Gatemouth Moore Sings Blues (King LP 684)

Side 1:
01. I'm A Fool To Care
02. Highway 61 Blues
03. Gambling Woman
04. Don't You Know I Love You Baby
05. Teasin' Brown
06. Hey Mr. Gatemouth
07. You're My Specialty Baby
08. Gotta Walk

Side 2:
01. Something I'm Gonna Be
02. I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby
03. Did You Ever Try To Cry
04. Satisfying Papa
05. Graveyard Disposition
06. Willa Mae
07. After Loving A Woman
08. You're Having Hard Luck

Gatemouth Moore Sings Blues (Mega)

Gatemouth Moore Sings Blues (Zippy)

I've "reconstructed" this LP which was originally issued in June 1960 by trawling the internet for the artwork and matching it up with tracks in my collection. As I did this a few weeks ago I've managed to forget where exactly I found the artwork! Probably discogs.com or a record sales site, so my thanks to whoever uploaded the cover and label shots.

Arnold Dwight "Gatemouth" Moore was one of the best of the 1940s blues shouters, yet his recordings for two of the larger independent record companies, National and King, failed to sell. He was a performer who could not only shout rambunctious blues but was also capable of handling crooning duties on pop standards and ballads.

Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1913, his music career took off in 1930 in Kansas City where he sang in a club which featured musicians such as Benny Moten and Count Basie. He formed a quartet in Topeka called the Four Sharps who were recruited for a tour of Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas by the Beckman and Garrity Carnival, a booking which was the start of years on the road for Gatemouth and the Four Sharps with tent shows, circuses, minstrel shows and reviews - outfits such as Porkchop Chapman's Show, Sammy Green's Down In Dixie Minstrels, Sam Dale's Circus, Ida Cox's Darktown Scandals and the F.S. Wallcot Rabbit Foot Minstrels. After being left stranded in Clarksdale Mississippi by the Walcott show, Gatemouth split from the Four Sharps and settled in Memphis.

In 1939 he was recruited by the Walter Barnes band for an extensive tour which lasted into 1940. In April 1940, the tour was about to finish and the band were due to head back to their home base in Chicago when they accepted an extra booking by the Rhythm Club in Natchez, Mississippi. The Rhythm Club consisted of a rather ramshackle club / dance hall housed in a timber and tin sheeting building which had served as a pentecostal church and then as a blacksmith's or motor repair shop. The owners had booked the Tiny Bradshaw band for a dance timed to coincide with the local black high school's commencement celebration on April 23rd, 1940. Bradshaw, however, was offered a week's residency at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and withdrew from the arrangement.

The Walter Barnes band was a long established and popular outfit on what was to become known as the Chitlin' Circuit - that network of clubs, dance halls and ghetto theatres (and even tobacco warehouses) which constituted the venues on the touring itinary of black musicians. The Barnes outfit accepted the late booking, the dance was saved, and the musicians could return home the following day.

What happened on that evening in Natchez has entered history as one of the worst night club fire disasters in the U.S. The Rhythm Club was a potential death trap as the owners had decorated the hall with dried Spanish moss soaked in a kerosene based insect repellent and then sealed all exits and boarded up the windows to prevent non paying spectators from seeing or hearing the band. The only door left open was the main entrance and that was a door which opened inwards.

When fire broke out it spread rapidly and mass panic ensued as the dancers attempted to flee through the only available exit. The death toll came to 209 with many others injured. Deaths were due to crushing, suffocation (the fire consumed all available oxygen), scalding (the heated tin sheeting turned water from the fire brigade's hoses to steam) and burning. Firemen who attempted to enter the building by the front door were confronted by a wall of bodies and had to rip down the sheeting from the walls to gain entry and to let survivors escape.

Walter Barnes, who had kept the band playing in a heroic attempt to quell the panic, died along with all of his musicians except the bass player and drummer who managed to smash their way through a boarded up window and thus escape from the doomed building. A third surviving band member was Gatemouth Moore who was outside the building in the band bus when the fire broke out. One contemporary report stated that he had already left the tour in the company of several other musicians a few days before the disaster but his inclusion in this group appears to have been mistaken.

