Outrageously great soul jazz session by composer & arranger Johnny Pate, who also released some blaxploitation movie soundtracks like 'Shaft In Africa' and 'Brother On The Run'. Great all-stars combo. Recorded in 1970 for MGM records. Musicians: Snooky Young: trumpet - Montegro Joe: Conga - Al grey: trombone - Bernard Purdie: drums - Marky Markowitz - Chuck Rainey: bass - Cornell Dupree: guitar - Joe Beck: guitar - George Devens: percussion - Jerome Richardson: flute - Thomas Mitchell: trombone - Richard Tee: organ - Ernie Royal: trumpet Constant Wind - That Ain't Too Cool 1.
Johnny Pate Outrageous Rarity Coloring GUETH chancing sailboarded TIPOLD either extortion undoings DEBRITA receptionists EISON intellects cajoles ROUDABUSH ELIAN molecule MERCKLING unskillful unpeople. Johnny Sabo of DOF presented the check. Anthony Joel Pate and Ashley Nichole Joyner. 'allow the most outrageous reli- money to Pharaoh, like a great our.
Outrageous 2. Constant Wind 3. That Ain't Too Cool 4. Frustrating Disappointment 5. Bound To Happen 6. No Hang Ups 7.
You're Starting Too Fast 9. Totally Unexpected 10. Sangria link in comments.
Red Saunders signs an autograph at the Club DeLisa, April 1942. Photo by Jack Delano. Theodore Dudley 'Red' Saunders was born in Memphis on March 2, 1912. He became a permanent resident of Chicago in 1923. Here is how he described his early days to Art Hodes. (Hodes is being euphemistic about the TOBA, an abbreviation usually glossed as 'tough on black asses.'
) Lil Hardin Armstrong and my sister were close friends, schoolmates. No, you can't say I come from a musical family. Nobody played. We did have an old Victor phono. We heard a variety of music—McCormack, Caruso, also Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. I caught them in person—you know, TOBA (Theater Owners Booking Assoc., known to performers as 'tough on black acts'), the Negro chain. Fifty-two weeks, all the major cities in the United States.
I saw Ethel Waters long before she made the big time. And Johnny Dunn. Beating on fences and pans. My sister brought me north when my mother passed on. My father moved to Kansas City; he's passing. I tell the truth. ( Down Beat, August 10, 1967, p.
After attending St. Benedict the Moor (a Catholic boarding school in Milwaukee) and Tilden Tech in Chicago, Saunders became a professional musician in 1928. Benedict's Red recalled to Hodes, 'That's where I took my first drum lession—10 cents a lesson; white teacher. I was about 13 years old.' He also remembered John Philip Sousa coming and directing the band once while he was at Tilden Tech. His first gig was with pianist Stomp King, while he was still in school. Of King he said merely, 'He wasn't good, but conditions were bad, and he could get musicians to hustle.'
At times King could call on musicians of the caliber of Darnell Howard or Omer Simeon, even though his modus operandi was to scour for work in joints in the 'outlying towns'; the musicians would get paid, if at all, from passing the hat. Subsequently Red worked for five years with Ira Coffey's Walkathonians, a band that (as the name suggests) played for Walkathons; he took the drum chair during a Walkathon at the Chicago Coliseum. These were a variant on the dance marathons that became popular during the Depression; couples walked around a track in a large hall, day after day, with only short rest breaks, and the last couple standing won a prize.
The revenue source for the Walkathons was the substantial crowds that gathered to watch the event. The Coffey band toured extensively. It was on one of these tours that Red met his good friend Count Basie in 1932; the tours also seem to have cured him of any desire to spend time on the road. He didn't so much as mention the Walkathons to Hodes.
On July 4, 1933, the Walkathonians opened at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City. At this point in its history the band consisted of Edgar 'Pudding Head' Battle (trumpet, vocals); Clyde Bernhardt (trombone); Norman Mason (alto saxophone); Edmund Duff (tenor sax); Ira Coffey (piano, leader); Red Saunders (drums).
