Dorsey Brothers - Columbia Album Set C-51

The Spooney Five - Columbia 15234 (1927)

Not much info found about these sides other than they were recorded in Atlanta in 1927. The spoons are believed to be performed by Herschel Brown.

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - Bluebird 9019 (1942)

As is usually the case, by the time I find a blues record, all the music has been squeezed out of it.

From wikipedia…

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs such as "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine", later covered by Elvis Presley and dozens of other artists.

Arthur Crudup was born in Forest, Mississippi, United States. For a time he lived and worked throughout the South and Midwest as a migrant worker. He and his family returned to Mississippi in 1926. He sang gospel, then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. As a member of the Harmonizing Four, he visited Chicago in 1939. Crudup stayed in Chicago to work as a solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a recording contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label…

Arthur Crudup v, eg / Ransom Knowling sb.

Recorded in Chicago on April 15, 1942.

Eddie Boyd - J.O.B. Records 1007 (1952)

From wikipedia…

Edward Riley Boyd known as Eddie Boyd (November 25, 1914 – July 13, 1994) was an American blues piano player, born on Stovall's Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Boyd moved to the Beale Street district of Memphis, Tennessee in 1936 where he played piano and guitar with his group, the Dixie Rhythm Boys. Boyd followed the great migration northward to the factories of Chicago, Illinois in 1941.

Five Long Years is a song written and recorded by blues vocalist/pianist Eddie Boyd in 1952. It reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart.

Five Long Years tells of "the history of the metal worker who, for five years, worked hard in a factory and who gave his check every Friday night to his girlfriend, who nevertheless dumped him."

Eddie Boyd v, p / Ernest Cotton ts / L. C. McKinley g / Alfred Elkins b / Percy Walker d.

Recorded in Chicago at Modern Recording Studio in May or June of 1952.

Elmore James & His "Broom Dusters" - Modern 983 (1956)

From wikipedia…

Elmore James (January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, band leader. He was known as "the King of the Slide Guitar" and had a unique guitar style, noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice.

James was born Elmore Brooks in the old Richland community in Holmes County, Mississippi (not to be confused with two other locations of the same name in Mississippi). He was the illegitimate son of 15-year-old Leola Brooks, a field hand. His father was probably Joe Willie "Frost" James, who moved in with Leola, and so Elmore took this as his name.

James played a wide variety of "blues" (which often crossed over into other styles of music) similar to that of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and some of B. B. King's work, but distinguished by his guitar's unique tone coming from a modified, hollow body traditional acoustic guitar, which sounded like an amped up version of the "more modern" solid body guitars. He most often played using a slide, but on several recordings he plays without. His voice and style were as instantly recognisable as King's, Muddy's and Wolf's and until he fell afoul of the Chicago union, he and his 'Broomdusters' were as popular in the Chicago clubs as any of these musicians' bands. James could be reportedly 'difficult' (drinking on the job, not paying out cash, abandoning musicians, double booking etc.)

I may be mistaken but this may be the only record he recorded on Modern. He recorded prolifically for the other Bihari labels.

Recorded in Chicago on January 4, 1956.

Jimmie Gordon & His Vip Vop Band - Decca 7334 (1937)

From Allmusic…

Jimmie Gordon, who had a hit with his October 1936 recording of "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water," was active on the Chicago blues scene throughout the decade leading up to the Second World War, and is known to have recorded 67 titles between 1934 and 1946, all of which have been reissued on compact disc by the Document label.

Gordon was a passable pianist who sang with all his heart in a warm and convincing voice. His approach to putting over a song was similar to that of Leroy Carr, Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, Big Maceo Merriweather, and Bumble Bee Slim, a guitarist with whom he recorded as both pianist and vocalist.

Gordon's groups, sometimes billed as the Vip Vop Band, were fortified by the presence of string players Scrapper Blackwell and the brothers Charlie and Joe McCoy, as well as members of the Harlem Hamfats, pianist Sam Price, and several heroes of the New York jazz scene including trumpeter Frankie Newton, alto saxophonist Pete Brown, and drummer Zutty Singleton.

Looks as if Gordon was backed by The Harlem Hamfats as The Vip Vop Band on Side-A. Haven't found out yet who was on piano (Gordon himself?) or guitar on the flip.

