Guess whose father-in-law was the original King of the Blues Guitar?

 BluesMuse14

Two pioneers of the exhilarating new form of blues that, during the 1930s and 1940s, became the precursor to rhythm & blues, included Louisiana’s Saunders King and Aaron T- Bone Walker from Texas. By the early 1940s, both were working out of California.

Saunders King, back then, was billed as the King of the Blues Guitar, long before his illustrious namesakes, Albert, B.B. and Freddie put in a claim. Saunders King’s famous, ‘Saunders Blues’, a laid back tune recorded in San Francisco in 1942, when King was 33, was a nationwide U.S. race hit years ahead of its time.

The former blues shouter Big Joe Turner (he of rock & roll release #2 in 1938, see BluesMuse 12) had a massive hit with Saunders King’s song in 1945, calling it, ‘S.K. Blues’. Jimmy Witherspoon, too, covered the tune as S.K. Blues.

Saunders King’s daughter, Deborah, as a matter of musical trivia, went on to marry the Mexican guitar great, Carlos Santana, in 1973. Santana has since said his father-in-law inspired his own idol, B. B. King, the current King of the Blues Guitar. B.B. King backs that up saying, “Saunders King was one of the greatest, ever”. At the age of 70, Saunders King played guitar on Santana’s 1979 album, ‘Oneness’.

T-Bone Walker’s 1942 contribution will follow soon in BluesMuse 16.

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Is this 1940s track rock & roll release number 3?

BLUESMUSE13

I’ve been researching to find out what was America’s, and therefore the world’s, third ever rock & roll record release after Albert Ammons in 1936, and then Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson in 1938 (see earlier posts).

This suggestion might be a bit more contentious to the purist than my first and second releases, so feel free to correct me. Anyway, here goes: it’s ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’, recorded in 1940 by World War Two’s favourite all-girl close-harmony trio, The Andrews Sisters. It was boogie, swing and jump blues, all at the same time.

It has also been argued that Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy was one of the earliest examples of rhythm & blues to hit the big time; except the Andrews Sisters were white and the term rhythm & blues had yet to be invented. The term rock & roll hadn’t been coined yet either but it didn’t stop Bing Crosby proclaiming in 1939 that the Andrews Sisters’ songs were, “rock and roll with unleashed enthusiasm tempered to strict four-four time”.

Half Greek, half Norwegian-American, maybe the real-life sisters from Minnesota were too old and not quite hip enough in the rock & roll circles of the 1950s to have their track recognized, but it sure rocks along to me. The Andrews Sisters had over 60 hit records during the war alone. Most were pop, but Bugle Boy straddled the genres. Would it be rock & roll if it were released today with rocking guitar backing? It all depends on your definition of rock & roll.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Other contenders for rock & roll release # 3.

One challenger was Sister Rosetta Tharpe (left) with ‘Rock Me’ in 1938. Good though it was, it seemed more crooning gospel than rock & roll, but the Sister plays some mean early electric guitar. The other contender was Buddy Jones in 1939 with ‘Rockin’, Rollin’ Mama’. Its title sounded authentic enough but the track was more gentle western swing than rock & roll.

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World's 2nd rock & roll record: Roll 'Em Pete by Big Joe Turner with Pete Johnson in 1938

A young Big Joe Turner

BluesMuse 12 

If  Albert Ammon’s ‘Boogie Woogie Stomp’ was the world’s first rock & roll record in 1936, what was the second? Allow me to put forward ‘Roll ‘Em Pete’, another rollicking piano-based boogie woogie, this one released in 1938.

The Pete doing the rolling was 34-year old Pete Johnson, playing boogie piano for his young blues-shouting partner, Big Joe Turner, 25. Like Albert Ammons, the African-American duo of Turner and Johnson from Kansas City was recording a faster, more rhythmic style of blues that one day would be called rock & roll. 

Big Joe, of course, made the original recording of ‘Shake, Rattle & Roll’ in 1954, covered and made famous worldwide by Bill Haley. Born in 1911 and known as Boss of the Blues, Big Joe Turner died in 1985.

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Old-style Rhythm & Blues is alive and kicking

BluesMuse11

The young (very young) Irish old-style R&B band, The Strypes, performed in London recently. I tweeted their praises, but forgot to plug them in my blues blog. The Strypes are reminiscent in sound and energy to the great English bands  of the 1960s like the Stones, Pretty Things and Yardbirds and Northern Ireland's Them, when they were all young 50-odd years ago. From what I read, the four members of The Strypes are just 15 or 16. Big things predicted. I wonder if they'll still be going in 2053 like the Stones and Pretty Things are. Check out the Strypes' sound on the link below:
https://soundcloud.com/the-strypes 

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Was ‘Boogie Woogie Stomp’ the world’s first rock & roll record in 1936?

BluesMuse10

Fifty eight years ago this May, Bill Hayley’s 12-bar blues, ‘Rock Around The Clock’, turned the world onto rock & roll. While many people claim Ike Turner’s ‘Rocket 88’ was the first rock & roll record in 1951, I’d like to put forward an innovative black pianist from Chicago called Albert Ammons who first got America rocking in 1936.

Albert Ammons' Rhythm Kings had two seminal records that year. The 29-year old's version of ‘Swannee River Boogie’ sold a million records before his 1936 follow-up, ‘Boogie Woogie Stomp’

Albert Ammons

, one can argue, became the moment boogie woogie became rock & roll.

Pre-dating Jerry Lee Lewis’ boogie piano by over twenty years, Albert Ammon's Boogie Woogie Stomp, was a seismic but unsung moment in musical history.

See if you agree by taking  a listen on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNbc0YO5hKg 

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