Revision note. Another late, unpromoted Vitacoustic release, Vitacoustic 5002, has surfaced on archive.org. With help from Marv Goldberg, who has researched the life and career of Kitty Stevenson, we have corrected her date of birth, her date of death, and several details about her recordings for Vitacoustic. From an ad for the house music publisher for King Records (February 21, 1948) we learn of a heretofore unknown rendition of "I Love You Yes I Do," by Leo Diamond on Vitacoustic 18. To our present knowledge, the last releases on the label were the second Joan Edwards 78 on Vitacoustic 22, reported by Dan DeMuth, and another Leo Diamond on Vitacoustic 25, reported by Alex Podlecki, who also alerted us to Vitacoustic 1006 by Christine Randall and added to our information about Vitacoustic 4 and 12.
Vitacoustic was a Chicago independent, associated with the up-and-coming Universal Recording operation. It collapsed into bankruptcy in less than a year, amid nasty management disputes, after investing extravagantly in recorded material that would never see release. Yet it began its abbreviated life with a monster hit. Because it spent freely on Billboard and Cash Box ads, and its riches-to-rags story attracted a lot of coverage, the company is much better documented in contemporary sources than was usual for small labels.
Universal Recording, operated by Milton T. "Bill" Putnam and A. B. "Bernie" Clapper, was originally a small studio on the North Side of Chicago that specialized in radio transcriptions (mostly for the ABC Radio Network). On August 24, 1946, Putnam and Clapper significantly expanded the operation when they took over studios on the 42nd floor of 20 Wacker Drive, above the Chicago Civic Opera. (The company first advertised in Billboard on August 31.) Clearly their aim was to pick up commercial recording business that they could not have handled in their old location with their heavy load of transcription work. In October 1946, George Tasker, who had previously managed Red Nichols and Anson Weeks, joined as recording supervisor. Universal would soon become the leading studio in Chicago, widely relied on by the new independent labels that were emerging after World War II. During the first few months in the new location, however, the studio was still recording a lot of speeches and transcriptions for radio use. The Vitacoustic label was the first product of Putnam's ambitions to make and sell his own records.
Vitacoustic started up in late March of 1947 (a week or two before Aristocrat, another independent label that used Universal's recording facilities). The first Billboard coverage ran in the April 5 issue, with a story date of March 29. Billboard reported, on April 19, 1947, that Vitacoustic had signed Freddy Nagel's Orchestra and the Mel Henke Trio. On April 26, it further noted the signing of a vocal group called the Honey Dreamers, who were featured on ABC Radio at the time. Vitacoustic's first ad ran on May 10, 1947. The company's address ("offices and studios") was 20 North Wacker Drive, 42nd floor—i.e., the address of Universal Recording. The company was formed by Lloyd Garrett and Jack Buckley with Bill Putnam. (Garrett and Buckley had previously tested the waters with a short-lived label called Gee-Bee.) George Tasker was in charge of A&R. Vitacoustic, reflecting Putnam and Tasker's preferences, was originally oriented toward White pop music, with a special emphasis on harmonica players. (In its Billboard ad of October 4, 1947, the company boasted of being the "house of harmonica hits.")
The launch of the new label was announced in a Billboard story datelined March 29, 1947 (it ran on April 5). The headline of the story, "Putnam Springs New Waxing Technique With 'Vitacoustic'," focused on reporting the new "third-dimensional" recording technique devised by Universal Recording Studios. The Billboard scribe said, "Putnam's gimmick, while hard to describe, is said to make a band sound as if it were in the listener's room, similar to a good wired music system in a restaurant with four or five speakers set at the right places."
This article is one of the first to mention the use of echo to bring a fuller resonant sound to records—a development that has been generally credited to Universal Recording. Putnam might have been shy about describing what the studio did to get the sound. Art Sheridan, who was there at the inception of the technique, said, "Bill Putnam and Bernie Clapper [who founded Universal Recording] developed the first echo chamber by running a microphone and a receiver into the adjacent ladies' washroom, which was that old-type tile thing—it had great resonance—and while we were doing a session we put a guard outside the door so that nobody would come in and flush the toilet."
The use of echo was part of the company's identity, hence the name Vitacoustic, which means "Living Sound." The technique probably brought a lot of presence to the harmonicas on the company's harmonica recordings. Overall, the development of echo in the recording industry has proven a mixed blessing. It was valuable for bringing more presence to many recordings. It became a bane when used to excess; for instance, in some of the tracks that were laid down by Chess and United in the early 1950s, either using Universal's facilities or striving to imitate them. Overdone echo makes records sound phony, hollow, and, in the worst case, acoustically impossible.
Vitacoustic made its first releases in April 1947. Vitacoustic 1, "Peg o' My Heart" by the Harmonicats, and Vitacoustic 2, "Malaguena" by the same trio, were reviewed in Billboard on April 12, 1947. They were featured at the top of the list of records deemed "most likely to achieve popularity." The reviewer commented that "Mouth organing was highlighted by a unique echo chamber effect giving depth and glucose which helps to cover up other technical flaws." On "Peg," a "string guitar finish[ed] off measures with echoed notes." "Record biz has seen everything but a harmonica platter hit—this might be the baby to do it." As was expected from a record that had already moved 100,000 copies locally ("Disk has created a mild panic in Chicago and St. Louis at this writing, and looks to spread fast"), "Peg o' My Heart" entered the national charts on April 26, 1947.
The Harmonicats were a harmonica trio, consisting of Jerry Murad, Don Les, and Al Fiore. As we will see below, all three had shortened their names for marquee purposes. (We are indebted to Danny Wilson's Harmonicats Web site, http://www.harmonicats.com, and his Al Fiore page, http://members.aol.com/harmonica/PLAYERS/fiore.html, for background on these performers.) Jerry Murad normally played lead on the chromatic harmonica; Don Les sometimes added lines on the 10-hole standard harmonica. More exotic were the Hohner bass harmonica and the Hohner 48-chord harmonica, both of which made essential contributions to this specialized ensemble. As bass harmonica player Danny Wilson explains, the instrument is 8 3/4 inches long, and much thicker than a regular harmonica; it weighs 2 3/4 pounds. The 23-inch long chord harmonica consists of two combs, one above the other; it produces block chords tuned in a circle of fifths, and is normally expected to carry out a rhythm function, like a rhythm guitar (or the left-hand buttons on an accordion).
According to a story in the Milwaukee Journal of October 17, 1947, the Cats had formed in 1944 under Jerry Murad's leadership. Jerry Muradian was born of Armenian parentage in what was still called Constantinople, on December 12, 1919. He arrived in Chicago in 1925 and decided that he want to play the harmonica instead of going into the family business of making carpets. Domnic Leshinski, born in Lorain, Ohio on November 15, 1914, met Murad while both were in the Marines during World War II. Both spent some time in Borrah Minevitch's Harmonica Rascals. Albert Fiorentino was born in Chicago on December 30, 1922. During their first couple of years, the Harmonicats all had to work day jobs (which in Murad's case included building and repairing harmonicas) but in the fall of 1946 they landed a steady gig at Helsing's Vodvil Lounge in Chicago.
In February of 1947, the Harmonicats approached Bill Putnam about recording some of their material, but they couldn't afford the rates (Putnam was charging $108 for a 3-hour, 4-tune session). Putnam was interested enough in their music that he offered to pick up the session costs himself if they cut in him on half the proceeds from their first 1000 records. The group recorded "Peg o' My Heart" (supposedly in just 20 minutes) and four other numbers. (The tale told by the matrix numbers is a little different: the U numbers indicate an initial session that included "Peg o' My Heart" and a second, longer session a week or two later.) The harmonica trio was accompanied on the two sessions by guitarist Sid Fisher and a string bass player. The records were quite innovative. "Peg" had a chord harmonica lead (played by Al Fiore) and "Harmonica Boogie" featured the bass harmonica (which was entrusted to Don Les). Putting the chord harmonica in the lead was an unusual move, which contributed to the very full sound on "Peg." According to Danny Wilson, Alan Pogson had arranged "Peg o' My Heart" to feature the chord harmonica in 1937, while a member of Borrah Minevitch's Harmonica Rascals; Al Fiore revised his arrangement. The bass harmonica is an ungrateful instrument, with stiff reeds and a long response time; featuring it in the lead was a testimony to Don Les' virtuosity. Besides the unusual arrangements (by harmonica trio standards), the records made prominent use of the echo chamber for the first time.
Putnam had 1000 copies of "Peg o' My Heart" b/w "Fantasy Impromptu" pressed by Mercury. (Actually, "Fantasy Impromptu," from the Harmonicats' second session, may have been intended as the A side. Murad, Les, and Fiore all told Danny Wilson that they first thought that the light-classical sound of "Fantasy Impromptu" would have the broader public appeal.) The label on these trial copies was Universal, and the issue number was probably 1 (though we would like confirmation on that, and on the designated A and B sides). The release had been announced in Billboard for March 1, 1947: "Universal Recording, local firm headed by Bill Putnam, is toying with the idea of its own permanent record label and will issue 1,000 copies of a test release by the Harmonicats, harmonica trio, and Sid Fisher's Trio."
Much to Putnam's surprise, his 1000 copies sold out in two days, after DJ Eddie Hubbard played "Peg o' My Heart" on the radio. To capitalize on its popularity, Putnam raised $50,000 so the the Universal label could press and distribute the record. But he lacked adequate distribution, so after moving 100,000 copies in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, which took him less than a month, he struck the deal with Buckley and Garrett to form Vitacoustic.
As was undoubtedly its first charge, Vitacoustic moved quickly to expand its distribution. Besides James H. Martin in Chicago, who had previously handled Universal, the April 26 Billboard (p. 22) announced that the company had picked up distributors in St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cincinnati, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Baltimore, Maryland. The Detroit distributor was Pan-American, of which we shall be hearing again shortly. And the company had hired Evelyn Ehrlich, "ex-music paper scribe," to handle promotion (p. 22). The same Billboard item that announced the distribution network mentioned that the Honey Dreamers had been "inked," which we know is true (they'd already recorded with Mel Henke). But it also said the company had signed "Patti Page, local CBS vocalist." Patti Page sang on one side of a Freddy Nagel record; it was her first release, and she may have been on some other Nagel sides that the company didn't release. Vitacoustic missed an opportunity there. Nagel's other two releases for the company featured other singers. Page soon signed with Mercury, which released records under her own name. It would take Page three years to prove herself as a hit maker, but when she did, she was still with Mercury.
Meanwhile the Harmonicats enjoyed extended runs at theaters in Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and elsewhere. By June 14 (when "Peg o' My Heart" was number 4 on the list of "Records Most-Played on the Air"), Vitacoustic had opened 3 branches of its own Vita Record Distributing Company (in Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles) and was using 19 other distributors, including one in Québec City, Canada.None of this was to last. On September 6, 1947, Billboardran a big story, "Exec Dissension Forces Cats to Exit Vitacoustic Stable." George Tasker, according to the article, had left the company on August 29 and was looking for work in New York City (nothing came of the NYC trip, as we will soon see). And Bill Putnam had decided to cut his ties; consequently Jerry Murad's Harmonicats had to leave as well, as they were signed personally to Putnam and the tracks they recorded for him had only been leased to Vitacoustic. The last Harmonicats release (Vitacoustic 7, put out in September, a week after the split) consisted of material recorded earlier. According to the report, Vitacoustic had moved 1.4 million copies of "Peg o' My Heart"—these were truly prodigious sales by 1947 standards.
To reassure everyone that the company was still viable after losing such an asset, "Garrett said that Vita today can show a financial statement well in the black and that he and Buckley would continue to spearhead the label." Indeed, on September 27, "Peg o' My Heart" was still at number 7 on the chart of "Most-played Juke Box Records," enjoying its 22nd week in the top 15. (Of course, one of the "cover" versions was ranked number 3. No fewer than 17 covers of "Peg o' My Heart" were released on other labels. Supposedly the Harmonicats wrote to each of the artists, reminding them that their group was called the Harmonicats, not the Copycats.)
Right after the split with Putnam and Tasker, Garrett decided to diversify (for all we know, his desire to do so had helped to precipitate the split). On September 27, Billboard noted "Vita Expanding Into Hillbilly, Race Divisions" (the story date was September 20). These would become the Vitacoustic 5000 and 1000 series, respectively. Maurice Murray, a producer of ABC Radio series, was named the new A&R director and Art Ward, manager of the Honey Dreamers, took over public relations.
