The Opera Label

Revision note. We have added details about the extremely elusive Square Deal 301, a copy of which was recently found by George Paulus.

Opera Records was one of the smaller Chicago independents. It ran for a brief time, probably just a year (from the fall of 1947 to the fall of 1948). The label was the first effort by the indefatigable Joe Brown, who in later years came out with a considerably more successful JOB operation. (We are talking in relative terms here, as JOB was still a mom and pop outfit.) Opera probably had the same co-founders as JOB, Brown and James Burke Oden (bluesman St. Louis Jimmy). The fledgling company may have operated out of the same Southside residence, 4008 South Ellis Avenue, which was reported in 1954 for Brown's JOB label. With his Opera enterprise, Brown recorded a mixture of artists--club pianists, jazz combos, and deep bluesmen. His later JOB label would concentrate on Southern-style bar-band blues artists.

Joe Brown was born in Wagoner, Oklahoma, of African-American and Cherokee Indian parentage. Depending on when he was born (June 16, 1897, according to Mike Rowe, or June 16, 1904, according to Jim O'Neal), Brown was at least in his mid-40s when began his career in the recording business. Neither Rowe, in his classic book Chicago Breakdown, nor O'Neal in his obit in Living Blues, give much in the way of biographical information, so we do not know what Brown did before he got into the record business.

Opera labels show no publisher (Opera 5, by "Delta Joe," cites no composers either). Obviously, like the proprietors of Aristocrat and Chess in the early years, Brown did not appreciate the value of music publishing. Later he partnered with Bud Brandom to form Lawn Music Publishers.

We have been able to trace five releases on Opera: two by Byllye Williams, and one each by St. Louis Jimmy, Sunnyland Slim (working under the name Delta Joe), and King Kolax and His Combo. Opera, like innumerable small operations, was what we call an "A and B" label: the matrix numbers were merely the release number with an attached A or B depending on which side the owner wanted to plug. Consequently, we have no clue as to the recording studio Brown used. In 1948, he would have had the same major choices as other small-label proprietors in Chicago: Egmont Sonderling's United Broadcasting Studios or Bill Putnam's Universal Recording.

Op1. Byllye Williams with Keynote Kombo

Byllye Williams (voc, p) with Ray "Bill" Douglas (cl -1, as); Roy "Buck" Douglas (ts); Sylvester Hickman (b); unidentified (d).

Chicago, probably late 1947

OP1 [CP-100]	Disgusted Woman Blues (Williams) -1		Opera Op-1, Savoy 5554, Acorn 310
OP2	Good Luck Old Boy (Williams) -1		Opera Op-2, Savoy 5554
CP-101	Hep Hep Blues		unissued
CP-102	Hard Hearted Man		Acorn 310
CP-103	Anything That's Part of You		unissued

Byllye Williams, the daughter of a minister, was born Byllye Elizabeth Blassengame on April 13, 1918. She was a well-known vocalist/pianist in the city, playing the clubs regularly from the spring of 1941 until a few months before her death in 1958. She was at the height of her visibility in 1948, when Opera released these sides on her. Blues Records 1943-1970, Volume Two, compiled by Mike Leadbitter, Leslie Fancourt, and Paul Pelletier (LFP), lists a recording date of October 15, 1948, but this cannot possibly be correct. It is the date that Savoy mastered sides from this session for release. Billboard on November 6, 1948, reported that Savoy had purchased six "race" masters from Opera. Acorn was a subsidiary of Savoy, set up with disguised ownership in order to put out releases (like those of John Lee Hooker under various pseudonyms) that might prompt legal action. On the Savoy and Acorn labels Byllye becomes "Billye." On Acorn she was billed as "Billye Williams - The Blues Girl."

Furthermore, the March 6, 1948 Chicago Defender carried an advertisement for the Four Star Lounge (224 East 61st Street) that featured Byllye Williams, identifying her as the "Recording Artist of 'Disgusted Woman Blues'." The most we can garner from this is that she had at least recorded the song by this date; it does not constitute proof that Opera Op-1/2 had been released. More importantly, it tells us that these recordings were almost certainly done in late 1947, before the Musicians Union recording ban went into effect on January 1, 1948.

Another Opera 2 label scan (from a copy without center hole damage) can be seen on Mike Kredinac's Web site, Mike's Pix. Though we have a photo of the Op-1 side in our archives, the label damage is too extensive to warrant displaying it here. We can confirm that the original title was "Disgusted Woman Blues" (it is sometimes given as "Disgusted Blues"). The session listings are derived from LFP. The labels to both sides of Opera Op-1/2 attribute the arrangements to "B. Douglas"; whether that was Bill or Buck we of course haven't the foggiest.

