The Chance Label

Revision note: We have added a note about the connection between the Freddie Hall single on Chance and J. Mayo Williams' boutique label, Ebony.

Chance Records, like Parrot, United, and Aristocrat, was an independent Chicago label that pioneered in recording the new African-American sounds that swept the city after World War II: the electrified Mississippi blues and the doowop harmony groups. Chance cut 360 known sides from September 1950 through October 1954. In addition, Chance purchased or licensed at least 42 sides. We know of 91 releases on Chance, accompanied by 1 on its very short-lived tributary Meteor and 9 on later subsidiary Sabre.

Although the blues and doowop garnered Chance a place in history, the company recorded pop, jazz, and gospel, and this discography is designed to profile those aspects of the label as well. The jazz sides were by John "Schoolboy" Porter, the Jimmy Binkley Jazz Quintet, Chubby Jackson, and Conte Candoli; only two of these sides have ever been reissued by anyone.

The bulk of Chance's output was in the R&B field, which reflected the knowledge amassed by the label's founder and owner, Art Sheridan. Sheridan (born July 16, 1925 in Chicago) had been running a distributorship and a pressing plant, where the preponderance of his work was with African-American oriented product. Most all the Chance 1100 series, the very temporary Meteor 100 series, and the Sabre 100 series were blues, jazz instrumentals, doowop groups, and solo R&B stylists. The company also ran a Chance 3000 series for pop (which ran from 3000 to 3021; we have confirmation on 19 releases) and a Chance 5000 series for gospel (for which we know 9 releases).

Most Chance recordings were done at Universal Recording Corporation (which was the source of the two main Chance master series: one starting in the U1800s and obviously shared with other labels; the other an exclusive series that began at U5000 or C5000, prefix not handled consistently). Some recordings were picked up from other sources and some were recorded at other studios in town. We know that the first Homesick James Williamson session was recorded at RCA Studios, and the label's first issue in its pop series, by Jack Teter, bears a full-blown RCA Victor matrix number that signifies a 1952 pressing.

Our basic source for this work is a roughly chronological list of matrix numbers, artists, and titles provided by Art Sheridan to the French discographical researcher, Marcel Chauvard (1926-1968). We have thoroughly checked and considerably amplified his listing, but without M. Chauvard's work our discography would not have been possible. Note that, as often happens when working from company files, Sheridan sometimes supplied titles that were not used on the labels. When there is a disagreement, Sheridan's title appears in square brackets after the title that ended up being used.

The Chance label was begun in September 1950 and had its first headquarters in the offices of Sheridan's American Record Distributors, located at 2011 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Sheridan also operated a pressing plant called Armour Plastics; in March 1950, his pressing operation had expanded by absorbing the remnants of Egmont Sonderling's Master Records (see our Old Swing-Master page for more about Sonderling).

The first Chance label (on 78s) was black, with a silver rim and silver print. This was plain-looking, but effective, and Sheridan kept it until the middle of 1952. When Chance 45s began appearing, they used a blue background and black print.

The Chance label started by recording a series of instrumentals on tenor sax player Schoolboy Porter. John A. Porter was a 24-year old native of Gary, Indiana, who had served in the Navy in World War II. In 1948 he joined the Cootie Williams Band, where he developed into a formidable honker (unfortunately, his service with Williams coincided with the 1948 recording ban, so we can't compare his solos to those of "Weasel" Parker and "Gator Tail" Jackson). He was brought to the label by Gary deejay Jesse Coopwood. His first Chance release, an instrumental of the Tommy Dorsey/ Frank Sinatra song, "I'll Never Smile Again," was something of a local hit in the fall of 1950. We have not been able to listen to all of these sides yet, but a check of "Deep Purple" indicates that Porter was backed by a rhythm section (a rather florid pianist, bass, and drums; at least the pianist, whose last name has come down to us as McDuffy, seems to have reappeared on his 1951 session). The echo that was popular on ballad instrumentals in 1950 was laid on rather thickly. Presumably horns were added and the echo tamed on the up-tempo numbers, however.

In November, Chance came out with a two-sided release of "Tennessee Waltz," which sold some 10,000 copies. There was enough demand for the record that Armour Plastics lacked sufficient capacity, and some copies were pressed by RCA Victor in Chicago (these bear an extra matrix number in RCA's E0 series on each side). Said Sheridan, "That was the era when the saxophone solos and the saxophone copies of popular tunes were very popular. Patti Page had a big hit with 'Tennessee Waltz,' and it was just a normal thing to put out an instrumental on a pop hit as soon as you heard one that seemed to be going somewhere." Of course, he hedged his bet by including a vocalist on the B side. (Claude McLin, who had a big hit for Chess in August-September 1950 with his sax solo version of "Mona Lisa," also cut a verion of "Tennessee Waltz," but Porter's version trounced McLin's at the cash register.)

Other artists recorded in the final months of 1950 were Arnold Jones, the Al Sims Trio, Wally Hays, Clyde Wright, the Calumet City Boys, and Jesse Coopwood. Most of these artists, like John Porter, were backed by a group called the Chanceteers. Supposedly the Chanceteers were gathered for recording purposes by an early associate of Sheridan, one Steve Chandler, described in the trades as a "local realty agent." Marcel Chauvard copied down a "Copwood Session," but it is clear what was meant was the Gary deejay, Jesse Coopwood. Judging by the titles, these were probably Chanceteers instrumentals, perhaps with Coopwood adding recitations. We are assuming that the number noted down only as "The Heat..." from the Coopwood Session, is one and the same as "The Heat" (released as "The Flame") by the Chanceteers. (Just one single was released under the Chanceteers' name alone, Chance 1107. Interestingly, some copies of Chance 1107 attributed both sides to the "Wally Hayes Combo" instead. Since the much rarer Chance 1106 by Clyde Wright credits the backing to Wally Hayes, we suspect that Chance 1107 initially did so as well. Our thanks to Richard Reicheg for pointing out the Wally Hayes variant of 1107) Why it was singled out for such an honor we don't know, but Chance 1107 was reissued in 1957 as Chess 1636; we have no evidence that other Chance material was picked up by the Chess brothers in this transaction.

There is some question about the matrix number on "I'm Nobody's Trick," on which the studio band backed R&B singer Clyde Wright. Sheridan wrote down 2016, but a 78 in the collection of Mike Kredinac has U2105. Whatever the matrix, Wright is backed by a Bird emulator on alto sax, along with piano, guitar, bass, and drums.

The original 2016 matrix number does show up on Meteor 100, a 78 that was brought to our attention by Bob Buchholz. This was a blue Meteor label, based in Chicago and not connected with the red Meteor label run out of Memphis by Lester Bihari (which, just to confuse matters, would buy or license some Al Smith sides from Chance in 1953). This Meteor label is laid out just like an early Chance label (silver rim, same type face in the logo) except that it is blue instead of black. The other side of Meteor 100 is matrix 2017; to our knowledge this was never issued on Chance. Both sides of the Meteor are credited to the Calumet City Boys (abbreviated by Sheridan as "Cal City Boys" in the list he gave to Chauvard). We figure that Sheridan rapidly discovered that the red Meteor label (which his distributorship would have handled) was already out there and abandoned his own Meteor logo. This would explain why no other blue-label Meteor releases are known.

Chance was just starting: the total output for 1950 was 25 tracks.

