Jimmy Witherspoon - Ain't Nobody's Business!

Side 1:
01) Ain't Nobody's Business Part 2
02) In The Evening
03) Frogomore Blues
04) McShann Bounce Part 1
05) How Long
06) Money's Getting Cheaper

Side 2:
01) Skid-Row Blues
02) Spoon Calls Hootie
03) Back Water Blues
04) Louie's Guitar Boogie
05) Destruction Blues
06) Ain't Nobody's Business Part 1

Ain't Nobody's Business! (Mega)

Ain't Nobody's Business! (Zippy)

Another LP which has lain unplayed for decades on the shelves of the vinyl vault. An unfortunate state of affairs as it provides a valuable snapshot of a period when one of the all time great blues shouters, Jimmy Witherspoon, enjoyed considerable success on the R&B charts. Witherspoon, of course, went on to have a decades long career as a jazz and blues singer but here we concentrate on 1947 - 1949 when his recordings for Supreme Records made a big noise on the sales charts.

Although the sleevenotes for this LP say that these recordings were made for Jack Lauderdale's Down Beat / Swing Time label, in fact with the exception of "Spoon Calls Hootie" and "Destruction Blues'" these tracks were recorded in November 1947 for Supreme Records, a small LA based label owned by dentist Al Patrick. The label had a limited but interesting roster of R&B artists which included Jimmy Witherspoon, Jay McShann, Buddy Tate, Paula Watson and Eddie Williams. Two lawsuits (brought by Decca and Black & White) plus the inevitable financial pressures of a small label having to support a nationwide smash hit (Witherspoon's "Ain't Nobody's Business") brought about the closure of the label in 1950 with most of its masters being bought up by Swing Time.

In the previous post "Jay McShann - The Band That Jumps The Blues!" we saw how pianist and former big band leader Jay McShann had migrated to the West Coast, leading small jump groups rather than full bands. In Vallejo California McShann came across Witherspoon and immediately signed him to his band which for a while could boast three vocalists - Crown Prince Waterford, Witherspoon and Numa Lee Davis. The band cut sides for Philo, Premier and Mercury (1945 - 1947) with Waterford and Davis dropping out, leaving Witherspoon as the sole vocalist fronting the band.

Supreme started recording Witherspoon who was now a solo act in October 1947. Further sessions followed in November 1947 with backing by Jay McShann who generously provided studio support for his former singer, and in a final late December 1947 session, backing was provided by the Buddy Tate band. To confuse matters somewhat, Witherspoon and McShann also recorded for Modern in late December 1947 with the Al "Cake" Wichard band.

Although a stash of recordings had been built up, Supreme didn't start releasing Witherspoon sides until the spring of 1948. Just as these platters hit the record shops, Witherspoon started recording for Down Beat, again backed by Jay McShann. He continued to record for Down Beat into the summer of 1948 and then started recording for Modern in the autumn of that year, staying with that label until 1952 when he switched to Federal.

Amidst the flurry of releases on Supreme, Down Beat and Modern in 1948-49, it was the Supreme recordings which made the biggest impact sales wise, with the two parter "Ain't Nobody's Business"  reaching number 1 in the R&B chart in the spring of 1949, and its follow up, "In The Evening" reaching number 7 in October of that year. Witherspoon enjoyed further success in 1950 with a double sided hit on Modern, "No Rollin' Blues" and "Big Fine Girl" both of which reached number 4 R&B.

Release Details - Titles as on original single releases

01) Ain't Nobody's Business Part 2 - Supreme 1506 / Swing Time 263

02) In The Evening - Supreme 1533

03) Frogomore Blues  - Supreme 1505

04) McShann's Bounce Part 1 - Supreme 1540 (Jay McShann)

05) How Long - Supreme 1545

06) Money's Getting Cheaper - Supreme 1501

07) Skid-Row Blues - Supreme 1545 / Swing Time 244

08) Spoon Calls Hootie - Down Beat / Swing Time 157

09) Back Water Blues - Supreme 1520

10) Louie's Guitar Boogie - Supreme 1501 (Louis Speiginer)

11) Destruction Blues - Down Beat / Swing Time 161

12) Ain't Nobody's Business Part 1 - Supreme 1506 / Swing Time 263

In chronological order. All tracks credited to Jimmy Witherspoon unless otherwise noted (in brackets):

Louie's Guitar Boogie (Louis Speiginer) / Money's Getting Cheaper - Supreme 1501 - May 1948

