Champion Jack splits the states

Dupree with pianist Curtis Jones and some unknown guide

Champion Jack Dupree left America for Europe in 1959. According to possibly sketchy internet/liner note lore, he made the decision to move to Europe when he went to the UK for his first appearances there. Apparently a customs officer called him "sir" and that token of respect was what sealed his decision.  Whether that tale is apocryphal or not, it's pretty clear from his recordings that his decision was based on the superior treatment and lack of racial segregation that he faced in the states.

His famous quote about racism, repeated many times in many variations in concert, goes like this:  "When you open up a piano, you see freedom.  Nobody can play the white keys and don't play the black keys.  You got to mix all these keys together to make harmony."

The first two albums Jack recorded in Europe were his 2nd and 3rd Atlantic LPs, Champion of the Blues & The Natural and Soulful Blues.  Champion, which is a solo LP and a fascinating record, contains a number of songs expressing his sorrow over the treatment of blacks in the US.  They were recorded in Denmark, and Jack was delighted to be there.  He even says, in "Daybreak Stomp" (which bears very little relation to the Mr. Bear song of the same title from his King era) that if he could live his life over, he'd stay in Copenhagen. In the liner notes to Champion of the Blues he describes his sense of what the blues meant to the people of the South.  

"You can go in them little country towns and hear the juke box playin' all night, nothin' but the blues. That satisfies their mind. That's the only thing that'll ease their minds, 'cause they're not happy people. Nobody in the South, in the line of colored people, is happy."

Jack eventually moved to Switzerland, then Denmark, the UK (where he got married for the third time),   then Sweden, and finally Germany. He'd record dozens of records while in Europe, and many of them would have songs expressing how happy he was to be out of the states.

There are numerous examples of Jack's sorrow over the condition of race relations in the states, including his eulogy to Martin Luther King and a sorrowful live cut called "Black and White Blues" (where he actually tells his European audience that they should be psyched to be white, making him one of the ballsiest of the blues revivalists of the late 60s playing to white college kids with romantic ideas of southern poverty).

Two non-youtoobabble examples I'll leave you with are the terribly sad "Poor Poor Me" and "I'm Happy to Be Free".  "Poor Poor Me" was cut in the Mid-60s for the first of his "jam with the popular British guitarists album", From New Orleans to Chicago, which featured John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and T.S. McPhee.  "I'm Happy to Be Free" was cut for a relaxed Mickey Baker session in the late 60s and appeared on the GNP LP of the same name.

Jack would not return to the states until the late 80s, when he recorded a couple of albums for Rounder in New Orleans.  He died in Germany in 1992.

"Poor Poor Me"
"I'm Happy to Be Free"
More thoughts on Copenhagen on "Roll Me Over Roll Me Slow"

Champion Jack Dupree: I want all you folks to gather around this jukebox . . .

In 1956 Jack packed up his piano and moved over to RCA subsidiary Groove/Vik, where he continued to rack up the classic 7" platters.  His only 45 on Groove was a sequel to "Walkin' the Blues".  This time Jack is joined on his walk - and his retreat from mother-in-laws* - with Teddy "Mr. Bear" McRae, I guess figuring with Mr. Bear's radar they'll remain undetected as they clip and clop.

Dupree's guitarists for his Groove/Vik recordings are Mickey Baker and Larry Dale (who, under his real name, Ennis Lowrey, would play a key role in Dupree's next LP (post coming Monday!)).  Only the recordings with Dale got issued on 45, although there is very strong material from some sessions with Baker as well.  Dupree and Baker also backed Dale up on some great Groove records - that label kept it in the family.

Everything that CJD cut for Vik and Groove is available, for those of us who like it flat and round, on the excellent Charly LP Shake Baby Shake, which has a whopping 16 previously unreleased tunes from various Dupree sessions and is a solid winner of a purchase even if you don't normally sweat such stuff as (shudder) LPs or (shriek) reissues.

Lotsa killer, some filler

The Vik/Groove recordings basically build on the King formula, with slightly better production values (they were now working for a major label that cared about fidelity, as opposed to, oh, King) and a slight nod in to the teen market. There are some weird ones in the unreleased tunes, including the wild, echoey "Wrong Woman" and a vocal duet with Baker, "Women Trouble Again". Both have killer breaks. Beware, though, the fade on "Women Trouble" makes for a real tease.

Thanks, 9th Ward Jukebox!

There's even some unusual material on the real 45s - "Lollipop Baby", for instance, with its Mule Train cries, yakety sax and the clickety-clack square dancey beat is almost country. Dupree acknowledges this on an alternate vocal version of this song, which is not about lollipops but does advise the listener to change partners. I think the lollipop thing was one of those teen concessions I was talking about earlier.

if youtube ever takes you out I'ma have to entirely redo this month!

But the best cut that CJD laid down for Vik/Groove, and my choice for either tie or winner-by-a-nose in the #1 CJD dance floor killer 45 is a song so wild and profound that Bob Seger should wake up every morning and apologize to it for forever desecrating its name, "Old Time Rock and Roll".  

Let's get with it!

The song itself is a variation on "Pinetop's Boogie". He first cut it as "Johnson Street Boogie Woogie" for Joe Davis in 1945, and would return to it several times throughout his career. But nothing quite compares to this.The very notion that there was such a thing as "old time rock and roll" in 1957 must have seemed odd, but as Jack explains at the outset, "We've been doing this since 1929. But the disc jockeys and the teenagers just heard it!"

