Hen Gates, Man Of Mystery or Exploitation A Go Go

In response to a request from BabyHugz we proudly re-present the 3 "Hen Gates" LPs which were donated to the blog 9 years ago. These LPs were released on budget labels to cash in on the rock and roll craze of the 1950s.  Beneath the pseudonym "Hen Gates" lurk recycled R&B / Jazz tracks from the late 1940s and early 1950s, chiefly tracks originally released by Freddie Mitchell on the Derby label. Also in there are some sides recorded by Eddie "Lockjaw" Davies for Lenox around 1947. I suspect there may be other stuff by other artists too (Frank Culley? Morris Lane?) but life is too short to dwell on such esoterica.

The whole saga unfolded across a series of posts back in the spring of 2010 when an anonymous donor sent in "Let's All Dance To Rock And Roll" and followed up with "Rock and Roll". A different anonymous contributor sent in "Rock And Roll No. 2" and much below the line comment contributed towards the attempted identification of the origin of these tracks. The original relevant posts are here:

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2010/03/hen-gates-and-his-gaters-lets-all-dance.html

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2010/03/hen-gates-and-his-gaters-rock-and-roll.html

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2010/04/eddie-lockjaw-davis-hen-gates-shock.html

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2010/04/hen-gates-and-his-gaters-rock-and-roll.html

Click on the links to follow the whole tawdry and at times hilarious tale. However it should be remembered that behind the exploitation there are a lot of very good tenor sax tracks, and, yes, a few tracks spoiled by the plinky-plonk piano which was an unfortunate feature of some of Freddie Mitchell's Derby discs.

Here's yer link to the world of "Hen Gates" -

Hen Gates 3LPs (Mega)

Warning - 201 MB download!