ATLANTA

Atlanta originated as a small station named Terminus located on the Georgia state railroad in the mid-1830s. It was renamed Marthasville in 1843 and again renamed Atlanta in 1847. It soon became a growing commercial center in the South, because it was a major junction for the train lines running east of the Appalachian Mountains and west to the Mississippi Valley. Consequently, it proved to be a key military objective of the Union forces under the command of General William T. Sherman during the Civil War. It was set on fire and destroyed in 1864.

After the Civil War, a black middle class emerged in Atlanta. In the 1860s, the American Missionary Association founded Atlanta University, and the Methodist Episcopal Church founded Clark University. They later combined campuses and Clark Atlanta University became one of the largest collections of black colleges in the world. The race riot of 1906 defined a biracial division in Atlanta that remained unchanged for many years as the black business community was driven away from the downtown center.

Social conditions challenged many blacks in the city during the early twentieth century. Blacks as young as twelve years of age and convicted of criminal offenses often found themselves chained with older adults and sentenced to work at gang labor in Atlanta. During the height of the Great Depression, the number of blacks who could not find regular jobs and qualified for federal relief climbed to more than sixty percent. During the late nineteenth century, Atlanta rebuilt itself and became a symbol of a new and revitalized South. Atlanta emerged in the early twentieth century as the South's leading commercial and industrial center. Convict leases and chain gang labor built much of the infrastructure serving this expansion. Following World War II, Atlanta's location again made it a major center for air and highway travel during the last half of the century.

Atlanta is recognized today as the civil rights center of the region and the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. During the 1960s, Atlanta's self-stated motto was "The city too busy to hate." It distinguished itself with its progressive political climate during this period. Since that time, a series of black mayors have guided the continued commercial growth and success of the city. Mayor Andrew Young played a significant role in securing the Olympic games for Atlanta in 1996. In spite of this success, a cycle of poverty still exists for many blacks.

Early in the twentieth century, Atlanta became a center for blues recordings and music scouts. The city's tradition of blues music began on the streets and in the barrelhouses where guitar players and piano players performed. Among the early blues artists who played and recorded in Atlanta were Lillian Glinn, Bert M. Mays, Barbecue Bob, Curley Weaver, and Buddy Moss. Best known of the Atlanta blues singers was "Blind" Willie McTell. He made a number of recordings with his wife, Kate McTell, who was also known as Ruby Glaze.

William Perryman, also known as Piano Red, and his older brother, Rufus Perryman, whose nickname was Speckled Red, grew up in Atlanta where they both played boogie-woogie piano. Speckled Red made a number of recordings before the second world war, whereas Piano Red began his recording career in the 1950s. After living in a variety of cities, Piano Red returned to Atlanta later in his life where he performed his music regularly in local bars.

Tinsley Ellis was born in Atlanta and grew up in south Florida. After returning to Atlanta to attend college, he played with a group, The Heartfixers. Ellis recorded a number of blues albums with this group before going on to a solo career. Illinois born Fran-cine Reed grew up in Arizona before she moved to Atlanta. She provided blues vocal accompaniment for Lyle Lovett before recording two blues albums of her own. Reed performs regularly at Blind Willie's, a venue that specializes in vintage local blues.

Julius "Lotsapoppa" High, Sandra Hall, and Luther "Houserocker" Johnson are other local blues performers that appear regularly at Blind Willie's. These blues artists originally played in clubs on Auburn Avenue up through the 1970s. Auburn Avenue was the center of local blues in Atlanta dating from the early 1950s. Major blues venues included the Royal Peacock, Poinciana, and the Elks Club.

Decatur Street established itself as the first center for both local and national blues artists dating from the early 1920s and continuing through the 1940s. Two vaudeville theaters on that street, known as the "81" and the "91," showcased the talents of Bessie Smith, "Butterbeans and Susie" (the stage names for Joe and Susie Edwards), and Willie McTell among others. A building of the Georgia State University campus stands on the location today.

Bibliography

Cobb, James C. Georgia Odyssey. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1997.

Coleman, Kenneth, ed. A History of Georgia. 2nd ed. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1991.

Oliver, Paul. Blues Fell This Morning. New York: Horizon Press, 1960.

___. The Story of the Blues. London: Chilton Books, 1969.

ARKANSAS

The role that Arkansas played in blues history has been obscured by the better-known contributions of its neighbors the Mississippi Delta and Memphis. But the Arkansas Delta, a musically rich area that includes all or part of twenty-seven counties in the state's eastern region, has produced an incredible array of blues talent.

