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.

Listen to "Backyard Affair"

Listen to "Dreaming Again"

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