II. ARCHIVE OF BOOKS, RECORDINGS, SHEET MUSIC, VIDEOS ...

II. ARCHIVE OF BOOKS, RECORDINGS, SHEET 

MUSIC, VIDEOS, AND ADVERTISING MATERIALS 

IIB. Recordings 

II B1. African Source Materials 

It is Africa that is the largest presence in African American music, and it is still the least 

understood. Africa itself is still largely unknown to most Americans, and there is so much 

uncertainly in placing the ancestry of any specific African tribal group in any particular area of 

the United States or the Caribbean. Slaves were marched thousands of miles from their tribal 

areas before they were placed on the ships, and when they arrived in the Western Hemisphere 

there was generally an effort to separate members of the same tribe so they would not be able to 

communicate with the other slaves except through the slave holder’s language. What is known 

is the general area the slaves came from - West Africa, roughly from Senegal to Angola, and 

inland in the northern regions to the Niger basin in what is now Mali. This selection of 

recordings is only an introduction to the wealth of music from this area, but the archive includes 

the documentary recordings of the music I recorded on my travels in these areas as I searched for 

roots of the blues and other musical forms I knew from the United States. Six albums were 

released by Sonet Records in Sweden, and Folkways Records in the United States, and the book 

The Roots of the Blues also resulted from these travels. 

The 1974-1975 Recordings 

AFRICAN JOURNEY A Search for the Roots of the Blues Vol. 1 - LP, Recorded and 

documented by Samuel Charters. Sonet Records, 1974. Dodd LP 1 

Music of griots of the Mandingo, Wollof, and Serrehule peoples, including master Mandingo 

griot Jali Nyama Suso, with processional and dance music of the Jola and the Fula peoples. 

AFRICAN JOURNEY A Search for the Roots of the Blues Vol. 2 - LP, Recorded and 

documented by Samuel Charters. Sonet Records, 1974. Dodd LP 2 

Music from Ghana, Togo, and The Gambia, with griots from the Mandingo and Wollof tribes. 

The albums were also released in the United States by Vanguard Records. 

JALI NYAMA SUSO - LP, “Songs from The Gambia” Recorded and documented by Samuel 

Charters. Sonet Records, 1977. Dodd LP 3 

Suso was a brilliant musician and singer, and here he is documented performing traditional 

Mandingo griot narratives accompanying himself on the kora. 

193

Traditional African Music from Slave areas 

Many of the albums in the archive were released by Folkways Records, a company I was 

associated with for more than thirty years. Included in the catalog of more than 2000 releases 

were a large number of albums documenting African music. It was part of the determined effort 

of the owner and director of the company, Moses Asch, to document every area of human 

expression and creativity. Few of the albums had large sales, and it was always necessary for the 

person who had done the field recordings to supply their own notes and photographs as best they 

could, but without Asch’s determination we would have a much more limited knowledge of the 

world’s music. 

GAMBIA’S MUSIC - double LP boxed set, recorded and annotated by Marc D. Pevar. Folkways 

Records, 1978. Dodd LP 4a, 4b 

Informal music from a Mandinka compound and performances by professional griots. Notes in 

English, French, and Swedish. 

GAMBIAN GRIOT KORA DUETS, featuring Alhaji Dal Konte, Dembo Konte, Ma Lamini Jobate 

- LP, recorded in Dakar, Senegal and Brikama, The Gambia in December, 1977 by Marc Pevar. 

Folkways, 1979. Dodd LP 5 

FOLK MUSIC OF GHANA - LP, recorded by Ivan Annan, Folkways Records, 1964. Dodd LP 6 

TRADITIONAL DRUMMING AND DANCES OF GHANA - LP, recorded by John Tanson 

Folkways Records, 1976. Dodd LP 7 

MUSIC OF THE JOS PLATEAU AND OTHER REGIONS OF NIGERIA - LP, recorded by 

Stanley Diamond; edited, with notes by Victor Grauer, Folkways Records, 1966. 

Dodd LP 8 

MUSIC OF THE IDOMA OF NIGERIA - Ediigwu Sings the Ancient Songs of Oturkpo, Nigeria - 

LP, recorded and documented by Robert G. Armstrong Asch Mankind Series, Asch Records, 

1969. Dodd LP 9 

During this period of the late 1960s Moses Asch of Folkways Records had licensed the 

Folkways label to Verve Records, but he continued to issue ethnic material under his own 

name. 

MUSIC FROM THE VILLAGES OF NORTHEASTERN NIGERIA - Double LP boxed set, 

recorded by Paul Newman & Lyn Davison, annotated by Paul Newman & Eric H. Davison. 

Asch Mankind Series, Asch Records, 1969. Dodd LP 10a, 10b 

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OF THE KALAHARISAN - LP, recorded by Marjorie Shostak, Megan 

Biesele, and Nicholas England Folkways Records, 1982. Dodd LP 11 

The !Kung San people, whose music is documented on this album, did not become part of the 

wave of slaves brought to the Americas, but their music is interesting as a glimpse into the 

194

older traditions that have undergone considerable acculturation in the coastal areas colonized 

by the Europeans. 

MODERN SOUNDS IN AFRICAN MUSIC 

This small introduction is only a sampling of the rich world of new music in Africa. Some 

of the recordings are traditional in nature, many of them are experimental blendings of African 

idioms and instruments with European instrumentalists. Whatever African music is today, it is 

certain that the newer styles will continue to change and develop as African society rushes to 

join the modern world. 

AFRICAN FORCE - LP, no title. ITM Records, 1987. Dodd LP 12 

A hybrid group with a single white member, rock drummer Ginger Baker of “Cream.” 

STELLA CHIWESHE - CD, “Ambuya?” Shanachie, 1990. 

Chiweshe is from Zimbabwe and her group includes traditional instruments like the mbira, or 

thumb piano, and hosho, dried gourd maracas. Dodd CD 1 

SONA DIABATE - CD, “Girls of Guinea” Shanachie Records, 1990. Dodd CD 2 

TOUMANI DIABATE - CD, “Djelika” Hannibal, 1995. Dodd CD 3 

Diabate, who is from Mali, is a virtuoso performer on the kora. 

HAMZA EL DIN - CD, “Music of Nubia” Vanguard, 1964. Dodd CD 4 

HAMZA EL DIN - CD, “Al Oud” Vanguard, 1965. Dodd CD 5 

HAMZA EL DIN - CD, “Eclipse” Rykodisc, 1988. Dodd CD 6 

Hamza El Din was born in the Upper Nile Valley, in the area that was known in Egyptian 

history as Nubia. Nubia has no tradition of any instrument other than the drum, but as a 

student in Cairo El Din learned to play the oud, a prototype of the lute that is a popular 

instrument for restaurant musicians throughout the middle east. 

Using the lute he began to compose melodies to poetry in the Nubian arabic dialect and 

became a performer while he was a student for three years in Rome. He moved to the United 

States and became part of the Greenwich Village crowd of young folk singers. He signed a 

recording contract with Vanguard Records, and appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. 

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO - CD, “Heavenly” Gazell Music, 1997. Dodd CD 7 

South Africa’s best known vocal group performs a group of gospel songs, with three African 

pieces. 

ALHAJI GARBO LEAO and his GOGE Music - LP, recorded in Nigeria by Randall F. Grass, 


The goge is a one-string violin, similar to the riti played by the Fula musicians in The Gambia. 

Leo (his name is spelled differently in the notes to the album) is a member of the Hausa tribe 

who was living in Northern Nigeria at the time of the recording. The goge is amplified and there 

is percussion and drum accompaniment. 

195

DOCTEUR NICO - LP, “Dieu de la Guitare (No. 1)” Tabansi Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 14 

ORCHESTRA SUPER MAZEMBE - LP, “Kaivaska” Virgin Records, 1983. Dodd LP 15 

OUSMANE M’BAYE & His African Ensemble - LP, “Songs of Senegal” Folkways Records, 

1975. Dodd LP 16 

MOZAMBIQUE ONE - CD Globestyle Records, 1994. Dodd CD 8 

MOZAMBIQUE TWO - CD Globestyle Records, 1994. Dodd CD 9 

Two documentations of contemporary music in Mozambique, including dance musicians, 

song, and instrumental ensembles. 

FELA RANSOME-KUTI & The Africa 70 - LP,“Greatest Hits” EMI, 1984. Dodd LP 17 

Ransome-Kuti was a charismatic performer who used the tenor saxophone to create a style of 

jazz that has more African than European influence. 

RHYTHM OF RESISTANCE - Music of Black South Africa - LP, Virgin Records, 1978. 

Dodd LP 18 

This is music from the soundtrack of a film of the same name. 

Among the artists included: 

Babsy Mlangeni 

Malombo 

Ladysmith Black Mambazo 

Mahotella Queens 

Abafana Baseqhudeni 

MOSHE SEPHULA and Orchestra - LP, “Bantu High Life” Folkways, 1967. 

Dodd LP 19 

Although High-Life music is a style of music from South Africa that developed long after the 

traffic in slaves to the Americas it is widely popular everywhere in Africa today, and it 

contains traditional elements from many of Africa’s tribal cultures. 

SONGHAI 2 - CD, Rykodisc, 1994. Dodd CD 10 

Songhai is a collaboration between Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabete and two young 

Spanish guitarists, Ketama and Jose Soto. 

ALI FARKA TOURE - CD, “African Blues” Shanachie Records, 1990. Dodd CD 11 

Toure’s CD caused a great deal of excitement, with its blending of traditional African 

melodies - he grew up in Mali - and the American blues he heard on recordings by John Lee 

Hooker and Albert Collins. 

196

The Victoria Jazz Band is from Kenya, and their music is a mix of a number of styles. The 

term for the music is Luo. The note on the back of the album claims, it’s the ‘in’ sound in Kenya 

today.” 

See also listing in video section of the catalog. 

II B2. American pre-Blues and Related Source Materials 

It will probably never be possible to find the place and the moment when the blues was 

first created, but there is a wide array of musical traditions that we know became part of the 

blues. These traditions - gang songs, field hollers, string band music, work songs - have all been 

extensively documented, and it is possible by immersing yourself in these sources to understand 

how the blues might have been patiently constructed by a musician or singer searching in this 

material for a more personal means of expression. 

One of the first researchers to document this range of material was Alan Lomax, who 

found a number of performers in Western Alabama when he was working as a field collector for 

the Library of Congress. Some of the singers became more widely known through the limited 

distribution of the Library of Congress recordings, and in 1950 Harold Courlander followed him 

to the same area and recorded many of the same artists. The recordings on Courlander’s field 

trips were released by Folkways Records. At the time the recordings were made there was still 

an acrimonious debate over the survival of African elements in the music of the South. Some 

southern theorists believed that everything in the music of the South, white and black, could be 

traced to a British source. It was recordings like these, with their documentation of song and 

dance that had nothing to do with European traditions beyond the use of English that began to 

erode the position of the cultural purists. 

NEGRO FOLK MUSIC OF ALABAMA - Volume 1 -LP, “Secular Music”, recorded and 

documented by Harold Courlander. Folkways Records, 1956. Dodd LP 21 

Among the performers included in the album are Rich Emerson, Dock Reed, and Vera Hall 

Ward, and the selections present a wide range of material, from harmonica solos to children’s 

“play-party” songs to field calls and Brer Rabbit tales. 

In 1954 jazz scholar Frederic Ramsey Jr. was given a Guggenheim grant to research the 

rural black traditions that could have played a role in the development of jazz and he returned to 

Alabama to document the music there, though he chose a different area than the section of 

Livingstone County where Lomax and Courlander had done their earlier recording. From 

Alabama he went to New Orleans, then worked northward through rural Louisiana and into 

Mississippi. He was a conscientious and determined field researcher and he found a significant 

informant in sharecropper Horace Sprott. He also was the first to document the survival of rural 

African American brass bands in the Alabama countryside. We met when he came to New 

Orleans with his tapes, and we became close friends. He had been associated with Moses Asch 

of Folkways Records from the company’s earliest years, and Folkways issued a multi-volume 

collection of Fred’s recordings, under the title Music from the South, the next year. 

MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 1 - LP, “Country Brass Bands” Dodd LP 22 

197

MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 2 - LP, “Horace Sprott, 1” Dodd LP 23 



MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 5 - LP, “Song, Play, and Dance” Dodd LP 26 

MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 6 - LP, “Elder Songsters, 1” Dodd LP 27 

MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 7 - LP, “Elder Songsters, 2” Dodd LP 28 

MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 8 - LP, “Young Songsters” Dodd LP 29 

MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 9 - LP, “Song and Worship” Dodd LP 30 

Fred was also a gifted photographer and in 1960 Rutgers University Press published the book 

Been Here and Gone with a selection of the images he had taken during his research. He 

selected music from the previous nine albums and released a tenth album to complete the series 

and to illustrate the music that he had captured so brilliantly with his camera. 

MUSIC FROM THE SOUTH - Volume 10 - LP “Been Here and Gone” Dodd LP 31 

One of the richest sources of traditional music in the South was to be found in the brutal 

prison system, which used prisoners as field hands, driving them just as they had been driven in 

the hard years of slavery. Researchers coming into the prisons with their portable recording 

equipment found a legacy of field songs and work songs still being used to help the convicts 

through a day’s labor. The prisons also had talented musicians who sang blues and gospel songs. 

John A. Lomax and his son Alan found Leadbelly in Louisiana’s Angola Prison Farm in the 

1930s, and in 1958 folklorist Dr. Harry Oster found another singer in Angola, bluesman Robert 

Pete Williams. 

NEGRO PRISON CAMP WORKSONGS - LP, recorded in 1951 at Ramsey and Retrieve State 

Farms, Texas, by Toshi and Pete Seeger, John Lomax Jr., Chester Bower and Fred Hellerman. 


AFRO-AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC from Tate and Panola Counties, Mississippi - LP, Library of 

Congress, n.d. Dodd LP 32 

The musical examples include fife and drum music, work songs, blues, folk songs, “bow 

diddley” music, ballads, and country string bands. Edited and with extensive notes by David 

Evans. 

JOHN’S ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, ITS PEOPLE & SONG - LP, Folkways Records, 1973, 

recorded and annotated by Henrietta Yurchenco. Dodd LP 33 

198

This is a documentation of the music of this isolated area of the Carolina coast. Much of the 

material is spiritual singing by the island’s church members, but there is also children’s play 

songs and a primitive blues. 

MISSISSIPPI FOLK VOICES - Southern Culture Records, 1983. Dodd LP 34 

A documentation of fife, fiddle, blues song, gospel song, Sacred Harp singing, and music from 

Parchman State Penitentiary Farm. Recorded and annotated by William Ferris. 

In 1974 musician and folklorist Mike Seeger was asked to conduct “a few” courses in 

American folk music traditions and for classroom use he prepared two LPs which were privately 

released and included examples of almost every kind of southern folk music. One of the most 

interesting examples he included was a short example of banjo playing by an 80 year old African 

American musician named Lucius Smith, from Sardis, Mississippi. Smith’s playing bridges the 

distance between the unstressed arpeggiated figures of African playing and the regular stress of 

European influenced techniques, which emphasize a down stroke at the beginning of each 

rhythmic unit. Thanks to this example it is possible to trace the evolution of the 5-string banjo 

from the Niger basin to modern day Nashville. 

Other examples of African American musical styles in the collection are field hollers, 

surge singing, spirituals, gospel shouts, fife playing, “quills,” jews harp, harmonica blues, and 

several blues taken from commercial releases in the 1920s through 1950s. 

A SURVEY OF RURAL MUSIC OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES - 2 LPs, selected 

and annotated by Mike Seeger. The LPs are presented in a blank double album, with the 

mimeographed notes inserted into one of the pockets of the album. No company name is given 

and no date of publication. Dodd LP 35a, 35b 

JAZZ - Volume 1 THE SOUTH - LP, edited and annotated by Frederick Ramsey Jr. Folkways 

Records, 1958. Dodd LP 36 

This is the first volume of Ramsey’s comprehensive and influential series of LPs documenting 

the history of jazz. This LP, including field hollers, string band ragtime, blues, and rural gospel 

song, endeavored to present a picture of the musical environment which nurtured early jazz. 

BEFORE THE BLUES - The Early American Black Music Scene - Vol. 1 – CD 

Dodd CD 12 


Dodd CD 13 


Dodd CD 14 

These three CDs were released by Yazoo Records, a division of Shanachie Records, in 1996. 

Although the title is “Before the blues’ most of the selections are early blues recordings, 

although they represent blues styles that were still in a formative stage and contained elements of 

other song styles. Also included are gospel selections, string band breakdowns, ballads sung by 

white performers, and a cowboy song. Among the artists included are the Mississippi Mud 

199

Steppers, Henry Thomas, Frank Stokes, Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi 

John Hurt, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, the Memphis Jug Band, and Blind Boy Fuller. 

ECHOES OF TIMBUKTU AND BEYOND IN CONGO SQUARE U. S. A. - LP, a musical 

document created by Bilal Abdurahman. Folkways Records, 1979. Dodd LP 37 

ALBUMS BY INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS 

ELIZABETH COTTON - LP, “Folk Songs and Instrumentals with Guitar” Folkways Records, 

1958. Dodd LP 38 

Elizabeth Cotton worked for some years for the family of musicologist Charles Seeger, and his 

children, Pete, Mike, Peggy, and Penny, grew up hearing her gentle folk guitar playing. One of 

her songs “Freight Train” became well known during the folk boom, and she eventually won a 

Grammy Award in the 1980s. 

LEADBELLY 

The story of Huddie Ledbetter - “Leadbelly” - the murderer who was found in the Angola 

Prison Farm by John A. Lomax and his teenage son Alan and who sang his way out of prison 

with their help - is so well known that it is an American legen.d. He worked first for the 

Lomaxes as chauffeur and general helper, then when they had introduced him to the 1930s folk 

world he quickly became a celebrated night club performer and recording artist. The story is 

more complicated than its usual quick outline - as all stories like this are. The Lomaxes signed a 

management contract with him guaranteeing them 50% of his earnings, and they copyrighted all 

of his large repertoire of songs as co-compositions by himself, John and Alan. The copyright 

situation has become an emotional issue with many folklorists today and whatever final 

adjustments were finally made in the distribution of income from the song royalties this 

background has caused considerable controversy over the Lomaxes’ role in Leadbelly’s career. 

LEADBELLY - CD, “Midnight Special - The Library of Congress Recordings, Vol. 1” 

Rounder Records, 1991. Dodd CD 66 

LEADBELLY - CD, “Gwine Dig A Hole To Put The Devil In - The Library of Congress 

Recordings, Vol. 2” Rounder Records, 1991. Dodd CD 67 

LEADBELLY’S LEGACY Vol. 3 - 10” LP, “Early Recordings” 

Edited and with a long introductory note by Frederic Ramsey Jr. Dodd LP 39 

LEADBELLY - LP, “Negro Folk Songs for Young People” Folkways Records, 1960. 

Dodd LP 40 

This is an LP reissue of early 78rpm singles that Moses Asch of Folkways recorded with 

Leadbelly in the late 1930s. The original album attracted considerable attention, with some 

critics writing that these were children’s songs sung by a murderer. 

LEADBELLY - Double LP, “The Leadbelly Set” Xtra Records, 1965. Dodd LP 41a, 41b 

This is a selection of Leadbelly’s Folkways recordings. 

200

II B3. Rural Gospel Song and Beginning Urban 

Although the emphasis over the years of gathering this archive has been on the blues and 

blues sources it isn’t possible to ignore the deep and vital tradition of gospel song that has been 

one of the foundations of African American life in America. There is sometimes a 

characterization of musical idioms in the black community as “shaped by the blues,” but it would 

be more accurate to say that the vocalization of the gospel texts, the scales and harmonies of 

gospel music, and the rhythms of pentacostal worship lie at the base of all African American 

musical expression. Of the four major musical movements that emerged in the social tumult that 

followed the Civil War it was gospel music - the spirituals of the Fisk Jubilee Singers - that first 

attracted the world’s notice. Ragtime, then jazz, and finally the blues followed in the next 

decades. 

There have been two main currents in the broad stream of gospel music that emerged out 

of the spirituals, and out of the congregational singing of the early black churches. One current 

was the music in the churches itself, which has become more sophisticated and less dependent on 

the participation of the congregation. The music of the larger churches now is performed by 

large choirs with professional soloists, accompanied by instrumental groups that are on the same 

level of musical abilities as the studio musicians in the pop field. At the same time the music 

hasn’t lost its fervor, its joy, and its ability to “stir the souls” of the congregations. It is ironic 

that over the last twenty years jazz has swung less and less, while the gospel churches have taken 

up the rhythms of worship with fresh excitement. 

The other current in the gospel stream has been the music of the guitar evangelists, many 

of them street singers, and often blin.d. In reality nearly all of the singers who were presented as 

blues artists by their record companies had as large repertoires of religious song. Some of the 

best known bluesmen, like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charley Patton also recorded “holy 

songs,” although there is only one major example of a major religious singer who was also an 

important blues artist. The North Carolina artist Blind Gary Davis, who was discovered singing 

on the streets of New York in the 1950s, had also recorded a group of brilliant blues pieces in the 

1930s before he became a minister. For many years most of us who were involved with country 

blues included both Davis and the great guitar evangelist of the 1920s, Blind Willie Johnson, in 

any country blues anthologies. I devoted a chapter to Johnson in the book The Country Blues. 

In the archive there is a small, but broad selection of gospel materials, which trace some of 

the main outlines of nearly a century of recorded gospel music. 

REVEREND GARY DAVIS 

REVEREND GARY DAVIS - CD, “Gospel, Blues and Street Songs” Riverside Records, 

original recording 1956 by Kenneth S. Goldstein. Dodd CD 15 

Davis sings on eight of the tracks, the other seven tracks on the CD are by Pink Anderson. See 

separate listing in catalog. 

BLIND GARY DAVIS - LP, “Harlem Street Singer” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960. 

Dodd LP 42 

201

REVEREND GARY DAVIS - CD, “Say No To The Devil” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961. 

Dodd CD 16 

REVEREND GARY DAVIS - CD, “The Reverend Gary Davis at Newport” Vanguard Records, 

1965. Dodd CD 17 

REVEREND GARY DAVIS - LP, “Sun Is Going Down” Folkways Records, 1966, recorded by 

Marzette Watts. Dodd LP 43 

Reverend Gary Davis as Guitar Instrumentalist 

Gary Davis had recorded as a blues singer before he became a street evangelist, 

and from the evidence of the recordings it was clear that he was a major 

instrumentalist. For many years the style of his area of the Carolinas was described 

“Blind Boy Fuller” guitar, but the recordings make it clear that it was Davis who 

was the more influential guitarist. When he was rediscovered in New York City he 

refused to record blues, but in later years he relented enough to record the 

instrumentals he taught to a generation of New York-based finger-style, acoustic blues 

guitarists. One of his pupils was Stefan Grossman, who produced two of these 

albums. 

REVEREND GARY DAVIS - LP, “Ragtime Guitar” Transatlantic Records, 1971. 

Produced by Stefan Grossman, material recorded 1962-1970. Dodd LP 44 

REVEREND GARY DAVIS - Double LP, “Lo’ I Be With You Always” Kicking Mule Records, 

1973. Dodd LP 45a, 45b 

Produced by Stefan Grossman, material recorded 1962-1968. 

MAHALIA JACKSON - LP, “I Sing Because I’m Happy, v. 2” Folkways Records, 1979. 

Dodd LP 46 

JUANITA JOHNSON & THE GOSPEL TONES - LP, “Climbing High Mountains” Folkways 


Blind Willie Johnson 

Blind Willie Johnson was one of the first country singers I tried to locate, searching for 

him through East Texas in November, 1955. I narrated the story of the search for him and edited 

an album of interviews and songs which Folkways Records released in 1957. It was the first 

album which I had produced entirely myself. 

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON - CD, “Praise God I’m Satisfied” Yazoo Records, 1989. 

Dodd CD 18 

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON - CD, “Sweeter As The Years Go By” Yazoo Records, 1990, notes 

by Dave Evans. Dodd CD 19 

202

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON - Double CD, “The Complete Recordings” Okeh Records, 1992. 

Dodd CD 20 

Annotated by Samuel Charters. The notes won a NAIRD award for the year. 

THE MISSIONARY QUINTET - 10” LP, “Gospel Songs” Folkways Records, 1954. 

Recorded by Marshall Stearns in Nassau, Bahamas. Dodd LP 48 

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY - LP, “Church Songs” Folkways Records, 1975. 

Dodd LP 689 

See also listings for Montgomery in the section on Piano blues in the catalog, IIB4. 

PARAMOUNT SINGERS - CD, “Work & Pray On” Arhoolie Records, 1992. 

Dodd CD 21 

DOCK REED and VERA HALL WARD - 10” LP, “Spirituals” Folkways Records, 1953. Dodd 

LP 49 

Recorded by Harold Courlander. 

BLIND JOE TAGGART - LP, “A Guitar Evangelist, 1926-1931” Herwin Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 50 

REV. ROBERT WILKINS - LP, “Memphis Gospel Singer” Piedmont Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 51 

SACRED STEEL 

“Sacred Steel” is a style of gospel music performed in House of God Churches which uses 

the Hawaiian steel guitar as its basic instrument. The style was first introduced into the services 

in the 1930s by Troman and Willie Eason, two brothers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Troman took lessons in the Hawaiian steel guitar from an Hawaiian musician named Jack 

Kahanalopua, who had a music studio in the city. 

SACRED STEEL - CD, “Live!” Arhoolie Records, 1999. Dodd CD 22 

COLLECTIONS 

American Primitive Raw Pre-War Gospel, 1928-1936, V. 1 Dodd CD 356 

Gospel Greats - CD, Excelsior Records, 1996. Dodd CD 23 

Artists include: 

Five Blind Boys 

Mighty Clouds of Joy 

The Dixie Hummingbirds 

Mahalia Jackson 

Inez Andrews 

203

Willie Banks & The Messengers 

Sensational Nightingales 

Sensational Williams Brothers 

The Soul Stirrers 

The Jackson Southernaires 

Gospel Pioneers - CD, Excelsior Records, 2000. Dodd CD 24 


Dorothy Love Coates 

Reverend James Cleveland 

The Consolers 

The Caravans 

Willie Banks & The Messengers 

Davis Sisters 

Dorothy Norwood 

The Sensational Nightingales 

Margaret Allison & The Angelic Gospel Singers 

Reverend Cleophis Robinson, Sr. 

In The Spirit, The Gospel and Jubilee Recordings of Trumpet Records - CD, licensed by 

Alligator Records, 1994. Dodd CD 25 


St.Andrews Gospelaires 

Argo Gospel Singers with The Southern Sons 

Blue Jay Gospel Singers 

Carolina Kings of Harmony 

Gospel at Newport - CD, Vanguard Records, 1995, recordings from 1959, 1963-66. 

Dodd CD 26 


Dixie Hummingbirds 

Swan Silvertone Singers 

Rev. Pearly Brown & Mrs. Christine Brown 

Joseph Spence 

Dorothy Love Coates & The Gospel Harmonettes 

Bessie Jones & Janie Hunter 

Moving Star Hall Singers 

Rev. Alex Bradford & The Stone Temple Baptist Church Singers 

Reverend Gary Davis 

Freedom Singers 

Son House 

Chambers Brothers with Joan Baez 

Staples Singers 

THE SOUL OF BLACK MUSIC, Vol. 1 - LP, both albums released by Sonet Records, 1979, 

original performances from the catalog of Nashboro Records. Dodd LP 52 

204

THE SOUL OF BLACK MUSIC, Vol. 2 – LP. Dodd LP 53 


Swanee Quintet 

Angelic Gospel Singers 

The Gospel Keynotes 

B. C. & M. Mass Choir 

Supreme Angels 

Cleophus Robinson 

Fairfield Four 

Soul Searchers 

Original Gospel Harmonettes 

Bright Stars 

The Consolers 

Birmingham Community Choir 

Star of Faith 

Kings Temple Choir 

Rev. Isaac Douglas 

Willie Mae Ford Smith 

Ward Singers 

Thompson Community Choir 

R. H. Harris 

Dorothy Love Coates and The Gospel Harmonettes 

Delois Barret Campbell 

Edna Gallman Cooke 

II B3a. “The Golden Age of Gospel” 

The Specialty Records gospel recordings, and The Staples Singers, from the Fantasy 

Collection 

Although the greatest number of recordings which are included in the Fantasy Records 

Collection in the Archive are jazz albums, among the many labels which Fantasy acquired over 

the years was Specialty Records, founded in 1946 by Art Rupe in Los Angeles. For almost 

twenty years Rupe enjoyed a brilliant run of success as both producer and director of the 

company’s operations, with an artist roster that reached from Sam Cooke to Little Richard. Rupe 

was also widely regarded as one of the most sensitive and responsive producers of gospel artists, 

and the care he gave to these performers brought a new standard to gospel recording. His series 

of releases in the 1950s and 1960s are often referred to as the “Golden Age of Gospel,” and the 

music is characterised by a careful technical polish and a moving commitment to the Christian 

gospel traditions that the groups and soloists represented. Among the Specialty gospel artists 

who later turned to successful careers in secular music were Cooke of the Soul Stirrers and Lou 

Rawls of The Chosen Gospel Singers 

As with the other areas of the Fantasy Collection (See the Jazz Component in the catalog) 

we extend our thanks to Fantasy Vice-President Bill Belmont, who arranged for the presentation 

of the material to the Archive. 

205

(In this listing of the Specialty gospel albums which are in the Archive, the missing numbers 

in the numerical sequences are blues, R&B, and early rock and roll releases, many of which are 

listed in other areas of interest.) 

LPs 

Dodd # Specialty # Artist/Title 

LP 990 SPS 2121 THE BEST of THE PILGRIM TRAVELERS Volume 1 

LP 991 SPS 2132 BROTHER JOE MAY Search Me lord 

LP 992 SPS 2133 THE BEST of ALEX BRADFORD Too Close To Heaven 

LP 993 SPS 2141 THE BEST OF DOROTHY LOVE COATES and THE 

ORIGINAL GOSPEL HARMONETTES Volume 2 

CDs 

Dodd # Specialty # Artist/Title 

CD 1703 SPCD 7013 THE SOUL STIRRERS featuring R. H. Harris Shine On Me 

CD 1704 SPCD 7014 THE CHOSEN GOSPEL SINGERS featuring Lou Rawls The 

Lifeboat 

CD 1705 SPCD 7015 ALEX BRADFORD Rainbow In The Sky 

CD 1706 SPCD 7016 SISTER WYNONA CARR Dragnet for Jesus 

CD 1707 SPCD 7017 DOROTHY LOVE COATES and THE ORIGINAL GOSPEL 

HARMONETTES Get On Board 

CD 1708 SPCD 7030 THE PILGROM TRAVELERS Walking Rhythm 

CD 1709 SPCD 7031 THE SOUL STIRRERS featuring Sam Cooke, Paul Foster, and 

Julius Cheeks Jesus Gave Me Water 

CD 1710 SPCD 7032 THE MEDITATION SINGERS Good News 

CD 1711 SPCD 7033 BROTHER JOE MAY, with special appearances by Sister 

Wynona Carr, The Sallie Martin Singers, The Pilgrim Travelers, and Annette May Thunderbolt 

of the Middle West 

CD 1712 SPCD 7034 THE DETROITERS and THE GOLDEN ECHOES Old Time 

Religion 

206

CD 1713 SPCD 7040 THE SOUL STIRRERS featuring Paul Foster and Johnnie Taylor 

Heaven Is My Home 

CD 1714 SPCD 7041 THE ORIGINAL FIVE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA The 

Sermon 

CD 1715 SPCD 7042 ALEX BRADFORD Too Close 

CD 1716 SPCD 7043 THE SALLIE MARTIN SINGERS/CORA MARTIN Throw Out 

The Lifeline 

CD 1717 SPCD 7044 THE SWAN SILVERTONES Heavenly Light 

CD 1718 SPCD 7045 THE GREAT 1955 SHRINE CONCERT 

Featuring: The Pilgrim Travelers 

The Caravans 

Brother Joe May 

Annette May 


Ethel Davenport 

Dorothy Love Coates and The Original Gospel Harmonettes 

CD 1719 SPCD 7051 THE STAPLES SINGERS, THE PILGRIM TRAVELERS, 

REVEREND CLEOPHUS ROBINSON A Gospel Christmas Card 

CD 1720 SPCD 7052 THE SOUL STIRRERS featuring Sam Cooke, Paul Foster, J. J. 

Farley, Julius Cheeks, and Bob King 

CD 1721 SPCD 7053 THE PILGRIM TRAVELERS Better Than That 

CD 1722 SPCD 7054 BROTHER JOE MAY Live 1952-1955 

With special appearances by Annette May, The Sallie Martin Singers, and Prof. J. Earl Hines 

CD 1723 SPCD 7055 REVEREND CLEOPHUS ROBINSON Someone To Care 

Although this was released with a Speciality catalog number it is actually a compilation of the 

very rare sessions Robinson recorded in 1962 and 1963 for Battle Records, which was a 

subsidiary of Riverside Records, which also is part of the Fantasy gathering of labels. The CD 

was released as part of a Legends of Gospel series. 

CD 1724 SPCD 7056 WOMEN OF GOSPEL’S GOLDEN AGE 


Bessie Griffin 

The Helen Robinson Youth Choir 

Princess Stewart 

The Argo Singers 

207


Lil Greenwood 

The Simmons-Akers Trio 

Sister Wynona Carr 

The Sallie Martin Singers 

The Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia 

CD 1725 SPCD 7066 REV. MACEO WOODS and THE CHRISTIAN TABERNACLE 

CONCERT CHOIR Hello Sunshine 

The Volt Recordings 

CD 1726 SPCD 7067 CHALICE 

This is another compilation from a label which Fantasy owned, re-released with a Specialty 

catalog number. The label was Chalice, and it was a short-lived gospel series produced by the 

well-known Stax label, which was located in Memphis, and had a series of international hits with 

artists like Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs, and Sam and Dave. The artists for Chalice 

were from Memphis and the surrounding area. 


The Dixie Nightingales 

The Jubilee Hummingbirds 

The Dixie Nightingales 

The Stars of Virginia 

The Pattersonaires 

CD 1727 SPCD 7068 GOLDEN AGE GOSPEL CHOIRS 1954-1963 


The Back Home Choir 

The Pentacostal Choir of Detroit 

The Helen Robinson Youth Choir 

Voices of Victory 

CD 1728 SPCD 7069 GOLDEN AGE GOSPEL QUARTETS Volume One (1947 - 

1954) 


The Southern Harmonizers 

The Pilgrim Travelers 

The Golden Echoes 

The Paramount Singers 



The Detroiters 

The Chosen Gospel Singers 

The Swan Silvertones 

The Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama 

The West Coast Jubilees 

208

CD 1729 SPCD 7070 GOLDEN AGE GOSPEL QUARTETS Volume Two (1954 - 

1963) 



The Chosen Gospel Singers 


The Pilgrom Jubilee Singers 

The Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama 

The Gate City Singers 

The Capitol City Stars 

The Clefs of Calvary 

The Gable Airs 

CD 1730 SPCD 7202 (Two albums on one CD) SWAN SILVERTONES My Rock/ Love 

Lifted Me 

CD 1731 SPCD 7203 (Two albums on one CD) THE ORIGINAL FIVE BLIND BOYS 

OF ALABAMA Oh Lord - Stand By Me/Marching Up To Zion 

CD 1732 SPCD 7204 (Two albums on one CD) THE BEST OF THE PILGRIM 

TRAVELERS 

CD 1733 SPCD 7205 (Two albums on one CD) THE BEST OF DOROTHY LOVE 

COATES and THE ORIGINAL GOSPEL HARMONETTES 

CD 1734 SPCD 7206 (Two albums on one CD) GREATEST GOSPEL GEMS 


Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers 

Brother Joe May 

Pilgrim Travelers 

Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama 

Alex Bradford 


Swan Silvertones 

Robert Anderson 

Chosen Gospel Singers 

Sister Wynona Carr 

Soul Stirrers 

Johnnie Taylor with The Soul Stirrers 

Meditation Singers 

Brother Joe May with The Pilgrim Travelers 

James Cleveland 

THE STAPLES SINGERS 

209

Another of the great gospel groups was the seminal quartet of the 1960s, the Staples Singers, 

with the stunning voice of daughter Mavis, who is heard here in a solo album of love songs. The 

family recorded a wide range of material, not restricting themselves to the gospel repertoire, 

which gave them a wide cross-over audience. We’ll Get Over includes their performance of 

Randall Stewart’s song ‘When Do I get Paid,” one of the protest songs of the era which 

demanded reparations for African Americans for their labor as slaves in the building of the 

United States. These albums were issued by Fantasy from the original masters on Stax and Volt 

labels. 

LPs 

Dodd LP 994 STX 4116 THE STAPLES SINGERS Beautitude: Respect Yourself 

Dodd LP 995 MPS 8532 THE STAPLES SINGERS We’ll Get Over 

Dodd LP 996 MPS 8539 MAVIS STAPLES Only For The Lonely 

Dodd LP 997 MPS 8553 STAPLES SINGERS Be What You Are 

CONTEMPORARY RAP GOSPEL 

II B4. Rural Blues and the Acoustic Blues Tradition 

II B4a. Pre-war recordings 

By the mid-1920s the record companies who were marketing the blues to African 

American audiences became aware that there was a local market for blues material in the South, 

and that there were also many southern performers who included blues songs as part of their 

songster repertoire. The first company to test the field was Paramount Records, which had been 

successful with the city blues of Ma Rainey, and they began to release blues singles by male 

artists, among them banjoist and band vocalist Papa Charlie Jackson and Texas singer Blind 

Lemon Jefferson. Jefferson was so successful that immediately other companies followed their 

lead and looked for southern musicians who played the blues. The actual recordings were made 

by traveling production teams who set up recording facilities with portable equipment in hotel 

rooms, local theaters or dance halls - anywhere where they found a quiet space. They worked 

their way through most of the southern cities, relying on local talent scouts to find the singers. 

Jesse Johnson, who owned a music store, was the scout for Okeh Records in St. Louis, and on 

his advice they did the first recordings with Lonnie Johnson, who became the most successful of 

the male blues artists of the 1920s. Interestingly, Johnson was the only one of the southern blues 

scouts who was African American. The others where white, but they had a genuine interest in 

the music they were hearing, and they quickly became useful judges of which performers had 

commercial potential. 

H. C. Speir, who owned a music store in Jackson, Mississippi, was one of the most 

important of the scouts, and he brought Charley Patton and Son House, among many others, to 

Paramount Records, and several years later Robert Johnson to Vocalion. In North Carolina J. B. 

210

Long discovered the Durham group of musicians around Blind Boy Fuller in the 1930s. The 

companies also relied on other musicians for advice. Mississippi John Hurt was wakened in the 

middle of the night by white neighbors, the country duet of Narmour & Smith, who asked him to 

play for a record company scout. After one piece, and part of another, Hurt was told to go back 

to sleep and then come and record the next morning. The companies relentlessly raided each 

other’s artists, sometimes issuing the singles under a pseudonym, sometimes not going to the 

trouble. Ralph Peer was the director of the field recordings for Victor Records in the 1920s, 

although his primary concern was finding new song material for his Southern Music Publishing 

Company. He was responsible for some of the most affecting recordings of Memphis bluesman 

Furry Lewis and Atlanta 12-string guitar artist Blind Willie McTell. 

Columbia Records usually used Frank Walker for their field trips, though he was also 

Bessie Smith’s producer, and his time always had to be divided between New York and the 

southern cities. Columbia had begun an important 14000 numerical series for their “race” artists, 

and in the late 1920s, as the novelty of country blues began to wear off for the record buying 

public, Columbia discovered street evangelist Blind Willie Johnson, who became their most 

important artist since Bessie Smith. 

The commercial companies, working through the mid-1920s and through all of the 1930s, 

left an unparalled rich hoard of music. Although the recording directors were primarily 

interested in the blues, and they were less concerned with the rest of their artists’ “songster” 

repertory they included a wide assortment of southern musical styles in their sweeps. The 

arrangement with scouts like Speir, who owned their own music shops, was that if they would 

guarantee to sell 300 copies of a single, then the company would do the recording. The legacy of 

these recordings, created as much by chance and by guess as by plan, is one of the treasures of 

American culture. 

Several of the blues singers who began their careers in the pre-war years, among them 

Lonnie Johnson, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, and Big Joe Williams, were extensively 

recorded during the blues revival. They are listed here where their careers began, and the list 

includes their post-war recordings. Thomas A. Dorsey’s blues recorded under the name 

“Georgia Tom” are included here, and his gospel recordings are listed in that category. 

PINK ANDERSON 

PINK ANDERSON and REVEREND GARY DAVIS - CD, “Gospel, Blues and Street Songs” 

Riverside Records, 1956, CD release, 1991. Dodd CD 15 

Seven titles on the CD are by Anderson, the remaining titles are by Davis. This recording, done 

by folk singer Paul Clayton at a folk festival in Charlottesville,Virginia, in 1950, were 

Anderson’s first new recordings since the 1920s. The following four albums were recorded and 

annotated by Samuel Charters. 

KOKOMO ARNOLD - LP, “Blues Classics by Kokomo Arnold” Blues Classics 4, n.d. 

Dodd LP 54 

One side of the album contains eight blues by Arnold, the other side contains blues by Peetie 

Wheatstraw. 

KOKOMO ARNOLD - Double CD set, “Midnight Blues” History label, n.d. 

Dodd CD 27a, 27b 

211

BARBECUE BOB - CD, “Chocolate To The Bone” Yazoo, 1992. Dodd CD 28 

LOTTIE BEAMON (KIMBROUGH) - LP, “Lottie Beaman” Wolf, n.d. 

Dodd LP 55 

One side of the album contains eight blues by Beamon, the other side contains blues by Luella 

Miller. 

BLIND BLAKE - LP, “Blind Blake & Papa Charlie Jackson’’ Collector’s Classics, n.d. 

Dodd LP 56 

One side of the album contains eight blues by Blake, the other side contains blues by Papa 

Charlie Jackson. 

THE BLIND BLAKE BIOGRAPH REISSUES 

BLIND BLAKE, 1926-1930 - LP, “Bootleg Rum Dum Blues” Dodd LP 57 

BLIND BLAKE, 1926-1932, Volume 2 - LP, “Search Warrant Blues” Dodd LP 58 

BLIND BLAKE, 1926-1929, Volume 3 - LP, “No Dough Blues” Dodd LP 59 

BLIND BLAKE, 1926-1931, Volume 4 - LP, “Rope Stretchin’ Blues” Dodd LP 60 

BLIND BLAKE, 1926-1939 - LP, That Lovin’ I Crave” Dodd LP 61 

All five albums reissued by Arnold S. Caplin on his Biograph label, 1975. 

“BROWNSVILLE” SON BONDS - CD, “Complete Recorded Works” Wolf Records, n.d. Dodd 

CD 64 

Tracks 1-18 are by Bonds, the remaining for tracks are by Charlie Pickett. 

ARTHUR CRUDUP - LP, “Look On Yonder’s Wall” Delmark, n.d. Dodd LP 62 

ARTHUR CRUDUP - LP, “Crudup’s Mood” Delmark, n.d. Dodd LP 63 

ARTHUR CRUDUP - LP, “Roebuck Man” United Artists, 1970. Dodd LP 64 

SLEEPY JOHN ESTES - LP, “Masters of the Blues, Vol. 3 1935-1937” Collector’s Classics, 

n.d. Dodd LP 65 

SLEEPY JOHN ESTES - LP, “Portraits in Blues, Vol. 10” Storyville Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 66 

SLEEPY JOHN ESTES - LP, “Electric Sleep” Delmark Records, n.d. Dodd LP 72 

SLEEPY JOHN ESTES - LP, “Blues Live!” Storyville Records, n.d. Dodd LP 67 

Original recordings made in 1967. Five titles on the album are by John Henry Barbee. 

212

GEORGIA TOM, 1928-1931 - LP, “The Accompanist” Blues Documents, 1989. Dodd LP 68 

Georgia Tom was the pseudonym of Thomas A. Dorsey, who left the blues for gospel music 

shortly after these recordings were made. 

CLIFFORD GIBSON - CD, “Beat You Doing It” Yazoo, 1991. Dodd CD 29 

BLIND ROOSEVELT GRAVES, 1929-1936 - LP, “Complete Recordings” Wolf, n.d. 

Dodd LP 69 

Graves was one of the few southern songsters whose gospel and blues recordings were both 

released under his own name. 

SON HOUSE - LP, “Delta Blues” Xtra, reissued from Folkways release edited and 

with notes by Samuel Charters. Dodd LP 70 

Six of the selections are from Houses’ 1942 documentary recordings, edited by Samuel Charters. 

The remaining selections are by J. D. Short. 

PEG LEG HOWELL - LP, “The Legendary Peg Leg Howell” Testament Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 71 

Howell was rediscovered in Atlanta in the early 1960s, and this recording was made by C. P. 

Matthews shortly before Howell’s death. He was in poor health at the time of the recording, and 

had not played for almost thirty years, but the album is still a valuable document of an important 

early blues artist. 

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT 

Although Mississippi John Hurt for many years was only a name on some old 

recordings, he was a legend in the folk and blues revival world for “Frankie,” his 1928 

version of “Frankie and Johnnie.” It was included in the Folkways American Folk 

Music albums, edited by Harry Smith, and hundreds of young guitarists had struggled 

to copy Hurt’s intricate, delicately phrased finger picking. He had also recorded a 

song called “Avalon Blues,” and - as Dick Spottswood described in the notes to the 

first album made after his rediscovery in 1963 - 

“. . . in March of this year, collector and field researcher Tom Hoskins discovered 

tiny Avalon on a state map of Mississippi, and, remembering John’s singing ‘Avalon’s 

my home town, always on my mind’ on ‘Avalon Blues’ . . went there in high hopes. 

The first person he asked directed him easily to John’s house, and within minutes 

Tom was knocking on the door and an old legend began to be created anew.” 

John was one of the most loved and respected of the blues revival artists, and 

he came almost to typify everything that the Newport Folk Festival represented. 

No one who heard his softly understated, musically rich performances of 

“Spanish Fandang” or laughed at his pleased “Coffee Blues” ever forgot his warmth 

or his pleasure at performing for his new audiences. 

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT - LP, “1928 Sessions” Yazoo, n.d. 

Detailed liner notes by Steve Calt. Dodd LP 73 

213

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT - LP, “Folk Songs and Blues” Piedmont Records, 1963. 

Dodd LP 74 

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT - LP, “Worried Blues” Piedmont Records, 1964. 

Dodd LP 75 

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT - LP, “Today!” Vanguard Records, Reissue Welk Record Group, 

1986. Dodd LP 76 

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT - LP, “The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt” Vanguard Records, 

1967. Dodd LP 77 

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT - CD, “The Best of Mississippi John Hurt” Vanguard Records, 

1970, CD 1987. Dodd CD 30 

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT - CD, “Last Sessions” Vanguard Records, 1972. Dodd CD 31 

SKIP JAMES 

SKIP JAMES - LP, “Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers” Melodeon Records, n.d. Dodd LP 78 

This was James’s first LP following his rediscovery by John Fahey, Henry Vastine and Bill 

Barth in a Mississippi Hospital in the spring of 1964. Like John Hurt, he had become a 

legendary figure through the reissue of his older recordings, and he had an important effect on 

the blues revival, even though he was less accessible than Hurt. One of his compositions, “I’m 

So Glad” became a major hit for the group Cream, led by Eric Clapton. 

SKIP JAMES - LP, “Today!” Vanguard Records, 1966. Dodd LP 79 

SKIP JAMES - LP, “Devil Got My Woman” Vanguard Records, 1968. Dodd LP 80 

SKIP JAMES - Double LP, “I’m So Glad” Vanguard Records, 1966-1968. 

Dodd LP 81a, 81b 

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON 

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON - LP, “The Classic Folk Blues, Vol. 1” Riverside Records, 

1957. Dodd LP 82 

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON - LP, “The Classic Folk Blues, Vol. 2” Riverside Records, 1960. 

Dodd LP 83 

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON - LP, “Volume 1” Roots, n.d. Dodd LP 84 

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON - LP, “Volume 3” Roots, n.d. Dodd LP 85 

214

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON - CD, “King of the Country Blues” Yazoo, 1990. 

Dodd CD 32 

LONNIE JOHNSON 

LONNIE JOHNSON - LP, “Masters of the Blues, Vol. 6” Collector’s Classics, n.d. 

Dodd LP 86 

This useful documentation of Johnson’s career between 1925 and 1932 includes his first success, 

“Mr. Johnson’s Blues” and the blues he recorded on the violin on the same session. 

LONNIE JOHNSON - LP, “Woke Up This Morning Blues In My Fingers, Original Recordings, 

1927-1932” Origin, 1980. Dodd LP 87 

LONNIE JOHNSON - LP, “The Originator of the Modern Guitar Blues” Blues Boy, 1963. 

Dodd LP 88 

This is a reissue of Johnson singles from the period 1941- 1952. 

LONNIE JOHNSON - LP, “Lonesome Road” King Records, n.d. Reissue album. 

Dodd LP 89 

LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Blues by Lonnie Johnson” Prestige Records, 1960. 

Dodd CD 33 

LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Blues & Ballads,” with Elmer Snowden, Prestige Records, 1960. 

Dodd CD 34 

LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Blues, Ballads & Jumpin’ Jazz,, Vol. 2” with Elmer Snowden. 

Prestige Records, 1960. Dodd CD 35 

LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Losing Game” Prestige Records, 1960. Dodd CD 36 

LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Idle Hours” with Victoria Spivey, Prestige Records, 1961. 

Dodd CD 37 

LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Another Night To Cry” Prestige Records, n.d. 

Dodd CD 38 

LONNIE JOHNSON - LP, “Blues Roots Vol. 5” Storyville Records, 1963. 

Dodd LP 90 

LONNIE JOHNSON - LP, “Tears Don’t Fall No More” Folkways Records, 1967. 

Dodd LP 91 

LONNIE JOHNSON - LP, “Mr. Trouble” Folkways Records, 1967. 

Dodd LP 92 

Both Folkways albums were edited and with notes by Samuel Charters, 1982. 

215

LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 4”Storyville Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 39 

ROBERT JOHNSON 

ROBERT JOHNSON - LP, “King of the Delta Blues Singers” Columbia Records, 1966. 

Dodd LP 93 

ROBERT JOHNSON - LP, “King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol. 2” Columbia Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 94 

ROBERT JOHNSON - Double CD, “The Complete Recordings” Columbia Records, 1990. 

Dodd CD 40 

TOMMY JOHNSON - CD, “Complete Recordings in chronological order, 1928-1930” 

Wolf Records, n.d. Dodd CD 41 

FURRY LEWIS - Double LP, “Shake ‘Em On Down” Prestige, 1972. 

This is a repackaging of two Bluesville Lps, “Back on My Feet Again,” and “Done Changed My 

Mind,” recorded in April and May, 1961. Dodd LP 95a, 95b 

TOMMY McCLENNAN - CD, “I’m A Guitar King, 1939-1942” Wolf Records, n.d. 

Dodd CD 42 

ROBERT LEE McCOY - LP, “Complete Recordings, Vol. 1” Wolf Records, n.d. Dodd LP 96 

ROBERT LEE McCOY - LP, “Complete Recordings, Vol. 2” Wolf Records. N.d. 

Dodd LP 97 

BROWNIE MCGHEE & SONNY TERRY 

BROWNIE McGHEE - CD, “The Folkways Years, 1945-1959” Smithsonian Folkways, 1991. 

Dodd CD 43 

BROWNIE McGHEE & SONNY TERRY- LP,“Sing” Folkways Records, 1958. 

Dodd LP 98 

BROWNIE McGHEE & SONNY TERRY - CD, “Blowin’ The Fuses” Tradition, 1996. 

Reissue material. Dodd CD 44 

BROWNIE McGHEE - CD, “Brownie’s Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960. 

Dodd CD 45 

BROWNIE McGHEE & SONNY TERRY - CD “at the 2nd Fret” Prestige, 1962. 

216

Dodd CD 46 

BROWNIE McGHEE & SONNY TERRY - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 5” Storyville, 1991. 

Dodd CD 47 

BLIND WILLIE MCTELL 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - CD, “The Early Years, 1927-1933” Yazoo, 1989. 

Dodd CD 48 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - CD, “Blind Willie McTell, 1927-1935” Yazoo, 1991. 

Dodd CD 49 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - LP, “King of the Georgia Blues Singers” Roots, n.d. 

Dodd LP 99 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - LP, “Death Cell Blues” Biograph, n.d. Dodd LP 100 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - LP, “Blind Willie McTell: 1940” Melodeon n.d. Dodd LP 101 

McTell’s recordings for the Library of Congress folk music archives, supervised by John A. 

Lomax. This invaluable documentary includes a long autobiographical monolog. 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - LP, “Trying to Get Home, 1949” Biograph, n.d. 

Dodd LP 102 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - LP, “Love Changing Blues” Biograph, n.d. Dodd LP 103 

This compilation includes six rediscovered, unissued tracks from McTell’s 1949 session for 

Regal. The B side of the LP contains six tracks by Memphis Minnie. 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - LP, “Atlanta Twelve String” Atlantic Records, 1972. 

Dodd LP 104 

This was the first release of all but two unissued titles recorded by Atlantic Records in Atlanta in 

1949. 

BLIND WILLIE McTELL - CD, “Last Session” Prestige/Bluesville, 1963. 

Compiled and annotated by Samuel Charters. Dodd CD 50 

MEMPHIS MINNIE - LP, “Blues Classic” Blues Classics, n.d. Dodd LP 105 

MEMPHIS MINNIE - LP, “Love Changing Blues” Biograph, n.d. Dodd LP 103 

This is the second side of an album with six selections by Blind Willie McTell. 

MEMPHIS MINNIE – LP, “Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe” Blues Classics #13. 

Dodd LP 121 

LUELLA MILLER - LP, “Complete Recordings” Wolf, n.d. Dodd LP 55 

217

This is the second side of an album with eight selections by Lottie Beaman. 

THE MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS - CD, “Stop And Listen” Yazoo, 1992. Dodd CD 51 

CHARLEY PATTON 

A GRAMMY WINNING BLUES REISSUE 

One of the founders of the adventurous independent label Revenant Records was 

guitarist/composer John Fahey, and the legendary Mississippi artist Charlie Patton was one of 

artists who inspired Fahey’s own creative directions. Fahey also wrote a musicological and 

textual study of Patton’s life and music as part of his university studies. Revenant’s presentation 

of the Patton recordings is perhaps the most lavish and imaginative of any reissue done of the 

music of a vernacular music artist. The material is presented in a mock- 1920s singles album, 

with the title embossed on the cover along with motifs from the advertisements for Patton’s 

recordings. Inside is a reprint of Fahey’s book, a series of articles by blues scholars Dick 

Spottswood, David Evans, Paul D. Mitchell with Edward Komara, Edward Komara, and a 

reconsideration of Patton “Thirty-Five Years On” by Fahey. 

The texts of the songs themselves show Patton to be a wide-ranging, richly evocative folk 

blues poet, and Dick Spottswood has done an exemplary service with his transcriptions of the 

texts and his notes to the songs. Appendixes include a thematic catalog of Patton’s recordings, 

Patton indexes and notes, and a conversation on collecting Pattonäs original 78s with Gayle 

Dean Wardlow. The illustrative materials include reproductions of the labels of all of Patton’s 

78s, was well as the labels of unissued test pressings, and all of the advertising materials 

appearing in newspapers at the time. The entire collection is enclosed in an embossed protective 

box. 

The singles themselves have been skillfully remastered and they are presented on seven 

discs which duplicate the labels of the Paramount singles and are mounted in a reproduction of 

the old record sleeves that protected the original 78s. Not only everything of Patton is here, but 

also the recordings artists associated with him, like Willie Brown, Louise Johnson, and Son 

House. 

The CD set is breathtaking in its conception and it sets a new standard for presentation of 

older material Visually it is a stunning evocation of the period that produced the music, with 

vintage photographs, reproductions of recording sheets and 

Motives taken from the Patton advertisements. 

CHARLEY PATTON - 7 CD set, “Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues” Revenant 

Records, nd. 2000-0105/CD 1882a-g 

CHARLEY PATTON - LP, “The Immortal Charlie Patton”Origin Jazz Library, 1960. 

This first collection of Patton’s blues to be reissued was the first album in the important Origin 

series produced by collectors Pete Whalen and Bill Givens. See the introduction to the Origin 

Jazz Library below under Collections. Dodd LP 106 

CHARLEY PATTON - CD, “King of the Delta Blues” Yazoo, 1991. Dodd CD 52 

218

CHARLEY PATTON - CD, “1929-1934, The Remaining Titles” Wolf, n.d. 

Dodd CD 53 

CHARLIE PICKETT - CD, “Complete Works” Wolf, n.d. Dodd CD 54 

Four titles by Pickett are included on this CD featuring the blues of “Brownsville” Son Bonds. 

J. D. SHORT - LP, “His Early Recordings, 1930-1933” Wolf, n.d. Dodd LP 107 

J. D. SHORT - LP, See SON HOUSE, “Delta Blues” listed above. Dodd LP 70 

TAMPA RED - CD, “Don’t Tampa With The Blues” Prestige, 1960, CD release 1992. 

Dodd CD 55 

TAMPA RED - CD, “Don’t Jive Me” Prestige, 1960, CD release 1992. 

Dodd CD 56 

SONNY TERRY - CD, “The Folkways Years, 1944-1963” Smithsonian Folkways, 1991. 

Dodd CD 57 

SONNY TERRY - CD, “Sonny’s Story” Prestige, 1960, CD release, 1990. 

Dodd CD 58 

SONNY TERRY - CD, “Sonny Is King” Prestige, 1960-1962, CD release, 1990. 

Dodd CD 59 

HENRY THOMAS - CD, “Texas Worried Blues, Complete Recorded Works” Yazoo, 1989. 

Dodd CD 60 

HENRY TOWNSEND and HENRY SPAULDING - LP, “Complete Recordings, 1929- 1937” 

Wolf, n.d. Dodd LP 108 

PEETIE WHEATSTRAW - LP, “Blues Classic” Blues Classics, n.d. Dodd LP 54 

The album also includes eight blues by Kokomo Arnold. 

BUKKA WHITE - LP, “Mississippi Blues, The Incredible Bukka White” Sonet Records, 

licensed from Takoma Records, n.d. Dodd LP 109 

BUKKA WHITE - CD, “Sky Songs” Arhoolie, 1963, CD release, 1990. Dodd CD 61 

BIG JOE WILLIAMS - LP, “Mississippi’s Big Joe Williams and his nine-string guitar” 


BIG JOE WILLIAMS (with J. D. Short) - LP, “Piney Woods Blues” Delmark, n.d. 