In the same issue a story appeared on Bill Putnam re-establishing the Universal label, which he'd put on hold when he licensed the Harmonicats material to Vitacoustic: "Putnam Sets New Waxery; 'Cats Inked." The officials of the new Universal label were Putnam, President; A. B. (Bernie) Clapper, Vice-President, and George Tasker, Vice-President and A&R man. Tasker was already back from New York. "The new diskery set-up is an exact copy of the Universal label, which Putnam worked out early in April [well, in March]."
Universal would hold on into 1950 (though it halted most new recording and sold off most of its existing masters before the end of 1949). The company hit its peak of activity over the next few months. In the Billboard for November 29, 1947, an ad ran for "I Love You" by Jerry Murad's Harmonicats, Universal U-4; the matrix numbers indicate that Bill Putnam called his own recording session with the Cats in September, right after prying them loose from Vitacoustic. The November ad also promoted singles by Ellen White, U-5; Ralph Marterie, U-8 (in those days, reviewers all misspelled his name, and record company ads usually did as well); Johnny "Scat" Davis, U-17; Gloria Van and the Vanguards, U-34; and the "hillbilly" act Flash and Whistler, U-6. On January 24, 1948, Universal ran an ad for U-82 by Bob Carter, the former Specialty and Sunbeam artist, and his trio. Otherwise Universal recorded white pop music of the period, occasionally interlarded with sides by polka bands. The only other exceptions we know of are a 2-disk 78 album on U-67, consisting of experimental big band jazz conducted by Bill Russo, and a boogie-oriented release on U-38 by singer/pianist Nettie Saunders (who was also responsible for U-80).
On July 31, 1948, Universal was reported to be experimenting with microgrooved 10-inch 78s that could carry two (short) tracks per side; supposedly EPs by Johnny "Scat" Davis, the Harmonicats, and Gene Austin were coming out in September. Some of these, like an EP by the Harmonicats, were released. But with 33-rpm LPs coming out in 1948 and 7-inch 45s hitting the stands in 1949, each with tremendous major-label promotion behind them, Universal's invention had poor prospects of catching on. Universal would use the "double feature" 78s until the label shut down. A few small labels in Chicago that used Universal Recording's facilities, such as Folk Music Center and JEB/Irene, kept the format in limited circulation through the end of 1952.
Meanwhile Vitacoustic still thought a lot of its Harmonicat 78s could be sold in Canada, for the company added a pressing plant in Windsor, Ontario. As it turned out, three "hillbilly" releases emerged during the lifetime of Vitacoustic, even though the September 27 article said that Judy Canova would be responsible for the "first rustic release," and at least three country artists (Nancy Lee and her Hilltoppers, Riley Shepard, and Kenny Roberts) were pictured in a big display ad that the company ran on January 24, 1948 (Billboard, Juke Box supplement, p. 75). The Country releases we've been able to locate are Vitacoustic 5000 and 5001 by Riley Shepard, which struggled out in February of 1948, and 5002, shared between The Tennessee Cornfritters and the Hilltoppers, which obviously did likewise. There was nothing by Judy Canova. Record collector Ronald Keppner alerted us to the previously undocumented Vitacoustic 5000; Vitacoustic 5002 showed up at archive.org during 2022.
R&B action did take place, though. For these "race" releases, in what was called the Jam Session Series, Garrett opened a new line of Vitacoustics with a red label and numbers starting at 1000. The title "Jam Sesssion Series" was already in use at Sensation, which would be Vitacoustic's partner. Although there were more R&B than Country releases, considerably more material on the R&B side ended up unreleased.
The first 78 in the Jam Session Series was by Todd Rhodes and his Orchestra. This was not newly recorded by the company: "Platter was originally released seven weeks ago by the Sensation label, opped by Bernie Besman and Johnny Kaplan, of Pan-American Distributors, Vita's Detroit outlet. Deal for Rhodes brought his waxing contract and six more masters into the Vita fold." Sensation grew out of Pan American Distributors, which Bernard Besman and Johnny Kaplan opened in April 1946 (the name is incorrectly spelled "Caplan" in some sources). Bernie Besman, whose family fled Ukraine in 1921 and arrived in Detroit in 1926, had played piano and co-led a "sweet" band during the 1930s; before service in World War II, he operated a booking agency. Pan American was moving a lot of Vitacoustic product; by 1948 it had sold 175,000 copies of "Peg o' My Heart." Most of the companies it handled were "race" labels, however; they included Aristocrat, Aladdin, Modern, Savoy, and Specialty. Sensation never did get its own distribution outside Pan American's home territory of Michigan and northwestern Ohio (at various later points, it would conclude alliances with King, Modern, and Regal). Despite the impression created by such coverage, Vitacoustic did not get outright ownership of the material that Sensation had recorded. Rhodes' contract was jointly owned by the two companies. For most, if not all, of the artists in the series who were recorded by Vitacoustic, Besman got copies of the masters.
Vitacoustic was coming late to "race" records. The ad in Billboard, pictured above, appeared on November 8, 1947 to hawk the "New Sensational Jam Session Series." This kicked off with two singles recorded earlier by Sensation, at United Sound Studios in Detroit. Todd Rhodes was responsible for Vitacoustic 1001, "Bell-Boy Boogie" b/w "Flying Disc" and Vitacoustic 1002, "Blue Sensation" b/w "Dance of the Red Skins." ("Bell-Boy Boogie" was named after the popular Detroit DJ Jack the Bellboy, also the dedicatee of a tune by Illinois Jacquet.) According to Art Zimmerman, everything but the label on Vitacoustic 1002 is identical to Sensation 1, right down to the stampers (the Sensation release had appeared around the first of August 1947). More typical of Vitacoustic's fare at the time were three items advertised in the same package: Vitacoustic 9 and 11, by "Leo Diamond, harmonicartist" (who was expected to pick up where Jerry Murad's Harmonicats had left off) and Vitacoustic 6, by Henry Busse (a "sweet" trumpeter and bandleader who, in the late 1920s, had been the highest-paid player in the Paul Whiteman Orchestra).
Although a couple of other titles in the Vitacoustic 1 series hint at jazz content, the most jazz-oriented of the artists whose work saw release was pianist Mel Henke. Henke's trio was paired on his Vitacoustic sides with a 5-person mixed vocal group (3 men, 2 women) called the Honey Dreamers. In fact, Henke is the only artist in the Vitacoustic 1 Series to be listed in Lord's Jazz Discography (Henry Busse rates an entry in Lord, but his Vitacoustic output doesn't). According to Lord, Henke's trio that recorded for Vitacoustic included prominent jazz guitarist George Barnes; a display ad for Vitacoustic 5 indicates that the third member played bass.
The pianist was born Alphonse Henke Jr., in Germany, on August 4, 1915. His father was a classical musician. Mel Henke first recorded some piano solos and duos in Chicago for Collector's Item (his own label, at a time when such efforts were very rare) in 1939 and 1940. He rated a feature as part of Sharon A. Pease's famed series of jazz pianist profiles, in the February 1, 1940, issue of Down Beat; the headline ran, "Melvin Henke's White but He Pounds Piano like a Colored Ace." A couple of years later, Down Beat's "Chicago Band Briefs" column noted: "Mel Henke, local jazz pianist, now knocking himself out, relieving Chet Roble at Helsing's Vodvil Lounge. Henke's a former [Bud] Freeman sideman..." (July 15, 1942, p. 6). When the war was over Henke resumed recording with a four-tune session in Chicago for Victor in 1946.
The company expected sales, as Vitacoustic 3 was soon followed by Vitacoustic 5. A favorable review of Vitacoustic 5, in Billboard on July 26, 1947, reveals that on "In a Mist," the Honey Dreamers contributed atmosphere by humming into the Universal echo chamber; on "Honky Tonk Train" (the famed Meade Lux Lewis number) the Honey Dreamers did train imitations in support of Henke's piano. In August, the Honey Dreamers made a session of their own with Bill McCrae's ork, leading to one release on Vitacoustic 12. They also did backing vocals for at least one of the company's pop singers, Jack Carroll.
Not long after his Vitacoustic releases, while the company was active and probably hoping to sell more of his records, Mel Henke decamped to Southern California. An item in Billboard (October 11, 1947, p. 39) announced that "Mel Henke will move his family to the West Coast from Chicago after his closing at the Copacabana, Omaha, October 12." Henke's next recording sessions (which resulted in four 78s) were done for Tempo in Los Angeles (1948 and 1949). In 1954 and 1955, his output peaked with two "chamber jazz" LPs for Contemporary (for instance, Dig Mel Henke, Contemporary C5001, which got a positive review in Cash Box on April 16, 1955, p. 19). Around the end of the 1950s, he cut one more album with a studio orchestra for Warner Brothers. According to Gary Myers, author of Do You Hear That Beat — Wisconsin Pop/Rock in the 50's & 60's, Henke made his last recordings in Sauk City, Wisconsin, for the Cuca label in 1966; Cuca also reissued his Warner Brothers LP.
Mel Henke died on April 1, 1979, in Canoga Park, California.
In the same Billboard article that announced the split between Vitacoustic and Bill Putnam, famed jazz pianist and former big band leader Earl "Fatha" Hines, who was making some appearances with strings during the first half of 1947, was said to be under contract to Vitacoustic. In Down Beat from August 27, 1947, an item, by-lined Chicago, and titled "Earl Hines to Wax," explained that, "Earl Hines, whose El Grotto nitery folded recently, and with it his steady band job, will cut four sides for Vitacoustic records using only a rhythm section." We have titles for two of the sides, which suggest an attempt to revisit the early Louis Armstrong repertoire, but Lord's Jazz Discography incorrectly has them being recorded in New York for a label called "Vita."
Although Hines was identified as a Vitacoustic artist in a Billboard display ad from January 3, 1948, nothing was ever released from the session, and the whereabouts of the material today is unknown. (While Down Beat claimed that Hines would be accompanied by a rhythm section only, Lord adds veteran Hines associate Scoops Carry, on alto sax and clarinet, to the lineup, which otherwise consisted of René Hall on guitar, Bill Thompson on drums and vibes, and an unidentified bassist.) In December of 1947, Hines would hook up with the Sunrise label, hastily recording three sessions in Chicago with an ad hoc lineup that included jazz violinist Eddie South and musicians borrowed from Lionel Hampton's big band (see our Miracle page for details); Hines also recorded for MGM in New York during November and December.
Finally, Vitacoustic signed alto saxophonist and bandleader Johnny Bothwell in September (the signing was announced in Billboard on September 27). Bothwell had been a principal soloist in Boyd Raeburn's "modern" big band and had a string of sessions for Signature to his credit (1945-1947); he would make one more in 1949 for National. Bothwell's picture appeared in the label's big display ad on January 24, 1948, and Egmont Sonderling declared an intention to release some tracks by him in January 1949, when Old Swing-Master was launched. But Vitacoustic never released any of his sides, and no one else did either.
