Amos Milburn - Let's Have A Party

Side A
1. Chicken Shack Boogie
2. Trouble In Mind
3. I Know You Love Me
4. Good Good Whiskey
5. Rocky Mountain
6. Let's Rock Awhile
7. Down The Road Apiece

Side B
1. Bewildered
2. One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
3. Let's Have A Party
4. I'm Still A Fool For You
5. Bad Bad Whiskey
6. My Happiness Depends On You
7. All Is Well

This is a revamped post from the original blog with all-new scans of the LP cover and some labelshots of the disc itself.

This is one of 5 (I think) Amos Milburn LPs released on the French Pathe Marconi label in the 1980s. It’s a terrific album, mostly in fantastic sound quality (in fact superior to that on a 3CD Milburn set I bought during the 1990s), with the exception of “Let’s Rock Awhile” which is marred slightly by some feedback or microphone hum. Like the previous post of “13 Unreleased Masters” this is a career spanning collection, although this time round there’s rather more emphasis on the early 1950s with a goodly sample of Amos’s booze anthems and some cracking early rock and roll in “Let’s Have A Party” and “Rocky Mountain.”

Amos Milburn is perhaps my favourite artist of the golden era of rhythm and blues. His voice can evoke a semi deserted after hours joint in the wee wee hours when he tackles blues or ballads (try “Bewildered” or “Trouble in Mind”) or equally he can bring a picture of a packed dance hall to the mind’s eye when he pounds out that boogie woogie and rockin’ R&B (often accompanied by the legendary Maxwell Davis on tenor sax.)

The first track on this LP is perhaps the hardest rocking track he ever recorded – the 1956 remake of “Chicken Shack Boogie.” The LP sleeve wrongly lists track one as the original 1947 recording of “Chicken Shack Boogie” which became Amos’s biggest hit in 1949, helping to make him the top selling R&B artist of that year. In fact the track on this LP is from the session Amos recorded in New Orleans in September 1956 with Lee Allen and Alvin “Red” Tyler on tenor and baritone saxes. By this stage in his career the hits had long dried up for Amos, and this version of “Chicken Shack Boogie” got nowhere near the charts, but nevertheless it is one of the most stonkingly brilliant rock and roll records ever committed to wax.

The atmospherically sleazy LP cover is a straight copy of the 1957 Score LP “Let’s Have A Party” which has different tracks from the 1983 Pathe Marconi release.

Some day I might write a lengthier post on Amos Milburn, but I fear that I would only end up subconsciously regurgitating Nick Tosches’ great chapter on the man himself in “Unsung Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Get a hold of that book, turn to chapter 9 (“Amos Milburn: the chicken shack factor”), read and weep. And listen to “Let’s Have A Party” while you’re doing it.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps.

Download from here:

http://www86.zippyshare.com/v/tVbavymT/file.html

Recommended purchases:

There are several Amos Milburn comps available, including an Amazon mp3 download of the old Capitol Blues Collection 3 CD set “Blues, Barrelhouse & Boogie Woogie.” Last time I looked, Amazon Marketplace had the CD at an eye watering £60 or so.

If you prefer CDs to mp3s (and what sensible person doesn’t?) then you could do worse than buy the Revola CD (29 tracks) with the same title as the LP on this post – “Let’s Have A Party! (Amos Milburn in the 50s)”

Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88

Side A
1. Rocket 88
2. I Want To See My Baby
3. Jackie's Chewing Gum
4. Make My Love Come Down
5. My Real Gone Rocket
6. Mule
7. My Baby Left Town

Side B
1. Hi Ho Baby
2. Lovin' Time
3. Fat Meat Is Greasy
4. 88 Boogie
5. You Won't Be Comin' Back
6. True Love
7. The Blues Got Me Again

My thanks to our new donor – Big Al (The Bloggers’ Pal) for sending in this Green Line LP of Jackie Brenston Chess sides. Big Al is a fellow pilgrim on the Way of the Wailin’ Tenor Sax and has sent in several contributions which will appear on the blog.

The story behind “Rocket 88” has been told often – in Robert Palmer’s “Deep Blues,” in Jim Dawson and Steve Propes’ “What Was The First Rock ‘N’ Roll Record?” and perhaps most memorably in Nick Tosches’ “Unsung Heroes of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

It is a cautionary tale, of hopes raised and dashed, of friendships betrayed, of resentment and forgiveness, and, sadly, of an inordinate amount of boozing. The story unfolds in the year of Our Lord 1951, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, far from the usual Bebopwino arenas of Los Angeles and New York. Here we find ambitious young bandleader and deejay Ike Turner playing a few local gigs, and impressing guitarist B.B. King who was just passing through on the way to Sam Phillip’s Memphis Recording Service.

