Jump Blues developed in the late '30s among the swing bands of Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Erskine Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, and Lucky Millinder. However, it was several smaller post-World War II combos that popularized the style. The prime purveyor of jump blues and its most successful practitioner, Louis Jordan enjoyed enormous success, both in the R&B and pop fields, between 1942 and 1951.
By the second half of the '40s, jump blues had become the dominant form of black popular music. Among its successful practitioners were Joe and Johnny Liggins, Roy Milton and his Solid Senders with boogie woogie pianist Camille Howard, Amos Milburn, and in the '50s Italian vocalist Louis Prima with Sam Butera and the Witnesses.
Tiny Bradshaw was one of the most prominent bandleaders of the
'30s and '40s who led groups of essentially jazz - trained
musicians into the developing (and more commercial) field that
came to be known as rhythm & blues. A vocalist with other
bands early in his career, Bradshaw formed his own band in 1934
and kept it going through the early '50s, enjoying five Billboard
hits (and also recording the original "Train Kept A
-Rollin'") with King Records (where he was a labelmate to
many of the other leading jump blues performers of the era).
Bradshaw's band produced such saxophone stars as Sonny Stitt, Red
Prysock, and Sil Austin; among the vocalists to record with the
group were Roy Brown, Arthur Prysock, Lonnie Johnson, and Tiny
Kennedy. - - Jim O'Neal , All-Music Guide
When you draw up a short list of the R&B pioneers who exerted a primary influence on the development of rock & roll, respectfully place singer Roy Brown's name near its very top. His seminal 1947 DeLuxe Records waxing of "Good Rockin' Tonight" was immediately ridden to the peak of the R&B charts by shouter Wynonie Harris and subsequently covered by Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more early rock icons (even Pat Boone!). In addition, Brown's melismatically pleading, gospel - steeped delivery impacted the vocal styles of B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Little Richard (among a plethora of important singers). Clearly, Roy Brown was an innovator - - and from 1948 - 1951, an R&B star whose wild output directly presaged rock's rise. Born in the Crescent City, Brown grew up all over the place: Eunice, LA (where he sang in church and worked in the sugarcane fields), Houston, TX, and finally Los Angeles by age 17. Back then, Bing Crosby was Roy's favorite singer - - but a nine - month stint at a Shreveport, LA nightclub exposed him to the blues for the first time. He conjured up "Good Rockin' Tonight" while fronting a band in Galveston, TX. Ironically, Harris wanted no part of the song when Brown first tried to hand it to him. When pianist Cecil Gant heard Brown's knockout rendition of the tune in New Orleans, he had Roy sing it over the phone to a sleepy DeLuxe boss, Jules Braun, in the wee hours of the morning! Though Brown's original waxing (with Bob Ogden's band in support) was a solid hit, Harris's cover beat him out for top chart honors. Roy didn't have to wait long to dominate the R&B lists himself. He scored 15 hits from mid - 1948 to late 1951 for DeLuxe, ranging from the emotionally wracked crying blues "Hard Luck Blues" (his biggest seller of all in 1950) to the party- time rockers "Rockin' at Midnight," "Boogie at Midnight," "Miss Fanny Brown," and "Cadillac Baby." Strangely, his sales slumped badly from 1952 on, even though his frantic "Hurry Hurry Baby," "Ain't No Rockin' No More," "Black Diamond," and "Gal from Kokomo" for Cincinnati's King Records rate among his hottest houserockers. Brown was unable to cash in on the rock & roll idiom he helped to invent, though he briefly rejuvenated his commercial fortunes at Imperial Records in 1957. Working with New Orleans producer Dave Bartholomew, then riding high with Fats Domino, Brown returned to the charts with the original version of "Let the Four Winds Blow" (later a hit for Fats) and cut the sizzling sax -powered rockers "Diddy - Y - Diddy - O," "Saturday Night," and "Ain't Gonna Do It." Not everything was an artistic triumph; Brown's utterly lifeless cover of Buddy Knox's "Party Doll" - amazingly, a chart entry for Brown - - may well be the worst thing he ever committed to wax (rivaled only by a puerile "School Bell Rock" cut during a momentary return to King in 1959). After a long dry spell, Brown's acclaimed performance as part of Johnny Otis's troupe at the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival and a 1973 LP for ABC - BluesWay began to rebuild his long - lost momentum. But it came too late - - Brown died of a heart attack in 1981 at age 56, his role as a crucial link between postwar R&B and rock's initial rise still underappreciated by the masses. - - Bill Dahl, All-Music Guide