This hard, real truth is quickly abandoned for one of the most surreal, confusing instructional dance record (a la the Madison) I've ever heard.*  CJD tells you he's going to give you the instruction, and what to do when you get it, but he never actually gives the command!  We're supposed to say stop when he says hold it, rock and roll when he says rock and roll, but he never bothers to say either. I guess he figured if the girl in the white socks couldn't handle it she didn't deserve to either rock and roll OR to hold it.*  

Whereas "Shim Sham Shimmy" gains most of its power from its guitars, "Old Time" is all about the drums, the piano and the crazy stuff Jack is saying. And Gene Moore's drums. The drummers on all of Jack's Vik recordings is either Willie Jones or Gene Moore, and even more than the guitar players they are the secondary stars of the sessions.

And just because I can't quit, here's a couple of Larry Dale solo cuts, backed by Dupree and Mickey Baker.  Both were unissued by Groove in the 50s.  Enjoy.

*

*A few words about Dupree and mother-in-laws.  Nobody this side of Ernie K-Doe made more musical hay about the notion of the bossy, fear-inducing mother-in-law than Jack Dupree. I was going to, at one point, post a compendium of every Dupree track that mentioned his mother-in-law troubles, but I gave it up.  As they say in bad e-Bay/Craig's List record lot auctions, "too many to list." Anyway, considering that Jack was on mother-in-law rants since way back in the 40s and K-Doe didn't have his hit 'til '61, I think it's safe to say that's yet another way he had a profound influence on New Orleans music. 

* Then again, I can't do the "Clapping Song" so maybe I am just instructionally challenged. 

*To continue with the theme of Jack's left hand, the break he throws down right after he says "Last time now" is one of his most thrillingly chaotic.

*word to the wise - even though these cuts were not issued originally (they do appear on the Charly LP Still Groove Jumping), Jazzman released the above cuts as a 45 as a part of their Jukebox Jam series.  

Champion Jack Dupree's King sides be walkin' upside your head

Champion Jack really changes his musical style for his run of singles on the King label.  The intensity is significantly lessened - the rollicking groove of the Red Robin recordings becomes much more of a laid back stroll. There is far more space between instruments, and both he and his accompanists play with far more restraint and deliberation. The overall effect is a real "uptowning" of his musical sound.

In direct contrast to this musical style change for the "sophisticated" is CJD's vocal persona and songwriting. These are the first recordings where the hick persona and folksy, spoken-word storytelling style come front and center. He rarely sings on his King recordings, instead musing and making asides, jokes and observations while the music grooves. To make matters even more bizarre, on about half of his King records he affects/perfects his "harelip" voice - a slurred, diffi-oot oo unnuhsan bit of jive that was apparently quite popular with record buyers at the time.  

the harelippiest

The end result of all of these changes is one of the most unique series of blues 45s I know about, most of which are collected on the strangely coherent Champion Jack Dupree Sings the Blues, his first full-length LP.

"Chew it up to the elbow, boy!"

Part of the change in sound is because of a change in the band, namely the guitar player.  Jack and Brownie McGhee had already moonlit for King, unsurprisingly, as a collective persona named "Big Tom Collins" (I assume they had plenty of big Tom Collins when they came up with that name).  McGhee would sing on some of the sides, Dupree on the other. While the vocal style of "Watchin' My Stuff" is a lot like the recordings he'd do under his own name at King, soundwise the band is pure Red Robin.  

1951

vs.

1955

By the time he starts recording as CJD for King in 1953, Brownie McGhee has lit out for good with Sonny Terry to do his own thing. His replacement, on about half of the King sessions, was the world's greatest rock and roll session guitarist, fellow orphan and future fellow ex-pat Mr. Mickey Baker!

Mickey and Jack in the 60s

Baker's hepcat, cool New York persona infuses just about every record he ever set his strings to, and it sounds particularly great with Dupree's primitive style. In fact, Baker really reigns himself in on these recordings, laying down a far less wild style of playing than he would with, for instance, another r&b vet he recorded with in the 50s, Louis Jordan for LJ's Mercury sessions. Mickey and Jack sound particularly fantastic together on the rather hilarious "Mail Order Woman".

Thank you Mr. Sears and Roebuck!

The King records are also significant in that it's the first time you can really hear Jack's foot on a record, particularly "Walking the Blues".  I've already mentioned the similarities between CJD and that other great blues footist, John Lee Hooker.  But while John Lee's foot is generally all Detroit drive, CJD's is New Orleans mellow. For a man with such pounding hands, CJD sure had a sly, subtle stomp.*

hey hey hey - keep on walkin, baby!

I love the King recordings and even though I could find something self-evident to say about just about all of them I'll spare you that. But I have to talk about one more, the King version of "Stumbling Block". 

Unlike Jack's other great dance 45s, which drag the dancers onto the floor with sheer drive and force, this version of "Stumbling Block" is all slow burn, mounting tension and slyness, underlined by the fantastic Baker guitar hook that builds and builds until he finally breaks it up with a fantastic, oddly abstract solo. Result = totally sexy dance track.

Dupree and Baker obviously had a real connection, and they recorded again together in Europe in the 1960s. We'll get to that in due course.  

*It has come to my attention that Mr. Bear is actually the foot on Walkin' the Blues