Trumpet Records was an American record company founded by

Lillian McMurry Lillian Shedd McMurry (December 30, 1921 – March 18, 1999) was one of the earliest American female record producers and owner of Trumpet Records. She was influential in the development of blues music, particularly through her recordings of Sonny ...

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

in 1951. Although it existed for only four years, it was influential.

History

The goal of Trumpet Records was to record musicians from the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yaz ...

that did not have access to recording studios in New York City or Los Angeles. Trumpet competed with the

Bihari brothers The Bihari brothers, Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe, were American businessmen of Hungarian Jewish origins. They were the founders of Modern Records in Los Angeles and its subsidiaries, such as Meteor Records, based in Memphis. The Bihari brothers w ...

Modern Records Modern Records (Modern Music Records before 1947) was an American record company and label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. Modern's artists included Etta James, Joe Houston, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and John Lee ...

. Both companies recorded some of the era's best

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

music, from

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

s to

jump blues Jump blues is an up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues was renewed in the 1990s as ...

and

boogie woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pi ...

Elmore James Elmore James ( Brooks; January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...

recorded his original " Dust My Broom" here, and the label was the first to record

Sonny Boy Williamson II Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp st ...

. Trumpet was founded by Lillian McMurry. Her husband Willard, was in the furniture sales business, and they purchased a hardware store which they were renovating to be a furniture store. The workers were playing some unsold records left behind and one caught Lillian's attention: Wynonie Harris's ''All She Wants to Do is Rock''. “'It was the most unusual, sincere and solid sound I'd ever heard,'' she said. ''I'd never heard a black record before. I'd never heard anything with such rhythm and freedom.'” Lillian wanted to sell records in the store (which at the time were sold everywhere from grocery stores to beauty parlors) and had the workers make up a list of records to buy. When the store opened, she quickly sold out of all those records and asked Willard if they could turn part of the store into a record store (called Record Mart). Trumpet was located on Farish Street, the black district of Jackson, and recorded R&B,

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

and

artists including

Little Milton James Milton Campbell Jr. (September 7, 1934 – August 4, 2005), better known as Little Milton, was an American blues singer and guitarist, best known for his number-one R&B single " We're Gonna Make It". His other hits include " Baby, I Love ...

Wynonie Harris Wynonie Harris (August 24, 1915 – June 14, 1969) was an American blues shouter and rhythm-and-blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. He had fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952. Harris is attributed by ...

Willie Love Willie Love Jr. (November 4, 1906 – August 19, 1953) was an American Delta blues pianist. He is best known for his association with and accompaniment of Sonny Boy Williamson II. Biography Love was born in Duncan, Mississippi. In 1942, he ...

, and James Waller.

Arthur Crudup Arthur William "Big Boy" Crudup (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1974) was an American Delta blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known, outside blues circles, for his songs "That's All Right" (1946), "My Baby Left Me" and "So Gla ...

recorded at the label under the name Elmer James. In 1952, James's song " Dust My Broom" appeared on

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

's R&B chart at No. 9. Talent scout Joe Bihari found him at the radio shop to record him at a local night club backing up

Ike Turner Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and ...

. McMurry and the Bihari brothers ended up in a multi-year legal dispute when the Biharis tried to sign artists with exclusive agreements with Trumpet. The case made major publications and in 1954, a judge ruled in favor of McMurray. Trumpet artists recorded at studios such as WRBC Radio's studio, Ivan Scott's Radio Service Studio in Jackson, and some historic studios of the day (such as Bill Holford's ACA Studios in Houston, Memphis Record Service with

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, ...

, RCA Victor Studio in Chicago, and

Universal Recording Universal Recording Corporation was a recording studio in Chicago founded by Bill Putnam, Sr. for the purpose of investigating new recording techniques and the development of specialized recording equipment. Universal Recording was seminal i ...

in Chicago). Record Mart was remodeled to be a recording studio, Diamond Recording Studio, designed by Bill Holford, in 1953. Lillian engineered based on what she learned by observing and listening to other engineers. Williamson wrote about Lillian McMurray in two songs: "Pontiac Blues", about her car, and "309", named for her address. In the lyrics he gave out her home phone number. Trumpet closed in 1956. Creditors sold the artists' recording contracts. Sonny Boy Williamson II recorded for

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock a ...

in Chicago where he released another 70 songs. The site of the Trumpet Records's studio is commemorated by a

Mississippi Blues Trail The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout (and in some cases beyond) ...

historical marker.

References

External links

Trumpet Records
on the Internet Archive'
Great 78 Project
{{Authority control Record labels established in 1951 American independent record labels Blues record labels Mississippi Blues Trail 1951 establishments in Mississippi Entertainment companies of the United States

History

See also

References

External links