Hi all,
With all the interest expressed in 12-string guitars and the people who played them, it's a little surprising the Jesse Fuller's name doesn't come up more often. I've been listening lately to an album of his on the Good Time Jazz label from 1958 ( I got it used). It is called "Jesse Fuller--Jazz, Folk Songs, Spirituals and Blues", and it is really good. His program on it reminds me of the breadth of repertoire that people like John Jackson had, and that Warner Williams, who was at PT last summer, still has. Jesse's repertoire seems to have had more in common with John Jackson's than with Warner's, being a bit more heavily based in Folk and less grounded in Pop.
On this record, Jesse's preferred playing position is definitely G in standard tuning, with C a close second. He also does one song each in E standard and D standard. He had a way of keeping time that was really nice, just sort of churning and munching away. This, combined with the fact that he was a one-man band, accompanying himself on cymbal, guitar and kazoo on a rack (sometimes both on the same song), and an instrument of his own invention, the fotdella, that enabled him to play bass with foot pedals, allowed Jesse to achieve a full ensemble sound all by himself. His description of how he came up with the fotdella is worth quoting.
"I took me a whole week one time when I wasn't doing anything,and I made this thing I call the fotdella in my back room. I just got the idea lyin' in bed one night, just like I write songs. I lie down on the bed and write songs at night. I thought about doin' something like that so I could have somethin' to go along with me and help me out instead of another fellow. I just took some masonite, heated some wood in hot water and rounded it off around a wheel. I learned that in the barrel factory where I used to work--that's the way they do the staves. They make cotton pickin' baskets the same way. I tried to use bass fiddle strings, but they don't sound so good, they stretch out of tune so I use piano strings. My wife named it the fotdella because I played it with my foot, like "foot diller".
Jesse starts off the program with three songs in G, "Take This Hammer", which he describes as his favorite, "Linin' Track", and "I'm Gonna Meet My Loving Mother", which Jaybird Coleman and Ollis Martin did as the great harmonica duet "I'm Gonna Cross That River of Jordan". Jesse was fond of going to the E minor chord when playing in G, and often did it in a really pretty, churchy way, using it to precede a D chord near the end of a phrase. "Tiger Rag", played in C, features some irresistibly funky harmonica playing; in a certain kind of way he is not doing all that much, but his time is so great that he doesn't need to do anything more. For "Memphis Rag" he returns to G, and "Raise a Ruckus" is performed in C. Side two opens with the hymn "Bye and Bye", followed by an instrumental, "Fingerbuster" that would be a great candidate for the "Blues and Circle of Fifths" thread. It is an exceptionally nifty tune in which an extended circle of fifths progression is walked through with a step-wise descending bass line. Boy, is it put together beautifully! "Stagolee" follows, and it is really interesting, for it is the only tune on the album Jesse plays out of D standard. John Hurt similarly played "Stackerlee" out of D, and it seems conceivable that Jesse heard his record of it. There are a couple of verses in common and the melodies of the two versions are similar. When the differences in the versions are considered, though, it is just as likely, or moreso, I suppose, that Jesse put together his version based on ways he had heard the song done in his travels, or had come up with on his own. "99 Years" is played in E standard, and is done using the melody and lyrics I associate with the bluegrass version of the song. It is nothing like Julius Daniels's version. "Hesitation Blues" is done in the major, a la Charlie Poole or Buddy Boy Hawkins.
Jesse was born in Georgia but left home at a very early age, and seems to have travelled throughout most of the United States. Perhaps as a result of having left Georgia in his early life, his playing does not have the Georgia sound of the twelve-string players from there in the late '20s: Willie McTell, Barbecue Bob, Charley Lincoln, George Carter, and Willie Baker. I look forward to picking up more of his recordings on Arhoolie and Original Blues Classics. If you like 12-string guitar and a pre-Blues/songster type of material, you may really like what he did. Do any of you have other favorite recordings of him or remembrances of him?
