SAINT LOUIS JIMMY 1932-64

 

SAINT LOUIS JIMMY/ Complete Recordings

 

           

Goin' down slow, Soon forgotten, Murder in the first degree, Take the bitter with the sweet... ne sont que quelques unes des très nombreuses compositions de James Oden dit Poor Boy Burke dit Saint Louis Jimmy. Né à Nashville, Tn le 26 juin 1905 James Burke Oden est le fils d'un danseur qui décède alors que James est très jeune. Il sera élevé essentiellement dans un orphelinat. Il arrive à Saint Louis en 1917, apprend le piano et chante à l'église. Mais très vite il devient un adepte du blues dont la scène de Saint Louis est alors très riche. Il écrit des blues encore plus pour les musiciens de la ville que pour lui-même, joue avec Big Joe Williams et Roosevelt Sykes, chante dans des réceptions privées et des bars de voisinage tout en travaillant comme coiffeur. Des ennuis avec la police le poussent à quitter Saint louis en 1932 et aller s'établir à Chicago qui restera sa résidence jusqu'à sa mort. Il débute une carrière discographique cette année là (1932) qui durera une trentaine d'années enregistrant pour quantité de labels (Decca, Bluebird, Victor, Black & White, Columbia, Bullet, Duke, Miracle, Aristocrat, JOB, Mercury, Apollo, Savoy, Herald, Opera, Parrot...). Malgré l'énorme succès de son Goin' down slow, et un style très personnel (voix amère et désabusée, mêlant style parlé et chanté) ainsi que la très haute estime de ses pairs, Jimmy ne sera jamais considéré comme un artiste majeur du Chicago blues. A Chicago, St Louis Jimmy va devenir parolier, arrangeur, producteur, propriétaire de labels tel JOB et même copropriétaire d'un club à Indianapolis!. Un grave accident de voiture en 1957 le handicape considérablement et il passera alors l'essentiel de son temps à son domicile qui se trouve au rez-de-chaussée de la maison de son fidèle ami Muddy Waters. Dans les années 1960, le Blues Revival lui permet de graver quelques titres pour Delmark, Candid et Spivey ainsi qu'un album pour Bluesville.

            Jimmy décède à Chicago le 30 décembre 1977, laissant une œuvre importante que nous présentons ici dans son intégralité pour la première fois.

                                                           Gérard HERZHAFT

 

           

photo: Jacques Demêtre

Goin' down slow, Soon forgotten, Murder in the first degree, Take the bitter with the sweet... are only some of the numerous compositions by James Oden aka Poor Boy Burke aka Saint Louis Jimmy. Born in Nashville 26^th June 1905, James Burke Oden is the son of a dancer. His parents die when James is a very young boy and he then is raised in an orphanage. He moves in Saint louis in 1917, plays piano and sings in church. But soon he becomes enthralled with the very busy Saint Louis blues scene of that era and he is a very gifted blues composer who easily writes songs for his fellow musicians. He also sings and plays with people like Big Joe Williams and moreover Roosevelt Sykes, sings at private parties or local clubs while working as a hairdresser. Some troubles with the law urge him to leave Saint Louis to Chicago in 1932, a town where he will stay until his death. There he starts a recording career (1932) that will last more than thirty years, waxing tracks for numerous labels: Decca, Bluebird, Victor, Black & White, Columbia, Bullet, Duke, Miracle, Aristocrat, JOB, Mercury, Apollo, Savoy, Herald, Opera, Parrot... But despite the enormous success of his most famous blues,

Going down slow and a very personal singing style (a bitter and disillusioned voice, half sung half spoken) and the high reputation he had among his fellow bluesmen, Saint Louis Jimmy will never be considered a big name of the Chicago blues. He is a composer, A&R man, producer, label co-owner (JOB) and even owns a club in Indianapolis. In 1957 a very serious car accident curtails his musical career and he will stay mostly at his home which will be for a long time in the basement of his long time friend Muddy Waters! During the 1960's the Blues Revival brings him again in the studios, recording some tracks for Candid, Delmark and Spivey as well as a whole album for Bluesville.

            Jimmy dies in Chicago on 30^th December 1977, leaving a strong blues heritage and an important recorded works that we are entirely gathering here for the first time.

                                                           Gérard HERZHAFT

 

SAINT LOUIS JIMMY/ Discography

(courtesy Living Blues)

TARHEEL SLIM/ Complete Recordings

 

TARHEEL SLIM/ Complete Recordings

 

           

Tarheel Slim (real name Allen Rathel Bunn) has recorded many tracks in various styles, Gospel, doo-woop, pop, Country blues, R&B, Country and even proto-rockabilly... His best blues tracks are highly praised among blues buffs all around the world but a lot of his recordings (mostly outside the "real" blues idiom) have been neglected. This post tries to gather all the sides recorded by Tarheel Slim from the 50's to the 70's, whether blues or not, whether still great and masterpieces or corny and a little outdated. It thus gives a truer portrait of an important artist who left us much too early. There is still one track missing. If anyone got it and would share here it would be great.

Thanks to our friend Peter Diederichs here is the missing track (TARHEELSLIM28A Love bug bite me)

         Born 24 September 1923 at Bailey, NC. Allen Bunn worked as a child in the tobacco fields while listening to her mother's record collection, mainly Blind Boy Fuller's discs. He learned guitar with local bluesmen,

Brownie McGhee's lessons and Fuller's records and he joined the Selah Singers, a local Gospel group who would also record secular material as The Larks or The Four Barons. Bunn often sang lead and played guitar with the group, recording a few tracks during the late 40's/early 50's. That lead him to his first recording as a feature artist in 1951 under his real name Allen Bunn. Those records while excellent went nowhere and our man had to wait to meet New York City producer and record store owner Bobby Robinson to see his records being better distributed and enjoying good sales.

        

In 1955, Allen Bunn married the singer Anna Sanford aka Little Ann and together they recorded duos which sold quite well under different names (The Lovers, Tarheel Slim and Little Ann..). But it's his December 1958 session that led him to blues fame when, under the wise guidance of Bobby Robinson, Tarheel Slim waxed two all time masterpieces Wildcat tamer and Number 9 Train. The backing band is first rate with scratchy guitar by Wild Jimmy Spruill although it must be stated that it's Slim himself who plays the fantastic guitar solos. For a while Tarheel Slim himself or with Little Ann enjoyed a good dose of commercial success and went to tour the USA with R&B packages. But the mid-60's were hard for those kinds of music and Tarheel Slim dropped out of sight, making a living outside music. He was anyway "rediscovered" by the great and unflagging Pete Lowry who recorded him at several opportunities and made him possible to appear as a solo guitarist (in the pure Piedmont style) on several Festivals. He had to play on Festivals in the USA and tour Europe and Pete Lowry was preparing another Tarheel Slim's album, this time with a band when Tarheel was diagnosed with throat cancer. He finally lost his battle with the disease in a New York Hospital on 21 August 1977.

         His wife Little Ann (born in 1935) lived until 2004.

         Thanks a lot to all who helped for this post, mainly Jose Yraberra, Alain J., Pete Lowry of course and Ballas.

       

                                                         Gérard HERZHAFT

 

TARHEELSLIM Discography