The Iconic Blues Historic Blues from 1930s to 1970s
SOME FULL REVIEWS OF SET 3
MATCHBOX BLUESMASTER SERIES –
SOME FULL REVIEWS OF SET 3
Our thanks to the blues and jazz magazines for permission to reproduce these reviews in whole or in part:
JAZZ RAG: http://www.bigbearmusic.com
BLUES & RHYTHM: http://www.bluesandrhythm.co.uk
BLUES IN BRITAIN: https://www.bluesinbritain.org
BLUES MATTERS: https://bluesmatters.com
LIVING BLUES: https://livingblues.com
BLUES IN BRITAIN The Matchbox Blues Masters Series - Volumes 3 and 4 Recorded between 1926 and 1950, these are pure blues gold. Many of the artists you may not have heard of before but don't let that put you off. This is the first time any of these tracks have appeared on CD, but between 1982 and 1988 they found a release on LP form through Saydisc Records. In fact most of the recordings were subtitled "Complete Recordings in Chronological Order", with the remainder released as "The Remaining Titles" or "New to LP". The original 78 rpm records, many of them extremely rare, were provided by several collectors for these releases. Volumes 1 and 2 were reviewed quite recently in this magazine, now come volumes 3 and 4.
Texas Alexander who recorded over a twenty year period in San Antonio, Texas had a great earthy blues voice and most of the recordings still sound fine but obviously age and using rare originals affect a few tracks, but the quality of the music far outweigh anything else. The man himself came from the backwoods, could be heard singing in the streets. He recorded some well received tracks for Okeh Records, so to have three discs of his work here is something any blues fan should grab a listen too
From the period between 1927 and 1930 and from Atlanta, Georgia come Julius Daniels and Lil McClintock. Both just have guitar backing. Daniels was born in South Carolina and remained pretty obscure, but not so much as McClintock who did all his tracks here in one session, including the wonderfully titled 'Don't Think I'm Santa Claus'. Daniels gets eleven tracks including 'My Mama Was A Sailor’. Names that may seem a little more familiar with long time blues followers is Peg Leg Howell and the wonderful St Louis Bessie whose eighteen recordings in this set prove she was a mighty blues singer.
One area covered in these latest releases feature what's called The Sanctified Jug Bands, interesting because of the practice of recording the Sunday sermon and releasing them on disc the next day, preacher usually backed, as here, by three female voices and maybe a single harmonica. This disc includes amongst others Brother Williams Memphis Sanctified Singers and the Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers, all recorded in Memphis. The songs have rhythm mainly through some amazing clapping to set the songs alive; its great toe tapping stuff, full of life and hugely enjoyable fire and brimstone preaching.
Set three offers us as an opener from the Memphis Harmonica Kings (1929-30) and the first section of this set is by Noah Lewis. To hear the man himself is a real treat. Again out of Memphis sessions is a mix of solo and band tracks that include Sleepy John Estes on guitar along with Yank Rachell on mandolin . These are legendary tracks, as are the rest of this disc featuring The Beale Street Rounders with Jed Davenport, including songs like 'Milk Cow Blues', 'How Long Blues' and 'I'm Sitting On Top Of The World'. By the time we hit disc three we find Willard 'Ramblin' Thomas, recorded in Chicago over three sessions between 1928 and 1932. This is solo voice and guitar and over the sixteen tracks there's much to enjoy. Thomas's songs are the work of a poet with his use of imagery and turn of phase, making his music more inventive than others around him at the time.
Next up are the Country Girls of the blues. These recordings from 1926 to '29 offer songs from the likes of Lillian Miller, Hattie Hudson, Gertrude Perkins, Pearl Dickson, Laura Henton and the wonderfully named Bobbie Cadillac. In fact her 'Carbolic Acid Blues' recorded in Dallas, is one of the best titles around, about how a woman treats a cheating man. All of these ladies' tracks feature mainly just piano with a little guitar here and there.
