Still Groove Jumping!

Side One
1. Right Now Baby - Roy Gaines
2. All My Life - Roy Gaines
3. Down To The Bottom - Larry Dale
4. You Better Heed My Warning - Larry Dale
5. Midnight Hours - Larry Dale
6. Country Boy - Tiny Kennedy
7. Peek-A-Boo - Mr. Bear
8. The Bear Hug - Mr. Bear & His Bearcats

Side Two
1. Drink Up - The Du-Droppers
2. Mr. Bear Comes To Town - Mr. Bear & His Bearcats
3. I'm Gonna Keep My Good Eye On You - Mr. Bear & His Bearcats
4. Rockin' With Red - Piano Red
5. High Low Jack - Buddy Lucas
6. When I Got Married - Champion Jack Dupree
7. She's Got No Hair - Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
8. Jump Man Jump - Piano Red

Finally we get round to posting the follow up LP to “Groove Jumping!” Issued in 1987 on the UK Detour Records label, “Still Groove Jumping!” is a blaster of a compilation of sides originally released on the RCA subsidiary Groove in the mid 1950s.

It’s a mighty mess of clanging blues guitar mostly from Mickey “Guitar” Baker and buzz saw tenor sax solos from King Curtis and Sam “The Man” Taylor. There’s no need for me to go on at length as all bases are covered by the sleeve notes compiled by Bez Turner.

For more information on the short life of Groove Records read the “Groove Jumping” post. Read the “Detour Records” post for more information on this all but forgotten UK re-release label.

Listen to highlights from “Still Groove Jumping!” in the player below:



Peruse these original Groove and Vik EP covers courtesy Joan K:

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

https://rapidshare.com/files/1377008620/Still_Groove_Jumping_.rar

Or here:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?q4sjw88u0myom32

1. Right Now Baby - Roy Gaines
2. All My Life - Roy Gaines
3. Down To The Bottom - Larry Dale
4. You Better Heed My Warning - Larry Dale
5. Midnight Hours - Larry Dale
6. Country Boy - Tiny Kennedy
7. Peek-A-Boo - Mr. Bear
8. The Bear Hug - Mr. Bear & His Bearcats
9. Drink Up - The Du-Droppers
10. Mr. Bear Comes To Town - Mr. Bear & His Bearcats
11. I'm Gonna Keep My Good Eye On You - Mr. Bear & His Bearcats
12. Rockin' With Red - Piano Red
13. High Low Jack - Buddy Lucas
14. When I Got Married - Champion Jack Dupree
15. She's Got No Hair - Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup
16. Jump Man Jump - Piano Red

Jesse Allen - an amendment

Thanks to research carried out by Bob Eagle and further information received from Jesse's daughter Joanne it is now known that Jesse was born on the 25th September 1925 and not in 1930 as was previously thought. My thanks to Bob and Joanne.

Due to work pressures I haven't had time to post recently. The blog will be back soon with more Jump and Jive from shellac and Blues from vinyl. Keep-a-rockin' out there in R&B land.

The Honeydripper, parts 1 & 2 - Sammy Franklin and His Atomics (Black & White 101)

Recorded in Los Angeles and released in late August 1945. Personnel - Sammy Franklin (trumpet); Len Talley (vocal); remainder unknown.

Listen to "The Honeydripper Part 1"

Listen to "The Honeydripper Part 2"

This disc was one of a number of cover versions of Joe Liggins' huge hit "The Honeydripper." There were more successful covers by Jimmie Lunceford, Roosevelt Sykes and Cab Calloway but what makes this version especially interesting is Sammy Franklin's connection with Joe Liggins and with the genesis of  "The Honeydripper."

At the beginning of the 1940s Joe was a member of Sammy Franklin's band, The California Rhythm Rascals. Joe wrote "The Honeydripper" and started performing it with Sammy's band. He offered Sammy co-composer rights if he would front up $500 to cover the cost of recording the song but Sammy turned him down. Joe left and formed his own small jump band, The Honeydrippers, recorded his song for Leon Rene's Exclusive Records and the rest is, as they say, history.

"The Honeydripper" by Joe Liggins and His Honeydrippers was released towards the end of April 1945 and became one of the biggest R&B hits of all time. Five months later we find Sammy releasing a version with a small jump group with the then topical name "The Atomics." But it was too late for Sammy. The Honeydripper juggernaut had long disappeared over the horizon and was now well out of reach. There's a lesson there for us all.

