The Aristocrat Label

Revision note. We have added a scan of Aristocrat 409 by the Dozier Boys.

The Aristocrat label was the forerunner to Chess Records, the mighty Chicago independent. But it was different from the label it evolved into, and should not be assimilated to it.

Aristocrat was officially formed on April 10, 1947 by Charles Aron (who was born in Romania in 1907, and died in Miami, Florida in 1974) and his wife Evelyn (formerly Evelyn Marks, she was born in Chicago in 1919 and died in Boulder, Colorado in 1997). Initially, their partners were Fred and Mildred Brount and Art Spiegel, none of whom took a leadership role in the business. In June, the company became more interested in signing rhythm and blues artists, and took the crucial step of hiring talent scout Sammy Goldberg.

By September 1947, Leonard Chess, the proprietor of a neighborhood bar and after-hours joint called the Macomba Lounge (3905 South Cottage Grove), had invested in the company and become involved in the sales end of Aristocrat's operations. Leonard Chess's name was first associated with the company in an item that appeared in Billboard on October 11, 1947; he was identified as a new addition to "the sales staff." By then he was already wholesaling Aristocrat product out of the trunk of his Buick. Aristocrat had first drawn Leonard Chess's attention in June when Sammy Goldberg recruited Tom Archia, the tenor saxophonist who was working in the house trio at the Macomba, for a session led by drummer Jump Jackson. The company liked Archia's work and promptly brought him back for two more sessions as a leader. In late August or early September, Goldberg was responsible for signing Andrew Tibbs, who sang around the corner from the Macomba at Jimmy's Palm Garden, and became accustomed to dropping into the Macomba at intermission. Leonard Chess was also interested in recording an artist he believed would be a big success. As it turned out, Sunnyland Slim, who had been recruited by Sammy Goldberg, and Muddy Waters, who had gotten a call from Sunnyland Slim, were recording the same day.

Sammy Goldberg's tenure at the company lasted only a few months; he moved on after the flurry of recording in the final quarter of 1947. Over time, Leonard Chess increased his share in the firm by buying the Brounts out. As he became more involved in the record business, he increasingly left the day-to-day operation of the Macomba to his brother Phil. After the Arons separated in 1948, Leonard Chess and Evelyn Aron ran the firm. In December 1949, Evelyn Aron married Art Sheridan and left to form American Distributing. The Chess brothers bought out her remaining share and became the sole owners; only at this point did Phil Chess become involved in the record company's operations. On June 3, 1950, the brothers changed the name of the company to Chess, and adopted a new numbering system starting at 1425, the address of their childhood home on South Karlov Street in Chicago. (In 1957, they would also begin the Chess LP series at 1425.)

Aristocrat thus survived in its original form a little over three years. For a small, undercapitalized company it was quite prolific. It appears that 264 titles were recorded by Aristocrat for release, and another 28 tracks recorded by others were purchased and released during the lifetime of the label, for a total of 292. In all, 92 releases are known (which adds up to 183 sides, since "Dedicated to You" by the 5 Blazes was used twice). 18 more sides recorded during the Aristocrat era got their initial release on Chess singles during the first year after the name change.

Further Aristocrat releases may lie undocumented: continuing suspects for this shadowy honor are Aristocrat 507, 1002, 1502, 1601, 1602, and 417. We've developed a highly conjectural list of possible Aristocrats, which are indicated in square brackets in the appropriate locations in the discographical tables. Some of these bracketed items may have been scheduled for release, then withheld; some may never have made it to the planning stage. We really really doubt that any bracketed 1300 series items--that means Muddy Waters recordings--were actually released; collectors have been too vigilant to let anything of the sort slip by. But others items could still turn up. In earlier versions of this discography, Aristocrat 503 was listed as a conjectural item; the same goes for the once-bracketed Aristocrat 416.

Had Aristocrat behaved like most labels, and numbered its releases consecutively, the mysteries might have been dispelled years ago. But Aristocrat had, well, its own way of doing things.

• Up through the end of 1948, the company was in the habit of creating a new number series for each new artist, in the order that the material was recorded: 101, 201, 301... all the way to 2101. (The initial recordings in each of these series were cut, or purchased from other sources, during the busy year of 1947.)
• In 1949, the artist series extended its range in great arbitrary jumps: 2301, 3001, 3101, 3301, 3500, 7001, 8001, 10001, 11001 (these series were assigned roughly in order of first release, not recording--and just one of them lasted beyond the first release).
• In other cases during 1949, new artists were inserted into old artists' series: AR-711, 811, 905, 906, 1234.
• Around the end of 1949, the system crumbled under its accumulated inconsistencies, and the Chess brothers (who now had exclusive control of the label) slotted all new releases until the name change into the old 400 series: 404 through 418. Except that not every number in this segment were used--408, 414, 415, and 417 are missing, and 409 and 413 were both used twice!

Another reason Aristocrat has resisted the efforts of discographers is that discographers prefer to work with record company files, if they can get access to them. Up to now, discographies of Aristocrat have been based on the work of Michel Ruppli, a Swiss researcher whose string of discographical publications (The Aladdin/Imperial Discography, The Blue Note Discography, The Chess Discography, etc.) have all used this modus operandi. Company files are easier to work with than scratchy bits of shellac and vinyl long since dispersed or lost. If properly kept, they hold out the prospect of reliable recording dates and personnel information.

If properly kept... Problem is, Aristocrat's business practices were strictly seat-of-the-pants. Leonard Chess was hired to wholesale records; he spent weeks on the road distributing 78s out of the trunk of his Buick. The company made written contracts with its artists, but it is doubtful that most of these were preserved. There was no organized effort to copyright every tune. The company had no in-house music publisher (in fact, the Chess brothers would not open a publishing arm, Arc Music, until August 1953). And some of the composer credits on Aristocrat labels are demonstrably bogus. For instance, "Bilbo Is Dead" was co-written by Andrew Tibbs and Tom Archia. But the label claimed credit for Chess-Aleta-Archia--whoever Aleta was. Meanwhile the copyright records at the Library of Congress give Evelyn Aron and Mildred Brount as the copyright owners! "Dawn Mist," a number that Sonny Blount wrote for Eugene Wright and the Dukes of Swing, was credited on the label to one "Crawfish."

The only documentation that Aristocrat kept of its recording sessions was a master book. This listed matrix numbers, artists, and titles. No dates were included on surviving recording sheets before October 12, 1948--by which time Aristocrat had cut over 130 sides! Because the "recording ban" ordered by American Federation of Musicians President James C. Petrillo was not officially lifted until December 13, only the mastering dates were documented for the rest of 1948. Michel Ruppli obtained the information for his Chess Discography from Bob Porter, who worked for Westbound Records (distributed by Chess) in 1972 and 1973. In his spare time, Porter copied the master books for Ruppli; all that remained out of the Aristocrat years were a few typed pages (loaded with errors and misspellings) specifying the tapes on which copies of the Aristocrat material could be found. There were matrix numbers and artists' names, but no dates, no information about issues, no personnel. In fact, it was impossible to tell from these pages what had been released and what hadn't. Some tracks that the company had released (for instance, Aristocrat 3301, 7001, and 8001) were left out entirely.

No serious vault research had ever taken place at Chess Records until shortly before Leonard and Phil Chess sold the company to GRT in 1969, at which point Ralph Bass was faced with the task of sorting and identifying piles of unlabeled tapes that Chess had been storing at Universal Recording. Porter's verdict: "I've been around tape vaults at Prestige, Savoy, Verve, and Atlantic as well as Chess (I was hired to work with Bass to set up the Chess vault in Nashville when the Chicago office was closed) and Chess was far and away the worst organized in terms of data. Just a mess." In his notes to a 1975 2-LP set that collected all of Gene Ammons' known work for Aristocrat and Chess from 1948 to 1951 (despite his efforts to make it complete, the set skipped five released sides on which Ammons played), Porter complained that most of the session sheets were missing.

Matrix numbers were sometimes assigned well after the sessions were recorded, and some sessions were entered out of chronological order. Benny Cotton and Cornell Wiley of the Dozier Boys recall making U7160-U7163 with Andrew Tibbs before U7156-U7159 with Sax Mallard. Adding insult, the master books left out their next session (UB9545-UB9548 with Gene Wright and Dukes of Swing) altogether.

Nearly everything that is known about the personnel on Aristocrat dates has had to come from other sources: contemporary writeups of the combos and interviews with musicians. Just three Aristocrat 78s (201, 202, and AR-711) name all of the musicians on the label. See our Tom Archia, Sax Mallard, and Dozier Boys discographies for examples of what's been required to identify personnel.

We do have have reliable release dates for most Aristocrats, thanks primarily to the work of Bill Daniels and Galen Gart. Most of the release dates included here were presented in George R. White, The Aristocrat of Records, Blues and Rhythm, no. 124 (November 1997), pp. 4-8. (The reader should be aware, however, that the Aristocrat artist and title list included in the article is not by White, and was compiled from inadequate, out-of-date sources.)

We can also take advantage of our knowledge of the studios that Aristocrat used, and their matrix series.

Aristocrat did most of its sessions at Universal Recording Corp. in Chicago. In early April 1947 the very first sesssion, by Sherman Hayes, was given numbers starting at U675-V, in a common series that went back just a few months to the founding of the studio. The V suffix points to Vitacoustic, a distinct record company that was founded around the same time and that operated right out of Universal Recording. In fact, Vitacoustic 5, by Mel Henke, has matrix numbers U668-V and U669-V.

Once it become clear that Aristocrat planned to be around for a while, Universal assigned the label a separate U7000 matrix series. The Sherman Hayes sides were renumbered (though we have seen the U7000 series numbers only on Aristocrat 104), so U675 became U7001. The V suffix was attached to a few more Aristocrat masters; the last case we know of is U7017V. The U7000 series--often shorn of its U in later years, when the recording was often done at other studios--would be the main matrix series over the entire lifetime of Chess Records.

It needs to be kept in mind that the matrix numbers were assigned by Aristocrat, not by the studio and that sometimes the assignments were made well after the sessions were recorded. Occasionally U7000 series numbers were attached to material that Aristocrat had purchased (later on, the Chess brothers would get bolder, and stick U7000 numbers onto such things as Howlin' Wolf sides recorded in Memphis...). There were lapses: after giving U7001-7007 to Sherman Hayes & his Orchestra, and U7008-7011 to The Five Blazes, Aristocrat had to allot U7012 to the last of the Sherman Hayes sides. You can almost hear the "Oops!" Items from a live session recorded in the first half of 1948, when the recording ban was being enforced, were deliberately given misleading numbers like U7048S and U7128A to keep the Musicians Union off the trail.

Despite their assorted faults, the U7000 numbers are the best indication we have of when the material was recorded. In 1947 at least, artist series were assigned in alignment with the U numbers: 1301 had a higher U numbers than 1201, which had higher U numbers than 1101, etc.; the only apparent exception is 1601, but we still don't know whether it was actually released.

