This week, our journey takes us East to Nashville, Tennessee. We’ll dock our canoe on the banks of that Big River called Jazz and step into Jump Blues, the dominant commercial style of black music in the years just before rock ‘n’ roll. Jump Blues was primarily a jazz derivative with some elements of blues mixed in there.
Specifically, we’ll follow Cecil Gant from where we found him last week on Central Avenue to his hometown, Nashville, where he recored the first record for the new Bullet Recording & Transcription Company - the self-proclaimed “fastest growing independent record company in America”.
The Bullet Recording & Transcription Company was formed in late 1945 by the former Grand Ole Opry booking agent and WSM radio announcer, Jim Bulleit.
He formed a partnership with musician Wally Fowler and local businessman C. V. Hitchcock. For the most part, Wally Fowler was in charge of the Hillbilly and Sacred recordings and Jim Bulleit was in charge of the black music: R&B and Gospel. Based on the recent successes out West with hit’s like Gilt-Edge’s I Wonder, Bulleit wanted to produce his own hits. In 1947, he found that first million record selling hit with Francis Craig’s Near You, which reached number one on the Billboard Pop charts and was the most popular small-label release recording of that year.
Based on Bullet’s massive success with Near You, huge record companies Victor and Decca soon moved into Nashville and by 1949 squeezed Bullet’s profits. Jim Bulleit would sellout and end up leaving the music business.
Bullet went on without him until 1952, when it finally closed the doors for good. In the end, Bullet became more well known as “Hillbilly records from the home of the Gran Ole Opry.” One of their more popular hits was Lost Highway by Leon Payne, which Hank Williams covered.
And Bullet also introduced this new star:
This is B. B. King’s first commercial single.
Cecil Gant
As we looked at last week, in 1944 Cecil Gant had a monster hit in LA with I Wonder. He followed up that record with a number of Gilt-Edge records; however, none of them took off like I Wonder. Discouraged, he left LA for his hometown Nashville, Tennessee. In Nashville, Gant hooked up with Jim Bulleit to cut Nashville Jump, the first record for his new label.
Cecil continued to record for Bullet until 1949 and was again unable to duplicate the success he found on the West Coast. In 1950, he went to New York to sign and record with Decca, but again he came up empty. In less than a year later, Gant was dead. He was 38 years old
Another big hit for Bullet was delivered by “Mr Blues”, Wynonie Harris.
Wynonie Harris
In 1945, Decca released Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well. Harris recorded it with Lucky Millander and his orchestra.
That summer, the song hit number one on Billboard’s R&B chart and stayed there for 8 weeks. It became the band’s biggest hit. It stayed on the chart for close to five months. The Decca contract was in Luck Millander’s name, so Harris was free to sign his own contracts. He soon signed with a number of labels: Philo, Apollo, Hamp-Tone, and King. A couple of his King hits, for example Roy Brown’s Good Rocking Tonight (with Tom Archia on tenor, who will visit a little later in our journey…) and Lollipop Mama helped pave the way for Rock ‘n roll. However, perhaps his most significant signing, as it relates to our journey, was with Nashville’s Bullet label and his teaming with the now legendary Sonny Blount.
Sonny Blount (Sun Ra)
In October 1942, the local draft board sent for Sonny Blount, and he declared himself a Conscientious Objector. This did not go over well, so they sent him first to jail for five weeks in Jasper, Alabama and then on to a Civilian Public Service Camp in Marienville, Pennsylvania. He was soon discharged for medical reasons. Fed up with segregation and lack of musical opportunity in Alabama, he bought a one way train ticket to Chicago.
In Chicago, he was able to fall in with a little known band led by alto sax player Jimmie Jackson. The band went on the road and landed a job at Club Zanzibar in Nashville, where they stayed for a few months, backing up the touring blues singer Wynonie Harris, who had made several hit records on the West Coast. In March 1946, Jim Bulleit, the local announcer for radio station WSM, the most famed country music station in the world and home of the Grand Ole Opry, wanted to capitalize on this and made a deal with Harris’s manager to cut four sides for his brand new record company, Bullet.
The first, Dig This Boogie, featured Sonny on piano.
In Nashville, Sonny soon took up with Sir Oliver Bibbs’ band and returned to Chicago. Here’s a photo of Sonny from that time, signed H. Sonne Blount.
On August 15, 1946, he signed his first contract as a leader for four nights at the Boulevard Lounge, under the name Sonne Blount. That same month, the great Fletcher Henderson was working at the famed Club DeLisa. Henderson’s piano player, Marl Young, decided to quit the band to start his own record label, Sunbeam, so Fletcher hired Sonny to take his place and the rest is history. We’ll catch back up with Sonny later in our journey…. But before we leave him, let’s touch on a few more historical interests.
In October 1948, Sonny became the musical director for a successful band the Dukes of Swing, led by 23 year old bassist Gene Wright. Sonny composed or arranged the Dukes’ entire book. The Dukes’ often performed with a vocal-instrument quartet called the Dozier Boys. Sonny’s association with Gene Wright and the Dozier Boys brought about some recordings with another new independent record company, Aristocrat.
In November 1948, Sonny played piano on Andrew Tibbs, In A Traveling Mood.
The next month, he recorded again with the Dukes of Swing under Eugene Wright’s name. Note that the song, Pork ‘n Beans, is credited to L. Chess. Although many confirm that the tune was written by Sonny, the Aristocrat record label owner Leonard Chess continued to take credit for songs from time to time. In 1947, Leonard and Phil Chess would change the name of their label from Aristocrat to the now legendary Chess Records.
Eugene Wright would go on to fame and fortune as the bass player in Dave Brubeck’s Quartet. Here he is in the photo behind the bass.
Next week, we’ll head back to the West Coast and get back in that Big River called Jazz for more Cool and Crazy sounds….
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Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that….
Also, find my playlist on Spotify: From Fred Astaire to Sun Ra.
Until then, keep on walking….