Label: Document Records.
Release Date: September 15, 1993.
Recording Time: 67 minutes.
Recording Date: June 17, 1926 - April 16, 1929.
Release Info: Compilation (DOCD-5186) Studio Recording.
Styles: Country Blues, Pre-War Blues, Pre-War Gospel Blues.
In 1993, Document reissued the complete recordings of Afro-Mexican-American Pentecostal pianist and vocalist Arizona Dranes, a passionate singer whose lively syncopated piano technique had a ragtime-cakewalk-honky-tonk-barrelhouse quality capable of propelling entire choirs and congregations. It is no exaggeration to say that this woman, who is generally recognized as the first gospel pianist ever to make phonograph records, had a profound and lasting impression upon the entire 20th century gospel tradition and other traditions that drew upon it. Her influence can be detected in the music of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Madame Ernestine B. Washington, Goldia Haynes, Clara Ward, Roberta Martin, Aretha Franklin and, as far as the piano goes, Jerry Lee Lewis. Parallels could be drawn with Elder Richard Bryant's Sanctified Singers or the modern gospel-fired adventures of Charles Mingus. Born Arizona Juanita Drane (later changed to "Dranes") in Dallas, TX in 1891, she studied music at the Institute for Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youths in Austin and assisted evangelist Ford Washington McGee when in 1920 he founded an Oklahoma City chapter of the Church of God in Christ. This was the same foundation that encouraged the inclusion of multiple musical instruments during worship, a policy that engendered a surprising sacred-secular blend throughout Memphis (see Document 5300, Memphis Sanctified Jug Bands 1928-1930). Eventually, Dranes was brought to the attention of the Okeh Phonograph Corporation by the Reverend Samuel Crouch. Okeh sent composer, pianist, and talent scout Richard M. Jones to investigate; he in turn asked blues vocalist Sara Martin to meet with Dranes in Fort Worth and escort her to Chicago, where Dranes made her first recordings on June 17, 1926. After she accompanied herself singing "It's All Right Now" and "In That Day," both Martin and Jones chimed in with rather stagey backup vocals on "John Said He Saw a Number" and "My Soul Is a Witness for the Lord," whereupon Arizona knocked out her only unaccompanied piano solos, "Crucifixion" and "Sweet Heaven Is My Home." On November 15, she recorded "Lamb's Blood Has Washed Me Clean" and three other titles with backing by her friend the Reverend F.W. McGee and his Jubilee Singers. In each case, the uncontrived fervor of collective ritual was successfully documented. Dranes sang with a zealous intensity that clearly influenced Rosetta Tharpe, who is known to have heard her perform in St. Louis, and whose mother, Kati Bell Nubin, is believed to have played mandolin with McGee's ensemble. These records were enormously profitable for the folks at Okeh, even though a letter written and sent to Chicago from Memphis by Dranes while she was convalescing there in February 1928 reveals that payments to the artist were not always promptly delivered. Her next session took place in July 1928 with several exuberant women and a mandolin player believed to have been her mother, Cora "Coley" Jones. Arizona's 16 Okeh titles are followed in this collection by six recordings released under other peoples' names on which her presence is heard and felt. "He's the Lily of the Valley" and "He's Coming Soon" were performed by the Texas Jubilee Singers in December 1928 and "Let Us Therefore Come" and "Lord Who Shall Abide in Thy Tabernacle" are sermons delivered by Reverend Joe Lenley in December 1929. The final two recordings were made for the Brunswick label in Chicago in April 1929 by the Southern Sanctified Singers, possibly under the direction of Reverend D.C. Rice, with the vocalists, pianist, and guitarist boosted by an enthusiastic trumpeter and a booming trombonist. Although Dranes subsequently stopped making records, she spent another 20 years performing on the CoGiC circuit. She lived out the rest of her life at a home near East 52nd and McKinley Avenue in Los Angeles and was felled by a stroke at the age of 72 on July 27, 1963. This precious album of early gospel exists at the very heart of her legacy. ~ arwulf arwulf
Abridged from this album's original booklet notes.
