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Dee Blues

The Chocolate Dandies

Benny Carter , Benny Jackson, Bobby Stark, Coleman Hawkins, Horace Henderson, Jimmy Harrison , John Kirby

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Recorded in New York City on December 31st 1930 featuring Bobby Stark trumpet, Jimmy Harrison trombone, Benny Carter clarinet & alto sax, Coleman Hawkins tenor sax, Horace Henderson piano, Benny Jackson guitar, and John Kirby bass brass.

*"Dee Blues" is credited to Benny Carter.

The "Chocolate Dandies" was a pseudonym commonly used by "McKinney's Cotton Pickers" but in this instance it has been adopted for a session headed by Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins.

This side stands as a shining example of a Northern jazz assembly playing an arrangement very much inspired by the New Orleans sound.

An earlier date (Dec. 4th) by the same group except Rex Stewart instead of Bobby Stark, produced only one known recording ("Goodbye Blues"). The Dec. 31st date was more successful, yielding four titles, including "Dee Blues", a last minute head arrangement used to fill out the session. Of the other records, "Cloudy Skies" was composed and arranged by Coleman Hawkins; "Got Another Sweetie Now" was composed by Jimmy Harrison (who sings it) and arranged by Benny Carter, and "Bugle Call Rag" was a (stellar) Carter arrangement (with some great John Kirby tuba, especially under Jimmy Harrison's swinging trombone).The results of these two sessions were originally issued only in Europe; they only came out in America ten years later. They are almost completely noncommercial, and are actually a template for the jazz combo records that became much more commonplace in the mid-30's.
-Dan Weinstein