Helena

Located on a high bluff on the Mississippi River, Helena was the most important river port between Memphis and Vicksburg. A center for the local cotton trade and a key point for the distribution of goods into the surrounding countryside, Helena attracted thousands of black people to work on riverboats and on shore. In a region where money was scarce, these workers attracted many bluesmen to the juke joints along Elm and Walnut Streets. Nearby West Helena also overflowed with clubs. Barrelhouse pianists and itinerant blues musicians with guitars and harps filled Helena's joints with raucous music. Piano legend Roosevelt Sykes learned much of his technique as a teenager in the early 1920s by observing the piano players in Helena.

On November 19, 1941, radio station KFFA went on the air in Helena. A few days later, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) asked if he could perform on the station. The station's owners agreed that he could if he found his own sponsor. Sonny Boy quickly signed with the Interstate Grocer Company, whose owner, Max Moore, wanted to promote his local King Biscuit flour. Thus was born the King Biscuit Time radio show, featuring Sonny Boy's dynamic blues harp and sardonic singing, coupled with the innovative guitar playing of Robert Lockwood, Jr. Lockwood developed his skills under the tutelage of Delta blues legend Robert Johnson, who had been romantically involved with Lockwood's mother.

King Biscuit Time was an instant success and aired from 12:15 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. each weekday. The show also went on the road, airing live on Saturdays from many Delta towns in Arkansas and Mississippi. In 1947, Interstate Grocer Company introduced Sonny Boy Corn Meal—with a picture of Sonny Boy sitting on an ear of corn on the front of each sack—to further profit from the show's success.

Among the performers who appeared on King Biscuit Time were pianists Robert "Dudlow" Taylor, Willie Love, and Pine top Perkins, guitarists Joe "Willie" Wilkins, Houston Stackhouse, Earl Hooker, and Sammy Lawhorn, and drummer Peck Curtis.

Lockwood left the show after two years because of a dispute with Max Moore. He soon had his own show on KFFA, sponsored by Mother's Best Flour Company, which lasted about a year. Delta bluesman and Helena native Robert Nighthawk also had a show on KFFA, sponsored by Bright Star Flour. He also appeared on King Biscuit Time and replaced Sonny Boy as the show's regular star after Sonny Boy died in Helena in 1965. Nighthawk passed away in 1967 and is buried in Helena's Magnolia Cemetery.

Since 1968, King Biscuit Time has featured recorded music instead of a live band. Today the show is hosted by Sonny Payne, who has been with the program since the 1940s.

Helena blues has carried on in the juke-joint blues of harp player Frank Frost (who died in 1999) and drummer Sam Carr, the modern blues of west Helena native Lonnie Shields, and the creative down-home blues of John Weston. In 1986, Helena's Sonny Boy Blues Society put together a one-day blues festival to honor the city's rich blues heritage. The King Biscuit Blues Festival has since grown into one of the world's largest free blues festivals, attracting tens of thousands of fans annually.

West Memphis

West Memphis, located directly across the Mississippi River from Memphis, was by the late 1940s a more significant blues center than its larger neighbor. Founded in 1910 as a logging camp, West Memphis grew into a town known for its gambling, hot blues, and other vices. It had many jukes and clubs, especially along 8th Street, which included a variety of venues, from country-style jukes such as the Little Brown Jug to more substantial clubs like the Be-Bop Hall. Just fifteen miles to the west was the Top Hat club at Blackfish Lake, which held hundreds of people.

The most important blues musician on the West Memphis scene was Howlin' Wolf, who loomed large physically and musically. An energetic performer who sang with a voice that sounded like an earthquake feels and played raw, country-style blues harp, Wolf put together his first electric band in the late 1940s while living in West Memphis. Made up largely of musicians much younger than himself, Wolfs band featured many of the best players in the region, including harp players Little Junior Parker and James Cotton, pianist William "Destruction" Johnson, drummer Willie Steele, and guitarists Willie Lee Johnson, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, and Auburn "Pat" Hare. Johnson's guitar work, combining raw blues riffs with jazzy chord flourishes, in particular helped establish the signature sound of the band, which quickly established itself as the most popular in West Memphis and the surrounding Arkansas Delta.

In 1949, Wolf secured a radio show on West Memphis station KWEM, on which he advertised farm supplies. Memphis record producer Sam Phillips heard Wolf on the show and, impressed by his raw talent, began recording him for Chess Records in Chicago. Wolfs success on KWEM opened the door for other blues artists on the station, including Sonny Boy II, who advertised the patent medicine Hadacol, piano player Willie Love, and drummer Willie Nix. Other blues musicians active in West Memphis at the time included B. B. King, Joe Hill Louis, Rosco Gordon, Jr., and Hubert Sumlin. In the 1970s, locally owned 8th Street Records recorded West Memphis blues veterans Sammy Lewis and Sonny Blake, though their records were poorly distributed. Little remains of the West Memphis blues scene today.