Gatemouth returned to Memphis for a spell, singing with the Andrew Jenkins band. In 1941 he moved back to Kansas City to take up a residency at the Chez Paree club where he was backed by the Carolina Cotton Pickers with whom he toured in 1942. The club owner, a Mrs Gilmore, decided to start her own record label, Gilmore's Chez Paree, for which Gatemouth made his recording debut in 1944 or early 1945. He cut two singles backed by an "all star" lineup of KC musicians which included Tommy Douglas and Walter Page.

The first single released had two of Gatemouth's own compositions, "I Ain't Mad At You" and "Did You Ever Love a Woman" which he went on to re-record for National when he signed with that company in May of 1945. Unfortunately despite some good records backed by top class bands Dallas Bartley And His Small Town Boys, the Budd Johnson Orchestra, and the Tiny Grimes Swingtet (including John Hardee on tenor sax), the records failed to sell and Gatemouth's contract was not renewed after his third session for National in October 1946.

His first session for King was in August 1947 with a piano, guitar and drums trio. For his second session in October 1947, the group was augmented with a horn section. A total of eight sides were recorded at these sessions, all of which were released on singles and six of which made it to this LP. See section below for details.

On the 26th December 1947 Gatemouth was in a Chicago studio where he recorded a mammoth 20 tracks as King were stockpiling sides in anticipation of the American Federation of Musicians recording ban due to come into force on the 1st January 1948. Of the twenty sides, ten are included on this LP, only four of which had a previous single release. The remaining masters remained unreleased until the the issue of the Westside CD "Hey Mr. Gatemouth" in 2000. There was, however, one exception - a re-recording of "Did You Ever Love a Woman" the master of which had disappeared.

Gatemouth before he renounced sin

Despite the generally very good standard of Gatemouth's King recordings his experience with National was repeated - disappointingly low sales and the termination of his contract. He kept performing live though, until one night in 1949 at the Club DeLisa in Chicago he underwent a sudden religious conversion on stage. His voice simply vanished and he was unable to utter a sound despite the Red Saunders band repeatedly cuing him in. Then he launched into "Shine On Me" amidst tumultous scenes in that palace of sin. On Sunday he was in church, on Monday he enrolled in Bible college and he was on the way to becoming the Reverend Gatemouth Moore, saviour of souls.

That was the end of the Reverend's R&B career, with one exception. After decades of preaching, recording religious songs and playing gospel records on Memphis station WDIA, in 1977 he arranged with Johnny Otis to record an album of R&B tracks which included his old songs and a new song in which he looked back to the now vanished days of his life as a blues singer, "Beale Street Ain't Beale Street No More." He can be seen singing this song in the film "The Road To Memphis", an episode in the TV series "Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues" from 2003. He appears alone, apparently singing to himself as he walks down a deserted and much changed Beale Street. The Reverend Gatemouth Moore went to his reward in 2004.

The Tracks - The Lowdown

I'm A Fool To Care; Highway 61 Blues - recorded in Cincinnati, 12th August, 1947. Personnel - Gatemouth Moore (vocals); Allen Smith (piano); Willie Gaddy (guitar); Monty Morrison (drums). Also recorded at this session but not on this LP - Christmas Blues; East Of The Sun.

I'm A Fool To Care / Highway 61 Blues - released on King 4178 in October 1947.

Don't You Know I Love You Baby; Gamblin' Woman; Satisfying Papa; Teasin' Brown - recorded in Cincinnati, September 1947. Personnel as above but add unknown trumpet, alto sax, tenor sax.

Gamblin' Woman / Satisfying Papa - released on King 4187 in December 1947.

Teasin' Brown / Christmas Blues - released on King 4195 in December 1947.