Matrix	Artist	Title	Release Number	Recording Date	Release Date
*U1823	Arnold Jones	Some Time	Chance 1100	prob. August 1950	prob. September 1950
*U1823 [sic]	Arnold Jones	Wilderness	unissued	prob. August 1950
*U1824	Arnold Jones	Yesterdays	Chance 1100	prob. August 1950	prob. September 1950
*U1824 [sic]	Arnold Jones	Dark Eyes	unissued	prob. August 1950
*U1845	John Porter	School Boy's Boogie	Chance 1101	prob. September 1950	September 1950
*U1846	John Porter	I'll Never Smile Again	Chance 1101	prob. September 1950	September 1950
*U-1853	John "Schoolboy" Porter and His Schoolboys [some copies: John Porter, His Tenor Sax and His Orchestra]	Kayron	Chance 1105	prob. September 1950	March 1951
*U-1854	John "Schoolboy" Porter and His Schoolboys [some copies: John Porter, His Tenor Sax and His Orchestra]	Deep Purple [click here to listen]	Chance 1105	prob. September 1950	March 1951
U1855 *U5003T3 (T5 on label) E0-0B-13019-1 A A (in wax on some copies)	John Schoolboy Porter and His Schoolboys	Tennessee Waltz Part I	Chance 1103	prob. September 1950	November 1950
U1856 *U5003T5 (T3 on label) E0-0B-13020-1 A (in wax on some copies)	John Schoolboy Porter and His Schoolboys (Jesse Hart Vocal)	Tennessee Waltz Part II	Chance 1103	prob. September 1950	November 1950
*U-1861	Al Sims Trio | Sam Dawson Vocal	Moody Woman	Chance 1102	Sept.-Oct. 1950	Fall 1950
*U-1862	Al Sims Trio | Sam Dawson Vocal	I Wonder, Baby [Listen to I Wonder, Baby]	Chance 1102	Sept.-Oct. 1950	Fall 1950
*U5000	John Porter	High Tide	unissued	November 15, 1950
*U5001	John "Schoolboy" Porter and His Schoolboys	Nevertheless	Chance 1104	November 15, 1950	December 1950
*U5002	John "Schoolboy" Porter and His Schoolboys	Walk Heavy [Wig Deal]	Chance 1104	November 15, 1950	December 1950
*U1913	The Chanceteers [some copies credit the Wally Hayes Combo]	The Flame [The Heat]	Chance 1107	Nov.-Dec. 1950	Early 1951
*U1914	The Chanceteers [some copies credit the Wally Hayes Combo]	Night Beat [Listen to Night Beat]	Chance 1107	Nov.-Dec. 1950	Early 1951
*No Number	[Jesse] Coopwood Session	Man of Parting	unissued	Nov.-Dec. 1950
*No Number	Coopwood Session	Red Sails in the Sunset	unissued	Nov.-Dec. 1950
*No Number	Coopwood Session	The City...	unissued	Nov.-Dec. 1950
*U2016 [U2105]	The Calumet City Boys [Clyde Wright and The Chanceteers]	I'm Nobody's Trick	Meteor 100 [Chance 1112]	c. December 1950	early 1952? [March 1952]
*No Number	Wally Hays	Green Grass	unissued	c. December 1950
*No Number	Wally Hays	No It Wasn't Right	unissued	c. December 1950
*U2017	Calumet City Boys	Club 21	Meteor 100	c. December 1950	early 1952?

Chance sputtered and almost went out in 1951. The company did record some titles during June and July on blues man Henry Green, plus more sides by Schoolboy Porter and Clyde Wright, but its total studio output came to a meager 11 sides.

The company got into serious trouble in May, 1951, when the American Federation of Musicians, at the behest of its Chicago Local 208, sought to revoke Chance's recording license for using non-union musicians on Schoolboy Porter's first 1950 session, the one that produced "I'll Never Smile Again." No union contracts for these sides were ever turned in to the AFM office. Billboard related that Sheridan "had okayed the use of his franchise by Steve Chandler, who cut the disks and had them pressed by Sheridan's Armour Plastics pressery." Sheridan's understanding of the session that he conveyed to Billboard was that Chandler had "used boys who had union cards, but who, at the time of the sessions, were not paid up members. As a result, he held back the contracts and the union took action." The magazine reported that the revocation of the license was the "first in a long time."

Sheridan, when Robert Pruter talked to him in 1992, amazingly said he had no recollection of a person named Steve Chandler or recalled any AFM problems. Said he, "It could have happened, but I don't recall having a difficult time with the AFM." Sheridan has said with regard to operation of the company, from management to producing, "I did it all in the beginning." Was "Steve Chandler" really Art Sheridan? Billboard never talked to Chandler.

There was time to get in another Schoolboy Porter session with the Chanceteers. On this occasion, the Chance studio band consisted of trumpet, second tenor sax, baritone sax, a florid pianist who was probably a holdover from the 1950 session, bass, and drums. Most likely these cats weren't straight with the Union either. There is a piano solo on "Rollin' Along" but otherwise the sides are Schoolboy all the way. Singer Clyde Wright does his Andrew Tibbs impression on "I May Be Down," which features spirited riffing and a heated solo by Schoolboy. The label of Chance 1111 provides the names of the other band members. A very young Art Hoyle (who was also from Gary, Indiana) played trumpet. An ardent bebopper, Hoyle went on to work in Sun Ra's Arkestra (1955-1956) and remains active on the Chicago scene today. Allowing for some variant spellings, the bassist appears to be the same Floyd Dungy who cut two early sessions for Vee-Jay, with blues singer Pro McClam in September 1953, and with McClam and trumpeter/singer Floyd Valentine in June 1954. The remaining musicians are still unfamiliar to us.

The session data for 1951 confirm that the label was shut down during the latter half of the year. Apparently the recording license was revoked toward the end of July. Sheridan, "Chandler," and Chance Records would remain on the Union's "unfair practices" list for the rest of the company's history.

Could the Golden Tones have been the same group that appeared at the Rhumboogie Café (on a bill headlined by Dinah Washington) in April 1946? Or is the naming a sheer coincidence?

We have a little documentary evidence of Naomi Baker's activities in Chicago in the early 1950s. As an organist, she joined Musicians Union Local 208, which posted her "indefinite" contract with radio station WSBC on February 16, 1950. On May 4, 1950 she posted an indefinite contract with the Church of God in Christ; another indefinite contract with the same church posted on February 15, 1951. Her name is spelled "Naomi" on the Local 208 contract list (a less than infallible source!) and "Naiomi" on the labels to Chance 5003. Which is correct?

Toward the end of the year, Sheridan added the famed gospel group, the Pilgrim Jubilees, to his roster. In fact, they made their first appearance on record for Chance (as the Pilgrim Jubilee singers). This particular version of the group consisted of Elgie C. B. Graham (lead), Cleave Graham (alternate lead), Clay Graham (tenor), Monroe Hatchett (baritone), Major Roberson (baritone), and Kenny Madden (bass). The Grahams were all brothers. According to Alan Young's book, The Pilgrim Jubilees (Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 2001), the Pilgrim Jubilees were formed in 1944. The group broke up in the late 1940s, but according to Young it was reconstituted in Chicago in 1952. Young lists the recording date for the Chance sides as January 1953 (we have estimated the date as November or December 1952). Young also says the label mistakenly lists "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" as "Just a Walk with Thee"; we'll take his word for it, but it would be nice to see a copy of Chance 5004.

They went on to record (as the "Pilgrim Jubilee," soloist identified somewhat ambiguously as "C. Graham") for the N. B. C. label, which wasn't what you might think it was; its initials stood for Northern Brightrecord Corporation. Probably in the second half of 1953, they cut "Angel" and "Lord, I Have No Friend Like You" for release on N. B. C. 2003 (Young's book says it was 1954). There may have been some business connection between Chance and two tiny gospel labels, N. B. C. and C. H. Brewer, whose joint address was listed on the labels as PO Box 560, Chicago 90 Illinois. Several of the known releases on C. H. Brewer show matrix numbers in the U-3100s. JOB, which was allied with Chance for several months in 1953, later released a single by the Norfleet Brothers that carried NBC matrix numbers and also appeared on C. H. Brewer. Bo Sandell, who alerted us to the connection, notes that the N. B. C. and C. H. Brewer labels look a lot like the labels that Chance used.