On B.B.’s recommendation, a recording date was arranged for Turner’s outfit (modestly named The Kings of Rhythm) at Sam Phillip’s studio at 706 Union Avenue where he recorded local blues musicians and leased or sold the masters to the Bihari Brothers’ Modern label in Los Angeles. And here we enter the realm of divine intervention, for lo, guitarist Willie Kizart’s amp was damaged in transit but on Sam’s insistence the session went ahead with paper stuffed into the cone. The result was a distorted fuzztone which dominated the best track on the session, “Rocket 88,” a paean to the Oldsmobile automobile of that name.


The song was written by band baritone sax player Jackie Brenston but it was really just an updated version of Jimmy Liggins’ 1947 jump blues “Cadillac Boogie.” The fortuitously distorted guitar gave the recording a sound which was different from other records of that era. The vocal was performed by Brenston, a long-time friend (some say they were cousins) of Ike. And here Sam Phillips takes another hand, for from the session he credited “Rocket 88” and “Come Back Where You Belong” to “Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats” while the other two sides, “Heartbroken and Worried” and “I’m Lonesome Baby” were credited to “Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm.” The sides were sent off to Chicago to be released on Chess.

“Rocket 88” was an immediate smash, tearing up the R&B charts to the number one spot and finishing as the 8th best selling R&B record of 1951. This was great news for Jackie and the Chess brothers, but not so hot for Ike Turner (whose Chess single bombed) and the Biharis. In the blink of an eye Jackie was out of the Kings of Rhythm and touring the country with a new set of Delta Cats. Sam Phillips started to think more seriously about starting his own record label and a corny country musician called Bill Haley brought out a good cover version of “Rocket 88” and decided that covering R&B records might prove to be both artistically and financially advantageous.


As for Jackie, his star was soon on the wane. The follow up release on Chess, “My Real Gone Rocket” went nowhere and there were signs of trouble when his next release, “Independent Woman,” was backed by a Billy Love side, “Juiced,” which was credited to Jackie despite his total lack of involvement in that recording. Jackie’s Chess career finally faded out in 1953. There was a brief spell in Lowell Fulson’s band before Jackie found himself back with Ike Turner, this time as a salaried sax player.

By now the Turner outfit was more like a rhythm and blues review than the tight little group which had entered Phillip’s studio only a few years before. They were signed to Federal Records and released sides credited to Ike Turner and his Orchestra, Billy Gayles, The Gardenias and even two records credited to Jackie Brenston – “What Can It Be” / “Gonna Wait For My Chance” and “The Mistreater” / “Much Later”, both in 1956.

They were reasonably good records, especially the hard rocker “Much Later,” but they were not to be the route back to stardom for Jackie. Indeed that route was now closed forever as Jackie took to some serious boozing with fellow band member (and one of the original Kings of Rhythm) Raymond Hill. He remained with Ike Turner into the early sixties and was on the international smash hit for Ike and Tina Turner “A Fool In Love” which was released on Sue in 1960. Jackie had his own single on Sue, “Trouble Up The Road” but naturally it didn’t sell. In 1962 Jackie parted with Ike Turner for the final time, worked for a while with Sid Wallace, and now sober again, made his last recording with the Earl Hooker band for the Mel-Lon label in 1963.

He returned to Clarksdale where he took up the insanely lethal combination of truck driving and wine drinking, finally passing in December 1979 while being treated in a veterans’ hospital in Memphis.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps.

Download from here:

Rocket 88 (Mega)


1. Rocket 88 (Memphis, March 1951, Chess 1458)

2. I Want To See My Baby (Memphis, December 1951, unreleased)

3. Jackie's Chewing Gum (Memphis, December 1951, unreleased)

4. Make My Love Come Down (Memphis, July 1951, unreleased)

5. My Real Gone Rocket (Memphis, July 1951, Chess 1469)

6. Mule (Chicago, April 1953, unreleased)

7. My Baby Left Town (Memphis, December 1951, unreleased)

8. Hi Ho Baby * (Chicago, December 1951, Chess 1496)

9. Lovin' Time (Chicago, December 1951, unreleased)

10. Fat Meat Is Greasy (Memphis, December 1951, unreleased)

11. 88 Boogie (Chicago, December 1951, unreleased)

12. You Won't Be Comin' Back (Chicago, December 1951, unreleased)

13. True Love (Chicago, April 1953, unreleased)

14. The Blues Got Me Again (Chicago, December 1951, Chess 1532)

* duet with Edna McRaney

Recommended purchase:

“The Mistreater” (Rev-Ola Bandstand), a 24 track collection of all the Chess and Federal sides.

