Big Town Records was set up Bob Geddins in Oakland, California, in 1945. He established a base on the corner of 7th and Center Streets and also built a pressing plant. He went on to form a number of subsidiary labels. He was probably the first African American to create such a commercial combination.
Geddins was born on a cotton plantation in Hybank, Texas, in 1913. He picked cotton as a child, and was brought up by his grandmother, as his mother travelled around following the cotton harvest. His parents had divorced before he was born, so he hardly saw his father. As he grew older, he loved listening to music from the Southern states, particularly the songs of Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson, played on a wind-up Victrola disc player in his aunt’s shack.
He came to Los Angeles as a young man, where he met and married Irma Jean Dyer. He enrolled at the Frank Wiggins School to study electronics and set up a record store that sold Race Records, which was managed by his wife Irma. Then, in 1942, his mother moved to California too, settling in Oakland. Geddins visited her, of course, and soon became aware of the wealth of Black musical talent that the area possessed and the huge interest in Southern Black music, which he could see was not being catered for. He saw the opportunity!
He found a job in the shipyard in Richmond, switched his studies to Laney College and brought his family to Oakland. He then formed a partnership in 1943 with Jonas Williams, a local businessman, who owned a record store, Wolf’s Records. Geddins was responsible for buying the stock for the store, which allowed him to build good relationships with Los Angeles distributors. This in turn gave him the confidence to do what he really wanted to do – record the local talent and make his own discs. He set up Big Town Recording in 1945.
A recording from 1945
At first, he concentrated on recording Gospel acts, including Paul Foster Sr. and the Rising Stars, an acapella vocal harmony group. He rented time at a local studio and, clearly, didn’t need musicians for the acapella singers. He arranged for acetate copies to be made at the studio and then had the discs pressed. When he discovered that the pressing company was making and selling unauthorised copies of his recordings, he decided to build his own press. He rented a garage close to where his mother was living and started to create a small pressing plant. It took him two weeks, with a little help from a few friends and the Oakland Iron & Metal Company. To help advertise his recordings, Geddins started a weekly radio show on KWBR, which he broadcast from Wolf’s.
One of the artists that he met was Lowell Fulson, who came to the record store to practise his songs. When his early recordings proved very popular locally, Geddins decided to strike a licensing deal with Bill McCall at Gilt Edge Records, who had a well-developed distribution network in place, and then he started pressing discs as fast as he could, until disaster struck. The presses started to leak, forcing Geddins to look for help. It came in the shape of Harry Leader, who managed René Lamarre’s Trilon label. He offered to produce all the discs that Geddins needed and to hire him as a rep, with a base in Big Spring, Texas. Geddins accepted the deal and moved to Texas with his family. For eight months, all went well, until the money that Leader was paying him started to arrive late and then was not sent at all. Suddenly, Geddins had to find other work. He brought the family back to the West Coast and took on casual work.
Fortunately, he was still able to make some recordings, which he licensed to other local companies, until he had a slice of good fortune. He met a local businessman, Ted Willoughby, who wanted to get into the music industry and was willing to work with Geddins. Together, they set up Down Town Records in 1948, employing three musicians to act as a session band for the label’s recordings. They were Lee Hamilton (vocals and piano), Ulysses James (guitar), and Floyd Montgomery (bass), who took the name the Down Town Trio. Together, Geddins and Willoughby attracted some talented artists from the local area and also from further afield, as they undertook a few field trips. New labels were added and licencing deals put in place with some of Los Angeles’ bigger independents. For ten years or so, things went well, until Geddins’ wife Irma died in 1960. Their son Bob Geddins Jr. had started to work for the company in 1954, helping in the pressing plant. Now in his twenties, he was a musician and a technician, who made an increasingly important contribution to the business. His father continued to write songs, scout the local area, and record artists he thought could be popular. He died in Oakland in 1991.