With thanks to El Enmascarado for this rare 78 rpm disc. More jumpin' and jivin' on 78!

Billboard, 15th September 1945

Jesse Allen, Blues Singer

In May 2010 I posted an LP issued by Pathe Marconi in the 1980s, “Rockin’ and Rollin’” by Jesse Allen. The disc which had been donated to the blog by regular contributor Big Al consisted of 12 tracks recorded in New Orleans for Aladdin and Imperial between 1951 and 1954. Although none of the tracks had been hits back in the 1950s, there was some very good blues / R&B material in the compilation.

Pathe Marconi LP from the 1980s

According to the sleeve notes, very little was known about Jesse Allen. There were conflicting stories about where he came from, with Dave Bartholomew being sure that he came from Jacksonville, Florida, while Tommy Ridgley thought that he hailed from either Georgia or Alabama and Bobby Mitchell was under the impression that he was from Mississippi. The author of the sleeve notes, Jeff Hannusch, didn’t know what happened to Jesse after he cut his last record around 1960.

Since posting that LP I have heard from Jesse Allen’s daughter and I can now add some background to his story. So let’s take a closer look at the life and music of a bluesman who may not have achieved stardom but who has left us a small legacy of fine recordings.

Jesse Leroy Allen was born on the 25th of September, 1925, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. He was the seventh of eight children. He joined the Navy at a young age and also from a young age developed a love for music and singing. As you can hear from the sound samples in this article he had a strong singing voice suited to both slow blues and rocking numbers. He never learned to read music but was a self taught guitarist, playing by ear and learning licks from fellow musicians as he picked up work in small time clubs and bars starting in Dade and Broward counties, Florida. Over the years his club work would take him and his family to Amarillo, Texas, to New Mexico and even to White Plains, New York.

His first recording session was for Aladdin Records in New Orleans on October 13th, 1951. This was in fact the first New Orleans session held by the LA based label. The “Rockin’ and Rollin’” LP includes all four tracks from this session. Two of the tracks, “Gonna Move away From Town,” and “Rock This Morning” were released on Aladdin single 3129 in late April, 1952.

The record was reviewed in Billboard on the 26th April. “Gonna Move Away From Town – strong blues vocal by Allen is given added excitement by very effective instrumental backing. Guitar is especially fine.” There was rather fainter praise for “Rock This Morning” as Billboard opined: “Standard blues fare lacks real excitement tho the lyrics help. Should catch some coin.”

The two other sides recorded at the session, “Shake ‘em up Baby” and “Boogie Woogie Mama,” were not released. Jesse Allen’s daughter is adamant that he is not the vocalist on these sides and indeed they just don’t sound like him at all. I don’t know who the singer is, but he is obviously trying to emulate Roy Brown. You can hear these sides on the “Rockin’ and Rollin’” download.

Listen to Aladdin 3129 here:



“Gonna Move Away From Town” / “Rock This Morning” was not the first Jesse Allen single to be released. On December 8th, 1951 he recorded two sides for the Coral label: “My Suffering” and “Let’s Party” which were released on Coral 65078 at the beginning of February 1952.

They were reviewed in Billboard on the 9th of February 1952: “My Suffering – Blues ditty gets a solid chant from Allen with a neat assist from the combo backing him. Let’s Party – Routine re-write of “Hey-Baba-Re-Ba” makes for nothing more than an okay handclapper.”

Listen to Coral 65078 here:



Jesse’s next recording session was for Bayou, a subsidiary of Lew Chudd’s Imperial label. Supervised by Dave Bartholomew in New Orleans, the session (probably held in 1952 or early 1953) yielded the single “Dragnet” / “Take It Easy” (Bayou 011). “Dragnet” with its dramatic opening chords and Joe Friday style voiceover, was an attempt to cash in on the popular TV series of the same name. Unfortunately such blatant “borrowing” led to legal problems.

Under the heading “TV Themes Stir Indie Diskings” the Billboard edition of the 11th of July 1953 reported: “Meanwhile attorneys for the TV program ‘Dragnet’ forced Lew Chudd’s Bayou label to withdraw from circulation the Jesse Allen satirical waxing of the show’s theme. The attorneys, Pacht, Tannenbaum and Ross also said they are checking Modern Records’ ‘Dragnet Blues.’”

Listen to Bayou 011 here:



In August 1953, Jesse Allen had his first recording session for Imperial. He recorded four duets with Audrey Walker, two of which were released on Imperial 5256 – “Gonna Tell My Mama” and “Gotta Call That Number.” Two numbers, “Dumb Bunny” and “You Can Believe That” were not released.

