Frog Records has quite a history of re-releasing early jug band music recordings, to their immense credit. Their catalogue features artists such as the Dixieland Jug Blowers, Earl Hines & Clifford Hayes, Earl MacDonald & The Great Louisville Jug Bands, and four volumes of The Memphis Jug Band. My belief is that part of the appeal of these groups is clear counterpoint: a strong bass (often provided by a jug and/or another bass instrument), with countermelodies over the top. My opinion is that this might be considered analogous to the textures used by J.S. Bach. While there might be some who would curse my grave for making such a comparison, I believe it is not without merit.
The wanton snobbery of some individuals aside, there is much on this album that merits deep listening. The first four tracks on the CD have only ever been rereleased once before (by the Austrian RST Records label on LP in 1988. They are the first recordings by Lloyd Buford Threlkeld (AKA “Whistler” of Whistler’s Jug Band) made in 1924. The Frog Records versions are far superior insofar as they have a greater understanding of the technical limitations of the original Gennett records. As a result, the audio restoration is quite remarkable. The third track (“Jail House Blues”) has been recorded many times, and can be found on DGF72, (Earl MacDonald) as “She’s In the Graveyard Now.” It’s also been recorded as “He’s in the Jail House Now.”
Either way, we hear, for the first time with great clarity, Whistler’s guitar and nose whistle (beautifully played), and Jess Ferguson’s soulful violin playing. Whistler’s recordings are presented in chronological order so that we can hear how all the players improved significantly, and how the sound became more sophisticated over three years. Whistler’s group learned to provide greater instrumental as well as vocal variation (in the recordings from 1927, “Foldin’ Bed” has a lot of “call and response” patterns between a single voice and several others, as well as greater use of dynamics).
We then get to hear Phillips’ Louisville Jug Bad with George “Hooks” Tilford playing a C-melody sax, using multiphonics (the “growling” sound) which actually takes significant skill, as well as Charles “Cane” Adams, playing a walking cane flute (I had never heard nor seen one before). Adams also shows great skill, at times playing like a clarinet in a traditional New Orleans jazz band, with both melodic and triplet obbligato. “That’s a Lovely Thing For You,” is probably the cleverest and most driving number by this group.
Notable also is the Memphis Jug Band’s 1928 “Unissued test” recording of “Whitewash Station.” It’s great to compare it to the version on Smithsonian Folkways’ LP/CD, “The Jug Bands” (released in 1963, one of the first curated re-releases of this music). Greater clarity and audio restoration notwithstanding, it’s important to finally be able to hear all details in the Frog rerelease. It makes one wonder what was going through the minds of the people who originally recorded this group and released their 78 rpm records, because this “unissued test” is more sprightly, quicker, jauntier, more driving and more deliberate than the one that was actually issued. This 16-bar “popular song” with a two bar tag is followed by the same group playing “Feed Your Friend with a Long Handled Spoon,” which is a pure 12 bar blues. The contrast of song styles is riveting to listen to.
We also have two “unissued tests” from Cannon’s Jug Stompers (“Viola Lee Blues,” and “Pretty Mama Blues”). Both have virtuoso harmonica playing by Noah Lewis, but for my money, the latter is played with much greater conviction. Cannon’s jug playing is also virtuosic, the way he plays so slowly, yet holds the beat, stays in tune while doing quick glissandi up to the note.
Equally fascinating is a 1939 recording of Jack Kelly without “His South Memphis Jug Band,” and with NO jug. Is this blues? Is this jug band music? Sometimes the lines seem blurred. But the violin playing (with an unusual use of tremolando) and Kelly’s vocals and guitar playing certainly echo their jug band origins.
Space prohibits the writer from mentioning all the delights in this carefully curated masterwork of scholarship and audio restoration. Every track, in my opinion, shows consummate skill, either as audio restoration, scholarship, curation, and/or musical performance. Without Frog Records, I’m certain that we would never have heard these amazing performances. But part of the skill involved in this assemblage of material that at first might seem unconnected, is establishing its interconnectedness.
Many of the tracks interconnect with tracks either previously released by Frog, or by some other organization. While the booklet doesn’t state exactly who did what in the audio restoration process, I do recognize the name Nick Dellow, who has his own YT channel featuring early dance and jazz bands, and has been involved in many projects including a favorite of mine, Up and At ‘Em: The Hottest of the California Ramblers on Edison released on Retrieval Records in 2011, which was also a stunning example of sound restoration.
Producer Paul Swinton delivers exemplary liner notes in the booklet with a veritable cornucopia of unusual photographs I have never seen before. One of them shows the interconnectedness between “The Famous [Philips] Louisville Jug Band” and “Bert Kelly’s Original New Orleans Jazz Band” (the ODJB before Larry Shields was clarinetist) both playing at “Casino Gardens” in Chicago near the Loop, photographed for an ad probably before 1917 (although I found no credit given in the booklet).
Even if you are not an early jazz or jug band “nerd,” this exceptional collection is just simply great fun to sit back and listen to. Recommended without reservation.
The Jug Band Special:
Rare & Hot Jug Band Recordings 1924-1939
Various Artists
Frog Records DGF 90
www.frog-records.co.uk
WHISTLERS JUG BAND
1. Chicago Flip
2. Jerry O’Mine
3. Jail House Blues
4. I’m A Jazz Baby
5. Low Down Blues
6. The Vamps of “28”
7. The Jug Band Special
8. Pig Meat Blues
9. Foldin’ Bed
10. Hold That Tiger
PHILLIPS LOUISVILLE JUG BAND
11. Soldier Boy Blues
12. That’s A Little Thing For You
13. Sing, You Sinners
14. Tiger Rag
15. Smackin The Sax
16. That’s Your Last
17. Walking Cane Stomp
18. Hard Hustling Blues
MEMPHIS JUG BAND
19. Whitewash Station – unissued #1
20. Feed Your Friend With A Long Handled Spoon – unissued #1
21. I Can Beat You Plenty (That Hand You Tried To Deal To Me) – unissued #1
CANNON’S JUG STOMPERS
22. Viola Lee Blues – unissued #2
23. Pretty Mama Blues – unissued #1
JACK KELLY’S SOUTH MEMPHIS JUG BAND
24. Highway No 61 Blues – unissued #2
25. Betty Sue Blues – unissued #1
26. Joe Louis Special – unissued #1
Matthew de Lacey Davidson is a pianist and composer currently resident in Nova Scotia, Canada. His first CD, Space Shuffle and Other Futuristic Rags (Stomp Off Records), contained the first commercial recordings of the rags of Robin Frost. His second CD, The Graceful Ghost: Contemporary Piano Rags (Capstone Records), was the first commercial compact disc consisting solely of post-1960 contemporary piano ragtime, about which Gramophone magazine said, …a remarkably talented pianist…as a performer Davidson has few peers…”
