Take 5 With Lonnie Johnson

Last week I had a short playlist of some of Lonnie Johnson's recordings as the featured artist. This week we have him with other performers.

First up we have him performing with Louis Armstrong. Here is Mahogany Hall Stomp.

Next up is a duet with Eddie Lang, Midnight Call Blues.

Lonnie also recorded some popular duets with some of the early women blues singers like Clara Smith. Here they are on You're Getting Old On Your Job. Alex Hill is the pianist.

Another early woman singer Johnson recorded duets with was Victoria Spivey. Here they are heard on. Here is "Lonnie Johnson & Victoria Spivey - You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now Pt. 1.

 We close this playlist with Lonnie Johnson accompanying Texas Alexander on Deep Sea Blues.

Take 5 - Going Down Slow - Songs of illness and death

Given the devastation and disruption caused by COVID-19, today's Take 5 presents five songs with the theme of disease and death. We start with Victora Spivey's classic recording about TB, "T.B. Blues." John Erby is on piano and Lonnie Johnson on this 1927 recording.

Josh White recorded "Silicosis is Killing Me," under the name of Pinewood Tom.

Memphis based bluesman Big Lucky Carter recorded "AIDS Is Killing Me," about a recent plague.

While some folks equate COVID-19 with the seasonal flu, COVID-19 is worse. But the Flu itself is a dangerous virus as Albert Collins sang  in "Dyin' Flu."

Next up to close out this Take 5 is the original recording of the classic blues about dying from a disease, "Going Down Slow," by St. Louis Jimmy.

Classic Blues Artwork from the 1920s - Vol. 17

Various
Classic Blues Artwork from the 1920s - Vol. 17
Blues Images

This is the latest Blues Calendar put together by collector John Tefteller. Like past editions, this Calendar for 2020 brings together for each month twelve stellar images taken from rare photographs and record company ads. For each month, the accompanying CD includes a recording by the artist depicted by the picture or ad. There is also brief biographical information for that artist. The CD also includes recordings from other artists that are from rare 78s or test recordings that never been issued before.

Until recently, this series of recordings had a focus on pre-World War II recordings. This year includes a good number of post-World War II rarifies. The cover photo for this year's Calendar is a previously unseen photo of B.B. King at the microphone of WDIA. The accompanying CD opens with one of the King's early recordings, "Got the Blues." There are also publicity photos of Queen Victoria Spivey and Jim Jackson from the set of King Vidor's "Hallelujah." Spivey is represented by a superb "Blood Thirsty Blues" with Lonnie Johnson on guitar, while Jackson's two-part 78, "I'm Going To Move to Kansas City," is included.

Others included on the CD are The Mississippi Sheiks, Bo Carter, Texas Alexander, Charlie Spand, Leola Wilson with Blind Blake on guitar, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Bessie Jackson, and Mississippi Sarah and Daddy Stovepipe. The music includes many superb blues, including the Sheiks blues waltz "Baby Keeps Stealin' Love On Me," Carter's "Howling Tom Cat Blues," pianist Spand's "Ain't Gonna Stand For It," and Jefferson's "Bad Luck Blues." Also heard is Lonnie Johnson's "She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight" (with spectacular guitar) and the issued recording of "Shave 'Em Dry" by Lucille Bogan (released under the name Bessie Jackson).

Included on CD are additional selections including three previously unissued demonstration records by Juke Boy Bonner under the name Juke Boy Barner, including two versions of a solid slow blues, "Life is a Cheater," and the lively "I Go Hip To It." Then there is early Virginia songster Willie Moore's "Tillie Lee," along with the other sides of 78s by Leola Wilson with Blind Blake and the Mississippi Sheiks. Then there are both sides of 78s by Blues Boy Bill and Joe Stone. I was not familiar with Blues Boy Bill, but his songs "Come On Baby," and "Little Boy Blue," are well-performed covers of recordings Robert Lockwood had recorded on Bluebird. "Come On Baby" is a rebranded rendition of "Take a Little Walk With Me." Joe Stone is a name for Jaydee Short, and the release of the recently discovered 78 by him is an event. The music by this St. Louis bluesman is top-notch. "It's Hard Time" is a driving performance based on a guitar riff familiar to some from Henry Spaulding's "Cairo Blues." The other side of the 78, "Back Door Blues" is an equally compelling down-home blues performance.