Big Jim Wynn - Blow Wynn Blow

Side A
1. Ee-Bobaliba
2. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz
3. I Want A Little Girl
4. Cherry Red
5. Rock Woogie
6. Shipyard Woman
7. J.W. Bop
8. In A Rhapsody In Minor

Side B
1. Blow Wynn Blow
2. Jelly Kelly Blues
3. Fat Meat
4. Farewell Baby
5. Put Me Down Blues
6. I'm The Boss (At My House)
7. Goofin' Off
8. Down To The Ocean

A pioneering R&B saxman on both tenor and baritone, Big Jim Wynn could consider himself unlucky on two counts. First off, while working the LA nightspots with his small jump band in the mid 1940s he wrote an infectious ditty called “Ee-Bobaliba” which became a staple of his act. Such was its popularity with the club audiences, Big Jim even renamed his band the “The Bobalibans.”

In 1945 Helen Humes (accompanied by the Bill Doggett Octet) recorded a version for the new LA indy label Philo. “Be-Baba-Liba” as it was now called was one of the biggest R&B hits of the year, but as Miss Humes took composer credits, not a cent wended its way to Big Jim’s pocket. To add insult to injury, Lionel Hampton recorded a version called “Hey! Ba-ba-re-bop” which became the second top selling R&B record of 1946, tucked in behind Louis Jordan’s “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie." Composer credits for the rewrite were taken by Curly Hammer and Lionel Hampton, so once again Big Jim got zilch.

Big Jim and his band recorded his song for 4 Star in late 1945, but despite a fine lead vocal by Claude Trenier, this version remained in the shadows of the “cover” versions by Humes and Hampton. Big Jim’s version is a great jump record, but the problem was that the combination of nonsense syllables and standard blues verses lent itself to rewrites and the subsequent loss of composer credits and record sales to more established acts.

In fact Big Jim Wynn was destined never to have a hit record, despite doing the rounds of the LA indies such as 4 Star, Gilt Edge, Modern, Supreme and Specialty as well as the major label Mercury. Apart from writing “Ee-bobaliba”, Big Jim is probably best remembered by R&B fans for providing the backing on many of T-Bone Walker’s fine recordings for Imperial in the early 1950s. The two had first played together in the LA club scene as far back as the late 1930s when T-Bone was doing a dance act. Big Jim’s band not only worked in the studio with T-Bone but also accompanied him on the road. As the band included Eddie Davis on tenor sax, Big Jim moved over to baritone sax.

Big Jim’s live act was something to behold as he pioneered many of the tricks which would be taken up by more renowned “honkers.” As George Moonoogian says in his sleevenotes: “He would kick, dance, shuffle, strut, go down on his knees, roll and literally provide his own mini-show on stage, all the while blowing wild solos on his sax. He was the first of the Los Angeles area sax players to perform these antics on stage …” And here bad luck struck a second time, as one Cecil J. McNeely was a regular spectator at Big Jim’s shows and “borrowed” his act to carve out a (thank God) long career as king of the tenor sax wildmen.

As the fifties wore on, Big Jim concentrated more and more on session work, with the occasional foray on the road backing acts such as Etta James and Richard Berry. Even in the 1970’s, and now aged well over sixty, he was still appearing live with the Johnny Otis show and managing to tear up the audience with his wild stage shenanigans. As he said in an interview: “One of my desires is to live to be a hundred. I try to keep in shape by exercise and eating health foods…” Well they do say that bad luck comes in threes. Within a year of that interview he was dead.

This 1985 LP was issued on the “Whiskey, Women and …” label, which was a joint enterprise run by the magazine of the same name and Mr R&B records. I only ever did find one issue of the “Whiskey, Women and …” magazine, in the Glasgow branch of Tower Records. The magazine (which was indescribably brilliant), the record shop, and the record company are, like Big Jim Wynn himself, no longer with us.


Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps.

Download from here:

http://www24.zippyshare.com/v/JxjxmVOt/file.html

1. Ee-Bobaliba (4-Star 1026, 1945)
2. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz (4-Star 1026, 1945)
3. I Want A Little Girl (4-Star 1025, 1945)
4. Cherry Red (Gilt Edge 528, 1945)
5. Rock Woogie (Gilt Edge 528, 1945)
6. Shipyard Woman (Gilt Edge 527, 1945)
7. J.W. Bop (Supreme 1509, 1948)
8. In A Rhapsody In Minor (Gilt Edge 531, 1945)
9. Blow Wynn Blow (Supreme, 1509, 1948)
10. Jelly Kelly Blues (Gilt Edge 531, 1945)
11. Fat Meat (Specialty 312, 1948)
12. Farewell Baby (Supreme, 1522, 1948)
13. Put Me Down Blues (Specialty 312, 1948)
14. I'm The Boss (At My House) (Million 2004, 1954)
15. Goofin' Off (Supreme 1522, 1948)
16. Down To The Ocean (Million 2004, 1954)

Recommended purchase:

The 4 CD set “Honk for Texas” on the JSP label (JSP7760) has one CD entirely devoted to Big Jim Wynn, plus 10 tracks on another CD shared with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. You’ve just gotta buy this one!