Other Parts of the State

Many other Arkansas towns had active blues scenes. In Brinkley, the White Swan club regularly featured Robert Nighthawk, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, and others. In Osceola, M. C. Reeder owned the T-99 club, whose In the Groove Boys band included young guitarist Albert Nelson, who later became famous as Albert King. Another Osceola guitarist, Son Seals, learned the blues at his father's juke the Dipsy Doodle. Forrest City lent its name to harp player "Forrest City" Joe Pugh, who made a handful of recordings for Aristocrat (later Chess) Records. Little Rock's blues scene produced the woefully underrated Larry Davis, best known for his recording of "Texas Flood" for Duke Records, and Elmon "Driftin' Slim" Mickle, who later moved to Los Angeles and worked as a one-man band. Also associated with Little Rock was bluesman Calvin Leavy, who achieved a surprise R&B hit with the down-home blues tune "Cummins Prison Farm."

Most unusual of all Arkansas bluesman is Cedell Davis of Pine Bluff. Born in Helena in 1927, Davis contracted polio as a child, which crippled his right hand. He learned to play guitar upside-down, clutching a butter knife as a slide in his crippled hand. The result is a uniquely discordant but powerful and eerie blues sound. Recently, Michael Burks emerged from Arkansas with an outstanding guitar style (influenced by Albert King) and strong vocals that are quickly making him a star.

Other blues artists born in the cities and towns of Arkansas include Luther Allison (Widener), Little Willie Anderson (West Memphis), Buster Benton (Texarkana), Willie Cobbs (Smales), Detroit Junior (Haynes), Art and Roman Griswold (Tillar), "Shakey" Jake Harris (Earle), Floyd Jones (Marianna), Charley Jordan (Mabelville), Louis Jordan (Brinkley), Sammy Lawhorn (Little Rock), Hosea Leavy (Altheimer), Larry McCray (Magnolia), George "Harmonica" Smith (Helena), Blue Smitty (Marianna), Johnnie Taylor (Crawfordsville), Washboard Sam (Walnut Ridge), Casey Bill Weldon (Pine Bluff), and Jimmy Witherspoon (Gurdon).

Bibliography

Guida, Louis, Lorenzo Thomas, and Cheryl Cohen. Blues Music in Arkansas. Philadelphia, PA: Portfolio Associates, 1982.

Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues. New York: Penguin, 1981. Rotenstein, David S. "The Helena Blues: Cultural Tourism and African American Folk Music." Southern Folklore Quarterly 49, no. 2 (1992): 133-146.

ADAMS, ALBERTA

b. Roberta Louise Osborn, 26 July 1917; Indianapolis, IN

Vocalist. Santelli gives a birth date of July 26, 1923. Adams moved to Detroit before age five and began her career in the late 1930s as a tap dancer. She started to sing at Club B&C in 1942, worked steadily as a vocalist from 1942 onward, and then began incorporating blues into her repertoire. By 1944 she was billed locally as ''Queen of the Blues.'' Adams toured with Lionel Hampton, Louis Jordan, and T-Bone Walker and recorded for Chess in 1952 and under her own name for Cannonball.

Bibliography

Santelli

Discography: LSFP

Selected Recordings

''Say Baby Say'' (Cannonball CBD 29114).

''Born with the Blues'' (Cannonball CBD 29106).

ACKLIN, BARBARA

b. 28 February 1943; Oakland, CA

d. 27 November 1998; Omaha, NE

An R&B singer from Chicago whose vulnerable soprano voice typified the city’s brand of soft soul during the 1960s and 1970s. After Acklin joined Brunswick Records in 1966, her first singles did not meet major success, but when she teamed up with Gene Chandler in 1968, the duo scored two hits: ‘‘Show Me the Way to Go’’ and ‘‘From the Teacher to the Preacher.’’ Her solo career was also established in 1968 with two big hits, ‘‘Love Makes a Woman’’ and ‘‘Just Ain’t No Love.’’ Acklin was a valuable songwriter for Brunswick, achieving her first big success in 1966 by cowriting one of Jackie Wilson’s best hits, ‘‘Whispers (Gettin’ Louder).’’ Collaborating with the company’s ace songwriter, Eugene Record, she contributed ‘‘Have I Seen Her,’’ ‘‘Let Me Be the Man My Daddy Was,’’ and ‘‘Toby’’ for the Chi-Lites.

Acklin moved to Capitol Records in 1974 and, working with producer Willie Henderson, created the hit called "Raindrops." Her last chart record was in 1975. Acklin performed at the 1994 Chicago Blues Festival.

Bibliography

Pruter, Robert. ''Barbara Acklin.'' Goldmine (July 1983): 169-170.

