[Dixielandjazz] Skiffle music

[Bill Haesler]

Dear Ginny, Dave, John and Mark,
Skiffle music goes back well before the British Trad scene became  
awash with the 'style' in the 1950s.
As a young collector in the mid 40s I had a 10" 78 rpm disc of  
"Hometown Skiffle" Parts 1 & 2 recorded for Paramount in Oct 1929.
A sort of 'sampler' for the company's blues artists at that time  
featuring The Hokum Boys, Will Ezell, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon  
Jefferson, Charlie Spand, Papa Charlie Jackson, Alex Hill and Georgia  
Tom Dorsey.
It was a studio recreation of a Chicago 'rent party'.
I also had the three Circle 78s by Dan Burley and His Skiffle Boys  
recorded on 11 June 1947 by Rudi Blesh.
Burley, an interesting man is worth googling. Try and locate his  
"South Side Shake" on Circle.
Rudi Blesh, in his book 'Shining Trumpets' (1946, Alfred A Knopf Inc.)  
says on page 303 that Chicago from 1910 to about 1933 was an  
industrial centre of black migration and therefore a meeting place for  
barrel-house and boogie-woogie players. "The great South Side  
institution of "rent Party" (locally known as "skiffle","shake", or  
"percolator") run by a landlady, paid the rent by the proceeds from  
the sale of home-cooked food and nefarious, bootleg liquor, and was  
the scene of gambling, dancing, brawls and "good time"."
[There is lots more on page 304, to do with the pianists.]
I would suggest that there would not be too many DJMLers who have not  
seen the Fats Waller [YouTube] film short of "The Joint Is Jumpin'".
Other records worth searching for include "House Rent Rag" (Dixieland  
Jug Blowers with Johnny Dodds 1926), "House Rent Scuffle" (Lil Johnson  
1929), House Rent Stomp" (Big Bill Broonzy 1927) (Virginia Liston  
1923), "House Rent Struggle" [aka "Strut That Thing" (Cripple Clarence  
Lofton 1935 & 1939), "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie " (Pine Top Smith 1928)  
and "Joe Louis Strut" (Memphis Minnie - with pianist Black Bob 1935).
Also look for sides by Clifford Hayes' Louisville Stompers, the  
Memphis Jug Band and Ma Rainey's Tub Jug Washboard Band.
There is enough here music for a radio program on the subject. I know,  
I did several of them in the 24 years I presented The Classic Jazz Era  
on 2MBS FM here in Sydney, Oz.
The Dan Burley sides may be hard to come by but, fortunately, most of  
the other recordings have been reissued and are still available.
Let your fingers do the walking through the World Records and  
Venerable Music on-line catalogues or trawl through the Red Hot Jazz  
Archive Song site.
Listmate Jazz Jerry would also be happy to help with advice regarding  
availability.
Kind regards,
Bill (guess what I'm playing at the moment).