Rock 'n' Roll (Regent MG-6015)

Side A
1. Rockin' Boy / Chuz Alfred Combo
2. Hot Rod / Hal Singer
3. Blues For Everybody / Bobby Banks Orch.
4. Playboy Hop / Rockin' Bros. Orch.
5. The Grinder / Rockin' Bros. Orch.

Side B
1. You Gotta Rock And Roll / Bob Oakes Orch.
2. Backbiter / T.J. Fowler
3. Wine Cooler / T.J. Fowler
4. Rooster Boogie / Paul Williams Orch.
5. Frog Hop / Hal Singer Orch.


The anonymous donor who sent in the Plymouth LP “Rock and Roll No. 2” also sent this 1950s LP on the Regent label. The album was released around 1956 and it’s another fine example of a record company using old R&B sides to exploit the rock and roll craze. The tracks on offer here range from early 1950s R&B honk and jump to a couple of jazz groups recording in an R&B / rock and roll style in the mid 1950s. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very listenable collection of sax dominated rockin’ music which is guaranteed to tickle the musical taste buds of Be Bop Wino fans, especially as it is sourced from the vaults of Savoy, home of the big fat tenor sax sound.

Founded by Herman Lubinsky in 1947, Regent was a sister label to his renowned Savoy label. In the early 1950s Regent released singles by established Savoy R&B names like Johnny Otis and the various artists associated with his group such as Mel Walker, Redd Lyte and Little Esther. Around 1952 it was unsuccessfully relaunched as a vehicle for pop releases. Throughout its existence Regent was always overshadowed by the longer established Savoy.

In the mid-50s Regent started releasing a line of LPs, the Regent 6000 series. Titles included classical, gospel, cocktail jazz and the kind of thing that the Schadenfreudian Therapy blog would thrive on – Mexican folk, polkas, hot harmonicas, swingin’ organs, military marches, Rudy Vallee, banjo music, Fingers Finnegan, Dixieland jazz, ye gods, I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

But in amongst the cheese was a smattering of jazz and early R&B from Savoy, National and DeeGee – Billy Eckstine, Don Byas, Art Pepper, The Ravens, Dizzy Gillespie, live cuts by Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon recorded in 1947, and another “rock and roll” LP with the imaginative title “Rock and Roll Party No. 2.” Like the LP featured here, it was very much a recycling of old Savoy R&B material including sides by Big Jay McNeely, Paul Williams, Hal Singer, T.J. Fowler, Little Esther and Nappy Brown. It would be very good listening for Be Bop Winos, if anyone out there has a copy they would like to donate.

Thank you once more to our ever generous anonymous donor for this vintage LP!

Ripped from vinyl at 128 kbps.

Download from here:

http://www20.zippyshare.com/v/DcKsy6Em/file.html

1. Rockin' Boy / Chuz Alfred Combo (1955)
2. Hot Rod / Hal Singer (1955)
3. Blues For Everybody / Bobby Banks Orch. (1955)
4. Playboy Hop / Rockin' Bros. Orch. (1954)
5. The Grinder / Rockin' Bros. Orch. (1954)
6. You Gotta Rock And Roll / Bob Oakes Orch. (1956)
7. Backbiter / T.J. Fowler (1952)
8. Wine Cooler / T.J. Fowler (1952)
9. Rooster Boogie / Paul Williams Orch. (1951)
10. Frog Hop / Hal Singer Orch. (1952)

Hen Gates And His Gaters - Rock And Roll No. 2 (Plymouth P-12-149)

It’s exploitation a go-go as the Hen Gates saga continues, thanks to this second Plymouth LP of the mysterious Mr Gates. Thanks very much to the anonymous sax fan who sent this in, and he is a different anonymous sax fan from the one who kicked the whole Hen Gates thing off a few posts back.

Track 5, “Madeira Roll”, is Freddie Mitchell’s “Hot Ice”. Track 10 “Rock Daddy Rock” is also a definite Freddie Mitchell track with a new title – “Madera Hop”. Track 11 “Bee Bee Roll” is “Leapin’ On Lenox” by Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. If you’ve been following the Hen Gates posts you’ll know that these 3 tracks turned up on the previous Plymouth Gates LP “Rock And Roll”, and here they are again.

I’m not going to attempt to make any more match ups of the tracks here with the previous Hen Gates and Freddie Mitchell posts, for that road leads to certain insanity. However don’t hesitate to try it for yourselves!

