Listening to Prestige 423: Tampa Red

These were Tampa Red's last recordings. He was 57 years old, and already not in good health, although he would live another twenty years. His best years may have been the late 1920s, when he moved to Chicago and teamed up with piano player Georgia Tom as The Hokum Boys. Hokum was a somewhat genre-bending form--there's country hokum as well as blues hokum--and its main characteristic is suggestive lyrics. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom can be said to have started the hokum craze with their 1928 hit, "It's Tight Like That." Georgia Tom, who had also been Ma Rainey's piano player and arranger, was pretty good at

writing dirty songs. In fact, he was very good. But when, a couple of years later, he got religion, reclaimed his birth name of Thomas A. Dorsey, and began writing hymns, he found his true calling, and wrote some of the most beloved songs in the American canon, including "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" and "Peace in the Valley."

Red remained in Chicago, playing the blues. He and Big Bill Broonzy formed the nucleus of the Chicago blues scene of the 1930s, but the 1930s were not a great time for the blues as a commercial venture. It was the Depression, and too many people had the blues. Still, they persevered, and became the elder statesmen of the 1940s Chicago blues scene. Red was known for helping out blues singers and musicians new in town, with a hot meal and a place to sleep. He had some successes, including a local  hit with "Black Angel Blues." written by the queen of seriously dirty blues, Lucille Bogan. But his life really fell apart in 1954, when his wife died, and he spent some time in mental institutions.
This recording doesn't display the bottleneck guitar wizardry of the performances from his prime, but his guitar work is still lovely. It does feature his kazoo, which he had first employed as a street singer in the 1920s. And it features a couple of his classic hokum songs, "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" and "It's Tight Like That." And it's a winning, endearing record.

It was recorded in Chicago, but beyond that, there's no record of where, or who supervised the recording. This, and one other Chicago session for Bluesville, marked the end of his career. He lived with a friend who took care of him until 1974, and after death he was in a nursing home until he died in poverty in 1981. Certainly not the only sad story in lives of blues greats, but our country and our culture owed these people so much more.

Listening to Prestige Vol. 2, 1955-56, and Vol. 3, 1957-58 now include, in the Kindle editions, links to all the "Listen to One" selections. All three volumes available from Amazon.

The most interesting book of its kind that I have ever seen. If any of you real jazz lovers want to know about some of the classic records made by some of the legends of jazz, get this book. LOVED IT.
– Terry Gibbs

EXPECT VOLUME 4, 1959-60, BY THE END OF THIS YEAR.