Frogomore Blues / Wee Baby Blues - Supreme 1505 - August / September (?) 1948

Call My Baby / Spoon Calls Hootie - Down Beat 157 - circa October 1948

Funny Style Baby / Destruction Blues - Down Beat 161 - circa October 1948

Ain't Nobody's Business Part 1 / Ain't Nobody's Business Part 2 - Supreme 1506 - February 1949

Back Water Blues / Third Floor Blues - Supreme 1520 - April 1949

In The Evening (Jimmy Witherspoon) / Six-Foot-Two Blues (Buddy Tate Orchestra vcl - Jimmy Witherspoon) - Supreme 1533 - September 1949

McShann's Bounce Part 1 / McShann's Bounce Part 2 (Jay McShann At The Piano) - Supreme 1540 - circa October 1949

How Long / Skid-Row Blues - Supreme 1545 - November 1949

 

Label shots adapted from The Internet Archive.

Recommended Purchase:

Cold Blooded Boogie (Night Train International NTI CD 7008)

20 hollerin' tracks from Supreme and Down Beat. At the time of posting there are copies going very cheaply on ebay.co.uk. Worth a look!

Jay McShann - The Band That Jumps The Blues!

Side 1:
01) Hot Biscuits - Jay McShann
02) Slow Drag Blues - Jay McShann
03) M. R. Boogie - Maxine Reed
04) Buttermilk - Jay McShann
05) Skid-Row Blues (alt take) - Jimmy Witherspoon
06) Soft Winds - Jay McShann

Side 2:
01) No Name Boogie - Boogie Woogie Jackson
02) Thinking About My Baby - Lois Booker
03) Jeronimo - Jay McShann
04) 12 O'Clock Whistle - Jay McShann
05) Mello Drag - Jay McShann
06) Eatin' Watermelon - Crown Prince Waterford

The Band That Jumps The Blues (Mega)

The Band That Jumps The Blues (Zippy)

In August 2010 (I can't believe it was that long ago) I posted an LP of pianist and bandleader Jay McShann's early 1940s big band sides recorded for Decca in Dallas, Chicago and New York. The post explored the story of McShann's start in Kansas City back in the 1930s when the city's corrupt administration maintained a rather flexible and doubtlessly well greased attitude towards liquor licensing and other aspects of a convivial nightlife which led to KC acquiring a reputation as the Gomorrah of the Mid West. A by product of all this laxity was a burgeoning jazz scene which spawned great bands such as those of Count Basie, Andy Kirk and Jay McShann.

When KC became a rather more respectable city in the late '30s, there was an exodus of musicians as venues closed down. Jay's big band was one of the last to leave but soon built themselves a formidable reputation when they hit NYC and took on more established outfits in band battles. They had a big hit with "Confessin' The Blues" which featured band vocalist Walter Brown. See "Hootie's K.C. Blues" post for more tales and music from that period.

"The Band That Jumps The Blues" brings together tracks from the late '40s when Jay's big band days were well behind him and he was recording with a series of small groups in a much more R&B vein. All of the tracks were recorded in 1948 and 1949 for Jack Lauderdale's LA based Down Beat label, with the exception of Jimmy Witherspoon's "Skid-Row Boogie" which was recorded in 1947 for Supreme, another LA label whose masters were bought by Lauderdale for reissue on Down Beat and / or its renamed successor Swing Time.

McShann had arrived on the West Coast around 1945, picking up a new blues shouter in Jimmy Witherspoon. Numa Lee Davis and Crown Prince Waterford were also vocalists in the band which had its first LA recording session in July 1945 for the newly formed label Philo which would later become Aladdin. In the same month the band recorded for Premier with the masters eventually being acquired by Mercury. "Shipyard Woman Blues" for example was first released on Premier in late 1945 and then rereleased on Mercury in August 1946. There were further sessions for Mercury in September and November 1946, and in May 1947.

In November 1947 McShann's band backed Jimmy Witherspoon, who had gone solo, on sessions for Supreme. There was a massive R&B hit for one of the resulting discs, a two parter version of "Ain't Nobody's Business." The Supreme masters were later purchased by Jack Lauderdale the owner of Down Beat / Swing Time records and reissued in the early 1950s.