No blues shouter embodied the rollicking good times that he sang of quite like raucous shouter Wynonie Harris. "Mr. Blues," as he was not - so - humbly known, joyously related risqué tales of sex, booze, and endless parties in his trademark raspy voice over some of the jumpingest horn - powered combos of the postwar era.Those wanton ways eventually caught up with Harris, but not before he scored a raft of R&B smashes from 1946 to 1952. Harris was already a seasoned dancer, drummer, and singer when he left Omaha for L.A. in 1940 (his main influences being Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing). He found plenty of work singing and appearing as an emcee on Central Avenue, the bustling nightlife strip of the Black community there. Wynonie Harris's reputation was spreading fast - - he was appearing in Chicago at the Rhumboogie Club in 1944 when bandleader Lucky Millinder hired him as his band's new singer. With Millinder's orchestra in brassy support, Harris made his debut on shellac by boisterously delivering "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" that same year for Decca. By the time it hit in mid - 1945, Harris was long gone from Millinder's organization and back in L.A. The shouter debuted on wax under his own name in July of 1945 at an L.A. date for Philo with backing from drummer Johnny Otis, saxist Teddy Edwards, and trumpeter Howard McGhee. A month later, he signed on with Apollo Records, an association that provided him with two huge hits in 1946: "Wynonie's Blues" (with saxist Illinois Jacquet's combo) and "Playful Baby." Harris's own waxings were squarely in the emerging jump blues style then sweeping the West Coast. After scattered dates for Hamp - Tone, Bullet, and Aladdin (where he dueled it out with his idol Big Joe on a two - sided "Battle of the Blues"), Harris joined the star - studded roster of Cincinnati's King Records in 1947. There his sales really soared. Few records made a stronger seismic impact than Harris's 1948 chart - topper "Good Rockin' Tonight." Ironically, Harris shooed away its composer, Roy Brown, when he first tried to hand it to the singer; only when Brown's original version took off did Wynonie cover the romping number. With Hal "Cornbread" Singer on wailing tenor sax and a rocking, socking backbeat, the record provided an easily followed blueprint for the imminent rise of rock & roll a few years later (and gave Elvis Presley something to place on the A side of his second Sun single). After that, Harris was rarely absent from the R&B charts for the next four years, his offerings growing more boldly suggestive all the time. "Grandma Plays the Numbers," "All She Wants to Do Is Rock," "I Want My Fanny Brown," "Sittin' on It All the Time," "I Like My Baby's Pudding," "Good Morning Judge," "Bloodshot Eyes" (a country tune that was first released on King by Hank Penny), and "Lovin' Machine" were only a portion of the ribald hits Harris scored into 1952 (13 in all) - - and then his personal hit parade stopped dead. It certainly wasn't Harris's fault - - his King output rocked as hard as ever under Henry Glover's supervision - - but changing tastes among fickle consumers that accelerated Wynonie Harris's sobering fall from favor. Sides for Atco in 1956, King in 1957, and Roulette in 1960 only hinted at the raunchy glory of a short few years earlier. The touring slowed accordingly. In 1963, his chauffeur - driven Cadillacs and lavish New York home a distant memory, Harris moved back to L.A., scraping up low - paying local gigs whenever he could. Chess gave him a three - song session in 1964, but sat on the promising results. Throat cancer silenced him for good in 1969, ending the life of a bigger - than - life R&B pioneer whose ego matched his tremendous talent. - - Bill Dahl , All-Music Guide
Effervescent saxophonist Louis Jordan was one of the chief architects and prime progenitors of the R&B idiom. His pioneering use of jumping shuffle rhythms in a small combo context was copied far and wide during the 1940s.Jordan's sensational hit - laden run with Decca Records contained a raft of seminal performances, featuring inevitably infectious backing by his band, the Tympany Five, and Jordan's own searing alto sax and street corner jive - loaded sense of humor. Jordan was one of the first Black entertainers to sell appreciably in the pop sector; his Decca duet mates included Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald.The son of a musician, Jordan spent time as a youth with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and majored in music later on at Arkansas Baptist College. After moving with his family to Philadelphia in 1932, Jordan hooked up with pianist Clarence Williams. He joined the orchestra of drummer Chick Webb in 1936 and remained there until 1938. Having polished up his singing abilities with Webb's outfit, Jordan was ready to strike out on his own.The saxist's first 78 for Decca in 1938, "Honey