Category: West Coast Blues

Show Notes:

Today’s show is part of a semi-regular feature I call Forgotten Blues Heroes that spotlights great, but little remembered and little recorded blues artists that don’t really fit into my weekly themed shows. This time out we head to the west coast for a two-part feature as we hear a mix of downhome and uptown blues. We open with several artists who played on each others records for the shadowy Murray label: Beverly Scott, Ernest McClay, Sonny Boy Johnson, Louis Jackson and Junior Hampton. Guitarist Beverly Scott waxed four sides for Murray in 1948 backed on two numbers by guitarist Ernest McClay and pianist Louis Jackson. Scott played behind Ernest McClay’s lone 78 on the Murray label cut the same year and possibly backed pianist Jerry Perkins on the equally obscure W&W imprint. Both Scott and McClay backed harmonica man Sonny Boy Johnson on four songs he cut for Murray in 1948. In addition, we hear the lone records cut by Louis Jackson (as Brother Jackson) and drummer Junior Hampton, who played on each other’s records with guitarist Slim Green. Both men back Green on a 78 cut for Murray. Moving to the more uptown artists; Edward Gates White AKA The Great Gates cut a stack of fine jump blues between 1949-1955, sax man Big Jim Wynn cut some first rate numbers for several labels starting in the mid-40s, singer Little Caesar cut sides for several labels and had some chart success in the 50s before turning to acting, Vernon “Geechie” Smith was a trumpeter/vocalist from the Tulsa who moved to L.A. and laid down excellent sides in the 40s and 50s. Perhaps the best know of today’s artists is the pioneering electric Saunders King who cut some successful and sophisticated songs starting in the early 40s up through a final session in 1961.

Beverly Scott recorded in Los Angeles  for the Murray label in 1948 backed by guitarist Ernest McClay and pianist Louis Jackson who was replaced by Dig Moore on the next session. “Brownskin Woman” is perhaps based on a 1934 song by Joe Pullum and was reissued by Nighthawk Records in 1980. All four of his vocals were reissued in 2007 on the 2-CD set, Down Home Blues Classics: California & The West Coast 1948-1954 on the Boulevard Vintage label. His “Southern California Blues” sports a great closing verse: “I’m just like an old rooster way up on a hill/ Old Scotty’s doin’ no scratchin’, Boys, I’m just trying to live.” Scott and McClay also backed Sonny Boy Johnson on a four-song session for Murray recorded in Los Angeles in 1948. Researcher Bob Eagle has identified Scott as being born January 1, 1911 in Louisiana and who died in Los Angeles on January 8 ,1948, aged 37. When he registered for the draft at Lake Charles on 16 October 1940, Beverly Scott gave his birth date as January 1, 1911 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. McClay cut two sides for Murray in 1948 backed by Beverly Scott and Louis Jackson. Brother Jackson is pianist Louis Jackson, backed on his only recording (“LC Boogie”) by guitarist Slim Green and drummer Junior Hampton. Jackson also backed Junior Hampton on his only record, “JH Stomp.” Jackson and Hampton backed Slim Green on “Baby I Love b/w Tricky Woman Blues” for Murray in 1948. Jerry Perkins cut four sides for the obscure W&W label in Los Angeles in 1947. He calls out to “Scotty” on one number and it’s been suggested by Mike Rowe could be Beverly Scott. Scott refers to himself as “Scotty” in the last line of “Southern California Blues.” Jimmy McCracklin takes the vocals on one of these sides. Nothing is known of Sonny Boy Johnson who cut three sides from an uncredited source in 1947 with unknown backing, one side for Gotham the same year, credited to Wright Holmes who is on the reverse and four songs for Murray in 1948 backed by Beverly Scott and Ernest McClay.

Mike Rowe had the following to say in the notes to Down Home Blues Classics: California & The West Coast 1948-1954: “Record man John R. Fullbright noted ‘I used to sell material to Murray. I was never in partnership with him but I distributed some of his stuff. I have no idea Who Sonny Boy Johnson is.’ It’s possible then that Fullbright recorded the Slim Green sides that appeared on Murray and which pose their own discographical problems. The label states that the pianist is Junior Hampton and drummer Brother Jackson but the other coupling from the session “JH Stomp” lists Hampton as the drummer and Jackson as the pianist! This would seem certainly correct for “LJ Boogie” is listed as Brother Jackson’s side and if “L.J.” are his initials, as seems reasonable, it would suggest the name Louis Jackson who is the pianist who accompanies other Murray artists, Ernest McClay and Beverly Scott. ….What is significant about Sonny Boy Johnson, Ernest McClay and Beverly Scott is that they were not from Texas or Oklahoma. Johnson’s unashamed admiration for John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson suggests Mississippi or Tennessee and this could certainly be true of the others. …Researchers failed to locate Murray – or even his first name – but the label seems to have been an adjunct to his grocery store possible somewhere along or off Los Angeles’ Central Avenue. The received information us he was shot to death in a robbery at his store.”

