Montana Taylor 1929 – 1946

and the complete

“Freddie” Shayne 1935-1946

Featuring the recordings of:

Montana Taylor And The Jazoo Boys: Montana Taylor, piano solo; Marcel Pettiford, Herman Brown, vocal effects. “Montana” Taylor, piano solo. Bertha “Chippie” Hill, vocal; accompanied by Montana Taylor, piano; Almond Leonard, washboard / kazoo. Montana Taylor, piano / vocal on 11, 12, 15 /whistling on 10; Almond Leonard, washboard added on 9. Montana Taylor, piano / vocal on 17. Harry “Freddie” Shayne, piano / vocal. J. H. “Mr. Freddie” Shayne, piano; accompanied by John Lindsay, stand-up bass; Baby Dodds, drums. Bertha “Chippie” Hill, vocal; accompanied by Lee Collins, trumpet; Freddie Shayne, piano; John Lindsay, stand-up bass; Baby Dodds, drums.

Genres: Blues, Montana Blues, Blues Piano, Female Blues, South Carolina Blues, Jazz, Female Blues

Abridged from this album’s booklet notes. Well into the ’60s, Arthur “Montana” Taylor and Henry “Freddie” Shayne, two Midwestern blues cum boogie pianists whose names were familiar from some “race” records, were rumored to be still living around Cleveland and Chicago respectively. Paul Affeldt, editor of Jazz Report and producer of the Euphonic piano LP series, tried to locate them, obviously without success. Two decades earlier, architect and author Rudi Blesh was more fortunate and recorded Taylor and Shayne for his revivalist Circle label in Chicago. Two decades before that, both musicians had cut their first sides there for the one and only Mayo Williams (who was probably responsible for Shayne’s 1935 session, too) after their recording potential had been spotted in St. Louis (Shayne, 1924) and Indianapolis (Taylor, 1929), two cities with strong piano traditions.

Karl Gert zur Heide Copyright 1991 Document Records

DOCD-5053