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| A reason you may have heard of them... |
I often type “this post will be short” at the top of these posts, only to delete after going on for four pages. This post, however, will be short. Because it cannot be otherwise.
The Harlem Hamfats barely survived to the Internet age. The entries on individual members top out after a couple paragraphs at most (e.g., Kansas Joe McCoy, and he was the long one) and their Wikipedia page doesn’t run much longer. Normally, that’s enough to convince me to skip an act, but two things recommended them for a short entry. First:
“They were perhaps the first studio recording band to become a performing act in their own right, and they recorded extensively.”
Chicago's pioneering producer J. Mayo Williams brought together The Harlem Hamfats to give Decca Records an in-house band to record that labels talent in the second half of the 1930s. For anyone familiar with the name, Williams bounced between Chicago labels from the mid-1920s until leaving Decca in the mid-1940s. Specializing in what the times dubbed “race records,” Williams recorded several of the early blues greats (e.g., Blind Lemon Jefferson (profiled here), Tampa Red (profiled here with Son House), plus jazz trailblazers, Jelly Roll Morton (profiled here) and King Oliver. By the time he'd moved onto Decca, the trend toward popular singers had picked up steam - i.e., the same shift that, along with the musicians strike of the early 1940s, did in the big bands - which meant Williams needed a stable of musicians he could rely on for recording sessions. Enter the Harlem Hamfats.
As sometimes happens, Wikipedia's entry on Kansas Joe McCoy (guitar/vocals) omits Williams’ role and states that he formed the Harlem Hamfats with his younger brother, Papa Charlie McCoy (guitar/mandolin), after divorcing his wife, a guitarist known as Memphis Minnie. As suggested by Kansas Joe’s name, he didn’t hail from Harlem. None of the Hamfats did. The McCoy’s weren’t even from Kansas; both grew up in Mississippi and came up in the New Orleans’ music scene. Some other members came from New Orleans as well - Herb Morand (trumpet/vocals), John Lindsay (bass), and Odell Rand (clarinet) - while the rest - Horace Malcolm (piano), Freddie Flynn (drums) and Pearlis Williams (also, drums) came from Chicago. It’s likely other members came in and out, but that’s the list I have.
The second thing that recommended the Harlem Hamfats for an entry actually involves a couple things:
“The band was not considered the most innovative group of the time, and many of their original works dealt with sex, drugs and alcohol, which may have prevented its music from being more widely available. However, as a small group playing entertaining music primarily for dancing, they are considered an important contributor to 1930s jazz, and their early riff-based style would help pave the way for Louis Jordan's small-group sound a few years later, rhythm and blues, and later rock and roll.”
Not many of the acts I’ve covered predicted things to come - e.g., the influence of drug/counter-culture, the rise of small groups - quite like them. I’d go so far as to say it would have been weird to pass on them.
At any rate, the Hamfats landed their first hit single in 1936 with “Oh! Red” b/w “Let’s Get Drunk and Truck.” Wikipedia calls “Why Don’t You Do Right?” their most recognized (or recognizable) tune...even if I can't find it by them online, and both that and later artists covered both that and “Oh! Red,” some big ones too. The only other two songs I saw singled all that much were “We Gonna Pitch a Boogie Woogie,” for how close it sounds to rock ‘n’ roll, and “Weed Smoker’s Dream” for reasons that can't possibly need elaborating.
As noted above, opportunities dried up in a couple years; Wikipedia shows them disbanding in 1938. The war came calling for Papa Charlie McCoy - and apparently messed him up something awful - but Kansas Joe couldn’t go due to a heart condition, so he formed his own act during the early 1940s called Big Joe and his Rhythm. Herb Morand was the only other Hamfat to live on via Wikipedia. He went back to New Orleans after the band broke up, and didn’t last much longer than either of the McCoys, 1952 to their 1950. The mists of time swallow up the rest…
About the Sampler
The Harlem Hamfats probably learned to play a variety of styles - quite likely due to the session work - and the sampler reflects that; Wikipedia included blues, Dixieland and jazz for genres, but I’d throw boogie-woogie on that pile too. Because I didn't get guidance from sources on this one, I built the sampler mainly around songs I liked. I’ll spare all of us the embarrassment of me trying to assign each song to the correct genre, but here are the rest that made the sampler:
“Something Wrong With My Mind,” “Root Hog or Die,” “You Drink Too Much,” “Little Girl,” “What You Gonna Do,” “Bartender’s Blues,” “She’s Gone Again,” “Sales Tax on It,” “Hallelujah Joe Ain’t Preachin’ No More,” “You’ve Had Your Last Good Time With Me,” "Gimme Some of That Yum Yum," “You Done Tore Your Playhouse Down,” “Hamfat Swing,” “I Don’t Want You Loving Me,” “My Daddy Was a Lovin’ Man,” and “Empty Bed Blues.”
So long as you confine the conversation to 50s-era rock ‘n’ roll - i.e., the piano/boogie-woogie-driven stuff - and keep what became “rock” by the 1960s out of it, the distance between the Harlem Hamfats and that genre barely exists. The recording equipment makes for tinnier sound, horns and piano dominate a lot of songs, but it still takes a clear step to the future. The tempo runs faster than old-school blues, it’s lustier and leaner than big band’s pop jazz, and it shares the fundamental mechanics of even rock bands: a bunch of guys playing instruments along with one or more guys who sing and play at the same time. Add the racy themes and you’ve got a session band 10 years ahead of its time.