ACEY, JOHNNY

b. 1925

Pianist and vocalist active in the 1950s and 1960s; also performed and recorded with Paul ‘‘Hucklebuck’’ Williams. His best known solo songs are ‘‘You Walked Out’’ and ‘‘Stay Away Love.’’ Recorded for the DJL, Flyright, and Falew labels.

Discography: Lord, LSFP

ACES, THE

Also known as the Jukes. Members consisted of Louis Myers (guitar, harmonica, and vocals), Dave Myers (bass guitar), and Fred Below (drums). They were the backing band for Little Walter in the early 1950s, and as such they are considered by historians to be one of first Chicago blues bands to venture on tours outside their native city. In the 1970s they toured Europe, recording on the European labels Vogue, Black and Blues, and MCM.

Bibliography

AMG; Larkin; Santelli

ACE, JOHNNY

b. John Marshall Alexander, Jr., 9 June 1929; Memphis, TN

d. 25 December 1954; Houston, TX

Ace served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and returned to Memphis in 1946 to perform with several groups, including the B. B. King and the Beale Street Boys group. After King and Bobby Bland left the group, Ace renamed the group the Beale Streeters. He joined the Duke label in 1952 and scored a #1 hit with his first release, “ My Song.” Following releases were hits as well: Cross My Heart,'' The Clock,'' Never Let Me Go,'' Please Forgive Me,'' and Saving My Love for You.''

Ace died tragically at the age of twenty-five. His death was attributed to Russian Roulette, despite widely circulated rumors of murder and career manipulation, and came at the peak of his career. That year, he had been voted most programmed artist of the year by a Cashbox magazine poll.

Following his death, his career culminated with the release of Pledging My Love.'' It is an anthem to love and youthful angst; its success was fueled partially by the mystique surrounding his tragically young death and its soulful rendition of what would turn out to be an R&B standard.

Unfortunately, few recordings exist for Ace. In his brief career, virtually everything was released in the months following his death. The limited amount of material does not, however, diminish his role as an essential troubadour of this phase of R&B music in America.

Bibliography

Salem, James M. The Late Great Johnny Ace. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1984.

Discography

My Song (1952, Duke-102).

Anymore (1955, Duke-136).

Johnny Ace Memorial Album (1955, Duke LP-70).

Memorial Album for Johnny Ace (1957, Duke DLP-71).

Johnny Ace Memorial Album (1974, Duke X-71).

ACE, BUDDY

b. James L. Land, 11 November 1936; Jasper, TX

d. 24 December 1994; Waco, TX

Singer. The ''Silver Fox of the Blues'' grew up in Houston, singing in a gospel group with Joe Tex before beginning his R&B and blues activities. After touring with Bobby ''Blue'' Bland and Junior Parker, he was signed to the Duke/Peacock label in 1955. Ace had a few hits, such as ''Nothing In the World Can Hurt Me (Except You)'' in the 1960s before relocating to Los Angeles and then Oakland in 1970 where he built up a following with his soul-drenched live shows. His most prolific recording period came shortly before his death as ''Silver Fox'' and ''Don't Hurt No More'' were released in 1994. He was also represented by several posthumous releases, most notably ''From Me to You,'' his Bobby ''Blue'' Bland tribute.

Bibliography

Santelli

Bonner, Brett J. ''Buddy Ace'' (obituary). Living Blues no. 120 (March/April 1995): 92.

Discography

''Buddy Ace, Silver Fox'' (1994. Evejim Records 2040).

''Don't Hurt No More'' (1994. Evejim Records 2018).

''From Me to You'' (1995. Evejim Records 2048).

''The Real Thing'' (1996. Jewel 5054).

Ace (united states)

Jackson, Mississippi, label founded in 1955 by Johnny Vincent, who held nearly all of his recording sessions in New Orleans, especially at Cosimo Matassa's recording studio. Hits include Huey ''Piano'' Smith's ''Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu'' and Frankie Ford's ''Sea Cruise.'' Releases slowed to a trickle after the mid-1960s, but in 1971 Vincent reactivated it to reissue classic performances and some new material.

Bibliography

Mabry, Donald J. ''The Rise and Fall of Ace Records: A Case Study in the Independent Record Business,'' Business History Review 64, no. 3 (Autumn 1990): 411-450.

Discography: McGrath

Edwards, David, Mike Callahan, and Patrice Eyries. ''Ace/ Teem Records (US) Album Discography.'' Both Sides Now website, http://www.bsnpubs.com/ace.html (accessed February 15, 2005).