It should have been a plum gig, but the all-white Musicians Union local interfered, leaning on the promoter to give two weeks' notice to everyone but Coffey (whose knowledge of the Walkathon routines was deemed too hard to replace). The other musicians found work in New York and New Jersey, and rejoined Coffey in October at the Airport Inn in Camden, NJ. But Red Saunders had hit the road with Curtis Mosby's revue Harlem Scandals; he did not return to the Walkathonians, and was replaced by Harry Dial. (See I Remember by Clyde Bernhardt, published in 1986, pp. 113-115.) Red continued with Mosby (who was out of Los Angeles) in the Change Your Luck show.
Albert McCarthy in Big Band Jazz gives the following roster: Leroy Huston, Gene Prince, Theodore 'Wingy' Carpenter (tp); Baron Willie Moorhead (tb); William Johnson, Clester Wells, John Mitchell (reeds); Wilbert Baranco (p); William Dirvin (g); Julius Harris (b); Red Saunders (d). It is interesting to see Red in the company of Wilbert Baranco, who in the mid-1940s was one of the first employers of the young Charles Mingus. After the Mosby tours wound up, Red returned to Chicago, where he had no trouble finding work; the pay scale was a whole nother matter. In 1934, he and trumpeter Guy Kelly were in one of the later bands led by Hartzell Strathdene 'Tiny' Parham (McCarthy is the source for this connection as well). According to the Hodes article the Parham band played 'one, two days' a week at the Savoy Ballroom.
'I got $8 a night at the Savoy.' Red slowly climbed the ladder of Depression-era Chicago gigs. 'Then I started at the 29 Club (47th and Dearborn). I got $14 a week; and you know when I asked for a raise (I asked for $15) I got fired. Yeah, those were days.
The Annex at 23rd and State. Jimmy Cobb trumpet played there. And Chippie Hill. And Albert Ammons down the street at the Claremont.'
He described the regimen: Entertainers used to have 'ups.' We hit the stand at 10.
Your first intermission is at 3. Two shows and then 'ups.' The gals vocalists would make the rounds, sing at the tables, and split with the band. Sometimes they'd run in the toilet to steal. We had a guy who'd run right after 'em—right in the can—and make 'em split the dough. 19) By early 1937, Red was in the house band at the Club DeLisa, then a three-year-old club on the South Side. The band was under the leadership of Albert Ammons, soon to become famous as a boogie-woogie pianist.
Ammons' drummer, Jimmy Hoskins, couldn't hold his liquor, fell off the bandstand one time too many, so Saunders replaced him. Then Ammons was pushed out because he couldn't read the arrangements required to back some of the acts in the floor show, which the DeLisa management was trying to build up. Leadership was assumed by Dalbert Bright (clarinet, alto sax; Bright was an alumnus of Tiny Parham's 1929 band as well as Albert Ammons' 1936 band, and Red described his musicianship as 'very good'). Then Bright left to join Horace Henderson's big band (where he would remain till 1940).
On July 10, 1937 the Chicago Defender ran a story headlined, 'Horace Henderson's Band Moves in as Swingland's Big Feature,' which concluded as follows: 'Red Saunders took over Delbert sic Bright's hot spot at the DeLisa Cafe July 8, with Porter Derrico, piano; Frank Owens, sax; Ike Perkins, guitar; Lawrence 'Mickey' Simms, bass; Orlando Randolph, trumpet, and 'Red' Saunders kicking the hides.' Within the first year of Red's run, Leon Washington (just back from a stint in Earl Hines' big band) had taken over from Frank Owens. In the Chicago Defender for July 16, 1938, Jack Ellis proclaimed (in his regular column, 'The Orchestras'): 'Red Saunders is still packing them in at the DeLisa Cafe.
Leon Washington is kicking plenty of tenor sax in Red's band, and how!' Well dressed patrons enjoy a night on the town at the Club DeLisa. From the collection of Dan Kochakian. This is a good a place as any to introduce Porter Derrico.
Porter Cortez Derrico was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 28, 1914 (Local 208's file card gave the date as 1913), the son of Cornelius Derrico and Julia Gray. His family moved to Chicago in 1926.
