Topic: Tampa Red & the Chicago Five.....

[Adam Franklin]

Does anyone know of a way to get all the Chicago Five recordings of Tampa Red?

I've tried Document, they only list the titles though. Did he record with the C5 only sporadically?

Ta all, Adam.

[dj]

Tampa Red recorded with the Chicago 5 from April 1 1936 through December 16, 1938.  At each session he'd record with the Chicago Five and then do a few songs usually with himself on piano accompanied by Willie B. James on guitar.  If you get everything he recorded in 1936, 1937, and 1938, you'll have all the Chicago Five songs. 

And if you can find the two Bluebird two disc sets that BMG put out in the mid-1990s, you'll have most of the Chicago Five recordings, and in stunning sound.

[blueshome]

Check the Document Records catalogue for the relevant discs.

[Adam Franklin]

Thanks Dj, It was the years I was after. I didn't know there was a second Tampa Red Bluebird cd. They are great compilations, I've got most of them (I think..).

Adam.

[Gumbo]

Tampa Red recorded with the Chicago 5 from April 1 1936 through December 16, 1938.  At each session he'd record with the Chicago Five and then do a few songs usually with himself on piano accompanied by Willie B. James on guitar.  If you get everything he recorded in 1936, 1937, and 1938, you'll have all the Chicago Five songs. 

And if you can find the two Bluebird two disc sets that BMG put out in the mid-1990s, you'll have most of the Chicago Five recordings, and in stunning sound.

Thanks DJ (and Adam for asking the question) - the first of those Bluebird sets just arrived and the sound is, indeed, lovely. I got both of them through Amazon (link on the left of the page ) This first set has only 6 Chicago Five songs.

[ArthurBlake]

Been a long time since I heard any of those recordings and because I downloaded them there was never any information of exactly who the other 4 musicians are, I am also not too sure where I stored those tunes on my laptop. Can someone help with the aforementioned information.

[Gumbo]

The first Chicago Five recording is "When you were a gal of Seven" (April 1st 1936) which is on Vol. 7 of the document Cds. Can you figure it out from that by checking on the document-records.com site for the (chronolgical) track listings?

[blueshome]

The regular line up until May 1937 was Tampa, Arnett Nelson (cl), Black Bob (p), Willie B.James or unk (gtr), unk (sb).

On later sessions up to mid 1938 John Davis took over on piano and Bill Austin (ts) replaced Nelson and had Bill Settles on bass dropping the 2nd gtr. The final "Five" session added Charlie Idsen on trumpet.