Rufus & Ben Quilian make up the majority of the next disc mostly from a session in New York, with others from Atlanta recorded in 1929 and 1930 while the final disc features an artist fans of classic blues will know slightly better, De Ford Bailey, Of the sixteen tracks all but two are in great shape, the others being poor condition originals, recorded mostly in New York and Atlanta but with one from a Charlotte, NC session. Along with the six discs in each set, Paul Oliver's extensive original notes make very interesting reading, an insight into these largely unknown musicians and their recordings. Pete Clack
Henry’s Blueshouse/Jazz Rag review of Set 3 – May 2021 More Matchbox Blues 2021 seems to be shaping up to be a good year for those of us who are interested in those earliest recorded blues, with the release of seven CD sets, each set comprising of six CDs, in the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series. The focus is on the blues, hokum and gospel music recorded between 1926 and 1934 and concentrated on the little-known and the almost totally unknown among the first blues performers to be recorded - and it's fascinating stuff. A lot of the music is quite primitive. Neither slick nor sophisticated, it's the realthing, exactly as would have been heard when strolling down Beale Street in the late 1920s or early 1930s.
Disc 1: ''The Complete Recordings in Chronological Order of Noah Lewis and Jed Davenport" The opening three unaccompanied solo harmonica tracks nicely showcase the intricate and expressive playing of Lewis, one of the more important pre-World War 2 blues harmonica players. Noah Lewis' Jugband features guitarist Sleepy John Estes, mandolin player Yank Rachel and jug blower Ham - for Hambone - Lewis for a stomping ''Ticket Agent Blues" and "New Minglewood Blues" before there's a personnel change with an unknown mandolin player replacing Rachel and a certain Mrs. Van Zula Carter Hunt taking care of the vocal on her "Selling the Jelly", which sounds remarkably like her recording of the same song with The Carolina Peanut Boys, where she also plays guitar. The Beale Street Rounders, featured Mississippi-born harmonica player Jed Davenport - just check out his pyrotechnics on "Beale Street Breakdown", one of the ten tracks that feature both this band and his Beale Street Jug Band. The other musicians here have not been identified other than Joe McCoy, though he is listed as Joe Williams, and it's likely that Memphis Minnie was also on this session. His classic "How Long, How Long" recorded in The Peabody Hotel are included here as well as the splendid "I'm Sitting on Top of The World", sung by Henry Too Tight Castle, originally recorded by Vocalion in Chicago at the same time as "Talkin' 'Bout Yo-Yo". A fine dose of romping and stomping Memphis Jug music, that includes Jed's famous imitation of a piccolo and rare snapshots of his trumpet and tin whistle playing.
Disc 2. ''Texas Alexander 1928-29" Texas Alexander was born Alger Alexander in the tiny community of Jewett in 1900. It is reported that his mother, Jenny Brooks ''was rowdy, she was runnin' about", and in the absence of any further detail, we can only guess why the young Alger and brother Edell were placed in the care of his grandmother in the hamlet of Richards, Texas. Alexander had a primitive, powerful voice that echoed the field hollers, work shouts and prison songs of the early 1900s. With regard to his prison songs, it could be said that he might well have brought some personal experience to the table. It is reported variously that he was sentenced to six years in the state penitentiary for the murder of his wife, or alternatively, he could have been sentenced to a spell on a Prison Work Farm for singing lewd songs in public. Based on the explicit nature of many of his songs, the clever money is on the latter. Jazz musicians Joe King Oliver, Eddie Lang and Clarence Williams make an appearance on some tracks.
Disc 3: ''Ramblin' Thomas 1928-32" These sixteen tracks come from sessions in Chicago in 1928 and from 1938 in Dallas, all of them featuring Willard Ramblin' Thomas singing and playing guitar. Thomas was born in Logansport, Louisiana in 1902, died in Memphis around 1945. He most certainly was a Ramblin' Man. He sings of enjoying Chicago so much that he stayed there for an entire week, whereas he didn't find Dallas as accommodating as conveyed in his "Hard Dallas Blues" where he sang of being imprisoned for vagrancy. 'Man, don't never make Dallas your home'. He was also inclined to complain about his girls, as in "Hard to Rule Woman Blues" where he sings, 'I've got a girl, I wish I could keep her home at nights, she's always going off on automobile rides'. Thomas cut a total of 18 sides for Paramount and Victor between 1920 and 1932, 16 of which are included here.
