File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2003
Styles: R&B, Jump Blues, Westcoast
Time: 71:21
Size: 164,2 MB
Covers: Full
(3:42) 1. Jake "Vernon" Porter - Slowly Go Out of Your Mind
(2:21) 2. Chuck Higgins & His Mellotones - Motor Head Baby
(2:33) 3. Chuck Hamilton - Baby I Don't Want You No More
(2:30) 4. Gene Phillips - I Owe Everybody
(2:35) 5. Frankie Ervin - I Got Hi
(3:06) 6. Jimmy O'Brien - Straight to Watts
(2:19) 7. Ernie Fields - T-Town Mambo
(2:17) 8. Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - Ridin' Mighty High
(2:43) 9. Oh, How the Geese Did Fly!
(3:12) 10. Chuck Higgins & His Mellotones - Ain't Gonna Leave Baby
(2:41) 11. Tal Carter - Mama and Papa
(2:33) 12. Honey Coleman - Talk About a Girl Child Being Down
(2:13) 13. Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - Take Off My Wig
(3:35) 14. Jake Porter Combo - The Monkey
(2:57) 15. Jake "Vernon" Porter - The Whang
(2:36) 16. Betty Hall Jones - Frustration, Frustration
(2:59) 17. Gene Phillips - Fish Man
(2:54) 18. Chuck Higgins & His Mellotones - Stormy
(2:43) 19. Brother Woodman - Hi Ho Silver
(3:20) 20. Andrew 'Smokey' Hogg - Where Have You Been
(2:22) 21. Frankie Ervin - A Soul Without a Name
(2:56) 22. Palmer - Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad
(2:27) 23. Jake "Vernon" Porter - Safronia No. 1
(7:33) 24. Rozelle Gayle - The House of Blue Lights
Straight to Watts is a 24-track collection of material originally issued by Jake Porter's Combo Records in Los Angeles between 1951-1954. Compiled by British record collector Tony Rounce for Ace Records, with excellent notes by Jim Dawson, this set -- which is merely the first volume in a projected set -- showcases the raw, woolly R&B and jump blues that stood in stark contrast to the slicker New York styles of the time. Pre-rock & roll and yet solidly swaggering with the same careening spirit of freedom and wildness, this stuff is full of heat and passion, piss and vinegar. Like Motown a decade later, Combo featured a few different house bands playing behind a revolving stage of frontpersons. Here, Chuck Higgins, Porter, Johnny Moore and his band the Three Blazers (which featured the incomparable Floyd Dixon), Ernie Fields, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Betty Jones, Jack McVea, Rozelle Gayle, Gene Philips, Honey Coleman, and many other obscure but now legendary R&B singers laid down vocal tracks for singles that were regional hits -- and some misses. This is the music that would be spun in the back of Dolphin's drugstore in Hollywood, and Porter made it all in a basement studio on Virgil Avenue in Watts. There are no standout tracks, as everything here is brilliant. This is the only side necessary for a jumpin' party on a summer night under the lights. But there are some real heretofore hidden gems here -- such as the "T-Town Mambo" duet between Ernie Fields and Angela Walls, or "Ridin' Mighty High" by Johnny Moore's band fronted by Dixon, who could move a song into overdrive the same way Joe Turner did. There are also several unreleased tracks that are mind-blowing -- the final cut, a Rozelle Gayle version of "The House of Blue Lights," feels like it was recorded there: it's drunken, loose, and pumps like mad. This is a classic set for anyone interested in the music of the period or region, whether you are a musicologist or an R&B nut. And if you aren't, this'll convert you or you're already dead. --Allmusic.
Central Avenue Scene 1951-1954 Vol 1 Straight to Watts
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2005
Styles: R&B, Jump Blues, Westcoast
Time: 59:35
Size: 167,7 MB
Covers: Full
(2:33) 1. Ernie Fields Orchestra - Wine
(2:21) 2. Chuck Higgins & his Mellotones - Big Fat Mama
(2:20) 3. Cledus Harrison - Told You Twice
(2:08) 4. Mamie Ree - You Lied
(2:06) 5. The Great Gates - Ain't Got No Money
(2:12) 6. Rozelle Gayle - I Love That Kinda Carryin' On
(2:17) 7. Paul Preston & his Orchestra - The Chase
(2:42) 8. Chuck Higgins & his Mellotones - The Blacksmith Blues
(2:41) 9. Jack McVea & his Orchestra - Wino
(2:25) 10. Mamie Ree & Young Wolf - No Need Acting Like That
(2:33) 11. Brother Woodman & the Chanters - Watts
(2:21) 12. Rozelle Gayle - Haste Makes Waste
(2:27) 13. Robbin Ray - Baby Baby Take A Look
(2:34) 14. Paul Preston & his Orchestra - Twisted
(2:32) 15. Chuck Higgins & his Mellotones - Flip-Top Box
(2:39) 16. Mamie Ree & Young Wolf - Caught
(2:38) 17. Brother Woodman & the Chanters - Hot Mama
(3:06) 18. Jack Houston & his Combo - Curfew
(2:38) 19. Robbin Ray - Love My Baby
(2:44) 20. Gene & Eunice - Ko Ko Ko
(2:13) 21. Jack McVea & his Combo - Yaka Boo
(2:25) 22. Mamie Ree - Your Loving Is Just All Right