Aristocrat also made a few recordings at United Broadcasting Studios. Located at 301 East Erie Street on the near North Side, United Broadcasting was the former World Broadcasting Studio, which had been bought in early 1946 by radio station owner Egmont Sonderling (1906 - 1997).

Fortunately for those with a discographical bent, United Broadcasting normally assigned its own matrix numbers to material recorded there, instead of dedicating special series to different labels. The system was a little quirky, but it appears that all material recorded in 1946-1947 was in a UB 2000 series (this series turned over from UB2999 to UB 21000 [i.e., 2-1000] around the beginning of 1947 and would overshoot UB22500 during the recording frenzy at year's end). Material recorded in 1948 and 1949 went into the UB 9000 series (when the meter turned over at UB 9999, they continued with UB9-1000 through approximately UB9-1500). However, the UB 9000 series has some irregularities in it, perhaps the result of a policy of preassigning blocks of matrix numbers to the different small companies that used the studio. Material recorded in 1950 was in the UB50-000 series. For many more examples, see our Miracle discography, and the Old Swing-Master discography--Sonderling was the principal owner of that label. Smaller outfits like Sunbeam and Hy-Tone also used Sonderling's studio. So we can attach approximate dates to most of material that Aristocrat laid down at United Broadcasting. Further help comes from the Board minutes for Musicians Union Local 208, which document a complaint Floyd Smith brought against United Broadcasting Studio for not paying him for a session that was subsequently sold to Aristocrat.

Aristocrat has also frustrated music historians because it is hard to pigeonhole stylistically. The company took only a mild interest in downhome blues until the second half of 1948, when strong sales of Aristocrat 1305 ("I Can't Be Satisfied" by Muddy Waters) told Evelyn Aron and Leonard Chess that they ought to be paying more attention. Well into 1949, the company's flagship artist was not Muddy Waters but the uptown blues singer Andrew Tibbs. A lot of what went on 1947 was frankly experimental: the proprietors of Aristocrat tried their hands at: nightclub R&B, jazz, country and western, piano trios in the manner of Nat King Cole, lounge ballads, gospel, pop crooning in the manner of Bing Crosby, and polkas. And the polka band was the one that laid down the most tracks.

The very first sides to appear on the new label were made by Sherman Hayes. Originally from California, Hayes had recorded in 1939 and 1940 with Del Courtney's "sweet" band. He subsequently started his own orchestra; when Aristocrat decided to record him, he was leading one of the most popular "Mickey Mouse" bands in Chicago. The band was well publicized in Billboard for a time. In 1946 and 1947, while big bands were shutting down left and right, Hayes' outfit was continuously booked at Chicago-area rooms like the Martinique and the Blackhawk. In the summer of 1949 Hayes was still working regularly in town (Down Beat's "Chicago Band Briefs" for July 15, 1949, p. 4, remarks that his band was coming off "10 days at the Martinique"). Sherman Hayes played the tenor sax, soloing with vibrato as wide as a barn door. His band included a steel guitar. While the Hayes sax section often sounds Lombardo-worthy, the baritone sax lines on his records are light and fleet, obviously the work of a virtuoso. And when the sax section goes over to clarinets and bass clarinet, as they often do in Hayes' arrangements, they lose their Lombardo quiver and play tastily. Only one of the the Hayes sides is an instrumental. Two feature a female singer who went as Wyoma (according to one source, she was actually Sherman's wife Wanda), and the rest include crooning vocals by the leader.

Phil Chess, who was not really involved with Aristocrat until the end of 1949, has described the outfit as a "White label" that recorded only White musicians before his brother Leonard got involved. In later years, he would cast particular derision on one of Sherman Hayes' tunes, "Get on the Ball Paul." But despite Hayes' slick vocalizing, this was actually the band's heppest number. It's the ballads that inflict real pain on today's ears.

The first Sherman Hayes release was advertised in early May 1947 as belonging to a 1000 series. We doubt that the labels ever read that way. The Hayes 78s were numbered Aristocrat 101 through 104 (and in the fall, a 1000 series would be created for Clarence Samuels). To confuse matters further, Ruppli has claimed alternative couplings for Aristocrat 101 ("Chi Baba Chi Baba" b/w "Better to Love You Dear") and for 102 ("Say No More" b/w "You Didn't Learn That in School"). There is a test pressing of the second pairing, now in Robert Campbell's collection--but again we have yet to encounter that coupling on a released 78.

An advertisement for Aristocrat "1001" in Cash Box (May 5, 1947; this first advertisement for the label was repeated in Billboard on May 10) gives the coupling as "Chi Baba Chi Baba" and "Say No More," and that is what we have seen on copies of Aristocrat 101. "Chi Baba Chi Baba" is a novelty number that purports to be an Italian lullaby; besides Hayes' rather unctuous crooning, his version includes a pleasant clarinet ensemble, a dreadful sax ensemble, some switching from piano to celeste, and lots of opportunities for the steel guitar player. Although Aristocrat got its version out quicker, it was the RCA Victor release by Perry Como that hit number 1 on the pop charts in June. "Say No More," Wyoma's only number on the session, is a square, sentimental ballad.

On May 31, 1947, Billboard ran an ad for Aristocrat 101, with the same coupling, also mentioning Aristocrat 102: "Better to Love You" ("great new ballad") b/w "You Didn't Learn That in School." Judging from the test pressing, "You Didn't Learn That in School" involves a lot of vocal exchanges between Hayes and the rest of the band.

Although we have not seen any ads for Aristocrat 103, we believe it also came out in May 1947, because 101 through 103 show the original matrix numbers assigned by Universal Recording, U675-U680, instead of their counterparts in the new series that Universal assigned to the label, U7001-U7006. 103 included the Hayes band's theme song, "Cuddle Up a Little Closer" as well as a somewhat stiff instrumental, "12th Street Rag." The first advertisement for Aristocrat 104, which coupled the now-notorious "Get on the Ball Paul" with a schmaltzy rendition of a superior ballad, "There Is No Greater Love," appeared on June 28, 1947, and copies of this single carry the new numbers, U7007 and U7012.

Belying Phil Chess's version of history, Chuck and Evelyn Aron next put together a session by the Five Blazes, an all-black vocal/string ensemble. The Blazes' involvement with Aristocrat was announced in Billboardon May 24, 1947 (as usual, this meant that they had already recorded). The brief item also announced the signing of "promising Swing chirp" Jackie Cain, who would be responsible for the label's next session. An agent named Joe Callan, of Frederick Brothers, was given credit for bringing both acts to the label.

The Five Blazes grew out of a quartet founded in 1940 by drummer Paul Lindsley "Jelly" Holt, who had previously played in other hot string groups. William "Shorty" Hill (guitar, tipple, ukulele, mandolin) and Prentice Butler (bass) were also charter members. In 1941, Floyd McDaniel, already a veteran musician on the Swing scene, switched from acoustic to electric guitar and replaced lead guitarist Jimmy Bennett. According to the Chicago Defender for December 20, 1941, the 4 Blazes were holding down a gig at Martin's Corner, 1900 West Lake. The ad notes that the group was "formerly the Four Dusty Demons." The Blazes also used Duke Groner on bass at some point between 1943 and 1946, though Butler was back when they got their opportunity to record.

The Four Blazes expanded to Five in 1945, when they picked up Ernie Harper, a piano player and vocalist from Pittsburgh. Harper is, in fact, responsible for three of the vocal leads on the group's Aristocrat session. The ebullient "Chicago Boogie" and "All My Geets Are Gone" are deftly handled uptempo numbers. The boogie, on which Harper's piano dominates, was successfully featured on The Aristocrat of the Blues CD in 1997. The other three sides have so far been reissued only on Document.

The first Blazes single, on Aristocrat 201, was reviewed in Billboard on July 26, 1947 (our thanks to Dan Kochakian for locating this item).

This Negro quintet is technically poorly presented in its debut with the instrumental offering sounding like it has been cut in a big barn with the instruments miles from the pick-up mike. Group shows plenty of fire in their 'Boogie,' which boasts good lyrics and some standout piano work. Flipover is the pretty oldie, which merits re-discovery. Both sides show versatile voice of Ernie Palmer [sic], who turns it torrid for the 'Boogie,' while his tonsils go soft and mellow for the reverse.

Added note to vendors: 'Chicago Boogie' will grab jazz fans' ears while 'Dedicated' is good for all locations.'

Complaints of poor sound quality showed up in more than one review of the early Aristocrats. The sides had been recorded at Universal; reissues from the masters have always sounded good. The fault must have lain with some of the pressings, which were still being done on old-fashioned shellac and ground limestone.

We haven't found any reviews of the follow-up single on Aristocrat 202.

Ernie Harper left the group in 1948 to work as a single; by July of that year the Blazes were back to being Four (using the group name instead of their usual practice of rotating the leadership, the Four Blazes filed a contract on July 15 for 10 nights at Club Silhouette).

Although the group's contract with Aristocrat was long expired by this time, a strange delayed reissue of "Dedicated to You" appeared in February 1949 on the B side of Aristocrat 2003 (with a previously unissued number by Sax Mallard for an A side). On the reissue Ernie Harper got top billing; could the company have been trying to get something out of his visibility around town as a solo performer? Harper would get regular work in Chicago as a pianist and singer through the mid-1950s--for instance, in 1951 he was garnering admiring reviews in Down Beat while working the Streamliner with organist Les Strand and singers Lucy Reed and Lurlean Hunter. But the favorable ink got nothing shaking by way of recording opportunities. The only session we know he appeared on was with a later edition of the vocal/instrumental group, the Four Shades of Rhythm, done for Chance in 1952. (We still don't know whether Harper had anything to do with the Four Shades' session for Mad in 1957.)

The next session was cut by jazz singer Jackie Cain with the George Davis quartet. William H. Korst, who was an active jazz fan in Chicago at that time, says:

The George Davis quartet with Jackie Cain worked at a place on South Western Avenue in Chicago called 'Jump Town' with her then boy-friend Roy Kral on piano. I am sure the gig was at the same time they made the Aristocrat titles...and shortly afterwards Jackie and Roy joined the Charlie Ventura group at the Sherman Hotel in the Loop (just west of the Garrick Show Lounge).

Cain was born Jacqueline Ruth Cain in Milwaukee, on May 22, 1928, and arrived in Chicago in late 1946. Roy Kral, a native Chicagoan, was born October 10, 1921. Although Cain and Kral have said they began working together as Jackie & Roy in 1946, an article by Don C. Haynes on "gal singers" in Chicago (Down Beat,August 27, 1947) covers Cain as a solo act. Just 19 at the time, she showed a "wonderful conception" at times but had been rather erratic in performance. In Haynes' opinion, she was "off form" at the Panther Room in the Sherman Hotel compared to her earlier performances at Jump Town, and "four poor sides on Aristocrat just released will do her no good." She does sound rather thin on "Jubilee," which sports the already renowned Universal Recording studio echo; besides Roy Kral on piano, the group included guitar and bass and a bebopper (we're assuming this was George Davis himself) on alto sax. Amazingly, her Aristocrat sides have never been listed in a jazz discography.