Both the Hines and the Bothwell sides were meant to be included in the Vitacoustic 1 series (as is partly confirmed by the display ads that Vitacoustic took out in the Billboard Juke box supplement for January 24, 1948; Bothwell's photo appears in a pop and "folk" series ad on p. 75, not in the Jam Session Series ad on p. 78). The same appears to have been true of six sides cut by Jimmy McPartland's jazz combo.
| Matrix Number | Release Number | Artist | Title | Recording Date | Release Date |
| U 578 | 1A | The Harmonicats | Rhythm Acc. | Peg o' My Heart | February 1947 | April 1947 |
| U 611-1 | 1B | The Harmonicats | Rhythm Acc. | Fantasy Impromptu | February 1947 | April 1947 |
| U-617 V | 2A | The Harmonicats | Rhythm Accompaniment | Malaguena | February 1947 | April 1947 |
| U-615-V | 2B | The Harmonicats | Rhythm Accompaniment | Harmonica Boogie | February 1947 | April 1947 |
| U-660-V | 3A | Mel Henke and Rhythm Accomp. with The Honeydreamers | Alexander's Ragtime Band | March 1947 | May 1947 |
| U-661-V | 3B | Mel Henke and Rhythm Accomp. with The Honeydreamers | What Is This Thing Called Love | March 1947 | May 1947 |
| U-662 | 4A | Freddy Nagel and His Orchestra | Vocal by Patti Page | My Heart Is a Hobo | March 1947 | May 1947 |
| U-667 | 4B | Freddy Nagel and His Orchestra | Vocal by Ted Travers | I Won't Be Home Anymore When You Call | March 1947 | May 1947 |
| U 668-V | 5A | Mel Henke (piano) with the Honeydreamers | Honky Tonk Train | March 1947 | July 1947 |
| U 669-V | 5B | Mel Henke (piano) with the Honeydreamers | In a Mist | March 1947 | July 1947 |
| U-788-V | 6A | Henry Busse and His Orch. (vocal: Lané Adams) | The Lady from 29 Palms | c. July 1947 | August 1947 |
| U-789-V | 6B | Henry Busse and His Orch. | Jalousie | c. July 1947 | August 1947 |
| unissued | Henry Busse | Hot Lips | c. July 1947 | ||
| unissued | Henry Busse | Wang Wang Blues | c. July 1947 | ||
| V-800-3 | 7A | Jerry Murad's Harmonicats with Rhythm Accomp. | Peggy O'Neil | August 1947 | September 1947 |
| V-577-3 | 7B | Jerry Murad's Harmonicats with Rhythm Accomp. | September Song | February 1947 | September 1947 |
| unissued | Earl Hines | Mandy, Make Up Your Mind | late August 1947 | ||
| unissued | Earl Hines | I'm a Little Blackbird | late August 1947 | ||
| V-8002 | 8A | Sid Fisher Guitarist and His New Yorkers | Vocal Gene Griffin | I Understand | November 1947 | |
| V-8003 | 8B | Sid Fisher Guitarist and His New Yorkers | Vocal Gene Griffin | How Strange | November 1947 | |
| V-900 (2) | 9A | Leo Diamond Harmonicartist | Sparkling Gems Accomp. | My Sin | September 1947 | October 1947 |
| V-901 (2) | 9B | Leo Diamond Harmonicartist | Sparkling Gems Accomp. | And They Called It Dixieland | September 1947 | October 1947 |
| V-805 | 10A | Freddie Nagel and His Orchestra | If You Knew Susie (Like I Know Susie) | August 1947 | December 1947 |
| V-804 | 10B | Freddie Nagel and His Orchestra | Vocal by Jimmy Jett | Sophisticated Swing | August 1947 | December 1947 |
| V-902 (2) | 11A | Leo Diamond Harmonicartist | Sparkling Gems Accomp. | Donkey Serenade | September 1947 | October 1947 |
| V-903 | 11B | Leo Diamond Harmonicartist | Sparkling Gems Accomp. | Tonight You Belong to Me | September 1947 | October 1947 |
| V-808 | 12A | The Honey Dreamers | Orchestra under the Direction of Bill McRae | My Sweetie Went Away (But She Didn't Say Where) | August 1947 | December 1947 |
| V-809 | 12B | The Honey Dreamers | Orchestra under the Direction of Bill McRae | Get a Pinup Girl | August 1947 | December 1947 |
| V-904 | 13A | Jack Carroll | Orch. under Direction of Bill MacCrae | On Green Dolphin Street | September 1947 | January 1948 |
| V-905 | 13B | Jack Carroll | Orch. under Direction of Bill MacCrae | My Cousin Louella | September 1947 | January 1948 |
| 907 | (Rondo 160-B) | Jack Carroll with Bill McRae's [sic] Orchestra | Time to Dream | September 1947 | (October 1948) |
| U 911-3 | (Rondo 160-A) | Jack Carroll with Bill McRae's [sic] Orchestra | Sleepy Town | September 1947 | (October 1948) |
| V-923 | 14A | Yvette | Orchestra under the direction of Rex Maupin | Bidibi Bot-Bot | September 1947 | January 1948 |
| V-919 | 14B | Yvette | Orchestra under the direction of Rex Maupin | Long after To-Night | September 1947 | January 1948 |
| V-913 | 15A | Joan Edwards | Her Piano and Her Men | There Ought to Be a Society | September 1947 | January 1948 |
| V-932 | 15B | Joan Edwards | Her Piano and Her Men | It's Easy When You Know How | September 1947 | January 1948 |
| 18 | Leo Diamond | Vocal by Jeannie Williams | I Love You Yes I Do | |||
| 18 | Leo Diamond | unknown title | |||
| V-972 | 19A | Jack Carroll | The Honeydreamers | Orch. under Direction of Bill MacCrae | The Valentine Song (Are You Still My Valentine) | c. October 1947 | February 1948 |
| V-973 | 19B | Jack Carroll | The Honeydreamers | Orch. under Direction of Bill MacCrae | Trust in Me | c. October 1947 | February 1948 |
| unissued | Nick Keany | Out of My Mind | |||
| unissued | ? | When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver | |||
| unissued | ? | I'm Dancing with Tears in My Eyes | |||
| unissued | ? | Just a Girl that Men Forget | |||
| V-817 | 20A | Del Courtney and his Orchestra | Vocal by Gil Vester | Dream Peddler | August 1947 | c. February 1948 |
| V-822 | 20B | Del Courtney and his Orchestra | Vocal by Gil Vester and Gloria Foster | Do You Believe in Lovin' Honey | August 1947 | c. February 1948 |
| V-806 | 21A | Freddy Nagel and his Orchestra | Vocal by Jimmy Jett | Mary Lou | August 1947 | c. February 1948 |
| V-807 | 21B | Freddy Nagel and his Orchestra | Vocal by Jimmy Jett | Smile Medley | August 1947 | c. February 1948 |
| V-930 | 22A | Joan Edwards | Orchestra Under Direction of Rex Maupin | Big Brass Band from Brazil | September 1947 | c. February 1948 |
| V-916 | 22B | Joan Edwards | Her Piano and Her Men | Dickey Bird Song | September 1947 | c. February 1948 |
| V-980 | 25A | Leo Diamond Harmonicartist | You Were Meant for Me | c. October 1947 | |
| V-960 | 25B | Leo Diamond Harmonicartist | Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee | c. October 1947 |
Besides Riley Shepard, the "Folk" series was meant to include three other artists: Judy Canova, Nancy Lee and her Hilltoppers, and Kenny Roberts. We know that Vitacoustic recorded Nancy Lee and Kenny Roberts; their masters were among those offered at auction and not sold. Presumably the remaining matrix numbers were also in the V-10000 series. But releases in the 5000 series were delayed. There was just enough time for two 78s by Riley Shepard to dribble out, plus one shared by the Hilltoppers (no reference to Nancy Lee) and The Tennessee Cornfritters (any connection with Kenny Roberts?). The company could no longer afford advertistements and was about to file for bankruptcy.
| Matrix Number | Release Number | Artist | Title | Recording Date | Release Date |
| V-10001 | 5000A | Riley Shepard and His Wild West Cowboys | Slap Her Down Agin | late 1947 | prob. February 1948 |
| V-10002 | 5000B | Riley Shepard and His Wild West Cowboys | Judy (You're My Angel) | late 1947 | prob. February 1948 |
| V-10003 | 5001A | Riley Shepard and His Wild West Playboys (vocal: Riley Shepard) | Forty Miles at Sea | late 1947 | prob. February 1948 |
| V-10004 | 5001B | Riley Shepard and His Wild West Playboys (vocal: Riley Shepard) | What Else Can I Do (But Love You) | late 1947 | prob. February 1948 |
| V-10024 | 5002A | The Tennessee Cornfritters | Loaded Pistol and Loaded Dice | late 1947 | prob. February 1948 |
| V-10012 | 5002B | Hilltoppers | Dreamy Melody | late 1947 | prob. February 1948 |
In a story dated October 18, on the "Chi Cutting Spree" that was going on in anticipation of the "impending Petrillo ban on recordings," Billboard mentioned that Vitacoustic was "readying its roster increase." No artists were named yet, except "Lou Sanders, Negro crooner." Louie Saunders was the vocalist on one side of Vitacoustic 1003 by the Todd Rhodes Orchestra; in other words, his material too was obtained from Sensation. However, the Sensation and Vitacoustic releases were both sporting Vitacoustic matrix numbers, implying that Vitacoustic was probably recording the sides in Chicago and was certainly processing them there. While the company was still awkwardly housed at Universal Recording, Vitacoustic recorded and processed its own R&B material at Egmont Sonderling's United Broadcasting Studios, which would end up determining the fate of these recordings. Universal Recording did continue as the venue for the Vitacoustic 1 series, until Vitacoustic ended up too far behind in paying its bills. It was probably also the locale for the 5000 series.
Below, we will show ten more tracks by the Four Shades of Rhythm; at least eight by Kitty Stevenson (backed by the T. J. Fowler band; we'd wrongly thought it was Todd Rhodes, whose band was otherwise active for Vitacoustic); at least four by Christine Randol; and sixteen by Howard McGhee were all cut at United Broadcasting Studios during the frantic activity of November and December 1947. (McGhee may have also cut four sides with Johnny Bothwell's big band, but these were probably meant for the Vitacoustic 1 series. Frustratingly, they remain entirely untraced and are likely lost.)
The Kitty Stevenson sides were recorded around December 15. Billboard noted on December 20, 1947 that Vitacoustic had just signed "Kitty Stevens, Detroit pianist-singer." (No one has found any other indication that she played the piano.) The Detroit Tribune for December 20 noted that she was Kitty Stevenson, that she was singing at Lee's Club Sensation in Detroit, that a few days back she'd been in Chicago making eight sides for Vitacoustic, and that she was accompanied by T. J. Fowler's ork, then the house band at Club Sensation. We haven't found a Kitty Stevenson record in circulation on the Vitacoustic label. Anybody seen a Vitacoustic 1008? The masters passed into the hands of Egmont Sonderling, who recorded them and had never been paid for his services. Four of her sides eventually did see the light of day on the Old Swing-Master label that he launched with DJ Al Benson in January 1949. Still further masters were apparently retained by Bernie Besman on Sensation.
The first four items to be released in Vitacoustic's R&B series (Vitacoustic 1001 through 1004) all involved Detroit-based pianist and bandleader Todd Rhodes. Vitacoustic 1007 was yet another Rhodes item.
Todd Rhodes was a veteran of the music business. He was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on August 31, 1900. When he was 4 years old, his father died and his mother had to relocate to Springfield, Ohio. Rhodes studied at the Springfield School of Music from 1915 to 1917 and then spent four years at the Erie (Pennsylvania) Conservatory of Music. On returning to Springfield he joined McKinney's Syncos, a group led by drummer William McKinney. As photographed in the summer of 1921, the Synco Novelty Orchestra consisted of Claude Jones (trombone), Milton Senior (alto sax and clarinet), Wesley Stewart (violin), Rhodes (piano), Ralph Wilson (banjo), and McKinney. According to a 1948 "Meet the King Artists" publicity sheet, the Syncos did six summer seasons at Manitou Beach, an inland lake resort in southern Michigan; gradually the Syncos expanded into a big band. In the summer of 1926, bandleader and impresario Jean Goldkette booked the Syncos into the Arcadia Ballroom in Detroit; in September 1927 they went into the Graystone Ballroom, which was most often the venue for Goldkette's own band. At this point, Don Redman was brought in as their new music director and the Syncos changed their name to McKinney's Cotton Pickers.
The Cotton Pickers played the Graystone Ballroom in Detroit from 3 1/2 years, broadcast regularly over radio station WJR for 2 years, and recorded 60 sides for Victor from 1928 through 1931. One of the recording highlights was their 1928 rendition of Rhodes' composition, "Put It There," as arranged by trumpeter John Nesbitt. The Cotton Pickers went downhill with the Great Depression and the ensuing loss of their recording contract; Rhodes finally left the band in the fall of 1934. Remaining in Detroit, Todd Rhodes gigged with many different bands but worked most often with the Swing combo led by clarinetist and alto saxophonist Cecil Lee; "Rhapsody in Blue" was Rhodes' feature number during this time. During World War II he worked a day job as a maintenance man at the Fisher Body plant in River Rouge, Michigan; he did this out of a desire to support the war effort, taking the job after war was declared and leaving promptly after V-J day in 1945.
In late 1943, after leaving Cecil Lee's band for the last time, Rhodes was asked to take the leadership of a four-piece combo in the Triangle Bar on Michigan Avenue in Detroit, where he remained for seven months. In June 1945 Rhodes took a sextet into Broad's Club Zombie, where he remained through December. Business got even better after that. According to the King Records handout, "The band played the Club Three Sixes [666 East Adams] for six months [starting April 1946], and then was booked into the Club Sensation for a four-week run, but held over for eight months by popular demand." This was Lee's Sensation Lounge (1300 Owen). Bernard Besman discovered Rhodes there in the late spring of 1947 and decided to record him.