(2:10) 23. Chuck Higgins & his Mellotones - Real Gone Hound Dog
(2:36) 24. The Great Gates - Central Rocks
Like the first volume of this series, this gathers a couple of dozen recordings from the vaults of the Combo label, which recorded a good deal of R&B in Los Angeles in the 1950s. (A focal point of that scene was a strip of Central Avenue, hence the title.) Its appeal is mostly to hardcore R&B collectors: there's just one hit (and even that's in an alternate version) and only a few performers of fairly wide repute, and seven of the tracks are previously unreleased outtakes or alternate takes. It's standard mid-'50s-style R&B from the honkers-and-shouters style, though these are pretty spirited performances with a good sense of humor, even if they're not too different from each other in melody or approach. The "hit" (indeed, the only national hit that Combo had) is an alternate take of 1954 Gene & Eunice's Top Ten R&B single "Ko Ko Mo," though it should be noted that actually the duo released two versions of that song around the same time (the other was on the Aladdin label). A few of the other bigger names include Chuck Higgins, one of whose tracks is "Real Gone Hound Dog," an obscure 1952 "answer" record to "Hound Dog"; Joe Houston, another of the numerous honking saxmen heard on this disc; the Ernie Fields Orchestra, who'd later have a number four hit with "In the Mood" on a different label; and Jack McVea. The most memorable thing here, however, might be Higgins' "The Blacksmith Blues," with some of the most incoherently nonsensical, drunkenly sung lyrics you're apt to come across anywhere.
Central Avenue Scene 1951-1957 Vol 2 Central Rocks
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2006
Styles: R&B, Jump Blues, Westcoast
Time: 68:19
Size: 157,1 MB
Covers: Full
(2:39) 1 Jake "Vernon" Porter - TJ
(2:45) 2 Combonettes, The - Gotta Have You Baby
(3:04) 3 Floyd Turnham & His Combo - No Parking After Eight
(2:41) 4 James Porter/Bill Watkins - Hey Little Girl
(3:28) 5 Jack McVea & His Combo - Hoo Doo You Baby
(2:25) 6 Tal Carter - Sadie Lee
(2:48) 7 Gene Phillips - Steelin' the Blues
(2:56) 8 Jack McVea & His Combo - You Brought Me Heartaches
(2:19) 9 Honey Coleman - Daddy, Why Did You Leave Me?
(3:09) 10 Joe Morris - Don't Let Nobody
(3:00) 11 Sherman Booker/Bluenotes, The - Cool Daddy's Blues
(4:12) 12 James Porter - Corn Pone Boogie
(2:15) 13 Betty Hall Jones - Goin' Back to Town (I'm Gonna Leave You on the Outskirts of Town)
(2:43) 14 Floyd Turnham & His Combo - Alibi Baby
(2:28) 15 Chuck Higgins & His Mellotones - Papa Charlie
(2:43) 16 Peppermint Harris - Married Woman
(2:34) 17 Joe Houston - Shuckin'
(2:44) 18 Jack McVea & His Combo - Don't Bruise the Feeling
(2:50) 19 Robbin Ray - Allergic to a Broken Heart
(3:04) 20 Young Wolf - Worries and Troubles
(2:55) 21 Floyd Turnham & His Combo - Turnham's Greens
(2:48) 22 John Margie - A Woman's Answer
(2:27) 23 Fletcher Smith/Candy Rivers/Charles Hamilton - Please Be Kind
(3:10) 24 Jack McVea & His Combo - Oh How I Miss You Tonight
Veteran horn man Jake "Vernon" Porter grew tired of the road as the 1950s opened, and after acquiring a Magnechord tape machine, set up a little studio in the back of his L.A. home, giving birth to Combo Records. Initially, Porter recorded the kind of horn-driven R&B he was most familiar with, along with the blues, but as the doo wop era got under way, he turned increasingly to vocal groups, and by the time he closed up Combo Records in 1965 after some 170 singles and several LPs, vocal groups were his main focus. But he never abandoned the 1940s-styled R&B he loved, and this set features two-dozen sides of R&B Porter recorded between 1951 and 1957, and it's all pretty impressive. Porter himself is featured on two tracks here, the opening "TJ" (short for Tijuana) and the delightfully goofy "Corn Pone Boogie." Other highlights include the intriguing girl group cha cha number "Gotta Have You Baby" by the Combonettes; the Frankie Lymon-like "Hey Little Girl" by the young sounding and high-voiced Bill Watkins; "Sadie Lee" by Texas guitarist Tal Carter; and the gritty, rolling instrumental honker "Shuckin'" by tenor saxophonist Joe Houston, with able support from Boogie Daniels on baritone sax. One of the best tracks here is the eerie and atmospheric blues "Worries and Troubles," which is attributed to the Young Wolf, but was probably the guitarist and singer Frank Patt (the piano player is most definitely Gus Jenkins). In all, Cool Daddy is a solid set of lively R&B, and if the sound is a bit ragged and loose at times, that only adds to the rough-edged appeal of these rare sides.
Central Avenue Scene 1951-1957 Vol 3 Cool Daddy
