"Peg Leg" Howell & His Gang - Columbia 14210 (1927)

From wikipedia...

Joshua Barnes Howell, known as Peg Leg Howell (March 5, 1888 - August 11, 1966), was an African American blues singer and guitarist, who connected early country blues and the later 12-bar style.

He was born on a farm in Eatonton, GA and taught himself guitar at the age of 21. Over time he became skilled in pre-Piedmont finger picking and slide guitar techniques. He continued working on the farm until he was shot in a fight, as a result of which he lost his right leg and began working full-time as a musician. In 1923 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia and began playing on street corners, but also served a period in prison for bootlegging liquor.

In 1926, he was heard playing on the streets of Atlanta and was recorded for the first time by Columbia Records. They released "New Prison Blues", written while in prison and the first country blues to be issued on the label. Over the next three years Columbia recorded him on several occasions, often accompanied by a small group including Henry Williams on guitar and Eddie Anthony on fiddle. His recorded repertoire covered ballads, ragtime, and jazz, as well as blues.

Howell continued to play around the Atlanta area for several years, but also began selling bootleg liquor again. After the mid 1930s he only performed occasionally and, in 1952, his left leg was removed as a result of diabetes, confining him to a wheelchair. A single track by Howell was issued on The Country Blues in 1959, and in 1963 he was "rediscovered" in dire poverty in Atlanta by folklorist and field researcher George Mitchell and his high-school class-mate, Roger Brown. They recorded Howell at the age of 75 with the results issued on LP by Testament Records thirty-four years after his last recorded sessions, one of Mitchell's first field-recording sessions in his long career. Howell died in Atlanta in 1966.

Peg Leg Howell g, v / Henry Williams g / Eddie Anthony fiddle.

Recorded in Atlanta in April, 1927.



Chippie Hill & Tampa Red - Vocalion 1264 (1928)

From wikipedia...

Bertha "Chippie" Hill (March 15, 1905 – May 7, 1950), was an American blues and vaudeville singer and dancer, best known for her recordings with Louis Armstrong.

Hill was born in Charleston, South Carolina, one of sixteen children, but in 1915 the family moved to New York. She began her career as a dancer in Harlem, and by 1919 was working with Ethel Waters. At age 14, during a stint at Leroy's, a noted New York nightclub, Hill was nicknamed "Chippie" because of her young age. She also performed with Ma Rainey as part of the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, before establishing her own song and dance act and touring on the TOBA circuit in the early 1920s.

She settled in Chicago in about 1925, and worked at various venues with King Oliver's Jazz Band. She first recorded in November 1925 for Okeh Records, backed by the cornet player Louis Armstrong and pianist Richard M. Jones, on songs such as "Pratt City Blues", "Low Land Blues" and "Kid Man Blues" that year, and on "Georgia Man" and "Trouble in Mind" with the same musicians in 1926. She also recorded in 1927, with Lonnie Johnson on the vocal duet, "Hard Times Blues", plus "Weary Money Blues", "Tell Me Why" and "Speedway Blues". In 1928, came the Tampa Red vocal duets, "Hard Times Blues", "Christmas Man Blues", another version of "Trouble in Mind" for Vocalion, and in 1929 with "Scrapper" Blackwell & The Two Roys, with Leroy Carr on piano, the song "Non-skid Tread". Hill recorded 23 titles between 1925 to 1929.

In the 1930s she retired from singing to raise her seven children. Hill staged a comeback in 1946 with Lovie Austin's Blues Serenaders, and recorded for Rudi Blesh's Circle label. She began appearing on radio and in clubs and concerts in New York, including in 1948 the Carnegie Hall concert with Kid Ory, and she sang at the Paris Jazz Festival, and worked with Art Hodes in Chicago.

She was back again in 1950, when she was run over by a car and killed in New York at the age of 45. She is buried at the Lincoln Cemetery, Blue Island, Cook County, Illinois.

Bertha 'Chippie' Hill v / 'Georgia' Tom Dorsey p / Hudson 'Tampa Red' Whittaker g.

Recorded in Chicago on October 13 & 16, 1928.


Original New Orleans Rhythm Kings - Okeh 40327 (1925)

Feel very fortunate to have gotten this one.

Just one of three records recorded by the NORK on their home turf of New Orleans. (two Okehs and one Victor in 1925...a Bluebird was later released with alternate takes of the Victor sides)

Recorded the same day as my all time favorite NOLA record...

Paul Mares c / Santo Pecora tb / Leon Roppolo cl / Charlie Cordella ts / Glyn Lea 'Red' Long p / Bill Eastwood bj / Chink Martin bb / Leo Adde d.

Recorded in New Orleans on January 23, 1925.



Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds Of Joy - Brunswick 4694 (1929)

Here we have Andy Kirk's first recordings as leader...and here we have his last.

Andy Kirk bsx, bb, dir / Gene Prince, Harry Lawson t , v / Allen Durham tb / John Harrington cl, as / John Williams as, bar / Lawrence 'Slim' Freeman ts / Claude Williams vn / Mary Lou Williams p, a / William Dirvin bj, g / Edward McNeil d.

Recorded in Kansas City on November 7-8, 1929.