Copulation Blues 1926-1940: Hot & Sexy Various Artists - Sydney Pechet, Bessie Smith

SIDE (1)

1. PREACHIN' BLUES: Sidney Bechet and his New Orleans Feetwarmers: Sidney Bechet (clt/ss), Sonny White (pno), Charlie Howard (gtr), Wilson Meyers (sbs/vcl), Kenny Clarke (dms), Rec. Feb. 5, 1940 (vcl) Wilson Meyers.

2. STAVIN' CHAIN (That Rockin' Swing): Lil Johnson (vcl), acc by poss. Punch Miller or Alfred Bell (tpt) unknown (pno), prob. Fred Williams (dms) Rec. June 10,1937 Mx. C-1931-2 (Unissued).

3. DO YOUR DUTY: Bessie Smith (vcl) acc. by Buck and his Band;
Frankie Newton (tpt), Jack Teagarden (tbn), Benny Goodman (clt),
Leon "Chu" Berry (ts), Buck Washington (pno), Bobby Johnson (gtr),
Billy Taylor (sbs). Rec. Nov. 24,1933.

4. NEW RUBBIN' ON THE DARNED OLD THING: Oscars Chicago Swingers; prob. John Oscar (pno), unknown tpt, alt, sbs, dms. Rec. May 5, 1936 vcl Lovin' Sam Theard.

5. PRESS MY BUTTON (Ring My Bell): Lil Johnson (vcl) acc. by Black Bob (pno), unknown (sbs) Rec. Feb. 12, 1936.

6. STAVIN' CHAIN: Johnny Temple (vcl) acc. by the Harlem Hamfats; Herb "Kid" Morand (tpt), Charlie McCoy (gtr/mand), Joe McCoy (gtr), Odell Rand (clt), Horace Malcolm (pno), unknown (sbs), Fred Flynn (dms) Rec. Oct. 28, 1937.

7. DON'T YOU MAKE ME HIGH: Merline Johnson (The YasYas Girl) vcl; acc. by Buster Bennet (ss), Blind John Davis (pno), prob Big Bill Broonzy (gtr), unknown (sbs). Rec. Oct. 4,1938.

8. YOU STOLE MY CHERRY: Lil Johnson (vcl), acc. by prob. Black Bob (pno), unknown sbs, gtr. Rec. Mar. 3, 1937 Mx. C-1830-2 (Unissued).

SIDE (2)

1. I NEED A LITTLE SUGAR IN MY BOWL: Bessie Smith (vcl) acc. by Fred Langshaw or Clarence Williams (pno) Rec. Nov. 20,1931.

2. GET OFF WITH ME: Coot Grant (Viola B. Wilson) and Kid Wesley Wilson (vcl duet) acc. by Wesley Wilson (pno) Rec. Feb. 10,1931.

3. MY DADDY ROCKS ME (With One Steady Roll): Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band; Tampa Red (gtr/kazoo), prob. Thomas A. Dorsey (Georgia Tom) (pno), poss. "Kentucky" (jug), unknown (wbd), Bill Johnson (sbs) Rec. April 19, 1929 vcl. Frankie Jaxon.

4. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY MOJO: Grant & Wilson; (vcl duet), acc by Wesley Wilson (pno) Rec. Feb 17, 1932.

5. WININ' BOY: Jelly Roll Morton (vcl) acc by own piano; Library of Congress recording 1938.

6. SHAVE 'EM DRY (second version, Unissued); Lucille Bogan (Bessie Jackson) (vcl), acc by Walter Roland (pno) Rec. prob. Mar. 5, 1935.

7. BARBECUE BESS: Bessie Jackson (Lucille Bogan) (vcl); acc by Walter Roland (pno), prob Josh White (gtr), unknown second (gtr) Rec.
Mar. 6, 1935.

8. I'LL KEEP SITTIN' ON IT (If I Can't Sell It): Georgia White (vcl) acc by Richard M. Jones (pno), Ikey Robinson (gtr), John Lindsey (sbs) Rec. May 12,1936.