Hey Mr. Gatemouth; Did You Ever Try To Cry; Something I'm Gonna Be; You're Having Hard Luck Blues; Willa Mae; Graveyard Disposition; You're My Specialty Baby; After Loving A Woman; Gotta Walk; I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby - recorded in Chicago, 26th December, 1947. Personnel: Gatemouth Moore (vocals); Bill Martin (trumpet); Bert Patrick (alto sax); Moses Gant (tenor sax); Nat Walker and Simeon Hatch (piano); Adolphus Dean (bass); James Adams (drums).

Hey, Mr. Gatemouth / Don't You Know I Love You Baby - released on King 4211 in April 1948.

East Of The Sun / Gotta Walk released on King 4224 in May 1948.

Something I'm Gonna Be / You're My Specialty Baby released on King 4256 in December 1948.

Did You Ever Try To Cry; You're Having Hard Luck Blues; Willa Mae; Graveyard Disposition; After Loving A Woman; I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby - all first released on King LP 684 "Gatemouth Moore Sings Blues" in June 1960.

A further ten tracks were recorded at the 26th December 1947 session. Nine were first issued on Westside CD WESF 100, "Hey Mr. Gatemouth. Complete King Recordings" in 2000. One master, "Did You Ever Love a Woman," remains lost.

Recommended:

Savoy Jazz CD SVY 17327 collection of complete National recordings. 20 tracks.

Westside CD WESF 100 the complete King recordings. 27 tracks. Detailed article by Neil Slaven on Gatemouth which is the main source of information for this post.

The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'N' Roll - Preston Lauterbach. History of the network of clubs and theaters worked by Black music acts from the 1930s onwards. Contains a full account of the Natchez Rhythm Club fire.

On YouTube - The Rhythm Club Fire Documentary (complete film). 30 minute award winning film on the Natchez Rhythm Club fire.

Sources:
notes by Neil Slaven to Westside CD "Hey Mr. Gatemouth: Complete King Recordings."
"The Chitlin' Circuit And The Road To Rock 'N' Roll" - Preston Lauterbach.
"Big Band Jazz" by Albert McCarthy.
Bruyninckx discography.
Billboard magazine.

Love Doctor Blues / They Can't Do This To You (National 4015) - Gatemouth Moore

Released June, 1947.

"They Can't Do This To You" recorded in New York, November 15th, 1945.

Personnel: "Gatemouth" Moore (vcl), acc by Al "Budd" Johnson's Orchestra : Dick Vance (tp); Jimmy Hamilton (cl); Budd Johnson (ts); Harry Carney (bar,as); Sam Benskin (p); Al Hall (b); J.C. Heard (d).

"Love Doctor Blues" recorded in New York, October 25th, 1946.

Personnel: Dwight "Gatemouth" Moore (vcl), acc by Tiny Grimes Swingtet : Russell Royster (tp); Herman Flintsall (as); John Hardee (ts); Sam Benskin (p,celeste); Tiny Grimes (g); Al "Junior" Raglin (b); Eddie Nicholson (d).

Thought I'd post another "snapshot" of early R&B history with this fine example of jump blues featuring blues shouter and future reverend, Gatemouth Moore. The tracks are ripped from vinyl, specifically from the Savoy 2 LP set "The Shouters", hence no label shots.

The A Side, "Love Doctor Blues" is a sly, slinky variation on the well used blues theme of super stud acting as "doctor" to cure the ladies of whatever ails them. There's cracking backing from The Tiny Grimes Swingtet with nice guitar from Tiny and subtle tenor horn from John Hardee.

John "Bad Man" Hardee

The uptempo B Side "They Can't Do This To You" also features a first class backing group, that of sax player Budd Johnson.