Dodd LP 111 

219

BIG JOE WILLIAMS - LP, CD - “Big Joe Williams” The Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 6, Sonet. 

Dodd LP 749 

From the series produced and annotated by Samuel Charters. 

BIG JOE WILLIAMS - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 2” Storyville, 1991. Dodd CD 62 

ANTHOLOGIES 

THE ORIGIN JAZZ LIBRARY 

Among the collectors and enthusiasts who were involved with the country blues in the late 

1950s were two New Yorkers who had been friends since their school years together, Pete 

Whalen and Bill Givens. We listened to many records together, but Pete and Bill had much 

more extensive collections than I did, and they were particularly interested in the northern 

Mississippi artists like Charlie Patton. When I didn’t include Patton in the first reissues I did 

they decided to start their own reissue blues label and their first release was a Patton album. 

They followed it with a collection of rare early blues, most of the artists from the Delta and - as a 

response to my The Country Blues reissue album - titled it Really! the Country Blues!. We 

continued to be good friends and as their label grew and I continued to do reissue albums for 

RBF we met often and we tried not to duplicate the artists we were documenting. I wrote the 

notes for their The Great Jug Bands, and both Ann and I contributed cover photos to their 

albums. Our only disagreement was over the importance of Robert Johnson, whom they 

considered to be a younger imitator of the great singers of the 1920s. Whalen and Givens had a 

sensitive knowledge of the early country blues, and their Origin Jazz Library was the most 

important of the reissue labels that introduced the rural blues traditions to the new audience in 

the 1960s. Whalen continues to play an important role in the documentation of the early blues 

through his quarterly magazine 78 Quarterly, Givens died of cancer in the late 1990s. 

[All of these albums are LPs] 

Origin Jazz Library 1 - Charlie Patton, 1929-1932 Dodd LP 106 

Origin Jazz Library 6 - The Country Girls See listing below in catalog. Dodd LP 112 

Origin Jazz Library 9 - Crying Sam Collins and his Git-Fiddle 

This collection also includes two titles by King Solomon Hill. 

THE RURAL BLUES TRADITIONS - COLLECTIONS 

Mississippi 

CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI BLUES, The Jackson Area, 1928-1935 - LP, Wolf, n.d. 

Dodd LP 113 


Willie Harris 

Mississippi Bracy 

“Big Road” Webster Taylor 

Arthur Petties 

220

The Mississippi Moaner (Isaiah Nettles) 

THE MISSISSIPPI BLUES No. 2, The Delta, 1929-1932- LP, Origin Jazz Library, n.d. 

Dodd LP 114 


Son House 

J. D. Short 

Robert Wilkins 

Charlie Patton 

Garfield Akers 

Blind Joe Reynolds 

Louise Johnson 

Hi Henry Brown 

Joe Calicott 

MASTERS OF THE DELTA BLUES, The Friends of Charlie Patton - CD, Yazoo, 1991. 

Dodd CD 63 


Kid Bailey 

Tommy Johnson 

Bukka White 

Willie Brown 

Ishmon Bracey 

Louise Johnson 

Son House 

Bertha Lee 

MISSISSIPPI BLUES, The Complete Recorded Works of Otto Virgial, Robert Petway, and 

Robert Lockwood, 1935-1951) - CD, Wolf, n.d. Dodd CD 64 

See also MISSISSIPPI BLUES in the RBF series listed above. 

Memphis 

KINGS OF MEMPHIS TOWN (1927-1930) - Saydisc, n.d. Dodd LP 115 


Furry Lewis 

Robert Wilkins 

Frank Stokes 

The Beale Street Shieks 

Sleepy John Estes 

Lonnie McIntorsh 

FRANK STOKES’ DREAM, The Memphis Blues, 1927-1931 - CD, Yazoo, 1991. 

Dodd CD 65 

221


Tom Dickson 

Frank Stokes 

Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe 

Pearl Dickson 

Furry Lewis 

Noah Lewis 

Cannon’s Jug Stompers 

Will Weldon 

MEMPHIS JAMBOREE 1927 - 1936 - LP, Yazoo, n.d. Dodd LP 116 


Will Batts 

Memphis Minnie 

Hattie Hart 

Yank Rachel & Dan Smith 

The Two Charlies 

Kansas Joe McCoy 

Furry Lewis 

Gus Cannon 

Jim Jackson & Co. 

Sam Townsend 

East Coast Blues 

EAST COAST BLUES 1926-1935 - Yazoo, n.d. Dodd LP 117 


Willie Walker 

Blind Blake 

William Moore 

Carl Martin 

Tarter & Gay 

Bo Weavil Jackson 

Bayless Rose 

Chicken Wilson & Skeeter Hinton 

BLIND BOY FULLER ON DOWN, VOLUME 2, In The Fuller Tradition - Saydisc, n.d. 

Dodd LP 118 


Julius Daniels 

Blind Boy Fuller 

Buddy Moss 

Blind Gary Davis 

Bull City Red 

Sonny Jones 

Blind Boy Fuller No. 2 (Brownie McGhee) 

222

Sleepy Joe’s Washboard Band 

Jammin’ Jim (Ed Harris) 

Dan Pickett 

Curley Weaver 

See also ATLANTA BLUES in the RBF series listed above. 

Women’s Blues in the Rural Tradition 

THE COUNTRY GIRLS - LP, Origin Jazz Library, n.d. Dodd LP 112 


Lottie Kimbrough 

Geeshie Wiley 

Rosie Mae Moore 

Lulu Jackson 

Lillian Miller 

Lucille Bogan 

Nellie Florence 

Pearl Dickson 


Mae Glover 

I CAN’T BE SATISFIED, Early American Women Blues Singers - Town & Country, Vol. 1 - 

Country - CD, Shanachie Records, 1997. Dodd CD 68 Produced by Richard Nevins and Don 

Kent. 

Artists included: 

Ruby Glaze 

Hattie Hart 

Hattie Hudson 

Lottie Kimbrough 

Bertha Lee 


Bertha Henderson 

Mae Glover 

Rosie Mae Moore 

Lillian Miller 

Lizzie Washington 

Irene Scruggs 

Geeshie Wiley 

Bessie Tucker 

Jennie Clayton 

Pearl Dickson 

Elizabeth Johnson 

Mattie Delaney 

223

I CAN’T BE SATISFIED, Early American Women Blues Singers - Town & Country, Vol. 2, Town 

- CD, Shanachie Records, 1997. Dodd CD 114 Produced by Richard Nevins and Don Kent. 


Victoria Spivey 

Clara Smith 

Martha Copeland 

Lucille Bogan 

Sara Martin 

Sippie Wallace 

Edith Johnson 

Ma Rainey 

Bertha “Chippie” Hill 

Katherine Baker 

Margaret Johnson 

Hattie Burleson 

Madlyn Davis 

Ivy Smith 

Alberta Brown 

GENERAL ANTHOLOGIES of PRE-WAR RURAL BLUES 

There is so much duplication of artists on these releases that generally only the names of 

artists not available in an individual album, or an album that is already listed, are specifically 

named. Although the artist may be included on another album the selection may not be 

duplicated, so it will be helpful to anyone using the materials if they make their own list of the 

artists whose performances are of interest. 

BEFORE THE BLUES “The Early American Black Music Scene” Vol. 1 Dodd CD 12 

BEFORE THE BLUES Vol. 2 Dodd CD 13 

BEFORE THE BLUES Vol. 3 Dodd CD 14 

All three CDs released by Yazoo, 1996. 

Blues artists not included in other compilations or reissues: 

Andrew and Jim Baxter 

Sam Collins 

Rube Lacy 

Little Hat Jones 

Weaver & Beasley 

Papa Harvey Hull 

Teddy Darby 

Charley Jordan 

Lulu Jackson 

South Street Trio 

Blue Boys 

Bobby Grant 

224

Texas Alexander 

Blue Boys 

COUNTRY BLUES CLASSICS Vol. 2 Dodd LP 119 

COUNTRY BLUES CLASSICS Vol. 3 Dodd LP 120 [jacket only] 

COUNTRY BLUES CLASSICS Vol. 4 Dodd LP 122 

All three LPs issued by Blues Classics, n.d. Artists not available on other albums: 

Bobo Jenkins, 

Frank Edwards 

Blind Norris 

Scrapper Blackwell 

Pinetop Slim 

Milton Sparks 

Johnny Shines 

Lonnie Coleman 

Wright Holmes 

The Delta Boys 

Walter Roland 

Kid Stormy Weather 

Casey Bill 

Harmonica Frank 

Black Boy Shine 

Leroy Dallas 

Peter Warfield 

Dennis McMillon 

John Henry Barbee 

Sonny Boy Johnson 

Carl Martin 

Gabriel Brown 

Lost John Hunter 

James McCain 

Pete McKinley 

SIC EM DOGS ON ME - LP, Herwin Records, n.d. Dodd LP 123 

Artists not available on other albums: 

Rosie Mae Ford 

De Ford Bailey 

D. H. Bilbro 

Louis Lasky 

Long “Cleve” Reed 

COUNTRY BLUES OBSCURITIES, Vol. 1- LP, Saydisc, n.d. Dodd LP 124 


William and Versey Smith 

225

“Big Boy” George Owens 

Smith and Harper 

Big Boy Cleveland 

John D. Fox 

Johnnie Head 

“Bill” Wilber 

Alfred Lewis 

Walter Rhodes 

Will Bennett 

Whistlin’ Rufus 

Archie Lewis 

Shreveport Home Wreckers 

CREAM OF THE CROP - LP, Saydisc, n.d. Dodd LP 125 

Artists not included on other albums: 

Dennis Crumpton and Robert Summers 

Walter “Buddy Boy” Hawkins 

Richard “Rabbit” Brown 

The Beale Street Sheiks 

THE MALE BLUES SINGERS - LP, Collector’s Classics, n.d. Dodd LP 126 


Casey Bill 

Mississippi Sheiks 

Barefoot Bill 

Otis Harris 

SKOODLE UM SKOO, Early Blues Vol. 1 The Folk Tradition - LP, Saydisc, n.d. 

Dodd LP 127 


Stovepipe No. 1 

Banjo Joe (Gus Cannon) 

Winston Holmes and Charlie Turner 

Walter Jacobs and The Carter Brothers 

Billy James and his Guitar 

GUITAR WIZARDS, 1926-1935 - CD, Yazoo, 1991. Dodd CD 69 


Blind Blake 

Carl Martin 

Tampa Red 

Sam Butler 

William Moore 

Billy Bird 

BLUES AT NEWPORT - CD, Vanguard Records, 1959-1964. Dodd CD 70 

226

BLUES WITH A FEELING - Double CD, Vanguard Records. Dodd CD 71 

These are compilations taken from the Newport Folk Festival recordings made by the Vanguard 

mobile recording unit. Included among the artists are Son House, Skip James, Mississippi John 

Hurt, Jesse Fuller, Robert Pete Williams, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Water, 

and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. 

ROOTS N’ BLUES, The Retrospective, 1925-1950 - 4CD Boxed set with 60 pages, lavishly 

illustrated booklet. Columbia Records, 1992. Compiled by Lawrence Cohn. 

Dodd CD 72, 73, 74, 75 

This monumental compilation includes 107 examples of white and black country music. The 

blues material is too voluminous to list, but Cohn has chosen dozens of important artists and he 

has endeavored to include selections that have not been previously reissued, or in some instances 

previously issued. The materials in the booklet include reproductions of contemporary 

advertising materials and artists’ photographs. The production is a major resource for anyone 

interested in American vernacular music. 

See also video listings in catalog. 

II B4b. Jug Bands 

There has never been a mystery about jug bands - they are simply small country blues 

bands that include a jug as a bass instrument. The only real mystery for most audiences is how 

the jug is played. The players make a buzzing sound with their lips, and the jug - held close to 

the mouth - resonates the soun.d. By tightening or loosening the lips the player can vary the 

pitch of the notes and jug virtuosi can even manage reasonably melodic solos on the instrument. 

The jug band is usually associated with Memphis, because of the popularity of the two excellent 

Memphis groups, the Memphis Jug Band, led by Will Shade, and Cannon’s Jug Stompers, led by 

Gus Cannon. When I was first researching blues roots in the 1950s I was particularly interested 

in the jug bands, and on a trip to Memphis in 1956 I was sent to the shabby furnished room 

where Shade was living by his old booking agent, and when I came back to record him the next 

day there was Gus Cannon sitting in the room with him. 

The jug bands always occupied an uncertain ground between musical legitimacy and 

vaudeville humor. The bands certainly emphasized the comedy side of the jug when they 

performed - but the recordings they made were often sensitive blues or complex country rags, in 

which the jug was used as a rhythmic timbre in the ensemble. There was a third major group of 

jug band musicians in Louisville, centered around violinist Clifford Hayes. Hayes and his 

groups were very popular on the black vaudeville circuit, and they played a tightly rehearsed, 

loosely swinging jazz style. To exploit their popularity the record company - Victor Records - 

added well known jazz soloists to the band and one of their recordings with New Orleans 

clarinetist Johnny Dodds was released as the B-side of one of the most sophisticated 

arrangements by Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers. 

227

CANNON’S JUG STOMPERS - Double LP, “The Complete Works, 1927-1930. including Gus 

Cannon as ‘Banjo Joe’” Herwin Records, n.d. Dodd LP 128a, 128b 

Includes extensive notes and transcriptions of the songs by Bengt Olsson. 

CLIFFORD HAYES, Vol. 1 (1926-1931) - LP, “Dixieland Jug Blowers, Clifford Hayes’ 

Louisville Stompers, Jimmie Rodgers & the Louisville Jug Band” Wolf, n.d. 

Dodd LP 129 

CLIFFORD HAYES, Vol. 2 (1924-1931) - LP, “Sara Martin’s Jug Band, Kid Coley, John 

Harris” Wolf, n.d. Dodd LP 130 

THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND, 1927-1929 - LP, no title. Saydisc, n.d. Dodd LP 131 

THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND - CD, no title. Yazoo, 1990. Dodd CD 76 

THE MEMPHIS JUG BAND - LP, “The Jug Bands, Vol. 1” Collector’s Classics, n.d. 

Dodd LP 132 

COLLECTIONS 

THE GREAT JUG BANDS - CD, “Ruckus Juice & Chittlins, Vol. 1” Yazoo, 1998. 

Dodd CD 77 


Whistler’s Jug Band 

Birmingham Jug Band 

Memphis Jug Band 

Ben Ferguson 

John Harris 

King David’s Jug Band 

Cincinnati Jug Band 


Dixieland Jug Blowers 

Noah Lewis’s Jug Band 

Jed Davenport & His Beale Street Jug Band 

Jack Kelly & His South Memphis Jug Band 

Kaiser Clifton 

The Walter Family 

Earl McDonald’s Original Louisville Jug Band 

THE GREAT JUG BANDS - CD, “Ruckus Juice and Chittlins, Vol. 2” Yazoo, 1998. 

Dodd CD 78 



Birmingham Jug Band 

Noah Lewis’s Jug Band 

Memphis Jug Band 

228

Kentucky Jug Band 

King David’s Jug Band 

Minnie Wallace 

Dixieland Jug Blowers 

Jack Kelly & His South Memphis Jug Band 

Ezra Buzzington’s Rustic Revelers 

Cincinnati Jug Band 

Earl McDonald’s Original Louisville Jug Band 

Mississippi Sarah & Daddy Stovepipe 

Whistler’s Jug Band 

Phillips Louisville Jug Band 

Five Harmaniacs 

Jed Davenport & His Beale Street Jug Band 

Prairie Ramblers 

Contemporary Jug Band Recordings 

AMERICAN SKIFFLE BANDS - LP, Folkways Records, 1957. [not transferred] 

Recorded and annotated by Samuel Charters. The sessions in Memphis in 1956 included Will 

Shade of the Memphis Jug Band, and Gus Cannon of Cannon’s Jug Stompers. 

II B4c. Piano Blues and Boogie Woogie 

In the last years of the Nineteenth century and the early years of the Twentieth the piano 

was as much a part of American life as sentimental valentines, suffragettes, baseball, racial 

violence, the suppression of the native Americans, cigars, straw hats, and apple pie. Every 

middle class family aspired to at least one piano and even poorer families often managed to find 

a piano in playable condition to dress up the front room. Piano factories in every major city 

produced instruments in all price levels, with or without player piano mechanisms so that even 

the hopelessly untalented could make a tune by pumping the pedals. In the long decades before 

the arrival of phonograph records, movies, radio, and television, evenings at home were quiet - 

very quiet - unless somebody in the family could make music. 

With pianos everywhere it isn’t surprising that the instrument was part of the blues, just as 

it was the dominant instrument in ragtime, and an essential part of the development of jazz. The 

first appearance of the blues for a home audience was as printed piano music - first “Dallas 

Blues” by Hart Wand in the spring of 1912, then the first success of the blues, W. C. Handy’s 

“Memphis Blues, ” published in the fall of the same year. Two years later, in 1914, Handy’s “St. 

Louis Blues” made the blues part of the repertoire of the most adventurous parlor pianists. To 

make sure it would be a hit Handy added a tango for the middle section of the piece, and in 1914 

everybody knew what a tango was, even if they weren’t sure about a blues. 

Out in the country and in the city brothels and saloons there were as many pianos, but they 

usually weren’t in good repair or in tune. Once, playing in a dance hall in New Orleans I sat 

down at the pretty, white painted piano and found that none of the keys played below middle C. 

The pianists who drifted in to entertain often weren’t in much better shape than the instruments. 

229

As the drummer Albert Jiles told me in New Orleans, looking back at pianists he had heard 

playing the blues “Salty Dog” in the 1920s, 

“I never do hear SALTY DOG played the way they used to play it when I was 

coming up. Of course, some of those men was what you call specialists. SALTY 

DOG was the only tune they could play.” 

When we think of the dominance of the guitar in the blues today, we sometimes forget that 

it is the electric guitar that is so dominant. Guitars at the turn of the century were small, soft 

voiced instruments, strung with gut, and played with either a straight plectrum or the fingers. 

The sound was perfect for a living room or a front porch, but too small for a dance hall. The 

banjo, especially the four-string band instrument, had many musical limitations, but it was loud, 

and the banjo pushed the guitar out of the dance orchestra until the guitar was electrified in the 

late 1930s. 

The blues musicians liked the guitar - it had all the advantages of a true folk instrument. It 

was relatively cheap, easily portable, simple to maintain, and it could be used to play music of all 

types - which was essential in those years before the record companies turned songsters into 

blues singers. The blues on the piano became an intricate, widely diverse musical style, and 

often the pianists worked with a guitarist for the tonal and musical possibilities of the other 

instrument. The difficulty was always to balance the sound level of the two instruments, but the 

greatest piano/guitar duet teams managed to get it just right. One of the most popular blues 

artists of the 1930s was Leroy Carr, and an essential ingredient in his blues was the flowing, 

astringent sound of the other half of the duo, guitarist Scrapper Blackwell. The successful 

“Bluebird Blues” style of the late 1930s - named for the Bluebird label that released the singles - 

was built on the solid foundation of the pianists - musicians like Josh Altheimer and Big Maceo 

Merriweather who provided the steady background for an entire generation of blues singers. 

This selection of piano blues centers on the blues artists who accompanied themselves on 

the piano - and there is a wide range of styles. Since most of the music was recorded in studios 

the pianos were playable and in tune, but, as you can hear in the recordings of Barrelhouse Buck, 

made on a parlor piano in East St. Louis, sometimes there is a suggestion of the uncertain 

realities of the blues pianists’s world. 

INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS 

LEROY CARR - LP, “Blues Before Sunrise” Columbia Records, 1962. 

Dodd LP 133 

CHAMPION JACK DUPREE, 1940-1941 - LP, “Cabbage Greens” Columbia Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 134 

CHAMPION JACK DUPREE - LP, “The Women Blues of Champion Jack Dupree” Folkways 


CHAMPION JACK DUPREE - LP, “The Incredible Champion Jack Dupree” Sonet Records, 

1969. Dodd LP 136 

CHAMPION JACK DUPREE - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 6” Storyville Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 208 

230

CHAMPION JACK DUPREE – LP, “Champion Jack Dupree” Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 3, 

Sonet, 1971. Dodd LP 746 

CURTIS JONES - CD, “Trouble Blues” Prestige/Bluesville 1960, CD released 1993. 

Dodd CD 79 

MEMPHIS SLIM 

Memphis Slim was a young pianist who began his career as part of the Bluebird Blues 

boom of the late 1930s, then was one of the few artists of that generation who made a successful 

transition to the new R & B idiom as “Memphis Slim and His House Rockers.” When R & B 

faded he shifted again to the new folk blues scene of the 1960s, and blossomed as a tireless 

performer of a personal, engaging style of boogie and blues. He had the ability - like Lightning 

Hopkins - to sit down in a recording studio and compose “new” blues as he went along, and he 

also stayed free of exclusive agreements to any single company, so it seemed sometimes in the 

1970s that he was simultaneously recording for every record label in the known world. He had 

always been openly critical of racism in the United States, and he was one of the three blues men 

Alan Lomax interviewed for his strong “Blues in the Mississippi Night” documentation. As 

Slim became more popular in Europe he spent more and more time away from the United States, 

and he finally became a fixture in the Paris night club scene; a tall, urbane, impeccably dressed 

performer who never lost the easy assurance of his singing, or the blues thunder in his fingers. 

MEMPHIS SLIM - LP, “The Real Folk Blues” Chess Records, nd, reissue of singles. 

Dodd LP 137 

MEMPHIS SLIM - CD, “All Kinds of Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961, CD 1990. 

Dodd CD 80 

MEMPHIS SLIM - CD, “Steady Rolling Blues” Prestige Bluesville, 1961, CD 1990. 

Dodd CD 81 

MEMPHIS SLIM - LP, “Traveling With The Blues” Storyville Records, 1961. 

Dodd LP 138 

MEMPHIS SLIM - LP, “Favorite Blues Singers” Folkways Records, 1973. 

Dodd LP 139 

MEMPHIS SLIM - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 9” Storyville Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 82 

MEMPHIS SLIM – LP, “Memphis Slim” Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 7, Sonet, 1973. 

Dodd LP 750 

MEMPHIS SLIM - Double CD “Blues and Boogie” and “Reunions” Universal Music, 

France, 2004. 2000-0105/CD 1883a-b 

231

This is a compilation album and on many of the selections Slim performs in diet with another 

performer. 

Supporting artists: 

Willie Dixon 

Roosevelt Sykes 

Mickey Baker, 

Buddy Guy 

Sonny Criss 

Charlie McCoy 

Canned Heat 

Peter Green 

Freddie King 

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY - LP, “Master of the Blues, Vol. 9” Collector’s Classics, 


This is a collection of Montgomery’s early recordings, including his classic “Vicksburg Blues,” 

which he recorded several times later in his career. 

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY - CD, “Tasty Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960. 

Dodd CD 209 

LITTLE BROTHER MONTGOMERY - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 7” Storyville, 1991. 

Dodd CD 83 

See also Gospel section in catalog [Dodd LP 689]. 

OTIS SPANN - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 10” Storyville Records, 1991. Dodd CD 210 

Otis Spann, the finest Chicago pianist of the post-war years, was better known for his work with 

the great Muddy Waters band, but he also recorded as a band musician for a number of other 

artists, and had begun to tour as a soloist before his early death from a heart attack. 

SPECKLED RED - LP, “The Dirty Dozen” Storyville Records, n.d. Dodd LP 141 

SPECKLED RED - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 11” Storyville Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 211 

SUNNYLAND SLIM - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 8” Storyville Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 212 

SUNNYLAND SLIM, with BIG TIME SARAH - CD, “Long Tall Daddy” Arcola 

Records, 2004. 2000-0105/CD 1884 

ROOSEVELT SYKES - LP, “Roosevelt Sykes, 1929-1941” RST Records, 1988. 

Dodd 142 

MERCY DEE WALTON - CD, “Pity And A Shame” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961, CD 1992. 

Dodd CD 84 

232

COLLECTIONS: CONTEMPORARY RECORDINGS 

PRIMITIVE PIANO - LP, “Primitive Piano” Tone Records, n.d. Dodd LP 143 


Speckled Red 

Billie Pierce 

James Robinson 

Doug Suggs 

REISSUES 

BLUES PIANO Vol. 1 - LP, Saydisc, n.d. Dodd LP 144 


Cripple Clarence Lofton 

Blind Roosevelt Graves 

Shorty Bob Parker 

Little Brother Montgomery 

Springback James 

Mississippi Jook Band 

Lee Brown 

Pinetop and Lindberg 

BARREL HOUSE, BLUES and BOOGIE WOOGIE - LP, Storyville, n.d. Dodd LP 145 


Champion Jack Dupree 

Dink Johnson 

Speckled Red 

Jimmy Yancey 

Memphis Slim 

Meade Lux Lewis 

MAMA DON’T ALLOW NO EASY RIDERS HERE, “Strutting the Dozens, Classic Piano Rags, 

Blues & Stomps, 1928-1935” - CD, Yazoo, 1998. Dodd CD 213 


Turner Parrish 

Cow Cow Davenport 

Herve Duerson 

Will Ezell 

Blind Leroy Garnett 

Arnold Wiley 

Speckled Red 

Raymond Barrow 

Oliver Brown 

The emphasis on this collection is barrelhouse piano - uptempo blues and energetic folk ragtime. 

233

BOOGIE WOOGIE 

Boogie Woogie piano is a particular style of blues piano, but during the enormous 

popularity of boogie woogie during World War 2 the boogie tail certainly wagged the larger dog 

of blues piano. Boogie Woogie was endlessly discussed and analyzed during the great years, but 

there was never agreement on more than a vague outline of its origins. It was sometimes called 

“fast Texas,” and most pianists in Texas knew the boogie style, but it was just as popular 

throughout the South. The difference between blues piano and boogie woogie is the pattern of 

the left hand, which in boogie creates a steady, unvarying rhythmic pattern. There are three or 

four basic variants of the left-hand pattern, usually built around the tempo. Slower boogie tends 

to have an open, syncopated left-hand figure, while faster boogie builds on a bunched, drumming 

left-hand pattern. 

Part of the fascination of boogie, and of all blues piano, is the tireless effort on the part of 

the pianists to resolve the conundrum of playing non-diatonic music on a determinedly diatonic 

instrument. The piano insists on the major-minor dichotomies that can be avoided on the guitar. 

To deal with the problem the pianists developed a number of strategies, and one of the simplest 

is the boogie pattern that alternates major and minor thirds in the tonic chord in a relentless 

series of 8th notes. Boogie is an endlessly fascinating study, and it has social implications as 

well as musical. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York City recreated the working 

studio of avant-garde artist Piet Mondrian in New York in the 1940s they included his old 

phonograph and his record collection. Tapes of his records played continuously, and the first 

floor of the museum swung with the sound of boogie woogie, the music he played to inspire his 

“New York” series of paintings. 

In the collection are most of the masterpieces of boogie - Meade Lux Lewis’s 

incomparable “Honky Tonk Train Blues,” which is one of the most brilliant examples of modern 

pianism in any idiom - Wesley Wallace’s startlingly original train blues, “Number 29,” with its 

left hand pattern in a disconcerting 6/4 rhythm - the haunting performance of Carr’s “How Long 

Blues” by Jimmy Yancey on parlor harmonium, with his wife softly singing the lyrics - and the 

complete recordings of “Pinetop” Smith, whose “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie” became one of the 

ubiquitous sounds of a decade. It is particularly poignant that Smith’s solo should have had such 

influence, since he had only time to make four recordings before he was killed as a bystander in 

a barroom fight. One of them, “I’m Sober Now,” illustrates the special qualities that boogie 

brought to social life in American cities. He begins playing boogie, then switches to standard 

dance music, which causes loud protests from his audience. He announces that “I don’t mind 

playing any kind of job that gets me drunk, but Pinetop is sober now,” and refuses to go back to 

the rolling boogie beat that the crowd is demanding until somebody brings him a drink. 

JIMMY YANCEY 

One of the great discoveries of the first wave of interest in jazz as an historical 

phenomenon in the 1930s was a shy, gentle amateur pianist who worked as a groundskeeper in 

the baseball stadium of the Chicago White Sox. Jimmy Yancey played boogie woogie all his 

life, but before a group of white enthusiasts heard his playing he usually would walk quietly into 

a South Side Chicago bar, sit at the piano that was part of the furniture of nearly every American 

bar and restaurant at this period, play two or three of his specialties, and leave as quietly as he 

came. His introspective, luminous style was at the opposite spectrum from the thunderous, 

234

crowd pleasing boogie of the Albert Ammons/ Pete Johnson duo playing, and he could create a 

moment of almost still tranquility with his own approach to Carr’s “How Long Blues.” His 

performance of the piece in December, 1943, playing a small harmonium and his wife singing 

the words, is still one of the most affecting moments in the blues. As English critic Derrick 

Stewart-Baxter wrote of the recording in his note to the Storyville reissue of the session in the 

collection, 

“This volume open with a truly magnificent track, the vocal version of “How Long 

Blues”, with Jimmy Yancey on harmonium (which produces a strangely eerie 

atmosphere) and his wife Estella Mama Yancey singing as if her heart was about to 

break. What can one write about this extraordinary woman who fits into no 

recognizable category? . . . She is as earthy as the southern soil itself, and her blues 

are never far from sorrow. When she sings, the blues are all around her - sitting on 

her shoulders it seems. The voice is as acid as vinegar, and when she sings it is as 

though her heart is breaking . . .” 

JIMMY YANCEY - 10” LP, “A Lost Recording Date” London Records, nd, licensed from 

Riverside Records. Dodd LP 146 

These Yancey titles were recorded in the spring of 1939. 

JIMMY YANCEY - LP, “The Immortal” Oldie Blues, n.d. Dodd LP 147 

These Yancey titles were recorded in 1940 and 1943, and include singing by Mama Yancey, 

with a performance of “How Long Blues” on which Jimmy plays the accompaniment on electric 

organ. 

JIMMY YANCEY, ALONZO YANCEY and CRIPPLE CLARENCE LOFTON - LP, “The 

Yancey-Lofton Sessions, Vol. 1” Storyville Records, n.d. Dodd LP 148 

JIMMY YANCEY, ALONZO YANCEY and CRIPPLE CLARENCE LOFTON - LP, “The 

Yancey-Lofton Sessions, Vol. 2” Storyville Records, n.d. Dodd LP 149 

These albums collect all the recordings done for Session label in Chicago in 1943. Each of the 

pianists performs as a soloist. Mama Yancey again sings with her husband, and this version of 

“How Long Blues,” with Jimmy playing a parlor harmonium, is a blues masterpiece. 

JIMMY YANCEY & MAMA YANCEY - LP, “Chicago Piano” Atlantic Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 150 

The recordings were done in 1951. 

COLLECTIONS 

BOOGIE WOOGIE RARITIES, 1927-1932 - LP, Milestone Records, n.d. Dodd LP 151 



Wesley Wallace 

Blind Leroy Garnett 

Cripple Clarence Lofton 

235

Will Ezell 

Charlie Spand 

Jabo Williams 


Henry Brown 

Charles Avery 

JUKE JOINT JUMP, A BOOGIE WOOGIE CELEBRATION - CD, Columbia Records, 1996. 

Dodd CD 85 


Memphis Slim 

Freddie Slack with the Will Bradley Trio 

Curley Weaver with Clarence Moore 

Charlie Spand 

The Boogie Woogie Boys: Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons 

Sir Charles Thompson 

Red Saunders & His Orchestra 

Pete Johnson with Big Joe Turner 

Champion Jack Dupree 

Harry James and the Boogie Woogie Trio 

Albert Ammons 

Calvin Frazier 

Adrian Rollini Trio 

Willie “Long Time” Smith 

Pete Johnson 

Art Tatum 

SHAKE YOUR WICKED KNEES, “Rent Parties and Good Times, Classic Piano Rags, Blues & 

Stomps, 1928-1943” - CD, Yazoo, 1998. Dodd CD 86 

Although the description of the collection doesn’t make it clear, this is a compilation of boogie 

woogie classics, including the recording of “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” that sparked the boogie 

woogie craze of the late 1930s. His “I’m Sober Now” is here, as well as his other two 

recordings. Also in the selection is the brilliant “Honky Tonk Train Blues” by Meade Lux Lewis 

and Romeo Nelson’s irrepressible “Head Rag Hop.” 


Romeo Nelson 

Pine Top Smith 


Joe Dean 


236

Charles Avery 

Hokum Boys & Jane Lucas 

Lil Johnson 

Montana Taylor 

Henry Brown 

Mozelle Alderson 

II B4d. The Continuing Rural Blues Tradition, the Post- 

War Recordings 

In the late 1950s, with the publication of The Country Blues, many young blues enthusiasts 

became aware that there was still a vital blues tradition both in the southern countryside and in 

the northern cities like Chicago and Detroit. Using their own amateur tape recorders, and often 

paying the musicians out of their own pockets they began to document the rich lode of music that 

they foun.d. Some of the researchers concentrated on locating older musicians who had been 

major figures in the 1920s and 1930s. Within a few years audiences in coffee houses or on 

college campuses could hear performances by - among many others - Mississippi John Hurt, Son 

House, Skip James, Lonnie Johnson, Furry Lewis, Gus Cannon, Bukka White, and Sleepy John 

Estes. They could also hear many new blues discoveries, whose music added new depths to 

what was already known about the blues traditions. I have listed the later recordings by the older 

artists in the section in the catalog on pre-war rural blues, IIB4a, and the recordings by the new 

artists are listed here. 

JOHN HENRY BARBEE - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 3” Storyville, 1991. 

Dodd CD 87 

ZUZU BOLLIN - CD, “Texas Bluesman” Antone’s, 1991. Dodd CD 88 

JUKE BOY BONNER - LP, “I’m Going Back to the Country Where They Don’t Burn the 

Buildings Down” Arhoolie, 1968. Dodd LP 152 

JUKE BOY BONNER - LP, “The Struggle” Arhoolie, 1969. Dodd LP 153 

JUKE BOY BONNER – LP, “Juke Boy Bonner” Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 5, Sonet, 1972. 

Dodd LP 748 

R. L. BURNSIDE - CD, “Come On In” Fat Possum, 1998. Dodd CD 89 

CAT-IRON - LP, “Cat-Iron Sings Blues and Hymns” Folkways Records, 1958. 

Recorded and annotated by Frederic Ramsey Jr. Dodd LP 154 

CEPHAS & WIGGINS - CD, “Cool Down” Alligator, 1995. Dodd CD 90 

237

DADDY HOTCAKES - LP, “The Blues in St. Louis, Vol. 1 Daddy Hotcakes” Folkways 


Recorded and annotated by Samuel Charters 

CEDELL DAVIS - CD, “Feel Like Doin’ Something Wrong” Fat Possum, n.d. 

Dodd CD 91 

K. C. DOUGLAS - CD, “K. C.’s Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961, CD, 1990. 

Dodd CD 92 

K. C. DOUGLAS - CD, “Big Road Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961, CD, 1994. 

Dodd CD 93 

SNOOKS EAGLIN 

Eaglin, when he was discovered by Dr. Harry Oster in the late 1950s, happened at that 

moment to be playing on the streets of New Orleans. Eaglin is blind, so on the first recordings 

there was an emphasis on the “blind street singer” aspect of Eaglin’s music, but Snooks actually 

was an ambitious R & B performer, and his career has veered awkwardly between these two 

poles. He is a brilliant guitarist, and the first records, released on Folkways, featured stunning 

acoustic guitar work which attracted the new guitarists who were trying to learn what they could 

do with the new acoustic guitar styles. He then recorded a number of R & B singles for a 

commercial label, but they weren’t successful with R & B buyers so he drifted back to the folk 

audience. Complicating his situation has been the tight control of his career by his family, which 

has sometimes led to difficulties over potential commercial opportunities. He is still a brilliant 

guitarist and still an entertaining performer, whatever idiom he is playing in, and perhaps there 

will finally be some way to resolve the contradictions of his career. 

SNOOKS EAGLIN - CD, “That’s All Right” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961, CD, 1994. 

Dodd CD 94 

SNOOKS EAGLIN - CD, “Country Boy in New Orleans” Arhoolie, 1991, original recordings 

by Dr. Harry Oster, 1958. Dodd CD 95 

SNOOKS EAGLIN - CD, “New Orleans Street Singer” Storyville, 1994. 

Dodd CD 96 

SNOOKS EAGLIN – LP, “Snooks Eaglin” Legacy of the Blues – Vol. 2, Sonet, 1971. 

Dodd LP 745 

DAVID “HONEYBOY” EDWARDS - LP, “Mississippi Delta Bluesman” Folkways Records, 

1979. Dodd LP 156 

PETE FRANKLIN - CD, “Guitar Pete’s Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961, CD, 1993. 

238

Dodd CD 97 

JESSE FULLER 

Jesse was a strong, withdrawn figure who had found a way to perform as a one-man band 

when he couldn’t find other musicians to play with in Oakland, California, where he moved 

during the war years. He termed himself “The Lone Cat,” and he maintained his distance from 

both the folk and the blues worlds. He had constructed a kind of string bass that he played with 

his foot, his “fodela,” and the clanking sound that can be heard on the recordings is the noise the 

pedals of his instrument made as he played. 

JESSE FULLER - CD, “Frisco Bound” Arhoolie, 1991. Dodd CD 98 

HEZEKIAH and the HOUSE ROCKERS - LP, “Hezekiah” High Water Records, 1990. 

Dodd LP 157 

Produced and annotated by Dr. David Evans 

LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS 

Lightning had been through two or three careers as a singles blues artist in the first postwar 

blues scene when he got caught in the shift in popularity to R&B and Soul music, and 

dropped out of sight in the Houston ghetto. I found him there in the winter of 1959, rented him a 

guitar, and recorded an album with him in the decrepit room he was renting in the back of a 

house on Dowling Street. To keep some kind of balance between the guitar and the voice I did 

the album with the microphone held in my hand, moving it down to the guitar for a solo and up 

toward his lips for the vocals. The album was an immediate success, and it helped open the way 

for the flood of blues recordings that followed. Lightning made his own contribution to the flood 

- producing albums on a steady basis for a number of record companies. Like Memphis Slim, 

Lightning could walk into the studio, sit down at the microphone, and put together enough 

“new” verses and guitar solos for an album in afternoon’s work. His playing was wildly 

irregular, so it was difficult for other musicians to follow him, but at his best he was one of the 

most moving and intensely creative musicians the blues has ever seen. He could silence a noisy 

audience with a handful of notes in an introduction to a slow blues, or he could get the same 

audience up on their feet dancing with half a chorus of an up tempo shuffle. 

He is accompanied by drums and bass on some of the Prestige releases, but some of the 

accompaniments were added in the studio after the original recordings. When I was first 

working at Prestige one of my responsibilities was to oversee the Lightning overdubs. The 

original tapes arrived from Houston, where he was recorded by his manager, Mack McCormick, 

and I played them back in the studio - usually to bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Herb 

Lovelle. Lovelle had an easier time, since he could follow Lightning’s swoops of melody with a 

pattering drum sound that followed the beat. Leonard had to try to guess what chord might come 

next, and when Lightning might decide to play it, but he had developed a kind of toneless thud 

that worked most of the time. He had spent many years as a young musician accompanying 

blues singers, and when I sympathized with him after one take for the problems he was having 

playing with Lightning he shrugged and said, “I’ve been playing with Lightning Hopkins all my 

life.” 

239

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - CD, “The Gold Star Sessions, Vol. 1”Arhoolie, 1990. 

Dodd CD 99 

Lightning’s first recordings, for Gold Star label in Houston in the late 1940s. 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - LP, “Early Recordings, Vol. 2” Arhoolie, 1971. 

Dodd LP 158 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - CD, “Jake Head Boogie” Ace, 1999. 

This is a reissue of Hopkins’ titles on Modern label from the early 1950s. 

Dodd CD 100 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - LP, “Houston’s King of the Blues, Historic Recordings 1952-1953” 

Blues Classics, 1984. Dodd LP 159 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS with SONNY TERRY - CD, “Last Night Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 

1961, CD, 1992. Dodd CD 101 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - LP, “Lightnin’” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961. Dodd LP 160 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - LP, “Blues in My Bottle” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961. 

Dodd LP 161 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - LP, “Goin’ Away” Prestige/Bluesville, 1963, CD 1990. 

Dodd LP 162 [CD not transferred] 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - LP, “Hootin’ The Blues” Prestige Records, 1963. 

Dodd LP 163 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - LP, “Soul Blues” Prestige Records, 1964. 

Dodd LP 164 [jacket only] 

LIGHTNING HOPKINS – LP, “Lightnin’ Hopkins” Legacy of the Blues, Vol. 12, Sonet, 1974. 

Dodd LP 753 

THE HOPKINS BROTHERS, Lightning, Joel & Henry - CD, “The Hopkins Brothers” 

Arhoolie Records, 1964, CD, 1991. Dodd CD 102 

[A Lightning Hopkins Set] 

LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS - 7 CDs in box, with extensive, illustrated booklet, “The Complete 

Prestige/Bluesville Recordings” Prestige Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 103a, 103b, 103c, 104a, 104b, 104c, 104d 

The set was compiled and annotated by Samuel Charters. 

LONG JOHN HUNTER - CD, “Border Town Legend” Alligator Records, 1996. 

Dodd CD 105 

240

JUNIOR KIMBROUGH - CD, “God Knows I Tried” Fat Possum Records, 1998. 

Dodd CD 106 

JOHNIE LEWIS - LP, “Alabama Slide Guitar” Arhoolie, 1971. Dodd LP 165 

MANCE LIPSCOMB - CD, “Texas Songster” Arhoolie Records, 1989. 

Dodd CD 107 

MISSISSIPPI FRED McDOWELL - CD, “Steakbone Slide Guitar” Tradition Records, 1996. 

Dodd CD 108 

FRANKIE LEE SIMS - LP, “Lucy Mae Blues” Specialty Records, 1970. 

Dodd LP 166 

BABY TATE - CD, “See What You Done Done” Prestige/Bluesville, 1961, CD, 1994. 

Recorded and annotated by Samuel Charters. Dodd CD 109 

TABBY THOMAS - LP, “25 Years with the Blues” Blues Unlimited Records, 1980. 

Dodd LP 168 

TABBY THOMAS - LP, “Blues Train” Maison de Soul, 1986. Dodd LP 167 

ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS - CD, “Free Again” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960, CD, 1992. 

Dodd CD 110 

Dr. Harry Oster found Robert Pete Williams in the 1950s in the Angola Prison Farm in 

Louisiana, where he was serving a long term for murder. He had been attacked by a drunken 

man wielding a knife in the small Louisiana town of Scotland, and he had shot the man to death 

in self defense. Oster managed to get Williams paroled, but he was first bound over to a local 

farmer as a kind of indentured field hand, and it wasn’t the mid-1960s that Williams was free to 

travel and perform as he chose. He appeared at most blues festivals and played for audiences 

everywhere in the world, living quietly in a small house in southern Louisiana when he wasn’t 

traveling. Williams had several themes that he returned to again and again, and he had four or 

five ways of playing an accompaniment to his singing, but when he was singing he let his 

inspiration direct his music, and all of his recordings are colored with a strong mood of creative 

inspiration. 

ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 1” Storyville Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 111 

THE MUSIC MAKER RELIEF FOUNDATION 

Guitarist and blues lover Timothy Duffy, with audio pioneer Mark Levinson, founded the 

Music Maker Relief Foundation as a “nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance 

and recording services in need.” At the same time through the musicians Duffy uncovered who 

were still active and performing in the Piedmont region he made it clear that the rural, acoustic 

241

lues tradition continues to have artists waiting to be discovered. The recordings themselves and 

the album notes and photographs reflect the unique quality of the music itself. 

ETTA BAKER - CD, “Railroad Bill” Music Maker Records, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 1885 

ESSIE MAE BROOKS - CD, “Rain in Your Life” Music Maker Records, 2000. 

2000-0105/CD 1886 

Ms. Brooks, who is accompanied by Cool John Ferguson on guitar and piano, is a gospel artist. 

PRESTON FULP - CD, “Sawmill Worker” Music Maker Records, 2001. 

2000-0105/CD 1887 

GUITAR GABRIEL - CD “Deep in the South” Music Maker Records, 1991. 

2000-0105/CD 1888 

GEORGE HIGGS - CD “Tarboro Blues” Music Maker Records, 2001. 

2000-0105/CD 1889 

ALGIA MAE HINTON - CD “Honey Babe” Music Maker Records, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 1890 

COOTIE STARK - CD “Sugar Man” Music Maker Records, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 1891 

A MUSIC MAKER COMPILATION 

“I’ve Played So Much Guitar It’d Make Your Ass Hurt” Cello Recordings, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 1946 

Timothy Duffy produced this CD for the Winston Blues Revival, which included artists 

represented on the label, as well as a performance of Mississippi John Hurt’s classic “My Creole 

Belle” by legendary artist Taj Mahal, who has been a Creative Consultant to the Music Maker 

activities. The handsome small booklet notes that “All door proceeds benefit Music Maker 

Relief Foundation.” 


Cootie Stark 

Neal Pattman 

Beverly “Guitar” Watkins 

Taj Mahal 

Mudcat 

Guitar Gabriel 

Willie Mae Buckner 

BIG AL CALHOUN with HENRY TOWNSEND - CD, “Harmonica Blues” Arcola 

Records, 2001. 2000-0105/CD 1892 

242

LIGHTNING HOPKINS - CD, “Jake Head Boogie” Ace Records, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 1893 

A compilation of Hopkins’ recordings on the Modern label from the late 1940s’ and early 1950s. 

LONNIE JOHNSON, The Unsung Blues Legend - CD, “The Living Room Session” 

Blues Magnet, 2000, recording 1965. 2000-0105/CD 1894 

FURRY LEWIS, BUKKA WHITE & FRIENDS - CD “Party! at home” Arcola 

Records, 1968. 2000-0105/CD 1895 

FRED MCDOWELL - CD “You Gotta Move” Arhoolie Records, 1964 and1965. 

2000-0105/CD 1896 

BABE STOVALL “THE OLD ACE” - CD, “Mississippi Blues and Religious Songs” 

Arcola Records, 2003. 2000-0105/CD 1897 

HENRY TOWNSEND - CD, “The Real St. Louis Blues” Arcola Records, 2001. 

2000-0105/CD 1898 

BIG JOE WILLIAMS - CD, “Watergate Blues” Christy Records, 1992. 

2000-0105.CD 1899 

Before blues enthusiast Axel Kustner tracked him down and made these recordings in the mid- 

1970s, Big Joe, over his long career, had spent many hours in front of recording microphones. 

Perhaps it was the circumstances - most of the recording was done outdoors in front of Big Joe’s 

trailer in Crawford, Mississippi - or simply Kustner’s enthusiasm, despite the heat and the casual 

unpredictability of the people who drifted in and out of the scenery. Kustner came back day 

after day, asking Joe for songs no one else had heard him sing, and he recorded the music with a 

feel for the loose mood of the life around the trailer. A wonderful document of the music and the 

spontaneous personality of a unique blues artist. 

COLLECTIONS 

BAWDY BLUES - CD, Prestige Bluesville, 1991, recorded between 1956 and 1961. 

2000-0105/CD 1900 


Memphis Slim 

Tampa Red 


Lonnie Johnson 

Pink Anderson 

Memphis Willie B. 

Blind Willie McTell 

THE BLUES, Vol. 6 - Double LP, Intercord (Germany) 1981. Dodd LP 172a, 172b 

243

A general overview of contemporary recordings covering both urban and rural styles and 

including artists as diverse as Albert Collins, Son Seals, J. D. Short, Bukka White, and Left Hand 

Frank. The bulk of the titles were licensed from Sonet Records. 

BLUES WITH A FEELING - NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL CLASSICS - Double CD, Vanguard 

Records, 1993. Dodd CD 71 

A collection of material recorded on the stages and at the workshops of the Newport Folk 

Festivals. 


Son House 

Skip James 

Bukka White 

Robert Pete Williams 

Mississippi Fred McDowell 

Reverend Pearly Brown & Mrs. Christine Brown 

Mississippi Fred McDowell, Annie Mae McDowell & Rev. Robert Wilkins 

Lightnin’ Hopkins 

Mance Lipscomb 

Elizabeth Cotten 

Mississipi John Hurt 

Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller 

John Lee Hooker 

Muddy Waters 

Eddie Boyd & Willie Dixon 

Lafayette Leake & Willie Dixon 

Dave Van Ronk 

John Hammond 

Eric Von Schmidt 

“Spider” John Koerner 

The Chambers Brothers 

Paul Butterfield Blues Band 

EXPRESSIN’ THE BLUES - CD, Cello Records, 1999. Dodd CD 112 

This collection of field recordings of older, little known blues performers still active is a tribute 

to the vitality of the blues tradition. The material has been collected and assembled by Timothy 

Duffy, founder of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, which has managed to raise over 

$350,000 for distribution to elderly musicians who need things as elemental as dentures and 

medical care. The project would be noteworthy if only for its idealism and enthusiasm, but this 

collection of rural blues is also one of the finest selections of these older blues styles that has 

been released in many years. The album is beautifully packaged, with intriguing visual and 

literary presentations by Wesley Wilkes and Albion W. Tourgee. 


Guitar Gabriel 

Big Boy Henry 

Etta Baker 

Neal Patman 

244

Essie Mae Brooks 

Cootie Stark 

Precious Bryant 

Algia Mae Hinton 

Rufus McKenzie 

Bishop Dready Manning 

Albert Smith 

MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES Vol. 1 - LP, Arhoolie Records, n.d. Dodd LP 169 

MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES Vol. 2 - LP, Arhoolie Records, n.d. Dodd LP 170 

Both albums recorded and annotated by George Mitchell, with additional notes by 

David Evans. 


Napoleon Strickland and Como Drum Band 

Do Boy Diamond 

Teddy Williams, 

Furry Lewis 

Houston Stackhouse & the Blues Rhythm Boys 

R. L. Burnside 

Rosa Lee Hill 

Joe Calicott 

STEEPED IN THE BLUES TRADITION - CD, Tradition Records, 1996 (Some pre-war 

recordings are included, but the majority of the material is from the post-war period. 

2000-0105/CD 1901 


Big Joe Williams 

Blind Lemon Jefferson 


Mississippi Fred McDowell 

Leadbelly 

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee 

Big Bill Broonzy 

Big Joe Williams with Lightnin’, Sonny. and Brownie 

Sonny Terry and Alec Seward 

THE TAKOMA BLUES SERIES, RARE BLUES - LP, Sonet Records, n.d. Dodd LP 173 

From sessions produced and annotated by Norman Dayron. 


Dr. Isaiah Ross 

Maxwell Street Jimmy 

Big Joe Williams 

Son House 

Rev. Robert Wilkins 

Little Brother Montgomery 

245

Sunnyland Slim 

TEXAS BLUES, Bill Quinn’s Gold Star Recordings - CD, Arhoolie Records, 1992. 

Dodd CD 113 


Lil’ Son Jackson 

Lee Hunter 

L. C. Williams 

Thunder Smith 

Leroy Ervin 

Buddy Chiles 

Andy Thomas 

Perry Cain 

Bill Quinn was the owner and operator of a small record company in Houston, Gold Star 

Records, and he tried to make a success of his label in the early post-war period. He recorded a 

number of promising blues artists, but faced with the usual problems of distribution and 

promotion he gave up after a few years. An affable, easy man to talk with, Quinn was known to 

the blues world for the one Gold Star artist who did sell records for him, Lightning Hopkins. 

There was no way he could hold Lightning to an exclusive contract, however, and he finally sold 

the masters when the company ceased operations. 

VIRGINIA TRADITIONS, Southwest Virginia Blues - LP, Blue Ride Institute, 1988. 

Dodd LP 171 


Steve Tarter and Harry Gay 

Fred Galliher 

James Henry Diggs 

Earl Gilmore 

Kind Edward Smith 

The Carter Family 

Josh Thomas 

Carl Martin 

Howard Twine 

Malcolm Johnson 

Dock Boggs 

Dave Dickerson 

“Cowboy” Thurman Burks 

Byrd Moore 

Spence Moore 

Bobby Buford and Keith Rogers 

II B5. Early Urban Blues 

II B5a. Classic Women’s Blues 

246

The blues today is so dominated by male singers, and the accompaniments are so centered 

around the guitar that it is often forgotten that in the first years of the blues as a commercial 

product it was women singers who dominated record sales, and the accompaniments were played 

by the leading jazz artists of the period. It is also not so well known that this is the only period - 

1920 to 1925 - when sales of blues records dominated the African American market. The blues 

by male artists, in the years after 1925, never reached the same sales level, proportional to the 

audience, and the Chicago blues, the most innovative of the post war blues styles, was restricted 

to its local market until the records later began to sell to white audiences. In the 1920s it was the 

emergence of jazz artists like Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and Duke Ellington that 

took over the market from the women blues artists, and with the first recordings by the Mills 

Brothers in 1929 the African American audience joined the American main stream. 

Usually the recording by Mamie Smith of “Crazy Blues” in 1920 is considered the first 

blues recording, but there had been many recordings of instrumental blues before she made the 

session under the supervision of the song’s composer, New York song writer Perry Bradford. 

The first blues sheet music had been published eight years before, and “blues” had appeared 

under many guises and in many forms, mostly associated with vaudeville acts. The difference 

with Smith’s recording, was that it was the first by an African American performer. Smith was a 

stage personality, but she sang in an uninhibited vocal style with some of the mannerisms of a 

country tent show performer. The song wasn’t a blues - it was a popular song in the minstrel 

show tradition - but, whatever it was, it was a success. It is difficult to know how many copies 

were sold, but the figure was high enough - probably more than 200,000-3000,000 copies - to set 

a whole industry in motion. It was suddenly clear that there was a market for what were then 

called “race records,” and the market has been steadily exploited since that first moment. 

Mamie Smith immediately went on tour on the black vaudeville circuit, appearing with her 

back-up group called “The Jazz Hounds,” led by trumpeter Johnny Dunn, and sweeping on stage 

in a series of elaborate gowns. Her success led to recordings by dozens of other blues artists, one 

of whom, “Ma” Rainey, is still regarded as the “classic” woman’s blues artist, and a younger 

protege of Rainey’s, Bessie Smith, who became the first major star of black popular music. She 

was billed as “The Empress of the Blues,” but her extensive recorded output included only a 

portion of what would be considered blues. She toured on the same theater circuit as Mamie 

Smith, she wore the same elaborate gowns, she also had a jazz group as accompaniment, and she 

sang the usual repertoire of minstrel show songs, popular dance songs, and novelty blues - but 

everything she sang was suffused with an expressive roughness and a searing dramatic intensity. 

Both Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith sang with deep, majestic power, and their music was shaped 

by the earnest sincerity of the southern countryside. Whatever they sang, it sounded like a 

blues. 

The reign of the women’s blues had two important effects on the rapidly changing styles 

of jazz and on the development of the blues itself. To accompany the women the record 

companies brought in jazz artists like Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, and Sidney Bechet, and 

jazz - which up to that time had been ragtime-based - began to take on a blues tinge. In a 

fascinating series of cross-influences, the accompanists, as they responded to the women’s 

singing, began to develop the instrumental vocalization that became one of the characteristics of 

early jazz, and, learning from the jazz musicians, the women singers began to shift away from 

the slow, sometimes ponderous tempo of their first recordings to a more rhythmic style that 

became the jazz vocal. 

247

The other effect of the women’s blues - on the blues itself - was less positive. The first 

successes prodded the entire “race” record industry into a stereotyping of the blues form. The 

recording directors that went into the South a few years later were looking for “blues” - that is, a 

song with the same twelve bar form and the same subject material as the successful recordings 

by the women. When the recording directors auditioned the country singers they made a 

strenuous effort to limit their repertoire to the blues. In the South in this period every musician 

was a “songster.” That is, they played everything that their audience wanted to hear. The 

recording industry turned them into “blues singers” - simply by not recording anything else they 

did. If the companies relented enough to record some of their religious repertoire the records 

were usually issued under a pseudonym. 

The reign of the women singers was short - largely because the audience’s tastes changed, 

and the songs the women sang changed along with them. By the late 1920s a series of successful 

black musical reviews introduced new songs and dances to the Broadway stage, and the women 

singers starred in them, singing cabaret material. In a short time more sophisticated artists like 

Ethel Waters had taken over the audience. By the 1930s major new black singers like Billie 

Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald could build their entire careers on popular song material. The period 

of the classic women’s blues left a wide trail after it, but it was a surprisingly brief moment. 

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WOMEN’S BLUES 

I CAN’T BE SATISFIED, Early American Women Blues Singers - Town & Country, Vol. 2, Town 

- CD, Shanachie Records, 1997. Produced by Richard Nevins and Don Kent. 

Dodd CD 114 



Clara Smith 


Lucille Bogan 

Sara Martin 

Sippie Wallace 

Edith Johnson 

Ma Rainey 

Bertha “Chippie” Hill 

Katherine Baker 

Margaret Johnson 

Hattie Burleson 

Madlyn Davis 

Ivy Smith 

Alberta Brown 


IDA COX - 10” LP, “King Oliver Plays the Blues with Ida Cox and Sara Martin” 

London Records, nd, licensed from Riverside Records. Dodd LP 174 

Cox and Martin each sing four blues. Despite the title the accompaniest for Cox is not Oliver. 

The cornetist is now thought to be Oliver’s nephew, Dave Nelson. 

248

SARA MARTIN - See Ida Cox listed above. Dodd LP 174 

MA RAINEY - LP, “The Immortal Ma Rainey” Milestone, n.d. Dodd LP 175 

MA RAINEY - LP, “Blame It On The Blues” Milestone, n.d. Dodd LP 176 

MA RAINEY - 10” LP, “Louis Armstrong Plays the Blues” London Records, nd, licensed from 

Riverside Records. Dodd LP 177 

Rainey sings on three titles of this CD, including “See See Rider.” 

BESSIE SMITH 

BESSIE SMITH - Double LP, “Any Woman’s Blues” Dodd LP 179a, 179b 

BESSIE SMITH - Double LP, “The Empress” Dodd LP 180a, 180b 

BESSIE SMITH - Double LP, “Nobody’s Blues But Mine” Dodd LP 178a, 178b 

All of the albums released by Columbia Records, n.d. These albums were included in the five 

album release of Bessie Smith’s entire recorded production supervised by John Hammond, who 

had produced Smith’s final recording session when he was a twenty-three studio neophyte, and 

Chris Albertson, author of the definitive biography of Smith. The notes to the elaborately 

produced albums are by Albertson. 

BESSIE SMITH – 78, “House Rent Blues” / “Work House Blues” Dodd SE 50 

MAMIE SMITH, Vol. 4 - LP, “First Lady of the Blues” Document Records, 1989. 

Dodd LP 181 

TRIXIE SMITH - See Ma Rainey, above. “Louis Armstrong Plays the Blues” 

Dodd LP 177 

Trixie Smith performs two songs, with accompaniment by an instrumental group from the 

Fletcher Henderson Orchestra that included Louis Armstrong. 

