LOS ANGELES BLUES Vol. 1 & 2 (new links)

LOS ANGELES BLUES Volume 1 & 2(New Links)

Cf Texte (cf text and discography):
https://jukegh.blogspot.com/2018/06/los-angeles-blues-volume-1.html

LOS ANGELES BLUES Volume 1

cf Texte (see text) and discography:

https://jukegh.blogspot.com/2018/09/los-angeles-blues-volume-2.html

LOS ANGELES BLUES/ Volume 2

IONA WADE/ Complete Recordings

IONA WADE: Complete Recordings

           

Iona Wade is certainly not a well known female blues singer. Like many of her peers from the immediate post war era she certainly was more interested to play and sing in shows, to be the featured singer of jazz-R&B bands which enjoyed constant touring and well paid venues than to record under her own name and try the near impossible task for a woman at that time to handle bands of her own. Although she had anyway waxed a nice output of recordings as Iona Wade, Iona Harlin or as the singer of great R&B/jazz bands like those of Sherman Williams, Bill Gaither, Joe Lutcher, Eric Von Schlitz or James Moody.

            Very few is known about her life and whereabouts and there are only one or two mentions of her in blues and jazz magazines. According to Blues/ A regional experience (by Eric Le Blanc and Bob Eagle), she was born in march 1918 in Indianapolis from James Wade and Allie Ruth Kennedy. She started a singing career with pianist and bandleader Isaac "Snookum" Russell around 1942. But her first records were made as the featured vocalist of Sherman Williams' band. Sherman, a saxophonist and bandleader from Houston has a fairly large discography recorded in Nashville, Houston and Los Angeles in which Iona delivers silky and smooth vocals on a good number of blues and ballads. The newspapers of the time are praising her vocal talents, her stage control and her sex-appeal:

            " With Sherman Williams will go of course the lovely and sweet singer Iona Wade who has been the rage at the Peacock Club for over five months" (Sid Thompson in "The Houston Informer", February 1947)

            Iona and Sherman are constantly playing in and around Houston's best clubs, blacks or whites (!) during the late 1940's. With Sherman Williams, Iona toured nationally back to back with Johnny Moore's Three Blazes in 1947 and opened for blues shouter and hit maker Wynonie Harris.

            She seemed to have left Williams somewhere during the early 1949 and we found her again in the studios in Los Angeles, this time fronting Bill Gaither's Madcaps band for a very good recording session. The next year, she is back in Houston (under the name Iona Harlin?), waxing some rare 45s with saxophonist Eric Von Schlitz's Big Six band who feature ace pianist Jay Mc Shann. After that, her appearances are getting scarce apart a title in Los Angeles with Joe Lutcher and an odd appearance with saxophonist James Moody's band in 1954.

           

She returns in the studio for a last 45 in 1962, this time with saxophonist and bandleader Wilbert Jiggs Hemsley for the small independent Vistone label located in San Pedro, California and owned by former Sam Phillips' employee Pete Korelich. Iona then disappears completely and we don't know what she became and when or where she probably died.

            We have tried to gather almost all Iona's recordings but three titles from the super rare Eric Von Schlitz's sessions are still missing. A .mp3 copy would be greatly appreciated.

            A lot of thanks to those who made possible this article and compilation: bluesjumpers33, Jose Yrrabera, and the websites Dead Wax and particularly Wired for Sound, always on top for providing infos from old Texas' recordings.

                                              Gérard HERZHAFT

Iona Wade, vcl; Sherman Williams, a-sax; Charles Gillum, tpt; William Jones, t-sax; Skippy Brooks, pno; James Brown, bs; Alvin Woods, dms. Nashville, Tn. may 1947

01. Keep your man at home

02. Take a ride

Iona Wade, vcl; Sherman Williams, a-sax; Charles Gillum, tpt; Williams Jones, t-sax; Skippy Brooks, pno; William Roberts, bs; Diz Small, dms. Los Angeles, Ca. december 1948

03. So easy

04. It's you in my heart

05. Hello

06. Reminiscence with the blues

Iona Wade, vcl; Sherman Williams, a-sax; Charles Gillum, tpt; Williams Jones, t-sax; Skippy Brooks, pno; William Roberts, bs; Diz Small, dms. Houston, Tx. january 1949