Ray "Bill" and Roy "Buck" Douglas look like brothers in the only photo we have seen of them. In fact, their names suggest they were identical twins, though this needs to be confirmed. They were based in Kansas City before coming to Chicago; a 1939 photo, taken at Club Reno in KC, shows both Douglas brothers on the bandstand with three other KC-based musicians who migrated to Chicago during World War II: Bill Searcy, Lowell Pointer, and Bill Martin. Searcy and Pointer would work for a time with Tom Archia; Bill Martin enjoyed several years of steady employment as a bandleader, turning out four singles for Hy-Tone.

Buck, a tenor saxophonist in the Coleman Hawkins tradition, had acquired a little recording experience before Opera started up. He had cut for Hy-Tone on Bill Martin's two sessions in May and September 1946, and for RCA Victor in a New Orleans-style band led by trombonist Preston Jackson (October 31, 1946). In September 1948 or February 1949, he would cut at least two sides for the Square Deal label, a tiny enterprise of which he was part-owner (see Appendix).

Local 208's contract lists show Bill Douglas as the bandleader of record in the clubs during this period. So far as we know, this session was the first appearance on record for Bill Douglas' reedy Swing-era clarinet.

Byllye Williams subsequently recorded for another small Chicago label, Theron.

Op2. Byllye Williams Trio

Byllye Williams (voc, p) with Adam Lambert (eg); Sylvester Hickman (b).

Chicago, probably late 1947

OP-3-A	The New Bleeding Heart Blues		Opera 3
OP-3-B	Daddy Please Do		Opera 3

Like the previous release, this record was probably recorded before the ban kicked in. Chris Bentley in Blues & Rhythm described "The New Bleeding Heart Blues" as "passible small combo blues of the sort cut by Mayo Williams immediately post WW II," and dismissed "Daddy Please Do" as a song in the Billie Holiday vein.

We derived the personnel from LFP; presumably they used label copy on this very rare 78 as their source of information.

Op3. St. Louis Jimmy and Rhythm Accomp.

St. Louis Jimmy (voc) with Roosevelt Sykes (p); Lamont "Guitar Pete" Franklin (eg); poss. Alfred Elkins (b).

Chicago, December 1947

St. Louis Jimmy was born James Burke Oden on June 26, 1903, in Nashville, Tennessee. He moved to St. Louis in 1917, where he performed and picked up his name. Along with Roosevelt Sykes, he moved to Chicago in 1932. Oden recorded regularly during the 1930s and 1940s, scoring a big blues hit with "Going Down Slow" for Bluebird in 1941. Although he played piano himself, Oden usually just sang on his records and left the keyboard chores to more proficient performers like Roosevelt Sykes. After World War II he also began appearing on sessions with Sunnyland Slim, who we had previously thought might be the pianist on St. Louis Jimmy's Opera release. According to John Newman, however, Roosevelt Sykes accompanied him on this occasion.

Our information about the matrix and release numbers is derived from a copy in Tom Kelly's collection. LFP leave out the "O" in HY43ODR. The matrix numbers strongly suggest that these sides were recorded at the tail end of Freddie Williams and Nathan Rothner's Hy-Tone operation. The last known release on Hy-Tone was 38; on some of his releases the company used the HY prefix and release number as the mastering number. Hy-Tone ceased recording at the end of December 1947, and, while it continued to put out releases in 1948, the company was faltering and would become inactive in the fall of that year. Wanting to ensured that his sides were released, Oden probably purchased them and brought them in among his assets for the Opera label.

Our dating of the session is speculative, but as Hy-Tone 38 by Sunnyland Slim, the last known release on that label's main series, was probably cut in December 1947, we will assume that this session followed that one. The guitarist plays with a slide on "One Doggone Reason"; St. Louis Jimmy can be heard addressing him as "Pete" during an instrumental break for the piano and the guitar on the same number. Newman identifies him as Lamont Franklin, aka Guitar Pete. The playing of the bassist is solid and unspectacular and I would guess that a likely candidate is Alfred Elkins (John Newman, email of August 21, 2006). Franklin showed up on an October 1952 session for JOB that included John Brim, Ernest Cotton, and Sunyland Slim; perhaps Joe Brown remembered his work from this session?