Mojo Killian has kindly sent in more information with match ups between the tracks on this LP and those on previous Hen Gates LPs, especially the Masterseal album.

Thanks, Mojo and here we go:

Ok, folks, here's what I found out:
1. Moondog Rock = Rock Me Sugar on Masterseal LP "Let's All Dance to Rock and Roll"
2. Stompin' And Rockin' = Love To Rock With You on Masterseal LP
3. The Big Fish = Choo Choo Rock from Masterseal LP
4. Move It = Rock'n And Walk'n on Masterseal LP
5. Madeira Roll = Hold It on "Rock And Roll" (Plymouth 144) = Hot Ice
6. Sneaky Pete = T.N.T. on "Rock And Roll"
7. Go Everybody = Juke Box Rock on Masterseal LP
8. Till Tom Rock = Rock Around Rosie on Masterseal LP
9. Swinging To The Rock And Roll = The New Rock on Masterseal LP
10. Rock Daddy Rock = Rockin' & Rollin' Hop on "Rock And Roll" (Plymouth 144)
11. Bee Bee Roll = Look And Listen on "Rock And Roll" (= Leapin' On Lenox)
12. Zing Zang Roll = Bear Walk on "Rock And Roll"

Mojo Kilian

Ripped from vinyl by our anonymous friend at 160kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/379737512/Rock_And_Roll_No_2.rar

Or from here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V64SQXFK

1. Moondog Rock
2. Stompin' And Rockin'
3. The Big Fish
4. Move It
5. Madeira Roll
6. Sneaky Pete
7. Go Everybody
8. Till Tom Rock
9. Swinging To The Rock And Roll
10. Rock Daddy Rock
11. Bee Bee Roll
12. Zing Zang Roll

Record Store Day in a Mixed Up City

Saturday 17th April 2010 is the day we celebrate the continued existence of our local independent record stores. Three Glasgow shops are listed as UK participants: Avalanche Records, Monorail Music and Mixed Up Records. There’ll be live music and limited edition discs on sale, so if you’re in the Glasgow area tomorrow, get yourself along to one or all of these worthy venues. Full list of participating UK stores here:

http://www.recordstoreday.com/Venues?country=United%20Kingdom

Mixed Up Records got a mention on the original Be Bop Wino blog way back last autumn, for it is situated in Otago Lane in the West End of Glasgow. As I mentioned back then, this little area of niche businesses on the banks of the River Kelvin is under threat from a proposed development of “luxury” flats. More details can be found here on the Save Otago Lane website:

http://saveotagolane.co.uk/

As I was feeling guilty about failing to mark last year’s Record Store Day in any way, shape or form, I pissed off from work early this afternoon and took a subway ride across the city to check out the jazz and blues vinyl at Mixed Up Records. I thought I’d also take a few pixelly photos on my phone camera to give Be Bop Winos the wide world over a flavour of what our City Council and its property developer friends can’t wait to destroy. So here’s a few photies taken around the area.

I hope you get the flavour of this wonderful higgledy piggledy mixture of mid-Victorian terraces and houses, late Victorian tenements, mews buildings, workshops, etc. Obviously it’s just the kind of place that’s crying out for a massive development of apartment blocks which will totally overshadow all those horrible old buildings.

Innumerable developments of crap flats have sprouted fungus-like all over the city in the last 15 years or so. Odd that they are nearly all advertised as “executive” apartments. Will ordinary, non-executive people still be allowed to live in Glasgow in the future? Will the Be Bop Wino be driven into exile by a combination of the forces of crass commercialism and his own inability to achieve executive status?

Whatever happens, I’m gonna be thumbing through those vinyl bins right to the very end. Say no to corporate arrogance by supporting your local independent record store! Crate dig your way to the Revolution! Every vinyl record purchased and reclaimed from the local landfill site is a blow against The Man! BTW my visit to Mixed Up was successful - I scored an Illinois Jacquet LP.

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)

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis = Hen Gates Shock!!!

Thanks to “Hamfat” who commented on the Hen Gates and His Gaters “Rock and Roll” post, we now know that a couple of the tracks on that album are not old Freddie Mitchell masters bought from Derby, but are in fact Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis tracks recorded for Lenox in 1947.

The tracks in question are “Back Bone” and “Look and Listen.” Hamfat suggested that they were in fact “Leapin’ On Lenox” and “Lockjaw’s Bounce.” My thoughts after listening to the Lenox tracks on the excellent Chronological Classics CD “Eddie Lockjaw Davis 1946 – 1947” are that “Back Bone” is “Minton’s Madhouse” and “Look and Listen” is indeed “Leapin’ On Lenox.”

