The Chess Label Part II (1953-1955)

Revision note. We are slowly continuing our overhaul of the Chess pages.

In 1953, the Chess brothers continued to make their sessions at Universal Recording in Chicago. After moving from 4858 South Cottage Grove to 4750, Leonard and Phil Chess would open a small studio in the back of the new offices (it was announced in a Billboard article on June 19, 1954), but this was basically used for demos. Any recordings that were done there and used for release would have had to be done on the sly, as the studio soon got the attention of Local 208 of the Musicians Union. And the sound quality would have fallen well short of Universal's standards.

From some point in January through early May 1953, everything that Chess laid down at Universal was placed in the U4300 series. This had originally been opened in the ledger for Al Benson's freelance sessions. Over these four months, the matrix numbers ran from 4318 up through 4404; 4405 through 4410 were picked up in November and December 1953, and the remaining items, through 4418, were afterthoughts in 1954. There is no evidence that the U4300s past U4317 (with a few exceptions that were released on Benson's own Parrot label) involved performers under contract to him. It of course possible that Benson supervised some sessions with artists who were under contract to Chess. In any event, the customary U7000 series was interrupted during this period.

The U4300 series has never, to our knowledge, been systematically charted before. Many items with U4300 matrix numbers are missing from Michel Ruppli's Chess discography.

Overall, the company recorded 173 new tracks in Chicago (the total includes documented alternate takes but not gaps in the matrix series that may or may or not have been filled). For the very first time, the Chess brothers recorded more new material than Aristocrat had laid down in 1947. They had finally scored enough hits to feel comfortable making the investment.

Probably in January, the Chess brothers recorded pop singles on two White bandleaders, both active in Chicago at the time. Buddy Moreno had led a big band until 1950; he had subsequently been compelled to downsize his group, but continued to work regularly in Chicago nightspots. Moreno was recorded with a studio orchestra consisting of 2 clarinets and a bass clarinet (doubling two alto saxes and a tenor), 4 violins, guitar, bass, and drums. The illusion of a Hollywood big band is created without a brass section... or a commensurate payroll. Moreno has a pleasant vocal quality, and the clarinetists are good, but instead of swinging, the ork is deliberately producing the sappy rhythm that would become commonplace on Seymour Schwartz's Heartbeat label a few years later.

Tommy Nichols was also active in the Loop and on the North Side during this period; we have yet to hear his sides, so can say nothing about the accompaniment. The Moreno and Nichols sessions, which may well have been conjoined, were given matrix numbers in the U7000 series, which then went on hiatus for four months. In fact, the first master from May had to be given the number U7501A because U7501 had, oops, already been allocated to one of Nichols' entries.

Neither Moreno nor Nichols sold enough records to motivate a follow-up from the company, which would not really get involved in White pop recordings again until the launch of the Marterry label at the end of 1955.

What may actually have been the first session of the new year (we aren't quite sure because of the switch from the U7000 series to the U4300s) featured Little Walter, now firmly ensconced as the first hitmaker for Checker. We had previously placed matrix numbers 4318 through 4320 in December 1952, but Scott Dirks informs us that the original session log filled out by Bill Putnam at Universal Recording reads "January '53." Our thanks to Dirks for providing take numbers and the correct track identification for 4319. No title for 4318 was used on the session tapes, but Putnam wrote down "fast boogie" in the log; 4319 was left completely untitled until the track was issued in the early 1990s ("Don't Need No Horse" is a rather dismissive reference to the clop, clop being produced by the Fred Below). Amazingly, nothing from the session was released. Perhaps the Chess brothers weren't interested in putting out a remake of Charles Brown's "Driftin'"—meanwhile, less than six months after "Juke" had become a hit, Walter and his band were cranking out top-quality instrumentals way too fast to put them all out on singles.

In a session that usually vaguely attributed to the month of January, Muddy Waters returned to the studio for another four sides. Junior Wells had been drafted into the army, and his replacement, for a time, was Big" Walter Horton. Horton's presence argues for January 9, when the company is known to have recorded him with Gus Jenkins. Although Horton played brilliantly on the session, and would do the same on some others for the company, this particular experiment would not be repeated. The band was rounded out with Jimmy Rogers on second guitar and an an assertive drummer, whose cymbal crashes dominate "She's All Right." Willie Nix, also known to have been on hand for the Jenkins outing, is the likely candidate. From Muddy's next session until May 1955 (when Junior Wells cut a single number with him), all of his studio outings would be scheduled when Little Water was in town and available. "She's All Right" (a breathless jump that picks up where the last verse of "Still A Fool" left off) and "Sad, Sad Day" were quickly paired on Chess 1537. "My Life Is Ruined," a lilting slow blues that made a considerable impact when finally released in the 1960s, was left in the can, as was the mournful "Flood."

A sign of improved cash flow was the Chess brothers' increased willingness to leave sides unissued. This was already apparent with the Little Walter session that started off the year. And just two tracks have ever been released from the get-together on January 9 that featured guitarist Honeyboy Edwards and pianist Gus Jenkins: "Drop Down Mama" (which had to wait 17 years) and "Eight Ball" (which had to wait a couple more). While "Drop Down Mama" is a respectable performance, and the band (just Edwards' guitar, Jenkins' piano, plus probably Willie Nix on drums) stays together throughout, there is a collective lurch from barline to barline, gently informing the listener that everyone on the session was drunk. It is unlikely that anything will ever happen with the other tracks; indeed, the last two Edwards tracks are said to be incomplete. On his own four sides, Jenkins was joined by Nix and "Big" Walter Horton on harmonica, to little avail.