St. Louis Jimmy recorded one subsequent session for Brown in 1949 for the JOB label, which gave rise to one release; the session was subsequently unloaded to Apollo. A second session, featuring a singer named Mildred Richards, used one of his tunes. He appears to have dumped his ownership share in JOB in 1950, since he did not record for that label again. Other labels that put out St. Louis Jimmy product from 1948-1949 recording sessions were Aristocrat, Mercury, Miracle, and Savoy.

Op4. Delta Joe with accompaniment

Delta Joe [Sunnyland Slim] (voc, p); Leroy Foster (eg).

Chicago, 1947 or 1948

OP8A	Roll, Tumble, and Slip		Opera 5A, Chance 1115, Classics 5013 [CD]
OP8B	Train Time		Opera 5B, Chance 1115, Classics 5013 [CD]

Deep blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim must have recorded under the Delta Joe pseudonym out of some concern over breaching another record label's contract. The previous year he had cut two sessions for Hy-Tone, two sessions for Aristocrat, and two more for RCA Victor (these last under another pseudonym, "Doctor Clayton's Buddy"). In 1949, he would cut a celebrated session for Tempo-Tone.

Slim was born Albert Luandrew on September 5, 1906, in Vance, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago in the early 1940s, made an appearance as a vocalist on a Jump Jackson session for Specialty in September 1946, and followed with his first recordings as a leader in August or September 1947, for Hy-Tone and Aristocrat. By the time he made these sides for Joe Brown he could be found on the doorstep of every label in Chicago.

In 1952, the Delta Joe sides were picked up by Art Sheridan (who had periodic business dealings with Joe Brown) and released on his Chance label. "Roll, Tumble, and Slip" was retitled "I Cried" and "Train Time" was retitled "4 O'Clock Blues."

Classics 5013, Sunnyland Slim 1947-1948, is a reissue compilation from 2001.

Our thanks to Tom Kelly for the correct matrix numbers; they have been listed as 5A and 5B in the past. It's possible that these sides were recorded later than the next two, by King Kolax, but we have no way to be sure.

Op5. King Kolax and his combo | Blues Vocal King Kolax

King Kolax (voc; tp-1); Johnny Thompson (ts); Willie Jones (p); unidentified (b); unidentified (d).

Chicago, before October 1948

OP6A (OP5)	Back Door Blues		Opera 6
OP6B (OP5)	Straight Woman Blues		Opera 6

Although he had been in the band business since 1936, this is the first recording that King Kolax made under his own name (more correctly performing name). He was born William Little in Kansas City, November 6, 1912, and grew up in Chicago. Through much of the 1940s Kolax-led big bands (after 1947, small combos) were touring nationwide and performing regularly in Chicago clubs. One of Kolax's 1939 bands included a fellow from Kansas City named Charlie Parker; John Coltrane sat in the saxophone section of Kolax's 1946 band. A 1948 date is the more likely for this session because King K spent much of 1947 with his last big band.

Thanks to collector Robert Javors for information on this extraordinarily rare Opera release. The single was previously known to have been issued, but no details could be found in the published sources. We surmise it was released just shortly before Joe Brown decided to throw in the towel on the label.

From a dub provided by Javors, we can identify the instrumental lineup. The tenor saxophonist is prominent on both sides (including solos). Drummer Vernel Fournier played in Kolax's last big band (1947) and in a Chicago-based combo with Kolax (1948-1949, beginning after this session. He told us that saxophonist sounds a bit like Joe Houston (who was the tenor soloist in Kolax's last big band), but concluded that the tenorist is Johnny Thompson. (If Houston returned to Chicago with Kolax after the big band broke up, there is no evidence that he stayed in town. Thompson, on the other hand, was a Chicago native.) The pianist, who is featured on "Straight Woman Blues," is a heavy blues player (also given to muttering during his solos); on hearing a dub, Vernel Fournier immediately identified him as the "piano wrecker," Willie Jones (1920 - 1977). Judging from these sides, King Kolax could have made it as a stand-up R&B singer.

Opera was Joe Brown's first foray into the record business, and apparently an unsuccessful one. All surviving Operas are very rare 78s, which means that both distribution and sales eluded him. In October of 1948 he sold Savoy six masters, probably all Byllye Williams sides, then dropped out of the business for a time to regroup.