Whatever difficulties Jackie Cain was having at the time she soon transcended; she would go on to fame as a jazz vocalist. From 1948 through April 1949, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral were billed as a duo with the Charlie Ventura Orchestra. They were married in June 1949, whereupon they formed a sextet and began a long career on their own. According to Leonard Feather they were "best known for light, humorous bop unison vocals."

In the early 1950s, Jackie & Roy had their own television show in Chicago. During 1957-60 the pair worked in Las Vegas, and in 1963 they moved to New York. They made many albums for a variety of labels, and performed together until Kral's death in August 2002.

In the early summer of 1947, Sammy Goldberg brought R&B bandleaderJump Jackson to the fledging label. The Jackson session took place in June. A studio band called the Chicago All Stars, also an expanded version of Jackson's combo but with somewhat different players, recorded for Columbia on June 27. And on June 30, "Around the Wax Circle," a gossip column in Cash Box, cited a letter from Evelyn Aron announcing that Aristocrat had signed Jump Jackson and his band, along with "Melrose Colbert, sepia torch." The complete lineup at this session was Johnny Morton (trumpet), Sax Mallard (alto sax), Eddie "Sugarman" Penigar (tenor), Tom Archia (tenor), Bill Owens (piano), Hurley Ramey (electric guitar), Dallas Bartley (bass), and Jackson on drums. Female vocalist Melrose Colbert, who had previously worked with Earl Hines, sang the two ballad tracks, "My Greatest Mistake" and "Sweet Thing." Benny Kelly was entrusted with the jump numbers. Perhaps because of the variety of styles represented, Aristocrat was willing to pay for 6 sides instead of the usual 4.

Drummer Armand "Jump" Jackson was born 25 March 1917, in New Orleans. He was playing in Chicago clubs as early as 1941, when his band was booked at the 308 Club (his contract was filed with Musicians Union Local 208 on July 31, 1941). In 1942, Jackson was performing at the Sky Club (contract filed May 7, 1942). He led the house band for Martin's Corner from the latter part of 1943 on through much of 1944 and 1945. He also played at the Circle Inn in July 1944 (contract filed July 6, 1944). In January 1946, he put together a quartet with Johnny Morton (trumpet), Oett "Sax" Mallard (alto sax) and an unidentified pianist and went into the Garrick Theater Lounge in the Loop, for what turned out to be an 8-month stay. In February 1946, Jackson and members of his band started showing up on blues sessions that the Melrose brothers were organizing for RCA Victor and Columbia. And in March 1946, Bill Owens came on board as the band's pianist.

Jackson first recorded as a leader on 13 September 1946 for Columbia, cutting four sides. St. Louis Jimmy Oden was the vocalist on three of them. On that session Bill Casimir (tenor sax) and Ransom Knowling (bass) joined Jackson's quartet, which around this time begain a 6-month residency at the Blue Heaven Lounge (742 East 63rd). On September 26 and October 4, 1946, Jackson laid down ten tracks for the West Coast label, Specialty, which was making a rare foray into Chicago. Between March and June 1947, Jackson divided his efforts between the Blue Heaven and the Argyle Lounge or the Zanzibar Lounge. By the middle of June 1947, when he got the call from Aristocrat, Jackson's band was being featured at the Morocco Lounge, in the same neighborhood as Leonard Chess's Macomba Lounge, where Tom Archia led the house trio. Jackson had not been on a recording session since he finished his work for Specialty, so he must have welcomed the opportunity.

In the end, 5 of the 6 sides recorded at this session saw release. Aristocrat 401 and 402 each paired a Melrose Colbert ballad with a Benny Kelly blues; they were released in September and November 1947. One of the two Benny Kelly numbers remaining, "Choo Choo Blues," was somewhat oddly paired on Aristocrat 403 with a track left over from Clarence Samuel's September session. Our previous information on 403 has suggested a December 1947 release date, but this can't be right: the only copy we have seen has the green label that Aristocrat didn't start using till March 1949. It appears that the much-delayed 403 appeared at some point during 1949, when it served as a bridge to the final Aristocrat release series, 404 through 418. Aristocrat released just one other 78 with sides by two different artists. This was Aristocrat 2003, which came out in February 1949 and consisted of a Sax Mallard track on one side and one by the Four Blazes on the other; both sides were actually recorded in 1947. And 2003 also emphasized the names of the singers on the labels, in a way that earlier releases by the same groups had not. Our guess is that 403 probably didn't wait too long to go on sale after the new label design was adopted.

Jackson would do just one session as a leader for Aristocrat, though he appears to be the drummer on the first session under Tom Archia's name as well. His combo worked the Brown Derby (July) and the Bee Hive (August 1947); the group broke up in October when Sax Mallard went out on his own and Bill Owens temporarily became the new bandleader at the Macomba Lounge. Jackson seems to have joined a new combo led by tenor saxophonist Epp James; by June 1948 he had resurfaced as a leader, filing an indefinite contract on June 3 for a gig at the Old Rock Cellar. In 1949, Jackson was again leading the house band at the West Side establishment Martin's Corner (temporarily known then as The Corner). During the 1950s, Jackson both toured and continued to play in Chicago clubs, and cut a single for the Gateway label. Beginning in 1949, when he undertook to do booking and promotion for a new tenor player on the scene named Lucius Washington, Jackson also did considerable business booking bands. In 1958 Jackson opened the LaSalle label, recording such artists as Eddie Clearwater, Eddie Boyd, Sunnyland Slim, and Little Mack Simmons. He also recorded himself on a single. Jump Jackson continued to perform until his death in Chicago on 31 January 1985.

Small record labels were pretty cagey when it came to letting competitors know who they had signed. Aristocrat's custom was to refrain from announcing names until the recording was done and something was ready to release. So on August 16, 1947, Billboard got around to announcing that Aristocrat was "expanding in the race field adding two blues singers and Jump Jackson's negro combo." Most likely the blues singers included Jo Jo Adams (who we think recorded a little before the announcement came out); we don't know whether any reference was intended to Sunnyland Slim, Andrew Tibbs, or Clarence Samuels, all of whom would be recording for the label within the next month.

Although Sammy Goldberg was in charge of finding rhythm and blues artists for the label, he wasn't the only person in the company out looking for talent. In June, Aristocrat decided to sign Lee Monti. Monti led a band called the Tu Tones that featured two accordions, and performed polkas, country tunes, and standards. The other members of his band played guitar and string bass. Besides the fact that Monti played lead accordion, we know from vocal credits on the records that two of the other guys were named Jimmy Adams and Mario Lozer--but we don't know which instruments they played. Whoever made the decision--perhaps it was Evelyn Aron--correctly estimated that Monti would sell some records for the company. All four sides from the first session were released: Aristocrat 501, which came out in September, is easy to find today; Aristocrat 502, which probably followed in November, is a good deal less common.

According to the August 2, 1947 issue of Billboard, Aristocrat had recently signed Don Moreland. Identified via his radio network affiliation as an "MBS vocalist," Moreland was clearly a White pop singer. Nothing further was said about him in the trade papers, however, and we have seen no releases on him. In fact, we have no evidence that the company ever recorded him.

Tom Archia had distinguished himself as a soloist on the Jump Jackson session (on "Not Now Baby" he was the only horn player). Aristocrat promptly brought him back to make a session of his own.

For their first outing, Tom Archia and his All Stars appear to have used the same rhythm section of Bill Owens on piano, Hurley Ramey on guitar, Dallas Bartley on bass, and Jump Jackson on drums. Archia was playing 6 nights a week at the Macomba Lounge with Wendell Owens on piano and Glenn Brooks at the drums, but while this session was being recorded, Leonard Chess was in the midst of a battle with the Local 208 leadership on account of his desire to get rid of the pianist and the drummer and hire new musicians to play with Archia. So it is unlikely that either of them would be on a recording session for Aristocrat. On August 10, the Local 208 Board finally allowed Archia to remain at the Macomba after a new pianist and drummer were hired, but only under the condition that someone else be the leader. Archia, who had been on the outs with Local 208 President Harry Gray since 1944, did not officially become the leader at the Macomba until the spring of 1949. Because Archia was known for participating in tenor battles, Buster Bennett, then a big draw in the South Side clubs, was brought in as his dueling partner. But because Bennett was under contract to Columbia, he was credited with vocals only. Both saxophonists were maximally inspired that day, and Tom's throaty tenor sound with the strong Lester Young influence contrasted perfectly with Buster's rasp and his all-around gutbucket attitude.

Tom Archia was born Ernest Alvin Archia Jr. in Groveton, Texas, on November 26, 1919. (His father had decided to respell the family name, which is usually rendered "Archie"; it continued to be spelled that way by his relatives, and by many of the people Tom Archia came into contact with.) His childhood was spent in Baytown, Texas, and he graduated in 1935 from Phyllis Wheatley High School in Houston, where Percy McDavid (Houston's counterpart to Captain Walter Dyett) taught band, and his classmates included Illinois Jacquet, Calvin Boze, and Arnett Cobb. Archia graduated from Prairie View A and M in 1939 and taught school for a year in a small town before joining Milt Larkin's Swing band. On joining the band he adopted "Texas Tom" as a marquee name. Archia arrived in Chicago in August 1942, when the Larkin band was hired to back T-Bone Walker in a high-profile engagement at the Rhumboogie Café. After Larkin was drafted and his band broke up in the fall of 1943, Tom Archia was briefly a member of Roy Eldridge's band, with which he made his first recording session for World Transcriptions. He then took a spot in the "Dream Band" that owner Charlie Glenn was assembling at the Rhumboogie. The Dream Band included some of the best young musicians in Chicago, but many of them were chafing at big-band discipline, and Tom Archia and an alto saxophonist from Kansas City named Charlie Parker were the worst offenders. In June 1944, the band was reorganized under the direction of Marl Young, whose first official act was to fire Archia and Parker. In the summer of 1945, Tom Archia moved to Los Angeles, where his sister Richie Dell was living, and joined Howard McGhee's combo. He did not record with McGhee but did get onto a session for ARA led by Illinois and Russell Jacquet, and a session for Philo (later Aladdin) accompanying Helen Humes. Returning to Chicago in the spring of 1946, he hooked up with Roy Eldridge and recorded with Little Jazz's big band for Decca. At some point later in the year, he served as music director for an up and coming singer named Dinah Washington

In February 1947, Tom Archia joined the house trio at the Macomba Lounge, which was nominally led by pianist Wendell Owens. (He may have been in the house band for a time in the Fall of 1946, but this is not confirmed.) Except for a brief period on the road in April, when Archia performed at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Detroit, he would remain at the Macomba for 8 months that year. Although Union politics prevented him from being the leader (see above), he was the main draw at the Macomba from Leonard Chess's point of view.

