Bman's Blues Report

Recorded: Los Angeles, September 30, 1946 T-Bone Walker (vcl) (g) Joe „Red" Kelly (tp), Jack McVea (ts), Tommy „Crow" Kahn (p), Frank Clarke (b), Rabon Tarrant (d) A "y" in this drummer and bandleader's first name seems to be optional as far as credits are concerned, not something that could be said for the magical backbeat Rabon Tarrant glued onto the rhythmic pages of many a Jack McVea side. Tarrant also wrote songs, staying so solidly in the jump blues genre that the song titles themselves even seem to have the blues, be it the "Lonesome Blues," the "Naggin' Woman Blues," or even just the plain old "Slowly Going Crazy Blues." Tarrant began playing drums for an uncle who ran a brass band in Wichita Falls, KS. His professional drumming career began with a bandleader who played the banjo, Otis Stafford. That was in the mid-'20s, and by 1927 he had shifted his rhythm section allegiance to the sometimes stormy, sometimes br...