Both Edwards and Jenkins would get better results in the future.

On January 17, the great bluesman Elmore James and his working band of J. T. Brown (tenor sax), Johnny Jones (piano), Ransom Knowling (bass), and Odie Payne Jr. (drums) paid a visit to Universal Recording. James and the Broomdusters, as they were usually billed, had been together since June 1952. They had recorded in Bill Putnam's studio in November 1952 and would be back there in April and August 1953, recording on those occasions for various of the Bihari brothers' labels, such as Meteor and Flair. Since Elmore James was under contract to Joe Bihari, the outing for the Chess brothers was, well, irregular. But no effort was made to hide Elmore's identity when Checker 777 was released in July. Apparently, Leonard Chess had resolved to steal the bluesman, whose first releases had had a major impact on the market, away from the Bihari brothers. Lester Bihari went so far as to accuse him of opening Lester's mail at Plastic Products, the Memphis pressing plant that Chess, Sun, RPM/Flair/Modern, and Meteor all used.

Elmore James was born in Richland, Mississippi, on January 27, 1918, the son of a farmhand named Leola Brooks. He began playing the guitar as a boy. He met Robert Johnson and assimilated some of Johnson's repertoire while working juke joints during his teens. Around 1940 he began working with harmonica player Aleck Miller, who was later billed as Sonny Boy Williamson. After service in the Naval Reserve from 1943 to 1945, James returned to Mississippi where he was active on the local musical scene. He was slowed, however, by a serious heart condition that was first diagnosed in 1947. In 1951, he began recording as a sideman for Trumpet Records, a label based in Jackson, and in August of that year, he was prevailed on to cut a version of "Dust My Broom" at the end of a Sonny Boy Williamson session. The only side he ever made for Trumpet became a hit, but when he resumed recording as a leader it was for Joe Bihari's Modern label, in 1952.

Five sides were laid down at the James session. The mood is a little subdued by comparison with some of the sides he made for the Biharis, but all five tracks were strong performances. Two were selected for Checker 777, which was released in the summer. "She Just Won't Do Right" was rather brazenly worded as a sequel to James' Trumpet release. Checker 777 was withdrawn after the Bihari brothers found out about it and threatened legal action, but Chess was in no big hurry to yank it and single is far from the rarest that Checker put out. The rest of the titles stayed in the vault until they saw release on an LP in 1969. As sometimes happened with Chess reissues during that period, the titles of the two released sides had been forgotten and new ones were substituted.

James stayed with Modern until 1956; faced with declining sales on all of their blues artists except B. B. King, the company dropped him. After a brief affiliation with Mel London's Chief label (1957), he struck up an alliance with Bobby Robinson's Fire, Fury, and Enjoy operation that lasted from 1959 until his death. In 1960, however, he snuck in a second session for the Chess brothers. After his health worsened, Elmore James suffered a fatal heart attack in Chicago on May 24, 1963.

Next up (approximately, anyway, because the U4300 matrix number series was being handled casually; the January 9 sessions don't seem to have been entered into the master book until late February) were two sides by R&B shouter Edna McRaney, who had previously accompanied Jackie Brenston. She was backed by an unidentified combo of tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums.

On February 5, Willie Mabon, now under contract to Chess, returned to Universal Recording for a follow-up to his breakthrough session. On this occasion, the pianist was accompanied by Fred Clark (tenor saxophone), Joseph "Cool Breeze" Bell (bass), and Steve Boswell (drums). "I'm Mad" successfully picked up where "I Don't Know" had left off; it was coupled on Chess 1538 with "Night Latch," an instrumental. (Cool Breeze, who had been on the scene since the late 1940s, got regular club bookings on the South Side with his own combo, which often featured his own blues singing, but no one seems to have been interested in recording them.)

Little Walter and his Jukes made a return visit to Universal in early March of 1953. The company initially slated "Don't Want to Hurt No More" (misrendered as "Don't Want to Hunt"--since it was an instrumental, the misspelling wasn't exactly self-evident) and "Tonight with a Fool" for release, on Checker 767. The instrumental side was one of Walter's best, but "Tonight with a Fool" (a phrase not to be found in the lyrics) was a run-of-the-mill downtempo number, with words apparently made up in the studio. Plans were hastily changed after the record had already been advertised, and the company went instead with Checker 770, "Off the Wall" and "Tell Me Mama," a much snappier piece with catchier lyrics. Both sides of 770 are now considered classics. (The hasty abandonment of 767 caused confusion later, when it showed up for the first time in the midst of a "reissue" series of Checker singles in the mid 1960s.)

On the same day, the Chess brothers brought in John Brim to perform with the Jukes, just as they had previously recorded Floyd Jones at the end of a couple of Muddy Waters sessions. According to Glover, Dirks, and Gaines, Little Walter was responsible for bringing John Brim to the label. Leonard Chess had made noises about signing him, but seemed to be interested only in Grace Brim, not John, as a singer. But at Walter's insistence it was John who recorded. Though the group was billed as the "Gary Kings," "Rattlesnake" and "It Was a Dream" were backed by Walter himself, playing as brilliantly as he ever did on his own sides, along with Louis and Dave Myers, guitars, Fred Below, drums, and Willie Dixon, discreetly added on string bass. In fact, "Rattlesnake" makes excellent use of the same rim clopping that Below had previously essayed on "Don't Need No Horse."

