Boogie Woogie

Pete Johnson/Albert Ammons – 8 to the Bar
Two Piano Boogie Woogie for Dancing
Victor Records P-69, RCA Victor, 1941

Sixth Avenue is a street that probably exists in every city in every English speaking country, yet seeing the title Sixth Avenue Express on a jazz record you just know it's Sixth Avenue in New York City. I mentioned last week the purchase of this 78 rpm 4-record set by Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. It contains eight sides with boogie woogie piano music, issued as a dance album. And danceable they are, from the slow moving walking-speed Walkin' the Boogie, to the fast pace subway train-speed of Sixth Avenue Express, all make your fingers snap and your toes tap. Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons are two of the three (with Meade Lux Lewis) great boogie woogie pianists, a craze that started in 1938 with a concert by Ammons and Johnson and lasted through the early 1940s. You can listen to Sixth Avenue Express below and download it here.

78 Discs

Wilmoth Houdini – Calypsos
Decca Album No. 78
Made in the U.S.A.
Recorded 9/11/1939 in New York 

Decca Album No. 78, inside

Decca Album No. 78, back

When I look for records at thrift stores I always check out the 78 discs but hardly ever do I come home with one. Hardly ever do I find a title I'm interested in and if I do it's usually in such a bad condition that I have to leave it behind. Often I don't even bother to look at those records without a protective sleeve. I am amazed how some (bloggers) still come up with so many treasures and baffled by the posts on (for example) Excavated Shellac. Where the heck do all those records come from? I've been looking for them discs for over a decade but gathered only about a 100 of them: an album with Latvian (classical) discs, some interesting C&W (Hank Williams, Lester Flatt, Roy Acuff, a/o), and I only found one blues disc ever (Tampa Red). Yesterday however I picked up some nice discs, one by Carmen Miranda, and a 4 disc album by Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. I leave that for next week as I forward now the nicest album of my modest 78 collection: Decca Album No. 78.

The full title of it is Decca Presents A Special Collection of the World-Famous Music of Trinidad by Wilmoth Houdini and His Royal Calypso Orchestra. It's a beautifully packaged  three disc album. Half of the six songs on it deal with some current events of 1939, the year it was recorded. I love that about Calypso music, how their songs are so often narratives on topics that were talked about by the people in the streets. To share with you here I selected The Welcome of Their Majesties, which talks about the first ever visit of British Royalty to the U.S.

Folk Music of the United States

01 Old Rattler.m4a

Folk Music of the United States, Album VIII
Negro Work Songs and Calls, Edited by B.A. Botkin
The Library of Congress, Division of Music, 78 rpm discs
Washington, D.C., 1943

Rarely do I look for 78 rpm records when I browse through thrift store bins. And when I do I hardly ever get rewarded with something I'd want, it's even rarer when it is in OK condition. My collection of 78s is modest at best, I have about 40 of them but only half of these are valuable to me... and only two that I'm proud of having. The album Folk Music of the United States, Album VIII is one of these, even though the album is not complete, it is however in mint condition, and it includes the original booklet. There is a stain on the album cover that I first considered an eyesore but after I saw that it vaguely resembled the shape of the United States I considered it a bonus. If I were to sell the record on ebay (which I won't) I would advertise it as a 78 rpm record in mint condition with an original US stain on it. (The shape of Florida is cut off on the image above, it really is much more US than the photo suggests. I still don't have a scanner big enough to scan a full size record, the LoC album is oversized, it measures 14" x 12.5"). The song I picked to share with you is Old Rattler, sung by Moses (Clear Rock) Platt and James (Iron Head) Baker. It was recorded at the Central State Farm, Sugarland, Texas by John and Alan Lomax in 1934.

I found this album about two years ago at the Ohio Thrift Store next to the DeVry University on Alum Creek Drive in Columbus, Ohio.