SLIM JENKINS
Part Three
In this section I add notes on some of the less well-known artist who appeared at Slim Jenkins'. Those who do not appear here are either too well-known for it to be neccesary to say anything about them or so obscure that I have been unable to find out anything about them.
On Adrian Ames see http://www.queermusicheritage.com/f-ames-adrian.html.
The Oakland Post Photograph Collection has a photograph of the Joe Alcorn Trio and I suspect he is to be identified with the Joe Lee Alcarn who backed Pee Wee Crayton on one of his GruVTone records. He may be Joseph Lee Alcorn, born Fort Worth TX on February 5 1916 or 1917 and died in San Bernardino on December 1 1987. He was a school teacher when he retired.
On Tippy Alexander listen to the interview (over an hour long) at https://archive.org/details/copl_000062.
The Independent (Long Beach CA) of March 9 1972 described Leon Bryant as “a newcomer, who is a terrific vocalist and drummer. Leon does impressions of celebrity entertainers that stop the show cold. He offers Nat King Cole, the Ink Spots, Louis Armstrong, Jerry Lewsi, Walter Brennan and Billy Eckstein.” He may be the local entertainer of this name who appeared in a NAACP event in Oakland in 1948 (The Oakland Tribune July 23 1948) and recorded in Oakland for the Ray label in 1952. He might be Leon Owen Bryant who was born in Alameda on February 15 1926 and died on September 28 2007.
I have dealt with Roy/Leroy Felts elsewhere on this website.
Finny Mo is, I take it, not the Finney Mo from Texas who recorded a number of singles in the fifties and sixties and died in the early eighties, but the man who was inducted into the Oakland Blues Hall of Fame in 1991 and appears in a photo on p. 174 of Ishmael Reed, Blues City: A Walk in Oakland (2003).
Emily Foster
Emily Foster “hails from Springfield, Mass., and started her professional career as a hometown favorite and solid click at the exclusive Paddock restaurant in Springfield. She later toured the southland during World War II with Buster Campbell USO unit, and following a short stint at the staid Tic Toc restaurant, Boston, she appeared and stopped the show regularly at the Opollo (sic) theatre in 1945 with the Cootie Williams band. She’s a terrific entertainer, and handles the Mistress of Ceremonies spot at the Last Word with class personifying the peak of perfection. She sings. She dances. She does just about everything in the way of downright solid entertainment.” (The California Eagle March 11 1948). Between 1945 and 1957 she was enormously popular, appearing all over the States, from Alaska to Texas, from Virginia to Las Vegas and Honolulu. She was a regular visitor to the Bay Area, featuring at the California Club in San Francisco and the Swing Club in Fresno in 1947, at the Cafe Lido in San Francisco and Mardi Gras in Oakland in 1949, at the “It” Club in El Cerrito in 1951 and in 1955, for several long runs at the Mo-Mo Club in Sacramento in 1952-3 and 1956. After 1957 she returned to Massachusetts and performed almost exclusively in the state, mainly in Springfield and Boston, with one trip to Winnipeg in 1965 and a visit to Vietnam in 1971. She is probably to be identified with Emily Constance Gertrude Foster who was born in Springfield on June 14, 1919 and died on September 14, 2007.
Bonnie Graham is something of a puzzle. The Los Angeles Tribune of September 19 1958 reported that “Bonnie Graham, a young song stylist who couldn’t get started in the Angel City, is packing Slim Jenkins nightly. She is the talk of the town.” Prior to her appearance at Slim Jenkins’ she had been at Facks II (Oakland Tribune December 10 1958) and she also appeared at the Side Door (Oakland Tribune May 12 1963). We may reasonably assume that this is the artist who recorded a single with the Fats Gaines orchestra for Christy in 1958. A singer of the same name recorded an LP for the Chess subsidiary Argo in Chicago in 1962 and probably a single for Sure Shot in 1966. In the liner notes to the Argo LP Ralph Bass says “Born LaVerne Buckner in St. Louis, she won a talent show and a trip to New York, where she appeared at the “Baby Grand” and emerged as Bonnie Graham.” The Amsterdam News records appearances at the Baby Grand in October 1966 and February and December 1968 (though nothing as early as 1962). On January 8 1960 the Buffalo Courier advertised Bonnie Graham “Formerly with the Louie Jordan Trio” and on May 20 1960 the Salamanca (NY) Republican Press advertised the appearance at the Brook Club of “Bonnie Graham Recording Artist.” A Laverne Buckner is recorded in the 1940 Census as aged 5 and resident in St. Louis, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of April 5 1957 advertises at the Blue Note “Laverne Buckner Direct from Cotton Club in New York.” Bonnie Graham on the song-poem label Preview was a pseudonym for a white singer called Charlotte Ann Matheny. RCA Victor 57-1018, issued in 1969, couples “Fun City U.S.A. Part 1 and 2” by Tony Lawrence & Bonnie Graham - it does not seem likely to be relevant to the present discussion. The evidence suggests, without proving, that there were in fact two black singers working under the name Bonnie Graham - the west coast one who appeared at Slim Jenkins’ and the St. Louis-born one who worked mainly in the east.
