“Hollerin’ And Screamin'” — Little Esther and Stoller & Leiber at Federal Records

As George Lipsitz points out in the introduction to Johnny Otis‘s memoir Upside Your Head! Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue, Otis was a central organizing figure in the Los Angeles rhythm & blues scene of the late 1940s and early 1950s — thus, a shrewd move on Syd Nathan’s part when the King Records label head was able to procure the bandleader’s services as a West Coast A&R producer by the mid-to-late 1950s:

When Otis first went to Los Angeles, he played drums for Harlan Leonard’s Kansas City Rockets. He stayed on in the city to play in Bardu Ali‘s band, and by 1945 he had formed a sixteen-piece group that served as the house band at Club Alabam. Otis began playing drums on recording dates, accompanying Illinois Jacquet, Lester Young, and Charles Brown. His first hit record came in 1946 with “Harlem Nocturne,” featuring Rene Bloch on saxophone.

In 1948 he joined with Bardu Ali, his wife Tila Ali, and musician Johnny Miller to open the Barrelhouse club in Watts — probably the first night spot in the world to feature rhythm and blues music exclusively [located directly opposite the Watts Towers at 106th Street and Wilmington, as told by Johnny Otis to music historian, Arnold Shaw]. From featured acts at the Barrelhouse, Otis assembled the Johnny Otis Rhythm and Blues Caravan that later became the Johnny Otis Show. Propelled by the popularity of Little Esther Phillips, Mel Walker, Redd Lyte, and Devonia “Lady Dee” Williams, the Johnny Otis Show had fifteen Top 40 rhythm and blues hits between 1950 and 1952.

2003 CD compilation

France

“Godfather of Rhythm & Blues“

The revue’s success would lead to disc jockey opportunities for Johnny Otis on Los Angeles radio and TV stations, where the bandleader held considerable sway, notes Lipsitz:

According to local legend, his radio program was so popular that one could drive along the beach from Los Angeles down to San Diego with no radio in your car, but still hear The Johnny Otis Show blaring out from portable radios and car radios all along the beach.

Otis devotes a chapter of Upside Your Head! to Little Esther Phillips (née Esther Mae Jones), who was just thirteen years old when the two artists first connected. Phillips’ first record with The Johnny Otis Quintette, “Double Crossing Blues,” was a “smash,” recalls Otis — a Savoy 78 release that “catapulted her to instant stardom”:

[Little Esther] instantly became the teenage favorite among Black music lovers. Everywhere we went, from coast to coast, thousands of adoring fans lined up to see and hear Little Esther.

January 1950

Vocals by The Robins and Little Esther

Throughout the months of March and April 1950, Cash Box shows Little Esther’s “Double Crossin’ Blues” at the top of the R&B charts in Los Angeles, Harlem, New Orleans, and Chicago (where it stayed #1 for four consecutive weeks).

Cash Box

March 25, 1950

Little Esther’s next single release “Mistrustin’ Blues” would top the R&B charts in Harlem and Chicago throughout the month of May, while “Cupid’s Boogie” and “Deceivin’ Blues” would also see Top Ten chart action that same year on both coasts — all three A-sides written by Otis.

Billboard‘s July 1, 1950 edition shows Little Esther with three of the Top Ten Best-Selling Retail Rhythm & Blues Records, as well as three of the Most-Played Juke Box Rhythm & Blues Records. Two weeks later, Johnny Otis and Little Esther would both sit atop Billboard‘s Third Annual Survey of Top Record Artists.

One year after Phillips’s debut 78 release, King Records would sign Little Esther to Federal, the new subsidiary label established expressly for A&R producer, Ralph Bass.

Cash Box

January 20, 1951

Little Esther Signs Contract With New Federal Label

NEW YORK — Bursting into the jazz and blues picture with a spurt, officials of Federal Records, King’s new subsidiary, this week disclosed that they had signed Little Esther to a recording contract.

The Superior Court of California for Los Angeles County on January 5 appointed Lucille Washington, her mother, guardian for Little Esther and at the same time approved the new contract between the child singer and Federal, according to a statement by Federal executives.

Little Esther is due to arrive in Cincinnati some time next week to make her first waxings on the new label. The session will be under the direction of Ralph Bass.

While Little Esther’s first (January 27, 1951) and final (March 11, 1953) recording sessions for Federal would took place at Cincinnati’s King Studios, the majority of recording during the singer’s two-year stint on Federal occured in Los Angeles, according to Michel Ruppli’s King session notes [although Ralph Bass’s assertion in a 1976 Blue Unlimited interview that “Esther’s Federal sides were done in Cincinnati” would contradict Ruppli]. An ad placed in Cash Box‘s February 17, 1951 edition for Phillips’ first Federal release touts Phillips as “the youthful queen of jazz and blues” and the singer who was “voted best jazz and blues artist of 1950.”

