Erskine Butterfield & His Blue Boys - Decca 8539 (1941)

After learning the identities of all the sidemen...makes one wonder why this was released under Decca's Sepia Series.

Yank Lawson, Don Lipsey t / Moe Zudecoff (Buddy Morrow) tb / Jerry Jerome cl / Erskine Butterfield p, v / Tony Gottuso g / Haig Stephens sb / Sam Weiss d.

Recorded in New York on February 28, 1941.

Marie Bryant Acc. Mike McKenzie Quintet Featuring Bertie King - Lyragon 701 (1953)

Found this one over the holidays while rummaging around Old San Juan.

From wikipedia…

Albert "Bertie" King (1912 – 1981) was a Jamaican jazz and mento musician who was a saxophonist.

King was born in Panama, and raised in Kingston, where he attended Alpha Boys' School; there he was taught by Sister Mary Ignatius Davis, a remarkable woman who nurtured the talents of many of the leading Jamaican musicians of the era.

During the 1930s he led his own band, Bertie King and his Rhythm Aces, described at the time as "Jamaica's Foremost Dance Orchestra". In 1936 he left for England, sailing on the same ship as his friend Jiver Hutchinson. In London he joined Ken Snakehips Johnson's West Indian Dance Band, and later played with Leslie Hutchinson's band. He also worked with visiting American musicians including Benny Carter, George Shearing and Coleman Hawkins. In 1937 he recorded four sides in the Netherlands with Benny Carter, and in 1938 he recorded with Django Reinhardt in Paris. In 1939 he joined the Royal Navy. He left the Navy in 1943 and formed his own band, also working and recording with Nat Gonella.

King returned to Jamaica in 1951, where he started his own band, known as the Casa Blanca Orchestra, playing in the mento style. Since there were no Jamaican record labels at this time, he arranged for his recordings to be pressed in a plant in Lewisham, England, owned by Decca Records. He returned a number of times to England, working and recording with Kenny Baker, George Chisholm, Chris Barber, Kenny Graham and Humphrey Lyttelton, and also toured in Asia and Africa with his own band. During this period he also played and recorded in London with some of the leading Trinidadian calypsonians. He was noted for his impassive demeanour on stage, which belied an expressive playing style.

King led the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation's house band in the 1950s; his sidemen included Ernest Ranglin and Tommy Mowatt. He recorded extensively with this outfit. In 1965 he moved to the USA. His last known public performance was at Jamaican Independence Day celebrations in New York in 1967. He died in the USA in 1981.

Zez Confrey - QRS Piano Roll M-614680 (1927)

Went out over the weekend and came up slap empty on finding any 78s (worth getting that is). Did manage to snag a few piano rolls though.

Here's a QRS roll of Zez Confrey's composition Dizzy Fingers played by Victor Arden.

(The piano is in need of a tuning)

Joe & Ann - Ace 577 (1959)

Looks like this is the first of three releases for the duo on Ace Records.

From wikipedia…

Alvin "Red" Tyler (December 5, 1925 – April 3, 1998) was an American R&B and neo-bop jazz saxophonist and arranger.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, Tyler grew up listening to the sound of New Orleans marching bands. He began playing saxophone when in the Navy, and by 1950 had joined Dave Bartholomew’s R&B band. He also played jazz in club jam sessions. He made his recording debut on Fats Domino’s The Fat Man (1949) and went on to play on sessions for Little Richard, Lloyd Price, Aaron Neville, Lee Dorsey, Dr. John, and numerous other rhythm and blues artists.

From the mid-1960s he worked as a liquor salesman. He also began leading his own jazz band in clubs and hotel residencies in New Orleans. While the baritone saxophone had been his primary instrument during his years as a studio musician, his jazz playing gradually came to rely much more on tenor saxophone. In the mid-1980s he recorded two jazz albums, Graciously and Heritage, with vocals by Johnny Adams and Germaine Bazzle, for Rounder Records.

At the age of 65, he had a daughter Tajara Brieanne Simms, who currently lives in Temple Hills, Maryland.

Tyler died at age 72 in New Orleans.

Christine Chatman & Her Orchestra (With Mabel Smith aka Big Maybelle) - Decca 8660

Here we have Big Maybelle's debut recording.

From wikipedia…

Mabel Louise Smith (May 1, 1924 – January 23, 1972), known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer and pianist. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.

Born in Jackson, Tennessee, United States, Big Maybelle sang gospel as a child and by her teens had switched to rhythm and blues. She began her professional career with Dave Clark's Memphis Band in 1936, and also toured with the all female International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She then joined Christine Chatman's Orchestra as pianist, and made her first recordings with Chatman in 1944, and with the Tiny Bradshaw's Orchestra from 1947 to 1950.