The Pilgrim Jubilees enjoyed a long career thereafter; they went on to record for Specialty (1955), Nashboro (1957-59, 1976-79), Peacock (1959-75), Savoy (1980-84), and most recently for the Mississippi-based Malaco (1987-2000).

Chance's banishment by the Union appears to have ended on May 1, 1952. Secular recording was promptly resumed on that date with--what else?--a John "Schoolboy" Porter session. (It turned out to be his last for the label.) Judging from "Junco Partner," "Break Thru," and "Lonely Wail," the band consisted of trumpet, second tenor, baritone sax, organ, bass, and drums. There are trumpet and bari solos on "Break Thru," indicating a fat-toned trumpet player (Art Hoyle again) and bebopping baritonist; the organist has a brief solo that suggests Bird and Diz at the roller rink. Except for the keyboard, the band sounds similar to the one that Porter used on September 25, 1951--but you can be sure that everyone was paid up with the Union this time around!

On the session was vocalist Johnny Sellers. He was the same man who recorded gospel songs as Brother John Sellers for Miracle in 1947 and 1948. He was born May 27, 1924 in Clarksville, Mississippi. While in the South he performed in Minstrel shows, but by the early 1940s in Chicago Sellers was singing gospel with Mahalia Jackson. He recorded blues for the Southern and King labels during 1945, for the RCA Victor label in 1947 (backed by Willie Dixon), and for King Records again in 1951. He joined John "Schoolboy" Porter, recording two sides in May 1952. His next session was a marathon--eight sides in November, all blues--backed by the band of local trumpet player William Little (1912-1991), who as King Kolax had a 35-year career on the Chicago scene. To a far greater extent than Kolax, who would drop out of the accompaniments if the singer or recording director found him too obtrusive, the star of the band was smooth tenor saxophonist Dick Davis (1917-1954).

After his Chance sessions, Sellers moved to New York and became involved in the folk club scene. He built a career on the same model as Big Bill Broonzy, Josh White, and the Reverend Gary Davis, presenting a repertoire that melded folk, blues, and gospel. He later made LPs for Vanguard (1954), UK Decca (1957), and Monitor (1959). Sellers died on March 27, 1999, in New York.

In June of 1952 Billboard reported on the rebirth of the Chance label. In August of the same year Sheridan dissolved his distribution firm, American. He reorganized the firm as Sheridan Distributing, with headquarters at 1151 East 47th Street, which brought both the distribution arm and the Chance label into closer proximity to the South Side's "record row."

On June 12, the company did its first recordings on a downhome bluesman, the bottleneck guitar player and singer James Williamson, who would become known as "Homesick James." These sides were recorded at the old RCA Victor Studio at 230 South Michigan, and not at the ever reliable Universal, which is why there is a different master number series. (One source of puzzlement: two sides have matrix numbers in the U series--these were applied to material from the first Williamson session later on--but not in the original matrix number series. It is possible that these are retitlings of material that is already listed with matrix numbers in the 100 series.) Joe Brown, who would lease or sell sides to Chance when he lacked the finances to put them out on his JOB label, brought James Williamson to Sheridan.

Williamson was born John William Henderson on April 30, 1910, in Somerville, Tennessee. He played on Beale Street in Memphis during the 1930s. He first moved to Chicago in 1937, recording a little for RCA Victor and played some local clubs. He returned to Memphis during the war years, but in the early 1950s settled again in Chicago. Williamson played a bit on Maxwell Street, and toured with the Elmore James band. His first session was not a great success musically; there wasn't enough rhythm support to keep him and pianist Lazy Bill Lucas on the same page. Just one single came out on Chance from this session, and Williamson would have to wait till his next, much-improved outing in January 1953 to earn his nickname. Williamson later recorded for Prestige, Delmark, Earwig, and lastly Icehouse (in 1997). He died December 13, 2006, in Springfield, Missouri.

Around this same time, Art Sheridan snapped up two further blues releases from now-defunct Chicago independents. He resuscitated the two sides that Little Walter Jacobs had cut in 1947 for Ora Nelle, with Jimmy Rogers and Othum Brown in the back of a Maxwell Street record shop. And he picked up two sides by "Delta Joe" (Sunnyland Slim) and Baby Face Leroy Foster that may have been intended for release on Hy-Tone and had actually been out for a hot minute on the Opera label.

Not long after Chance was reactivated, Ewart Abner, Jr. joined the firm. Abner was born the son of a minister in Chicago on May 11, 1923. Related Sheridan, "At the time I met Abner he had graduated from college as an accountant. In those years a black man had a hell of a job trying to get a position as an accountant. He became our accountant in the distributing business and in the record plant, and ultimately for a while ran the pressing plant. After we closed the pressing plant, Abner became very much involved in Chance. In those years Leonard and Phil [Chess] were their own producers and A&R men and I was my own producer and A&R man. Abner was basically the finance man, in the sense of being the accountant guy, bookkeeping and so forth."

At some point in the summer, Sheridan put together a pop session for a singer named Jack Ross. Ross, whose real name is Jack Rosen, was born on July 4, 1923, on a ship in New York Harbor as his parents were immigrating from Europe. He began singing with bands in high school and after graduating toured various small clubs in the Midwest. During World War II, Ross sang for several years with the USO; at one point he and several other performers were captured by the Japanese and spent a brief period in a POW camp. After the war, Ross worked for radio stations in Chicago. He was on the staff at WGN and had a show on the ABC network called "Black Night." Around the time of his Chance session, he was doing "The Jack Ross Show" for WIND. During this period, Ross also worked as a model in TV commercials and print ads in Chicago.

A vocal group called the Meadow Larks, who would also appear on a later Chance pop release, were brought in for the session. The Trace who appears as a composer of "Lonely Heart" is probably Al Trace, a veteran leader of "sweet" bands and studio orchestras in Chicago. Two sides, out of the four recorded, appeared on Chance 1125. Jack Ross still has the session tapes, including the two unissued sides.

In later years, Ross moved to Florida. He continued to sing at clubs and events until well into his 70s. He also made an acting appearance on an episode of "America's Most Wanted." Now retired, he misses his performing days. (Our thanks to Darril Wilburn, who provided us with a brief bio of Jack Ross in an email of May 19, 2006.)

1125 is a transitional release in a couple of ways: in a few months Sheridan would be opening a separate Chance 3000 series for pop records, and he was experimenting with his label design. What had been a silver on black label was changed for this one release to silver on dark blue; after 1125 the silver on dark blue color scheme would be retained but the graphics would be completely redesigned.

In September 1952, Sheridan got an R&B education at a local Gary radio station. Said he, "Jesse Coopwood was a deejay at WWCA in Gary. I did a stint on his station when he went on vacation, because I wanted to learn what it was like to be a disc jockey. I did three months out there, and it was quite an experience. I learned a lot."

The last quarter of 1952 saw robust recording activity by Chance, starting with the eight-side session by Johnny Sellers and a Four Shades of Rhythm session in the early fall. And Chance completed the transition to the now celebrated silver on blue label design (which looks great, and falls easily on the scanner too).

