Big Jay McNeely - Road House Boogie

Side A:
01. Blow Big Jay
02. Road House Boogie
03. Willie the Cool Cat
04. Midnight Dreams
05. Hoppin' With Hunter
06. K & H Boogie
07. Gingercake
08. Boogie in Front

Side B:
01. Junie Flip
02. Jaysfrantic
03. Real Crazy Cool
04. Tondalayo
05. Deac's Blowout
06. Let's Split
07. Just Crazy
08. Penthouse Serenade

Download from:

Road House Boogie (Zippy)

or

Road House Boogie (Mega)

This 1985 Saxophonograph LP is the final installment of my Big Jay McNeely vinyl uploads to the blog. On consideration I may well have inadvertently saved the best for last. With the exception of the vocal ballad "Midnight Dreams" and the hep blues "Junie Flip", the music on this album rocks, swings, howls, honks and hoots like crazy. Moreover, the gatefold sleeve has an extended biographical essay (based on interviews) by Bill Millar. The same essay constitutes one of the chapters in his book "Let The Good Times Rock!"

The back cover of the LP has full details of the recording sessions for these tracks, February and April 1949 for the Exclusive sessions, January 1950 for the Aladdin session and August 1952 for the featured Federal tracks. As has become customary on Be Bop Wino I have added the details of the original single releases of the tracks.

Original release details:

Midnight Dreams / Blow Big Jay - Exclusive 90X - April 1949

Road House Boogie / Willie The Cool Cat - Exclusive 96X - May 1949

Hoppin' With Hunter / Tondalayo - Exclusive 108X - July 1949

K&H Boogie / Junie Flip - Exclusive 122X - ? 1949

Boogie In Front / Gingercake - Exclusive 149X - ?1949

Jaysfrantic / Deac's Blowout - Aladdin 3050 - March 1950

Just Crazy / Penthouse Serenade - Federal 12111 - December 1952

Let's Split / Real Crazy Cool - Aladdin 3242 - May 1954

This LP follows on from the previous post "Wild Wig!" which featured Big Jay's first recordings for Savoy. Indeed while the Savoy disc "The Deacon's Hop" was climbing the R&B chart to the number one spot in February 1949, Big Jay was already recording for Leon Rene's Exclusive label. Less than a year later he recorded four tracks for Aladdin, two of which were not released until 1954. The final two tracks on this collection are from Big Jay's first session for Federal in August 1952. In between the Aladdin and Federal sessions Big Jay recorded for Imperial from late 1950 until late 1951.

If you download all the Big Jay McNeely LPs available on this blog, then you will have almost all the tracks he issued in the 1940s and 1950s.

Above: "Wild Wig" is a homemade comp of Big Jay's eight sides for Savoy, recorded in November / December 1948.

"Road House Boogie" contains his Exclusive sides recorded in February / April 1949, his four Aladdin sides recorded in January / February 1950 and two sides recorded for Federal in August 1952, neither of which are on the Federal LP "Big "J" In 3-D".

"Deacon Rides Again" contains most of his Imperial sides, recorded between December 1950 and November 1951.

"Big "J" In 3-D" has twelve of his Federal sides, recorded between August 1952 and April 1954.

"The Best Of Big Jay McNeely" is a career spanning collection which duplicates some of the above, but also fills in a few gaps from the Imperial and Federal collections. Also included are two of the four tracks Big Jay recorded for Vee-Jay in March 1955, his late 1950s hit "There Is Something On Your Mind" recorded in Seattle in January 1958 for Hunter Hancock's Swingin' label, and an unreleased version of "Flying Home" also recorded for Swingin'.

Recommended for your bookshelf:

I can't stop raving about this book! "Nervous Man Nervous: Big Jay McNeely And The Rise Of The Honking Tenor Sax!" by Jim Dawson.

"Let The Good Times Rock!" by Bill Millar. An anthology of Bill's well researched liner notes for roots music albums, including Hillbilly, Rockabilly, Rock 'n' Roll, R&B, Doo-Wop, Swamp Rock and Blue-Eyed Soul. R&B artists featured are: Etta James, Albert Collins, Herb Hardesty, Gatemouth Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Stick McGhee, Big Jay McNeely, Young Jessie, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Big Jim Wynn, Bullmoose Jackson and Sonny Knight.