I am still not totally convinced that all the tracks on the “Let’s All Dance To Rock and Roll” LP are Freddie Mitchell masters from Derby. The only two tracks I could identify for sure as such are “Great Gates Rock” and “Lose” which are “Cold Heat” and “Doby’s Boogie” respectively. These are the two tracks which aren’t listed on the LP sleeve and in my opinion the remaining 12 tracks sound different, more like mid 50s tracks than recordings from 1949 – 1952 which were the years Freddie Mitchell was at Derby. The two definite Mitchell tracks also turn up again on the “Rock and Roll” LP. Here is an update on the list of tracks from “Rock And Roll” whose origins are now known:

Track 1, “Stop” is “Pony Express”, recorded 1950/51, originally released on Derby 725

Track 3 "Look Out" is "Lockjaw's Bounce" (Lockjaw Davis), recorded in 1947, unreleased on single

Track 4 “Hold It” is “Hot Ice” (minus intro), recorded December 1951, originally released on Derby 777

Track 5 “The Creep” is “Doby’s Boogie”, recorded in 1949, originally released on Derby 713

Track 8 “Rockin’ and Rollin’ Hop” is “Madera Hop”, recorded in December 1951, originally released on Derby 807

Track 9 “Back Bone” is “Minton’s Madhouse” (Lockjaw Davis), recorded in 1947, originally released on Lenox 515

Track 10 “Look And Listen” is “Leapin’ On Lenox” (Lockjaw Davis), recorded in 1947, originally released on Lenox 502

Track 11 “Bunny Rock” is “Cold Heat” (minus intro), recorded in 1952, originally released on Derby 793

Track 12 "Bear Walk" is "Lockjaw's Bounce" (Lockjaw Davis), recorded in 1947, unreleased on single

The Chronological Classics CD lists several Lockjaw Davis tracks recorded for Lenox being released on Remington and Plymouth. See the comments section on the “Rock And Roll” post for details. Can anyone add any more information which could help us nail the mystery of Hen Gates for once and for all?

PS - sorry for the slightly misleading and sensationalist headline. I'm hoping to get a job on "The Scotsman" newspaper. Or failing that, a position with BBC Scotland.

Hen Gates And His Gaters - Rock And Roll (Plymouth P-12-144)

Thanks once more to our Stateside sax benefactor for supplying this rare Hen Gates LP issued on the Plymouth label.

It’s a great follow up to the previous post “Let’s All Dance To Rock And Roll”, and we are still in the land of cheapo Don Gabor LPs, for Plymouth was another of his labels. So once again we are dealing with a poorly packaged record. The back cover has no track list but the front cover helpfully lists 4 titles followed by “etc.” Naturally none of these titles is used on the record labels …

But enough of the negative vibes. The good news is that as we saw in the previous post, “Hen Gates” was a pseudonym used to disguise the fact that this album is made up of retitled Freddie Mitchell sides recorded for Derby between 1949 and 1952. Be Bop Wino fans can rest assured that this collection contains plenty of bootin’ sax to tickle our audio palates. The sides used on this collection are even further removed from rock and roll than the “Let’s All Dance” LP. At least that album used hard rockin’ R&B which could just about pass for rock and roll. Many of the tracks on the “Rock and Roll” collection are jazzier with that rather annoying (to me) plinky plonk piano to the fore. It’s mostly good Be Bop Wino type stuff, though, and well worth a listen.

I’ve managed to identify the origins of five of the tracks as follows:

Track 1, “Stop” is “Pony Express”, recorded 1950/51, originally released on Derby 725

Track 4 “Hold It” is “Hot Ice” (minus intro), recorded December 1951, originally released on Derby 777

Track 5 “The Creep” is “Doby’s Boogie”, recorded in 1949, originally released on Derby 713

Track 8 “Rockin’ and Rollin’ Hop” is “Madera Hop”, recorded in December 1951, originally released on Derby 807

Track 11 “Bunny Rock” is “Cold Heat” (minus intro), recorded in 1952, originally released on Derby 793

“Cold Heat” and “Doby’s Boogie” also turned up on the “Let’s All Dance” LP under the titles “Great Gates Rock” and “Lose”, respectively.

Could I repeat my plea for information as to the origins of the other Hen Gates tracks on both albums? I actually have a nagging doubt about the origin of some of the “Let’s All Dance the Rock and Roll” tracks, mainly because they seem to be in a different style from the tracks used here. Of course the difference may be explained by the need for Plymouth to use earlier tracks than the ones used by Masterseal in order to keep duplication to a minimum.