The Four Shades of Rhythm were a vocal/instrumental combo that had originated in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945. The group had been playing in Chicago on and off since 1946 and made their first recording for Vitacoustic in two sessions in December 1947. In March 1949, Old Swing-Master released two sides that had been cut for Vitacoustic and impounded by United Broadcasting Studios when that company went under; the Four Shades had a local hit with the "My Blue Walk" and "Baby I'm Gone." These two tracks are probably the same ones listed here. (Apparently the deal did not include their other sides for Vitacoustic, four of which had appeared on Vitacoustic 1005 and Old Swing-Master 33.) The group did record "Yesterdays" and "So There" for Chance; we are not sure whether their unissued side "Everything I Have Is Yours" was newly done for Chance or acquired from Old Swing-Master (we have no evidence that Old Swing-Master released it, in any case). By the time the Four Shades of Rhythm recorded for Chance the group consisted of Oscar Lindsay (vocals/drums), Adam Lambert (guitar), Booker Collins (bass), and Ernie Harper (piano)--the last was a veteran of the Four Blazes. Lindsay was the only member to have been with the group in Cleveland.

From October through December, there was extensive session work using the Al Smith orchestra. Smith was invited to step in after Schoolboy Porter and the Chanceteers quit working for Chance--why they left remains unknown to us. Porter made just one more session in Chicago that we know of. On August 21, 1952, accompanied Roosevelt Sykes for United--on guitar. Subsequently he moved to Arizona.

Albert B. Smith was born in rural Bolivar County, Mississippi, on November 23, 1923. After a stint in the Merchant Marine, he arrived in Chicago in 1943. In 1945 he put together what has been called a "bebop" band, but sensing how the commercial winds were blowing, he broke it up in 1952 and founded the R&B unit that can be heard on these sides. Al Smith had no great chops on his chosen instrument; drummer Charles Walton says, "He held the bass... OK, he played the bass--but he didn't tune it first." Many other musicians have slighted his instrumental prowess while paying tribute to his adeptness at landing gigs and cutting deals. For the kind of money that Smith could pull in, the best musicians in town were eager to work with him.

For the session with singer Big Bertha Henderson, whose "house-rockin'" apperances were advertised at Club Evergreen and Martin's Corner in the fall of 1952, Smith brought along two of the best tenor saxophonists in town, James "Red" Holloway (1927- ) and Oett "Sax" Mallard (1915 - 1986). His rhythm section was filled out by Billy Wallace on piano, William "Lefty" Bates (1920 - ) on guitar, and Leon Hooper on drums. For the Bobby Prince session, he brought Red and Lefty back, along with Eddie Johnson (1920 - ) on tenor, the indispensable McKinley "Mac" Easton (1914 -1 986) on baritone sax, and Clarence "Sleepy" Anderson on piano.

Bobby Prince, whose real name was Charles Gonzales, started in show business around 1948, when he joined the Hot Lips Page band in Cincinnati as a singer. He stayed with Lips for about a year and then went solo. He launched his recording career in 1950, recording some sides for Philadelphia-based Gotham. His most notable Gotham recording was a rousing jump, the self-penned "Hi-Yo Silver," which was produced in Chicago by J. Mayo Williams. In November 1952, when he was billed at Joe's Deluxe Club (6323 South Parkway) as "golden voice jump-blues vocalist," he was still performing under the name Gonzales. He apparently entered the recording studio with the Al Smith band as Charles Gonzales and left as Bobby Prince. "Tell Me Why Why Why" seemed to garner the singer some acclaim, and Chance tried to push the single with its largest trade ads in the label's history. Bobby's unannounced appearance on "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," which he scats in a spooky falsetto while Eddie Johnson decorates the melody, is also memorable. Chance made considerable use of Prince's compositional talents, using four of his songs for Flamingos sessions.

After Chance, Prince recorded for RCA (with the Lefty Bates and Norman Simmons bands) and for MGM (with the Norman Simmons band). Prince regularly performed in Chicago clubs, most notably fronting Red Holloway's Band at Club Evergreen (1322 North Clybourn) in 1954. From 1955 through 1957, Prince regularly worked as the MC at Roberts Show Lounge (6622 South Parkway); his comments to a Chicago Defender writer about how hard it was to find a good shake dancer are priceless.

Al Smith also backed lounge singer Lou Blackwell (who cut a never-issued session for Chess in May or June of 1951, and two more tracks, unreleased till the 1990s, Tab Smith's second session for United on October 24, 1951). On this occasion, Smith put together a larger band, probably consisting of Paul King (trumpet), Red Holloway (now on alto sax), Sax Mallard (tenor), Mac Easton (baritone), Billy Wallace or Clarence "Sleepy" Anderson (piano), and Leon Hooper (drums). Most likely Al and company also backed R&B singer "Chubby" Newsome (whose band was once billed as Chubby and Her Hip Shakers), but Chance never released her sides. We still know little about the Skippy Brown release.

November saw a session with uptown blues singer and man of many tuxedos Jo Jo Adams, backed by the band of bebop trumpeter Melvin Moore. At this time, Adams and Moore were ensconced at the Flame Show Bar (809 East Oakwood), where the show was billed as "The Jo Jo Show, starring Dr. Jo Jo Adams, Bennie Pittman, Laura Watson, Melvin Moore's Band." Besides singing his specialties nightly, Adams served as MC at the Flame, telling many dirty jokes. Jo Jo Adams was born in Alabama at an unknown date and died in Chicago in 1988. He broke in at the Club DeLisa and made his first recordings with Floyd Smith's group for the Hy-Tone label in December 1946. He followed up with 6 sides for Aladdin in 1947, recorded in Los Angeles with the Maxwell Davis band, and 6 more for Aristocrat Aristocrat, which were done in Chicago in 1947 and 1948 with Tom Archia's All Stars. Though he enjoyed a run of several years at the Flame and would remain on the scene well beyond that, he would record just one more session, for Parrot in 1953. Adams was a reliable blues shouter, but his 2 sides with the band he had been working with every night are his very best, well articulated rhythmically and jumping with vitality. Moore's nimble trumpet contributions are ably assisted by Harold Ousley on tenor sax, Dave Young on baritone (his usual instrument was tenor, and he was probably added just for the studio date), Eddie Baker on piano, Sylvester Hickman on bass, and Earl Phillips on drums. The horns mostly riff, but Harold Ousley, who was making his first appearance on record, adds an intense solo to "I've Got a Crazy Baby."

On December 28, 1952, Chance is often thought to have recorded a Detroit-based R&B singer named Kitty Stevenson (she was identified in Sheridan's documents as "Stevens"). According to Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert's book Before Motown, Stevenson was born in Thompson, Georgia, around 1918, and came to Detroit in 1929. She started out as a dancer, and obtained her first singing job with the Lorenzo Lawson group at Lee's Club Sensation. She performed with the Todd Rhodes band in 1949 at the Flame Lounge in Detroit and then toured with the band in 1950 (including recordings for the Sensation label), afterwards working as a single under the management of Al Green. Her last recording was done with the Rhodes band for King in May 1951. She was the mother of Mickey Stevenson, a producer for Motown in the 1960s.

Regrettably, Kitty Stevenson had already died in early June 1952, in Detroit Memorial Hospital. What really happened on December 28 is that Sheridan bought her masters from Al Benson, who had operated Old Swing-Master along with recording studio owner Egmont Sonderling. Two of the titles, "Hold 'Em Joe" and "With You," are the same tunes that Kitty recorded during a pact between Sensation and Vitacoustic in December 1947; they appeared in May 1949 on Old Swing-Master 20. "I'm Satisfied" is another title that she had recorded for Vitacoustic (it was issued on Old Swing-Master 10 in March 1949) and "Sleeping by Yourself" appears to be a retitling of "Blues by Myself" (also on Old Swing-Master 10). The accompaniment was by the Todd Rhodes band, which was the main contributor to the Sensation/Vitacoustic pact.

Nine tracks by jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee were entered into the list around this point as well. These had been recorded in late December 1947, again by the Vitacoustic company. They had come under the control of the Old Swing-Master operation after Vitacoustic filed for bankruptcy in February 1948. Old Swing-Master put out one single from this cache of material before Benson sold the items to Art Sheridan. (We have no evidence that Sheridan ever did anything with his McGhee sides. In 1955, Benson sold 12 out of the 16 tracks that he had on hand, plus two alternate takes, to Savoy, which issued them on an LP.)