The bulk of the following information comes from the notes to the album Great Gates on Krazy Kat. Edward Gates White was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1918. He says: “My family left and moved to the West Coast in 1932. I grew up in Southern California, where I attended Jefferson High School (139 E 41st St. Los Angeles), then graduated to attend school at the now defunct Frank Wiggins College and Trade Technical School, where I studied music. I learned to read music then, but I never followed up on it to actually become a professional musician. I then worked for a dry cleaning business until I turned professional in music. At that time the popular dance was the jitterbug. I was very good at dancing. I had entered many dance contests and won big prizes. Most of my friends tried to convince me to go into show business with my dancing. But at that time I felt that wasn’t the right move. And had never given it a second thought.” One day, while working at the dry cleaning company, he was singing while he was working alongside his friends. “When they heard me sing I was just singing to myself not knowing others were listening. My coworker said: ‘I didn’t know you could sing too!’ “Later on that day we had gone out to a nightclub where there was a guest and talent show. My friends talked me into doing a number with the band. To my surprise the crowd loved it and cheered my performance that night the owner of the nightclub offered me a job. I refused because I really didn’t have any experience. After the band leader approached me and offered to teach me the techniques of rhythm and music singing. Later I began to seek jobs as a singer.”

He reportedly recorded at New York City as “The Gates” for Colombia, before December 1948. He certainly recorded as “The Great Gates” for Selective records, by May 1949. He sang under the credit vocal – The Great Gates and His Hollywood All-Stars for Kappa records, before August 1949. He recorded in about late 1949 for Miltone. The Miltone disc was reissued by Gotham in 1950 as The Great Gates and His Wampus Cats. He recorded as The Great Gates for 4 Star in 1950. He recorded for Rex Hollywood in about 1951 as The Great Gates and His Hollywood All-Stars and recorded in 1952 for Recorded In Hollywood as The Great Gates. While playing at San Pedro, California, Gates was asked to record for States and he went along to Chicago, where he recorded under his complete name Edward Gates White for States in 1952. From 1954 onwards, Gates appears to have been associated with Mark Hurley, a white entrepreneur based at Los Angeles. Gates recorded for Aladdin at Capitol Records, Los Angeles in 1955, credited as Great Gates and Band. However, after that session, he abandoned blues recording in favor of instrumental organ recordings of jazz rather than blues. As an organist, he recorded in 1959 for specialty as Ed Great Gates when in 1962 for Robins Nest as Ed Gates at the Organ and finally as The Man on the Moon Ed Gates at the Organ also for Robins Nest. By 1985 he was still living in Los Angeles and was still singing and playing the custom Hammond organ at cocktail lounges, billed as a as The Man on the Moon and still using the name Ed Gates.

The bulk of the following information comes from the album notes to Blow Wynn Blow on the Whiskey, Women, and… label. Jim Wynn was born in El Paso, TX in 1912 when he was quite young, his family moved to Los Angeles where Jim began his first job as a newsboy delivering a local paper. Jim’s introduction to music was a piano but he soon switched to playing the clarinet. “…I wanted to be a concert clarinetist, but there really wasn’t enough jobs available at the time, so I switched to sax. I started playing most of the traditional stuff, but the money wasn’t there…” He broke into music at a time when the big swing bands were starting to break down into smaller Blues and rhythm units. He began playing blues in a place called the Harlem club in watts in 1936. “… I took up blowing one-noters, bootin’ the blues, and all at once, there I was playing regular again…” His initial work was with the tenor sax although he also became known for the baritone later on. It was while he was at the Harlem club that he first met T-Bone Walker. T-bone began singing with his small unit and slowly began to draw attention. He also backed other singers during this time like Big Joe Turner and Marion Abernathy.

uring the war years his unit became known as “The Bobalibans” taken after a song he had written called “Ee-Bobaliba.” His band had been featuring it for quite a while in various West Coast clubs. In August of 1945, vocalist Helen Humes recorded the song with the Bill Doggett octet for the Philo label. It became one of the smash hits of the year. He released his version called “Ee-Bobaliba” on the 4 Star label later that year. His first recordings were made during 1945 for the 4 Star/Gilt Edge affiliation of labels. A total of eight singles were released during this period which were credited to Jim Wynn’s Bobalilbans. Evidently the group’s record sales were enough to keep them quite active and they would tour up and down the West Coast backing name artists of the day such as Lowell Fulson and Percy Mayfield.