The first Todd Rhodes session took place at United Sound Studios in Detroit in July of 1947, when the Sensation label started operations. Sensation recorded with some degree of steadiness between 1947 and 1950; meanwhile, Besman signed bluesman John Lee Hooker to a personal contract. (Exactly when John Lee Hooker cut his first session for Bernard Besman is disputed. Charles Shaar Murray says it was in the summer of 1948, by which time Vitacoustic's pact with Sensation was no longer in force and King Records had become Sensation's new partner. However, Murray also reports that the first Hooker session took place immediately after one of Todd Rhodes' sessions, and Rhodes is not known to have recorded for Sensation between the very end of 1947 and December 1948. Quite possibly Hooker first recorded at a session in late December 1947. In any event, Besman dealt the first Hooker sides to Modern Records of Los Angeles in September 1948; Modern was the national label that benefited from the Hooker phenomenon, racking up big hits with "Boogie Chillen" [released November 1948] and "Hobo Blues"). The matrix numbers on the first Sensation-derived batch are distinct from from the Vitacoustic series. Masters from sessions conducted after the Sensation / Vitacoustic alliance was concluded carried numbers in a Vitacoustic matrix series, indicating recording (for the most part) in Chicago, at United Broadcasting Studios.
When Vitacoustic filed for reorganization in February 1948 and quit putting out new issues in its "race" series, Sensation (its distribution limited Pan American's territory) was in a serious bind. Sensation put out a few releases (Sensation 7, 8, and 9) in the spring of 1948 without Vitacoustic, which meant they couldn't anywhere. On June 26, Besman and Kaplan struck a new deal with Cincinnati-based King Records (this was announced in Billboard on July 3, 1948). Billboard explained that they had "recently [taken] back a stable of Negro masters from Vitacoustic and revived their old Sensation label." Sensation had previously bought back Vitacoustic's share of the artist contracts for Todd Rhodes and others. Under the terms of the new deal, King obtained a five-year lease on 60 Sensation masters, which included 24 by Rhodes. The items covered were to be released on both labels, but the Sensation releases would be sold only in Michigan and Ohio; Besman and Kaplan were allowed to release the Sensation versions two weeks before the King versions. (Although this may not have been the plan, Sensation ended up putting out some singles that were not picked up by King.) The pact ble up in August 1949, after King tried to sign Todd Rhodes while he was still under contract to Sensation and Sensation took a complaint to the Musicians Union. Below we are supplying a triple release listing: first Sensation, then Vitacoustic, and finally King.
| Matrix Number | Sensation Release | Vitacoustic Release | King Release | Other Release | Artist | Title | Recording Date | First Release Date |
| 2132 A [K5465] |
Sensation 1 | Vitacoustic 1002 B | King 4237 | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Dance of the Red Skins | July 1947 | (August 1947) October 1947 |
|
| 2132 A alt. | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Dance of the Red Skins | July 1947 | ||||
| 2132 B [K5466] |
Sensation 1 | Vitacoustic 1002 A | King 4237 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Blue Sensation | July 1947 | (August 1947) October 1947 |
| 2133 A [K5469] |
Sensation 2 A | Vitacoustic 1001A | King 4239 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Bell-Boy Boogie | July 1947 | October 1947 |
| 2133 B [K5470] |
Sensation 2 B | Vitacoustic 1001 B | King 4239 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Flying Disc | July 1947 | October 1947 |
The Todd Rhodes band had a stable personnel during this period: Rhodes (piano and director); Howard "Eggy" Thompson (trumpet); Hallie "Hal" Dismukes (alto sax—also the group's top soloist); Louis Barnett (tenor sax); George Favors (baritone sax, vocal); Joe Williams (bass); and Huestell Talley (drums). This personnel is listed on the label of Vitacoustic 1001; according to Jim Gallert, the same lineup appeared on all of Rhodes' recordings for Sensation until his final session in 1950. (Dismukes' name has sometimes been given as "Holley," but according to Gallert's article on Rhodes the correct form is "Hallie.") Some of the Rhodes sides included vocals by Louie Saunders, a singing waiter at Lee's Sensation Club who had performed nightly with the band there.
The second, third, and fourth Rhodes sessions took place after the pact. The second took place on October 15 and 16, 1947. The third and fourth were part of the rush to to beat B-Day, in November and December 1947. The second session was definitely recorded at United Broadcasting Studios in Chicago. The rest were probably cut and definitely processed at United Broadcasting Studios in Chicago; Vitacoustic's masters were assigned to a special V1800 series there.
| Matrix Number | Sensation Release | Vitacoustic Release | King Release | Other Release | Artist | Title | Recording Date | First Release Date |
| V1882 [K5476] |
(Ace CD CHD 856) | Todd Rhodes | Jumpin' with the Mountain King | October 15, 1947 | ||||
| V1883 [K5474] |
Sensation 25 | Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers | Lonely Echoes | October 15, 1947 | (January 1950) | |||
| V1884 [K5478] |
(Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes | I Want to Be Happy | October 15, 1947 | ||||
| V1885 [K5477] |
(Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes | I Love You Truly | October 15, 1947 | ||||
| V1886 [K5485] |
(Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes | Annie Laurie | October 15, 1947 | ||||
| 1887 [K5464] |
Sensation 3 | Vitacoustic 1003A | King 4236 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Vocal by Louie Saunders with Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Oh Baby | October 15, 1947 | January 1948 |
| 1888 [K5463] |
Sensation 3 | Vitacoustic 1003B | King 4236 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Bob Bop Sizzle | October 15, 1947 | January 1948 |
| V1889 [K5467] |
Sensation 4 | Vitacoustic 1004 | King 4238 | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Swoon Boulevard | October 15, 1947 | January 1948 | |
| V1890 [K5469] |
Sensation 4 | Vitacoustic 1004 | King 4238 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Toddlin' Boogie | October 15, 1947 | January 1948 |
| V1891 [K5479] |
(Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes | Prelude in C Sharp Minor | October 15, 1947 | ||||
| V1892 [K5486] |
Sensation 25 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers | Anitra's Jump | October 16, 1947 | (January 1950) | ||
| V-1893 [K5481] |
Sensation 6 | King 4240 | Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers | Sportree's Jump | October 16, 1947 | (November 1947) | ||
| V-1893 alt. | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers | Sportree's Jump | October 16, 1947 | ||||
| V-1894 [K5473] |
Sensation 6 | King 4240 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers | Blues for the Red Boy | October 16, 1947 | November 1947 | |
| V1895 [K5483] |
Sensation 9 | King 4254 | Todd Rhodes | Todd's Idea | October 16, 1947 | November 1947 | ||
| V1895 alt. | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Todd Rhodes | Todd's Idea | October 16, 1947 |
We think the in-between numbers (V1896-1899) belonged to the first Howard McGhee session of October 15 or November 10, 1947, which was never released on Vitacoustic but picked up later by Old Swing-Master. Billboard mentioned on November 22, 1947, that Vitacoustic "has gone into the hot jazz line"; one of the efforts mentioned involved "Howard McGhee and an all-star group form the Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic troupe." V1896-V1899 were not among the items picked up by King Records when Sensation dropped its pact with Vitacoustic in 1948.
The third and fourth Rhodes sessions were nothing like the marathon held on October 15. All surviving tracks feature the work of Louie Sanders, a singing waiter at Lee's Sensation Club in Detroit; they could easily have taken place on the same day as other Vitacoustic sessions for the Jam Session Series. Todd Rhodes' session 3 yielded just three known masters.
| Matrix Number | Sensation Release | Vitacoustic Release | King Release | Other Release | Artist | Title | Recording Date | First Release Date |
| V1900 [K5482] |
(Ace CDCHD 856) | Louie Saunders with Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Sweetheart, Please Come Back to Me | November 1947 | ||||
| V1901 [K5480] |
(Ace CDCHD 856) | Louie Saunders with Todd Rhodes Orchestra | She Don't Love Me Anymore | November 1947 | ||||
| V1902 [K5484] |
Sensation 9 | King 4254 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Louie Saunders with Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Oo-we Walkie Talkie | November 1947 | (November 1947) |
According to Charles Shaar Murray, in Boogie Man, his biography of John Lee Hooker, "Boogie Chillen" and other titles were recorded at the end of a Todd Rhodes session at United Sound Studios. Citing a surviving piece of legal paperwork between Besman and Modern Records, Murray says that the Hooker material was in the can by September 1948 (in fact, one of the sides that Modern acknowledged receiving from Besman in that document is not known to have been recorded at Hooker's first Besman session—in other words, two sessions must have already been done by this time). It is clear from his comments and from statements made by Bernie Besman in interviews with Murray that this was not the first Todd Rhodes session. It might have been the second, third, or fourth listed here. (The matrix numbers that Besman assigned the Hooker sides to were in the B7000 series that Sensation used in 1948. The two Hooker sides in the batch that were sold to Modern had matrix numbers B7006 and B7009, and the next Rhodes session for Sensation, which is said to have taken place in December 1948, had matrix numbers B7094-7099. However, Peter Gibbon has pointed out that Besman allocated the B7000 numbers in blocks by artist, in some cases maybe well after the sessions had taken place.) We do know that none of the John Lee Hooker sides were ever part of the Vitacoustic deal, so we will not be listing any here. It was Modern (run by the Bihari brothers, out of Los Angeles) that saw the potential in Hooker and put out "Boogie Chillen" on November 3, 1948. (The record never did get a Sensation release, and it was exempted from the King deal—as it would have been from any Vitacoustic deal—because Hooker was under contract to Besman personally).
Besides the four Todd Rhodes sessions and the Howard McGhee material, there was an understanding at one time that Vitacoustic would release a Sensation session by jazz trumpeter Russell Jacquet and his group (which included Sonny Stitt on alto sax). Billboard reported on November 22, 1947 that Vitacoustic "has gone into the hot jazz line" and that it had recently cut "platters by Russell (Illinois's brother) Jacquet" as well as Howard McGhee (as we previously noted). The McGhee sides were Vitacoustic's own, recorded in Chicago; these ended up in the hands of Egmont Sonderling and two were later issued on his Old Swing-Master label (the rest of the McGhee story can be read on our Old Swing-Master page).
The Jacquet sides were definitely recorded in Detroit by Sensation; the original matrix numbers (with the B prefix, for Besman) came from a studio that Sensation used regularly there. (Consequently, neither Bill Putnam at Universal Recording nor Egmont Sonderling at United Broadcasting was able to hold on to the masters). Lord's Jazz Discography places the session in May 1948, but a recording date in November 1947 seems much more likely. When King issued the material as part of its deal with Sensation, which started in July 1948, it attached new matrix numbers in the K5500 series (Lord cites only these). Fortunately, we were able to obtain the original Sensation matrix numbers from Bill Daniels. According to Lord, the personnel was: Russell Jacquet (trumpet, vocal); J. J. Johnson (trombone); Sonny Stitt (alto sax); Maurice Simon (tenor sax); Leo Parker (baritone sax); Sir Charles Thompson (piano); Al Lucas (bass); Shadow Wilson (drums). Leo Parker laid out on "Relaxin' with Randle."
Four additional jazz recordings earlier in the B-4000 series, and several more that lack surviving matrix numbers were cut by groups led by Milt Jackson. Two sides were released in October, 1949 on Sensation 19. The rest did not appear until many years later, when they came out on a Galaxy LP. B-4001 through B-4004 are said to have been recorded in Detroit in April 1948, but their matrix numbers precede those for the Jacquet session. Meanwhile, the Milt Jackson recordings (B-4017 through B-4024) are listed without matrix numbers in Lord—and said to have been recorded in "Detroit, 1947" in discographies! The B4001-4004 session included Jackson (vibes), John Lewis (piano), Alvin Jackson (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums), and Chano Pozo (conga, bongos). "Steeplechase" supposedly included Sonny Stitt (alto sax), Jackson (vibes), Will Davis (piano), and unidentified musicians on trumpet, bass, and drums. The rest of the tracks involved Russell Jacquet (trumpet), Stitt (alto sax), Jackson (vibes), Sir Charles Thompson (piano), and unidentified bass and drums. Two of the items from the B-4017 through 4024 session featured Sonny Stitt and had his name attached to them, under the pseudonym "Lord Nelson."
The last of the B4000 series bop recordings to surface were those by Sir Charles Thompson's trio; Lord gives John Simmons on bass and Shadow Wilson on drums as the other members. None of these appeared until the late 1980s when they were unearthed on a British Boplicity CD (which also included the Milt Jackson, Russell Jacquet, and "Lord Nelson" material). Boplicity included 5 further titles without known Sensation or King matrix numbers that appear to have come from the same sessions. One of these was an alternate take of B4005; the others may have been intended to occupy the missing segment from B4013 through B4016 (though if this was the intention, it wasn't faithfully carried out: two of the other Thompsons were given B4013 and B4014, but others were allocated B-4009 and B-4010—the same master numbers as were affixed to two of the Russell Jacquets!). Our thanks go to Peter Gibbon, of Ace Records UK, who has researched the Besman/Sensation acetates, for additions and corrections here.