On Leomine Gray see elsewhere on this website.
Drummer Victor Green (also known as Big Vick Hammond) was born Victor Leonard in New Orleans on April 4 1932. On him see Alec Palao’s liner notes to BGP CDBGPD 232 (Street Sounds from the Bay Area: Music City Funk & Soul Grooves 1971-75). I don’t know when he moved to the Bay Area but his appearance at Slim Jenkins’ is the earliest I have found. He died on May 1 2003.
A full account of Lil Greenwood can be found in Opal Louis Nations' liner notes to Ace CDCHD 874 (Lil Greenwood: Walking and Singing the Blues)
Rita Grenae
Vocalist Rita Grenae, who was advertised as singing in eight languages, is a biographical mystery (the name was probably a stage name). Her career in the States ran from 1942 to 1959 and she appears to have performed in Finland in 1961. The high point probably came in 1946 when she appeared at the Apollo as singer with Roy Eldridge's big band. She is also said to have worked with Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington, but I have found no evidence for this. Prior to her appearance at Slim Jenkins' she did a stint from March to May 1953 in the Mo Mo Club in Sacramento.
Al Harrison
I know nothing of his biography. He recorded for Bob Geddins' Big Town label in 1954 with backing by Que Martin's band and for Anika in 1959. He may well be the Alfred Harrison who recorded one side of an un-numbered single for Delcro in 1953, also with Que Martin.
The Imperials with lead singer Tony Bartlett recorded for Sue in 1964 but I know nothing more about them.
On The Intervals, a vocal group, see http://doo-wop.blogg.org/intervals-2-c26504386.
Rubin Kerr is presumably the same man who in the early eighties played drums on the LPs TJ TJ-1054 (Mississippi Delta Blues Band) and TJ-1056 (San Francisco Blues Band).
On Freddie McWilliams see Douglas Henry Daniels, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and Cultural History of Black San Francisco (1990) 171-2, 180. Tom Stoddard, Jazz on the Barbary Coast (1982) 144 has a photo of him with the Wes Peeples Orchestra.
Dell Matthews was a pseudonym for Dell Graham. Better known nowadays as the mother of Larry Graham, bass player with the Family Stone and founder of Graham Central Station, Dell Graham has a long career in music as pianist and vocalist. She appears to have been born as Emma Dell Lee in Beaumont TX in 1925 and was still there in 1946 when Larry was born. However when he was about three the family moved to Oakland, where he was largely raised by his grandmother because Dell often worked internationally. In 1951-2 she recorded with Johnnie Ingram and his Rhythm Czars for Ollie T. Hunt who sold the sides for issue on Modern [released September 1951] and in duets with Lowell Fulson on Swing Time [issued late 1952]. In October 1952 she appeared at the York Club in Eureka as a member of Charley Whitfield’s band along with drummer Rabon Tarrant. She recorded with Que Martyn for Delcro in 1953 and for Big Town in about 1954 and spent some time in Hawaii in the later fifties as Martyn’s vocalist. She returned to Oakland in about 1960 and formed a trio with Larry on bass and first Ruben Kerr, then “Pinky” on drums; later she dropped the drums and they worked as a duo until he left to join Sly Stone. Evidence of her career thereafter is sparse but we may assume that she continued to work either with a trio or as a solo act. The Oakland Tribune provides evidence for her appearance in 1961 at the Village in San Francisco and for residencies at Patty’s in Oakland (February-March 1977) and the Oakland House (April-July 1977) along with a couple of weeks at Catrina’s in Hayward in June of the same year. To judge from the ads her trio at the Oakland House was an all female outfit. After that I have found nothing until her death on April 18, 1987.
Pee Wee Parham was born Alvin Maurice Parham in Holly Springs AR on September 30 1931 or 1932 and died on September 4 2002 in San Jose. In the early fifties he played guitar in Jimmy McCracklin’s band, recording a single with them for Flair in 1954. Soon after he formed his own band, “His All Stars,” with whom he appeared in Slim Jenkins’. Sugar Pie DeSanto, to whom he was married, joined the band and they worked steadily from 1957-9 and recorded for Jody, Rhythm, Aladdin, Music City and Veltone. For some reason Parham changed his stage name to Pee Wee Kingsley towards the end of that period. In July 1960 he was arrested and charged with robbing three banks and stealing two cars (Oakland Tribune July 22 and 24 1961). He was brought to trial in December and found guilty (Oakland Tribune December 12 and 20), but I have not discovered what sentence he was given. He does not appear to have resumed his musical career afterwards.
