Ray Charles-Arbee Stidham-Lil Son Jackson-James Wayne

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Ray Charles-Arbee Stidham-Lil Son Jackson-James Wayne
1971
256+ VBR mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MRL 310

Junco Partner



Shad made good use of his Sittin' In With catalogue both in the original Mainstream run and in the MRL series and this offering bears witness to two major aspects of Shad's career: his knack for "discovering" (or being one of the first to record) what would become well-known artists with an illustrious career and his questionable business practices regarding artists and ownership of their material.

Ray Charles needs no introduction and this compilation features some of the earliest recordings of his material, captured shortly after his return to the South from Seattle and ostensibly while he was a member of Lowell Fulsom's ensemble. These predate the Atlantic sessions that saw him start his meteoric rise and are much more on the "Blues" than the "Rhythm &" tip since the gospel inflection had yet to be injected into his work at this point. All of Charles' songs here, save for the instrumental "Back Home," also appeared on a 1960 compilation of Sittin' In With material called Riot In Blues released by Shad on his TIME imprint.

Original review in Billboard June 12, 1971

This record also features some of the first recordings by James Wayne, who was discovered by Shad in 1951 when his first session was taped in Houston. His second set recorded in Atlanta shortly after yielded five tracks and among them were the two on offer here. Shad first listed his name on the original 78s as "James Waynes" but later on he would also record under the moniker "Wee Willie" Wayne. It is with Wayne's version of the traditional Louisiana standard "Junco Partner" that the more questionable aspects of Shad's business practices become apparent.

"Wee Willie" - not the most advantageous nickname

Although the song was already a standard at the time, the songwriting credit is Shad's. Due to the vagaries of recording and publishing contracts, a savvy businessman could jot down the melody, make some minor changes to the lyrics and voila: a song firmly in the public domain was now the property of a record label owner. Another better-known example of that practice was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" originally written and performed by South African artist Solomon Linda.

On the other hand, many artists who were unaware of the rules regarding royalties were basically fleeced into selling their compositions (if not their performances) up-front for a pittance. In a 1973 interview for Jazz Journal magazine (available on the Blues Archaeology website), Candy Green alluded to Shad as one of the sharks that would try and secure a session for "a bottle of whiskey and a chick." That statement might help clarify exactly why some of the first Peppermint Harris recordings were infamously taped in a brothel!

There has been ample speculation on the history of the Junco Partner credit (it has its own Wikipedia entry and one discussion thread can be found here) but it's pretty telling of the industry's legal practices that, even though fully aware of the song's folk heritage, gris-gris mojo man Dr.John still attributes it to Shad on his releases. In fact, the liner notes to his classic Gumbo from 1972 go into detail on its pedigree:

The song was first made popular by James Wayne's hit on the "Sittin' In" (Bob Shad's) label. But it was a New Orleans classic; the anthem of the dopers, the whores, the pimps, the cons. It was a song they sang in Angola, the state prison fams and the rhythm was even known as the "jailbird beat". Dudes used to come back with all different verses. The hard-core dopers couldn't wait to hit the streets after their release so they could score again.

Such is the strength of a publishing contract that even though artists like Rebennack, Louis Jordan and Professor Longhair had an intimate knowledge of the song's source they were still required to give Bobby the nod knowing full well what the deal really was. While the credit for "Junco Partner" is under his own name, as mentioned in the previous Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee post, Shad also used the name "R. Ellen" or "Robert Ellen" and sometimes "Mack Ellen" or a combo thereof to register copyrights.

Jordan's Junco 78 with Shad-Ellen credit
c/o Boogie Woogie Flu

Some speculation has been made that Ellen was the name of Shad's wife but that was not her given name, which was Molly. However, her maiden name remains unknown and may indeed be Ellen so the theory can't be entirely discounted at this time. The wiki entry linked to above mentions Robert Ellen as a separate individual but no evidence is available to support this person's existence and Ellen also gets credit as arranger on some sessions where Shad was known to perform that duty. Regardless, the change in policy of using his own name was more than likely due to reducing taxes (as were most business decisions he made) and one way would be for Shad to give his wife the royalties for the music while he took the profits from the product, thus minimizing his personal taxable income.