By late 1946, Wynn had switched to the Modern label, where you had three releases over the next year. Wynn’s popularity was due to his fine band sound which was rooted in the jumping, often raucous, blues and rhythm styles of the late 1940s. His band followed the same format musically as other similar West Coast units such as Jimmy Liggins’ Drops of Joy sand Roy Milton’s Solid Senders. By mid-1948, he had again switched labels, this time to Specialty where his band was called the groove masters and switched again to Supreme Records.

For his live shows he would kick, dance, shuffle, strut, go down on his knees, roll and literally revive his own mini show on stage, all the while blowing wild solos on his sacks. He was the first of the Los Angeles area sax players to perform these antics on stage. At that time a young sax player named Jay McNeely used to come around on weekends to watch him blow sax and clown around on the stage.

In 1950 he teamed up with T-Bone Walker again in the studio and on the road. His band backed T-bone on his first imperial sessions out in Los Angeles in 1950. He would remain a member of T-Bone’s outfit on and off for over 17 years. As the 1950s rolled on, his recording dates under his own name became fewer and fewer. He did a four-cut session for mercury in early 1951 of which only one single was ever released, and another session for Recorded in Hollywood also resulting in one single release. The last known release under his own name was for the Million label in May 1954. He continued as a session man well into the 1970s. He also toured as the featured baritone sax player with the Johnny Otis show.

Saunders King’s first professional appearances were with the Southern Harmony Four, a gospel quartet that broadcast over NBC Radio in San Francisco for several years. Inspired by Charlie Christian’s records with Benny Goodman, King took up guitar in 1938. After working with an ensemble led by Joe Porter, he organized his own sextet, which accompanied him during his debut session for the Rhythm label in June 1942.  His two-part “S.K. Blues” became his biggest hit, inspiring covers by Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon. Other standouts from King’s 1942 Rhythm dates were the unbeatably smooth “What’s Your Story Morning Glory” and “S.K. Groove.” Not long after World War II, he resumed cutting for Rhythm in ’46, producing classic 78s such as the two-part “Lonesome Pillow Blues” and “After Hours” backed with “Why Was I Born.” “Write Me A Letter Blues” was paired with the bop-inspired “Swingin’,” one of King’s finest performances. Subsequent Rhythm sessions yielded further gems: “Stay Gone Blues”/”S.K. Jumps” and “Something’s Worrying Me”/”2:00 A.M. Hop.” On record and stage, Saunders never restricted himself to blues, delving into swing, ballads, bebop, and revitalized readings of standards such as “Summertime” and “Danny Boy.” In newspaper ads from the late ’40s, San Francisco’s Club Savoy billed him as part of “The Greatest Sepia Show On The Coast.”

Near the decade’s end, the Bihari brothers purchased most of Saunders’ Rhythm masters and invited him to cut new material for their Modern Records. King’s first Modern offering was the ballad “Imagination” backed with “Empty Bedroom Blues.” Modern next paired “Danny Boy” with “Read The Good Book.” Th e Biharis reissued the old Rhythm master of “S.K. Blues” as the two-part “(New) S.K. Blues.” King’s brief sojourn at the San Francisco-based CavaTone label produced a single 78, “September Song”/”Nobody Wants Me.” In March 1949, a Billboard ad proclaimed, “Here he is!!! The King of the Blues, Saunders King, and Aladdin got him!” Saunders’ Aladdin debut, No. 3027, was his version of “St. James Infirmary Blues” backed with his original “Little Girl.” He continued to expand his solo style on subsequent Aladdin releases, bending strings with aplomb on “Misery Blues” and stretching out nicely on “Stormy Night Blues.” Cut in a superior studio, Saunders regards his Aladdin releases as his finest–sounding 78s. By the early 1950s Saunders King’s recording heyday was drawing to a close. He was in top form when he cut his potent “Summertime Boogie,” released on RPM. In 1954 King produced a pair of memorable platters for the Biharis’ Flair subsidiary, “My Close Friend”/”Going Mad” and “Quit Hangin’ Around Me”/”Long Long Time.” His final session as a leader, at Fantasy Records in 1961, produced stinging–guitar remakes of “S.K. Blues” and “What’s Your Story Morning Glory,” released as Galaxy 712

