Rhumboogie Café

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The Rhumboogie Café was a Chicago nightclub that existed from 1942 to 1947 that also included a short-lived record label.

The night club

The rhumboogie café , also known as Rhumboogie Club was called, was a nightclub in Chicago, who was at 343 East 55th Street and a popular venue for artists from the fields of blues , jazz , bebop and rhythm and blues was. Opened in April 1942, the nightclub was owned by Charlie Glenn and boxing champion Joe Louis . After a fire, the club had to close on December 31, 1945 and was reopened in June 1946, but could no longer continue to its former importance and was closed in May 1947.

Joe Louis

The predecessor of the Rhumboogie Café was the Dave's Cafeacute , also located at 343 East 55th , which opened in May 1934 and was continued as Swingland Cafeacute after its sale ; were shown Black and Tan shows and revues of the producer Joe "Ziggy" Johnson. In the club u. a. the bands of Horace Henderson , Jimmy Noone and Johnny Long. The club closed in June 1940, was continued for a while as Dave's Café from July 1940, but closed again in February 1942.

On April 17th the club reopened as Rhumboogie Cafe with an elaborate show; Tiny Bradshaw performed with his orchestra at the first show , and there was also a revue of comedians, dancers and singers. The show was in turn produced by Joe "Ziggy" Johnson, who previously worked at St. Louis Paradise .

The “figurehead” and co-owner of the club was boxing champion Joe Louis; However, since he did not know much about business operations, the actual manager was Charlie Glenn, who left in 1946. Glenn had hired the pianist Marl Young , who had previously worked for the New Club Plantation, as arranger . In addition to Tiny Bradshaw, T-Bone Walker performed in the Rhumboogie Café , accompanied by the Milt Larkin Band, Fletcher Henderson , the International Sweethearts of Rhythm , Nat Towles , Little Miss Cornshucks , Sarah Vaughan , Dinah Washington (who still appeared there as Ruth Lee Jones ), the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra , Wynonie Harris and the so-called Dream Band made up of Carroll Dickerson , Charlie Parker , Eddie Johnson , Tom Archia , Marl Young and other musicians.

The Rhumboogie label

In October 1944, the Rhumboogie Recording Company began its activities when a concert was recorded by T-Bone Walker, accompanied by Marl Young, who led the Rhumboogie house band, in which Red Saunders also played. The few releases of the label were distributed by the newly founded label Mercury . A second session of the Rhumboogie label again with T-Bone Walker took place on December 19, 1945. When the Rhumboogie Café reopened in June 1946, there were plans to produce more recordings; however, the label soon ended its activities. There was only one more session with Buster Bennett , who appeared under the name of his trumpeter Charles Gray .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Red Saunders Research Foundation ( Memento April 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Robert Pruter: Doowop: the Chicago scene. University of Illinois Press, 1997, ISBN 0-252-06506-9 . at Google Books
  3. ^ A b Pruter, Robert and Campbell, Robert L. "The Rhumboogie Label" ( Memento of April 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Allaboutjazz ( Memento from June 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Lawrence McClellan: The Later Swing Era, 1942 to 1955. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 0-313-30157-3 . at Google Books
  6. ↑ Dennis Owsley: City of Gabriels: the history of jazz in St. Louis, 1895-1973. Reedy Press, 2006, ISBN 1-933370-04-1 . at Google Books
  7. ↑ Campbell, Robert L. Pruter and Armin Büttner: "The King Fleming Discography" ( Memento from April 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )