Topic: Louis Lasky

[CF]

Anybody know anything about this player? I have two solo songs of his that are very much in the vein of Big Bill's flatpicked 'How You Want It Done'? . . . in fact he does a version of this song. I can only find three songs that he recorded:

Teasin' Brown Blues
How You Want Your Rollin' Done?
Caroline

& he plays second guitar to Big Bill on his June 20th, 1935 recordings of the stellar 'C & A Blues' & 'Something Good'. He & Bill apparently played together with Washboard Sam as well. All of his recorded activity seems to have happened in 1935 or thereabouts. The two solo songs I have ('Teasin' & 'How You') are real good IMO, very aggressively picked with invention & control & quite well sung too. Lasky had an earthy, kind of old-fashioned singing style . . .  I'm assuming he learned to play out of a G position from Big Bill who was recording the 'How You Want It Done?' style as early as 1930. On the two Big Bill songs he seems to playing with Bill out of a C position & doing some nice slid/ringing bass notes kinda like Arthur Petties did in 'Good Boy' (& didn't Petties play with Big Bill too?). What about the Washboard Sam material, anyone know anything about that or anything else about this musician? Thanks.

[frankie]

I'm assuming he learned to play out of a G position from Big Bill who was recording the 'How You Want It Done?' style as early as 1930.

I think Lasky sounds like he's an older guy...  and has (to my ears, anyway) a surer touch with the flatpick than Big Bill...  I wouldn't be surprised if the influence there ran the other way 'round.  His Caroline is a killer - pure ragtime pop & delivered with total command.

[CF]

Yeah you're right Frankie, he certainly sounds older . . . & I agree that his flatpicking is real powerful, he seems to be having no trouble wringing out all kindsa notes out of that G position. funny he didn't record more or earlier . . . hmmm, i'd love to hear that 'Caroline' of his . . .

[Rivers]

Coincidence, I was listening to his version of How You Want Your Rollin' Done back to back with Big Bill's yesterday. Not much to say except both are cool and Lasky was clearly very Big Bill influenced, or vice versa.

Other sessions, these are the ones Cheapfeet mentions before 1943:
Lasky is credited as the probable 2nd guitar on Big Bill's C & A Blues and Something Good, session was Chicago 1935
Accompanist to Anna Lee Chisholm on Georgia Sam Blues and Cool Kind Daddy Blues, Chicago 1924(!)
Accompanist w/Ham Gravy, (BBB, Lasky & Washboard Sam), Mama Don't Allow #1 and Jesse James Blues, Chicago 1935

Yes Cheapfeet, you are right, Arthur Petties recorded w/BBB, Police Station Blues and They Can't Do That, NYC 1930.

I keep all this stuff in my head you know, but Blues & Gospel Records is there if I ever forget who was on 3rd kazoo.

Edited to add: There are a couple more Lasky unissued recordings mentioned in B&GR:

She's Worrying Me and Please Come Back to Me were recorded for Vocalion in 1935

Plus there's an unissued song I Ain't No Stranger Now by Louis Leslie (which B&GR say was his real name), recorded at the same ARC 1935 session as the Chicago Sanctified Singers, with had Big Bill on guitar and vocals.

PS looking through my iTunes library the three released tracks mentioned, Teasin' Brown Blues, How You Want Your Rollin' Done? & Caroline, are all together on Document's Songster Tradition, DOCD-5045.  Teasin' is also on the new JSP A Richer Tradition box set.

Quote from Chris Smith's notes to the Document: "By 1935, one would expect blues virtually to have driven out all other forms, and if Louis Lasky's issued 78 were all we knew of him, it would support this contention. Lasky probably taught Big Bill how to flatpick, and he sounds older than Bill (born 1898); old enough to have admired the early film star Priscilla Dean. Luckily the test pressing of Caroline survives to show that, like others of his generation, Lasky didn't confine himself to blues, but was still keeping alive the songster tradition"

[uncle bud]

Coincidence, I was listening to his version of How You Want Your Rollin' Done back to back with Big Bill's yesterday. Not much to say except both are cool and Lasky was clearly very Big Bill influenced, or vice versa.

Other sessions, these are the ones Cheapfeet mentions before 1943:
Lasky is credited as the probable 2nd guitar on Big Bill's C & A Blues and Something Good, session was Chicago 1935
Accompanist to Anna Lee Chisholm on Georgia Sam Blues and Cool Kind Daddy Blues, Chicago 1924(!)
Accompanist w/Ham Gravy, (BBB, Lasky & Washboard Sam), Mama Don't Allow #1 and Jesse James Blues, Chicago 1935

I was just listening to Lasky on that Anna Lee Chisholm record, Cool Kind Daddy Blues (he's not on Georgia Sam Blues, which is just piano acc. by J.H. Shayne). Fun tune, works really with Lasky-style flatpicking and a classic blues singer vocal. Lasky is playing really nice on this. Sound is fairly rough. It's on Blue Girls Vol 3 1924-38 DOCD-5646, which is currently on sale at the Document site for ?2.99, if there are any Lasky completists out there.

[jostber]

Louis Lasky is a great unknown artist, and that Caroline is quite a special tune too. His flat-picking here is mighty quick and advanced in a pretty singular style. Not as wild as "Teasin' Brown" and "How You Want Your Rollin' Done", but a fine song. His vocals on "Teasin" and "Rollin" is really something, a combination of controlled and out there that is smoking.



 

[Alexei McDonald]

I've been listening to Blue Girls v.3 (DOCD 5846) and was pleased to hear another Louis Lasky performance, accompanying Anna Lee Chisholm on Cool Kind Daddy Blues. The notes say this is ca. April 1924.

[alyoung]

>I've been listening to Blue Girls v.3 (DOCD 5846)...

DOCD-5646 (not 5846 -- they haven't got that far yet) ... and it's not the disc shown in the YouTube clip. But Vol 3 also has the complete works of Lulu Jackson; some say she's an acquired taste, but at the least she's real interesting as an early example of blues and white country crossover. 

[uncle bud]

Agreed, Lulu Jackson is a bit of an acquired taste, but once acquired, she's great! If you like 'em a little nutty and weird, buy this record.

[Lignite]

Over the years I have had my hands on (but did not own) the original 78 records of both Louie Lasky and Big Bill's versions of How Do You Want Your Rollin' Done. On Big Bill's recording the authorship credit was given to Louie Lasky which kind of proves to me that it was his song and that he taught it as well as the flat picking style to Big Bill.