Little Caesar was born Harry Caesar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 18, 1928. He joined the army in 1948 and when he was discharged in 1950, he intended to pursue a boxing career, but after a disappointing match which ended in a draw, he switched careers to R&B music. Caesar moved to the San Francisco area and worked with The Peter Rabbit Trio. He later relocated to Oakland, California and recorded for the Bihari Brothers at Modern Records and John Dolphin’s Recorded In Hollywood. n July 1952, Caesar performed at the 3rd Annual Blues Jubilee held at the Shrine Auditorium and presented by KLAC DJ Gene Norman. His single, “Goodbye Baby”, released on Recorded In Hollywood was very successful, reaching No. 5 on Billboard’s Best Selling R&B chart in November 1952. In 1953, he released singles on Big Town Records and Modern’s subsidiary RPM. In 1960, Caesar and his band the Ark Angels recorded for Jack Bee Records which soon became Downey Records. Caesar turned to acting in 1960, and until 1993, he appeared in numerous films and television shows.

Vernon “Geechie” Smith was a trumpeter/vocalist from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, aera. He played early on with Ernie Fields Orchestra, and one of his first Capitol sides was called “T-Town Jump”, that might serve as an evidence. He was a KC stalwart, spent many years in Kansas City and played in countless KC styled bands. He moved to L.A. where he joined Joe Lutcher’s band. He took many of his colleagues with him, namely guitarists Lucky Enois and Louis Speiginer, tenor man Freddie Simon, pianist Fletcher Smith and drummer Jesse Price. After recording under his own name for the Bihari Brother’ Modern subsidiary Colonial in 1950 and for the obscure Kicks label in 1954, he drifted into obscurity.

Show Notes:

Today’s show is part of a semi-regular feature I call Forgotten Blues Heroes that spotlights great, but little remembered and little recorded blues artists that don’t really fit into my weekly themed shows. This time out we head to the west coast for a two-part feature as we hear a mix of downhome and uptown blues. We open with several artists who played on each others records for the obscure Murray label: Beverly Scott, Ernest McClay, Sonny Boy Johnson, Louis Jackson and Junior Hampton. Guitarist Beverly Scott waxed four sides for Murray in 1948 backed on two numbers by guitarist Ernest McClay and pianist Louis Jackson. Scott played behind Ernest McClay’s lone 78 on the Murray label cut the same year and possibly backed pianist Jerry Perkins on the equally obscure W&W imprint. Both Scott and McClay backed harmonica man Sonny Boy Johnson on four songs he cut for Murray in 1948. In addition, we hear the lone records cut by Louis Jackson (as Brother Jackson) and drummer Junior Hampton, who played on each other’s records with guitarist Slim Green. Both men back Green on a 78 cut for Murray. Moving to the more uptown artists; Edward Gates White AKA The Great Gates cut a stack of fine jump blues between 1949-1955, sax man Big Jim Wynn cut some first rate numbers for several labels starting in the mid-40s, singer Little Caesar cut sides for several labels and had some chart success in the 50s before turning to acting, Vernon “Geechie” Smith was a trumpeter/vocalist from the Tulsa who moved to L.A. and laid down excellent sides in the 40s and 50s. Perhaps the best know of today’s artists is the pioneering electric Saunders King who cut some successful and sophisticated songs starting in the early 40s up through a final session in 1961.

