Category: Blues

A rollicking Chicago blues number by Big Bill Broonzy about the “mean old world we live in”. Features a swingin’ backup band that includes New Orleans jazz trumpeter Punch Miller.

Recorded in Chicago on Sunday, January 31, 1937.
Released as Melotone 7-07-64

Credits:
Big Bill Broonzy – vocals, guitar
Punch Miller – trumpet
Black Bob – piano
Bill Settles – bass
Fred Williams – drums

In 1950 Big Bill Broonzy left Chicago and briefly spent time working as a janitor at Iowa State University, where he wrote “Moppers Blues”.

In 1951 he went on a European tour that revitalized his career.

In November of 1951, he recorded the excellent “Hey Hey” in Chicago, which was released on the Mercury label in March of 1952.

The song would later become widely known when covered by Eric Clapton on his platinum-selling 1991 MTV Unplugged album.

“Jelly Bean Blues” by Ma Rainey and her Georgia Jazz Band featuring Louis Armstrong, Charlie Green, Buster Bailey, and (uncredited on this label), Charlie Dixon on banjo.

“I can sit right here and look a thousand miles away – I just can remember what my baby had to say”

Originally released on Paramount in 1926, this dubbed pressing from the private Jazz Collector label in the UK is from the late 1940s.

Credits:
Ma Rainey – Vocals
Louis Armstrong – cornet
Charlie Green – trombone
Buster Bailey – clarinet
Fletcher Henderson – piano
Charlie Dixon – banjo

Ma Rainey’s “Mountain Jack Blues” begins idyllically: “Early this morning, everything was still…” But the true meaning of that seemingly pastoral moment soon is revealed as the narrator describes sadly watching her lover walk away, remembering his devastating last words to her: “I’m goin’, sweet mama, cryin’ won’t make me stay – The more you cry, the further you’ll drive me away”.

Recorded in February 1926 in Chicago with pianist Jimmy Blythe.
Released as Paramount 12352.

Mississippi-born blues singer and guitarist Jim Jackson outlines the many reasons why Kansas City is the preferred destination for future residence.

“My mother told me, daddy told me too,
Everybody grins in your face, son, ain’t no friend to you.
You ought to move to Kansas City.”

A wildly popular song at the time that also influenced a generation of blues and rock performers decades after it was recorded.

Recorded in Chicago on October 10, 1927.
Released as Vocalion 1144