VICTORIA SPIVEY - LP, “The Blues Is Life” Folkways Records, 1976. 

Dodd LP 182 

VICTORIA SPIVEY with LONNIE JOHNSON - CD, “Woman Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 

1961, CD, 1994. Dodd CD 115 

SIPPIE WALLACE - CD, “Women Be Wise” Alligator Records, 1992. Dodd CD 116 

COLLECTIONS 

SONGS WE TAUGHT YOUR MOTHER - CD, Prestige/Bluesville, 1961. Dodd CD 117 


249

Alberta Hunter 

Lucille Hegamin 


A young New York enthusiast of jazz and popular music, Len Kunstadt, located many of the 

older musicians still living in Harlem, and he brought three of the women singers to the Prestige 

studios for a session in the classic style nearly forty years after their first success. One, Alberta 

Hunter, went on to a successful new career, and Spivey did a number of recordings with her old 

duet partner, Lonnie Johnson. These are listed under Johnson’s name in the Rural Blues section 

of the catalog. 

MEAN MOTHERS: INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S BLUES, VOLUME 1 – CD, Rosetta Records, 

1980, 1990. Dodd CD 2113 


Rosa Henderson 

Mary Dixon 

Maggie Jones 

Susie Edwards 

Bernice Edwards 

Gladys Bentley 

Bessie Brown 

Bertha Idaho 


Harlem Hannah 

Lil Armstrong 

Blue Lou Barker 

Rosetta Howard 

Ida Cox 

Lil Green 

Billie Holiday 

II B5b. Urban Blues Roots 

As the blues became a more predictable segment of the record market in the 1930s the 

companies releasing material to the increasingly urban buyers began to depend on a small group 

of artists who could supply releases on a regular basis. The extended recordings swings through 

the South were too uncertain in their results and they took too much time. In the Depression 

years the market had dwindled, and also the amount that could be charged for a 78rpm single had 

dropped. Marketing had more and more shifted away from mail order and music stores, to 

record counters in general merchandise stores - the “five and dimes” - many of whom had their 

own record labels. The counters had to be stocked weekly with new releases, which sold for 

prices between 39 cents to 59 cents, depending on the popularity of the artists and the quality of 

the production. Many companies simply repressed older releases from the 1920s on cheaper 

materials, using pseudonyms for the artists, and supplied these to the stores for their labels. 

The audience for the blues had also become more predictable. A certain kind of artist sold 

records, and certain kinds of songs were popular. Sometimes the decisive role of the record 

companies is overlooked in our analyses of the blues. What we have on record is the result of a 

250

series of commercial decisions, and has almost nothing to do with the creative resources of 

African American culture. Sales potential has been behind every choice of artist and repertoire. 

Many of the artists in the group of albums listed here were recorded for the race label of Victor 

Records, Bluebird Records, which by 1940 had come to dominate the blues industry. The 

recordings were done in Chicago by a small group of musicians centered around Big Bill 

Broonzy, and they featured small instrumental groups for accompaniment and songs that 

sometimes were close to the easy swing and presentation of the small band jazz that was also 

popular. The “Bluebird Beat” could fill the counters of the “five and dimes,” and the releases 

were also carefully adapted to the new juke boxes that were spreading through black 

neighborhoods. Even today most of the copies of the old Bluebird releases by artists like Big 

Maceo or Jazz Gillum that turn up in collections are heavily worn only on one side - the side that 

was played on the juke box. The Bluebird Beat became very popular, but it also became 

repetitive and formulaic. The artists and the companies continued to turn out the same kind of 

releases, finally without much inspiration or imagination. 

The 1930s urban blues was a musical style that was in transition. With the addition of 

small horn sections and a heavier back beat it became the R & B of the post war years. With the 

shift to slide guitars and the addition of the electric harmonica it metamorphised into the Chicago 

blues. 

A BLUES DOCUMENT 

BLUES IN THE MISSISSIPPI NIGHT - CD with lengthy booklet containing entire transcription 

of text and documentary photographs. Rykodisc, 1990. Dodd CD 214 

The blues singers interviewed by Alan Lomax on this astonishing document are Memphis Slim, 

Big Bill Broonzy, and Sonny Boy Williamson. On a prior, limited release of the material the 

singers were not identified, to protect them from retaliation by white listeners. In this interview - 

conversation is perhaps a better description - Lomax asked frank questions about the racism that 

each of the singers had encountered as they grew up and as they tried to live their daily lives and 

pursue their careers. Their answers were a frightening glimpse into the systematic racism that 

had turned the United States into a de facto apartheid state. 

BIG BILL BROONZY 

Broonzy was a talented, productive artist who was one of most popular of this generation 

of urban artists. From Arkansas, where he had grown up as a sharecropper, he had a wide 

background in the blues, and he also seemed to know every blues musician in Chicago. For a 

few years, when the Bluebird Beat had run its course, he dropped out of music, but he was found 

working as a custodian at the University of Chicago and - like his friend and fellow bluesman 

Memphis Slim - he began a new career as a folk blues artist, recording for many of the folk 

labels of the 1950s. 

BIG BILL BROONZY - LP, “Big Bill Broonzy (1935-1939) RST Records, 1988. 

Dodd LP 311 

BIG BILL BROONZY - LP, “Big Bill Broonzy (!935-1941) B.O.B. Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 312 

251

BIG BILL BROONZY - LP, “Big Bill Broonzy Sings Folk Songs” Folkways Records, 1962. 

Dodd LP 313 

BUMBLE BEE SLIM - LP, “Bumble Bee Slim, 1931-1937” Document Records, 1986. 

Dodd LP 314 

JAZZ GILLUM - LP, “Jazz Gillum, 1935-1946” B.O.B. Records, n.d. Dodd LP 315 

JAZZ GILLUM - LP, “Blues by Jazz Gillum” Folkways Records, 1968. Dodd LP 316 

MERLINE JOHNSON - LP, “The Yas Yas Girl, 1937-1941” B.O.B., n.d. Dodd LP 317 

ST. LOUIS JIMMY - CD, “Goin’ Down Slow” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960, CD, 1996. 

Dodd CD 118 

SUNNYLAND SLIM - CD, “Slim’s Shout” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960, CD, 1993. 

Dodd CD 119 

ROOSEVELT SYKES - CD, “The Return of Roosevelt Sykes” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960, CD, 

1992. Dodd CD 120 

ROOSEVELT SYKES - CD, “The Honeydripper” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960, CD, 1993. 

Dodd CD 121 

WASHBOARD SAM - LP, no title. Blues Classics, n.d. Dodd LP 318 

The album includes an extended note by Paul Oliver. 

SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON - LP, no title. Blues Classics, n.d. Dodd LP 319 

This is the Sonny Boy Williamson who began recording in the 1930s and was murdered in 1948 

at the age of 36. 

SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON - LP, “Sonny Boy and his Pals” Saysdisc, n.d. 

This is also the early Sonny Boy Williamson. On seven titles he is the singer and harmonica 

player, on the other seven titles he accompanies Elijah Jones, Yank Rachel, or Big Joe Williams. 

Dodd LP 320 

“SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON” - CD, “Goin’ In Your Direction” Alligator Records,1994. 

Dodd CD 122 

This is a reissue of the blues recorded for Trumpet Records in Jackson, Mississippi by Rice 

Miller, who signed a contract with Trumpet in 1950. He had been using the name of the original 

Sonny Boy Williamson for several years. The album includes lengthy, informative notes by 

Marc Ryan. 

“SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON” - LP, “The Original” Blues Classics, 1965. 

The album includes notes by Paul Oliver. Dodd LP 321 

252

“SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON - LP, “Bummer Road” Chess Records, n.d. 

This is a reissue of Chess singles recorded between 1957 and 1960. Dodd LP 322 

“SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON - CD, “Blues Masters, Vol. 12” Storyville Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 123 

“SONNY BOY WILLIAMS – 7” LP, “It’s King Biscuit Time” Arhoolie Records, 1975. 

Dodd LP 759 

COLLECTIONS 

ANY KINDA MAN, Previously unissued, 1934-1938 - LP, Travelin’ Man Records, 1989. 

Dodd LP 323 


Lil Johnson 


Barrel House Anne 


Irene Sanders 

Hattie Bolten 

THE DETROIT BLUES, The Early 1950s - LP, Blues Classics, n.d. Dodd LP 324 


Baby Boy Warren 

Dr. Ross 

Bobo Jenkins 

Eddie Kirkland 

Detroit Count 

L. C. Green 

Big Maceo 

John Lee Hooker 

One String Sam 

Brother Will Hairston 

II B6. Post-war Rhythm and Blues 

Perhaps the simplest distinction we can make between the pre-war acoustic blues and 

the post-war Rhythm and Blues that developed from it is that in the early advertising, and on the 

later album covers for the pre-war blues the singers are hardly ever smiling. On the rhythm and 

blues album covers none of the singers ever stops smiling, and that difference almost sums up 

the changes in the music. Rhythm and Blues is a positive, confident, up tempo style that reflects 

the experience of young African American men in the recently ended war. They had come 

through it with courage and with honor, and even if they came back to a country that still was 

scarred by racial prejudice they felt now that they would never be forced to go back to the 

253

humiliation and the fear that they had known before the war had taken them away. As Charles 

Brown sang, in the title of one of the new songs, “My Heart is Mended.” 

Stylistically the new R&B bands had learned from Fats Waller and his Rhythm, the great 

jive group of the 1930s, and from the new, small swinging bands like Louis Jordan and his 

Tympani Five. There was none of the roughness or the hurried studio time of the acoustic blues 

of the 1920s. The new sound had some of the sophistication and verve that came with the 

success of the swing orchestras. R&B developed in the shadow of Duke Ellington, Jimmy 

Lunceford, Cab Calloway, and Count Basie, and the shadows these musicians cast was a long 

one. R&B stepped out into a spotlight of its own with skillful arrangements, instrumental 

sophistication, and the strong personalities of its own artists. The music was still the blues, but it 

was blues performed in classy band uniforms and sung with a grinning smile. 

MILDRED ANDERSON - CD, “Person to Person” Prestige/Bluesville 1959. Reissued 1993. 

Dodd CD 124 

A presentation of tenor man Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, and including the fine hammond organ jazz 

soloist Shirley Scott. 

MILDRED ANDERSON - CD, “No More In Life” Prestige/Bluesville, 1960. 

Reissued, 1995. Dodd CD 125 

JAMES BOOKER, LP, “The Piano Prince from New Orleans” Metronome Records, 1976. 

Dodd LP 183 

EARL BOSTIC - LP, “Earl Bostic, 14 Hits” King Records, 1977. A reissue collection. 

Dodd LP 184 

CHARLES BROWN - LP, “Sunny Road” Route 66, 1978. A reissue collection. 

Dodd LP 185 

The Route 66 releases, from a small company in Sweden, are an excellent example of a 

responsible reissue project. The material was carefully selected, the album notes include the 

lyrics of the songs, and the performers were paid royalties on all album sales. I was presented 

with a set of the albums in exchange for helping one of the Route 66 staff, Per Notini, decipher 

some of the lyrics. 

CLARENCE “GATEMOUTH” BROWN - CD, “No Looking Back” Alligator Records, 1992. 

Dodd CD 126 

ROY BROWN - LP, “Good Rocking Tonight” Route 66, 1978. A reissue collection. 

Dodd LP 186 

ROY BROWN - LP, “Laughing but Crying” Route 66, 1979. A reissue collection . 

Dodd LP 187 

RUTH BROWN - LP, “Sweet Baby of Mine” Route 66, 1979. A reissue collection. 

Dodd LP 188 

254

The extensive notes also include a discography and a list of unissued recordings. 

FLOYD DIXON - LP, “Opportunity Blues” Route 66, 1976. A reissue collection . 

Dodd LP 189 

FLOYD DIXON - CD, “Wake Up And Live!” Alligator Records, 1996. Dodd CD 127 

WILLIE DIXON - CD, “Willie’s Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1990, originally issued 1960. 

Dodd CD 357 

BILL DOGGETT - LP, “Bill Doggett All His Hits” King Records, 1977. A reissue collection. 

Dodd LP 190 

LOWELL FULSON, 1946-1957 - LP, “Lowell Fulson” Blues Boy, 1982. A reissue. 

Dodd LP 191 

Blues Boy reissues were also from Sweden’s Route 66 label, and there was the same attention to 

album notes, song lyrics, and artists’ royalties. See also the Arhoolie archive. 

SLIM GAILLARD - LP, “Cement Mixer Put-ti Put-ti” Folklyric Records, 1984. A reissue. 

Dodd LP 192 

It’s difficult to know where to put someone as talented and as individual and as eccentric as Slim 

Gaillard. He was a hipster, and he delighted in speaking and singing “jive” and accompanying 

himself with a more or less straight jazz piano backgroun.d. His pre-war recording of “Flat Foot 

Floogie (With a Floy Floy)” by “Slim and Slam,” with bassist Slam Stewart, was one of the 

surprise hits of the decade, but Stewart decided that it was too difficult working as a duo and 

after the war Gaillard worked with his own trio or small group, usually including the bass player 

Bam Brown. 

SLIM GAILLARD & FRIENDS - LP, “Chicken Rhythm” Storyville Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 193 

Among the friends on this collection of singles from the mid-1940s are Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie 

Parker, Howard McGhee, and Lucky Thompson. 

PAUL GAYTEN & Annie Laurie - LP, “Creole Gal” Route 66, 1975. A reissue. 

Dodd LP 194 

WYNONIE HARRIS - LP, “Mr. Blues is Coming to Town” Route 66, 1977. A reissue. 

Dodd LP 195 

ROY HAWKINS - LP, “Why Do Everything Happen To Me” Route 66, 1978. A reissue. 

Dodd LP 196 

IVORY JOE HUNTER - LP, “7th Street Boogie” Route 66, 1977. A reissue. 

255

Dodd LP 197 

BULL MOOSE JACKSON & His Buffalo Bearcats - LP, “Big Fat Mamas Are Back 

In Style Again” Route 66, 1980. A reissue. Dodd LP 200 

LIGHTNIN’ SLIM - LP, “London Gumbo” Sonet Records, 1978, licensed from Nashboro 

Records. Dodd LP 198 

LITTLE WILLIE JOHN - LP, “Little Willie John” King Records, 1977. A reissue. 

Dodd LP 199 

Little Willie John did the original recording of the song “Fever” which two years later became a 

major hit for Peggy Lee, and is now a contemporary classic. 

JIMMY McCRACKLIN and his Blues Blasters - LP, “Rockin’ Man” Route 66, a reissue. 

Dodd LP 201 

AMOS MILBURN & HIS CHICKEN SHACKERS - LP, “Just One More Drink” 

Route 66, 1978. A reissue. Dodd LP 202 

BOBBY MITCHELL & THE TOPPERS - LP, “I’m Gonna Be A Wheel Someday” 

Mr. R & B Records, 1979. A reissue. Dodd LP 203 

Mr. R & B Records was another division of the Route 66 label. 

JUNIOR PARKER - LP, “Sometimes Tomorrow My Broken Heart Will Die” Bluesways 


Parker started on the harmonica and he came to the blues through the playing of Sonny Boy 

Williamson No. 2 - Rice Miller - who was playing on the King Biscuit Time radio program and 

performing on small tours around the countryside. Parker played with Sonny Boy when he was 

still a boy, then went on to record for Sam Phillips’ Sun label in Memphis. From Sun he went to 

Don Robey’s Duke-Peacock Records in Houston and this album is a collection of his hits from 

his years with Duke. 

LLOYD PRICE - LP, “The ABC Collection” ABC Records, 1976. Dodd LP 205 

New Orleans-born Lloyd Price is one of the handful of R&B artists who became even better 

known to the new rock and roll audiences in the 1950s, when the two styles began to sound more 

and more like each other. This collection includes his most successful record, “Lawdy Miss 

Clawdy,” a song that crossed over to AM radio and became his trademark for years of Rock and 

Roll package shows. His “Stagger Lee” and “Corrina, Corrina” had the same kind of sales 

response with both audiences, and Price’s blues-inflected singing style left its impression on 

dozens of younger performers. 

PROFESSOR LONGHAIR - LP, “The London Concert” JSP Records, n.d. Dodd LP 206 

One of the glories of New Orleans AM radio in the 1950s was the sound of Professor Longhair 

with his distinctive piano style and his irrepressible sense of humor. The bands accompanying 

him had different names - one, I remember, was named “The Shuffling Hungarians” - but they 

all played with that loose, unmistakable New Orleans swinging rhythm. On this live concert he 

256

only has his drummer with him, but with his piano that’s all he needed to do a selection of his 

most popular songs. 

PROFESSOR LONGHAIR - LP, “Crawfish Fiesta” Sonet Records, 1980, licensed from 

Alligator Records. Dodd LP 207 

AL SMITH - CD, “Hear My Blues” Prestige/Bluesville 1959. Reissued 1993. 

Dodd CD 128 

Another “Lockjaw” Davis presentation, again with Shirley Scott playing the Hammond organ. 

BIG MAMA THORTON - CD, “Jail” Vanguard Records, 1975. Dodd CD 129 

A live performance by Thorton at Monroe State Prison, Monroe, Washington. She does her hits 

for a noisily appreciative audience, including a version of her classic “Ball ‘N’ Chain,” the song 

that became the first hit for Janis Joplin, who sang it as closely as she could to Thornton’s style. 

JIMMY WITHERSPOON - CD, “Baby, Baby, Baby” Prestige/Bluesville, 1963. Reissued, 

1990. Dodd CD 130 

JIMMY WITHERSPOON - CD, “Evenin’ Blues” Prestige/Bluesville, 1963. Reissued, 1993. 

Dodd CD 131 

This material is taken from a particularly strong session in Los Angeles in August, 1963. The 

guitarist is the Texas electric blues veteran T. Bone Walker, whose stinging tone is an excellent 

foil for Spoon’s dark, smooth voice. 

BILLY WRIGHT - LP, “The Prince of the Blues: Stacked Deck” Route 66, 1980. A Reissue. 

Dodd LP 208 

R&B COLLECTIONS 

BATTLE OF THE BLUES - LP, King Records, n.d. Dodd LP 209 


Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson 

Roy Brown 

Wynonie Harris 

GOING BACK TO NEW ORLEANS - LP, Specialty Records, 1978. Dodd LP 210 

A British reissue of singles from one of the most successful of the R&B labels, Specialty 

records. 


Joe Liggins 

Lil Millet 

Art Neville 

Lloyd Lambert 

Earl King 

Lloyd Price 

Roy Montrell 

257

Edgar Blanchard 

Guitar Slim 

Ernie Kador 

Big Boy Myles 

Jerry Byrne 

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL 1976 - LP, Island Records, 1976. 



Allen Toussaint 

Irma Thomas 

Earl King 

Lee Dorsey 

Ernie K-Doe 

Robert Parker 


Professor Longhair 

New Orleans R&B at its finest, with Lee Dorsey performing his hit “Workin’ In A Coal Mine” 

and Professor Longhair ending the show with his “Mardi Gras in New Orleans.” 

THE SPECIALTY STORY - 5 CDS in a box with an extensive, fully illustrated booklet. Specialty 

Records, 1994. Dodd CD 132, 133, 134, 135, 136 

Art Rupe’s Specialty label was one of the most successful producers of R&B hits, and Rupe was 

one of the most respected company owners in the field. He was also the producer for his greatest 

successes, and his tight, bright sound was one of the basic sources for the rock and roll that 

developed a few years later. The range of artists included in this reissue is too lengthy to list, 

but it includes blues, r&b, and gospel performers, and each of their singles was carefully 

produced and promoted on a nationwide basis. Among the best known artists associated with 

Specialty were Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, Roy Milton, Joe Liggins, Don & Dewey, 

Alex Bradford, The Soul Stirrers, Larry Williams, and Lloyd Price. All of their most important 

releases are included in this lavish boxed set, which includes a statement by Rupe. 

SHOUT, BROTHER, SHOUT! Trumpet Records R & B, 1951-1954 - CD, Alligator Records, 

1994. Dodd CD 137 


Rocky Jones & The Texas Jacks 

Lonnie Holmes & His Dark Town Boys 

The Four Sharps 

Sherman “Blues” Johnson & His Clouds of Joy 

Beverly White & Her Trio 

Willie Love & His 3 Aces 

Wally Mercer 

258

II B7. Modern Blues 

II B7a. Chicago and Modern Electric Blues 

Seven years after he had recorded as a field hand playing an acoustic guitar and nervously 

imitating the recordings of Robert Johnson, McKinley Morganfield, who was working on the 

Stovall Plantation in northern Mississippi, recorded a record with a blues trio for a small 

Southside Chicago record company. In the brief period he had refashioned his blues, learned 

how to play an electric guitar, and changed his name to Muddy Waters. His new style, part 

Mississippi, part Chicago, and entirely Muddy Waters, changed the course of the blues, and with 

it the direction of popular music in our half of the twentieth century. His success opened the 

door for other blues musicians to take the new Chicago style even further, and his own 

recordings slowly expanded from the first trio, with acoustic bass, to the full Chicago blues band 

sound we know today, with lead guitar, rhythm guitar, piano, harmonica, bass, and drums. 

Muddy played his guitar leads with a slide, and the slide style dominated the single releases of 

another Mississippian who had learned from Robert Johnson, Elmore James. The third of the 

great Mississippi triumvirate of the Chicago blues, Howlin’ Wolf, played the rhythm guitar in his 

group, but the leads were there in the skilled fingers of Hubert Sumlin. 

The recordings at first sold as singles in the South Side. It was only years later that they 

were reisssued in LP form, and by that time the audience for the grit and fire of the South Side 

style had drifted off to Soul and the carefully coached mechanics of the Motown Soun.d. The 

Lps were for the new audience, which was young and white. The music so completely defined 

the rush of the postwar years that it was only a brief time before young white musicians began to 

imitate the soun.d. In 1964 I introduced Muddy and his band at a folk concert at New York’s 

Carnegie Hall, and he called me later that night from his run down hotel in Greenwich Village to 

say that they hadn’t been paid enough to get back to Chicago and could I produce some kind of 

record session with them so they could pay their hotel bill. It was only two years later that 

young white musicians who had learned the style from Muddy, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, 

were to cause a sensation at the Newport Folk Festival and begin a whole new era of rock. Their 

success was a tribute to Muddy’s great breakthrough, and the white musicians who followed the 

first generation of Chicago bands, from Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield to the Rolling 

Stones, always insisted on crediting the musicians from whom they had learned. 


LUTHER ALLISON and the Blue Nubulae - LP, “Love Me Mama” Delmark Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 212 

LUTHER ALLISON - CD, “Soul Fixin’ Man” Alligator Records, 1994. Dodd CD 138 

LUTHER ALLISON - CD, “Blue Streak”Alligator Records, 1995. Dodd CD 139 

BILLY BOY ARNOLD - CD, “Eldorado Cadillac” Alligator Records, 1995. Dodd CD 140 

CAREY BELL - LP, “Carey Bell’s Blues Harp” Delmark Records, n.d. Dodd LP 213 

259

CAREY BELL - CD, “Deep Down” Alligator Records, 1995. Dodd CD 141 

JOHN BRIM - See Chess LP “Elmore James - John Brim” Dodd LP 231 

The LONNIE BROOKS Blues Band - LP, “Bayou Lightning” Sonet Records, licensed from 

Alligator Records, 1979. Dodd LP 214 

LONNIE BROOKS - CD, “Satisfaction Guaranteed” Alligator Records, 1991. Dodd CD 142 

LONNIE BROOKS - CD, “Roadhouse Blues” Alligator Records, 1996. Dodd CD 143 

ALBERT COLLINS - LP, “Ice Pickin’” Sonet Records, licensed from Alligator Records, 1978. 

Dodd LP 215 

ALBERT COLLINS - LP, “Frostbite” Sonet Records, licensed from Alligator Records, 1980. 

Dodd LP 216 

JOHNNY COPELAND - LP, “Copeland Special” Rounder Records, 1981. Dodd LP 217 

JIMMY “FAST FINGERS” DAWKINS - LP, “Fast Fingers” Delmark Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 218 

JIMMY DAWKINS - LP, “Transatlantic 770” Sonet Records, licensed from Nashboro Records, 

1978. Dodd LP 219 

BO DIDDLEY - LP, “Bo Diddley Is A . . . Lover” Checker Records, n.d. Dodd LP 220 

BO DIDDLEY - LP, “Bo Diddley’s A Twister” Checker Records, n.d. Dodd LP 221 

See also The Super Super Blues Band 

BUDDY GUY 

A BUDDY GUY COLLECTION 

Some years ago I was asked by Vanguard Records to produce a 5 CD boxed set 

documenting Buddy Guy’s long career in recognition of his current popularity. Vanguard owned 

only three of his albums, the first two that I had produced and a later recording before he left the 

label, and I suggested that there might be a problem with obtaining permission from other 

companies to use their material. I was told to continue anyway, and I gathered this collection of 

Guy’s CDs, documenting virtually all of his recordings up to that point. I turned over my play 

list of the projected documentary and wrote a draft of the notes for the package, but as I had 

anticipated the other companies controlling his recordings were uninterested in being part of the 

Vanguard release. The project was dropped, but I expanded the notes I had written into the 

chapter “Buddy Guy, A Cry as Big as the Sky” for my 2004 book Walking a Blues Road . 

BUDDY GUY - The Early Years - Cobra and Chess Labels. A shared CD with OTIS RUSH, 

“Blues on Blues” Fuel 2000 Records. 2000-0105/CD 1902 

260

A collection of the singles Guy and Rush recorded for the short-lived Cobra label. Guy didn’t 

play his own guitar accompaniment for some of the early sides, instead either Rush Ike Turner 

backed him. 

THE CHESS SINGLES 

Compilation CDs of the Chess singles from the early 1960s, often repeating titles. 

“I Was Walking Through the Woods” CD, Chess Records 1990. 2000-0105/CD 1903 

“Buddy’s Blues” CD, Chess Records, 1997. 2000-0105/CD 1904 

“The Best of Buddy Guy” CD, Chess Records, 2001. 2000-0105/CD 1905 

“Muddy Waters Folk Singer” CD, Chess Records, 1999. 2000-0105/CD 1906 

This was a Muddy Waters album session, but Guy was added as a back-up acoustic guitarist, 

since Muddy couldn’t think of anyone else on the Chess roster of artists who could fit in with his 

old acoustic Mississippi style. 

A CHESS COLLECTION. 2000-0105/CD 1907 


Howlin’ Wolf 

Sonny Boy Williamson 

Little Walter 

Muddy Waters 

Elmore James 

Etta James 

Buddy Guy 

Little Milton 

Koko Taylor 

THE VANGUARD YEARS 

A Three CD set containing the three LP albums Guy recorded for Vanguard Records between 

1966 and 1970. - Vanguard Records, 2000. 

“A Man and the Blues” 2000-0105/CD 1908a 

“This Is Buddy Guy” Both produced by Samuel Charters. 2000-0105/CD 1908b 

“Hold That Plane!” Produced by Michael Cuscuna. 2000-0105/CD 1908c 

THE PARTNERSHIP WITH JUNIOR WELLS 

For several years following the Vanguard period Guy’s career languished and his recordings 

were made as a partnership with his long-time friend Junior Wells. 

“Southside Blues Jam” CD, Delmark Records, 1969-1970. 2000-0105/CD 1909 

“Buddy and the Juniors” CD, (original release Blue Thumb Records, 1970) BGO records, 

1998. 2000-0105/CD 1910 

“Drinkin’ TNT ’n’ Smokin’ Dynamte” CD, Blind Pig Records, 1988. 

2000-0105/CD 1911 

“Alone & Acoustic” CD, Alligator Records, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 1912 

261

“Live in Montreux” CD, Evidence Records, 1997, a re-release of the 1977 release on the 

French label Black & Blue Records. 2000-0105/CD 1913 

BUDDY GUY - CD, “A Man & The Blues” Produced by Samuel Charters, Vanguard Records, 

1967. Dodd CD 144 

BUDDY GUY - CD, “This Is Buddy Guy!” Produced by Samuel Charters, Vanguard Records, 

1968. Dodd CD 145 

BUDDY GUY - CD, “My Time After Awhile” Produced by Samuel Charters, Vanguard Records, 

1992. This is a compilation of the two previous albums. Dodd CD 146 

BUDDY BUY - CD, “Hold That Plane!” Vanguard Records, 1972. Dodd CD 147 

BUDDY GUY & JUNIOR WELLS - CD, “Alone & Acoustic” Alligator Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 148 

BUDDY GUY COLLECTIONS 

“Buddy Guy” CD, A French Reissue on Warner Brothers Records, 1998. 

2000-0105/CD 1914 

“Buddy Guy and Junior Wells” CD, St. Clair Records, 2000. 2000-0105/CD 1915 

Includes both solo performances by each of them and two duets. 

A EUROPEAN SESSION FEATURING THE NEW ELECTRIC SOUND 

“Stone Crazy” CD, Alligator Records, 1981, a re-release of the original 1979 CD on the French 

label Isabel Records. 2000-0105/CD 1916 

TODAY’S STARRING CAREER 

Although Guy had no recording contract as a solo artist for some years, he was appearing on the 

international festival circuit as the opening act for groups like the Rolling Stone. The excitement 

his performances as he put more focus on his guitar solo work finally brought him to the 

attention of the mainstream audience, and he has now become an icon of the modern blues. 

“Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues” CD, Silvertone, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 1917 

“The Very Best of Buddy Guy” CD, Rhino, 1992. 2000-0105/CD 1918 

“Feels Like Rain” CD, Silvertone, 1993. 2000-0105/CD 1919 

“Slippin’ In” CD, Silverstone, 1994. 2000-0105/CD 1920 

“The Real Deal, Live with G. E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band. CD, Silvertone, 1996. 

2000-0105/CD 1921 

“Heavy Love” CD, Silvertone, 1998. 2000-0105/CD 1922 

“Sweet Tea” CD, Silvertone, 2001. 2000-0105/CD 1923 

A RELATED RECORDING 

262

STEVIE RAY VAUGHN & DOUBLE TROUBLE - CD, The Real Deal, Greatest Hits 2. Epic, 

1999. 2000-0105/CD 1924 

Vaughn was influenced by a number of blues artists, and on this compilation he performs a live 

version of Buddy Guy’s “Leaved My Girl Alone.” It clearly shows the imprint of Guy’s playing 

on one of his younger disciples. 

A MODERN COLLECTION 

“Big Blues Extravaganza” CD, Columbia/Sony. 2000-0105/CD 1925 


Albert Collins 

Lightnin’ Sam Hopkins 

Stevie Ray Vaughn 

Jimmy Vaughn and the Tilt-A-Whirl Band 

Keb’ Mo’ 

Gatemouth Brown 

Dr. John 

Buddy Guy 

Taj Mahal 

The Neville Brothers 

Rory Block 

W. C. Clark and Friends 

B. B. King 

Delbert McClinton 

JOHN LEE HOOKER - 3 CD BOX, “John Lee Hooker” K-Box, Manufactured in Holland. 

2000-0105/CD 1926a-c 

ALBERT KING with Stevie Ray Vaughan - CD, “In Session” Stax Records, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 1927 

JOHNNY HEARTSMAN - CD, “The Touch” Alligator Records, 1991. Dodd CD 149 

MICHAEL HILL’S BLUES MOB - CD, “Bloodlines” Alligator Records, 1994. 

Dodd CD 150 

MICHAEL HILL’S BLUES MOB - CD, “Have Mercy!” Alligator Records, 1996. 

Dodd CD 151 

HOMESICK JAMES & SNOOKY PRYOR - LP, no title. Virgin Records, 1973. 

Dodd LP 222 

JOHN LEE HOOKER 

JOHN LEE HOOKER - LP, “Alone” Specialty Records, 1970 reissue. Dodd LP 223 

JOHN LEE HOOKER - LP, “Goin’ Down Highway 51” Specialty Records, 1971 reissue. 

263

Dodd LP 224 

These are LP reissues of singles Hooker recorded for Specialty in Detroit in the last 1940s 

and early 1950s. Hooker performs without band accompaniment. 

JOHN LEE HOOKER - CD, “Burning Hell” Riverside Records, 1959, reissued 1992. 

Dodd CD 152 

JOHN LEE HOOKER - CD, “The Country Blues of John Lee Hooker” Riverside Records, 1959, 

reissued 1991. Dodd CD 153 

JOHN LEE HOOKER - CD, “That’s My Story” Riverside Records, 1960, reissued 1991. 

Dodd CD 154 

JOHN LEE HOOKER - Double CD package, “The Ultimate Collection: 1948-1990” Rhino 

Records, 1991. Dodd CD 155a, 155b 

HOWLIN’ WOLF 

HOWLIN’ WOLF - LP, “Evil” Chess Records, n.d. Dodd LP 225 

This is a reissue of Wolf’s singles from the period 1951-1957. The album was originally issued 

with the title “Moanin’ In The Moonlight”. 

HOWLIN’WOLF - LP, “More Real Folk Blues” Chess Records, n.d. Dodd LP 226 

HOWLIN’ WOLF - LP, “Rockin’ The Blues” Chess International, n.d. Dodd LP 227 

HOWLIN’ WOLF - double LP, “Chester Burnett aka Howlin’ Wolf” Chess/Janus, 1972. 


This is a compilation of Wolf’s greatest singles from his earlier recording period. A strong 

feature of the album is a long essay written with Wolf’s help by blues historian Pete Welding. 

HOWLIN’ WOLF - LP, “The Howlin’ Wolf Album” Cadet Concept, n.d. Dodd LP 229 

This album was a product of the 1960s, and it was an attempt by the producers - Marshall 

Chess, Charles Stepney & Gene Barge - to bring Wolf’s music into the ‘60s rock era. Wolf was 

so upset with the result that the album cover had no art work, it simply read - in large black 

letters on a bare white background - 

This is Howlin’ Wolf’s 

new album. 

He doesn’t like it. 

He didn’t like his electric 

guitar at first either. 

Wolf’s growled comment, when he heard the playbacks, was “Dog shit.” See also The Super 

Super Blues Band 

264

J. B. HUTTO and his Hawks (with Sunnyland Slim) - LP, “Hawk Squat” Delmark Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 230 

ELMORE JAMES 

ELMORE JAMES - JOHN BRIM - LP, “Whose Muddy Shoes” Chess Records, n.d. 

A reissue of singles from the period 1953-1960. Dodd LP 231 

ELMORE JAMES - LP, “Memorial Album” Sue Records, n.d. Dodd LP 232 

ELMORE JAMES - LP, “The Resurrection of Elmore James” Kent Records, n.d. 

Both of these albums are reissues of early singles. Dodd LP 233 

ELMORE JAMES - LP, “The Legend of Elmore James” Sonet Records, licensed from Kent 

Records, n.d. Dodd LP 234 

Includes three previously unissued performances, three alternate takes and some moments of 

James talking in the studio. 

B. B. KING 

B. B. KING - LP, “B. B. King The Rarest King” Blues Boy, n.d. Dodd LP 235 

A reissue of King singles from the period 1949 to 1960. The album includes a lengthy, useful 

introduction to King’s music by Swedish blues pianist Per Notini. 

B. B. KING - Boxed set with four cassettes and 72 page lavishly illustrated booklet, “King of 

the Blues” MCA, 1992. Dodd AC 1, 2, 3, 4 

The definitive King collection, documenting his career from 1949 to 1991. 

B. B. KING - Double CD, “The Modern Recordings 1950-1951” Ace Records, 2002. 

2000-0105/CD 1928a-b 

B. B. KING - CD, “King of the Blues” Ace Records, 2002. 2000-0105/CD 1929 

This is a compliation of King’s recordings on the Kent label, 1960-1961. 

B. B. KING - 4 CD Box including additional sampler CD, “The Vintage Years” Ace 

Records, 2002. 2000-0105/CD 1930a-d 

Roger Armstrong and his London-based Ace Records have long set a high standard for reissues 

of post-war vintage recordings, and this sumptuous boxed set is an example of their finest 

production work. The compilation was made by blues expert John Broven, and the 75 page, 

lavishly illustrated booklet accompanying the CDs was written by Broven and Colin Escott. The 

recordings were originally issued as singles or on LP by a variety of local labels, and a 

discography is included in the booklet. 

LIL’ ED and the BLUES IMPERIALS - CD, “What You See Is What You Get” Alligator 

Records, 1992. Dodd CD 156 

265

LITTLE WALTER - LP, “Hate To See You Go” Chess, n.d. Dodd LP 236 

A reissue of singles from 1952 - 1960. 

LITTLE WALTER - Double LP, “Boss Blues Harmonica” Chess Records, 1984. 


MAGIC SAM’S Blues Band - LP, “West Side Soul” Delmark Records, n.d. Dodd LP 238 

MUDDY WATERS 

MUDDY WATERS - LP, “Down on Stovall’s Plantation” Testament, 1966. 

Dodd LP 239 

This is an essential LP release of all of the recordings Waters did for Alan Lomax in 1941 and 

1942 when Lomax was collecting music for the Library of Congress. Waters records as a soloist 

and as a member of the Son Sims Four. 

MUDDY WATERS - LP, “Sail On” Chess Records, n.d. Dodd LP 240 

A collection of Waters’ singles from the period 1948-1954. Originally release as “The Best of 

Muddy Waters.” 

MUDDY WATERS - LP, “Folk Singer” Chess Records, 1972. A repackaging of the 1963 

release. Dodd LP 241 

MUDDY WATERS - LP, “Brass and the Blues” Chess Records, 1966. Dodd LP 242 

MUDDY WATERS - LP, “More Real Folk Blues” Chess Records, 1967. Dodd LP 243 

MUDDY WATERS - LP, “Electric Mud” Chess Records, 1968. Dodd LP 244 

Chess’s attempt to do with Waters what they had done with Howlin’ Wolf in the high point of 

the psychedelic era. The album includes Waters’ version of the Rolling Stones success “Let’s 

Spend The Night Together.” 

MUDDY WATERS - LP, “‘Unk’ in Funk” Chess Records, 1974. Dodd LP 245 

MUDDY WATERS - Double LP set, “McKinley Morganfield A. K. A. Muddy Waters” Chess 

Records, n.d. Dodd LP 247a, 247b 

An extensive overview of Waters’ career on Chess, with excellent notes by Pete Welding. 

MUDDY WATERS - Six LP boxed set, “Muddy Waters The Chess Box” Chess Records, 1989. 

Dodd LP 246a, 246b, 246c, 246d, 246e, 246f 

The definitive collection of Waters’ music on Chess, with a lavishly illustrated booklet, and 

notes by Mary Katherine Aldin and Robert Palmer. See also The Super Super Blues Band 

KENNY NEAL - CD, “Walking On Fire” Alligator Records, 1991. Dodd CD 157 

KENNY NEAL - CD, “Bayou Blood” Alligator Records, 1992. Dodd CD 158 

266

KENNY NEAL - CD, “Hoodoo Moon” Alligator Records, 1994. Dodd CD 159 

FENTON ROBINSON - LP, “I Hear Some Blues Downstairs” Sonet Records, licensed from 


JIMMY ROGERS - LP, “Chicago Bound” Chess Records, n.d. Dodd LP 249 

This is a reissue of singles from 1950-1956. 

OTIS RUSH - LP, “Cold Day In Hell” Delmark Records, 1975. Dodd LP 250 

OTIS RUSH - LP, “Lost In The Blues” Alligator Records, 1991. Dodd 251 

This is Alligator’s reworking of the 1977 Sonet album. To fill out the sound Bruce Iglauer, 

president and producer of most Alligator releases, added keyboard to the original tracks, 

edited some of the solos, and remixed the album to bring it closer to the Alligator soun.d. Rush 

was angrily displeased with the result, although he had also expressed his dissatisfaction with 

the original album for its lack of a horn section. 

SON SEALS - LP, “The Son Seals Blues Band” Alligator Records, 1973. Dodd LP 252 

SON SEALS - LP, “Midnight Son” Sonet Records, licensed from Alligator Records, 1977. 

Dodd LP 253 

SON SEALS - LP, “Chicago Fire” Sonet Records, licensed from Alligator Records, 1980. 

Dodd LP 254 

SON SEALS - CD, “Living in the Danger Zone” Alligator Records, 1991. Dodd CD 160 

SON SEALS - CD, “Nothing but the Truth” Alligator Records, 1994. Dodd CD 161 

SON SEALS Live- CD, “Spontaneous Combustion” Alligator Records, 1996. Dodd CD 162 

OTIS SPANN - LP, “Cryin’ Time” Vanguard Records, 1968. [not transferred] 

Produced by Samuel Charters. 

SUGAR BLUE - CD, “In Your Eyes”Alligator Records, 1995. Dodd CD 163 

THE SUPER SUPER BLUES BAND, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley - LP, 

Checkers Records, 1967. Dodd LP 255 

MAURICE JOHN VAUGHN - CD, “In the Shadow of the City” Alligator Records, 1993. 

Dodd CD 164 

PHILIP WALKER - LP, “Someday You’ll Have These Blues” Sonet Records, licensed from 


267

KATIE WEBSTER - CD, “No Foolin’” Alligator Records, 1991. Dodd CD 165 

JUNIOR WELLS’ CHICAGO BLUES BAND - LP, “Hoodoo Man Blues” Delmark Records, 


JUNIOR WELLS - LP, “It’s My Life, Baby” Produced by Samuel Charters. Vanguard Records, 

1967. Dodd LP 258 

This copy is a later LP reissue on Vanguard’s Midline series. 

JUNIOR WELLS - LP, “Junior Wells’ South Side Blues Jam” Delmark Records, n.d. Dodd LP 

259 See also Buddy Guy 

JUNIOR WELLS - CD, French compilation for Warner Brothers Records, 1998. 

2000-0105/CD 1931 

BILLY BOY ARNOLD - CD, “Back Where I Belong” Alligator Records, 1993. 

2000-0105/CD 1932 

COLLECTIONS 

CHICAGO/ THE BLUES/ TODAY! 

SWEET HOME CHICAGO - LP, Delmark Records, 1969. Dodd LP 260 

Artists include Magic Sam, Luther Allison, Louis Myers,and Leo Evans 

LIVING CHICAGO BLUES 

LIVING CHICAGO BLUES - Volume 1, Jimmy Johnson, Eddie Shaw, Left Hand Frank. 

Dodd CD 166/ Dodd LP 261 

LIVING CHICAGO BLUES - Volume 2, Carey Bell, Magic Slim, Johnny “Big Moose” 

Walker. Dodd CD 167/ Dodd LP 262 

LIVING CHICAGO BLUES - Volume 3, Lonnie Brooks, Pinetop Perkins, The S. O. B. 

Ban.d. Dodd CD 168/ Dodd LP 263 

LIVING CHICAGO BLUES - Volume 4, A. C. Reed, Scotty and the Rib Tips, Lovie Lee. 

Dodd CD 169/ Dodd LP 264 

LIVING CHICAGO BLUES - Volume 5, Lacy Gibson, Big Leon Brooks, Andrew Brown. 

Dodd LP 265 

LIVING CHICAGO BLUES - Volume 6, Detroit Junior, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, 

Queen Sylvia Embry. Dodd LP 266 

LPs, released by Sonet Records, licensed from Alligator Records, 1978. The material was 

released on four CDs by Alligator in 1991, and this set is also in the archive. Alligator Records 

268

was begun in the 1970s by Bruce Iglauer, who was working behind the counter at Bob Koester’s 

Jazz Record Mart, in Chicago. Iglauer’s first release was a rough and irresistible album by 

Hound Dog Taylor, and he went on to build Alligator into the country’s most important blues 

label. The 

format and the presentation of the Living Chicago Blues series was a conscious response to the 

Chicago/The Blues/Today! albums of the 1960s. 

THE NEW BLUEBLOODS, The Next Generation of Chicaco Blues - LP, Sonet Records, licensed 

from Alligator Records, 1987. Dodd LP 267 


Michael Coleman 

Donald Kinsey and the Kinsey Report 

Valerie Wellington 

The Sons of Blues/Chi-Town Histlers 

The Professor’s Blues Review Featuring Gloria Hardiman 

John Watkins 

Maurice John Vaughn 

Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band 

Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials 

Don Payton and the 43 rd Street Blues Band 

THE ALLIGATOR RECORDS CHRISTMAS COLLECTION - CD, Alligator Records, 1992. 

Dodd CD 170 


Koko Taylor 

Kenny Neal 

Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials 

Katie Webster 

William Clarke, 

Tinsley Ellis 

Charles Brown 

Son Seals 

Lonnie Brooks 

Little Charlie & The Nightcats 

Elvin Bishop 

Saffire 

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown 

Charlie Musselwhite 

. . . makes the blues come alive ALLIGATOR CHICAGO - CD, Sonet Records, licensed from 

Alligator Records, 1990. Dodd CD 171 


Kenny Neal 


Koko Taylor 

Lonnie Mack 

269

Katie Webster 

Paladins 

Lonnie Brooks 

Little Charlie & The Nightcaps 

Saffire 

Alert Collins 

Delbert McClinton 


William Clarke 

Elvin Bishop 

Lucky Peterson 

Harp Attack (James Cotton, Junior Wells, Carey Bell, Billy Branch) 

Hound Dog Taylor 

THE ALLIGATOR RECORDS 20th ANNIVERSARY TOUR - Double CD, Alligator Records, 

1993. Dodd CD 172a, 172b 


Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperial 

Katie Webster 

Elvin Bishop 

Lonnie Brooks 

Koko Taylor 

See also video listing in catalog. 

POSTWAR CHICAGO BLUES - CD. Blues Masters, Volume 2 Rhino, 1992. 

2000-0105/CD 1933 


Baby Face Leroy Trio 

Muddy Waters 

Jimmy Rogers and His Trio 

Little Walter and the Night Cats 


Johnny Shines 

Howlin’ Wolf 

Bo Diddley 

Eddie Boyd 

Robert Jr. Lockwood 

J. B. Lenoir 

Jimmy Reed 

Jody Williams 

Otis Rush 

Magic Sam 

Buddy Guy 

Earl Hooker 

Junior Wells 

270

BLUES INSTRUMENTAL FOLIOS 

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Hal Leonard Publishing Corporations, base in Milwaukee, 

Wisconsin, produced a series of blues instrumental folios. These were expensively produced for 

the serious blues guitarist, and each release presented the work of a single artist, with the guitar 

playing, both accompaniment and solo, annotated in both notation and tablature. The 

transcriptions are accurately described as “Authentic Record Transcriptions,” and they present a 

useful source of study for anyone interested in the guitar techniques of the modern blues. In 

most of the folios the words for the songs also are included, along with historical photos and 

useful biographical essays on the featured artists. The following folios are included in the series 

and will be found in the Archive. 

ALBERT COLLINS – The Complete Imperial Recordings; includes thirty-six titles, published in 

1958. Dodd D 2056 

BO DIDDLEY – Guitar Solos; includes eighteen titles, published in 1988. Dodd D 2055 

WILLIE DIXON – The Master Blues Composer; includes thirty titles, and many of them 

presented in versions performed by different artists, published in 1992. Dodd D 2049 

Dixon was one of the most successful composers of blues songs performed by Chicago artists, 

and the folio includes a personal introduction, as well as Dixon’s own notes on the meaning 

behind the songs. 

JOHN LEE HOOKER – The Healer; includes ten titles, published in 1991. Dodd D 2051 

ELMORE JAMES – Master of the Electric Slide Guitar; eighteen titles, published in 1996. 

Dodd D 2052 

B. B. KING – no folio title, twenty blues titles, published in 1989. Dodd D 2053 

MUDDY WATERS – Deep Blue; thirty-one titles, published in 1995. Dodd D 2054 

II B7b. The New Blues 

The first published blues, “Dallas Blues,” which appeared in the spring of 1912, was 

composed by a white man who heard a melody sung by an African American who was working 

in his store and turned it into a song. The blues has had its white composers and performers for 

as long as there has been a blues style. The reality is that both of the races in the American 

dilemma have been borrowing and adapting from each since they first found themselves on the 

same continent. In the 1960s and 1970s, when for the first time there were authentic blues 

performers appearing in concerts and in clubs where young white listeners could hear them, 

there was considerable anxiety about whether whites could perform the blues. The same 

question was asked every blues singer who would stand still long enough to answer. The 

answer, from Muddy Waters to Lightning Hopkins, was pretty generally the same, “Those white 

271

oys can play their instrument, but they can’t really sing the blues. You have to be born with the 

blues.” In an irreverent response to all of this anxiety an English band of the 1960s, the Bonzo 

Dog Band, recorded a song called “Can a Blue Man Sing the Whites?” In 1957 I heard a new 

young blues singer’s voice coming out of the juke boxes in black bars in New Orleans, and it 

was several months before I found out he was white, and his name was Elvis Presley. Now that 

we are more than three decades along in the career of Eric Clapton the question isn’t asked with 

the same urgency. 

What this gathering of new blues reflects is the reality that there is almost no interest on 

the part of young African American performers in the older blues. The young black musicians 

who have immersed themselves in the blues can be numbered on the fingers of one hand - and 

even Taj Mahal, who has included the blues in his leisurely trip through African American folk 

styles, is in his sixties now. Keb’ Mo’ is the only younger black performer who has achieved 

much recognition as a traditional blues artist, but his award winning album is largely filled with 

soul numbers. If there is to be a new generation of blues artists then this generation will be 

white, and it is some of the artists whose music is included in the archive who will be this next 

generation. 

ELVIN BISHOP - CD, “Ace In The Hole” Alligator Records, 1995. Dodd CD 173 

Bishop was the first guitarist in the Paul Butterfield Quartet, then when Mike Bloomfield came 

into the group Bishop shifted to rhythm guitar. With the deaths of both Butterfield and 

Bloomfield Bishop has become a solo performer who tours steadily. 

MICHAEL BLOOMFIELD - CD, “The Best of Michael Bloomfield” Takoma Records, 1997. 

Dodd CD 174 

Bloomfield’s blues moved from acoustic folk styles to hard edged Chicago. He was an effective 

singer, but he was much better known as a guitarist. He grew up in Chicago and learned his 

blues hanging out in the South Side clubs. Of all the young guitarists in the city Bloomfield was 

the most exciting. He was part of the Butterfield band that had such a frenzied reception at the 

Newport Folk Festival and then he played with the electric band that accompanied Bob Dylan. 

For a period he joined his friend and fellow musician from earlier bands, Nick Gravenites, in an 

ambitious group called Electric Flag. At the same time he had become drug dependent, and after 

several years when his career drifted he was found dead of a drug overdose. 

CANNED HEAT - EP LP, “The Best of Canned Heat”Scepter Records, 1973. 

Dodd LP 268 

Canned Heat, from Los Angeles, was the only early rock band that tried conscientiously to work 

within the artistic dimensions of the country blues, and to everyone’s surprise they had a major 

hit with their version of the old Texas piece “Fishing Blues,” that had been recorded in the ‘20s 

by Henry Thomas.They also struggled with drug problems, and the band’s career ended when 

the lead singer and strongest personality in the band, Al Wilson, died of an overdose. 

CANNED HEAT - LP, “Vintage” Grand Prix, n.d. Dodd LP 269 

PETER CASE - CD, “Sings Like Hell” Vanguard Records, 1994. Dodd CD 175 

WILLIAM CLARKE - CD, “Serious Intentions” Alligator Records, 1992. Dodd CD 176 

272

WILLIAM CLARKE - CD, “Groove Time” Alligator Records, 1994. Dodd CD 177 

WILLIAM CLARKE - CD, “The Hard Way” Alligator Records, 1996. Dodd CD 178 

TINSLEY ELLIS and the HEARTFIXERS - CD, “Cool On It”Alligator Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 179 

TINSLEY ELLIS - CD, “Trouble Time” Alligator Records, 1992. Dodd CD 180 

TINSLEY ELLIS - CD, “Storm Warning” Alligator Records, 1994. Dodd CD 181 

JOHN HAMMOND 

Hammond is the son of the legendary record producer, John Hammond Sr., and in the family 

John Jr. was usually known as “Jeep.” He has had a long and impressive blues career, although 

the kind of major success of an Eric Clapton has always eluded him. He began as an acoustic 

blues musician, influenced by Robert Johnson, since then he has had various blues groups, some 

edging closer to R & B, but all of them hard-driving, solid bands. 

JOHN HAMMOND - CD, “John Hammond” Vanguard Records, 1964. Dodd CD 182 

JOHN HAMMOND - CD, “Big City Blues” Vanguard Records, 1964. Dodd CD 183 

JOHN HAMMOND - CD, “So Many Roads” Vanguard Records, 1965. Dodd CD 184 

JOHN HAMMOND - CD, “Country Blues” Vanguard Records, 1965. Dodd CD 185 

JOHN HAMMOND - CD, “Solo” Vanguard Records, 1976. Dodd CD 186 

JOHN HAMMOND and the NIGHTHAWKS - CD, “Hot Tracks” Vanguard Records, 1979. 

Dodd CD 187 

COREY HARRIS - CD, “Between Midnight and Day” Alligator Records, 1995. 

Dodd CD 188 

Harris is also one of the handful of young black musicians who had been drawn to the blues. 

COREY HARRIS - CD, “Fish Ain’t Bitin’” Alligator Records, 1997. 

2000-0105/CD 1935 

For this interesting CD Harris and co-producer Larry Hoffman broke from the usual Alligator 

mold and introduced the old Mississippi rural brass band tradition with Hoffman’s arrangements 

for the brass instruments. The rough sound was an exciting and effective complement to 

Harris’s strong voice that returned the blues to its rural songster roots. 

DAVE HOLE 

DAVE HOLE - CD, “Short Fuse Blues” Alligator Records, 1992. Dodd CD 189 

273

DAVE HOLE - CD, “Working Overtime” Alligator Records, 1993. Dodd CD 190 

DAVE HOLE - CD, “Steel on Steel” Alligator Records, 1995. Dodd CD 191 

DAVE HOLE - CD, “Ticket To Chicago” Alligator Records, 1997. Dodd CD 192 

DANNY KALB - CD, “Livin’ With The Blues” LegendR Records, 1989. 

Dodd CD 193 

KEB’ MO’ - CD, no title. Okeh/Epic, 1994. Dodd CD 194 

LITTLE CHARLIE and the NIGHTCATS - CD, “Straight Up!” Alligator Records, 1995. 

Dodd CD 195 

LITTLE CHARLIE and the NIGHTCATS - CD, “Night Vision” Alligator, 1993. 

2000-0105/ CD 1938 

BOB MARGOLIN - CD, “Down in the Alley” Alligator, 1993. 2000-0105/CD 1939 

BOB MARGOLIN - CD, “My Blues & My Guitar” Alligator Records, 1995. 

Dodd CD 196 

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE 

In 1964, when I was in Chicago for Prestige Records I met a young harmonica player 

named Charlie Musselwhite who was working behind the counter at Bob Koester’s record shop, 

which was also the headquarters of Bob’s Delmark Records. Charlie had just up from Memphis, 

where he had taken lessons from Will Shade of the Memphis Jug Ban.d. Charlie Musselwhite 

and I listened to bands on the South Side together and when I needed a harmonica player for a 

blues album with a new singer named Tracy Nelson I brought Charlie into the session for his 

first recording. 

Three years later I was back in Chicago as an artist and repertory director for Vanguard 

Records, and Charlie was one of the first musicians I signed to a Vanguard contract. When we 

went into the studio there were so many difficulties that neither of us wanted to repeat the 

experience, and for the rest of his Vanguard years he worked with other producers. Stand Back 

was our only album together. He played harmonica for many years, then learned the guitar, and 

he tours now playing either instrument. He has had one of the longest and most successful 

careers of the new generation of white performers, and he is now considered a blues legend 

himself. 

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE BLUES BAND - CD, “Stone Blues” Vanguard Records, 1968. 

Dodd CD 197 

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE BLUES BAND - CD, “Tennessee Woman” Vanguard Records, 

1969. Dodd CD 198 

274

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE - CD, “Signature” Alligator Records, 1991. Dodd CD 199 

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE - CD, “In My Time” Alligator Records, 1993. 

Dodd CD 200 

ANN RABSON - CD, “Music Makin’ Mama” Alligator Records, 1997. Dodd CD 201 

JUDY RODERICK - CD, “Woman Blue” Vanguard Records, 1965. Dodd CD 202 

SAFFIRE, THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN - CD “Broadcasting” Alligator Records, 1992. 

Dodd CD 203 

SAFFIRE - CD, “Old, New, Borrowed & Blue” Alligator Records, 1994. Dodd CD 204 

SAFFIRE - CD, “Cleaning House” Alligator Records, 1996. Dodd CD 205 

LARRY JOHNSON - CD, “Blues for Harlem” Armadillo Music Ltd., 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 1936 

LARRY JOHNSON - CD, “The Gentle Side of Larry Johnson” Stella Records, 2000. 

2000-0105/CD 1937 

BRIAN KRAMER - CD, “Where There’s A Will” Self produced, 2005. 

2000-0105/CD 1945 

Kramer is an expatriate American blues artist who lives with his wife and family in Stockholm, 

Sweden. On this CD he is joined on two tracks by guitarist Bob Brozman. 

MO BLUES - CD, “For the Road” Prophone, 1997. 2000-0105/CD 1940 

A blues band recorded in Sweden, with three Swedish musicians, an American vocalist, and a 

pianist from Finland. 

ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND - CD, “Liver at the Wetlands” Dare 

Records, 2001. 2000-0105/CD 1941 

A unique and exciting blues sound - Randolph plays his leads on a 13 string pedal steel guitar, 

which takes him into a new blues world. 

MEM SHANNON - CD, “A Cab Driver’s Blues” Hannibal/Rykodisc, 1995. 

2000-0105/CD 1942 

THE SIEGEL-SCHWALL BAND 

275

When I traveled to Chicago in the summer of 1967 one of the first bands I heard was a 

young white blues band playing in a club on Wells Street. The band was a quartet, with Corky 

Siegel playing harmonica or electric piano, Jim Schwall guitar or mandolin, Jos Davidson, bass, 

and Russ Chadwick, drums. They had a consistent, energetic blues style, and I signed them to a 

Vanguard contract. Despite the usual tensions of the 1960s company/artist relationships they 

were successful on Vanguard, then went on to do a brilliant series of appearances with the 

Boston Symphony Orchestra playing a composition titled “Concerto for Blues Band and 

Orchestra” that had been written for them by William Russo. One of my brightest memories of 

the band is the confused looks of the audience around me at the Tanglewood Festival, as Corky 

stood on the stage blowing - as far as they could tell - into his han.d. His Chicago-style 

harmonica was so small that his hand hid it completely, and for most of the audience the wailing 

sound that filled the air around the symphony orchestra could have been coming from the sky. 

THE SIEGEL-SCHWALL BAND - LP, “Siegel-Schwall ‘70” Vanguard Records, 1970. 

Dodd LP 270 

CORKY SIEGEL - CD, “Corky Seigel’s Chamber Blues” Alligator Records, 1994. 

