mind," and a pair of solid originals, the ragged, New Orleans-styled "Welcome Home" and the eerie, creeping urban blues sound of Hawkins' 1948 version of "Strange Land" (a 1961 remake of the song is also included here). All good stuff, although listeners may want to check out the first volume, The Thrill Is Gone, first.

That Hawkins continues to be so little-known is inexcusable, and that there is only one known photograph of him seems impossible to believe. He is well due for rediscovery, but if Hawkins' personal history is any guide, something is bound to go wrong, so pick up these two volumes from Ace before they inexplicably go up in smoke.

Ike Turner - Before Tina, Parts 2 & 3

There are two links here, the first covers the session material from 1954-56, the second focuses on the reformed Kings of Rhythm with front men Billy Gales and later Tommy Hodge. I've run out of pictures so I've included the covers of some of the sources for this material.

 After recording Rocket 88, Turner became a session musician and production assistant for Sam Philips and the Bihari Brothers, commuting to Memphis from Clarksdale. He began by contributing piano to a B. B. King track "You Know I Love You", which brought him to the attention of Modern Records' Joe Bihari, who requested Turner's services on another King track 3 O'Clock Blues. It became King's first hit.

Wishing to utilize Turner's Delta music connections, Bihari contracted him as a talent scout, paying him to search out southern musicians who might be worth recording. Turner also wrote new material for the artists to perform, which, unknown to him the Bihari Brothers registered the copyright on. Turner estimated he "wrote 78 hit records for the Biharis." Artists Turner sourced for Modern included Bobby Bland, Howlin' Wolf and Rosco Gordon. He played piano on sessions with them and other lesser known artists such as The Prisonaires, Ben Burton Orchestra, Little Milton, Matt Cockrell and Dennis Binder. Turner was contracted to the Bihari Brothers, but he continued to work for Sam Phillips at Sun Studios, where he was effectively the in-house producer. This sometimes created conflicts of interest. Turner cut two Howlin' Wolf tracks, "How Many More Years" and "Moanin' at Midnight," which Phillips sent to Chess Records. Turner then took Wolf across the state border, re-recorded the tracks without Phillips' or Chess's knowledge, and sent the results to Modern/RPM. Turner also attempted to poach Elmore James from Trumpet Records and record him for Modern. Trumpet found out and Modern had to cancel the record. However James did eventually sign for Modern, with Turner playing piano on a recording of James at Club Desire in Canton.

In 1956, Turner took a reformed version of the Kings of Rhythm north to St. Louis, including Kizart, Sims, O'Neal, Jessie Knight Jr and Turner's third wife Annie Mae Wilson Turner on piano and vocals. It was at this time that Turner moved over to playing guitar to accommodate Annie Mae, taking lessons from Willie Kizart to improve.

Turner maintained strict discipline over the band, insisting they lived in a large house with him so he could conduct early morning rehearsals at a moment's notice. Up until the age of 30, Turner was teetotal and had never taken drugs. He insisted all members of his band also adopt this policy, and would fire anyone he even suspected of breaking the rules. He would also fine or physically assault band-members if they played a wrong note and controlled everything from the arrangements down to the suits the band wore onstage. Starting off playing at a club called Kingsbury's in Madison, Illinois, within a year Turner had built up a full gig schedule, establishing his group as one of the most highly rated on the St. Louis club circuit, vying for popularity with their main competition, Sir John's Trio featuring Chuck Berry. The bands would play all-nighters in St. Louis, then cross the river to the clubs of East St. Louis, Illinois, and continue playing until dawn. In St. Louis for the first time Turner, was exposed to a developing white teenage audience who were excited by R&B. Clubs Turner played in St. Louis included Club Imperial, which was popular with white teenagers, The Dynaflow, The Moonlight Lounge, Club Riviera and the West End Walters. In East St. Louis, his group played Kingsbury's, Club Manhattan and The Sportsman.

In between live dates, Turner took the band to Cincinnati to record for Federal in 1956 and Chicago for Cobra/Artistic in 1958, as well as fulfilling his contract as a session musician back at Sun. He befriended St. Louis R&B fan Bill Stevens, who in 1958 set up the short-lived record label, Stevens, financed by his father Fred. Turner recorded numerous sessions for Stevens with various vocalists and musician lineups, of which seven singles were released (these are collected on the Red Lightnin' compilation "Hey Hey- The Legendary Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm"/RL0047). Turner was not credited on any of the Stevens releases as he still had months to run on his Sun contract and did not want to cause friction with Sam Philips. He recorded a solo rockabilly country single under the anagrammatical name Icky Renrut. None of the Stevens records had wide distribution and the operation ceased after a year.