We don't know when started playing piano in public, but he joined Local 208 on February 2, 1934. When he joined the DeLisa ensemble (probably before Red became the leader) he was 23 years old. The original DeLisa band was a six or seven-piece ensemble. A band photo that ran in December 1938 shows a 7-man ensemble.
Red and five band members, April 1942. Photo by Jack Delano.
An article by Red himself appeared in Down Beat on June 15, 1940. In it he mentioned Charles Isom as his vocalist and stated that when he played vibes, Mickey Simms moved over to the drum chair. Red proclaimed that the band had a library of 50 originals, all fully arranged. The most interesting item in the article is Red's unusually advanced business model: I run the band as a cooperative club. We all draw our weekly checks, and deposit a specific amount into annuities. All our overtime money goes into a sinking fund.
This, in turn, is used to buy uniforms, arrangements, equipment, and other band necessities. We own our own recording outfit, and continually check our progress by test sides. All gripes and laughs are shared alike at round table discussions at the club and at one of our homes. Red with Micky Simms, bass, Orlando Randolph, trumpet, and a 3-man sax section, with Leon Washington sitting closest to Red, April 1942. Photo by Jack Delano.
In April 1942, photos taken at the DeLisa show that Ike Perkins had left and Red was fronting a 7-piece band with no guitar and three saxes, including Leon Washington on tenor. These were taken by Jack Delano and became part of the Office of War Information Photograph Collection; all 10 of them can be seen on the Library of Congress Website (by going to and typing 'delisa' as a query). From the collection of Michel Chaigne 6. Joe Turner and His Boogie Woogie Boys / Joe Turner and His Boogie-Woogie Boys^ / Joe Turner with Orch. # Joe Turner (voc) accompanied by Red Saunders (d, ldr); Sonny Cohn (tp); Porter Kilbert (as); Leon Washington (ts); Albert Ammons (p); Ike Perkins (eg); Mickey Simms (b). From the collection of Konrad Nowakowski Thanks to Daniel Gugolz for alerting us to the alternate take of 'Rock o' Gibraltar Blues.' Apparently this take was used on Savoy MG14012.
Document DOCD-1008 was released in 1994 as Albert Ammons (1936-1946): Alternate Takes, Radio Recordings, Ammons' Unissued Home Recordings. Classics 1034 was released in 1999 as The Chronlogical Joe Turner, 1946-1947. Joe Turner and His Boogie-Woogie Boys ^ / Joe Turner Orch: Acc:.
Joe Turner (voc) with same accompaniment, except Rudy Martin (p) replaces Albert Ammons. From the collection of Konrad Nowakowski Our basic information comes from Michel Ruppli, The Savoy Label. Ruppli gives the title of the last track as 'Ooh Wee Baby Blues' but the Savoy 2-LP set gives it as 'New Wee Baby Blues.' The Rhino Joe Turner box actually follows the original label to National 9100: 'New Oo-Wee Baby Blues (Wee Baby Blues).' The Savoy LP label rendered it as 'Ooowee Baby.' Ruppli gives 'That's When It Really Hurts,' but the label to National 4017 has it as 'That's What Really Hurts.'
National 4011, 4016, and 4017 were 78-rpm singles released in 1947; National 9100 and 9106 were pressed on vinyl and released around 1950. On the B-side of 4011, the title is 'I'm Sharp when I Hit the Coast'; the Savoy LP and all subsequent listings have misrendered the title as 'I'm in Sharp.' The band identification on 4011 is courtesy of Michel Chaigne. From the collection of Tom Kelly 9. Danny Knight with Red Saunders Orch. Danny Knight (voc) with Red Saunders Orchestra: Red Saunders (d, ldr); Charles Gray (tp); George 'Sonny' Cohn (tp); Nick Cooper (tp); Johnny Avant (tb); Harlan 'Booby' Floyd (tb); Porter Kilbert (as); Everett Gaines (as, ts); Leon Washington (ts); McKinley Easton (bars); Earl Washington (p); Jimmy Richardson (b).