Joe Liggins Special! 2 LPs Re-upped

Side A:
01. The Honeydripper Part 1
02. The Honeydripper Part 2
03. Left A Good Deal In Mobile
04. Key Jam
05. How Come
06. Apple Of My Eye
07. Doddle-Do-Da-Deet
08. Yvette

Side B:
09. Drippers' Boogie Part 1
10. Drippers' Boogie Part 2
11. Lonesome Guitar
12. You Ain't Goin' To Heaven No How
13. Three O'Clock Jump Part 1
14. Three O'Clock Jump Part 2
15. Some Of These Days
16. Ruth

Download from:

http://www96.zippyshare.com/v/jUN52yGk/file.html

Original post is here:

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/joe-liggins-honeydripper_13.html

Side 1:
01. Miss Betty's Blues
02. Got Your Love In My Heart
03. Caravan
04. I Know My Love Is True
05. Got A Right To Cry - Joe Liggins
06. Walkin' - Joe Liggins
07. Tanya - Joe Liggins
08. Sugar Lump - Joe Liggins

Side 2:
09. The Darktown Strutters Ball
10. Downhome Blues
11. Breaking My Heart
12. Sweet Georgia Brown
13. The Blues
14. Loosiana
15. Spooks Holiday
16. Daddy On My Mind

Download from:

http://www93.zippyshare.com/v/4QZ4uLXs/file.html

Original post is here:

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/joe-liggins-his-honeydrippers-darktown.html

More Joe Liggins posts featuring 78 rpm rips by El Enmascarado and the stories behind the discs:

Drippers' Boogie, Parts 1 & 2

Lovers Lament / Miss Betty's Blues

Blow Mr Jackson / The Blues

Worried / How Come

And, lest we forget, The Honeydripper Parts 1 & 2 by Sammy Franklin and the Atomics. He should have listened to Joe.

Worried / How Come - Joe Liggins And His Honeydrippers (Exclusive 262)

Recorded in Los Angeles, probably at the end of 1947. Personnel: Little Willie Jackson (alto and baritone saxes); James Jackson (tenor sax); Joe Liggins (piano and vocal); Frank Pasley (guitar); Red Callender (bass); Peppy Prince (drums).

Listen to "Worried"

Listen to "How Come"

Exclusive 262 was released in March 1948 and reviewed in Billboard on the 13th of that month. Of "Worried" Billboard said, "Relaxed instrumental for more sophisticated race locations. Jackson Brothers on sax with Pasley's guitar provide smooth blend."

Billboard gave "How Come" higher ratings than "Worried." The review ran thus: "Band jumps with Leon Rene tune. Liggins handles vocal chore capably. Sax work excellent."

I agree with the Billboard review. "How Come" is an infectiously catchy jump tune with a tight arrangement and good sax breaks, especially by tenor man James Jackson. I really like it. "Worried" just doesn't do it for me, but judge for yourselves. This record didn't get into the race music chart. The biggest hit for Joe in 1948 was "Darktown Strutters' Ball." Although Billboard refers to the "Jackson Brothers", Little Willie Jackson and James Jackson were in fact unrelated.

Thanks to El Enmascarado for yet another slice of shellac!

Blow Mr. Jackson / The Blues - Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers (Exclusive 244)

Recorded in Los Angeles in the second half of 1946. Released in June 1947. Personnel: Joe Darensbourg (clarinet); Little Willie Jackson (alto sax, baritone sax); James Jackson (tenor sax); Joe Liggins (piano, vocal); Frank Pasley (guitar); Red Callender (bass); Peppy Prince (drums)

Thanks to El Enmascarado and his ever growing mountain of shellac, we can enjoy listening to this 78 rpm disc by Joe Liggins.

Listen to "Blow Mr Jackson"

Listen to "The Blues"

“Blow Mr Jackson” was Joe’s big hit of 1947, following in the wake of “The Honeydripper” in 1945 and “I’ve Got A Right To Cry” and “Tanya” in 1946. Exclusive Records was the top selling R&B independent label in 1947 thanks in part to Joe’s record sales but mainly thanks to Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers who had two bigger hits with “New Orleans Blues” and “Merry Christmas Baby.”

