joe's blues blog may 2015

Some May Blues Births:

·         May 1, 1924—Mabel Louise Smith aka Big Maybelle or Mamie Webster
·         May 15, 1938—Larry Johnson
·         May 26,1883—Mamie Smith, born as Mamie Robinson

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Answer to the April 2015 Blues Question: the bluesman we were looking for is/was Charles W Thomas, aka Jimmy (James) Davis, Maxwell Street Jimmy, and is best known as Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis. Born March 2nd.1925, in Tippo, Mississippi. His first instrument was a home-made guitar, at 14. A little over a year later he was touring with the Rabbit’s Foot Minstrels, with whom he worked as a buck dancer. That type of dancing was the forerunner of what we know today as tap dancing and was also the foundation of what today is known as clogging. From 1946, when he moved to Detroit, to about 1952, he sat in with John Lee Hooker, from whom he learned guitar. From late 1952 to late 1954/early 1955, he hoboed throughout the south, mainly working in the Clarksdale/Greenville, Mississippi area. He moved to and settled in Chicago in the mid ‘50’s. He owned and operated The Knotty Pine Grill, which was located on Maxwell Street. He would often perform in front of the Grill, in the street, for tips. He recorded for the Testament label in 1964-65. He had recorded two songs for Sun Records in 1952, but they were never released. He recorded a self-titled album for Elektra Records in 1965 or ’66. Wolf Records released a compilation album which included some songs featuring him that were recorded in 1988 &’89. He passed away on December 28th. 1995, of a heart attack.  NOTE: there is some confusion regarding his “born as” original last name. There are records that show it being Thomas and other records that show it as being Thompson. I went with Thomas because (A) it was the most common name used in the area where he was born, and (B) because it was the one which was indicated in most of the records I checked in regard to this discrepancy.

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May 2015 Blues Question: This bluesman, like many others, had a rough childhood. His mother died when he was one week old. Five years later, his father was lynched by the KKK. He lived for a short time with his grandmother, then went to an orphanage, where he taught himself to play harmonica. He went on to record on at least ten different labels. He also toured/performed all over the eastern half of the U.S.A. and Europe. Any idea who this man is/was??

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Blues Trivia for May: I decided to go with a slightly different track this month. When I first heard and then got interested in the blues in the 1950’s, it was on the old AM radio stations, as FM was not readily available yet. The first ones I remember from that were by Ivory Joe Hunter (his real name): “ I Almost Lost My Mind” and “ Since I Met You, Baby”, the latter, by the way, often covered in later years by Magic Slim (Morris Holt) when doing live shows on tour. After I got a portable record player (a Steelman) that played 16, 331/3, 45 and 78 rpm records, I started to buy 45’s. The 16 rpm records were for use in the cars of that time that had under-dash record players as an option. One of the artists I bought was Chuck Berry. On the “B” side of “School Day” was an instrumental called “Deep Feeling”. Later on, I bought another of his records for the “A” side and proceeded to wear out the “B” side which was “Blue Feeling”, which was another blues instrumental. At that time there was a female vocalist who flip-flopped between rhythm & blues and rock & roll.  Her first recording was under her first “stage name”—“Little Miss Sharecropper”, in 1949. She changed her stage name to Bea Baker when she recorded for OKeh Records in 1951. She then went to Atlantic Records under her real name—(Delores) Lavern Baker, where her first hit, in 1955, was “Tweedlee Dee”, #4 on the R&B charts. In 1956 she had a #1 on the R&B charts –“Jim Dandy”, which sold over a million copies. She did an album in 1958 – “Lavern Baker Sings Bessie Smith”, which is all blues standards. She did another album in 1959 – “Blues Ballads”. In 1965 she did a duet recording, a single, with Jackie Wilson – “Think Twice”, of which there were/are three versions, one of which is “X” rated. The mildest of the other two versions was done so it could get airplay without being censored. I do stock the clean version and the X-rated one also, the latter of which you have to ask to see as it is not on display. That one is on a compilation disc, along with 27 other performers/songs (some of whom you wouldn’t believe would do them!) that is referred to as the dirtiest of the dirty blues. Anyhow, I could write several pages about the life of this woman, but I’ll cut it short here. Lavern passed away March 10th. 1997, of cardiovascular disease, in New York. The little trivia part of this is that she married comedian Slappy White in 1959. Sadly, they were divorced in 1969.

"Clean" version below

Some May Blues Passings:

·         May 1,1960 – Andrew “Smoky”/”Smokey” Hogg
·         May 15, 2012 – Donald “Duck” Dunn
·         May 30, 1976 – Melvin “Lil Son” Jackson

NOTE: At sometime in the near future I’m going to add a small section to this blog: “Some Great Blues Sidemen”, which will include recording studio and stage players, travelling band members, etcetera.