[Dixielandjazz] A matter of substance

[Anton Crouch]

Hello DJMLers

The best quip to come out of the over-long thread on washboards was the
link between "washboard spam" and Washboard Sam.

Robert Brown ("Washboard Sam") sometimes recorded with Alfred Elkins, a
master of uncommon bass instruments. Elkins made a large number of
recordings and played "imitation bass" with Brown, and also with Big Maceo,
Willie "61" Blackwell, Peter Chatman, Peter Cleighton, the Lewis
Bronzeville Five, Robert Lockwood, Jimmy Oden, Robert Petway, Walter Vinson
and Sonny Boy Williamson.

A question - what is an imitation bass and what is it made of? A clue -
there is a definite, practical, link with the washboard.

Elkins also recorded with Merline Johnson (the Yas Yas Girl) on 31 August
1939 and Monkey Joe and Roosevelt Scott on 13 September 1939, and is noted
in Dixon, Godrich and Rye as using "vocal bass". I don't know the
recordings and therefore wonder what he was doing - vocalising like the
Mills Brothers or humming like Slam Stewart?

A final question - what is a "bass cano"?, the instrument noted in the
Bluebird files for the Jazz Gillum/Elkins session of 20 March 1941, the
Yank Rachel session of 11 December 1941 and the Joe Williams session of 12
December 1941.

Soap suds to you all

Anton