Unfortunately, Checker 769 was also shelved shortly after it was announced. After holding back for months on Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog," Don Robey of Peacock had been prevailed on to release it and was suddenly enjoying a hit with it. He sued Sam Phillips over Rufus Thomas's "Bearcat: The Answer to Hound Dog," also recorded in early March. Sun Records did not withdraw the single, but did take the subtitle and other references to "Hound Dog" off the label. Leonard and Phil Chess were afraid that Robey would go after "Rattlesnake" as well. So "Rattlesnake" and "It Was a Dream" would unfortunately have to wait till the late 1960s, when they finally came out on a British LP.

Around this same date—the matrix numbers are actually sandwiched in among those from Little Walter's session, though that should not be taken literally—Chess began recording the prolific gospel sermonizer, Elder Beck. Charles Beck was a veteran preacher in the Chuch of God in Christ. He played trumpet, organ, vibes, bongos, and probably several other instruments, and had been recording his "religion in rhythm" since 1930. His most recent record company affiliations had been with Gotham (1948-1950) and King (1950). A title like "Wine Head Willie Put That Bottle Down" told the listener exactly what to expect. The Elder played the organ; his fire and brimstone were otherewise given a sparse accompaniment of electric guitar, piano, bass, and drums. And someone took the hapless Willie's speaking role ("Oh Lord, here come the Reverend"). "I'm Gonna Tell God" is an R and B ballad about all the wrongs someone did to the singer; only the tale's intended audience is different.

The next session was definitely done in coordination with Al Benson, because it produced two sides by a vocal group that he had named the Parrots, after his fledgling record label. The group recorded with an unidentified trio of piano, bass, and drums. Over the next couple of months, there would be coordinated releases of a few Benson artists on both Parrot and Checker. But although Parrot 772 is not what we would call superabundant, it is a lot easier to find today than Checker 772.

On March 29, Mitzi Mars cut two sides for Checker. Ms. Mars was a brassy nightclub singer, who often made her appearances wearing a blond wig. She had been on the South Side club scene since at least 1951, when she made an extremely obscure record for JOB with Henry Palmer and his Boys. Unfortunately, the songs she was given to sing on that occasion were incredibly inane, dated Swing numbers. An answer song to "I'm Mad" was much better suited to her, and "Let It Roll" (on which Ms. Mars employs an Eartha Kitt-like device, stretching "roll" out into "rolllll-a"), builds up some considerable momentum. Expert backing was supplied by Sax Mallard (playing tenor sax on this R&B date) and his quartet.

The Chess brothers had recorded Jackie Brenston in Chicago in December 1951, in a session that led to the release of two singles. After Chess 1532 came out in December 1952, with less than gratifying results at the cash register, they decided to give him another try. The session of April 17, 1953, with unidentified tenor sax, piano, guitar, bass, and drums, produced 8 sides—not one of them deemed suitable for release. Only two have ever seen the light of day, on a Japanese LP issued many years later. The four tracks without matrix numbers that we have placed after these 8 ("I Want to See My Baby" through "Jackie's Chewing Gum") are thought by some to have come from the same session—they apparently have the same instrumental lineup—but Fancourt and McGrath's Blues Records 1943-70 places the matrixless items on a different session in Memphis, at an unknown date (presumably in 1951 or 1952). Research still neeed...

During what was shaping up to be a busy month, Danny Overbea returned to the studio. Although his first session had been recorded for Al Benson, he was now under contract to Checker. Overbea recorded four sides with accompaniment, once again, by King Kolax and his band. Checker 774 paired an uptempo blues with a catchy hook and lots of guitar soloing ("40 Cups of Coffee") with a pretty good ballad ("I'll Follow You"), on which Overbea managed to keep his penchant for sappiness in check. Besides Overbea's guitar, the instrumental lineup consisted of King K's trumpet, Dick Davis's tenor sax, plus a rhythm section of Prentice McCarey (piano), "Cowboy" Martin (bass), and "Little Gates" (drums). The other two sides were left in the can.

Next, Arbee Stidham returned to Checker for his third and last session. On this occasion, the quavery-voiced baritone was accompanied by J. T. Brown's tenor sax and Odie Payne's drums, along with a still-uncredited second saxophonist, pianist, and bassist. Two sides were released on Checker 778, which is very difficult to find today. Another two have never been released; some sources, in fact, have credited them to Danny Overbea but we'll go with Stidham here.

Like the other older blues performers that the company had tried out during 1952 and 1953, Arbee Stidham was not invited back after this session. In 1957, he was responsible for a strong session with an Al Smith band that proved to be the swan song for States. As audience interest declined during the late 1950s, there was a three-year period during which Stidham made no recordings. When he returned with an LP for Bluesville in 1960, he had learned how to play the guitar and was subsequently featured on that instrument. Two LP sessions for Folkways (both featuring Memphis Slim) followed in 1960 and 1961. His last session was done for Sam Phillips in Memphis in 1965; nothing was released from it till years later.

Next, if we take the matrix numbers literally, the Southern Stars cut two more gospel numbers, which were released on Chess 1540. Hayes and Laughton opine that these two numbers were recorded back in 1952 and came from the same session which produced Chess 1520. Since Chess purchased at least the sides on 1520 from another company, however, we have very little to go on here.