Ace (united kingdom)

London-based British record label, started in 1978 as a division of Chiswick Records, founded in 1975 by Ted Carroll and Roger Armstrong, as the imprint for the company's reissue catalog. Ace soon became the principal label and grew into one of the most important sources of reissues of blues and R&B recordings from the 1940s onward. A&R consultants prominent in programming blues and R&B releases have included John Broven, Ray Topping, and Tony Rounce.

Striking licensing deals with American labels, Ace was prominent in the LP era both for high-quality reissues of mainstream blues artists such as B. B. King, Elmore James, and Smokey Hogg and for systematic reissues of many R&B artists including Maxwell Davis, Floyd Dixon, Gene Phillips, Pee Wee Crayton, Jimmy McCracklin, Joe Houston, Saunders King, Little Willie Littlefield, Jimmy Nelson, and Joe Lutcher. In pursuit of this endeavor, the company briefly revived the long-defunct ten-inch LP and further pursued the idea in 2003 by issuing a series of CDs called ''The Ace 10" Series,'' that catered to situations in which the intended program made for a short CD. The Modern and associated labels, whose masters Ace acquired in the CD era, have figured largely among the sources drawn on for reissues and have been repackaged systematically on CDs in the twenty-first century. Such CDs include lavishly annotated boxed sets by B. B. King and Elmore James. Similar access to Detroit's Sensation label has allowed releases by John Lee Hooker and Todd Rhodes.

Significant blues releases have been licensed from Excello and from Specialty, including releases from Joe and Jimmy Liggins, Roy Milton and Camille Howard. These releases were unusual in that they used American-compiled packages; most Ace issues are assembled in house. Other labels that have been drawn on include Decca, Combo, Bandera, Bobbin, Peacock, King/Federal, Old Town, Goldband, Stax, Dig, and other labels associated with Johnny Otis. In 1995 the catalog included eleven CDs by John Lee Hooker, six CDs and a seven-CD boxed set by Sam ''Lightnin' '' Hopkins, and ten CDs by B. B. King. In 2003 there were twenty CDs in the catalog by Albert King alone. These statistics exemplify the lavish scale of Ace's operations.

Bibliography

Ace Records website, http://www.acerecords.co.uk/.

ACCORDION

The accordion reached its peak popularity with African American musicians between the end of Reconstruction (1865-1877) and the early twentieth century. Clarence Tross, a West Virginian musician, reported that it was ''mostly the colored man'' playing accordions in that period, and a contemporary from coastal Virginia remembered that accordions were ''the only kind of music we had back then.'' In Mississippi, some of the earliest ensembles playing blues used accordions, and one accordionist, Walter ''Pat'' Rhodes, was among the earliest Delta blues singers to make records.

As the first mass-produced instrument marketed to rural blacks, the accordion served as the precursor to the mass marketing of guitars that fueled the growth of rural blues. Even so, few early blues musicians played accordions and by the mid-1930s a number of factors combined to bring about the demise of its use in almost any popular black music. With the emergence of zydeco—the blues-influenced music of the French-speaking African American population of southwest Louisiana—in the late 1950s a new bluesy accordion sound emerged. Zydeco showcased accordion virtuosity the way blues bands featured the electric guitar. In the hands of master accordionist Clifton Chenier, the accordion achieved unprecedented credibility as a blues instrument.

Types of Accordions

Two types of accordions concern us here: the diatonic button accordion and the piano accordion. All accordions are two rectangular boxes connected by a bellows with the melody notes on the right side and the accompaniment chords on the left side. As the name implies, the button accordion has buttons for both melody and accompaniment. The diatonic scale is the same scale found on the single-key harmonicas (such as the Marine Band) commonly played by blues harpists. Like the slots on those harmonicas, each button on the accordion produces a different tone depending on whether the bellows are pushed or pulled. The original design was for a single row in a single key, but later models featured two and three rows in related keys allowing the accordionist to play in multiple keys. The accompaniment may have as few as two buttons or up to twenty-four in various configurations. This single-row design is the model still popular with the Cajuns of southwest Louisiana.

Diatonic accordions dominated sales to the general populace from the 1840s to 1925 when sales of the piano accordion began to dominate. This instrument offered several immediate advantages over the button accordion. First, the piano keyboard offered a full chromatic scale that sounded the same note regardless of the bellows direction. secondly, the accompaniment provided up to 128 buttons arranged in bass-chord combinations to allow playing of almost any chord progression. The button accordion was reduced to a niche instrument while the piano accordion became wildly popular in America and remained so until the advent of rock 'n' roll.