The disk received a favourable review in Billboard on June 7th, 1947:

"The gusty and groovey blues singing of Gatemouth (Dwight) Moore lets loose in free-swinging rock 'n' rhythm style for both of these Harlemese selections. And with the jam-packed bands behind him bringing up a tasty musical dish, the spinning is something to occupy the attention. Spinning solid and spicey is Doc Pumus's "Love Doctor Blues," Gatemouth telling of his office hours from sundown till the break of dawn with no fees charged for his fem patients. Guitarist Tiny Grimes leads the musical aggregation for this grooving which gives forth some of John Hardee's fine tenor sax blues blowing. Takes his own blues novelty, a jive fashioned "They Can't Do This To You," at a faster clip, with tenor saxist Budd Johnson, who rounds up the accompanying hot men, giving forth some of his sax smoke."

The Billboard reviewer's verdict was: "Race locations will lap up 'Love Doctor Blues.'"

"Doctor Moore has just what you need, Ma'am"

Above is the "Race Chart" of juke box plays from the same edition of Billboard, June 7th 1947, which shows us what was big at the time Gatemouth's disk was released. There are four Louis Jordan numbers, two from The Mills Brothers and one from song belter Frankie Lane. The major labels dominate with only one independent label, Manor, having a disk in the chart. There's still a strong feel of the big band era with Erskine Hawkins, Lionel Hampton and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson all present although in the case of the latter two, the recordings are by small groups assembled from the parent big bands.

Flying Home Parts 1 and 2 – Tiny Grimes’ Swingtet (Blue Note 524)

Recorded at WOR Studios, NYC on August 14th, 1946. Personnel: Trummy Young (tb); John Hardee (ts); Marlowe Morris (p); Tiny Grimes (g); Jimmy Butts (b); Eddie Nicholson (d)

Listen to "Flying Home Part 1"

Listen to "Flying Home Part 2"

With thanks to El Enmascarado for his rips and scans from this Blue Note 78 rpm disc.

Before guitarist Lloyd “Tiny” Grimes was issuing those great jump blues singles on the Atlantic label and before he had renamed his group “The Rocking Highlanders”, dressing them in kilts and Tam O’Shanters, and yea, well before he was recording even more jump blues and backing the likes of J.B. Summers, Haji Baba and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins on Gotham, our hero was one cool dude on the New York jazz scene.

He was a late starter on the four string guitar, having commenced his musical career on the piano and as a tap dancer. In 1940, not long after taking up the guitar, he joined the already successful jive group The Cats & The Fiddle. From there he joined the illustrious pianist Art Tatum and bass player Slam Stewart to form the Art Tatum Trio. Inevitably his guitar playing improved greatly in such company and in 1944 Tiny formed his own group. While with the trio he had become a fixture on the New York jazz club scene and he was soon picking up recording work with Ike Quebec, Coleman Hawkins and Hot Lips Page.

Tiny’s first session as a leader (for Savoy in September 1944) has gone down in jazz history as Charlie Parker (who had been jamming with Tiny’s band at the Downbeat Club) was on alto sax. To round off the session the group recorded Parker’s “Red Cross”, an instrumental based on the chords of “I Got Rhythm” which is considered an important step in the development of be-bop.

After the Parker session, Tiny was on sessions on various labels with Ike Quebec, Coleman Hawkins, Hot Lips Page, Cozy Cole, Billie Holiday, Earl Bostic, John Hardee and Buck Clayton. In August 1946, Tiny finally got another session as a band leader with jazz label Blue Note. Two singles resulted from the session – the two-parter “Flying Home” and “’C’ Jam Blues” / “Tiny’s Boogie Woogie.”

Tiny Grimes circa 1948 - William Gottlieb collection

Tiny’s move towards R&B started 2 months later when his group backed blues shouter Gatemouth Moore on National, and the trend continued the following year when Tiny’s band backed Walter Brown on a cover of “Open The Door, Richard” on Signature. At the very end of 1947 Tiny’s group started recording for the new Atlantic label, but we shall leave that part of the story for another post!

