The Chance Label

Revision note: We have added scans of Chance 1150 and Chance 3009, both 45s pressed on red vinyl, courtesy of Bob Leszczak.

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 362 known sides from September 1950 through October 1954. In addition, Chance purchased or licensed at least 42 sides. We know of 92 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. The main Chance 1100 series, the very temporary Meteor 100 series, and the Sabre 100 series concentrated on 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 21 releases) and a Chance 5000 series for gospel (for which we know 10 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 plain blue background and silver print. The vast majority of the 45s that we have seen, however, show later label designs.

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. 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). Studio reverb was laid on during his solos—more heavily on the ballads, as was the custom at the time. "Kayron" was a driving bop number on which Schoolboy showed off his jazz chops; "Deep Purple" was an affecting ballad performance.

In November, Chance came out with a two-sided release of "Tennessee Waltz," probably from the same session. It some 10,000 copies; Armour Plastics lacked sufficient capacity to press all of the copies, so some were entrusted to 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 square 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.)

Right after the first Schoolboy Porter session, the company recorded two sides on the Al Sims Trio. Released on Chance 1102, both were uptown blues featuring an excellent vocalist named Sam Dawson. "I Wonder, Baby" a proto-rock-and-roll number, also features a two-chorus guitar solo. One might be drawn into speculating about the identity of the soloist, given that one "Walker" shares the composer credit... "Moody Woman" is in the Charles Brown vein. Good as the results sound to us today, the sales must have been disaoppointing, because Sheridan didn't call Sims and company back into the studio.

The other artists recorded in early going were Arnold Jones, Clyde Wright, and Jesse Coopwood. Clyde Wright was backed by a group called the Chanceteers. 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 instrumentals by the Chanceteers, with maybe a recitation or two by the DJ added. The band that backed Schoolboy Porter on his first two sessions appears to have been a different ensemble, which was referred to as the "Schoolboys" on the initial releases. However, Art Sheridan would later claim that the Chanceteers had performed on these sides as well.

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." Bust just one single was released under the Chanceteers' name alone, Chance 1107. The much scarcer Chance 1106 by Clyde Wright credits the backing to Wally Hayes; Chance 1107, which was obviously cut at the same session, and carries composer credit to Hayes on both sides, initially did so as well. (Our thanks to Richard Reicheg for alerting us to the Wally Hayes variant of 1107.)

Wallace Hayes was a drummer who had been active in the South Side clubs for several years. The combo he led on this occasion included an alto saxophonist, who is prominent on both sides of Chance 1106, piano, guitar, and bass.

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 a further 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 the same Bird emulator on alto sax, along with piano, guitar, bass, and drums. We've listed the side along with the other Wally Hayes numbers recorded in later 1950; we think it highly likely that the matrix numbers that we have seen for this side were purposedly assigned later on, when it was being scheduled for release.

The 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 operated in Memphis by Lester Bihari (which, just to confuse matters, would 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). Apparently this was still another way of disguising the Wally Hayes Combo... We figure that Sheridan rapidly discovered that the red Meteor label (which his distributorship handled) was already out there and abandoned his own Meteor logo. This would explain why Meteor 100 is so rare, and no releases on this label have been located.

Chance was just starting: the company's 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
U-1910 [*No Number]	Clyde Wright with the Wally Hayes Combo	Whispering Grass [Green Grass]	Chance 1106	Nov.-Dec. 1950	Early 1951
U-1911 [*No Number]	Clyde Wright with the Wally Hayes Combo	Hear My Call [No It Wasn't Right]	Chance 1106	Nov.-Dec. 1950	Early 1951
*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]
*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 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. On this occasion, the studio band consisted of trumpet, baritone sax, a pianist who was probably a holdover from the 1950 session, bass, and drums. Most likely these cats weren't straight with the Union either. 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 variation in spelling, 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 remain largely unknown to us.

Mr. McDuffy gets nice piano solo on the hard bop blues "Rollin' Along" and a briefer outing on the low-down slow blues "Soft Shoulders," 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 the leader.

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.

In early 1952, Chance concentrated on gospel acts--the Heavenly Wonders, Southern Clouds, Golden Tones, and Naomi Baker--for a new 5000 series. We know little about these performers. There was a pragmatic reason for this sudden shift of attention to religious material: the record company did not need permission from the Musicians Union to record gospel singers. Not until 1956 would Local 208 begin cracking down on non-Union keyboard players who worked the gospel sessions, and even then the vocalists were under no obligation to join.

