Cadillac Baby's Bea & Baby Records; The Definitive Collection

Various Artists
Cadillac Baby's Bea & Baby Records; The Definitive Collection
Earwig Records

This deluxe box set, which contains the recording legacy of Narvel Eatmon (better known as Cadillac Baby), is a labor of love that Michael Frank of Earwig Records spent years producing. The box set contains 4 CDs of blues, doo-wop, gospel, comedy, and even rap along with substantial interview segments with Cadillac Baby with Steve Cushing from a 1983 Blues Before Sunrise radio program. The 4 CDs are housed in a hardback book which reproduces Jim O'Neal's interview with Cadillac Baby from an early issue of "Living Blues" and has O'Neal's update that corrects and updates the information there. Bill Dahl provides biographies, and concise analysis of the blues and other secular music Robert M. Marovich does the same for the gospel recordings. Michael Frank provides an overview of how this box set came about.

There are nearly 5 hours of music and interviews to provide anything other than an overview of some highlights. The interview segments and the printed interview in the book will give you an idea of Cadillac Baby's personality. He was a character. One of the interview segments discusses how he got into music and how he started presenting shows in the south, including one with the Mississippi Sheiks before he came to Chicago and opened a club. He began making records to hopefully make some money from musicians who owed him money and hopefully make some money as well.

A sense of Cadillac Baby's personality can be heard on the opening track, "Welcome to Cadillac Baby's Show Lounge." It originally was on a vinyl LP "Colossal Blues" that reissued some of his 45s on the Bea & Baby and associated labels. Set against the piano of Sunnyland Slim's piano and Willie Williams drums, Cadillac Baby introduces us to a who's who of Chicago radio and blues personalities. There is overdubbed audience noise and clapping. It is followed by two excellent songs by Eddie Boyd with a band that included Robert Lockwood's distinctive guitar. There are ten tracks by Boyd, eight with Lockwood, and two with another group. Boyd is superb as he sings, "The Blues Are Here To Stay." Two songs are remastered with an overdubbed vocal chorus. There are also two songs by L.C. McKinley, whose guitar style is indebted to T-Bone Walker. His band included tenor saxophonist Red Holloway and also backed a vocal group on two selections.

Arguably the biggest record that Cadillac Baby produced was Bobby Saxton's "Try To Make A Living" that was backed by an Earl Hooker instrumental, "Dynamite." These sides also were leased to Chess, who issued them on a Checker Records single. Mac Simmons, as Little Mac and St. Louis Mac, is heard on the most selections. These include "Times Are Getting Tougher," reminiscent of some of Little Milton's recordings of the time, and on fine covers of songs from Junior Parker, Sonny Boy Williamson and Muddy Waters. Backing Mac Simmons are such players as pianist Detroit Junior and guitarist Eddie King Milton. Detroit Junior's first recording is present, along with an interview segment where Cadillac Baby tells how he gave the pianist-singer his name.

Detroit Junior was not the only artist whose first recording is heard. Hound Dog Taylor was very much under the influence of Elmore James when he recorded "My Baby Is Coming Home." Sunnyland Slim was another artist who recorded for Bea & Baby, while James Cotton waxed a couple of blues. Lee Jackson's "Juanita" is a powerful modern blues, and he is also heard on a Christmas blues. Other significant Chicago blues artists heard include Homesick James, Andre 'Blueblood' McMahon, Arlean Brown, and Willie Williams. Eddie Taylor and Hubert Sumlin are among the sidemen on these sessions. Also, a tape was found with previously unissued selections by the legendary Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, four of which are reproduced here. Clyde Lasley, best known as a comedian, talks-sings "Santa Came Home Drunk" backed by Lee Jackson and band. He possibly may be on three comedy selections that sound like Amos'n'Andy outtakes. There are some more teen singers, and a rap single produced by Cadillac Baby and Michael Frank before the box set closes with stirring gospel music.