Disc 4: "Country Girls 1926-29" An interesting collection of pretty much unknown singers with all but one, Pearl Dixon (from Tennessee), either from or associated with Texas. The first five tracks feature a blues girl with attitude, Lillian Miller of whom almost nothing is known. On the opener, "Kitchen Blues" she is accompanied by the tasteful piano-playing of 16-year-old Hersal Thomas, who died of food-poisoning shortly after the Chicago session. His elder brother, George W. Thomas takes over the piano duties on her remaining recordings, along with guitarist Charlie Hill which include "Dead Drunk Blues" which was later associated with Ma Rainey. There are two songs credited to Hattie Hudson with Willie Tyson on piano and I wish there were more. Hattie's real name was probably Burleson, and her singing is outstanding on two good songs, "Doggone My Good Luck Soul" and "Black Hand Blues". On the same day, December 6th 1927, Gertrude Perkins took one from Hattie for the defiant "No Easy Rider Blues" and "Gold Daddy Blues". Country Blues singer and songwriter Pearl Dickson, born Somerville in 1903 only ever recorded four songs, two of which remain unissued. Here we have "Twelve Pound Daddy" and "Little Rock Blues" recorded in Memphis in 1927 where she is accompanied by Mahlon or Maylon and Richard 'Hackshaw' Harney. The following year Mahlon was stabbed to death in a Juke Joint. Laura Hendon was a big-voiced gospel singer who recorded for Columbia in 1928 in Dallas, accompanied by unknown piano, guitar and brass bass and for Brunswick the following year in Kansas City where she is backed by Bennie Moten on piano, Eddie Durham on guitar and Joe Page on double bass. Laura was a spirited singer and rocked along nicely, and it's a mystery that she wasn't to record again. The finisher is Bobbie Cadillac with "Carbolic Acid Blues", a well-sung with somewhat disturbing lyrics 'she looked at me with burning eyes, throwed carbolic acid in my face'.
Disc 5: "Rufus & Ben Quillan (1929- 1931)" Singer and pianist Rufus and singer Ben Quillan were part of a family of ten from Gainesville, Georgia. As the Blue Harmony Boys, they are joined by singer James Mccrary and an unknown guitarist for a set of good-natured, slick harmony, hokum blues. Ben recalled that most of their songs were 'kinda indecent for that day, but not for today. That's about all they wanted from us was jumping little songs like "Tight Like That", "It's Dirty But Good", "Keep It Clean". We had a lot of fun, played a lot of house-parties, small dances.'
Disc 6: "DeFord Bailey & Bert Bilbro (1927-31 )" DeFord Bailey was best-known for his fifteen years with The Grand Ole Opry. He was born in Carthage, Carolina to a farming family who all played instruments and at the age of three he started to learn to play harmonica and mandolin. He favoured his Marine Band harp and found fun in "imitating everything I heard - hens, foxes, hounds, turkeys, everything around me." His train songs are remarkable, capturing in some detail the sounds of individual trains, "Pan American Blues" and "Dixie Flyer Blues". His "Alcoholic Blues", recorded in 1927, was later popularised by Sonny Terry with Brownie McGhee. Bailey was a victim of polio as a child that stunted his growth and prevented him from taking normal jobs. He decided to make music his living, teaming with Bob Tip Lee another small and crippled harmonica player and they performed together on the streets of Nashville. He later worked as an elevator operator where he played to his passengers. When he quit that, he operated a shoeshine stand to provide for himself and his wife before going into a long retirement. He died at the age of 83 in 1982. Almost nothing is known of D.H Bert Bilbro except that he was white and from the Piedmont region and his only recordings are those included in this set. This harmonica style is not dissimilar from that of DeFord Bailey and his terrific opener is also a train song "C. & N. W. Blues". Of the fine songs Bert recorded there are a couple with him singing and playing harmonica to guitar accompaniment on "Yes, Indeed I do" and "We're Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight" which have a decidedly Swiss Alpine feel. A surprising ending to a surprising CD set. Jim Simpson