Imperial 5256 was reviewed in the Billboard edition of October the 10th, 1953. “Gonna Tell My Mama” received a lukewarm review – “The boy-girl team sounds good here, but the material is just a bit too ordinary.” The review of “Gotta Call That Number” was also less than enthusiastic – “Again the material is only fair. Moreover, the gal is far less effective on this side.”

Listen to Imperial 5256 here:



Although the disc with Audrey Walker failed to sell, Imperial had enough faith in Jesse Allen to call him back to the studio for a solo recording session in early 1954. Backed by a line up of New Orleans’ finest session musicians, Jesse cut four sides. “Sittin’ and Wonderin’” and “I Wonder What’s the Matter” were released in June 1954 on Imperial 5285. With Lee Allen and Alvin “Red” Tyler on saxophones and underpinned by a rhythm section of Edward Frank (piano), Frank Fields (bass) and Earl Palmer (drums), these sides were fine examples of Crescent City R&B.

“Sittin’ and Wonderin’” was an answer record to Lloyd Price’s 1952 hit “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” while “I Wonder What’s The Matter” was a slow burning blues with Jesse in particularly good voice.

The other two sides from the session were released in September 1954 on Imperial 5303.The A side, “The Things I’m Gonna Do,” was another answer record, this time to Guitar Slim’s big hit “The Things I Used To Do.” The B side, “What A Party” was a great rocker which borrowed the tune of Clyde McPhatter’s “Money Honey.”

The record received a good review in Billboard on the 4th September. Of “The Things I’m Gonna Do” the reviewer said: “Allen promises to reform and look for a true love in a good chant job above a familiar instrumental riff. The mood of the blues is set effectively.” And “What A Party” had another positive review: “Rhythm blues about a wild shindig manages to work in the titles of a number of past disk clicks in the lyrics. Should do okay in the coin boxes.”

Unfortunately neither of Jesse’s releases did okay in the coin boxes or anywhere else. However, despite the lack of sales Imperial persevered with Jesse. He was back in the New Orleans recording studio on September 18th 1954 to cut “Rockin’ and Rollin’” and “I Love You So.”

“Rockin’ and Rollin’” was an excellent cover version of Lil' Son Jackson’s 1951 hit while “I Love You So” was an appealing pleader. Released on Imperial 5315, the sides suffered a similar fate to Jesse’s previous discs and failed to chart despite their musical excellence. It may be that the lack of originality in releasing answer discs and a cover version of a recent hit prevented the Imperial releases from garnering enough sales to chart.

You can listen to the 3 Imperial releases here:



Jesse didn't record again until 1958. This time round he cut two sides for Johnny Vincent's Vin label, backed again by Lee Allen and Red Tyler on saxes with James Booker on piano and Roland Cook on bass.

“Goodbye Blues” is an excellent catchy rocker which lopes along merrily. Jesse’s voice is extremely effective against a background of riffing horns. “Baby Say You Will” is a slow pleader with Jesse providing another appealing vocal. The sides were released on Vin 1002 but again there was no chart action.

Listen to Vin 1002 here:



Jesse’s last recordings were made for the Jimmy Liggins owned Duplex label which released occasional R&B and soul records between 1958 and 1978. He cut two sides in Fayetteville, Tennessee in 1959. Released on Duplex 9003, “Love You Baby” (aka “Love Me Baby”) and “After A While” were memorably unruly wild blues rockers with screaming vocals and clanging guitar soaring over a muddy chaotic mix of horns, piano and drums. It was marvellously uninhibited stuff and a great end to an intermittent recording career.

Listen to Duplex 9003 here:



Although Jesse’s recording career was over, he continued to play the bars, clubs and juke joints. He and his family moved around to wherever his music career took him. In the early 1960s he was in Amarillo, Texas, then in 1964 he was back in Tallahassee. In 1965 he was in White Plains, New York before moving to Miami in 1966 or 1967 where he stayed for the rest of his life.

He developed heart complications and passed away in Miami on the 14th of September, 1976. Almost up until his death he was still working in clubs in Florida, in Perrine, in Midway (the Club 40) and in Tallahassee (the Red Bird Café).