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? Most likely not, as the name was used by at least 8 different gospel groups that recorded. According to Hayes and Laughton, these Golden Tones, making their first trip to the studios, consisted of Norman McQueen, Robert Barner, James Trusk, and Robert Fitzpatrick, all singing lead at various times, with accompaniment by Loy Oliver, tenor, Wilbert Webster, baritone, and George Taylor, bass. The group was perfect for a company in serious trouble with the Musicians Union because it performed a capella. Despite the strong performances on Chance 5000, the group did not record again for nearly a decade. A later, smaller edition of the group, featuring James Trusk and Loy Oliver, recorded four sides for St. Lawrence in 1965 and a couple more for Halo in 1965 or 1966; these included accompaniment on the organ and rhythm instruments.

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; 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!

Joining in 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.

Sellers' second session was a marathon—eight sides in September, 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). Four sides ended up being released, on Chance 1123 and 1138.

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 May 3, 1914, 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. 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. About Bertha herself, we know little. She recorded for Savoy the next year, and some correspondence that was preserved in the Savoy files gives a home address in New Orleans for her.

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, during 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 on February 24, 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 still largely uneleased session for Testament in 1965, subsequently being forced to give up the guitar by advancing arthritis; he died in Chicago on October 22, 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 unintentionally wild organ playing by Horace Palm, who rarely strayed from his piano, convinced Sheridan to unload the items.)

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. James H. Binkley was born in April 1930. He 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 Lite" 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." These featured the booting tenor sax work that was usually featured on Binkley's recordings, less often on his nighly gigs.

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 decidedly 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 and his quartet 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). The flip side of the Note release was a nice jazz instrumental on "Blue Moon." 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)." Indeed, Jimmy Binkley still resides there. 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 "Barrel House 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 guy going as "Blott" on this occasion was both a standup blues singer and a comic monologue artist; we are still unsure of his real identity. 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. The Blott session produced the requisite four sides, two of which remain unheard.

After Chance wound down, 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 78s sported distinctive green labels with silver print; the 45s used the same black on yellow as their counterparts in the Chance 1100s.

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 what we can hear on the group's first session, 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 March 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, but one of the tenors is definitely leading the section and he sounds like Sax Mallard.) Greene gets to solo on "It's You I Love"; "The Letter" is a droopy ballad intended strictly as a vocal vehicle, and Greene barely has time for a little guitar flourish at the end.

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 very late releases on the label 1163 is quite 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.

On Chance 3007, the company paired him with the same vocal group that had previously backed Jack Ross. 3011 featured "Glenn Miller," a sentimental tribute to the late bandleader, replete with quotes from the Miller band's most popular numbers; it is a pretty fair representation of DiVito's suave crooning. "If Love Has Flown" is in a similar vein, schmaltzier than the "Who Cares" might have led record buyers to think. Chance paid for a big studio band with a string section to back the vocalist.

In 1954, after his affiliation with Chance had ended, DiVito would put out a single on United. A little later, he recorded for a much smaller Chicago-based independent called Trio. 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.)

The two missing matrix numbers from Lucy Reed's session with Al Trace have now surfaced on Chance 3005, which was recently found in Wisconsin by Dave Anderson. The other two sides were by a country singer named Dolph Hewitt. According to Mark Seganish, "Dolph Hewitt was a member of the WLS National Barn Dance, thus the Chicago connection. He had previously recorded for RCA Victor, including at least three on the green wax 48-00000 country and western series." Seganish notes that Hewitt's RCA Victors featured heavy pop production. His Chance sides were even schmaltzier, with no Country flavor at all. This is what we would expect if Al Trace accompanied him.

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.

During its last year, Chance continued to record doowop, gospel, jazz, and down-home blues, but at a much slower pace; only 72 sides were cut. During 1954, a common label design was adopted: the Chance 1100 and 5000 and Sabre 100 series all used the same black on beige scheme; it looks pretty when the labels are clean, but tends to hold and show dirt. On some of the last Chances in the 1100 series, the background color was lightened to off-white, making records intended for sale look like DJ copies.

The year started off strongly enough in January, as the Moonglows waxed six presumably more salable titles. The Red Holloway band again consisted of Red on tenor sax, Louis Carpenter on piano, Hawk Lee on bass, and Robert "Hendu" Henderson on drums. One of the tracks was a cover rendition of Doris Day's "Secret Love," which had been featured in the film Calamity Jane. Although the Holloway band did not respect the chord sequence of the song, the Moonglows' version had a particularly effective harmonized intro with falsetto top that segued into Lester's emoting lead. "Secret Love," as the Moonglows' third Chance release, was paired with a spectacular jump, "Real Gone Mama," featuring Harvey Fuqua as lead. The Billboard reviewer gave it four stars and "Secret Love" only three stars. The record, released before the end of January, 1954, made the most noise of all the Moonglows' Chance sides, and in March Sheridan said it was the company's top seller for that month.

