The Blues Room #562
Wednesday 9 November 2016
9pm-10pm, FreeFM89.0, Hamilton, NZ.
For many years Nate has been following a vintage blues radio show hosted by Jeff Harris called Big Road Blues. Jeff presents his 2-hour show each Sunday from 5 to 7 PM (EST) on WGMC Jazz90.1 (Rochester, NY) and it streams live on the web from
http://www.jazz901.org/listen-live/. Jeff has kindly given permission for Big Road Blues to be re-run on The Blues Room each month, on the second Wednesday. This episode here is a classic example of what you'll hear from Jeff; superb tracks, great commentary, and a taste of classic and often rare and forgotten blues. As Jeff's shows are two hours long, Nate will post a link for listeners to check out the second half of his show. For archived shows of Big Road Blues please check out
http://sundayblues.org/. So a big thank you goes out to Jeff and we look forward to sharing some of his outstanding shows on The Blues Room.
"Today's show is a part one of our look at some great New York based sax men who's honkin' sound was heard on hundreds of records in the 40's and 50's. This show is one of several sax based shows this year starting a few months ago with a two-part show of Chicago horn men , followed by two spotlighting some great L.A. Horn blowers. Illinois Jacquet is cited as the one who kicked off the era of honkin' sax in 1945 with his famous solo on "Flying Home" while working with Lionel Hampton's band. As Big Jay McNeely said of of the song, "every time we picked up our horns we were just elaborating on that, trying to make it bigger, wilder, give it more swing, more kick. If you want to know where rhythm and blues began, that's it brother." Today we spin some great honkin' sax records, some cut by the horn men themselves and others featuring their raucous playing behind some great blues singers, both well known and obscure. The records were issued on a myriad of small New York independent labels labels such as Atlas, Derby, Coral, Apollo, Groove, Fire/Fury, Savoy and bigger players such as King and Atlantic. Along the way we'll hear some exciting instrumentals and hear them back some terrific blues singers, both famous like Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner and Ruth Brown, to the obscure such as Eddie Mack, Mr. Bear and Edna McGriff. Among those featured today are legendary horn men such as Hal Singer and Freddie Mitchell who played on countless sessions as well as recording some exciting sides under their own names. Then there were sax men primarily know for their session work such as the prolific Sam “The Man” Taylor, Budd Johnson and Big Al Sears. There were the sax men who led their own bands and were stars in their own right such as Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams, Red Prysock, Earl Bostic and Bullmoose Jackson. Others heard today include the incendiary Noble “Thin Man” Watts, the rising star King Curtis, Willis “Gator” Jackson, Buddy Lucas, Frank Culley and others. On part two we'll spin more great tracks by theses sax men as well as hearing form others such as Sil Austin, Buddy Tate, Charlie Singleton and more. We'll provide some background on some of today's artists and fill in details about the rest next week." Read more at Jeff's site:
Sunday Blues
Big Road Blues Show :: Jookin' – Honkin' Sax From New York Pt. 1
1. Hal Singer & Carl Davis - I Feel So Good
2. Hal Singer - Disc Jockey Boogie
3. Wynonie Harris w/ Frank Culley & Hal Singer - I Feel That Old Age Coming On
4. Ruth Brown w/ Freddie Mitchell - I Would If I Could
5. Eunice Davis & Freddie Mitchell Orchestra - Rock Little Daddy
6. Freddie Mitchell - Rockin' With Coop
7. Big Joe Turner w/ Sam Taylor - In The Evening
8. Bull Moose Jackson w/ Sam Taylor - Cherokee Boogie
9. Bull Moose Jackson w/ Red Prysiock - Big Ten Inch
10. Wynonie Harris w/ Red Prysiock - Down Boy Down
11. Red Prysock - Jump Red, Jump
12. Willis Jackson - Good To The Bone
13. Eddie Mack w/ Willis Jackson - Mercenary
14. Big Joe Turner w/ Al Sears - Ti - Ri – Lee
15. Nappy Brown w/ Big Al Sears - Well Well Well Baby
16. Big Al Sears - Marshall Plan