Pre-Blues Usage

One of the earliest photographic images of an American accordionist is a daguerreotype from 1850 of a black man from a southeast Louisiana plantation playing a button accordion. The slave narratives collected by the works Progress Administration in the 1930s contain recollections of accordions being played as accompaniment for dancing. The largest concentration of accordion players occurred in the post-Civil War period, a time referred to as Reconstruction (1865-1877). The newly emancipated slaves purchased instruments with their own earnings and they seem to have bought accordions in significant numbers. Accordions were cheap, lightweight, durable, loud, and provided built-in accompaniment.

Mississippi Blues

In Mississippi, older relatives of Big Joe Williams, K. C. Douglas, Jim Brewer, Eli Owens, and Henry Townsend all played accordion. Two of the most important Mississippi accordionists were Homer Lewis and Walter ''Pat'' Rhodes. Lewis performed with blues guitarist Charley Patton at Dockery's plantation in the early part of the twentieth century in an ensemble made up of one or two guitarists, Lewis, and a fiddler. It was likely a popular sound—Rhodes, a street singer from nearby Cleveland, regularly played in an ensemble with similar instrumentation. In 1927 he became the first Sunflower County musician to record. His recording of ''Crowing Rooster Blues'' accompanied by Richard ''Hacksaw'' and Mylon Harney on guitars precedes Patton's own more famous recording of ''Banty Rooster Blues'' by two years. This record, backed with ''Leaving Home Blues,'' is the only commercial blues recording in English that used the accordion until the emergence of zydeco. Folklorist John Lomax did record another Mississippi accordionist in 1937 for the Library of Congress. Blind Jesse Harris sang ballads and reels for the most part, but did perform a memorable version of the popular blues tune ''Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Someday.''

Both the Harris and Rhodes recordings show how hard it is to play blues on the diatonic button accordion. The instrument is incapable of playing many of the slides, glissandos, and flatted notes that are dominant features of blues music. Both men stop playing while they sing and play simple melodic lines using only bellows shakes to emulate the vocal line. These shortcomings made it easy for a number of musicians who started on the accordion to decide to switch to guitar as soon as one became available. Some of those young musicians included Big Joe Williams, Blind Willie McTell, and McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters. Huddie Ledbetter or ''Leadbelly'' was born in 1885 in the far northwest corner of Louisiana where he learned to play the button accordion for the local dances called ''Sukey Jumps'' with the older musicians in the area. As a young adult he switched to the twelve-string guitar, but continued to play the accordion, eventually recording four tunes on it for various small New York record companies in the early 1940s.

Amede Ardoin and Creole Blues

A unique blues accordion tradition, unrelated to the northwest Louisiana style played by Leadbelly, developed in southwest Louisiana among the French-speaking people of African descent. Their music synthesized elements of the French Caribbean, Cajun, American Indian, French, and African (Wolof and Bambara) cultures. The music of English-speaking African Americans made a relatively late entrance into this mix. For example, accordionist Sidney Babineaux recalled first hearing the blues on a Bessie Smith record in the late 1920s. Blues were considered risque and crude and were banned from Creole dances. Still the most influential musician of the period, Amede Ardoin, recorded a handful of ''blues'' songs. These did not follow the chord structure common to the twelve-bar format, but instead followed the harmonic pattern caused by the left-hand accompaniment of the accordion. Ardoin played his blues in the ''cross position'' that blues harmonica players commonly use and this caused the instrument's standard accompaniment to be reversed. Accordionists cannot play the critical fifth chord; they can merely imply it, leaving the blues with an unresolved feel.

Ardoin's blues conceded structure to this harmonic reality, but not to the spirit ofthe blues. His vocals are blues inflected, full of flatted thirds and sevenths and the slurs and glissandos associated with the best Delta blues singing. His most distinct blues records include ''Blues de Basile,'' ''Les Blues de Voyage,'' and ''Les Blues de Crowley.'' Ardoin's playing career ended in late 1930s when he was beat up by a group of white patrons at a dance, run over, and left for dead. The incident caused Ardoin to lose his mind and led to his eventual commitment to a Louisiana asylum for the insane where he eventually died. His two steps and waltzes are still performed by both Cajuns and Creoles, but it is his blues in particular that influenced zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier.

Zydeco

Ardoin's final recordings made in December 1934 were the last by a Creole musician until 1954. During this undocumented period, musical influences from the greater English-speaking African American culture became more important in Creole music. Blues, which had often been taboo even in Ardoin's time, became an integral part of the repertoire of younger Creoles. The ''rub board'' or ''frattoir'' became the standard for accompaniment of the accordion and accordionists began to favor multiple-row accordions. In 1954 a Lake Charles appliance dealer named Eddie Shuler recorded one of these younger accordionists, Boozoo Chavis. Shuler recruited Houston-based bandleader Classie Ballou to accompany Chavis and the resulting record, ''Paper in My Shoe,'' became a huge regional hit. Chavis's success gave a visibility to this new music outside of the French-speaking community. The success of Paper in My shoe'' was partially responsible for getting Clifton Chenier signed by Specialty Records in 1955.