The Red Bird Cafe, Tallahassee. Photograph - Florida Memory

The recorded legacy of Jesse Allen may be considered to be scant when compared to that of the many R&B stars who achieved greater fame, yet some of his recordings were deemed to be good enough to be re-released on an LP as part of the French Pathe Marconi’s reissue programme back in the 1980s. A few of his recordings continued to resurface occasionally on obscure LPs and CDs in the Savage Kick and Stompin’ series and more recently all of his records were rounded up on the Official CD “Little Walkin’ Willie Meets Jesse Allen.”

Official CD - hard to find nowadays

However, music was not his most important or most lasting legacy. He is survived by one daughter, eight grandchildren, twenty-three great grandchildren and one great-great granddaughter (at the time of writing). His daughter describes him as “a great guy with lots of love and compassion for everyone. He was ‘everyday people!’”

With thanks to Joanne.

Other information sources – Billboard magazine (available on Google books); Florida Memory website; sleevenotes to “Rockin’ and Rollin’” by Jeff Hannusch; Bruyninckx Discography.

Joan Spins Again! – Volume 2

Side 1
1 Half Angel - The Twilighters
2 Dynaflow - The Caverliers
3 The Greatest Of Them All - The Demens
4 Please Remember My Heart - The Five Bells
5 I Want Your Love - The Mellow Drops
6 Squeeze Me Baby - The Crystals
7 Pretty Baby, Baby - The Gazelles
8 So Worried - The Five Hollywood Bluejays
9 Crying Over You - The Hornets

Side 2
1 You Will Always Find Me True - The Billy Dawn Quartet
2 The Darkest Night - The Gems
3 Treat Me Right - The Love Notes
4 Come On And Rock - The Dukes
5 Bop-Alena - The Shadows
6 We Two - The Belvederes
7 Why Oh Why - The Tru-Tones
8 Two Time Heart - The Bombers
9 Good Old 99 - The Marylanders

Joan K brings us another selection of rare vocal group rhythm and blues in the second volume of her new series Joan Spins Again!

Volume 2 is a fascinating mix of ballads, blues, and some of the wildest vocal group records I’ve ever heard. “Dynaflow,” “Squeeze Me Baby,” “Pretty Baby, Baby,” “You Will Always Find Me True” and “Bop-Alena” in particular should all appeal to fans of rocking R&B. The Gazelles would give The Lamplighters a run for their money any day. It’s vocal group R&B just the way I like it with hoarse voiced tenor leads, down in the alley baritones, burbling bassmen and wailin’ backing from jump blues combos. More please, Joan!

Recorded at various bitrates. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from – rapidshare link

Or from – alternative link

Listen to some highlights in the playlist below. I’ve selected three rockers plus one tearstained slab of heartache which may well have me reaching for the 12 year old malt whisky again. I blame Joan.

1 - The Twilighters - Half Angel - MGM 55014 -1955
2 - The Caverliers - Dynaflow - Atlas 1031 -1954
3 - The Demens - The Greatest of Them All - Teenage 1008 -1957
4 - The Five Bells - Please Remember My Heart - Stolper 100
5 - The Mello-Drops - I Want Your Love – Imperial - Unreleased
6 - The Crystals - Squeeze Me Baby - Luna 101 -1954
7 - The Gazelles - Pretty Baby, Baby - Gotham 315 -1956
8 - The Five Hollywood Blue Jays - So Worried - Recorded In Hollywood 185 -1951
9 - The Hornets - Crying Over You - Flash 125 -1957
10 - The Billy Dawn Quartet - You Will Always Find Me True - Firefly 332
11 - The Gems - The Darkest Night - Drexel 909 -1956
12 - The Love Notes - Treat Me Right
13 - The Dukes - Come On And Rock - Imperial (Unreleased)
14 - The Shadows - Bop-Alena - Delta 1509 -1958
15 - The Belvederes - We Two - Baton 217 -1955
16 - The True-Tones - Why Oh Why
17 - The Bombers - Two Time Heart - Orpheus 1105 -1956
18 - The Marylanders - Good Old 99 - Jubilee 5114 -1953

Jump & Jive on 78 Volume 1

We present a compilation "LP" of El Enmascarado's rips from shellac for your downloadable listening and dancing pleasure. Programmed by your blogmeister for maximum moving and grooving, this virtual disc is guaranteed to provide hours of toetapping fun for the discerning fan of 1940s jump blues.

Check out Jumpin' on 78  and More Jumpin' and Jivin' on 78 for links to the original posts of these discs where you can find out all the background info on who played what and when. The sharp eyed among you will have noticed that Joe Liggins' "A Lovers Lament" / "Miss Betty's Blues" is not included here. We're saving it for a planned second volume.