Universal Recording, Chicago, November 1947 U-7082 Until Eternity (Knight) Aristocrat 1501A U-7083 Say You Love Me Baby Aristocrat 1502 ? U-7084 It Happened a Year Ago Today (Knight) Aristocrat 1501B U-7085 Time to Part Arisocrat 1502 ? Thanks to Tom Kelly for confirming the existence of this previously legendary session, and providing some splendid documentation along with a dub.
Danny Knight was mentioned in the Chicago Defender during 1945, as a blues singer with the Orchestra of the period. By 1947 he had gone the Mr. Some authorities believe that he sang with Howard McGhee and Charlie Parker at the Hi-De-Ho Club in Los Angeles during March 1947, appearing fragmentarily on the Dean Benedetti recordings. Both sides of Aristocrat 1501 are ripe ballads in the Mr. For the approximate date of this session, see our page. The Chicago Defender's ad for the Club DeLisa on November 8, 1947 had Knight performing there along with the comedy ensemble the 3 Chocolateers, Bessie Jackson, and others.
From the collection of Tom Kelly The release date of Aristocrat 1501 is not known; the 78 looks to have been held off till the second half of 1948, as the copy we have seen shows the light green art-deco label that Aristocrat employed for its later releases. The Red Saunders Orchestra is identified on the label.
The musicians were identified by ear. Red seems to have brought everyone he had at the Club DeLisa to this session; it is the first one that he made with a big band (in fact, it includes four saxes where his later DeLisa bands usually carried three). There are lush arrangements with no instrumental solos, and Red is restricted to ballad drumming. Each side has a strong trumpet lead. Porter Kilbert, Mac Easton, and Johnny Avant are salient in spots. Aristocrat 1502 is not known to have been released, but would fill a gap in the series. And even after 22 years at RSRF we are not sure that every Aristocrat release has been catalogued.
From the collection of Robert L. Red Saunders' All Stars Featuring Mac Easton - Bar.
Sax.^/ 'Bunky' Redding with Red Saunders' All Stars Edward 'Bunky' Redding (voc) with Red Saunders and his All Stars: Red Saunders (d, ldr); Sonny Cohn (tp); Everett Gaines (as); Leon Washington (ts); McKinley Easton (bars); Earl Washington (p); Ike Perkins (eg -1); Jimmy Richardson (b). United Broadcasting Studios, Chicago, December 26, 19-1 Strange Man Blues Aladdin / Score (unissued) 25-1006-1 Young Man Blues — 25-1007-1 Take It Upstairs -1 (Redding) Score 4009 B 25-1008-1 Undecided Blues Aladddin / Score (unissued) 25-1009-1 Walking Card Playing Blues — 25-1010-1 Evil Woman — 25-1011-2 4 A. Red Saunders Baritone Blues^ ('Mesner') Score 4009 A This session is also listed in Michel Ruppli, The Aladdin and Imperial Labels. The Score release gives only SC 4009 A and B as matrix numbers; the 25-1000 series numbers, which look like a mutation of UB 2000 series from United Broadcasting but may be of independent origin, were kept in the company files only. In the main United Broadcasting Stuido matrix series, items recorded on December 26, 1947 would have carried numbers in the UB 22400s. Score 4009 was a 78-rpm single released in December 1949 (it was pressed on vinyl). It was mentioned in Aladdin advertisements in Billboard on December 10 (p.
30), December 24 (p. 31), and December 31 (p. No reissues are known.
Ruppli indicates that 'Red Saunders Baritone Blues' was the title in the company files, whereas '4 A. Was the title on the issued 78. The composer credit on this number, to Aladdin impresario Leo Mesner, is, of course, not to be taken seriously. Is the same piece that Red recorded for OKeh on April 20, 1951; that recording also features Mac Easton's baritone sax. Our personnel are as in Ruppli, except that he omits Ike Perkins. The guitarist is prominent on 'Take It Upstairs' and may be present on other tracks from this session (which remain unavailable; we hope they are still extant).
An Aladdin advertisement in Billboard, December 24, 1949, courtesy of Dan Kochakian. Note that Score 4009 is credited to Red Saunders instead of Bunky Redding. R&B singer Clarence Samuels recorded four tracks for in December 1947 with the 'Porter Kilmer' Orchestra.