Beverly Scott recorded in Los Angeles  for the Murray label in 1948 backed by guitarist Ernest McClay and pianist Louis Jackson who was replaced by Dig Moore on the next session. “Brownskin Woman” is perhaps based on a 1934 song by Joe Pullum and was reissued by Nighthawk Records in 1980. All four of his vocals were reissued in 2007 on the 2-CD set, Down Home Blues Classics: California & The West Coast 1948-1954 on the Boulevard Vintage label. His “Southern California Blues” sports a great closing verse: “I’m just like an old rooster way up on a hill/ Old Scotty’s doin’ no scratchin’, Boys, I’m just trying to live.” Scott and McClay also backed Sonny Boy Johnson on a four-song session for Murray recorded in Los Angeles in 1948. Researcher Bob Eagle has identified Scott as being born January 1, 1911 in Louisiana and who died in Los Angeles on January 8 ,1948, aged 37. When he registered for the draft at Lake Charles on 16 October 1940, Beverly Scott gave his birth date as January 1, 1911 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. McClay cut two sides for Murray in 1948 backed by Beverly Scott and Louis Jackson. Brother Jackson is pianist Louis Jackson, backed on his only recording (“LC Boogie”) by guitarist Slim Green and drummer Junior Hampton. Jackson also backed Junior Hampton on his only record, “JH Stomp.” Jackson and Hampton backed Slim Green on “Baby I Love b/w Tricky Woman Blues” for Murray in 1948. Jerry Perkins cut four sides for the obscure W&W label in Los Angeles in 1947. He calls out to “Scotty” on one number and it’s been suggested by Mike Rowe could be Beverly Scott. Scott refers to himself as “Scotty” in the last line of “Southern California Blues.” Jimmy McCracklin takes the vocals on one of these sides. Nothing is known of Sonny Boy Johnson who cut three sides from an uncredited source in 1947 with unknown backing, one side for Gotham the same year, credited to Wright Holmes who is on the reverse and four songs for Murray in 1948 backed by Beverly Scott and Ernest McClay.

Mike Rowe had the following to say in the notes to Down Home Blues Classics: California & The West Coast 1948-1954: “Record man John R. Fullbright noted ‘I used to sell material to Murray. I was never in partnership with him but I distributed some of his stuff. I have no idea Who Sonny Boy Johnson is.’ It’s possible then that Fullbright recorded the Slim Green sides that appeared on Murray and which pose their own discographical problems. The label states that the pianist is Junior Hampton and drummer Brother Jackson but the other coupling from the session “JH Stomp” lists Hampton as the drummer and Jackson as the pianist! This would seem certainly correct for “LJ Boogie” is listed as Brother Jackson’s side and if “L.J.” are his initials, as seems reasonable, it would suggest the name Louis Jackson who is the pianist who accompanies other Murray artists, Ernest McClay and Beverly Scott. ….What is significant about Sonny Boy Johnson, Ernest McClay and Beverly Scott is that they were not from Texas or Oklahoma. Johnson’s unashamed admiration for John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson suggests Mississippi or Tennessee and this could certainly be true of the others. …Researchers failed to locatE Murray – or even his first name – but the label seems to have been an adjunct to his grocery store possible somewhere along or off Los Angeles’ Central Avenue. The received information us he was shot to death in a robbery at his store.”

The bulk of the following information comes from the notes to the album Great Gates on Krazy Kat. Edward Gates White was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1918. He says: “My family left and moved to the West Coast in 1932. I grew up in Southern California, where I attended Jefferson high school (139 E 41st St. Los Angeles), then graduated to attend school at the now defunct Frank Wiggins College and Trade Technical School, where I studied music. I learned to read music then, but I never followed up on it to actually become a professional musician. I then worked for a dry cleaning business until I turned professional in music. At that time the popular dance was the jitterbug. I was very good at dancing. I had entered many dance contests and won big prizes. Most of my friends tried to convince me to go into show business with my dancing. But at that time I felt that wasn’t the right move. And had never given it a second thought.” One day, while working at the dry cleaning company, he was singing while he was working alongside his friends. “When they heard me sing I was just singing to myself not knowing others were listening. My coworker said: ‘I didn’t know you could sing too!’ “Later on that day we had gone out to a nightclub where there was a guest and talent show. My friends talked me into doing a number with the band. To my surprise the crowd loved it and cheered my performance that night the owner of the nightclub offered me a job. I refused because I really didn’t have any experience. After the band leader approached me and offered to teach me the techniques of rhythm and music singing. Later I began to seek jobs as a singer.”