In August 1949, Brown and Jimmy Burke Oden formed the JOB label, which reportedly was a transposition of his bluesman partner's initials: JBO. The new label would record not only Oden but also King Kolax (who was once again featured as a blues singer) and Sunnyland Slim (who appeared on many sessions in the early 1950s and, it was said, also had a piece of the firm during that period). Jimmy Oden bailed pretty quickly, after most of the label's first session, on which he was featured, was sold to Regal. Brown, however, persevered, and after another couple of false starts in 1950 began recording and releasing material regularly from 1951 to 1954. Thereafter, the label operated in fits and starts for two more decades. Joe Brown sold most of the JOB masters to Jewel in 1972 but did not shut down JOB entirely until 1974; we do not know whether Opera masters were included in the 1972 sale, but we have not encountered any in Jewel's reissue programs or their successors.

For the rest of the Joe Brown story, see our page on the JOB operation. St. Louis Jimmy died in 1977. King Kolax died in 1991 after serving many years as an official in the Musicians Union, and Sunnyland Slim, who remained active in music at an advanced age, died in 1995.

The main sources we used in compiling our profile of Opera included a Joe Brown obit written by Jim O'Neal for Living Blues 26 (March-April 1976); a profile on Joe Brown written by Mike Rowe in Chicago Breakdown (London: Eddison Books, 1973); an obit on Joe Brown written by Mike Rowe for Blues Unlimited 119 (May-June 1976); the Opera listing compiled by Bob McGrath in The R&B Indies (West Vancouver, B.C.: Eyeball, 2000); and artist discographical information from Blues Records 1943-1970 (London: Record Information Series, 1987 and 1994).

Perhaps around the time Joe Brown decided to sell off his Byllye Williams masters and close Opera down, Buck Douglas recorded for a new label called Square Deal. Or perhaps it was a few months later. In any event, the formation of the label was announced on February 26, 1949, in the Chicago Defender column "What the Cats Do while the Squares Are Asleep." Square Deal was owned by Buck Douglas, Frank Lewis, and Jack Cooley. Of Buck's partners in the venture, Jack Cooley was well established on the South Side scene as a drummer, vocalist, and singing waiter; Lewis was a full-time businessman.

This elusive release comes from the collection of George Paulus.

Supposedly the first release was going to be "Caldonia's [sic] Sister" b/w "Douglas Boogie." (Well, they got one out of two... The coupling was really another vocal by Cooley, "What's So Fine about It;") On March 5, the cats vs. squares column declared that Square Deal "has two new discs soon to be released," but just one coupling was identified by name--the same one that had been referred to on February 26. In the March 19 column, the two releases were said to be coming out "this week." The April 2 edition of the column claims three 78s for the company but the only new title mentioned is "I'm a Man," which turned out to be Square Deal 302B.

Square1. Jack Cooley & Orch. | Vocal: Jack Cooley*/ Buck Douglas and Orch. | Vocal: Jack Cooley% / Buck Douglas & Orch.

Roy "Buck" Douglas (ts); unidentified (p); unidentified (b); Jack Cooley (voc*, d).

United Broadcasting Studio, Chicago, prob. September 1948

Our documentation for Square Deal 302 is derived from copies of that 78 in the collections of Dani Gugolz and Tom Kelly. An MR monogram is incised into the trailoff area on both sides of the 78.

Square Deal 301, with Jack Cooley as the headliner, was also released in March 1949, and that "Caledonia's Sister" was indeed one of the titles. A copy of this single, which for some reason is even scarcer than 302, recently turned up in the collection of George Paulus.

The UB 9200 matrix numbers are most likely from September 1948, but we know that 4 sides by Doc Evans and Muggsy Spanier were recorded for Jazz Ltd. in February 1949 and given matrix numbers (9181 through 9184) that were out of sequence. So a date shortly before the February 26 announcement can't be ruled out.

In 1953, Frank Evans was featured in a Hamm's Beer ad in the Chicago Defender, one in a series that profiled local entrepreneurs. Some sources (such as Bob McGrath's two volumes on The R&B Indies) have dated the Square Deal releases to 1953 on the strength this information. But if Square Deal was still running in 1953, it was no longer doing any active recording. We know of no other sessions on the label besides the one listed above.

A little later, Buck Douglas would serve on Local 208's Examining Board (1950-1951). After that the brothers Douglas seem to have dropped off the Chicago scene; we don't know whether they returned to Kansas City or moved elswhere.

For more on Jack Cooley, who was a regular on the Chicago club scene between 1944 and 1960, and also ran his own C&G label for a little while in 1950, see our Premium page.