As stated, there is quite a variety of solid blues and other music here. The interview segments with Cadillac Baby are fascinating to listen to, although one suspects some listeners will skip them after hearing them once or a few times. The packaging is superb, and the accompanying book wonderfully illustrated. Michale Frank sought to honor the memory of Cadillac Baby, and this box set certainly accomplishes that. It will also undoubtedly make a wonderful holiday gift for a Blues Lover.

I received my review copy from a publicist. This review appeared in the November-December 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 367). Here is Bobby Saxton's "Trying to Make a Living."

Take 5 with Junior Wells

This installment of Take 5 looks at five songs by the popular Blues Hall of Famer, Junior Wells. Wells was a significant part of the post-World War II Chicago blues scene. He played with Muddy Waters, recorded with Muddy and Elmore James as sidemen. Other recordings had the likes of Earl Hooker playing guitar. Later his album "Hoodoo Man Blues," on Delmark, was one of the first album of a working Chicago blues band that was recorded as an album, not a collection of singles. For a number of years, he toured with Buddy Guy with a band that included A.C. Reed on saxophone and Phil Guy on second guitar. This was one of the best blues bands that ever was. Then after the partnership with Buddy ended, he led his own, very popular band throughout the world. Here are five choice recordings or performances by him.

We open with his original recording of "Hoodoo Man Blues," with Elmore James on guitar, Little Johnny Jones on piano, Louis Myers on guitar, Dave Myers on bass guitar and Fred Below on drums.

Next up is his original "Messin' With the Kid," which Muddy Waters would record an answer to.

The collaboration with Buddy Guy first included a session for the legendary "Chicago, The Blues Today" recordings, "Hoodoo Man Blues," and the Vanguard album "It's My Life Baby." Here is Junior with Buddy on guitar doing a Little Willie John song as "Country Girl."

A popular Junior Wells recording on Delmark, "Southside Blues Jam," tried to capture the feel of an informal jam at Pepper's Lounge. This was one of pianist Otis Spann's last recordings. Here is his reworking of "Stop Breaking Down" that goes back to Robert Johnson, but Junior likely got it from John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson's recording.

Junior also did a terrific job on Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason." It is a song representing his later solo career of this brief retrospective of a Blues Hall of Famer.

Earl Hooker Play Your Guitar Mr. Hooker

Earl Hooker
Play Your Guitar Mr. Hooker
Blacktop

Buddy Guy has cited Earl Hooker as the greatest blues guitarist he ever saw, and many of his contemporaries remember his mastery of the guitar, both straight and his use of a slide. Possessing an awesome technique, timing and musical imagination, he was a favorite of many of his contemporaries, although he died of tuberculosis within a couple weeks of Otis Spann in April, 1970. What a loss, Chicago’s best blues players cut down within weeks of each other.
 
He was known as a guitarist, being an inadequate vocalist who usually let others handle the vocals. He recorded for King and Rockin’ Records and later recorded for Sam Phillips, although these sides remained unissued for years. The early sixties found him on Age and Chief, before he connected with Jim Kirchstein’s Cuca label out of Sauk City, Wisconsin. After Cuca, Hooker recorded albums for Arhoolie, Bluesway, Blue Thumb (with Ike Turner on piano) and Blues on Blues, and played on Bluesway albums by cousin John Lee (Hooker), Charles Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Big Moose Walker, leaving a substantial legacy for those years.

Cuca actually issued an album titled The Genius of Earl Hooker, which suffered from the programming of all instrumentals. In the mid-eighties the Dutch Black Magic label issued Play Your Guitar, Mr. Hooker, which made available unissued Cuca recordings and alternate takes, along with two instrumentals, Earl Hooker Blues, and Dust My Broom, that pioneering European blues researcher George Adins recorded in 1968 at the Alex Club on Chicago’s West Side.

This is probably my favorite Earl Hooker album, with his vocal and guitar on the opening Swear to Tear the Truth being particularly urgent sounding. Most of this is comprised of instrumentals or accompaniments to assorted singers. A.C. Reed emulates the vocal style of namesake Jimmy Reed on She’s Fine, while Frank ‘Crying Shame’ Clark ably handles You Took My Love, and The Misfit (Got to Keep Movin’), and the gruff Muddy Waters Jr. sings Everything Gonna Be Alright.

