Wilber C. Sweatman - Emerson 5166 (1916)

Wilbur Sweatman made his first recording, in Minneapolis, on cylinder just after the turn of the century. These were promotional items and apparently none have survived to the present day.

It would be more than a decade later before he would record again. In December of 1916, he recorded two versions of My Hawaiian Sunshine for Emerson. The first of the recordings was issued on a five and a half inch disc while the second was on a seven inch.

Here we have the earliest Sweatman record.

Recorded in New York in December 1916.

Billy Mack & Mary Mack - Okeh 8195 (1925)

I read in the liner notes of Jazz Oracle's cd compilation of Oscar "Papa" Celestin's and Sam Morgan's recordings that only 35 sides were recorded in New Orleans during the 1920s by black bands.

I'm not positive that this 78 would comprise two of those or not but here we have the early Black Vaudeville act of Billy & Mary Mack accompanied by a cornetist and pianist in 1925.

The piano player was Edgar Brown while the cornetist here is making his recording debut...Ernest "Punch" Miller.

Searching the net recently for more information on Punch Miller, I saw that there was a documentary made of him back in 1971. Surprisingly, it is available to watch here.

Billy & Mary Mack v / Punch Miller c / Edgar Brown p.

Recorded in New Orleans on January 22, 1925.

Teddy Hill & His NBC Orchestra - Bluebird 6988 (1937)

On a cool 64 degree springtime Monday...May 17, 1937...a nineteen year old John Birks Gillespie...having just replaced Roy Eldridge in the Teddy Hill NBC band...walked into a New York recording studio and laid down his first recorded notes.

San Anton' was the first side recorded that day with Jelly Roll Morton's King Porter's Stomp being the fifth. Six sides total were recorded during that session.

Teddy Hill ts, dir / Bill Dillard t, v / Dizzy Gillespie, Shad Collins t / Dicky Wells tb / Russell Procope cl, as / Howard Johnson as / Robert Carroll ts / Sam Allen p / John Smith g / Richard Fullbright sb / Bill Beason d.

Recorded in New York, On May 17, 1937.

Joe Tex - King 4840 (1955)

This appears to be Joe Tex's debut recording.

From wikipedia...

Joseph Arrington, Jr. (August 8, 1935– August 13, 1982), better known as Joe Tex, was an American musician who gained success in the 1960s and 1970s with his brand of Southern soul, which mixed the styles of country, gospel and rhythm and blues.

His career started after he was signed to King Records in 1955 following four wins at the Apollo Theater. Between 1955 and 1964, he struggled to find hits and by the time he finally recorded his first hit, Hold What You've Got, in 1964, he had recorded thirty prior singles that were deemed failures on the charts. He went on to have four million-selling hits, Hold What You've Got (1965), Skinny Legs and All (1967), I Gotcha (1972), and Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman) (1977).

Tex recorded for King Records between 1955 and 1957 with relatively little success. He later claimed he sold musical rights to the composition Fever to King Records staff, due to failure to pay rent. The song's credited songwriters, Otis Blackwell (who used the pseudonym John Davenport) and Joe Cooley disputed Tex's claims. Labelmate Little Willie John had a hit with Fever, later inspiring Tex to write the first of his answer songs, Pneumonia.

A convert to Islam in 1966, he changed his name to Yusuf Hazziez, and toured as a spiritual lecturer. He had one daughter, Eartha Doucet, and four sons, Joseph Arrington III, Ramadan Hazziez, Jwaade Hazziez and Joseph Hazziez.

On August 13, 1982, Yusuf Hazziez died at his home in Navasota, Texas, following a heart attack, five days after his 47th birthday.

Recorded in 1955.

Eddie "Sugarman" Penigar With Vocals By Little Miss Sharecropper (LaVern Baker's Debut Recording) - RCA Victor 50-0020 (1949)

From Wikipedia...

Delores LaVern Baker (November 11, 1929 – March 10, 1997) was an American rhythm and blues singer, who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedlee Dee" (1955), "Jim Dandy" (1956), and "I Cried a Tear" (1958).

Baker was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is occasionally referred to as Delores Williams because of an early marriage to Eugene Williams; in the late 1940s she was identified in RCA Victor record company files as "D. L. McMurley." She was the niece of blues singer Merline Johnson and was also related to Memphis Minnie.

She began singing in Chicago clubs such as the Club DeLisa around 1946, often billed as Little Miss Sharecropper, and first recorded under that name in 1949. She changed her name briefly to Bea Baker when recording for Okeh Records in 1951, and then became LaVern Baker when singing with Todd Rhodes and his band in 1952.

In 1953 she signed for Atlantic Records as a solo artist, her first release being "Soul on Fire". Her first hit came in early 1955, with the Latin-tempo "Tweedlee Dee" reaching #4 on the R&B chart and #14 on the national US pop charts. Georgia Gibbs' note-for-note cover of Baker's "Tweedle Dee" reached #1; subsequently Baker made an unsuccessful attempt to sue her and petitioned Congress to consider such covers copyright violations.

Baker had a succession of hits on the R&B charts over the next couple of years with her backing group The Gliders, including "Bop-Ting-A-Ling" (#3 R&B), "Play It Fair" (#2 R&B), and "Still" (#4 R&B). At the end of 1956 she had another smash hit with "Jim Dandy" (#1 R&B, #17 pop). It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Further hits followed for Atlantic, including the follow-up "Jim Dandy Got Married" (#7 R&B), "I Cried a Tear" (#2 R&B, #6 pop in 1959), "I Waited Too Long" (#5 R&B, #3 pop, written by Neil Sedaka), "Saved" (#17 R&B, written by Leiber and Stoller), and "See See Rider" (#9 R&B in 1963).

Eddie "Sugarman" Penigar dir / Ellis "Stumpy" Whitlock t / Oett "Sax" Mallard, C. Clark saxes / Walter Davis p / R.L. Wilson b / O.S. Coleman d / LaVern Baker v.

Recorded in Chicago on February 25, 1949.

(Please pardon the scan...it looks great in person)