1927
Ma Rainey’s Georgia Jazz Band (including Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds, Blind Blake)
“Georgia Cake Walk” (G. Rainey) Even for 1927 the band here gives an old timey, Ragtime style work out. In front of a loud, chaotic band Ma and a male band member have a discussion. She did some cake walking last. He thinks she must be from Alabam or Georgia if she knows such and says “lemme see.” “Here I go.” “Look at that fool dance! ….Stop that mess in here! You gonna get this place raided, shake Ma shake it, awww do that thing Ma do that thing.” We get a feel of Rainey’s raucous live shows and Northern record buyers get a taste of the past back home.
“Gone Daddy Blues” (G. Rainey) With much more polish the band plays a slow, sad blues. Then a skit. Ma knocks on a door. She has returned to a lover she left. He’s not having it, says “I’m leaving here today, what have you got to say?” She breaks into song. “I’ve got my ticket/ …I’m gonna find that southbound man/ I’m gonna ride till I find that southbound man/ …You’ll never know how much I miss you till I’m gone.” The odd lyric finds Ma in a quandary. She regrets leaving her man for another. But she does not find her southbound man. Gone daddy gone.
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (G. Rainey)
Finger snapping, playing it cool beat. High spirited horns give plenty of color in the background. The male master of ceremonies half raps, half sings. The Black Bottom is a dance craze of the time. Ma Rainey of course has the wildest, most risqué version. In performance Rainey would be too entranced in dance to do a vocal part so one of the male band members lays down the patter. It’s mostly sung but also qualifies as an early example of rapping. Ma sang the low down Blues, but she also put on a show, a spectacle.
“Now, you heard the rest/ Ah boys, I'm gonna show you the best/ Ma Rainey's gonna show you her black bottom
Way down south in Alabamy/I got a friend they call dancin' Sammy/ Who’s crazy about all the latest dancin’/Black Bottom Stomp and the Jew baby prancin’/ The other night at a swell affair/ Soon as the boys found out that I was there/He said, "Come on, Ma, let's go to the cabaret/ When I got there you oughta hear me say
Want to see the dance you call the black bottom/ I wanna learn that dance/ Want to see the dance you call your big black bottom/ That puts you in a trance/ All the boys in the neighborhood/ They say your black bottom is really good/ Come on and show me your black bottom/ I wanna learn that dance
…Early last morning 'bout the break of day/ Grandpa told my grandmother, heard him say/ “Get over here and you show the old man your black bottom/ I want to learn that dance"
Now I'm gonna show y'all my black bottom/ They pay to see that dance/ Wait until you see me do my big black bottom/ It puts you in a trance/ Ah, do it Ma, do it, honey/ Look out now Ma, you gettin' kinda rough there/ You better behave yourself now, careful now/ You gonna get this place raided/ Not too strong, not too strong, Ma/ I done showed y'all my black bottom/ You ought to learn that dance!”
“Send Me to the 'lectric Chair” (G. Brooks, B. Smith) Bessie Smith
Bessie wrote a number of what would later be called social consciousness songs. This one really bites. Bessie slurs drunkenly and swings hard, the band right in step. Joe Smith keeps a steady roll of cornet growls, the clarinet snakes around like doing a Z formation hand gesture. This loud, in your face, sardonic woman of the world embraces fate. Maybe Hell will be an improvement over Earth. Her steady, strong voice matches the bitter, nihilist lyrics. Smith could have sequenced some superb albums had the technology been available. While great works of art on their own she could have assembled poetic song cycles telling her story in its full richness. In perspective of her other songs of sufferings we understand the pain that ended in this death road.
“Judge, you wanna hear my plea/ Before you open up your court/ But I don't want no sympathy/ ‘Cause I done cut my good man's throat
I caught him with a trifling Jane/ I warned him 'bout before/ I had my knife and went insane/ And the rest you ought to know
Judge, Judge, please, Mr. Judge/ Send me to the 'lectric chair
…Let me go away from here
I wanna take a journey/ To the devil down below/ I done killed my man/ I wanna reap just what I've sowed
Judge, Judge, send me there, Judge/ I love him so dear/ I cut him with my Barlow/ I kicked him in the side/ I stood there laughing over him/ While he wallowed 'round and died
…Judge, Judge, please, Mr. Judge/ Send me to the 'lectric chair/ Judge, Judge, good, kind Judge/ Burn me, 'cause I don't care”
“Muddy Water ( A Mississippi Moan)” (P. De Rose, H. Richman, J. Trent) Bessie Smith
One assumes future Blues great Muddy Waters liked this song since he changed his named from McKinley Morganfield. As Smith did not grow up in the Delta region we can take this as part of the give the Great Migration Northerners a taste of that old Southern home genre. A big trombone moan starts the song. The band plays loudly, demonstratively and sentimental in an intentionally dated New Orleans style. Bessie gives a commanding yet emotionally nuanced vocal performance. It takes little imagination to think she would have fit right in with Muddy Waters electric guitar driven bands of the 50s and 60s reeling and rocking. And she could have really torn it up with Booker T and the MGs.
