Jimmy Yancey

Returning to the Label "X" series of blues and jazz reissues, here is Jimmy Yancey, a Chicago pianist who achieved a certain renown relatively late in life.

This 10-inch record collates sides that Yancey made in 1939 and 1940 for Bluebird, the RCA label. They were among his first recordings, and the first for a major label. He was about 40 years old (his birth year is disputed).

At that time Yancey had been a Chicago White Sox groundskeeper for some years and did not play music full-time. But his playing nonetheless was held in high regard by his fellow pianists. Yancey's imagination and sense of style are in full display here.

The cover of this album, in common with the others on Label "X" featured on this site previously, is by Paul Bacon.

You can read more about Yancey here. He died in 1951.

The Original Dixieland Jass Band

The first side of this EP contains what is usually cited as the first jazz record, made by the Original Dixieland Jass (later Jazz) Band in February 1917. The claim is debatable, not least because this music (in common with all other types of music) is an outgrowth of earlier styles. The Wikipedia article about the ODJB (as the band is often called) notes that the first item on this record is actually a version of a ragtime tune written in 1909.

These records are by no means obscure, and actually I've included them to continues the series derived from the "X" label's Vault Originals series, a jazz/blues reissue program from the mid-50s. As before, the RCA engineers did a fine job on the transfers. These are some of the best acoustic recordings I've heard. (Pre-1925 acoustic recordings were made through a recording horn instead of a microphone.)

Similar to the previous "X" recordings seen here, this has a cover by Paul Bacon, much more to my taste than the previous items. Bacon worked in several different styles, and this scratchboard drawing is a evocative rendering of a 1917 promotional photo that you can see on Wikipedia's ODJB page.

The ODJB was a sensation in its time, and you will find it sensational too if you go for hectic ensembles, barnyard effects and clattering percussion. It's easy to scoff at this stuff 90 years later, but it was the precursor of much great music.

Kings of the Blues

This is a follow-up post to our item on Ida May Mack and Bessie Tucker. That was Vol. 2 in Label "X"'s Backgrounds of Jazz series, and this is Vol. 3. (Don't have Vol. 1.)

Remarkably, most of these sides were recorded in Memphis during the same week of August 1928 as the Mack and Tucker recordings.

As with the earlier LP. this must be one of the first albums ever devoted to reissuing the blues records of the 1920s. I should mention, though, that many of these sides are not really blues, strictly speaking.

Jim Jackson and Frank Stokes were experienced medicine show entertainers. Furry Lewis lasted long enough to appear with the Rolling Stones. He even showed up on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Ishman Bracey may be the least known of the group, having produced only 16 sides.

The two Jim Jackson songs on this record may be familiar to those who grew up in the 60s because they were rerecorded by two good-timey folk rock bands - I'm Wild About My Lovin' by the Lovin' Spoonful and This Mornin' She Was Gone by the Youngbloods (under the title Grizzly Bear). I wonder if those groups knew this album.

The cover is by Paul Bacon, who also did the cover of the Mack-Tucker LP, in a much different style.

LINK

Ida May Mack and Bessie Tucker

Reissued blues records are very common today, but not so in 1955 when this record of two obscure blues artists appeared. This rare record made available eight recordings cut by two Texas women in Memphis eighty years ago next week.

The singers are Ida May Mack and the somewhat rougher Bessie Tucker, both of whom were accompanied by pianist K. D. Johnson. Little is known about any of these artists, except that the singers are believed to be from the Dallas area, and the pianist from Memphis.

The performances are quite good, as are the recordings, although it does sound like the 1950s engineers added some reverb (some things never change). The records were made for the Victor Company, and the reissue was by Label "X," a short-lived RCA Victor subsidiary that put out many excellent records. This was in a series called Backgrounds of Jazz. At that time, reissues sold mainly to jazz collectors who valued the performances as much for their relationship to jazz as for their intrinsic merits.

Mack recorded these sides, and, I believe, a few others. Tucker recorded enough so that her records have been collected into a Document CD. The latter singer has something of a following for her strong voice and intensity. There is a interesting page here that speculates on her background based on clues in some of these recordings.

I don't find this record's artwork to be especially attractive, but it is an example of the skills of Paul Bacon, a distinguished designer who did many book jackets and jazz record covers, and who was a jazz musician himself.