He reportedly recorded at New York City as “The Gates” for Colombia, before December 1948. He certainly recorded as “The Great Gates” for Selective records, by May 1949. He sang under the credit vocal – The Great Gates and His Hollywood All-Stars for Kappa records, before August 1949. He recorded in about late 1949 for Miltone. The Miltone disc was reissued by Gotham in 1950 as The Great Gates and His Wampus Cats. He recorded as The Great Gates for 4 Star in 1950. He recorded for Rex Hollywood in about 1951 as The Great Gates and His Hollywood All-Stars and recorded in 1952 for Recorded In Hollywood as The Great Gates. While playing at San Pedro, California, Gates was asked to record for States and he went along to Chicago, where he recorded under his complete name Edward Gates White for States in 1952. From 1954 onwards, Gates appears to have been associated with Mark Hurley, a white entrepreneur based at Los Angeles. Gates recorded for Aladdin at Capitol Records, Los Angeles in 1955, credited as Great Gates and Band. However, after that session, he abandoned blues recording in favor of instrumental organ recordings of jazz rather than blues. As an organist, he recorded in 1959 for specialty as Ed Great Gates when in 1962 for Robins Nest as Ed Gates at the Organ and finally as The Man on the Moon Ed Gates at the Organ also for Robins Nest. By 1985 he was still living in Los Angeles and was still singing and playing the custom Hammond organ at cocktail lounges, billed as a as The Man on the Moon and still using the name Ed Gates.

The bulk of the following information comes from the album notes to Blow Wynn Blow on the Whiskey, Women, and… label. Jim Wynn was born in El Paso, TX in 1912 when he was quite young, his family moved to Los Angeles where Jim began his first job as a newsboy delivering a local paper. Jim’s introduction to music was a piano but he soon switched to playing the clarinet. “…I wanted to be a concert clarinetist, but there really wasn’t enough jobs available at the time, so I switched to sax. I started playing most of the traditional stuff, but the money wasn’t there…” He broke into music at a time when the big swing bands were starting to break down into smaller Blues and rhythm units. He began playing blues in a place called the Harlem club in watts in 1936. “… I took up blowing one-noters, bootin’ the blues, and all at once, there I was playing regular again…” His initial work was with the tenor sax although he also became known for the baritone later on. It was while he was at the Harlem club that he first met T-Bone Walker. T-bone began singing with his small unit and slowly began to draw attention. He also backed other singers during this time like Big Joe Turner and Marion Abernathy.

During the war years his unit became known as “The Bobalibans” taken after a song he had written called “Ee-Bobaliba.” His band had been featuring it for quite a while in various West Coast clubs. In August of 1945, vocalist Helen Humes recorded the song with the Bill Doggett octet for the Philo label. It became one of the smash hits of the year. He released his version called “Ee-Bobaliba” on the 4 Star label later that year. His first recordings were made during 1945 for the 4 Star/Gilt Edge affiliation of labels. A total of eight singles were released during this period which were credited to Jim Wynn’s Bobalilbans. Evidently the group’s record sales were enough to keep them quite active and they would tour up and down the West Coast backing name artists of the day such as Lowell Fulson and Percy Mayfield.

By late 1946, Wynn had switched to the Modern label, where you had three releases over the next year. Wynn’s popularity was due to his fine band sound which was rooted in the jumping, often raucous, blues and rhythm styles of the late 1940s. His band followed the same format musically as other similar West Coast units such as Jimmy Liggins’ Drops of Joy sand Roy Milton’s Solid Senders. By mid-1948, he had again switched labels, this time to Specialty where his band was called the groove masters and switched again to Supreme Records.

For his live shows he would kick, dance, shuffle, strut, go down on his knees, roll and literally revive his own mini show on stage, all the while blowing wild solos on his sacks. He was the first of the Los Angeles area sax players to perform these antics on stage. At that time a young sax player named Jay McNeely used to come around on weekends to watch him blow sax and clown around on the stage. In 1950 he teamed up with T-Bone Walker again in the studio and on the road. His band backed T-bone on his first imperial sessions out in Los Angeles in 1950. He would remain a member of T-Bone’s outfit on and off for over 17 years. As the 1950s rolled on, his recording dates under his own name became fewer and fewer. He did a four-cut session for mercury in early 1951 of which only one single was ever released, and another session for Recorded in Hollywood also resulting in one single release. The last known release under his own name was for the Million label in May 1954. He continued as a session man well into the 1970s. He also toured as the featured baritone sax player with the Johnny Otis show.