The company delayed release of two other titles from the session until June, which saw the release of "I Was Wrong" b/w "Ooh Rockin' Daddy." "I Was Wrong," featuring Fuqua as lead, has a nice switch-off approach, opening with Fuqua's sultry low-key lead and switching off to high-powered chorusing and segueing into Lester's screaming lead. Asserted Fuqua, "that was the strongest song, I think, before 'Sincerely.' It made quite a bit of noise in Cleveland, Chicago, and I believe, the West Coast." The record never made the national charts, but it picked up what were then called regional sales.

"Ooh Rockin' Daddy," with Lester on lead, is an R&B jump, but with the searing tenor sax break by Red Holloway and the aggressive approach to the "rock rock rock" refrain one could call it a proto-rock 'n' roll number. The Billboard reviewer preferred the rocking side and gave it four stars.

The Moonglows' fifth and final Chance release, "219 Train" b/w "My Gal" came out in October, 1954, as the company was fading and the Moonglows were hunting for a new label deal. It was barely distributed and has proven to be the group's rarest record, fetching collector prices from $500 to $1,000. "My Gal," led by Fuqua, is an uninteresting jump partially saved by an excellent sax break by Red Holloway, but the bluesy "219 Train" is something else, with a great emotional melismatic lead by Bobby Lester.

Another foray into jazz was a session the company did with bassist Chubby Jackson in January; he had participated in the Conte Candoli session the previous year. This musician was born Craig Stewart Jackson in New York City on October 25, 1918. He established his reputation with the Woody Herman Orchestra in the late 1940s; in the 1950s he spent quite a bit of time in Chicago, recording a single with Red Saunders for Mercury in 1954 and two big-band LPs for Argo in 1957. His Chance sides, however, were left in the can, and appear to have remained unissued to this day.

Two sides by Johnny Miller saw release on Sabre 109 in the company's waning days. From the labels, we can see that both sides were instrumentals. The titles suggest jazz content from Miller and his quintet, but we are hampered by total lack of knowledge of the musicians and the absence of any reissues.

The Five Echoes returned to the studio in January for their second session for the Sabre label, backed this time by an Al Smith unit with Red Holloway, Mac Easton, Willie Jones, Quinn Wilson, and Vernel Fournier. After their first session, the Five Echoes had lost Tommy Hunt to the draft. The group recruited Johnnie Taylor, a Kansas City native who was bumming around Chicago singing in a local gospel group, the Highway QC's. This was the same Taylor who became a hit-making phenomenon in the 1960s and 1970s. The Five Echoes' recordings from the session were "So Lonesome," which featured Sims on lead but had Taylor coming in as second lead, and "Broke," featuring Sims as the sole lead. The two sides saw release in February. Two more sides were done at the same session with Wally Wilson singing lead, accompanied by the Five Echoes and the Al Smith group. Walter Spriggs (whose name the company managed to misspell on a regular basis) was heavily involved with the session, getting composer credit for all four sides.

Slide guitarist J.B. Hutto was one of Chance's most impressive blues talents. He was born Joseph Benjamin Hutto in Blackville, South Carolina, on April 26, 1926. He came to Chicago with his family in 1949, and settled on the West Side. Hutto had originally sung in a gospel group, and played drums, but after arriving in Chicago he taught himself guitar. He formed his band, the Hawks, with "Earring" George Mayweather on harp, Joe Custom on second guitar, and Eddie "Porkchop" Hines on drums or washboard. (Custom is often said to have played bass, but a listen to the group's recordings shows that he was really playing "bass on the guitar" and occasionally taking over the lead, as was the practice in many blues groups during the early 1950s.) Hutto's first sides on Chance, recorded in either January or February, represent an extraordinary debut. (According to Bob Koester, the original tape boxes indicated that the session was recorded by Joe Brown and sold to Chance, so J. B.'s debut was yet another JOB product.) Over raw guitar and blazing amplified harp, Hutto sang in a fierce declamatory style with a thick accent. The superb "Combination Boogie" (including a passage for spoons on washboard) saw release in May. The raunchy "Pet Cream Man" appeared later in the year.

The Kelly Brothers, who made their initial recordings for Chance probably sometime in February, had come together in 1948, and consisted of Andrew (baritone), Robert (tenor), and Curtis Kelly (high tenor), plus Offe Reese (tenor). For whatever reason, Sheridan chose not release the two sides they did. The group went on to record gospel on the tiny C. H. Brewer label and then got more exposure when they cut a session for Vee-Jay. The group recorded soul-style R&B as the King Pins for the Federal label from 1960 to 1964 and then as the Kelly Brothers for Sims and Excello up to 1970.

February 1954 saw the Flamingos go in the studio again to record "Cross over the Bridge" b/w "Listen to My Plea." They were backed by another Al Smith band with Red Holloway, Mac Easton, Willie Jones, Quinn Wilson, and Vernel Fournier. On subsequent release, neither the cover of the Patti Page hit nor the bluesy "Listen to My Plea" were appealing enough to sustain the Flamingos' name with the public. In March, "Cross over the Bridge" got some play in Chicago and other cities, however.

