A unique window into the world of Cajun music between 1928 and 1965. Compiled histories from websites, books, news articles, liner notes, and interviews. Most come from my personal 78 collection. Also covering Creole, Cajun-Country, and Cajun swing.
Showing posts with label Modern Music Records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Modern Music Records. Show all posts
Gold Star records was the creation by a record producer named Bill Quinn. Bill got his start partnering up with Orville "Bennie" Hess and Frank Sanborn with their very first label named 'Gulf'. However, after Frank left the team and Hess started his own label named Opera, Bill ventured out on his own. Quinn's methods were nothing near professional. His make-shift setup was always causing issues. According to Clyde Brewer:
It used to be an old grocery store. Quinn really didn't have a company then, but he had a studio. We recorded some that afternoon, but when we came back the next morning, a cold norther had blown in. And there was no heat in this building. His turntable would run about 78 RPM, then it would go about 33, then about 20. So, he went out to his car and got a blowtorch, fired it up, and held it close to that motor until he could get the speed fixed. And then we recorded a few more things.1
Many of the recordings Quinn had lined up never materialized, mainly due to rugged, poor maintained equipment. Occasionally, one of a kind master discs were destroyed or damaged in the processing tanks, casualties of Quinn's ongoing experiments. According to Deacon Anderson:
Quinn had an old Rek-O-Kut belt driven turntable. His overhead lathe was Presto. Every now and then, the arm would slip and ruin the record.1
Crowley Daily Signal Aug 17, 1948
By 1946, Quinn discovered a lowly Cajun fiddle player named Harry Choates and the two kicked off a slew of session for his Gold Star label. Harry's band was backed by himself on fiddle, Esmond Pursley on guitar, Joe Manuel on banjo, Pee Wee Lyons on steel guitar, B.D. Williams on bass, Curzy Roy on drums, and Johnnie Manuel on piano. The following year, Harry and Quinn were working close together, waxing a tune called "Fa De Do Stomp" (#1326) when Quinn discovered Harry was secretly recording for Jimmy Mercer's Cajun Classics outside of his contract. This was the beginning of the end of Harry and Bill's relationship. Drummer Curzy Roy remembers a session for Decca in Houston that was about to commence when Quinn suddenly appeared, bringing things to a sudden halt.1
Curzy "Pork Chop" Roy
"Fa De Do Stomp", a misspelled title of Fais Do-Do Stomp, was a swingy instrumental of a 1937 string band recording by J.B. Fuselier called "Lake Arthur Stomp". Floyd Leblanc covered the tune in 1949 as "Louisiana Stomp". Cursy Roy loved playing with Harry:
I like him, but Choates was kind of a lowlife...some nights we'd play, Harry would get so drunk, he'd rock. Like he was gonna fall forwards or backwards. But he'd never miss a lick. On that fiddle, ...never ever hit a bad chord.1
Having no concern with his Gold Star contract, Harry began recording for Macy Henry's new label and with the break-up of Harry's original Melody Boys band, the two partners parted ways.
"Devil in Bayou". Andrew Brown. liner notes.
Photo by Jeremy R
Release Info: 1331 Rubber Dolly | Gold Star 1331
1326-BFa-De-Do Stomp | Gold Star 1326-B 1326A Cajun Hop | Gold Star 1326-A Modern 20-526 1326B Fa-De-Do Stomp | Gold Star 1326-B Modern 20-530
Find: Harry Choates – The Fiddle King Of Cajun Swing (Arhoolie, 1982, 1993) Devil In The Bayou - The Gold Star Recordings (Bear Family, 2002) GOLD STAR LABEL Classic Country Music (BACM, 2018)
By 1940, fiddler Harry Choates had left Happy Fat's Rayne-Bo Ramblers band and found work with Leo Soileau during the war years. It would be during these years playing guitar and fiddle where he would master some of Leo's traditional Cajun songs as well as form a relationship with two band members, Abe and Joe Manuel The brothers along with Harry stayed with Leo until 1946 when they ventured off to form the Melody Boys with Harry leading the group. It would be that year in which they'd wax their first recordings for Goldstar record producer Bill Quinn including this tune called "Basile Waltz". Named after a the town of Basile, Louisiana where he played at the Avalon Club dance hotspot, Harry Choates (misspelled Coates) would record the song a few months after his famed "Jole Blon".