Although King is not known to have released any of the Sensation bebop recordings, all were included in the King deal, as the bracketed K5400 series numbers indicate, and all were returned to Bernard Besman when the deal ended.
Just to complicate matters, Besman later assigned the B4013-4016 block to a singer named Jewell Simmons, about whom we know nothing. Maybe Simmons' B4014 was an attempt to cash in on Little Miss Cornshucks' signature recording of "So Long," which had been made in the fall of 1946 for Sunbeam and had been slated for a reissue on Vitacoustic. Thanks to Peter Gibbon for informing us about these sides; apparently they were not included in either the Vitacoustic or King deals, but we list them here for completeness.
| Matrix Number | Sensation Release | Vitacoustic Release | Other Release | Artist | Title | Recording Date | First Release Date |
| B-4001 [K5518] |
Sensation 19 | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Bobbin' with Robbin [Boogie's Blues] |
c. October 1947 | (October 1949) | ||
| B-4002 [K5521] |
Sensation 19 | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Autumn Breeze [In a Beautiful Mood] |
c. October 1947 | (October 1949) | ||
| B-4003 [K5520] |
(Galaxy LP 204) | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Slits [Slitz] |
c. October 1947 | |||
| B-4004 [K5519] |
Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Baggy Eyes | c. October 1947 | ||||
| B-4005 [K5514] |
(Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | Nobility Be Bop | c. November 1947 | |||
| B4005 [alt.] | (Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | In a Garden [Nobility Bebop] |
c. November 1947 | |||
| B-4006 [K5515] |
(Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | Yesterdays | c. November 1947 | |||
| B-4007 [K5517] |
(Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | My Turn Now | c. November 1947 | |||
| B-4008 [K5516] |
(Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | Charles Boogie | c. November 1947 | |||
| B-4009 [sic] | (Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | Don't Blame Me | c. November 1947 | |||
| B-4010 [sic] | (Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | Robin's Nest | c. November 1947 | |||
| B4013 [on some acetates] | (Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | Someone to Watch over Me | c. November 1947 | |||
| B4014 [on some acetates] | (Boplicity CDBOPD017) | Sir Charles Thompson | You Go to My Head | c. November 1947 | |||
| B-4009 (duplicate master number!) [K5506] |
Sensation 12 | King 4259 | Russell Jacquet & His All Stars | Relaxing with Randle | November 1947 | (1948) | |
| B-4010 (duplicate master number!) [K5505] |
Sensation 8 | King 4242 | Russell Jacquet & His All Stars | Lion's Roar | November 1947 | (1948) | |
| B-4011 [K5504] |
Sensation 8 | King 4242 | Russell Jacquet & His All Stars | Suede Jacquet | November 1947 | (1948) | |
| B-4011 [alt.] [K5504] [alt.] |
(Original Jazz Classics OJC CD1771) | Russell Jacquet | Suede Jacquet [alt.] | November 1947 | |||
| B-4012 [K5503] |
Sensation 12 | King 4259 | Russell Jacquet & His All Stars | Scamperoo | November 1947 | (1948) | |
| B4013 (duplicate master number!) | Jewell Simmons | I Couldn't Love You Anymore | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B4014 (duplicate master number!) | Jewell Simmons | So Long | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B4015 | Jewell Simmons | Come Here | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B4016 | Jewell Simmons | Happy Blues | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B-4017 [K5461] |
Sensation 5 | King 4235 | Lord Nelson & His Boppers [Sonny Stitt] |
Stardust | c. December 1947 | (June 1948) | |
| B-4018 [K5508] |
(Galaxy LP 204) | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Red Shoes [Everything Is Cool] |
c. December 1947 | |||
| B-4019 [K5512] |
(Galaxy LP 204) | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Time to Dream [Body and Soul] |
c. December 1947 | |||
| B-4020 [K5462] |
Sensation 5 | King 4235 | Lord Nelson & His Boppers [Sonny Stitt] |
Ratio and Proportion | c. December 1947 | (June 1948) | |
| B-4021 [K5509] |
(Galaxy LP 204) | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Royal Wedding | c. December 1947 | |||
| B-4022 [K5507] |
(Galaxy LP 204) | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Be Bop Blues | c. December 1947 | |||
| B-4023 [K5510] |
(Galaxy LP 204) | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Fine and Dandy | c. December 1947 | |||
| B-4024 [K5511] |
(Galaxy LP 204) | Milt Jackson and his All Stars | Silver Slipper [Steeplechase] | c. December 1947 |
In this B-4000 block, the last stretch of 8 tunes belongs to Detroit-based DJ and pianist Jack Surrell and his trio. Judging from the titles, Surrell had some jazz leanings but his repertory was heavy with Chopin waltzes (not to mention an old salon favorite, Anton Rubinstein's "Melody in F"). Vitacoustic must have thought that he might appeal to the same market as Mel Henke. The company advertised him as a Jam Session Series artist on January 24, 1948 (Billboard, Juke Box supplement, p. 78). Ten sides by Jack Surrell were among those mentioned as under auction in the Vitacoustic bankruptcy proceedings. If these are the same items—and the only company to record more of Jack Surrell was Sensation—Besman and Kaplan were able to reclaim them before the masters were ordered sold. We have evidence of 8 out of the 10 sides, but no Vitacoustic master numbers for any. Were all done with a trio or were any piano solos included?
| Matrix Number | Sensation Release | Vitacoustic Release | Other Release | Artist | Title | Recording Date | First Release Date |
| B-4025 [K5527] |
Jack Surrell Trio | Minute Waltz | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B-4026 [K5529] |
Jack Surrell Trio | Missouri Waltz | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B-4027 [K5522] |
Jack Surrell Trio | Nola | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B-4028 [K5526] |
Jack Surrell Trio | Waltz in C Sharp Minor | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B-4029 [K5527] |
Jack Surrell Trio | Happy Landings | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B-4030 [K5523] |
Jack Surrell Trio | Blue Love | c. December 1947 | ||||
| B-4031 [K5524] |
Sensation 18 | Jack Surrell Trio | Detroit Boogie [Howie's Boogie] |
c. December 1947 | (October 1949) | ||
| B-4032 [K5528] |
Jack Surrell Trio | Melody in F | c. December 1947 |
Christine Randol (whose release on Vitacoustic is so obscure we didn't learn about it till 2020) also made some sides with matrix numbers in this range.
Most likely the remaining space was taken up by one of Howard McGhee's sessions in December.
We'd thought that these were Vitacoustic-only. But we now have evidence (courtesy of Marv Goldberg, emails of June 8 and 10, 2020) that Bernie Besman got possession of most of the masters by the Four Shades of Rhythm. If the Four Shades were covered by the Jam Session pact, Christine Randol (whose photo appeared in the Billboard ad on January 24, 1948) and Kitty Stevenson must have been as well.
A session earlier in December 1947 led to a released single by the Four Shades of Rhythm. At the time, the group, which formed in Cleveland in 1945, was working steadily in Chicago. The lineup was Oscar Lindsay (drums, vocals), Eddie McAfee (piano), Oscar Pennington (guitar), and Eddie Meyers (string bass). Their session also took place at United Broadcasting.
Another track from this session never appeared on Vitacoustic but finally made it out on Old Swing-Master 33 in September 1949, the last 78 in Old Swing-Master's original release series. We don't know whether V 1906, 1907, and 1908 were by the Four Shades or another artist. We've placed here the Four Shades sides that we know carried matrix numbers in the low V1900s. The B-5000 series numbers were applied at a later date (even a much later date) by Bernie Besman. All others with B- series numbers and no known V series numbers will be listed with sides made at a second Four Shades session, in late December 1947.
Vitacoustic 1005 came out when it was getting late for the "race" series. Interestingly, the B side was an instrumental. Although the single was not mentioned in Billboard by title, probably because Vitacoustic's ad budget was running out, the Four Shades of Rhythm were pictured in a full-page ad for the "Jam Session Series" on January 24, 1948 (Juke Box supplement, p. 78); previously they were listed as label artists in a full-page ad in the trade paper, on January 3, 1948.
| Matrix Number | Release Number | Artist | Title | Recording Date | Release Date |
| V 1904 [B-5125] |
1005A | Bones McAfee | Four Shades of Rhythm | One Hundred Years from Today | December 1947 | January 1948 |
| V 1905 [B-5133] |
1005B | Four Shades of Rhythm | Howie Sent Me | December 1947 | January 1948 |
| V 1909 [B-?] |
(Old Swing-Master 33) | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Yesterday | December 1947 | (September 1949) |
A session by Christine Randol belongs in here as well. Her first session led to one fleeting release on Vitacoustic 1006. So fleeting, in fact, that Alex Podlecki first brought it to our attention in November 2020. We can't speak to the accompaniment as we haven't heard it. The matrix numbers from her two Old Swing-Master releases are not adjacent, and there were no Sensation releases from this session. At least one of the Old Swing-Masters is from a second session, made as the companies were counting down to B-day; not really knowing where to put the other Old Swing-Master, we'll place it with the second session.
| Matrix Number | Release Number | Artist | Title | Recording Date | Release Date |
| V-1916 | 1006A | Christine Randol | Black and Blue | December 1947 | |
| 1006B | Christine Randol | You Can't Get Away from Love | December 1947 |
A block of no fewer than 16 sides (V1919-1934) was cut by veteran blues and ballad singer Arnold Burke "Doc" Wiley. Born in New Madrid, Missouri, in October 1898, Doc Wiley ran away from home and spent 5 years with a Chinese circus, then perfected his piano playing in Helena, Arkansas. Already an experienced stage performer, Wiley moved to Chicago in 1925; that same year he cut his first sides, for Paramount as a member of Jimmy O'Bryant's Washboard Band. He subsequently recorded for Brunswick (1929), Paramount (1930), and Columbia (1931). Wiley was one of those artists who had distinct prewar and postwar careers. He did not get another studio opportunity until 1945 or 1946 when he appeared on the Chicago label, part of J. Mayo Williams' boutique operation. When Bernie Besman decided to record him for Sensation, Wiley was based in New York City but took regular club engagements in Detroit.
On his session, Doc Wiley played piano, and was accompanied by an alto saxophonist, a guitarist who doubled on vibes, and a string bass player. Although recording 16 tunes in a row, probably over a couple of days, is exactly the kind of thing Vitacoustic was known for doing (it's why the company ended up with so many masters on Jack Carroll and Joan Edwards, not to mention Nancy Lee and the Hilltoppers), nothing made it onto a Vitacoustic release. Sensation did eventually put out six Wiley sides, on Sensation 7, 13, and 24; the first two were also issued on King in 1948. (Sensation 13 is a fairly recent rediscovery by Konrad Nowakowski; Sensation 14, still untraced after all these years, could have been another Doc Wiley release.) Wiley's story can be read in Paul Swinton's richly documented liner notes to Ace CDCHM 899, Doc Wiley: Wild Cat Boogie, a 2003 release that contains Wiley's entire 16-tune session with surviving alternate takes, except for the originally issued take of "Big Four Boogie."
After his single outing for Sensation, Doc Wiley recorded for Bullet in Nashville. His last recordings, done for Ace in New York City (1959), revealed declining health; Sammy Price was brought in to play piano on them. Doc Wiley died of lung cancer in New York City in 1964.
