Release Date: 1991.
Recording Time: 72 minutes.
Recording Date: December 16, 1935 - November 12, 1936.
Release Info: CD (BDCD-6009), Compilation, Studio Recording, Reissue, Remastered.
Styles: Acoustic Blues, Acoustic Chicago Blues, Acoustic Memphis Blues, Classic Female Blues, Pre-War Country Blues, Regional Blues.
The second volume in Document's series of Complete Recorded Works, covering Memphis Minnie, includes a few classic performances, like "Ice Man (Come on Up)" and "New Orleans Stop Time" (the latter finding her co-billed with Bumble Bee Slim). Still, casual fans will find the disc a mixed blessing; the lengthy running time and poor fidelity will prompt many listeners to look elsewhere. ~ Thom Owens
Informative booklet notes by Howard Rye. Detailed discography.
December 1935 found Memphis Minnie back in the Chicago studios of what was then the American Recording Company and she would record for no one else for fourteen years. After the experimentation of 1935, the emphasis in her recording career now shifted decisively to the band sound characteristic of Chicago in the later thirties. The changes reflect a demand for overtly danceable rhythms and can be seen as an early portent of the process by which blues merged with small-band swing to become rhythm and blues.
It is likely that this shift to band backings was reflected outside the recording studios. Minnie is known to have played an engagement at the Tramor Hotel, Chicago, with Black Bob on piano during 1936. It is Black Bob who is the dominant instrumental voice on several of these sessions. The true "identity" of this brilliant pianist has probably generated more heat and less light than any comparable controversy in jazz and blues history. His presence on those 1936 sessions where a pianist is heard is hard to doubt aurally. On If You See My Rooster, Minnie three times addresses the pianist as "Bob".
The February session has a more limited accompaniment and Minnie gives her best. Hoodoo Lady is particularly interesting, encapsulating the worldwide attitude of the folk community to the "wise woman". Her help is needed, but "Boys, I'm scared of her". She must be propitiated by assertions that, "I'm your friend" and a repeated refrain of "Don't put that thing on me". The next session is characterized by an unidentified woodblocks player, whose rhythmic thumping generates an unusual ambience to say the least. From Minnie it produced an avalanche of double entendres. "Everybody wants to buy my kitty; I wouldn't sell that cat to save your soul"; "I ain't found no eggs in my basket, since my rooster been gone".
The presence of a trumpeter on the November 12th session serves as a reminder that the process of turning small band swing into rhythm and blues is also continuous with the barrelhouse jazz of Chicago in the twenties. It is no accident that several bandsmen from New Orleans got involved with these Chicago blues bands of the thirties. The results here range from a jazz performance of Dragging My Heart Around (reminiscent not only of the Harlem Hamfats and country jazz bands like Kitty Gray's Wampus Cats, but also of the Washboard Rhythm Kings) to I Don't Want You No More, where the trumpet answers the voice in the manner of the best vaudeville blues. The prevailing atmosphere is jaunty and determined. Even on the sombre Out In The Cold, Minnie's "boo-hoos" seem to defy despair.
In the long run Minnie seems to have decided that band accompaniments didn't altogether suit her. Nonetheless, the results of this flirtation are deserving of close study.
Credits: Bumble Bee Slim - Featured Artist, Vocals; Black Bob Hudson - Piano; Little Son Joe - Guitar; Kansas Joe McCoy - Composer; Minnie McCoy - Composer; Memphis Minnie - Composer, Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Primary Artist, Vocals; Mr. Sheiks - Trumpet; Johnny Parth - Compilation Producer; Howard Rye - Liner Notes; Bill Settles - String Bass; Rudi Steager - Executive Producer.
Tracklist:
01. Biting Bug Blues - Memphis Minnie
02. Minnie's Lonesome Song - Memphis Minnie
03. You Ain't Done Nothing To Me - Memphis Minnie
04. Ain't Nobody Home But Me (Take 1) - Memphis Minnie
05. Ain't Nobody Home But Me (Take 2) - Memphis Minnie
06. New Orleans Stop Time - Bumble Bee Slim And Memphis Minnie
07. Ice Man (Come On Up) - Memphis Minnie
08. Hoodoo Lady - Memphis Minnie
09. My Strange Man - Memphis Minnie
10. I'm A Gamblin' Woman - Memphis Minnie
11. I'm A Bad Luck Woman - Memphis Minnie
12. Caught Me Wrong Again - Memphis Minnie
13. Black Cat Blues (Take 1) - Memphis Minnie
14. Black Cat Blues (Take 2) - Memphis Minnie
15. Good Morning - Memphis Minnie
16. Man You Won't Give Me No Money - Memphis Minnie
17. If You See My Rooster (Please Run Him Home) - Memphis Minnie
18. I Don't Want You No More - Memphis Minnie
19. Out In The Cold - Memphis Minnie
20. Dragging My Heart Around - Memphis Minnie
21. Moonshine - Memphis Minnie
22. It's Hard To Be Mistreated - Memphis Minnie
23. Haunted House (Take 1) - Memphis Minnie
24. Haunted House (Take 2) - Memphis Minnie
Personnel: Memphis Minnie - Vocals, Guitar; Black Bob - Piano; Bill Settles - Bass (String Bass); Bumble Bee Slim - Vocals; Little Son Joe - Guitar; "Mr. Sheiks" - Trumpet.
Recording date, location, matrix, catalog number:
01. December 16, 1935, Chicago, C-1183-2, Vocalion 03144
02. December 16, 1935, Chicago, C-1184-1, Vocalion 03187
03. December 16, 1935, Chicago, C-1185-1, Vocalion 03144
04. December 16, 1935, Chicago, C-1186-1, Vocalion unissued
05. December 16, 1935, Chicago, C-1186-2, Vocalion 03187
06. February 6, 1936, Chicago, C-1227-2, Vocalion 03197
07. February 18, 1936, Chicago, C-1263-1, Vocalion 03222
08. February 18, 1936, Chicago, C-1264-1, Vocalion 03222
09. February 18, 1936, Chicago, C-1265-1, Vocalion 03285
10. February 18, 1936, Chicago, C-1266-1, Vocalion 03258
11. May 27, 1936, Chicago, C-1384-1, Vocalion 03541
12. May 27, 1936, Chicago, C-1385-2, Vocalion 03258
13. May 27, 1936, Chicago, C-1386-1, Vocalion 03581
14. May 27, 1936, Chicago, C-1386-2, Vocalion unissued
15. May 27, 1936, Chicago, C-1287-1, Vocalion 03436
16. May 27, 1936, Chicago, C-1388-2, Vocalion 03474
17. May 27, 1936, Chicago, C-1389-1, Vocalion 03285
18. November 12, 1936, Chicago, C-1667-2, Vocalion 03436
19. November 12, 1936, Chicago, C-1668-1, Vocalion 03398
20. November 12, 1936, Chicago, C-1669-2, Vocalion 03398
21. November 12, 1936, Chicago, C-1670-1, Vocalion 03894
22. November 12, 1936, Chicago, C-1671-1, Vocalion 03474
23. November 12, 1936, Chicago, C-1672-1, Vocalion unissued
24. November 12, 1936, Chicago, C-1672-2, Vocalion 03581