Ripped from hissing vinyl at 320 kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/369200528/Hen_Gates_-_Rock_And_Roll.rar

Or from here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YIM0NDRM

1. Stop
2. Hand Clappin'
3. Look Out
4. Hold It
5. The Creep
6. T. N. T.
7. Jumpin' And Shoutin'
8. Rockin' And Rollin' Hop
9. Back Bone
10. Look And Listen
11. Bunny Rock
12. Bear Walk

Further listening –

Baikinange has “That Boogie Beat”, an Allegro Royale cheapo LP of Freddie Mitchell tracks, here:

http://baikinange.blogspot.com/2008/11/that-boogie-beat.html

It’s a pretty trashed copy of a budget priced collection released after Derby had gone belly up and sold off its masters. But at least it’s not masquerading as a "Hen Gates" rock and roll LP, and the link still works!


Classics has an excellent CD, “The Chronological Freddie Mitchell 1949-1950," available. You can also purchase this collection as an mp3 download from Amazon.


Amazon also has a 45 track mp3 only collection available – “Rockin’ Wailin’ Saxophone.” Some of the titles on the collection are those used on the Hen Gates LPs.

Lastly, another big thank you to our anonymous donor. Lang may yer lum reek.

Hen Gates And His Gaters - Let's All Dance To Rock And Roll (Masterseal LP)

1. Rock Me Sugar
2. Rock Around My Baby
3. Love To Rock With You
4. Choo Choo Rock
5. Rock Clock Rock
6. Rockin' And Walkin'
7. Great Gates Rock
8. Shoe Shine Rock
9. Juke Box Rock
10. Rock Around Rosie
11. Fish Beat Rock
12. Rock'n Time
13. The New Rock
14. Lose

My thanks to an anonymous Stateside honk fan who very kindly sends occasional donations of LPs of a tenor saxual nature. You’ve come up trumps with this one!

Scene: a suburban home somewhere in the US of A. Mid afternoon in the long summer vac of 1957.

Mom: “Hi Junior, I’m home! I’ve picked up the groceries and I've got a little surprise for you, honey. A rock and roll record!”

Junior: “Gee whillickers, Mom! That’s so nice of you. What did you get? Buddy? Elvis? Chuck Berry?”

Mom: “You know I don’t know anything about those kind of people, dear. It’s by a new young singer called Hen Gates. It says here that he’s a top exponent of rock and roll, so he must be good. Look at the nice picture on the cover, Junior. Lots of happy young people going to a rock and roll party!”

Junior (crestfallen): “Holy friggin’ shit mom! Who the friggin’ frig is Hen friggin’ Gates? I want a Chuck Berry record, and I friggin’ want it now!”

Mom (angry): Junior! Go straight up to your room! When your dad gets back from the advertising agency he’s going to give you the waterboarding you deserve!”

Junior (in despair): “Holy Mackerel! It’s like living in Nazi friggin’ Germany!”

Mom (shaking head): “Kids these days!”

Voiceover: “And now a word from our sponsor, the Be Bop Wino Blog …”


Many such scenes of domestic dischord may well have been provoked by the impulse purchase of this LP on the ultra cheapo Masterseal label whose discs could be found on strategically placed racks in grocery stores everywhere. An article in the 16th February 1957 edition of Billboard announced the forthcoming launch of Masterseal LPs under the headline “Remington Records Bows Low-Price LP” followed by the sub-heading “New line, Masterseal, to go for $1.49; ambitious rack-jobbing used in Chicago.”

The article gives fascinating details of the huge promotion effort that was put into the label launch – ads, deejay spots, store displays, exclusive distribution deals signed with grocery chains in Chicago and Detroit, grocers wined and dined, and “incentives” for store managers. Thousands of dollars went into the promotion budget. Not much was spent on the actual music though. The label repertoire consisted largely of mediocre pop, a lot of classical music and a smattering of jazz. Buried deep in the article is a reference to the fact that some of the Masterseal material had been originally released on Don Gabor’s Continental Records. This is the only mention of the man who was behind Remington and Masterseal – Donald H. Gabor. His story and that of his labels can be found on the wonderfully researched Remington Records site.

Gabor’s first label, Continental, started up around 1942, issuing jazz and classical recordings on 78 rpm discs. As the 1940s became the 1950s, he was quick to realise the potential of the new LP format and in 1950 started up the cut price LP Remington label on which he reissued many of his Continental jazz recordings (including Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, Slam Stewart, Leonard Feather and Hot Lips Page) as well as a vast repertoire of classical and pop music. Although technically and musically savvy, Gabor viewed music not as art but as product to be shifted as quickly and in as great a quantity as possible. He was not averse to cutting corners in order to turn a profit, including constantly recycling material under new titles and covers or even on new labels (Masterseal, Palace, Buckingham and Plymouth among others). He even saved money by pressing his records using a low grade vinyl substitute called vinylite which gave his discs a distinct hissing sound and a limited lifespan.