Toward the end of 1952, Chance recorded a session by pop musician Jack Teter. He was born on January 1, 1922, in Iowa, and by the late 1940s was working out of Milwaukee. He hit big on the Billboard chart in 1949, with a remake of “Johnson Rag” on the London label. We have not heard his sides for Chance. But Teter's recordings for Sharp, another small Chicago label of the period, indicate that his combo (billed as a trio but enhanced on the Sharps to a quartet of piano, guitar, string bass, and clarinet), performed numbers like "Kansas City Kitty" (released on Sharp 20) with a genuine jazz sensibility. Teter also recorded for Broadway, Brunswick, and Milwaukee's Demo label. He died on October 28, 1989, in Omaha, Nebraska. (See Gary E. Myers's new book, On That Wisconsin Beat [Downey, CA: MusicGem, 2006]).

The Teter sides were used to launch a new 3000 pop series in June 1953. The 3000 series came equipped with red and silver labels to complement the blue and silver that the 1100s were carrying.

We know of 70 recordings for Chance in 1952; the company was building up steam.

Chance opened 1953 with an ambitious downhome blues recording program. On January 12, 17, 23, and 31, the label ran four marathon sessions with J.B. Lenoir, Sunnyland Slim, Johnny Shines, Big Boy Spires, Johnny Williams, James Williamson (including his famed "Homesick Blues"), Little Hudson Shower, and Floyd Jones. Many of these artists were actually recorded by Joe Brown, whose own label was JOB. Brown, born June 16, 1897--or was that 1904?--started his first record company (the short-lived Opera label) in 1947. In 1949, he and James B. Oden (St. Louis Jimmy) opened JOB, which was devoted to recording downhome bluesmen. After several fits and starts, including a short-lived alliance with Chess in early 1951, JOB produced one notable hit in 1952: Eddie Boyd's "Five Long Years." With chronic cash-flow and distribution problems, Brown was looking for another alliance with an established label; he concluded a pact with Chance at the beginning of 1953.

Some of the blues artists would actually show up on Chance instead of JOB, and Sheridan would distribute and market both labels through the distribution channels he established. Sheridan said of Brown, "He recorded in some strange places. He would go out and record things, but didn't have the money to distribute them. So he'd sell the master or sell it with part of the royalty coming back."

In any case, it is not surprising that some Chance product was appearing on other labels. With 180 sides cut in 1953, the company was recording more music than it could handle...

JOB promotionals were included in Chance marketing ads, as though the label was a subsidiary of Chance. The January 12 session was probably produced by Brown under the aegis of Art Sheridan (who may have partly financed the date), and Brown received distribution and marketing in exchange for Chance retaining the masters. For example, the May 1953 Chance trade ads included promotional announcements for George Green (Chance 1135), The Flamingos (Chance 1133), and J.B. "Lenore" (JOB 1012).

J. B. Lenoir (pronounced and often misspelled "Lenore") was born March 5, 1929, in Monticello, Mississippi. He came to Chicago in 1949 and made his entry into the city's vibrant blues scene through Big Bill Broonzy. Lenoir made his first session for Brown in late 1950; all four sides were leased to Chess. Further sessions in 1951 and 1952 came out on JOB unaided. "The Mojo" is an outstanding performance that features Lenoir's boogie riffs on guitar, Sunnyland Slim's subtle keyboard, and J.T. Brown's rambunctious rocking sax work. Lenoir would later garner a reputation as a topical blues singer when he recorded "Eisenhower Blues" for Parrot in 1954, though "Mamma Talk to Your Daughter" was his hit for the label. From 1955 through 1958, he recorded for Checker .

While the J. B. Lenoir sides from January 12 were of immediate interest to JOB, which released three of them, the remaining five items languished until 1964, when Art Sheridan and Ewart Abner put them out on a Constellation LP. There were two vocals by Sunnyland Slim, both among his better performances from the early 1950s, plus an instrumental ("Bassology") that was in his book during the period. The final two sides featured strong vocal performances by Johnny Shines, but even the wild lyrics to "Livin' in the White House" ("I don't need no pilot to chauffeur me in no jet... I'm in a hurry so I'll have to travel space cadet"), couldn't tempt Joe Brown to do anything with them. He put his marbles on Shines' work from the January 23 session instead.

Two further tracks from January 17 featured guitarist Johnny Williams; they were not released until the 1970s. Williams was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, on May 15, 1906. He was raised first in Houston and then deep in Delta blues territory, in Belzoni, Mississippi. His uncle played with Charlie Patton, and Williams got to know Patton, Jim Jackson, Howlin’ Wolf, and other legendary Delta bluesmen. Williams began performing in the late 1920s, arriving in Chicago in 1938. During much of the 1940s Williams played house parties, while first working in the defense industry and then in the Oscar Mayer factory at Division and Sedgwick. After World War II, he fell into the Maxwell Street scene, performing most often with Johnny "Man" Young.

During 1947, Young and Williams and a very young Little Walter were playing at the Purple Cat (2119 West Madison) on the city’s West Side. Williams says he joined the union to play at the Purple Cat. That year, Young and Williams also recorded their first record for Ora Nelle, a tiny label owned by Bernard Abrams of the Maxwell Radio Store. Young drew the vocals on "Money Taking Women," and Williams sang "Worried Man Blues." In December 1948, Williams cut two sides for Planet with Johnny Young on mandolin and Snooky Pryor on harmonica.

Williams' session for Chance was his third, and turned out to be his last. He stopped performing blues in 1959 after a conversion experience and entered the Baptist ministry. He reappeared on the scene in 1968 when he attended Little Walter’s funeral. Johnny Williams died in Chicago on March 6, 2006.

Johnny Shines was an outstanding bottleneck guitar player and impassioned vocalist, influenced by the great Robert Johnson with whom he traveled in the 1930s. His "Brutal Hearted Woman," significantly supported by Big Walter Horton's harp work, was described as "brilliant" in Mike Rowe's Chicago Breakdown. Shines was born April 25, 1915, in Frazier, Tennessee. He moved to Chicago in 1941. His recording career preceding this January date consisted of an unreleased session with Columbia (1946), two released songs for Chess (October 1950) that he recorded with Muddy Waters' band, and a classic four-song session for JOB in April 1952. The session of January 23 would be the last for Shines until he resurfaced on Vanguard in 1965. Incidentally, U2340, which went unreleased at the time, has subsequently been titled "Gonna Call the Angel," but as Steve Franz points out, in the first line of song Shines actually sings "I'm gonna call the county jail." Bit of a difference...

Arthur "Big Boy" Spires, born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1912, had the sonorous voice of a Son House, but lacked the rhythmic precision. During this period he was working Chicago clubs with his Rocket Four, which included Eddie El on second guitar. With the good rhythm section that Chance provided to regulate his wayward guitar, he was effective on record. Spires had previously cut a session for Checker in March 1952. He would do another in December 1954 in Al Smith's basement for United (this was left unreleased till years later). Spires made an unreleased session for Testament in 1965, subsequently being forced to give up the guitar by advancing arthritis; he died in 1990.

A final joint session with JOB (one that we overlooked in previous editions of this discography) took place on January 31 and produced JOB singles by guitarists Little Hudson Shower (born 1919) and Floyd Jones (1917-1989). Shower, unfortunately, never made another commercial recording session; he retired from playing the Chicago area clubs in 1964. Jones is best known for his "Dark Road," a 1951 recording for the Chess brothers (this in turn was a remake of his earlier recording for JOB).

The JOB deal remained in force through the summer of 1953, but when Brown returned to the studio in October 1953 to record Memphis Minnie, Little Son Joe, and Zona Sago, he was back on his own.