Contrary to popular belief, this was not a cover of the 1928 Leo Soileau "Basile Waltz", but a rendition of Happy Fats and Doc Guidry's "Tit Maurice".
C’est nous autres, oui, qu’est si joyeux,
C’est nous autres qu’aiment autant oui, l’amuser (?).
Si vous voulez, oui, mais (z)un bon temps,
Viens nous r’joindre sur l’samedi au soir à Grand Basile.
Tu m’as quitté, oui, pour t’en aller,
T’en aller aussi loin (z)avec un autre.
Si vous voulez, oui, vous amuser (?),
Viens nous r’joindre ce samedi soir à Grand Basile.
Oh, chérie, tu m’fais pitié,
T’avais été t’en aller aussi loin.
T’en r’tourner oui, t’auras du r’gret,
Ça t’as fait (z)avec moi, y a pas longtemps.
Joe Bihari
Modern Records was run by the Hungarian family of Lester Louis Bihari, Julius Jeramiah Bihari, Saul Samuel Bihari, and Joseph Bihari. Jules got a job servicing and operating jukeboxes in the Watts district, and found difficulty in locating and stocking the blues records his customers wanted to hear. With his younger brothers Saul and Joe, he decided to set up a new label, Modern Records, in 1945. The Bihari Brothers were interested in the local Texas music and wanted to press more of it at their California pressing plant. Quinn, overwhelmed by the response of his label, licensed his music to labels such as Modern and Deluxe.
The song featured Esmond "Eddie" Pursley on guitar, possibly Abe Manuel on rhythm guitar, Joe Manuel on vocals and banjo, and B.D.Williams on upright bass. According to musician Crawford Vincent, he noted that Harry learned alot from Cliff Bruner, a western swing fiddler who moved into the Houston/Beaumont area in 1937. Vincent believes Bruner was a main influence on him. The tune is sung by Joe Manuel and revolves around asking a lover to come back and enjoy some time having fun on a Saturday night in the town of "Grand Basile". After his father's death, Choates spent a lot of time in Basile where he played guitar in fiddle-master Leo Soileau's band in the late 1930s. Canray Fontenot, a fiddle player that learned quite a bit from Harry, recalled his earliest years:
When he first came to Basile, he was playing with Leo Soileau. He was playing the steel guitar. He was a good musician. He had bought a fiddle with an old black man from Mississippi. Harry bought the fiddle for $5 dollars on credit and never paid the man. That's the way he was. That was a little messy son of a gun; a little red head. He didn't care about nobody but himself.9
While playing steel guitar in Leo's band, he was learning how to play the fiddle. Once he got good enough, every time they'd play a dance, Leo would let him play a tune on his fiddle.
Then he got better than Leo. That son of a gun could sing French and English. He took off on his own.9
Billboard Oct 4, 1947
Once he formed his own band in the 1940s, they worked for music mogul Quincy Davis. Davis had a habit of taking in musicians, feeding them, and hiring them seven nights a week plus radio shows and matinees for the meager fee of $10 a week. The musicians rare complained since for most of them it was better than picking cotton in hot fields.8 Due to band finance management, Harry had a hard time keeping a band. Canray remembered:
Most of the time he'd change musicians. I don't know how many times. He didn't want to pay them. He'd go collect the money, then state they hadn't paid him. They'd raise all kind of hell. He was messy, but talk about a good musician.9
That's us, yes, so joyful,
We're so beloved, yes, the fun.
If you want, yes, to have a good time,
Come join us Saturday night in Grand Basile.
You left me, yes, you went away.
You went far away with another,
If you want, yes, to have fun,
Come join us Saturday night in Grand Basile.
Oh, honey, you make me pitiful,
You have been so away far.