SET 3 BLUES MATTERS Aug/Sept 21 Space sadly does not permit a full analysis of this six-CD collection of vintage blues, the next in the Matchbox series. But hopefully a brief excursion will encourage the serious blues collectors and historians among the BM community to acquire and enjoy this piece of living social history. Starting with the Memphis Harmonica Kings 1929-30, a collection of harmonica solos from the earliest exponents of itinerant blues music. Disc Two is devoted to the sounds of Texas Alexander. The tracks are typically minimal blues, acoustic guitar and moaned and wailed vocals that speak of a lifetime of deprivation. Willard Ramblin' Thomas's music comes with next to nothing known about his life story, but the deep sense of history comes over in the emotional sparse delivery of his vocals, endlessly betrayed and left alone gave him a rich vein of misery to mine. Rarely, and perhaps to the shame of both blues musicians and historians, do women make it to the immortality of recording. Lillian Miller's Kitchen Blues tends to err on the side of domestic pride than emotional angst. Religion is a common subject for musical expression, and that includes Laura Henton's 'He's Coming Soon', delivered with fervent gusto. Similarly, her Lord You've Sure Been Good To Me puts a cheerful front on what was probably a difficult life, typical of the area and time when these recordings were made. Considerably more upbeat are the offerings of Rufus and Ben Quillian whose music comes under the 'hokum' label, a sub-genre of blues upbeat tunes with suggestive lyrics, popular in the city and well away from the dirt-poor itinerant farming communities and their tales of woe. The collection comes full circle with the final disc, the music of De Ford Bailey and Bert Bilbro who were harmonica players, mainly for the serious harmonic disciple or completist historian. ANDY HUGHES
JAZZ JOURNAL – June 2021 Matchbox Bluesmaster Series Set 3 - Country Blues and Harmonica Kings 1927-31 The historic blues series annotated by Paul Oliver reaches number three, offering a comprehensive view of its subject across six CDs By Ian Lomax - 17 June 2021 The 42 LP albums that make up the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series were released by Saydisc Records between November 1982 and June 1988. Most of the albums were subtitled "Complete Recordings in Chronological Order" with a few under the subtitle "The Remaining Titles" or "New to LP". The originating 78 rpm records (many of them extremely rare) were provided by several collectors under the editorship of well-known Austrian collector Johnny Parth and were remastered by Hans Klement of Austrophon Studios in Vienna. Johnny Parth had already created his extensive Roots Records label which Saydisc distributed in the UK and the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series was a carefully sculpted edition of black blues roots music giving a broad view of the genre. The series documented the early days of blues, hokum (a kind of arch, nudging blues style popularised in the city) and gospel music from 1926 to 1934 and gives an insight into the way that black music was first released on record. The music of these singers formed the backbone of later urban blues, rhythm-and-blues and, of course, rock 'n' roll. The songs are frequently raw and primitive in character, but some outstanding playing and singing shines through many of the performances. Putting this music into perspective are the masterful liner notes by respected blues historian Paul Oliver. They alone are worth the purchase. The present Matchbox Bluesmaster Series has been transferred from the 1980s vinyl pressings by Norman White using highend transcription techniques. This was clearly a challenging task but worth the effort. Not surprisingly, the original master tapes for the vinyl releases vanished long ago. Saydisc say that they have in their vaults many more pre-Bluesmaster blues albums which may be issued on CD in due course. Let us hope so. This is the third set to be released. Volume 1 is Country Blues and Ragtime Blues Guitar, 1926-30 and Volume 2 is Country Blues and Great Harp Players 1927-32. The CD sets are available at a realistic price (£29.99) and the release of this important series for the first time on CD should appeal to serious blues collectors and also attract (hopefully) a new generation of early blues lovers.
Matchbox Bluesmaster Series-Set 3 MSESET3 LIVING BLUES • July 2021 This third set in the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series brings to CD and the digital realm six pre-war blues albums first released on vinyl between February 1984 and October 1985. Memphis Harmonica Kings (1929-30) offers the recorded legacy of Jed Davenport and Noah Lewis, the major exception being Lewis' sides with Cannon's Jug Stompers. Compiler Paul Oliver's liner notes set the scene: "Memphis in the late 1920s was, by any standards, an extraordinarily musical city." he wrote. "Go down the street at any time of day or night you'd be bound to hear music in the saloons, the churches, or simply on the sidewalk. And if it was the sidewalk musicians you were listening to, you might hear Noah Lewis blowing his harmonica for tips." Lewis recorded three harmonica solos and four songs as jug band leader in 1929-30. His opening volley, Chickasaw Special. was his showpiece, a stops-out harp imitation of a hurtling locomotive with a few baying hounds run amok in a hybrid train/fox chase tour de force. His second tune, Devil in the Woodpile, has falsetto whoops (the sound, Lewis announces, of ‘the devil in there hollerin') framed by a repetitive rhythmic figure suggesting African roots. Oliver links it to the fiddle tune of the same