Saunders King and his Orchestra, 1943

Saunders King’s first professional appearances were with the Southern Harmony Four, a gospel quartet that broadcast over NBC Radio in San Francisco for several years. Inspired by Charlie Christian’s records with Benny Goodman, King took up guitar in 1938. After working with an ensemble led by Joe Porter, he organized his own sextet, which accompanied him during his debut session for the Rhythm label in June 1942.  His two-part “S.K. Blues” became his biggest hit, inspiring covers by Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Witherspoon. Other standouts from King’s 1942 Rhythm dates were the unbeatably smooth “What’s Your Story Morning Glory” and “S.K. Groove.” Not long after World War II, he resumed cutting for Rhythm in ’46, producing classic 78s such as the two-part “Lonesome Pillow Blues” and “After Hours” backed with “Why Was I Born.” “Write Me A Letter Blues” was paired with the bop-inspired “Swingin’,” one of King’s finest performances. Subsequent Rhythm sessions yielded further gems: “Stay Gone Blues”/”S.K. Jumps” and “Something’s Worrying Me”/”2:00 A.M. Hop.” On record and stage, Saunders never restricted himself to blues, delving into swing, ballads, bebop, and revitalized readings of standards such as “Summertime” and “Danny Boy.” In newspaper ads from the late ’40s, San Francisco’s Club Savoy billed him as part of “The Greatest Sepia Show On The Coast.”

Near the decade’s end, the Bihari brothers purchased most of Saunders’ Rhythm masters and invited him to cut new material for their Modern Records. King’s first Modern offering was the ballad “Imagination” backed with “Empty Bedroom Blues.” Modern next paired “Danny Boy” with “Read The Good Book.” Th e Biharis reissued the old Rhythm master of “S.K. Blues” as the two-part “(New) S.K. Blues.” King’s brief sojourn at the San Francisco-based CavaTone label produced a single 78, “September Song”/”Nobody Wants Me.” In March 1949, a Billboard ad proclaimed, “Here he is!!! The King of the Blues, Saunders King, and Aladdin got him!” Saunders’ Aladdin debut, No. 3027, was his version of “St. James Infirmary Blues” backed with his original “Little Girl.” He continued to expand his solo style on subsequent Aladdin releases, bending strings with aplomb on “Misery Blues” and stretching out nicely on “Stormy Night Blues.” Cut in a superior studio, Saunders regards his Aladdin releases as his finest–sounding 78s. By the early 1950s Saunders King’s recording heyday was drawing to a close. He was in top form when he cut his potent “Summertime Boogie,” released on RPM. In 1954 King produced a pair of memorable platters for the Biharis’ Flair subsidiary, “My Close Friend”/”Going Mad” and “Quit Hangin’ Around Me”/”Long Long Time.” His final session as a leader, at Fantasy Records in 1961, produced stinging–guitar remakes of “S.K. Blues” and “What’s Your Story Morning Glory,” released as Galaxy 712.

Little Caesar was born Harry Caesar in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 18, 1928. He joined the army in 1948 and when he was discharged in 1950, he intended to pursue a boxing career, but after a disappointing match which ended in a draw, he switched careers to R&B music. Caesar moved to the San Francisco area and worked with The Peter Rabbit Trio. He later relocated to Oakland, California and recorded for the Bihari Brothers at Modern Records and John Dolphin’s Recorded In Hollywood. n July 1952, Caesar performed at the 3rd Annual Blues Jubilee held at the Shrine Auditorium and presented by KLAC DJ Gene Norman. His single, “Goodbye Baby”, released on Recorded In Hollywood was very successful, reaching No. 5 on Billboard’s Best Selling R&B chart in November 1952. In 1953, he released singles on Big Town Records and Modern’s subsidiary RPM. In 1960, Caesar and his band the Ark Angels recorded for Jack Bee Records which soon became Downey Records. Caesar turned to acting in 1960, and until 1993, he appeared in numerous films and television shows.

Vernon “Geechie” Smith was a trumpeter/vocalist from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, aera. He played early on with Ernie Fields Orchestra, and one of his first Capitol sides was called “T-Town Jump”, that might serve as an evidence. He was a KC stalwart, spent many years in Kansas City and played in countless KC styled bands. He moved to L.A. where he joined Joe Lutcher’s band. He took many of his colleagues with him, namely guitarists Lucky Enois and Louis Speiginer, tenor man Freddie Simon, pianist Fletcher Smith and drummer Jesse Price. After recording under his own name for the Bihari Brother’ Modern subsidiary Colonial in 1950 and for the obscure Kicks label in 1954, he drifted into obscurity.