In 1959 Turner was charged with what he described as "interstate transportation of forged cheques and conspiracy", and was forced to stand trial in St. Louis. At the first trial the jury failed to reach verdict, and at the retrial a year later Turner was found not guilty.


It is kind of amazing how much there is to Ike long before that girl whom he christens "Tina Turner" (he made up the name and owned the rights to it) ever enters the picture, eh? People in the modern world tend to believe the ridiculous Disney fiction of her book and movie which even Tina has acknowledged is utter trash. Ike did indeed run his band with an iron fist, it is in large part why they were so much better than the competition and more successful. I have no doubt that when he began using Cocaine and alcohol that he became an abusive personality, as nearly EVERYONE does behind that powerful pair of personality twisting drugs. The picture of him as some sort of parasite ridding her coat-tail, however, is FAR from the truth. He made her as an artist after she badgered him for months on end to let her sing and even then he did not want her in the band. Only her dogged insistence eventually broke him down.

Ike Turner - Early Ike 1951 - 1953

It is hard to think of ANYONE more seminal and influential in the beginnings of R&B than Ike Turner. He is just EVERYWHERE and playing with everyone while writing and producing for them
 and he is discovering and developing new talent for multiple labels. His own bands are the tightest, most hardworking groups around and he does not tolerate drugs or excessive drinking in his own working bands. (Later he developed a 15 year cocaine habit with the drinking that accompanies it but initially he is a straight arrow.) He was a perfectionist who drove his touring bands hard and wasn't always well liked for that long before Disney concocted their tales that branded him a national villain. (even Tina has admitted publicly that almost nothing  shown about Ike in the movie was factual, she was just mad because he owned the copyright on her stage name!) If Dave Bartholomew was the Architect of New Orleans R&B then Ike Turner fills that roll everywhere else but the West Coast where it was Johnny Otis and Maxwell Davis. 

Turner was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on November 5, 1931, to Beatrice Cushenberry (1909–195?), a seamstress, and Isaiah (or Izear) Luster Turner, a Baptist minister. The younger of two siblings, Turner had an elder sister, named Ethel May. Turner believed for many years that he was named Izear Luster Turner, Jr. after his father, until he discovered his name was registered as Ike Wister Turner while applying for his first passport. He never got to discover the origin of his name, as by the time he discovered it, his parents were both dead.

Turner said when he was very young, he witnessed his father beaten and left for dead by a white mob. His father lived for 3 years as an invalid in a tent in the family's yard before succumbing to his injuries. Writer and blues historian Ted Drozdowski has told a different version of the story, stating that Turner's father died in an industrial accident. His mother remarried to a man called Philip Reeves. Turner said his stepfather was a violent alcoholic and they often argued and fought, after one fight Turner knocked out his stepfather with a piece of wood. He then ran away to Memphis where he lived rough for a few days before returning to his mother. He reconciled with his stepfather years later, buying a house for him in the 1950s around the time Turner's mother died.

Turner recounted how he was introduced to sex at the age of six by a middle-aged lady called Miss Boozie. Walking past her house to school, she would invite him to help feed her chickens, and then take him to bed. This continued for some years. Turner claimed to not be traumatized by this, commenting that "in those days they didn't call it abuse, they called it fun". He was also sexually molested by two other women before he was twelve.

Around his eighth year Turner also began frequenting the local Clarksdale radio station, WROX, located in the Alcazar Hotel in downtown Clarksdale. WROX was notable as one of the first radio stations to employ a black DJ, Early Wright, to play blues records. DJ John Frisella put Turner to work as he watched the record turntables. Soon he was left to play records while the DJ went across the street for coffee. Turner described this as "the beginning of my thing with music." This led to Turner being offered a job by the station manager as the DJ on the late-afternoon shift. The job meant he had access to all the new releases. On his show he played a diverse range of music, playing Louis Jordan alongside early rockabilly records.