name, though it sounds more akin to white old-timey musician Henry Whitter's 1923 harp solo Rain Crow Bill Blues or Sid Hemphill's 1942 quills (panpipes) performance Old Devil's Dream. Whatever its origins or relatives, Devil in the Woodpile frames Lewis as a deeply "country" bluesman who drew from sources predating the iron horse and, at least in any standardized form, the blues. He's less "free form” in his jug band performances, accompanied by Sleepy John Estes on guitar, Yank Rachell on mandolin, and Ham Lewis on jug. “I was born in the Delta, raised in a lion's den," Lewis sings in New Minglewood Blues, a follow-up to the popular 1928 Cannon's Jug Stompers song on which Lewis blew harp. Lewis had a roughand-ready voice and was a great harp player, so his few sides as leader are well worth hearing. Jed Davenport was more citified and, with medicine show experience, a more conventionally extroverted entertainer. His flamboyant flair with the harp earned him top billing on the six Jed Davenport & His Beale Street Jug Band sides, all excellent and most are instrumentals. The two Beale Street Rounders sides are forgettable, but the harp showpieces How Long How Long Blues and Cow Cow Blues (yes, the piano classic minted by another Davenport) prove Davenport was among those few solo harp virtuosi who enjoyed a brief pre-Depression popularity on record. Texas Alexander Vol. 2 (1928-29) picks up where the Alexander album in the first Matchbox set left off. Arguably, the 17 tracks here are the most interesting in Alexander's lengthy catalog of recordings, if only for the variety of his accompanists-guitarists Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, and Little Hat Jones: pianist Clarence Williams: and cornetist King Oliver. Its tribute to the popularity of Alexander's recordings that the OKeh label took pains to try a range of backings for his frequently plodding (if lyrically engaging) performances. Oliver's notes single out Johnson for praise ("Lonnie Johnson alone is completely at ease, anticipating and elaborating with astonishing fluency"), though a case could be made for the more down-home {and fellow Texan) Little Hat Jones being a more natural fit for delivering Alexander's austere implorations. He's an anomaly, a relic of the work song and field holler age and yet possibly the first "blues shouter." It's hard not to think of Big Joe Turner when hearing Alexander: neither played an instrument: both were reportedly illiterate yet drew from a deep well of free-floating blues verses. In Alexander's case. he recorded many for the first time. Ramblin' Thomas (1928-32) presents the 16 extant recordings by this intriguing Texas bluesman. He was reportedly a running buddy of Blind Lemon Jefferson, which may account for most of these recordings being cut for the Paramount label. Thomas appropriated some of Jefferson's guitar licks, though echoes of both Lonnie Johnson and Blind Blake run through some accompaniments to his songs. He was clearly aware of his contemporaries on record, yet he drew from earlier sources too: his Poor Boy Blues features "field holler" verses sung in a manner closely akin to Texas Alexander's delivery of similar material. Yet his Ramblin' Man seems to anticipate Robert Johnson: "I feel like rambling”:· Thomas sings, "ramblin' stays on my mind." Thomas seemed to have one foot in the proto-blues past and the other aimed toward a future he could scarcely foresee. Oliver dubs him a poet for "a use of imagery and turn of phrase in his blues which was far more inventive than that of many betterknown singers." His slide guitar playing is uniquely idiosyncratic, and he's surely the only pre-war bluesman to have recorded a variant of the Hokey Pokey: "Shake it, gal, shake it." he sings in Shake It Gal, “shake it like I like it! You know what it’s all about" Country Girls (1926-29) gathers 18 recordings by six female singers who recorded a scant two to six sides. Country Girls is a catchy title but may not accurately reflect the artists' backgrounds, as little seems known about most of them. Gospel singer Laura Henton's six sides are highly professional, recorded in Kansas City in the company of pianist Benny Moten and guitarist Eddie Durham, so rural roots seem remote likelihoods for Ms. Henton. Most of the women are accompanied by pianists, suggesting urbanity, except for Pearl Dickson, who sounds decidedly down-home in the company of guitarists Mahlon and Richard Harney (a.k.a. Pet and Can). The standout performance here may be Hattie Hudson’s much-anthologized Doggone My Good Luck Soul, a charmingly sophisticated composition and performance (no free-floating blues verses here). Oliver suggests Hudson was a nom du disque for Hattie Burleson, though to this reviewer's ears they had quite different voices. One could argue that the Henton gospel sides belong on an entirely different collection, or that the collection itself is misnamed, but no matter: Country Girls presents the recorded legacy of six women whose