The sound on most of these songs is flawless as Tefteller employed the system employed in the "American Epic" television series to extract every nuanced audio from the original recordings. There are a couple of songs such as Moore's "Tillie Lee," where there is some background hiss. This is because of the condition of source 78s, but this is a minor hindrance, and Moore's actual performance is easy to appreciate. The Calendar includes information on previous Calendars, CDs from those Calendars, posters, T-shirts, and other items for sale. I do wish that information was included on the performers of the artists who are not included in the Calendar. This is a minor complaint about what is another stellar Calendar and CD. This will be a wonderful gift for the blues lover on your gift list as well as a gift to yourself.

This is available from various mail-order sources as well as direct from BluesImages.com.

I purchased my copy.

Devil's Music - Soundtrack to BBC TV History of the Blues

The Devil’s Music was the title of a 1976 BBC 5-part documentary series that resulted from Giles Oakley’s travels to the United States. It was accompanied by a nice history of the blues by Oakley also titled The Devil’s Music as well as some lps on the Red Lightnin’ label. While this writer has never seen the BBC television series, he has read Oakley’s book (which I believe De Capo may have republished) and had the original recordings, a double lp set The Devils Music, and a single lp, More Devil’s Music. Those ops are reissued on CD by the British Indigo label along with some live recordings by Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson from the 1963 American Folk Blues Festival Tour in Indigo Records 3 cd box, The Devils Music.

The first two volumes contain recordings made during by Oakley and his BBC crew while visiting the Us and range from the legendary Mississippi bluesmen, Sam Chatmon doing Stop and Listen Blues, Big Joe Williams performing Highway 49, and Bukka White’s powerful Aberdeen Mississippi. Some of the performers around Memphis and Helena Arkansas are also featured as two former King Biscuit Time guitarists; Houston Stackhouse and Joe Willie Wilkins are heard. Stackhouse’s performances include Tommy Johnson’s Cool Drink of Water while Wilkins does Mr. Downchild, a tune associated with Sonny Boy Williamson. 

Harmonica player Sonny Blake is heard on Sonny Boy’s Bring It On Home. Also heard are Laura Dukes, once a singer with the Memphis Jug Band, and pianist Mose Vinson. Chicago blues are represented with performances by The Aces, Fenton Robinson (on which Bill Heid can be heard on keyboards), Good Rockin’ Charles, Elmore James imitator Joe Carter and Billy Boy Arnold. Pianist Little Brother Montgomery and singer Edith Wilson provide a nod to early blues recordings in the performances. 

St. Louis is represented by the final twelve performances including six by James De Shay, whose recordings of Pony Blues, Mistake in Life, Hold That Train and Elmore James’ Crossroads are live club recordings, that are not hi-fi. These are is only recordings DeShay made. Other recordings include some more Big Joe Williams (including a raucous Sloppy Drunk) and Henry Townsend (with the bittersweet Tears Come Fallin’ Down being outstanding). The late blues queen Victoria Spivey closes the field recordings with a remake of her hit, T.B. Blues. 

This is a fascinating collection of field recordings with some really exceptional performances interspersed with other entertaining ones. Add to this some live recordings of Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson in Europe in 1963 and one had a rather attractive box set, which I believe is bargain priced. Now if someone would only make the BBC-TV series available on dvd.

This review originally appeared in the April 2004 DC Blues Calendar, the DC Blues Society newsletter  I edited for many years. I have made a few minor revisions. Amazon lists this as available from various sellers. I purchased this.

Piano Boogie Woogie and Blues From Smithsonian Folkways

Smithsonian Institution’s acquisition of the legendary Folkways catalog served music lovers well by preserving and keeping available the rich trove of music that label had recorded. it also has served as a vehicle for the Smithsonian to issue new recordings of diverse musical traditions from around the world including live performances recorded at Smithsonian Folklife Festivals and programs. Included is the production of compilations drawn from the thousands of recordings in their catalog and in their archive. One such compilation is Classic Piano Blues that brings together recordings by Memphis Slim, Speckled Red, Victoria Spivey, Meade Lux Lewis, Roosevelt Sykes, Little Brother Montgomery, Lead Belly, and James P. Johnson from Folkways albums with efforts by Booker T. Laury from the 1990s “Folk Masters” series of concerts and radio broadcasts and a 1976 Folklife Festival performance of Dices Blues by Big ‘Chief’ Ellis (with John Cephas and Phil Wiggins accompanying him).

