The record changer (Jan 1955-Dec 1957)

9 speckled red by bob koester. There is probably no area in the field of ] fx research more unexplored than the i ues. The artists who made the "race" :ords of the 'twenties dropped into obirity, often on the very day they made sir last sides, and are known to collectors I ly as names on rare recordings and in even : jrer catalogs and supplements. It becomes rd to realize that these were flesh-and>od human beings with birth dates, personties, street addresses and everything else it makes a person's "story." In a recent search by collectors interested I recordings made by artists known to have ed in the St. Louis area during the time :y recorded for Okeh, Paramount, Bruns:k, QRS, Gennett, and Victor in the late 'enties and early 'thirties, several interest; and important discoveries have been de. Obscure artists like Jelly Joe Short 1 m, Br, Vo, BB, De) and better-known n like Speckled Red have turned up to I their story. As we become familiar with f st people we propose to send along any J ormation of interest. For now, let's start (h Speckled Red or, as he was known in troit where he played in the late twenties : troit Red. (It is an interesting but sad i nmentary on the obscurity of barrelhouse ! 1 blues artists that one well-known book plished only a few years ago refers to troit Red as a very fine pianist who never j orded.) The existence of recordings like St. Louis ! mp and Down On The Levee in Red's pography should have touched off a rch for Red long before John Willhoft jl Charles O'Brien finally nudged me into king for him. Red has been living in St. fiis steadily since 1941 and was a frequent tor here for ten years before he finally ided to settle. : This speaks poorly of interest of collectors ! live music, for Red's records have long 1 1'hed good prices on auction lists. ^P^d's biing discovered was a direct result ; finding Mary Johnson, which in turn was caused by our search for Henry Brown. It all began in New Orleans with a remark by Roosevelt Sykes to Dick Allen, active collector in the Crescent City who wrote me last summer that Henry Brown still lived in St. Louis. We found Mary shortly before we found Brown, on December 14, 1954. In her initial interview with Charlie O'Brien, a Special Officer on the St. Louis Police Department, Mary stated that she had seen Red the day before in a liquor store in the neighborhood. Checking into Police Records, O'Brien found that Red had been booked several years ago on "suspicion of affray" because he was a witness in a poolroom brawl. At the address given in the records, O'Brien found Perryman still lived there but wasn't at home. Next stop was the poolhall at 16th and Franklin. The light-skinned fellow who kept his hat on indoors could only be one person ; in a few seconds O'Brien was talking with Speckled Red. Would he like to hear some of his old records? Sure. Did he still play piano? He's getting old and doesn't play often but would be "much obliged" to run through some of the old pieces for us. A trip to the Bluenote Record Shop to hear the records was followed by some pleasant moments at the Top Deck as Red gave the ancient upright its barrelhouse baptism with such tunes as Wilkins Street Stomp, The Dirty Dozens, Cow Cow Blues and Red's inimitable interpretation of some popular ballads and blues of the Bessie-and-Ma era. Red was hastily added to the Dixie Matinee program for the 15th as intermission pianist at the regular weekly jazz concerts, and opened the following week at Jacovac's, playing between the Dixie Stomper's sets. The reaction of collectors was usually: "I never expected to hear piano like that in the flesh;" of jazz fans: "I don't know what it is, but I love it." Red has also played at private parties and for several St. Louis Jazz Club programs. When the Dixie Stompers returned to their birthplace (the old Blue Note Lounge, since renamed the Top Deck), Red went with them. Having found Red, the next step was to find out about him. Born Rufus Perryman in Hampton, Georgia, December 4th, 1892 (though his birth certificate says 1900) with a pigmentary deficiency that gave him his nickname and possibly his livelihood, Red taught himself to play the blues and stomps of the day at an early age. When his family moved to nearby Atlanta several years after his birth, Red played his first jobs. His profession soon removed him from home and sent him on his way literally from coast-tocoast, playing in taverns and houses in almost every industrial city with a large Negro population; to Memphis, Kansas City, New York, and Detroit (where he was a celebrity in the Tenderloin). During his travels, but particularly in Detroit, Red's path was crossed by nearly every barrelhouse pianist of the time. Some he knew only by nickname and we can only guess their true identity. Names like "Fishtail" and "Dad" would make any blues fanatic want to take a trip to Detroit or wherever such living legends might be found. It was in Detroit that Red knew and heard these men, and also better-known musicians like Will Ezell and Charlie Spand ; in Kansas City, Count Basie, Joe Turner and Sam Price; and later, in St. Louis, Walter Davis, Peetie Wheatstraw and Jimmie Oden. Memphis recalls to him Jim Jackson and his first recording date, arranged largely by Jackson, who was acting as a regional talent scout for Brunswick at the time. Red had attracted Brunswick's attention in a Detroit house as he played his unexpurgated version of the Dozens. Jackson located Red in Atlanta some time later and brought him to Memphis where the first Speckled Red Brunswicks were cut in a studio at the Peabody Hotel. Red recorded his famous Dozens, a tune that has since (Continued on Page 16)