DETROIT BLUES MASTERS/ Volume 13

DETROIT BLUES MASTERS/ Vol. 13

            Let's start this new volume of our Detroit Blues Masters' series with the legendary singer-pianist Detroit Count, "legendary" mostly for his classic two sided storytelling of the Hastings Street Opera recorded by the great Joe Von Battle and reissued umpteenth times! But Bob White, the real name of Detroit Count has much more to offer. Bob, born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, around 1920 went to Detroit in 1938, seemingly already an accomplished barrelhouse pianist. He recorded as soon as 1940 with The Florida Kid and under his real name. His whereabouts during the war years are shady but it seems that he was drafted and served on the Pacific zone. Anyway, he recorded again in 1948 and 1949 as Detroit Count, then a well known character and musician of the burgeoning Hastings Street scene. He is at ease either on a boogie piece like Detroit boogie (Piano boogie) or a cocktail lounge piece. The early 1950's find him playing the piano and the organ Hammond and singing as a member of the Emmit Slay Trio. He waxed a last session in 1954 with the Sax Kari band that I unfortunately have been unable to get a copy. He disappeared from the musical scene after the mid-1950's and seems to have passed in Detroit around 1970.

           

Although he recorded his first tracks in Detroit, singer and guitarist Johnny Wright is certainly not a Detroit blues performer. Born in Centerville, Tennessee February 20 1930, he began to sing and play guitar at an early age alongside his brothers Sherman (who played harmonica) and George (at the fiddle). In 1950, Johnny went to Saint Louis to try his luck. In a couple of years, he had gained a great reputation playing regularly at the Cosmopolitan Club He was even a member of an early Chuck Berry's band! In 1953, seeking for work in Detroit, Johnny recorded for Joe Von Battle the autobiographic blues I was in Saint Louis/ I stayed down boy that were issued on the DeLuxe label. The record gained enough attention for Johnny to be recorded by Ike Turner in Saint Louis. Wright then formed his own blues band and recorded again for the local Stevens label. Always seeking more opportunities, Johnny moved to Los Angeles, joined Ike Turner's band, formed a new personal one to play regularly in Southern California. But the 1960's were lean years for the blues and Johnny had to find a day job at Terre Haute, Indiana in a steel mill while playing week ends in local clubs with a white band under the nickname "Rolling Stone". He thus recorded a late 45s with the Steve Rusin band and played locally until his death at his Terre Haute's home on 2 June 1988.

            Last but not least, singer Katie Watkins is a total unknown, having recorded two very down home blues in 1957-59, the first backed by the Sax Kari's band with Kari on guitar.

            Thanks to all of those who helped for those researches, particularly the Dave Kyle's article on the National Road Magazine.

                                               Gérard HERZHAFT

DETROIT BLUES MASTERS

Volume 13

DETROIT COUNT (Bob White), vcl/pno; Alfred Elkins, bs/vcls. Chicago, Ill. 7 November 1940

01. I'm the woogie man

02. Pullet and Hen blues

Detroit Count, vcl/pno. Detroit, Mi. 1948

03. Hastings Street Opera I & II

Detroit Count, vcl/pno; band. Detroit, Mi. 1948

04. I'm crazy about you

05. Hastings Street woogie man

06. Detroit boogie

07. Parrot Lounge boogie

Detroit Count, vcl/pno; King Porter, tpt; Wild Bill Moore, t-sax; band. Detroit, Mi. 1949

08. My last call

09. Little Tillie Willie

Detroit Count, vcl/og; Emmit Slay, g; Larry Jackson, dms. Detroit, Mi. 23 January 1953

10. You told me that you loved me

11. Brotherly love

Detroit Count, vcl/og; Emmit Slay, vcl/g; Larry Jackson, dms. New York City, 30 March 1953