Ralph Bass Remembers –

Musical Fight:

How Little Esther Got Signed To King Records

1976 Interview with Blues Unlimited‘s Norbert Hess

[excerpt]

Federal was owned by Syd Nathan, head of King. It was a subsidiary created for me. All my productions went on to the Federal label. Esther was signed under contract to Savoy, and when I went with King, I knew that the contract was no good, because here in California you had the Jackie Coogan law. The contract had to be approved, number one, by the courts, and the court would have to set up a guardian for her. Her Savoy contract was never handled that way. It was just a contract signed by her and then by her mama, which was not legal in the state of California and I knew it.

That’s how I got her to King. I went to California and we hired an attorney, who did it properly. Went through the courts and the contract was declared null and void, and she went with me to King. Johnny never came with me to King or Federal. Syd gave me that label, Federal, because I had a production deal with him.

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45Cat contributor billmann, who ranks “The Deacon Moves In” among his all-time Top Ten, asks, “If this is not rock ‘n’ roll, then what is?” Check out the (“underrated“) guitar work of Pete Lewis, as well as the driving piano lines played by Devonia Williams on this flip side to “Other Lips, Other Arms,” Little Esther’s debut Federal single:

B-Side –

“The Deacon Moves In“

Backed by Johnny Otis, under contract to Savoy –

Backing band named for Earle Warren, Johnny Otis’s saxophonist

Little Esther with The Earle Warren Orchestra and *The Dominoes
Earle Warren – Alto Sax
Lorenzo Holderness – Tenor Sax
Walter Henry – Baritone Sax
Donald Johnson – Trumpet
George Washington – Trombone
Devonia Williams – Piano
Pete Lewis – Guitar
Mario Delegarde – Bass
Leard Bell – Drums

*King Records discographer Michel Ruppli indicates The Dominoes‘ membership at this time to be as follows —

Clyde McPhatter (lead)
James Van Loan (tenor)
Joe Lamount (baritone)
Bill Brown (bass)

Marv Goldberg, in his indispensable history of Little Esther’s Early Years, asserts, however, that it was Charlie White who traded vocals with Phillips on “The Deacon Moves In.” Goldberg, furthermore, opines that this B-side – written by Billy Ward and Rose Marks – “should have been (but wasn’t) a monster hit.”

Um, perhaps it was the song’s unspeakably salacious subject matter that might have kept the record from being all that it could be, commercially speaking, points out Spontaneous Lunacy:

Okay, let’s start off with the troubling aspects of this composition itself and their decision to use a fifteen year old girl in the role of the inexperienced church goer who is seduced … no, is forcibly accosted, possibly raped … by a church deacon, which as we know from years of real-world charges finally being brought to light was not just realistic but all too common.

The Deacon Moves In makes absolutely no attempt to hide any of this as the Deacon of a church and his cohorts coax a teenage girl to join them for some private confessional of some sort, or so she thinks, then when they have her alone ply her with gin in an attempt to loosen her inhibitions and when she resists their advances they shame her, bully her and eventually violently force her to comply with their deviant sexual needs.

It even goes so far as to record her frightened screams – literal screams mind you – as she tries to fight him off.

Cash Box’s review

March 3, 1951

“This side on occasion rises to terrific heights“

Among the musicians who backed Phillips during her time at Federal, it is worth noting that Duke Ellington‘s former tenor saxophonist, Ben Webster, played on a pair of sessions in January 1952 that – according to Michel Ruppli – had taken place in Los Angeles, not Cincinnati. Lending further credence to Ruppli’s claim is the presence of trumpeter (and future bandleader) Gerald Wilson on the January 5, 1952 session that produced “Better Beware“; “Somebody New“; “Bring My Lovin’ Back To Me” plus one unreleased track, “Hold Me.”

Among the songwriters who contributed material during Little Esther’s tenure with Federal – besides Johnny Otis – were Latricia Walker, Gladyces DeJesus, Ravon Darnell, and pioneering A&R producer, Henry Glover, who penned “I’ll Be There“; “Sweet Lips“; and “Cherry Wine.”

Reissued in 2014

Esther Phillips happened to sign with Federal Records at the same time that King was beginning to expand its vinyl production, as Billboard noted at the time, into 45s.

Q = Is it true that, as one 45Cat contributor claims below, Federal vinyl releases were more durable than either King or DeLuxe?