Another memorable session with multiple leaders took place on May 4, when Muddy Waters cut two sides ("Turn the Lamp Down Low" was the title on the original release for what is more commonly known as "Baby Please Don't Go"). By now, Henry "Pot" Strong was Muddy's regular harmonica player, but the company preferred to use Little Walter on the recording sessions. Jimmy Rogers followed suit with "Act like You Love Me" and "Left Me with a Broken Heart," then John Brim finished the session with two of his own. Since Little Walter was in the studio on this occasion to accompany Muddy, the melancholy "Lifetime Baby" and the amiably salacious "Ice Cream Man" put Brim in with Walter, Jimmy Rogers (not Eddie Taylor as suggested in some discographies), and Muddy's regular drummer, Elga Edmonds. Willie Dixon, whose string bass is often barely audible on sessions from this period, was definitely on the Jimmy Rogers sides. The Muddy and Rogers sides would soon reach the store shelves. But for some reason (lingering soreness over having to withdraw "Rattlesnake"? a reference to pineapple?), the Chess brothers passed on "Ice Cream Man," which had to wait 15 years for release. Brim would make his next session for Al Benson's Parrot label; only after his "Tough Times" was a hit for Benson would he be able to return to Chess and actually get his recordings released.

Two sides by an all-male gospel group called the Silver Stars were done next. Hardly anything is known about them. A group by the same name had recorded one single for Hi-Lo a year earlier, and two singles on the Ebenezer label would be likewise credited. Probably in 1954, a group billed as "Silver Star" recorded at Universal for the tiny Chicago-based C. H. Brewer label; could this have been the same ensemble? Obviously, more research is needed...

Just as they had recorded Memphis Minnie the previous year, the Chess brothers now turned to two other veteran blues performers who had been regulars with the Melrose combine, and had since been displaced by the company's down home blues acts. During a couple of sessions in May 1953, the company cut four sides by Big Bill Broonzy and no less than ten by Washboard Sam. Just one single was released on each of these artists, however.

By 1953, Big Bill had worked through a major career slump (during which he had labored as a janitor at the University of Iowa, and finally learned how to read) and successfully rebranded himself as a folk singer. In fact, he had already made two tours of Europe in his new capacity, and recorded in Paris.

On his Chess sides, he was accompanied by Lee Cooper (electric guitar), Ernest "Big" Crawford (bass), and Washboard Sam. Despite the sparse instrumentation, Broonzy made an effort to update his sound, aiming "Little City Woman" and "Lonesome" squarely at Chess's down-home clientele. They were, in fact, chosen for release on Chess 1546.

Washboard Sam cut four sides with Big Bill and Lee Cooper (guitars) and Big Crawford (bass). "Shirt Tail" is a tour de force of washboard technique (yes, there is such a thing); Sam's instrument was recorded with unusual fidelity throughout these sessions. The last five sides were made with Memphis Slim (piano), Big Bill, and Big Crawford. Sam's release on Chess 1545 paired an ominous slow blues, "Bright Eyes," with a remake of his hit "Diggin' My Potatoes." Sam was less interested in updating, however; his rendition of Broonzy's "By Myself" (on which Big Bill contributes the backing vocal) still has the old Bluebird beat.

Enough material was laid down to fill an LP, and it was with the 1961 release of all but one of the sides on Chess LP 1468 that these tracks really found a home.

The lack of sales on his Chess single made little difference to Big Bill Broonzy, who continued to perform and record extensively until he became ill in 1957. Broonzy died of throat cancer in Chicago, on August 14, 1958. Meanwhile, Washboard Sam would prove less resilient as a performer. His career already in decline, Sam shows noticeable vocal fatigue on such numbers as "Diggin' My Potatoes." He recorded very little after his Chess session. Washboard Sam died in Chicago on November 13, 1966.

In June 1953, Willie Mabon laid down two more tunes, including the rollicking "Monday Woman." The band for this occasion included Milt Larkin (trombone), Charles Ferguson (tenor sax), Ted Sturgis (bass), and unidentified musicians on trumpet, alto and baritone sax, and drums. The involvement of Larkin (who had once led the big band that brought Tom Archia to Chicago, and later led R&B combos that recorded for Sunrise and Savoy) as well as Sturgis, both of whom were based in the Apple, has fueled suspicions that the session was recorded in New York City while Mabon was on tour. What's more, the composer credit on the flip, "You're a Fool," goes to Joel Turnero, a New York-based producer and arranger. Just over a year later, Turnero would be brought in to supervise a session by the vocal group the Spaniels for Vee-Jay.

The matrix numbering of the company's July sessions is confusing, to say the least, leading to what look like sessions wrapping around sessions that wrap around... But there is no doubt about the quantity or the quality of Little Walter's contributions. The harmonica-playing leader was absolutely on fire, cutting 11 sides in less than a month. What he really needed was an LP: Walter and the Jukes were turning out instrumentals much faster than the Chess brothers' release schedule could hope to absorb them. As sharp a vocal number as "Too Late" had to wait two years for release; some of the instrumentals would spend 40 years in the vaults.

The Reverend Utah Smith, who recorded for Checker in August, was a traveling evangelist known for his slide guitar playing—and for the cardboard wings he wore while walking up and down the aisles in church. The company released a new version of his signature number on Checker 785; he had previously recorded it for Regis. But the sales must have been disappointing. The rest of his session has never been released.

In early September, Danny Overbea committed another four tunes to tape, with backing from King Kolax and his combo. Two were used on Checker 784.

September 24 was a busy day for the company. Muddy Waters and his band cut two sides for their next single, and Eddie Boyd returned for four tunes. "Tortured Soul" was promptly used on Chess 1552; two other tracks were used on Chess 1573 and 1576; and the fourth side was picked up in 1956 for Chess 1634.