At the time of this session, Buster Bennett was one of the most sought-after entertainers on the South Side of Chicago. He was born James Joseph Bennett in Pensacola, Florida, on March 19, 1914. We know nothing of his early days, but he obviously began early as a musician; even in the mid-1940s his rough-hewn saxophone playing was still reminiscent of the 1920s. Around 1930 Duke Groner encountered Bennett on the road in Texas; after that we lose sight of him until he arrived in Chicago in August 1938. Bennett immediately found work in the clubs. He also accompanied blues singers in the studio, appearing on sessions by Big Bill Broonzy, Washboard Sam (he is on Sam's big hit, "Digging My Potatoes"), and the Yas Yas Girl, as well as others less famous today. His gutbucket alto and soprano saxophone stylings were a good fit musically, and his skill at extracting advances out of Lester Melrose meant that Buster would have to participate in further sessions or Melrose wouldn't get his money back. In 1941, Buster Bennett began leading his own band at the Manchester Grill, though he had to leave the gig in October because he was suffering from tuberculosis (when respiratory problems were plaguing him, Bennett would take engagements playing the piano or the string bass). After a more serious bout of ill health at the end of 1942, Buster Bennett resurfaced in February 1943, leading a popular trio at a series of South Side night spots: Millie's Cocktail Lounge, Square's Steak House, the Circle Inn, and the Cabin in the Sky. With the added publicity he got from recording, Buster worked steadily at such establishments as the Tradesmen's Lounge, the Circle Inn, the Hurricane Show Lounge.

In February 1945, Buster landed a recording contract with Columbia. Lester Melrose saw Buster as a blues singer, and Buster obliged with midtempo blues enunciated in a gruff, sardonic manner. Although Bennett also sang standards in the clubs, only one of his Columbia sides included any. Columbia always added a drummer to Buster's working trio, and some of the sessions included other horn players; depending on Buster's mood and the other personnel, the musical content varied from boogie-woogie to Swing to incipient bebop. Known for years as an alto (and soprano) saxophonist, Buster began recording on the tenor sax in 1946. On the strength of his recordings, Buster was able to appear in Loop nightspots as well as his usual haunts on the South Side. Other record labels also sought his services; before appearing on Aristocrat he had recorded a session for Rhumboogie under the name of his trumpet player, Charles Gray, and made an uncredited appearance on a Red Saunders session for Sultan.

On "Mean and Evil Baby," a blues sung in the Helen Humes manner by Sheba Griffin, the tenor saxes jump and surge over the rhythm section as though defying the studio to keep them contained. "Ice Man Blues" features some sly double entendres by George Kirby, a comedian who was a regular participant in the shows at the Club DeLisa. Best known for doing impressions, Kirby was a gifted vocalist who could have been commercially successful as a blues singer, had he chosen to go that route. Sheba Griffin's second blues, "Cherry," has lyrics too labored to be effectively salacious, and the band gets a little sloppy. But they're back on their best form on the phallocentric "Fishin' Pole," gruffly delivered in Buster Bennett's customary manner (the number is almost certainly a remake of "Let's Go Fishin'," cut for Columbia in September 1946 but never issued). Aristocrat 601, "Mean and Evil Baby" b/w "Fishin' Pole," was released in November 1947, and 602, "Ice Man Blues" b/w "Cherry" followed probably in 1948. They left no doubt about Tom Archia's ability to deliver in a rhythm and blues context.

Tom Archia would continue with Aristocrat; Buster Bennett would not. And while Bennett was riding high at the time of this session, his fortunes would diminish as soon as his contract with Columbia ran out at the end of 1947. In 1948, Bennett was owing more people money, having more trouble finding gigs, and having to spend more time on the road. He would not make his final departure from the Chicago scene until 1954, but heavy drinking and chronic health problems were taking their toll, and for longer and longer periods he was either sidelined by illness or working out of town. In 1956, he was permanently "erased" from the rolls of Local 208; by then he had probably moved to Texas and dropped out of music entirely. He died in complete obscurity in Houston, Texas, on July 3, 1980.

Mystery still surrounds the Hollywood Tri-Tones, whose signing was announced in a Billboard item on October 11. Their one record (Aristocrat 701) was held for release till November (on account of the title "Christmas Kiss") but then apparently sold almost nothing. It has been assumed that a group with such a name was not from Chicago and that Aristocrat purchased the sides. And maybe the single as issued (for we have yet to see one!) carried "foreign" matrix numbers (not from the U7000 series). However, a test pressing of Aristocrat 701 showed up at an auction recently (thanks to Dan Kochakian for catching this; Steve Powers owns a similar test pressing). The test pressing has the previously reported titles for 701 ("Exactly like You" and "Christmas Kiss") but no issue number. It carries U7000 matrix numbers, applied in a confused fashion: "Exactly like You" is U7024 on the label and U7029 in the vinyl; "Christmas Kiss" is U7024 [again] on the label but U7026 in the vinyl. U7024-U7027 ended up being assigned to the first Lee Monti session, released on Aristocrat 501 and 502. U7028-U7031 ended up attached to the first Tom Archia session, which was released on Aristocrat 601 and 602. And U7032-U7035 were a Jo Jo Adams/Tom Archia session that appeared on Aristocrat 801 and 802. So where did Aristocrat 701 fit? Without a copy of the issued 78, we can say no more.

The signing of standup blues singer Doctor Jo Jo Adams was announced in Billboard well after the fact, in the October 11 issue. In fact, Sammy Goldberg brought Adams to Universal Recording in July or August. Tom Archia was in charge of the accompaniment, this time with a different band whose personnel isn't fully known to us. The front line includes a trumpet player and an alto saxophonist who sound to us like Johnny Morton and Goon Gardner from Dave Young's Ritz Lounge band. There is a loudly amplified guitarist, who treads heavily in the rhythm section, but we don't know who he was; the same goes for the piano, bass, and drums.

Born in Alabama on August 18 of an unknown year (Dave Penny has estimated it was around 1918), Jo Jo Adams was among the most flamboyant denizens of the South Side. Having once sung in a gospel quartet, and more recently in a manner strongly influenced by Cab Calloway, Adams by this point in his career typified the more urbane style of blues singing that prevailed in the 1940s. He also danced, told dirty jokes, and showed off his wardrobe of loudly colored formal wear with extra-long coattails. More often than not he doubled as MC at the clubs he played. He headed a revue at the Hurricane Lounge in December of 1945, and in 1946 was appearing at the Ritz Lounge and the Club DeLisa. Adams made his first recordings in January or February 1946 for Freddie Williams' Melody Lane Record Shop, with a studio band led by Williams. When Williams took on jukebox distributor Nathan Rothner as a partner, the company's name was changed to Hy-Tone and both of Adams's 78s were promptly reissued on the new label. Adams spent the summer of 1946 in Los Angeles, where he performed at Club Hideaway and recorded 6 excellent sides for Aladdin in June (because recording companies usually wanted Adams to shout the blues, "When I'm in My Tea" is his only recording to show his roots in Cab Calloway). In December he returned to Hy-Tone, singing on 5 of the 6 sides made by guitarist Floyd Smith's group. Smith had just put together a trio with Bill Huff on piano and Booker Collins on bass; they would remain at the DuSable Lounge until well into 1950. They were joined on the second Hy-Tone session by altoist Nat Jones and drummer Curtis "Geronimo" Walker. From March 14 through May 18, 1947, Adams sang at the Club DeLisa with Fletcther Henderson's last big band.

All four songs from the July/August session are medium-tempo blues of the sort Adams favored. Jointly responsible for "Drinkin' Blues" was Senabelle Richie Fenner, later mentioned in the Chicago Defender on February 23, 1952 as a "writer, poet, and song-stylist, whose compositions have been recorded by numerous artists." The song frankly describes how much whiskey, cocaine, and reefer the singer has been putting away since his girlfriend left him. Tom Archia aptly launches his solo by quoting "I Got Plenty o' Nothin'."

The same October 11 item that announced Adams' arrival went on to claim that R&B singer Annie Laurie, who was a regular with Paul Gayten's New Orleans-based combo, had been signed by Aristocrat. We know that Sammy Goldberg made a trip to New Orleans, where he signed Clarence Samuels (see below), so there's nothing anomalous in the reference to another New Orleans-based performer. But Aristocrat never released anything on Annie Laurie, and we have no evidence of any recordings. She remained with Gayten and continued to record with him for DeLuxe; in the early 1950s she would also record with him for OKeh. Either Sammy Goldberg failed to close the deal, or he thought he had signed Annie Laurie but then discovered that she was actually a party to Gayten's contract with DeLuxe. A small possibility remains that her sides once occupied the gap in Aristocrat's matrix series, from U7066 through 7069, that we have thought might belong to Billy Orr.

Unmentioned in the trade papers, but added to the roster around the same time, was a gospel group orginally billed as the Seven Melody Men. Little is known beyond the fact that they recorded four sides for the label (all of which were released). At some point the group changed its name to the Four A Melody Men. Not only was this new name used on the Chess reissue of their second Aristocrat single, it was applied to some copies of their Aristocrat 78s with a rubber stamp. Just when the name change took place, we have no way to know (Aristocrat 78s were available for distribution until January 1951).

Before their first single had even hit the racks, Lee Monti and the Tu Tones were called right back for a second session in August. Four more sides were cut--all instrumentals this time--and all four were released, on Aristocrat 503 and 504. Both 78s are fairly scarce today.

In late August or early September, the company sprang for a series of sessions that took most of a day at Universal Recording. Blues singers Clarence Samuels and Andrew Tibbs each made their debut on record, and after Prince Cooper's piano trio a long day was apparently closed out by down-home pianist Sunnyland Slim and a guitarist named Muddy Waters who had been recurited to accompany him. We know the approximate date because the formidable racist politician Theodore Bilbo, who was so ironically commemorated on the Andrew Tibbs number "Bilbo Is Dead," died on August 21, 1947. There was no great hurry with the music publishing side of the operation; Clarence Samuels didn't get around to copyrighting "Boogie Woogie Blues" and "Lolly Pop Mama" until November.

Clarence Samuels was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 30 October 1923. He began his career singing in his father's band in Baton Rouge. In 1943, he moved to New Orleans, and began singing in local bands. By 1947, he was the manager and house singer at the Down Beat club. At this time, Sammy Goldberg, who described himself as a "black Jew," was working as a talent scout for Aristocrat. He discovered Samuels at the Down Beat, and lured him to Chicago, where Samuels began performing at the Macomba Lounge and made his first recordings for Aristocrat.