Billboard, 16th August 1947

Exclusive was the 5th biggest R&B selling label of 1947, with the top four places being taken by major labels Decca, Capitol, Mercury and RCA Victor. Decca’s domination was largely due to the enormous popularity of Louis Jordan whose “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” / “Let The Good Times Roll” was the year’s top selling R&B record. Other big sellers for Louis in 1947 were “Boogie Woogie Blue Plate,” “Jack, You’re Dead,” “Texas And Pacific,” “Open The Door, Richard!” and “Early In The Mornin’”. Lionel Hampton and The Mills Brothers were also successful for Decca.

Capitol’s big selling artists were Julia Lee, Nellie Lutcher and Nat “King” Cole. Mercury’s R&B success was mostly due to Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson’s “Old Maid Boogie” / “Kidney Stew Blues” while RCA Victor had the Count Basie version of “Open The Door, Richard!” and “Hawk’s Boogie” by Erskine Hawkins to thank for their position as 4th top selling R&B label.

Major label dominance of R&B sales would come to an end in 1948 when King became the top selling label thanks to big sales for Bull Moose Jackson, Lonnie Johnson and Wynonie Harris.

Thanks once more to El Enmascarado for providing the opportunity to post this snapshot from the rapidly developing R&B scene of the late 1940s.

Joe Liggins & his Honeydrippers - Darktown Strutters Ball

Side 1
1. Miss Betty's Blues
2. Got Your Love In My Heart (Herb Jefferies)
3. Caravan
4. I Know My Love Is True
5. Got A Right To Cry
6. Walkin'
7. Tanya
8. Sugar Lump

Side 2
1. The Darktown Strutters Ball
2. Downhome Blues
3. Breaking My Heart
4. Sweet Georgia Brown
5. The Blues
6. Loosiana
7. Spooks Holiday
8. Daddy On My Mind

Way back in the blog we had a look at the early part of Joe’s career and in particular at the impact of his 1945 hit “The Honeydripper.” The LP featured on this post was the first of the two Joe Liggins compilations issued by Jukebox Lil back in the 1980s. It includes the follow up hit to “The Honeydripper” – “Got A Right To Cry.” Other R&B chart hits included here are “Tanya,” “Sweet Georgia Brown,” and “Darktown Strutters Ball,” all recorded for Exclusive, a label for which Joe had a total of 10 hits between 1945 and 1948.

In 1949 Exclusive closed down as they were unable to convert their operation to accommodate the new 45 rpm format. In January 1950 Joe and the Honeydrippers started recording for Specialty, the label for which his brother Jimmy was already recording. Joe’s first session for his new label produced the biggest R&B hit of 1950 – “Pink Champagne.” There were further hits on Specialty including “Frankie Lee” and “Little Joe’s Boogie,” both in 1951, with Joe’s flow of hits finally drying up in 1952 with “Cryin’ Over You.”

Joe left Specialty in 1954, moving to Mercury where he recorded a session which failed to arouse public interest. From then on Joe’s recording career was intermittent, his next session being for Aladdin in 1957 with no further recordings until 1962 when he returned briefly to Mercury. In 1965 he cut a few sides for his brother Jimmy’s Duplex and J & J labels, then four years later he recorded an album for Johnny Otis’ Blues Spectrum label. Joe reformed the Honeydrippers for occasional live gigs, and in the 1980s as interest in jump blues revived, the band started making appearances at the major jazz and blues festivals, bringing the sound of the 1940s to a new generation of fans. The final curtain came down on a long and distinguished career when Joe died in July 1987.

Two of my favourite Joe Liggins sides are here – “Miss Betty’s Blues” and “Walkin’.” Both feature that relaxed shuffle rhythm coupled with appealing melodies which was the trademark of the best of Joe’s music.

Ripped from vinyl at 320kbps.

Download from here:

http://www93.zippyshare.com/v/4QZ4uLXs/file.html


1. Miss Betty's Blues (1946, Exclusive 213)
2. Got Your Love In My Heart (Herb Jefferies, April 20, 1945)
3. Caravan (April 20, 1945, Exclusive 216)
4. I Know My Love Is True (1946, Exclusive 212)
5. Got A Right To Cry (April 20, 1945, Exclusive 210)
6. Walkin' (late 1946, Exclusive, 242)
7. Tanya (July 8, 1946, Exclusive 231)
8. Sugar Lump (April 20, 1945, Exclusive 219)
9. The Darktown Strutters Ball (1947, Exclusive 49X)
10. Downhome Blues (1947, Exclusive 250)
11. Breaking My Heart (July 8, 1946, Exclusive 231)
12. Sweet Georgia Brown (1947, Exclusive 271)
13. The Blues (late 1946, Exclusive, 244)
14. Loosiana (1948, Exclusive 132X)
15. Spooks Holiday (1947, Exclusive, 49X)
16. Daddy On My Mind (April 24, 1950, Specialty 379)

Further listening:

Elsewhere on the blog - "The Honeydripper"  - the complete LP.