Meanwhile, Leonard Chess had shown sporadic interest in the music that was coming out of New Orleans in the 1950s; various independent labels were recording R&B there, but apart from Imperial, which had grabbed up Fats Domino, none of them was really dominating the local scene. During a visit in September 1953, he heard Sugar Boy Crawford and his band rehearsing, and asked them to make an audition tape. He was so satisfied with the results that he had Universal master the two numbers, which appeared on Checker 783. The sonics on "I Don't Know What I'll Do" and "Overboard" are the worst to be heard on any of the company's releases--substantially more rugged than on Sam Phillips' early efforts--and the horns aren't always in tune either. It's clear, though, that the spirited performance on "Overboard" prompted Leonard Chess's decision.

Sugar Boy Crawford was born James Crawford Jr., on October 12, 1934 in New Orleans. He sang in church and learned to play piano and trombone. A band that he formed in high school got a spot on WMRY, where DJ Vernon "Dr. Daddy-O" Winslow became the group's manager. They made their first recordings for Aladdin in November 1952 as the Sha-weez, but Crawford had strained his vocal cords and couldn't sing on the session. The band that auditioned for Checker consisted of Crawford (vocals and piano), Edgar "Big Boy" Miles (trombone), David Lastie (tenor sax), and Eric "Skee-Za" Warner (drums), all of them together since high school.

A studio session followed in November. Besides the vastly improved sonics, Crawford's audition band benefited from the addition of Alfred Bernard (tenor sax), Snooks Eaglin (guitar), Frank Fields (bass), and Sylvester "Slim" Sanders (backing vocals). Of the two sides that resulted,"Jock-o-Mo" became a Mardi Gras classic.

The other two sides featured Slim Saunders (as Chess chose to spell his name) as the lead singer. Born George Sanders Le Blanc, Slim often worked with Crawford's band during this period. He later moved to the West Coast, recording a single for Cavalier in San Francisco (1956), one for Lamp in Los Angeles (1956), and, sometime in the late 1950s, a final single for U-M in Los Angeles. On records, he was variously billed as Sanders Le Blanc, Slim Sanders, and even Skinny Dynamo (when Aladdin reissued his Lamp single).

In November, Willie Mabon returned to Universal Recording, apparently for just three tunes. He was accompanied by an ensemble of Paul King (trumpet), Herbert Robinson (tenor sax), Andrew "Goon" Gardner (alto and baritone saxes), Bill Anderson (bass), and Oliver Coleman (drums). Discographies credit Gardner with playing alto sax only, but he can be heard taking a baritone solo on "I Got to Go." The leader's next single consisted of "I Got to Go" and an instrumental; the sardonically reflective "Life Could Be Miserable" was inexplicably left in the can. The contributions of Oliver Coleman, a veteran Swing drummer who had previously anchored Marl Young's house band for the Sunbeam label, to the success of Willie Mabon's recordings are rarely cited. He would anchor most of Mabon's subsequent recordings for Chess.

The year's final session featured another fading performer, though in this case not a blues singer. Valaida Snow, the "Queen of the Trumpet," had been highly successful in Europe before she got caught in Denmark during World War II; after her return to the United States, she struggled to recapture her old popularity. She was recorded in mid November, during a gig in Chicago; a Red Saunders unit accompanied her.

We continue our practice of marking matrix numbers in bold when we have been able to verify them from the actual releases.

Meanwhile the Chess brothers were relying much less on purchased sessions in 1953--just 18 items that we know of.

Mainly this was because their arrangement with Sam Phillips in Memphis was winding down. Except for 2 sides by the Four Cruisers, the remaining 14 of 16 items they obtained from Phillips were by Howlin' Wolf, covered by a special deal for The Wolf's output. According to Nadine Cohodas' book, Leonard Chess and Sam Phillips had a falling out about who was to pay for a promotional tour by Jackie Brenston and other artists. Otherwise, Sam Phillips might not have gotten his own Sun label going in earnest in 1953. A possible donwstream consequence: offering Elvis Presley to Chess the next year, instead of issuing his sessions on Sun. There's one of the bigger might-have-beens in the history of the music business...

Two items seem to have come from Lillian Claiborne, who ran DC Records.

Activity in the Chicago (and, once in a while, New Orleans) studios was slightly less frantic in 1954: the Chess brothers were responsible for 154 known sides (again, we are counting alternates but not blanks in the matrix number series). Nearly everything was still being done at Universal Recording.

However, when the company moved to new quarters at 4750 South Cottage Grove, a back room was set up to record demos. Once in a while, a demo recording would be brought to Universal and the engineers there would have to spruce up the sound as best they could so it could be readied for release. Or so we are told in Nadine Cohodas's book. At one point Leonard Chess was called in front of the Board of Musicians Union Local 208 and asked whether he was doing any recording in the back room; he claimed he wasn't (otherwise he would have had to pay the musicians Union scale for the sessions). We know of at least one demo session that produced material used for release--the Muddy Waters session from November 1954 features notably muffled recording quality that could never have come out of Universal.

Danny Overbea led off the year with his last session to use King Kolax's group. Tenor man Dick Davis had taken ill (he would die later in January from pneumonia) and was replaced by Harold Ousley. This would be the guitarist's last outing with the Kolax; thereafter he was accompanied by studio bands, in all likelihood recruited by Willie Dixon.

Next, on January 7, came a classic session by Muddy Waters and his band.

Willie Mabon and his combo returned to Universal for a session in February. Chess continued its practice of releasing a vocal number ("Late Again") coupled with an instrumental, and leaving additional vocal numbers in the can. On this occasion, Mabon's usual front line of Paul King (trumpet) and Herbert Robinson (tenor sax) was reinforced by the great tenor saxophonist Harold Ashby, who takes a prominent solo on "Late Again." Bill Anderson (bass) and Oliver Coleman (drums) provided the customary rhythm support.