Control of the Wiley recordings was quickly recovered by Sensation's owners, who kept them out of the Vitacoustic bankruptcy proceedings. But the Vitacoustical extravagance argues for a Chicago studio. Vitacoustic once had plans for the sides, advertising Doc Wiley as one of its artists in its display ad in Billboard on January 3, 1948, but not in its full-page ad for the Jam Session Series in Billboard (January 24, 1948, Juke Box supplement, p. 78). Moreover, Peter Doyle reports a Vitacoustic acetate of V1930 "I'm in Love Again" and V1919 "Hard Hearted Lover"—a coupling that did not end up being released by either Sensation or King. (Incidentally, neither release numbers nor matrix numbers are shown on the acetate.) Did Vitacoustic sell its share on these back to Bernie Besman before filing for Chapter 11?
| Matrix Number | Sensation Release | Vitacoustic Release | King Release | Artist | Title | Recording Date | First Release Date |
| V1919 [K5492] |
Vitacoustic acetate | Doc Wiley and his Orchestra | Hard Hearted Lover | December 1947 | |||
| V1920 [K5494] |
Sensation 13-A | Doc Wiley Trio | I Want No One but You | December 1947 | (1948) | ||
| V1921 [K5495] |
Doc Wiley | I'm Longing for Your Love | December 1947 | ||||
| V1922 [K5497] |
Doc Wiley | In My Heart You're Everything | December 1947 | ||||
| V1923 [K5487] |
Sensation 13-B | Doc Wiley Trio | Bewildered | December 1947 | (1948) | ||
| V1924 [K5493] |
Doc Wiley | How Long (Blues) | December 1947 | ||||
| V1925 [K5500] |
Doc Wiley | Prison Bound Blues | December 1947 | ||||
| V1926 [K5488] tk. 1 |
Doc Wiley Trio | Big Four Boogie | December 1947 | ||||
| V1926 [K5488] |
Sensation 7-B | King 4241-B | Doc Wiley Trio | Big Four Boogie | December 1947 | (1948) | |
| V1927 [K5501] tk. 1 |
Doc Wiley | Vibraphone Blues | December 1947 | ||||
| V1927 [K5501] tk. 2 |
Doc Wiley | Vibraphone Blues | December 1947 | ||||
| V1928 K5498] |
Doc Wiley | Sugar Lips | December 1947 | ||||
| V1929 [K5489] |
Sensation 7-A | King 4241-A | Doc Wiley Trio | Big House Blues | December 1947 | (1948) | |
| V1930 [K5496] |
Vitacoustic acetate | Doc Wiley and his Orchestra | I'm in Love Again | December 1947 | |||
| V1931 [K5490] |
Doc Wiley | Chain Gang Blues | December 1947 | ||||
| V1932 [K5491] |
Doc Wiley | Every Day in the Week | December 1947 | ||||
| V1933 [K5499] |
Sensation 24 | "Doc" Wiley Trio | Track #19 | December 1947 | (January 1950) | ||
| V1934 [K5502] |
Sensation 24 | "Doc" Wiley Trio | Wild Cat Boogie | December 1947 | (January 1950) | ||
| V1934 [K5502] tk. 3 |
"Doc" Wiley Trio | Wild Cat Boogie | December 1947 |
The last Rhodes session brings us up right before the Kitty Stevenson numbers that were picked up by Old Swing-Master. None of the three known sides were issued on Sensation. However, the masters must have been retrieved by that label, because, according to Leadbitter and Slaven's postwar blues discography, as corrected by Jim Gallert, King conferred master numbers on them later. King ended up not using any of them either. Vitacoustic just wasn't able to pass over another cover version of "I Love You, Yes I Do," which had been a big hit for Bull Moose Jackson a few months earlier. Vitacoustic 1007 was never advertised and there wasn't sufficient time to press it in the customary mass quantities before the company filed for bankruptcy.
| Matrix Number | Sensation Release | Vitacoustic Release | King Release | Other Release | Artist | Title | Recording Date | First Release Date |
| V1935 [K5471] |
Vitacoustic 1007 | (Ace CDCHD 856) | Louie Saunders with Todd Rhodes Orchestra | That Ain't Right | December 1947 | February 1948 | ||
| V1936 [K5472] |
Vitacoustic 1007 | Louie Saunders with Todd Rhodes Orchestra | I Love You, Yes I Do | December 1947 | February 1948 | |||
| V1937 [K5475] |
(Ace CDCHD 856) | Louie Saunders with Todd Rhodes Orchestra | Fool for You | December 1947 |
We remind readers that nearly all of the Todd Rhodes material can now be heard to advantage on Ace CDCHD 856, Todd Rhodes and His Orchestra: Blues for the Red Boy—The Early Sensation Recordings. Released in 2002, this is a valuable collection of 28 tracks that Rhodes made for Sensation, mastered from acetates that remained with Bernie Besman. It includes every previously unissued track from the first four Rhodes sessions as well as three alternate takes.
Kitty Stevenson recorded for Vitacoustic, but not with Rhodes; she was accompanied on her session by T. J. Fowler's band. According to Marv Goldberg's article, https://www.uncamarvy.com/KittyStevenson/kittystevenson.html, the singer was born Katherine Louise Moore, in Thomson, Georgia, on May 30, 1920; she was the daughter of Frank Moore and Annie Bell Montgomery. The family moved to Detroit at an unknown date. In 1936, she married William Stevenson in Detroit. She began appearing in Detroit clubs, as a singer or a dancer, in June 1939. By 1942, she was working more frequently, as a singer or a dancer. In November 1943, she began a run at Little Sam's Bar; for much of 1944, as Katherine Moore, she directed the floor show there. In 1945 and 1946, it appears Kitty was often on the road, appearing in Indianapolis in October 1945, in Montréal in November 1945, at the Club Deliese in Detroit in December 1945, and at the Polka Dot in Richmond, Virginia in February 1946. In April 1947 she sang at El Sino in Detroit. Her big break in the Motor City came in November 1947, when she joined T. J. Fowler's Boogie Woogie Orchestra at Uzziel Lee's Club Sensation. Their run lasted through New Year's Eve and landed them the deal with Vitacoustic.
After her Vitacoustic session, Kitty Stevenson probably remained with Fowler for a while in 1948 (none of the surviving ads for the band mention the vocalist). In January 1949, she was at the Sportree Music Bar, run by Raymond "Sportree" Jackson; Fowler's band was on the bill but Kitty Stevenson was presented as a solo act. June 24, 1949 was opening night for the Flame Show Bar. It was a good night for Kitty Stevenson, whose run at the Flame would extend through the end of January 1950. For October through December 1949, the Flame also used Todd Rhodes' band; in January 1950 it used T. J. Fowler's. Stevenson moved to Club 509, also getting a week at the Paradise Theater.
Kitty Stevenson finally got another opportunity to record. She did a session under her own name with Todd Rhodes for Sensation in early 1950; the first record was ready for release at the beginning of April. For 6 weeks in April and May she was back at the Flame Show Bar, now backed by Maurice King and his Wolverines. Her second release on Sensation was out in June; she opened at Club Juana toward the end of that month. During the remainder of 1950 she spent some time on the road, including appearances in Memphis, Tennessee, Newport, Kentucky, and Columbus, Ohio. In September, having divorced William Stevenson, she married Theodore Moore, but kept performing as Kitty Stevenson. At some point during the fall, her first Sensation single was reissued on Regal.
In April 1951, Kitty Stevenson appeared at the Apollo in New York City with Todd Rhodes. On returning to Detroit she worked Lee's Club Sensation with T. J. Fowler. In what turned out to be her last recording, she sang on a Rhodes session for King on May 24, 1951, which led to releases in August and December. Unfortunately, she fell ill with breast cancer shortly after the session. In June 1951, she was replaced in the Fowler band by Alberta Adams; in the Rhodes band Connie Allen took over the vocals. From October 1950 through February 1951, Kitty Stevenson was able to return to work. But by the end of February, she was back in the hospital and LaVern Baker replaced her in the Rhodes band.
Kitty Stevenson died in Detroit Memorial Hospital on May 31, 1952, one day after her 32nd birthday. She left four children. Her oldest son, William "Mickey" Stevenson, became an A&R man, producer, and songwriter for Motown Records. Her son Alonzo "Lonny" Stevenson became an actor and a director. (For more, see https://www.uncamarvy.com/KittyStevenson/kittystevenson.html.)
The Kitty Stevenson session carried matrix numbers that probably ran from V1939 through V1948 or V1949. Two of the original numbers survived on her first Old Swing-Master release; on the second, although we know it came from the same session, numbers from a completely different series were assigned instead.
| Matrix Number | Serial Number | Artist | Title | Recording Date | Release Date |
| (P-Vine Special [J] PLP 708) | Kitty Stevenson | Train No. 1 | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
| (Ace CDCHD 1087) | Kitty Stevenson | How Long, How Long, How Long | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
| (P-Vine Special [J] PLP 708) | Kitty Stevenson | Comes the Day | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
| (Ace CDCHD 1087) | Kitty Stevenson | Then Comes the Day | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
| V1941Sw | (Old Swing-Master 10A) | Kitty Stevenson | Sleeping by Yourself [first pressing] Blues by Myself |
c. December 15, 1947 | January 1949 March 1949 |
| V1943Sw | (Old Swing-Master 10B) | Kitty Stevenson | I'm Satisfied | c. December 15, 1947 | January 1949 |
| (P-Vine Special [J] PLP 708) | Kitty Stevenson | That Jive | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
| (Ace CDCHD 1087) | Kitty Stevenson | How about That Jive | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
| unissued | Kitty Stevenson | Things Will Change Someday | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
| (Ace CDCHD 1087) | Kitty Stevenson | Evening Sun | c. December 15, 1947 | ||
523Sw |
(Old Swing-Master 20A) | Kitty Stevenson | Hold Them Joe | c. December 15, 1947 | May 1949 |
524Sw |
(Old Swing-Master 20B) | Kitty Stevenson | With You | c. December 15, 1947 | May 1949 |
The Four Shades came back to United Broadcasting one more time that we know of before the Petrillo Ban hit. The sides that we have original matrix numbers for (V1950, V1952, V1953) never appeared on Vitacoustic; they were picked up by Old Swing-Master in 1949. From the number of sides that have been documented, there could even have been a third session in between.
There was never a Four Shades release on Sensation, or on King, but Bernie Besman obviously got copies of the masters from these sessions. He also had a relationship with Modern, and 13 masters (one of them double-sided) in a B-5000 matrix series ended up in the possession of the Bihari brothers, who never released any of them either. Besman could have applied the B-5000 numbers (which were never used on a Sensation release) well after the masters were recorded. We've done our best to produce a concordance. Tracks are listed by their V1900 numbers when those are known, the rest by their numbers in the B-5000s when these are all we have.
Vitacoustic/Old Swing-Master items that we can't place in the B-5000s are most likely hiding there under a different title... or under no title. "Everything I Have Is Yours" appears to be the same track that was dealt to Art Sheridan in 1952, then not issued on Chance. In 2019, Ace Records released an excellent, hitherto unheard performance by the Four Shades of Browley Guy's "Knock Me a Zombie." "Zombie" was intended for both sides of a 78 and now appears on both sides of a "Sensation" 45. The 45 has been marketed as a 1949 recording from Detroit, which we know it wasn't.
| Matrix Number | Release Number | Artist | Title | Recording Date | Release Date |
| V1950 [B-5127] |
(Old Swing-Master 13A) | The Four Shades of Rhythm | My Blue Walk [Blues No. 1] |
late December 1947 | (March 1949) |
| V 1952 [B-5128] |
(Old Swing-Master 33) | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Don't Blame Me | late December 1947 | (September 1949) |
| V1953 [B-?] |
(Old Swing-Master 13B) | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Baby I'm Gone | late December 1947 | (March 1949) |
| [B-5121] | (Sensation SW 143 [45 rpm]) | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Bartender, Knock Me a Zombie, Part 1 and 2 | December 1947 | (February 2019) |
| [B-5122] | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Whiskey and Women | December 1947 | ||
| [B-5123] | The Four Shades of Rhythm | [unknown title] | December 1947 | ||
| [B-5124] | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Brother Bill | December 1947 | ||
| [B-5126] | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Out of My Mind | December 1947 | ||
| [B-5129] | The Four Shades of Rhythm | [unknown title] | December 1947 | ||
| [B-5130] | The Four Shades of Rhythm | Everything I Have Is Yours | December 1947 |
Two more tracks by the group ("My Blue Walk" b/w "Baby I'm Gone") were issued in March 1949 on Old Swing-Master 13. These bore the matrix numbers V 1950 and V 1953, indicating that they were done at a second session, even closer to the end of December 1947. What happened to V 1951 and V 1952 is not clear. Around a decade later, a remake of "One Hundred Years from Today" appeared on a 45-rpm single put out by a small Chicago independent, Apex 1998. That was definitely not the Vitacoustic recording.
Despite the quality of most of the new tracks it recorded, Vitacoustic had picked a poor time to launch its "race" series. Several Chicago-area independents, including Vita's exact contemporary Aristocrat, and Miracle, were well in the lead when "B-Day" (the start of the Union-ordered "recording ban") was announced for January 1, 1948. Unless another unadvertised release shows up somewhere, the Vitacoustic "race" series stopped at 1007.