in the Bee Ball," billed his combo as the Elks Rendezvous Band (after the Harlem nightspot that he frequently played at). From 1939 on, though, Jordan fronted the Tympany Five, a sturdy little aggregation often expanding over quintet status that featured some well - known musicians over the years: pianists Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett, guitarists Carl Hogan and Bill Jennings, bassist Dallas Bartley, and drummer Chris Columbus all passed through the ranks.From 1942 to 1951, Jordan scored an astonishing 57 R&B chart hits (all on Decca), beginning with the humorous blues "I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town" and finishing with "Weak Minded Blues." In between, he drew up what amounted to an easily followed blueprint for the development of R&B (and for that matter, rock & roll - - the accessibly swinging shuffles of Bill Haley & the Comets were directly descended from Jordan; Haley often pointing to his Decca labelmate as profoundly influencing his approach)."G.I. Jive," "Caldonia," "Buzz Me," "Choo Choo Ch' Boogie," "Ain't That Just like a Woman," "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens," "Boogie Woogie Blue Plate," "Beans and Cornbread," "Saturday Night Fish Fry," and "Blue Light Boogie" - - every one of those classics topped the R&B lists, and there were plenty more that did precisely the same thing. Black audiences coast - to - coast were breathlessly jitterbugging to Jordan's jumping jive (and one suspects, more than a few Whites kicked up their heels to those same platters as well).The saxist was particularly popular during World War II. He recorded prolifically for the Armed Forces Radio Service and the V - Disc program. Jordan's massive popularity also translated onto the silver screen - - he filmed a series of wonderful short musicals during the late '40s that were decidedly short on plot but long on visual versions of his hits (Caldonia, Reet Petite & Gone, Look Out Sister, and Beware, along with countless soundies) that give us an enlightening peek at just what made him such a beloved entertainer. Jordan also cameoed in a big - budget Hollywood wartime musical, Follow the Boys.A brief attempt at fronting a big band in 1951 proved an ill - fated venture, but it didn't dim his ebullience. In 1952, tongue firmly planted in cheek, he offered himself as a candidate for the highest office in the land on the amusing Decca outing "Jordan for President."Even though his singles were still eminently solid, they weren't selling like they used to by 1954. So after an incredible run of more than a decade - and - a - half, Jordan moved over to the Mesner brothers' Los Angeles based Aladdin logo at the start of the year. Alas, time had passed the great pioneer by - - "Dad Gum Ya Hide Boy," "Messy Bessy," "If I Had Any Sense," and the rest of his Aladdin output sounds great in retrospect, but it wasn't what young R&B fans were searching for at the time. In 1955, he switched to RCA's short - lived "X" imprint, where he tried to remain up - to - date by issuing "Rock 'N' Roll Call."A blistering Quincy Jones - arranged date for Mercury in 1956 deftly updated Jordan's classics for the rock & roll crowd, with hellfire renditions of "Let the Good Times Roll," "Salt Pork, West Virginia," and "Beware" benefiting from the blasting lead guitar of Mickey Baker and Sam "The Man" Taylor's muscular tenor sax. There was even time to indulge in a little torrid jazz at Mercury; "The JAMF," from a 1957 LP called Man, We're Wailin', was a sizzling indication of what a fine saxist Jordan was.Ray Charles had long cited Jordan as a primary influence (he lovingly covered Jordan's "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" and "Early in the Morning"), and paid him back by signing Jordan to the Genius' Tangerine label. Once again, the fickle public largely ignored his worthwhile 1962 - 64 offerings.Lounge gigs still offered the saxman a steady income, though, and he adjusted his onstage playlist accordingly. A 1973 album for the French Black & Blue logo found Jordan covering Mac Davis's "I Believe in Music" (can't get much loungier than that!). A heart attack silenced this visionary in 1975, but not before he acted as the bridge between the big - band era and the rise of R&B.His profile continues to rise posthumously, in large part due to the recent acclaimed Broadway musical Five Guys Named Moe, based on Jordan's bubbly, romping repertoire and charismatic persona. - - Bill Dahl, All-Music Guide
Louis Jordan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987
The premier blues shouter of the postwar era, Big Joe Turner's roar could rattle the very foundation of any gin joint he sang within -- and that's without a microphone. Turner was a resilient figure in the history of blues -- he effortlessly spanned boogie-woogie, jump blues, even the first wave of rock & roll, enjoying great success in each genre.