At some point in March, Elder Beck was invited back for a couple more musical sermons. On this occasion, the Elder was accompanied by piano and organ on "When" (just organ on "I'm Walking with Jesus at My Side"), plus guitar and drums. Chess dropped him after his second release, on Chess 1567. He next surfaced two years later, when he made the famous two-part "Rock and Roll Sermon" for Chart (it's hard not to like a sermon against rock and roll when the reverend's electric guitarist keeps breaking into ... rock and roll). Elder Beck's final recordings were made later that same year at a church in Buffalo, New York, where he broadcast a weekly show; they were eventually released on a Folkways LP.

Danny Overbeareturned to the studio in April to record for Checker. From here on out, the guitarist's sessions would no longer feature the King Kolax band that had accompanied him so ably on "Train, Train, Train" and "40 Cups of Coffee." Instead, there was a studio ensemble of tenor and baritone saxes, piano, bass, and drums. No telling who these musicians were, except that Willie Dixon is an obvious suspect on bass. The Chess brothers left a lot of Overbea sides in the can, but on this occasion they used two tracks right away on Checker 796, and a third about a year later on Checker 816. While "Roamin' Man" is a rather gloomy blues effectively sung by Overbea, "You're Mine" features sentimental balladeering in an overripe baritone—not a favorable sign of Overbea's future artistic direction.

The Chess brothers must have been mightily impressed with the commercial potential of Sugar Boy Crawford, because they brought him into the studio again in May 1954, this time for the regulation four tunes. On this solid session, he was accompanied by Alfred Bernard and David Lastie on tenor saxes, Frank Fields on the string bass, and Eric Warner on drums. Two cuts saw release on Checker 795, but the single apparently didn't do as well as either of the first two. It turned out to be Crawford's last for Checker.

Yet the company brought his band in for another session at which at least 7 tunes were cut. On them Crawford's May 1954 lineup was joined by an unidentified trumpet player, Big Boy Miles on trombone, and Snooks Eaglin on electric guitar. Slim Saunders sang duets with Crawford on two of the cuts. And still another 6-tune outing ensued a little later in the year; this was done by the same forces minus Saunders. We can't assign precise dates to either session, in part because no matrix numbers were assigned to any of the items at the time. But in the spring of 1959, consecutive series were allocated in the 9300s and 9400s, as might be done in preparation for mastering and releasing an LP. Still, nothing materialized until well after the brothers had sold the company to GRT; it was only in 1975, after the company had been acquired from GRT by All Platinum, that nearly the entire batch of Sugar Boy Crawford studio sides was packaged into a double LP. Some of the cuts featured sloppy instrumental work or whiny vocalizing from Crawford, who was not cut out to sing ballads. But it remains a mystery why, a year and a half before the company began to released LPs, Checker recorded so much of Crawford's band.

Sugar Boy Crawford next signed with Imperial, cutting four singles with Dave Bartholomew's band at three sessions in 1956 and 1957. Singles followed on Louisiana-based labels like Montel (1959) and Ace (1961). Crawford's career unfortunately came to an end one night in 1963, when his Cadillac was pulled over by a state trooper in Monroe, Louisiana. The Smokey expressed his dissatisfaction with African American men in expensive cars by severely pistol-whipping the driver. Crawford's band had to do a scheduled recording session for Peacock without him. After two years of recovery, Crawford realized that he would never going to be able to play piano professionally again. He became a locksmith and a building engineer, confining his musical activities to singing in church.

As their resources continued to expand, the Chess brothers began to sign established R&B artists from other parts of the country. Jimmy Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas, on August 18, 1921, where he did his first singing in a local Baptist church choir. He served in the Merchant Marine from 1941 to 1943, getting an opportunity to perform in Calcutta with Teddy Weatherford's band. In 1944 he joined Jay McShann's band. In 1947, he recorded four sessions for the Los Angeles-based Supreme label during that year's frantic last quarter; his new rendition of "Ain't Nobody's Business," on his fourth Supreme released, turned into a big hit. Witherspoon left McShann in 1948 to recruit his own combo, recording for Down Beat (1948), Modern (1949-1953), and Federal (1952-1953). His fortunes declined, however, and in 1953 he declared bankruptcy. The Chess brothers saw an opportunity to pick him up as he was rebuilding his career. The urbane blues shouter's first date for Checker took place on June 10. A studio band of Eddie Chamblee (tenor sax), Lafayette Leake (piano), Echford "Lee" Cooper (guitar), Willie Dixon (bass), and Fred Below (drums) accompanied him on four sides, two of them promptly shipped to retailers on Checker 798.

On February 22, the brothers made one isolated field recording—four sides cut in the heart of the Delta, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Two members of Ike Turner's band (no longer available via Sam Phillips' operation, but happy to cooperate with just about any record company that showed interest) were featured.

Eugene Fox, who usually played tenor sax, had a comically gravelly voice. On "Stay at Home," he turned in a solid blues performance, with backing from Bobby Fields (tenor sax), Dennis Binder (piano), Ike Turner (guitar), Jesse Knight, Jr. (bass), and either Willie Sims or Robert Prindell (drums). The recording is listenable but would never be confused with anything out of Universal; the tenor sax seems to be emerging from somewhere down the hall. The outstanding side was "Sinner's Dream," a melodrama about none other than Eugene Fox's soul being led off to hell. Fox, Binder, and Annie Mae Wilson's voices and the ghostly special effects attributed to one C. V. Veal were accompanied by nothing but Ike Turner's wild, tremulous, distorted electric guitar. Chuck Berry's "Downbound Train" is innocuous by comparison, and the Stone Guest scene in Don Giovanni not quite so rough around the edges.