The download includes all label scans plus an rtf document with the notes from the original posts. These sides are ripped from original 78 rpm discs so surface noise is unavoidable.

Jump & Jive On 78 Volume 1 (Mega)

Side 1
1 Blow Wynn Blow - Jim Wynn
2 Strato-Cruiser - Joe Lutcher
3 Dripper's Boogie Part 1 - Joe Liggins
4 Dripper's Boogie Part 2 - Joe Liggins
5 Jealousy - Tiny Grimes
6 Sonny's Return - Sonny Thompson
7 Nite-Flite - Lloyd Glenn
8 Little Girl Don't Cry - Bull Moose Jackson
9 Let's Make Christmas Merry, Baby - Amos Milburn

Side 2
1 Well Oh Well - Tiny Bradshaw
2 Bow Wow - Amos Milburn
3 The Sidewalks Of New York - Tiny Grimes
4 Sunday Blues - Joe Lutcher
5 Moosey - Bull Moose Jackson
6 J.W. Bop - Jim Wynn
7 I Hate You - Tiny Bradshaw
8 Still Waters - Lloyd Glenn
9 Late Freight - Sonny Thompson

Let's Love Again / The Mojo - Sax Mallard & Orch (Aristocrat 2001)

Listen to "Let's Love Again"

Listen to "The Mojo"

Recorded in Chicago in December 1947. Released in March 1948. Personnel: Sax Mallard (clarinet on "Let's Love Again" and alto sax on "The Mojo"); Jimmy Bowman (piano on "The Mojo" and vocal / piano on "Let's Love Again"). Other possible personnel according to the Red Saunders Foundation website: Bill Casimir (tenor sax); W.B "Sleepy" Nelson (drums); Johnny Morton (trumpet on "The Mojo").

This record on Aristocrat (the predecessor of Chess) came from Oett "Sax" Mallard's first session as a leader. He already had considerable musical experience, starting out with the big band led by his high school class mate Nat "King" Cole which toured with the "Shuffle Along" review in 1937 and ended up stranded in California. Nat opted to stay out on the Coast which proved to be a fortuitous career move, while Sax worked his way back to the Windy City.

Mallard's subsequent career included spells in the big bands of Duke Ellington and Floyd Campbell before becoming part of the early R&B scene in Chicago as part of the "Jump" Jackson band from 1946 onwards. Full discographical and biographical details are on that unrivalled repository of all things to do with Chicago R&B history, the Red Saunders Foundation website. The lengthy page devoted to Sax Mallard is here:

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/mallard.html

The history of the Aristocrat label is here:

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/aristocrat.html

"Let's Love Again" / "The Mojo" was released in March 1948 and sold well in Los Angeles but failed to make the local charts in Chicago or New York. The A Side is a pleasant ballad nicely interpreted by Jimmy Bowman. Unlike some ballad sides from this era it hasn't dated too badly, in my opinion. It has a certain coolness a la Nat "King" Cole. "The Mojo" is a piece of instrumental exotica with good "growl" trumpet and fine guitar work.

Once again we must pay tribute to El Enmascarado for his sterling work in reviving these sides from very worn shellac. The Masked One says: "Before cleaning I couldn't get the B side to play through at all. I especially like how at :10, Sax's guitar player slips and unintentionally hits the open E and B strings on his guitar. They kept it ..."

There you have it - musician, record collector, reviver of battered shellac and masked wrestler. A CV that yells defiance against this crazy corporatized world.

More Jumpin' and Jivin' on 78

I hope all you jumpin' jive fans out there have been following the links to the revised posts of El Enmascarado's 78 rpm discs. With the imminent demise of El Enmascarado's YouTube channel, I've been revamping the posts from last year which featured videos of the records spinning on a vintage Sparton consol.

Our mysterious masked wrestling amigo has been busy ripping mp3s from the shellac ten inchers and you will now find that these cuts on streamed audio have replaced the videos in the new versions of the posts. You may also find that the writing has occasionally been updated too. We here at Be Bop Wino believe in quality, not quantity, so we put in that extra bit of effort on each and every post.

Click on the links on this post and the previous post to experience R&B as it was back in the day!

As El Enmascarado says about the 78 rpm discs: "In 1948, if you liked this music, this is what you bought and listened to. You dressed like an actor in a Film Noir, with a sharp suit and a Frank Sinatra hat. You drank martinis, or maybe a Rock and Rye or a Manhattan, and popped the 78 onto your Sparton. Voila!"

