Mamie Smith/ The Jazz Hounds at Okeh Records
The seventh 1922 post for our annual celebration of Black History Month.
One hundred years ago today … Two years after first recording for Okeh Records, Mamie Smith was back again at the Okeh Phonograph Corporation’s studio at 25 West 45th Street. Or was she? The two sides recorded by Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds on February 14, 1922–“The Decatur Street Blues” and “Carolina Blues”–are both instrumentals.
That said, Smith is known to have “hand-picked” the Jazz Hounds along with Perry Bradford, her business and music collaborator. She likely had a role in arranging the session.
Photo variously dated 1920, 1921. Standing Left to right: Ernest Elliot, Dope Andrews, Addington Major, Leroy Parker, seated at the piano: Willie "The Lion" Smith. Courtesy Epic Road Trips.
Note: we extensively featured Smith’s landmark 1920 recordings for Okeh in posts about February 11 and 14 and August 10 and November 23 of that year.
Click the image below to listen to “Decatur Street Blues.”
Discogs.com.
Listen to CAROLINA BLUES by Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds.
Smith and her group toured the US extensively in 1922, sometimes as part of a lineup called “Mamie Smith’s All-Star Jazz Revue.”
The Buffalo Times, 24 April, 1922, p. 10. Newspapers.com.
– Jonathan Goldman, Feb 14, 2022
TAGS: Black history, African American women, Blues, jazz, music, records, Harlem Renaissance, singer, instrumentals