Most Federal’s did have a 45 counter part except “Harbor Lights” I think? My brain is old and tired now. They are scarce hen’s teeth now. Uber duber rare. And it doesn’t make a difference if it looks like it’s be ran over by a truck, they still have great fidelity. Much better than King or Deluxe! King label got a lot of hiss to them as they wore and they wore pretty easily. Federals were made of some tough stuff. It’s so wild to think at one time there was a King/Federal/Deluxe office here and you could walk right in and pick up any of these 45’s for 69 cents. Who knew 60 years later they were money in the bank?

Unfortunately, Phillips’ hot streak quickly cooled during her tenure with Federal. Although Phillips recorded more than thirty sides for Federal, only one, “Ring-a-Ding-Doo” (written by Lucky Thompson), charted, making it to #8 in 1952. Is Little Esther’s modest commercial success at Federal due to the absence of Johnny Otis’s guiding hand, as others have conjectured?

From Arnold Shaw‘s interview with Johnny Otis in Honkers and Shouters — Shaw’s essential history of rhythm and blues — we get Otis’s typical candor about the early years with Little Esther and the music industry’s less than forthright business practices:

“I found Little Esther at a talent show at the Largo Theatre in Watts. First I took her to RCA. And the guy told me, ‘She sounds like Dinah Washington, and if we want Dinah Washington, we can get her.’ It hurt my feelings and Little Esther’s, too. I packed my briefcase and we went back to Watts. That was ’49, and we then did at least one session for Modern. And I don’t know what’s happened to those sides.

“The Barrelhouse was swinging in those days. One night, Ralph Bass, who was a friend, became so excited over what he heard that he got on the long-distance phone and called Herman Lubinsky, the owner of Savoy. Lubinsky was here a night or two later. During intermission, we went across the street and he leaned up against a wall and said, ‘You sign this contract and if you give me one hit, I’ll triple it.’ It was for a one-percent royalty. What did I know in those days.

“Well, I gave him eight hits and he never tripled anything. He and Syd Nathan are probably the world’s champions at you-know-what. You look at the R&B charts for 1950, and you’ll find ‘Double Crossin’ Blues’ [No. 1], ‘Mistrustin’ Blues’ [No. 1], ‘Deceivin’ Blues’ — all of these were with Little Esther, Mel Walker, and my group. Still in ’50, Mel Walker and I had ‘Rockin’ Blues,’ which went to number two. In ’51, I had ‘Mambo Boogie‘ and ‘All Nite Long,’ and Mel and I had ‘Gee Baby,’ which went to number two.

“I don’t think that I ever got five thousand dollars all told for all of those records and all that action. I’m not the only one, you know. A lot of us suffered that fate at the hands of those who had us in a helpless position. We just didn’t know what the sales were or how to find out.”

One overlooked recording from Little Esther’s Federal era — Hollerin’ and Screamin’ — is a Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber composition from their ‘teeth-cutting’ period:

“Hollerin’ and Screamin’“

Little Esther (1953)

Little Esther backed by The Johnny Otis Orchestra –
Little Willie Littlefield – Piano & Vocals
William Jones – Vibraphone
Devonia Williams – Piano
Eli Wolinsky – Alto Sax
James Von Streeter – Tenor Sax
Freddie Ford – Baritone Sax
Donald Johnson – Trumpet
George Washington – Trombone
Albert Winston – Bass
Leard Bell – Drums

Originally released January 1953 as the B-side to “Turn The Lamps Down Low,” UK boutique label Fryers would reissue the single in 2011, but with the A and B sides reversed — a vindication for “Hollerin’ and Screamin'” and those who quietly championed the song all along.

A-Side At Last

(2011)

In Retrospect –

Johnny Otis on Little Esther Phillips

[as told to Arnold Shaw]

“Little Esther had a strut to her voice even when she was just a kid. She made it when she was quite young. A lot of money all of a sudden, you know. She was kinda wild, bent on having a lot of fun. But she was always a very bright person. Good, sharp intellect and very talented. She’s proved it over and over through the years. Dinah Washington was her idol as a young kid. I hear a bit of Dinah’s flavor in her. She had a lot of caustic bite, but was endowed in her own right. I think that Nancy Wilson sounds more like Dinah, certainly in her phrasing.“

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H I S T O R Y * B O N U S !

Stoller & Leiber

vs.

Leiber & Stoller:

The Early Years

Zero to 180 — stimulated by the discovery that Leiber and Stoller authored a number of King and Federal sides during the early 1950s — has compiled this chronological roll call of the legendary songwriting duo’s earliest known work.

[click on song titles below for streaming audio]

Ray Charles – “The Snow Is Falling“

Recorded 1951 in Los Angeles

Backing musicians include Stanley Turrentine

Cash Box “Award o’ the Week” – Mar. 7, 1953