Tommy Mosley’s career began in 1955 with success on Horace Heidt’s talent show which he was urged to enter by his friends at the Midway Inn in Fort Worth where he was working as a waiter. This led to his first recordings, for Duke Robey’s Peacock label, and a career which lasted until the late sixties and included recordings for various labels (Arvee, Rik, Moonglow, Uptown, Era, Hooks), none of which appear to have been especially successful. It would seem that the artist of the same name who recorded for Apollo in 1949 and 2 Mikes in 1954 cannot be the same man.
On Gladys Palmer see http://campber.people.clemson.edu/miracle.html. She appeared regularly in Bay Area Clubs from the late forties to the late sixties
Pierce & Pierce were an obscure comedy duo; an ad in The Fresno Bee of October 24 1953 described them as "Sensational Comedy And Dance Team.”
Drummer Jimmy Raney was a band leader in the Bay Area in the fifties and early sixties. As Jimmy Raney and his Rhythmaires he put out a couple of instrumentals (“Carburation” and “Olivia”) on Music City in 1958 and over a year later two vocal sides from the same period (“Blues All Around My Bed” and “Baby Called On the Telephone”) came out on Music City, credited simply to Jimmy Raney. His only other recordings were on a Jo-Dee single issued in 1962 on which (as Jimmie Raney) he backed vocals by Sally Bennett and Slim Slaughter. He had a long residency at Slim Jenkins’ club in 1956-7 and “Jimmie Raney the Mad Drummer and his recording band featuring Charles Fitzpatrick Sensation of the Juke Boxes” appeared at Club Mondre in January 1957. In March 1958 Jimmy Rainey (America’s Wildest Drummer Man!) and his Rhythm Ears were at the Broken Arrow. In Blues & Rhythm 296 (February 2015) 19 Chris Bentley reports that Dave Penny has discovered that “Raney was the songwriting and performing pseudonym for one Joe DeHorney (hence Jo-Dee), born in Oklahoma on Christmas Day 1916, who died on 25th October 1966 in Alameda.” I can add that he served in the US Army in World War II and is buried in Golden Gate Cemetery. City Directories show him resident in Oakland in 1953 and 1955.
It seems reasonably certain that the artist advertised as L. C. Robertson was in fact the well-known Bay Area guitarist and singer L. C. Robinson.
Of Faye Ross I know very little. She made two records for the Los Angeles-based Round and Trevor labels in 1964 and 1967 respectively and I have found ads for appearances at Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley in 1960 and in Los Angeles in 1969. It is claimed on several websites that she is the same person as Faye Carol but since Faye Carol in her official website (https://www.fayecarol.com) says that her first record was Hit 6114 recorded in 1967 this appears unlikely.
Lord Essex Scott was a vocalist, who worked and recorded with Earl Hines in 1945-6, recorded (as Lord Essex) for King in 1947, joined the Ink Spots in 1953 soon after his Oakland appearance and was still with them in 1960 when he died in a boating accident. See https://www.vocalgroupharmony.com/Margie.htm and Jim Goggin, Earl Watkins: The Life of a Jazz Drummer (2005) 54.
Sims & Keller: The Akron (OH) Beacon Journal of August 16 1953 has an ad for "Dickie Sims & Keller Emcees - Dancing - Comedy" and The Terre Haute [Indiana] Tribune of October 28 1953 advertises "The Sims & Keller Sensational and Sexational Singing, dancing and Comedy Team that has played in the finer spots along the East Coast." A photo of the duo can be found in Sights and Sounds: Essays in Celebration of West Oakland (1997) 321.
Jimmy Slydo was a tap dancer who appears to have chosen his stage name to permit himself to be confused with the well-known dancer Jimmy Slyde.
On jazz singer Mary Stallings see her website http://marystallingsjazz.com.
Tenor saxophonist Elsie (sometimes Elcy) Smith had by the time she was nineteen in 1952 been hired by Lionel Hampton, after a stint with Frances Grey's Queens of Rhythm. She stayed with Hamp until 1953 and then went out on her own, leading a quartet including Rabon Tarrant. By the end of 1956 she was back with Hampton, staying until 1958, appearing in the film "Mister Rock and Roll" (1957) and recording one LP with him (1958). In 1959-60 she worked with a band led by Wilene Barton and herself and in 1963 she was in the Pacific entertaining the troops in Japan and Taiwan. Her appearance at Slim Jenkins' in 1964 may have led to her only recording under her own name on the Open label in late 1964. After this things seem to have gone down hill and the last information I have on her comes from 1966-7 when she was in Honolulu, performing as "The only topless saxophonist in town!"
