(Paying Subscribers, at the bottom you’ll find your bonus—three more audio tracks from this session.)
[Anthony Barnett is a poet, editor of the literary and arts print journal Snow lit rev, and a jazz historian specializing in violinists who has published books and articles and uncovered many previously unknown recordings, all available here. He has shared exclusive material with us before. Here’s another great one:]
Charles Mingus and Earl Hines: A Rare Recording Behind a Blues Singer
by Anthony Barnett
Sunrise was a New York record label founded in 1947 by Leonard Evans (who credited himself as co-composer or composer on a number of releases). Quite a few titles were recorded in Chicago. In 1949 Sunrise was passed to Chicago’s Miracle label, which is the last year of Sunrise red label releases. (You’ll see some of the red labels below.) It’s complicated. There is a summary about these companies here, but there is more to the story. Mercer Ellington discusses Sunrise in his autobiography (with Stanley Dance) Duke Ellington in Person (1978). The Duke was one of several investors, but Mercer describes the outfit as run by amateurs. They are not named, but this must refer to Evans as well as others. When Sunrise was imploding Mercer goes on to say that they reclaimed those masters recorded by himself and Duke, and ones by musicians drawn from the Ellington orchestra, including vocalist Al Hibbler, for his own new Mercer label. That venture was doomed. The warehouse containing Mercer stock was subjected to a mafia-related arson attack.
Among the Chicago sessions was one on December 31, 1947, led by Earl Hines (but not credited to him—see below), with Charles Mingus on bass. This was Hines’s third Sunrise session: the first was with his orchestra, and the second was a small group including violinist Eddie South on two known tracks. On this third one, all the other musicians including the vocalists were drawn from the Lionel Hampton orchestra, then playing in Chicago, with the addition of a close friend of both Hines and Hampton, Eddie South, as “Bill Dougherty.” Why the pseudonym was used is not known, but it may be relevant to point out that this was a most unusual session for South. When many years ago I asked Hines biographer Stanley Dance if he knew why, he did not.
Only two of seven known titles were released at the time on 78 rpm: “Bama Lama-Lam” (composer credit to Hampton) with vocal by Wini Brown and the ensemble, and the instrumental “Spooky Boogie” (composer credit to Hines, Evans) both released, on Sunrise 2115, as by Hampton’s drummer Curley Hamner (misspelt on the labels as Hamer) “& Orchestra.”
Let’s listen to the music from those two tracks. The musicians are:
Richard “Duke” Garrette (tpt) Bobby Plater (as) Morris Lane (ts) Charlie Fowlkes (bar) Earl Hines (pno) Billy Mackel (g) Charles Mingus (b) Curley Hamner (d) and Wini Brown (vcl). [Lew notes: Duke’s last name is sometimes spelled Garrett, but in ads where he endorsed Olds trumpets he spelled it with the final “e,” so we can assume that is correct.] Also,. South plays violin on most tracks, as we will see.
[Lew’s notes: On “Bama Lama-Lam,” Hines and Mackel play lively fills behind Brown’s vocal and the band’s chant of the song’s title. Then all three saxophonists trade four-bar phrases—first baritone, then tenor (with Lane’s signature double-timing), alto, and baritone again. Garrette takes a nice muted trumpet solo. At 1:40 we are treated to a bass solo by Mingus, followed by an adventurous Hines solo, where, typically, he is all over the piano, taking wide leaps. There’s no violin on this one. Brown comes back to end the song:]
[Lew’s notes: The instrumental blues “Spooky Boogie” starts right off with solo Hines and Mingus playing a kind of “shuffle,” similar to some of the bass techniques he would later use as a leader. There’s another fine solo by Garrette, followed by Lane, then Plater (who plays a bit “out,” not like what we know of him from his later work with Basie), then Fowlkes. Mingus solos impressively at 2:06. Then Eddie South has a fine chorus, and Hines closes the piece with a chorus in octaves:
Back to Anthony:
Now, long after Sunrise masters had further passed to other hands, four additional titles appeared under Earl Hines’s name on budget LPs (some erroneously declaring the violinist to be Stuff Smith). So, until a few years ago, six of the titles were known. What about the seventh title? The budget labels had included “[The] Sheik of Araby” and somehow or other it was known that this had been released around 1951 on the revived Sunrise label in its blue label 78 rpm series: Sunrise 525. But it seems no one had actually seen a copy, so discographers did not know what was on the other side. I was especially on the lookout for it. Why? Because I assumed it would be another track with Eddie South, whose participation on the six so far known tracks was not extensive: two solos, two obbligatos behind singers, and one taking part in the ensemble. And then, a few years ago, one of what may be only two existing copies came into my hands. It has a hairline crack, but still plays well. One side is indeed “Sheik,” with wrong composer credit to Warren. The correct composer credits were: words by Harry Smith and Francis Wheeler, music by Ted Snyder. The performers are listed as vocalists Wini Brown and Roland Burton. The other side, previously unknown, is “Pee Weesin’ Blues,” with composer credit to Hampton, performance credited to Wini Brown. There is, on aural evidence, no Eddie South, no violin, on “Pee Weesin’ Blues.” That was my disappointment. Nevertheless, it is an addition to the Earl Hines and the Charles Mingus discographies:
It’s not known why “Pee Weesin’ Blues” did not appear on the LPs. To date “Pee Weesin’ Blues” has only been semi-released, as a non-disclosed hidden track on my out-of-print limited edition CD-R (AB Fable XABCD1-X025), entitled Baby, Ain’tcha Satisfied? On the Air and Rare. Finally, we have the complete session with seven known tracks. There is no indication that there might be more from this marathon session. But what does “Pee Weesin’” mean?
[Lew notes: The lyric does not help to answer that. The catch-phrase sung by Brown, unrelated to the song’s title, is “You’ve got to reap just what you sow,” a classic blues line. But Wini Brown was regularly referred to in the press as “little,” as in “the little bombshell of blues,” so it’s fair to say that “Pee Wee” in the title is likely a reference to her small stature. Morris Lane is the tenor sax soloist, and Hines’s sparkling piano is prominent throughout. Let’s listen:]
[Lew continues: And, to make this presentation complete, here is the other side of the disc, even though it’s not as rare. “[The] Sheik of Araby” has some very inventive Hines at the beginning, and throughout. Then the tenor saxophonist plays the theme “straight,” with nice fills by South on violin, and Lane ends with another double-time passage. Next we hear Burton’s vocal, with the piano and baritone sax behind, then joined by Brown—and a few seconds of Mingus soloing on bass at the very end:]
[Thank you Anthony for these musical treats, especially the new track!
All the best,
Lewis]
P.S. Paying Subscribers, continue down for the other three titles!