07. Why don't you tell me so?

08. No one in my heart

Iona Wade, vcl; Bill Gaither, t-sax; His Madcaps, band. Los Angeles, Ca. 16 august 1949

09. Lonesome baby blues

10. That's the corkescrew

11. Bouncing with Bill

Iona Wade, vcl; Jay Mc Shann, pno; Eric Von Schlitz, t-sax; His Big Six, band. Houston, Tx. april 1950

12. Come on in, drink some gin

13. Take my number baby

Missin' you

Iona Wade, vcl; Jay Mc Shann, pno; Eric Von Schlitz, t-sax; His Big Six, band. Houston, Tx. mai 1950

Gonna make a change

Keep your man at home

Iona Wade, vcl;  Joe Lutcher, a-sax; band. Huntington Park, Ca. 1952

14. Why not tell me now

Iona Wade, vcl; James Moody, a-sax/t-sax; Dave Burns, tpt; William Shepherd, tb; Pee Wee Moore, b-sax; Jimmy Boyd, pno; John Latham, bs; Joe Harris, dms. Hackensack, Ca. 12 april 1954

15. That man o'mine

16. Over the rainbow

17. Jack Raggs

18. Mambo with Moody

Iona Wade, vcl; Wilbert Jiggs Hemsley, t-sax; His Orchestra, band. Los Angeles, Ca. 1962

19. I love you baby

20. No more dogging

IRENE SCRUGGS: The voice of the blues

IRENE SCRUGGS: The Voice of the Blues

           

Irene Scruggs est une des meilleures et des plus méconnues des premières chanteuses de blues, gravant plusieurs chefs d'œuvre dont bien sûr le remarquable The voice of the blues.

            Irene naît Nolan(d) (ou peut-être Smith) à Lamont (Ms) dans le comté de Bolivar le 7 décembre 1901 et on ne connaît pas grand chose de son enfance. La pianiste Mary Lou Williams l'a signalée installée à Saint Louis et considérée comme une chanteuse de Vaudeville d'une renommée certaine vers 1919-20. Irene sera d'ailleurs embauchée par des tournées de Vaudeville dans lesquelles elle chante et danse et engrange une forte réputation avec des numéros et des chansons à connotation sexuelle, très osées pour l'époque.

            Cependant, contrairement à la plupart de ses collègues du Vaudeville, les racines rurales de son chant et de sa musique sont très apparentes dès ses premiers enregistrements réalisés à New York en compagnie du pianiste Clarence Williams (qui l'a certainement découverte dans le circuit du Vaudeville et l'a emmenée dans les studios) le 30 avril et 1er mai 1924.

            Il lui faut attendre ensuite le 23 avril 1926 pour enregistrer accompagnée de King Oliver et son orchestre deux de ses compositions qui ont apparemment connu un succès commercial puisqu'elle les réenregistre l'année suivante dans un contexte orchestral très différent. Irene revient alors de façon continue dans les studios les années suivantes, enregistrant sous son nom mais aussi divers pseudonymes (Chocolate Brown, Dixie Nolan) et en compagnie des meilleurs musiciens de blues et de jazz de cette époque: Blind Blake (avec lequel elle se produit sur scène, là aussi en duo "osé"), Lonnie Johnson, Johnny Hodges...

            En août 1930, Irene enregistre sa plus belle séance à Richmond (Indiana) pour le label Gennett. Ces morceaux, d'inspiration très nettement rurale, dégagent une puissance et un feeling dus au chant émouvant et profond de Irene Scruggs ainsi qu'à son guitariste qui utilise avec merveille le slide et qui pourrait être selon certaines sources James

"Kokomo" Arnold.

            Irene tourne et enregistre ensuite avec le pianiste Little Brother Montgomery mais elle abandonne progressivement la scène et la musique pour des raisons inconnues. Et à la fin des années 1930, elle quitte les Etats Unis en compagnie de sa fille Baby Leazar (qui se produisait avec sa mère sur scène dès l'âge de neuf ans) pour s'installer à Paris puis à Londres. Après la guerre, elle participe à plusieurs émissions radiophoniques pour la BBC mais se consacre surtout à manager sa fille, la danseuse Baby Scruggs qui connaît un énorme succès dans les années 1950 avec des spectacles "exotiques" et

sexy.