You'll return, yes, you'll regret this,
You were with me there, not long ago
Helen and Harry Choates
Quinn claimed ownership of both "Jole Blon" and "Basile Waltz" and in 1946 issued them on his Gold Star label. After a Houston DJ began playing the “Jole Blon,” the song exploded in popularity and Gold Star was unable to meet the public’s demand. In 1947, Lester Bihari, who was now a Galveston-based jukebox operator in Galveston, Texas, decided to ask Quinn to press the Harry Choates record on his brother's Modern label (#511). Broven claims the Bihari's used the Gold Star masters however, the quality of these re-issues pales in comparison to the bright, crisp sound Gold Star had produced. Unfortunately, Joe Manuel missed his opportunity to become a star of the song, since Quinn decided not to credit his vocals on the label. It seems record producer Joe Lieberwitz of DeLuxe records got word of the Quinn-Modern deal and attempted to copy the same tactic in 1947 that worked so well for the Biharis. However, when the co-release on Deluxe's #6000 came out, the pressing suffered from low overall volume. This technical difficulty along with poor marketing probably led to DeLuxe's dismal sales, comparably.
By 1951, Bill was more interested in recording the music instead of maintaining his label and Quinn would sell his Lightning Hopkins masters off to Modern records in Sep 1951 In 1952, he would outsource some of his masters for reissuing to Harold "Pappy" Daily of Houston's "D" Records (later "Starday" label out of Beaumont). By 1955, Pappy bought the remaining Choates masters after Quinn decided to just focus on recording. Quinn turned his basement into the largest basement studio in the region. Even in the late 50s, he expanded it hoping to jump into the TV recording business that was booming. However, he retired by the early 60s.
Saul Bihari
Harry would eventually die in 1951 in an Austin, TX jail cell as a result of his alcohol addiction. Quinn's Gold Star Studios eventually became SugarHill Studios in 1971, purchased by legendary producer Huey Meaux who had earlier used it for his Crazy Cajun label. Jules and the Bihari brothers would effectively steal music from up and coming black artists by taking advantage of the artist's financial situation. B.B. King had said:
"The company [Modern] I was with knew a lot of things they didn’t tell me, that I didn’t learn about until later... Some of the songs I wrote, they added a name when I copyrighted it,"..."Like 'King and Ling' or 'King and Josea.' There was no such thing as Ling, or Josea. No such thing. That way, the company could claim half of your song."
Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers By John Broven
Jole Blon is a traditional cajun waltz, often called "the cajun national anthem" because of the popularity it had in cajun culture. The song was then later popularized on a nationwide scale by a series of renditions and references in late '40s country songs. It has been the subject of occasional cover later in the 20th century by cajun and classic country revival bands. Becoming a part of the band's repertoire in 1951, "Jole Blon" became the official fight song of McNeese State University in 1970, and it is played by the "Pride of McNeese" band upon scoring at athletic events. It's a swing and dance tune that and became the first and only Cajun record to reach the Billboard Top Five. The original Cajun version is a brief address to a "pretty blonde" who had left the singer and moved back in with her family, and is also now in the arms of another man. The singer concludes that there are plenty other women, and pretty blonde women out there that he can find. The fiddle-based, instrumental melody of this song dates back before the 1900s. It's influence can be found in the Guidry Brother's "Homme Abandonne" introduction, Angelas Lejeune's "La Valse De La Veuve", and the Segura Brother's "La Fille De La Veuve". As discussed in a previous article, the earliest recording of the song is believed to be a 1929 version by the family trio Breaux Brothers entitled "Ma blonde est partie", recorded in Atlanta. The title "Jolie Blonde" was first given to the melody by two bands separately: the Hackberry Ramblers version of "Jolie Blonde" and J. B. Fuselier and his Merrymakers' version of "Ta Ma Lessa Jolie Blonde", both during a New Orleans recording session in 1936. The melody also appears in "La Valse de La Lafayette" by the Jolly Boys of Lafayette and Happy Fats' "Nouveau Grand Gueydan" in 1937.