1 Ray Charles - Why Did You Go
2 Ray Charles - Back Home
3 Ray Charles - I Found My Baby There
4 Ray Charles - Guitar Blues
5 James Wayne - Junco Partner
6 James Wayne - Please Baby Please
7 Arbee Stidham - I Want To Rock
8 Arbee Stidham - Feeling Blue & Low
9 Arbee Stidham - I'm In The Mood
10 Lil Son Jackson - Roberta
11 Lil Son Jackson - She's Gone

There's a riot in blues goin' on at Soundological HERE or HERE.

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee with Peppermint Harris - Going Down Slow

SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE McGHEE with PEPPERMINT HARRIS
Going Down Slow
1952
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MRL 407

Key To The Highway



Shad pulls out some old chestnuts from his Sittin' In catalogue by premier bluesmen Sonny & Terry and slaps on some Peppermint Harris (whom he discovered) to round things out. No surprises here, just some juke-joint country blues from some of the best in the business. Most S&T fans more than likely have these versions on one of the many repackages of their Sittin' In material but for those unfamiliar with the duo it's a pretty good intro and features one of my favourite versions of "Key To The Highway." Mind you, that's a subjective assessment and not a judgment on the definitive version so Charlie Segar and Bill Broonzy fans don't need to get all defensive.

Speaking of which, you'll note Shad shadily cops the publishing rights to these tunes, likely bought from the artists for next-to-nothing. All songs are credited to "R. Ellen" which is a pseudonym Bobby used when trying to assert publishing rights, sometimes without consent of the performer. Considering both Broonzy and Segar versions of "Key" are traced back to at least 7 years prior, this is one of the best examples of the questionable practices label owners (not just Shad) pulled with Blues, R&B and Jazz artists over the years. More on that subject tomorrow...


Sonny Terry - Harmonica, Vocals
Brownie McGhee - Guitar, Vocals
Bob Gaddy - Piano, Vocals
Bobby Harris - Bass, Vocals
George Wood - Drums
Peppermint Harris - Vocals (10 & 11)


1 Key To The Highway
2 Goin' Down Slow
3 Pawn Shop Blues
4 Bulldog Blues
5 Bicycle Boogie
6 Ease My Worried Mind
7 I Believe
8 C.C.Rider - Where Did She Go
10 Lord Have Mercy
11 Sweet Happy Home

Recorded by Bob Shad 7/31/52 except 10 & 11 recorded 11/2/50


Soundological goes down on you slowly HERE or HERE.

Frank Turba - Frank Turba

FRANK TURBA
Frank Turba
1974
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MRL 411

Duett



Frank Turba was an active participant in the heady German music scene during the 70s, mostly as a songwriter of pop songs. He has quite a few credits in the first half of the decade and a few of the earlier ones were collaborative efforts that included Giorgio Moroder prior to his breakthrough in global popularity with his pioneering take on electro-disco.

Turba also had a short-lived project at the start of the 80s called F.O.X. on German disco label Teldec but around the same time he made a major impact singing the German version of the theme song to cartoon kingpins Rankin & Bass's The Last Unicorn. There are actually numerous YouTube videos dedicated to covering his take on the track but skip over the video below to spare yourself the pain of listening to 14-year old girls using crappy computer mics to squeek them out over slideshow pastiches of pink and purple unicorn paintings. The masochists among you need only press play to satiate your need for sonic self-flagellation.

WARNING: Not for the faint of heart

Since then he's better known for translating and dubbing English movies, video games and TV series into his native language (including one of my favourite shows The Wire). In fact, he's literally created a legacy in the niche since his children, David and Magdalena, are busy voice actors in their own right and highly sought-after in the German dubbing scene. By all appearances, Turba still keeps a finger in the musical-performer pie though and plays keys with what appears to be a popular cabaret cover band called Past Perfect.

In some places, this album is listed as "Krautrock" but that's a serious misnomer. Besides being rock performed by Germans, there is little connection to what most folks would actually consider part of the genre. In fact, the closest it comes to that classification is via the players Turba assembled for his sole album under his own name.