This album is a show piece in the blues continuum, described by Leroi Jones as moving from its birth in the post-Civil War period from a highly personalized amalgam of the work-shout and the spiritual through the country blues to the sophisticated evolvement of the city blues coincident with the great migration from the rural South to the urban North after World War I.

This olio of predominantly urban blues does not represent a focus on the tragic aspects of being black in America, but rather the strong counterforce of joy, uninhibited, unrestricted, to be found in sex . . . the one area of black life over which the ruling whites had no control. Raw, earthy, unabashedly direct and more explicit than innuendoed, these are the genrecalled the dirty blues.

The historic development of the blues, traces in music the social history of the Black American. Its evolution demonstrated more forcefully, perhaps, than any other phenomenon how a people are molded by environmental factors that override genetic influences.

That the direct sensuality expressed in these blues could be called "dirty" is a commentary on the sad quality of the lifeless puritanism of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant ethic against which American youth are moving today, but which Blacks rejected long ago, that is with the exception of upwardly striving Black bourgeoisie who wished to become carbon copies of the white masters. In fact, among the "respectables", as St. Clair Drake points out in Black Metropolis, the blues was not even allowed in the house because it was considered lower class.

As Leroi Jones puts it, most succinctly . . . "the blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives" . . . song was a cushion against the chains of that captivity.

Here are rarities for the collector, not even mentioned in such anthologies and studies as Leroi Jones "Blues People", Eric Sackheim's 'The Blues Line" and Phyl Garland's "Soul Music", they express no awareness of the artistry of Coot Grant, Johnny Temple and Lil Johnson, though all of them do note Tampa Red.

You can't talk about the blues without the dancing. These songs came out in a period when the dancing was as earthy as the music, if not more so. Rollin' butt, dry fuckin', the grind, dancin' on a dime, the bump and the mess around — all names accurately describing the movements of the dance.

These songs bring to mind Small's Paradise, dancing waiters, twirling their trays on one finger, Virgie At Dickie Wells, the after-hours joint, snatching rolled-up dollar bills off a table with her vaginal orifice — Amy Spencer was said to be able to pick a dime up with hers as the depression shortened the loot.

Much of the material on Harlem never saw the light of day. It was considered "too raw" for conservative tastes. Fortunately, realism and honesty, "telling it like it is", ". . . or was" has opened the doors for depiction of a music coming from a background that was the backstage, back door and backseat of the U.S.A.

On SHAVE 'EM DRY Lucille Bogan rolls out an unbowdlerized "stompdown" whore-house song that makes the latest erotic limerick sound like the ladies finishing school poetry.

PREACHIN' BLUES opens with an unadulterated barrel-house piano that presages the boogie-woogie. Pere Bechet (Pops), in his prime, slides in on the intro with his magnificent full-bodied soprano saxophone. One almost wishes there'd be a full chorus of intro before the singer, Wilson Meyers, comes in and makes you forget the opening. Close listening will reveal the phenomenally light, but distinctive and avant-garde touch, of the brushwork of Kenny "Kluke" Clarke who was later to join with Yardbird Parker and Diz Gillespie in creating BeBop.

DO YOUR DUTY is one all-around gas, with Bessie Smith vocalizing in top form against an all-star background. Integration (pardon the expression) was way out in front in music . . . Jelly Roll Morton had played with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the Twenties and here Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden play in a mixed outfit in 1933 with the much underrated revolutionary trumpeter, Frankie Newton, lovingly haunted by the inspiration of "Pops", the phenomenal and unique "Chu" Berry, a tenor sax tone as smooth as honey, Billy Taylor on string bass providing the background for Bessie and on this track it is clearly a labor of love.

DON'T YOU MAKE ME HIGH is worth listening to as a contrast to Maria Muldauer's version with Benny Carter, the old pro, heading her back-up band. When it first came out in the late 30's everybody in Harlem was singing the lyrics. Dig the little-known saxophone of Buster Bennett and Big Bill Broonzy on guitar.

KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY MOJO brings to mind Timmy Roger's saying, "Romance without Finance is a Nuisance" a witty short poem on the pursuit of alternative entrepreneurial modalities by folk barred from participation in mainstream society.

AH the tracks deserve comment, but why not … dig it yourself on the rest?