Dodd CD 206 

JOHN WESTON & BLUES FORCE - CD, “So Doggone Blue” Fat Possum Records, 1993. 

Dodd CD 207 

DRIFTWOOD & HOTSPURS - no title, nd. Self produced in Stockholm, Sweden. 

2000-0105/CD 1934 

“Driftwood” plays many of the instruments, Lennart “Hotspurs” Söderberg plays resonator 

guitar, and there is an eclectic back-up group. 

COLLECTIONS 

GENUINE HOUSE ROCKIN’ MUSIC - CD Alligator Records, 1993. 2000-0105/CD 1943 


Koko Taylor 

Billy Boy Arnold 

Elvin Bishop 

Katie Webster 

Little Charlie and the Nightcats 

Johnny Heartsman 

Safire - The Uppity Blues Women 


Tinsley Ellis 



Bob Margolin 

Kenny Neal 


Lonnie Brooke 

276


Son Seals 

ALLIGATOR RECORDS 25th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION - Double CD, 1996. 

2000-0105/CD 1944a-b 


Jimmy Cotton 

Albert Collins with Johnny Copeland 




C. J- Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band 


Floyd Dixon 

Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang 

Cephas & Wiggins 

Kenny Neal 

Long John Hunter 

Safire - The Uppity Blues Women 

Lonnie Mack and Stevie Ray Vaughn 

Billy Boy Arnold 

Tinsley Ellis 

Sugar Blue 

Professor Longhair 

Koko Taylor 

Lonnie Brooks 

Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin 

Little Charlie and the Nightcats 

Luther Allison 

Katie Webster 

Elvin Bishop 

Carey Bell 

Lucky Peterson 

Dave Hole 

Corey Harris 

Michael Hill’s Blues Mob 

Roy Buchanan with Delbert McClinton 

Roy Buchanan 


Johnny Winter 

Hound Dog Taylor 

Fenton Robinson 


277

II B8. Zydeco and Related Cajun Sources 

II B8a. Cajun Sources 

Both of the words that identify these colorful Louisiana musical styles are casual 

variations on the French words that are part of the identity of the people who live in these 

isolated farms and towns in the western areas of the state. As most people are aware, “Cajun” is 

a way of saying “Acadian.” The home for the people in Louisiana now was the island of Acadia, 

on the eastern coast of Canada. In 1755 the French colonists were driven off the island by 

English invaders, who sold some of the people into slavery, seized their land and property, and 

drove the rest into exile. The island was renamed Nova Scotia. Louisiana at that time was 

controlled by Spain, but it had been French, and there was still a large French speaking 

population. The dispossessed Acadians made their way through the American colonies, or found 

ships to carry them to New Orleans, and they moved inlan.d. The culture in the areas where they 

settled remained French speaking, and with strong emotional ties to France, even if everyday life 

was closely linked to the rural Louisiana economy. A significant difference between their way 

of life and that of their neighbors was that they generally didn’t own slaves, and there was a 

much more relaxed attitude toward racial differences. For the Acadians the most crucial 

difference was French and non-French, not white and non-white as it was everywhere else in the 

South. 

Cajuns usually describe their music as an expression of their French heritage, but the 

situation is more complex. The language they sing in is the only thing about the music that is 

French. When the colonists left France in the early eighteenth century none of the musical styles 

that characterize Cajun music existed. The waltz and the two-step both developed decades later. 

The small accordion that is characteristic of Cajun music was not invented until the nineteenth 

century, and the instrument didn’t appear in Louisiana until it was brought to the area by German 

immigrants in the 1830s and 1840s. Some of these same German immigrants moved on to 

Texas, where they passed the same accordion on to the Mexican laborers they used for field 

labor, along with the waltzes and two-steps that they played on the instrument, with the result 

that in both western Louisiana and northern Mexico there is a lively indigenous population with 

similar traditions, similar melodies, and a similar affection for small accordions. 

The music that is played in Louisiana today also does not have such long traditions. For 

the early part of the century the dominant instrument in Cajun music was the violin, and for 

rhythm the triangle was used. There was still a tradition of French ballads, and some songs were 

adapted to the new dances and the new social conditions, but the music was largely a hybrid. As 

Cajun music began to make its way into the commercial main stream the bands were built 

around the fiddles, and the accordion almost disappeared. The change came in the 1940s, with 

the recordings of a young, half-blind musician named Iry LeJune, who played the accordion, and 

whose singing was deeply influenced by the blues idiom of a local African American musician, 

Amedie Ardoin. A young record company owner heard about LeJune’s way of wailing his 

songs, recorded him in his kitchen on primitive equipment, and released the records for a local 

market. The sound quality was poor, but it was immediately obvious that Le June was one of 

those unexpected geniuses who completely restructure the tradition they have absorbed, as 

Robert Johnson did for the delta blues ten years earlier. Tragically, LeJune was killed in an 

accident at the age of 26, but the effect of those first recordings reshaped Cajun music. 

278

Because of the less restrictive racial situation in the Cajun areas it is one of the few areas 

of the South where the music of white and black musicians is virtually interchangeable. Amedie 

Ardoin, who first recorded in the 1920s, was one of the early stars of Cajun music. His style was 

carried on by LeJune, and his son “Boi-Sec” (Dry-stick) Ardoin, then the next key figure in the 

development of the accordion was the white musician Nathan Abshire, whose most popular 

number was “Pine Grove Blues.” Both white and black Cajun bands sing in French, perform the 

same waltzes and two-steps, and often trade off as musicians, even though it wasn’t possible for 

them to appear together for public performances until the 1960s. I recorded an album with Boi- 

Sec and his family with the fine Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa, and I titled the album simply A 

Couple of Cajuns. 

Most of the music in the archive reflects the influence that Iry Le June has had on the 

contemporary Cajun style, but from the evidence of earlier recordings it is clear that Cajun music 

has been changing continually. If there is a tradition, the tradition is best described as perpetual 

change. In recent decades the drift has been toward the new Country and Western idiom, and the 

steel guitar, which the western bands took over from the Hawaiian novelty groups in the 1930s, 

has now become solidly established in the Cajun orchestra. If you were to trace the origins of 

Cajun music today you would find that by combining the old-style German accordian, western 

swing style violin playing, the blues influenced vocals of Iry Le June, and ringing sound of the 

electrified Hawaiian guitar you have defined a traditional way of playing French music. 

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS 

NATHAN ABSHIRE - LP, “Pine Grove Blues” Swallow Records, n.d. Dodd LP 271 

Nathan was a large, gentle man with a drinking problem who sang the blues and played the blues 

on his small, button accordian. When I knew him he had a poor paying job supervising the town 

dump out in the bayous, but he was admired and respected by his neighbors for his music, even 

if they shook their heads over his occasional difficulties getting back from a playing job. 

NATHAN ABSHIRE - LP, “Good Times Killin’ Me” Sonet Records, 1978. Dodd LP 272 

Produced and annotated by Samuel Charters 

ALPHONSE “BOIS-SEC” ARDOIN & CANRAY FONTENOT - LP, “Cajun Blues: Les Blues 

Du Bayou” Melodeon Records, 1966. Dodd LP 273 

Canray Fontenot played for many years with Boi-Sec, and he was widely regarded as the finest 

and most exciting of the French-style African American fiddlers. 

LAWRENCE “BLACK” ARDOIN and HIS FRENCH BAND - LP, no title. Arhoolie Records, 

1984. Dodd LP 274 

This is a group which is moving stylistically from cajun to zydeco, but the use of the fiddle and 

the square, button accordian place it still in the cajun style. 

THE ARDOIN FAMILY ORCHESTRA with DEWIE BALFA - LP, “A Couple of Cajuns” 

Sonet Records, 1981. Dodd LP 275 

Produced and annotated by Samuel Charters. 

279

Boi-Sec attempted to turn over the family’s musical traditions to a band made up of his sons, 

with Gus Ardoin replacing him on the accordion. After I had done half of an album with the 

new orchestra for the series “The Cajuns” Gus was killed in a tractor accident on a back country 

road, and, sadly, Boi-Sec picked up his accordian again. 

THE BALFA BROTHERS - LP, “Play Traditional Cajun Music” Swallow Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 276 

This was the first LP by the Balfa Brothers. 

The Balfa Brothers - Dewey, Rodney, and Will - were one of the fine family orchestras that have 

characterised so much of southern music. This album is a compilation of singles they recorded 

for Floyd Soileau’s company in Ville Platte. 

BALFA BROTHERS ORCHESTRA - LP, “Cajun Days” Sonet Records, 1979. 

Dodd LP Dodd 277 

Produced and annotated by Samuel Charters. 

The sessions for the album had to be scheduled over an extended period, due to technical 

difficulties and illness, and before the album could be completed two of the brothers, singer and 

guitarist Rodney, and violinist Will, were killed in an automobile accident. The album is the last 

recording by this distinguished musical family. Dewey Balfa, the informal leader of the 

orchestra, and Rodney’s son Tony continued to play as a duet until Dewey’s death from illness. 

They recorded together with Rocking Dopsie and the Twisters for an album that brought together 

the two styles, cajun and zydeco. 

HADLEY J. CASTILLE - LP, “Avec son violon Cajun Presente les chansons traditional de la 

Louisiane” Kajun Records, 1981. Dodd LP 278 

MICHAEL DOUCET - CD, “Beau Solo” Arhoolie Records, 1989. Dodd CD 221 

IRY LEJUNE 

IRY LeJUNE - LP, “The Legendary Iry LeJune, Vol. 1” Goldband Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 279 

IRY LeJUNE - LP, “The Legendary Iry LeJune, Vol. 2” Goldband Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 280 

LeJune was born near Church Point, Louisiana, in 1928 and he was taught the accordian by his 

father. He suffered from near blindness from childhood, and music for him was a necessity. It 

was the only way he could make any kind of living in poor farm country, like so many of the 

blind blues artists of the same time. He learned his way of singing and his accordion style from 

the recordings and the local appearances of Amedie Ardoin. Eddie Shuler, a musician himself 

and owner of Goldband Records described his meeting with LeJune in the notes to these albums. 

“When I first met Iry, he was coming up the street with his accordion in a flour sack. In thinking 

back it seems a little unreal that this man would one day be the greatest in his field. All of his 

contracts were made with a handshake, and with him that was all you needed; for once he made a 

deal with you there were no other arrangements. Most of his recordings were recorded at his 

home south of Lacassine, La. We would take the tape recorder (after they came out) and set it on 

280

the table in the kitchen.” LeJune was killed in 1954, when he was helping another musician 

change a flat tire and another car struck them both, killing him instantly. The first volume of 

these LPs contains a short biographical sketch by Mike Ledbitter. 

MARC SAVOY - LP, “Oh What A Night” Arhoolie Records, 1981. Dodd LP 281 

JO-EL SONNIER - LP, “Cajun Life” Sonet Records, 1980. Dodd LP 282 

AMBROSE THIBODEAUX - LP, “More Authentic Acadian French Music” La Louisianne 


RUFUS THIBODEAUX - LP, “A Tribute to Harry Choate” Tribute Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 284 

COLLECTIONS 

LE GRAN MAMOU: A CAJUN MUSIC ANTHOLOGY, 1928-1941 - CD, The Country Music 

Foundation, 1990. Dodd CD 222 

A general overview of the commercial recordings made in Louisiana by Victor and Bluebird 

records. Among the artists included are Leo Soileau, Amedie Ardoin, Falcon Trio, Nathan 

Abshire, the Hackberry Ramblers, and Happy Fats. 

LOUISIANA CAJUN MUSIC, Vol. 1, FIRST RECORDINGS, THE 1920s - LP, Old-Timey 


LOUISIANA CAJUN MUSIC, Vol. 2, THE EARLY 30’S - LP, Old Timey Records, 1971. 

Dodd LP 286 

These are excellent introductions to early Cajun music, with transcriptions of the lyrics also 

translated into English. 

CAJUN HONKY TONK, THE KHOURY RECORDINGS - CD, Arhoolie Records, 1995. 

Dodd CD 223 


Nathan Abshire 

Lawrence Walker 

The Texas Melody Boys 

Harry Choates 

Floyd LeBlanc 

The Musical Four Plus One 

Vincent & Cagley 

Elise Deshotel with Dewey Balfa 

Shuk Richard & Marie Falcon 

CAJUN FAIS DO-DO - CD, Arhoolie Records, 1995. Dodd CD 224 

All the material on the album was recorded by Chris Strachwitz, owner of Arhoolie Records, in 

May, 1966. 

281


Nathan Abshire and The Balfa Brothers 

Cyp and Adam Landreneau 

Ison J. Fontenot & Jerry Devillier 

The Breaux Brothers 

JAMBALAYA - THE MUSIC OF LOUISIANA, Vol. II - CD, Louisiana Film Commission, 1994. 

Dodd CD 225 

A promotional CD including music of all styles from Louisiana. Cajun and zydeco artists 

include Jo-El Sonnier, D. L. Menard, and Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas. 

II B8b. Zydeco 

In the same way that “Cajun” is the local way of saying “Acadian,” the other word used to 

describe a western Louisiana musical style also has a French background, though the derivation 

is more complex. “Zydeco” is a way of pronouncing the beginning of the phrase “les haricots 

son pas sale” - “the beans aren’t salty.” The phrase was the name of a melody that Frenchspeaking 

African American musicians in Louisiana played over and over on their accordions. 

When the first two words, les haricots - lezarico - were said quickly, they evolved into the name 

of a musical style. It was many years before there was any agreement as to the spelling, and in 

Louisiana today you still find dance posters with the music spelled as “zordico” or “zodico,” 

which certainly have as much claim to being correct as any other spelling of the word. The new 

style appealed to Louisiana people who had moved to Houston, and Houston blues man 

Lightning Hopkins did an early single of his version of the music with the title “Zologo Blues.” 

The piece titled “Les haricots . .” is a repetitive sequence of notes with many of the 

characteristics of an African melody, and in its first versions by the new bands it was played 

without chord changes and with an insistent rhythm that was reminiscent of African drumming. 

As the bands became more sophisticated, and instruments were added to the basic accordion and 

rubboard sound, the tune stubbornly remained different from everything else they performed. 

Every zydeco band plays it, titling it something like “Doin’ the Zydeco,” or “Zydeco Two-Step,” 

and each of them has found its own way to deal with its essential rhythmic formlessness. 

Zydeco could be described as an energetic R & B-tinged version of Cajun music. As the 

white Cajun bands edged closer and closer to Country and Western, the black Cajun groups 

edged away toward the blues. Instead of the steel guitar they added the tenor saxophone, and 

they adapted the blues and R & B styled new pieces to the basic Cajun repertoire of waltzes and 

two-steps. Zydeco is a new style, emerging in the 1950s, so almost every step in its evolution 

found its way on to record. The album on Arhoolie Records, “Zydeco, the Early Years,” listed 

below, documents the rough beginnings. The most important figure in the development of 

zydeco was the Lafayette musician Clifton Chenier, who composed most of the basic zydeco 

repertoire, and created the band style with his line-up of accordion, lead guitar, and saxophone, 

bass, drums, and rubboard. He also changed the type of accordion that was used in the bands. 

The Cajun musicians play a square button accordion with only limited harmonic possibilities. 

Clifton played a keyboard accordion, which was better suited to R & B chord changes and blues 

melodies. 

282

The rubboard is also characteristic of zydeco. In the beginning players used a genuine 

washboard - just as black musicians throughout the Caribbean used saws and scrapers for a 

rasping, percussive rhythm in small dance bands. Clifton’s brother Cleveland, who played 

washboard in the band, wore a ridged sheet metal vest which he had made for him at a local 

metal shop. For the rhythm he scraped it with a metal beer bottle opener. The vest is called a 

“frottoir” and it is standard for every ban.d. 

Clifton Chenier began his recording career with local companies, then for many years was 

an exclusive artist for Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie Records. There were many Louisiana 

people living in the San Francisco Bay area, where Arhoolie is located, and Chris sponsored 

dances featuring Clifton’s ban.d. When sales from Clifton’s singles slumped he became upset 

with Strachwitz and began recording with other labels. I produced the album I’m Here with 

Clifton in 1983, and we won a Grammy Award that year for the best album in the Ethnic Folk 

category. At the same time I was working with another Lafayette zydeco band, Rocking Dopsie 

and the Cajun Twisters, and one of the albums we did was nominated for a Grammy award the 

next year. 

FERNEST ARCENEAUX & THE THUNDERS - CD, “Rockin’ Pneumonia” Ornament, 

1991, reissue of material from 1979. Dodd CD 215 

BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO - LP, “One For The Road” Blues Unlimited, 1979. 

Dodd LP 691 

Buckwheat began as a keyboard player in Clifton Chenier’s group, then went on his own, first 

playing Hammond organ with his band, then teaching himself the accordian. His group played a 

more sophisticated, lounge-styled zydeco, which was very popular. 

BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO - LP, “Take It Easy, Baby” Blues Unlimited, 1980. 

Dodd LP 287 

J. J. CAILLIER - LP, “Zydeco Train Revue” Caillier Records, 1986. Dodd LP 288 

BOOZOO CHAVIS - LP, “Louisiana Zydeco Music” Maison de Soul, 1986. Dodd LP 289 

Chavis is an older musician whose band plays a relentless, driven style of zydeco that has been 

filling western Louisiana dance floors for the last fifty years. A description of his band could be 

“roots” zydeco. 

C. J. CHENIER - CD, “Too Much Fun” Alligator, 1995. Dodd CD 216 

C. J. Chenier is Clifton’s son, and he took over his father’s band after Clifton’s death from 

diabetes. In his first month’s as the band’s leader he struggled to find his own identity, but he 

has become one of the most successful of today’s zydeco performers. 

C. J. CHENIER - CD, “The Big Squeeze”Alligator, 1996. Dodd CD 217 

CLIFTON CHENIER 

CLIFTON CHENIER - LP, “Bayou Blues” Sonet/Specialty, 1972. Dodd LP 290 

283

This album of Chenier’s early recordings was licensed from Specialty Records and manufactured 

by Sonet Records in Great Britain. Interestingly, one of the songs is from the period when there 

was no regularization in the spelling of the style, and it is titled “Zodico Stomp.” 

CLIFTON CHENIER - LP, King of Zydeco” Home-Cooking Records, 1980. 

Dodd LP 291 

CLIFTON CHENIER - LP, “I’m Here” Sonet Records, 1982. Dodd LP 292 

Produced and annotated by Samuel Charters. Grammy winner in the Ethnic Folk Music 

category, 1984. 

CLIFTON CHENIER - LP, “Country Boy . . .” Caillier Records, 1984. Dodd LP 293 

See also the Chenier video produced by Arhoolie Records. 

THE CREOLE ZYDECO FARMERS - CD, “Live in Louisiana” CMA, 1994. Dodd CD 218 

JOHN DELAFOSE - LP, “Zydeco Man” Arhoolie, 1980. Dodd LP 294 

JOHN DELAFOSE - LP, “Zydeco Excitement” Maison de Soul, 1985. Dodd LP 295 

JOHN HART with ROCKING DOPSIE and THE TWISTERS - LP, “The Blowin’ Man” 

Sonet Records, 1981. Dodd LP 296 

Produced by Samuel Charters, notes by Charters as “Freddie Crozier.” 

John Hart played the tenor saxophone with Clifton Chenier for many years, and his playing 

established the zydeco tenor style. When Clifton became less able to tour, because of his illness, 

John agreed to play on a Rocking Dopsie album with us, and he never left Dopsie’s ban.d. 

QUEEN IDA 

Queen Ida learned to play in Louisiana, then assembled her band with her brother in the 

1960s after they had moved to the Bay area. She is one of the most entertaining of the zydeco 

artists, and through her tireless touring she has introduced zydeco to audiences everywhere in the 

world. 

QUEEN IDA and THE BON TEMPS ZYDECO BAND - LP, “In New Orleans” Sonet Records, 

1980. Dodd LP 297 

QUEEN IDA - LP, “On Tour” Sonet Records, 1981. Dodd LP 298 

QUEEN IDA - LP, “In San Francisco” Sonet Records, 1983. Dodd LP 299 

QUEEN IDA - LP, “On A Saturday Night” Sonet Records, 1984. Dodd LP 300 

QUEEN IDA - LP, “Caught in the Act!” Sonet Records, 1985. Dodd LP 301 

284

ROCKING DOPSIE 

One of the first things that has to be said about Dopsie is that his name is pronounced 

Doopsie - “oop,” not “op.” He grew up on a farm outside of Lafayette and taught himself to play 

the accordion, but he knew so little about the instrument that he picked it up upside down, and 

for the rest of his career he played the keyboard melodies with his left hand moving over the 

keys in the opposite direction from the way the accordion was designed. With his right hand he 

jabbed rhythmic interjections that gave his music a freely spontaneous, relentless drive. It is 

difficult for me to be objective about Dopsie, since I was his producer for almost ten years, and 

we spent many late nights in the band’s van as he drove us back from dances in Houston or Lake 

Charles or New Orleans and I kept him awake talking about music and the road and the dance 

they’d just played and anything else I could think of. Dopsie threw himself so completely into 

his music that I remember one night seeing wet footprints on the stage. He was sweating so 

profusely that the sweat had soaked through his shoes. After Chenier’s death Dopsie arranged to 

have himself crowned “King of Zydeco” by the mayor of Lafayette, and Sonet Records obliged 

by buying him a crown. 

He had worked for so many years as a day laborer, while he played his music at night, that 

he strained his heart, and he began to lose his rough voice. He suffered first a serious heart 

attack, then, while he still was trying to go on touring with his band, a final, fatal attack. 

It was Dopsie and the band that supplied a backing track of their version of “My 

Josephine” for the zydeco selection on Paul Simon’s Graceland album. Simon was sent the 

track by Mark Miller, and he improvised a lyric over it, utilizing elements of the melody. 

Despite efforts to have Dopsie receive royalties for the use of the track, Simon refused to make 

any payment beyond the small studio fee he had paid at the time. 

ROCKIN’ DOPSIE & THE TWISTERS - LP, “Doin’ The Zydeco” Sonet Records, 1976. 

Dodd LP 302 

This was Dopsie’s first album, recorded in three hours in a basic, bare studio in Baton Rouge. 

ROCKIN’ DOPSIE - LP, “Zy-De-Blue” Sonet Records, 1977. Dodd LP 307 

ROCKING DOPSIE and HIS CAJUN TWISTERS - LP, “Hold On!” Sonet Records, 1979. 

Dodd LP 303 

It was with this album - recorded on a Sunday afternoon in Mark Miller’s studio in Crowley - 

that John Hart joined the band, and he stayed with Dopsie until Dopsie’s death. 

ROCKING DOPSIE - LP, “Big Bad Zydeco” Sonet Records, 1980. Dodd LP 304 

ROCKING DOPSIE with DEWEY BALFA, TONY BALFA, JAY PELSIA - LP, “Steamin’ and 

Stompin’ French Style” Sonet Records, 1981. Dodd LP 305 

This album, which we rehearsed in a work shed at the back of an isolated farm, brought the cajun 

and the zydeco style together in a session that was enthusiastic and energetic, even if the two 

styles proved to be less comfortable with each other than we had expected. 

ROCKING DOPSIE - LP, “Good Rockin’” Sonet Records, 1983. Dodd LP 306 

285

All of the Sonet albums by Rocking Dopsie were produced by Samuel Charters. Good Rockin’ 

was a Grammy nominee. 

ROCKIN’ DOPSIE - LP, “Saturday Night Zydeco” Maison de Soul, 1988. 

Dodd LP 308 

ROCKIN’ DOPSIE JR. & THE ZYDECO TWISTERS - CD, “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” 

AIM, 1995. Dodd CD 219 

Rockin’s Dopsie Jr. is Dopsie’s oldest son, another son continued as the band’s drummer, and a 

third son is now playing accordian. 

SAM BROTHERS 5 - LP, no title. Arhoolie Records, 1979. Dodd LP 309 

This was a young group, all brothers, which had considerable success in Louisiana festivals 

when zydeco music was at its most popular. 

COLLECTIONS 

LA LA, LOUISIANA BLACK FRENCH MUSIC - LP, Maison de Soul, 1977. 

Dodd LP 310 

Although there are two groups listed on the LP, The Carrere Brothers and The Lawtell Playboys, 

the Carreres are members of the Playboys. The music is country zydeco. 

ZYDECO, Volume One, The Early Years - CD, Arhoolie Records, 1962, CD, 1989. 

Dodd CD 220 


McZiel & Gernger 

Sidney Babineaux 

Albert Chevalier 

George Alberts 

Peter King & Hebert 

Willie Green 

Herbert Sam 

Clifton Chenier 

Clarence Garlow 

II B9. New Orleans Jazz Revival 

Although mainstream jazz and contemporary experimental jazz has not been included in 

the archive collection, New Orleans music today functions more as a vernacular folk style than it 

does as a jazz idiom, and it seems appropriate to include it here. When the jazz audience began 

to split in the so-called “moldy fig” wars of the 1950s, New Orleans music was one of the two 

polarities that helped to divide both the critical establishment and jazz lovers themselves. As 

jazz changed after its success in the swing era, it became technically more demanding and in 

terms of harmony and melodic material more complex. Progressive jazz - bebop - had arrived, 

and not all of the jazz world was that excited. At the same time that bop was taking shape 

286

uptown in Manhattan, downtown at the Stuyvesant Casino a group of New Orleans veterans 

opened an extended engagement, led by a trumpeter named Bunk Johnson, who claimed to have 

played with the first jazz band in the 1890s and to have been a teacher of Louis Armstrong. It 

was Armstrong who had sent researchers looking for Johnson, so it seemed reasonable that the 

other claim might also be true - that he had played with Buddy Bolden’s orchestra. Whatever 

the historical justification the band caused a storm of debate, was the subject of considerable 

media attention, made a series of very successful recordings, and then returned to New Orleans. 

In New Orleans at the same time a researcher named William Russell had started his own 

record company, American Music, to document the veteran New Orleans musicians. Russell had 

very definite ideas about how he felt the music should sound, and he was responsible for fixing 

the older-styled trumpet, trombone, clarinet line-up, accompanied by bass, banjo, and drums, that 

became the characteristic of the New Orleans revival bands. When I first went to New Orleans 

in 1950 most of the neighborhood bands used saxophones and electric guitars, but when the New 

Orleans Revival began in earnest a few years later it was the older style, encouraged by Russell 

that became the standard. In the New Orleans Uptown neighborhoods, with their young black 

audiences, everyone had moved on to Rhythm & Blues, so there wasn’t much concern about 

what was happening in the taverns and clubs with music for middle-aged whites dancers. 

To complicate the confusion that was shaking the jazz establishment there were gifted 

musicians in New Orleans, particularly clarinetist George Lewis, and even if what they were 

playing didn’t have any real relationship to what was being played in New York there was 

musical value in what they were doing. A young English musician, Acker Bilk, had a world 

wide hit re-recording one of Lewis’ plaintive clarinet solo pieces. What was obvious was that if 

what the progressive bands on 52nd Street were playing was jazz, then the music in New Orleans 

couldn’t be jazz at all. The argument advanced that far and it has largely stayed stuck at that 

point. What has happened is that the critical world of jazz, based on the younger New York 

musicians, has promoted music of increasing complexity that has almost as little relationship to 

the popular jazz of the 1930s as the New Orleans style - while the pleasant, melodic music of the 

New Orleans bands is probably the most wide-spread vernacular African American music in the 

world. There are thousands of band everywhere playing in this style. A European city like 

Stockholm has twenty-five bands playing regularly in several popular clubs. Copenhagen has a 

yearly summer jazz festival with New Orleans style bands playing on street corner stages. 

Virtually every week in the United States there is a festival somewhere for the music. All of this 

activity is rigorously ignored by the jazz establishment, and the New Orleans style bands just as 

resolutely avoid the main line critics. The new free jazz and avant-garde jazz artists sell so few 

copies of their recordings that jazz has ceased to have any commercial importance in the record 

market, and the younger New York musicians are now involved in efforts to return to at least the 

styles of the 1950s to find some of their old audience, but the New Orleans revival bands play to 

festival audiences that can number in the tens of thousands. There is probably no way now to 

resolve the controversy that has beset jazz for almost half a century. 

Much of the New Orleans music in the archive was recorded in New Orleans in the 1950s, 

with many of the Russell sessions included. My own first major documentary project was a five 

volume survey of New Orleans music that was released on Folkways Records in 1958-1959, and 

I recorded New Orleans dance hall bands and classic style blues singers between 1954 and 1958. 

All of this was part of the research for my first book, Jazz: New Orleans, 1885-1957, a 

biographical dictionary of the black musicians working in the city during those years. How 

would I define New Orleans jazz today? I would describe it as a vernacular dance music based 

287

on European American popular song, but performed with elements of collective improvisation 

and instrumental paraphrase that have clear African American elements. I would also describe it 

as music that communicates a high level of pleasure, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, made 

up of whichever New Orleans musicians are available to go on tour at that moment, is one of the 

most popular concert attractions in America. 

Whatever the debate ultimately will resolve about the place of the new New Orleans music 

in the history of jazz there is no disagreement over the musical delights of the New Orleans jazz 

marching bands, and in recent years there has been a revitalization of their music through the 

interest of young African American musicians who have taken up the old marching styles and 

fused them with newer melodic material and more modern rhythms. My own major recording 

project in the 1950s was an album with the Eureka Brass Band, the most respected of the city’s 

bands during those years, and the archive also has examples of many of the younger bands. 

THE NEW ORLEANS RECORDINGS 

EMILE BARNES, 1946 - CD, “The Very First Recordings” American Music, 1997, 

recorded in 1946-1953 by Sam Ruvidich and Charles Bowler, and John Bernard. 

Dodd CD 226 

EMILE BARNES - LP, “Dauphine Street Jam Session, Emile Barnes, Early Recordings, Vol. 1 

(1951) Folkways Records, 1983. Dodd LP 325 

EMILE BARNES - LP, “Early Recordings, Vol 2 (1951-1952) Folkways Records, 1983, both 

albums recorded by Alden Ashforth & David Wycoff. Dodd LP 326 

BARNES/BOCAGE BIG FIVE - CD, “1954” American Music, 1996, recorded by James 

McGarrell, 1954. 

Dodd CD 227 

The leaders are Emile Barnes, clarinet, and Peter Bocage, trumpet. 

PETER BOCAGE - LP, “Peter Bocage with his Creole Serenaders” Riverside Records, 1961. 

Dodd LP 327 

Peter Bocage, veteran trumpeter and violinist, is featured on both sides of this LP. On the second 

side the group has a different personnel and the title of the side is Peter Bocage with the Love- 

Jiles Ragtime Orchestra. Bocage is the violinist on these instrumentals. The album is one of the 

series New Orleans: The Living Legends. 

OSCAR “PAPA” CELESTIN and HIS NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BAND - LP, “The Radio 

Broadcasts, 1950-1951” Folklyric Records, 1981. Dodd LP 328 

Celestin’ band, including Alphonse Picou and Bill Mathews, plays on one side of the LP, George 

Lewis’s band from the same period - see below - performs on the other. 

KID CLAYTON - LP, “The First Kid Clayton Session: 1952” Folkways Records, 1983, 

recorded in New Orleans by Alden Ashforth & David Wycoff. Dodd LP 329 

BABY DODDS - LP, “Talking and Drum Solos” Folkways Records, 1959. 

Recorded and annotated by Frederic Ramsey Jr. Dodd LP 330 

288

THE DECEMBER BAND, Vol. I - LP, no title. GHB Records, 1985 Dodd LP 331 

Musicians include Kid Thomas, Jim Robinson, John Handy, and Sammy Penn 

THE DECEMBER BAND, Vol. II - LP, no title. GHB Records, 1985. Dodd LP 332 

THE EAGLE BRASS BAND - LP, “The Last of the Line” GHB Records, 1983, recorded and 

annotated by Alden Ashforth. Dodd LP 333 

THE EUREKA BRASS BAND - Double CD, “In Rehearsal” American Music, 1999. 

Recorded in 1956 and annotated by Samuel Charters. Dodd CD 228 

KID HOWARD/Punch Miller - CD, “Prelude to the Revival, Vol.1” American Music, 1992. 

Dodd CD 229 

Although the album is packaged as a Kid Howard recording from 1937, the CD is a collection of 

several recordings done in New Orleans, or by New Orleans musicians between 1937 and 1941. 


Kid Howard’s Band 

Andy Anderson’s Pelican State Jazz Band 

Duke Derbigny’s Orchsetra 

Joe Thomas’ Dixieland Band 

Punch Miller’s Band 

BUNK JOHNSON - CD, “In San Francisco” American Music, 1991, recordings 1941-1943. 

Dodd CD 230 

Includes seven titles with Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Ban.d. 

BUNK JOHNSON - LP, “Bunk Johnson’s Brass & Dance Band” Storyville, n.d. 

Dodd LP 334 

Recorded by William Russell and originally released on his American Music label, 1945-1946. 

BUNK JOHNSON - CD, “Bunk Johnson Plays Popular Songs” American Music, 1997, 

recorded 1944-1946 by William Russell. Dodd CD 231 

The first recordings of Bunk Johnson, made by Mary Karoley in February, 1942, are included in 

the CD by Kid Rena listed below. 

GEORGE LEWIS - CD, “The George Lewis Band at Herbert Otto’s Party, 1949” American 

Music, 1993, recorded in 1949 by Herbert Otto, with two tracks recorded by Robert Greenwood. 

Dodd CD 232 

GEORGE LEWIS - CD, “George Lewis at Manny’s Tavern, 1949” American Music, 1995, 

recorded by Johnny Wiggs, 1949. Dodd CD 233 

HERB MORAND - CD, “1949” American Music, 1993, recorded in 1949 by William Russell 

and Herbert Otto. Dodd CD 234 

289

BIG EYE LOUIS NELSON - CD, “1949 Sessions & Live at Luthjens” American Music, 1992, 

recorded in 1949 by William Russell and Herberty Otto. Dodd CD 235 

DOC PAULIN - LP, “Doc Paulin’s Marching Band” Folkways Records, 1982, recorded in 

1980 by Alden Ashforth and David Wycoff. Dodd LP 335 

REBIRTH JAZZ BAND - LP, “Here To Stay” Arhoolie Records, recorded by Chris Strachwitz, 

1984. Dodd LP 336 

Strachwitz included a personal note on the LP jacket - “This is a ‘Live’ recording made at 

Grease Lounge in New Orleans! I suggest you play side 2 first because I did a better job of 

recording the band on that 2nd day!” 

KID RENA - CD, “Kid Rena - 1940, Prelude to the Revival, Vol. II” American Music, 1992, 

recorded in 1940 by Heywood Hale Broun Jr. Dodd CD 236 

This is the first “revival” recording made in New Orleans, and it was a conscious effort to 

document some of the older musicians first mentioned in the book Jazzmen, published in 1939. 

One of the clarinetists was Alphonse Picou, who was credited with improvising the famous 

clarinet chorus on “High Society March” that became standard for New Orleans musicians. It is 

interesting that “Woody” Broun, who sponsored the session, was the only African American who 

has played a role in the basic research into the roots of jazz. Included on the CD are the first 

recordings by Bunk Johnson. 

TREME BRASS BAND - CD, “Gimme My Money Back” Arhoolie, 1995, recorded in 1993 by 

Jerry Brock and Chris Strachwitz. On four of the titles the band includes two unidentified 

Japanese tourists playing banjo and piano. Dodd CD 237 

NEW ORLEANS STYLE IN JAPAN 

BLACK BOTTOM BRASS BAND - CD, “New Orleans Magic” Pony Canyon Inc, 1998. 

Dodd CD 238 

The band is from Osaka, Japan, and for the session in New Orleans Bo Dollis of the Wild 

Magnolias was added for two vocals. 

COLLECTIONS 

THE JOHN REID COLLECTION, 1940-1944 - CD, American Music, 1995, recorded 1940-1944 

by John D. Reid. Musicians include Sidney Bechet, Peter Bocage, Alphonse Picou, and George 

Baquet. Dodd CD 239 

NEW ORLEANS 1946 - CD, American Music, 1994, recorded in 1946 by Rudi Blesh. 

Dodd CD 240 


The Original Zenith Brass Band 

Eclipse Alley Five - musicians include George Lewis and Jim Robinson 

Avery-Tillman Band 

290

THE MUSIC OF NEW ORLEANS 

This set of five LPs was compiled and edited by Samuel Charters from material recorded 

in New Orleans over a period of four years, beginning in the spring of 1954 and ending with the 

recording of the Eureka Brass Band in the spring of 1958, and from material licensed to 

Folkways by Alden Ashforth and David Wycoff. The albums were released by Folkways 

Records out of sequence, with Volume 2, by the Eureka Brass Band, released first. Much of the 

recording was done in conjunction with research for the book by Charters, Jazz: New Orleans, 

which was published in 1958. 

SOUNDS OF NEW ORLEANS 

This series of albums documents the better known traditional jazz musicians active in 

New Orleans between 1950 and 1956. The material for the series was recorded in New Orleans 

or later licensed from other sources by Karl Emil Knudsen, a Danish jazz enthusiast who is the 

owner of Storyville Records in Copenhagen. The albums were beautifully produced, and 

included, in a double album jacket, notes by jazz historian Chris Albertson, artists’ photographs, 

historical material, and recipes. The albums, unfortunately, were released at close to the end of 

the LP era, so few collectors were fortunate enough to see them in their original presentation. 

Vol. 1 - Paul Barbarin and his Band, Percy Humphrey’s Jam Session Dodd LP 337 

Vol. 2 - Johnny Wiggs Dodd LP 338 

Vol. 3 - Albert Burbank with Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band Dodd LP 339 

Vol. 4 - Sharkey Bonano Live at the Perez Club Dodd LP 340 

Vol. 5 - Alvin Alcorn Dodd LP 341 

Vol. 6 - George Girard Dodd LP 342 

Vol. 7 - George Lewis and his New Orleans Jazzband Dodd LP 343 

Vol. 8 - Sharkey Bonano at Lenfant’ Lounge Dodd LP 344 

Vol. 9 - Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band Dodd LP 345 

Vol. 10 - New Orleans Trumpets - with Ernie Cagnolatti, Alvin Alcorn, Lee Collins,Oscar 

“Papa” Celestin, Percy Humphrey, Johnny Wiggs, Sharkey Bonano,George 

Hartman, Johnny Bayersdorffer, and George Girard Dodd LP 346 

LPs, the series was released by Storyville Records, 1988 

504 RECORDS 

Documents of the New Orleans Jazz Revival 

For more than thirty years Mike Dine has been releasing recordings of this traditional 

musical style on his own small independent record label 504 Records. Dine is one of a 

generation of English enthusiasts who have made the music of the New Orleans jazz revival the 

center of their lives, Their fervent interest in the traditional jazz style began in the late 1940s 

and it continues today, despite the widespread damage to the city in the hurricane and flood of 

2005 and the death of many of the older musicians. What Dine has documented with his CDs is 

291

the emotional response of a stream of travelers who have come to New Orleans to play the music 

themselves or to make recordings of the veteran artists they found who were still performing. 

Many of the sessions were produced by Dine himself, but many others were produced sometime 

during the last fifty years by other people who shared his enthusiasm. One memorable session 

with the Olympia Brass Band in 1968 was recorded by Charlie Crump outdoors in London in 

front of St.Martin’s in the Fields Church in Trafalgar Square and on the steps of St. Paul’s 

cathedral. 

There has been a flood of similar recordings on a number of labels with many of the same 

artists, but what gives the 504 label its unique importance is its rich documentation of musicians 

and bands in Great Britain that were inspired to play in the New Orleans style. Ken Colyer was 

the first English musician to travel to New Orleans in the 1950s and sit on the same bandstand 

with the legendary names, and in conjunction with the The Ken Colyer Trust, which is dedicated 

to preserving his recordings, 504 has released a number of the important early sessions, as well 

as the recordings from a concert by Ken playing once again with the formative English group, 

The Crane River Jazz Band. 

Also of importance for anyone interested in the English jazz revival is the live concert by 

trumpeter Bob Wallis and his band, DJCD-002. Wallis was one of the most colorful figures of 

the movement, but his career was cut short by illness and there were only a few sessions that 

capture Wallis’s raw stage presence and his rapport with his audiences. 

Dine has also released the informal tapes recorded by the art gallery owner Larry 

Borenstein who encouraged the loose jam sessions in his gallery that become the inspiration for 

the opening of the New Orleans jazz attraction Preservation Hall. On Volume 15 from the 

Borenstein tapes (CD 44) can be heard a very young but enthusiastic Sam Charters who had no 

idea that the impromptu session with a friend, trumpeter Punch Miller, was being recorded. 

The CDs have been presented to the Archive by Dine and by Tom Stagg, who distributes 

504 Records in the United States, and also presents a wide ranging sample of the New Orleans 

musical culture in his shop “New Orleans Music” in the French Quarter. 

An illustrated catalog of 504 Label is also included in the Archive. 

THE 504 LABEL 

504 CDS 6 - MICHAEL WHITE’S NEW ORLEANS MUSIC. 2000‐0105/CD 1947 

504 CDS 7 (Two CDs) - KID THOMAS & LOUIS NELSON - Live at the 100 Club 

with the New Iberia Stompers. 2000-0105/CD 1948 

504 CDS 8 - WENDELL EUGENE’S NEW ORLEANS BAND. 2000-0105/CD 1949 

504 CDS 9 - PAUL BARBARIN and His New Orleans Band. 2000-0105/CD 1950 

504 CDS 10 - YOUNG TUXEDO BRASS BAND N. O. LA. 2000-0105/CD 1951 

504 CDS 11 - MICHAEL WHITE & HIS LIBERTY STREET 5 & 3. 2000-0105/CD 1952 

504 CDS 16 - PETE FOUNTAIN and his Basin Street Six. 2000-0105/CD 1953 

292

504 CDS 18 - LIONEL FERBOS and THE CREOLE SWINGERS. 2000-0105/CD 1954 

504 CDS 20 - RELIGIOUS RECORDINGS from BLACK NEW ORLEANS, 1924 – 1931. 

2000-0105/CD 1955 

504 CDS 21 - KID SHEIK with CHARLIE LOVE and HIS CADO JAZZ BAND 1960. 

2000-0105/CD 1956 

504 CDS 23 - KEN COLYER: The Unknown New Orleans Sessions with Raymond 

Burke 1952-1953. 2000-0105/CD 1957 

504 CDS 27 - RAYMOND BURKE and CIÉ FRAZIER with BUTCH THOMPSON 

in NEW ORLEANS . 2000-0105/CD 1958 

504 CDS 28 - SIX & SEVEN EIGHTHS STRING BAND of New Orleans La. 2000-0105/CD 

1959 

504 CDS 30 - The LARRY BORENSTEIN COLLECTION - Volume 1. 2000-0105/Cd 1960 

Kid Thomas’ Dixieland Band 1957 with Ed Washington 

504 CDS 31 - The LARRY BORENSTEIN COLLECTION - Volume 2. 2000-0105/CD 1961 

Willie Pajeaud’s New Orleans Band 1955, Kid Thomas’ Dixieland Band 1957 


Isidore ‘Tuts’ Washington 


Kid Thomas’ Dixieland Band 1960 with Emanuel Paul 


Punch Miller’s New Orleans Band 1957 


A New Orleans Anthology: 726 St. Peter New Orleans La. 1955-1961 


Billie & Dee Dee Pierce with Kid Thomas Valentine - 1960 


Kid Thomas’ Dixieland Band 1957 with Ed Washington 


Noon Johnson‘s Bazooka Band, Noon Johnson with Kid Thomas, and Lemon Nash 


Billie and Dee Dee Pierce - 1960 & with Kid Thomas Valentine 

293


Punch Miller’s New Orleans Band, 1957 and with Ed Washington 


Kid Thomas’s Dixieland Band 1957 with Ed Washington 

504 CDS42 - The LARRY BORENSTEIN COLLECTION - Volume 13. 2000-0105/CD 1972 

Babe Stovall, 1958 – 1964. 


PUNCH MILLER’S BIG 3, NEW ORLEANS BAND, BIG 2 and SOLO TRUMPET 

504 CDS 48 - PAUL BARBARIN and His New Orleans Band in Concert, 1951-1959. 

2000-0105/CD 1974 

504 CDS 50 - GEORGE LEWIS with Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen 1957. 2000-0105/CD 1977 

The Famous Manchester Free Trade Hall Concert -Rehearsal and opening half 

504 CDS 51 - GEORGE LEWIS with Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen 1957. 2000-0105/CD 1976 

The Famous Manchester Free Trade Hall Concert - 2 nd Half 

504 CDS 52 - GEORGE LEWIS with Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen 1959 - Live in Germany. 

2000-0105/CD 1975 

504 CDS 53 - KEN COLYER in NEW ORLEANS: The Complete 1953 Recordings. 

2000-0105/CD 1978 

504 CDS 54 - OSCAR ‘PAPA’ CELESTIN and his Original Tuxedo Jazz Band - 1949 - 1953. 

2000-0105/CD 1979 

504 CDS 55 A JAZZ FRIENDS PRODUCTION - THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ WIZARDS. 

2000-0105/CD 1980 

504 CD 57 – LEON PRIMA, SHARKEY BONANO. Live In Concert, 1948 and 1949. 

2000-0105/CD 2021 

504 CDS 58 - THE GEORGE LEWIS RAGTIME BAND In Concert 1959 

Manchester Free Trade Hall Opening House. 2000-0105/CD 1981 

504 CDS 59 - THE GEORGE LEWIS RAGTIME BAND In Concert 1959 

Manchester Free Trade Hall Second House. 2000-0105/CD 1982 

504 CDS 64 - ALVIN ALCORN with THE NEW IBERIA STOMPERS 1973-1974. 

2000-0105/CD 1983 

294

504 CDS 65 - BRIAN CARRICK with Waldron “Frog” Joseph and his New Orleans Boys. 

2000-0105/CD 1984 

504 CDS 67 - SWEET EMMA BARRETT and her Bell Boys, Mardi Gras 1960 – Live. 

2000-105/CD 1985 

504 CDS 68 - CUFF BILLETT - SAM RIMINGTON INTERNATIONAL ALL-STAR 

JAZZ BAND at ALGIERS POINT – LOUISIANA. 2000-0105/CD 1986 

504 CDS 69 (Two CDs) - THE GEORGE LEWIS RAGTIME BAND LIVE in CONCERT - 

1963. 2000-105/CD 1987 

504 CDS 70 - TOPSY CHAPMAN with BRIAN CARRICK and his NEW ORLEANS 

HERITAGE JAZZ BAND. 2000-0105/CD 1988 

504 CDS 74 - SAM RIMINGTON’S INTERNATIONAL ALL STARS ‘Live In-Store’ at the 

Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans. 2000-0105/CD 1989 

504 CDS 75 - JOHN ’KID’ SIMMONS INTERNATIONAL ALL STARS ‘Live In-Store’ at the 

Louisiana Music Factory, New Orleans. 2000-0105/CD 1990 

504 CSD 76 - WALTER PAYTON and the SNAP BEAN BAND ’Live In-Store’ at the 

Louisiana Music Factory. 2000-0105/CD 1991 

504 CDS 77 - WALTER PAYTON’S GUMBO FILÉ BAND ’Live In-Store’ at the Louisiana 

Music Factory. 2000-0105/CD 1992 

504 CDS 80 - REG KOELLER’S NEW ORLEANS HOT SHOTS. 2000-0105/CD 1993 

504 CDS 81 - NEW ORLEANS GOSPEL QUARTETS 1947-1956. 2000-0105/CD 1994 

Jackson Gospel Singers, Famous Soul Comforters, Southern Harps, Famous Four, New Orleans 

Humming Four, Delta Southernaires, Southern Revivalists, New Orleans Chosen Five, Zion 

Harmonizers, Crescent City Gospel Singers 

504 CDS 82 - ‘TEXAS SAM MOONEY and his SUNSHINE BAND. 20000-105/CD 1995 

504 CDS 83 - LINNZI ZAORSKI and DELTA ROTALE ‘Line In-Store’ at the Lousiana 

Music Factory. 2000-0105/CD 1996 

504 CDS 84 - FRANK OXLEY’S LOUISIANA MOONSHINE BAND. 2000-0105/CD 1997 

504 CDS 85 (Two CDs) - KID ORY and HIS CREOLE JAZZBAND, Live at the Beverly 

Cavern – 1949. 2000-0105/CD 1998 

504 CDS 86 (Two CDs) - KID ORY and HIS CREOLE JAZZ BAND, Live at the Beverly 

Cavern - 1949, Discs 3 & 4. 2000-0105/CD 2000 

295

504 CDS 87 - KID ORY and HIS CREOLE JAZZ BAND, Live at the Beverly Cavern - 

1949, Disc 5. 2000-0105/CD 1999 

504 CDS 88 - SHIRLEY ALEXANDER with BRIAN CARRICK and His New Orleans 

Heritage Jazz Band. 2000-0105/CD 2001 

Nola CD 89 - DEJAN’S OLYMPIA BRASS BAND – 1968. 2000-0105/CD 2002 

CD 90 - DWAYNE BURNS and HIS NEW ORLEANS BAND. 2000-0105/CD 2003 

504 RELEASES IN CONJUNCTION WITH ‘LORD RICHARD’ EKIN 

504/La Croix CD 91 - The LORD RICHARD NEW ORLEANS SESSIONS - Volume 1. 

2000-0105/CD 2004 

LOUIS NELSON, 1967 with the ‘KID MARTYN BAND and MARTYN’S EAGLE BRASS 

BAND, featuring DAN PAWSON 


2000-0105/CD 2005 

KID THOMAS VALENTINE, 1961 & 1968 


2000-0105/CD 2006 

DAN PAWSON, 1966-1971 - A TRIBUTE 


2000-0105/CD 2007 

BILLIE AND DEDE PIERCE, 1967 


2000-0105/CD 2008 

LOUIS JAMES, 1967 & JOHN HANDY, 1966 

504/La Croix CD 96 - The LORD RICHARD NEW ORLEANS SESSIONS - 

Volume 6. 2000-0105/CD 2009 

DAN DAWSON, 1971-1988 

504 CDS 100 (Two CDs) - THE ’504’ RECORDS STORY - 1978- 2003. 2000-0105/CD 2010a-c 

504 CDS 101 - THE ‘504’ RECORDS STORY – LAGNIAPPE. 2000-0105/CD 2010a-c 

504 CDS 102 - DWAYNE BURNS and HIS NEW ORLEANS BAND. 2000-0105/CD 2011 

504 CDS 103 - ALLEN TOUSSAINT 

296

I Love a Carnival Ball. 2000-0105/CD 2012 

504 CDS 104 - ST. AUGUSTINE CATHOLIC CHURCH of NEW ORLEANS and 

BRIAN CARRICK’S NEW ORLEANS HERITAGE BAND. 2000-0105/CD 2013 

504 CD 105 - BILLIE and DEE DEE PIERCE LIVE AT LUTHJENS, 1953. 2000-0105/Cd 

2014 

DINE-A-MITE JAZZ a division of 504 RECORDS 

Albums 1, 3, and 4 released in cooperation with the Ken Colyer Trust 

DJCD-001 - KEN COLYER’S JAZZMEN in Concert – 1959. 2000-0105/CD 2015 

DJCD-002 (Two CDs) - BOB WALLIS & THE STORYVILLE JAZZMEN Live in 

Leipzig – 1976. 2000-0105/CD 2016 

DJCD-003 - KEN COLYER’S JAZZMEN Live at the 51 Club – 1960. 2000-0105/CD 2017 

DJCD-004 - THE CRANE RIVER JAZZ BAND Live at the 100 Club – 1976. 2000-0105/CD 

2018 

DJCD-005 - SAM RIMINGTON and the BARRY ’KID’ MARTYN RAGTIME 

BAND ALUMNI featuring CUFF BILLETT. 2000-0105/CD 2019 

DJCD-006 - THE NEW IBERIA STOMPERS. 2000-0105/CD 202 

II B10. Ragtime 

The beginnings of jazz have always been associated with New Orleans, just as the first 

sound of the blues has been placed in Mississippi. Ragtime is music from the Midwest, and not 

only is there a long history of string band and parlor music in Missouri that prepared the way for 

ragtime, three of the four most important ragtime composers, Scott Joplin, James Scott, and Tom 

Turpin all began their careers in Missouri towns. Joplin’s first great hit, “Maple Leaf Rag,” was 

written and published in Sedalia, and James Scott spent most of his musical career living quietly 

in Carthage, Missouri, composing his rags, giving piano lessons and playing in the local theater. 

Turpin ran a St. Louis saloon, where he was one of the city’s colorful personalities. 

There are hints of ragtime in the early published “Ethiopian” quadrilles which are also in 

the archive, but all the evidence from local Midwest African American newspapers of the 1880s 

emphasises the string band sources and the role of the parlor pianists, usually young women, 

who took over some of the melodies and turned them into piano pieces. For a few years the new 

style was considered simply as a way of performing familiar songs in “ragged” time - which 

meant syncopation. Then at the end of the 1890s the first compositions in “ragtime” appeared, 

instrumental piano pieces which had a distinctive rhythmic and harmonic character. Ragtime 

was different, but at the same time its listeners found much about it that was familiar. The rags 

used the form of the popular marches of the period - an opening sixteen bar melody which 

297

epeats, a second sixteen bar strain which is also repeated, then a modulation and a trio in a 

different key, and back to the original key for a sixteen bar rhythmic finale, which also repeated. 

Everyone knew where they were with ragtime, and they loved it. The melodies had a new 

tonality, and even though the harmonic resolutions were familiar the voicings of the chords was 

different. Played as written, ragtime had a rhythmic momentum which was very effective for 

dancing, and it was soon a feature of every social dance program. 

Ragtime was fortunate to have a stubborn, convinced publisher named John Stark, who 

believed that he had found the music of the future. He encouraged Joplin and Scott, both of 

whom he published, to compose rags that were much more difficult than the usual parlor pieces, 

and he defended his music and his composers in colorful advertising prose. Thanks to Stark 

there is an extensive piano literature of what is called “classic ragtime,” and he continued to 

publish music he believed in even after a flood of novelty ragtime and thin ragtime songs had 

worn down the enthusiasm of the ragtime audience. It was not until the 1940s and the 1950s, 

and the beginning of the ragtime revival that Stark’s faith in the music was justified. 

Ragtime was unfortunate in one way - it came too early for documentation on phonograph 

records. The sound quality of the early recording machines was so poor that the companies used 

pianos only as accompaniment. There was another form of reproduction, the player piano, and 

many ragtime pieces appeared on piano rolls. The rolls had much better sound quality, but often 

they were stiff and monotonous. Most of them were cut by machine - that is, a workman simply 

spread out the roll, marked it with the notes from the piano score, then cut the holes in the paper, 

often adding embellishments that couldn’t be played by a performer. There were also hand 

played rolls, and they had more spontaneity. Joplin himself had an opportunity to preserve some 

of his own compositions on rolls. 

Ragtime was so engaging that it managed to insinuate itself into nearly every style of 

American popular music, and it was also used by composers like Satie, Milhaud, Stravinsky and 

Gershwin to create a new classical idiom. With the revival of interest in ragtime in the 1970s 

there was a new assessment of Joplin’s genius, and he is now considered a serious American 

composer - a judgement which John Stark would emphatically endorse. 

As is evident from the amount of ragtime material in the archive, ragtime has been a 

serious interest for many years. I first heard it played in the mid-1940s, and the first recording 

project I ever conceived - in 1951 - was an album of Joplin’s rags with a flower in the title. The 

album would be called “A Joplin Bouquet.” I was finally able to record it in 1958, with Ann 

Danberg - who in a few months would be Ann Charters - as the pianist. It was the first time his 

music had been played as he had insisted - with all the notes as he’d written them and at 

reasonable tempos. In 1959 we recorded a documentary album with the last of great ragtime 

composers, Joseph Lamb, who was living close to us in Brooklyn. In 1965 we were able to 

record the first excerpts from Joplin’s opera Treemonisha with the Utah State Concert Chorale in 

Logan, Utah. Then as a result of the ragtime boom that followed the release of the Joshua Rifkin 

recordings and the use of Joplin’s music in the film The Sting Ann was asked to record two more 

albums of Joplin’s compositions for Sonet Records in Stockholm. Because of our involvement 

over the years the ragtime material in the archive steadily accumulated. 

PRE-RAGTIME STRING BAND MUSIC and EARLY RAGTIME INSTRUMENTALS 

BUEHLING, SAPOZNIK, MOORE - LP, “Banjo Gems” Kicking Mule Records, 1980. 

Dodd LP 347 

298

The three banjoists are Clarke Buehling, Henry Sapoznik, and Steve Moore, and 

several of the pieces are from the early ragtime years, when performances by banjo 

soloists or string groups were as popular as piano solos. 

THE ETCETERA STRING BAND - Cassette album, “The Harvest Hop” The Etcetera String 

Band, n.d. Dodd AC 5 

The group has done extensive research into ragtime’s string band roots, and their 

performances document the pre-ragtime instrumental style that became the material 

for the rag composers. 

THE ETCETERA STRING BAND - Cassette album, “Fun on the Levee: Cake Walks and Rags, 

1895-1905, from Missouri River Towns” The Etcetera String Band, n.d. 

Dodd AC 6 

The Etcetera String Band has also recorded a CD of “Early Creole Dance Music,” from 

Louisiana, Haiti, Trinidad, Martinique, and the Virgin Islands which is listed in the Caribbean 

section of the catalog. 

See also the recordings of early Haitian pre-ragtime, “Haitian Piano with Fabre Duroseau,” in 

the Caribbean section of the catalog. 

SCOTT JOPLIN 

SCOTT JOPLIN - LP, “A Joplin Bouquet” Performed by Ann Charters, Portents, 1964, 

recorded in December, 1958. Dodd LP 348 

The first recording of Joplin’s music performed as serious composition. 

SCOTT JOPLIN - LP, “Treemonisha and Classic Rags” Performed by the Utah State University 

Concert Chorale, Ted Puffer, director, and Ann Charters, piano, Portents, 1965. Dodd LP 349ab 

The first recording of excerpts from Joplin’s opera. 

THE GENIUS OF SCOTT JOPLIN - Double CD, Gazell Productions, 1993. 

Dodd CD 242 

This is a CD reissue of Ann Charters’ three solo albums devoted to Joplin’s music, 

and the excerpts from Joplin’s opera. All of the albums were produced and annotated 

by Samuel Charters. 

SCOTT JOPLIN - LP, “Piano Rags by Scott Joplin” Performed by Joshua Rifkin, Nonesuch 


It was the enormous success of Rifkin’s recordings which led to the use of Joplin’s 

music in the film The Sting, and the serious interest in ragtime in the 1970s. 