Two sides by Samuels were released on Aristocrat 1001 in December 1947; "Boogie Woogie Blues" and "Lolly Pop Mama" both feature his declamatory basso profondo to advantage. Another side, "I Don't Love You Mamie," didn't appear until well into 1949, long after Samuels had left the label; it was oddly paired on Aristocrat 403 with a previously unreleased Benny Kelly vocal from the Jump Jackson session back in June. Both sides of Aristocrat 1001, as well as the still unreleased "Special Lesson Number 1" (could the lyrics have been deemed too salacious?) illustrate Samuels' obvious debt to Roy Brown, who was recording the same tunes for Deluxe that year. When Samuels returned for his second session, the repertoire was more original.

Andrew Tibbs was born Melvin Andrew Grayson on 2 February 1929 in Columbus, Ohio. His father was the prominent Chicago Baptist minister, Reverend S. A. Grayson, and Tibbs got his start singing in church choirs. His brother Robert for a time was married to Dinah Washington. When he surreptitiously began singing blues in clubs, he used his middle name and his mother's maiden name, becoming "Andrew Tibbs." His route to Aristocrat began when in 1947 he was singing at Jimmy's Palm Garden. At intermission, he would go around the corner to the Macomba Lounge and sing during that club's intermissions. Sammy Goldberg saw him at the club and signed him to Aristocrat; Leonard Chess saw commercial potential in recording Tibbs, and decided to invest in the company, which was already recording Tom Archia. Tibbs' debut session has always been said to be the first one that Leonard Chess attended.

When interviewed by Jim O'Neal in Living Blues (1982), Tibbs explained how he just got up and sang traditional blues verses in the clubs, so he had never needed to come up with any compositions. Two numbers were hastily concocted for the recording date: Tibbs and Tom Archia worked out "Bilbo Is Dead" in the back seat of a cab on the way to the session, and Tibbs brought the lyrics into the session inscribed on a paper bag. Tibbs and his mother put together "Union Man Blues." "Toothless Woman Blues" was provided by John E. Coppage, a Chicago-based songwriter and occasional freelance producer. Finally, "Drinking Ink Splink" was purloined from Buddy Banks, a bandleader in Los Angeles. Banks and his sextet had released the number as "Ink Splink" on the Melodisc label the year before, with Marion "Blues Woman" Abernathy as their lead vocalist. Quite possibly Tom Archia had heard Banks perform the number live while he was working in California during 1945 and 1946.

Aristocrat 1101 was not played on the radio in some parts of the South because of its A side, a Black man's crocodilic lamentation on the death of a notorious White racist. Russian artists who were compelled to praise Josef Stalin would fully understand lines like "Since Mr. Bilbo is dead, I feel like a fatherless child." Nadine Cohodas has shown that Marshall Chess's old story about the 78 being destroyed in quantity by union truckers on account of Side B is completely apocryphal. Aristocrat didn't use trucking companies to ship its product, because it couldn't afford them; and if anyone came after Leonard Chess with a crowbar as he was wholesaling the record out of the trunk of his Buick, the incident remains undocumented. Besides, there is nothing that would annoy Teamsters on the record: the number talks about how an unnamed union is really powerful, so no one should mess with Tibbs now that he is a member. Apocryphal dramatics aside, the single seems to have sold well locally upon its release in November. The followup, Aristocrat 1102, hit the racks around March 1948; surviving copies are a good deal harder to find.

Both singers were accompanied by a band led by tenor saxophonist Dave Young, whose band was enjoying a long residency at the Ritz Lounge. Young's contract with the Ritz had been accepted and filed by Local 208 back on September 5, 1946. Working steadily 6 nights a week with few changes of personnel, Young's band had become an extremely polished unit with three good jazz soloists in the front line. Less than a month earlier, on August 5, Mercury had used the Young band to back Dinah Washington, who was headlining at the club. The same sextet appeared here: Harry "Pee Wee" Jackson (trumpet), Andrew "Goon" Gardner (alto saxophone), Young (tenor sax), Rudy Martin (piano), Bill Settles (bass), and Curtis D. "Geronimo" Walker (drums). Pee Wee Jackson's rasping attack can be heard on "Drinking Ink Splink." Goon Gardner, who was Charlie Parker's bandmate in a King Kolax combo back in 1939, had long since converted to Ornithology, as can be heard from his solos on "Bilbo Is Dead" and "Toothless Woman Blues" as well as "Ink Splink."

To complicate matters, two musicians who did not belong to Young's band--Tom Archia and Sax Mallard--were present at one of the sessions. After Aristocrat hid Tibbs out in a hotel under the Mallard's wise guidance, so other labels couldn't steal him, Archia and Tibbs worked out "Bilbo Is Dead" in the back seat of a cab on the way to the session, and Tibbs brought the lyrics into the session inscribed on a paper bag. So it is distinctly possible that Tom Archia is lending a little thickness to the ensemble on Andrew Tibbs' numbers. But the rather courtly tenor sax solos on "Union Man Blues" and "Drinking Ink Splink" were taken by Young.

David A. Young was born on January 14, 1912 in Nashville, Tennessee. His family moved to Chicago when he was a boy; he was a member of the Chicago Defender Newsboy Band under the direction of Major N. Clark-Smith. He began working professionally in 1932. Among the bands he played in were Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon's, with which he made his first recordings (1933), and Carroll Dickerson's (1936). From 1936 to 1938 he was a member of Roy Eldridge's combo, moving on to the big bands of Fletcher Henderson (1938-1939) and Horace Henderson (1939-1940). Subsequently he worked with Walter Fuller, returned to Eldridge for a time, and recorded in 1942 with Lucky Millinder and Sammy Price. During the first half of 1942 he also spent some time in King Kolax's band. In 1943 he got a significant gig as a leader, taking charge of the off-night band at the Rhumboogie Café on August 2 (the contract was filed on August 19). His contract was renewed on October 21. In November, however, he went back on the road with King Kolax, while Charles Stewart took over the Monday night slot at the Rhumboogie (contract filed November 18).

Young served in the Navy in 1944 and 1945; on returning to Chicago he vowed never to go on the road again (not even to Gary, Indiana, or so he told Charles Walton). He found work as a leader at the Entertainers Cafe (indefinite contract filed on March 21, 1946; another indefinite contract for 4 days a week followed on April 18) before landing the Ritz Lounge gig; in an interview with Dempsey Travis, Young aslso mentioned working at the Cabin in the Sky during that period. He may have appeared on a January 1946 session backing Dinah Washington under Gus Chappelle's direction; the personnel is still not known with certainty. Young was definitely on two sessions that trumpeter and singer Bill Martin did with a studio band for Hy-Tone; these were recorded around May and September of 1946.

The October 5, 1947, issue of the Defender indicated that Rudy Martin had been replaced at the piano bench by Prentice McCarey; otherwise the Ritz Lounge band was carrying on with the same personnel. In late November Young's band (with Sax Mallard, who was now leading the off-night band at the Ritz, sitting in for Goon Gardner) accompanied Dinah Washington on a session for Mercury. (Members of Young's rhythm section accompanied her in sessions in September and on November 13.) On December 2, Young led a studio quintet, with Settles on bass and Walker on drums, that backed Lil Green on her last session for RCA Victor.

Dave Young continued in the music business for another four years, but as a Swing saxophonist who neither made the transition to bebop nor adopted the honk, he must have found the changing musical environment less and less congenial. His gig at the Ritz ended in January 1949 (the last Defender ad mentioning his band ran on January 15); his sextet gave way to a quintet led by King Kolax. According to Young's interview with Charles Walton (unfortunately not available online at the present time), by 1950 he was working primarily in the strip joints of Calumet City. Young made a couple of appearances on Al Benson's TV show (which ran from April through July 1950; see our Sax Mallard page for details), but quit after Benson got into a fistfight with Stuff Smith. In November 1951 Young became an advertising salesman for the Chicago Defender; he was promoted to assistant advertising manager in February 1970, and retired from his job with the newspaper in May 1990. Dave Young died in Chicago on December 25, 1992. (He should not be confused with a much younger musician who played trumpet in Sun Ra's Arkestra in 1955 and 1956, and is said to have left music to become a car salesman.)

One of the most common combo lineups on the South Side was the piano-guitar-bass trio with a lead vocalist, which had been popularized in the late 1930s by Chicago native Nat "King" Cole. During the late 1940s, nightclub goers could take in the sounds of trios led by Prince Cooper, Duke Groner, Jimmie Bell, Bob Carter, Jimmy Binkley, Ernest Ashley, Floyd Smith, Loumell Morgan, and Calvin Bostick, as well as the cooperative unit called the Big Three. When Aristocrat began to take notice of these groups, the first to be signed was Prince Cooper's. Later in the year the company would pick up Groner and Bell's ensembles.

Prince Cooper was born Robert L. Cooper on October 14, 1921. He attended Tilden Tech high school in Chicago. In his youth he took up concert violin, but his interests eventually drifted toward jazz, and he began playing the piano in 1937. He served in the Army in World War II. On returning to Chicago in 1944, he found work first in the the stockyards and then at International Harvester. He got his first professional job in February 1946, as the pianist for Marvin Cates and His Earls of Rhythm, who were performing at Jack's Club Showboat (6109 South Parkway). Another up-and-comer in that band was tenor saxophonist Eddie Chamblee.

With the Cates band Cooper developed a knack for singing. Jack Ellis, the owner of the club and former band columnist for the Chicago Defender, was particularly impressed with Cooper, and had him form a trio to replace the Cates band. Cooper recruited Hurley Ramey on guitar and Jimmy Cosby on bass, and the Robert "Prince" Cooper Trio started a long residency at the club in June 1946 (Cooper posted a 5-month contract with Jack's Showboat on May 16 and extended it for 8 months on September 16). When Aristocrat signed him, he was still going strong at Jack's Showboat, posting an extension for another 6 weeks on June 19, 1947, 6 more months on July 17, and 6 months on October 2. The engagement didn't come to an end until January of 1948, when Prince Cooper moved to the Music Box (408 East 63rd Street; indefinite contract posted on January 22).

The Prince Cooper Trio patterned its sound very closely after the Nat King Cole Trio; Jack's Club Showboat advertised Cooper as "King Cole's Double." The group cut its first sides for Exclusive in Los Angeles in 1946 (two were released). On the Exclusive session, the bassist was probably Jimmy Cosby. But by the time the trio recorded for Aristocrat, Charles "Truck" Parham was responsible for the bass work. Both "Night Fall" and "It's a Hit Baby," which came out on Aristocrat 1201, show just how close to King Cole Cooper could get at the time. The remaining two sides from this session, "My Fate" and Throw It Out Your Mind," were released on Aristocrat 1202 in January 1948 (Billboard announced that they would be out around January 13).

