An Encyclopedia of South Carolina Jazz & Blues Musicians

Benjamin Franklin

• Editore: University of South Carolina Press
• Anno: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781611176223
• Argomento: Media & Performing Arts
• Categoria: Music Theory & Appreciation

This comprehensive A-to-Z reference is "an impressive contribution to jazz history and surprisingly good reading" (Michael Ullman, author of Jazz Lives ). This informative book documents the careers of South Carolina jazz and blues musicians from the nineteenth century to the present. The musicians range from the renowned (James Brown, Dizzy Gillespie), to the notable (Freddie Green, Josh White), the largely forgotten (Fud Livingston, Josie Miles), the obscure (Lottie Frost Hightower, Horace "Spoons" Williams), and the unknown (Vince Arnold, Johnny Wilson). Though the term "jazz" is commonly understood, if difficult to define, "blues" has evolved over time to include R&B, doo-wop, and soul. Performers in these genres are also represented, as are members of the Jenkins Orphanage bands of Charleston. Also covered are nineteenth-century musicians who performed what might be called proto-jazz or proto-blues in string bands, medicine shows, vaudeville, and the like. Organized alphabetically, from Johnny Acey to Webster Young, the entries include basic biographical information, South Carolina residences, career details, compositions, recordings as leaders and as band members, films, awards, websites, and lists of resources for additional reading. Former host of Jazz in Retrospect on NPR Benjamin Franklin V has ensured biographical accuracy to the greatest degree possible by consulting numerous public documents, and information in these records permitted him to dispel myths and correct misinformation that have surrounded South Carolina's musical history for generations. "Elucidates South Carolina as a profoundly crucial puzzle piece alongside New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City and New York." —Harry Skoler, professor, Berklee College of Music Includes photos

A

Acey, Johnny (John Acey Goudelock; “Johnny Chef”)

Singer

3 September 1925 (probably Cherokee County, S.C., in or near Gaffney)–19 February 2009 (Macon, Ga.)

S.C. residence: Cherokee County, including Draytonville (probably 1925–at least until 1952)

During his S.C. years Goudelock sang with the Harmonizing Jubilee Singers. After settling in Jamaica, N.Y., in the 1950s, he worked as a cook for the N.Y.C. school system. As Johnny Acey he recorded off and on from 1958 to 1974 for such labels as Arrow, D.J.L., Falew (with his group, the Fingerpoppers), Fire (as Johnny Chef, a name indicating his profession), Fling, Smog City (with the Esquires Ltd.), and Stang. His recordings are included in compilations released by Charly, Funky Delicacies, and Past Perfect. Among his songwriting collaborators were Clarence L. Lewis, noted for having written “Ya Ya,” and producer and record company owner Sylvia Robinson. He performed with the Rockaway Revue of Jamaica, N.Y., and with the Black Spectrum Theatre Company. Around 2004 he moved to Macon, Ga., where he died. He is buried in Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Milledgeville, Ga.

Johnny Acey; permission of Joanie G. Hunter

Acey was a half brother of harmonicaist Sharon Goudelock. Their surname is sometimes spelled Goudlock or Gowdlock. The spelling used in the singer’s obituaries and on Acey’s army enlistment form, as well as in the Social Security Death Index, which provides the birth date, has been adopted here. Sources identify Goudelock’s birthplace as Gaffney, or near Gaffney, as do people who knew the singer. He was enumerated for the census on 11 April 1930 in Draytonville, about four miles from Gaffney. His obituary in the Gaffney Ledger states that he was born and reared in Cherokee County, which includes Gaffney and Draytonville. Though his daughter, Joanie G. Hunter, reported in a 2010 telephone conversation that he was born in Timber Ridge (York County), S.C., and was reared in Jonesville (Union County), S.C., this information has not been confirmed. When enlisting in the army on 1 December 1945 at Fort Benning, Ga., Goudelock indicated that he resided in Cherokee County, worked as a cook, and completed his education in grammar school; he attained the rank of TEC 5. He applied for a Social Security card in 1952 in S.C., where he presumably resided. Acey’s recordings have been offered for sale on a CD-R as My Home: The Complete Recordings! Acey is sometimes confused with jazz pianist Johnny Acea.