Jeff Place has compiled an interesting mix of material that is a credible introduction to the piano blues tradition although some might suggest that there are some curious choices of material. The opening Memphis Slim Tribute to Pete Johnson,” is a rousing boogie woogie as is Meade Lux Lewis’ Medium Blues, a strong medium tempo variation on Yancey Special, with a strong left hand bass. Booker T. Laury was heavily influenced by Roosevelt Sykes as his vigorous rendition of Early in the Morning,” that some may be more familiar from Junior Wells’ recordings of this Walter Roland number. I am surprised that a rendition of The Dirty Dozens by Speckled Red was not included, but this barrelhouse player is heard on a solid How Long, attributed by Red to St. Louis pianist Walter Davis. Red’s barrelhouse rendition of Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie, follows the more ragtime-tinged rendition by Little Brother Montgomery, and the contrasts in style is fascinating. Little Brother is good here and on his own No Special Rider Blues, but this listener has heard stronger recordings by him.

Champion Jack Dupree’s Black Wolf Blues, is a European small group recording of Texas guitarist-vocalist, J.T. ‘Funny Paper’ Smith’s Howling Wolf. Big Chief Ellis (he was part Black Creek Indian) originally recorded Dices Blues for a small New York label, and reprised it here displaying the influence of the afore-mentioned Walter Davis in his bittersweet approach. Lead Belly’s Big Fat Woman is more interesting for his mix of traditional lyrics than his unusual piano style. Sam Price’s instrumental, Parlour Blues, is another performance from the Folk Masters series and captures the famed pianist and talent scout in one of his last performances. While the booklet credits this to a performance at the Barns of Wolf Trap, I wonder if this was from the first season of Folk masters which I believe was held at Carnegie Hall.

Little Drops of Water, bring together the Deep Morgan (St. Louis piano of Henry Brown with vocalist Edith Johnson, both of whom recorded in the heyday of blues recordings in the twenties. Another St. Louis pianist is Henry Townsend who does a sober rendition of Roosevelt Sykes All My Money Gone” in an approach that suggest Walter Davis’ influence (Townsend played guitar on many Davis recordings). Sykes is represented by a solo version of Sweet Old Chicago, which he had recorded in New Orleans for Imperial. This is a variant of Sweet Home Chicago, but in any case Robert johnson’s recording itself is derived from Kokomo Blues and Sykes includes a verse not in Johnson’s recording. Sykes takes a boogie solo here, unlike his Imperial recording that featured a hot guitar solo, but was wondering why one of his more famous numbers were not included. Stride pianist James P. Johnson is heard with a small group for Hesitation Blues, as well as backs Katherine Handy Lewis on her father’s Yellow Dog Blues, where she wonders where her “easy rider has gone.” These are fine performances, although I am not sure they are classic piano blues.

As indicated, this serves as an introduction of the piano blues that can be heard on Smithsonian Folkways. There is some marvelous music here and even what I might consider curious selections is entertaining. It comes with a booklet that includes Jeff Place’s overview on piano blues and a discussion of the tracks as well as a biography and a list of pertinent Smithsonian piano blues releases. You can access the Smithsonian/Folkways catalog through the Smithsonian’s website, www.si.edu. The Folkways link is http://www.folkways.si.edu/index.aspx, and you can order or purchase as downloads there.

I purchased this CD.

St. Louis' Rich Blues History Beautifully Recalled

Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St Louis Missouri
Authored, Illustrated & Designed by Kevin Belford
2009: Virginia Publishing, St. Louis Missouri.

Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St Louis Missouri
Authored, Illustrated & Designed by Kevin Belford
2009: Virginia Publishing, St. Louis Missouri.

 I remember a LP compilation of pre-World War II blues, “Lake Michigan Blues,” that was on the Nighthawk label. It collected a nice mix of 16 recordings, many of which presaged what we would know as Chicago blues. Reading the liner notes in discussing folks like John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson, Yank Rachell, Robert Lee McCoy (Aka Nighthawk) and Henry Townsend, I observed the fact that these folks were living in St. Louis at the time they went up to Chicago to record some sides that became a strong part of the foundation of the post-war Chicago Blues. Still, the important role of St. Louis based artists in blues history has been generally ignored or not given much attention.