The eponymous Five Chances were the last vocal group added to the label. At the time of signing, the members of the group were Darnell Austell (lead), his brother John Austell (bass), Reggie Smith (tenor), Howard Pitman (baritone), and Harold Jones (baritone/ tenor). The group's manager, Levi McKay, however, was experimenting with various line-ups drawing new members from other groups he managed. He brought in Eddie Stillwell from the Fasinoles and Clyde Williams from the Daffodils. Stillwell would appear on record with the Chances, but not Williams. Williams did go on to sing solo in various clubs and to record as a vocalist with Sun Ra in 1956.

The Five Chances made four sides for the company at a session in the spring: "I May Be Small," "Nagasaki," "California," and "Make Love to Me." Backing was provided by still another Al Smith group. All the leads were by Darnell Austell, but on "Make Love To Me" and "Nagasaki" Stillwell joined in as alternate lead. (Stillwell was only a part of the group for the session, which made them temporarily a six-man ensemble.) "I May Be Small," written by McKay, was the strongest of the four. It is a bluesy ballad, but retains its attractiveness as a vocal harmony vehicle. The song was paired with the old Mort Dixon and Harry Warren song, "Nagasaki," which was introduced onto the charts in 1928. The record was released in August 1954 and got good regional sales.

"California" was an original jump written by McKay that was as strong as the released sides. The other unreleased number was "Make Love to Me," which was a popular number on the charts then by Jo Stafford. The two unreleased sides surfaced in 1964 on the Constellation Groups Threealbum.

As usual, we know little about the pop artists who recorded for Chance in 1954. The last release on the maroon and silver pop label was Chance 3021, by Fred Montell (it was not included on Art Sheridan's list). The matrix numbers are from a series we haven't otherwise spotted on a Chance recording, so we can't say just when the recording session took place. The only matrix numbers we have seen with a 54- prefix are on Chance 3014 by Ann Gilbert, and these are so far apart from the matrix numbers on 3021 as to suggest an entirely different origin.

Most Chance gospel recordings were also made by artists unknown to us. This is no judgment on their artistry, just on our ignorance--we will be grateful for any help that persons more knowledgeable about Chicago gospel can give us. The very last gospel session for the label was made by The Famous Boyer Brothers. James Buchanan Boyer and Horace Clarence Boyer were born in Winter Park, Florida. James was born on April 3, 1934; Horace was born on July 28, 1935. Their father, Climmie Boyer Sr., was a pastor in the Church of God in Christ. Horace was a tenor, James was a baritone, and both played piano. According to someone who should know, "the brothers sang two-part harmony on slow songs and used call and response on jubilee and shout songs. Singing in the sanctified style, they were adept at building tension through the use of a vamp" (Horace Clarence Boyer, in his 1995 book How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel). The brothers recorded for Excello in July 1952, when Horace was still in high school, and their Excellos appear to be much better known than their single release on Chance 5009. According to Hayes and Laughton's Gospel Discography, James played piano on the session, Horace played organ, and they were joined by an unidentfieid drummer.

However, on January 19, 1956, the Board of Musicians Union Local 208, which had started policing the involvement of non-union musicians on gospel sessions, summoned Gerald Spraggins, a non-union pianist and organist, and grilled him about recording sessions that he had made for Chance and Vee-jay. "He stated that he made another session [for Chance] with the Boyer Brothers and received $25.00" (Board meeting minutes, January 19, 1956, p. 3). Spraggins claimed that he had been working for "Professor Bradford," i.e., pianist and choir director Alex Bradford, who handled all negotiations with the record company (and allegedly withheld some of his pay). So most likely the brothers were accompanied by Bradford at the piano and Spraggins on organ. (Spraggins also recalled recording with the Bradford Singers for Chance, but if his recollection was correct the sides weren't just left unissued--they haven't shown up in any of our sources. The Bradford singers had previously recorded for Apollo in 1951 and 1952; in 1953 and 1954 they made three sessions for Specialty.)

The Boyer Brothers' Chance sides ended up being acquired a few months later by Vee-Jay. Chance 5009 was given a straight-up reissue on Vee-Jay 130, in March 1955. The other two sides that the brothers had recorded for Chance were used on two later Vee-Jay singles, on which they werepaired with tracks freshly recorded by Vee-Jay in June 1955. The Boyer Brothers recorded one more time for Vee-Jay, in 1957. A decade later they cut 2 LPs for Savoy, in 1966 and 1967. In later years, both of the brothers went into academia. James became a professor of Education and Ethnic American Studies at Kansas State University. Horace was a professor of Music at University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1973 to 1999. He died in Amherst, Massachusetts, on July 21, 2009. (See Horace Clarence Boyer's obituary in the Amherst Republican, July 23, 2009 at http://obits.masslive.com/obituaries/masslive/obituary.aspx?n=horace-clarence-boyer&pid=130192723.