Listen to “Red Cross” featuring Charlie Parker and “Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning” by Gatemouth Moore with the Tiny Grimes Swingtet -

Listen to "Red Cross"

Listen to "Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning"

Red Cross (Savoy 532). Recorded NYC, September 15th, 1944. Personnel: Tiny Grimes (g); Charlie Parker (as); Clyde Hart (p); Jimmy Butts (b); Doc West (d)

Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning (National 4015). Recorded NYC, October 25th, 1946. Personnel: Gatemouth Moore (vcl); Russell Royster (tpt); Herman Flintall (as); John Hardee (ts); Sam Benskin (p); Tiny Grimes (g); Al Raglin (b); Eddie Nicholson (d)

Tiny's tenor sax man - John Hardee c 1947 William Gottlieb collection

Sources:

Dan Kochakian & Dave Penny - Tiny Grimes Discography Part 1, Blues & Rhythm Magazine, No. 228, April 2008

Dan Morgenstern - sleeve notes to “The Changing Face of Harlem: The Savoy Sessions” Savoy Jazz 2LP set, SJL 2208, 1976

Claude Carrière - sleeve notes to “Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy Sessions Volume 1” Savoy LP, WL70520, 1984

Dapper Tiny - NYC c 1948 William Gottlieb collection 

I Ain't Mad At You - Update

Buddy Johnson - originator of "I Ain't Mad At You?"

Back in March of this year I posted a short 4 track playlist based around the songs "I Ain't Mad At You" and "I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby." It kicked off with the 1945 Gatemouth Moore release on National - "I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby," and continued with "Jesse Price's "I Ain't Mad At You," released on Capitol in 1946. This track generated a cover version by Count Basie which had a scat style vocal by Taps Miller. The playlist was rounded off by a wild version by the Jones Boys which was recorded for Gotham in the early 1950s but was unreleased at the time.

Move over Buddy Love, here comes Gatemouth!

Comments with more info were kindly sent in by davep369. The Gatemouth Moore track which is from the Savoy Jazz 2LP set "The Shouters" was in fact an alternate take to the released version. There was also a later version by former Cootie Williams Orchestra trumpeter and vocalist Bob Merrill (actual surname Merrell). This version was recorded in New York in 1960 or 1961 and was issued on the Bargain label by Bobby "Mr Blues" Merrell. It's a rough and rowdy piece of rock 'n' roll which I've added to the end of the playlist.

And now davep369 has pointed out a version which was recorded 3 years before the Gatemouth Moore recording. On January 26th 1942, the Buddy Johnson Orchestra recorded "I Ain't Mad With You," with a vocal by trumpeter Chester Boone. It's an obvious influence on Gatemouth's song, but he has added his own lyrics which explore the subject of a two timin' dame in much more depth than the one verse sung by Chester Boone could possibly do.

I found the Buddy Johnson version which was originally released on Decca 8640, lurking deep down in my hard disk, so now it kicks off the extended playlist. Also to note - Gatemouth Moore first recorded "I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby" for the small Kansas City label Gilmore's Chez Paree early in 1945. The Jesse Price song differs significantly from Gatemouth's exasperated litany of accusations against the object of his affections. Price's "I Ain't Mad At You" is a gentle, almost wistful plea for his woman to come back. I prefer the Jesse Price approach, sentimentalist that I am.

Here is the extended six track playlist:



You can read the original "I Ain't Mad At You" post here.

You can read more about Bob Merrill and download some of his work with Cootie Williams on the post "Typhoon."

With thanks to davep369.

I Ain’t Mad At You

Gatemouth Moore - before he saw the light

Recently I came across the Jesse Price version of “I Ain’t Mad At You” and it immediately went straight into my all time top ten favourite R&B discs. Well, make that top thirty. It’s a beautifully relaxed and subtle performance of what I thought was the classic song by blues shouter Dwight “Gatemouth” Moore, a track which has been lurking in my collection for about two and a half decades.