Compositions

“Chicken Shack,” “Christmas Keeps On Coming,” “The Greatest Is You,” “Hungry for Affection,” “I Can’t Stop Moving,” “I’m Leaving,” “It Wasn’t Me,” “I’ve Got the Blues,” “Let’s Make Love,” “Love Stay Away,” “My Home,” “Nobody’s Woman,” “Please Don’t Go,” “Say, Oh Yes,” “Stay Away Love,” “Tears,” “This Town,” “Watchman,” “Why,” “You,” “You Walked Out,” “You Went Too Far”

Recordings as Leader

“Be Fair to Me” (1958), “Our Love Is Over” (1958), “Please Don’t Go” (1959), “Why” (1959), “Baby Please Come Back” (1962; as Johnny Chef), “Can’t Stop Moving” (1962; as Johnny Chef), “I Go into Orbit” (1962), “What Am I Going to Do” (1962), “At the Same Time” (1963), “Don’t Deceive Me” (1963), “The Greatest Is You” (1963; vocal and instrumental versions on different sides), “Stay Away Love” (1963; with the Fingerpoppers), “You Walked Out” (1963; with the Fingerpoppers), “Don’t Deceive Me” (1964), “Forever More” (1968), “My Home” (1968), My Home (ca. 1968), “Christmas Keeps On Coming,” two parts (1974; with the Esquires Ltd.)

References

SECONDARY: “John Acey Goudelock,” Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, 24 February 2009, sec. A, p. 5 (obituary); “John Acey Goudelock,” Gaffney (S.C.) Ledger, 25 February 2009, sec. A, p. 8 (obituary); Sir Shambling [John Ridley], “Johnny Acey,” http://sirshambling.com/artists_2012/A/johnny_acey/index.php (2012; accessed 21 May 2014) (states incorrectly that Acey recorded with Wilhelmina Gray).

Aiken, Bud (Lucius Eugene)

Trombone, trumpet

Possibly 1896 (probably Charleston, S.C.)–21 August 1927

S.C. residence: Charleston (possibly 1896–late 1910s)

A ward of Jenkins Orphanage, Aiken played in its bands by approximately 1912 and performed with one of them in England in 1914. At the institution he helped teach Julius “Geechie” Fields to play the trombone. By the late 1910s he was a professional musician, touring with J. W. Brownlee’s minstrel show and, ca. 1920, with the Florida Blossoms Company. During 1921 he was on the road with Fletcher Henderson, backing Ethel Waters. He played with Wilbur Sweatman’s organization in the early 1920s, possibly touring with it in 1923. In 1924 he led the Jazz Syncopators, which broadcast over WHN in N.Y.C.

Aiken was the brother of trumpeter Gus Aiken; the surname is sometimes spelled Aitken. Some sources indicate that there were three Aiken brothers who were musicians—Augustus, Eugene, and Lucius. There were only two: Augustus (Gus) and Lucius Eugene (Bud). They were enumerated for the census with their parents and two sisters in Charleston on 11 June 1900. This document indicates that Lucius Aiken was born in S.C. in September 1896. The passenger list of the Campania, which transported him to England in May 1914, records his age as nineteen; the list of the St. Louis, which returned him to N.Y.C. in September 1914, indicates that he was born on 27 February 1896. John Chilton states that Aiken was born around 1900. Aiken registered twice for the draft during World War I. On one registration card, completed on an unspecified date in Orangeburg, S.C., he identified himself as Eugene Lucius, stated that he was born in Atlanta, Ga., on 5 September 1895, and noted that he was a musician traveling with J. W. Brownlee’s minstrel show. The other card, completed in N.Y.C. on 12 September 1918, records his name as Lucius Eugene and birth date as 4 September 1897 (no birthplace is indicated); it also notes that he then worked as leader of the Jenkins Orphanage band. Aiken’s death date is specified in the Gus Aiken entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, ed. Barry Kernfeld (New York: St. Martin’s, 1994), 9.