Fox's discography as front man is slender. Checker 792 was his debut; he would redo "The Dream" the next month as a two-sided production for RPM (a label that would be making much more use of Ike Turner's services in the future). Later that same year, he contributed another three sides in front of Turner's band to a small label called Spark.

Muddy Waters was back for another classic session on September 13. Willie Dixon provided "I'm Ready" as a follow-up to "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Just Make Love to Me."

Sax Kari (who, despite his moniker, also played guitar and piano) was born Isaac Saxton Kari Toombs February 6, 1920, in Chicago. He was raised in New Orleans, and went to high school in Gary, Indiana. In his late teens, he formed his first combo to play the strip joints of Calumet City, Illinois, and during the 1940s toured the South. At one point he inherited the musicians from the famed Carolina Cotton Pickers, and recorded them in New York on Apollo. He also played in a variety of big bands, notably that of Coleman Hawkins, with Tiny Bradshaw, and with the house band at the Rhumboogie in Chicago (probably in the club's waning days, when Floyd Campbell was the leader). In the late 1940s he became one of the Hi De Ho Boys at the Club DeLisa, working alongside Lefty Bates.

During the 1950s Kari was based mainly in Detroit. He recorded there for States (two sessions in 1953). "Daughter (That's Your Red Wagon)," with vocals by Gloria Irving, became a national R&B hit. His second single for States went absolutely nowhere, however, so he moved on to record for a much smaller operation called Great Lakes (1953, also done in Detroit)). When he came to Chess, he was taking another shot at the big time. Lena Gordon's vocal on "Mama Took the Baby" was one of a several "answer records" directed at the infamous "Work with Me Annie" and "Annie Had a Baby" by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. "Disc Jockey Jamboree" was a novelty with a clever conceit, imagining a hit R&B record being auditioned by an assembly of DJs, an impressive number of whom are referred to by name. Kari chants the vocal, with some help from the other band members. Obviously Kari was familiar with the extracurricular habits of the individuals he was referring to, because in the story he tells Al Benson is the first DJ to sing along with the record. The band on the record features a prominent, jazzy tromboninst, whose name no one seems to remember, Fletcher Barnett on tenor sax, Jimmy somebody on guitar, Johnny Vincent on bass, and an unidentfified but prominent drummer. Kari played piano on the date. In October, Sax Kari quickly followed with another single featuring his Latin alter ego, Ron Rico, but neither was the breakthrough hit that he sought, and the Chess brothers dropped him.

Kari would return to the Chicago scene one last time in 1959, when he cut another sort of "answer record." Like many others during the peirod, this one was inspired by "The Purple People Eater." "Goldie the Green Eyed Octopus" was done for JOB. We got our biographical details from Dan Kochakian's exhaustively detailed story, The Sax Kari Story Part One: "I Should Have Been Born In New Orleans," which appeared in Blues & Rhythm 161 (August 2001).

On September 27, Danny Overbea was back with a studio band. Two of his sides were released on Checker 808. He continued to trend toward pop material. His Latin number, "My Love," is kind of overripe, but much more interesting than the schmaltzy "Toast to Lovers," where the accompaninment includes organ and violins.

October 1954 turned out to be an extremely busy month in the studio. The Moonglows had been recording for Chance, with good artistic results but disappointing sales; now Art Sheridan was winding the label down. DJ Alan Freed, who had been sponsoring the doowop group, contacted Leonard Chess, who needed no arm-twisting to sign them. Chess paid Sheridan $500 for the Moonglows' contract and took them into the studio almost immediately. At this point, the Moonglows consisted of Bobby Lester (lead and tenor), Harvey Fuqua (lead and baritone), Pete Graves (tenor), and Prentiss Barnes (bass). The accompaniment consisted of tenor sax (probably Eddie Chamblee), piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Of the 5 sides at Universal Recording, two were released under the group's name on Chess 1581; another two featured Bobby Lester and Harvey Fuqua and were issued on Checker 806 with a credit to Bobby Lester and the Moonlighters. Getting the group's records on two labels at once was expected to increase the overall rate of play by DJs.

When Chess 1581 came out toward the end of the month, "Sincerely" built up into a national hit, reaching all the way to #1 and staying on the R and B charts for 20 weeks. Its flip, "Tempting," used still-fashionable mambo rhythms. Both "Sincerely" and "Tempting" were credited to Fuqua and Freed, but Freed's actual contribution consisted of an occasional tweak to the lyrics. "Shoo Doo—Be Doo" by the Moonlighters was released in November and garnered strong regional sales.

Willie Mabon was back in October for his third session of the year. This time the company was in a hurry to get two sides out. "Say Man" (a stop-time number which featured a compositional contribution by drummer Odie Payne) and "Poison Ivy" (written for Mabon by Mel London) made a strong release on Chess 1580; "Poison Ivy" would be Mabon's last top-10 R&B chart hit. The combo on this occasion consisted of the faithful Paul King (trumpet), Goon Gardner (alto and baritone saxes), and Herbert Robinson (tenor sax), with Bill Anderson (bass). But the drummer on the session sounds like Odie Payne, making a guest appearance.

Indeed, the two Mabon tunes were followed (probably immediately) by a lengthy session featuring Odie Payne and his combo. Payne, best known for his work in blues bands, such as Elmore James and the Broomdusters, was leading a Latin ensemble at the time. But the company apparently saw no commercial promise in the results, which remain unreleased after 53 years.