Clifton Chenier

Clifton Chenier has the distinction of being the first Creole musician to master the piano accordion. With a full four-octave piano keyboard, Chenier could emulate the licks of any blues pianist, but the bellows-driven free reeds created a much more nuanced, vocal quality similar to that of blues harpists. Chenier also used the full 128 accompaniment buttons to approximate the left hand of boogie-woogie and blues pianists. His recordings for Specialty Records such as ''Boppin' the Rock'' and ''All the Things I Did for You'' display the masterful blues playing that garnered him a large regional audience throughout the Gulf Coast.

While other Creole musicians remained local or, like Chavis, retired, Chenier embarked on endless touring, both nationally and internationally, and slowly developed a following for his style, which was now labeled zydeco. The name derived from the title of a traditional Creole dance Les Haricots Sont Pas Sale'' ( The Snap Beans Are Not Salty'') cut to a phonetic spelling of the Creole pronunciation of haricots (snap beans). Chenier, billed as the ''King of Zydeco,'' scored his largest regional hits with his blues tunes: Louisiana Blues,'' Black Gal,'' and Black Snake Blues.'' As a national presence, he performed at venues that commonly presented blues performers, which created a large crossover audience for zydeco. For Americans he presented a completely new image of the accordion as a soulful instrument that contrasted greatly with their preconceptions of saccharine sweet accordion music that were drawn from Lawrence Welk's popular TV show.

Chenier's talent combined with tireless touring and consistent recordings brought zydeco a national popularity that allowed other zydeco performers to follow on the path that he had blazed. This included Chavis, who returned from retirement to have enormous success with his own more rural version of the music. Still Chenier remained the King until his death in 1987. His legacy is heard in the playing of his son, C. J. Chenier; Stanley Dural, aka Buckwheat Zydeco,'' his former organist; and Nathan Williams. All play piano accordion in a blues style that owes greatly to Chenier. The success of zydeco and quality of Chenier's blues performances have inspired many to pick up the accordion and will continue to inspire more.

Bibliography

Savoy, Ann Allen. Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People. Vol. 1. Eunice, LA: Bluebird Press, 1984.

Snyder, Jared. ''Boozoo Chavis, His Own Kind of Zydeco Man.'' Sing Out! 44, no. 1 (Fall 1999): 3441.

___. ''Breeze in the Carolinas: The African American Accordionists of the Upper South.'' The Free-Reed Journal 3 (Fall 2001): 19-45.

___.''Leadbelly and His Windjammer: Examining the African American Button Accordion Tradition.'' American Music 12 (1994): 148-166.

___. ''The Legacy of the Afro-Mississippi Accordionists.'' Black Music Research Journal 17, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 37-58.

Tisserand, Michael. The Kingdom of Zydeco. New York: Arcade Press, 1998.

Discography

Virginia Traditions: Non-Blues Secular Music (1978, Blue Ridge Institute BRI 001). (This recording includes non-blues accordion by Isaac ''Boo'' Curry and Clarence Waddy.)

Ardoin, Amede

Amede Ardoin: Pioneer of Louisiana French Blues 1930-1934 (1995, Arhoolie Folklyric 7007).

Chavis, Boozoo

Refer to The Kingdom of Zydeco and Boozoo Chavis, His Own Kind of Zydeco Man for a more complete discography. The Lake Charles Atomic Bomb (1990, Rounder 2097). (Contains some of his earliest hits.)

Chenier, Clifton

Refer to Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People for a more complete discography. Some of his earliest recordings and greatest hits include the following: Bayou Blues (1970, Specialty Records SPCD-2139-2). Zydeco, Volume One: The Early Years (1989, Arhoolie Folklyric CD-307).

60 Minutes with the King of Zydeco (1994, Arhoolie Folk-lyric CD-301).

Harris, Blind Jesse

''Sun Gonna Shine in My Door Some Day.'' LC-1331-A-1. Reissued on Field Recordings, Volume 4, Mississippi & Alabama 1934-1942 (1998, Document DOCD-5578).

Leadbelly

Each of Leadbelly's accordion pieces are on different records:

A Leadbelly Memorial Volume, Volume II (1963, Stinson Records SLP 19).

Take This Hammer (1968, Folkways FTS 31019).

Global Accordion: Early Recordings (2001, Wergo SM 1623).

Rhodes, Walter "Pat"

“The Crowing Rooster” (Columbia 14289-D). Leaving Home Blues (Columbia 14289-D).