When J.B. Hutto and His Hawks entered Universal Recording on October 19, little did they know that the session represented the end of Chance Records. On this occasion the Hawks were augmented with Johnnie Jones on piano. Five sides were recorded. Chance 1165, an intense coupling of "Things Are So Slow" and "Dim Lights, drew little interest upon release. But potential buyers weren't given much time to discover it; just six weeks later, Art Sheridan decided to close the company's doors. The first four sides from this session were later dealt to Vee-Jay, which assigned new master numbers (55-366 through 55-369) and entered them into its Master Book in November 1955. But by this time the principals at Vee-Jay were concentrating their blues efforts on Jimmy Reed; they did not see enough commerical potential in the Hutto sides to warrant releasing them. One of the unissued sides ("Price of Love") made a belated appearance on a Delta Swing LP in the 1970s. Hutto did not get on record again until 1965, when he was picked up by Vanguard for its Chicago Blues compilation series; he went on to make the classic Hawk Squat for Delmark in 1967. (Eerily, despite more than a decade of changing recording technology, Hutto's guitar sound on the Delmark LP is identical to the sound that Chance got in the studio in 1954.) He died in 1983.

In previous histories, the closing of Chance in December of 1954 has been characterized as a business failure. (The standard lore is presented in the liner notes to the 2-CD set on Charly CDGR 146, Chicago Blues: The Chance Era, a valuable set that collects nearly all of the non-JOB Chance blues material. The history of Chance presented there is more reliable, we must note, than the multidimensonally wrongheaded comments about Aristocrat and Chess...) The received view is incorrect. What was really going on was that Sheridan and Abner were getting deeply intertwined in the business dealings of James Bracken and Vivian Carter at Vee-Jay. The discerning collector will even note that Vee-Jay's maroon and silver 78 labels resemble the classic Chance pop series labels that were in use in 1953. Noted Sheridan, "I just got tired of it, and I was spending a lot of time with Vivian, Jimmy, and Abner, and didn't want to be a producer."

In all probability Sheridan was losing his youthful enthusiasm for the business, and decided to pursue a subsequently highly successful career in real estate. After a brief stay at United Distributors, Abner went over to Vee-Jay to run the company as general manager. Abner was given one-third equity in Vee-Jay, and probably brought some seed money with him. We suspect that Sheridan was a secret investment partner in Vee-Jay. In both a 1992 interview with Robert Pruter and with a recent interview with Nadine Cohodas he strongly implied that this was the case.

Many Chance artists moved over to Vee-Jay. Al Smith, who had been responsible for so many of the accompaniments for blues singers and doowop groups, defected to the new company in June 1954 (though he hedged his bets by handling accompaniments for United/States and Parrot/Blue Lake until those operations went into decline; he may have also picked up some studio work at Chess). For the next 4 1/2 years Al Smith and guitarist Lefty Bates ran the Vee-Jay house band on most sessions. Red Holloway was the go-to guy on tenor sax through mid-1956, when he was replaced by the great blues player Lucius "Little Wash" Washington. Mac Easton, Horace Palm, and Norman Simmons became regulars at Vee-Jay, along with drummers Al Duncan, Paul Gusman, and (until he joined Ahmad Jamal's trio) Vernel Fournier. King Kolax cut two quintet sessions for Vee-Jay in 1954 and 1955. Tommy Dean became a regular, and even Willie Jones put out a single in 1954, characteristically titled "My Thing" b/w "My Other Thing" and played in a style midway between Milt Buckner and Cecil Taylor. The Five Echoes also moved to Vee-Jay, while the Five Chances resurfaced at States, the Moonglows went straight to Chess, and the Flamingos ended up recording for Leonard and Phil after a year at Parrot.

What Chance produced during its four years of existence doesn't rank with the output of Chess or Vee-Jay. Still, there are a lot of collector items for both blues and vocal groups in the catalogue and it remains one of the legendary labels of the golden age of rhythm and blues. The pop items have less durability, though the Eddie and Chuck single, or the novelty instrumental "Pizza-Cat-Oh," which featured the versatile Swing violinist Remo Biondi, may still be worth a listen. For all of its accomplishments, Chance produced few, if any, rhythm and blues records that could be characterized as rock 'n' roll. When the company closed, the rock 'n' roll revolution was just being launched. It was Chess that would take Sheridan's biggest vocal acts, the Moonglows and Flamingos, and turned them into rock 'n' roll stars. Meanwhile, the Chance bluesmen would sink into neglect for a decade, until the blues boom of the mid-1960s.

We have placed the sessions that Chance obtained from other labels or producers in a separate section. At present we know of 42 items that Chance leased or purchased; however, given Chance's lax policy regarding its U and C numbers, which were sometimes pasted onto purchased sides, there could be more acquisitions lurking in the yearly lists.