A new book “Devil at the Confluence: The Pre-War Blues Music of St Louis Missouri,” specifically aims to address this neglect of blues history. This book brings together the history of St. Louis blues artists and their musical contributions. Furthermore, this book is a visual feats as well. Kevin Belford did not simply draft the text, but laid-out and marvelously illustrated this volume in which his discussion of the history and artists is complemented by collages of photos, painting, press clippings and more. It is on most striking books visually as well as being an important contribution to the blues literature.

St. Louis is where the two largest rivers in the United States, the Missouri and the Mississippi, join and flow south. Its placement made it ideal for development of new ideas and musical creation. Traditional music research often focuses on the primal source (ideally one) and overlooks St. Louis’ pivotal role in the blues and other forms of American music. This simplistic focus on mythical sources then leads Henry Townsend’s birth and few months in Mississippi as more important to characterizing his music than the rest of his life lived in Cairo, Illinois and St. Louis. Townsend didn’t start playing until he heard Lonnie Johnson as a pre-teenaged boy. It is this imbalance that Belford corrects. “Adding the St. Louis part of the blues story should not mean rewriting American musical history” but rather provide a more complete history and understanding of the music. St. Louis’ importance in the rise of pre-blues and pre-jazz is widely acknowledged, but the blues history overlooked and that is aim he has here.

The early part of the book focuses on St. Louis pre-blues music which includes a discussion of the concert bands, ragtime players and composers, as well as noting three infamous murders that become crafted into folk ballads that are well known from “Duncan and Brady” (also known as ‘Looking For the Bully”); “Frankie and Johnny;” and “Staggerlee.” While the former number never made it to Tin Pan Alley’s publishing machines, the latter did. Besides mentioning these songs, the actual stories behind them are revealed. St. Louis, Missouri and the surrounding area are well known for their importance of ragtime, which mixed folk and formal music. Also early St. Louis jazz is discussed, noting historical accounts of jazz was played before what are considered the first jazz records and the musicians, both Black and White, whom played in the bands in St. Louis. In 1923, Kansas City bandleader Bennie Moten came to St. Louis to record along with singer Ada Brown and Mary Bradford, but despite the word blues in most song titles, most of these sides are not considered part of the blues legacy by many blues historians, and neither are some of the white bands like Gene Rodemich who recorded a number of titles with blues in them.

“The first recordings of St. Louis blues are of female singers mostly and a few of the great St. Louis jazz bands.” From the slums, Josephine Baker emerged and starting at the Booker T. Washington Theater where she played for tips, she became an international celebrity in Paris. Katherine McDonald recorded two songs with a pianist, Miles Davis (unrelated to the jazz icon); while Priscilla Stewart made a number recordings, many with the great pianist Jimmy Blythe. Eva Taylor started at St. Louis’ Orpheum Theater before marrying pianist and Clarence Williams and moving to New York where she made numerous recordings. Virginia Liston recorded with Louis Armstrong and Clarence Williams before returning to St. Louis. Then there was Irene Scruggs, whose two page spread provides a concise summary of her recordings and career including that she toured on the TOBA circuit performing with Lonnie Johnson, Little Brother Montgomery and the King Oliver Band and in the fifties moved to Europe and likely died overseas. We learn that she was also known as Little Sister, Dixie Nolan, and Chocolate Brown. In addition to a reproduction of her image from a record ad, their are reproductions of an Okeh ad for “My Daddy’s Calling Me” and “You Got What I Want,” which was issued as by “Chocolate Brown.

At this time you had bands working on the steamboats going up and down the Mississippi such as Fats Marable and they produced such important musicians and bandleaders as Dewey Jackson and Charlie Creath. Creath’s Jazz-O-Maniacs included at different times William Blue, Pops Foster and Gene Sedric (of Fats Waller Band fame). What is important is that a variety of artists from St. Louis, jazz bands and female singers of all stripes from St. Louis recorded and nearly every session by them included at least one blues-titled song. An impressive factor as was that the performers were not lone wolfs but “seem to have known and worked with each other in a camaraderie of diverse styles that today is divided into vaudeville or jazz or blues categories.”

