The record changer (Jan-Dec 1944)

The Record Changer, Ala) 1944 Notes on Tarn Delaney By THURMAN AND MARY GROVE Mr. Tom led the way up three creaky flights of stairs, finally swinging open a door into a spacious room. The scene was above Pierce's "Three Star" Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue in Baltimore where Tom spends his idle moments. In one corner was a rosy chunk-stove fi r e . Two old-fashioned windows, extending from floor to ceiling, allowed a flood of sunlight to fill the room. There was also a small table, a low cot covered with an Army blanket, and a battered upright piano. The man who stood before us was Tom Delaney. He said he was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in September, 1889; now at the age of 55 he seems a picture of glowing health. He is a man of average stature, trim, eyes aglow with a youthful sparkle. Tom Delaney is best remembered as composer of words and music of Jazz Me Blues, Down Home Blues, Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning, Absentminded Blues, Walk That Broad, and scores of other hits. At the tender age of 12 Tom first appeared in amateur productions held in his home town. Then took to the road, barnstorming, playing theaters, dance halls, amusement parks, and cabarets, with his song and dance act, later to become manager for a number of years of Ethel Waters, touring with the Henderson Band, doing a bit of recording himself, continually writing countless other blues numbers, being thrown in contact with just about all of the Jazz Greats, and being a part of and first-hand witness to the beginning and growth of Jazz to the present day. Tom Delaney was pleased at the prospect of talking blues, and just kept moving about motioning with his cap as he talked, sitting a bit on the table top then jumping up to explain some new idea. Sometimes he sang some lyrics from a tune under discussion; his voice was full and steady and very plaintive. He was eager to discuss his famous and Tom Delanev ever recorded Jazz Me Blues. It was written right in New Orleans — 1920. He was sitting on a bench in the warm sunlight just outside his dressing room at the Lyric Theater, and Jazz Me Blues was his description of that city and its atmosphere. It was published by Edward B. Marks, and was Tom's first break. And he told us— "Be sure to say that Edward B. Marks gave me my first breaks— still does after over twenty years through him, and he has come to my rescue in all my troubles. Be sure to say that." "Well, Tom, did you ever want to be a first-rate pianist?" "Oh, no! Not like Fletcher (Henderson). I only made one mistake in life, and that worked to my advantage. I didn't study music, and was better for it, 'cause if I'd gotten all over the keyboard, I'd have started copying and stealing a little from you, a little from all the others, and I would've lost my own touch. It just comes natural with me — writing music and lyrics too. Never write any over or any under, and see the way some fellows do, work their lyrics time after time till it stops 'em, and they can't make it go, with me looking over their shoulder and I know just what lyric they want but don't tell 'em. I wrote all my own way, and that kept the singers close to me. But sometimes they didn't feel it like I had, like my Southbound Blues that Ma Rainey did (Para 12227). She just ruined it for me. Same way with Log Cabin Blues with Trixie Smith on the Black Swan. (Tom didn't seem to recall the Clarence Williams' instrumental version on OK 8572 — which of course was a best seller of its day. ) Writing blues is a deep-thinking feeling, and when you wake up in the morning like in Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning, do you have that one?" he asked, and without waiting for an answer went on. "I had ordered Woodward the pianist to (Continued on page 39.) 17