New readers should Scroll down, others may 'Click' this Index [ Some Female Blues Shouters (and some men) ] Listings
[ Some Black Chicago Bands ] Listings
[ Some White Chicago Bands ] Listings

Names of some of the Female blues singers and shouters.
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There were other 'Smiths' with no relation to each other:
Clara Smith
Trixie Smith
Laura Smith
Who, with Bessie and Mamie Smiths, were all working Blues Shouters.
Victoria Spivey
Sippie Wallace

And, not to leave out the men
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And Others (with no information here as yet.)
Son House
Willie Brown
James McCoy
Peg Leg Powell
Sleepy John Estes
Blind Willie Johnson
Washboard Sam
Big Bill Broonzy
"Ragtime Texas" Henry Thomas
"Red Willie" Smith
And, Later on:
Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins
Sonny Boy Williamson
Muddy Waters
Howling Wolf
Junior Parker

And nobody ever mentions Louis Armstrong; Jimmy Rushing; Big Joe Williams and Jack Teagarden, all of whom sang classic 12 bar blues.

THE BLACK TRADITION OF DIXIELAND IN CHICAGO
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In 1917, Storyville was closed. Many musicians sought work elsewhere.
1918-1928 Armand J. Piron with Peter Bocage formed the A.J.Piron & his Novelty Orch., and played at Tranchina's Restaurant in Spanish Fort, on Lake Pontchartrain, LA.
1917 Joe Oliver called himself "King" Oliver and moved to Chicago in 1918.
1919-1924. Kid Ory worked in Los Angeles, Ca.
1919 Sidney Bechet was playing in London, Eng. (Earnest Ansermet heard him.)
1919 Alcide "(Kid) Yellow" Nunez formed the Louisiana Five in Chicago.
1903 Jelly Roll Morton started traveling extensively.

We have mentioned how, with the shutting down of Storyville, in N.O., many of the musicians drifted northward to Chicago, where they again assembled groups. Here's a listing of some of those Black bands, operating in Chicago during the early '20's.

THE NEW WHITE TRADITION OF DIXIE IN CHICAGO

In 1921, The trombonist, Tom Brown, became the first 'white' orchestra from New Orleans to play in Chicago. In 1922, Stein's Dixie Jass Band followed (with Nick La Rocca on Cornet).

In 1920, Paul Mares and George Brunies (Trombone) were working a Mississippi Riverboat boat that stopped at Davenport, Iowa. There they teamed with Leon Rapolo (cornet), a white New Orleans musician, and a young local Davenport cornetist named Bix Beidebecke. In time, they added Elmer Schobel (pianist from Illinois); Frank Snyder (drums); Alfred Loyacano (bass) and Louis Black (Banjo), and were hired by the Friar's Club in Chicago. They first called themselves "The Friar's Society Orchestra", but later changed their name to "The New Orleans Rhythm Kings". (Strictly speaking, both Bix and Frankie Trumbauer were not Chicagoans, but their playing more than influenced the Chicagoans (and many other musicians, as well), they inspired the Chicagoans.

Nick LaRocca and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB) had created a huge demand for the new 'jazz' music. And, with the ODJB going to New York City and on to London, the NORK became the mainstay of Chicago Jazz. They first recorded in 1922, and made some personnel changes that strengthened the band, yet strangely, by 1925, the group had folded leaving just a few recordings and a lasting impression on all jazz artists.

But, the NORK became the seminal group for Chicago Jazz. (The ODJB was the seminal band for New York City.) Their playing truly inspired Chicagoans, especially, a small group of Austin High School students, that originally included Jimmy and Dick McPartland; Frankie Teschmacher; Bud Freeman and Jim Lanigan on piano. This group of students listened to the NORK recordings and literally taught themselves to play music by trying to emulate what they heard on the records. They first called themselves the "Austin High Gang", but later changed the name to the Austin Blue Friar's. Still later they were joined by Dave North on Piano (Lanigan moved to the Bass). Dave Tough, from the Lewis Institute in Oak Park, IL., became the drummer. Still later, Floyd O'Brien's trombone was added.

Still other Chicagoans must be mentioned: Eddie Condon (Banjo and guitar); Art Hodes (piano); Joe Sullivan (piano); Mugsy Spanier (Cornet), and Mezz Mezzrow on clarinet, and let's not forget Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa.

The Chicagoans, were representative of "new" dixielanders. Most were not from New Orleans, but had absorded the music. And, along the way, they improved it greatly.

On the North Side of Chicago, one finds the White musicians, such as Mugsy Spanier, Bunny Berigan, Wingy Manone (one armed Cornetist from New Orleans), George Wettling and Eddie Condon.

On the South Side of Chicago, one finds Black musicians such as Jimmy Noone, Lovie Austin, Johnny Dodds, Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Freddie Keppard.

The two styles are easily discernable when listening. The original Dixie is an ensemble effort, with the music seeming to "unravel" itself as you listen. The Chicago style, is Dixie, but with a "hard, driving" feel to it, and with solos by the bandsmen.

(Please do not yet 'click' on any of the indexed White Chicago Dixieland Bands, listed below. Please continue reading.)
Here are some of the 'New' White Dixieland Bands in Chicago.
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As previously mentioned. The older New Orleans jazzmen has slowly started a migration, by rail and river to Chicago, IL. Of course the locales that most folks will think of first are Chicago, and maybe Texas, but places like Detroit, Memphis, and Cincinnati have a very definite history of fine musical performers (and record labels) that makes them notable for Jazz scholars. These cities slowly began developing and adding to the music we now call Jazz. To cite but one example, as far back as the early 1920s, the Mississippi river and the railroad had brought many rural African American musicians to Cincinnati, Ohio. By the 1930s, Cincinnati had an already well developed music scene, which in the 1940s, began to break out to national significance. Mass popularity for Cincinnati came slowly, and arrived in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Roy Brown and Wynonie Harris recorded their own brand of music for King Records--a sound that would soon become known as 'Rhythm and Blues'. (Later, the King label also ushered in "soul" music with the likes of Hank Ballard and Little Willie John.) And, one can see a similar development in Detroit, Memphis and such.

The Great Depression of 1929, and the '30's, changed things drastically. It wrecked the mid-western independent recording companies, such as Gennett, and the end of "Prohibition" laws also certainly altered Chicago's nightlife. Most of the "Chicagoans" were now moving to New York City. New York was the home of the leading radio networks; recording companies as well as having a stellar array of hotel 'rooms', supper clubs, and... 52nd Street, called by some "Swing Street". Chicago Style was ending and New York Jazz was starting.

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