All best,
Johnm
With all the interest expressed in 12-string guitars and the people who played them, it's a little surprising the Jesse Fuller's name doesn't come up more often. I've been listening lately to an album of his on the Good Time Jazz label from 1958 ( I got it used). It is called "Jesse Fuller--Jazz, Folk Songs, Spirituals and Blues", and it is really good. His program on it reminds me of the breadth of repertoire that people like John Jackson had, and that Warner Williams, who was at PT last summer, still has. Jesse's repertoire seems to have had more in common with John Jackson's than with Warner's, being a bit more heavily based in Folk and less grounded in Pop.
On this record, Jesse's preferred playing position is definitely G in standard tuning, with C a close second. He also does one song each in E standard and D standard. He had a way of keeping time that was really nice, just sort of churning and munching away. This, combined with the fact that he was a one-man band, accompanying himself on cymbal, guitar and kazoo on a rack (sometimes both on the same song), and an instrument of his own invention, the fotdella, that enabled him to play bass with foot pedals, allowed Jesse to achieve a full ensemble sound all by himself. His description of how he came up with the fotdella is worth quoting.
"I took me a whole week one time when I wasn't doing anything,and I made this thing I call the fotdella in my back room. I just got the idea lyin' in bed one night, just like I write songs. I lie down on the bed and write songs at night. I thought about doin' something like that so I could have somethin' to go along with me and help me out instead of another fellow. I just took some masonite, heated some wood in hot water and rounded it off around a wheel. I learned that in the barrel factory where I used to work--that's the way they do the staves. They make cotton pickin' baskets the same way. I tried to use bass fiddle strings, but they don't sound so good, they stretch out of tune so I use piano strings. My wife named it the fotdella because I played it with my foot, like "foot diller".
Jesse starts off the program with three songs in G, "Take This Hammer", which he describes as his favorite, "Linin' Track", and "I'm Gonna Meet My Loving Mother", which Jaybird Coleman and Ollis Martin did as the great harmonica duet "I'm Gonna Cross That River of Jordan". Jesse was fond of going to the E minor chord when playing in G, and often did it in a really pretty, churchy way, using it to precede a D chord near the end of a phrase. "Tiger Rag", played in C, features some irresistibly funky harmonica playing; in a certain kind of way he is not doing all that much, but his time is so great that he doesn't need to do anything more. For "Memphis Rag" he returns to G, and "Raise a Ruckus" is performed in C. Side two opens with the hymn "Bye and Bye", followed by an instrumental, "Fingerbuster" that would be a great candidate for the "Blues and Circle of Fifths" thread. It is an exceptionally nifty tune in which an extended circle of fifths progression is walked through with a step-wise descending bass line. Boy, is it put together beautifully! "Stagolee" follows, and it is really interesting, for it is the only tune on the album Jesse plays out of D standard. John Hurt similarly played "Stackerlee" out of D, and it seems conceivable that Jesse heard his record of it. There are a couple of verses in common and the melodies of the two versions are similar. When the differences in the versions are considered, though, it is just as likely, or moreso, I suppose, that Jesse put together his version based on ways he had heard the song done in his travels, or had come up with on his own. "99 Years" is played in E standard, and is done using the melody and lyrics I associate with the bluegrass version of the song. It is nothing like Julius Daniels's version. "Hesitation Blues" is done in the major, a la Charlie Poole or Buddy Boy Hawkins.
Jesse was born in Georgia but left home at a very early age, and seems to have travelled throughout most of the United States. Perhaps as a result of having left Georgia in his early life, his playing does not have the Georgia sound of the twelve-string players from there in the late '20s: Willie McTell, Barbecue Bob, Charley Lincoln, George Carter, and Willie Baker. I look forward to picking up more of his recordings on Arhoolie and Original Blues Classics. If you like 12-string guitar and a pre-Blues/songster type of material, you may really like what he did. Do any of you have other favorite recordings of him or remembrances of him?
All best,
Johnm