In early 1948 the McShann band backed Lois Booker on a session for Down Beat. "Thinking About My Baby" was credited to Booker, while the B-Side instrumental, "No Name Boogie" was credited to "Boogie Woogie Jackson", a pseudonym for McShann. The McShann band also provided backing for Jimmy Witherspoon at more Down Beat sessions in the spring of 1948 and in June 1948. In July 1948 McShann and his band, which included Buddy Floyd on tenor sax and Tiny Webb on guitar, were back in the studio for a Down Beat session which produced a top ten R&B hit instrumental in "Hot Biscuits." Another release from this session was under the name of vocalist Maxine Reed - "M.R. Boogie."

Clifford Scott was the tenor saxman in McShann's band when they recorded a session for Aladdin in February 1949 with only one single being released. Another Down Beat session sometime in mid 1949 had Maxwell Davis on tenor sax. A session with Crown Prince Waterford on an unknown date in 1949 was perhaps the last Down Beat session by Jay McShann. He recorded for the Rex Hollywood label sometime in 1949 with two released discs including the two parter "Jay's Blues" being on sale in April 1949.

McShann backed Witherspoon on a few Modern sides in 1950 and in October 1951 he was back at Mercury recording with a band which included Ben Webster. In September 1955 he recorded a session in Chicago for Vee Jay which resulted in a big R&B hit - "Hands Off" credited to McShann and vocalist Priscilla Bowman. Another Vee Jay session in January 1956 with Priscilla Bowman marked the end of McShann's R&B recording career but in common with other KC musicians he had the jazz reputation which ensured a long and fruitful working life in that field. He died in December 2006, one of the last survivors of the roaring days of Kansas City jazz.

Original Release Details

01) Hot Biscuits - Down Beat 165 - Jay McShann
02) Slow Drag Blues - Down Beat 165 - Jay McShann
03) M.R. Boogie - Down Beat 159 - Maxine Reed

04) Buttermilk - Down Beat 172 - Jay McShann

05) Skid-Row Blues - alt. take of Supreme 1545 / Swing Time 244 - Jimmy Witherspoon
06) Soft Winds - Down Beat 205 - Jay McShann

07) No Name Boogie - Down Beat 150 - "Boogie Woogie Jackson"
08) Thinking About My Baby - Down Beat 150 - Lois Booker
09) Jeronimo - Swing Time 314 - Jay McShann
10) 12 O'Clock Whistle - Down Beat 172 - Jay McShann

11) Mello Drag - Swing Time 314 - Jay McShann
12) Eatin' Watermelon - Torch 6911- Crown Prince Waterford

Thinking About My Baby / No Name Boogie - Lois Booker, B-Side instrumental credited to "Boogie Woogie Jackson" - Down Beat 150 - circa September / October 1948

M.R. Boogie / Afraid Of Darkness - Maxine Reed and The D.B. Orchestra - Down Beat 159 - October 1948

Hot Biscuits / Slow Drag Blues - Jay McShann and The Band That Jumps The Blues - Down Beat 165 - October 1948

Buttermilk / 12 O'Clock Whistle - Jay McShann and The Band That Jumps The Blues - Down Beat 172 - February 1949

Soft Winds / Someone To Watch Over Me - Jay McShann & His Band That Jumps The Blues - Down Beat 205 - May 1949

Skid-Row Blues - track on this LP is an alternate take of the track released on Supreme 1545 - Jimmy Witherspoon, B-Side of How Long, released November 1949, and re-released as Swing Time 244 in December 1951

Jeronimo / Mello Drag - Jay McShann - Swingtime 314 - October 1952

Eatin' Watermelon / Love Awhile - Crown Prince Waterford - Torch 6911 - released 1952 (purchased 1949 Down Beat master). Torch was a small Dallas TX label with only 3 known releases.

Elsewhere on the blog:

Hootie's K.C. Blues

 

Jay McShann and his Orchestra - Hootie's K.C. Blues

Side 1:
1. Hootie Blues
2. Red River Blues
3. Confessin' The Blues
4. Vine Street Boogie
5. 'Fore Day Rider
6. Sepian Bounce
7. Hold 'Em Hootie
8. Swingmatism

Side 2:
1. The Jumpin' Blues
2. One Woman's Blues
3. Get Me On Your Mind
4. Dexter Blues
5. Hootie's Ignorant Oil
6. (New) Confessin' The Blues
7. Lonely Boy Blues
8. So You Won't Jump

In some of the upcoming posts I’ll be looking at the big band roots of R&B. Some of the LPs that were on the original Be Bop Wino blog will be re-posted and I’ll also be adding some new albums – and here’s the first of the new ones – the band that jumps the blues – The Jay McShann Orchestra out of Kansas City.

