Release Date: 1990.
Recording Time: 61 minutes.
Recording Date: August 3, 1932 - November 8, 1934.
Release Info: Compilation (BDCD-6002) Studio Recording.
Styles: Acoustic Memphis Blues, Jug Band, Pre-War Country Blues, Regional Blues.
One of the great cultural achievements of the late 20th century was the reissuing of the Memphis Jug Band's complete recorded output on Document in four volumes with an appendix on Wolf records reserved for alternate takes. The fourth installment picks up the trail of this gutsy little group two years after they were eliminated from Victor's roster of regularly recorded talent. Tracks 1-5 were recorded in Richmond, IN on August 3, 1932; these records were released (as by the Picaninny Jug Band) on Gennett's low-budget subsidiary Champion but didn't sell very well because most regular people at that time were scuffling just to be able to buy essentials like food and shoes. Tracks 6-21, recorded in Chicago on November 6, 7, and 8, 1934 and released on Okeh and Vocalion, represent the last go-round for the Memphis Jug Band. Most everything on this wonderful disc sounds jazzier and more slaphappy than much of their earlier work. Will Shade's harmonica is very prominent, as is the jug of Jab Jones, who plays piano on his own "Mary Anna Cutoff," named for Marianna, AK, a town that exists on the banks of the L'Anguille river southwest of Memphis. Other members of the band during these final sessions were Charlie Burse, a guitarist who doubled on mandolin; Vol Stevens, a mandolin player who also played the jug; violinist Charlie Pierce, who originally worked with W.C. Handy's Memphis Blues Band; and several percussionists including an unidentified washboard player, Robert Burse and Otto Gilmore. These are some of the most entertaining and hokum-stoked records in the entire Memphis Jug Band discography, especially "The Gator Wobble," "The Jazzbo Stomp," "Bottle It Up and Go," and "The Memphis Shakedown." In 1940 the joyous ebullience of "The Insane Crazy Blues" and "Little Green Slippers" would be rekindled by "Big" Joe McCoy and his washboard band. And the marvelous "Jug Band Quartette," a sanguine salute to this type of entertainment, was revisited during the '60s on a long-playing phonograph record by the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. ~ arwulf arwulf
Abridged from this album's booklet notes.
In 1932 a bunch of musicians traveled to Richmond, Indiana, to cut records for Gennett's soon to be extinct cheap label Champion. Despite, or more likely because of, times being hard, the Picaninny Jug Band's music is generally up tempo, jolly music, with Otto Gilmore's capering percussion strongly featured. Even so, the discs sold poorly.
Some of the titles were to be re-cut at the Memphis jug Band's last, two-day session, for Okeh in 1934. The band that recorded then was an accomplished and versatile unit: Will Shade, Charlie Burse and Jab Jones all sang; Shade played guitar and harmonica, and Burse guitar and mandolin, while Jones doubled piano and jug (unless, as he claimed, Dewey Corley was the jug player for this date). Charlie's brother Robert handled the percussion, while on fiddle there was Charlie Pierce, older than the rest of the band, and formerly a member of W C. Handy's Orchestra.
The Memphis Jug Band's music had changed radically since their Victor days, in an effort to keep up with changing fashions. There is a considerable infusion of jazz, and Pierce's virtuoso fiddle playing draws heavily on white country music. The effect of all this, and the crosstalk, scatting and laughter, often recalls the Western Swing that was coming out of Texas and Oklahoma, itself heavily influenced by blues and jazz. The jug, of course, made the MJB's music distinct with instruments playing thunderous solos of remarkable fluency. Often, the selections amount to fiddle-jug duets, although on Gator Wobble and the high speed tour-de-force Jazzbo Stomp,it's Shade's harmonica that's the feature. If their music had altered to the point where many of the discs described it as "novelty hot dance", it was still distinctively black, and often still steeped in the blues; Jab Jones's Mary Anna Cut Off (which refers to Marianna, Arkansas) is a barrelhouse piano classic, while She Done Sold it Out reverts to the sound of their 1929-30 recordings. Did the Memphis jug Band know that this was to be their last session? No doubt that Jug Band Quartette,its melancholy harmony contrasting elegantly with the celebratory lyrics, is a conscious, elegiac tribute to themselves, their fellow musicians "way down yonder in old Memphis, Tennessee", and the music that even now sounds "so sweet, you know it's hard to beat". ~ Chris Smith, 1990 Document Records.
Credits: Charlie Burse - Composer, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals; Robert Burse - Drums, Vocals; Otto Gilmore - Drums, Wood Block; Jab Jones - Composer, Jug, Piano, Vocals; Hans Klement - Remastering; Memphis Jug Band - Primary Artist; Johnny Parth - Producer; Charlie Pierce - Violin; Will Shade - Composer, Harmonica; Chris Smith - Liner Notes; Rudi Steager - Executive Producer; Vol Stevens - Mandolin, Vocals.
Tracklist:
01. You Got To Have That Thing - Picaninny Jug Band
02. Tappin' That Thing - Charlie Burse
03. Bottle It Up And Go - Picaninny Jug Band
04. I Got Good Taters - Charlie Burse
05. Come Along, Little Children - "Poor Jab"
06. Mary Anna Cut Off - Memphis Jug Band
07. My Love Is Cold - Memphis Jug Band
08. Jazzbo Stomp - Memphis Jug Band
09. Gator Wobble - Memphis Jug Band
10. Tear It Down, Bed Slats And All - Memphis Jug Band
11. Boodie Bum Bum - Memphis Jug Band
12. Take Your Finger Off It - Memphis Jug Band
13. Little Green Slippers - Memphis Jug Band
14. Fishin' In The Dark - Memphis Jug Band
15. Bottle It Up And Go - Charlie Burse With Memphis Jug Band
16. Insane Crazy Blues - Charlie Burse With Memphis Jug Band
17. She Done Sold It Out - Memphis Jug Band
18. Memphis Shakedown - Memphis Jug Band
19. Rukus Juice And Chittlin' - Memphis Jug Band
20. My Business Ain't Right - Memphis Jug Band
21. Jug Band Quartette - Memphis Jug Band
Recording date, location, matrix, catalog number:
1. August 3, 1932, Richmond, Indiana, 18647, Champion 16615
2. August 3, 1932, Richmond, Indiana, 18648, Champion 16648
3. August 3, 1932, Richmond, Indiana, 18649, Champion 16615
4. August 3, 1932, Richmond, Indiana, 18650, Varsity 6037
5. August 3, 1932, Richmond, Indiana, 18656, Champion 16654
6. November 6, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-780-2, OKeh 8960
7. November 6, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-781-1, OKeh 8963
8. November 6, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-782-2, OKeh 8955
9. November 6, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-783-2, OKeh 8958
10. November 6, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-785-2, OKeh 8956
11. November 7, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-792-1, OKeh 8956
12. November 7, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-793-1, Vocalion 03175
13. November 7, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-794-1, OKeh 8966
14. November 7, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-795-1, Vocalion 03175
15. November 7, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-796-1, OKeh 8959
16. November 7, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-797-1, OKeh 8959
17. November 7, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-800-1, OKeh 8963
18. November 8, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-803-2, OKeh 8960
19. November 8, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-805-1, OKeh 8955
20. November 8, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-806-1, OKeh 8958
21. November 8, 1934, Chicago, Illinois, C-807-1, OKeh 8966