The first tracks to be leased or purchased by the Chance operation were four 1949 recordings by bluesmanJohn Lee Hooker. These were obtained Joe Von Battle in Detroit; featuring just Hooker's vocals and guitar, these were reportedly recorded in the back of Von Battle's record store, and they sound like it. The transaction took place at some point in 1951, when Sheridan was doing little in the way of new recording. The hope was to put some new releases in the bins and generate some reflected sales off Hooker's recent successes on the Modern label. Though Hooker disguised his identity when recording for other labels, going by such handles as Texas Slim and Birmingham Sam, Chance must not have been too worried about lawsuits filed by the Bihari brothers, who ran Modern. For Art Sheridan was satisfied with "John Lee Booker," which fooled absolutely no one.

The next year, Chance came up with one more John Lee Hooker single. Chance 1122, attributed to "John L. Booker and His Guitar," is so rare that, according to John Tefteller, only 6 copies are known to exist. Although "Road Trouble" and "609 Boogie" have usually been been attributed to Joe Von Battle's sessions, the sound on both sides is considerably worse than on the other Hooker Chance releases. Hooker is accompanied by James Watkins on piano and Curtis Foster on drums, who often worked with him in clubs at the time, and "609 Boogie" (onto which Chance grafted applause at the beginning and the end) strongly resembles the two takes of this piece that were reissued in 1995 on Pointblank Classics CD 40116, Danceland Years, which preserves the mortal remains of Morry Kaplan's hyperobscure independent label. (The "609 Boogie" that came out on Chance has nearly all the same shouts from the participants, the same tag line from Hooker's guitar, the same paucity of vocalizing from Hooker, and the same shallow, crackly sound. "Road Trouble" was not released on Danceland, but it has the same lineup and same sonics.) Venturing into John Lee Hooker discography is like competing in an off-road rally on quicksand, but our judgment is that "Road Trouble" and "609 Boogie" were among the pieces that were recorded on a portable disk-cutter in February or March 1949, at a Detroit club (either the Royal Blue or the Blue Heaven). Morry Kaplan claimed to have recorded them himself, but other sources give the responsibility to record store owner Elmer Barbee (who originally claimed co-composer credit on "609 Boogie"--besides, 609 was the address of his store and he appears to be contributing to the shouts on the record). According to Dave Sax's liners to a recent release of Hooker titles that were sold to Savoy in 1948 and 1949 (John Lee Hooker Detroit 1948-1949, Atlantic/Savoy 92910), "Road Trouble" and "609 Boogie" were part of a package of 4 sides from this session that Elmer Barbee sold to Savoy in 1949. In any event, neither "Road Trouble" nor "609 Boogie" were issued on Danceland before it went belly-up in 1951, and Savoy didn't use them either. Hence, presumably, Barbee's willingness to offer them to Chance in 1952.

Later in 1952, Art Sheridan bought three sessions from DJ and freelance record producer Al Benson that had previously appeared (at least in part) on Old Swing-Master. But Old Swing-Master had been founded by Egmont Sonderling (of United Broadcasting Studio) to make some money off masters that he had held on to whenVitacoustic went bankrupt; he cut Al Benson in on the label in the hope of boosting sales. The three T-Bone Walker items, with backing by a studio band led by pianist Marl Young, were recorded for the tiny Rhumboogie label back in December 1945. Two were released on Mercury in 1946 (Mercury distributed Rhumboogie for a while), and two showed up on Old Swing-Master 11 in March 1949 ("She Is Going to Ruin Me" and "My Baby Left Me"). The next step in their tortuous history was their sale to Art Sheridan, who, so far as we know, never put them out on Chance (though years later he did issue them on an LP that came out of his Constellation venture with Ewart Abner, Jr.). Two sides by the vocal harmony group, the Four Shades of Rhythm ("My Blue Walk" and "Baby I'm Gone") were recorded for the Vitacoustic label at the end of December 1947 and not released at the time (the label ran into financial trouble right after putting out two previous sides by the group). When Vitacoustic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 1948, the masters remained in the hands of Egmont Sonderling, whose studio hadn't been paid for them. These two sides came out on Old Swing-Master 13, also in March 1949. Al Benson sold them to Chance, but again Sheridan appears not to have released them on his label.

Nine sides by R&B singer Kitty Stevenson, and 9 more by prominent bebop trumpeter Howard McGhee were also among the remains of the Vitacoustic label that Sonderling and Benson absorbed into their Old Swing-Master operation. The Kitty Stevenson sides were cut for Vitacoustic in December 1947, as part of its pact with the Detroit label Sensation. From research by Art Zimmerman, we know that Howard McGhee cut one session for Vitacoustic on either October 15 or November 10, 1947, while in town with a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour. He returned to Chicago during the last week of December 1947 with his own group, and cut 12 more sides for Vitacoustic then. Two of those sides showed up on Old Swing-Master 14 in March 1949. Sheridan didn't write down all of the titles, but those that he did mention are all from the late December 1947 sessions. Sheridan never did anything with this material; Benson later sold 12 tracks (plus two alternate takes) to Savoy, which put the 12 master takes out on an LP in 1955. Two other sides did not pass to Savoy in that transaction and have never been issued in any form.