The Harlem Hamfats barely survived to the Internet age. The entries on individual members top out after a couple paragraphs at most (e.g., Kansas Joe McCoy, and he was the long one) and their Wikipedia page doesn’t run much longer. Normally, that’s enough to convince me to skip an act, but two things recommended them for a short entry. First:
“They were perhaps the first studio recording band to become a performing act in their own right, and they recorded extensively.”
Chicago's pioneering producer J. Mayo Williams brought together The Harlem Hamfats to give Decca Records an in-house band to record that labels talent in the second half of the 1930s. For anyone familiar with the name, Williams bounced between Chicago labels from the mid-1920s until leaving Decca in the mid-1940s. Specializing in what the times dubbed “race records,” Williams recorded several of the early blues greats (e.g., Blind Lemon Jefferson (profiled here), Tampa Red (profiled here with Son House), plus jazz trailblazers, Jelly Roll Morton (profiled here) and King Oliver. By the time he'd moved onto Decca, the trend toward popular singers had picked up steam - i.e., the same shift that, along with the musicians strike of the early 1940s, did in the big bands - which meant Williams needed a stable of musicians he could rely on for recording sessions. Enter the Harlem Hamfats.
As sometimes happens, Wikipedia's entry on Kansas Joe McCoy (guitar/vocals) omits Williams’ role and states that he formed the Harlem Hamfats with his younger brother, Papa Charlie McCoy (guitar/mandolin), after divorcing his wife, a guitarist known as Memphis Minnie. As suggested by Kansas Joe’s name, he didn’t hail from Harlem. None of the Hamfats did. The McCoy’s weren’t even from Kansas; both grew up in Mississippi and came up in the New Orleans’ music scene. Some other members came from New Orleans as well - Herb Morand (trumpet/vocals), John Lindsay (bass), and Odell Rand (clarinet) - while the rest - Horace Malcolm (piano), Freddie Flynn (drums) and Pearlis Williams (also, drums) came from Chicago. It’s likely other members came in and out, but that’s the list I have.
The second thing that recommended the Harlem Hamfats for an entry actually involves a couple things:
“The band was not considered the most innovative group of the time, and many of their original works dealt with sex, drugs and alcohol, which may have prevented its music from being more widely available. However, as a small group playing entertaining music primarily for dancing, they are considered an important contributor to 1930s jazz, and their early riff-based style would help pave the way for Louis Jordan's small-group sound a few years later, rhythm and blues, and later rock and roll.”
Not many of the acts I’ve covered predicted things to come - e.g., the influence of drug/counter-culture, the rise of small groups - quite like them. I’d go so far as to say it would have been weird to pass on them.
At any rate, the Hamfats landed their first hit single in 1936 with “Oh! Red” b/w “Let’s Get Drunk and Truck.” Wikipedia calls “Why Don’t You Do Right?” their most recognized (or recognizable) tune...even if I can't find it by them online, and both that and later artists covered both that and “Oh! Red,” some big ones too. The only other two songs I saw singled all that much were “We Gonna Pitch a Boogie Woogie,” for how close it sounds to rock ‘n’ roll, and “Weed Smoker’s Dream” for reasons that can't possibly need elaborating.
As noted above, opportunities dried up in a couple years; Wikipedia shows them disbanding in 1938. The war came calling for Papa Charlie McCoy - and apparently messed him up something awful - but Kansas Joe couldn’t go due to a heart condition, so he formed his own act during the early 1940s called Big Joe and his Rhythm. Herb Morand was the only other Hamfat to live on via Wikipedia. He went back to New Orleans after the band broke up, and didn’t last much longer than either of the McCoys, 1952 to their 1950. The mists of time swallow up the rest…
About the Sampler
The Harlem Hamfats probably learned to play a variety of styles - quite likely due to the session work - and the sampler reflects that; Wikipedia included blues, Dixieland and jazz for genres, but I’d throw boogie-woogie on that pile too. Because I didn't get guidance from sources on this one, I built the sampler mainly around songs I liked. I’ll spare all of us the embarrassment of me trying to assign each song to the correct genre, but here are the rest that made the sampler:
“Something Wrong With My Mind,” “Root Hog or Die,” “You Drink Too Much,” “Little Girl,” “What You Gonna Do,” “Bartender’s Blues,” “She’s Gone Again,” “Sales Tax on It,” “Hallelujah Joe Ain’t Preachin’ No More,” “You’ve Had Your Last Good Time With Me,” "Gimme Some of That Yum Yum," “You Done Tore Your Playhouse Down,” “Hamfat Swing,” “I Don’t Want You Loving Me,” “My Daddy Was a Lovin’ Man,” and “Empty Bed Blues.”
So long as you confine the conversation to 50s-era rock ‘n’ roll - i.e., the piano/boogie-woogie-driven stuff - and keep what became “rock” by the 1960s out of it, the distance between the Harlem Hamfats and that genre barely exists. The recording equipment makes for tinnier sound, horns and piano dominate a lot of songs, but it still takes a clear step to the future. The tempo runs faster than old-school blues, it’s lustier and leaner than big band’s pop jazz, and it shares the fundamental mechanics of even rock bands: a bunch of guys playing instruments along with one or more guys who sing and play at the same time. Add the racy themes and you’ve got a session band 10 years ahead of its time.
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