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Sunday 8 July 2012

Backyard Affair / Dreaming Again – Sonny Thompson and Orchestra (Miracle 146)

Scan from very faded label 
Another scan from a very faded label!

Backyard Affair recorded Chicago, June 1949. Dreaming Again recorded Chicago, April 1949.

Personnel on April 1949 session: Floyd Jones (tp); Eddie Chamblee (ts); Dick Davis (ts); Sonny Thompson (p); Leo Blevins (g); Curtis Ferguson (b); Sonny Cole (d)

June 1949 session recorded with similar personnel, although Chamblee and Blevins possibly replaced by unknown. This was Sonny Thompson’s last session for Miracle.

Record released October 1949. Label scans from a very faded 78 disc, hence de facto invisibility.


With thanks to El Enmascarado, the wrestling muso, for these rips and scans. Here is his commentary on the tracks:

“Dreaming Again makes me think of old-fashioned stripper music. The saxes groan, the trumpet blares the blues, the drums go boomp-a-boomp and the girls do the hoochie-coochie…”

“Backyard Affair makes me think that the cats were longing to go a bit more Bebop. Although the main melody seems to borrow from D Natural Blues by Lucky Millinder (one of my very favorites, and possibly the first R&B 78 I knew as a boy- I'll eventually get around to ripping it), it also has occasional boppish dissonant chords that jump out seemingly at random. Also, in addition to what I would think of as the Meade Lux Lewis Tremolo Lick, Sonny plays what sounds for all the world like a Thelonious Monk lick at @1:43. Pretty interesting. I'm happy with the sound quality I got, but the original label is quite faded, hence the scans.”

Billboard 15th October 1949

7 comments:

Martin said...

Most hep, cheers!

Paco's brother said...

Very fine swing, thanks

Anonymous said...

Bring on the hoochie mamas!

Anonymous said...

I'm now in Chicago, and on my brother's speakers I can hear more light surface grit than I could on my own back in Mexico. There's really nothing I can do about that, though, short of a drastic EQ change that would destroy the integrity of the music. The disc itself looked pretty clean- I have no idea how the label got so faded...The Masked One

Anonymous said...

Very very great blog as always dear Boogiewoody. Your taste for the music at the border line from jazz to rock'n'roll is unique! I remember you in the old Rock Hall Forum... I was Alfaspica... Bye!

Unknown said...

These are very creative. With a design like this, I would almost venture to say that content doesn’t matter, the packaging is fantastic!

Jay Weinstein Seattle

Ground Rules said...

Thanks so much for the sweet sounds lovingly presented.