SCOTT JOPLIN - LP, “Piano Rags by Scott Joplin, Vol. II” Performed by Joshua Rifkin, 

Nonesuch Records, 1972. Dodd LP 351 

299

SCOTT JOPLIN - CD, “Max Morath Plays the Best of Scott Joplin” Performed by Max Morath, 

Vanguard, 1972. Dodd CD 241 

SCOTT JOPLIN - CD, “The World of Scott Joplin” Performed by Max Morath, Vanguard, 

1973. Dodd CD 243 

SCOTT JOPLIN - LP, “E. Power Biggs Plays Scott Joplin” Performed by E. Power Biggs, 

Columbia Records, 1973. Dodd LP 352 

Biggs, who was a specialist in classical keyboard music, played Joplin here on a specially 

built harpsichord with pedal keys. 

SCOTT JOPLIN - LP, “The Red Back Book” The New England Conservatory Ragtime 

Orchestra, conducted by Gunther Schuller, Angel Records, 1973. Dodd LP 353 

This was another of the very successul releases that helped spur the interest in 

Joplin and his music. The “Red Back Book” is a collection of orchestrations printed 

by Joplin’s publisher in 1905, and it includes one orchestration, James Scott’s “Frog 

Legs Rag” which is credited to Joplin. 

See sheet music listing in catalog for more information on “The Red Back Book” 

SCOTT JOPLIN - Double LP box, “Scott Joplin’s ‘ Treemonisha’,” Deutsche Grammophon, 

1976. Dodd LP 349a, 349b 

The first, and so far only, recording of the entire score of Joplin’s opera, with 

orchestration by Gunther Schuller from Joplin’s piano score. 

SCOTT JOPLIN - CD, “Super Hits.” Performed by E. Power Biggs, playing a pedal 

harpsichord. Sony Music, 2000. A CD reissue of Bigg’s successful LP release. 2000-0105/CD 

1859 

JOSEPH LAMB 

JOSEPH LAMB - CD, “Joseph Francis Lamb, 19 Rags” Performed by David Buechner, 

Connoisseur Society, 1997. Dodd CD 244 

JOSEPH LAMB - CD, “American Beauties, The Rags of Joseph Lamb” Performed by 

Virginia Eskin, piano. Koch International Classics, 2000. 2000-0105/CD 1854 

Eskin’s collection includes a number of compositions which were completed or 

found in manuscript by Lamb after his rediscovery. 

OTHER RAGTIME COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS, including NOVELTY RAGTIME 

ROY BARGY - LP, “Piano Syncopations” RBF Records, 1978, compiled and annotated by 

David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 354 

RUBE BLOOM & ARTHUR SCHUTT - LP, “Novelty Ragtime Piano Kings” RBF Records, 

1980. Dodd LP 355 

Eight selections are by Bloom and eight by Schutt. 

300

WILLIAM BOLCOM - LP, “Heliotrope Bouquet, Piano Rags” Nonesuch Records, 1971. Dodd 

LP 356 

Composers represented include Turpin, Joplin, Lamb and Scott. Bolcom also plays 

his own lovely “Graceful Ghost” and two others. 

KEN COLYER’S JAZZMEN - LP, “Ragtime Revisited” Joy Records, 1971. 

Dodd LP 357 

GEORGE HICKS - LP, “Ragtime: Tickled Pink” Folkways Records, 1983, produced and 

annotated by David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 358 

JAMES P. JOHNSON - LP, “The Original James Johnson” Folkways Records, 1973, 

recorded by Moses Asch, programmed by David A. Jasen, with notes by Jasen and Charles 

Edward Smith. Dodd LP 359 

JAMES P. JOHNSON - LP, “‘Yamekraw’ An Original Composition by James P. Johnson” 

Folkways Records, 1962, recorded by Moses Asch, with notes by Perry Bradford and Noble 

Sissle. Dodd LP 360 

JAMES P. JOHNSON - CD, “Snowy Morning Blues” Decca Jazz, 1991. 

Dodd CD 245 

MAX KORTLANDER - LP, “The Piano Roll Artistry of Max Kortlander” RBF Records, 1981, 

compiled and annotated by David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 361 

PAUL LINGLE - LP, “Dance of the Witch Hazels” Euphonic Records, 1979. 

Dodd LP 362 

PAUL LINGLE - LP, “Legend of Lingle” Euphonic Records, 1980. Dodd LP 363 

ALAN MANDEL - LP, “American Piano Music, including ‘Grand Sonata in Rag’” 

Grenadillla Records, 1977. Dodd LP 364 

Although the album includes a lengthy note by someone who seems to be the 

composer of the sonata he (or she?) is identified only as “Albright.” 

BILLY MAYERL - LP, “The Syncopated Impressions of Billy Mayerl” RF Records, 1976, 

programmed and notes by David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 365 

MAX MORATH - See also listings under Scott Joplin above 

Max Morath is an engaging performer and social commentator who has presented 

ragtime and the ragtime for many years to audiences everywhere in the country. He 

is also a composer, and his “Golden Hours” is one of the most inventive and 

beautifully melodic pieces of the modern ragtime era. 

301

MAX MORATH - Double LP, “Max Morath Plays Ragtime” Vanguard Records, 1976. 


MAX MORATH - LP, “The Ragtime Women” Vanguard Records, 1977. Dodd LP 367 

MAX MORATH - CD, “The Ragtime Man” Omega Classics, 1986. Dodd CD 246 

MAX MORATH - Cassette, “Cripple Creek, A Ragtime Suite for Piano” Mel Bay, 1986. 

Dodd AC 7 

MAX MORATH - CD, “The Ragtime Century” PianoMania, 1991. Dodd CD 247 

MAX MORATH - CD, “Real American Folk Songs” Solo Art Records, 1994. 

Dodd CD 248 

MAX MORATH - CD, “Drugstore Cabaret” Premier Recordings, 1995. Dodd CD 249 

MAX MORATH - CD, “Jonah Man, A Tribute to Bert Williams” Vanguard Records, 1996. 

Dodd CD 250 

MAX MORATH - Cassette, “Living A Ragtime Life” Mormacks, n.d. Dodd AC 8 

JELLY ROLL MORTON - LP, “Piano Classics, 1923-24” Folkways Records, 1962, compiled 

and annotated by David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 368 

Morton is more properly considered a jazz pianist, but this is a collection of his 

earliest solo piano recordings, and there is a strong ragtime influence evident in 

several of the compositions. 

BERT WILLIAMS 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “Nobody”/ “My Landlady” Dodd SE 2 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “He’s a cousin of mine” Bert Williams / “McGinty at the living 

picture” Joe Flynn Dodd SE 3 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “I’ll lend you anything” / “Constantly” Dodd SE 4 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “You can’t get away from it” / “The Darktown Poker Club” Dodd SE 

5 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “I’m neutral” / “Indoor Sports” Dodd SE 6 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “No place like home” / “Twenty Years” Dodd SE 7 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “O Death where is thy sting” / “When I return” Dodd SE 8 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “Oh! Lawdy (Something’s done got between Ebecaneezer and Me)” / 

“Bring back those wonderful days” Dodd SE 9 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “Everyone wants a key to my cellar” / “It’s nobody’s business but my 

own” Dodd SE 10 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “The moon shines on the moonshine” / “Somebody” Dodd SE 11 

302

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “I’m sorry I ain’t got it you could have it if I had it blues” / “Checkers” 

Dodd SE 12 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “Lonesome Alimony Blues” / “Save a little dram for me” Dodd SE 13 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “Ten little bottles” / “Unlucky Blues” Dodd SE 14 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “Get up” / “I want to know where Tosti went (when he said goodbye)” 

Dodd SE 15 

BERT WILLIAMS – 78, “My last dollar” / “I’m gonna quit Saturday” Dodd SE 16 

THE NEW ORLEANS RAGTIME ORCHESTRA 

The New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra was organized by a young Swedish jazz pianist 

named Lars Edegran, who had moved to New Orleans to play with the bands in the city. In the 

jazz archive at Tulane University he found the orchestrations that had been played by the John 

Robichaux Orchestra in New Orleans at the turn of the century, and he formed an orchestra to 

play them. The importance of Edegran’s group is that he combined older and younger 

musicians, including William Russell, the jazz scholar and very individual company owner who 

had been instrumental in starting the traditional jazz revival with his recordings of Bunk Johnson 

and George Lewis in the 1940s. Russell had played the violin in silent movie houses at the time 

of World War I, and he had never relinquished his old techniques. Trumpeter Lionel Ferbos and 

drummer John Robichaux Jr. were almost of the same generation, and they also knew the style of 

music from this period. The group was racially mixed, and the long experience of most of the 

members as jazz musicians, and their familiarity with the older musical idioms they created 

music that felt like something that had come from another era. Russell has died, and there have 

been changes in personnel, but the group is still performing, and it still has an unmistakable New 

Orleans swing. 

THE NEW ORLEANS RAGTIME ORCHESTRA - LP, no title. Pearl Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 369 

THE NEW ORLEANS RAGTIME ORCHESTRA - LP, no title. Vol. II Pearl Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 370 

THE NEW ORLEANS RAGTIME ORCHESTRA - LP, no title. Arhoolie Records, 1971. Dodd 

LP LP 371 

THE NEW ORLEANS RAGTIME ORCHESTRA - LP, no title. Sonet Records, 1972. 

Dodd LP 372 

MIKE POLAND - CD, “Piano Deco, Vol. 1” Polecat Records, 1994. Dodd CD 251 

DAVID THOMAS ROBERTS - CD, “American Landscapes” Pinelands Recordings, 1995. 

Dodd CD 252 

Roberts is one of the most gifted of the younger ragtime composers who make up 

an informal group they call “Terra Verde.” His piece “Roberto Clemente” has 

already become a contemporary rag classic. 

303

CHARLEY STRAIGHT - LP, “The Piano Roll Artistry of Charley Straight” 

Dodd LP 373 

TREBOR TICHENOR - LP, “Days Beyond Recall” Folkways Records, 1979. 

Dodd LP 374 

Tichenor is a major collector of ragtime music and piano rolls, and has 

played an important role in the growth of interest in ragtime in the St. Louis area. As 

a pianist and composer he specializes in “folk” ragtime, a more informal style that 

developed in Missouri at the same time as the classical rag period. 

TERRY WALDO - LP, “Snookums Rag” Dirty Shame Records, 1974. Dodd LP 375 

THE RAGTIME ERA 

BERT WILLIAMS - LP, “Nobody and Other Songs” Folkways Records, 1981, compiled by 

Samuel Charters, with notes from the book Nobody, the Story of Bert Williams by Ann Charters. 

Dodd LP 376 

The great Bert Williams was the first African American performer to appear on the 

stage with white actors, and became the first popular black recording artist. Between 

1900 and his death in 1922 he made dozens of recordings, and there were entire 

generations who could recite his “Nobody” along with the record. His singing was 

woven into the ragtime era, and his “You Can’t Get Away from It” is the first vocal 

performance on record that swings in a modern sense. 

“RAGTIME 1, THE CITY, Banjos, Brass Bands, & Nickel Pianos” LP, Folkways Records, 

1971, compiled and annotated by Samuel Charters. Dodd LP 377 


Steve Williams 

Fred Van Eps 

Vess L. Ossman 

Machine Cut Piano Roll 

Joseph Moskovitz 

Ossman-Dudley Trio 

Arthur Collins 

Prince’s Band 

Vic Meyers and his Orchestra 

Jelly Roll Morton 

Celestin’s Original Tuxedo Orchestra 

The State Street Ramblers 

304

“RAGTIME 2, THE COUNTRY, Mandolins, Fiddles, & Guitars” LP, Folkways Records, 1971, 

compiled and annotated by Samuel Charters. Dodd LP 378 


The Dallas String Band 

Carolina Tar Heels 

Jesse Young’s Tennessee Band 


Jolly Jivers 

Frank Stokes 

Leake Country Revelers 

Theron Hale and Daughters 

Sam Moore and Horace Davis 

Charlie Turner 

East Texas Serenaders 

Kessinger Brothers 

Blind Boy Fuller 

THE PIANO ROLL - LP, RBF Records, 1964, compiled and edited by Trebor Jay Tichenor. 

Dodd LP 379 

Tichenor’s notes include an excellent introduction to the player piano and the 

techniques of music reproduction by paper roll. 

THOSE RAGTIME BANJOS - LP, Folkways Records, 1979, compiled and annotated by David 

A. Jasen. Dodd LP 380 


Fred Van Eps 

Vess L. Ossman 

Black Face Eddie Ross 

Pete Mandell with the Savoy Orpheans 

Roy Smeck & Art Kahn 

Len Fillis & Sid Bright 

Harry Reser & Henry Lange 

Dick Roberts & Red Roundtree 

COLLECTIONS 

THE AMERICAN RAGTIME ENSEMBLE, David Reffkin, director - CD. “Ragtime 

Chamber Music. Crazy Otto Music, 2003. 2000-0105/CD 1855 

Period orchestral arrangement of rags from 1900-1918. 

Composers included: 

Frank Wooster and Ethyl Smith 

Mark Janza 

William Penn 

James Reese Europe 

305

Percy Wenrich 

Scott Joplin 

Raymond Birch 

Leon Block 

George Cobb 

Kerry Mills 

Tom Turpin 

MATTHEW DAVIDSON - CD, “The Graceful Ghost, Contemporary Piano Rags” 

Mastersound, 1994. 2000-0105/CD 1856 

Among the contemporary ragtime composers included: 

Donald Ashwander 

William Bolcom 

Hal Isbitz 

Terry Waldo 

Max Morath 

Trebor Jay Tichenor 

David Thomas Roberts 

Jack Rummel 

Galen Wilkes 

William Albright 

Garry Smart 

and Davidson himself. 

ELITE SYNCOPATIONS - CD, “Sidewalk Blues” New World Concert Inc, 1995. 2000- 

0105/CD1857 

Compositions by Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington are included, as well as the following 

ragtime composers: 

Scott Joplin 

Charles L. Johnson 

Artie Matthews 

Joseph Lamb 

“Zez” Confrey 

VIRGINIA ESKIN - CD, “Fluffy Ruffle Girls: Women in Ragtime. Northeastern Records, 1987. 

[not transferred] 

It may seem unusual that there should be so many women writing ragtime compositions 

between 1906 and 1913, the years when most of these pieces were composed, but women were 

the audience for ragtime sheet music, since they often were expected to entertain in their homes, 

and to play for informal dancing. For many years ragtime was a parlor music, rather than a stage 

music, which is reflected in the calm, comfortable mood of these compositions. The one 

contemporary woman composer, Judith Lee Zaimont, wrote both of her pieces in 1975. Eskin is 

an accomplished performer with a clear affinity for the melodic and rhythmic elements of classic 

ragtime. It is fortunate that she has chosen to include six of the seven ragtime compositions by 

May Auferheide from Indianapolis, whose work was published by a company established by her 

father to support her musical talent. 

306

Composers whose works are included: 

Marian L. Davis 

May Aufderheide 

Geraldine Dobyns 

Julia Lee Niebergall 

Irene Cozad 

Judith Lee Zaimont 

Charlene Blake 

Irene Giblin 

Imogene Giles 

Glayds Yelvington 

Mary Baugh Watson 

Adaline Shepherd 

VIRGINIA ESKIN - CD, “Spring Beauties: The Ragtime Project” Koch International 

1998. 2000-0105/CD 1858 

For her third ragtime project Eskin (see her Joseph Lamb CD and her CD of women 

ragtime composers) chose to record contemporary compositions, and they demonstrate the 

vitality and the promise of the new ragtime. Although she chose not to include any of the 

writing of the new Terra Verde group, she has found a broad range of ragtime interests. One of 

the lesser known works she includes is the fine tango-styled “Tangled Rag” by James Tenney, 

who is much better as known as a pioneer in electronic composition. The one composition 

outside her frame of reference is a “Characteristic Intermezzo” by Irving Berlin. 

Composers included: 

Gunther Schuller 

Kenneth Laufer 

Richard Zimmerman 

Mark Kuss 

Marjorie Merryman 

James Tenney 

Martin Amlin 

Henry Gilbert 

William Albright 

Scott Wheeler 

Irving Berlin and Ted Snyder 

Brian Dykstra 

Max Morath 

Stefan Kozinski 

Judith Zaimont 

Richard St. Clair 

RAGTIME (1900-1930) - Double LP, RCA Records, Black & White, 1983. 


THE GOLDEN AGE OF MECHANICAL MUSIC, Vol. 1, PIANOLA RAGTIME - LP, Saydisc, 


307

EARLY RAGTIME PIANO, 1913-1930 – LP. Dodd LP 383 

LATE RAGTIME PIANO - LP. Both albums, Folkways Records, 1977, compiled and annotated 

by David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 384 

EARLY BAND RAGTIME – LP. Dodd LP 385 

LATE BAND RAGTIME - LP. Both albums, Folkways Records, 1979, compiled and 


RAGTIME PIANO INTERPRETATIONS - LP, Folkways Records, 1974, compiled and annotated 

by David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 387 

RAGTIME PIANO NOVELTIES OF THE 20’S - LP, Folkways Records, 1980, compiled and 


SWINGIN’ PIANO 1920-1946 - LP, Folkways, 1983, compiled and annotated by David A. Jasen. 

Dodd LP 389 

EARLY SYNCOPATED DANCE MUSIC, Cakewalks, Two-Steps, Trots, and Glides - LP, RBF 

Records, 1978, compiled and annotated by David A. Jasen. Dodd LP 390 

TOE TAPPIN’ RAGTIME - LP, Folkways Records, 1974, compiled and annotated by David A. 

Jasen. Dodd LP 391 

THE TUNEFUL TWENTIES - LP, RF Records, 1976, compiled and annotated by David A. 

Jasen. Dodd LP 392 

THEY ALL PLAY RAGTIME - LP, Jazzology Records, nd, notes by Rudi Blesh. 

Dodd LP 393 

Artists performing include: 

Max Morath 

Donald Ashwander 

Tom Shea 

John Arpin 

Joseph Lamb 

Peter Lundberg 

Trebor Jay Tichenor 

PRETTY BABY, Music from the Soundtrack of the Motion Picture - LP, ABC Records, 1978. 

Dodd LP 394 

Artists playing in the film were The New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra,. 

ELITE SYNCOPATIONS - LP, “Music for the Ballet by Scott Joplin and Others” CRD Records, 

1976. Dodd LP 395 

308

FINGER STYLE GUITAR RAGTIME 

RAGTIME GUITAR DUETS - LP, performed by Lasse Johansson and Claes Palmkvist Sonet 


HULL’S VICTORY - CD, performed by Dakota Dave Hull, Flying Fish Records, 1983. 

Dodd CD 253 

REUNION RAG - CD, performed by Dakota Dave Hull, Flying Fish Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 254 

RAGTIME INFLUENCED HAWAIIAN GUITAR 

The United States was swept with three new musical styles at about the same time - 

ragtime, the tango, and Hawaiian music, and it isn’t surprising that they all influenced each other 

on the vaudeville stage, and on record and sheet music sales. 

BOB BROZMAN - LP, “Blue Hula Stomp” Kicking Mule Records, 1981. Dodd LP 397 

HULA BLUES - LP, Rounder Records, 1974. Dodd LP 398 


Sol Hoopi 

Frank Ferera 

Jim and Bob the Genial Hawaiiana 

Hawaiian Serenaders 

Roy Smeck 

ON THE BEACH AT WAIKIKI - LP, Folkways Records, 1981. Dodd LP 399 

Compiled and annotated by Samuel Charters. 

The emphasis on this collection was on the Hawaiian style of guitar as much as it 

was on the Hawaiian musicians themselves. Included in the assortment is the Yale 

University Hawaii Trio playing a charleston, and the New Orleans Six and Seven- 

Eights String Band, which has a jazz style influenced by the city’s rich jazz heritage. 

HAWAIIAN STEEL GUITAR, 1920s – 1950s - LP, Folklyric Records, 1976. 

Dodd LP 400 

Compiled and annotated by Chris Strachwitz. 

Includes an additional track by Jenks “Tex” Carman, “Samoan Stomp.” 

CASSETTES 

Cassettes were always less than satisfactory as a way of preserving music, but in the era of 

the walkman they were everywhere, and of all the possible ways of getting music to listeners 

they were the cheapest. For the ragtime world, with its small corps of dedicated fans, cassettes 

became a way to exchange information, to promote jobs, and keep track of each other’s playing. 

309

For those interested in classic ragtime there was the excitement of a cassette with 1959 

recordings of Joseph Lamb, the only one still living of the great group of composers published 

by John Stark. Particularly active was pianist Frank French who put onto cassette not only the 

complete rags of James Scott, but also compositions by Gottschalk and composers from Brazil 

and the Caribbean. 

IN DAHOMEY 

A UNIQUE RECORDING OF A RAGTIME MUSICAL 

In 1902 the great African American vaudeville team of Williams and Walker scored a 

major New York stage hit with their ragtime musical comedy “In Dahomey.” It was the first 

black musical to appear on Broadway. Despite the show’s success, however, the score by 

Harlem composer William Marion Cook, with material added by other popular composers, and 

lyrics by among others the noted African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, was though to 

be lost. Fortunately the musical also traveled to England, and acting on a tip ragtime historian 

and performer Ian Whitcomb succeeded in rescuing the score from a London warehouse the day 

before the warehouse’s contents were shredded. 

The cassette is of historical interest for the ragtime content. The performance is amateurish 

and the “orchestra” is based around a sound reproduction program, but it is valuable for its 

glimpse into the repertory of a black musical theater company, as well as presenting several 

attractive ragtime songs. The project was directed by Patrick J. Gogarty, who also conducted 

the performance. 

IN DAHOMEY, A Negro Musical Comedy. Palm Springs, CA: Sound Current Records, 1994. 

2000-0105/AC 894 

THE AMERICAN RAGTIME ENSEMBLE, David Reffkin, Director. Ragtime Chamber 

Music, The Historic 1975 Sessions. self produced, 1979. 2000-0105/AC 895 

Reffkin has devoted many years to ragtime as a performer, historian, leader of his 

ensemble and host of a long running interview and music radio program that has emphasized 

ragtime and its roots and off shoots. His ensemble plays with an entirely authentic will to please 

and under Reffkin’s direction their arrangements have lost none of ragtime’s invitation to 

dancing. 

DONALD ASHWANDER. Untitled, a collection of ten of his compositions performed by the 

popular ragtime personality. Dallas: Ashwander Music, 1996. [not transferred] 

BARFOTA JAZZMEN. Ragtime Constellation. Self produced, 1998. 

2000-0105/AC 896 

This is a veteran traditional jazz group from northern Sweden that has had a long affinity 

for the ragtime idiom. 

THE ELITE SYNCOPATORS with JOHN OTTO - Ragtime. . .and a bit more. No 

company listed, nd. 2000-0105/AC 897 

An eclectic collection with an emphasis on the distinctive ragtime compositions by Joplin 

contemporary Brun Campbell. 

310

FRANK FRENCH 

Gottschalk of Louisiana. self produced, nd. 2000-0105/AC 898 

French describes these performances as “adaptations” 

More American Souvenirs. Boulder, CO, self produced, nd. 2000-0105/AC 899 

A Ragtime Feast, Joplin, Lamb, Scott, Marshall. self produced, nd. 

2000-0105/AC 900 

James Scott’s Ragtime. Boulder, CO: self produced, 1993. 2000-0105/AC 901 

JOE LAMB PLAYS JOE LAMB. Hot Cinders, 29 performances from 1959, including the 

“Montgomery Tape.” Sedalia, MO: Scott Joplin Foundation of Sedalia, 1994. 

2000-0105/AC 902 

BOB MILNE. Boogie, Blues &Rags. Self produced, nd. 2000-0105/AC 903 

Six of the pieces performed are compositions by Milne. 

MARTY MINCER. Classic Piano Rags. Hamburg, Iowa: self produced, 1990. 

2000-0105/AC 904 

Front Porch Ragtime, Music from Other Parts of the House. Hamburg, Iowa: self 

produced, 1991. 2000-0105/AC 907 

MAX MORATH QUINTET. POP!! Goes the Music! Woodcliff Lakes, NJ, Normacks, 

Inc, nd. 2000-0105/AC 905 

A COLLECTION 

NEW ENGLAND RAGS & POPULAR SONGS, Original Recordings, 1903-1930. 

Produced by Galen Wilkes, Van Nuys, CA, nd. 2000-0105/AC 906 

Wilkes has gathered a group of original recordings featuring music either performed by or 

composed by musicians and entertainers from the New England area. Providence, RI is 

represented by George M. Cohan, Hartford’s artist is the minstrel star Lew Dockstader, etc. An 

interesting concept that Wilkes has presented well. 

II B11. The Rural White Blues Tradition 

When folk song collectors went into the rural areas of the American South they were 

completely unprepared for the wealth of traditional English song material which they found still 

being sung and played in the United States. If they had also been collecting the blues they would 

have been as unprepared for the wide range of early blues which found its way into the white 

rural repertoire. Southern white songsters preserved every kind of music they heard - including 

the blues, and those performers who talked with interviewers over the years always named the 

source of their blues as a black neighbor or a black singer. They also had taken over the banjo 

311

y the time the first recordings were made, so the source for our knowledge of southern African 

American banjo traditions is largely the white performers who consciously imitated their styles. 

The banjo, of course, is an African instrument, and the African playing techniques, as well as the 

banjo itself, were widespread throughout the South. 

When Victor Records recording scout Ralph Peer turned from recordings blues and jug 

band music in cities like Memphis and Atlanta he gathered country white musicians for a series 

of recordings in Bristol, Tennessee in 1929. Among the performers he found there were two 

who were to be among the new country music’s biggest stars. One was a traditional family 

singing group, the Carter Family, the other was Jimmy Rogers, who sang the blues. It is ironic, 

and its implications are very complex, to realize that the first white country musician to achieve 

real success with a wide southern audience was a blues singer. 

THE HARRY SMITH-MOSES ASCH ANTHOLOGIES 

ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC, Volume One: Ballads - Double LP box. 


ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC, Volume Two: Social Music - Double LP. 


ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC, Volume Three: Songs - Double LP. 


Edited and annotated by Harry Smith, with Moses Asch, Folkways Records, 1952. 

This series of LPs had a major formative influence on the folk music boom of the 

1950s, and through Bob Dylan, who considered it a major source for material and 

musical styles, it also had an effect on some early rock performers. Smith, an 

avantgarde film maker and amateur music enthusiast, was asked by Moses Asch of 

Folkways to put together a series of albums that would illustrate the backgrounds of 

the folk music that Folkways was presenting to the new folk audience. Smith’s 

selections were eclectic and audacious, and with Asch’s help the booklet material was 

also assembled in an almost surrealist presentation. Perhaps the single most important 

breakthrough for the set was the mingling of white and black performers. The rural 

blues artists were presented with cowboy singers, cajun vocalists, country gospel 

singers, jug bands, traditional ballads, and holiness congregations. The resulting 

medley of songs and instruments is still as startling today as it was a half century ago. 

For many of us in the 1950s the set of albums were a kind of touchstone of 

authenticity. When Ann Danberg and I began living together in 1957 the first 

purchase we made together was a set of the anthology, and the albums, by now 

somewhat scuffed and battered, have stayed with us through all the travels of the 

years since then. 

RURAL ARTISTS 

CLARENCE ASHLEY, with DOC WATSON - LP, “Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley’s” 


Clarence Ashley was one of the “old-timey” singers whose music was part of the 

312

Folkways anthology, and his rediscovery was important to the whole shift in 

emphasis in the folk movement from entertainment to authenticity. What was 

equally important was the playing of a young neighbor, Doc Watson, who was 

included in the improvised recording sessions. This was the folk world’s 

introduction to the brilliant guitar instrumentalist who is still a major figure in the 

world of folk and country music. 

CLARENCE ASHLEY, with DOC WATSON and THE ORIGINAL CAROLINA TAR HEELS 

- LP, “Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley’s, Part 2” Folkways Records, 1961. Dodd LP 404 

Both albums recorded and annotated by Eugene Earle and Ralph Rinzler, for Part 2 

Mike Seeger was also with them. The recordings were made in September, 1960, in 

Shouns, Tennessee, Saltville, Virginia, and Deep Gap, North Carolina. 

GENE AUTREY - CD, “Gene Autrey, Blues Singer, 1929-1931, ‘Booger Rooger Saturday 

Nite!’” Columbia Legacy, 1996. Dodd CD 255 

Autrey is much better known for his years as a successful “singing cowboy” in a 

series of forgettable films, and he also achieved record industry immortality for his 

78 rpm single of “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer,” which was probably the 

biggest selling single of all time. His audience during his greatest years would 

have been surprised to learn that he had begun his career singing the blues. His songs 

were modeled on other recordings by white country artists, and he made an 

intelligent career choice when he decided to sing other kinds of songs. 

DOC BOGGS - CD, “Country Blues” Revenant Records, 1997. Dodd CD 256 

Revenant Records is the creation of guitarist John Fahey. This release of Boggs’ 

complete early recordings is sumptuously packaged in a hard-cover sixty page book 

with photographs, historical background, transcriptions of lyrics, and extended essays 

by Greil Marcus and Jon Pankake. The album sets a new standard for reissue 

materials. 

DOC BOGGS - LP, “Legendary Singer & Banjo Players” Folkways Records, 1964. 

Dodd LP 405 

Recorded and edited by Mike Seeger. 

RUFUS CRISP - LP, no title. Folkways Records, 1972. Dodd LP 406 

Recorded by Margot Mayo and Stuart Jamieson at Allen Kentucky, 1946, edited by 

Ralph Rinzler. 

DARBY & TARLTON - LP, no title. Old Timey Records, n.d. Dodd LP 407 

The artists’ full names are Tom Darby and Jimmy Tarlton. Edited by Chris Strachwitz, 

with Eugene Earle and Jimmy Tarlton. 

ROSCOE HOLCOMB - LP, “Close to Home” Folkways Records, 1975. Dodd LP 409 

Recorded and documented by John Cohen. 

313

Holcomb was an unemplyed Kentucky coal miner discovered by photographer, 

film maker, and musician John Cohen. Holcomb’s high, keening voice had a raw 

intensity that turned everything he performed into an emotional epiphany, and his 

banjo playing still was shaped by the earliest banjo styles. 

THE MADDOX BROTHERS & ROSE, Vol. 2 - CD, “America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band” 

Arhoolie, 1995. Dodd CD 257 

SAM McGEE - LP, “Grand Dad of the Country Guitar Pickers” Arhoolie Records, 1970. 

Dodd LP 410 

THE McGEE BROTHERS & ARTHUR SMITH - LP, no title. Folkways Records, 1964. 

Dodd LP 411 

Recorded and edited by Mike Seeger. 

BILL MONROE and THE BLUEGRASS BOYS - CD, “Live Recordings, 1956-1969” 

Smithsonian Folkways, 1993. Dodd CD 258 

Monroe’s band is usually considered the source of today’s bluegrass music, and 

there was considerable blues inflection in his singing style, as well as in the band’s 

repertoire. 

BILL MONROE & DOC WATSON - CD, “Live Duet Recordings, 1963-1980” Smithsonian 

Folkways, 1993. Dodd CD 259 

TEX ISLEY/GRAY CRAIG & THE NEW NORTH CAROLINA RAMBLERS - LP, “North 

Carolina Boys” Leader Sound, 1972. Dodd LP 412 

CHARLIE POOLE and THE NORTH CAROLINA RAMBLERS - LP, “Old Time Songs 

recorded from 1925-1930” County Records, 1965. Dodd LP 413 

Poole’s style was strongly effected by the black instrumental groups in the North 

Carolina area, and there is an engaging “blues” feel to their music. 

KILBY SNOW - LP, “Country Songs and Tunes with Autoharp” Folkways Records, 1969. 

Dodd LP 414 

Recorded, edited, and annotated by Mike Seeger. 

THE STANLEY BROTHERS - CD, “The Rich-R’-Tone Recordings” Revenant Records, n.d. 

Dodd CD 260 

Although not as elaborately produced as the Revenant Doc Boggs reissue, this 

collection of these 1947-1952 singles by the Stanley Brothers maintains the same high 

standard of scholarship and documentation. The extensive notes are by Gary B. Reid. 

GID TANNER and THE SKILLET LICKERS - LP, “The Kickapoo Medicine Show” Rounder 


COLLECTIONS 

314

Although there is no question that white country artists in their blues performances were 

borrowing from their white neighbors, the nature of the borrowing is also of considerable value 

in casting new light on the blues itself. The recording policies of the companies involved helped 

skew our perceptions of southern vernacular music, since they generally only were interested in 

blues material from their African American artists, creating the “blues man” out of performers 

who were essentially country songsters. The white artists were recorded with a broader 

repertoire, which more accurately reflected the rural musical environment. The recordings were 

made in the South between 1927 and 1938. 

“Mountain Blues” Four CD box, JSP Records (London), 2005. [not transferred] 


Vol. 1 

Larry Hensley 

Cobb & Underwood 

Clarence Green 

Dixie Ramblers 

South Georgia Highballers 

Frankie Marvin 

Gene Autrey 

Frankie Marvin 

Bill Cox & Cliff Hobbs 

Bill Cox 

Lonnie Glosson 

Hershal Brown 

Riley Puckett 

Bowman Sisters 

Carolina Buddies 

Vol. 2 

Dick Justice 

Justice & Jarvis 

Slim Smith 

Crowder Brothers 

Clarence Ashley 

Clarence Ashley & Gwen Foster 

Gwen Foster 

Walter Davis & Gwen Foster 

The Carver Boys 

Chuck Darling 

Palmer McAbee 

Carroll Countý Revelers 

Samantha Bumgarner 

Fiddlin’ Doc Roberts 

Asa Martin & His Kentucky Hillbillies 

Georgia Crackers 

Callahan Brothers 

315

Homer Callahan 

Vol. 3 

Carolina Tar Heels 

Buster & Jack 

Narmour & Smith 

Nations Brothers 

Byrd Moore 

Byrd Moore & Jess Robinson 

Reaves White County Ramblers 

Lowes Stokes & His North Georgians 

Leave County Revelers 

Vol. 4 


Three Tobacco Tags 

Moatsville String Ticklers 

Roandake Jug Band 

Mike Shaw’s Alabama Entertainers 

Prince Albert Hunt 

Oscar Ford 

The Freeny Harmonisers 

Kentucky Ramblers 

Kentucky String Ticklers 

Spangler & Pearson 

George Edgin’s Corn Dodgers 

Ashley’s Melody Men 

Earl Johnson & His Dixie Entertainers 

Dykes Magic City Trio 

Rodgers & Nicholson 

Uncle Bud Landress 

Burnett & Rutherford 

WHITE COUNTRY BLUES, 1926-1938, A Lighter Shade of Blue - Double CD, Sony Records, 

1993. Dodd CD 261 

Presumably compiled by Lawrence Cohn, who was responsible for other releases 

in Sony’s “Roots N’Blues” series, although no credit is given on the album set itself. 

An excellent survey of the influence of the blues on white country artists through 

recordings made in the early period of field collecting by the major companies. There 

are extensive notes and transcriptions of the lyrics - this copy of the set prints the 

notes in Japanese, with the transcriptions in English and Japanese. 


Frank Hutchinson 

Charlie Poole with the North Carolina Ramblers 

Tom Darby and Jillie Tarlton 

Riley Puckett 

Clarence Green 

Tom Ashley 

316

Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans 

W. Lee O”Daniel & His Hillbilly Boys 


Cliff Carlisle 

Bill Cox & Cliff Hobbs 

Alle Brothers 

Al Dexter 

The Rhythm Wreckers 

MOUNTAIN MUSIC of KENTUCKY - LP, Folkways Records, 1968. Dodd LP 416 

Recorded and annotated by John Cohen. The album introduced the banjo playing 

and singing of Roscoe Holcomb, as well the examples of 5-string banjo styles by 

several other Kentucky musicians. 

STEEL GUITAR CLASSICS - LP, Old Timey Records, n.d. Dodd LP 417 


Jimmy Tarlton 

Sol Hoopii’s Trio 

Lemuel Turner 

Kanui & Lula 

Jenks “Tex” Carman 

Cliff Carlisle 

Jimmie Davis 

Roy Acuff 

WESTERN SWING, BLUES, BOOGIE & HONKY TONK 

Country music continued to have a strong blues element through the 1930s, as the groups 

enlarged and began to absorb instrumental techniques and vocal styles from other recordings and 

from the radio. The most important influence on a very young guitarist named Charlie Christian 

as he was growing up in Oklahoma City was the recordings of the Light Crust Doughboys and 

their pioneer electric guitar soloist, Muryel Campbell. 

Volume 4, The 1930s Dodd LP 418 

Volume 5, The 1930s Dodd LP 419 

Volume 6, The 1940s & ‘50s Dodd LP 420 



LPs, Old Timey, n.d. 

This series of Lps was compiled by Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records, and 

includes most of the major country artists of the period. 


Milton Brown & His Brownies 

Ted Daffan’s Texans 

317

The Tune Wranglers 

Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys 

Light Crust Doughboys 

Bill Boyd & His Cowboy Ramblers 

Buddy Jones 

Ocie Stockard & His Wanderers 

Johnny Tyler & Riders of the Rio Grande 

The Farr Brothers 

Luke Wills Rhythm Busters 

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys 

Tommy Duncan & His Western All Stars 

Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant 

Hawkshaw Hawkins 

Bill Nettles 

The Maddox Brothers & Rose 

II B12. Contemporary Blues-Based Guitar Instrumental 

Music 

II B12a. John Fahey 

In the summer of 1959 an LP came in the mail to the basement apartment in Brooklyn 

where I had just finished writing The Country Blues. The record was in a white cover, with only 

the words “Blind Joe Death” in large letters on both sides. With it there was a letter to me from 

someone named John Fahey, telling me that this was a record he had made of his own music, and 

asking me for an opinion. The letter was as guarded as the LP jacket. The music was a series of 

guitar instrumentals based on the finger picking style of the Mississippi bluesmen. I kept 

waiting for someone to sing, and when I didn’t hear any singing I wrote John a short note saying 

that other people in New York were doing the same kind of thing but the record was interesting. 

John has never forgiven me for my note, and even if I’m not sure if we ever would really have 

become friends I have always been angry at myself for my insensitivity. John sent out a few 

copies of the record, which he had pressed for himself on his own Takoma label, and sold more 

through mail orders. When the copies were gone he recorded a new record and sold the copies 

the same way. This time the copies went more quickly, and he recorded a third album. Within a 

few years Fahey and his music had become one of the growing influences of the 1960s. He was 

still almost unknown personally, but his music was everywhere in the new undergroun.d. 

I had difficulty describing the pieces when I first heard the 1959 album, but I soon realized 

that John had created a new music, based entirely on the materials he had learned from the 

country blues. He had been one of the people who rediscovered Bukka White, and then 

Mississippi John Hurt, and from the musicians themselves he had absorbed finger techniques and 

new concepts of guitar tunings and chordal structures. He has never described himself as a 

guitarist - his description of his own music is that he is a composer who plays the guitar. What 

he did was to create a compositional style which synthesized elements from the entire range of 

rural southern string music, including the Mississippi slide guitar, Virginia string bands, the 

alternate thumb picking of the Delta, and the finger style of the Carolinas. His compositional 

318

technique was to record passages with different guitars which built up segments of his pieces - 

then he spliced the tape sections together, editing, changing tone, and adding echo effects. His 

last step was then to learn the piece as it was finally structured so he could perform it. 

By the middle of the ‘60s John was touring regularly, and he had outgrown the small 

record company he had set up with a partner, ED Denson, the man who had gone to Memphis 

with him to find Bukka White. I had known ED for several years and we worked together to 

sign John to a contract with Vanguard. There were two albums - the first an album that included 

three long requia, and an extended three part piece that utilized a complicated sound montage 

over John’s guitar. We recorded many of the sound effects for the montage at Knott’s Berry 

Farm outside of Los Angeles, where the events John was depicting in the composition had taken 

place. Because of time problems and delays from John’s side I finally went ahead and mixed the 

sound piece without him, and our edgy relationship became even more difficult. For the second 

album on the Vanguard contract he worked with a friend, Barry Hansen, in Los Angeles, while I 

acted as executive producer in New York. The album, The Yellow Princess, was one of John’s 

finest achievments, with a music concrete piece built on montage, a successful fusion of his 

guitar with small instrumental groups, and a rich collection of new compositions. 

By this time Fahey had a series of disciples, among them Leo Kottke, who developed the 

idiom John had created into a more flamboyant and emotionally open statement. John was not 

upset. He recorded Kottke for his own record company, and they continued to be close friends. 

He was also having emotional problems, and his life often veered into difficulties, despite the 

growing creativity of his music. By the 1970s an entire school of guitar composition had grown 

from his work, and a new record company, Windham Hill, was established by a guitarist named 

Will Ackerman to present young guitarists playing in the Fahey style. It isn’t an exaggeration to 

say that John’s guitar compositions were the basis for the New Age movement that swept the 

guitar world, and that the basic foundation for all of it was southern blues guitar. 

Fahey himself was having more problems with his health, and alcohol was beginning to 

take a toll on his emotional stability. In the mid-1990s he was forced to live for a period in a 

men’s shelter in Portland, and the experience brought him out of the crisis. He is touring again, 

composing new music, and in his interviews there is a new clarity and purpose to his musical 

ambitions. 

THE TAKOMA RECORDINGS, 1959-1968 

Volume 1, Blind Joe Death Dodd LP 423 

Volume 2, Death Chants, Breakdowns & Military Waltzes Dodd LP 424 

Volume 3, The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites Dodd LP 425 

Volume 4, The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party and Other Excursions 

Dodd LP 426 

The title piece of the album is a twenty-five minute long extended composition describing and 

unhappy experience with someone he loved, and it carried his compositional techniques to new 

levels of complexity. 

319

(There is no Volume 5 in the Takoma catalog listing, but Fahey probably considered the 

Riverboat album listed below as the fifth of his series of albums.) 

Volume 6, Days Have Gone By Dodd LP 427 

The Voice of the Turtle Dodd LP 428 

The New Possibility, John Fahey’s Guitar solo Christmas Album Dodd LP 429 

John’s contemplative rephrasings of the traditional Christmas hymns became one of his biggest 

selling albums. For John the album represented a statement of his evolving religious beliefs, and 

this seriousness gives the album its unique quality. All of these albums are LPs, the first four are 

repackagings from the mid-1960s. The Voice of the Turtle is Fahey’s “Picture Album” and 

contains extended notes and illustrations in his half serious, half parody style of writing. 

The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death - LP, Riverboat Records, n.d. Dodd LP 430 

The Legend of Blind Joe Death - CD, Takoma Records, 1996. Dodd CD 262 

This is a compilation of both the original recordings for the 1959 album and the re-recordings of 

the same compositions that Fahey made in the 1960s to release the album again with better 

sound quality. 

Blind Joe Death/John Fahey LP Takoma 4448 Takoma Park, MD, 1959. 2000-0105/LP 1452 

A first pressing of Fahey’s self-produced first album, with the matrix numbers K8OP-4447-1 and 

K8OP- 4448-1 scratched in the vinyl. 

This is the copy Fahey sent to Sam Charters in the summer of 1959. 

Christmas with John Fahey Vol. II LP Takoma Records C-1045, 1975. 2000-0105/LP 1454 

This is the original release of the album, followed by the Sonet repressing. 

The Best of John Fahey 1959-1977 LP Sonet Records SNTF 733, 1977. 2000-0105/LP 1455 

Let Go LP Varrick Records 008, 1984. 2000-0105/LP 1453 

Varrick Records was a subsidiary label manufactured by the adventurous Cambridge, company 

Rounder Records. 

THE VANGUARD RECORDINGS 

Requia - LP, Vanguard Records, 1967. Dodd LP 431 

Produced and sound montage mixed by Samuel Charters. 

The Yellow Princess - LP, Vanguard Records, 1968. Dodd LP 432 

Produced by John Fahey and Barret Hansen, executive producer, Samuel Charters 

THE CONTINUING TAKOMA SAGA 

America - LP, manufactured by Sonet Records, 1972. Dodd LP 433 

320

Fare Forward Voyagers - LP, manufactured by Sonet Records, 1974. Dodd LP 434 

Christmas with John Fahey (Soldier’s Choice) Vol. II - LP, manufactured by Sonet records, 

1975. Dodd LP 435 

Old Fashioned Love - LP, manufactured by Sonet Records, 1975. Dodd LP 436 

This is the first of Fahey’s album to use a large group of musicians and studio arrangements. 

The selections include a popular song, Frank Loesser’s “Old Fashioned Love” and John’s 

irritated response to one of the younger guitarists who - John felt - was breathing too closely 

down his neck. The piece is titled “The Assassination of Stephan Grossman.” Grossman 

retaliated on an album recorded in 1980 with his “The Assassination of John Fahey.“ 

John Fahey Visits Washington, D. C.- LP, 1979. Takoma was now being distributed by 

Chrysalis Records. Dodd LP 437 

John Fahey Live in Tasmania - LP, manufactured by Sonet Records, 1981. Dodd LP 438 

The album was recorded in an auditorium in Hobart University in Hobart, Australia, which is the 

capital city of the island of Tasmania. It was the first recording by an international artist in the 

history of Tasmania, and it is one of John’s finest albums. 

THE LATER YEARS 

The City of Refuge - CD, Tim/Kerr Records, 1997. Dodd CD 263 

A TRIBUTE 

A Tribute to John Fahey. Eleven of His Finest Compositions Played by Woody Harris, 

Bob Hadley, Arvid Smith and Stephen Connolly - LP, Kicking Mule Records, licensed to Sonet 


Blind Joe Death/John Fahey LP Takoma 4448 Takoma Park, MD, 1959. 2000-0105/LP 1452 

A first pressing of Fahey’s self-produced first album, with the matrix numbers K8OP-4447-1 and 

K8OP- 4448-1 scratched in the vinyl. 

This is the copy Fahey sent to Sam Charters in the summer of 1959. 

Christmas with John Fahey Vol. II LP Takoma Records C-1045, 1975. 2000-0105/LP 1454 

This is the original release of the album, followed by the Sonet repressing. 

The Best of John Fahey 1959-1977 LP Sonet Records SNTF 733, 1977. 2000-0105/LP 1455 

Let Go LP Varrick Records 008, 1984. 2000-0105/LP 1453 

Varrick Records was a subsidiary label manufactured by the adventurous Cambridge, company 

Rounder Records. 

321

John Fahey & Cul de Sac The Epiphany of Glenn Jones CD Thirsty Ear Recordings, 1997. 

2000-0105/CD 2020 

Glenn Jones was the leader of the group Cul de Sac and he had idolized Fahey for many years. 

He brought John into the studio essentially to do a concept album conceived by Jones, but as 

anyone who had worked with Fahey before could have told him this was a doomed idea. Jones’ 

notes describe the fiasco the followed, and unfortunately the music that finally was completed 

fails to justify the struggle and the trauma that went into the recording. Jones’ notes also hint at 

his relative innocence working with complicated artists in the studio. The tumult sounds similar 

to so many misdirected recording sessions, complete with the rising sense of panic as the 

expensive studio clock is running and nothing is going as planned. 

THE FANTASY CDS 

In the 1990s Fantasy Records in Berkeley, under the artistic direction of Fantasy’s Bill 

Belmont, began reissuing Fahey’s Takoma albums. The albums used the original Takoma art 

work, but they were re-edited and remastered, often including material dropped from the early 

release or titles that were too long to fit onto the LP sides. 

The Legend of Blind Joe Death CD Takoma 8901, 1996. 2000-0105/CD 2123 

The CD version includes both original and re-recorded versions of material from Fahey’s 

ground-breaking first album. 

The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death CD Takoma 6504, 1997. 2000-0105/CD 2124 

Fahey released this album on a small label in Boston, and it has been rereleased in its original 

form. The booklet includes a long introduction by George Winston, written in 1996 and a 

personal note by Samuel Charters written in 1968. 

America CD Takoma 8903, 1998. 2000-0105/CD 2119 

The original album was to be released as two LPs, but at the last moment Fahey scrapped nine of 

the compositions to release it as a single album. He may have been told that it’s more difficult to 

sell double albums, and his small company was always struggling with miniscule budgets. The 

nine pieces that were dropped are included on this CD reissue. 

Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes CD Takoma 8908, 1998. 2000-0105/CD 2115 

This album includes the new versions of the ten tracks (out of twelve) of the original LP 

versions. 

The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites CD Takoma 8909, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 2122 

This CD adds four titles to the original release. 

The Voice of the Turtle CD Takoma 6501, 1996. 2000-0105/CD 2118 

Fahey considered this a “Musical Hodograph and Chronologue” and included is the extensive 

booklet of photographs and text that accompanied the original LP. 

The New Possibility:John Fahey’s Guitar Soli Christmas Album CD Takoma 8912, 1993. 

2000-0105/CD 2114 

322

The CD also includes Christmas music from Christmas with John Fahey, Vol II.. 

The Best of John Fahey, 1959-1977 CD Takoma 8915, 2002. 2000-0105/CD 2117 

Two of Fahey’s longest and most ambitious pieces have been added to this reissue, including 

the 23 minute long “Fare Forward Voyagers.”. 

The Best of John Fahey Vol. 2: 1964-1983 CD Takoma 8916, 2004. 2000-0105/CD 2125 

This compliation includes previously unreleased performances, among them three pieces from a 

“long-lost” Takoma album, Azalea City Memories. 

POSTHUMOUS RELEASES 

Fahey struggled with poor health for several years and died of complications from heart 

surgery in 2001. His reputation has continued to grow and there is an active group of Fahey 

enthusiasts who are working to make his music and his legacy known to wider audiences. 

Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today CD Revenant Company, 2003. 2000-0105/CD 2116 

This is in its way a sensitive and moving memorial album to Fahey, and Glenn Jones’ touching 

notes capture the emotions and the challenges of knowing John as a friend. 

The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick CD Water records, 139, released by Revenant Company, 

2004. 2000-0105/CD 2121 

A live album recorded at the Matrix in San Francisco in 1968 and 1969. The title is a reference 

to his classic composition “The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party.” 

John Fahey/Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You: The Fonotone Years, 1958-1965 CD Atlanta, 

GA: Dust-to-Digital, Texarkana: Revenant Co., 2011. 2000-0105/CD 2127a-e 

A FOUR TRACK TAPE 

In the 1960s several companies, including Vanguard Records, launched tape versions of 

some of their albums for the high-fidelity audience. The tapes had the advantage of relatively 

little surface noise and there was no loss of sound quality with repeated playings. There was 

some sales interest in the 8-track tape format for use in automobile tape decks, but the 4-track 

tapes like this one never attracted much attention. Fahey’s album was a reasonable choice 

because of his upscale audience and the artistic quality of the album, but there were few sales. 

The Yellow Princess 4-track tape, Vanguard Records x9293, nd. 2000-0105/RR 295 

A FAHEY FOLLOWER, LEO KOTTKE 

In the late 1960s Fahey received a demo cassette at Takoma Records from a younger 

guitarist named Leo Kottke, who had been playing the trombone and the guitar for several years, 

and who had been influenced by Fahey’s own recordings. Fahey liked the playing despite the 

poor sound quality of the demo. He suggested that Kottke come to California, and for some 

months Kottke lived in John’s house and worked for Takoma as a shipping clerk. His debut 

album 6 and 12 String Guitar was released on Takoma in 1969, and although its initial reception 

was slow, it went on to sell more than half a million copies. The similarities of the two styles 

were obvious, including the half-serious titles of some of the pieces, but there was a lighter tone 

323

to Kottke’s playing and his compositions weren’t weighted with Fahey’s larger musical 

ambitions. Kottke is also a genial performer which helped him maintain his position as an 

important figure in the world of American steel string guitar composition. (See also a Dodd 

listing for a previous CD release) 

LEO KOTTKE 6 and 12 String Guitar CD Takoma 6503, 1996. 2000-0105/CD 2126 

II B12a1. John Fahey Guitar Folio 

JOHN FAHEY – John Fahey’s Christmas Songs; thirteen titles, nd, published by Warner 

Brothers. Dodd D 2050 

The Transcriptions, by John Stropes, include detailed performance tips. 

II B12b. Other Instrumentalists Influenced by Fahey 

John Fahey’s compositional techniques have been widely influential, and this is a 

collection of the music of some of the instrumentalists who are writing what is now sometimes 

loosely described as Music for the American Steel String Guitar. 

WILLIAM ACKERMAN - LP, “Passage” Windham Hill Records, 1981. Dodd LP 440 

ROBBIE BASHO - CD, “Guitar Soli” Takoma, 1996. Dodd CD 264 

From the notes to the album - 

“The debt that modern guitar composers owe to the late Robbie Basho can 

hardly be overstated. Though Fahey invented the genre and Kottke proved its 

marketability, it was Basho’s technique, vision, and self-image that resonated most 

strongly with Will Ackerman and the so-called New-Age guitar movement he 

founded . . .” 

SCOTT COSSU - LP, “Wind Dance” Windham Hill Records, 1981. Dodd LP 441 

RICHARD CRANDELL & BILL BARTELS - LP, “Oregon Hill” Cutthroat Records, 1983. 

Dodd LP 442 

ALEX de GRASSI - LP, “Slow Circle” Windham Hill Records, 1979. Dodd LP 443 

ALEX de GRASSI - LP, “Clockwork” Windham Hill Records, 1981. Dodd LP 444 

STEFAN GROSSMAN - LP, “Thunder on the Run” Kicking Mule Records, 1980. 

Dodd LP 445 

This album includes the composition “The Assassination of John Fahey.“ 

STEFAN GROSSMAN - CD, “Black Melodies on a Clear afternoon” Shanachie Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 265 

324

STEFAN GROSSMAN - CD, “Shining Shadows” Shanachie Records, 1992. 

Dodd CD 266 

MICHAL HEDGES - LP, “Breakfast in the Field” Windham Hill Records, 1981. 

Dodd LP 446 

LEO KOTTKE - CD, “6 and 12 String Guitar” Rhino Records, licensed from Takoma Records, 

1969. Dodd CD 268 

LEO KOTTKE - CD, “My Father’s Face” Private Music, 1989. Dodd CD 267 

GEORGE WINSTON - LP, “Ballads and Blues, 1972” Windham Hill Records, 1981. 

Dodd LP 447 

Although Winston’s piano solos are uniquely individual, and his recordings 

became major best sellers at the height of the New Age movement, selling hundreds 

of thousands of copies, it is often forgotten that this first recording was originally 

released on Fahey’s Takoma Label, and the sessions were produced by Fahey and 

Doug Decker. Perhaps the closest description of the influence Fahey’s compositions 

had on Winston is to say that there is an “affinity” in their musical thinking. 

COLLECTIONS 

CONTEMPORARY GUITAR, SPRING ‘67 - LP, Takoma, 1967. Dodd LP 448 


Robbie Basho 

John Fahey 

Max Ochs 

Harry Taussig 

Bukka White 

LEO KOTTKE, PETER LANGE, JOHN FAHEY - CD, no title. Takoma Records, original release 

1974. Dodd CD 269 

WINDHAM HILL RECORDS SAMPLER ‘81 - LP, Windham Hill Records, 1981. 

Dodd LP 449 


William Ackerman 

David Qualey 

Bill Quist 

Alex de Grassi 

Robbie Basho 

George Winston 

Daniel Hecht 

325

COUNTRY: An Original Soundtrack Album composed and conducted by Charles Gross – LP, 

Windham Hill Records, 1984. Dodd LP 690 

II B12b1. Leo Kottke 

LEO KOTTKE – Transcribed; four titles, published by Music Sales, Inc. 

Included with the folio is a cassette of the pieces analyzed. Dodd D 2058 and Dodd Audio 1077 

II B13. Caribbean 

II B13a. Folk and African-derived Cult Music from the 

Caribbean 

As writer Mark Kurlansky has described the Caribbean, it is “a continent of islands,” and 

scattered across the warm seas to the south of the United States is a myriad of lands and cultures 

that reflect the immense diversity of this meeting place of so much of the last centuries’ history. 

The islands were divided between a confusion of conquerors and colonizers; including Spanish, 

French, English, Dutch, Danish, and American, and the Caribbean also became the world of a 

mingling of millions of men and women from the tribes of West Africa, who were brought to the 

islands to work on the plantations that enriched their European owners. Slavery in the colonies 

was harsh and unrelenting. As the plantation owners in the sugar fields of Cuba expressed it, 

“Sugar is made with blood.” In Cuba the death rate among slaves working in the cane fields was 

so high that there was almost no effort to build any kind of family life. Slaves were imported as 

adults, and worked until they were dead, and with the owners only interested in strong male 

laborers, the number of women included in the shipments was very low. Slavery was not 

abolished in Cuba until 1886, so it continued to haunt Cuban life as a troubling presence well 

into the 20th Century. 

The Caribbean plantations were used as an intermediary stop on the journey of slaves from 

Africa to the United States, and the slaves typically spent a year working in the islands to learn a 

little language and to try to accustom themselves to the brutalities of the slave system. The 

world’s only successful slave rebellion freed Haiti in the 18th century, and fears of local 

rebellions caused the Caribbean slave holders to be even more savage in their repression. The 

only mitigating factor in the slave life was the demographic balance that left few whites in most 

of the areas of cultivation, and since there were so many slaves there was not the determined 

effort to separate tribal groups that was characteristic of plantation life in the American South. 

This meant that tribal identities remained strong, and nearly every important West African 

religion flourishes in the Caribbean in a complex interrelationship with the Catholic and 

Protestant sects of the colonial powers. The relentless pressure of tourism now is changing every 

aspect of life in the islands, but as late as the 1960s and 1970s it was still possible to find isolated 

areas which maintained their older cultural identity, and the music was enthusiastically 

documented by a number of researchers. 

It is too much of an oversimplification to suggest that the Caribbean is “losing” its 

distinctive character with the sweeping changes, since the area has suffered from the desolation 

of poverty and isolation for most of its recent history. The islands are plagued with 

326

unemployment, emigration - mostly to the United States - violence, corruption, and also a high 

incidence of HIV infection. If the changes can reverse the depressing realities of contemporary 

island life then they have to be accepted with some equanimity. Through all of the changes 

music continues to be a colorful and vibrant aspect of Caribbean culture, and it is fascinating to 

follow traditional musical styles through their amalgamation into the popular styles of the dance 

halls and the Calypso tents of the Caribbean today. 

AN OVERVIEW OF TRADITIONAL CARIBBEAN MUSICAL CULTURES 

Harold Courlander, who for many years was associated with Folkways Records in New 

York City, was one of the early field workers to document Caribbean music in Cuba and Haiti, 

and he produced for Folkways a two LP set presenting some of the traditional musical styles. 

CARIBBEAN FOLK MUSIC - Vol. 1 - Double LP with extensive notes. Edited by Harold 

Courlander, Folkways Records, 1960. Dodd LP 450a, 450b 

The areas included in the documentation are Puerto Rico, Carriacou, Jamaica, 

The Bahamas, San Andres, Trinidad, St. Thomas, Tortola, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, 

Surinam, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Curacao, and Mexico 

Folkways earlier issued a smaller collection of Caribbean music. 

