CHICAGO/ The Blues Yesterday Volume 24

CHICAGO/ The Blues Yesterday/ Volume 24

            

Our most popular Chicago/ The Blues Yesterday Series are here again... for a 24th Volume!

            Jimmy Binkley (born James H. Binkley 1st March 1923 in Chicago) was a popular blues, R&B and jazz pianist and bandleader who was quite active in the studios during the 1950's, playing several times a week in ballrooms and night clubs. He recorded behind many singers and the recordings under his own name are quite interesting, featuring vocalists like Harold Burrage and George Green. He relocated in Peoria (Illinois) during the early 1960's, becoming a local favorite until his death on 26th January 2015.

            Pianist and singer Jesse James (maybe a nickname) remains largely a mysterious artist. He was from Cincinnati, quite active during the 1930's and, according to Pigmeat Jarrett interviewed by Steve Tracy, Jesse was mainly a noted moonshiner who also played piano on the side. He recorded behind Walter Coleman and under his own name only those four very down home tracks at Chicago in 1936. His version of Roosevelt Sykes' Highway 61 is particularly striking.

           

Floyd Smith (1917-1982) is reputedly one of the first jazz and blues guitar player having recorded with an electric guitar (in fact, it was George Barnes in march 1938 and you may go years before if you accept to include Western Swing as a jazz form). Floyd recorded as a sideman in the early 1930's with different bands, particularly Andy Kirk's with his memorable solo Floyd's guitar blues that he would record again several times during his career. He then formed his own trio in Chicago, recording a handful of 78s in the Windy City before joining Bill Doggett and touring and recording until his death.

           

And then here are Bertha Chippe Hill's postwar Chicago recordings. Bertha (born Charleston, SC, 15 March 1905) was a star during the 1920's, in the Vaudeville circuit as well as on theatres and clubs. She was singing, dancing, playing the comedy and started a successful prewar recording career in 1925 for Okeh, waxing a good number of blues backed by stars of the era like Louis Armstrong, Richard M. Jones, Lonnie Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell and Tampa Red. After 1929, she retired from singing to raise her many children. She resumed her musical career in 1946, enjoying quite a following and even appearing at the Carnegie Hall and touring Europe. She died untimely when she was run over by a car in a street of New York on 7 May 1950.

JIMMY BINKLEY, pno; band. Chicago, Ill. 26 mars 1951

01. Nite life

02. Way down boogie (vcl: Harold Burrage)

Hot smoke

Jimmy Binkley, pno; George Green, vcl/dms, band. Chicago, Ill. février 1953

03. Say hey Sugar Ray

04. Finance man (vcl: George Green)

05. Brand new rockin' chair (vcl: George Green)

06. Midnite wail

Jimmy Binkley, pno; band. Chicago, Ill. juillet 1953

07. Blue blue night

08. The judge (vcl: George Green)

Jimmy Binkley, pno; band. Chicago, Ill. 6 janvier 1954

09. Boogie on the hour

10. Wine, wine, wine (vcl: George Green)

Jimmy Binkley, pno; band. Chicago, Ill. 24 janvier 1956

11. You made a boo-boo (vcl: unknown)

Messin' around (Thanks to Apesville for sharing this rare track)

Jimmy Binkley, vcl; band. Chicago, Ill. décembre 1956 (as Boogaloo and his Gallant Crew)

Talk about a party + Big fat lie (Thanks to Apesville for sharing those rare tracks)

JESSE "PIANO" JAMES, vcl/pno. Chicago, Ill. 1936

12. Highway 61 blues

13. Lonesome day blues

14. Southern Casey Jones

15. Sweet Patuni

FLOYD SMITH, g; Andy Kirk, b-sax; horns; Mary Lou Williams, pno; Booker Collins, bs; Ben Thigpen, dms. New York City, 16 mars 1939

16. Floyd's guitar blues

Floyd Smith, g;  Nat Jones, a-sax; Bill Huff, pno; Booker Collins, bs; Curtis Walker, dms. Chicago, Ill. décembre 1948

17. Floyd's guitar blues (Hy Tone)

Floyd Smith, vcl/g; Bill Huff, pno; Booker Collins, bs. Chicago, Ill. 8 juin 1949

18. Blue moods

19. Saturday nite boogie

BERTHA "CHIPPIE" HILL, vcl; Lee Collins, tpt; J.H. Shayne, pno; John Lindsay, bs; Baby Dodds, dms. Chicago, Ill. 4 février 1946

20. Charleston blues

21. How long blues

Bertha "Chippie" Hill, vcl; Lee Collins, tpt; Lovie Austin, pno; John Lindsay, bs; Baby Dodds, dms. Chicago, Ill. 5 février 1946

22. Trouble in mind

23. Careless love

24. Around the clock blues

25. Nobody knows you when you're down and out

Bertha "Chippie" Hill, vcl; Montana Taylor, pno; Almond Leonard, kazoo/wbd. Chicago, Ill. 18 avril 1946

26. Worried jailhouse blues

27. Black market blues

28. Mistreatin' Mr Dupree

DETROIT BLUES MASTERS/ Volume 14

DETROIT BLUES MASTERS/ Volume 14

           

For this 14th opus of our Detroit Blues Masters Series, we are featuring some more obscure Detroit and Toledo dwellers who nevertheless waxed some good to great blues.