The Vitacoustic pop series ended at an unknown number on an unknown date. On January 24, Billboard ran ads for Vitacoustic 8 and 13 (with release numbers) and for 14 and 15 (without numbers). Four more titles (only one of which had an artist's name attached) were mentioned as "coming soon"; we have put them at the bottom of the Vitacoustic 1 series. There were no fewer than four full-page ads for the label in this issue; granted, it was a special "juke box" supplement with lots of full-page ads, but most came from bigger companies with bigger advertising budgets. Ominously, another display ad (about 1/4 page) in the same issue claimed that "a sharp hit" by singer and "sweet band" leader Del Courtney was "to be currently released"—and also gave no release number! It was Vitacoustic 20, which got zero additioinal promotion; the "ample supply of standards and originals to follow" never reached the stores. (Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Del Courtney had a recording contract with Vocalion and OKeh during 1939 and 1940; he was also the former employer of his counterpart at Aristocrat, Sherman Hayes). Vitacoustic 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, and 5001 straggled out with no advertising (well, 18 was mentioned once by a music publisher), so it's possible further items in the Vitacoustic pop series were around for a hot minute. On January 31, Billboard reviewed Vitacoustic 10, 12, and 13. Sales were not happening, and Lloyd Garrett must have been bugging Billboard to get some reviews in. The notices were generally lukewarm, however.
After January 24, 1948, Vitacoustic ran just a single small corporate ad in Billboard each week. These must have been paid for long in advance. The last one appeared on June 12. Because other ads stopped running, we aren't sure just when the new releases stopped. The best guess is late February, just before the company filed for bankruptcy. We're wondering particularly about Vitacoustic 16, 17, 23, and 24. Garrett and Buckley still had big plans, judging from a story (dated January 31) that ran on February 7. They had just concluded an agreement with Levy Sound, Ltd., in London, to distribute their 78s (as the Vita series of the Oriole label) in Europe and in the British Empire; they had further extended their US distribution network; and they were planning to expand to South America by starting a business relationship with a pressing plant in Rio de Janeiro. Stories about overseas record deals reliably made hearts beat faster at Billboard and Cash Box.
But vultures were beginning to circle. The very next week, Billboard ran a story (dated February 7), "Sid Fisher Seeks an Accounting of Cats' Royalties." Fisher had played guitar on the Harmonicats' Vitacoustic sides. He had attempted to cash in with his own release on Vitacoustic 8 (an ad pointedly identified him as "The man who made 'Peg o' My Heart' a hit with his now famous GUITAR licks"). Now he claimed that he was actually a member of the group when the record was cut, and therefore entitled to a quarter of the royalties from "Peg o' My Heart" and their other releases. He was demanding an immediate accounting of all royalties from sales of the Harmonicats' Vitacoustic sides and threatening to sue if he did not get what he claimed was owed. The Musicians Union (Local 10) had previously determined that he was due just the $82.50 he received for the recording session (he was paid scale for a leader, double the sideman rate; then again, Fisher belonged to the union and the Cats didn't). On July 3, 1948, Judge Wilbur Crowley would agree, dismissing Fisher's claim for a cut of the royalties after the Harmonicats' attorney produced the signed Union contract showing Fisher as an employee and Jerry Murad as the employer (see Billboardfor July 10). Fisher also claimed that he was entitled to appear in theaters with the Harmonicats; that claim was not dismissed on July 3, but the Cats weren't interested and there was nothing further in the pages of the trades.
Bigger trouble was coming. On February 21, an item in Billboard carried the ominous headline "Cats; Woes Mount; Univ Sues Buckley, Garrett for $16,000." The trade paper disclosed that Universal Recording had sued Vitacoustic. Supposedly Vitacoustic owed Universal Recording a total of $24,000 and had coughed up just four monthly payments of $2,000 each. Buckley and Garrett said that they thought the payments were no longer required after Putnam and Tasker had left Vitacoustic. Even worse, "Universal complaint seeks to direct Vita to return the 12 Harmonicat masters (six of which have already been released by Vita) to Universal, halt the manufacture and sale of the Cats' platters by Vita and to enjoin Vitacoustic from using that firm name" (presumably because Universal was claiming "Vitacoustic" as a trademark for its recording process). The frenzy to grab pieces of the Harmonicats action wasn't pretty.
Next, on February 28, Billboard reported that Vitacoustic had filed for bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11. The company's lawyer claimed that "the firm would be able to meet all outstanding debts 100 per cent if given the moratorium on present commitments," but that was whistling in the dark. The company claimed that "the Petrillo platter-making curfew caused Vitacoustic's expense to telescope, because the making of their present 400-master catalog made it impossible for them to pay current debts." (To get a total of 400 masters, material included in the Sensation deal had to be counted. We presume it was.) Ironically, the company would have been able to keep on recording the Harmonicats in 1948—had they still been on the roster—because the Musicians Union at the time looked down on harmonica players and did not accept them as members. Of course, no guitar or bass accompaniment would have been allowed.
On March 24 (stories ran in the March 27 and April 3 issues of Billboard), Vitacoustic turned over its schedule of assets and liabilities to a Federal judge under Chapter 11 (referred to in those days as "Section 11 of the Chandler Act"). The company owed no less than $182,463. It claimed assets of $204,498, but some, shall we say, optimistic accounting was required to get to that figure. No less than $43,000 was due from distributors; the value of the company's masters was estimated at another $42,000 (roughly, what it had cost to record them); and no less than $56,000 had been paid out in advances against royalties, to artists who were not getting any further releases, and whose released recordings were not going to sell well enough to enable the company to recoup. Which adds up to $99,000 in receivables that the company wasn't going to receive, plus a pile of masters that nobody was going to pay $42,000 for. Apparently the judge was not acquainted with the record business.
The company was allowed to put forth a repayment plan for its creditors. On May 15, Billboard reported that Vitacoustic had delivered an amended plan to 70 creditors; supposedly they would be seeing their money in quarterly payments spread through 1949 and 1950. Lloyd Garrett was on the hunt for additional distributors, and reportedly said that Vitacoustic would resume new releases at the rate of 5 a month. This was not going to happen. Any 78s that were able to slip out had done so by now; no further releases were announced or advertised.
According to Bob Porter in the liner notes to Savoy SJL 2219 (a 2-LP set that included Vitacoustic-derived material), Howard McGhee recalled going to France to appear at the Paris Jazz Festival (he recorded in Paris on May 15 and 18, 1948) and returning to Chicago only to find that Vitacoustic had gone out of business without ever paying him and his musicians for the sessions. According to Art Zimmerman, McGhee recalled in a 1978 interview that Vitacoustic owed Al Benson money. In fact, it was Egmont Sonderling who was owed the money, and who kept possession of the Vitacoustic material, later using some of it on his Old Swing-Master label.
When McGhee returned to Chicago, Vitacoustic hadn't quite expired. But it was on life support and its management was frantically putting off payments to creditors—including Howard McGhee. On June 19 (reported in Billboard for June 26), the major creditors insisted that a board of four of their representatives be directly involved in running the firm, which was still not turning a profit. Egmont Sonderling of United Broadcasting, Bernie Clapper of Universal Recording, and representatives of a label printer and a pressing plant took seats on the creditors' committee. Pressures on the company continued to mount. According to a story dated July 3, which ran in the July 10 Billboard ("Vita Must Have Reorg Plan or Face the Music"), the bankruptcy referee, Nathan McChesney, was not pleased when the financial report that he received on July 1 showed that the company had run up a further deficit of $10,000 over April, May, and June. The label's creditors were demanding a new plan from Garrett and Buckley or they would call for the company to be liquidated. On July 31, Billboardran an unconfirmed rumor that Vitacoustic was selling off a bunch of its masters.
The rumor, we may surmise, derived from wishful thinking, the company's and its creditors'. Sure enough, on August 7, Billboard reported that Vitacoustic was trying to placate those to whom it owed big money by offering them a new, somewhat accelerated repayment plan. "Execs said the new plan stemmed from the sale of certain blocks of masters which will be completed within the next month." On August 21 (reported in the August 28 issue), the creditors' committee learned that Vitacoustic had been running in the red in July as well. The company's most influential creditor, Bill Putnam, now took over as general manager: "Putnam said that deals are currently cooking for the sale of certain Vita masters and the leasing of others to other diskeries."
The masters had been said to be worth $42,000. But just two were unloaded: two sides by Jack Carroll, mentioned in the same issue of Billboard. They were bought by Fred Rose, publisher of Country tunes (including "Sleepy Town," which was one of the two sides) and Maurice Murray, the former recording director for Vitacoustic. Rose and Murray placed them with another Chicago independent label, Rondo. Rondo was looking to diversify its artist roster and find releasable material during the recording ban, when new sides by its big draw, organist Ken Griffin, were strictly off-limits. But Rondo didn't want what Vitacoustic had spent most of its money on, pop singers accompanied by big bands. Rondo was adding some Country acts at the time. Presumably the Country angle enabled Rose and Murray to convince its owners, Julius F. Bard and Nick Lany, to pick "Sleepy Town" up. Released on Rondo 160, probably in October 1948, the record soon dropped out of Rondo's catalogue, and to our knowledge Bard and Lany would acquire nothing further from Vitacoustic.
Maybe some Vitacoustic "hillbilly" items were sold to other companies during this period, but if this was done we have found no confirmation in the trade papers.
The company couldn't return to operating in the black merely by selling its back catalog (especially when it no longer included three records by the Harmonicats; see below). It certainly couldn't sell more 78s without further promotional expenses, which those now in charge wouldn't authorize. Nor could it find anyone else to pay good money for its unreleased masters. Vitacoustic had reached the end of the road.
In the October 30, 1948 issue of Billboard,a story datelined October 23 announced that Vitacoustic Records was in receivership and was being liquidated. One-time investor and more recent creditors' representative Bill Putnam was the receiver. Some items had already been sold off: on October 21, the office furniture went for $800 and Freddy Nagel, who had signed with the Raymor label out of Wichita, Kansas, paid $800 to buy back eight masters by his orchestra. Bill Putnam petitioned to have 10 Harmonicat masters returned to him, including "Peg o' My Heart." A hearing was held on November 18, whose results were not reported in Billboard. Putnam appears to have succeeded. The Harmonicat masters were not included later on in the list of things to be auctioned off, and eventually "Peg" would be reissued on Universal. One small favor: now that the Vitacoustic company was history, Putnam was no longer trying to get the name back.
Intriguingly, the proceedings had "hit a snag this week when Egmont Sonderling of United Broadcasting, claimed that Vita masters now in his possession would not be turned over [to the receiver] until liens which he has against them would be made good. Sonderling's recording studios were utilized to make approximately 90 per cent of the Vita masters, and Sonderling is demanding that his recording costs be paid before he releases the masters." 90% was an exaggeration. United Broadcasting had recorded most of the "race" or R&B masters that United Broadcasting, and processed those that were recorded in Detroit. The Vitacoustic pop series recordings had mostly been done at Universal Recording, apparently along with the "folk" sides, and material recorded there was already in Bill Putnam's hands. Still, the debt to Sonderling was substantial; according to the schedule released back in March, he was owed $13,800. Universal Recording was owed $16,000.
Efforts to get masters back from Sonderling were to no avail. From the UB matrix numbers he attached to some items, it looks as though he was starting to master some Vitacoustic material in September or October 1948, with the intention of pressing and releasing it himself. In January 1949, he and Al Benson started the Old Swing-Master label in order to make some money off the unissued Vitacoustic material (Old Swing-Master quickly began picking up items from other labels as well). On April 30, 1949, Billboard ran a story headlined "Auction Vita Wax, Masters Oct. 28 in Chi" (the date was a misprint—the auction had actually been scheduled for April 28!). The remaining assets included 51,025 records (and another 1200 said to be broken or damaged by fire), plus the following masters:
Anything that had been recorded at Universal (nearly everything on the list) remained under Bill Putnam's control. The Billboardstory makes it clear how much unissued pop material Vitacoustic had racked up in less than a year of active recording (178 masters if we follow the list; 182 according the story that ran after the auction). In addition, Vitacoustic had singer and comedian Judy Canova, described as a "movie-radio star," signed in late August 1947 to do country recordings (usually called "folk" in the Billboard of those times). If she was recorded as planned, the recordings must have been done at United Broadcasting and thus withheld from the final auction. The same goes for the Country sides by Riley Shepard, if no one else had bought them yet.
The auction was a dud. The major creditors had to be aware by this time that no one wanted to pay real money for Vitacoustic masters. On May 7, 1949, Billboard reported (in a piece datelined April 30 and headlined "Bids For Vita's Wax Weak; Will Sell Privately"):
First attempt to liquidate remaining assets of Vitacoustic Records, Chicago firm which entered into Chandler Act proceedings in January [actually February], 1948, met with little success Thursday (28) in the U. S. Court House here. John Chatz, trustee for Vita, announced that final appraisal of assets was fixed at $9,747, but the largest bulk bid received was $750 for the entire lot of 182 masters by 14 different artists, plus 85 assorted stampers and 52,000 new Vita records. Bids for smaller lots were also meager, with the only bid getting the okay of referee Nathan MacChesney being one by a lawyer, who got Henry Busse's Hop Lips [Hot Lips!] and Wang Wang Blues for $200.