Harry Choates
Bill Quinn had a background in electronics and experience working as a sound man for a carnival show. In Houston, he started repairing radios, and as another twist of fate would have it, everything changed one day when a customer brought in a disc-recording machine that needed repair. Quinn became fascinated with the concept, and purchased one for himself. By 1941, he started the Quinn Recording Company and did custom recordings and commercial jingles for radio stations, but soon ventured into the record business, with the short-lived Gulf label.
É ha ha!
Jolie blonde, jolie fille
Chère petite, jolie cœur
Tu m'as laissé pour t'en aller
Avec un autre, mais chère petite fille
Dans l'pays de la Louisiane
Mais malheureuse
Oh, mais jolie cœur
Ca t'as fait à ton pauvre papa
Tu m'as laissé, mais, chère petite
Mais moi tout seul
Mais malheureux
Quelle espoir, mais quel avenir
Mais moi j'peux avoir?
É hé hé!
Oh ha ha!
Chère petite, jolie blonde
Mais ca t'as dit, ma malheureuse
Quoi t'as fait? Tu vas avoir
Tu serais pitié
Daily Advertiser Nov 16, 1946
The popularization began in 1946 with Harry Choates and his French version of "Jole Blon" for Gold Star records (#1314). Harry Choates had his first stint playing with Leroy "Happy Fats" Leblanc and the Rayne-Bo Ramblers in 1939 in which Happy's band performed the song as "Nouveau Grand Gueydan". Eventually, Choates made his recording debut as fiddler with the band at a 1940 session in Dallas. Afterwards, Choates next started playing electric mandolin with Shelly Lee Alley and the Alley Cats. Later in 1941, he was playing guitar with Pancho and the Farmhands over in Beaumont. Around this time, Choates also played guitar and second fiddle for Leo Soileau’s Aces with Joe and Abe Manuel, and Francis “Red” Fabacher. Harry had been playing with Leo Soileau when he was exposed to their song "La Valse De Gueydan". According to Happy:
Harry had first performed the tune in Soileau's band but on his Gold Star recording he stepped up the key from G to A.4
It was about this time when Happy Fats began toying around with the idea of recording "Jole Blon" with his group the Rayne-Bo Ramblers. According author to Andrew Brown, with the onset of WWII, Steve Sholes of RCA Victor records told a disappointed Leblanc that the session had to be cancelled because of wartime shellac rationing.13 In January of 1944, Choates was drafted into the army and shipped to California for basic training. After being discharged, back home, he played off and on with Leo Soileau’s Rhythm Boys, Toby Kelley’s Kings of Swing, Dean Rasberry’s Streamliners and as a solo performer. One night Choates passed out with a lit cigarette in his mouth and his bed caught on fire. Soileau and another bandmate pulled him, still unconscious, to safety. By late 1945, he quit the Rhythm Boys for good. Choates began playing jazz guitar with guitarist Esmond “Eddie” Pursely at The Club Irving, one of East Orange’s many nightclubs. His first wife, Helen Daenen Cundiff, drove their ‘38 Ford station wagon with “Harry Choates” painted on the side to performances where she sold tickets.10
Bill Quinn
Pursely, now in Jimmy Foster & His Swingsters, tracked Choates down and convinced him to join that group. They consisted of James "Jimmie" Foster on bass, Eddie Pursley on acoustic lead guitar, B.D. Williams on rhythm guitar, Charlie Slagle on banjo and Bill Slay on piano. Before long, Choates took over the group’s direction. One night, whilst playing a honky-tonk on Beaumont Highway in Houston, a local record producer, Bill Quinn, caught a performance and, impressed with Choates’s playing, convinced the band to record for his pioneering independent label, Gold Star.
In 1946, Choates recorded his song "Jole Blon". It struck a nerve with the record-buying public and reached #4 on the Billboard charts in 1947, twice! Later, he would record an English version and several different versions, playing off of the name name Jole Blon, such as "Jole Blon's Gone" and "Mari Jole Blon". None of these garnered the success he had with the first recording.
At the time Quinn, a transplanted New Englander, entered the record business, however, the manufacture of phonograph records was a closely guarded secret by the major companies. It was something he had to largely figure out for himself, which took a lot of trial and error. He even tried melting down other people's records for his need of shellac materials. Quinn admits that many of the fragile acetate masters never materialized out of his homemade processing tank — and with no backup of any kind (audio tape was not in widespread use at the time) — the recording was simply lost forever.