In an interview with Lee Hildebrand in 1980, he explained his “philosophy” as a songwriter and record producer:
“I make everything I record as sad as possible. …I want black folks to feel the troubles of old times. All the people that have had similar problems are the ones that’s gonna buy those records. A lot of people make like they don’t like the blues but sneak off and play them.”
Sad songs maybe, but Geddins was a cheerful, honest man, who was badly-treated more than once by people in the music industry but never gave up his dream of making music that mattered to him and his community. Many young Black performers owe him a debt; it was Geddins that encouraged them into the music industry and gave them their first chance.
“The Big Town Records Story” is a triple-CD compilation of eighty-four Big Town tracks, including Blues, Vocal Harmony and Gospel.
Bob Geddins set up the following labels:
Big Town Recording: Around thirty singles were released between 1945 and 1955 in two phases, with one isolated single in 1959. The first phase was between 1945 and 1947, with a few Gospel releases in 1945, followed by four Lowell Fulson singles in 1946/7. The second phase ran from 1953 to 1955, with one-off singles from nine Blues artists, a few Big Band Jazz releases from the Que Martin Band, and a couple of Rock & Roll singles from Frank Motley, whose main claim to fame is his ability to play two trumpets at the same time. The Frank Motley tracks were probably leased from D.C. Records. The most significant artist on the label in the second phase was Jimmy Wilson, who had four singles released during these years. A large majority of his tracks are slow Blues with subtle electric guitar, piano and horns.
Cava-Tone Recording: Ten singles were issued in 1948. Two and a half feature songs by Bob Geddins’ Cavaliers. The half is Side A of a single shared with Sherman’s Trio. The Cavaliers were a vocal harmony group with a flexible line-up, that included Bob Geddins himself, George Salter, Jimmy Wilson, Bill Bostic and Vann Eldridge. Their sound is essentially Gospel. The singers were backed by Lafayette Thomas (guitar) and Sherman Louis (piano) playing Blues. Their stand-out track is “I’m Just A Stranger Here”, but they recorded good versions of “Nobody’s Business” and “Ghost Riders”.
The label also released some good West Coast Blues: one Lowell Fulson/ Ulysses James shared single and other singles by Jimmy Wilson, Roy Hawkins, and Saunders King. One Jazz Blues from the West Side Trio and a Gospel release complete the set.
The Acrobat compilation CD issued in 2008, with Bob Geddins bottom left
Down Town Recording: Nine singles were released between 1948 and 1949. One was a Gospel issue, and the other nine are West Coast Blues from three of Bob Geddins’ most reliable performers, Lowell Fulson (two singles), Roy Hawkins (three singles) and Jimmy McCracklin (two singles), plus one outstanding single from newcomers the K. C. Douglas Trio. Only nine singles maybe, but two of them are absolute classics that were covered by some big names and continue to be popular. The first of the two is Lowell Fulson’s “3 O’Clock Blues” and the second is K. C. Douglas’ “Mercury Boogie”.
Irma Records: Fifteen singles were issued between 1956 and 1958. Nearly all were classic West Coast Blues, some by some familiar names on Bob Geddins’ labels. Three came from Johnny Fuller, two of which have the same two tracks but with the A and B sides reversed. Jimmy Wilson added another single to his Geddins collection. Two are from Juke Boy Bonner, a guitar player from Texas; they are his first recordings. Other newcomers to the Geddins stable were Geneva Vallier, Al Smith, and Big Mama Thornton, whose single “Don’t Talk Baby”/ “Big Mama’s Coming Home” was issued in 1958. The earliest releases on the label came in 1956 and 1957, with four singles from Jimmy McCracklin and His Blues Blasters. They are all Jump Blues, with strong guitar and saxophone contributions from the Blasters, perfect for a Rock & Roll party!
The Irma Records compilation from Wolf Records
Plaid: Two singles released in 1959. The label was co-owned by Bob Geddins and Ronnie Badger. Both singles are Nashville-style Country & Western.