Small Chicago operations provided the two Little Walter sides, originally put out in 1947 on Ora Nelle, and the two Sunnyland Slim sides, first released in 1948 on Joe Brown's Opera label. There was a little sharp practice going on here. Only "Just Keep Loving Her" featured Little Walter's singing; "That's Alright" became a staple of Jimmy Rogers' repertoire, but on its first recording it was sung by the other guitarist on the date, Othum Brown. Meanwhile, even though in 1952 Sunnyland was under contract to Brown's JOB label, he was still referred to as "Delta Joe" on the Chance release. The point of this subterfuge is lost in the mists of time.

In May 1953 Jimmy Bracken and Vivian Carter conducted the first recording session for their Vee-Jay label. Vee-Jay was short on distribution, so in July 1953 Chance stepped in, pressing its own versions of Vee-Jay 101 by The Spaniels and Vee-Jay 100 by Jimmy Reed. The Chance releases, 1141 and 1142, carried the Vee-Jay matrix numbers. Although further Chance releases of Vee-Jay material proved unnecessary, Art Sheridan probably invested in Vee-Jay around this same time.

Johnny Young (full name John Merritt Young; born March 16, 1922 in Little Rock, Arkansas, he graduated from DuSable High School in 1939) became a prominent jazz pianist on the local scene during the 1950s. By the time of this recording, he had been with Andy Kirk's band and Dick Davis's combo, then fronted his own trio in 1950 before recording with Eddie Chamblee's group for Premium (1951), Coral (1952), and United (1953). The trio recording that was released on Chance features lush, Erroll Garner-style piano on two ballads, with the standard lounge accompaniment of guitar and bass. This is definitely jazz piano, but not in John Young's mature style, no. (Incidentally, John Young is not related to Johnny "Man" Young, the blues guitarist and mandolinist.) The MR matrix numbers (which are the originals) came from Modern Recording Studio at 55 West Wacker Drive. Chess recorded Claude McLin there in November 1950. JOB made a series of sessions there between 1950 and 1952 (for instance, the King Kolax session on October 22, 1951). Most importantly, a tiny label called Seymour, run by Seymour Schwartz out of his record store, used Modern Recording Studio for two or three sessions in September 1950. The matrix numbers MR2755-1 and MR2755-4 (in the wax for the Johnny Young Trio session) indicate a session at Modern Recording Studio around this time. The Johnny Young 78 also has S95-A and S95-B in the wax--indicating a planned release on... Seymour (which, so far as we know, never materialized). In fact, matrix 2755-2 from his session was used on Seymour 97-B. As announced in Billboard on December 2, 1950, Discovery Records bought most of the Seymour masters, attaching new A series matrix numbers to them. LeRoy Jackson (who appeared on Lurlean Hunter's "I Hadn't Anyone 'till You" on Seymour 99-B, along with John Young and tenor saxophonist Kenny Mann) was probably the bassist here. John Young would subsequently record as a leader for Argo, Delmark, and other labels.

Freddie Hall was a rather coarse-voiced baritone blues shouter, who originally cut his single for J. Mayo Williams' tiny Ebony label, and released on Ebony 1011. Acoording to the rather florid label copy on the Ebony single, Hall was originally from Gadsden, Alabama. He apparently played piano on the session, and was backed by unidentified musicians on tenor sax, guitar, bass, and drums. "This Crooked World" is one of many sides inspired by "I Don't Know" and "I'm Mad," which had been big hits for Willie Mabon on Chess. In 1954, Williams, who had no distribution to speak of, cut a few deals with Joe Brown: Brown reissued an Ebony single by a doowop group called the Eagle-Aires, and picked up an isolated side by Sunnyland Slim that he reissued on another JOB single. Presumably it was Joe Brown who brokered the Freddie Hall masters to Chance. (Further circumstantial evidence: Hall's next release would occur in 1956, on Abco 103, and Abco was part-owned by Joe Brown.) The joint venture was over by 1954 but obviously Brown was still transacting a little business with Art Sheridan. Our thanks to Bob Buchholz for help with the Young and Hall singles, and to George Paulus for finally locating the extremely rare original release of the Hall.

The matrix numbers preceded by an asterisk were provided Marcel Chauvard by Art Sheridan. While Sheridan recalled most of the entries accurately, he left some items out, did not indicate all releases, and did not provide any recording dates.

