The Washboard Rhythm Kings, also known as the Washboard Rhythm Boys (1932), Georgia Washboard Stompers (1934-1935), Alabama Washboard Stompers (1930-1932), Washboard Rhythm Band (1932-1933), and Chicago Hot Five were a loose aggregation of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
performers, many of high calibre, who recorded as a group for various labels between about 1930 and 1935. Bruce Johnson played washboard.
Career
The band played good-time swinging music, featuring spirited vocals, horns, a washboard player and occasionally kazoo, and were popular around the time of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. They mostly covered current hits from other artists.
Their personnel varied considerably between sessions, with guitarist
Teddy Bunn
Theodore Leroy Bunn (May 7, 1910 – July 20, 1978) was an American jazz guitarist who was a member of the Spirits of Rhythm during the 1930s.
Early life
Bunn was born in Freeport, New York.Tanner, Peter (October–November 1978) "The Late Teddy ...
a regular member from 1930 to 1931. Later recordings included singers
Leo Watson or Steve Washington, washboard player and vocalist Bruce Johnson (aka Bruce Wiley Robinson?), trumpeters
Valaida Snow and
Taft Jordan
Taft Jordan (February 15, 1915 – December 1, 1981) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Life and career
He was born in Florence, South Carolina, United States. Jordan played early in his career with the Washboard Rhythm Kings, before becoming a me ...
, and clarinetist
Ben Smith.
Their 1932 recording of "
Tiger Rag
"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard that was recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions. In 2003, the 1918 recording of "Tiger Rag" was entered into the U.S. Library of Cong ...
" has been cited for its "wild, informal feel" as an early precursor of rock and roll. Their music was also highly influential on the
skiffle
Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United States ...
music of the 1950s and later.
For the most part, they recorded for
Victor
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
. The "Alabama Washboard Stompers" were on
Vocalion. There was a March 8, 1933 session of 8 sides recorded for John Hammond at
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
primarily for export to the UK. Two of the tracks were subsequently issued in the US on Columbia 14680-D, which was the last issued record on the legendary 13000-D/14000-D Race Series.
They also recorded for ARC in August, 1933 and those sides were issued on their Banner, Domino, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, and Romeo labels. As "Georgia Washboard Stompers", they were on the newly-formed
Decca Decca may refer to:
Music
* Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label
* Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group
* Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label
* Decca Studios, a recording facility in We ...
label in late 1934 and early 1935.
On Film
As the Washboard Serenaders they can be seen in the short films That's the Spirit (1933), Carnival Time (1936) and The Black Network (1936).
[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1381602/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1, retrieved 12 April 2021 ]
See also
*
Jug band
A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, ...
*
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 Afr ...
*
Swing jazz
*
Origins of rock and roll
The origins of rock and roll are complex. Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlie ...
References
*Brian Rust (Malcolm Shaw, editor), ''Jazz and Ragtime Records 1897 - 1942'', Mainspring Press, 2002: "Alabama Washboard Stompers", p. 6; "Georgia Washboard Stompers", pp. 609–610; "Washboard Rhythm Kings", pp. 1783–1787.
{{Authority control
Washboard Rhythm Kings, The
Washboard players