Arizona Dranes was born in Dallas, probably between 1904 and 1906 and is thought to have been of black and Mexican lineage. She was blind from birth and learned the piano in her early teens, playing for religious meetings in the vicinity of Dallas / Fort Worth, where her abilities made her a favourite with the local Church of God in Christ. Reverend Samuel Crouch of Forth Worth recommended her to the Okeh Phonograph Corporation, and after Okeh sent their talent scout, Richard M. Jones to Texas in early 1926 to audition her, she was invited to Chicago for a recording session. Arrangements were made for blues singer Sara Martin to meet Dranes in Fort Worth and accompany her to the Okeh studio in Chicago. Upon arrival Dranes signed a basic contract which gave her twenty-five dollars per issued side and 25% of royalties collected on any of her compositions recorded by other artists. Her first session on June 17, 1926 had a rather formal character, as if Okeh was conducting a series of demonstration recordings and auditioning other facets of Dranes' capabilities. (Indeed, Malcolm Shaw, who is the source of the majority of the biographical information, presented here, states that these were "a batch of test recordings" that serendipitously turned out well enough to be issued. The six titles were recorded in stylistic pairs: vocal/piano, vocal / piano with Sara Martin and Richard M. Jones added on vocal choruses, and sanctified piano solos. It's All Right Now had its source in sheet music subtitled "(Jerry McCauley’s dying words)" copyrighted in 1909 by Benjamin Franklin Butts (reproduced in Paul Oliver‘s Songsters & Saints). The titles with Martin and Jones are patently theatrical, and instead of capturing the fire of a holiness group, they magnify Dranes' precise diction and formal performance qualities, giving these songs an almost vaudevillian redolence. The two piano solos are variations on the popular sanctified melody On A Hill Lone And Grey (compare Elder Curry‘s Memphis Flu, Document BDCD-6035; and Rev. F. W. McGee‘s With His Stripes We Are Healed and The Resurrection Of Jesus, Document BDCD-6031), and are rare examples of an unaccompanied Texas barrelhouse piano style that appears to have survived intact in the sanctuary of the holiness churches. At her second Okeh session in November 1926 Arizona Dranes was accompanied by Rev. F. W. McGee and his Jubilee Singers. On these sides it is obvious that her real strength was in the context of a group, particularly on Lamb's Blood Has Washed Me Clean with its sanguine imagery and I'm Glad My Lord Saved Me where Dranes sparks a sanctified conflagration between herself and the singers. During 1927 Dranes was apparently involved with other performers in the Church of God in Christ, including singer Jessie Mae Hill (for whom she probably provided piano accompaniment on a May 5 recording session), and Rev, McGee (whose first session under his own name for Okeh was arranged by Dranes, who also accompanied on piano on May 6). It was more than a year until she returned for a session of her own, this time with a "Choir" and an unknown mandolin player who may have been Coley Jones. These are all fine performances with the odd, 3/4 time He Is My Story a standout. Late in 1928 she may have accompanied the Texas Jubilee Singers on the two titles they cut in Dallas, and one year later at the same location she was possibly the pianist/vocalist with Rev. Joe Lenley. Coley Jones was present in the studio on both occasions which lends support to their alleged connection. She still corresponded with Okeh for a short while, but never recorded again. It would seem she returned to the network of sanctified churches where a number of later gospel celebrities recalled her impact. Alex Bradford remembered her performing in Bessemer, Alabama at the "America Back To God Day" presented at the local white ball park, Legion Field: "And there was Arizona Dranes, the blind Sanctified lady. She'd sing ‘Thy Servant's Prayer' and crackers and niggers be shouting everywhere." Rosetta Tharpe heard her sing "The Storm Is Passing Over" in St. Louis and writer Anthony Heilbut mentions her "impeccable, almost affected" diction and her huge influence on younger singers like Madame Ernestine B. Washington and Goldia Haynes (The Gospel Sound). Ray Funk, in the liner notes to Columbia Legacy CK 46779 mentions a last intriguing item: an August 1947 advertisement for a gospel concert with "an all-star program, the greatest ever presented in Cleveland" including "Nat'l known Blind Pianist Arizona Dranes" from "Chicago, Illinois." For all we know, she may still be in a storefront church somewhere, fanning the flames of a sanctified fire. ~ Ken Romanowski, 1993 Document Records.
Credits: Arizona Dranes - Accompaniment, Composer, Piano, Primary Artist, Soloist, Vocals; Coley Jones - Mandolin; Richard M. Jones - Vocals; Rev. Joe Lenley - Primary Artist; Sara Martin - Vocals; Rev. F.W. McGee - Primary Artist; Southern Sanctified Singers - Primary Artist, Vocals; Texas Jubilee Singers - Primary Artist; Traditional - Composer.
Tracklist:
01. In That Day – Arizona Dranes
02. It's All Right Now – Arizona Dranes
03. John Said He Saw A Number – Arizona Dranes
04. My Soul Is A Witness For The Lord – Arizona Dranes
05. Crucifixion – Arizona Dranes
06. Sweet Heaven Is My Home – Arizona Dranes
07. Bye And Bye We're Going To See The King – Arizona Dranes
08. I'm Going Home On The Morning Train – Arizona Dranes
09. Lamb's Blood Has Washed Me Clean – Arizona Dranes
10. I'm Glad My Lord Has Saved Me – Arizona Dranes
11. I Shall Wear A Crown – Arizona Dranes
12. God's Got A Crown – Arizona Dranes
13. He Is My Story – Arizona Dranes
14. Just Look – Arizona Dranes
15. I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go – Arizona Dranes
16. Don't You Want To Go? – Arizona Dranes
17. He's The Lily Of The Valley – Texas Jubilee Singers
18. He's Coming Soon – Texas Jubilee Singers
19. Let Us Therefore Come – Rev. Joe Lenley
20. Lord Who Shall Abide In Thy Tabernacle – Rev. Joe Lenley
21. Soon We'll Gather At The River – Southern Sanctified Singers
22. Where He Leads Me I Will Follow – Southern Sanctified Singers