“Dixie moonlight, Swanee shore/ Headed homebound just once more/ To my Mississippi delta home/ Southland has that grand garden spot/Although you believe or not/ I hear those breeze a-whispering:/ “Come on back to me”/ Muddy water 'round my feet/ Muddy water in the street/ Just God don't shelter/ Down on the delta/ Muddy water in my shoes/ Reeling and rocking to them lowdown blues…”
“Chicago Breakdown” (F. Morton) Louis Armstrong’s Stompers
This tune shows off the big band that performed at the Sunset Club in Chicago in 1927 and marks Earl Hines first appearance with an Armstrong band. Hines provides a pretty intro, the full band comes in, the players trade off short solos, come back together then Louis gives a quick flourish at the end. This is a song for dancing in the nightclub, tightly played and structured in contrast to the free wheeling “hot” style but we do get a taste of the Hines/Armstrong magic.
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven These recordings mark the beginning of electronic recording instead of the far inferior earlier acoustic technology. Tuba and percussion augment the five. The recording equipment still cannot handle a bass drum so Baby Dodds plays just snare, cymbals and woodblocks.
“Potato Head Blues” (L. Armstrong) In no way conforming to a rigid, repetitive blues structure, not at all common or earthy, the title of this modernist masterpiece does nothing to inform the listener. The full band hits hard from the get defining the sound “jazzy.” Louis jumps out from the pack soloing, the band lays out except for the banjo beat, next a saxophone solo, then only banjo for a quick solo riff, on Louis’ second solo, invoking an amazing array of sound from a simple three valve instrument, he sprints, slides, glides, swings, sustains, bends as the band executes sixteen start and stop breaks. Showboatin’ harddd. Tight as a tick they all fall back in for a raucous outro. By this time Armstrong instrumentals resemble analytic cubism in their compositional , harmonic complexity. Like with Picssso’s Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler the audience, confronted, affronted, becomes born again into modernity.
“Gully Low Blues” (L. Armstrong) Starting off fast and furious like “Potato Head” Johnny Dodds’ clarinet changes the mood and tempo. It’s almost cinematic with wild bar scene moving to a close up shot of our hero, Louis, crying in his beer. We now get a true blues number. Louis sings “Now mama, mama, mama why do you treat me so?/ Oh mama, mama, mama why do you treat me so? ( I know why you treat me so bad (a vaudeville style comic aside))/ You treat me mean, baby, just because I’m gully low…” After the singing Dodds plays another lovely solo leading into emotionally piercing blowing from Louis. He has fully infused his horn playing with Bessie Smith-esque heart felt emotional vocality. But his vocal style has yet to fully mature from comedic performer to voice played as an instrument.
Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five In sessions later in ’27 the band reverts to the smaller format.
“Put ‘Em Down Blues” (E. Bennett, L. Armstrong) Also not a blues song, not remotely, this pure pop song could be from any era. “I’ve been looking for a girl like/ You so long/ A girl so nice and gentle with/ A love that’s strong/ I’ll make life for you , one/ Grand sweet song.” The band gives a great Jazz Age ensemble performance with Kid Ory especially hot on the trombone. You can see the flapper girls bustin’ a move to this one. For the first time Louis records a vocal seriously straight through with no comedic or performative hambone gestures like a real pop singer. Of course he has a far more sophisticated musical perception and conception than the pop singers of the day so we’re gettin’ there.
“Hotter than That” (L. Hardin, L. Armstrong) Guitarist Lonnie Johnson sits in on this rocking variation on the 1920s mega hit “Tiger Rag” a sure fire way to get the crowd bumping. With his epic scat riff and duet with Johnson Louis has cracked the code deploying his vocal instrument with as much skill as his horn (almost :)) This song IS hotter than that.