Bman's Blues Report

Started out in New Orleans, wound up in Chicago. The subject could be the blues backbeat, or it could be the life of Armand "Jump" Jackson. Or it could be both, since the two are almost one and the same. That fat, greasy sock rhythm that was heard on many of the blues records made in Chicago in the late '40s and '50s was created by the one and only Jump Jackson, sometimes while he was booking a tour in his head for one of his bands. In the late '40s, Jackson worked as a bandleader on sessions for labels such as Columbia, Specialty, and Aristocrat; his band backed up vocalists such as St. Louis Jimmy, Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, and Baby Doo Caston. He also drummed on at least a dozen classic urban blues albums, with leaders ranging from the most famous such as John Lee Hooker to the obscure but great Robert Nighthawk. As well as performing, Jackson was indeed a certified booking agent. His taste for controlling as much of the business as possible spread to...

This is a top notch lineup with Helen Humes : vocal,Sonny Terry : harmonica,Brownie 'Kazoo' McGhee : vocal, guitar,Willie Dixon :vocal, bass,T-Bone Walker : vocal, guitar,Memphis Slim : vocal, piano and Jump Jackson : drums. Helen Humes (June 23, 1913 - September 9, 1981) was an American jazz and blues singer. Humes was successively a teenaged blues singer, band vocalist with Count Basie, saucy R&B diva and a mature interpreter of the classy popular song. Humes was born in Louisville, Kentucky, was spotted by the guitarist Sylvester Weaver and made her first recordings in 1927, her true young voice consorting oddly with bizarre material like "Garlic Blues" She moved to New York City in 1937 and became a recording vocalist with Harry James' big band. Her swing recordings with James included "Jubilee", "I Can Dream Can't I", Jimmy Dorsey's composition "It's The Dreamer In Me", and "Song of the Wanderer...