Foremost are duo Jackie & Frank Diez, who both lent their voices to one of Krautrock's masterpieces, the sophomore album by one of my favourite bands in the genre, Agitation Free's 2nd. Diez also played guitar with Emergency on both Entrance and No Compromise, and backed Frumpy's Ingrid Rumpf on a couple of her Atlantis records as well as stints with Armageddon, Karthago and Ihre Kinder. Frank's a genuine German guitar god and according to his website he played a large role in bringing the Blues and its heavy rock derivative to the country, kind of like a teutonic Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton.

For further fine fretwork from Frank

Another significant name associated with this project is Gary Unwin. Originally from the UK, he was in the freakbeat combo The HiFis with legendary library music bigwig Brian Bennett and moved to Germany at the end of the 60s to cash in on his "British Invasion" rep. No matter where he would have emigrated, in those days that was good for quite a bit of mileage in the session business and he spent a few years as a hired hand, often uncredited. During this time he played on some Krautrock classics including Ralf Nowy's Lucifer's Dream with Diez and Niagara's S.U.B., the former being put out the same year as Turba's album.

Soon after this release, another of Unwin's projects, Silver Convention, blew up worldwide with their hit "Fly, Robin, Fly" and for a decade after he enjoyed a solid career in disco and funk as a writer and producer but he's perhaps better known as bassist on Munich Machine hits for the likes of Claudja Barry, Boney M, Dee D Jackson, Sister Sledge and Donna Summer. Info on Martin Harrison is scarce but he appears to have worked closely with Unwin as a rhythm section and he appears on many of the same albums made in Europe. Both seem to have pretty much dropped out of the spotlight by the mid-80s.

Gary Unwin: From Herpetology to Handcuffs

As for the music itself, it's a hodge-podge of mostly pop and rock styles with little-to-no thematic congruity. Rambling from one end of the spectrum to another and back again, Turba takes a stab at a multiplicity of musical milieus, running through lighthearted Sgt. Pepper-ish pych ("Funny Song"), mediocre reggae ("Telephone Love"), raunchy riff rock ("Blue Jeans"), pale Elton John piano man imitations ("Alice Brown"), Brill-building blue-eyed soul ("Manhattan") and beer hall sing-song ("Bini") with varying degrees of success. The MPD nature of the album culminates on the schizophrenic "Tempest Storm" which shifts gears from reverb-laden 50s R&B to crunchin' southern-fried boogie à la Johnny Winters and then back again without any warning whatsoever.

The closest the album comes to an actual kosmische sound is Diez's arpeggiated fretwork on opener "Stony Silence" and his criminally short acid-burned solo midway through "Duett." In fact, with a memorable melody, excellent musicianship and some soaring moments, that track pretty much encapsulates the potential the album has. It also highlights how Turba's obvious populist leanings detracted from what could have been a hell of an album. The deft touch of Deitz and the tight rhythm section are definite highlights throughout and enough to recommend this effort to pop and rock fans who might find a song or two very much to their liking.

Doing this record in English was a strategic misstep and the language factor goes a long way to giving the listener an impression of amateurism, albeit unfairly so. Had it been recorded in his native German, he may have had more success with its particular sensibilities but there's just too much disparity for consumption by a post-Altamont North America's increasingly tribalized rock audience compounded by a total lack of the hipsterism required to make it in London.

Lack of Hipsterism Exhibit A: Turba today on keys w/ Past Perfect

Not sure how Shad got his hands on this one but being published by Brent it's clearly not licensed material. Either recorded specifically for Shad in Germany or done on spec and then shopped around to US labels afterwards, this attempt at breaking into the Anglo market falls short of the mark in many ways. However, if you can get past some of the lamer lyrics and are comfortable walking the fine line between eccentric eclecticism and chemical imbalance then you may enjoy this collection better than most so if you see it in the bins for a fin or less, you might want to grab it.


Frank Turba - Keyboards, Vocals, Arrangements
Frank Diez - Guitars
Gary Unwin - Bass
Martin Harrison - Drums
Jackie Diez - Vocals


1 Stony Silence
2 Bini
3 Telephone Love
4 Funny Song
5 Duett
6 Blue Jeans
7 Alice Brown
8 Manhattan
9 Tempest Storm
10 End Song


Turba charge your music collection with Soundological HERE or HERE.