Though the blues artists that Chance recorded were among the best on the bar-band scene, the company's productions didn't quite measure up to what Chess and United were putting out. In Chicago Breakdown Rowe commented, "There is little evidence that Art or his general manager Ewart Abner took anything like the pains that Len Chess did with his blues artists." Chance, as it turned out, would become better known for its vocal group releases.

In January, manager Ralph Leon brought to Chance its first vocal group, the Flamingos. Members were Sollie McElroy (lead), cousins Ezekial (Zeke) Carey and Jacob (Jake) Carey, and cousins Johnny Carter and Paul Wilson. Existing discographies mention no personnel beyond the singers and the bandleader, King Kolax. We can hear deep-toned tenor saxophonist Dick Davis soloing with authority on "If I Can't Have You," "Someday, Someway," and "Hurry Home Baby." Kolax was often elusive on his vocal accompaniments; here he sneaks his tightly muted trumpet into the riffs on "If I Can't Have You." His presence on "That's My Desire" and "Hurry Home Baby" borders on the subliminal. The rhythm section in this excellent band consisted of Prentice McCary (piano), "Cowboy" Martin (bass), and Little Gates (drums). Though Chance would use the Kolax band again, this was their only doowop session.

In March, the label put on the street "Someday, Someway" b/w "If I Can't Have You." Although the midtempo "Someday, Someway" was the superior side, by June the flip was doing well in several regional markets, especially in Detroit and Philadelphia. In July, Chance released "That's My Desire" b/w "Hurry Home Baby," from the same session. "That's My Desire," an excellent version of the Frankie Laine hit from 1947, was racking up strong regional sales by August.

The company rounded out a very busy month with a marathon session on January 29. Al Smith's full band (Smith, bass; Red Holloway and Cliff Davis, tenor saxes; Mac Easton, baritone sax; Horace Palm, piano and organ; William "Lefty" Bates, guitar; Alrock "Al" Duncan, drums) jammed some instrumentals; then they backed R&B singer Bobby Prince; finally, Al's rhythm section worked behind the legendary Tampa Red. The company put out the Tampa Red releases as by Jimmy Eager and His Trio, as Tampa was still under contract with RCA Victor at the time. He further disguised his identity by giving all of the guitar work to Lefty Bates. However, the composer credits went to Hudson Whittaker (which was Tampa Red's real name). Chance held the "Jimmy Eager" material for the initial release on its new Sabre label.

The Bobby Prince tracks were put off till the Chance label's last months (and even then, Chance 1158 seems to have come out on 78 only). Two Al Smith instrumentals, despite exciting tenor sax work, were dealt to Lester Bihari's Meteor label, which released them twice, using different titles the second time around. (Perhaps the somewhat unkempt ensemble, and the unintentionally wild organ playing by Horace Palm, who rarely strayed from his piano, convinced Sheridan to unload the session.)

In February, Chance did a session with the Jimmy Binkley Jazz Quintet (tenor sax, piano, bass, drums, and congas/bongos). According to Allan Roberts, Jimmy Binkley was a pianist in the Erroll Garner tradition. Binkley was on the Chicago scene in the late 1940s, but worked only sporadically as a leader; for instance, he did a 3-day stint at Club Maramba (better known for its bar-walking tenor saxophonists) in early April 1950 (contract accepted and filed by Musicians Union Local 208 on April 6). On October 19, 1950, he posted an indefinite contract at the Caldonia Club; in December he showed up at Joe's Rendezvous (indefinite contract posted on December 7; another indefinite followed on March 15, 1951, and still another on April 5). In August 1951, he moved to Club Evergreen (whose indefinite contract with Jimmy "Binkly" was accepted and filed by Local 208 on August 16, 1951).

1951 also saw Jimmy Binkley's first recording opportunity. He cut four sides for Aladdin in Chicago: Aladdin 3193 consisted of "Night Life" b/w "Hot Smoke" under his own name, and on Aladdin 3194 his band backed blues singer Harold Burrage on "Sweet Brown Gal" b/w "Way Down Boogie."

In June 1952 Binkley showed up at Joe's Rendezvous again (indefinite contract accepted and filed on June 19, followed by another on August 21). In late September, Binkley took up at the Brass Rail in the Loop (indefinite contract posted on October 2, followed up by one for another 4 weeks on December 4). In February 1953, he was at the Capitol Lounge (2 week contract posted on February 19; a 3-week extension was posted on March 5). Probably done while he was at the Capitol Lounge, the Chance session was Binkley's second recording opportunity.

We do not know the identities of the other players on the Binkley session, except for the drummer, George Green, who also contributed uptown blues vocals to two sides. (It appears that Binkley himself led the singing on "Hey, Hey, Sugar Ray.") The Binkley session was one of the few that Sheridan actually recalled, perhaps because he claims some input into it. Said he, "I remember writing 'Finance Man.' We did a session with three other tunes and we were short a side. In the old days you would do four sides, and it wasn't uncommon then to write a blues on the spot, so I wrote 'Finance Man.'" Sheridan obviously remembered the recent Willie Mabon hit, "I Don't Know," because he lifts certain patterns directly from it. Bill Putnam, the non-blues-oriented proprietor of Universal Recording, managed to get cut in on the composer credits.

In January 1954, Jimmy Binkley cut one more single with a trio (it sounds to us like the same bassist and drummer) for the Chess brothers: "Boogie on the Hour" b/w "Wine, Wine, Wine" (Checker 789) which featured his own vocals. On March 18, 1954, he posted a contract for 2 weeks at the Rodeo Inn (1240 East 47th Street). The Rodeo boasted (in a Defender ad that ran on April 3) that this was his "First Chicago appearance after a nation-wide tour." It also mentioned one of his Chance sides and one of Checker sides, getting both titles wrong. The other members of the group were identified as Dave Mitchell, tenor sax; Eldee Young, bass (not piano as stated in the ad); and Tommy Harris, drums. In the meanntime, George Green was appearing elswhwere as a singer.

After what looks to have been some time on the road, Binkley resurfaced at Squeeze's Rendezvous (contract for 2 weeks with options posted on September 16, 1954). He cut his second and last session for Chess on January 24, 1956. Around 1957, Jimmy Binkley recorded with the doowop group the Teasers on Note 1002 (which naturally raises an interesting question about the Teasers' single on Checker 800, recorded in 1954). Meanwhile, George Green played in other piano trios (including King Fleming's) and finally went out on his own; in 1963 his trio cut a live LP for M&M.

Eventually, Binkley moved downstate to Peoria, Illinois. Roberts, a jazz pianist who used to trade spots with Binkley when they were both working in Peoria, recalls that "in the late '60s... he fronted a post-bebop club in his name on North Adams street. Later (in the early '70's) when the popularity of jazz was on the wane, he did a single piano bar at Jim's Steak House on Fulton Street in Peoria with occasional sit-ins from members of his old group and others. As far as I know, he's still playing in Peoria (as of a year ago)." Binkley also appeared in Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, a film vehicle for comedian Richard Pryor (who was born in Peoria).