To get this discography beyond the draft stage, we have drawn from voluminous sources:

• A Discography of Rhythm & Blues and Rock 'n Roll Vocal Groups 1945 to 1965 (2nd ed., 2 vols., 1992) by Robert Ferlingere (doo-wop researchers should know that Ferlingere recently issued a 3rd edition);
• Galen Gart's ARLD Dating Guide and his volumes on The History of Rhythm & Blues;
• comments by vocal group historian Marv Goldberg;
• Gribin and Schiff's Doo-wop: The Forgotten Third of Rock 'n Roll;
• Bernd Kratochwil's article, "Die Geschichte des Entrepreneur Al Benson aus Chicago, Teil 2: Old Swingmaster Discography," Rockin' Fifties, 1997, pp. 45-59, which helped us sort through Art Sheridan's transactions with Al Benson;
• label photos and dubs of many Chance sides provided by Mike Kredinac;
• Tom Lord's Jazz Discography (whose ultimate source on 1950s Chicago is usually the discography by Jørgen Grunnet Jepsen);
• Charlie LaRocca's Gospel Page, http://doowop.bayside.net/gospel.htm, which contains scans of three Chance gospel labels
• Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert's book on the Detroit jazz and R&B scene, Before Motown (University of Michigan Press, 2001)
• information about advertisements in Billboard provided by Bill Daniels; and
• weirdest of all, notes that were taken years ago of material that had been stolen from Art Sheridan's warehouse and eventually ended up in Japan. (Whoever it was took writings off the tape boxes: artist name, recording date, and titles. If there were master numbers on the boxes the mystery note-taker didn't choose to record them.)

Collectors Robert Javors, Dr. Robert Stallworth, and Bob Buchholz gave us additional help on some rare releases, and Eric LeBlanc helped with dates for the artists. Without Robert Stallworth's help we would not have release information on most of the 3000 series pop singles; in some cases we would not even know about the sessions, as Art Sheridan failed to write down some of his pop material for Marcel Chauvard. Bob Koester made some further corrections, and Simon Evans unearthed a magazine reference to Kitty Stevenson's death. Finally, Bob Buchholz alerted us to the mystery release of matrix numbers 2016 and 2017 on the blue Meteor label.

Besides its main 1100 series, Chance put out a 3000 series (for White pop records) and a 5000 series (for gospel). Meteor had a 100 series, and after that one was quickly abandoned Sabre also ran a 100 series.

We have been reasonably successful tracking the Chance 1100 series, which extended from 1100 through 1165. Only 3 potential issues in this series are missing: we have not encountered Chance 1113, 1118, or 1164. These are probably genuine gaps, as the 1100 series was already tallied pretty accurately in the pages of Blues Research, back in 1963. Only 1106, which was rediscovered only in 2008, missed being listed back then.

According to Bob Sladek, there are three bogus 1100-series Chance singles. While the "Chance 1166" by the Moonglows at least contains Chance material, there are copies of "Chance 1164" in circulation that consist of two sides recorded in Detroit by the doo-wop group, The Fascinators. The Fascinators did record in Chicago, for Parrot in March 1955; they never had any connection with Chance. A good deal more bogus is a "Chance 1167" featuring a latter-day doo-wop group with the edifying moniker, The Five Shits; an East Coast record dealer was supposedly the perpetrator.

The Chance 5000 gospel series has been previously misidentified in some sources as a Sabre 5000 series. The gospel series ran from Chance 5000 through 5009.

We know of just one Meteor release, on Meteor 100. This 78 must be extremely rare, since no standard discographical source has previously mentioned it.

The Sabre 100 series appears to have run from 100 through 109. No Sabre 107 has turned up, and 110 and 111 are boots.

We didn't list the bootleg Sabre SA-110 above because none of the tracks on it are derived from the Chance operation. This 45 rpm EP consists of the Ebony Moods' "I Have News for You," as the first item on Side A, followed by "Drink Wine Spoodeodee" (Wynonie Harris); Side B consists of "I'm Just a Ladies Man" (Jimmy Witherspoon) and "Feelin So Sad" (Joe Turner). Only the Ebony Moods track is derived from a Chicago indie (it originally appeared on Theron 108). Our thanks to Konrad Nowakowski for alerting us to this bootleg (titles are spelled as on Nowakowki's copy).

The single by the Four Bits (a group identified incorrectly as the Two Bits in the Chauvard list) appeared on Chance 3003; thanks to Marv Goldberg for alerting us to this release. With considerable help from Dr. Robert Stallworth, Bill Daniels, Bill Jones, Andrew Brown, Marc Roberts, Mark Seganish, and Rod Branham we have now located 20 more Chance pop releases in the 3000 series. The series ran from 3000 through 3021. We are still trying to trace 3013. It may of course be lurking amongst the pop items in our list that we have marked down as "unissued."