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.