After a search through the vinyl cupboard I retrieved Gatemouth’s track on my beat up copy of the double LP “The Shouters,” which was part of the “Roots of Rock ‘N’ Roll” series on Savoy Jazz. The Gatemouth Moore track which dates from 1945 is not the same song which became a modest hit for Jesse Price in 1947. The full title of the Gatemouth song is “I Ain’t Mad at You, Pretty Baby.” However there are similarities between the two, particularly around the shared refrain of “I ain’t mad at you!”

Price’s “I Ain’t Mad At You” was in its turn covered by Count Basie but that version is wildly different from the Price disc as you can now hear by clicking on the playlist. To round off our little wander along the back roads of early rhythm & blues, I’ve added an unreleased version by The Jones Boys which they recorded for Gotham at an unknown date. This frantic version is very different from anything else on the playlist, so despite the shared song title (well, almost) there are four very different performances.

Click on the playlist widget below for some Sunday afternoon rhythm’n’ bluesin’:



Track 1 – “I Ain’t Mad At You, Pretty Baby” (National 6001) by Dwight “Gatemouth” Moore with Dallas Bartley and his Small Town Boys. Recorded in Chicago on May 10th, 1945.

Kill 'em Gatemouth!

Gatemouth Moore is a performer whom we must investigate further here on Be Bop Wino. Like Jesse Price he had deep jazz roots in Memphis and Kansas City. While singing with Walter Barnes and his Royal Creoles he survived the appalling Natchez Rhythm Club inferno of April 23rd, 1940 which killed some 200 dance hall patrons as well as most of Gatemouth’s bandmates. In 1949 he had an onstage religious experience and immediately gave up screechin’ for preachin’.

Track 2 – “I Ain’t Mad at You” (Capitol 348) by Jesse Price. Recorded in Los Angeles on October 17th, 1946.

This is the track that got me searching through the vinyl vault. It's a nicely relaxed performance from a small studio jump group led by drummer and singer Jesse Price who is another performer whom we must revisit on Be Bop Wino. He was part of the booming Kansas City jazz scene of the 1930s – being drummer in the Benny Moten band and, after Moten’s death, in the Count Basie led version of that aggregation.

When Basie and the boys left KC for greater things, Price opted to stay on in the wide open city and ceded the drum chair to his friend Jo Jones. In 1939 the booming KC music scene came to an end with the arrest of mayor Pendergast and Price left with Harlan Leonard’s Rockets, one of the last bands to leave the now cleaned up, reformed and God fearing former Sodom of the plains. A brief spell as drummer in the Ella Fitzgerald led Chick Webb Orchestra (Chick having shuffled off this mortal coil) brought Jesse to Los Angeles, the Gomorrah of the Coast, where he settled down to take part in countless R&B and jazz sessions across the ensuing decades.

Track 3 – “I Ain’t Mad At You” (RCA Victor 20-2314) by Count Basie and his Orchestra. Vocal by Taps Miller. Recorded in New York on May 22nd, 1947.


This is an almost unrecognizable version of the Jesse Price disc. Taps Miller provides a scat vocal over the ensemble vocals and big band arrangement. The band includes Preston Love on alto sax, while the tenor saxes are wielded by Paul Gonsalves and Buddy Tate. A Google image search uncovers an unfortunate run in with the drugs squad for singer / dancer Taps Miller. But he was young and foolish back then. Try it for yourselves. The search, not the drugs.

Track 4 – “I Ain’t Mad At You” (Gotham, unreleased) by The Jones Boys. Unknown date – possibly around 1952 - 1953.

Who let 'em loose on this? It's a howling, blasting deconstruction of the Jesse Price opus, or maybe of the Gatemouth Moore song, it’s hard to tell. I don’t know anything about the Jones Boys. There was a vocal / jive group of the same name in the 1930s and early 1940s. There was also a loose mid 1950s jazz aggregation whose members shared the surname Jones. Quincy Jones, Eddie Jones and Jo Jones were in that group.

I have no idea if either of these groups is related in any way to the performers on this track. All I know is that whoever the Gotham Jones Boys may be, they carried out a similar assault on “Night Train.”