            Irene Scruggs décède à Trèves en Allemagne le 20 juillet 1981 et son œuvre enregistrée (qui pour elle était sans doute secondaire par rapport à ses performances sur scène) mérite amplement une réévaluation.

                                                                       Gérard HERZHAFT

           

Irene Scruggs is one of the best and unfortunately not very well known among the so-called Female Blues Singers from the 1920's. And she has a much more down home and rural feel that most of her colleagues who came (like her) from the Vaudeville Theatres. She has recorded several deep blues masterpieces like the all-time classic The Voice of the Blues.

            Irene was born probably Nolan(d) (or maybe Smith) in Lamont (Ms), Bolivar County on 7 December 1901. One knows nothing of her childhood. She is first mentioned by jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams as a renowned young singer and dancer at the Saint Louis Vaudeville theatres around 1919-20. Irene will effectively tour the Vaudeville circuit and this is probably where she was noticed by pianist and producer Clarence Williams who gave her her first studio experience on 30 April/ 1st May 1924.

            She has to wait two years to record again (April 1926) this time with two of her own penned blues and backed by no other that King Oliver and his band! She certainly enjoys some commercial success with this record for she records again the two same titles but this time accompanied only by guitar (the great Lonnie Johnson) and piano in a much more mainstream blues feel.

            After that, she will record extensively the following years under her name as well as several nicknames for contractual reasons (Chocolate Brown, Dixie Nolan) backed by some of the best blues musicians of the decade, particularly Blind Blake with whom she toured, sharing the stage as a successful risqué duo!

            And in August 1930 she records her greatest session at Richmond's Indiana studios for the Gennett label. This time the feeling is particularly down home with a powerful moving vocal by Irene and the sublime guitar part (with slide) probably (as some sources declare) played by James "Kokomo" Arnold.

            Irene records a last session with pianist Little Brother Montgomery and she tours the USA with him the following years, reportedly stealing the show with her sexy risqué act. But she progressively gives up music and finally leaves the United States with his young daughter Baby Leazar Scruggs (who danced on stage with her mother since she was nine years old) for Europe, settling in Paris then London. After the war, Irene Scruggs took part of several radio broadcastings, particularly for the BBC but mostly managed her daughter career. Baby Scruggs enjoys an enormous success as a go-go exotic dancer during the 1950's all over Europe.

            Irene Scruggs dies in Trier (Germany) on 20 July 1981 and her recording works (that was for her very secondary to her stage career) certainly deserves a strong revaluation.

                                                                       Gérard HERZHAFT

Irene Scruggs, vcl; Clarence Williams, pno. New York City, 30 April-1 May 1924

01. Everybody's blues

02. Why he left me I don't know

03. Cruel Papa but a good man to have around

04. My daddy's calling me

Irene Scruggs, vcl; King Oliver, crt; Kid Ory, tb; Albert Nicholas, clt/s-sax; Luis Russell, pno; Bud Scott, bjo; Paul Barbarin, dms. Chicago, Ill. 23 April 1926

05. Home town blues

06. Sorrow Valley blues n°1

Irene Scruggs, vcl; Lonnie Johnson, g; DeLoise Searcy, pno. Saint Louis, Mo. 2 May 1927

07. Lonesome Valley blues

08. Sorrow Valley blues n°2

Irene Scruggs, vcl; Johnny Hodges, pno/vcls; g; g. Memphis, Tn. 28 september 1929

09. Worried love I & II

Irene Scruggs, vcl; Blind Blake, g/vcls. Grafton, Wisc. 26-28 May 1930

10. Stingaree man blues

11. Itching heel

12. You've got what I want

13. Cherry Hill blues

14. Married man blues

Irene Scruggs, vcl; prob. James "Kokomo" Arnold, g; Norman Ebron, pno. Richmond, In. 30 August 1930

15. The voice of the blues

16. You've got what I want

17. If you want to give me some

18. My back to the wall

19. Borrowed love n°1

Irene Scruggs, vcl; Little Brother Montgomery, pno. Grafton, Wisc. September 1930

20. Good grinding

21. Borrowed love n°2

22. Must get mine in front

23. Back to the wall

This is a repost from public demands with new links.