There’s plenty of hot guitar as Earl shows his mastery of a variety of styles while A.C. Reed or Bobby Fields adds some hot tenor sax. Particularly impressive are his renditions of Albert Collins’ classic Frosty, and Otis Rush’s All Your Love. The two live recordings give Earl a chance to stretch out, and also contain a bit of Fred Roulette’s pedal steel guitar which increases their interest despite the sound quality of the location recording.

While this is a musical feast, an instrumental rendition of James Brown’s I Got You (I Feel Good) is omitted in this 13 track, 37-odd minute compact disc. Also the original vinyl album came with a detailed booklet with plenty of information on Earl Hooker, Cuca and its head, Mr. Kirstein. While it would have taken an extensive booklet to reprint all of the original notes, certainly some liner notes should have been included. While this is recommended, Black Top could have done better with this reissue.

I likely received a review copy from the record label. This review originally appeared in the September 1993 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 184). This may be available on the used market but as a collector's item. Here is Earl Hooker, likely in Europe.

Pinetop Perkins Led A Rich Life & Enriched Us With His Music

Joe Willie ‘Pinetop’ Perkins led a full and rewarding life. The iconic blues pianist passed away on March 21 at the age of 97. An important part of the post-war Delta blues scene of the forties through the sixties, he may have been best known as the pianist who succeeded Otis Spann in Muddy Waters Band. Later a member of the Legendary Blues Band, Pinetop, went on as a solo artist for the last 30 odd years of his life, receiving numerous awards and becoming one of the most beloved performers in the blues, always with a twinkle in his eye. With his passing one of the last links to the classic period of the Delta Blues has passed.

Pinetop started as a guitarist but after his arm was cut by a knife in a barroom fight, he took to the piano and became one of the top players in the post-war Delta scene. The name Pinetop derived from the fact that the Clarence ‘Pinetop’ Smith tune, “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie,” became a signature number for Perkins. He was a King Biscuit Boy, one of the members of Sonny Boy Williamson’s Band that played daily on KFKA from Helena, Arkansas and toured Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas. He taught a young Ike Turner how to play piano and later did sessions for Sam Phillips backing up Earl Hooker, Walter Horton and others as well as made his first recordings under his name (although these would not be issued until a  couple decades later).

He was associated with guitarist Earl Hooker for a substantial time, and Bobby Bland on a Blues Cruise, called out to Pinetop, after seeing him on his scooter in front of the stage, if he remembered playing east St. Louis with bobby and Earl Hooker. PInetop’s music became known to blues fans when he was on Earl Hooker’s Arhoolie album, “Two Bugs and a Roach.” It was within a couple years after that that Pinetop joined Muddy Waters Band with whom he stayed until not that long before Muddy’s death. Lovie Lee was Muddy’s pianist when Muddy passed away.  During this period he did a fair amount of recording sessions with Muddy and others. For example he appeared on Carey Bell’s excellent “Last Night” album on ABC-Bluesway. 

Over the next three decades Pinetop started releasing albums under his own name. He was an affable singer, but his piano playing was consistently strong. He perhaps had a limited repertoire as reflected by his recording some songs repeatedly, but he had a delightful personality. He mentored countless other musicians (not simply pianists) and charmed fans worldwide with his music. 

Freddie Roulette is the forgotten blues steel guitar legend

Long before Chris Strachwitz issued his first collection of Sacred Steel recordings on Arhoolie, guitarist Freddie Roulette had recorded on lap steel on a variety of recordings including Earl Hooker’s classic Arhoolie album, Two Bugs and a Roach, Big Moose Walker’s great 45, Ramblin’ Woman b/w Puppy Howl Blues, and the Chicago Blues Stars. What stood out was the vocalized quality of his playing and how his playing evoked trains, howling dogs and other sounds in a fashion that the sacred steel players and few other guitarists do today (Derek Trucks being a notable one).