In the years 1926 to 1939, thanks to the corrupt rule of city boss Tom Pendergast, Kansas City remained relatively untroubled by technicalities like prohibition and city laws limiting bar opening hours. A multiplicity of clubs, bars, dance halls and bawdy houses provided just the right raucous environment for the growth of a flourishing jazz scene. Musicians from all over the Southwest and beyond were attracted to the bright lights and low down dives of this latter day Gomorrah (okay, I’m getting carried away here, but indulge me.)

There was Piney Brown’s Sunset Club where barman Big Joe Turner shouted the blues to the accompaniment of Pete Johnson’s boogie woogie piano. The Count Basie band squeezed itself on to the cramped stage of the Reno Club while a young Charlie Parker watched from the shadows as Basie and Walter Page and Walter’s half brother “Hot Lips” Page, and Herschel Evans and most of all Lester Young swung like crazy. And there were the jam sessions when visiting musicians with reputations to maintain would come up against locally based musicians all too determined to make their own mark. In 1934 Coleman Hawkins, then the acknowledged king of the tenor sax, took on the K.C. triumverate of Ben Webster, Herschel Evans and Lester Young in a mammoth session at the Cherry Blossom. Hawkins had to concede defeat with Young generally considered to be the winner.

Although a round-the-clock live music scene flourished in this Godless city of sin (carried away again, sorry), no parallel recording industry was established and artists who wished to record and become nationally known had to move North. In 1936 the record company talent scouts swooped and the exodus of talent began. From a scene which was dominated early on by Walter Pages’ Oklahoma Blue Devils and Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra, there issued forth Count Basie (whose band developed out of the Page and Moten outfits), Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy (with brilliant pianist and arranger Mary Lou Williams and sax giant Ben Webster), the duo of boogie pianist Pete Johnson and blues shouter Big Joe Turner, Hot Lips Page, Harlan Leonard’s Rockets (they picked up drummer Johnny Otis on their travels as they headed ever westwards after failing to make it in NYC) and one of the last to leave – the Jay McShann Orchestra.

Pianist Jay McShann was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1909. The early part of his career was spent touring the Southwest and Midwest in various territory bands, but in 1937 he settled into the Kansas City scene, forming a small band which included Gene Ramey on bass and Gus Johnson on drums.

In 1939 the law finally caught up with Boss Pendergast and his cohorts who were carted off to prison on tax evasion and corruption charges, and as K.C. prepared to make the transformation from Godless to God fearing, the night time neon glare dimmed as many clubs and bars closed down, throwing a host of musicians out of work. Every cloud has a silver lining and Jay McShann, who had managed to raise the necessary financial backing, set about augmenting his septet and transforming it into a twelve piece big band. A rock steady Basie style rhythm section consisting of McShann (piano), Gus Johnson (drums), Gene Ramey (bass) and Lucky Enois (guitar) provided the basis for a powerful riff, boogie and blues based outfit.

Heading up the reeds section was young alto sax prodigy Charlie Parker. The band embarked on several gruelling tours of the South and Midwest and had its first recording session for Decca in Dallas in April 1941 (tracks 8, 1, 12, 4 and 3.)

The last addition to the band personnel before the session was blues shouter Walter Brown, for Decca producer Dave Kapp wanted the band to record the blues rather than show their jazz side. Indeed three of the sides (“Vine Street Boogie”, “Hold ‘Em Hootie” and “Confessin’ The Blues”) featured the rhythm section only, with a vocal contribution from Brown on “Hold ‘Em” and “Confessin’”. Parker was heard on “Swingmatism” and also on “Hootie Blues” which he co-wrote with McShann.

Of course it was “Confessin’ The Blues” which captured the record buying public’s imagination and it has become a blues standard, being subsequently revived by Chuck Berry, Little Walter and later by The Rolling Stones. The success of “Confessin’” led to Walter Brown’s vocals dominating the even more blues-drenched second session for Decca held in Chicago in November 1941 (tracks 2, 5, 10, 13, 14, 16.) Of the eight tracks recorded, all were Walter Brown vehicles with the exception of “So You Won’t Jump.”

The band was an extremely popular live act and proved itself to be a formidable opponent in band battles. In 1940 – 41 Earl Hines, Milt Larkin and Nat Towles were vanquished, but the McShann band had to give second best to Duke Ellington. When the band made its New York debut in early 1942 in a battle of the bands at The Savoy Ballroom against Lucky Millinder, the result was a resounding victory for Kansas City, possibly provoked by a pre-battle telegram sent by Millinder: “We’re gonna chase you hicks right back to the sticks.”