Turner, whose powerful physique certainly matched his vocal might, was a product of the swinging, wide-open Kansas City scene. Even in his teens, the big-boned Turner looked entirely mature enough to gain entry to various K.C. nighteries. He ended up simultaneously tending bar and singing the blues before hooking up with boogie piano master Pete Johnson during the early '30s. Theirs was a partnership that would endure for 13 years. The pair initially traveled to New York at John Hammond's behest in 1936.On December 23, 1938, they appeared on the fabled Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall on a bill with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, the Golden Gate Quartet, and Count Basie. Big Joe and Johnson performed "Low Down Dog" and "It's All Right, Baby" on the historic show, kicking off a boogie-woogie craze that landed them a long-running slot at the Cafe Society (along with piano giants Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons).
As 1938 came to a close, Turner and Johnson waxed the thundering "Roll 'Em Pete" for Vocalion. It was a thrilling up-tempo number anchored by Johnson's crashing 88s, and Turner would re-record it many times over the decades. Turner and Johnson waxed their seminal blues "Cherry Red" the next year for Vocalion with trumpeter Hot Lips Page and a full combo in support. In 1940, the massive shouter moved over to Decca and cut "Piney Brown Blues" with Johnson rippling the ivories. But not all of Turner's Decca sides teamed him with Johnson; Willie "The Lion" Smith accompanied him on the mournful"Careless Love," while Freddie Slack's Trio provided backing for "Rocks in My Bed" in 1941. Turner ventured out to the West Coast during the war years, building quite a following while ensconced on the L.A. circuit. In 1945, he signed on with National Records and cut some fine small combo platters under Herb Abramson's supervision. Turner remained with National through 1947, belting an exuberant "My Gal's a Jockey" that became his first national R&B smash. Contracts didn't stop him from waxing an incredibly risqué two-part "Around the Clock" for the aptly named Stag imprint (as Big Vernon!) in 1947. There were also solid sessions for Aladdin that year that included a wild vocal duel with one of Turner's principal rivals, Wynonie Harris, on the ribald two-part "Battle of the Blues."
Few West Coast indie labels of the late '40s didn't boast at least one or two Turner titles in their catalogs. The shouter bounced from RPM to Down Beat/Swing Time to MGM (all those dates were anchored by Johnson's piano) to Texas-based Freedom (which moved some of their masters to Specialty) to Imperial in 1950 (his New Orleans backing crew there included a young Fats Domino on piano). But apart from the 1950 Freedom 78, "Still in the Dark," none of Big Joe's records were selling particularly well. When Atlantic Records bosses Abramson and Ahmet Ertegun fortuitously dropped by the Apollo Theater to check out Count Basie's band one day, they discovered that Turner had temporarily replaced Jimmy Rushing as the Basie band's front man, and he was having a tough go of it. Atlantic picked up his spirits by picking up his recording contract, and Big Joe Turner's heyday was about to commence.
At Turner's first Atlantic date in April of 1951, he imparted a gorgeously world-weary reading to the moving blues ballad "Chains of Love" (co-penned by Ertegun and pianist Harry Van Walls) that restored him to the uppermost reaches of the R&B charts. From there, the hits came in droves: "Chill Is On,""Sweet Sixteen" (yeah, the same downbeat blues B.B. King's usually associated with; Turner did it first), and "Don't You Cry" were all done in New York, and all hit big.