obscurity needn't detract from the enduring power of their voices. Rufus & Ben Quillian (1929-31) presents the 16 extant recordings by Atlanta's hokum blues kings. As the Blue Harmony Boys, the Quillians and their friend James McCrary performed on Atlanta radio station WATL, though ifs safe to assume titles like It’s Dirty but Good and Take It Out Too Deep were not murmured over the airwaves. If "blue" lyrics had always been endemic to the blues idiom, the success of the Tampa Red and Georgia Tom Dorsey 1928 hit It’s Tight Like That led to an explosion of risque “hokum blues" recordings by a host of mostly Chicago-based ensembles (The Hokum Boys, Famous Hokum Boys. etc.). Nearly a century on, it's safe to say that most of this material is neither as titillating nor as musically novel as it once may have seemed: in fact, it's mostly pretty forgettable. Still, there's something oddly appealing about the best of the Quillian crew’s waxings, if only for sounding like the work of naughty "23 skidoo"- era collegiates on a tear. Tight, near-barbershop vocal harmonies keen Jerking the Load to sweet Hawaiian guitar accompaniment: later, hot Nick Lucas-Eddie Lang-style flatpicked guitar underscores Working It Slow, courtesy of white guitarist Perry Bechtel, who had then recently helped design Martin's first 14-fret-to-the-body guitar. It’s the incongruity of the vaudeville stage and broadcast professionalism of the singers and players juxtaposed with the winking smuttiness of the lyrics that lends the Quillian sides their goofy charm, even if too many of them, like the rest of the hokum genre, sound alike. Finally. it's back to the country with Harmonica Showcase - Deford Bailey & Bert Bilbro (1921-31). Bailey was a fiddler's grandson and, in the words of country music historian Charles Wolfe, exemplified a vein of "Black hillbilly music that is all but extinct." He famously opened the inaugural broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry in 1925 with his train showpiece Pan American Blues, It became his first issued recording in 1927, and, while Bailey would ultimately feel hard done by the Opry, his popularity on its airwaves led to his being recorded more extensively than any other harp player during that brief heyday of solo harmonica recordings (11 issued sides). While there's the inevitable Fox Chase and another train tune, there's sufficient variety and virtuosity in Bailey's recordings to make hearing them all a delight, especially his powerhouse take on John Henry. Victor paired it on 78 with a version of the same tune titled Chester Blues by white harp player Bert {a.k.a. D.H.) Bilbro, which accounts for Bilbro's five extant recordings appearing here. They aren't the equal of Bailey’s, but they filled out what would've been a short LP when they first appeared on vinyl in 1985. -Mark Humphrey
July 2021 issue of the LOS ANGELES JAZZ SCENE During 1982-88, the British Saydisc label, in their Matchbox Bluesmaster series, released 38 albums and two double-Lps of early country blues, mostly dating from 1926-34. All of the music is now being reissued on seven six-CD sets, making available many treasures. Vol. 3 and 4 have recently been released, complete with the late Paul Oliver's definitive liner notes. Although some of these sessions have since been reissued (including the Texas Alexander dates), many have not been available for quite some time. Set 3 consists of Memphis Harmonica Kings 1929-30 (Noah Lewis and Jed Davenport), Texas Alexander Vol. 2 (which at times has accompaniment by Lonnie Johnson, Eddie Lang, and King Oliver), Ramblin' Thomas 1928-32, Country Girls 1926-29 (Lillian Miller, Hattie Hudson, Gertrude Perkins, Pearl Dickson, Laura Henton, and Bobbie Cadillac), Rufus & Ben Quillian 1929-31, and De Ford Bailey & Bert Bilbro 1927-31. These sessions comprise the complete recordings of each of these artists, with the more prolific Alexander's output being spread across this series on four CDs. While each of the discs has many moments of interest, the solo harmonica performances of De Ford Bailey (the only African-American musician of the era who was featured on the Grand Ole Opry) and the solo work of singer-guitarist Ramblin' Thomas are among the highpoints. Set 4 consists of Atlanta Blues 1927-30 (featuring Julian Daniels and Lil McClintock), Texas Alexander Vol. 3 1929-30, Peg Leg Howell Vol. 1 1926-27, Sanctified Jug Bands 1928-30 (Elder Richard Bryant, Brother Williams and Holy Ghost Sanctified Singers), St. Louis Bessie 1927-30, and Texas Alexander Vol. 4 (1934 and two songs from 1950). From lowdown blues to goodtime music, traditional folk songs to spontaneous originals, the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series is full of unique performances that, while mostly by long-forgotten artists, are an important part of the United States' musical heritage. And most importantly, the music is enjoyable to hear, even 90 years later. Each of these valuable sets are available from www.saydisc.com.