CARIBBEAN DANCES - 10” LP. Recorded and documented by Walter and Lisa Lekis, 


The islands included are Matrinique, Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Trinidad, 

Antigua, and Curacao. 

The Lekis recordings are particularly interesting for the blending of European and 

African traditions which their selections document. Among other unusual selections 

is a “Medley of Old Calypso” sung by Mighty Zebra with the old style acoustic 

accompaniment. 

BELIZE 

Belize is the modern name for the British colony of British Honduras, which is on the 

southern coast of the Quintana Ro peninsula in southern Mexico. The people of the colony are a 

mixture of Mayan indians and descendants of African slaves, with a small immigrant population 

of Mennonites from North America. The three dominant groups in the society have resisted 

mingling, and each has maintained its own culture. This group performs a traditional music 

called “Garifuna” from the interior of Belize. They live and perform in Los Angeles. 

CHATUYE - CD, “Heartbeat in the Music” Arhoolie Records, 1992. Dodd CD 270 

CARRIACOU 

THE BIG DRUM DANCE OF CARRIACOU - LP. Recorded and documented by Andrew C. 

Pearse. Folkways Records, 1956. Dodd LP 452 

Carriacou is a small island in the Windward Islands, and it retained a 

sophisticated tradition of drum and dance. 

327

THE BIG DRUM & OTHER RITUAL & SOCIAL MUSIC OF CARRIACOU - LP. Recorded and 

documented by Donald R. Hill. Folkways Records, 1980. Dodd LP 453 [mold] 

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 

MUSIC FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Vol. 1 The Island of Quisqueya. 

Dodd LP 454 [mold] 

MUSIC FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Vol. 2 The Island of Espanola. 


MUSIC FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Vol. 3 Cradle of the New World. 


MUSIC FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Vol. 4 Songs from the North 

All LPS. Dodd LP 457 [mold] 

The series was recorded by Verna Gillis, with Ramon Daniel Perez Martinez Folkways Records, 

1976. 

GAGA IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - LP. Folkways Records, 1978. 


This material was recorded by Gillis at the same time, but the disc is included in a Folkways 

Ethnic Series box with music from Haiti. 

GUADELOUPE 

HURRICANE ZOUK - LP, “A Tropical Storm Compilation” Virgin Records, 1988. 

Dodd LP 459 


Zouk Time 

Francky Vincent 

Gerard Hubert 

Come Back Des Viking Guadeloupe 

Vik’in 

Soukoue Ko Ou 

Zouk is probably best described as the French-speaking Caribbean’s version of Soca, the 

Trinidadian modernization of Calypso. The style was conceived as commercial disco music, 

created in Paris by singer and producer Jacob Desvarieux in 1978 and introduced by the group 

Kassav. The same French production company had been producing disco music for the West 

African market, and they felt there was also a market for the same type of music in the French 

islands. It is slickly produced, well recorded, and presents some Afro-Caribbean elements in the 

rhythm backgrounds, though its aim was simply to produce another form of the disco music that 

for several years was created everywhere in the world by artists and record companies with 

similar ambitions, and sounded vaguely similar in every culture. Zouk is music for the traveler 

328

who feels that Disco Night at a Caribbean Club Med is a crucial cultural experience. The word 

“zouk” is Creole slang for “party.” 

FLORIDA 

JUNKANOO BAND KEY WEST - LP. Recorded and documented by Marshall W. Stearns 

Folkways Records, nd, recordings done in 1964. Dodd LP 460 [mold] 

Jazz historian Marshall Stearns found this group of Bahamian musicians playing on the 

streets of Key West during the Carnival season. The music and the costume were similar to the 

traditions in Nassau, although the group had picked up some American songs during their 

Florida years. “Junkanoo” is a word of uncertain origin that describes street dances performed 

at Christmas. Stearns explained in his detailed notes, “ . . the word has been used for many years 

in the British West Indies to describe a series of masquerade-dances during the Christmas 

holidays, a sort of Protestant equivalent of Mardi Gras, which center around a special kind of 

music played by a special kind of ban.d.” 

HAITI 

MUSIC OF HAITI - Vol. 1 Folk Music of Haiti. Dodd LP 461 [mold] 

MUSIC OF HAITI - Vol. 2 Drums of Haiti. Dodd LP 462 

MUSIC OF HAITI - Vol. 3 Songs and Dances of Haiti. Dodd LP 463 

All Lps. The series was recorded and documented by Harold Courlander. Folkways Records, 

1952. Although the documentation does not give dates of recording Courlander was active in 

Cuba in 1940, and the Haitian recordings might have been done at the same time. 

Since Haiti has managed to maintain its independence as an African American nation since 

the 1790s it has continued to be a rich source of African cultural survivals in the Western 

Hemisphere, despite the fierce poverty and insidious violence that scars Haitian life. 

VODUN-RADA RITE FOR ERZULE - LP. Recorded and documented by Verna Gillis. 

Folkways Records, 1975. Dodd LP 464 [mold] 

RARA IN HAITI - LP. Recorded and documented by Verna Gillis Folkways Records, 1978. 

Dodd LP 458a-b 

This album is included in a Folkways Ethnic Series box which also includes music recorded by 

Gillis in the Dominican Republic. 

HAITIAN PIANO with FABRE DUROSEAU - 10” LP. Recorded by Harold Courlander. 


This is one of the most charming documentations of the French Creole traditions in 

the islands. With his two brothers occasionally joining him on violins Duroseau 

performs Haitian meringues, a style that was then a form of pre-ragtime syncopated 

composition, on an out-of tune piano that sounds as old and as wise as the music 

itself. 

329

JAMAICA 

BONGO, BACKRA & COOLIE JAMAICA ROOTS - Vol. 1, LP. Kumina and Convince, 

Jamaican East Indian Music. Dodd LP 466 

BONGO, BACKRA & COOLIE JAMAICA ROOTS - Vol. 2, LP. Revival Zion, Wake, 

Quadrille Band and Fife and Drum. Dodd LP 467 

Recorded and documented by Kenneth M. Bilby Folkways Records, 1975. 

FOLK MUSIC OF JAMAICA - LP. Recorded and documented by Edward Seaga, Folkways 


JAMAICAN CULT MUSIC - LP. Recorded in Kingston by George Eaton Simpson, Folkways 


This collection is particularly interesting for the documentation of the music of 

“Ras Tafari” youth group, recorded in December, 1953, a decade before the 

international interest in the religion following the success of the rasta reggae groups 

MUSIC OF THE MAROONS OF JAMAICA - LP. Recorded and documented by Kenneth M. 

Bilby, Folkways Records, 1981. Dodd LP 470 [mold] 

The Maroons are the descendants of escaped slaves who fled into the mountains of 

Jamaica and resisted recapture. Today they continue to live in isolated mountain 

settlements and their music has clear ties to their African ancestry. 

MARTINIQUE 

II B13b. Trindad’s Calypsos and Pans 

THE CALYPSONIANS 

Trinidad has long had a vital tradition of song and instrumental music, which survives today 

in the song competition at the calypso “tents” - enclosed performance areas - that are part of the 

yearly Carnival celebrations. The tradition of the calypso singer, a performer who comments on 

local events or world history in rhymed song lyrics, has nineteenth century roots, and there were 

commercial recordings made of pioneer calypsonians as early as 1914. In the 1930s calypso had 

a wave of popularity and there were dozens of recordings made by artists like Wilmouth 

Houdini, Atilla the Hun, Lord Invader, The Caresser, and The Lion. The best known of all the 

songs was Invader’s “Rum and Coca Cola,” from the war years, which was illegally copyrighted 

by an American tourist with experience in the music industry, and it was only after a long and 

expensive court action that Invader was able to collect some of the royalties he was owed. 

In the notes to a calypso collection compiled for Folkways Records I wrote, “It isn’t fair to 

describe the calypso singers, however, without emphasizing that their music is colorful and 

exuberant and richly expressive and often hilariously funny. The texts are sometimes complex 

and based on historical records or local traditions - but they can just as often be based on a 

neighborhood street fight or a fire in a barroom. There is the same dead pan earnestness to the 

330

lyrics whether they’re singing about the coming Coronation of Edward VI or the tap dancing of 

‘Bojangles’ Robinson. . .” 

THE REAL CALYPSO, 1927-1946 - The Real Calypso Vol. 1 - LP. Compiled and annotated by 

Samuel Charters, Folkways Records, Folkways Records, 1966. 

2000-0105/LP 1290 

This selection opens with one of calypso’s classic songs, “Henry the VIII, The Caresser’s 

response to the 1936 abdication of the British king Edward VIII for the love of an American 

divorcee. The song’s lamenting chorus, opening with the lines “It’s love, love, love alone, that 

caused King Edward to leave the throne,” mirrors the feelings of many people in the British 

Empire at the event. 

Lord Invader presents what became Calypso’s biggest international hit, his “Yankee 

Dollar,” which was renamed “Rum and Coca Cola” by an American entertainer, whose wife 

heard the song on a vacation trip to the island. The American also claimed he was the song’s 

composer, which led a long and frustrating lawsuit for Invader before he was able to reclaim his 

song. 


The Caresser 

The Lion 

Atilla the Hun 

Gerald Clark and his Calypso Orchestra, vocal by Sir Lancelot 

Lord Invader 

Lord Beginner 

The Executor 

Sam Manning 

WILMOUTH HOUDINI - CD, “Poor but Ambitious” - Arhoolie Records, 1993. [not 

transferred] 

LORD KITCHENER - CD, “Kitchener Forever” Lord Kitch Classics, Vol. 2. - Charlie’s 

Records, nd. [not transferred] 

SAM MANNING - CD, Volume 1, Recorded in New York, 1924-1927. Jazz Oracle, nd. [not 

transferred] 

SAM MANNING - CD, Volume 2, Recorded in New York, 1927-1930. Jazz Oracle, nd. [not 

transferred] 

Sam Manning could probably be described best as a Caribbean entertainer who was 

popular in New York clubs and theaters in the 1920s for his humorous, infectious songs. He was 

born in Trinidad, and he always retained his sense of calypso, though he performed a wide range 

of material. He included songs like the West Indian favorite “Sly Mongoose“ among his many 

recordings, and he performed a classic calypso “Lieutenant Julian” about the African American 

aviator who attempted to duplicate the New York to Paris flight of Cjarles Lindbergh. The 

331

chorus intoned Julian’s words “Paris or eternity,” but the eventual flight got no further than Long 

Island, where the unfortunate Julian crash landed. 

THE MIGHTY SPARROW - CD, “Corruption” BLS Records, 2000. [not transferred] 

A collection of Sparrow’s modern political calypsos, including his insistent composition 

“Death of Martin Luther King,” with its chorus “Segregation must be destroyed!” 

SEND YOUR CHILDREN TO THE ORPHAN HOME Calypso Songs of Social Commentary and 

Love Troubles - The Real Calypso Vol. 2 - LP. Compiled and annotated by Samuel Charters, 



The Executor 

Atilla the Hun 

Wilmouth Houdini 

The Caresser 

The Lion 

The Tiger 

Lord Invader 

Lionel Belasco’s Orchestra 

Harmony Kings’ Orchestra 

CALYPSO PIONEERS 1912- 1937 - LP. Produced by Dick Spottswood and Don Hill, Rounder 



Lovey’s Band 

Belasco’s Band 

Julian Whiterose 

Monrose’s String Orchestra 

Phil Madison 

Merrick’s Orchestra 

Sam Manning 

Wilmouth Houdini 

Belasco’s Orchestra 

Gerald Clark & His Night Owls 

Bill Rogers 

The Executor 

Attila the Hun 

Keskidee Trio 

Although the selection by Julian Whiterose was recorded in 1914, almost a decade 

before the rural blues recordings made in the United States, it is in the classic calypso 

tradition of Carnival boasting. The album includes excellent notes - uncredited - with 

texts for the songs and a wealth of historical detail. 

332

A SELECTION OF GREAT CALYPSOS Through the Years: Volume One - LP. Issued as a 

“25th Anniversary of Independence Souvenir Collection” by Carotte Records, n.d. Dodd LP 473 


Shorty 

Melody 

Black Stalin 

Shadow 

Sparrow 

Kitchener 

Douglas 

Sniper 

Terror 

This selection includes songs by the two most important calypsonians of the recent 

decades: Kitchener - “Lord Kitchener” - and Sparrow - “The Mighty Sparrow.” 

WILMOUTH HOUDINI - LP, “Calypso Classics from Trinidad” Folklyric Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 474 

This is a collection of Houdini’s singles recorded in Trinidad, 1931-1940. 

LORD INVADER - 10” LP, “Calypso with the Lord Invader and Trinidad Caribbean 

Orchestra - Folkways Records, 1961. Dodd LP 475 

THE MIGHTY SPARROW - LP, “Slave” Hilary Records, n.d. Dodd LP 476 

“Sparrow,” Slinger Francisco, is a cheerful, bulky singer weighing over 200 hundred 

pounds who was given the name Sparrow by another calypsonian, Melody, who watched him 

move around the stage in an imitation of James Brown and growled, “You keep dancing around 

like a goddamned sparrow. Stand up and sing like everybody else.” On his first record 

Francisco was named “Little Sparrow,” but he was upset with the title. “I didn’t like that. I 

wanted to be Depth Charge, Torpedo, Explosion, or something. So I made it “The Mighty 

Sparrow.” Sparrow’s single of his song “Dear Sparrow,” on the jukebox of a little open air 

dance pavilion on Andros Island in the Bahamas, helped lighten up the nights when we were 

documenting the music of Andros in 1958. This LP collection is undated, but the song 

“Kennedy and Krushchev” suggests it was recorded in the early 1960s. 

THE STEEL PANS 

The other distinctly Trinidadian music of the post war years is the music of the steel 

drums, or pans. During the war, when the islands were cut off from regular contact with the 

larger countries either or the north or the south people were forced to make use of whatever 

materials that were at hand to keep their societies going. Young men with more time than 

money discovered that if they beat on the round steel tops of empty oil drums they could make a 

metallic tone - and by shaping the tops of the drums into smaller pockets they could produce 

musical notes. The smaller and shallower the pocket, the higher the pitch of the note. The “pan” 

quickly evolved into a sophisticated instrument that is carefully tuned with a small hammer. and 

played with short wooden sticks. In Trinidad there are pan orchestras with hundreds of 

members, and the instrument has also produced a number of virtuoso performers who have 

333

created a new style of instrumental music grounded in the distinctive character and bright tone of 

the pans. 

An Early Steel Band document 

THE TRINIDAD PAN HARMONIC ORCHESTRA STEEL BAND- 10” LP, recorded in 

Trinidad. Folkways Records, 1957. Dodd LP 477 

From the notes by Vital Angel, 

“The Pan Harmonic Steel Orchestra has been formed in the inception of steel 

band times. It has been playing in such varied places as the Ritzi Yacht Club of 

Trinidad and Tobago as well as funerals and weddings. The Trinidad Pan Harmonic 

Orchestra has been selected to give steel band concerts in all Public Squares of 

Trinidad and Tobago. Attendance at these concerts has reached 30,000 and it is 

increasing all the time.” 

BOOGSIE SHARPE - LP, “Steel & Brass Equals Gold” Straker’s Records, n.d. 

Dodd LP 478 

Len “Boogsie” Sharpe is described on the record label as “Trinidad’s No. 1,” and 

he is one of the modern steel pan masters. Although there are occasional half-hearted 

vocal overdubs this is a brilliant instrumental collection. 

KIM LOY WONG and his WILTWYCK STEEL BAND - LP, “Kim Loy Wong” Folkways 


ZANDA - LP, Pan-Tastic-Visions WIRL, 1976. Dodd LP 480 

Pans used in a “New Age,” contemporary jazz idiom with Boogsie Sharpe as 

featured soloist. 

II B13c. Reggae 

Reggae will always be associated with Jamaica, and with Bob Marley, who was one of the 

handful of Caribbean musicians to become world stars. Although it is possible to trace the 

development of reggae through instrumental and vocal styles called “ska” or “rock steady” that 

were played in the Trenchtown slums of Kingston, Jamaica in the 1950s, for most of the 

audience outside of Jamaica it was the 1972 film The Harder They Fall, filmed in Kingston with 

singer Jimmie Cliff in the lead, that introduced them to reggae. Reggae was especially attractive 

to young audiences in the 1970s because of its political militancy, its open advocacy of the use 

of marijuana, and its religious overtones. Most of the singers belonged to the Rastafarian Sect in 

Jamaica, and the lyrics for many songs used Rasta phrases. The term “Babylon,” which refers to 

the world’s industrialized societies, became a common term used everywhere where people were 

listening to reggae. 

The slower, more laid-back rhythms of reggae were so different from North American 

blues and soul that dancers and musicians had to learn the new style from the beginning. The 

drummers found themselves playing a pattern of accents that turned their usual off-beat style 

upside down, and in many of the classic reggae recordings the bass played a distinct melodic 

334

line, instead of the usual chord sequences. With the new possibilities of multi-track recording 

the producers began imitating the effects of marijuana as they mixed the records - bringing 

different instruments up and down in the sound mix and adding echo and repetitions, a technique 

that is called “dubbing.” A few years later dubbing was picked up by street DJs in the Bronx, in 

New York City, and it became part of the repertory of the new rap producers. 

Also important to the development of rap in the United States were the recordings of 

Jamaica’s dub poets, beginning in the 1970s with the albums of Linton Kwesi Johnson, which 

combined spoken texts with instrumental accompaniment. Johnson’s albums, particularly 

Forces of Victory, recorded in 1979, made brilliant use of dubbing techniques, and one of his 

poem/performances, “Inglan is a Bitch” from 1980, had considerable success as a strong political 

statement. More important to the development of rap were two dub poets who followed 

Johnson, Michael Smith and Mutabaruka, who used faster tempos and rougher accompaniments, 

and were even more outspoken in their criticism of the world’s political injustice. Mutabaruka 

had his breakthrough at the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica in 1981, and toured the United States 

as part of the Lollapalooza extravaganzas in the 1990s. 

At the height of its popularity reggae had a world-wide audience, and now-classic rock 

recordings, like “Hotel California” by the California group The Eagles, used reggae rhythms as 

the basis for their arrangements. In Sweden one of the most popular protest bands, Peps and his 

Band of Blood, recorded Jamaican reggae songs in translation and also wrote their own reggae 

styled pieces. In West Africa Bob Marley was an iconic figure who represented the struggle for 

black freedom and self-expression. Marley was not only a sensitive and skilled musician, he was 

one of the period’s finest song writers in any style, and with his group he created a body of 

music that continues to bring vitality and a creative standard to a younger generation of reggae 

artists. His early death in 1981 from a brain tumor was a serious loss to the world’s music. 

Neither reggae nor Jamaica have thrived in the 1990s. Younger dance hall crowds found 

that the old style music was too slow for dancing, and a series of government measures that have 

tried to suppress the use of marijuana in the Rasta community have caused the music to lose 

much of its vitality. The shrinking audience meant less money for production, and reggae today 

generally lacks the brilliant arrangements and instrumental sophistication of groups like 

Marley’s Wailers or Toots and the Maytalls. The newer reggae artists have also absorbed much 

of the tone and the mannerisms of the American rappers. An album like Bobby 

Konders/Massive B, Reggae Meets Hip Hop, recorded in Jamaica in the late 1990s, consciously 

tries to create a cross-over sound for both styles, and the cover art depicts a Rasta, dreadlocks 

under a big cap, shaking hands with a rapper, who is wearing earphones over his baseball cap. 

The new reggae is so different from the Rasta influenced recordings of the 1970s that the 

two styles are listed separately. 

See also videos listed in video section of the catalog. 

CLASSIC REGGAE 

The Jamaican musicians were fortunate to have a record company that was founded in 

Jamaica by one of the rock world’s shrewdest commercial talents, although there were later 

protests over some of the company’s business policies. Chris Blackwell built his Island label on 

reggae, and he maintained the highest standards of production and promotion - spending heavily 

to bring the groups to Europe for extended tours, and creating a catalog of the finest reggae 

performances. The next serious effort by a record label to become involved with reggae was by 

335

Virgin Records, still a very new company, which introduced what it called its “Front Line” 

series. Virgin recorded many of the younger artists, but was unable to promote them as 

successfully as Island had done with its catalog. 

ASWAD - LP album, “Aswad” Island, 1976. Dodd LP 481 

BIG YOUTH - LP album, “Isaiah, First Prophet of Old” Virgin Front Line, 1978. 

Dodd LP 482 

BIG YOUTH - LP album, “Dread Locks Dread” Virgin Front Line, 1978. Dodd LP 483 

BLACK UHURU - LP album, “Sinsemilla” Island, 1980. Dodd LP 484 

Black Uhuru was one of the best of the younger groups, and they have had a long 

and successful career. Many people who listen to reggae don’t realize that the name 

of the group generally only describes the singers. Uhuru was a vocal trio, and the 

musicians who performed with them were the same instrumentalists who recorded 

with Bob Marley. “The Wailers” was the name of the trio that included Marley as one 

of the singers. The bass player Robbie Shakespeare and drummer Sly Dunbar, who 

play on this LP, were brilliant artists whose styles defined reggae, and they had a 

major influence on the rock music that was developing at the same time. Sinsemilla 

is the name of an especially strong variety of marijuana. 

BURNING SPEAR - LP album, “Garvey’s Ghost” “A Dub album” Island, 1976. 

Dodd LP 485 

One of the folk heroes of Jamaica is the charismatic black leader Marcus Garvey, 

who led an important black freedom movement in the United States in the 1920s. 

Garvey believed that there would never be justice for African Americans in the society 

he found there, and he advocated a return to Africa. At the height of his influence he 

had an active organization in Harlem that included uniformed military guards and 

staged elaborate parades on Harlem’s streets. Through active fund raising he was 

raising money to purchase ships to take his followers to Africa on the Black Star line, 

as the organization’s shipping line was named. The American authorities became so 

concerned with the strength of his growing organization that they imprisoned him on a 

false charge of mail fraud and deported him when he was released from prison. 

BURNING SPEAR - LP album, “Social Living” Island, 1978. Dodd LP 486 

The album again contains tributes to Marcus Garvey. Three of the songs are 

“Marcus Children Suffer,” “Marcus Senior,” and “Marcus Say Jah No Dead” 

JIMMY CLIFF - LP album “The Harder They Come” Island, 1972. Dodd LP 487 

This is the Original Soundtrack Recording for the film and includes songs by the 

following artists: 

Jimmy Cliff 

Scotty 

Melodians 

Maytals 

336

The Slickers 

Desmond Decker 

The album included three major reggae hits; Cliff’s “The Harder They Come,” 

and “You Can Get It If You Really want,” and the Melodians “Rivers of Babylon.” 

JIMMY CLIFF - LP album “Struggling Man” Island, 1973. Dodd LP 488 

CULTURE - LP album “Cumbolo” Virgin Front Line, 1979. Dodd LP 489 

SLY DUNBAR - LP album “Simple Sly Man” Virgin Front Line, 1977. 

Dodd LP 490 

THE GLADIATORS - LP album, “Proverbial Reggae” Virgin Front Line, 1978. 

Dodd LP 491 

THE GLADIATORS - LP album, “Sweet So Till” Virgin Front Line, 1979. 

Dodd LP 492 

THE GLADIATORS - LP album, “The Gladiators” Virgin, 1980. Dodd LP 493 

THE ICEBREAKERS with THE DIAMONDS - LP album, “Planet Mars Dub” 

Virgin Front Line, 1978. Dodd LP 494 

The Diamonds is a vocal trio who recorded under their own name “The Mighty 

Diamonds.’ Their first album is included in the archive. 

JAH LION - LP album, “Colombia Colly” Island, 1976. Dodd 495 

This is the first album by Patrick Francis, who titled himself first Jah Lion, 

then Jah Lloyd the Black Lion, and then Jah Lloyd. He was a dub producer, arranger, 

back-up vocalist, and record salesman who had a period of considerable success in the 

reggae boom of the late 1970s. 

JAH LLOYD the BLACK LION - LP album, “The Humble One” Virgin Front Line, 1978. 

Dodd LP 496 

JAH LLOYD - LP album, “Black Moses” Virgin Front Line, 1979. Dodd 497 

LINTON KWESI JOHNSON - LP album, “Forces of Victory” Island, 1979. 

Dodd LP 498 

LINTON KWESI JOHNSON - LP album “Bass Culture” Island, 1980. 

Dodd LP 499 

Johnson’s albums are a unique blend of spoken poetry and reggae rhythms. His 

work has a strong political emphasis, and he could be considered a forerunner of 

the rap styles that became popular in the United States a few years later. The second 

album was a particular response to his experience as a Jamaican immigrant trying to 

337

live in England, and one of the poem/performances, titled “Inglan is a Bitch”, became 

popular with a more general audience. The album also included his comment on the 

social climbing in the immigrant society, “Di Black Petty Booshwa.” 

Johnson is also listed in the rap section of the catalog. 

LUCKY DUBE - CD, “Serious Reggae Business” Gazell Music, 1997. Dodd CD 271 

This is an interactive CD compatible with Windows 95. 

BOB MARLEY 

Marley, who was born in St. Anns, Jamaica in 1945, began singing when he was a 

teenager, and when he was nineteen he formed his popular West Indian group The 

Wailin’ Wailers, and with the Wailers had a productive recording career before he 

made the classic recordings that brought the group worldwide fame and all the 

difficulties and tensions that are attendant with it. 

Marley’s recordings have continued to have an importance that extends beyond 

the early excitement over reggae. In Africa he is a symbol of black freedom, and 

the political content of his songs has inspired many younger song writers. In the 

inner city record shops of the United States he is almost alone among artists of any 

earlier period to still be a strong presence. There are framed portraits, tee shirts, 

posters, videos, and racks of his albums on sale. 

In early 2000 a study was released of sales of the top 1000 selling albums of the 

previous ten years, using sophisticated counting techniques, and the largest selling 

“catalog” album of the decade was Marley’s Legend, which sold more than seven and 

a half million copies. Since albums by every major rock artist of the sixties and 

seventies come into the same category Marley’s success is even more impressive. 

All of us who were fortunate enough to see him perform will never forget the 

moments in his songs when he would unstrap his guitar, hand it to a member 

of the band behind him, and begin to dance - lifting his knees and holding out his 

hands, as if a large, skinny bird had suddenly come on to the stage to dance 

along with the music. 

THE LEGENDARY BOB MARLEY - 3 CD box set, compilation issued by CMC Home 

Entertainment in 1996. Dodd CD 272, CD 273, CD 274 

These three CDs contain 47 of the singles that Marley and the Wailers recorded in 

the 1960s and the early 1970s. Most of the songs didn’t become standards, but the set 

includes early versions of some of the songs that were recorded again later and 

became indelibly associated with the group, among them “Lively Up Yourself,” 

“Small Axe,” and “Trench Town Rock.” The set is a startling illustration of Marley’s 

productivity. All of the songs are credited to him as composer, though one of the 

selections, the spiritual “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” would more properly have 

been designated as “Traditional, arranged by ...” 

Although most audiences associate the Wailers with Marley, the first releases on 

338

Island were titled only “The Wailers.” There were jealousies within the group that probably 

would have led to an eventual breakup, but the use of Marley’s name in the group’s title caused 

considerable friction. The other two members of the Wailers, Neville Livingston, who later 

changed his name to Bunny Wailer, sang the high harmonies, and Peter Mackintosh, who 

became Peter Tosh, sang many of the vocal leads. In those arrangements Marley sang a second 

high tenor harmony in falsetto. Both Wailer and Tosh were major reggae artists, and it is a 

tribute to the group’s sense of a shared creativity that the Wailers were able to stay together as 

long as they did. Marley himself survived an attack by an armed gang that shot its way into his 

business compound in 1977, but Tosh was not so fortunate, and he was shot to death ten years 

later. 

See also Bob Marley Videos listed in the video section of the catalog. 

THE WAILERS - LP album, “Catch a Fire” Island, 1973. Dodd LP 500 

THE WAILERS - LP album, “Burnin’” Island, 1973. Dodd LP 501 

Wailers classics that appeared on these albums include “Stir It Up,” “I Shot the 

“Sheriff,” and “Small Axe” by Marley, and “Get up, stand up,” a collaboration with 

Tosh. Catch a Fire is in the original packaging, which was in the form of a dummy 

cigarette lighter. It was so difficult to open that the release was soon repackaged. 

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - LP album, “Natty Dread” Island, 1974. 

Dodd LP 502 

This album, after Bunny Wailer and Tosh had left the group, helped bring Marley 

worldwide attention. The songs included “Lively Up Yourself,” “No Woman No 

Cry,” “Them Belly Full,” “Rebel Music,” and “Talkin’ Blues.” The title was 

originally “Natty Dreads,” which referred to the Rastas dreadlocks, and it meant 

simply “nice looking hair.” By turning the title into “Natty Dread” the record 

company gave the title an air of mystery and menace, which the text of the song 

didn’t do much to clarify, since it’s one of Marley’s less coherent lyrics. With this 

album the women’s vocal trio “I Three,” which included Marley’s singer Rita, sang 

the backup harmonies, and it was this sound that Marley was to take on his most 

successful tours. 

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - LP album, “Live” Island, 1975. 

Dodd LP 503 

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - LP album, “Rastaman Vibration” Island, 1976. 

Dodd LP 504 

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - LP album, “Exodus” Island, 1977. 

Dodd LP 505 

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - double LP album, “Babylon by Bus” Island, 1978. Dodd 

LP 506a, 506b 

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - LP album, “Kaya” Island, 1979. Dodd LP 507 

339

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - LP album, “Survival” Island, 1979. 

Dodd LP 508 

An LP Repackaging. 

Following the first successful English tour of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Trojan records 

reissued a number of the old Wailer’s singles, but with the group’s current name “Bob Marley 

and the Wailers.” 

BOB MARLEY and THE WAILERS - LP album, “Rasta Revolution” Trojan, 1976. 

Dodd LP 509 

BOB MARLEY - CD, “Slave Driver” Rock Classics, Albuquerque, NM, n.d. 

Dodd CD 275 

THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS - LP album, “The Mighty Diamonds” Virgin Front Line, 1976. 

Dodd LP 510 

PABLO MOSES - LP album, “A Song” Island, 1980. Dodd LP 511 

MUTABARUKA - CD, The Ultimate Collection” Shanachie, 1996. 

Dodd CD 276 

This is a compilation covering Mutabaruka’s career, including previously 

unreleased live and mix material. 

PRINCE FAR I - LP album, “Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Part 2” Virgin Front Line, 1979. 

Dodd LP 512 

TAPPER ZUKIE - LP album, “MPLA” Virgin Front Line, 1976. Dodd LP 513 

TOOTS & THE MAYTALS - LP, album, “Reggae Got Soul” Island, 1976. 

Dodd LP 514 

Toots Hibbert, leader of the Maytals, used a brass section with his group to give 

his music a soul flavor. He was one of the groups who achieved popularity on tour in 

the reggae years, and he spent considerable time in the United States. 

PETER TOSH - LP album, “Equal Rights” Columbia Records, 1977. Dodd LP 515 

When Peter Mackintosh left the Wailers he recorded with the rhythm section of 

Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, who had made so many classic reggae sessions. 

The lead guitar player of the Wailers, Al Anderson, was also in the studio with 

them. Although this album opened with Tosh’s collaboration with Marley, “Get Up, 

340

Stand Up” and Tosh was given considerable promotion by his new label he never 

equaled Marley’s success. 

BUNNY WAILER - LP album, “Blackheart Man” Island, 1976. Dodd LP 516 

This was Wailer’s first solo album, and both Marley and Tosh took part in the 

sessions. For one of the songs, “Dreamland,” the three Wailers sang the back-up 

vocal in their old trio style. 

BUNNY WAILER - LP album, “Protest” Island, 1977. Dodd LP 517 

DELROY WILSON - CD, “The Best of Delroy Wilson” Heart Beat, 1991. Dodd CD 277 

CLASSIC REGGAE COMPILATIONS 

THIS IS REGGAE MUSIC - LP album, Island, 1976. Dodd LP 518 


Junior Murvin 

Lee Perry 

Max Romeo & the Upsetters 

Justin Hines 

Jah Lion 

Burning Spear 

Prince Jazzbo & the Upsetters 

Bunny Wailer 

Peter Tosh 

Aswan 

REGGAE ISLAND - LP album, Island, 1979. Dodd LP 519 


Rico 

Toots and the Maytals 

Ijahman 

Steel Pulse 

Jimmy Cliff 

Bob Marley and the Wailers 

Justin Hines 

Bunny Wailer 

Zap-Pow 

Dillinger 

Third World 

Inner Circle 

This compilation includes the classic song “Famine” by Toots and the Maytals, 

which deals with the larger social issues of hunger in the Jamaica countryside. 

341

REGGAE - 3 CD box, Charley Records, 1995. Dodd CD 278, CD 279, CD 280 


Bob Marley 

Dillinger 

Greyhound 

Cornell Campbell 

Gregory Isaacs 

Dennis Brown 

The Heptones 

Yellowman and the Paragons 

Prince Allah 

Lee Perry 

The Reggae Masters 

The Upsetters 

John Holt 

Soulful Dynamics 

Susan Cadogan 

Philip Frazier 

Ricky and Bunny 

The Black Arks 

Carol Cool 

Roman Stewart 

Ruddy Thomas 

Soul Train 

Safari Club 

Lee and the Bluebell 

Charmaine Burnett 

David Curley 

Ricky Grant 

CONTEMPORARY REGGAE, DANCE HALL and DJ 

AMBELIQUE - CD, “Sings the Classics” VP Records, 1997. Dodd CD 281 

Although this is a contemporary album, with songs covering a wide range of styles, 

the rhythm section is the classic pairing of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, and 

Dunbar produced the album. 

BORN JAMERICANS - LP single, “Boom Shak A” “Warning Sign” “Sweet Honey” 

Delicious Vinyl, 1992/1995. Dodd LP 520 

DENNIS BROWN - CD, “One of a Kind” I.M.A.J. Records, n.d. Dodd CD 282 

342

DEAN FRASER - CD, “Slow Melodies” VP Records, 1997. Dodd CD 283 

LADY LEE - LP single, “We Love I” “The Right Decision” Urban Street/Party Reggae, n.d. 

Dodd LP 521 

LADY SAW - CD, “Raw, the Best of Lady Saw” VP Records, 1998. Dodd CD 284 

BYRON LEE and the DRAGONAIRS - CD, “Softlee, Vol, VI” VP Records, 1997. 

Dodd CD 285 

KASHIEF LINDO - CD, “What Kinda World” VP Records, 1997. Dodd CD 286 

RISING LION - CD, “New Day” Ruff Stuff Records, 1997. Dodd CD 287 

LA TRENGGAE - CD, “La Trenggae” Taxi Records, 1997. Dodd CD 288 

TANYA STEPHENS – CD, “Too Hype” VP Records, 1997. Dodd CD 358 

CONTEMPORARY COMPILATIONS 

REGGAE BANGARA - LP album, Sonic Sounds Records, n.d. Dodd LP 522 


Chaka Demus 

Pliars 

Skullman 

Nardo Hanks 

Mackie Ranks 

Daddy Woody 

Anthony Red Rose 

Brent Dowe 

Fragga Ranks 

Taxi Gang 

These two LP collections, with gaudily designed covers and a general roughness to 

the production and presentation, are intended for a contemporary dance crowd that is 

not looking for subtlety in its music. The recording is done in studios with limited 

equipment, usually called “roots studios.” Virtually all of the songs have been 

recorded over the same instrumental track, which has been remixed in a number 

of ways to give the impression that there is some variety on the record. So that the 

rhythm track would fit all of the songs the performers have written melodies that 

don’t use chord changes. It is obviously music that is meant to be danced to, in a 

thunderously loud dance hall, and not analyzed in a quiet living room. The terms 

“Dance Hall” and “DJ” are both used to describe the new tren.d. 

343

REGGAE GOLD, 1997 - CD, VP Records, 1997. Dodd CD 289 


Tony Rebel 

Lady Saw & Beenie Man 

Carleton & Yami Bolo 

Tanya Stephens 

Bountry Killer 

Scare Dem Crew 

Benjy Myaz 

Frisco Kid 

Beenie Man 

Buju Banton 

Everton Bender 

Beres Hammond 

Goofy 

The Taxi Gang 

REGGAE GOLD, 1998 - CD, VP Records, 1998. Dodd CD 290 


Spragga Benz 

Frisco Kid 

Beenie Man 

Sean Paul 

Bountry Killer 

Vegas 

Sizzla 

Buju Banton 

Luciano 

Degree 

Red Rat 

Harry Toddler 

Beres Hammond 

Sanchez & Beenie Man 

Shabba Hanks & Carlton Livingston 

The Reggae Gold compilations have been consistently strong sellers and have 

helped maintain an audience for reggae in these years when the vogue has largely 

passed. 

TOTAL TOGETHERNESS, Vol. 7 - CD, VP Records, 1997. Dodd CD 291 


Merciless & Lady Saw 

Beenie Man 

Scare Dem Crew 

344

Sizzla 

Wayne Wonder 


Ghost 

Bountry Killer & Beenie Man 

Monster Shock Crew 

Richie Stephens 

Dennis Brown 

Frankie Paul 

Lukie D 

Red Rat 

TOTAL RECALL, Vol. 10 - CD, VP Records, 1998. Dodd CD 292 


Carlton Patterson 

Barrington Levy 

Sugar Minott 

Hugh Brown 

Johnny Ringo 

Ray I 

Dillinger 

Michael Scotland 

General Echo 

Larry Marshall 

I Roy 

Stanley Beckford 

DANCE HALL MASSIVE 4 - CD, November Records, 1995. Dodd CD 293 


Shabba Ranks & Cocoa Tea 

Louis Culture 

Sanchez 

Beenie Man 

Lady Saw 

Marcia Griffiths & Bounty Killer 

Pinchers 

Lt. Stitchie & Donovan Steele 

Garnet Silk 

Sebastian 

345

DJ CONNECTION - CD, November Records, 1995. Dodd CD 294 


Red Dragon 

Little Lenny 

Leggo 

Glamor Murphy 

Frankie Sly 

Don Youth 

General T. K. 

Judah 

Elephant Man 

Powerman 

Ken Serious 

This is one of the best of the recent dancehall collections, and there is a rich mix of texts 

and rhythms. 

ORIGINAL COPY - CD, VP Records, n.d. Dodd CD 295 


Capleton 

Inspector Grizzle 

African 

Jah Cure 

Military Man 

Granny Roots 

Determine 

This CD was produced with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare as part of the 

back up group, and there has been considerable care taken with the arrangements and 

recording. Although the music has absorbed many ideas from the American rap 

artists, the performances clearly demonstrate that Jamaican music still has a creative 

edge. 

DUB REVOLUTION UK ROOTS: High Steppin’ to the Future - CD, Roir Records, 1994. Dodd 

CD 296 


The Disciples 

Zion Train 

Bush Chemists 

Testament 

Alpha & Omega 

Centry Meets The Music Family 

Little Lord Creator 

Scarab 

Tribulation All Stars 

Fish & Goats at the Controls 

WordSound 

346

REGGAE GOSPEL 

CARLENE DAVIS - CD, “Vessel” VP Records, 1998. Dodd CD 297 

REGGAE RELATIVES 

BOBBY KONDERS/MASSIVE B REGGAE MEETS HIP HOP - LP album, Massive B label, 

Kingston, Jamaica, n.d. Dodd LP 574 

See detailed listing in rap entry in catalog 

II B13d. Soca 

Although Soca is found everywhere in the Caribbean now it is perhaps most closely 

associated with Barbados, where it is the musical style of the “Crop-Over” Festival that is the 

high point of the Barbadian - or “Bajan” - year. It was developed first in Trinidad as an attempt 

to freshen up Trinidad’s calypso style, which was beginning to sound dated to younger listeners. 

The term combines the first letters of the words “soul” and “calypso,” and it blends the faster 

tempos and the instrumental virtuosity of the American soul groups with the traditional calypso 

song style. It is an enthusiastic, up-tempo music, performed with a rush of energy. In the early 

years of soca the song lyrics were often as inventive and topical as calypso, but with the new 

groups the emphasis is more on the show and the band’s endurance. There is no more exciting 

sight in Caribbean music than the four or five lead members of one of the great soca bands 

advancing across the stage in a widely spaced line toward the audience, singing and strutting, 

with the band’s drums and horns blasting behind them. 

During the Crop-Over Festival in Barbados, which is held in the summer at the end of the 

cane cutting season, the performers set up “tents” - performance areas like the “tents” of the 

Trinidad calypsonians - and there is a fierce competition among the singers to win the yearly 

prize for the best crop-over song. As in Trinidad there are strict rules for the form and the length 

of the song’s lyrics. Most of the singers find local support to pay for a recorded version of their 

song, and the sponsorship for a record can include everyone from a group of friends to a 

plumbing supply store to a taxi company to a local cafeteria or an insect exterminator. The 

printed jackets for the crop-over albums usually include advertisements for the sponsors to help 

pay the costs. 

For several years most of the recordings of soca music were done with a group of 

Caribbean musicians living in Brooklyn, which gave soca recordings a consistent level of 

performance, and two of the companies with large catalogs, Straker’s Records and B’s Records, 

were both located in Brooklyn. The artist who attracted the most attention in the early years of 

soca was probably David Rudder, who wrote lyrics with considerable charm and inventiveness. 

Many of the albums included in the archive came from the files of West Indies Records, which 

handles the manufacturing of many of the crop-over competition entries. Over three or four 

day’s listening at their office in an old sugar mill in the center of Barbados they offered singles 

and albums as part of a proposed licensing arrangement for U. S. release. 

ADONIJAH - LP EP, “Amandla” WIRL (West Indies Records, Ltd. Barbados), 1988. 

Dodd LP 523 

347

TONY “BOX” ALLEYNE - LP EP, “Power in the Bumpsy” WIRL, 1987. Dodd LP 525 

ARROW - LP EP, “Instant Knockout” Charlie’s Records, 1980. Dodd LP 524 

ASTERISKS - LP EP, “Soca Syndrome” Straker’s Records, 1987. Dodd LP 526 

BLACK STALIN - LP EP, “I Time” B’s Records, 1986. Dodd LP 527 

“Black Stalin,” Leroy Calliste, is in the direct line of the older calypsonians like 

Lord Kitchener, and his songs make strong political statements, sung with the 

soca energy and excitement. 

BLACK STALIN - LP EP, “Sing for the land” B’s Records, 1986. Dodd LP 528 

BUMBA - LP EP, “Harmony” WIRL, 1988. Dodd LP 529 

CALYPSO ROSE - LP EP, “On Top of the World” Straker’s Records, 1987. 

Dodd LP 530 

(The reverse side of this album is by Winston Soso) 

Rose is a fine, veteran singer who has influenced many younger soca artists. 

Her style has many of the older calypso elements, but she is recording here with 

the Brooklyn soca bandleader Frankie McIntosh, and the arrangements feature soca 

rhythms. 

FOREIGNER FRANK - LP EP, “Foreigner Frank” WIRL, 1987. Dodd LP 531 

KID SITE - LP single, “Hypocrite” “Version” Sounds Gud, 1988. Dodd LP 532 

JOHN KING - LP EP, ”John King” J & K Music, 1987. Dodd LP 533 

To be certain of hitting a wide Caribbean audience one of King’s songs is 

titled “I Am A Calypso,” and he follows it with “More Soca.” 

JOHN KING - LP EP, “Awe Some” J & K Music, 1988. Dodd LP 534 

BYRON LEE and the Dragonaires - CD, “Socarobics” VP Records, 1997. 

Dodd LP 536 

MERCHANT - LP EP, “Ah Coming Too” Straker’s Records, n.d. Dodd LP 535 

PETER METRO & CHARMAINE - LP single, “Dibbi Dibbi” “Tell Them No Do It” Witty, 


PENGUIN - LP single, “Soft Man” “Teasers” B’s Records, n.d. Dodd LP 537 

POMPEY - LP EP, “After Dark” Rix, 1987. Dodd LP 538 

348

THE PROTECTOR - LP single, “We Talking Change” “You Gotta Sweat” Straker’s Records, 


REBELS - LP single, Bend Down & Rock” Straker’s Records, n.d. Dodd LP 540 

(The reverse side of the this record is by Winston Soso) 

DAVID RUDDER - LP album, “Charlie’s Roots” Sire Records, 1987. Dodd LP 541 

SAUVAGE - LP single, “She Fussy” Sauvage, 1987. Dodd LP 542 

SERENADER - LP EP, “Rough and Tough” Sunlight Productions, 1988. Dodd LP 543 

SHADOW - LP EP, “High Tension” Straker’s Records, n.d. Dodd LP 544 

SINGING FRANCINE - LP, “Reaching Out” Straker’s Records, 1987. Dodd LP 545 

Francine Edwards, “Singing Francine,” is one of the most delightful soca artists 

of this period. Her style is clearly influenced by Calypso Rose, but she has an 

infectious rhythm and a cheerfully friendly voice. 

WINSTON SOSO - Soso performs on the B sides of two Straker’s releases. 

Dodd LP 530, LP 540 

Three songs, including “Traitors and Rumors” are on the reverse of the album by Calypso Rose, 

and one song is on the reverse of the single by the Rebels. 

SPICE - LP, “In De Congaline” Spice, 1988. Dodd LP 546 

Spice was a racially mixed group that had considerable success with this release, 

and were widely considered to be soca stars of the future. 

SOCA COLLECTIONS 

FIREDANCE - LP EP, Firedance Vol. 1 Firedance Productions, 1988. Dodd LP 547 


Black Pawn 

Rennea Cobham 

Poonka 

Dragon 

Big Davy 

Derry 

CROP-OVER CALYPSO Jump-Up Mix Vol. 1 - Cassette album, WIRL 1988. 

Dodd AC 9 


Spice 

Adonijah 

349

Jadu 

Sauvage 

Pompey 

Ras Iley 

Red 

Plastic Bag 

Reporter 

CROP-OVER CALYPSO Jump-Up Mix Vol. 2 - Cassette album, WIRL 1988. 

Dodd AC 10 


De Hawk 

Saturn 

Hot Gossip 

Serenader 

Classic 

Foreigner Frank 

Cockroach 

Madd 

DOWN DE ROAD Barbados Crop-Over Hits - Cassette ep, WIRL, n.d. Dodd AC 11 

This was issued as a promotion by a company called Harris Paints. The artists 

are not named, but the titles of the songs are: “Lawn Um Down,” “We Spring 

Garden,” “Rain,” “In De Congaline,” “Barber-Greene,” “Roadblock” 

SAY WHAT? “Double Entendre Soca from Trinidad” - LP, Rounder Records, 1990. 

Dodd LP 548 


Shadow 

Bally 

Rio 

Plainclothes 

Monarch 

Poser 

SOCA GOLD - CD, VP Records, 1997. Dodd CD 299 

Artists include; 

Ronnie McIntosh 

Third Bass 

Krosfyah 

Super Blue 

Chinese Laundry 

Arrow 

Iwer George 

350

Rukshun 

Beenie Man & Lady Saw 

Coalishun 

Atlantik 

General Grant/Sonny Man & Deinse Belfon 

Ataklan 

Denise Belfon 

SUPER CROP-OVER PARTY - LP, WIRL, 1988. Dodd LP 549 


The Draytons 

Foreigner Frank 

Panta 

Wendy Alleyne 

Rita Forrester 

Duke Check E. D. Shirt 1988 

II B13e. Bahaman Rhymers, Instrumental Music, and Joseph 

Spence 

It was the music of the Bahaman rhymers that in 1958 took me to Andros Island in the 

Bahamas with Ann Danberg, who would become Ann Charters a year later. We traveled to 

Andros to document the songs of the isolated communities of sponge fishermen who still scraped 

out a meager life on the island, even though the sponging industry had been wiped out by 

parasitic disease two decades before. While we were on Andros we also found a rich, living 

musical tradition which also included the marvelous guitarist Joseph Spence. I wrote the story of 

our summer in the book The Day is So Long and the Wages So Small, published in 1999. 

Rhyming is - or I should say was, since the style has almost completely died out in the 

Bahamas - a unique song form which combines the African elements of shifting accent, surging 

rhythm, and vocal chant with the English traditions of the polyphonic hymn or anthem. The 

harmonic structure of the song is maintained by a treble voice and a bass voice who repeat their 

chorus - with considerable embellishment - over and over, while the lead singer, the “rhymer,” 

improvises a text based on the general theme of the song they are “rhyming.” The style was 

developed in the long nights on the sponge beds, when the small fishing boats would tie up 

together and float through the darkness. The crews, who slept on the crude open decks, sang to 

pass the hours. Rhyming is a vibrant, intensely rhythmic song style that insists on a high level of 

musicality by the performers. 

The greatest rhymers were highly regarded in the community, and there were often singing 

contests - one rhymer singing against another - which stretched through the night. The winner 

was decided by the lyric quality of his singing, but just as much by the inventiveness of his 

improvised text. If the vessels were in port the winner was usually carried by the ship’s crew to 

a local rum shop with his prize - most often a colored handkerchief - wrapped around his neck. 

On Andros, in Lisbon Creek Settlement, we were fortunate to be able to find Frederick 

351

McQueen, who was considered the finest of the singers in the years after the war, and we also 

recorded another excellent rhymer, John Roberts, who lived in Fresh Creek Settlement. 

While we were living in Fresh Creek we also - entirely by accident - came upon the 

guitarist Joseph Spence, who had come to the settlement to visit friends and was playing for 

three or four men who were constructing a small house. Spence had also taken the English 

polyphonic hymn as the basis for his style, and he had developed it with the looser Caribbean 

dance rhythms. He performed breathtakingly complex, swinging improvisations, sometimes 

playing three improvised parts at the same time on different strings of the guitar. Of all the 

guitarists I recorded over many years I never heard anyone with Spence’s exuberant 

individuality and stunning virtuosity. 

The book The Day is So Long and the Wages So Small, published in 1999, tells the story 

of our Andros summer. 

It was a documentary recording of Bahaman rhyming made by Alan Lomax in the 1930s 

that took us to the Bahamas, and fortunately Rounder Records, as part of its series of Lomax 

recordings, has recently issued his early material. Many of the selections were previously 

unavailable, and included on the disc is “Dig My Grave,” the song that we were searching for in 

our own journey to Andros twenty years later. 

The album by Joseph Spence has been reissued on CD under the title Joseph 

Spence The Complete Folkways Recordings 1958. A copy of the CD is included 

in the archive. Dodd CD 300 

JOSEPH SPENCE - CD, “Happy All The Time” Recorded by Paul Rothchild and Fritz 

Richmond, Warner Brothers Records, 1985. This is a reissue of the LP released on Electra 

Records in 1965. Dodd CD 301 

JOSEPH SPENCE - CD, “Bahamian Guitarist” Arhoolie Records, 1972/1990. 

Dodd CD 302 

JOSEPH SPENCE - LP, “Living on the Hallelujah Side” Recorded by Scott Billington and Bill 

Nowlin, documentation by Scott Billington. Rounder Records, 1980. 

Dodd LP 550 

OUT ON THE ROLLING SEA, A Tribute to Joseph Spence and the Pinder Family - CD, Green 

Linnet Records, n.d. Dodd CD 303 

Among the artists included are Van Dyke Parks, David Lindley, Taj Mahal, and 

David Grisman 

THE REAL BAHAMAS in Music and Song - LP. Recorded by Peter K. Siegel and Jody Stecher, 

documentation by Jody Stecher. Nonesuch Records, n.d. Recordings made in 1965. Dodd LP 

551/ Dodd CD 323 


Joseph Spence with the Pindar Family 

Frederick McQueen 

Bruce Green, Tweedie Gibson, Clifton Green 

352

Sam Green and group 

Sheldon Swain and group 

This material has been reissued on CD, and a copy is in the archive. Dodd CD 353 

THE GREAT RHYMING SINGERS OF THE BAHAMAS - CD, “Kneelin’ Down Inside the 

Gate” Recorded by Peter K. Siegel and Jody Stecher. Rounder Records, 1994. 

Dodd CD 304 

Among the artists included are Joseph Spence and Frederick McQueen. The 

selections were recorded by Siegel and Stecher in Nassau in 1965. 

II B13f. Traditional and Contemporary Afro-Cuban Styles 

The music of Cuba reflects a number of influences, not only the African legacy of the 

centuries of slavery that created the sugar empire that brought Cuba brief riches as a colony of 

Spain in the 19th Century. Another strong influence has been American popular music, which 

became part of Cuban life during the three military occupations by the U. S. Army between 1898 

and 1918. Beginning in the 1920s Havana became the kind of mecca for travelers looking for 

excitement, music, gambling, and prostitution that Las Vegas has become today. The 

Conservatoria Municipal in the city trained hundreds of musicians for the sophisticated dance 

orchestras that played for dancing and for the elaborate stage shows at the casinos. The Cuban 

orchestras were so highly regarded that record companies began documenting their music as 

early as 1906 on commercial cylinder recordings. The term for the groups was “Orquesta 

Tipica” or “Orquesta Danzon.” 

At the same time there was a popular music that was centered around vocal duets and the 

“sextetos,” which were small, guitar-based groups with singers and often a trumpet. A general 

term for this less commercial style of music is “son.” Cuba also has an important African 

tradition, particularly in the eastern areas around Santiago de Cuba. With the success of the 

slave rebellion in Haiti many slave holders fled to Cuba, since the coast of eastern Cuba is close 

to Haiti, and they forced their slaves to go with them. Slavery was not abolished in Cuba until 

1886, and the African influence remained strong. The African religions which survived in Haiti 

also have a strong foothold in Cuba today. 

The influence of Cuba on other areas of the Caribbean and on the United States itself has 

been very strong. The congas player Chano Pozo caused such a sensation with the Dizzy 

Gillespie Orchestra in New York City in the late 1940s that the Afro-Cuban rhythms he 

introduced became part of the new Bebop jazz idiom. As a boy Pozo had been a drummer with a 

native group that belonged to the Abakwa religious cult. 

Cuba has been the source of a number of popular dance styles, from the mambo to salsa, 

and nearly all of them are included in the archive, although in the modern period they have 

moved some distance from their folk roots. There is a strong representation of these styles in the 

archive. In the summer of 1998 I began working with the veteran Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes, 

producing recordings and writing a biography, and with this special interest in Valdes I collected 

materials which documented this more recent period in Cuban music. 

CUBAN CULT MUSIC 

353

CULT MUSIC OF CUBA - LP. Recorded and documented by Harold Courlander. Folkways 


Courlander’s recordings, made in 1940, document the main Cuban religious cults, 

including Lucumi, Abakwa, Arara, and Kimbisa, with chants to specific gods, among 

them Orisha, Legba, Yemaya, and Chango. 

OLDER TRADITIONS 

THE CUBAN DANZON Before There Was Jazz:1906-1929 - CD. Arhoolie Records, 1999. 

Dodd CD 305 


Orquesta Pablo Valenzuela 

Orquesta de Enrique Pena 

Orquesta de Felipe Valdes 

Orquesta Babuco 

Orquesta de Jamie Prats 

Orquesta de Felix Gonzalez 

Orquesta Francesca de Tata Periera 

Orquesta Romeu 

Orquesta Tipica Criolla 

EARLY CUBAN DANZON ORCHESTRAS 1916-1920 - CD. Harlequin Records, 1999. 

Dodd CD 306 

Orq de Tomas Poince 

Orq Felix Gonzalez 

Orq Felipe Valdes 

Orq Casas 

Orq Valenzuela 

Orq Francesca Reveron 

Orq Tata Periera 

MARIA TERESA VERA y RAFAEL ZEQUEIRA - CD, “El Legendario Duo de la Trova 

Cubana 1916- 1924” Tumbao Records, 1998. Dodd CD 307 

Vera and Zequeira were one of the most popular duets in Cuba, with the two 

voices accompanied by her simple guitar backgrounds. 

SEXTETOS CUBANOS Sones 1930 - CD, Arhoolie Records, 1991. Dodd CD 308 


Sexteto Munamar 

Sexteto Machin 

Sexteto Nacional 

Sexteto Matancero 

TRADITION DE CUBA - CD, “El Son” Edenways, 1997. Dodd CD 309 


Carlos Embale 

354

Sierra Maestra 

Faustino Oramas 

Los Guanches 

Sexteto Habanero 

Sexteto National 

Los compadres 

Septeto Turquino 

Septeto Anacuona 

CUBA IS MUSIC - CD, “Greatest Orchestras Volume 1” Legacy Latino, n.d. 

Dodd CD 310 


Rolando Laserie con la Orq. de Bebo Valdes 

Orq. Almendra 

Orq. Aragon 

Orq. Almendra 

Benny More y su Orquesta 

Orq. Hnos. Castro 

Septeto Tipico Nacional 

Orq. Sublime 

Orq. Chopin 

Trio Matamoros 

Orq. Guaracheros de Oriente 

ERNESTO LECUONA and the CLASSICAL TRADITION 

One of the most influential Cuban musicians of the years before the second World War 

was the pianist and composer Ernesto Lecuona, who used the rhythms and the melodic elements 

of the Afro-Cuban tradition to create a brilliant classical repertoire. Lecuona often toured 

Europe and the United States and many of his compositions have become part of the standard 

repertory for both the concert stage and the dance hall. When he performed his “danzas 

cubanas” in Paris in 1928 the composer Maurice Ravel said, “This is more than piano playing.” 

Lecuona published three collections of pieces in the Cuban idiom, titling the last group “danzas 

afro-cubanas.” He is known outside of Cuba for compositions like “Malaguena” and “Siboney,” 

but every Cuban musician has performed his Afro-Cuban pieces like “La comparsa,” ”La 

habanera,” “Danza negra,” and “Danza lucumi.” When he was asked about Lecuona’s playing, 

pianist Bebo Valdes, one of the most accomplished of the pianists who followed Lecuona, threw 

up his hands and said, “If I could play on my best day the way he played on his worst!” Lecuona 

recorded extensively and this collection includes his performances of 63 of his compositions 

from the 1920s and 1930s. 

Lecuona is the best known of the Cuban classical musicians who adapted folk materials 

for their compositions, but already in the mid-19th century Manuel Saumell Robredo was writing 

Afro-Cuban classical compositions, and they have been recorded by young Cuban concert 

355

pianist Felix Spengler. He also performs compositions by another composer working in the 

Afro-Cuban idiom, Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh, as well as a selection of Lecuona’s music. 

ERNESTO LECUONA - Double CD, “The Ultimate Collection, Lecuona plays Lecuona” RCA 

Victor Records, 1997. Dodd CD 311 

FELIX SPENGLER - CD, “Two Spheres” Piu Mosso, 1996. Dpdd CD 312 

CUBAN DANCE BAND TRADITION and SALSA 

BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB - CD, “Buena Vista Social Club” World Circuit, 1997. 

Dodd CD 313 

The surprise world-wide hit by veteran dance band musicians assembled in 

Havana by American guitarist Ry Cooder. 