Ralph Smith. An organist of this name recorded with Illinois Jacquet for Argo in 1963, but I have no idea if this was the same man who played in Slim Jenkins'.
Hernandez Strane was born in Oakland on October 20 1923. He briefly achieved national fame in 1937 when newspapers all over the country carried the story that ”Thirteen-year-old Hernandez Strane of Oakland, Cal., can play a “solo duet” on a trombone and piano. An invention by his father enables him to operate the trombone slide by a foot treadle, leaving his hands free.” Graduating from McClymonds High in 1941 he intended to read music in San Francisco State but the war intervened and after a spell in the shipyards he joined the army in 1943 and served to the end of the war. The Rising Star Gospel Singers performed in the Oakland Auditorium on May 9 1947 in aid of the handicapped and The Oakland Tribune of May 6 reported that “The concert will feature Wiley H. Strane and Hernandez Strane, billed as the world’s first “pedipulating brass unit.” Wiley Strane, inventor of the “pedipulating device, explains that it is a method of operating the pistons or valves of brass instruments by the use of foot pedals and is used in rehabilitation of armless war veterans and other handicapped persons. Wiley Strane plays the trumpet in this manner, and his son, Hernandez Strane, plays the piano with his hands and the trombone with his feet.” He re-enlisted for the Korean War from 1950 to 1952 and died in Berkeley on May 30 1972. His appearance at Slim Jenkins’ is the only professional performance of which I have found evidence.
Al Tanner was born Albert John Tanner in San Antonio TX on September 19 1930. He "began playing saxophone when he was 14 and went on the road with a big band when he was 18. He joined the army in 1949 and played with Special Services Division dance bands in the U.S. and Germany. On his return to civilian live [in 1953] he came to Oakland where he attended the Candell Conservatory for several terms. After a year in Sacramento with the Encores Quartet, Tanner returned to the Bay Area where he played piano with C. C. Pinkston's nine-piece band. Subsequently Tanner formed his own octet and at present has a trio. He is employed by the recreation department as a music specialist" (Oakland Tribune March 1 1964). He recorded an LP for the Touché label with his Quintet in 1967 and a single on Tymo in 1979 (said to be from an album but I cannot discover that the album was ever issued). He died on March 26 2009.
Guitarist and singer Reggie Taylor recorded a single for Red Fire in Oakland in 1964 and another for Boss-Town in Boston in 1968; see http://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/T/reggie_taylor/index.php. I have no biographical information.
Cordella Thornton was later (and better) known as Cordella De Milo. On her see my article "The Cardella Di Milo Story," Blues & Rhythm 232 (September 2008) 10-11.
Sacramento-based organist Leo Valentine usually worked with sax and drums in a trio format; on him see Jim Payne, Give the Drummers Some! (1996) 189-190.
Vernon & Jewel. On Vernon Garrett see David Nelson, "Vernon Garrett: Hip and Happy," Living Blues (August 1994) 48-51; Sebastian Danchin, "Standing at the Crossroads: Vernon Garrett," Voices from the Shadows 22 (1995) 4-7; Steve Propes, "Vernon Garrett," Blues & Rhythm 177 (March 2003) 16-18; Colin Dilnot, "Vernon Garrett," In The Basement 34 (May-July 2004) 40-46. Jewel Whittiker was his first wife, whom he married in 1958, and who died in 1968. They were resident in the Bay Area in the early sixties.
Homer "Chuck" Walker was a drummer (and vocalist) who played on records by Ivory Joe Hunter and Vivianne Greene in 1945-7. Photos of him can be found in Sights and Sounds: Essays in Celebration of West Oakland (1997) 316 and 323.
On Earl Watkins see Jim Goggin, Earl Watkins, The Life of a Jazz Drummer (2005).
Ford and Jazzbo Williams. Jazzbo Williams was active in vaudeville as early as 1926 and teamed with Larry Ford for many years. The Reno Evening Gazette of December 12 1962 reported that “Headliners for more years than they want to admit, Ford & Williams, international comedy stars, have the distinct advantage of being able to recall most any tune that listeners want to hear, plus their fast moving patter with song, dance and comedy in tested routines. Larry Ford and Eddie “Jazzbo” Williams have been in the star category for more than half a century and are familiar figures to the fans of the Jack Benny show and the Amos & Andy schedules.”
The Zeniths were, I presume, the vocal group who recorded an LP "Makin' the Scene" (Atlantic 8043) in 1961. They were Hedy Lamar, Miriam Hodges, Mel Dancy and Frank Walker.