Here are the remaining links to the updated posts:

Jealousy / The Sidewalks Of New York - Tiny Grimes

Let's Make Christmas Merry Baby / Bow Wow - Amos Milburn

Still Waters / Nite-Flite - Lloyd Glenn

 Well Oh Well / I Hate You - Tiny Bradshaw

Little Girl Don't Cry / Moosey - Bull Moose Jackson

Jumpin' On 78

Well, there's gonna be a few changes around here I guess. First the good news. El Enmascarado has recently acquired yet another stash of jumpin' and jivin' and bluesin' and boozin' 78s. And that's not all - the Masked One has started using a new method to clean these precious but often very dirty and worn slabs of shellac with a resultant improvement in sound quality. You can get a taste of the hard work that goes into preparing these old discs for ripping by viewing SwingMan 1937's video on how to clean a 78. He's the guy who not only developed this method, he also has a fabulous YouTube channel. Click on this link to find out more.

Now speaking of YouTube, the Tubeseventyeight channel which furnished the videos which accompanied many of El Enmascarado's 78 rips will soon close down. This is because many of the uploaded videos were removed by YouTube. Things have surely got a bit out of hand when videos of a 65 year old record spinning on a turntable accompanied by a shellac rip are deemed to be affecting current music sales.

And speaking of things getting out of hand, all of you will already be aware of the bad news - megaupload links are dead. We now have to rely on the kindness of rapidshare. There have been a few messages recently about dead rapidshare links and I will replace them as and when I can. Keep an eye on the latest comments section in the sidebar for details of new links. I suspect that more fileshare services will bow to pressure and it will become impossible to offer vinyl downloads on this blog. It may even become impossible to post streaming audio, at which point the blog will probably cease to exist.

Let us end on a positive note. El Enmascarado is putting in a power of work, not only on his new shellac stash, but also on upgrading many of the rips which have already been posted on the blog. The posts which featured YouTube videos are being modified by the removal of these videos and the uploading of streaming audio of the new improved rips. I will maintain a list of links to the updated posts at the bottom of this post.

You can guess by the title that we're hoping to get together a series similar to the popular "Blues On 78" which we will call "Jumpin' On 78". It will feature a mix of upgraded versions of rips previously posted on the blog plus completely new material. El Enmascarado also hopes to send in upgraded blues tracks for a second volume of "Blues On 78." What with Joan's new series and my own efforts we hope that Be Bop Wino will keep swingin', jumpin', jivin', a-rockin' and a-rollin' and a-boppin' and a-strollin' through the months ahead.

Updated posts:

Lovers Lament / Miss Betty's Blues - Joe Liggins

Late Freight / Sonny's Return - Sonny Thompson

Blow Wynn Blow / J.W. Bop - Jim Wynn

Drippers' Boogie Parts 1 and 2 - Joe Liggins 

Strato-Cruiser / Sunday Blues - Joe Lutcher

                                                  

Big Fat Mama Mystery Disc

El Enmascarado has acquired another load of 78 rpm discs and among the shellac stash was this intriguing item.

According to The Masked One (currently recovering from his latest defeat at the hands of Manolito The Mighty Midget - height 3 feet 6 inches) many of the items he purchased came from a radio station. He thinks it may be possible that it was a test pressing dropped off by a promo man way back in the distant past. Who knows? There is no identification of the artist on the label and neither El Enmascarado nor myself knows who it might be. Can anyone out there help? One possible clue is that the disc was in a King label cover, but of course that might not mean anything.

One side is a cracking little version of "(I Want A) Big Fat Mama". This is a much recorded song and I've listened to versions by Lucky Millinder, Roy Milton, King Perry, Rozelle Gayle, Cousin Joe and Gene Phillips and it doesn't match any of them. El Enmascarado has also listened to the Millinder and Milton versions as well as one by Tommy Johnson and the mystery remains.

One other puzzle - why is the band chanting "Rigoletto, Rigoletto" at the beginning of the song?

The other side of the disc is a performance of "P.S. I Love You" - not the Beatles song but a ballad composed by Gordon Jenkins and Johnny Mercer. It was performed by Frank Sinatra on his "Close To You" LP.

So rhythm fans, can anyone solve the mystery? Who is performing on this record? Listen here:

Listen to "Big Fat Mama"

Listen to "PS I Love You"