Big Joe Turner had no problem whatsoever adapting his prodigious pipes to whatever regional setting he was in. In 1953, he cut his first R&B chart-topper, the storming rocker "Honey Hush" (later covered by Johnny Burnette and Jerry Lee Lewis), in New Orleans, with trombonist Pluma Davis and tenor saxman Lee Allen in rip-roaring support. Before the year was through, he stopped off in Chicago to record with slide guitarist Elmore James's considerably rougher-edged combo and hit again with the salacious"T.V. Mama."
Prolific Atlantic house writer Jesse Stone was the source of Turner's biggest smash of all, "Shake, Rattle and Roll," which proved his second chart-topper in 1954. With the Atlantic brain trust reportedly chiming in on the chorus behind Turner's rumbling lead, the song sported enough pop possibilities to merit a considerably cleaned-up cover by Bill Haley & the Comets (and a subsequent version by Elvis Presley that came a lot closer to the original leering intent).
Suddenly, at the age of 43, Big Joe Turner was a rock star. His jumping follow-ups -- "Well All Right," "Flip Flop and Fly," "Hide and Seek," "Morning, Noon and Night," "The Chicken and the Hawk" -- all mined the same goodtime groove as "Shake, Rattle and Roll," with crisp backing from New York's top session aces and typically superb production by Ertegun and Jerry Wexler.
Turner turned up on a couple episodes of the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the Apollo during the mid-'50s, commanding center stage with a joyous rendition of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" in front of saxman Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams's band. Nor was the silver screen immune to his considerable charms: Turner mimed a couple of numbers in the 1957 film Shake Rattle & Rock (Fats Domino and Mike "Mannix" Connors also starred in the flick).
Updating the pre-war number "Corrine Corrina" was an inspired notion that provided Turner with another massive seller in 1956. But after the two-sided hit "Rock a While"/"Lipstick Powder and Paint" later that year, his Atlantic output swiftly faded from commercial acceptance. Atlantic's recording strategy wisely involved recording Turner in a jazzier setting for the adult-oriented album market; to that end, a Kansas City-styled set (with his former partner Johnson at the piano stool) was laid down in 1956 and remains a linchpin of his legacy.
Turner stayed on at Atlantic into 1959, but nobody bought his violin-enriched remake of "Chains of Love" (on the other hand, a revival of "Honey Hush" with King Curtis blowing a scorching sax break from the same session was a gem in its own right). The '60s didn't produce too much of lasting substance for the shouter -- he actually cut an album with longtime admirer Haley and his latest batch of Comets in Mexico City in 1966!
But by the tail end of the decade, Big Joe Turner's essential
contributions to blues history were beginning to receive proper
recognition; he cut LPs for Blues Way and Blues Time. During the
'70s and '80s, Turner recorded prolifically for Norman Granz's
jazz-oriented Pablo label. These were super-relaxed impromptu
sessions that often paired the allegedly illiterate shouter with
various jazz luminaries in what amounted to loosely-run jam
sessions. Turner contentedly roared the familiar lyrics of one or
another of his hits, then sat back while somebody took a lengthy
solo. Other notable album projects included a 1983 collaboration
with Roomful of Blues, Blues Train, for Muse. Although health
problems and the size of his humongous frame forced him to sit
down during his latter-day performances, Turner continued to tour
until shortly before his death in 1985. They called him the Boss
of the Blues, and the appellation was truly a fitting one: when
Big Joe Turner shouted a lyric, you were definitely at his beck
and call. ~ Bill Dahl, All-Music Guide
Joe Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987
One of the pioneers of boogie-woogie piano, Jimmy
Yancey was generally more subtle than the more famous Albert
Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, falling as much into
the blues genre as in jazz. Yancey, who could romp as well as
anyone, made many of his most memorable recordings at slower
tempos. No matter what key he played in, Yancey ended every song
in E flat, leading to some hilarious conclusions to some
recordings. He worked in vaudeville as a singer and tap dancer
starting at age six and in 1915 settled in Chicago as a pianist.
But Yancey spent his last 26 years (from 1925 on) earning his
living as a groundskeeper at Comiskey Park for the Chicago White
Sox. He played part-time in local clubs and began recording in
1939, on a few occasions backing his wife, singer Mama Yancey.
Jimmy Yancey never achieved the fame of his contemporaries but he
remained a major influence on all practitioners in the genre. --
Scott Yanow, All-Music Guide
Jimmy Yancey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 as an early inluence.