Jimmie Gordon v / Odell Rand cl / Horace Malcolm p / Joe McCoy g / John Lindsay sb.

Recorded in Chicago on May 14, 1937.

Clarence "Bad Boy" Palmer & The Jive Bombers - Savoy 1515 (1957)

Found this one in my Grandmother's stack of 78s amongst all of the turn of the century Italian and later run-of-the-mill pop tunes.

What an unusual, and very infectious, version of Don Redman's Cherry!

From wikipedia…

The Jive Bombers were an American R&B group from New York City.

The Jive Bombers consisted of members of two previous vocal groups, Sonny Austin & the Jive Bombers and The Palmer Brothers. They first recorded under the name The Sparrows in 1949 for Coral Records, and changed their name to The Jive Bombers in 1952 to record for Citation Records. Their 1957 Savoy Records single "Bad Boy", co-written by Avon Long and Lil Hardin Armstrong, was a hit in the U.S., peaking at #7 on the Black Singles chart and #36 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Recorded May 10, 1957.

The Benson Orchestra Of Chicago / The Great White Way Orchestra - Victor 19045 (1922/1923)

From wikipedia...

Orie Frank ("Frankie" or "Tram") Trumbauer (May 30, 1901 – June 11, 1956) was one of the leading jazz saxophonists of the 1920s and 1930s. He played the C-melody saxophone which, in size, is between an alto and tenor saxophone. He also played alto saxophone, bassoon, clarinet and several other instruments.

He was a composer, notably of technically sophisticated sax melodies, and was one of the major jazz bandleaders of the 1920s and 1930s. His landmark recording of "Singin' the Blues," with Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Lang in 1927, is regarded as one of the greatest jazz performances ever recorded. This 1927 Okeh 78 was one of the top jazz recordings of the 1920s. This classic recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1977. His major recordings included "Krazy Kat", "Red Hot", "Plantation Moods", "Trumbology", "Tailspin", "Singin' the Blues", "Wringin' an' Twistin'", and "For No Reason at All in C" with Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Lang, and the first hit recording of "Georgia On My Mind" in 1931.

Born of part Cherokee ancestry in Carbondale, Illinois, Frank Trumbauer grew up in St Louis, Missouri, the son of a musical mother who directed saxophone and theater orchestras. His first important professional engagements were with the Edgar Benson and Ray Miller bands, shortly followed by the Mound City Blue Blowers, a local group that became nationally famous through their recordings on Brunswick.

"Tram" was one of the most influential and important jazz saxophonists of the 1920s and 1930s. He is also remembered for his musical collaborations with Bix Beiderbecke, a relationship that produced some of the finest and most innovative jazz records of the late 1920s. Trumbauer and Beiderbecke also collaborated with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang.

In 1927, Trumbauer signed a contract with OKeh and released a 78 recording of "Singin' the Blues", featuring Beiderbecke on cornet and Lang on guitar. "Singin' the Blues" was a jazz classic originally recorded and released by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1920. The Okeh recording became a smash hit and became one of the most influential and recognizable jazz recordings of the 1920s. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra covered the song in 1931 in the Trumbauer-Beiderbecke version. (His contracts with Goldkette and then Whiteman's orchestras, allowed him to be a recording artist for OKeh.)

Walter Zurawski, Miles Vanderauer t / Art Weiss tb / Bill 'Stu' Williams cl, as / Frankie Trumbauer Cm / Thomas Thatcher ts / George Bass vn / Don Bestor p, dir / Joe Miller bj / Pierre Olker bb / George Brommersburg d.

Recorded in Camden, NJ on January 31, 1923.

Hugo Frey p, dir / Earl Oliver, Hymie Farberman or Harry Glantz t / Sammy Lewis tb / Nathan Glantz as, ts / vn / Frank Banta 2nd p /bj / John Helleberg bb / Eddie King d / Billy Murray v.

Recorded in New York on November 29, 1922.

Paul Specht & His Hotel Alamac Orchestra - Columbia 174 (1924)

Paul Specht vn, dir / Frank Quartell, Elwood Boyer t / Arch Jones tb / Harold Saliers cl, bcl, as / Henry Wade cl, as, ts / Dick Johnson cl, ts / Al Monquin bsx / Arthur Schutt p / Roy Smeck bj, g / Joe Tarto bb / Chauncey Morehouse d.

Recorded in New York on June 5, 1924.