Harry Choates '&&' His Fiddle
Bill Quinn, "required at least a dozen takes" before he was satisfied with Choates’ rendition of “Jole Blon.” Choate's version took the traditional waltz and accelerated the tempo, adding a prominent piano accompaniment. Bill was not prepared by the response he got from that record. After a Houston DJ began playing the “Jole Blon,” the song exploded in popularity and Gold Star was unable to meet the public’s demand. A Galveston-based jukebox operator, Lester Bihari , convinced Quinn to license the track to his Modern Records, managed by Bihari's family. Harry's recording shows up on multiple labels and even multiple releases on the same label, such as Modern Music (#20-511), Starday (#187) in both English and French, D Records (#1024) and the Deluxe label (#6000).
The song appears in at least 3 different "Gold Star" labels, #1313, Quinn's address number on Dumble Street. The originals with the red/yellow label with gold print were on non-flexible acetate. A few have the mistaken double-ampersand "& &" printed on the label. Later, the ones on the red/yellow label with black print were pressed on vinyl. D-issues are recent and were pressed by the H.W. ‘Pappy” Daily distribution concern in Houston. The Modern Records version, outsourced to the Bihari Brother's label in California, was released listed as Harry Coates & his fiddle.
E ha ha!
Pretty blonde, pretty girl,
Dear little pretty heart,
You left me, went away,
With another, my dear,
Into the countryside of Louisiana,
Oh my! I'm miserable.
Oh, my pretty heart,
You did this to your poor papa,
You left me, but, my dear,
Oh my! I am all alone,
Oh my! I'm miserable,
What hope, what future can I have?
E heh heh!
Oh ha ha!
Dear pretty blonde
Oh my! I told you I'm unhappy
What did you do? Have mercy, would you?
Lake Charles American Press Oct 24, 1947
Jimmie Foster sued and was subsequently awarded a half cent for the first 50,000 recording sold, amounting to $250. An acute alcoholic, Choates sold the rights to "Jole Blon" for $100 and a bottle of whiskey. His habit of missing concerts led him to be blacklisted by the musicians union in San Antonio and resulted in his band breaking up. Quinn would go on to record other artists, including the famous Lightnin’ Hopkins, however, by 1952, Bill Quinn had simply had enough. With Lightnin’ recording for anyone who had the cash, the government breathing down his neck seeking to collect excise taxes on his record pressings, plus the untimely deaths of his big star, Harry Choates, and his first wife, Lona, to cancer — he folded up Gold Star and called it a day. His studio, however, stayed open for business. By 1955, Harold "Pappy" Daily of Starday Records purchased the masters from Quinn and released them on his label in both French and a "new" version in English, even having Moon Mullican record it. The English version seems to be an unissued Quinn recording, which Daily decided to press. However, it's success was over. The last release was on Daily's "D" Records in 1959 on a 45. Billboard magazine listed it as:
A familiar country and Creole subject gets new treatment, although the voice is weakly recorded. Limited sectional appeal.
The song comes in at #99 out of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time".
NOTE: Don Pierce claimed that Buddy Dee (whose name appears on several Mercury-Starday 45s as writer) was actually a pseudonym for D. Kilpatrick and used to give monetary thanks to the man who created Mercury-Starday, though Kilpatrick (the former head of Mercury’s country division, who left to become the manager of the Grand Ole Opry in 1957) remembers nothing of the alter-ego. It very likely could have been used as a pseudonym for Pappy Daily instead.
Cajun Fiddle King (AIM, 1999) Jole Blon - 23 Artists One Theme (Bear, 2002) Harry Choates: Devil In The Bayou - The Gold Star Recordings (Bear, 2002) The Beginner's Guide to Cajun Music (Proper/Primo, 2008) J'ai Ete Au Bal - Vol. 1 (I Went To The Dance) (Arhoolie, 2011) GOLD STAR LABEL Classic Country Music (BACM, 2018)