The first public mention of Andrew Tibbs' employment by the label appeared in Billboard on October 11, 1947. Billboard got around to three of the participants in this block of sessions on November 29, 1947, when it cited Clarence Samuels, Andrew Tibbs (redundantly), and Prince Cooper as newly "inked" by Aristocrat. The real point of the item: they were all about to return to the studio for their second sessions.

During the same marathon, Sunnyland Slim and "Muddy Water" (as he was billed on his first release) made their debut for Aristocrat.

Blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim was born Albert Luandrew in Vance, Mississippi, September 5, 1906 (most sources say 1907, but the Social Security Death Index and 1920 census data give the date as 1906). He was the son of Tom and Mary Luandrew (spelled "Loeandrew" by the census taker, but not in other documents that we have seen). We do not know exactly when Slim arrived in Chicago. He was playing semi-regularly at the Flame Lounge on 39th Street in the summer of 1947. He first recorded as a leader for the Hy-Tone label, probably just before this session for Aristocrat.

Either Slim did not sign long-term contracts with record companies, or did not believe he had, because after obtaining this session for Aristocrat in September, and even getting called back for a followup in December, he would do a second one for Hy-Tone and a session for RCA Victor that same month. In any event, Slim needed accompaniment on his outing for Aristocrat, so he phoned a guitarist that he knew. Muddy Waters was driving a delivery truck for a Venetian blind company; after coming up with a creative excuse to leave work, he headed straight to Universal Recording and cut his first sides for Aristocrat.

Muddy Waters was born McKinley A. Morganfield, on 4 April 1913, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. He was raised on Stovall's Plantation, just outside of Clarksdale. His voice and guitar were first heard on Library of Congress field recordings, cut in 1941 and 1942 by folk music researcher Alan Lomax. In 1943 Waters moved up to Chicago, working mainly at house parties, as there was virtually no market at this time for country blues in the clubs. In 1944 he switched from acoustic guitar to electric. As the migration of southern blacks increased after World War II, a market for his style of blues began to develop. To be able to play in the clubs, Waters joined Musicians Union Local 208 in September 1945; in November of that year he filed his first contracts (with the West Side Chicken Shack on November 1, and the Cotton Club on November 15).

But after the Cotton Club engagement Waters had a lot of trouble finding work, and his first commercial recordings went absolutely nowhere. Early in 1946, he cut "Mean Red Spider" for J. Mayo Williams. Williams had been a talent scout for Paramount and Decca, and while he still knew talent when he saw it, he had lost his sense of what the record-buying public might want. Because his tiny Harlem and Chicago labels lacked distribution, he dealt this side to 20th Century, a Philadelphia-based outfit. Unfortunately for Waters, who split a 20th Century 78 with James "Sweet Lucy" Carter, Carter's name ended up appearing on both sides. On September 27, 1946, Waters got what looked like a much better opportunity when he recorded a session for Columbia records under the aegis of veteran producer Lester Melrose. But the company was unimpressed and left everything in the can; none of the sides would see issue for 20 years, when they finally appeared on a Testament LP. So Waters continued to make his rounds of the clubs--picking up occasional gigs as a sideman--while working a day job full-time.

Feelings about the September session appear to have been mixed at the company. The two sides featuring Sunnyland Slim (good but not great examples of his work) were held until early March 1948, when Aristocrat 1301 was released to no great effect (Billboard placed its release date around March 7). Muddy's two numbers, which came out on Aristocrat 1302 that same month, drew even less interest. And legend has it that Leonard Chess complained about not understanding a word that Muddy was singing. Of course, he was attending his first recording sessions that day, and Sunnyland Slim and Muddy Waters were simply not part of the world of the Macomba Lounge.

The first session after the September marathon once again involved Lee Monti's Tu Tones. Probably in October, they cut six sides. We know of two releases from the session, on Aristocrat 505 and 506; we suspect that the remaining two were intended for release on Aristocrat 507, but we have yet to see a copy of that disk.

Next, the company called on someone whose music Leonard Chess did understand. Tom Archia was called back in October for a straightahead jazz session. It consisted of four sides done with what we think is a working rhythm section from the Macomba: Bill Searcy (piano), Lowell Pointer (bass), and Robert "Hendu" Henderson (drums), with Leo Blevins (a frequent guest) added on guitar. The little that we know about the Milt Larkin Orchestra suggests that it often took Count Basie as its model, and Tom Archia was definitely attentive to Lester Young's role in that band. It didn't hurt that Bill Searcy was originally from Kansas City. So "Jam for Sam" has a definite Basie small-group feel to it. "Macomba Jump" is a bopper's jubilant romp over "I Got Rhythm" changes. "Slumber," a minor blues, could be Tom Archia's masterpiece; "Downfall Blues" is the only one of Archia's records to preserve his rowdy vocalizing. Compare what Tom Archia laid down on this session with the sides that Dexter Gordon was making at the time--or for that matter, with recordings from the same period by Lester himself--and we don't think Tom Archia will come out on the short end.

Aristocrat was obviously high on Andrew Tibbs, because in October, the singer was called back into the studio even though his first single hadn't been released yet. This time Tibbs was accompanied by with a band led by his erstwhile songwriting partner, Tom Archia. Archia added a trumpet player (probably Johnny Morton) and an altoist (definitely Sax Mallard) to the quartet that he had just recorded with. Now more used to composing, Tibbs contributed "I Feel like Crying" and "Same Old Story" to the date, while Sax Mallard wrote "Going Down Fast" and "Married Man Blues." Mallard also contributed his arranging skills. "Married Woman Blues," released on Aristocrat 1103, would become Tibbs' most famous number. Junior Parker much later recorded a version called "Driving Me Mad," and Johnny Copeland did it as "I Wish I Was Single."

Toward the end of October, Tom Archia went on the road with an 8-piece band led by trumpeter Hot Lips Page (he spent a good chunk of December recording with the band in Cincinnati, on a series of sessions for King); he would not return until early January. So he was unavailable for the December madness, when Aristocrat, like so many other labels, stockpiled sides in anticipation of the recording ban. However, Sax Mallard remained in town.

Aristocrat made a unique venture into boogie-woogie when it signed pulverizing piano soloist Forrest C. Sykes and recorded him in October. Here is a pianist who has passed so thoroughly into oblivion that the compilers of the 1997 reissue package, The Aristocrat of the Blues, had no idea who he was.

Forrest Sykes (who so far as we know was not related to Roosevelt Sykes) actually worked steadily in Chicago from 1947 through 1952. Before that, he seems to have enjoyed a brief tenure as an added attraction in Lionel Hampton's band--at least, a "Forest" Sykes, playing piano while standing, is pictured in Hamp's 1946 Swing Book. On January 16, 1947, Sykes' contract for 30 weeks at the Bar o' Music (a joint that featured solo pianists or trios) was accepted and filed by Musicians Union Local 208. In April 1950, he landed a two-week gig at the Bee Hive Lounge, when it was still emphasizing blues and traditional jazz (contract accepted and filed with Musicians Union Local 208 on April 20). He also got into trouble with Local 208 for joining Claude McLin in a jam session with Tom Archia's combo at the Macomba Lounge on April 11, 1950; obviously he was still on good terms with Leonard and Phil Chess, or he wouldn't have been there on that occasion.

The compilers of the 1997 collection did see fit to include an unreleased item from this session, "Forrest Sykes Plays the Boogie," a 5-minute unaccompanied tour de force that would have had to be split between two sides of a 78. The sides originally released on Aristocrat 1401 include accompaniment by an unidentified guitarist and bassist. As for the two titles that remain unreleased, we've been told that Forrest Sykes and "Blue Danube" didn't go together--but how can anyone pass up on a title like "Blitzkrieg Blues"?

According to the Chicago Defender's ad for the Club DeLisa on November 8, 1947, Knight was performing there along with the comedy ensemble the 3 Chocolateers, Bessie Jackson, and others. Obviously Aristocrat recorded him during his stand at the club, because the DeLisa house band is on his records; accompaniment was provided by the " Red Saunders Orch."

While Red picked up a lot of work backing vocalists in the studio, he was nearly always asked to bring a smaller unit. Here his entire band is indeed present, though the arrangements on the two sides thsat we have heard unfortunately leave no room for instrumental solos. The company sat on Danny Knight's sides for a long time. Aristocrat 1501 is very rare, and its exact release date is still unknown, but Tom Kelly's copy has the green label with a script Aristocrat logo in black that the company adopted in March 1949. Whether there was an Aristocrat 1502 remains unsettled.

Also unsettled is the mystery posed by Billy Orr, who definitely recorded four sides for Aristocrat, and was supposedly given the 1600 release series. Billboard announced back on May 17, 1947 that "Negro organist Billy Orr" had been "inked by Aristocrat." But a release on Aristocrat 1601 would suggest a recording date in the fall of the year, and there is just one unexplained gap in the U7000 matrix series, from U7066 to U7069. (The master books list the titles that Orr recorded, but not the matrix numbers.) Other possibilities: Orr recorded at Universal in the early going, before the U7000 series was adopted; Orr had to record elsewhere because Universal didn't have the right instrument for him to play. Actually finding a copy of Aristocrat 1601--even 1602, if there ever was such a thing--would definitely help!

Billy Orr came on the scene as a gospel organist. He first appears in the Board minutes of Musicians Union Local 208 on January 18, 1945, when his contract to work a Sunday gospel show with the Reverend C. F. Kyle on radio station WSBC was accepted and filed. On April 19, 1945, Local 208 accepted and filed his indefinite-period contract with the Evangelical Temple. On July 5, he posted a new contract with Reverend Kyle; on July 19, he filed another contract with Reverend Reed. On May 2, 1946, he posted an indefinite contract with Reverend O. W. Williams, and on May 16, his indefinite contract for Sundays and Wednesdays at the Evangelist Temple was accepted and filed. On July 18, he posted two indefinite contracts with Reverend Kyle.

Toward the end of 1946, Orr made a move to secular employment: on December 5, he posted a 2 week contract with Club Laurel and another for 3 months with options. On March 6, 1947, he posted another "indefinite" contract with the same establishment. He was almost certainly spotted at the Club Laurel by someone connected with Aristocrat. He probably remained there until he moved to the Savoy Ballroom (indefinite contract posted October 2). Local 208 documents continue to put Orr on the Chicago scene into 1949. We don't know what happened to him after that.

As the pace of recording activity picked up (because of the looming recording ban, which James C. Petrillo had announced would hit on January 1), Aristocrat showed it hadn't lost interest in White pop music just yet; the company picked up crooner Jerry Abbott, whose signing was duly announced in Billboard on November 15, 1947. Abbott cut four sides in fervent emulation of Bing Crosby, complete with strings led by conductor Bob Trendler and a girl chorus. We know that two were released on Aristocrat 1701; both are creditable pop performances of standards, with nice work by some of the accompanying musicians (notably the clarinet soloist).