Turner was inspired to learn the piano on a visit to his friend Ernest Lane's house, where he heard Pinetop Perkins playing Lane's fathers' piano. Turner convinced his mother to pay for him to have piano lessons with a teacher; however he did not take to the formal style of playing, instead spending the money in a pool hall, then learning boogie-woogie from Perkins. . He taught himself to play guitar by playing along to old blues records. At some point in the 1940s, Turner moved into Clarksdale’s Riverside Hotel, run by Mrs. Z.L. Ratliff. The Riverside played host to a great number of touring musicians, including Sonny Boy Williamson II and Duke Ellington. Turner associated and played music with many of these guests.

In high school, a teenage Turner joined a huge local rhythm ensemble called The Tophatters, who played dances around Clarksdale, Mississippi. Members of the band were taken from Clarksdale musicians, and included Turner's school friends Raymond Hill, Eugene Fox and Clayton Love. The Tophatters played big-band arrangements from sheet music. Turner, who was trained by ear and could not sight read music, would learn the pieces by listening to a version on record at home, pretending to be reading the music during rehearsals. At one point, the Tophatters had over 30 members, and eventually split into two, with one act who wanted to carry on playing dance-band jazz calling themselves The Dukes of Swing and the other, led by Turner becoming the Kings of Rhythm. Said Turner: "We wanted to play blues, boogie-woogie and Roy Brown, Jimmy Liggins, Roy Milton." Turner would keep the name of the band throughout his career, although it went through considerable lineup changes over time. Their early stage performances consisted largely of covers of popular jukebox hits. They were helped by B. B. King, who helped them to get a steady weekend gig and recommended them to Sam Phillips at Sun Studio. In the 50s, Turner's group got regular airplay from live sessions on WROX-Am, and KFFA radio in Helena, Arkansas.
Sun Studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, where in 1951 Turner and the Kings of Rhythm recorded Rocket 88, one of the first Rock and roll records. Turner would later work at the studio as in-house producer for Sam Phillips.

Around the time he was starting out with The Kings of Rhythm, Turner and Ernest Lane became unofficial roadies for blues singer Robert Nighthawk, who often played live on WROX. The pair sat in playing drums and piano on radio sessions and supported Nighthawk at blues dates around Clarksdale. Playing with Nighthawk allowed Turner to gig regularly and build up playing experience. He would also provide backup for Sonny Boy Williamson II (Alex "Rice" Miller), playing gigs alongside other local blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf, Charley Booker, Elmore James, Muddy Waters and Little Walter. Performances typically lasted for about twelve hours, from early evening to dawn the next day. Turner described the scenario to an interviewer:
“ We played juke joints; we'd start playing at 8.00pm and wouldn't get off till 8.00am. No intermissions, no breaks. If you had to go to the restroom, well that's how I learned to play drums and guitar! When one had to go, someone had to take his place.

It was around this time that Turner and his band came up with the song, "Rocket 88". The song was written as the group drove down to Memphis to record at Sam Phillips' Sun Studios. Turner came up with the introduction and first verse, the band collaborated on the rest with Brenston, the band's saxophonist, on vocals. Phillips sold the recording to Chess in Chicago, who released it under the name "Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats". The record sold approximately half a million copies. In Turner's account book he recorded that he was paid $20. The success of Rocket 88 caused tensions and ego clashes in the band, causing Jackie Brenston to leave to pursue a solo career, taking some of the original members with him. Turner, without a band and disappointed his hit record had not created more opportunities for him, disbanded the Kings of Rhythm for a few years.

After recording Rocket 88, Turner became a session musician and production assistant for Sam Philips and the Bihari Brothers, commuting to Memphis from Clarksdale. He began by contributing piano to a B. B. King track "You Know I Love You", which brought him to the attention of Modern Records's, Joe Bihari, who requested Turner's services on another King track 3 O'Clock Blues. It became King's first hit.

I've broken some 5 cd's worth of compilations down into three digestible bites that do not overlap and are sorted by the vocalist. I think it makes for a much better listen that way and it let's you see Ike's Kings of Rhythm in a variety of settings, this first set covers 1951 to 1953 and has two killer vocalists in Jackie Brenston and Johnny O'Neal. I have left the covers from the original compilations on the files but there is no real point in being album-centric when all of this material was released as singles.  KC