Roulette has lived in the San Francisco area over three and a half decades. Back in 1997, he had a terrific album on Hi Horse, Back in Chicago, where he was backed by the late Willie Kent and his excellent band. Now guitarist Henry Kaiser has produced a new release by Roulette, Man of Steel, on the German Tradition & Moderne label. Certainly it provides enough space for Roulette to display his considerable talents, but the presence of several other guitarists, some of whom also play slide provide for what may be overall a less satisfying recording. It opens with Roulette reviving the Johnny Taylor/Albert King classic Breaking Up Somebody’s Home, with some startling playing but a lesser vocal, followed by Washington Phillips’ Tattler on which David Lindley takes the vocal lead and adds slide. Once one gets past the limited vocal by Roulette on the simple lyrics of You Got To Funkifize, one hears nice playing from Roulette but there is perhaps too much from Kaiser for these ears. With Ken Emerson providing a foundation on his lap steel, Roulette imaginatively takes lead on a refreshing reworking of Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder, before either Kaiser or Phil Emerson takes a nice solo. Roulette’s vocal comes off better on Willie Nelson’s Nightlife with his lap steel embellishments behind his vocal being a nice touch. A Hawaiian instrumental How Do Ya Do? provides nice lap steel playing from Roulette and Ken Emerson, and is followed down by a slowed down, stop-time rendition of Arthur Crudup’s That’s Allright Mama, with a nice vocal by Ken Emerson and more nice mood-enhancing playing from Roulette. Surfin’ is a nice instrumental set to a reggae groove, followed by a decent vocal on In the Heat of the Night. It is a wide-ranging set with some typically fine work by Roulette covering a variety of musical styles with some fine ensemble playing. Still this does not quite place Roulette’s electrifying guitar to the fore as the Hi Horse disc did.

Interesting new jazz and blues podcast

Tim Niland, who has a fascinating blog of jazz and blues reviews just has put forth a new podcast of jazz and blues with a diverse playlist that includes Otis Rush, Sunnyland Slim, Big Joe Turner, Earl Hooker and James Hunter with Williams Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Shirley Scott and Clifford Thornton amongst others. Click on podcast on his entry on the podcast and you can download it to listen to on your computer. A lot of fresh musical surprises are ins tore for those who give it a listen.

Charles Brown's Legend lives on

I had the pleasure to see Charles Brown a number of times after first seeing him at the New York club Tramps in the Summer of 1982 I believe. Charles Brown was a remarkable pianist and a major influence on many performers. The very first album by him I had the pleasure to own was Legend on ABC-Bluesway that came out in 1969 or 1970. I have had it several times on vinyl as this session with the late Earl Hooker as well as Mel Brown on guitar was an absoulute delight. It was reissued on CD in 1993 or 1994 and here is the review I did for Jazz & Blues Report at the time of reissue. Unfortunately this is out of print and may only be obtained at a premium.

MCA has reissued Charles Brown’s Bluesway album, Legend, that featured the late Earl Hooker, along with Mel Brown on guitar, and Red Holloway on tenor saxophone, on their One Way Out label. One is treated to somewhat lengthy, relaxed jams on such Brown classics as Drifting Blues and Merry Christmas Baby, both with incredibly tasty guitar from Earl Hooker, warm vocal duets with Dottie Ivory on I Want to Go Home, and All Is Forgiven (which Brown claimed in the notes to have written for this session), a high-spirited instrumental The Combination, and a couple of other songs that Brown and group really hit it off with. While these are extended performances, nowhere does one feel that the performances are too long. Its a warm, friendly session with Charles trying to bring back those good old days of Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole, B.B. King, Big Joe Turner, and last but not least, Charles Brown, near the end of I Want to Go Home. This album should have revived Brown’s career in the early seventies. Unfortunately it didn’t, but with his well deserved success of recent years, it certainly is nice to have it available again. Recommended.