By the time his piano trio recorded for Aristocrat, Duke Groner was a veteran of the music scene. He was born Edward Groner in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on March 24, 1908. In the earlier part of his career he was a vocalist who sang ballads in a high tenor voice, though he also played a little piano. From 1935 to 1940 he sang with the Nat Towles band, staying on after that particular edition of the band was taken over by Horace Henderson. He subsequently worked as the house singer at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem and replaced Jimmy Grissom for a few months in the Jimmie Lunceford band. In 1943, he married and settled in Chicago, where he learned how to play the string bass so he would have another way to get work. From early 1944 through the end of 1945, Groner spent most of his time in the trio led by saxophonist Buster Bennett. Groner's first appearances on record were with Columbia as a member of Buster's band, in February and October 1945.

In December 1945 Groner left Bennett and went out on his own with a piano trio. The initial lineup included Ernest Ashby on guitar and Robert Montgomery on piano; after a while, Jimmy Bowman replaced Montgomery. In the early fall of 1947, the trio made its first sides for J. Mayo Williams, who dealt two of them ("I Love You, Yes I Do" and "New Blowtop Blues") to the Philadelphia-based 20th Century label; there may have been others, but if so we don't know what happened to them. By this time Groner was working with Emmett Spicer on guitar and Horace Palm on piano.

The same trio recorded for Aristocrat around November 1947. We presume four sides were cut, but only the two released on Aristocrat 1801 are documented. "Dragging My Heart Around," with Horace Palm's vocal lead, seems typical of the material that the trio was performing in the clubs. "Dizzy the Bebop Man" is a novelty number written by the ubiquitous Sax Mallard and sung in unison by the trio; bop rhythms are merely hinted at, but, hey, the leader was born in 1908, and the composer was a Swing musician himself. Put alongside some more substantial contributions (like the Red Saunders' band's solid performance of Charlie Ventura's "Synthesis"), the number reminds us that many of the older Chicago-based musicians were perfectly content to try bebop the same way they would be trying mambos and cha-chas a few years later. It was the latest thing their audience might like to hear.

Boogie-woogie pianist and singer Jimmie Bell led one of the many piano trios which were so popular in South Side clubs. (Aristocrat hedged its bets by calling him Jimmy and Jimmie on the same label, but he spelled his name with the "ie.") At the time of his lone session for Aristocrat, in December 1947, his trio partners were Leo Blevins on electric guitar and Andrew Harris on bass. (Our source for the personnel is Bell's 1978 interview in Living Blues.) It would be a while before record buyers could hear Bell's wry vocalizing on "Just about Easter Time" (a song written by Tom Archia): after missing its seasonal window in 1948, Aristocrat 1901 was held from release until March 1949. (It was probably the first Aristocrat 78 to carry the new green label.) The other two sides from this session were finally released on the new Chess label, in June 1950.

Bell was born on 29 August 1910, in Peoria, Illinois. After graduating from high school in St. Louis in 1928, he pursued a career in music. Starting out with a carnival band, he spent the 1930s in local Swing bands like Earl Van Dyke's Plantation Cotton Pickers, Al Williams' St. Louis Syncopators, and Cecil Scott's Salt and Pepper Shakers. Near the end of the decade he headed his own band, before joining the great Jeter-Pillars band in 1940 (where he played trumpet!). During the 1940s, leading his own bands, he worked out of St. Louis, Detroit, and New York. He was discovered by Leonard Chess working with his trio. After Aristocrat, Bell did a session in Shreveport in 1949 that remained unreleased until JSP put out an LP of his work in 1979. Two recording sessions took place for Chicago-based Royalty in 1950; a session on Chance in 1954 led to one obscure release that the company put in its pop series. During his last decades, Bell worked in Peoria playing piano bars. He died on 31 December 1987 in Peoria.

Sources Used: Mike Foster, "Swing, Boogie & Blues: Jimmie Bell, Peoria Piano Man," Living Blues 41 (November-December 1978): 12-17; Jean Budd Wright, "Jimmie Bell’ [obit], Living Blues 79 (March/April 1988): 50-51.

Sax Mallard had already recorded twice for Aristocrat (on the Jump Jackson session and the second Andrew Tibbs session) before he got a chance to record as a leader.

Oett M. Mallard was born in Chicago on September 2, 1915. He got his first saxophone when he was 16, studying band at Wendell Phillips High School under the redoubtable Captain Walter Dyett. Before graduating he had already landed a gig accompanying singer Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon on the radio. From 1935 to 1937 he toured the US and Canada for two and a half years with one of his classmates, Nat "King" Cole, in a show called "Shuffle Along." After returning to Chicago in August 1937 he worked extensively as a sideman with Fats Waller, the Deep River Boys, the Original Ink Spots, the Andy Kirk Band, the Mary Lou Williams Quartet, and many others. In 1942, he was a member of a 12-piece band led by drummer Floyd Campbell. In April and May 1943, Sax Mallard was called to New York City as a temporary replacement for Otto Hardwick in the Duke Ellington band; he appeared on 5 broadcasts that have been preserved. From mid-1943 to the beginning of 1946, Sax Mallard served in the Navy, where he finished up his Bachelor's degree in Music.

On returning home in January 1946, Mallard joined Jump Jackson's longstanding quartet with Johnny Morton and Bill Owens (see above), and was soon in demand for alto sax and clarinet work on blues sessions. He also wrote Ellingtonian arrangements when these were needed. Mallard composed and arranged a ballad, "The Greatest Mistake," for Jump Jackson's June 1947 session for Aristocrat, and arranged "Sweet Thing," the other ballad number. In the fall of 1947, as Columbia and RCA Victor were stockpiling sides in anticipation of the record ban, he appeared on sessions with Big Bill Broonzy, Eddie Boyd, Arbee Stidham, Roosevelt Sykes, Washboard Sam, and Tampa Red. At the end of October, he left Jump Jackson's combo and opened at the New Harlem Cafe as a leader; by mid-November, he was dividing his time between the New Harlem and the Ritz Lounge, where he led the off-night band. On a late November session for Mercury he was called to substitute in Dave Young's Ritz Lounge band when it backed Dinah Washington.

In December, Aristocrat offered the busy musician a six-tune session as a leader. Mallard assembled a band with a trumpet player, a second alto saxophonist who doubled on clarinet and tenor sax, a tenor player, and a rhythm section of piano, guitar, bass, and drums. We are hampered because we don't know the personnel of his working group at the time, but we know that Jimmy Bowman was the pianist on the date, and Mallard's regular drummer "Sleepy" Nelson may have been on hand. Likely candidates Johnny Morton on trumpet and Bill Casimir on tenor sax had been doing a lot of session work with Mallard. The Mallard session was done in the same kind of variety-show format as Jump Jackson's had been: Jimmy Bowman crooned two ballads and shouter Clarence "Pro" McClam was on hand for a couple of blues.

Aristocrat 2001, released in March 1948, coupled a Bowman ballad number ("Let's Love Again") with a Latin-flavored instrumental featuring the leader's alto sax. "The Mojo" was heard on a lot of jukeboxes in Los Angeles; in April and May, it spent five weeks on "Hot on Central Avenue," a regional chart published in Cash Box. Aristocrat 2002 followed in October 1948; it coupled a slow blues number for Pro McClam ("Rolling Tears") with Mallard's clarinet showcase, an excellent rendition of the Artie Shaw number "Summit Ridge Drive." The last release, Aristocrat 2003, was held till February 1949 and from this session only "Evelyn," a ballad feature for Jimmy Bowman featuring Mallard's alto sax and dedicated to you-know-who, was included. Apparently the company was unhappy with McClam's "Insurance Man Blues" (which remains unissued to this day) so it reused "Dedicated to You" by the 5 Blazes! ("Dedicated to You" has the distinction, if you want to call it that, of being the only side that Aristocrat issued twice. On Aristocrat 2003, top billing goes to pianist Ernie Harper, who also handled the lead vocal.)

As the year wound up, Sax Mallard moved his combo to George's Cocktail Lounge and finished out a rather frantic December with three more sessions for Columbia: one by Big Bill Broonzy, one by Rosetta Howard, and a reunion of the Chicago All Stars. Pro McClam sang two blues on the All Stars session. He would resurface a few years later, making two sessions under his own name for the fledgling Vee-Jay label in 1953 and 1954.

Prince Cooper and his trio-mates Hurley Ramey and Truck Parham returned Universal to cut four more sides. This time the company released two of them, on Aristocrat 1203. An Aristocrat 1204 may have been planned but we have no confirmation of this. Toward the end of 1948 the company began to lose interest in piano trios, and Cooper was dropped from the roster.

Not that this made a dent in his trio's busy schedule. In June 1948 they were working Kennedy's Honeydripper Lounge at 5910 South State (indefinite contract accepted and filed on June 3). In April 1950 they made a stop at Don's Den (461 East 61st; 10 week contract accepted and filed on April 20) and in November 1950 they were working Fuller's Lounge at 4700 South Wentworth (according to an "indefinite" contract filed with Musicians Union Local 208 on November 16, 1950).

In October 1951 Cooper formed a new trio with Wilbur Wynne and Jimmy Cosby and played for two years at the Avenue Lounge (64th and Parkway), owned by Joseph DeJohnette. (Cooper's contract with the Avenue Lounge, another "indefinite," was accepted and filed by Musicians Union Local 208 on October 4.) When Wynne dropped out to work with Ahmad Jamal's trio, Cooper used Emmett Spicer, formerly with Duke Groner's trio, on guitar instead; when the trio played the Luther Rawlings Cocktail Lounge (4711 South Cottage Grove), the Defender for May 9, 1953 gave the lineup as Cooper, Cosby, and Spicer. The trio subsequently returned to the Avenue Lounge, where their indefinite contract was accepted and filed on July 16, 1953, and in October 1953 Wynne rejoined the group. DeJohnette planned to start "new recording company" that would record them (we're getting this from the Chicago Defender of October 1, 1953), but nothing happened on the recording front and the group's run at the Avenue soon came to an end.

In the mid-1950s Cooper could be found playing such nightspots as the 411 Lounge, the Strand Lounge, and the Kitty Kat Club. His trio was working on the North Side at the Club Laurel (1733 West Lawrence) in March 1955 when he made one more session as a leader, for Jimmie Davis's Club 51 label. Added in the studio were Harold Ashby on tenor sax and James Slaughter on drums. Cooper's pianistics had changed by this time, but his vocals were still firmly modeled after King Cole. Cooper then accompanied blues singer and guitarist Rudy Greene, singer Bobbie James, and the vocal group The Four Buddies on two more 1955 sessions for Club 51; these would be his last known recordings. In later years he moved to Elgin, Illinois, about 30 miles west of Chicago, and played regularly in the lounges in Elgin and other towns along the Fox River. Prince Cooper died in Elgin on January 4, 1998.