12. I've learned my lesson

13. Be mine once more

14. Male call

Detroit Count, vcl/pno; Sax Kari, g; band. Detroit, Mi. 1954

Brand new gal

One room, the blues and you

JOHNNY WRIGHT, vcl/g; Band. Detroit, Mi. 17 November 1953

15. 54 blues

16. Boogie baby

17. I stayed down

18. I was in Saint Louis

19. She went away

20. Up boy

Johnny Wright, vcl/g; Raymond Hill, t-sax; Eddie Jones, t-sax; Ike Turner, g; pno; Jesse Knight Jr, bs; Eugene Washington, dms. Saint Louis, Mo. November 1955

21. The world is yours

22. Suffocate

Johnny Wright, vcl/g; Joe Whitfield, t-sax; bs; Joe Hunt, dms. Saint Louis, Mo. January 1959

23. Look at that chick

24. Gotta have you for myself

Johnny Wright, vcl/g; band. Los Angeles, Ca. 1962

25. Wine head

Who was?

Johnny Wright, vcl/g; Steve Rusin, hca; Billy Five Coats, pno; Dave Kyle, g; Steve Ridge, dms. Terre Haute, In. 1978

26. Move

27. Shut up

KATIE WATKINS, vcl; Sax Kari, g; Jimmy, bs; dms. Detroit, Mi. 1957

28. Trying to get you off my mind

Katie Watkins, vcl; band. Detroit, Mi. 1959

29. Don't take, give

Thanks to our friend Tom Thumb, we have now three 1977 tracks by Johnny Wright backed by Steve Rusin and band: Coal Shed + Johnny's bad air boogie + I was in Saint Louis (solo guitar version with Steve Rusin). Those titles are there: 

SHAKEY JAKE

SHAKEY JAKE/ Complete Studio Recordings

           

James D. Harris was born 12 April 1921 (or 1920) at Earle, Arkansas and raised on his parents' small farm. He came to Chicago still a teenager. There he listened to the numerous blues players of the Windy City and saw several times John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson who encouraged him to play the harmonica and sing the blues. He so started a musical career around 1945. With a warm and soft voice, he gained some recognition in Chicago clubs but always found a better way of living in working outside the music. Garage owner, taxi driver, cook, record label owner, strip club owner (and maybe a pimp!)... James earned his Shakey Jake's nickname as a noted gambler, shaking the dice (although some better informed people (?) once told me Jake was named "Shakey" by the numerous women he knew for his bedtime skills). Anyway, he resumed a full blues career during the 1950's in training, promoting, composing blues for and playing with his nephew, Magic Sam (Jake had just married Sam's aunt). Although he is not often credited for that, Shakey Jake played an important part in creating and defining the blues style that would be later on called "West Side Sound" and many of Magic Sam's songs were penned and arranged by his uncle.

            Under his name, Shakey Jake recorded two singles in 1957 and 1958 and two odd full albums for the then fledgling Bluesville label that were very bad received at the time of being issued but that finally are aging rather well. German promoters of the first American Folk Blues Festival wanted another and more famous harp player, also a Shakey, Big Walter Horton on the bill but Willie Dixon who was at the AFBF wheel in Chicago didn't want Walter because of him being not very reliable and instead took Shakey Jake. Jake fared quite well on the very successful tour, befriended with T-Bone Walker (and even won his shoes on cards!) but turned down several offers to record and play more in Europe. In 1968, he toured and recorded in California for the World Pacific label and feeling that the L.A. weather suited him better than windy Chicago's, he settled in Los Angeles where he became a favorite of the local young blues bands like Rod Piazza or William

Clarke. He opened a club (Safara Club), launched a record label (Good Time), recorded with his protégés. But the times were hard for Jake who lived in a very bad and dangerous area and had to sell discarded paper and cardboard to recycling centres for his bread and butter.

            Quite ill during the late 1980's, he finally came back to Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he died on 2 March 1990.

            He leaves us a nice blues heritage. We have gathered here almost all of his studio recordings that thus do not include his AFBF 1962 performances which are easily available elsewhere on CDs.

                                                           Gérard HERZHAFT

SHAKEY JAKE Discography

BLUES EN DISQUES

LE LIVRE DE L'HARMONICA