            Alberta Adams (Roberta Louise Osborne born 2 July 1917 in Indianapolis and died on 25 December 2014 in Detroit) is certainly well known thanks to her "rediscovery" during the late XXth Century, a time when she recorded several very good albums and appeared on stages a little bit everywhere. But her recording debuts didn't bring her neither fame nor money. We feature here four from the five fine tracks she recorded in 1953 and 1962. Very much a great talent who has been too much neglected during her prime years.

            Fred Harris is a very obscure piano and organ player from Toledo, a city

100 kilometers South of Detroit situated in Ohio. He has recorded seven titles between 1950 and 1957 as Fred Harris and his Orchestra or The Red Tops Organ Trio who featured the hard blowing tenor saxophonist and sometimes singer Big Joe Burrell.

            Singer Alex Thomas has started as a vocalist and guitar player with no other than famed bands of Paul Williams and King Porter in 1947 and 1948 but his records were issued only years later and under the nickname...Muddy Waters or Muddy Walters! He recorded under his (almost) own name as Playboy Thomas in 1953. But whoever he was, his records are fine examples of Detroit blues.

            I must confess my total ignorance of who was the fine soul blues singer Irene Scott who recorded a handful of tracks in Detroit during the late 1960's backed by the Chicago band of the Scott Brothers. She is of course probably a relative of this musical family.

            And last but not least two much more downhome blues tracks by singer-guitarist Earl Chatman (sometimes spelled Chapman) from 1958. Chatman had also recorded a test for Fortune Records some years earlier in the company of pianist Henry Smith.

            Much of the meager facts I have been able to grab for this article come from the excellent website Detroit Blues Society. And of course every additional details about those very obscure bluesmen/women would be great!

                                                          Gérard HERZHAFT

ALBERTA ADAMS (Roberta Louise Osborne), vcl; Sonny Cohn, tpt; Leon Washington, t-sax; Mc Kinley Easton, b-sax; Earl Washington, pno; Jimmy Richardson, bs; Red Saunders, dms. Detroit, Mi. 16 July 1953

01. Messin' around with the blues

02. Remember

This morning

Alberta Adams, vcl; band. Detroit, Mi. March 1962

03. I got a feeling

04. Without your love

FRED HARRIS, vcl/pno; Frank Mc Kinley, tpt; William Newsum Jr, a-sax; Clarence Sherrill, bs; Erman Terry, dms. Toledo, Oh. 1950

05. Sad man blues

06. Cincinnati breakdown

07. Uptown

Fred Harris, og; Big Joe Burrell, t-sax; Louis Lee, dms. Toldeo, Oh. 1957

08. Organ rocker

09. In love with a woman (vcl: Big Joe Burrell)

10. Flang dang do

11. The bull

ALEX THOMAS (as Muddy Walters), vcl; Paul Williams, a-sax; John Lawton, tpt; Walter Cox, t-sax; T.J. Fowler, pno; Hank Ivory, bs; Clarence Stamps, dms. Detroit, Mi. 5 septembre 1947

12. Way late

Alex Thomas (as Muddy Walters), vcl; King Porter, tpt; Wild Bill Moore, t-sax; Detroit Count, pno; bs; dms. Detroit, Mi. 1948

13. Dissatisfied

14. Good morning pretty baby

Baby look at you

Alex Thomas (as Playboy Thomas), vcl/g; Floyd Taylor, pno; band. Detroit, Mi. 1953

15. Too much pride

16. No doubt about it

17. End of the world

Time will tell

IRENE SCOTT, vcl; The Scotts Brothers, band. Detroit, Mi. 1967

18. I'm stuck with my baby

19. Why do you treat me like you do?

Irene Scott, vcl; The Scott Brothers, band. Detroit, Mi. 1969

20. Everyday worries

21. You're no good

EARL CHATMAN, vcl; band. Detroit, Mi. 1958

22. Love you baby

23. Take two steps back

NEW LINKS/ Nouveaux liens

NEW LINKS/ Nouveaux Liens

 

Pour répondre à des demandes, voici de nouveaux liens pour:

To answer some requests, here are new links for:

TABBY THOMAS/ Louisiana Swamp pop

BLUES GUITAR MASTERS Vol. 1 WILD JIMMY SPRUILL

BLUES GUITAR MASTERS Vol. 2: RENE HALL

Il est très compliqué de conserver ces liens plus ou moins longtemps. Aussi, utilisez les tant qu'ils durent si vous le souhaitez

It's very difficult to keep those links more or less available for a long time. So, if you want em, grab'em while it lasts!