St. Louis blues itself arose from “artists [who] grew up listening to piano players at house parties or guitarists in poolhalls and barbershops. The typical musician worked a regular job and played their blues with a network of clubs, parties and bands around the city.” Belford doesn’t simply discuss the musicians. he notes facilitators like Jesse J. Johnson, who opened a record store, managed bands and was the connection between the musicians (including his brother James Stump Johnson and wife Edith) and the record companies. Johnson was the person who helped Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson and so many to get recorded and promoted. Lonnie and his brother James moved to St. Louis after a flu epidemic. In 1925, Lonnie won a blues contest for months on running at the Booker T. Washington Theatre leading to what would be a prodigious recording career. Victoria Spivey’s career took off after she came to St. Louis to audition for Jesse Johnson and in addition to a short summary of her and Lonnie’s careers, Belford discusses pseudonyms they may have used on other recordings and some of the musicians they were associated with.

It is easy to get caught in the details and lose the sense of the story being told. There will be performers he discusses that should be known to knowledgable blues enthusiasts like Henry Townsend, Charlie Jordan, Henry Brown, Roosevelt Sykes, Mary Johnson, Clifford Gibson, Peetie Wheatstraw, Big Joe Williams, Speckled Red, Walter Davis,Teddy Darby, and St. Louis Jimmy, as well lesser known names like Alice Moore, Edith Johnson, JD Short, and The Sparks Brothers. Robert Nighthawk lived in St. Louis when the Victor Recording Company had him, Big Joe Williams, Henry Townsend and John Lee ‘Sonny Boy Williamson’ travel to Chicago to make recordings that foreshadowed the post-war Chicago blues style. While Dr. Clayton is included in Belford’s discussion as having lived in St. Louis, Belford may have been unaware that (as he told me) Robert Lockwood, Jr., was living in St. Louis at the time and traveled with Dr. Clayton for a session after which Lockwood recorded under his own name for Bluebird on this trip. Belford cogently notes that St. Louis artists Roosevelt Sykes, Lonnie Johnson, Peetie Wheatstraw and Walter Davis among the most prolific recording blues artists of the pre-World War 11 era.

In the latter pages there is a brief of the post-war scene, although perhaps not in the same detail, and there is an appreciation of the role of Charlie O’Brien, a police officer, and Bob Koester, then a college student and jazz fan, in uncovering and documenting the blues history summarized here. A 14-track CD, “The St. Louis Blues Legacy,” is included with selections from the Delmark catalog presenting some of the artists discussed by Belford. “Devil at the Confluence” accomplishes its intended purpose of bringing to the front and center the great contributions of artists associated with St. Louis on the blues tradition. “Devil at the Confluence” is a significant contribution to the blues literature.

I believe this book is a limited edition. I purchased it from amazon.com.

The Original Guitar Wizard still sounds great

Lonnie Johnson was a pioneer guitarist who was influential in jazz as well as blues. he was not simply a marvelous singer, songwriter and deft, inventive guitarist, but also he was quite a balladeer. Proper Records issued a marvelous 4 CD box several years ago, The Original Guitar Wizard, with 95 choice recordings (some are two part) that range from 1924's "Mr. Johnson Blues" with James Johnson on piano and Alonzo (his real name) on violin to his post-war blues and ballads for King Records, including the hit "Tomorrow Night." Included are several accompaniments of Victoria Spivey, recordings with Louis Armstrong (including the celebrated "Hotter Than That") and Duke Ellington ("Misty Mornin'"). Then thee are the duets with Eddie Lang (or Blind Willie Dunn) such as "Blue Guitars" and "Bullfrog Moan" and even one side as part of Blind Willie Dunn's Gin 4 which included Joseph 'King' Oliver. There is the two part duet "You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now" with Victoria Spivey (I believe a number B.B. King recorded in the sixties), as well as his "She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight," that King Solomon Hill waxed as "Whoopee Blues." He would sing about floods in "Backwater Blues," and tornadoes in "St. Louis Cyclone Blues," boast that "I Got the Best Jelly Roll in Town," and warn in "Racketeers Blues." Despite dating back as far as 85 years ago, his music still sounds modern today and as typical with proper, there is an excellent booklet that provides an overview of his life and recordings. Robert Johnson reportedly claimed to be one of the Johnson boys to pull on the more famous Lonnie Johnson's coattails, although I do not believe that the Lonnie Johnson recordings that he adapted are included in this compilation. Well on 4 CD's you can't include everything by one of the blues' most influential and pioneering performers. Bluebeat Music (www.bluebeatmusic.com) apparently still carries it.