"Miss Betty's Blues" with the story of the origin of this track, streamed audio of the vinyl rip and YouTube videos of El Enmascarado's original 78 rpm. This includes the other side of the disc - "Lover's Lament."

Drippers' Boogie Parts 1 & 2 - streamed audio plus YouTube videos from El Enmascarado's channel of both sides of the original 78 rpm disc.

The Classics series covers Joe's career from 1946 - 1952 in 3 CDs. Look 'em up on Amazon.co.uk.

Also of interest is the Ace CD "Jazz Me Blues" by Joe's sax player Little Willie Jackson, backed by the Honeydrippers including Joe on piano. This is a set of sides recorded for Modern in 1947. I guess it almost qualifies as a "moonlighting" sesssion as the band were under contract to Exclusive at the time.

Drippers' Boogie Parts 1 & 2 - Joe Liggins & his Honeydrippers (Exclusive 232)

Listen to "Drippers' Boogie Part 1"

Listen to "Drippers' Boogie Part 2"

Recorded in Los Angeles, July 8th, 1946. Joe Liggins (piano), Little Willie Jackson (soprano and baritone saxes), James Jackson (tenor sax), Frank Pasley (guitar), Red Callender* (bass), Peppy Prince (drums).

It's Joe Liggins again, this time with a frantic two parter from 1946 which attempts to follow in the footsteps of his 1945 hit, "The Honeydripper Parts 1 & 2." Thanks to El Enmascarado for these rips and label scans from an original 78rpm disc.

Downloaders don't despair - there'll be another Joe Liggins LP on Be Bop Wino very soon. The sharp eyed among you may have spotted the album cover on a recent post. We'll be concentrating on the jivin' side of rhythm and blues over the next month or so with a selection of movin' and groovin' tracks and albums from the finest jump bands of the 1940s.

If you're new to the blog and you want to hear more of this kind of cool music then search for posts on Roy Milton, Jack McVea, Bull Moose Jackson, Jimmy Liggins, Tab Smith, Johnny Otis and T-Bone Walker.

* Although regular Honeydrippers bass player Eddie Davis is credited on the disc label, Joe Liggins stated in interviews that Red Callender took over bass playing duties on most recording sessions.

Lovers Lament / Miss Betty’s Blues – Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers (Exclusive 213)

Recorded in Los Angeles, 1946. Personnel: Joe Liggins (vocal, piano), Little Willie Jackson (alto, baritone saxes), James Jackson (tenor sax), Frank Pasley (guitar), Red Callender (bass), Peppy Prince (drums).

Listen to "Lovers Lament"

Listen to "Miss Betty's Blues"

Joe Liggins had a massive hit in the race charts in 1945 with the two part riffer “The Honeydripper.” He was one of a number of jump blues artists who helped launch the first wave of rhythm and blues music on the West Coast as World War Two drew to a close. Los Angeles became a centre for the new music as independent record companies such as Exclusive, Modern, Aladdin, Specialty and others started up to cater for the increasing popularity of performers like Roy Milton, Jack McVea, T-Bone Walker, Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers, Ivory Joe Hunter and Johnny Otis.

This disc represents quite a change in mood from "The Honeydripper" with "Lovers Lament" finding Joe in a mellow and sentimental mood while "Miss Betty's Blues" has an air of melancholy and loss about it.

The origins of  “Miss Betty’s Blues” go back well before “The Honeydripper,” as Joe related in an interview quoted in Peter Grendysa’s sleeve notes for the Jukebox Lil LP “Darktown Strutters Ball.”

“I wrote that tune for a girl named Betty. Before I got my own band or even played with a band, I came to Los Angeles to play piano for Betty. I had met Betty in San Diego at the Creole Palace – called the Douglas nightclub. She needed a pianist and I knew I was coming to Los Angeles to live when I got married, so I wanted a line to a job. I came up and started accompanying Betty in a night club, mostly after hours.