It appears that three of the December sessions (Prince Cooper, Sunnyland Slim-Muddy Waters, and Clarence Samuels) also took place back-to-back.

Like Prince Cooper and Clarence Samuels, Sunnyland Slim and Muddy Waters were back for a second session in December, which would be Muddy's breakthrough. Sunnyland Slim, on the other hand, became expendable. He would appear on the Nighthawks and St. Louis Jimmy sessions from 1948, but would not be invited back as a leader.

Many sources have placed this session in April 1948, after Muddy's first single had been released on Aristocrat 1302. Some haven't even noticed a link between Slim's sides and Muddy's. In fact, the evidence of the matrix numbers puts the session firmly in December 1947. That in turn means that Sammy Goldberg (who was with the company through the end of year) actually thought pretty well of Muddy, and persuaded the Aristocrat management to take another chance on him, because they recorded him for a second time before they had released anything on him. But it also makes clear once again that they weren't rushing anything out; in fact, the company would release Slim's single, on Aristocrat 1304, a month before Muddy's, on Aristocrat 1305.

The full band on the session included bassist Big Crawford and alto saxophonist Alex Atkins. (At the time Atkins was a regular member of Memphis Slim's House Rockers, recording multiple sessions with them for Miracle). The first two numbers were sung by Sunnyland Slim with the full band. Then Muddy took over for two of his own with the full band, "Good Lookin' Woman" and "Mean Disposition." All indications are that these sides were originally intended to hit the stores on Aristocrat 1303. But in a bid for a more down-home sound, Muddy cut two more at the end of the session, with just his vocals and guitar and Crawford's string-popping bass. "I Can't Be Satisfied" was actually a remake of one of his 1941 recordings for the Library of Congress (the first version was titled "I Be's Troubled"). We don't know whether Muddy suggested this, or somebody in the recording booth did. What we do know is that in June 1948, the company decided to release "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel like Going Home" on Aristocrat 1305, and the 78 was an immediate hit on the South Side. The full-band sides were a lot closer to the way Muddy sounded in a club back then, but they were put away, not to be unearthed for another 30 years.

As so often happens, the real story is more interesting than the legends that grew up to encrust the event.

After leaving Aristocrat, Sunnyland Slim would record prolifically for many years. That same December as record labels were stocking up for the recording ban, Slim did a second session for Hy-Tone and a session for RCA Victor, using the pseudonym Doctor Clayton's Buddy. Later he recorded for such labels as Opera (later reissued on Chance), Mercury Tempo-Tone, Apollo, JOB, his own Sunny label, Regal, Mercury again, Blue Lake, Club 51, Cobra, LaSalle, and Miss. In 1960, he made an LP for Prestige; he appeared on many revivalist blues labels thereafter. In his later years, he was revered as an elder statesman of the Chicago blues. Sunnyland Slim died in Chicago on 17 March 1995.

During its first year of operation, Aristocrat was a long way from being a "Chicago blues" label. The only music to fit that description came out of the two Sunnyland Slim/Muddy Waters sessions, in September and December. Between them, they were responsible for just 10 sides out of the 135 that the label recorded or acquired.

Lee Monti came back in December for a fourth session. Obviously, someone kept buying his records, because no one else on the company roster rated more than 3 sessions as a leader in 1947. And the Tu Tones cut another 6 sides this time. Indeed, when the company rolled out the first release from this session, "Pin Up Polka," Aristocrat 508, it was considered worthy of a full-page ad in Cash Box (March 6, 1948). Besides a studio photo of the band, the ad included a shot of "Myra Keck, A Thornton Pin-Up," and endorsements from 6 disc jockeys--all, of course, from radio stations with White audiences.

Not long after the ad, Monti was working a high-profile gig at the State-Lake Theater. As it was described in the Chicago Daily Tribune (March 21, 1948, p. F13), the show was headlined by Chicago native Mel Tormé, already known as the "velvet fog." Several prominent DJs appeared in the show, along with Ella Fitzgerald, saxophonist Herbie Fields and his jazz quintet, and "Lee Monti's accordian [sic] quartet," as well as the house orchestra under Henry Brandon's direction.

In all, Lee Monti enjoyed 9 releases on Aristocrat (10 if 507 ever saw the light of day, as we think is likely). But he was finished recording for the company, and his output would wind down with Aristocrat 510, which came out in November 1948. We suspect his market was seen as regional rather than national, and he no longer fit the direction that Leonard Chess wanted to take. Monti and the Tu Tones went on to make a string of records for Sharp (a local Chicago label that opened in 1949); during the 1950s they would also record for bigger operations like MGM and London. Monti's last known record was a 45-rpm single done in 1959 for the Wedgwood label.

Clarence Samuels returned to Aristocrat for a second session in December. We are sure of this because the session by country guitarist Dick Hiorns, which obviously took place before the end of 1947, carries even higher matrix numbers in the U7000 series. (We will also see how Aristocrat went to tremendous lengths to hide the origins of 6 masters that really were recorded while the ban was still being strictly enforced in Chicago.) By this time, Aristocrat was no longer using Dave Young's Ritz Lounge band, and Tom Archia was out of town, so Samuels was accompanied by a band led by alto saxophonist Porter Kilbert. Kilbert's name was occasionally mangled by record companies; on this occasion it came out as "Kilmer."

Porter Kilbert almost certainly knew Clarence Samuels from back home. After all, he was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on June 10, 1921. He attended Southern University in his home town, but was lured away in September 1942, when he replaced Preston Love as lead alto saxophonist in the celebrated Nat Towles band. From 1943 to 1945, he was a member of Benny Carter's band; in 1945 he was briefly a member of Roy Eldridge's band. He joined Red Saunders' combo in September 1946 while that ensemble was (very unusually) working in New York City; at the time of these recordings, he was the lead alto in Saunders' big show band at the Club DeLisa. His band sounds to us like Red's celebrated saxophone section accompanied by his rhythm section. At the time Red was carrying four saxes (Kilbert on alto; McKinley Easton on alto and baritone; Everett Gaines on tenor sax; and Leon Washington on tenor) and the section work sounds like those four with Easton restricted to alto. As a Benny Carter alumnus, Kilbert might have been drawn to the ensemble sound of two altos and two tenors... Unfortunately, the drums are not well recorded, but the safest guess is that Red was present, along with his regular pianist and bassist, Earl Washington and Jimmy Richardson.

Porter Kilbert would remain with the Saunders band until January 1952, when he left the Club DeLisa to form his own combo. His Hodges-style alto sax can be heard on many of the recordings that Saunders made during the period. In the summer of 1954, Kilbert worked in a Horace Henderson big band that had the good fortune to be recorded. In November 1954, he recorded four sides for Vee-Jay in a bop quintet led by bassist Dave Shipp; on these Kilbert played a much more modern sounding tenor sax. In 1955 and 1956, he could often be found at the C&C Lounge where a "battle of the saxes" format prevailed; Tom Archia was his regular dueling partner. During 1956 and 1957, he served as the house bandleader at Roberts Show Lounge for several stretches; after being displaced by his old employer Red Saunders' band in 1958, Kilbert's crew played weekends at Cadillac Bob's Budland during the latter part of 1958 and the beginning of 1959. Kilbert's only other recording as a leader would be a single done for Ping in 1957 featuring an excellent mid-size ensemble playing arrangements by Hobart Dotson; by now his alto work showed a pronounced Charlie Parker influence. Kilbert picked up a few opportunities to record on blues sessions (he played tenor sax on these), then in the summer of 1960 he went on a tour of Europe in a big band led by Quincy Jones (he played alto in the Jones band, getting little solo space because he was sitting next to Phil Woods). Porter Kilbert suffered a stroke and died in Chicago on October 23, 1960.

When interviewed by Dan Kochakian in Blues & Rhythm in 2002, Samuels claimed that Howard McGhee and Charlie Parker were on his session with the Kilbert band, but their names could not be used for contractual reasons. While Howard McGhee was in Chicago in the second half of December 1947, recording for Vitacoustic, no trumpet is audible on Samuels' two released sides with the Kilbert band. And if Charlie Parker was on hand, why wasn't he asked to solo? Samuels also said the session took place in 1948, a lesser inaccuracy.

What Samuels actually did in 1948 was rejoin Sammy Goldberg and move to the West Coast to cut two singles for Down Beat (which later became Swing Time). The recordings he made for Down Beat in Los Angeles were "black market," because the Musicians Union ban was still in effect at the time. Subsequently Samuels made sessions for Freedom (1949), DeLuxe (1949), Lamp (1954), Excello (1956), Apt (1958), and Sharon (1966). His biggest seller was "Chicken Hearted Woman" for Excello, which featured Johnny Copeland's "chicken sounds" on the guitar. Samuels retired from the music business during the 1970s and 1980s, but resumed his career in New Orleans in the mid-1990s. He died in New Orleans on 20 May 2002.

Sources on Clarence Samuels: Dan Kochakian, "The Legend Returns to New Orleans: The Clarence Samuels Story," Blues & Rhythm: The Gospel Truth 166 (February 2002): 4-9; Jeff Hannusch, "Clarence Samuels" [obit], Juke Blues 51 (Summer 2002): 57-58.

The addition of Dick Hiorns' "Western Combo" was reported in Billboard on January 17, 1948, though the leader's name was misspelled "Hirons". A copy of Aristocrat 2101, on which the artist's name is spelled correctly, has turned up in Tom Kelly's collection, and Dan Kochakian has found another. Aristocrat 2101 is an important discovery, discographically, because it proves that items as high in the matrix numbers series as 7126 were recorded before the end of 1947. A lineup of steel guitar, accordion, guitar, and string bass, and titles like "They're Burning Down the House I Was Brung Up In" leave no doubt as to the orientation of the music, though Hiorns' guitar work tells us that he was listening to his Django records. An even more recent discovery is Hiorns' second release, on Aristocrat 2102, which contains the other two titles from his session; this was brought to our attention by Dave Sax.

Richard E. Hiorns was born in Chicago on January 29, 1922. He played guitar and mandolin. In the early 1950s, Hiorns moved to Wausau, Wisconsin, where he owned a bar and continued to work as a musician. According to Gary Myers, author of Do You Hear That Beat -- Wisconsin Pop/Rock in the 50's and 60's,, Hiorns released several other records after making his two 78s for Aristocrat. In 1954 he cut a single for a tiny Wisconsin-based label called Potter; it was credited to Dick Hiorns (vocal) and Bob Martins [sic] Blue Bonnet Buckaroos.

Following the trend as rockabilly emerged, Hiorns would also record in the 1960s for the Cuca label out of Sauk City, Wisconsin. According to the Dead Rock Stars Club Web site at http://users.efortress.com/doc-rock/2002.html, Hiorns led a band called the Radiants, which recorded a version of Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On," and at vario