(Dewey Phillips - the turbo-charged prototype - radio was never the same)

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As much as history books like to credit Allan Freed as the man who put Rock n' Roll on the map, the real unsung hero has to be Dewey Phillips, whose insane non-stop delivery and ground breaking exposure to white audiences of Rhythm & Blues probably did more to punch through the color barrier than anyone at the time.

Phillips started broadcasting in 1949, right at the crest of the Jump-Blues wave where Rhythm & Blues was fusing with small combo Jazz and the result eventually morphed into rock n' roll. Phillips, and his nightly show on WHBQ in Memphis ran a wall to wall stream of music by the likes of Joe Turner, Mel Walker and Little Esther Phillips, Roy Milton, Amos Milburn, Charles Brown and countless others. Because his show had no format to speak of he ran pretty much what ever he felt like. And it was this free form type of program that appealed to so many kids at the time, and so many white kids who were being exposed to music formerly relegated to rural Southern stations.

Phillips had the distinction of being the first to play Elvis Presley and one of the first to interview him.

Dewey Phillips would eventually be burned by the thing he helped create and by the mid-1950's his brand of free form radio would be co-opted by tight formats and playlists which would eventually give way to Top-40 and tighter playlists.

But for that brief period of time, Dewey Phillips had no peers and this 30 minute slice from November of 1950 gives you some idea of the madness he was all about and why the early days of Rock n' Roll came about because of him.

Inching towards "that day", we're switching gears a bit and going from Techno last night to Jump Blues tonight by way of Roy Milton and His Solid Senders and Christmas Time Blues, a track he cut on one blistering July in 1950.

I understand the immortal Gene Autry recorded Rudolf The Rednosed Reindeer one blistering July too. So maybe it's the weather.

At any rate, Roy Milton takes the frantic season down a few mellow pegs and puts it all in perspective.

So turn it up and enjoy.

The Weekend Gallimaufry has turned into a place where all the Jazz concerts are going it seems. That might change at the beginning of the year and these club dates may get their own posts. But for now the Weekend Gallimaufry is featuring the inimitable Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five in a set recorded at Sardis Restaurant and Nightclub on Hollywood and Vine, recorded July 6, 1956.

Along with Jordan are vocalists Dottie Smith and Rex Middleton's HiFi's. Also on hand is the legendary announcer Joe Adams, voice of many jazz and blues concerts as well as one of the pioneering Rock and R&B disc jockey's in the L.A. area in the 1940's and 1950's as well as Ray Charles' Manager from 1961 on.

A great set by one of the unsung heroes of that period of transition, when Jazz got friendly with Blues and innovation was a given.

Something to dig along with your Sunday.

Some Earl Bostic tonight. One of that illustrious generation of honking sax players who also made the effortless transition from Jazz to Jump Blues and brought a Who's Who of Jazz luminaries along for the ride. This track, the pop standard Moonglow, done in unmistakable Bostic fashion, was recorded in New York on April 2, 1952 and featured Joe Mitchell on Trumpet, John Coltrane on Tenor-sax, Ike Isaacs on Bass and Charles "Specs" Wright on drums.

(Paul Gayten - one of the unsung luminaries in the pantheon of Blues)

I first ran across the music of Paul Gayten by way of some 78's I found at a Salvation Army thrift shop when I was fifteen. What got me was the sound of his orchestra. Gayten was a band leader from the late 1940s to the mid 1950s and some of the people who came in and out of his band read like a Who's Who of Jazz of the 1950s. But Gayten was also a great songwriter and singer who had many hits on the R&B charts and had a long career working for Chess Records.

Many years ago I had the pleasure of working on a reissue album of Paul Gayten's music. I was handed a small mountain of early tapes containing masters of released songs and, in a few cases, masters of songs that were never released. It's this song that's up tonight, I Love You So, that's never been released, never been reissued and for all intents and purposes not heard since it was recorded in 1950. I loved it the second I heard it - the band and arrangement kill me. Why it's never been available is a complete mystery to me.

But that doesn't mean it has to be a mystery to you. All you get to do is turn up the volume and relax. Enjoy.

(Louis Jordan - Five guys named Moe and a whole lot more)

A double dose of 1940s tonight. First off, Louis Jordan and His Tympani Five from the Chesterfield Supper Club Broadcast of July 17, 1945. Jordan was one of the first Jump-Blues outfits to gain national popularity in the early 1940s. They would be a wave of the future as far as Big Bands were concerned. As the War took a lot of sidemen off to the Armed Forces, bands were forced to pare down. And as time wore on, the number of venues a big band could play started to dwindle. So the small outfit was economical and attractive to the club owner who didn't have to shell out so much for a 10-20 piece band, where they could just pay for 5 or 6. Louis Jordan was a popular attraction and a regular on Radio broadcasts. He was a recurring act on the Chesterfield Supper Club.

(The Charioteers - human orchestra. Later, model for Do-Wop)

Our second dose comes by way of The Charioteers. Early on, they were a gospel group, dabbling as a Human Orchestra. In the 1930s and 1940s many acappella vocal groups added the extra bonus of being able to imitate most any wind instrument there was in a band - a whole sub-genre of groups sprang up known as Human Orchestras. As the Charioteers popularity rose they gradually transitioned over to doing more pop/standard material and eventually became one of the models in the evolution of do-wop and vocal R&B. Here they are, also via the Chesterfield Supper Club from July 31, August 12 and September 2, 1945