RUBEN GONZALEZ - CD, “Introducing Ruben Gonzalez” World Circuit, 1997. 

Dodd CD 314 

Gonzalez is the pianist with the Buena Vista Social Club ban.d. 

MARCELINO GUERRA – CD, “Rapindey” Invitation Records, 1997. Dodd CD 359 

HATUEY - CD, “El Baile de la Paz” Gazell Records, 1998. Dodd CD 315 

A contemporary salsa group based in Stockholm, Sweden. 

IRAKERE - CD, “Indestructible” Harmonia mundi, 1998. Dodd CD 316 

A grammy award winning contemporary group which has revitalized older Cuban 

traditions. The leader for most of its long and successful career has been pianist 

Chucho Valdes, who is the son of Bebo Valdes. 

LECUONA CUBAN BOYS Vol. 2 - CD, “Lecuona Cuban Boys” Harlequin, 1991. 

Dodd CD 317 

This is a contemporary reissue of recordings by the group from the 1930s, with 

extensive notes including reminiscences by one of the group’s musicians. Although 

they used Lecuona’s name - with his permission - they never performed with him, and 

the group didn’t play much of his music. They were a colorful show band that 

tirelessly toured the world presenting their jazz-oriented adaptations of Afro-Cuban 

rhythms. 

ELADIO REINON LATIN JAZZ OCTET con BEBO VALDES - CD, “Acere” Fresh Sound 

World Jazz, 1998. Dodd CD 318 

ELADIO REINON LATIN BIG BAND con BEBO VALDES - CD, “Afro Cuban Jazz Suite No. 

1” Fresh Sound World Jazz, 1999. Dodd CD 319 

Reinon is a Spanish musician who leads popular latin groups. For these two 

releases he brought Bebo Valdes into the studio with his musicians. The second 

CD is the first recording of a major composition written and arranged by Valdes in 

356

the early 1990s, when he was in his early seventies. 

BEBO VALDES y su ORQUESTA SABOR de CUBA - CD, “Mayajuiga” Caney Records, 

1995. Dodd CD 320 

This is a reissue of Valdes’s recordings in Havana in the late 1950s with his large 

radio orchestra. 

BEBO VALDES - CD, “Bebo Rides Again” Messidor, 1995. Dodd CD 321 

This was the first recording for Valdes in more than thirty years. Featuring 

musicians like alto saxophone player Paquito D’Rivera and trombonist Juan-Pablo 

Torres, the album played an important role in the current revival of interest in Latin 

jazz. 

BEBO VALDES - Double CD, “Recuerdos de Habana - A Portrait at 80” Gazell Records, 

1999. Produced by Samuel Charters. Dodd CD 322 

For this “portrait” Valdes performed compositions covering more than 150 years 

of Cuban musical history, including music by Robredo and Lecuona, and his own 

compositions from the CuBop era of the 1950s. For some selections he worked with a 

Cuban rhythm group, for the rest of the album he was accompanied by his son Rickard 

Valdes, who played timbales. 

II B14. Rap and Hip Hop 

The terms “Rap” and “Hip Hop” are often used interchangeably, but they have different 

connotations. Hip Hop is generally used to mean the entire genre of contemporary African 

American urban popular music. It is a general term which specifically identifies new styles that 

have a strong rhythmic orientation and express contemporary social attitudes. The term is used 

to describe the music which followed the pop category of Soul, which in its turn replaced the 

term Rhythm and Blues. “Rap” is a specific genre included within Hip Hop, but has a separate 

identity from it. Rap is the spoken art form combining musical materials from earlier musical 

genres with highly sophisticated rhyming texts which developed out of the “toasting” of 

Jamaican disc jockeys in the Bronx in New York City in the 1980s. 

Rap has been both noisily controversial and immensely popular from its first beginnings, 

and it has spread everywhere in the world. Since it is an art form based on black street 

vernacular it has continued to have a strong black identity, but popular musical styles depend on 

fantasy identification between the artists and the public to reach their widest audiences and rap 

has adjusted to its large numbers of white listeners. Just as the electric Chicago blues styles 

attracted the adolescent suburban audience through white performers like Eric Clapton and the 

Rolling Stones, rap has also produced white performers who have had considerable success, 

including the Beastie Boys, Vanilla Ice, and Eminem. There are rap artists creating music in 

every European language, in Japanese and in many of India’s linguistic groups. In African 

countries there are performers “rapping” in their own tribal languages as well as the dominant 

colonial language. As a gesture of half joking respect one American group named itself “Young 

Black Teenagers,” even though all of its members are white. 

357

Rap at its best is a wildly creative, inventive musical idiom, and the recordings can reflect 

this insistence on spontaneity and imagination. Rap is also a style that sometimes seems to have 

no clear direction. One song on an album can be a highly skilled, complex, interweaving of 

electronically produced rhythms and an imaginative text. The next song on the same album can 

as easily be a repetitive rant consisting of a stream of vicious obscenities directed at the young 

women that the rapper happens to be thinking about. Much of the controversy that has swirled 

around rap is over the style called “gangsta” rap, usually identified with performers from the 

West Coast. Gangsta rap began as an expression of the hard realities of ghetto life in Los 

Angeles, with its rage directed at the police and the political system that has created the ghettos. 

The rage was expressed in descriptions of violence and exhortations demanding change. The 

artists pushed their poetic imagery to its limit, in some songs openly advocating the killing of 

police officers and the destruction of the symbols of white power. When opponents of rap attack 

the genre, it is almost always Gangsta rap that they are attacking. The opposition to this style of 

rap extends to many in the African American community who detest its brutality and obscenity. 

At the other end of the rap spectrum is the sophisticated, subtly nuanced music of groups 

like De la Soul or Brand Nubian, whose members have middle class suburban backgrounds. 

Often their music reflects their university studies as much as it does urban street life, and for 

them the excitement of rap has been its creative possibilities. Throughout its brief history rap 

has drawn from these two extremes - the Los Angeles ghetto and the Long Island suburbs - and 

through the electronic techniques of sampling, which is the rerecording of small “samples” from 

the rhythm and melody riffs of earlier recordings, rap has also become the idiom for artists from 

just about every area in between. There are even gospel groups like the brilliant “Gospel 

Gangstas” who use rap as a religious expression. 

Rap has been strongly attacked for its negative and sexually exploitative attitudes toward 

women, and the sexual imagery of many rap performances perhaps aggravate as much as they 

reflect the tensions in the ghetto community. In the confusion of today’s sexual mores the 

women rappers have tried to balance the male attacks by presenting their own grievances, and 

their anger is as intense and as dismissive as the male artists. The problems of obscenity and the 

advocacy of violence which have prevented an even wider acceptance of rap led first to an 

industry-wide labeling of all albums to identity those with “explicit lyrics” that parents may find 

objectionable. The labels read “Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics.” Since virtually all rap 

albums now carry this label, however, the labeling hasn’t been a hindrance to sales. 

More problematic for the record companies and the rap performers has been the 

restrictions on radio play for songs with open obscenity, which are subject to the same 

censorship codes as everything else that is broadcast on public airways. To get around this 

problem most rap singles are recorded in multiple versions, including at least one which is 

labeled as a “clean” track, and can be played on commercial radio. The careful self-censorship 

to maximize sales and radio exposure suggests that the issue of freedom of self expression is not 

as decisive with the rappers as their interviews with sympathetic journalists would suggest. 

As one of the items in the archive makes clear, however, within the rap community there is 

a consciousness of social responsibility. For the double LP set America is Dying Slowly many of 

today’s major rap artists, including Wu-Tang Clan, Biz Markie, and De la Soul, created and 

recorded new songs dealing with the AIDS crisis in the black community. All of the profits of 

the album are to be used within the community to combat the scourge of AIDS. The funds are to 

be donated to medical research, and the notes to the production include a dispassionate 

discussion of the devastating effect of AIDS on what they term “communities of color.” The 

358

music is skillfully produced, and the raw insistence of rap is entirely appropriate for a description 

of this human tragedy. 

One of the reasons for the continued relevance of rap in the African American community 

is that for the first time black entrepreneurs have succeeded in maintaining control of a major 

area of the recording industry. There are exceptions, like the present white owner of the 

important label Def Jam, but the majority of the company owners are from the communities that 

produced the artists. Also, rap is one of the most inexpensive forms of popular music to 

produce. Since the background material is created by layering existing recordings, a rap track 

can be produced in the bedroom of any ambitious artist who can scrape together the modest 

amount of money needed to assemble the basic electronic equipment. This accessibility to the 

productive means of rap has kept it so closely tied to its roots. Virtually all of African American 

music before this was recorded, manufactured, and marketed by white business interests, but 

now the community has the power to control its own expression. 

This control of the manufacture of rap music has also helped insure the presentation of 

most rap performances on the LP format, which has virtually disappeared from the mainstream 

record market. The more popular CDs cannot be used for the “scratching,” which means 

physically turning the record backwards on the LP turntable to produce a rhythmic “scratching” 

sound, and which is an essential element of the DJ style. Inner city record outlets include large 

sections of LP material, and usually the popular stores have DJs who “spin” LPs for the 

customers. Most of the LPs in the archive come from Beat Street and Music Factory, two noisy 

record outlets on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn, that supply the local disc jockeys. 

What is perhaps ironic about this black control of rap music is that almost 80% of the sales 

are now to white suburban teenagers, even though the restrictions on radio play often mean that 

the most popular rap songs reach their audience through word of mouth. The styles and the 

attitudes of the urban black community have become a dominant voice in the American mix in 

the 1990s. 

BANNED IN THE USA 

In 1990 a judge in Miami, Florida upheld the ban on sales within the county limits of a rap 

recording titled Nappy As The Want To Be by The 2 Live Crew. The album had already sold 

more than two million copies nationwide, and it had been on sale for almost two years. 

Nationwide there was a furor over the ban. There was no question that the material on the album 

was beyond the limits of what would be considered obscenity, and The 2 Live Crew has 

consistently been demeaning toward women, but the issue was drawn over the question of 

Freedom of Speech. Many rock musicians who had also been threatened by the authorities for 

the content of their lyrics defended the group, and Bruce Springsteen, whose “Born in the USA” 

was the best selling song in the country, permitted Luther Campbell and the Crew to sample a 

new version of the song that he did with the lyrics changed to “Banned in the USA.” The 

censorship issue was decided on a legal appeal in the group’s favor, but after a series of public 

hearings on the problem of obscenity in rap the industry agreed to use the Explicit Lyrics 

stickering. The issue of censorship emerged again with the gangsta rappers who in some lyrics 

urged killing of the police, and this time many of the labels began to exercise some control over 

the content of their releases. 

359

LUKE Featuring THE 2 LIVE CREW - LP Single, “Banned in the USA” - Radio mix, Radio 

instrumental, Black mix, Percapella Luke Records, 1990. Dodd LP 552 

II B14a. Pre-rap Verbal Performance Recordings and “Old School” 

rap 

Nothing that preceded rap really prepared us for the audacity and the controversy of the 

surge of rap recordings that inundated the market in the 1990s, but in occasional earlier 

recordings there is a use of the spoken word, and a political consciousness that has some of the 

elements of what followed. Included in this group of albums is the classic track from 1971, “The 

Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron, and a release by the group The Last 

Poets, which also used spoken word and poetry to demand political change. Jamaican Linton 

Kwesi Johnson used spoken word with an instrumental accompaniment to advocate change, and 

his tracks have a rhythmic foundation that in some ways anticipates rap. Even more important 

was dub poet Mutabaruka, whose spoken texts, with their skillful use of rhyme were imitated by 

the “Old school” rappers. The boasting of the Jamaican Djs was a strong influence on early 

rappers, and it was also the “dub” technique of the reggae producers that first showed the 

potential for remixing instrumental tracks. 

The classic song from 1979, “Rapper’s Delight,” by the Sugarhill Gang, is usually 

considered to be the first rap recording, although its optimistic innocence is far from the moods 

and attitudes of the rap that emerged from this modest beginning. The term often used for rap 

recordings from this period is “Old School.” 

GIL SCOTT-HERON - CD, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” RCA, later issue. 

Dodd CD 324 

Born in Chicago in 1949 and raised in Jackson, Tennessee, Scott-Heron was 

shaped by the social tumult of the 1960s. The compilation also includes the rap-like 

performances “Whitey On The Moon,” “No-Knock,” and “Brother.” 

THE LAST POETS - CD, “The Last Poets” Metrotone Records, 1979. Dodd CD 325 

MUTABARUKA - CD, “The Ultimate Collection” Shanachie Records, 1996. 

Dodd CD 276 

Mutabaruka had his break-through in the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica in 1981, 

and he toured the United States as part of the Lollapalooza extravaganzas in the 

1990s. This compilation covers his high points of his career, including previously 

unreleased live and mix material. 

This CD is shelved in the reggae section of the archive. 

SUGAR HILL GANG - CD “The Best of Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper’s Delight” Rhino, 

later reissue of the 1979 original, included with other performances by the group. 

Dodd CD 326 

SUGAR HILL GANG - LP Single, “Rapper’s Delight” Rapmasters, n.d. Dodd LP 553 

This is the full length single version of the song. 

360

On the reverse of the single there are two other artists, 

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - “Freedom” 

Cash Money & Marvelous - “Ugly People” 

“OLD SCHOOL” COLLECTION 

TRUE SCHOOL LYRICAL LESSONS from the RAP LEGENDS, Vol. 2 K-Tel International, 

1996. Dodd CD 327 


Treacherous Three and Kool Moe Dee 

Fearless Four 

Jimmy Spicer 

Spoonie Gee & The Treacherous Three 

T-Ski Valley 

Kurtis Blow 

Masterdon Committee 

Afrika Bambaattaa 

The collection includes Kurtis Blow’s cheerfully innocuous hit “Christmas Rappin’,” 

which helped introduce rap to a larger audience. 

II B14b. Rap and Hip Hop 

Although the term Hip Hop was used in introducing this material, all of these recordings, 

in fact, are rap performances. For simplicity the listing is alphabetically by artist, regardless of 

recorded medium. Included are most of the major rap artists of the last few years, but there are 

also local rappers, and releases on neighborhood independent labels. Rap, as a style, is so large 

and varied that this broad over-view seems like the best way to present one of the most exciting 

creative idioms in today’s musical world. 

ABOVE THE LAW - LP single, “Spokes” and “Killaz in the Park” - Tommy Boy Records, 

1996. Dodd LP 554 

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT - Cassette album, “3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of . 

.” Chrysalis, 1992 . Dodd AC 12 

THE BEASTIE BOYS - CD, Check Your Head” Capitol, 1992. Dodd CD 328 

BE GEE - CD, “Ya Gotta Be Gee” Death Trap Records, 1993. Dodd CD 329 

BIG L - LP single, “Ebonics” and “Size ‘Em Up” Flamboyant Records, 1996. 

Dodd LP 555 

This is a fascinating “rap” presentation of street slang, which the rapper terms 

“ebonics,” the formal designation for the African American dialect. In his rap Big L, 

361

who is from Brooklyn, defines common terms in both their street meaning and 

in more general usage. 

BLACK MOON - CD, “Enta Da Stage” Wreck Records, 1993. Dodd CD 330 

BLACK SHEEP - Cassette album, “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” Polygram Records, 1991. 

Dodd AC 13 

BRAND NUBIAN - Cassette album, “One For All” Electra Records, 1990. 

Dodd AC 14 

BRAND NUBIAN - Cassette album, “In God We Trust” Electra Records, 1992. 

Dodd AC 15 

NENEH CHERRY - Cassette album, “Homebrew” Virgin Records, 1992. 

Dodd AC 16 

CHOICE - Cassette album, “The Big Payback” Priority Records, 1990. Dodd AC 17 

CHUNK - Cassette album, “Chunk II, Still the Menace” Tandem Records, 1992. 

Dodd AC 18 

CHUNK - CD, “Break ‘Em Off A Chunk” Murder One Records, 1994. Dodd CD 331 

CRAZY RAK - Cassette album, “On the Real Tip” Sumo Records, n.d. Dodd AC 19 

THE CREEPER - CD, “Creeper” Butt Naked Records, 1994. Dodd CD 332 

DAZZIE DEE - LP single, “Everybody Wants to be a Gangsta” “West Side Hoodsta’s” 

Capitol Records, 1995. Dodd LP 556 

DAS EFX - Cassette album, “Dead Serious” Eastwest Records, 1992. Dodd AC 20 

DE LA SOUL - Cassette album, 3 Feet High and Rising” Tommy Boy, 1989. 

Dodd AC 21 

DE LA SOUL - Cassette album “Is Dead” Tommy Boy, 1991. Dodd AC 22 

D-SHOT - CD, “The Shot Calla” Sick Wid’ It Records, 1994. Dodd CD 355 

DRU DOWN - CD, “Dru Down” C Note Records, 1993. Dodd CD 333 

DR. DRE - Cassette single, “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang” Inerscope Records, 1993. 

Dodd AC 23 


362

ERIK B. and RAKIM - Cassette, album, “Don’t Sweat the Technique” MCA Records, 1992. 

Dodd AC 24 

FLESH-N-BONE - CD, “T.H.U.G.S.” Def Jam, 1996. Dodd CD 334 

FU-SCHNICKENS - Cassette album, “F. U. ‘Don’t Take It Personal’” Jive Records, 1992. 

Dodd AC 25 

GANGSTA BOOGIE - CD, “Gangsta Boogie” Bossman Records, n.d. Dodd CD 335 

THE GETO BOYS - Cassette album, “The Geto Boys” Rap-A-Lot Records, 1990. 

Dodd AC 26 

The Geto Boys was one of the gangsta groups to cause difficulty with the explicit 

nature of their music. The cassette includes this message on the front cover, below 

the Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics notice, “Def American Recordings is opposed 

to censorship. Our manufacturer and distributor, however, do not condone or endorse 

the content of this recording, which they find violent, sexist, and indecent.” 

GETO BOYS - Cassette album, “We Can’t Be Stopped” Rap-A-Lot Records, 1991. 

Dodd AC 27 

GETO BOYS - CD, “Uncut Dope” Rap-A-Lot Records, 1992. Dodd CD 336 


GRANDMASTER MELLE MEL and the FURIOUS FIVE - CD, same title, Sugar Hill, 1994. 

Dodd CD 337 

The performances by Melle Mel are among the earliest rap recordings, and this 

CD is a reissue of material from the 1980s, with a logo stating “The Best of Old 

School Rappers.” The songs show a fascinating mix of doo-wop and soul elements, 

as well as tracks like “Miami Vice” that virtually define the rap aesthetic. 

GRAND PUBA - Cassette album, “Reel to Reel” Electra Records, 1992. 

Dodd AC 28 

HOUSE OF PAIN - Cassette album, “Fine Malt Lyrics” Tommy Boy, 1992. 

Dodd AC 29 

The members are from Ireland, and it was one of the early foreign rap groups to 

achieve success in the United States. 

ICE CUBE - Double LP album, “War & Peace, Volume 1 (The War Disc)” Priority Records, 

1999. Dodd LP 557a, 557b 

K-BUZ$ - CD, “Da Grim Reapa” Urban Knowledge Records, 1994. Dodd CD 338 

KMC - CD, “Three Men with the Power of Ten “Priority Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 339 

363

KOOL ROCK JAY - Cassette ep, “Street Life” Triad Records, 1992. Dodd AC 30 

KORNERSTONZ - LP single, “What We Do This For” “Korner Life” “Front On Me” CEO 


KULCHA - CD, “Kulcha” Warner Brothers Australia, 1994. Dodd CD 340 

Another foreign rap group, this one from Australia. 

L. A. NASH - LP single, “Car Busta U” “Can’t Find A Reason” Menes Records, 1996. 

Dodd LP 559 

QUEEN LATIFAH - Cassette album, “Nature of a Sista” Tommy Boy, 1991. 

Dodd AC 31 

LATIN ALLIANCE - Cassette album, “Latin Alliance” Virgin Records America, 1991. 

Dodd AC 35 

L. L. COOL J. - Double LP album, “Phenomenon” Def Jam Records, 1997. 


MAC DRE - Cassette ep, “What’s Really Going On?” Strictly Business Records, 1992. 

Dodd AC 32 

MC EIHT - CD, “Death Threatz” Epic Street, 1996. Dodd CD 341 

MC LYTE - Cassette album, “Act Like You Know” Atlantic Records, 1991. 

Dodd AC 33 

MISTA MEANA - LP single, “Winners & Losers” “A thru Z” Sure Shot, n.d. 

Dodd LP 561 

MISTER DOPE AMERICA - LP single, “Shallow End” “Deep End” Insomnia Records, 1998. 

Dodd LP 562 

NAUGHTY BY NATURE - Cassette album, “19 Naughty III” Tommy Boy, 1993. 

Dodd AC 34 

NEW BREED OF HUSTLAS - CD, “Ratha B-A Hustla” Mobstyle Records, 1992/3. 

Dodd CD 342 

THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. - LP double album, “Life after Death” Bad Boy Records, 1997. 


The album was released after the artist was shot and killed, and this note was 

stickered on to the package: 

364

“This album represents the artistic vision of the Notorious B.I.G. and is being 

released in its entirety as it was recorded and manufactured prior to March 9, 1997.” 

THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. - CD, “Born Again” Bad Boy, 1999. Dodd CD 343 

This collection is a memorial tribute to the artist including songs by artists like 

Eminem, Method Man, Ice Cube, and Lil’ Kim & Puff Daddy. It was created by Puff 

Daddy, acting as executive producer for his own label. 

N. W. A. - CD, “Straight Outta Compton” Ruthless Records, 1988. Dodd CD 344 

This was the album that for many listeners defined the gangsta rap idiom. The 

rappers included Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E. It is still a strong statement that 

vibrates with rage, and it has been imitated by dozens of other groups. Ice Cube has 

gone on to make films which have more or less drifted away from his street attitudes, 

Dr. Dre is now a successful rap producer, and Eazy-E died of illness some years after 

their first success. 

O. G. FUNK - CD, “Out of the Dark” Rykodisc, 1993. Dodd CD 345 

This is a well-produced hybrid, which includes funk vocal choruses, responding to 

rapped verses. The instrumental back-up is played by a small group, instead of 

with the usual sampling. One of the rappers is the veteran Grandmaster Melle Mel. 

P. M. DAWN - Cassette album, “Of the Heart of the Soul and of the Cross” Island, 1991. Dodd 

AC 36 

RATED X - CD, “Will Rap 4 Sex” Tandem Records, 1992. Dodd CD 346 

REVIVAL OF THE UNDERGROUND - 12” EP, Five titles including “It’s In Their Nature” by 

Ghetto Seals Dancefloor Distribution, 1998. Dodd LP 564 

RICHIE RICH - CD, “Seasoned Veteran” Def Jam, 1996. Dodd CD 347 

RUN-D.M.C. - Cassette album, “King of Rock” Profile, 1985. Dodd AC 37 

In this early rap best seller the influence of Jamaican dubbing on the rap 

instrumental background is very clear, and one track is titled “Roots, Rap, Reggae” 

to make the relationship even more evident. 

7 MILE - LP single, “Just a Memory” Crave, 1997. Dodd LP 565 

SEVENTY SIX of the DARK MYNDZ - LP single, “Been Waiting So Long” “Throwing 

Words” Infinity Records, 1998. Dodd LP 566 

SNOOP DOGG - CD, “Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told” No Limit Records, 1998. 

Dodd CD 348 


365

TOO SHORT - DOUBLE CD, “Greatest Hits, Volume 1, 1983- 1988” In-a-Minute Records, 

1993. Dodd CD 349 

TONE LOC - 12” 45 rpm single, “Wild Thing” “Loc’ed After Dark” Delicious Vinyl, 1988. 

Dodd FF 52 

TOTALLY INSANE - CD, “Goin’ Insane” In-a-Minute, 1993. Dodd CD 350 

TRIBE CALLED QUEST - Cassette album, “The Low End Theory”. Dodd AC 38 

THE TWO LIVE CREW - LP single, “Do the Damn Thing” Lil’ Joe Records, 1997. 

Dodd LP 568 

2 PAC - LP single, “I Wonder if Heaven Got a Ghetto” Amaru Records, 1997. 

Dodd LP 569 

2 PAC - Double LP, “Greatest Hits” Death Row Records, 1998. 

Dodd LP 570a, 570b, 570c, 570d 

This was released after 2 Pac’s murder in Los Angeles. 

TUPAC SHAKUR - CD, “Last Interview”. Dodd CD 351 

This is a bonus CD that was packaged with the video Thug Immortal. It was edited from a series 

of interviews which Shakur did with writer Rob Marriott to gather material for an autobiography. 


2 TONE - CD, “Nu Breed” 2-Tone Records, 1993. Dodd CD 352 

US - LP single, “Niggaz” “Streetz Worldwide” House of Power Records, 1999. 

Dodd LP 571 

YOUNG BLACK TEENAGERS - CD, “Young Black Teenagers” MCA Records, 1991. 

Dodd CD 353 

This is a white group that defended its decision to perform as rappers in the 

songs of this first release. 

YOUNG BLACK TEENAGERS - Cassette album, “Dead Enz Kids Doin’ Lifetime Bidz” 

MCA Records, 1993. Dodd AC 39 

COMPILATIONS 

AMERICA IS DYING SLOWLY - LP double album. Red Hot Records, 1999. 

Dodd LP 572 


Biz Markie, Chubb Rock, & Prince Paul 

Pete Rock & The Lost Boyz 

Wu Tang Clan 

366

Goodie Mob featuring Big Rube 

Coolio 

Eightball & JMG 

Money Boss Players 

Spice 1, Celly Cel, 187-Fac, Ant Banks & Gangsta P 

Common & Sean Lett 

Organized Konfusion 

De La Soul & Da Beatminerz 

O. C. & Buckwild 

Sadat X, Fat Joe & Diamond D. 

Domino 

Mac Mall 

This compilation was released as a project to raise money for medical expenses for 

African American AIDS victims. The notice on the LP reads, “All net proceeds will 

go towards fighting AIDS in communities of color.” 

CASSETTES 

ON THE RAP TIP - Cassette album, Priority Records, 1989. Dodd AC 40 


Tone Loc 

De la Soul 

Eazy-E 

Slick Rick 

Kid ‘N Play 

NWA 

EPMD 

Sir Mix-A-Lot 

Cash Money & Marvelous 

Awesome Dre’ & The Hardcore Committee 

QUEENS OF RAP - Cassette album, Priority Records, 1989. Dodd AC 41 


J. J. Fad 

MC Lyte 

The Real Roxanne 

Antoinette 

Big Lady K 

Salt-N-Pepa 

Swee Tee 

Roxane Shane 

Latifa 

Big Lady K 

LADIES OF GANGSTER RAP - CD, Deff Trapp, 1999. Dodd CD 354 

367


Foxy Brown 

MC Lyte 

Lil Kim 

Mia X 

Gangster Boo 

Ghetto Twins 

Lady of Rage 

Cl’che 

Trapp 

DJ MATERIALS 

The record outlets that service the working DJs have a wide variety of LPs available 

which help with pacing a night of spinning. These two LPs are only a suggestion of the 

extensive range of sounds and music on sale. 

ULTIMATE BREAKS & BEATS -LP album, Street Beat Records, 1987. Dodd LP 573 

This is a collection of funk and soul tracks which can be used by DJs in their own 

mixes. The colorful cover art depicts the DJ as an octopus, using tentacles to spin on 

both turntables, check out the next disc, rap on the microphone, and hold on to the 

sound level. 

RAP RELATIVES 

BOBBY KONDERS/MASSIVE B REGGAE MEETS HIP HOP - LP album, Massive B label, 

Kingston, Jamaica, n.d. Dodd LP 574 


Bountry Killer & Jeru 

Yankee B 

Ninjaman 

Jigsy King 

Turbo Belly 

Jr. Reid 

Burro Banton 

Action Fire 

Rap has been closely tied to Jamaican “toasting” since its beginnings in Bronx 

playgrounds, and this album creates a sturdy picture of the way the two styles have 

influenced each other. 

The archive also includes a small collection of rap street posters, books, magazines, and 

advertising cards. 

See also the video listing in catalog. 

368

II B15. The New Reggae 

The reggae material which is already in the Archives documents the development of early 

reggae and ska, and emphasizes the classic reggae artists of the 1970s and 1980s, including Bob 

Marley, Burning Spear, Peter Tosh, Toots and the Maytalls, Augustus Pablo, and Lee Perry, as 

well as many other artists who were part of that creative moment. As reggae became less of a 

reflection of strong social concerns it lost some of its world wide audience, particularly 

following Marley’s death, but as a popular musical idiom it has continued to change and 

develop, just as the classic style continually evolved in the first years. Today’s reggae, and its 

new hybrid, Dance Hall, have moved into contemporary dance rhythms and have begun to create 

a new reggae style which includes some of the elements of sampling and verbal play which were 

introduced with rap and hip hop. 

This new collection of material includes many of the newest reggae stars and also presents 

the new reggae rhythms and vocal styles. The various samplers present a broad overview of the 

current trends, and the individual CDs range from major stars like Beenie Man to reggae gospel 

artists like Carlene Davis and Claudelle Clark. 

Many of the albums in this overview are produced by VP Records, which has its 

headquarters in the heart of Jamaican New York City, the district of Jamaica, a section of Long 

Island just east of the Van Wyck Parkway. VP today is one of the major labels on the very 

active reggae scene, with an exciting group of artists and busy production schedules. The label 

is distributed by Big Daddy Music of Kenilworth, New Jersey, who generously provided the 

Archives with much of the material in this selection. 


CD 1653 Beenie Man - CD, Who Am I “Sim Simma”.. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1654 Beenie Man - CD Single, Tell Me. VP Records, 1998 

The single includes, as is usual, alternate remixes, and one of the mixes, the “Reggae 

Reprise,” is a useful demonstration of the current reggae rhythms. 

CD 1655 Bigga - CD, Riding The Wave. Vision Records, 1991 

CD 1656 Buccaneer - CD, ‘da opera”. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1657 Cocoa T - CD, One Way. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1658 Dread & Fred - CD, Iron Works, Parts 1 & 2 (“On High”). Jah Shaka, 1991 

CD 1659 Dean Fraser - CD, Retrospect. VP Records, 1999 

Reggae has continued to adapt other styles to reggae rhythms, and Fraser’s solo saxophone is 

reggae’s answer to the very popular jazz-influenced artist Kenny G., who has sold millions of 

albums of his mainstream saxophone instrumentals. Although some vocals are included, this is a 

reggae instrumental album. 

CD 1660 Frisco Kid - CD, Finally. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1661 Goofie - CD, I Don’t Give A Damn!!. VP Records, 1999 

CD 1662 Pam Hall - CD, Bet You Don’t Know. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1663 Innocent Crew - CD, Taxi DJ Link. VP Records, 1999 

CD 1664 Gregory Isaacs - CD, Lady Of Your Calibre. World Records, 1995 

Isaacs is an established performer from the classic reggae years, and he has moved easily into 

the newer reggae idiom. 

CD 1665 Jr. Jazz - CD, My Turn. VP Records, 1997 

CD 1666 LMS - CD, Reality Check. VP Records, 1999 

369

CD 1667 Lady Saw - CD, 99 Ways. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1668 Derek Lara - CD, All About Life. VP Records, 1999 

CD 1669 Jah Lewis - CD, All Gone Astray. Shanachie, 1991 

CD 1670 Freddie McGregor - Double CD, The Anthology. VP Records, 1999 

JACOB MILLER 

Jacob Miller was one of the most talented of the younger artists who followed Marley and 

other older musicians into the reggae elite. His early death - in a 1980 automobile accident in 

Jamaica when he was 26 - cut short what might have been a career with the international 

dimensions of the older stars. This double CD package is both a tribute from several 

contemporary artists and an anthology of some of his own hit recordings, including the classic 

“Tenement Yard.” 

CD 1671 Jacob Miller - Double CD, Songbook - Chapter A Day. VP Records, 1999 

CD 1672 Monster Shack Crew - CD, Monster Party. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1673 Prezident Brown - CD, Original Blue Print. VP Records, 1996 

CD 1674 Sanchez - CD, True Identity. VP Records, 1999 

CD 1675 Shinehead - CD, Troddin’. Elektra, 1994 

CD 1676 Singing Melody - CD, Sweeter. VP Records, 1999 

CD 1677 Sly, Robbie, Gitsey & the Taxi Gang - CD, La Trenggae VP Records, 1997 

The legendary rhythm team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare have 

moved into reggae production in recent years, and this album is a blending of Caribbean and 

South American Latin sounds with a reggae base. 

BUNNY WAILER 

As one of the original Wailers, with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer has continued 

a career that has been as individual as his own singing style. This collection should be regarded 

more as a statement of his religious and political beliefs than as a commercial recording, and in 

its art work as well as its arrangements and songs it is a continuation of the ideals which Wailer 

continues to represent today. 

CD 1678 Bunny Wailer - CD, Communication. Solomonic Tuff Gong, n.d 

REGGAE GOSPEL 

It would perhaps be considered anachronistic for a Christian gospel performer to turn to 

reggae, the music of the Rastafari faith, as the source of a new musical idiom, but these two 

performers have mixed the two worlds with results that leave the impression that the fusion still 

is searching for a cohesive soun.d. 

CD 1679 Claudelle Clark - CD, The Prayer. VP Records, 1998 

CD 1680 Carlene Davis - CD, Vessel. VP Records, 1998 

REGGABILLY 

This may be the only album with this classification. White performers who translate their 

love for reggae into an affectionate romp through many of the main themes. The pitch for the 

album, on the back card with the list of credits, reads, “Blue Mountains/ Blue Ridge 

Mountains/Dancing Dub Poetry/ Reggabilly Romp/ Positive/Honest/Native/ Run through the 

Garden/Join the Dance.” 

CD 1681 Ras Alan and The Lions - CD, Native. Red Pepper Records, 1993 

370

COLLECTIONS 

CD 1682 After Hours - CD, VP Records, n.d 

Artists: Home T 

Brian & Tony Gold 

Peter Mann 

Chevelle Franklyn 

Hopton Lindo 

Dennis Brown 

Hopeton James 

TT Crew 

CD 1683 Book Shelf - CD, VP Records, 1998 

Artists: Devonte/Tanto Metro 

Sean Paul 

Mr. Vegas 

Lady Saw 

Beenie Man 

Evette 

Pancho Kryztal 



Sasha 

CD 1684 Cultural Consciousness - CD, VP Records, 1999 

Artists: Morgan Heritage 

Terror Fabulous & Red Rose 

Fred Locks 

Mikey General 

Triston Palmer 

Simpleton 

Sizzla 

Determine 

Tyrical 

Lukie D 

Mykal Roze 

Mikey General 


CD 1685 Dancehall 2000 - CD, Germaine Music Distributors, 1999 

Artists: Beres Hammond 

Beres Hammond + Buju Banton 

Tony Rebel 

Arp 

Beenie Man 

Nicki Tucker 

371

IMS 

D. Wisdom 

Morgan’s Heritage 

Buju Banton 

Richie Stevens 

Lenky 

Mega Banton 

Jahmali 

CD 1686 Kickin’ - CD, GP Records, 1999 

Artists: Anthony B 

Spanner Banner 

George Nooks 

Sanchez 


Frankie Paul 

Skatta 

Tony Curtis 

Yami Bolo 

Ghost 

Ambelique 

Mickey Spice 

CD 1687 Mix With A Bend - CD, VP Records, 1999 

Artists: Captain Barkey & Lexus 

Black Rat & Max Wayne 

Fiona 

Franco Nero 

Razor 

LMS & Morgan Heritage 

Tulocks & Curly Locks 

Little Wicked & Ibars 

Thriller U 

Angie Angel 

Ba’Sheba 

Military Man 

Anthony B. 

LMS 

X Khan 

Future Troubles 

CD 1688 Original Copy - CD, VP Records, 1996 

Artists: Capleton 

Inspector Grizzle 

African 

Jah Cure 

372

Military Man 

Granny Roots 

Determine 

CD 1689 Reggae Roots - CD, K-tel International, 2000 

This is a TV merchandised collection which includes a broad range of new and classic 

reggae artists. 

Artists: Bunny Wailer 

Dennis Brown 

Culture 


Black Uhuru 

Levy w/ Bennie Man (sic) 

Yellowman 

Mad Professor 

Augustus Pablo 

Israel Vibration 

The Mighty Diamonds 

Freddie MacGregor 

Berres (sic) Hammond 

Don Carlos 

CD 1690 Big Ship Ole Fung, Reggae Ska, Volume One- CD, VP Records, 1997 

Artists: Papa San 

Cutty Ranks 

Richie Brown 

Rappa Robert Delta 

Cobra 

Riky General & Yeshemabeth 

Galaxy P 

Carlene Davis 

Chaka Demus 

Captain Barkey & Angel Doolas 

T.K.O. with Winston Wheeler 

Tyrical & Bobby Treasure 

Boy Ken 

Jermaine Forde & Robbie Lyn 

CD 1691 Sail Away - CD, VP Records, 1999 

Artists: Beenie Man & Mr. Vegas 

Chico & Frisco Kid 

Sean Paul 


T. O. K. 

Nitty Kutchie 

Round Head 

373

Frisco Kid 

Tony Curtis 

Copper Cat 

Demo Delgado 

CD 1692 70 Oz. of Reggae - CD, Compose Records, 1991 

Artists: Gregory Isacs 

Ken Boothe 

Lee Cover-Lee Perry & The Upsetters 

Rita Marley & The Soulettes 

John Holt 

Freddie MacGregor 

Judy Nowatt & The Gaylettes 

Carlene Davis 

Dennis Brown 

Slim Smith 

Ethiopians 

Heptones 


Horrace Andy 

CD 1693 Sweet Love, Volume 3 - CD, VP Records, 1999 

Artists: Ambelique 

Tony Curtis 

George Nooks 

Glen Washington 

Fiona 

Delano Stewart 

Pam Hall 

Michelle Gordon 

Pat Kelly 

Mikey Spice 

Joy White 

Jimmy Riley 

Dean Frazer 

CD 1694 Tings + Time - CD, VP Records, 1999 

Artists: Freddie MacGregor 

Frankie Paul 

Marcia Griffith 

Bushman 

Tanto Metro & Devonti 

Singing Melody 


Delroy Stewart 

Lone Ranger & Delroy Stewart 

374

Colin Roach 

Ian Sweetness 

Thriller U 

Johnny P. 

Ernest Wilson 

Spanner Banner 

Admiral Tibett 

Little Richie 

Candy Man 

CD 1695 Total Recall, Volume 10 - CD, VP Records, 1998 

Artists: Carlton Patterson 

Barrington Levy 

Sugar Minott 

Hugh Brown 

Johnny Ringo 

Ray I 

Dillinger 

Michael Scotland 

General Echo 

Larry Marshall 

I roy 

Stanley Beckford 

CD 1696 total togetherness, Volume 8 - CD, VP Records, 1998 

Artists: Beenie Man 

Mr. Vegas 

Terror Fabulous 

Sizzla 

Ghost 

Lukie D 

Alley Cat 


General B 

Capleton 

Dennis Brown 

Morgan Heritage 

Sanchez 

Frankie Paul 

Serial Kid & Elephant Man 

CD 1697 Universal Message – CD, VP Records, 1999 

Artists: Buju Banton 

Bushman 

Glen Washington 

Jah Cure & Sizzla 

375

II B16. Brazil 

Sanchez 

Capleton 

Morgan Heritage 

Anthony Selassie & Louie Culture 

Anthony B 

Luciano 

Cocoa Tea 

Beres Hammond 

Freddie McGregor (sic) 

Norris Man 

Of the three great centers of African influenced music in the New World, the United States, 

Cuba, and Brazil, it is Brazil that rivals the U. S. in the variety and brilliance of its many musical 

styles. Like the music of Cuba, Brazil’s vernacular music could be characterized as almost 

uniquely African-influenced. Of all the slave areas of the Western colonies it was Brazil which 

imported the largest number of slaves – an estimated five million. Brazilian slavery was no less 

cruel than slavery everywhere, but the country’s history was tied to Portugal, the European 

discoverer of the land, and Portugal was small and poor. With few men and women able or 

willing to emigrate from Portugal to colonize the vast country, intermarriage between the races 

was common and it wasn’t unusual for slaves to be freed, often while they still were working. It 

was also not uncommon for their children to be freed with them. Unlike the United States, 

Brazil also had a less restrictive “color line” to limit the economic opportunities of the newly 

freed laborers. 

For many years Brazil liked to describe itself as the world’s only racially integrated society, 

despite the reality that the educated white upper classes continued to control much of the 

country’s economic and political life. In the cultural and social life of the country, however, the 

two racial groups were much closer than in other countries in the hemisphere with an inheritance 

of slavery. The population of the Salvador, the capital city of the state of Bahia on the northeast 

coast north of Rio de Janeiro, is estimated to be more than 90% of African ancestry, which 

means there can be no question of African musical roots, still kept alive by the popular 

candomble singing and drumming of Brazil’s religious cults 

In the early 1800s, when Brazil’s distinctive cultural identity began to emerge, the ties were 

particularly close to Portugal, and for nearly three decades Brazil was Portugal. In the turmoil of 

the Napoleonic Wars the British fleet aided the entire Portuguese Royal Court and its 

government to flee from capture by Napoleon’s armies, and the Portuguese government was 

reestablished first in Salvador, then later moved to Rio de Janeiro. 

With the presence of the royal court also came a popular Portuguese vernacular song style 

called the modinha, and its gentle vocal phrases were to become the basis of the Brazilian 

melodic style. The soft lyric quality of these little songs still marks many of the compositions of 

new song writers like Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque. In the 1800s the melodic style was 

soon woven into the African drum rhythms of the lundu which lay under all popular dance forms 

everywhere in Brazil. Later in the century the European dance form the polka was introduced 

into Rio’s dance halls and it became wildly popular, but it was quickly adapted to the rhythms of 

376

the Cuban African-influenced habanera, and the new dance style, the tango brasileiro, became 

the root and source of much of Brazilian music today. With a new urban rhythmic drive it 

evolved in the streets of Rio first into a brilliant instrumental music called choro, and that in turn 

gave way to the samba, which is the music of today’s carnival season in Rio. 

Although all of the world’s popular music styles finally make their way to Brazil, it is the 

country’s own musicians and their Brazilian idioms who dominate the world of Brazilian music. 

During a four day carnival weekend in Salvador the only piece played over the radio or at night 

on the streets that wasn’t Brazilian was the song “Dancing Queen” by the Swedish group ABBA. 

An afternoon radio disc jockey played it as a break from the non-stop programming of Brazilian 

dance favorites. 

As in all of the lands of the African diaspora there is continual adaptation of new musical 

sounds and rhythms and in the 1950s there was a response to the moods and rhythms of the 

samba that was reshaped into a style called bossa nova by a group of young musicians in Rio. It 

immediately became one of the world’s most widely imitated new jazz styles, and its soft 

rhythms in turn were picked up and made popular by musicians in Europe and the United States. 

Its new sounds emphasized particularly the lyricism and musicality of Brazil’s great generation 

of young guitarists and composers. 

Today the most distinctive of the country’s new styles come from the impoverished areas of 

the Northeast – north of Salvador. The rough, pulsing music of this world is dominated by the 

accordion, and there are certainly affinities with the other accordion music styles of the diaspora, 

the cumbia of Columbia and the cajun-zydeco music of Louisiana, and there are many 

similarities to Tex-Mex/Nortenos music of the border states of the United States and northern 

Mexico. The Northeast’s music has had many different names, but there was never any question 

that its leading performer was an accordionist, composer, and singer named Luiz Gonzaga. A 

new generation following in Gonzaga’s path generally call their music forro. 

The Modinha 

Although the modinha, the song form that was the source for the characteristic Brazilian 

vocal melodies, was created before the era of recordings, there has in recent years been an effort 

to recreate the moods and styles of these distinctive songs. In 1997 one of the leading authorities 

on the modinha, Brazilian musicologist Manuel Viega from the University of Bahia, aided in a 

recording that avoided the operatic-styled performances of most recent performers and 

emphasized the music’s essential modesty. In Bahia, when the songs were first introduced, they 

were meant to be sung by the daughters and wives of the rural landowners, and this collection 

captures that informal household mood. 

In his notes to the collection Professor Viega discusses the roots of the modinha. 

“In Portugal the term modinhas appears in the later part of the 18 th century, perhaps as a 

diminutive form of moda, a genre typical of Portuguese folklore, but also as a general term for 

airs, often sung in two voices with harpsichord accompaniment. “Domingo Caldas Barbarosa 

(c.1740-1800), a mulatto priest from Rio de Janeiro who lived in the Lisbon court and was 

associated with modinhas at a time when the term first appeared, was indignantly criticized for 

his poetry, considered harmful to the education of young ladies who might become charmed by 

the poisonous philtres of sensuality, by the beguiling attitudes from Brazil and by the supposed 

South American laziness. . . . ” A learned doctor, Antonio Ribiero dos Santos already had 

complained in 1763 about: 

377

. . . love songs talking of sighs, of flattering words, of refined affairs and frivolous rambling. 

It is with this that they delude young girls, it is what they touch children, it is what the lads sing 

and what ladies and m aids have on their lips. . . today this plague is general since Caldas 

started using them in his poetry and began writing verses for women. 

By the end of the 1800s the songs had become so popular for evening serenades that it was 

said that the sales of the music only were affected by the introduction of electric street lighting, 

which was an embarrassment for the young serenaders. For the recording Professor Viega 

himself played the piano accompaniments, with guitar, flute, and clarinet also used. 

Andrea Daltro Modinhas Brasileiras: Songs from 19 th century Brazil Nimbus Records CD NI 

5523. The album was recorded in Salvador in 1997. 2000-0105/CD 2022 

The Tango Brasileiro 

Just as the march music of the American brass bands lent their multi-themed form to the 

syncopated dance style that took on the name ragtime, the polka, after its introduction into the 

dance salons of Rio de Janeiro in the 1870s, gave its formal structure to a new dance form in 

Brazil, the tango brasileiro. Among many writers there is a continuous, emotional debate about 

the origins of the tango – does its roots lie in Brazil or Argentina? The truth is that both were 

heavily influenced by Cuban rhythms as well as the new forms of the polka, and both emerged in 

the poor neighborhoods of their cities about the same time. There is, however, such a distinct 

difference between the rhythms of the two tango styles that it’s more useful to conclude that the 

Brazilian tango emerged from the Portuguese culture of Brazil, and the Argentine tango emerged 

from the Spanish culture of Argentina. A further divide between the two was in the nature of the 

later immigration, which was heavily Italian in Brazil, while there was a stronger German 

influence in Argentina. With its rural culture dependent on cattle raising, Argentina had many 

fewer slaves and no defining Afro-Argentinian culture. It also had no song form like the 

modinha. What gives the tango brasileiro its unique flavor is its roots in the rhythms of Africa 

and this distinctive Portuguese song form. 

The tango was so popular Brazil that it was standard fare for generations of composers. One 

composer, however, Ernesto Nazareth, born in Rio to Italian immigrants was a young pianist 

when the polka lent its forms to the new rhythms, and his more than fifty year long career as 

pianist and composer left an indelible imprint on the new style. He is sometimes described as 

the creator of the tango, but whatever anyone feels about any of these extravagant claims as to 

who might have created the tango, his compositions that will always define the rich harvest of 

music that grew from these roots. Nazareth’s name is so synonymous with this musical style that 

his life and career can stand for this moment of Brazil’s cultural life. 

ERNESTO NAZARETH 

For someone who comes from the from the United States the most obvious way to describe 

Ernesto Nazareth is to say is that he was a Brazilian composer of popular Brazilian dance pieces 

written for the piano whose career resembled that of the American ragtime composer Scott 

Joplin. He was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1863 – Joplin was born in Texas in 1868 - and they 

both had successful careers as composers of popular dance music for piano solo. They each 

drew on the vitality of African rhythms that were part of the musical heritage of their own 

378

countries and set the rhythms against richly distinctive, elegantly constructed melodies. Much of 

Nazareth’s music drew on the syncopated rhythms of the Cuban contradanza, while Joplin 

published only one composition using the syncopated Cuban habanera rhythm, his 1909 piece 

“Solace.” The music was subtitled “A Mexican serenade,” which categorized it as a “dansa,” the 

Mexican term for music using the same wide-spread Cuban syncopations. 

Joplin would struggle all his life for recognition as a serious composer, while the ragtime that 

he composed was denigrated and parodied by much of American society. In his early years 

Nazareth faced some of the same dismissal of his compositions by Rio de Janeiro’s cultural elite, 

but he had a long and highly successful career, and there was finally a more appreciative 

acceptance of his genius. Today his music still is an important part of the repertoire of musicians 

playing in the choro style, and it is performed everywhere by instrumentalist groups and solo 

artists in their own arrangements. It continues to be taught to young piano students, and remains 

an integral element in the Brazilian tradition of solo piano performance. 

Nazareth was the son of Italian immigrant parents. The family name was Nazare, but for his 

professional career he became Nazareth, and that is the name he is known by in Brazil today. 

His first piano instruction came from his mother. He quickly absorbed the rhythms of the streets 

and the cafes and he published his first composition, a polka-lundu, when he was fourteen. The 

polka’s march-like, multi-thematic structure was to become the basic pattern for most Brazilian 

salon piano music, in the same way that the popular march provided the structural pattern for 

Joplin’s ragtime compositions. Nazareth’s tangos employed the new rhythms and melodies in a 

wide variety of compositional forms. 

Nazareth continued to compose until the end of the 1920s, a career that extended for nearly 

fifty years. He published more than 210 works, many of them the tangos and waltzes for which 

he was most known, but there were also polkas, schottisches, quadrilles, fox-trots, a variety of 

other dances, and a number of concert studies for pianists with more advanced skills. As the 

audience became more excited by the newer choro style his publishers classified many of the 

new publications of his compositions as “choros,” but his “tangos Brasileiros” were written to be 

played at a slower tempo than the colorful music of the instrumental choro ensembles. 

Occasionally writers have stated that Nazareth worked as a pianist for silent films, but for 

much of his career he played for the audiences sitting in a salon at the entrance of one of the 

large Rio theatres, passing the time with something to eat and drink before the doors opened for 

the show. For several years beginning in 1917 he was employed by the Cine Odeon, and his 

most popular tango “Odeon” was named for the theatre. His pieces were also played by 

instrumental ensembles of every conceivable style, and the piano sheet music was as widely 

popular with the same emerging middle-class audiences who played the music of Scott Joplin in 

their parlors in the United States. 

Lyrics were added to some of Nazareth’s his best-known melodies, as they were to Joplin’s, 

but each of them was known to their audiences as a composer of instrumental dance pieces, 

despite Joplin’s determined efforts to achieve success as a composer for opera and Nazareth’s 

published concert studies for piano solo. Nazareth’s compositions were to have an important 

role in the development of modern classical music in Brazil through his friendship and 

occasional musical partnership with Brazil’s most important composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. 

Part of the success of Nazareth’s pieces was that they are comfortably suited to the piano, 

probably because he spent much of his life performing, and his music was intended for his own 

use.. As the term goes, “they lie under the fingers.” Nazareth recorded at the end of his career, 

and from the examples of his playing he was obviously a gifted pianist, though he was already 

379

having serious problems with his hearing, and a year before the recording was made he had been 

emotionally devastated by the death of his wife. Although there still are strong disagreements 

over how Scott Joplin’s music should be performed, there is no argument over how Nazareth 

meant his music to be played, since his own performances closely followed his written scores, 

even to dynamic markings and notations for staccato passages. 

Virtually every rhythmic style of Brazilian music of his time makes its way into his 

compositions, and he had a lucid, continually fresh sense of melody. Although most of his 

tangos were written in the structural form of the polka, the style of his writing extends from 

Chopin-esque waltzes to burly rhythmic pieces that pulse with the life of Rio’s streets. The 

lyricism of his waltzes can be compared to Chopin, though he never made the same technical 

demands on the pianist that were at the heart of much of Chopin’s music. 

Pixinguinha, the popular choro flutist and composer, was also part of the entertainment world 

of Rio’s cariocas in these years, and it is the music of these two composers that has come to 

characterize this long and rich period of Brazil’s musical life. In his perennially popular polka 

“Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho” Nazareth has created an irresistible musical picture of an early choro 

street group, with a flying, flute-like melody in the right hand, and the left hand accompanying 

the melody with ringing rhythmic chords. The chords are played in the octave above middle-C 

to imitate the bright sound of the small guitar, the cavaquinho that is essential to the choro style. 

In the last years of his life Nazareth suffered from a mental breakdown and was confined to 

an institution, where he died in 1934. He was found outside the grounds of the hospital, close to 

a stream and a small waterfall. It is said that when his body was found his arms were extended 

and his fingers shaped as though he were playing a piano. 

For many years after his death Nazareth’s compositions continue to be performed as dance 

music, often by the choro groups. They adopted his music to their own tempos, but retained 

their harmonies and rhythmic syncopations. In 1982 the young Brazilian concert pianist Arthur 

Moreira Lima performed Nazareth’s music at the Library of Congress Concert Series in 

Washington, and the concerts were so successful that he was asked to record the music. 

Between September 13 and 15, 1982 he recorded enough music for two Long Playing albums, 

giving the compositions the care and attention to interpretation that is usually given to the 

classical piano repertoire, but also with all the rowdy enthusiasm of a night in the Rio Carnival. 

When the albums were released they introduced Nazareth to many young American musicians, 

including the contemporary ragtime composers associated with the Terra Verde group. There 

have since been many recordings of Nazareth’s music by concert artists, both from Brazil and 

Europe, and his music again has become a source of inspiration for other composers and pianists. 

RECORDINGS OF THE MUSIC OF NAZARETH 

Ernesto Nazareth 

Two performances by the composer are included in the CD set Choro, 1906-1947(See 

notation below in the section of Choro recordings.) “Escavado” and “Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho” 

were recorded on September 10, 1930 by Odeon Records, when Nazareth was in his late sixties. 

Arthur Moreira Lima, piano Tangos, Waltzes, Polkas Ernesto Nazareth Minneapolis: Pro 

Arte LP PAD 144, 1983. 2000-0105/LP1435 

Titles included: 

380

Odeon (tango) 1910 

Escorregando (tango brasileiro) 1923 

Duvidoso (tango) 1910 

Eponina (valsa) 1912 

Batuque (tango) 1906 

Fon-Fon (tango) 1910 

Apanhei-te Cavaquinho (polka) 1915 

Brejeiro (tango) 1893 

Passaros em Festa (walsa) 1922 

Bambino (tango) 1909 

Sarambeque (tango) 1916 

Carioca (tango) 1913 

Arthur Moreira Lima, piano Waltzes and Tangos of Ernesto Nazareth Minneapolis: Pro 

Arte LP PAD 170, 1984. 2000-0105/LP1436 

Titles included: 

Ouro Sobre Azul (tango) 

Ameno Reseda (polka) 

Tenebrosa (tango) 

Elegantissima (valsa capricho) 

Labarinto (tango) 

Nene 

Confidencias (valsa) 

Famoso (tango) 

Mercedes (mazurka de expressao) 

Vem Ca. Branquinha (tango) 

Turbilhao de Beijos (valsa lenta) 

Other albums recorded more recently by other pianists present many of the same compositions 

chosen by Arthur Moreira Lima, played with brilliant technique and a sense of the tango idiom. 

Iara Behs, piano Ernesto Nazareth Tangos, Waltzes and Polkas: Odeon – Brejeiro – Apanheite 

Cavaquinho Naxos International, CD 8.557687, 2005. 2000-0105/CD 2023 

Dominique Cornil, piano Ernesto Nazareth Brazilian Tangos and Waltzes Brussels: GHA, CD 

126.028, nd. 2000-0105/CD 2024 

Marcello Verzoni, piano Brazilian Piano Music: Villa-Lobos, Guarneri, Nazareth Berlin: 

Koch-Records, International, CD 310 019 G1, 1989. 2000-0105/CD 2025 

Verzoni performs eight of Nazareth’s compositions. 

Just as guitarists in the United States have adapted classic ragtime compositions to their own 

instrument, Brazilian guitarists haven’t hesitated to adapt Nazareth’s music to their own styles. 

Turibio Santos is one of the most widely known of a new generation of guitarists who have 

turned to earlier Brazilian music for their inspiration. 

381

Turibio Santos, guitar, with the conjunto Choros do Brasil Valsas e Choros Rio de Janeiro: 

Kuarup Discos, LP KLP 001, nd. 2000-0105/LP1437 

Noted classical guitarist Santos performs five of Nazareth’s compositions with a small choro 

ensemble of cavaquinho, seven-string guitar and percussion. 

Turibio Santos, guitar, with the participation of Leandro Carvalho O Guarani Manaus: 

Labogen, CD 500AVB02. 2000-0105/CD 2026 

Santos performs seven of Nazareth’s compositions with a small instrumental ensemble. 

See also the CD set Choro, as well as the CD albums by Café Brasil, Charando Baxinho (a 

concert performance including Arthur Moreira Lima), Raphael Rubello & Dino 7 Cordes, Dircu 

Leitte, and the LP by Turibio Santos “Violao Brasil” 

THE MUSIC OF ERNESTO NAZARETH IN PIANO SCORE 

In the 1990s it still was possible to find copies of the piano scores for Nazareth’s 

compositions in the small music shops along Rua da Carioca in Rio. Although the shelves 

holding the music were sometimes a little dusty they were still in easy reach behind the shop’s 

counter. Most of the space in the stores was given over to guitars, the rich array of Brazilian 

percussion instruments, and electric equipment, but his compositions were still part of the 

repertory of any working musician. As the grading of technical difficulty for some of the newer 

editions indicates, his compositions were also used for piano instruction. 

Many of the newer editions of the compositions have been designated as “choro” pieces, 

choro, however, was not part of the Brazilian musical scene until the last years of Nazareth’s 

career. Despite the popularity of his music with the choro musicians, Nazareth maintained that 

his piano music was not written for the choro groups, which generally didn’t include pianos and 

played often at much faster tempos. 

It was also possible to acquire a number of compositions from the Archives of the National 

Music Library in Rio, and although these are facsimile copies they are included to document as 

much as possible of Nazareth’s music. 

AN EARLY PUBLICATION 

Many of Rio’s shops selling used books also sold old sheet music, but this copy, published 

for the Carnival of 1932, was found in a shop specializing in antiques from India. It is also clear 

from the advertisements on the back of the music that the samba has now become a popular 

fixture of Carnival music. The publisher was a large music and piano store in Rio. 

Gaucho Tango Brasileiro Rio de Janeiro, Vuiva Guerreiro & Cia., assigned 1932. Dodd Folder 

255 

PUBLISHED PIANO SCORES 

Publishers – Since many of the titles were published by one or two firms, it is simpler to list 

them here. EAN is Editora Arthur Napoleao, Ltda, Rio. Most titles list other Nazareth 

compositions also published by the company on the back page. IV is Irmaos Vitale, Sao Paulo 

and Rio. E.A.M. is a division of Irmaos Vitale. 