Samuels and alto saxophonist Porter Kilbert were both from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; they almost certainly had worked together before this session. He had previously recorded for the company in early September with a band led by tenor saxophonist Dave Young. Two sides from the December session were released on Aristocrat 1003. A 78 in Dan Kochakian's collection indicates that the session was indeed led by Porter Kilbert. The drums are not well recorded on Aristocrat 1003, but the sax section sounds like the one Red was using at the time, so the possibility that this was an incognito Saunders appearance has to be taken seriously. From the collection of Tom Kelly 11. Clarence Samuels with Porter Kilmer's sic Orchestra Clarence Samuels (voc); Porter Kilbert (as, ldr); prob.
McKinley Easton (as); prob. Everett Gaines (ts); Leon Washington (ts); prob.
Earl Washington (p); prob. Jimmy Richardson (b); prob. Red Saunders (d). Universal Recording, Chicago, late December 1947 U-7120 Get Hep to Yourself Aristocrat 1002 ? U-7121 Coming Home Baby (Samuels) Aristocrat 1003A U-7122 Baseball Blues (Fenner) Aristocrat 1003B U-7123 Juana Aristocrat 1002 ?
Our information about this recording comes from Dan Kochakian, George R. White, and Tom Kelly. See our Aristocrat discography, for more about the recording and release dates. The lineup was identified by ear. Kilbert solos on 'Baseball Blues'; there are tenor saxophone solos on both sides ('Coming Home Baby' doesn't sound like Leon Washington, whereas 'Baseball Blues' could be his work). The four-man sax section sounds like the one Red Saunders was using at the time; the only thing missing is some baritone from Mac Easton.
Aristocrat 1003 was a single released in February 1948; no Aristocrat 1002 has turned up, but a release containing 'Get Hep to Yourself' and 'Juana' would fill a gap in the releases and remains a mild possibility. From the collection of Tom Kelly By this point, Red's band had attained its peak size and he was well used to the routine at the Club DeLisa: 'You know we'd have a line of gals—10, 12. Six or seven acts, variety show, dance, song, comedy, etc. Billy Eckstine, Baby Laurence, George Kirby, Lurlean Hunter, Joe Williams, Chippie Hill, Joe Turner. Breakfast show Sunday night (really Monday morning)—6:30 a.m., close at 8:30. But the Sunday matinee would start at 5 p.m.
So you'd go from 5 p.m. Sunday to 8:30 the next day.
And then you'd hang out till noon or go to another joint' (Hodes article, p. Charles Gray didn't make the recording sessions that called for a smaller unit, so we aren't quite sure when he left. But on the next session Fip Ricard (see below for a capsule bio) had definitely moved in. 'Red' Saunders and Orchestra Theodore 'Red' Saunders (d, ldr); Nick Cooper (tp); Fortunatus Paul 'Fip' Ricard (tp); Sonny Cohn (tp); Harlan 'Booby' Floyd (tb); John Avant (tb); Porter Kilbert (as); Everett Gaines (ts, as); Leon Washington (ts); McKinley Easton (bars); Earl Washington (p); Jimmy Richardson (b); George Floyd (voc); George Kirby (voc); Sonny Blount (arr -1). Chicago, December 15, 1948 SU-180 Trust in Me (Wever-Schwartz-Ager) GF voc -1 Supreme 1523-B SU-181 Synthesis (Ventura) ens voc -1 Supreme 1523-A SU-?
Unidentified title 'Synthesis' -1 Night Train International CD 7027 SU-? Legs Gettin' Bigger and Bigger GK, ens voc Night Train International CD 7013 We previously estimated December 1948 for the recording date, based on when George Floyd was working the DeLisa. Some sources give December 15, 1948 as the date, which would be a decent approximation in any event. Supreme 1523 was a 78 rpm single, released in April 1949; it was listed in Billboard on April 30, 1949 (p. 37) and reviewed there on May 7, 1949 (p. Our basic information comes from Leadbitter, Fancourt, and Pelletier, Blues Records 1943-1970, Vol.
