Amos Milburn Rockin' The Boogie (LP, 10inch, Ltd.)

BEAR FAMILY Vinyl Club Exclusive - limited collector's edition, order now from Bear Family's Shop and Mailorder

10inch LP (Limited edition - orange vinyl) 10 tracks.

• Unique 10inch 11000 LP collector's series 
• Reissue of the rare American LP Aladdin 704
• Plus 2 bonus tracks!
• Reproduction of the rare original album cover
• Painstakingly remastered for highest fidelity
• pressed on high quality vinyl!

• Limited to 500 copies pressed on color vinyl

This is a reproduction of a 10inch Amos Milburn album originally released in the U.S. in 1952 on Aladdin Records in various limited editions. Versions in red vinyl and black vinyl had been issued as well as versions in blue and sandy colored cover jackets.
 
It was the year 1952, seven years after World War II the world was dancing the Boogie Woogie. This is also testified through many Boogie Woogie recordings by white big band orchestras of the post war years. The original Boogie Woogie, the native pre-war piano boogie sound jumped out of black musician's hands such as Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson. Amos Milburn came up with this record in 1952 and was celebrated as the current King of Boogie Woogie. Milburn's sound was black, down to earth, stomping but swinging. He had his own unique style to boogie. It's verified with this hot reproduction and it also proves why Amos Milburn sold well not only on the black Rhythm & Blues market but also to white customers.

The carefully reproduced original cover jacket refers to the sandy-colored Aladdin Records version which is even more seldom and even more expensive today! Therefore it is a real jewel within our 10inch collector's series. 

The songs on ‘Rockin' The Boogie’ are true dance numbers and hits are included too. We have the first version of the Amos Milburn classic Chicken Shack Boogie and the follow up, Sax Shack Boogie, and also his great interpretations of Tommy Dorsey's big band era classic Boogie Woogie, of Jessie Mae Robinson's Roomin' House Boogie, and the Don Raye composition Down The Road Apiece made famous earlier by Freddie Slack and later by Chuck Berry. This hot platter is fulfilled with red hot Boogie Woogie numbers that gets you in a dance craze! 

Traditionally we added two bonus tracks to the songs of the original album to complete this reissue with another feature. The two bonus tracks, I Done Done It and Greyhound were penned and partially created by Rhythm & Blues tunesmith legend Rudolph 'Rudy' Toombs and had been recorded at a later date than the other songs on the album. The reason for our choice is mainly the rarity of each song and the danceability of both tracks making this reissue more than complete! Another masterpiece in music history and a masterpiece for YOUR record collection!

MM/Bear Family Records

Amos Milburn

Asked to pinpoint his principal influences, New Orleans rock and roll pioneer Fats Domino readily volunteered the name of one fondly remembered individual above all others.

"His name was Amos Milburn," said the Fat Man. "I really liked his piano style."

As one of the premier R&B hitmakers of the postwar jump blues era, Milburn's romping boogie piano and uproarious odes to sex, booze and all-night partying anticipated the ascension of rock and roll. Amos was rocking the house for the Mesner brothers' Los Angeles-based Aladdin label long before Fats or any of his fellow revolutionaries came remotely near a recording facility.

That Milburn was left by the wayside when rock and roll exploded into the mainstream remains one of the great injustices of the period, since he was still turning out great platters (of his peers, only Big Joe Turner successfully crossed over to entice the new teen demographic). Some of Amos' last Aladdin records were cut at the Crescent City studio where Fats made his million-sellers, utilizing many of the same musicians.

Born April 1, 1927 in Houston, Texas, Milburn seems to have been born to pound the 88s. Legend has it that by the age of five, he'd figured out how to play Jingle Bells with one of his tiny fingers. But Yuletide chestnuts didn't hold young Amos' interest for long. His brother got him interested in pop material, and as time went on he was more into grooving on the jumping jive of alto sax ace Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five and the big band sound of Erskine Hawkins, as well as the holy boogie piano triumvirate of Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis. There was a strange stylistic dalliance when Amos billed himself as 'The He-Man Martha Raye' at local amateur contests, performing material by the zany musical comedienne (no word as to whether he won anything with that dubious act).

Although he was under-age, Amos joined the Navy in November of 1942, seeing plenty of Pacific action during his three years of World War II service. Whenever he came across a piano overseas in officer's clubs, he made the most of the opportunity. Returning to Houston after the war ended, Milburn got back into the swing of the local scene, forming his own combo.

"Houston was really loaded down with good clubs, good music with different bands," said Milburn's longtime guitarist, Texas Johnny Brown, listing Shady's, the Club Ebony, the Club Matinee, and the Eldorado Ballroom as a few of the local hotspots. Guitar wizard Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown got his start at Don Robey's classy Bronze Peacock in Houston's Fifth Ward.

Through the sibling dance duo Mack & Ace, Milburn landed a gig in San Antonio at the Keyhole Club. Owner Don Albert kept Amos around for awhile. One evening he was handed a note on the bandstand from talent agent Lola Anne Cullum, the wife of a Houston physician. When Milburn got back home, the two joined forces to work up original material in hopes of landing him a recording contract.

Armed with a couple of demos that Amos had made at a local radio station, the young piano man and his new manager got aboard a train and headed west to Los Angeles, where freshly minted independent R&B labels were just beginning to proliferate. Houston spawned its own group of indie imprints over the years led by Robey's Peacock Records (and eventually its Duke sister label), but when it came to immediate recording opportunities, the West Coast was really where it was at. By the end of the '40s, L.A. labels such as Imperial, Specialty, Swing Time, and Modern would be churning out national R&B hits on a weekly basis.

Modern boss Jules Bihari dug what Amos had to offer on the 88s (after all, boogie specialist Hadda Brooks was the company's flagship artist), but he couldn't come to financial terms with Cullum. So she brought her protege to Aladdin Records. The seemingly simple process of auditioning was complicated by label co-owner Eddie Mesner being laid up in the hospital when they arrived in town. Lola Anne wouldn't be discouraged, buying a record player and bringing it up to Eddie's hospital room to spin Amos' demos for his perusal. The end result was an Aladdin contract for Milburn at three times the bread that the Biharis offered.

The ambitious Cullum wasn't through steering promising Houston talent in the Mesners' direction. Next time she came out West, she brought guitarist Lightnin' Hopkins, who she'd met through Amos, and pianist Thunder Smith with her. They made their Aladdin debut date in November of '46, and while Thunder petered out fast, it was the start of an astonishingly prolific career for Lightnin'.

"She was a damn good manager. She was just like a mom," said Johnny Brown. "If you didn't have the right sort of clothing and everything, well, she'd see that you got it. She was that kind of person."  Cullum's savvy managerial efforts steered Milburn onto a lucrative career path, but she would eventually be aced out of her gig by Aladdin's braintrust.

Eddie and his brother, Leo Mesner, had launched their label in 1945 as Philo Records. They got hot right off the bat with Helen Humes' romping Be Baba Leba and the mellow Drifting Blues by guitarist Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, featuring the velvety vocals and sophisticated piano of Charles Brown (one of Amos' major early influences and later one of his very best friends). Electronics company Philco gave the Mesners a rumble about copyright infringement, so they renamed their label Aladdin. After one more session, the Three Blazers exited the label, leaving plenty of room on the roster for Amos to hop aboard.

"They went talent-scouting, looking for somebody else to replace me," said the late Charles. "So they found Amos Milburn, who was close to being me, like I was singing."  Charles would come back to Aladdin in late 1948 and proceed to cut a slew of solo hits, but by then Milburn was experiencing R&B stardom as well.

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