Teddy Riley Takes Us To Honky Tonk Town

The late Teddy Riley had a lengthy career in new Orleans music that included stints with Joe Avery, Henry Allen Sr’s Brass Band, Roy Brown’s Mighty Mighty Men, Fats Domino, Champion Jack Dupree, Heritage Hall Jazz Band, and others spanning traditional New Orleans Jazz and rhythm and blues. Not one of the best known of the traditional jazz trumpeters, Riley is heard on a 1979 studio date along with four songs from a 1985 live performance, Honky Tonk Town ’79 (504 Records).


The band for the studio date included Walden ‘Frog’ Joseph on trombone, Manny Crusto on clarinet, Jeanette Kimball on piano and John Robichaux on drums and vocal. Interesting on this date is Crusto who was mostly a rhythm and blues saxophonist who had been working with Professor Longhair. On the live date, the band included Wendell Eugene was on trombone, Clarence Ford on clarinet and Walter Payton on bass.


Its a spirited collection of traditional jazz in the vein of such bands as George Lewis and Kid Howard. The music is played with enthusiasm and a folkish charm over such songs as Down in Honky Tonk, Moonlight Bay, There’ll Be Some Changes Made, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, and Avalon. Highlights of the studio sides are the exhilarating Avalon, and Just Blues. There are rough edges on the ensemble work, but the enthusiasm of the band more than compensates and Riley plays with a bright tone and bluesy feel.


The four very spirited live recordings include such staples of the repertoire as Panama, Clarinet Marmalade, Bogalusa Strut, and Shake It and Break It, one of the two Riley vocals on this disc. This recording, and others on the 504 label (504 being the area code containing New Orleans), can be purchased at the Louisiana Music Factory, www.louisianamusicfactory.com. On you tube, there are some clips of Riley as part of the Louis Cottrell Jazz Band from a Perry Como show in the 1970s including this one of “Dippermouth Blues,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58vuXttUpMU&feature=related.


This was a purchase.

Champion Jack's One Last Time

Recorded right after his Forever and Ever album, and a little more than half a year before his death in January 1992, One Last Time (Bullseye Blues), provides a fitting final studio recording by the New Orleans pianist and vocalist. According to producer Ron Levy, this was a session Dupree wanted to do, as he told Levy after completing Forever and Ever, he didn’t know if he’d be back. Dupree was joined here by Kenn Landing, his regular guitarist of the time, and several Crescent City musicians including Earl Turbington, Jr., on alto saxophone, and Walter Payton on bass.


This opens with Bad Blood which he previously recorded for the classic Blues From the Gutter album that was on Atlantic, and if this version doesn’t match the earlier recording, it is more than a credible performance with Turbington’s bluesy horn and Landing’s stinging guitar sounding very nice. He plays tribute to some past blues masters including Roosevelt Sykes on She’s Jail Bait, and Louis Jordan on Somebody Done Changed the Lock on the Door, and Early in the Morning. While credited to Dupree, Give Me Flowers When I’m Livin’, where he asks to give him his rewards while he can enjoy them, goes back to Peetie Wheatstraw. Ironically, I believe it was one of Wheatstraw’s last recordings as well.


With his fine backing section, Dupree lays down his barrelhouse piano, and sings authoritatively with his relaxed, grainy voice that really could deliver a lyric and tell a story. His performances here belie his age. While I do not concur with annotator Bob Porter’s view that this is the best of Dupree’s three Bullseye Blues albums (I prefer Forever and Ever), it is a very good listen. With Columbia/Legacy’s release of his Okeh recordings, Atlantic’s Blues From the Gutter, and imports of his recordings for King, and various New York labels, there is no shortage of superb Jack Dupree.


This review appeared in the October 1993 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 185) and I believe One Last Time is still available as is Blues From The Gutter (which is available as part of reissue with another Dupree album),  while the Sony/Legacy New Orleans Barrelhouse Boogie is available used.  All of Dupree's 3 Bullseye Blues albums along with Blues From The Gutter and other recordings (not the Sony) are available as downloads.  JSP has issued a 4CD box of his earliest recordings which I hope to discuss at some future time.  


I likely received a review copy from Rounder Records at the time this review originally ran.

Walter Payton 1942-2010

20050428-2005_JazzFest_jpegs_-129, originally uploaded by NoVARon.

Word came that Walter Payton, veteran bass player on the New Orleans sceen who played on classic rhythm and blues recordings by Aaron Neville and Lee Dorsey as well as with Preservation Hall, passed away on October 28, 2010 after a lengthy illness.

Let me quote Keith Spera's obituary from the Times-Picayune

"Mr. Payton, the father of Grammy-winning trumpeter Nicholas Payton, was an exceptionally versatile musician in possession of an exceptionally engaging persona. A student of music theory and music history, he could easily switch from electric bass to upright acoustic bass, from rhythm & blues to traditional jazz to modern jazz. His recording credits include Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is" and Lee Dorsey's "Working in a Coal Mine." He was also an accomplished classical musician who, for many years, kept a grand piano in his parlor."

I refer you to Mr. Spera's full obituary:

I had the pleasure to see him perform several times at JazzFest. I took the above picture at the 2005 JazzFest, and I saw him this past April as well. His Snap Bean and Gumbo File combos brought great joy to listeners. Albums of him as a leader are available on a variety of labels. I particularly like the one on the 504 label from an in-store show at the Louisiana Music Factory that has Evan Christopher on clarinet. Many of the New Orleans musicians whether playing traditional style jazz or modern jazz, like his son, have been touched by this gentleman. I am sure they will have quite a second-line to celebrate his life.