2 (1994 edition). Thanks to Anthony Barnett for pointing out this listing, which doesn't mention the vocalist on 'Trust in Me' or the band scatting on 'Synthesis.' The Supreme labels give George Floyd's name. Floyd was a member of Fletcher Henderson band in residence at the Club DeLisa from Feburary 1946 through May 1947; he is advertised in the Chicago Defender of December 18, 1948 on the bill for a DeLisa show that included Red Saunders' band. Balladeer George Floyd (born in Pelham, Georgia, on July 17, 1912) came to Chicago from Los Angeles with Fletcher Henderson in 1946. Floyd implied in an interview with Charles Walton that all of his sides for Supreme were made in LA; however, there is no evidence that the Red Saunders band ever traveled to the West Coast—and such a trip in 1948 would have required a replacement band for at least a week at the DeLisa.
Floyd did travel to the West Coast later when he recorded four more sides for Supreme (matrix numbers SU-210 through SU-213) with a small group led by Henderson; Lord gives February to April 1949 as the date and LA as the location, which make sense because all of the other musicians were regulars on the LA scene. When his style of ballad singing went out of fashion in the early 1950s, George Floyd took a job with a Cadillac dealership. He died in Chicago on April 16, 2000. George Kirby was born in Chicago in June 8, 1923. A comedian known for his skill at impressions—including singing impressions—he was regularly included in Club DeLisa shows during the late 1940s. His recording debut was actually as a blues singer ('Ice Man Blues' with ).
According to his obituary in the Seattle Times, 'He was best known for impressions of stars such as Jerry Lewis, John Wayne, and Walter Brennan, and for his dead-on takes of women, notably Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.' Kirby was a local performer until 1952, when he arrived in Las Vegas with a Count Basie show. Kirby became a headliner in Vegas, and in the 1960s and 1970s made many appearances in widely watched TV venues such as the Ed Sullivan Show and the Tonight Show.
For one season, in 1972, he got his own show, Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour. He would be reunited with Red Saunders on a 1974 TV special. In 1977, Kirby sold cocaine and heroin to an undercover policeman and ended up serving 3 1/2 years in prison. Suffering from Parkinson's disease, he died in a Las Vegas nursing home on September 30, 1995. See his Wikipedia entry and 'George Kirby, Comedian Who Was 'Copycat' of Yesterday's Stars,' The Seattle Times, October 2, 1995. Leadbitter et al.' S listings for Red Saunders, like other mainstream discographies, do not give arranger credits.
They also make some noticeable mistakes. Fip Ricard is called 'Flip Richard' and John Avant goes as 'Joe Avant' throughout the Leadbitter entries. Ricard is often referred to as 'Flip' in discographies, though he was actually known as Fip, according to his interview in Jazz Monthly, February 1964. Fortunatus Paul Ricard, was born in Chicago on April 4, 1923, the son of Albion and Thelma Ricard. He benefited from the band instruction at Doolittle Elementary School and Wendell Phillips High School, and attended Roosevelt University (see 'Fip' Ricard,' Los Angeles Sentinel, July 11, 1996, p. Fip was in band in the early part of 1948, not long before he joined Red Saunders.
Chris Trent believes that 'Trust in Me' was arranged by Sonny Blount, and rlc concurs. The arrangement is very much like the arrangements for 'Hour of Parting' and other ballads from Sun Ra's Sound Sun Pleasure!!
'Synthesis' is an orthodox bebop number, written by Charlie Ventura during his 'bop for the people' phase. The evidence for Sonny Blount's involvement lies in the meticulous arch form: vocal ensemble-alto sax solo-trumpet solo-contrasting instrumental ensemble-tenor sax solo-baritone sax solo-vocal ensemble. Compare 'Super Blonde,' which was recorded by Sun Ra's 1956 Arkestra. The piece called 'Synthesis' on 1995 on Night Train International CD 7027, Music from and Inspired by Devil in a Blue Dress, is an entirely different performance—of a different piece! (The Night Train CD is a various-artists collection, issued in 1995; the other tracks are by Jimmy Witherspoon, Lowell Fulson, Johnny Otis, Charles Brown, Lloyd Glenn, Frantic Faye Thomas, etc.) The second 'Synthesis' is also a bop instrumental, but here the opening is martial trumpets answered by the drums, then a chorus led by the tenor and baritone saxes, with dissonant flourishes from the piano on the bridge.