ABSHIRE, NATHAN

b. 27 June 1913; near Gueydan,

LA d. 13 May 1981; Basile, LA

Cajun vocalist and accordionist, noted for his ''Pine Grove Blues,'' which he first recorded in 1949 for the OT label run by Virgil Bozeman. For many years he was active mostly in south Louisiana, although in the 1970s he performed widely at festivals and colleges.

Bibliography

Larkin

Discography: Lord

ABNER, EWART

b. 11 May 1923; Chicago, IL

d. 27 December 1997; Los Angeles, CA

Record executive of the post-World War II era, heading at different times two of the biggest black-owned labels of all time, vee-Jay and Motown. With owner Art Sheridan, he first ran the Chance label (1950-1954) and then served as the general manager and part owner at vee-Jay beginning in 1955, running the company for founders vivian Carter and James Bracken. In 1961 he became president. Under his stewardship, vee-Jay (and its subsidiary label Abner) became a major independent by not only getting hits on such blues acts as Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker, but also such soul acts as Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler, Dee Clark, Betty Everett, and such rock 'n' roll acts as the Beatles and the Four Seasons. Abner owned and headed Constellation (1963-1966), and then joined Motown, where he served as its president from 1973 to 1975. Abner continued to work with Motown's Berry Gordy in various capacities until his death.

Bibliography

Pruter, Robert. Chicago Soul. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Abc-paramount/bluesway

Formed in Hollywood in 1956 as a branch of the film corporation, ABC-Paramount's first artists were post-Elvis rock 'n' roll acts (such as Paul Anka and Danny and the Juniors) and R&B singer Lloyd Price. The label surrounded Price's voice with big band arrangements and white choruses and made him a star with ''Stagger Lee'' and ''Personality''. In 1959, ABC-Paramount lured Ray Charles from Atlantic Records, and the next three years brought Charles three #1 records: ''Georgia on My Mind'', ''Hit the Road, Jack'', and ''I Can't Stop Loving You''. The subsidiary BluesWay was founded in 1966 and some of the greatest blues performers recorded for the label, including Jimmy Reed, B. B. King, John Lee Hooker, Otis Spann, Jimmy Rushing, and T-Bone Walker. ABC acquired other labels in the late 1960s, including Dot and Blue Thumb, but in 1978, Paramount sold all of its music interests to MCA.

MORRIS S. LEVY

Bibliography

Gillett, Charlie. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock 'n' Roll. New York: Dell, 1972.

Southall, Brian. The A-Z of Record Labels. London: Sanctuary, 2003.

Discography

Edwards, David, Patrice Eyrie, and Mike Callahan. ''ABC-Paramount Records Story.'' Both Sides Now website, http://www.bsnpubs.com/abc/abcstory.html (accessed December 17,2004).

FREQUENTLY CITED SOURCES

AMG

All Music Guide to the Blues, 3rd edition, edited by Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2003)

DGR

Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, and Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records, 1890–1943. 4th edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

Gospel Records 1943–1969

Cedric Hayes and Robert Laughton, Gospel Records 1943–1969. 2 volumes. London: Record Information Services, 1993.

Harris

Sheldon Harris, Blues Who’s Who (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1979) Five editions.

Herzhaft

Ge´rard Herzhaft, Encyclopedia of the Blues (Fayetteville AR: University of Arkansas Press, 1992); an English language edition of his Encyclope´die du Blues (Lyon: Federop, 1979; Paris: Seghers, 1990). An enlarged French edition, La Grande Encyclope´die du Blues, was published by Editions Fayard in 1997.

Larkin

Colin Larkin, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 3rd edition (London; New York: Muze, 1998), 8 volumes.

Lord

Tom Lord, The Jazz Discography. 26 volumes. Vancouver, BC; Redwood, NY: Lord Music Reference/Cadence Jazz Books, 1992–2002.

LSFP

Mike Leadbitter, Neil Slaven, Les Fancourt, and Paul Pelletieir, compilers. Blues Records 1943–1970. 2 volumes. A Selective Discography: vol. 1: A–K (London: Record Information Services, 1987); ‘‘The Bible of the Blues’’: vol. 2: L–Z (Record Information Services, 1994).

McGrath

Bob McGrath, The R&B Indies. 2 volumes. West Vancouver, BC: Eyeball, 2000.

New Grove Jazz

Barry Kernfeld, editor, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition, two volumes, London: Macmillan; New York: Grove’s Dictionaries, 2002.

Santelli

Robert Santelli, The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia (New York: Penguin, 1993).

Southern

Eileen Southern, Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1982).

Sutton

Sutton, Allan. American Record Labels and Companies, An Encyclopedia. Denver, CO: Mainspring Press, 2000.

Whitburn

Whitburn, Joel. Billboard Top R&B Singles 1942–1999. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, Inc., 2000.