Another significant step in the company's evolution took place in October 1954, when the Chess brothers annnounced the signing of the Griffin Brothers band and Lowell Fulson. Both were established artists. And the moves were announced in the October 30 issue of Billboard--before the Griffins had cut anything. Buddy Griffin and Claudia Swann would record on November 8. In the past, signings were rarely announced until all of the artists had already recorded. Now the Chess brothers were well enough established in the business to be less fearful of pre-emptive moves by the competition.

In November, the company brought Jimmy Witherspoon back to Universal Recording for another four sides. On this occasion, the singer was accompanied by Lee Cooper (guitar), Willie Dixon (bass), and Fred Below (drums). But Eddie Chamblee had gone on the road with Lionel Hampton. He was replaced by Harold Ashby on tenor sax, as can be easily judged from the solo on "Time Brings About a Change." A baritone saxophonist was also added. Two of the four sides were promptly released. Although the pianist on this date has been listed as Lafayette Leake, both sides of Checker 810, which draw a good deal of their inspiration from "The Things I Used to Do," are credited to "Dixon-Fleming." One wonders whether King Fleming might had something to do with this... To be researched.

Based in Washington, DC, the Griffin Brothers band had been a premiere R&B ensemble for some years. The aggregation began recording for Dot in September 1950. Around the beginning of 1954, trombonist Jimmy Griffin left to form his own band. Edward "Buddy" Griffin made one more session for Dot in January or February 1954. Buddy Griffin played piano o it, and a female vocalist named Claudia Swanson made her recorded debut. Landing the Buddy Griffin Orchestra was a fair coup for Chess. At their first session at Universal, on November 8, 1954, Buddy Griffin and Claudia Swann, as she was now known, sang "I Wanna Hug Ya, Kiss Ya, Squeeze Ya," a catchy love duet; it was released on Chess 1586. The lovelorn flip, "Please Come Back to Me" was entrusted to Claudia with uncredited help from the Moonglows. The other members of the band on this occasion were "Silly Willie" Wilson (trombone), Chuck Reeves (alto and baritone saxes), Earl Swanson (tenor sax), Lawrence Burgan (bass), and Courtney Brooks (drums).

The Moonglows had scarcely gotten their first two releases out when the company whisked them back into Universal Recording for the company's final session of the year. "Most of All," which was featurned on their next release, Chess 1589, reached #5 on the Billboard R and B chart in the spring of 1955, sticking around for 11 weeks all told. The studio band on this occasion included guitarist Wayne Bennett, who was working at the time in the house band at the Crown Propeller Lounge. Bennett would tour with the Moonglows in December 1955, but he subsequently returned to Texas, where he would become famous for his work with singer Bobby "Blue" Bland. The session also yielded a second single credited to Bobby Lester and the Moonlighters, but Checker 813 went nowhere at the cash register. The remainder of the session was left in the can.

Making up to some degree for decreased vigor at Universal Recording, the Chess brothers bought 52 sides from other sources in 1954.

Four of these were from Joe Von Battle's boutique operation, J-V-B, in Detroit; Von Battle had previously supplied Chess with some John Lee "Booker." The brothers got some more of John Lee himself from the eccentric Fortune operation, also out of Detroit (this was one of the few occasions on which Fortune licensed any of its product).

Finally, Chess launched a new, productive relationship with bandleader and producer Paul Gayten in New Orleans. (Years before, Aristocrat had tried to sign Gayten's singer Annie Laurie, but the deal fell through and Gayten stayed with the DeLuxe label.) The Sugar Boy Crawford sessions from 1953 have sometimes been attributed to Paul Gayten in the past, but although these were done in New Orleans, the studio material seems to have been made under Leonard Chess's supervision.

They also began to acquire sides by Larry Liggett, leader of an instrumental R&B combo that, on his first release, consisted of alto sax, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. (Liggett's only recorded vocal can be heard on "That Man Is Walking," a blues on which he plays tenor sax). The initial release of the first Liggett single was on Note, an Indianapolis-based label, and Chess release carried the same "foreign" matrix numbers. Liggett's subsequent releases appeared solely on Chess, but as they were always entered into the master books in pairs and the publisher for Liggett's originals was listed as Condor, we are pretty confident that these were produced elsewhere: Note material originated in either Indianapolis or Cincinnati.

Two previously unknown sides (their matrix numbers, 7687 and 7688, were listed as unused in previous discographies) appear on a Universal Recording Studio test pressing that came up for auction in the fall of 2002, when it was acquired by Dan Kochakian. 7687 is an R&B electric guitar instrumental, done by a T-Bone Walker disciple. 7688 is an unaccompanied male gospel quartet number. There is no further documentation on these items, so we don't know where the Chess brothers picked them up or who the artists were.

The Chess brothers had never been committed to "hillbilly" or "country and Western." (We have no idea whether Leonard Chess was n the studio when Dick Hiorns cut the only country offerings for Aristocrat, back in December 1947.) In the early days of the label, they obtained a few sides from Sam Phillips in Memphis, plus a Tommy Trent single from an unknown source on the East Coast. In May or June 1954, however, Leonard and Phil Chess entered into a deal with their friend and long-time distributor Stan Lewis, who was located in Shreveport, Louisiana, to issue country singles that he produced himself or obtained from sources in the area. The first release in the new series came out in June 1954. These items got a special series, starting at 4858 (the first address of Checker Records), and (in most cases) a special label scheme. The 78 labels were usually printed in blue on pink instead of the standard blue on white; the 45-rpm labels stuck with the "silver top" format. The series apparently was not a success from their standpoint; Chess and Stan Lewis pulled the plug on it after about a year. In all, 7 releases saw the light of day, the last of them in late March of 1955.