382

COMPOSITIONS – Original Editions 

Beija-Flor Polca EAN, 1913, assigned 1968. Dodd Folder 256 

Chave de Ouro Tango IV, assigned 1940. Dodd Folder 257 

Coracao Que Sente Valsa IV, assigned 1940, 1976. The cover notes that this is suitable for 

third year piano students. Dodd Folder 258 

Cutuba Choro Rio de Janeiro: EAN, assigned 1973. Dodd Folder 259 

Encantada Shottisch EAN, 1922, 1968 Folder 316 

Escorregando Tango Brazileiro IV-E.A.M., assigned 1940, 1976. Dodd Folder 260 

Esta Chumbado Tango Brasileiro EAN, 1963. Folder 317 

Ferramenta Tango-Fado Portugues IV-E.A.M., assigned 1940. For fourth year piano students. 

Dodd Folder 261 

Floraux Tango Sao Paulo: Mangione & filhos cia. 1925, assigned 1946. Dodd Folder 262 

Garoto Choro EAN, 1916, assigned 1968. Dodd Folder 263 

Genial Valsa EAN, assigned 1960. This edition has been simplified for younger students. 

Dodd Folder 264 

Improviso Estudo Para Concerto EAN, 1931, assigned 1968. A more difficult concert study 

for advanced pianists. Dodd Folder 265 

Jangadeiro Choro (Tango Brejeiro) EAN, assigned 1960. Dodd Folder 266 

Nao Me Fujas Assim Polka EAN, assigned 1963 Dodd Folder 267 

Odean Tango Brasileiro Sao Paulo: Mangione & Filhos Cia.,1926, assigned 1945, 1968. This 

is one of Nazareth’s most popular compositions and this printing includes a lyric by Hubaldo 

Mauricio and a guitar arrangement which includes illustrated finger positions. Dodd Folder 

268 

Rebolico Choro EAN, 1913, assigned 1966. Dodd Folder 269 

Segredo Tango EAN, assigned 1973. Dodd Folder 270 

Sustenta a… Nota… Tango Brasiliero Caracteristico EAN, 1919, assigned 1968. Dodd Folder 

271 

Talisma Choro EAN, assigned 1960. Simplified version “for music schools.” Dodd Folder 

272 

Vesper Valsa EAN, 1914, assigned 1968. Dodd Folder 273 

Vitorioso Tango IV- EAM, assigned 1940, 1976. For fifth year piano students. Dodd Folder 

274 

AN AMERICAN EDITION 

At the height of the craze for the tango in the United States one of the major music publishers, 

Jerome H. Remick & Co., introduced a series titled Musica Creole, The Most Famous South 

American Dances For Piano. This copy of one of Nazareth’s compositions from 1914 lacks the 

inner page of the score, but it is still interesting for its lavish cover, which is much more artistic 

than the modest covers generally presented by the Rio de Janeiro publishers. 

Dengozo Maxixe Tango New York: Jerome H. Remick & Co., 1914. Dodd Folder 275 

FACSIMILE COPIES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSIC LIBRARY, RIO DE JANEIRO 

Few copies of music published before 1900 bear dates of publication and are listed as nd, “no 

date.” 

383

Adieu Romance sem Palavras (also subtitled Romance sans Paroles) nd Dodd Folder 276 

Alerta! Polka 1910, assigned 1939 Dodd Folder 277 

Almirante (Cacadora) Polka nd Dodd Folder 278 

O Alvorecer Tangk de Salao nd (“O” in Portuguese is “the”) Dodd Folder 279 

Ameno Reseda Polka nd (A note indicates that the music should imitate the sound of the 

popular small guitar the Cavaquinho.) Dodd Folder 280 

Arrojado Samba nd Dodd Folder 281 

Arrufas Schottisch nd Dodd Folder 282 

Ate que Emfim! Fox-trot nd Dodd Folder 283 

Atlantico Tango nd Dodd Folder 284 

Atrevido Tango nd Dodd Folder 285 

Batuque Tango Caracteristico nd Dodd Folder 286 

Beija Flor Polka nd Dodd Folder 287 

A Bella Melusina Polka nd Folder 288 (“A” is “to”) 

Bicyclette-Club Tango nd Folder 289 

Cacique Tango nd Folder 290 

Catrapuz Tango nd Folder 291 

Cavaquino porque Choras? Choro nd Folder 292 

Celestial Valsa (assigned 1946) Folder 293 

Chile-Brazil Quadrilha nd Folder 294 

Confidencia Valsa nd Folder 295 

Corbeille de Fleurs Gavotte nd Folder 296 

Correcto Polka nd Folder 297 

Cre e espera Valsa nd Folder 298 

A COPY OF THE MANUSCRIPT SUBMITTED FOR COPYRIGHT 

Cubanos Tango Brazileiro nd Folder 299 

Ceura Polka-tango nd Folder 300 

Cutuba Tango nd Folder 301 

Cuyubinh Polka-Lundu nd Folder 302 

Delightfulness (Delicia) Fox-trot nd Folder 303 

Dirce Valsa Capricho nd Folder 304 

Divina Valsa nd Folder 305 

Electrica Valsa Rapida nd Folder 306 

Elegantissima Valsa-Capricho 1926 Folder 307 

Elite Club Valsa Brilhante nd Folder 308 

Encantada Schottisch nd Folder 309 

Escavado Tango nd Folder 310 

Eulina Polka (assigned 1946) Folder 311 

Feitico Tango (assigned 1940) Folder 312 

Onze de Maio Quadrilha nd Folder 313 

MUSICAL TRIBUTES TO NAZARETH 

Nazareth’s compositions have been performed by Brazilian musicians for more than a 

century, and in recent years American pianists interested in the classic ragtime of composers like 

Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb have discovered his music as well, In Brazil his music has been 

performed by almost every conceivable instrumental combination and they are a staple of the 

384

modern Choro repertoire. Two composers, one Brazilian and one American, have gone further 

and created music in the spirit and style of Nazareth. 

Francisco Mignone 

The Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone followed Nazareth by a generation, and there 

is much of Nazareth’s spirit in his own music, though Mignone is harmonically and rhythmically 

a Modernist of the 1930s and 1940s. His freely lyric set of “Street Corner Waltzes” – Valsas de 

Esquina – is performed by many of the pianists who also include Nazareth in their repertoire. 

His tribute to his older colleague is a set of five pieces with some of the infectious mood and 

many of the mannerisms of Nazareth’s music, though transposed into a more modern idiom. 

Nazarethiana 5 Pecas Para Piano Rio de Janeiro: Editora Arthur Napoleao, Ltda, 1977 Folder 

314 

Hal Isbitz 

The contemporary American ragtime composer Hal Isbitz has also been inspired by 

Nazareth. Isbitz, who lives in Santa Barbara, California, for many years has been associated 

with the group of new ragtime composers who are known as Terra Verde. They have 

continually worked to extend the horizons of the ragtime idiom. Isbitz has composed a number 

of pieces using the syncopations and moods of Nazareth’s characteristic manner, and he 

published them together as Blue Gardenia. Isbitz’s introduction to the volume reads “This 

collection of piano pieces is dedicated to the memory of the great Brazilian Ernest Nazareth.” 

Blue Gardenia Twelve Latin American Piano Pieces Santa Barbara, CA: Zelda Productions, 

1994. The pieces have been very popular and this copy is from the 5 th printinng. [not 

transferred] 

Blue Gardenia was recorded by Canadian pianist John Arpin, who was an important musical 

presence in the modern ragtime revival. 

Isbitz has also produced a music folio containing many of Nazareth’s lesser known 

compositions, which he obtained by contacting the National Music Library in Rio de Janeiro. 

Composicoes para Piano de Ernesto Nazareth Zelda Productions, 5238 Calle Morelia, 

Santa Barbara, CA 93111-2503 nd Folder 315 

CHORO 

Although the Choro style is now more than a century old it still is a vital element of the 

Brazilian musical scene. The notes to the CD collection Choro, by Philippe Lesage and adapted 

by Tony Baldwin, are a useful introduction to this colorful and exciting music. 

“People still argue about the origin of the word ‘choro’, when in fact there is no simple 

answer. Suffice it to say that, literally translated from Portuguese, it means a lament, which 

is why choro tends to be though of as a rather doleful music. In fact, the term is used to 

distinguish it from ‘canto’ (song), because choro is first and foremost an instrumental form, 

385

with the emphasis on imaginative improvisation. Although the characteristics of choro are 

quite distinctive, they are the result of a long gestation period. His involved the gradual 

cross-pollination of European melody and harmony with African rhythm, a blend that 

spawned the first truly Brazilian music. With its strongly polyphonic base, choro is a 

graceful, gentle, and refined form of virtuoso popular music. In its early stages it was more 

of a mood than a formal style. . . “ 

Lesage also points out that the choro compositions generally are written in three part, 

multi-thematic forms, but doesn’t mention that this form originated with the polka and then was 

transmuted into a more specifically Afro-Brazilian idiom by the earlier composers whose music 

– the tango Brasileiro - emerged a generation before the choro. Ernesto Nazareth, the most 

important of the tango Brasileiro composer was born thirty-five years before the most important 

choro composer and performer, Pixinguinha, who was born in 1898. Lesage does emphasize that 

choros roots lie in Rio’s working class neighborhoods. He writes, 

“The choro movement originated in Rio de Janeiro, the very center of European 

ascendancy and fashion in Brazil. It was enriched by influences from Recife and Sao Paulo. 

Yet . . . it remains a fundamental carioca (i.e. Rio) idiom Rio at the end of the 19 th century 

had a fantastic setting and an explosive population. The huge influx of freed black slaves 

from Bahia brought in African drumming and chanting. Poor immigrants from Italy, Spain, 

Portugal and Austro-Hungary contributed their own dances. These different groups lived 

cheek by jowl in the same districts and gradually began to produce a cohesive form of music, 

which mirrored the softer, suppler version of the Portuguese language that they spoke. The 

music was not quite the same as in Cuba, the West Indies or the rest of South America. 

Choro 

musicians were workers and small tradesmen, who played instinctively by ear.” 

Other writers have also pointed out that many of the new arrivals in the city had little 

money and they often shared rooms in crowded buildings, where they were forced to play 

quietly, which meant that they were drawn to stringed instruments. Choro even today, with the 

later additions of melodic instruments like the flute and the saxophone, still has the feel of a 

small string band sitting in a circle on kitchen chairs, playing and improvising and watching each 

other’s fingers as the music fills their shabby rooms. An important moment in the story of choro 

was a formal meeting in 1919 between the Brazilian classical composers, led by the young 

Heitor Villa-Lobos, and their choro counterparts, emphasizing their shared roots. Villa-Lobos, 

who had an early association with Ernesto Nazareth, also wrote a number of compositions with a 

distinctive choro influence. 

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF CHORO 

CHORO, 1906-1947 France: Fremeaux & Associes, Double CD set FA 166, 1999. 

2000-0105/CD 2027a-b 

This collection is an excellent introduction to the classic years of Choro, and virtually every 

major artist in included, many of them with a number of titles. Of particular interest are the two 

piano solos played by Ernesto Nazareth. 

Artists included: Jacob de Bandolim 

386

Pixinguinha 

Grupo de Pixinguinha 

Benedito Lacerda 

Benedito Lacerda/Pixinguinha 

Luis Americano 

Araci de Almeida 

Patapio Silva 

Ernesto Nazareth 

Custodio Mesquita 

Choro Carioca 

Grupo Chiguinha Gonzaga 

Joao Pernambuca 

Luperce Miranda 

Garoto 

Canhoto 

Oito Batutas 

Orlando Silva 

Ademilda Fobseca 

Styles of music: Although most of the selections on the collection are choros, also represented 

are the tango Brasileiro, waltz, maxixe, and jongo. 

CHORO TODAY 

Chorando Baixinho Kuarup Discos CD KCD005, 1992. 2000-0105/CD 2028 

This is a release of an historic concert bringing together many of today’s choro artists in a tribute 

to the choro traditions. The concert was recorded at the Theater of the Hotel Nacional in Rio on 

October 12, 1978. The pianist Arthur Moriera Lima was a featured artist, and he performed 

compositions of Ernesto Nazareth as well as playing with the choro artists. 

In addition to Lima and the well-known group Conjunto Epoca de Ouro, the artists 

appearing on the concert stage were: 

Abel Ferreira 

Copinha 

Joel Nascimento 

Ze da Velha 

Café Brasil 

A gathering of many of today’s choro artists in performances that consciously recreate 

the music of the great choro masters, including Pixinguinha and Jacob do Bandolim. The album 

opens with an evocation of the Rio nights by the legendary Brazilian jazz accordionist Sivuca. 

Many of the accompanying musicians are members of the group Conjunto Epoca do Ouro, “A 

Group from the Golden Age” which specializes in choro. Teldec CD 8573-82368-2, 2000. 

2000-0105/CD 2029 

The artists who appear are: 

Ronaldo do Bandolim 

Dino 7 Cordas 

387

Cesar Fari 

Toni 

Jorge Filho 

Jorghinho do Pandeiro 

Mario Seve 

Celsinho Silva 

Papito 

Rodrigo Lessa 

Rogerio Souza 

Pedro Amorin 

Paulo Sergio Santos 

Mauricio Carrilho 

Bororo 

Paulinho da Viola 

Altamiro Carrilho 

Carlos Malta 

Martinho da Vila 

Cristovao Bastas 

Joel do Nascimento 

Joao Lira 

Henrique Cazes 

Beto Cazes 

Leila Pinheiro 

Luciana Rabello 

Joao Bosco 

Ademilde Fonseca 

Maria Teresa Madeira 

Rilda Hora 

One of today’s leading choro artists is the clarinetist and saxophonist Paulo Moura, who began 

his professional career as the principal clarinetist with the Brazil Symphony Orchestra. Since 

then he has been active both on the concert stage and in the recording studio, and he brings to his 

music a persuasive warmth and innate musicality. This is only a small selection of his many 

recordings. 

Paulo Moura 

Mistura E Manda Kuarup Discos, LP KLP017, 1984. 2000-0105/LP1438 

Gafieira etc & tal Kuarup Discos, LP KLP024, 1986. 2000-0105/LP1439 

Quartet Negro Kuarup Discos, LP KLP031, 1987. 2000-0105/LP1440 

with Moura, Zeze Motta, Jorge Degas, and Djalma Correa 

Paulo Moura with Arthur Moreira Lima 

This double LP set is a live recording of a wide-ranging concert of improvisations and solos, 

with some pieces in the choro style, others performances of Brazilian music composed by, 

388

among others Heitor Villa-Lobos. With Paulo Moura, who plays soprano and sopranino 

saxophone; and Arthur Moreira Lima are Elomar, voice and guitar; and Heraldo, viola and 

electric guitar. 

Concertao: Um passeio musical pelo Basil Kuarup Discos double LP KLP008/9, 1981. 

2000-0105/LP1441a-b 

See also Moura’s tribute album to choro artist Pixinguiha 

SOME OF CHOROS GREATEST MUSICIANS 

PIXINGUINHA 

There is a saying in Brazil that if you want to describe Brazilian folk music in a few words 

it’s hard to sum up all of its parts, but if you want to describe Brazilian folk music in one word 

you only need to say “Pixinguinha.” 

Pixinguinha was born Alfredo da Rocha Viana Jr, in Rio in 1898. His father was an 

amateur flutist and collector of choro music, whose son was to become the supreme flutist of the 

choro style. Pixinguinha was also a prolific composer whose compositions shaped the new choro 

style as well as a band leader and stage personality. The bright, infectious, optimistic sound of 

today’s choro comes from his influence. 

Pixinguinha formed his own group when he was only fifteen, Grupo Choro Carioca. His 

first compositions were performed when he was twenty. A Rio theater asked him to organize a 

group for the stage shows and the group that he led with a lifelong friend, the guitarist Donga 

became an immediate hit. As “Os Oito Batutas,” (The Eight Cool Guys), they attracted so much 

attention that in 1922 they toured first to Argentina, then took their music to Paris, where they 

were an immediate sensation. In the 1930s Pixinguinha made some of his most influential 

recordings as a flutist, and in the 1940s he teamed with another flutist, Benedito Lacerda, who 

switched to the tenor saxophone for their small instrumental group, and their recordings shaped 

an entire new generation of choro musicians. 

Pixinguinha remained active and was working in the studio on a new recording at the time 

of his death in 1973 at the age of 75. 

RECORDINGS 

The collection Choro includes nine selections by Pixinguinha, five with either his own 

groups or as a soloist, and four with the popular duet he formed with flutist and tenor 

saxophonist Benedito Lacerda. His recording career began when he was still a teenager, when 

he recorded as part of a duet for a Rio company in 1911. With his own group that he assembled 

four years later he recorded again in 1917 and 1918. The collection also includes a tenth 

selection by the group Oito Batutas, “Eight Cool Guys” who appeared under his leadership in 

Paris in the 1920s. 

Pixinguinha Iris Music CD 3004092, 2002. 

This CD contains sixteen of Pixinguinha’s classic recordings from the 1930s and 1940s, many of 

them with the saxophonist Benedito Lacerda. 

A TRIBUTE ALBUM 

389

It would be difficult to find a modern recording of choro that doesn’t include the 

compositions of Pixinguinha. This album includes most of his best known compositions 

performed by today’s foremost choro clarinetist, the brilliant Paulo Moura. The small 

accompaniment group, like Moura, is steeped in the choro tradition, and brings their own bright 

infectiousness to the performances. 

Paulo Moura y Os Batutas Pixinguinha Blue Jacket Records CD 5019-2, 1998. 

2000-0105/CD 2030 

JACOB DO BANDOLIM 

Although he is known as “Jacob” to a growing number of American musicians who have 

discovered his music, in Brazil he was as often called “Jaco,” or “Jaco do Bandolim,” which in 

English would come out as “Mandolin Jaco.” (Bandolim is the Portuguese name for the 

Brazilian mandolin.) His real name was Jacob Pick Bittencourt, and he was born in Rio in 1916, 

the son of a pharmacist. His parents were Brazilian and Polish, and he was given a mandolin as 

a gift when he was twelve. Three years later he was performing on Brazilian radio and by the 

time he was sixteen he was leading his own prize winning choro group. He continued to perform 

and promote the music of the mandolin until his death in 1969. There is still some uncertainty 

about his everyday life, since despite his busy involvement with his instrument and its music he 

never considered himself as more than an amateur performer. Like most of the other choro 

musicians of that period he supported himself with another job. Some writers have suggested he 

was employed for much of his life as a clerk in the Ministry of Justice, but there are also 

suggestions that he worked a variety of jobs, from salesman to insurance agent, street vendor and 

court reporter. He began recording in 1947, and his releases were instantly popular, selling so 

well, that his record label was almost entirely devoted to his music. 

Jaco do Bandolim’s recordings are among the finest of the choro style. He was one of the 

most technically brilliant of the bandolim artists of the time, but his performances have also a 

warmth and a sensitivity that lifted anything he played to a unique level of expressiveness. Like 

Pixinguinha he was also a gifted composer, and a wide selection of his compositions have 

become staples of the choro repertoire. Many of his most popular recordings featured his own 

compositions, but he also recorded many of the classic pieces of Ernesto Nazareth and 

Pixinguinha. He died in 1969. 


There have been many compilations released of Jaco’s music, but the two fine CDs 

released by one of his American admirers David Grisman, himself an exceptional mandolinist, 

are especially interesting, both for the selections chosen and for the comments by other 

American artists drawn to music. The CDs were released on Grisman’s own label Acoustic 

Disc. 

Jacob do Bandolim Mandolin Master of Brazil, Original Classic Recordings Volume 1 

San Rafael, CA: Acoustic Disc, CD ACD 12, 1994. 2000-0105/CD 2031 

390

Mandolin Master of Brazil, Original Classic Recordings, Volume 2 San Rafael, CA: Acoustic 

Disc, CD ACD 13, 1994. 2000-0105/CD 2032 

MUSIC OF THE NORTHEAST 

The Northeast of Brazil is the group of states on the bulge of land that thrusts toward 

Africa. It was the first area of Brazil to be settled, and it was also the landing place for most of 

Brazil’s slaves. In the first years of the colony it became rich, and the planters and investors 

earned vast fortunes on the labor of the slaves on the untouched land. The land, however, 

quickly was exhausted, and it has now become nearly a desert as continuous droughts have 

altered the once lush landscape. People were forced to leave the land and migrated first to the 

northeastern cities of Recife and Salvador, then as their slums filled, people were driven further 

south to Rio de Janeiro and San Paulo. It was a move with many similarities to the great 

migration of the ex-slaves of the American South to the industrial cities of the north. Musically, 

the effect of these newcomers was as important to Brazil as the northward movement in the US, 

which brought jazz and blues into the American mainstream. 

In 1949 the accordionist, singer, and composer Luiz Gonzaga, whose name became 

synonymous with the music of this stricken area, recorded a song which became an anthem for 

the land and its people. It is part of the repertoire of every performer from these northern states 

and it has been recorded many times, sometimes with only its distinctive melody as an 

instrumental. Gonzaga wrote the words and the music was adapted from a folk song by his 

longtime collaborator Humberto Teixeira. The title is “Asa Branca”, which means “White 

Wing.” 

When I saw the land burning 

Like a bonfire on St. John’s Day 

I asked God in the heavens above 

Oh, why such a cruel torment? 

What hell-fire, what a furnace! 

Not even a single planted tree 

I lost my cattle for lack of water 

My horse died of thirst. 

Even the white winged dove 

Flew away from this backland 

So I said, farewell Rosinha 

Keep my heart with you. 

Today a long way away 

in a sad solitude 

I wait for rain to fall again 

So I can go back to my land. . . . 

(Copyright 1947, Rio Musical Ltde) 

391

Translated by Duncan Lindsay 

For many years the music of the Northeast still was dominated by radio, film, and 

recordings of the Rio’s artists, but the Northeast’s great musicians – beginning with Joao 

Pernambuco in the 1920s – continued to be part of the newer styles that were emerging in the 

1930s. Luiz Gonzaga became the symbol of the Northeast’s music for the 1940s and 1950s, and 

in recent decades the Northeast’s best known singers and composers of the group Tropicalismo, 

among them Maria Bethania and her brother Caetano Veloso, with Gilberto Gil, have made the 

modern Bahian music of the Northwest a symbol of the popular music of all of Brazil. 


Bresil, Le Chant du Nordeste, Nordeste’s Song, 1925-1850 Fremeaus & Associes, double CD 

FA5032, 2002. 2000-0105/CD 2033a-b 

Artists included: Luis Gonzaga 

Emilinha Borba & Os Boemios 

Manezinho Araujo com Boemios da Cidade 

Folk melody arranged by Heckel Tavares, sung by Januario de Oliveira, 

guitar accompaniment by Zezhino, and Petit 

Raul Roulien, accompanied by Heckel Tavares and Guilhermene Pereira 

Stefana de Macedo, accompanied by Gao, Zezinho, and Angelino 

Augusto Calheiros, accompanied by Orquestra Copacabana or Grupo 

Regional 

Jararaca and Ratinho with the Grupo Regional 

Jararaca, accompanied by Vicente Paiva e seu conjunto 

Francisco Alves and Gastao Formenti, accompanied by Rogerio and Alves 

or Simao Bountman orquestra 

Paraguassu, accompanied by Joao Pernambuco and Sampaio 

Elisa Coelho, guitar accompaniment 

Joao Pernambuco and Zezhino 

Jose Menezes and Quarteto Brasil 

Luis Americano 

Orquestra do Maestro Zacarias 

Ratinho, accompanied by Os Batutos do Norte or Luperce Miranda e sus 

conjunto 

Orquestra Victor Brasileira 

Sergio Schnoor, accompanied by Orquestra Columbia do Rio de Janeiro 

Passos e sua Orquestra 

Orquestra Diabos do Ceu 

Styles of music represented: Baiao, cancao, cancao Brasileira, choro, coco, danca, fox-trot, 

frevo, jongo, maracta, marcha, marchino, modinha seresta, polka, samba, toada, toada Nortiste 

Joao Pernambuco A Pioneer of the Music of the Northeast 

392

It is difficult to place Pernambuco precisely in the Brazilian musical world, since he was 

born and grew up in the Northeast, but at the age of twenty he moved to Rio, where he became 

part of the group of choro musicians close to Pixinguinha and also was associated with Villa- 

Lobos in the first classic years of choro. In the notes to the Choro collection, which includes two 

of Pernambuco’s recordings he is described as “One of Brazil’s greatest 20 th Century musicians,” 

and the writer singled out “his innate creative flair and exceptional regional feel.” 

Pernambuco was born into poverty in 1883 in Jatoba, in the state of Pernambuco. His 

given name was Joao Teiveira Guimaraes. He was one of eleven children, and he was selftaught 

as a guitarist and composer. After years of struggle in Rio he published his first hit song 

in 1913. He soon was playing as a guest of Pixinguinha and Os Oito Batutos and began giving 

guitar lessons in a popular music shop which introduced his distinctive guitar styles to younger 

musicians. Despite his years in Rio his music continued to be identified with his Northeastern 

traditions. In the translation of the text by Teca Calazans in the collection of Northeast 

recordings Calazans writes “”His ‘choros’ had a distinct Northeast flavor, different from those of 

Pixinguinha and Ernesto Nazareth. Brazilian guitarists, regardless of their backgrounds, almost 

always include a piece by Joao Pernambuco in their repertoire.” Although Pernambuco was a 

major popular composer and a sensitive, influential guitarist with a noteworthy career until his 

death in 1947 he made only nine recordings, all of them from the year 1929. 


Pernambuco’s recordings were a series of lyrical, sensitive guitar duets performed with 

second guitarist Zezino. Two of the titles are included in the documentary double CD set Choro 

and an additional five titles are included on the CD set Le Chant du Nordeste. (See list above) 

His classic waltz “Sonho do Magica,” which has become a standard piece for guitarists not only 

in Brazil but around the world, is included in the Choro collection. 

FORRO 

Although this story is almost certainly not true, it is often told to someone new to the 

Northeast who asks about the origin of the word “forro’. As Bernard Seligman, who produced 

the recordings for the album Brazil: Forro related it in the notes to his album, 

Even the name forro tells a story of its origins/. In the early part of the century when 

multinational corporations increased their Brazilian presence, initiating a construction 

boom, nearly all the workers were Nordestinos. They worked hard for little pay, then as 

now. On weekends came the beer-guzzling parties that the English-speaking owners 

would host for their crews, parties for all, hence with a slight Brazilianization, forro. 

A less colorful suggestion for the roots of the name is the word, perhaps of African origin, 

“forrobodo,” which can mean either party or dance hall. 

Forro is often compared to the Louisiana black accordion music Zydeco, and there are 

many similarities in the rough dance rhythms and the kind of working class audiences for the 

two musical styles. Forro also can be linked to the other accordion style of the black diaspora, 

the Cumbia of Columbia. Although they have different racial roots there are also great 

393

similarities between forro and the irrepressible accordion based dance music of the Northern 

Mexico-Texas border, Nortenos as it’s called in Mexico, Tex-Mex as it’s called in Texas. 

In its earliest form forro was the music of small groups who went from market place to 

place singing and playing for whatever money they could collect, just as the black songsters of 

the American South took their guitars and their songs into the nearby towns for the crowds of 

Saturday shoppers. The traditional forro ensemble was made up of an accordion, a triangle, and 

a large drum, called the zabumba. Forro, with its urgent social messages and its restless rhythm 

and melody soon attracted a larger audience, and in the 1960s Luiz Gonzaga hosted a nationwide 

television show that featured many Northeast artists, as well as several of Brazil’s major 

pop artists who were attracted to the music. One of Gilberto Gil’s most distinctive recordings is 

his version of the classic song from the Northeast, “So Quero Um Xodo” written by 

Dominghina, who as a young musician played with Luiz Gonzaga. 

Despite its period of national attention forro lost some of its audience to newer styles, 

among them Rio’s international success Bossa Nova, and when Gerald Seligman first went on 

his search for forro groups to record he wrote: 

A Brazilian friend was aghast – “Forro! You’re kidding, that’s what maids listen 

to, what taxi drivers listen to!” 

His friend’s comment was to become the title of the collection of forro selections that 

Seligman produced. In his notes Seligman went on to describe the music music itself. 

Forro is a generic term, a rubric for musical things Northeastern, played with 

driving rhythms on button accordions called sanfonas, or on the European keyed 

variety, the accordion. It’s as far as can be from the cool, sophisticated jazzinflected 

sensibilities of bossa nova, the rich harmonies and moving subtleties of 

Brazil’s suddenly popular, popular music, or the joyous polyrhythmic festival of 

samba . . . 

Forro today still has all the raw power of its roots in beer parties after a sweaty week 

working in Brazil’s impoverished Northeast, though it also may be blended with some of the 

sophistication of the music world of Rio and San Paulo, where many of the musicians were 

forced to move. 


Brazil:Forro, Music for Maids and Taxi Drivers London: GlobeStyle Records CD ORB 

048, 1989. 2000-0105/CD 2034 

This is a useful introduction to the uninhibited country sound of today’s forro. Gerald Seligman 

found four representative groups and let them play with their own arrangements and choice of 

material in the studio. 

The artists included on the compilation are: 

Toino de Alagoas 

Duda da Passira 

Jose Orlando 

Heleno Dos Oito Baixos 

Forro do Brasil ARC Music CD EUCD1878, 2004. 2000-0105/CD 2035 

394

The artists included are: 

Ze Cupido 

Banda Mapson 

Severino Januario e Joao Silva 

Ary Lobo 

Corone Pereira (Toinha de Serrinha) 

Luiz Sergio 

Trio Mossoro 

This is a strong, representative compilation of the music of some of forro’s most important 

artists, and is an indispensible introduction to the forro idiom. The accordionist Ze Cupido 

contributes instrumental versions of some of the most popular hits, including his arrangement of 

“Asa Branca.” 

Brazil Classics 3, Forro etc Luaka Bop CD 68089 90004-2, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 2036 

This is another of the helpful compilations David Byrne has made of the Brazilian music he has 

been attracted to. It is musically more uneven than his other anthologies, perhaps because some 

of the tracks have been produced in Rio studios with Brazilian pop stars. Also included, 

however, are songs by several of the key figures in the forro traditions, including Luiz Gonzaga 

and Dominghinhos. 


Luis Gonzaga 

Gal Costa 

Jackson do Pandeiro 

Dominguinhos 

Nando Cordel & Amelinha 

Clomilda 

Jorge do Altinho & Dominguinhos 

Genival Lacerda 

Trio Noedestino 

Joao do Vale 

Luis Gonzaga & Elba Ramalho 

Luiz Gonzaga 

For Brazilian audiences today the name Luiz Gonzaga is synonymous with music of the 

Northeast. A flamboyant performer of extraordinary talent he has made his fluid accordion style 

and his sincere vocals known everywhere in the country, through his recordings, his stage 

appearances, and in recent years his showcases on TV and film. He was born in the Northeast in 

1912 and grew up playing the accordion and learning the local musical styles, among them the 

xaxodos, baioes, chamego, and cocos. One of the many nicknames his audiences used for him 

was “King of the Baioes.” Just as many American listeners have found that the accordion music 

of Gonzaga and the other artists of the Northeast had the feel of Louisiana’s zydeco music, 

Gonzaga’s own role as the pioneer and tireless advocate of his music is similar to the role played 

by Clifton Chenier for zydeco. 

395

Like many poor boys from the Northeast Gonzaga joined the Army when he was eighteen, 

and because of his interests in music he joined an Army musical group that toured Brazil until 

the late 1930s. He continued his musical career after he left the service and in 1943 he began 

performing in costumes native to his own region and presenting his own compositions in the 

Northeast styles. He soon began a long and productive recording career that made him one of 

Brazil’s most popular musical performers, and he made innumerable recordings, most of them in 

the style of his own Northeast. His singing voice could be gentle and persuasive, while his 

accordion playing often had the boisterous excitement of a Carnival street band. Although his 

audience for a brief period was drawn to the success of Bossa Nova, the new jazz-influenced 

style that emerged in Rio in the 1960s, he continued to perform everywhere in Brazil, and within 

a few years many of Brazil’s popular new vocalists began recording his songs. He remained one 

of his country’s most loved artists until his death in 1989. 


The documentary collection Le Chante de Nordeste contains seven of Gonzaga’s early 

recordings from 1943 to 1950. The first disc includes his text to a new arrangement of an old 

folksong titled “Asa Branca,” which with his new lyrics attracted an international audience for 

the Northeast’s idiom. One of the most interesting performances, is a recording from 1943 of an 

exuberant instrumental choro, accompanied by a small string group opens the second disc. 

Gonzaga’s performance captures the unmistakable brilliance and warmth of the great choro 

artist Pixinguinha. 

A Greatest Hits album 

O Melhor de Luiz Gonzaga BMG/RCA Records CDM10032. 2000-0105/CD 2037 

This compilation opens with his 1949 recording of Asa Branca and covers the span of his long 

career. 

A Live Album 

Volta Pro Curtir BMG Records CD 74321855432, 1972/2001. 2000-0105/CD 2038 

This recording was made in a theater in March 1972 as Gonzaga led his small group with his 

accordion as he sang and talked with the audience. His warmth and humor, as well as his 

musicianship dominate the performance. The group used the classic instrumentation of 

accordion, triangle, and large drum, with occasional added guitar, bass, and percussion. A 

woman singer, Maria Helena, also played triangle. Of the 15 pieces on the recording Gonzaga 

composed or composed fourteen of them. One of the young members of the group, 

Dominguinhos, is regarded as the heir to Gonzaga’s role in the music of the Northeast. 

BRAZILIAN MUSIC TODAY 

Brazil’s Popular Artists 

In the last decades Brazil’s popular singers have become world figures and there has been 

a flood of recordings of their music. For most of the recordings, however, the unique character 

of Brazil’s great musical traditions has been so diluted that the recording sessions could have 

been made with studio musicians almost anywhere in the world. It has always been true that the 

396

ecording industry can turn any musical style into a flat pastiche of cliches, but Brazil’s drum 

rhythms and some of the distinctive instrumental sounds have still made their way into many of 

the studio arrangements. The best introduction to this pop world is this selection made by David 

Byrne, a well-known leader, composer and singer of the rock group Talking Heads. 

Byrne began casually picking up LPs from Brazil when he came across them, and he fell 

in love with some of the music. This is a gathering of some of the best music he found, and it 

includes most of the popular artists of the recent decades. In some of the arrangements you can 

hear instruments like the accordion of the northeast or the mouth bow of Bahia, and the sounds 

of the drums bind the arrangements their Brazilian roots. Also included is one of the greatest 

songs of Chico Buarque,“Calice,” a fierce protest against the military dictatorship that ruled 

Brazil during most of these years. The song was a joint composition of Buarque and Gilberto 

Gil, and singing with him on the recording is Milton Nascimento. A note in the text explains 

that “calice” or “chalice” is in street dialect often used as the phrase “cale se,” which means 

“keep quiet”. Here is the opening verse and the chorus as translated by Arto Lindsay: 

How to drink this bitter drink 

Sip this pain, swallow this hard labor 

Even if the voice is silent the chest remains 

You can’t hear the silence in this city. 

What good does it do me to be the son of a saint, 

It would be better to be the son of another. 

Another reality, one that’s less dead 

So many lies, so much brute force. 

Chorus 

Father take this chalice from me 



Of wine tinted with blood. 

Beleze Tropical Compiled by David Byrne Luaka Bop CD72438-49022-2-3, 1989. 

2000-0105/CD 2039 


Jorge Ben 

Maria Bethania & Gal Costa 

Gilberto Gil 

Caetano Veloso 

Chico Buarque 

Milton Nascimento 

Nazare Pereira 

Today’s Brazilian music still is strongly influenced by the Tropicalismo movement of the 

late 1960s. It was Brazil’s response to the loose, disruptive Hippy culture of the U. S, and also 

openly sympathetic to the student revolts in Paris in the summer of 1968. The movement, called 

Tropicalia in the other arts, affected every area of Brazilian culture, from painting and sculpture 

to modernist poetry. The Brazilian government had been overthrown in 1964 by a military 

group that was governing the country as a dictatorship. The junta was determined to suppress 

397

any protest against their power, which they justified under the vague cover of “anti-communisn” 

and the artists and musicians were singled out for punishment. Chico Buarque, who sang his 

collaboration with Gilberto Gil “Calice” on the David Byrne collection was from an important 

family and he continued to perform, but always under threat of arrest. For some of his concerts 

police were stationed on stage to prevent him from singing material that was considered critical 

of the government. 

Blended with the open political nature of the new music was a return to the native music of 

the Northeast, through the songs of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, who were both from Bahia. 

With Veloso’s sister Maria Bethania they introduced the sound of the drums and the uninhibited 

rhythms of their own social background. Both Caetano and Gil were arrested, briefly 

imprisoned, and finally exiled to London, where they remained until 1972. Ironically, when the 

military junta lost power and a new government emerged, Gil for a short period acted as Brazil’s 

Minister of Culture. 

In his introductory notes to a compilation of Gil’s early recordings (see below) 

Christopher Evans wrote: 

Like many ill-defined, loosely affiliated movements, Tropicalia had no specific goals or 

doctrine. Its name was an ironic reference both to Veloso’s song of the same title and to 

the conflicting associations evoked by the tropical climate of Brazil: simultaneously sun- 

drenched and paradisiacal while being denied the economic advantages of more 

temperate climes: where high living was undermined by hardship, repression, and 

violence. Those who subscribed to its tenets were active in most of the arts, but were 

united chiefly by their opposition to the status quo rather than any clearly defined vision 

as to what should replace it. It came closest to finding coherent expression, however, in 

the field of music where its exponents advocated a kind of “devouring” of the influences 

and technology of dominant nations in the interest of creating something that was both 

anti-colonialist yet, ultimately, uniquely Brazilian . 

Today’s Artists, and the Rebels of Tropicalia. 

Jorge Ben 

a l’Olympia Philips Records LP 6349 154, July 1975. 2000-0105/LP1442 

This is a live album recorded at Paris’s famed Olympia Theater, and Ben’s performance is 

powerful and exciting. 

Samba Now Island Records LP, ILPS 9361, 1976. 2000-0105/LP1443 

This is a compilation of Ben’s singles for the Brazilian market which was released by 

Island Records in England and the U. S. 

Maria Bethania 

Alibi Philips Records LP, 6349 405, 1978. 2000-0105/LP1444 

As one of the most popular of all Brazil’s vocal artists during this period Bethania’s 

recordings often sound overproduced and her distinctive voice is lost in the background 

arrangements, but for this collection of important songs by the new writers she is working 

with a smaller group and she sings with concentration and power. One of the album’s 

strongest tracks is her recording of Buarque and Gil’s.”Calice” which was discussed 

above The album also includes an insert sheet with the lyrics of the songs. 

398

Cancoes e Momentos Musica Latina CD ML 51014, 1999. 2000-0105/CD 2040 

A compilation album that includes her performance by songs of among others Tom Jobim, 

Caetano Veloso, Luis Gonzaga, Jr. and Milton Nascimento, who joins her in a duet for the 

album’s title song. 

Chico Buarque 

Chicocanta Philips Records LP 6349 093, nd. 2000-0105/LP1445 

O Trovador (The Troubadour) Polygram Records CD 522801. 2000-0105/CD 2041 

A compilation album of some of Buarque’ most successful ballad recordings. 

Gilberto Gil 

The Sound of Revolution, 1968-1969 El/Cherry Red Records CD, agmem 1 42GD. 

2000-0105/CD 2042 

A compilation of two albums, Frevo Rasgad, from 1968 and Cerebro Electronico, 1969 

These two albums, re-released together on this CD, were Gil’s response to the 

excitement of Tropicalismo. The first of the albums was recorded with the group most 

closely associated with the movement, Os Mutantes (The Mutants). The albums 

are often chaotic. In the second of them there are with babbles of electronically altered 

voices and long sections of electronic montage. In both there are abrupt jumps of mood 

and tempo. They emerge today as masterpieces of the Age of Psychodelia and they 

are among the most exhilarating albums produced in Brazil in this tumultuous period. 

Milton Nascimento 

Milagredos Peixes EMI Records LP, 2C068-421071, 1974. 2000-0105/LP1446 

Travessia Iris Musique CD, 195-3001 195, 1988. 2000-0105/CD 2043 

Elis Regina 

e Outros (and others) Vento de Maio EMI Records LP, 31C 064 422 925. 

2000-0105/LP1447 

Appearing on this album with Regina are other artists including Adoniron Barbison, Lo 

Borges, and Milton Nascimento. 

Dois Na Bossa Numero 2 Philips Records LP 632.792L, 1966. 2000-0105/LP1448 

This is a live recording of an energetic and spontaneous Rio theatre revue that a very 

young Regina presented together with Jair Rodrigues. 

Caetano Veloso 

UNS Philips Rccords LP 812 747-1 8,1983. 2000-0105/LP1449 

A personal album by Veloso. including two duets with his sister Maria Bethania. He is 

pictured on the album cover as a very young man with his brothers Roberto and Rodrigo, 

and on the reverse he and his sister embrace their mother and father. 

399

Prendaa Minha Polygram Records CD, 314 538 563-2, 1998. 2000-0105/CD 2044 

For this concert, recorded live, Veloso presents some of his greatest hit before an 

enthusiastic audience, breaking off at one point to read a favorite poem.. 

SOME ACOUSTIC GUITARISTS 

Although the electric guitar is part of the Brazilian music scene, it is the acoustic guitar 

that is closest to the Brazilian heart. The acoustic guitar has the warmth and the immediacy that 

suits the Brazilian musical temper, and just as choro will always bear the traces of Pixinguinha 

and Jacob do Bandolim, and just as the Brazilian popular vocalists, will continue to draw on the 

moods of the modinha, the guitar style also has clear Brazilian roots in the playing of the 

Northeast’s Joao Pernambuco. It would be an understatement to say that the Brazilian guitarists 

are brilliant artists. It is hard to imagine that as a group there could be any who are better. 

Luiz Bonfa The Bonfa Magic Caju Records CD, released in the US as Milestone Records 

MCD-9202-2, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 2045 

Romero Lubambo & Weber Drummond Face to Face GSP Records CDGSP 

5003CD, 1993. 2000-0105/CD 2046 

Nonato Luiz, with Djalma Correa and Luiz Alves Gosto de Brasil Caju Records CD 

released in the USA as Milestone Records MCD-9204-2, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 2047 

Nonato Luiz with Tulio Mourao and Nivaldo Ornelas Carioca Caju Records CD, 

released in the USA as Milestone Records MCD-9214-2, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 2048 

Francisco Mario Retratos Caju Records CD released in the USA as Milestone 

Records CD MCD-9232-2, 1994. 2000-0105/CD 2049 

Marco Pereira & Cristovao Bastos Bons Encontros Caju Records CD released in the 

USA as Milestone Records MCD-9213-2, 1992. 2000-0105/CD 2050 

Baden Powell Seresta Brasileira Caju Records CD released in the USA as Milestone 

Records MCD-9212-2, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 2051 

Canto on Guitar MPS Records LP 15.300, 1970. 2000-0105/LP1451 

Powell had just returned from a very well received European tour before recording this album 

and it contains virtuoso solo guitar piecesl he performed for the concert audiences. 

Raphael Rabello & Dino 7 Cordas (no title) Caju Records CD released in the USA as 

Milestone Records MCD-9221-2, 1991. 2000-0105/CD 2052 

See also the albums by guitarist Turibio Santos listed under “Ernesto Nazareth” 

400

SAMBA 

The origins of the samba, as with so much other Brazilian music, lie in the streets of 

Salvador, Bahia’s capital, with its glittering mosaic of African-Brazilian musical styles and its 

closeness to the religious ceremonies of the African faiths still vital in Bahian life. It was in Rio 

de Janeiro, however, where new generations of people congregated as the northeastern areas of 

Brazil were gripped by poverty that samba took root. As it grew in popularity samba absorbed 

melodies and instrumental technique from choro and the dances of the northeast, even from the 

tango brasileiro, but all of the ingredients were propelled by the buoyant energy of the carnival 

drums. 

Samba has been the music of Rio’s Carnival for only a few decades, so it has been 

possible to document its sudden rise to its present dominance. The first samba composition to 

attract a large audience was the song “Pelo Telefone” which was a hit in the 1917 carnival. 

However it was several years before the new style attracted larger audiences. In his notes to the 

Rough Guide collection of samba classics David McLoughlin writes that it was a performer 

known as Sinho who had the first success as a sambista, “ . . . , but samba only came to be 

definitely structured by a group that lived in Estacio de Sa, a region of middle-class Rio, in the 

second half of the 1920s. This group of composers, bohemians and various other types that 

hibernated and flourished at night in bars like Café Apolo and Do Compadre had a leader in the 

form of the composer Ismael Silva” 

It was Silva who organized the first “samba school” in 1928, and it is the “schools” that 

dominate Rio’s carnival today. The schools’ only role is to organize and rehearse the groups of 

massed dancers and singers who parade in their florid costumes down the short artificial street 

behind high walls in Rio’s samba stadium in the annual competition to choose the most exciting 

samba school presentation of the year. The people swaying under the glitter of their elaborate 

dress and singing their one song over and over are usually not singers or dancers, and many of 

them are not even Brazilian. 

. To join one of the schools simply takes an expensive fee, enough enthusiasm to stay 

through the months of unending rehearsals, and again another heavy expense to pay for the 

costumes. The riotously flamboyant presentation of elaborate floats, with riders on horseback 

and royal courts, and the massed dancers and singers streams past bleachers with hard benches 

on one side and a row of balcony boxes on the other, the seats filled with friends and family 

members who have brought food and drinks and wait noisily for their friends to make their 

appearance. Some of the most popular “schools” may have as many as three thousand dancers, 

with hundreds of drummers. It is the fantastic decorations of the floats and the costumes and the 

noise of the massed singing and drumming that draws tourists from all over Brazil and from the 

rest of the world. 

On the streets of Rio itself, however the dancing and the music are more spontaneous, and 

each year’s new samba compositions fill the air. As McLaughlin notes, “Samba continues to 

flourish and splinter with the carnival samba on the one hand and samba-cancao (samba-song) 

on the other.” As the samba left the Rio slums it took with it the assertive, sometimes strident 

rhythms of the difficult life of its poor neighborhoods, the notorious favelas. Samba continues to 

go through continuous phases of renewal as each successive variation of the style becomes 

quieter with age and is quickly pushed aside by newer and younger musicians. 

The most distinctive element of the samba style is the presence of the drums, which have a 

minor role in much Brazilian vernacular music. The basic pulse is a simple count of two or four, 

401

always played by at least one instrument, against this pulse a texturing of syncopation is played 

with drums and percussion, and it is this layering of the rhythm that gives samba its lift. 

Although in the competitions the sambas enredo, which has a faster rhythm is popular, the more 

popular samba cancao, generally played at a slower tempo, is the sound of the street music. 

Visitors to Rio in carnival season are often surprised to see neighborhood groups who follow 

sound truck playing records or a small band playing on a truck, “dancing” in a crowd at a 

comfortable 4/4 rhythm. The dance step is a relaxed jog-trot, since the rhythm leaves no space 

for movement with more of the body. The hips sway, but without a strong after-beat there is no 

time for the pelvic movements that are characteristic of street dancing in an American city like 

New Orleans. 

Street samba is also often humorous. In the carnival season in 1995 three of the veteran 

samba stars, Bezerra da Silva, Moreira da Silva, and Micro, dressed in tuxedos and performed as 

“Os 3 Malandros”. Their show was a parody of the operatic stars, “The Three Tenors”, then 

touring the world. The sambaists mixed their earthy samba beat with recorded operatic 

backgrounds, and their album of the show was one of the year’s major hits. 


Cem Anos de Samba “Os Caretas” (One Hundred Years of Samba) A 3-LP boxed set. 

Polydor Records 2481 118, 2488 234, 2488 235, 1975. 2000-0105/LP1450a-c 

This set is a useful introduction to Samba. 110 favorite sambas are performed by a young and 

enthusiastic quartet, the earliest of the songs from the first years of samba’s popularity. Of 

special interest is the extensive booklet included with a richly illustrated history of samba. The 

text is in Portuguese, but the vivid historical photos used as illustrations convey the mood and 

the setting of Rio’s streets in samba’s formative years. 

Samba, The Rough Guide Rough Guide CD RGNET 1058, 2001. 2000-0105/CD 2053 


Leci Brabndao 

Moacyr Luz 

Paulo Moura e Os Batutos 

Duo Barbieri-Schneiter 

Dona Ivone Lara 

Velha Guarda da Mangueira 

Cartola 

Zizi Possi 

Bezerra da Silva 

Brazil Classics 2 O Samba Luaka Bop CD 68089-90002-2, 1989. 2000-0105/CD 2054 


Clara Nunes 

Zeca Pagodhino 

Alcione 

Ciro Monteiro 

Beth Carvalho 

Neguino da Beija Flor 

402

Chico da Silva 

Almir Guineto 

Agepe 

Martinho da Vila 

Raulinho da Vila 

Samba! Samba! Arc Music CD EUCD 2273, 2010. 2000-0105/CD 2055 


Bezerra da Silva 

Aniceto do Imperio 

Moreira da Silva 

Dicro 

Os 3 Malandros 

Conjunto Nosso Samba 

Raul de Barros 

TWO POPULAR BANDS OF THE CARNIVAL IN SALVADOR 

One of the most colorful of the scenes of Brazil’s Carnival is the tumultuous procession of 

the giant moving sound stages – the Trios Eletricos – that move ponderously through Salvador’s 

streets on carnival night, struggling through a sea of dancers. As many as a million people can 

fill the city’s streets in a tide of bodies. Ahead of each sound wagon is an area held separate 

from the crowds by a moving roped enclosure, the ropes dragged by straining lines of young men 

and women – Salvador’s poor – who keep an area open for dancers who pay to be a member of 

the Trio’s own crowd. A favorite move of the dancers is to draw back in their open area and 

then at a climax of the music run forward and leap into the air. From a distance it looks as 

though the street has exploded. The bands on the top of the Trios are among the finest in Brazil. 

Sometimes as many as fifteen musicians, with a line of sweating drummers, are crowded onto 

the stage that covers the top of the Trio, usually with friends and people dancing along among 

the members of the band. The Trios are a block long and the stage is three stories above the 

street. Inside there are stairs for the people up on the stage, and down the stairs are toilets, food 

and beer, soft drinks, bottled water, and cubicles containing cots for a moment’s rest. The bands 

will be out all night, and breaks are essential. In the press of the crowd it can take a half an hour 

for a wagon to turn a corner. For families who wait at the back of the crowds with sleepy 

children, one of the most exciting moments is the appearance of Gilberto Gil, who lives in 

Salvador, and waves from the front stage of his own Trio, his name emblazoned in neon lights. 

Friends sometime join him and for an hour on one Carnival night the thin figure smiling and 

waving beside him was Caetano Veloso. 

The sound systems of the Trios create a massive wall of music. The sides and the backs of 

the vehicles are covered with rows of speakers concealed behind brightly painted scrims. The 

noise is like the thunder of a stadium rock concert, but it is moving through a surging press of 

screaming faces and waving arms. The bands perform with incredible energy and among the 

most popular of the bands that appear on the Carnival Trios are Carlinhos Brown and the 

irrepressible “Chiclete com Banana,” (Banana Flavored Chiclets) 

Carlinhos Brown Para Sempre EMI CD 534090, 2001. 2000-0105/CD 2056 

403

Chiclete com Banana Borboleta Azul BMG CD 7432170992, 1999. 2000-0105/CD 2057 

BOSSA NOVA 

When you fly into Rio de Janeiro today you will find yourself landing at the Tom Jobim 

International Airport. The name may not be familiar to some arriving passengers, but every 

Brazilian will recognize the name of the Rio de Janeiro pianist and song writer who was one of 

the creators of the subtle and breathily suggestive rhythmic style that was named Bossa Nova. 

Two of the songs associated with the sound, “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Desifinado” became 

world hits, and with them the distinctive bossa nova syncopations became part of the 

international song repertory. 

The term “bossa nova” itself means either “new wave” or “new trend,” and it was a 

popular phrase with a loose crowd that hung around the bars and the musicians’ cafes at Rio’s 

Copacabana Beach in the 1950s. Many of the musicians insist that the new style has its roots in 

samba, but although much of the pulse of the new style was drawn from samba rhythms, it is a 

different musical world. Samba is a steamy, pushy street music, bossa nova – though it has 

absorbed some elements of the samba style - is cool, withdrawn - a style with a jazz feel that 

blends in its moods some of the insinuating subtlety of the small Cuban bolero groups. The soft, 

uninflected singing style and the lightly syncopated guitar accompaniments were created by the 

youngest of the group of musicians at the center of the new style, guitarist and composer Joao 

Gilberto, but as much as any new popular musical style can be the creation of a single group of 

musicians, bossa nova essentially was the creation of three talented musicians and lyricists. 

They were Gilberto, who was born in 1931, the pianist and composer Antonio Carlos “Tom” 

Jobim, born in 1929, and a successful poet and diplomat in the Brazilian government’s consular 

service, Vinicius do Moraes. Vinicius, born in 1913, was older than the other two and was 

already an established modernist poet when he began his association with Jobim. 

Neither Jobim or Gilberto had attracted much attention as young musicians, and it was in a 

discouraged period of exile in southern Brazil that Gilberto created his personal rhythmic 

rephrasing of the samba music he’d grown up with. Jobim was a talented pianist and singer, but 

it was not until he met Vinicius that his career began to develop any momentum. A play by 

Vinicius was being presented for production and Jobim was hired to write music for it. They 

collaborated for the first time, and when the play was later filmed under the title Black Orpheus 

they collaborated on three new songs, writing them over the telephone since Vinicius had just 

been sent on a consular posting to Argentina. The success of the film brought them immediate 

attention from Brazilian audiences. 

It was Gilberto who wrote what is considered as the first bossa nova song, “Bim-Bom”, 

and the three were associated through the entire bossa nova boom. Of the three he is the only 

one still living and still performing. Vinicius’s life careened through a major career as a 

modernist Brazilian poet, a turbulent officlal role representing Brazil as consular officer and 

cultural diplomat, eight marriages and debilitating periods of alcohol abuse. He died in 1980 at 

the age of 67. Jobim had just finished the final session on a new album in New York in 

December of 1994 when he collapsed and died of a heart attack, like Vinicius, 67 years old. 

The new sound first broke through in Brazil, with the song “Chega de Saudade,” by Jobim 

and Moraes, which became the title of an LP of songs written by them in 1962. The next year, 

with Joao, they were asked to come to New York to collaborate on an album with the American 

404

jazz tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, who had been a major star in the era of cool jazz. His record 

company, Verve Records and his producer Creed Taylor, moved quickly to establish the new 

sound on the label and the two albums which Getz recorded with Jobim, Joao Gilberto, and his 

wife Astrid Gilberto in 1963 and 1964 sold millions of copies worldwide. The first release, 

Getz/Gilberto, was perhaps the largest selling jazz record ever released. The single of “The Girl 

from Ipanema” was released in two versions – as a single, with the saxophone single edited out, 

and as an album track with Getz’s solo included. Either way it was one of the last great hit 

recordings of the jazz era. (The version with the tenor solo is included in the album Bossa Nova 

Brasil.) 

There was a girl from Ipanema, which is the Rio neighborhood of Rio where Jobim lived 

immediately to the south of Copacabana, and with its own beach. Every afternoon she walked 

over to Copacabana and passed a café where the musicians hung out. She was a slim teenager, 

with long hair, and she was very beautiful. When the recording became popular she was startled 

that a song had been written about her, but she became friendly with Jobim and Gilberto and the 

musicians around them and in photographs of them all together she smiled happily. 


Bossa Nova Brasil Verve Records CD 314 515 762-2, 1992. 2000-0105/CD 2058 


Gal Costa 

Nara Ledo 

Leila Pinheiro 

Elis Regina 

Luiz Bonfa 

Caetano Veloso & Gal Costa 

Tom Jobim 

Joao Gilberto 

Alcione 

Roberto Menescal 

Edu Lobo & Tamba Trio 

Maria Bethania 

Vinicius & Toquinho 

Elis & Tom 

Tom Jobim & Astrid Gilberto 

Baden Powell 

Tamba Trio 

Carlos Lyra 

Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, & Astrid Gilberto 

Vinicius de Moraes 

It is obvious from the artists included in this compilation that the new style had a strong impact 

in Brazil. Nearly every major popular singer made at least one bossa nova recording, and many 

of them still include material from these years in their concert appearances. 

Elis Regina and Tom Jobim Elis & Tom Verve Records CD, B0011296, recorded in 

1974. 2000-0105/CD 2059 

405

As a pianist Jobim was an instinctive minimalist, allowing his melodies to stand for 

themselves in simple, often single-note phrasing. Of the younger singers who performed in the 

bossa nova style Elis Regina perhaps was the most successful in reinterpreting Gilberto’s unique 

phrasing and Jobim’s thoughtful moods into her own style. This album was recorded in New 

York for the Brazilian market and the lyrics were sung in Portuguese. Jobim brought his own 

group of accompanying musicians and they worked in the studio with a small U. S. backing 

group. 

Of all the women singers who appeared with Jobim Regina was perhaps the most 

sensitive, but always with hints of her irrepressible stage personality adding an edge of 

excitement to the interpretation. This collaboration is generally considered one of the finest of 

the classic bossa nova albums, and the opening composition “Aguas de Marcas” (The Waters of 

March) became a major single release. Two versions of it were recorded at the session, one as a 

solo for Regina, the other as a spontaneous vocal duet with Jobim which they performed several 

times on television and in a series of enthusiastically received concerts. Regina enjoyed a very 

successful career as a solo artist but threw herself into her life without concern for the possible 

consequences. She died of an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol at the age of thirty-six. 

Joao Gilberto Joao voz e violao (Jaoa voice and guitar) Universal Music CD 314 546 

713-2. 2000-0105/CD 2060 

A classic album that presents Gilberto singing softly with his guitar as his only accompaniment. 

The album was produced by Caetano Veloso and songs are included by among others Veloso, 

Tom Jobim, and Gilberto Gil. 

Tom Jobim Inedito (Antonio Carlos Jobim: The Unknown) DRG Records CD 31611, 2006. 

2000-0105/CD 2061 

This is a contemporary re-release of an album made by Jobim in 1987, recording new 

versions of his classic compositions as pianist and singer in a larger orchestral setting. He 

was now sixty years old, and it was a year of quiet celebration and travel with his wife and 

family. It was also a productive year in the recording studio. In addition to these sessions 

he did two other albums that appeared at the time. The Inedito material was released later 

in a limited edition double album as a memorial a year after his death in 1994. 

406

II. ARCHIVE OF BOOKS, RECORDINGS, SHEET MUSIC, VIDEOS ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?