Such business methods may have resulted in healthy sales (“Music for the Millions!”) but they were beyond the pale as far as the major record labels were concerned and there were rumours that record stores were “warned off” stocking Gabor product, which may account for the use of locations such as department stores, grocery stores, supermarkets and gas stations as sales points for his labels. Remington did not see the end of the 1950s, folding when stereo LPs started making inroads into the music market. Gabor continued to release product on a variety of short lived labels into the 1960s but he never broke out of the low budget, low quality end of the market.

But what of Hen Gates and this foray by Don Gabor into the world of rock and roll? This is a magnificently tawdry piece of musical exploitation. First off, nobody knows what the LP is actually called. On the front of the cover the title is “Let’s Go Dancing To Rock and Roll” while on the reverse side the title is “Let’s All Dance To Rock And Roll." According to the cover there are 12 tracks on the LP, but in fact there are 14.

On the front cover the artist’s name is in tiny, barely visible lettering while the words “Rock and Roll” scream out luridly against a backdrop of happy teens crowding into an open top automobile in what appears to be somewhere vaguely in California. Gabor’s operation was based in New York and his Masterseal LPs weren’t particularly aimed at the normal record buying teen crowd, but rather his target market was the parents of the said teenagers, who would be happy to shell out a dollar and forty nine cents for a rock and roll record for the kids. To these parents the identity of the performer was irrelevant. The record had rock and roll on it, kids liked rock and roll, and it was much cheaper than the Elvis or Buddy discs in the window of the local record store. Who could resist such a bargain?

Of course the kids could resist “bargains” like this, and one wonders what Junior thought of Hen Friggin’ Gates if he ever got round to listening to the slab of vinylite. I like to picture in my mind’s eye Junior’s hip older brother (the one who’s due in court on a charge of possessing marijuana) casually putting the disc on the turntable and being rather pleased at the sounds which issued forth from the speaker (Mom and Dad being out at the church social or the PTA or some such). For despite the album’s unpromising background and appearance, this is one hot selection of glorious blasting rockin’ rhythm ‘n’ blues tenor sax.

Which begs the question – who is or was Hen Gates? For years the rumour was that Hen Gates and His Gaters were in fact the Dizzy Gillespie band. This seems to have been based on the supposition that Gillespie had used the pseudonym while playing incognito on some Charlie Parker discs in the 1940s. Bop pianist James Forman then “inherited” the pseudonym and used it when recording with James Moody for Blue Note in 1948 and with Dinah Washington for Mercury in 1949. A track called “Cravin’” on Masterseal MSLP 5013 “Hi-Fi Jazz Session” is credited to Hen Gates, but this may be James Forman. Dizzy Gillespie also appears on that LP, a fact which may have helped to perpetuate the “Dizzy Gillespie recorded a rock and roll LP” rumour.

In fact Hen Gates is Freddie Mitchell and the tracks on “Lets All Dance To Rock And Roll” are simply old Derby masters given new titles. When Derby filed for bankruptcy in 1954, Freddie Mitchell masters had been sold cheaply and had already been reissued on several labels before they turned up on Masterseal who thought they could pull a fast one and pass them off as tracks recorded by Hen Gates and His Gaters who, according to the LP sleevenotes, were “a group of talented young Rock ‘N Roll musicians …”

Unfortunately I don’t have an exhaustive collection of Freddie Mitchell recordings so I can’t list the original titles of the tracks on this album. Track 7 “Great Gates Rock” is a renamed “Cold Heat” (minus the original intro) which was recorded in 1952 and was the B side of “Moondog Boogie” released as Derby 793. Track 14 “Lose” is really Freddie Mitchell’s biggest hit “Doby’s Boogie” which was recorded in 1949 and released as Derby 713. Can anyone out there identify any more of the tracks?

It is ironic that this example of naked exploitation has stood the test of time and is now one of the best Freddie Mitchell compilations available. The LP lives on in the form of a bootleg CD with 15 additional tracks, all of them Freddie Mitchell Derby sides. The extra tracks have been given new names which barely disguise their original titles. At least Freddie gets some credit this time round as his name appears on the front cover of the CD (shown below).

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps. Hissing audible. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/367295345/Hen_Gates_-_Let_s_All_Dance_To_Rock_And_Roll.rar

Or here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IO193B0B

1. Rock Me Sugar
2. Rock Around My Baby
3. Love To Rock With You
4. Choo Choo Rock
5. Rock Clock Rock
6. Rockin' And Walkin'
7. Great Gates Rock
8. Shoe Shine Rock
9. Juke Box Rock
10. Rock Around Rosie
11. Fish Beat Rock
12. Rock'n Time
13. The New Rock
14. Lose

Thank you my anonymous good buddy!