In March, Chance recorded the jazzy R&B of Tommy Dean, a pianist and organist based in Saint Louis. Born in Franklin, Louisiana on September 6, 1909, and raised in Beaumont, Texas, Dean had performed with carnivals and circuses before moving north to St. Louis in 1937 or 1938. Initally Dean toured with Eddie Randle's Seven Blue Devils, then he founded his own combo, which toured all the way to Mexico. Dean began making appearances in nightclubs on Chicago's South Side in 1945 and cut his first single for the St. Louis label Town and Country in 1947. Because St. Louis was short on recording opportunities, Dean picked up with the Chicago-based Miracle (a session in 1949, plus two sides probably picked up from a small St. Louis label) and States (two sessions in 1952). At the time of his Chance session, Dean had recently lost most of his group, including his star soloist, when alto saxophonist Chris Woods struck out on his own. Perhaps because of an unexpired contract with States, the group was identified as "Barrelhouse Blott and Lee with the St. Louisians"--but in case anyone didn't realize who the leader was, Dean appears on the label as the composer of both sides. The Blott session looks to have been the first to involve Dean's new band with Chuck Tillman on tenor sax, Archie Burnside on bass, and Edgar Plaes on drums. Dean would move on to Vee-Jay, where he recorded five more sessions between 1954 and 1958. He continued to tour with his St. Louis-based combo until his sudden death (probably from a heart attack) in January 1965.

A further jazz venture took place in June, when Sheridan took advantage of a brief Chicago residency by bebop trumpeter Conte Candoli (misspelled "Conti Condoli" on the label). Born in Mishawaka, Indiana, on July 22, 1927, Candoli was already a veteran of the Woody Herman, Charlie Barnet, and Stan Kenton bands, as well as Charlie Ventura's combo. Candoli's main inspiration was Dizzy Gillespie, though he would work in the influences of Miles Davis and Clifford Brown later on. For Chance, Candoli recorded his regular group: Bob Wynn (alto sax), Ira Sullivan (tenor sax), Gene Esposito (piano), Chubby Jackson (bass), and Tony Pappa (drums). Multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan (born March 1, 1931 in Washington DC) made his recording debut on this session. He would become one of the most prominent White jazz musicians in Chicago during the bebop era. Gene Esposito (1928 - 1999), whose tune "Mambo Junior" appeared on the combo's Chance release, would go on to organize the pioneering 1955 session that brought together Ghanaian drummer Guy Warren and local drumming legend Red Saunders. Tony Pappa came from Elkhart, Indiana; in 1948 he'd led a bop quintet that included Chicago tenor saxophonist Kenny Mann.

Although four tunes were recorded, just one single (Chance 1153) saw release from the Candoli session; it was reissued many years later on an IAJRC LP. Candoli moved to Los Angeles in 1954 and spent the rest of his career there. He recorded countless studio sessions and reached his widest audience as a soloist for many years with Johnny Carson's Tonight Show Band. Conte Candoli died in Los Angeles on December 14, 2001.

The 3000 pop series ran a regular schedule of new issues in 1953. But even with three series, the parent label no longer seemed to be enough. Sabre was launched in August 1953 with separate headquarters at 1225 East 47th Street. Initial Sabre releases sported distinctive green labels with silver print.

Chance relocated its main offices at 1151 to next door at 1153 that same month, to give the company double the space. Sheridan also began working with Vee-Jay Records, which had just set up shop and had two releases, one by the the doowop group the Spaniels and one by the bluesman Jimmy Reed. The company was owned by two neophytes, Jimmy Bracken and Vivian Carter, who had no distribution and little knowledge of the business. When the Spaniels' record, "Baby It's You," started generating interest, Chance picked it up for national distribution and it became a top ten R&B record. (See our final section, on Leased and Purchased Material, for the Chance versions of the first two Vee-Jays.) The Jimmy Reed disk, "High and Lonesome" b/w "Roll and Rhumba," also saw some local action, and picked up national sales as well from Chance distribution. Thereafter, Sheridan and Abner worked closely with Vee-Jay in getting it off the ground. However, Vee-Jay would continue to be little more than a mom and pop operation through the first half of 1954.

An August recording session brought the Flamingos into the studio again with the Red Holloway band (including Louis Carpenter, piano; Hawk Lee, bass; Robert "Hendu" Henderson, drums; an unidentified trumpeter, and the ever-reliable Mac Easton on baritone sax). The best of the four titles recorded at the session was "Golden Teardrops." The beauty of this song is marvelously enhanced by the intricate harmonizing, especially the way the voices are dramatically split in the intro and the close. McElroy's impassioned vocalizing helps immeasurably in giving "Golden Teardrops" its reputation as a legendary masterpiece. The company rushed released it the following month and it sold well by Chance's standards, although not making the national charts.

Also in August, Chance recorded another James Williamson session (which remained in the can), a Sister Rosa Shaw session that produced two releases for the company's 5000 series, and the label's second vocal group, the Five Echoes.

The Five Echoes, from the city's South Side, were teamed up in the studio with a band led by pianist Ike "Fats" Cole. The first record, "Lonely Mood" b/w "Baby Come Back to Me," was released on Sabre in September of 1953. Solo artist Walter Spriggs sang lead on both sides, but was considered a member of the group only for the session; Constant "Count" Sims sang baritone; Herbert Lewis, baritone; Tommy Hunt, second tenor; Earl Lewis, first tenor; and Jimmy Marshall, bass. Tommy Hunt would later sing with the Flamingos and develop a solo career in the early 1960s. Two more Echoes sides may have been recorded at this session (they have previously been described as early 1954 recordings, but the accompaniments match fit the group's first session and not the second.) The company seemingly was trying to get the group away from blues so they had them record a ballad, "Why Oh Why," and a jump, "That's My Baby." Hunt sang second lead on "Why Oh Why." These two songs went unreleased, finally appearing in 1964 on a Constellation LP called Groups Three.

In September Sheridan went into partnership with Dave Freed, famed deejay Alan Freed's brother, in setting up another distribution outfit, Lance Distribution, Inc., working out of Cleveland.

That same month, Alan Freed brought the Moonglows (Bobby Lester, Harvey Fuqua, Pete Graves, and Prentiss Barnes) to Sheridan. For the first session, Chance teamed the doowop group up with another Red Holloway band (this time just Carpenter, Lee, and Henderson behind Red's tenor sax.) The Moonglows recorded two secular titles and two Christmas titles for the holidays. For their first release in October Chance paired the secular titles, "Baby Please" and "Whistle My Love." The top side led by Harvey Fuqua is a low-key bluesy ballad, and the flip, featuring a duet lead of Fuqua and Bobby Lester, is a steady rocking jump. Neither side did anything in the market despite heavy promotion by Freed in Cleveland.

In December, Chance put out "Just a Lonely Christmas" b/w "Hey Santa Claus." "Lonely Christmas," led by Fuqua, is an Orioles-style droopy ballad that appeals to the collector's ear of today. "Hey, Santa Claus," led by Lester, is a routine jump heavily derived from the old rhythm and blues tune "Be Baba Leba," made famous by Helen Humes back in 1945. Neither side is particularly Christmasy and it was obvious that Gene Autry or Charles Brown had nothing to fear from the Moonglows. "Hey Santa Claus" made a surprise appearance many years later on film, on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Chevy Chase looks across the street and there's a black band playing and singing "Hey Santa Claus" (actually lip-synching to the Moonglows' original).

The company carried on a heavy recording schedule in October, recording bluesman Willie Nix, guitarist Rudolph Spencer "Rudy" Greene, and Lazy Bill.

Rudy Greene was another of the many T-Bone Walker acolytes on the scene at the time (in one of two photos we have been able to find, he plays the guitar behind his head in emulation of the master). His first recording was for the Bullet label in Nashville (1947). After his second and last Chance session, which took place on October 19, 1953, he appeared as a sideman on a Bobby Prince date for RCA Victor on December 4. Greene enjoyed a long run at Chicago-area clubs during 1954. In October, duly cited as a "Chance Recording Artist," he was the headliner at Club 34 (3417 West Roosevelt Road), where he was backed by Joseph "Cool Breeze" Bell and his 4 Breezes.