“Betty would fall in love with these guys and she’d go with a guy for maybe two or three months, and they’d break up. I’d pick her up for work and she’d be all morose and sad and she’d perform that way. And I just wrote the tune – ‘Miss Betty’s got the blues, ‘cause her man is gone …”

Joe Liggins’ “The Honeydripper” LP on Jukebox Lil is posted here.

Many thanks to El Enmascarado for original 78rpm label scans and rips from shellac.



Jack McVea & His All Stars - Open The Door Richard!

Tenor saxman Jack McVea was always there or thereabouts in the Los Angeles jazz / rhythm & blues scene of the 1940s. He was in the Lionel Hampton big band line-up which recorded “Flying Home”, the number which first brought Illinois Jacquet to the attention of sax fans. He took the first sax solo on “Blues” at the first ever Jazz At The Philharmonic concert, but Illinois took the second sax solo and in a few moments of blasting, screeching, crowd-pleasing madness, Jacquet had defined the future of jazz and R&B tenor sax styling. McVea was on “Slim’s Jam”, along with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Slim Gaillard, and managed to slip in a reference to “Open The Door, Richard!” about a year before he recorded his own hit version of the comedy stage routine.



In 1943 he left Hampton to form one of the first small jump bands in LA and not only released records under his own name, but also provided backing for Wynonie Harris on Apollo Records and T-Bone Walker on Black & White. It was for the latter record company that McVea made the record that was to become one of the biggest selling and most covered records of 1947 – “Open The Door Richard!” While working for the Lionel Hampton outfit a few years before, McVea had toured with a comic called Dusty Fletcher, part of whose stage routine consisted of playing a drunken reveller trying to gain entry to his appartment by rousing his slumbering roommate who happens to have the only key to the front door.

McVea worked up a little spoken musical number for his band’s live act based on the Fletcher routine and recorded it for Black & White in September 1946. The record was released at the end of the year and became a monster seller in 1947, inspiring covers by Louis Jordan, Count Basie and Dusty Fletcher himself. Of course Jack saw very little of the royalties, most of which vanished thanks to some creative accountancy by the record company. McVea’s last recording session for Black & White took place in March of 1947. In November and December of 1947 he recorded several sessions for Exclusive and then took to club work in locations as far apart as Honolulu, Alaska, Las Vegas, and even LA.

Jack signed up with Jake Porter’s Combo Records in 1953. His band was very much the house band at Combo, recording not only under Jack’s name, but also under various guises such as Jonesy’s Combo. They were on Combo’s biggest selling disc, the original version of “Ko Ko Mo” by Gene & Eunice, but once again saw little in the way of royalty payments. As the 1950s wound to a close, so did Jack’s recording career and by the early 1960s he was making a living as a junkman. In 1966 he took up an engagement as clarinet player in a small Dixieland jazz group at Disneyland. It was a gig that lasted until 1992 when Jack finally retired from the music scene. He died in December 2000.

This is a re-up of an LP originally posted on the old Be Bop Wino blog, but with all new cover scans, including the complete gatefold sleeve.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps. I made extensive use of clicking and crackling elimination, which may or may not be a good thing.

Download from here:

http://www20.zippyshare.com/v/zWoIoeVl/file.html

1. Bartender Boogie (Black & White 750)
2. Tarrant Blues (Apollo 370)*
3. O-Kay For Baby (Apollo 761)
4. We're Together Again (Apollo 366)*
5. Ooh Mop (Black & White 750)
6. Don't Blame Me (Apollo 761)
7. Frisco Blues (Black & White 751)
8. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying (Black & White 793)
9. Open The Door Richard! (Black & White 792)
10. Wine-O (Black & White 751)
11. Inflation Blues (Exclusive 260)
12. Groovin' Boogie (Black & White 810)
13. No, No, You Can't Do Dot Mon (Exclusive 266)
14. Jack Frost (Exclusive 266)
15. Mumblin' Blues (Exclusive 270)
16. The Key's In The Mailbox (Black & White 828)

* credited to Rabon Tarrant



More platters that matter -

On the blog: “New Deal” (Jukebox Lil 625) which has more early Jack McVea sides.



Recommended purchases:

“McVoutie’s Central Avenue Blues” (Delmark DE-756)



Compilation of Apollo sides. Includes sides credited to Wynonie Harris, Cee Pee Johnson, Wild Bill Moore and Duke Henderson.

“Fortissimo! The Combo Recordings 1954 -57” (Ace CDCHD 1246)