Category Archives: Early Jazz

Country Blues, Early Jazz, Folk and Tradition, Gospel, Mountain Music

The Paramount Label

The Paramount Label
The Paramount Label

Paramount Records was born in 1917 and in the mere fifteen years of their existence they would introduce some of the greatest names in the blues. Ma Rainey, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Skip James, and Papa Charlie Jackson are but a few. In 2013, Jack White’s Third Man Records teamed up with Revenant Records to release the first of what would become one of the most ambitious attempts at documenting the story of a record company born from a furniture company that was driven to create product for the record cabinets they sold. Based on the book “The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records”, part two of the omnibus will be released later this year (or in early 2015).

This week on Deeper Roots, we share some of the story…and a lot of the music which was not necessarily limited to the blues but also some incredible gospel, mountain, and jazz recordings. When listening through what Dean Blackwell of Revenant Records calls the “gauze of static”, you’ll hear the music of the last century come alive. Tune in Friday night at 9 o’clock for a rare listen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/arts/music/jack-white-explores-history-of-paramount-records.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&

 

Early Jazz, Jazz

Jazz Guitar

Jazz Guitar
Jazz Guitar

In this episode of Deeper Roots, we explore the diverse sounds of jazz guitar, featuring some of the very best from the early century where the masters defined the role of guitar in trios, quartets, and then finally in the jazz band.  In the early century, the guitar was relegated to either solo performances or in smaller ensembles where there was no competition other than strings. It didn’t really have much of a chance in the jazz scene where horns and percussion would simply drown the strings out making it not only impossible to record but impossible to hear in a live performance. All of that changed, of course, with the invention of the electric guitar allowing the sound to come through, holding its own with the saxophone or trumpet.

Our show will feature a number of early blues and jazz practitioners who crafted a sound into gold and paved the way for others. We’ll hear from many of the early gems from the likes of Eddie Lang, Charlie Christian, Tampa Red, Lonnie Johnson, as well as the inheritors including Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow, and Kenny Burrell.

American Popular, Early Jazz, Early Pop, Jazz

Early Duke Ellington

Early Ellington
Early Ellington

In this episode of Deeper Roots, we explore the early works of a giant of American popular music: Duke Ellington. His career spanned over a half century where he composed thousands of songs for stage, screen, and the contemporary songbook. He called his music “American Music” and his signature sound, particularly in the early years, was unmistakable. This was in large part because he searched out musicians with unique playing styles such as Bubber Miley, Joe Nanton, Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, and the great alto saxophonist. While our focus will be on the pre-War Elligton classics, we’ll also catch the early versions of “Sophisticated Lady” and “Take the ‘A’ Train” and, at the same time, include some telling excerpts from a few different interviews.

 

Blues, Country Swing, Early Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Urban Blues

Honky Tonkin’

Honky Tonkin
Honky Tonkin

This episode will look at the roots of Honky Tonk: a place where, on one side of the track you, as Roosevelt Sykes points out in “The Honeydripper”, you had the blues performer as Doctor who prescribed Blues as a cure for the Blues and on the other, you had the country sound of Moon Mullican who demanded that the beer bottles danced on the table when the band got rockin’. We’ll spend our time exploring the early sounds of Big Maceo, Albert Ammons, and Jimmy Yancey and move down yonder to the country bars where boogie woogie was also understood. The country honky tonk sounds of Merrill Moore, Bobbie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a handful of others will get their chance to entertain. Boogie woogie came to the country and it was retooled and renamed as honky tonk.

Blues, Deeper Roots on KWTF, Early Jazz

Black Pearls

Black Pearls
Black Pearls

Our theme in this week’s episode of Deeper Roots: Black Pearls, a story of the Blues Queens of the Twenties. We’ll hear the music that, throughout the 1920s, could be heard in the tents, theaters, dance halls and cabarets, and on “race” records where Black American women captivated large audiences with their singing of the blues, many paying the toll for their right to be heard, transforming a folk tradition into a popular art.

Based on research from the book of the same name by Daphne Duval Harrison, we’ll hear Trixie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ida Cox, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, and of course, Bessie Smith as they perform music that tell their story: gutsy, yet tender, exploited, but not resentful, independent, yet vulnerable. They introduced a new model of the black woman for the times and their work profoundly affected the American popular music art form.