The guitarist would record again as a leader for the tiny Club 51 label in 1955. Around the end of that year, Rudy Greene was back in Nashville recording for Excello; his latter-day sessions would be done in New York for Ember (1957) and in Nashville for Poncello (1961). We do not know who backed him on Chance 1146 and Chance 1151, but the studio band of two tenor saxes, baritone sax, piano, bass, and drums sounds a lot like the one that Norman Simmons assembled to back Bobby Prince in December. (It's hard to identify the contributors when Greene is the only one who solos.)

Mike Rowe cites the Willie Nix session on October 14th as particularly notable; it produced "Just Can't Stay" b/w "All by Myself," which saw release in November on Sabre 104. "Just Can't Stay" is a semi-talking blues using the "Catfish" or "Rollin' Stone" musical theme. As Rowe describes it, "The record is a brilliant updating of a traditional theme of unrequited love to the urban setting with its images of hustlers, whores, and easy money." The band consisted of Nix on drums, Eddie Taylor on guitar, Sunnyland Slim on piano, and Snooky Pryor on harmonica. The other two sides from the session were released on Chance 1163 in November 1954; like other late releases on the label 1163 is very rare.

Lazy Bill Lucas was born May 29, 1918, in Wynne, Arkansas, and came to Chicago in 1941 via Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where he met Big Joe Williams. Lazy Bill played a pounding style of piano on his records and worked the club scene semi-regularly from 1945 on. His Chance sides were his debut recordings as a leader. He displayed a puckish sense of humor on the two sides that were released from his October 28th session, "I Had a Dream" and "She Got Me Walkin." Bill's backing musicians were drummer Elga Edmonds (known in some sources as "Elgin Evans") and guitarist Louis Myers.

Also recorded in October was another new vocal group from the Washington, DC area, the Five Blue Notes. Original members were Andy Magruder (lead), Waymond Mooney (first tenor), Robert Stroud (second tenor), and Moise Vaughn (baritone/bass). They recorded four sides on October 21, and all were released on the Sabre subsidiary in 1954. The first release paired "My Gal Is Gone," a typical 1954 deep brooding ballad, which featured Magruder as lead, with "Ooh Baby" a routine jump featuring Briscoe as the lead. The second release paired "The Beat of Our Hearts," a more poppish and accessible ballad featuring Briscoe as lead, with a tuneful jump, "You Gotta Go Baby," featuring Vaughn on lead. The Blue Notes appear to have been backed by another Al Smith group: Red Holloway (tenor sax), the eccentric local pianist Willie Jones (1920-1977), veteran jazz musician Quinn Wilson (born 1908) on bass (once established as a studio bandleader, Al quickly got into the habit of delegating these duties), Lefty Bates on guitar, and Paul Gusman (1929 - ) on drums.

In early November, Chance recorded the Red Surrey Trio for its pop series. The group laid down two holiday-flavored numbers in a style strongly influenced by Nat King Cole. It turns out that both titles were listed by Art Sheridan with the correct matrix numbers, but were misattributed to one "Jimmy James" in the Chauvard compilation (it is doubtful that any of the members of the trio went by that name). Until Marc Roberts recently discovered a copy of Chance 3008, we had no way of knowing whether they had been released.

A little out of the ordinary run of Chance pop artists were Eddie and Chuck, the parties responsible for Chance 3012. According to Andrew Brown, they were a Country and Western duo, backed on their sides by a group called The Louisiana Ramblers. Terence McArdle describes "Boogie the Blues" as a "hillbilly bopper" (i.e., an immediate forerunner to rockabilly). Eddie's full name was Eddie Roberts; he released another single around this time on Jiffy Records, out of Monroe, Louisiana. Brown thinks it likely that the Eddie and Chuck material was purchased from a producer in Louisiana rather than recorded in Chicago; in any event, the session was noted down by Art Sheridan with a date of December 22, 1953. (Chance wasn't the only Chicago-area label to release country material recorded in Louisiana. In 1954-1955, Chess would put out 7 singles in its 4858 series; Stan Lewis, who ran a distributor in Shreveport, was the intermediary.)

Chance closed out the year with another Flamingos session on December 24; the group was backed by another Al Smith aggregation that appears to have included Red Holloway (tenor sax), Mac Easton (baritone), Horace Palm (piano), the great New Orleans-born drummer Vernel Fournier (1928 - 2000), and renowned lead trumpeter Hobart Dotson (1922 - 1971). The company kept the sides in the can, but in October 1954 two were put on one of the very last records on Chance's release schedule: "Blues in a Letter," a stone solid blues, and "Jump Children." "Jump Children" is a terrific number, but it didn't excite the public in 1954. As the alternate title "Vooit Vooit" would indicate, "Jump Children" is too Swing-oriented to suit vocal-group collectors today, but it is most typical of the era and the group used the number in their live performances for years afterward.

Buddy DiVito became the biggest single contributor to the Chance pop series, with 3 releases to his credit. Of the artists in the series, he was the biggest name, having attracted national attention as a vocalist with Harry James' big band in 1945. He was born Anthony DiVito in 1920, and attended Manley High on the West Side. His entrée into the music business came when he joined the Gay Claridge Band at the Merry Garden Ballroom in 1943. He then worked with the Eddie Oliver Band, followed by a five-year stint with Harry James. In 1954, after his affiliation with Chance had ended, he would put out a single on United. He died on 31 May 2006, in Sun City, Arizona.

Lucy Reed, who had sung with Charlie Ventura's bop group in 1950, joined the red-label Chance series when she cut a session with veteran Chicago bandleader Al Trace. Pat Harris's Down Beat article reviewing the performers at a club called The Streamliner (Harris refers to her as Lucille Reed) praises her work alongside Lurlean Hunter in a jazz context. Her usual accompanist at the Streamliner was pioneering Hammond organist Les Strand, whose solo repertoire included "Caravan" and "Groovin' High."

Lucy...appears to have put countless hours into perfecting her presentation. Where Lurlean is gay and vivacious, Lucille is subtle, melancholy, subdued. She shines on things like Lonely Town, Wonder Why, I'll Be Around, and occasionally a shoulder-shaking St. Louis Blues

With a classically perfect face, short-cropped red curls piled high, and a sophisticated gowning that hints of the Victorian salons, she gives the effect of a marvelously fragile figurine. And she sings. Throatily, clearly, with nuances no one else seems to have explored. ("Music Superb, Atmosphere Ideal" at Chi's Streamliner, Down Beat, November 2, 1951 p. 5)

On the other hand, Down Beat's "Chicago Band Briefs" (July 15, 1949, p. 4) informs readers that Trace had recently been at the Chicago Theater. "Theater, through teletranscription, had the Al Trace stage bill (including more square dancing) on WBKB recently, the first such show from this area." Trace got the ink because a live TV show was a novelty at that time; the pointed reference to square dancing clued Down Beat readers that he led an extremely "Mickey Mouse" band. (As we learn from the same column, March 25, 1949, p. 4, the Chicago Theater booked such hip acts as Lawrence Welk and Eddie Cantor.) Reed would follow up in 1954 with a second session backed by Chuck Sagle's band.

It is too bad that Reed's Chance recordings presented her in a strictly pop context, instead of with the legendary Les Strand, or with a small jazz combo. (We know that Lurlean Hunter remained at the Streamliner until December 1953, but our sources don't make clear whether Reed was still at that club when her first Chance session took place.) The torchy titles on her 1954 session with Sagle ("Dark Is the Night" b/w "Au Revoir") do seem typical for her. We haven't heard of other recordings by Lucy Reed, who would eventually leave Chicago: on June 29, 1955, Down Beat ran a special issue on "Music in Chicago," which recalled the Streamliner gig and referred to "Lucille Reed, a statuesque song stylist now in New York" ("Jazz," p. 26). In 1957, a "Lucy Reid" appeared on the roster of artists that disc jockey Daddy-O Daylie planned to sign for his annual jazz festival concert, scheduled for December 17th on the DePaul University campus; that is the last mention of her that we have found.