The Memphis Jug Band was an American musical group active from the mid-1920s to the late 1950s.The band featured harmonica, kazoo, fiddle and mandolin or banjolin, backed by guitar, piano, washboard, washtub bass and jug. They played slow blues, pop songs, humorous songs and upbeat dance numbers with jazz and string band flavors. The band made the first commercial recordings in Memphis, Tennessee, and recorded more sides than any other prewar jug band.
Beginning in 1926, African-American musicians in the Memphis area grouped around the singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player Will Shade (also known as Son Brimmer or Sun Brimmer). The personnel of the band varied from day to day, with Shade booking gigs and arranging recording sessions. The band was as a training ground for musicians who would go on to make careers of their own.
Among the recorded members of the Memphis Jug Band at various times were Will Shade (harmonica, guitar, washtub bass, vocals), Charlie Burse (guitar, tenor guitar, vocals), Charlie Nickerson (vocals, piano), Charlie Pierce (fiddle), Charlie Polk (jug), Tewee Blackman (guitar, vocals), "Hambone" Lewis (jug), Jab Jones (piano, jug, vocals), Johnny Hodges (Johnny Hardge) (piano), Ben Ramey (kazoo, vocals), Will Weldon (guitar, vocals), Memphis Minnie (guitar, vocals), Vol Stevens (vocals, fiddle, mandolin), Milton Robie (fiddle), Otto Gilmore (Gilmer) (drums and woodblocks), and Robert Burse (washboard, drums). Vocals were provided by Hattie Hart, Memphis Minnie, Jennie Mae Clayton (Shade's wife), and Minnie Wallace. The Memphis Jug Band accompanied Memphis Minnie on two sides for Victor Records in 1930, one of her first recording sessions. Some members also contributed to gospel recordings, either uncredited or as part of the Memphis Sanctified Singers. The large membership pool gave the Memphis Jug Band the flexibility to play a mixture of ballads, dance tunes, knock-about novelty numbers, and blues.
The remarkable sound of the Memphis Jug Band was partly due to its unusual instruments. The first recorded jug bands, based in Louisville, Kentucky, were jazz-oriented groups with a jug taking the place of a tuba or trombone. The Memphis Jug Band borrowed from this model but added kazoo as a prominent lead instrument, similar in sound to a trumpet in a jazz band. Another variation from the Louisville sound was a focus on country blues songs, like those favored by Jim Jackson and other Memphis-area solo artists. (The Memphis Jug Band recorded Jackson's hit song "Kansas City Blues" twice and performed it on the television program Blues Street in 1958.) This is the basic jug band sound that was adopted by other Memphis-area groups, like Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, Jed Davenport's Beale Street Jug Band and Jack Kelly's South Memphis Jug Band.
The band initially played mostly country blues, but its repertoire expanded as new members contributed their own styles. Songs led by Charlie "Bozo" Nickerson, such as "Everybody's Talking About Sadie Green" and "Cave Man Blues," were boisterous and funny; songs led by Charlie Burse, such as "Little Green Slippers" and "Insane Crazy Blues," were more musically complex and jazz-oriented; songs led by Charlie Pierce sounded like Appalachian fiddle tunes, backed by impressive jug playing and shouted challenges from his bandmates. Will Shade continued playing straightforward country blues songs for the rest of his life, but he also introduced some jazz elements, as in his 1962 field recording of "Jump and Jive", which incorporates lyrics from Cab Calloway's "Jumpin' Jive".
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