When Jimmy Nelson recorded for RPM in 1951 he was backed by the Peter Rabbit Trio (1), which was at the time the house band at the Clef Club. “Then there was a Clef Club, that was owned by Wesley Smith. He was the brother of Stuff Smith. Wesley also played violins. Stuff Smith was one of your leading nationally known, internationally known black jazz violinists. Wesley Smith was his brother, and Wesley opened up the Clef Club, and they featured—oh, they featured different bands. I played down there after the war. I played down there for Sunday jam sessions under Ernie Lewis’s leadership. The guy that had the really long term engagement there was a fellow they called Peter Rabbit. He played organ, vibraphone, accordion, and piano, and he sang. He had a trio, keyboard, guitar, and bass. He sang also, and he was an excellent performer. He ended up in Sacramento. He passed away in Sacramento maybe five or six years ago.” (Earl Watkins , EARL T.WATKINS: JAZZ DRUMMER AND UNION OFFICIAL “Regional Oral History Office, University of California, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California [https://digitalassets.lib. berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/watins_earl.pdf]). The guitar and bass are identified as Junior Simmons and Robert Jackson respectively in the 1994 edition of Blues Records 1943-1970 and the real name of Peter Rabbit (piano/vibraphone) is given as Walter Grimes in the 2006 edition. I don't know what the ultimate source of these identifications may be, but suspect that Junior Simmons is actually Junius Simmons, the well-known Bay Area guitarist.
The earliest reference to the group in the Bay Area that I have found is in listings for its appearance at the Backstage Club on Powell Street in San Francisco (San Francisco Examiner August 18 1945 and San Francisco Chronicle August 24 1945). Things become more complicated with an ad in the Sacramento Bee of July 19 1947 for an appearance at the Zanzibar by the famed Peter Rabbit Trio with Mary De Pena which lists the personnel of the group as Peter Graham - Piano and Vibraphone, Warren Glenn - Bass and Cooper Gibson - Guitar. It was presumably the same group who appeared at the Zanzibar in October with Helen Wilson as vocalist (Sacramento Bee October 10 1947).
They were advertised to appear at the Colony Club (8th Street, near Cypress, Oakland) in the Oakland Tribune of November 8, 1947. In July 1948 the Alameda County Branch of the NAACP presented a programme which as well as national stars also included “local entertainers,” among them the Peter Rabbit Trio (Oakland Tribune July 23 1948) and in October 1949 (Oakland Tribune October 9 1949) a similar show included the Peter Rabbit Trio, and Helen Wilson, vocalist (note that she had appeared with the trio at the Zanzibar in October 1947).
.png)
October 13, 14 and 16 1950 saw the “Peter Rabbit trio, of broadcasting fame” appearing for the opening of Harvey’s Bar B-Q Restaurant and Lounge in San Rafael (Daily Independent Journal October 12 1950) while on October 15 of the same year an events guide in the San Francisco Chronicle October 15 1950 listed Billie Holiday with an All-Sepia Revue which included the Peter Rabbit Trio at the Longbar Showboat in San Francisco - the ad doesn’t indicate a specific date or dates. The same newspaper reported on March 19 1951 that “Mary Ann McCall is currently at the Cleff (sic) Club in Oakland with the Peter Rabbit Trio” and on July 1 that the Peter Rabbit Trio with Jimmy Nelson would be on a bill with the Lionel Hampton band in San Francisco. On October 12 1951 the Chronicle reported that Modern Records “also recorded Helen Humes in San Francisco recently with the Peter Rabbit Trio.” This can only refer to the session listed in Blues Records for October 4. 1952 saw the trio working in Oregon, opening at McClendon’s in Portland on March 27 and billed as “world famous” (Oregonian April 6 1952) and at the Melody Inn in Roseburg on April 29 (The News-Review April 26 1952). In the same year (according to The R & B Indies) the obscure San Francisco label, Skylight, issued a single by the Peter Rabbit Trio, coupling “Gay Cabaret” and “Jumping With Rabbit.” The following year produces only one reference, to a gig by “Peter Rabbit and his outstanding orchestra” at the Mo Mo Club in Sacramento (Sacramento Bee October 10 1953). Things become even more complicated in 1956 with a report in the Oakland Tribune of August 4 that “Peter Rabbit is doing the shake-rattle-n-roll on the organ at International Jug Club on San Pablo with Ed Young’s Quartet. He formerly had the Emanon Trio.” Yet on October 7 1956 the San Francisco Chronicle told its readers that “Drummer Bobby Ross, long a feature of the Slim Gaillard group, is now with the Peter Rabbit Trio at Ernie & Julie’s.”
%20(Peter%20Rab.png)
Back in 1945 the Kansas City Plaindealer reported on November 16 that “Peter Rabbit Trio, formerly of NYC and Dee Cee, in town [Hollywood] for a blind date.” A Peter Rabbit Trio is reported as appearing in New York at Club Bengazi (April and October 1944), at Cafe Society Downtown (June - July 1944 - the Pittsburgh Courier of June 24, 1944 speaks of "Peter Rabbit’s trio from Washington, D. C.") and at Tondelayos (Jan - Feb 1945). Now of the three musicians who were listed as members of the Peter Rabbit Trio in Sacramento I can find nothing of Peter Graham; Cooper Gibson may well be the Cooper Wesley Gibson whose draft card said he was born on October 11, 1918 in Boston Mass., was resident in Washington DC and was “own boss musician band leader”; and the 1930 Census lists a Warren Glenn, aged 19, “Musician, orchestra” in Bluefield WV. He might be the Warren Harrison Glenn who was born on December 19, 1910 in West Virginia and died in Sacramento on August 17, 1987. It seems unlikely that musicians from the other side of the States would have begun their careers on the West Coast and one might speculate that the trio which appeared in Sacramento may have been that which had appeared in New York. It seems clear in any case that in the years after the end of World War II there were two Peter Rabbit Trios in Northern California - but which was which on any particular occasion is for the most part difficult to say.
There were Emanon Trios in various parts of the States. The Bay Area version first surfaces in 1951, working at the Mardi Gras in Oakland from June to November and them moving to Fack’s in San Francisco. They were there from December 1951 to March 1952 and again from July to September 1952. The writer in the Oakland Tribune was a big fan, comparing them to the Ink Spots and the Nat King Cole Trio and writing (June 5 1951) that “Mardi Gras’ Emanon Trio boasts of a real musical background. More than 45 years of constant playing is the total for the three fellows. They can do a professional job on about any instrument.” In April 1952 they appeared at a fund-raiser in San Rafael; the reporter in the Daily Independent (April 26) was quite impressed: “The final spot was occupied by the Emanon Trio from San Francisco. They had all the “cats” jumping with their piano, guitar and bass arrangements for “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Blue Moon,” “Unforgettable” and others.” In 1953 they were on the road appearing at the Alibi Club in Reno for a two week stint in September, described by the Reno Evening Gazette of August 29 as “San Francisco television and radio artists.” In October they were at the Horizon in Great Falls Montana. “Direct from Exclusive San Francisco clubs” (Great Falls Tribune October 4) and later in the month at Raymond’s in Butte Montana (Montana Standard October 20). In late 1952 they recorded for the Swingtime label, issuing just one single (322), coupling “Mr. Johnnie Long Donn Is Dead” (composer credit to Gower-Warren) and “My Man Is Gone” (with vocal by Geneva Vallier).
.png)
.png)
.png)
Notes:-
(1) The liner notes to Ace CDCHD 976 (Jimmy "T-99 " Nelson - Cry Hard Luck) contain a photograph of the group.