LONDON JAZZ Matchbox Bluesmaster Series – Set 3 The latest set in the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series, like its two predecessors (link to review below), is taken from the 42 albums released by Saydisc between November 1982 and June 1988. They concentrate on blues recordings, but also contain examples of hokum (described by Paul Oliver ’s exemplary liner notes as ‘a kind of arch, nudging blues style … entertainment with suggestive lyrics’) and gospel, originally recorded by companies such as Okeh and marketed to the black community. The first disc is dedicated to harmonica players Noah Lewis and Jed Davenport , who recorded – both in a solo capacity and with various jug bands – in Memphis and Chicago. The former was something of a virtuoso, and he performs the customary train-imitating pieces (‘Chickasaw Special’) and ‘farmyard’ novelties (‘Devil in the Woodpile’) here, collaborating with stellar figures such as Sleepy John Estes and jug player Ham[bone] Lewis on the group tracks. Davenport’s highlights include an affecting visit to ‘Sittin’ on Top of the World’, sung by ‘Too Tight Henry’ Castle , and the celebrated ‘Beale Street Breakdown’ on which he is backed by his Beale Street Jug Band. Texas Alexander freely mixes frank and explicit sexual innuendo with prison blues of a similarly unflinching nature: ‘Penitentiary Moan Blues’, for instance, describes the reddening of river water that results from convicts washing themselves in it after being beaten with the ‘Black Bettty’, a leather strap used as a punishment for the recalcitrant. Alexander has a somewhat cavalier approach to metre and verse structure, so the fact that he is accompanied by the doyen of blues guitarists, Lonnie Johnson , and by the similarly nimble and subtle Eddie Lang on his New York recordings is a great bonus; all in all, his seventeen tracks provide a fascinating glimpse of an unjustly neglected figure, a service for which this series as a whole is notable. Ramblin’ Thomas provides his own guitar accompaniment, and his poetic lyrics (Langston Hughes was a great admirer) deal with everything from restlessness and love trouble to legal problems (arrests for vagrancy) and struggles with alcohol and poverty. Like many another blues artist, he came to a sad, premature end, dying in the 1940s of tuberculosis, a death eerily prefigured here by his keening on ‘Sawmill Moan’, which (as Paul Oliver points out) nods to Victoria Spivey’s ‘T.B. Blues’. Disc 4 begins with five tracks by the feisty but plaintive-voiced Lillian Miller , the first of which, ‘Kitchen Blues’, features accompaniment by another artist who died tragically early: sixteen-year-old pianist Hersal Thomas . On the other cuts, which include ‘Dead Drunk Blues’ (made famous by Ma Rainey), she is supported by Hersal’s brother George. Hattie Hudson provides only two track ‘Doggone My Good Luck Soul’ and ‘Black Hand Blues’, but they’re both highly original numbers with catchy hooks and intriguing lyrics; the same session produced two more blues tunes sung by Gertrude Perkins , also included here, both women accompanied by pianist Willie Tyson . The gospel songs of Laura Henton (four featuring the piano of Bennie Moten ) are strident confessions of faith, but the disc’s highlight comes at the end: the chilling ‘Carbolic Acid Blues’ by Bobbie Cadillac , a vivid account of a jealousy-induced acid attack and its dreadful consequences. After such horrors, the good-natured hokum of Rufus and Ben Quillian on Disc 5 comes as something of a relief, although – as with the undeniably skilful solo harmonica playing from De Ford Bailey and Bert Bilbro that is featured on Disc 6 – a little goes a long way, despite the infectious vitality of the former pair and the variety of sounds (trains, ‘hens, hounds, foxes, turkeys, everything around me’, as Bailey himself notes) produced on the latter disc’s sixteen cuts. With this latest set of discs, the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series continues to perform a valuable service to early blues, unearthing fascinating nuggets from the pioneers of the genre. Chris Parker
MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL
MATCHBOX BLUESMASTER SERIES SET 3
The third box in this reissue series proves just as invigorating as its confreres. For the genesis of the Matchbox releases and the principles of restoration, and a number of other essential elements, I’ll refer you back to my reviews of the first two boxes ( Set No.1 and Set No.2 )
The third box has plentiful variety, from harmonica to solo guitar and vocal, vocal duets and good old ‘Country Girls’. As before, each LP now occupies a CD and the average disc length is around 52 minutes.