Her debut solo recordings, as Mabel Smith, came for King Records in 1947, backed by Oran "Hot Lips" Page, but she had little initial success. However, in 1952 she was signed by Okeh Records, whose record producer Fred Mendelsohn gave her the stage name Big Maybelle. Her first recording for Okeh, "Gabbin' Blues", was a number 3 hit on the Billboard R&B chart, and was followed up by both "Way Back Home" and "My Country Man" in 1953. In 1955 she recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On", produced by Quincy Jones, two years before Jerry Lee Lewis's version. More hits followed throughout the 1950s, mainly for Savoy Records, including "Candy" (1956), one of her biggest sellers.

She made the stage of the Apollo Theater in New York City; the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival; and she appeared in Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960), filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival, along with Mahalia Jackson and Dinah Washington. After 1959 she recorded for a variety of labels but the hits largely dried up. She continued to perform in person into the early 1960s, when drug addiction and health problems took their toll on her. Her last hit single was in 1967 with a cover of "96 Tears" by Question Mark & the Mysterians.

Big Maybelle died in a diabetic coma in 1972, in Cleveland, Ohio. She was survived by her only child Barbara Smith and a host of grandchildren. Her final album, Last of Big Maybelle, was released posthumously in 1973.

Recorded on April 6, 1944.

Broadway Seven / Broadway Music Masters - Grey Gull 1192 (1923)

Here we have the Original Memphis Five as the Broadway Seven and an undetermined (by me) Grey Gull studio band on the flip.

Broadway Seven: Phil Napoleon t / Miff Mole tb / Jimmy Lytell cl / as / John Cali bj / Frank Signorelli p / Jack Roth d.

Recorded in New York on December 1, 1923.

Ben Pollack & His Park Central Orchestra - Victor 21827 (1928)

Ben Pollack d, dir / Jimmy McPartland, Al Harris c / Jack Teagarden tb / Benny Goodman cl, as / Gil Rodin as / Larry Binyon cl, ts, f / Al Beller, Ed Bergman vn / Bill Schumann vc / Vic Breidis p / Dick Morgan bj / Harry Goodman bb / Gene Austin, Dick Robertson v.

Recorded in New York on December 3, 1928.

Frisco Syncopators - Resona 11307 (1923)

In my search as to who this band really was (especially pertaining to the jazzier side...Sweet Henry), I was narrowing in on Charley Straight (who recorded the song as the Frisco Syncopators but on different labels) but after finding audio of his version...these were not the same band or at the least, the same take.

The only other audio version I could find was Sissle & Blake and, again, it was not them.

Anyone have an answer?

Edit: The band is indeed that of Charley Straight. I had searched under the wrong number...although it is not the same take as heard on the Paramount release from the same session.

Charley Straight  p, dir / Gene Caffarelli c / Guy Carey tb / cl / as /v / Wally Priessing  ts / Leo Murphy vn / Frank Sylvano bj / Ike Williams bb / Bob Conselman d.

Recorded in Chicago in October, 1923. 

The Georgia Washboard Stompers - Decca 7009 (1934)

From wikipedia…

The Washboard Rhythm Kings 1931 to 1933 (aka. Washboard Rhythm Boys, Georgia Washboard Stompers from 1934 to 1935, Alabama Washboard Stompers 1930 to 1932) were a loose aggregation of jazz performers, many of high caliber, who recorded as a group for various labels between about 1930 and 1935.

The band played goodtime swinging music, featuring spirited vocals, horns, a washboard player and occasionally kazoo, and were popular around the time of the Great Depression. They mostly covered current hits from other artists.

Their personnel varied considerably between sessions, with guitarist Teddy Bunn a regular member from 1930 to 1931. Later recordings included singers Leo Watson or Steve Washington, washboard player and vocalist Bruce Johnson (aka Bruce Wiley Robinson?), trumpeters Valaida Snow and Taft Jordan, and clarinetist Ben Smith.

Their 1932 recording of "Tiger Rag" has been cited for its "wild, informal feel" as an early precursor of rock and roll. Their music was also highly influential on the skiffle music of the 1950s and later.

Taft Jordan, ? Dave Page t / cl, as / Clarence Profit p / Steve Washington bj, g / Ghost Howell sb / Jake Fenderson wb, v.

Recorded in New York on August 17, 1934.

The Blenders - MGM 11488 (1953)

Here's an early R&B/doowop group that began when the 2nd tenor of The Ravens, Ollie Jones, was deemed by the manager not to have strong enough vocals and also was told he didn't "blend" in well with the others. (Ironic that the new group was called The Blenders?)

Here are two of the four sides they recorded during a private session under producer Joe Davis which were sold to MGM.

The lineup on these may be Ollie Jones, Abel DeCosta, James DeLoach and Napoleon Allen.

Recorded on March 27. 1953.