Because of apathetic bidding, Chatz said he would hold all materials in the inventory for private sale over an indeterminate period. He received court approval to sell any masters in the lot for $100 or over, but bids on the new record inventory and stampers must get the court okay.
Tho Vita filed a petition showing liabilities of $182,462 late in March, 1948, only a small portion of this amount has been paid off. With United Broadcasting, Chicago recording studio, holding a lien on the sale of certain masters [just those that Egmont Sonderling had turned over], which gives it 50 per cent of any amount accruing from these sales, it's expected that creditors of Vita will receive little on their original claims.
The 182 masters at auction (we'll accept the number, though at some point Bernie Besman would reclaim the 10 Jack Surrells) didn't include any that Bernie Besman had already clawed back for Sensation, or that Egmont Sonderling had refused to let go of. At the rate employed in company's bankruptcy filing, $105 apiece, 182 masters were supposed to be worth $19,110. The trustee's appraisal marked them down by at least 50%, yet he ended up taking $100 each for two and didn't draw acceptable bids for any of the other 180.
We haven't tried to list these 182 masters in our Vitacoustic pop table; we don't have matrix numbers for them, or other good way to organize them. How many sessions did Leo Diamond need to cut 36 sides?. Did Nancy Lee and the Hilltoppers cut 16 sides at 2 sessions, or 4? Where we have matrix numbers from sessions that led to issued material, we will be able to slot some unissued sides into the gaps. (We've put "Hot Lips" and "Wang Wang Blues"—both titles hark back to Henry Busse's days with Paul Whiteman—in alongside the issued sides. Busse wasn't at Vitacoustic for long; he recorded two sessions either back-to-back or close together in time.) It would be interesting to know who ended up with the Vitacoustic pop masters; most likely they finished their days in a Chicago-area landfill, while any metal parts were sold for scrap.
Vitacoustic pulled in an awful lot of revenue from "Peg o' My Heart" (Vitacoustic 1 sold 7 times as much as "Long Gone" did for Miracle—and the best sellers during Aristocrat's lifetime were microscopic by comparison). Most of the money was plowed right back into pop music that nobody wanted to buy. Meanwhile, the label's jazz and R&B efforts might have paid off better but were never nearly so ambitious. Perhaps too much was going into trade paper advertisements. Regular adverts in Billboard and Cash Box are mighty convenient to researchers like ourselves, but they must have cost Vitacoustic a bundle. Vitacoustic ran full-page display ads regularly; the label's last hurrah consisted of no fewer than four full-pagers in the January 24, 1948 issue of Billboard, one of which included pictures of all of the company's "race" artists (to be added to this page).
The gory details about Vitacoustic indebtedness are contained in the April 3, 1948 Billboard story that details its Chapter 11 filing. The company's debts of $182,000 included, besides Federal taxes, substantial royalties owed to music publishers, even bigger debts to pressing plants like Long Island Plastic Products, Perfection Plastic Products (Pasadena, California), even good old Starr Piano (aka Gennett; Richmond, Indiana)—and $13,800 for recording and mastering services at United Broadcasting Company. The company had stiffed its artists for $29,000 in royalties; most unwisely, Vitacoustic had fallen $14,600 in arrears to the Harmonicats—a dereliction that was hardly going to be missed by Bill Putnam, who owned their contract. The company's supposed assets included no less than $56,000 in advance royalties to artists. Such outsized payouts had been dispensed to pop artists under the Tasker regime. Advancing $9,867 to Leo Diamond meant that the company would have to sell nearly 250,000 of his harmonica records to recoup. Over $5000 was given to a singer named Yvette, only one of whose records ever saw release; over $3000 to Joan Edwards, who got two releases; over $3000 to bandleader Joe Vera, who to our knowledge never got a release at all. One of Henry Busse's 78s came out earlier in the life of the company, when it could afford to promote his work, but to make back his advance of $3192, the company would have had to move about 80,000 copies of Vitacoustic 6.
Vitacoustic, then, was a success story run in reverse. The label had a massive hit, then proved completely incapable of sustaining itself, eating through its profits and racking up debt in less than a year. In all, Vitacoustic is known to have put out 21 pop singles (Vitacoustic 1 through 15, plus 18 through 21, 22, and 25). It had put out 2 country singles (5000 and 5001). There had been 8 R&B singles (1000 through 1007). The August 1947 split between Lloyd Garrett and Bill Putnam deprived the label of its most popular performers, Jerry Murad's Harmonicats, and took the steam out of its pop series. The Harmonicats put out another release in October 1947 on Bill Putnam's Universal label, and followed with a bunch more, including at least one of Putnam's experimental 78 rpm EPs.
But after that they took their act, which remained popular for some years, to Mercury and then to Columbia. The move to Mercury, which signed them for three years, was announced in Billboard in a story dated September 24, 1949 (it ran in the October 1 issue, p. 18). The story noted that "they cut their last record [for Universal] over a year ago." The Cats not being subject to the recording ban, Putnam could record them openly in 1948 (as long as Putnam didn't want accompanists for them). Not so coincidentally, in September 1949, Putnam, who was scaling back his record label, had entered into a deal with London Records that included all of the group's Vitacoustic and Universal sides. The Harmonicats would make several LPs for major labels in the 1950s. Don Les left the Harmonicats in 1972 and Al Fiore retired in 1982. Don Les died on August 25, 1994, in Madison, Wisconsin; Jerry Murad died on May 11, 1996, in Liberty Township, Ohio; the last of the original Harmonicats, Al Fiore, died in Chicago on October 25, 1996.
Meanwhile, Vitacoustic's belated move into R&B failed to pay off. The Sensation-derived material was repossessed by the originating label, which then leased most of it to King Records. King got a lot more out of it than Vitacoustic ever had. In fact, King 4240 ("Blues for the Red Boy" b/w "Sportree Jump" by Todd Rhodes) was listed in the Billboard's semi-annual survey of "Top Selling Company Labels on Rhythm and Blues over Retail Counters" (July 30, 1949) as the company's number 2 seller (and King was having a good year—it placed #3 among R&B labels). King was so interested in Todd Rhodes that the label signed him to a contract in the summer of 1948. The action elicited a furious reaction from Sensation, which still had him under contract from the days before the Vitacoustic deal, and was able to get the Musicians Union to provide evidence to that effect. On August 13, 1949, Sensation and King arrived at a settlement whereby King tore up its Rhodes contract and turned back most of the masters it had leased from Sensation. After a brief deal with Regal, an East Coast label, didn't produce the expected sales, Sensation quit putting out new releases at the end of 1950. In 1952 Besman (who had continued to record John Lee Hooker for lease to other labels) packed in the record business for good, sold his share of Pan American, and moved to California.
His last Sensation contract having expired, Todd Rhodes returned to King in May 1951 and continued with the label until the summer of 1954. For a time he served as a house band leader for the label, backing Wynonie Harris and many other high-profile R&B performers at the King Studios in Cincinnati. Meanwhile >Kitty Stevenson, who had recorded with him for Sensation and for King, died in Detroit Memorial Hospital on May 31, 1952. Todd Rhodes' band broke up in 1957; after that he worked sporadically. In the fall of 1964, while on a steady gig playing at a hotel piano bar in Sarnia, Ontario, Rhodes suffered a major stroke. He remained hospitalized until he died in Detroit on June 4, 1965.
Much of the jazz material intended for the Jam Session Series and the R&B material not clawed back by Sensation was impounded by Egmont Sonderling and formed the basis for his Old Swing-Master venture with Al Benson. If Sonderling held on to any pop or Country material, he never did figure out what to do with it.
That Vitacoustic during its death throes could not sell its masters, and after liquidation could draw no higher bid than $750 for nearly half of its total production, reflected not only on the commercial potential of the product it recorded, but also on the nature of the record business in the late 1940s. A January 14, 1949 Billboard story, "Anybody Wanna Buy a Label? Indies Can't Sell," told of the difficulties failed independent companies had recently had in unloading their masters. The lead read, "Those indie diskeries who are finding the going too tough are having a hard time disposing of their labels at any price." It noted the difficulties that Leon René's Exclusive label and another unnamed firm were having in peddling their unreleased masters and artists' contracts: instead of trying to sell them, these operations were offering to give them away in exchange for royalties on the releases. The Billboard writer questioned record executives on this situation. The conclusion was that they had their hands full dealing with their own artists and selling their own records. Consequently they were adverse to taking on "additional artists and masters, even at bargain rates."
Some really delayed fallout: an odd item in Billboard from July 14, 1951, related that Leo Diamond had bought his 36 Vitacoustic masters. But he didn't get them from Universal. "Leo Diamond, the harmonicist, purchased 36 masters, most of which were unreleased, from the defunct Vitacoustic Records' catalog, owned currently by United Broadcasting. Diamond is hoping to peddle them to some diskery" (p. 14). Maybe Bill Putnam, who had sold or least a lot of his own masters, was tired of sitting on more that it seemed nobody wanted, and dealt the rest of what he had to Egmont Sonderling. But how many, besides the Diamonds, was Sonderling ever able to sell?
The larger lesson to be learned from the Vitacoustic debacle is that knowing how to run a recording studio is not the same as knowing how to run a record company. The Harmonicats sold a lot of records in 1947. But the sides made at Universal Recording that year that people are most inclined to listen to today were cut by Muddy Waters. And there's no way Muddy's music would have met with approval from Bill Putnam and George Tasker. The proprietors of Aristocrat had mixed feelings about Muddy when they decided to record him, and they took their sweet time releasing his initial efforts, but they were willing to give him a chance.
We'd thought the collapse of Vitacoustic drove George Tasker out of the record business. Not quite. Tasker made a modest effort at a comeback in 1950, with a label called North American. It, too, was based in Chicago. Then North American failed, and Tasker was truly out of the business.
We still lack matrix numbers for a couple of Vitacoustic issues, which could give us clues as to when they were recorded. We also believe that there may have been pop singles on Vitacoustic 16, 17, 23, and 24 during the chaotic period just before (just after?) the company filed for bankruptcy. We invite additions and corrections to this listing.
The Simon Evans / Man in Japan collection contributed several Billboard clippings on Vitacoustic from 1947, including the ad from November 8 that can be seen at the beginning of this page. Bill Daniels provided a valuable index of first mentions in Billboard for Vitacoustic pop releases, a concordance of Sensation-Vitacoustic-King releases, a King Records publicity flyer on Todd Rhodes, and further detailed information on the V1800 and B-4000 matrix number series which enabled us to correct errors and gaps in the information we were able to obtain from existing discographies. Peter Gibbon of Ace Records UK, who has researched Bernie Besman's masters, corrected some errors on the V1800 series and helped us to fill several gaps in the B-4000s. We initially learned of the link between Vitacoustic and Old Swing-Master from Bernd Kratochwil's article "Die Geschichte des Entrepreneur Al Benson aus Chicago oder die labels'Old Swingmaster,' 'Parrot,' and 'Blue Lake' Teil 2: Old Swingmaster Discography," Rockin' Fifties,1997, 45-49.
Further background on Sensation Records (including a discussion of the date for the "Boogie Chillen" session) is provided by Charles Shaar Murray's book Boogie Man (St. Martins, 2000), a thoroughly researched and well-written biography of John Lee Hooker.
On Todd Rhodes, the definitive source is Jim Gallert's article "Blue Sensation: The Todd Rhodes Story," which appeared in City Arts Quarterly, 4(1/2), 26-29, 49 (1989). Gallert's article includes a corrected discography of Rhodes' recordings as a leader. Further material on Rhodes and Stevenson is in Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert, Before Motown (University of Michigan Press, 2001). Ace CDCHD 856, Todd Rhodes and His Orchestra: Blues for the Red Boy—The Early Sensation Recordings, released in 2002, is a valuable collection of 28 tracks that Rhodes made for Sensation, mastered from the original acetates. The extensive liner notes are by Jim Gallert.
Danny Wilson (http://www.bassharp.com) supplied further background about the Harmonicats and corrected our naïve descriptions of the trio's instruments. Peter Doyle provided information about four rare pop releases from Vitacoustic's last days, and a previously unknown Doc Wiley acetate. And Ferdie Gonzales supplied information about the elusive Old Swing-Master 33. To a considerable extent, our label photos are drawn from the collections of Tom Kelly and Peter Doyle. David Morrison provided the scans of Vitacoustic 2.
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