The Harmonica Kings in chronological order – a constant feature of the recordings is the chronology – open the box with a vitalising sequence of 78s from 1929-30. Hear the amazing virtuosity of Noah Lewis, the Horowitz of the Harp, as he powers his way through some pieces either solo or with Sleepy John Estes and others. Even in the plentiful cornucopia of Memphis musicians Lewis is astonishing – his train tropes, blues hollers (spurred on by Estes) and the like are a marvel of invention and control. The Beale Street Rounders and Beale Street Jug Band featured Jed Davenport and the classic I’m Sitting on Top of the World is here of course, fully representative of this tight band, which covered hokum as well as blues and all stations in between. One thing they also did, with too much regularity, was play Tight Like Thatunder different names, but I’m not complaining.
Disc 2 features the second volume in the series devoted to Texas Alexander, One of the three San Antonio, Texas tracks is in poor estate but, as Lonnie Johnson is accompanying, it’s insightful to hear how influential Alexander was on him as a significant amount of Alexander’s singing style seeped into Johnson’s own vocals. Alexander was something of an aficionado of filth, rather a constant in blues – I’d recommend Ninety-Eight Degree Blues, recorded with guitarist Little Hat Jones - but you’ll encounter others that entertain almost as much. Of most interest to Jazz fans will be the two sides where King Oliver plays with guitarist Eddie Lang and Clarence Williams at the piano (New York 1928) which are Tell Me Woman Blues and ‘Frisco Train Blues, and are far from the best-known of Oliver’s obbligato performances on disc.
Ramblin’ Thomas recorded largely in Chicago but there’s one side here from a visit to Dallas in February 1929. Four of these sides are honestly tagged with information that they are rough copies and I think better ones have now turned up. It’s an inevitable corollary of a straight LP-to-CD reissue series that one has to make the best of original LP material. Indeed, more of that 1932 session has now turned up than was known at the time Matchbox released this LP and can be sourced elsewhere, on CD and indeed online. Probably born in Louisiana Thomas was a superior lyricist with an excellent technique. His deft instrumental breaks are a constant pleasure and he absorbed elements of recorded performances from other artists – Victoria Spivey for instance – whilst there is a strong vein of autobiography in his ‘ramblings’, very much more pronounced than some of the more generic recounting of some of his contemporaries. The Dallas disc has a Country Dance feel to it, showing his versatility and ability to blend with requirements to earn an honest dollar, to augment what he earned in the streets.
The artists in disc 4 were recorded between 1926-29 and include Lilian Miller, with one side accompanied by the precocious and sadly short lived teenage Hersal Thomas, and her others with George W Thomas and Charlie Hill. She’s sadly a nondescript singer but her inclusion rounds out the picture. Much more satisfying is Hattie Hudson’s brace. Some have suggested that Gertrude Perkins was also Hudson as all their songs were recorded at the same session with the same pianist, Willie Tyson, but she sounds more laryngitic than Hudson to my ears and the accompaniment is more lugubrious. Pearl Dickson impresses whilst the Gospel singer Laura Henton sometimes has to contend with a mighty brass bass accompaniment but manages to overcome this and proves highly accomplished. The final track is by Bobbie Cadillac and she features on a previous release (MSE208) singing duets.
If you are after Good Time music, try disc 5 for the Blue Harmony Boys. Steady rhythm and hokum flair are their metier – saucy and slick. There’s some Hawaiian influence from time to time in the guitar styling though once again a number of these tracks are taken from poor originals which might limit enjoyment to some extent. The Boys included Rufus Quillian and Brother Jackson with possibly James McCrary – and Rufus was also joined by Ben Quillian when they recorded in Atlanta where they were certainly joined by McCrary.
The last CD, by pleasing symmetry, revisits the harmonica. De Ford Bailey is yet another of the harp railroad virtuosi whose command of the rhythms and whistles are splendidly conceived. He has a lightness too that is a fine corrective to more relentless performers. Catchy and flexible these NYC and Nashville sides are a constant delight, and you can play them straight through without any fatigue – farmyard impressions and whoops included. Bert Bilbro was a rather lesser player but a flexible stylist well worth getting to know and as much at home with railroad schtick as the Country milieu. His Chester Bluesis really John Henry. Unusually in this series Bilbro was white.
The late Paul Oliver’s notes were always a wonderful addition to this series telling the reader everything necessary and known about the musicians and their backgrounds and songs. There’s much more to come in this sequence and much to relish here.
Jonathan Woolf