Leaders Recorded With

Ethel Waters (1921), possibly Essie Whitman (1921), Perry Bradford (1923), Gulf Coast Seven (1923), Mary Jackson (1923), Ethel Ridley (1923), Wilbur Sweatman (1924), Louise Vant (1925)

References

SECONDARY: “Evening Post Radio Time-Table,” New York Evening Post, 7 April 1924, p. 12; Richard Hadlock, Jazz Masters of the Twenties (New York: Macmillan, 1965), 196; John Chilton, A Jazz Nursery: The Story of the Jenkins’ Orphanage Bands of Charleston, South Carolina (London: Bloomsbury Book Shop, 1980), 52; Garvin Bushell, as told to Mark Tucker, Jazz from the Beginning (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988), 28, 33, 38–39; Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff, Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, “Coon Songs,” and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 302, 378; Mark Berresford, That’s Got ’Em! The Life and Music of Wilbur C. Sweatman (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), 139–40, 145.

Aiken, Gus (Augustus)

Trumpet

Late 1890s (probably Charleston, S.C.)–1 April 1973 (New York, N.Y.)

S.C. residence: Charleston (late 1890s–ca. 1920)

A ward of Jenkins Orphanage, Aiken was a member of its band that performed in Uncle Tom’s Cabin in N.Y.C. (1913) and of another that played the next year at the Anglo-American Exposition in London. He influenced the style of Jabbo Smith, another ward. Upon leaving the institution by 1920, he played with the Florida Blossoms Company and the Tennessee Ten before touring with James P. Johnson, Arthur S. Ray, and Fletcher Henderson, the last backing Ethel Waters. He traveled to Cuba with Gonzell(e) White’s organization in 1923 and in 1929 toured with a band affiliated with the Drake and Walker Company of black vaudevillians. Earl Hines admired Aiken’s ability to produce a sound close to that of the human voice. As a sideman Aiken played on some notable recordings, including Louis Armstrong’s “Mahogany Hall Stomp” (1936) and Buddy Johnson’s “They All Say I’m the Biggest Fool” (1944). He led his own band from the 1940s into the 1960s, though it apparently never recorded; in the mid-1940s it played at the Penthouse in N.Y.C.

Aiken was the brother of musician Bud Aiken; the surname is sometimes spelled Aitken. Though every public document consulted relating to Gus Aiken uses the given name Augustus, some sources spell it Augustine. Documents record various dates for the trumpeter’s birth. Conducted in Charleston on 11 June, the 1900 census indicates that he was born in July 1898. The passenger list of the Campania, which transported him to England in May 1914, identifies his age as seventeen; the list for the St. Louis, which returned him to N.Y.C. in September, notes that he was born on 26 July 1899 in Charleston. When Aiken sailed from Havana to N.Y.C. aboard the Orizaba in December 1923, for the passenger list he provided a birth date of 26 July 1900. The Social Security Death Index states that he was born on 26 July 1903. Any birth date after 11 June 1900 is incorrect because Aiken was enumerated that day for the census. This document specifies S.C. as his birthplace; the passenger list of the Orizaba records it as N.Y.C.

Leaders Recorded With

Eliza Christmas Lee (1921), Daisy Martin (1921), Lavinia Turner (1921), Ethel Waters (1921), Essie Whitman (1921), Perry Bradford (1923), Lena Wilson (1923), Mamie Smith (1924), Charlie Johnson (1925), Louise Vant (1925), Clara Smith (1927), Luis Russell (1931, 1934), Louis Armstrong (1935–1936), Sidney Bechet (1941), Roy Eldridge (1944), Buddy Johnson (1944), WNYC Festival (1949)

References

SECONDARY: Advertisement for Penthouse, New York Post, 28 June 1946, p. 43; Richard Hadlock, J...