At the Savoy in early 1942.

During 1942 Jimmy Coe (baritone sax) was added to the personnel and on tenor sax Jimmy Forrest had a stint with the band, although he wasn’t on the July 1942 Decca recording session. That session did mark the recording debut of band ballad singer Al Hibbler on “Get Me On Your Mind” which turned out to be the only track he recorded with McShann. “Lonely Boy Blues” and “The Jumpin’ Blues” were Walter Brown vocal performances and “Sepian Bounce” was an all too rare opportunity for the whole band to show its jazz chops, with two solos from Charlie Parker. “The Jumpin’ Blues” is my favourite track on the album – a superb riffer with great piano intro from McShann, a solo from Parker and solid blues shouting from Brown.

After the recording session the band was scheduled to return to Kansas City, but Parker elected to remain in New York where he immersed himself in the jam session scene at Monroe’s Uptown House and Minton’s Playhouse. Towards the end of the year he joined the Earl Hines Orchestra along with two other refugees from the McShann band – John Jackson and Bernard Anderson. The time remaining to the Jay McShann Orchestra was marked by an increasingly high turnover in personnel, with many of the original KC musicians giving way to musicians from New York and Chicago.

The final Decca session took place in December 1943 with neither Gus Johnson nor Lucky Enois in the line up, although Paul Quinichette had been recruited on tenor sax. McShann was drafted in May 1944 and the band broke up. In early 1945 McShann briefly reformed the band but later in the year he moved to Los Angeles where he remained for the rest of the 1940s, achieving considerable success with small groups fronted by blues shouters Crown Prince Waterford and Jimmy Witherspoon.

Charlie Parker and Walter Brown represented the two opposing poles of the music that would develop from big band swing. One was the bebop genius who would become one of the greatest figures in twentieth century jazz, the other was the blues shouter who enjoyed early success which he never quite recaptured after the Jay McShann Orchestra split up. However, they shared a fondness for booze and heroin, an unfortunate enthusiasm which brought about their premature deaths – Parker in March 1955 and Brown in June 1956.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps.

Download from here:

Hootie's K.C. Blues (Mega)


Hootie's K.C. Blues (Zippy)

1. Hootie Blues (De 8559)*
2. Red River Blues (De 8595)
3. Confessin' The Blues (De 8559)*
4. Vine Street Boogie (De 8570)
5. 'Fore Day Rider (De 8635)*
6. Sepian Bounce (De 4387)
7. Hold 'Em Hootie (De 8583)
8. Swingmatism (De 8570)
9. The Jumpin' Blues (De 4418)*
10. One Woman's Blues (De 8607)*
11. Get Me On Your Mind (De 4418)**
12. Dexter Blues (De 8583)
13. Hootie's Ignorant Oil (De 8635)*
14. (New) Confessin' The Blues (De 8595)*
15. Lonely Boy Blues (De 4387)*
16. So You Won't Jump (De 8607)

* vocal = Walter Brown
** vocal = Al Hibbler

Recommended purchase:

From the Jazz Greats series – number 34 “Jazz City – Kansas City” magazine and CD now available as a download from Jazz Greats Online. 21 tracks including Walter Page’s Blue Devils, Benny Moten, Julia Lee, Big Joe Turner, Andy Kirk, Count Basie, Jay McShann, Harlan Leonard, Charlie Parker and others.


Recommended reading:

Bird Lives! by Ross Russell.
Big Band Jazz by Albert McCarthy

Summer Break and Confessin' The Blues

There's not been much activity around here for a few weeks. I'll try to get another post up soon, but hey, it's summer! This is no time to be spending hours hunched over a computer editing WAV files and scanning LP covers and tagging mp3s and all that stuff. So I'm sorry for keeping you cats and kittens on tenterhooks, although oddly enough I've noticed that the less I post, the more hits this blog attracts. That's just weird.

Some of you have been sending nice messages of appreciation for the work that goes into the blog, so I'd like to thank those very cool people (you know who you are) and I will reply to your emails soon.

I'm hoping to do some posts on the big band roots of R&B, so here's a taster of what's to come.

Let's all listen to the ORIGINAL "Confessin' The Blues" sung by Walter Brown accompanied by the rhythm section of the Jay McShann Orchestra way back in 1941:



Stay cool, you naughty kids! I'll be back soon with lots of riffin', boogyin' and bluesin'.