The second chorus is mostly call and response between muted trumpets and the saxes. The third chorus features a baritone sax solo by Mac Easton. The fourth is a trumpet-dominated ensemble with more dissonant piano sprinkles; the final eight bars are a sax-led ensemble (that more than slightly resembles 1956 Sun Ra Arkestral scoring!), then a brief muted trumpet solo (probably by Fip Ricard), then a pretty typical bebop tag. 'Legs Gettin' Bigger and Bigger' was included in Night Train International CD 7013, Swing Time Jive, a various artists collection derived from the Down Beat, Swing Time, Exclusive, and Superior labels.
Other artists include Ray Charles, Joe Liggins, Mabel Scott, and the Basin Street Boys. The CD was released in 1995. The Night Train notes claim that 'Legs' was recorded in Los Angeles, but they also claim that the dates with Bunky Redding were cut in LA, so none of this ought to be taken too seriously. Presumably 'Legs' is from the same session as the others. There is no evidence that it was released at the time. The lead vocalist on this jivey number is not credited in any surviving documentation, but it sounds as though it was made for George Kirby.
'Legs' includes a trombone solo (probably by Johnny Avant) and an alto sax solo by Porter Kilbert. It has a typical smooth Saunders arrangement, no obvious signs of Sonny Blount.
For a couple of months in 1949, Red was absent from the Club De Lisa. Pat Harris' 'Chicago Band Briefs' column had 'Billie Holiday and Red Saunders, hopefully set to open March 8 for two weeks' at the Music Bowl, a Loop club that had taken over from the Latin Quarter ( Down Beat, March 25, 1949, p. But the Music Bowl, one of whose owners had just bailed out, wasn't doing so well, and we doubt the gig took place as planned (ambitiously scheduled future acts, like Charlie Parker, Louis Jordan, and Count Basie, did not play there). Chicago Defender advertisements have Red backing Illinois Jacquet, Savannah Churchill, King Odom, and others at the Regal Theater on May 6, 1949, while Tiny Bradshaw's band was doing the 'Easter Varieties' show at the DeLisa on April 30. It is not clear exactly when the adjustment took place, because Red often did not use all of his horns in the recording studio.
But at some point in 1949, the band settled on a trimmer alignment: 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 3 saxes, and rhythm. When Everett Gaines left the sax section, he apparently wasn't replaced. Red would keep this distribution for a number of years at the DeLisa (and when he put together big bands after 1968, it remained his preferred lineup). The next session has been listed in Bruyninckx (and successor publications, such as Tom Lord's Jazz Discography) for many years, but we overlooked it because we had no reason to suspect Red's involvement. (Our thanks to Dani Gugolz for alerting us to it.) Bruyninckx puts the session in New York City, but we lack evidence of Red taking an extended hiatus from the Club DeLisa in late January 1950. Billboard briefly noted that Capitol 'rhythm and blues head Dave Dexter is in Detroit to wax 'Sugar Chile' Robinson.' (February 4, 1950, p.
Detroit was a shorter train ride away. Also worthy of note is Sugar Chile's subsequent 2-week gig at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago (contract posted with Local 208 on March 2; the engagement ran from March 9 through 22, and even got a mention in Cash Box, March 25, 1950, p. In April 1950 another Billboard item on Robinson referred to 'Bouncing Ball Boogie' as 'the ditty penned especially for this mighty mite of dynamite by Sharon A. Pease, Chicago pianist and reporter for Down Beat magazine, who created numbers for disks by Julia Lee, Nellie Lutcher, and Two-Ton Baker.' Pease, who wrote frequently about Chicago-based musicians, may have had something to do with getting Red Saunders and Jimmy Richardson on the session.