Veltone: Eleven singles were issued between 1960 and 1962. It is a very mixed collection, with a couple of comedy songs, an R&B instrumental, and another issue of Johnny Fuller’s “No More”. The stand-out singles all come from Sugar Pie DeSanto, who had three strong singles released on the Veltone label. They all highlight her powerful voice, which sounds multi-tracked, backed by an orchestra that is kept low in the mix. The best of the three is “I Cry Alone”, co-written by DeSanto and Nat Kendricks. It is a slow Blues, with subtle horns and an interesting guitar solo. Bob Geddins had certainly come a long way in the fifteen years since 1945. “I Cry Alone” ranks amongst the very best of the R&B songs to emerge from the West Coast during that time.
Art-Tone: Nine singles were issued between 1961 and 1962. Four are by Jimmy McCracklin, with one each from Johnny Fuller, Lue Cazz, Eddie Boyd, the Panics, and Al and Nettie & the Nat Hendrix Band.
Johnny Fuller’s “No More”, Lue Cazz’ “Change Your Way”, and the Panics’ “Yes-Sir-Ee” are all Rock & Roll-inspired Pop songs. Eddie Boyd’s “Coming Home” and Al and Nettie’s “You Want Know” (written by Bob Geddins and Jimmie McCracklin) are genuine R&B. The top act on the label is also the best. Jimmy McCracklin’s singles are all strongly Blues-based, with a foot-tapping piano to the fore and an orchestral backing dominated by powerful horns.
Selected Artists at Bob Geddins’ labels
Lowell Fulson was born in Atoka, Oklahoma, on the Choctaw reservation, in 1921. His grandfather Henry Fulson was a slave who was brought America in the eighteen fifties to work in the South. When Henry escaped from his workplace, he was taken in by the Choctaw tribe, where he married a Choctaw woman. Henry’s son, Lowell’s father, was killed when Lowell was a child, following which his wife took Lowell and his brothers to a new home in Clarita, Oklahoma.
Lowell was attracted to music first by his grandfather’s fiddle playing and then by “borrowing” his uncle’s guitar at the age of twelve to teach himself tunes that he heard on the radio or on disc maybe. He certainly listened to Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Boy Fuller for inspiration. He was soon good enough to join a local String Band, led by Dan Wright, playing Western Swing tunes for White audiences. What Fulson really wanted to do, however, was play Blues music, and that opportunity came when he met harmonica player Texas Alexander and joined his touring band for a year. He moved on to Gainesville, Texas, for a while, before being drafted into the Navy in 1943. He was stationed in Oakland, California, before being posted to Guam in the Pacific during 1944. At the end of the war, he decided to stay in Oakland, where he saw several performances by T-Bone Walker, and was spotted by Bob Geddins, who signed him to his Big Town label in 1946. Geddins bought Fulson a new electric guitar and an amplifier, recording six singles during 1946 and 1947.
Six singles were issued on the Big Town label between 1946 and 1947, two credited to the Fulson Trio and four credited to Lowell Fulson. One Lowell single was issued on the Cava-Tone Recording label in 1948. Two more releases came on the Down Town label, credited to Lowell Fulson, one in 1948 and one the following year, after Fulson had left. The 1948 release was “3 O’Clock Blues”, which was Fulson’s first chart entry, reaching number six on the Race Records Chart.
The first Lowell Fulson track that Geddins leased to Swing Time was “The Blues Is Killing Me” in 1948. From 1950, eighteen more Fulson Swing Time singles followed, as he switched labels, when his Big Town contract expired.
The style of Blues that Lowell Fulson played for Bob Geddins’ labels is slow, with single-note electric guitar backing and a piano line that often veers between Blues and Jazz. “Miss Katy Lee Blues” from 1946 adds a bouncy piano Boogie beat to the mix. That trend is continued by 1947’s “Don’t Be So Evil”, a more up-tempo dance track that adds a note of joy to the sadness that Bob Geddins like to hear! “3 O’Clock Blues” from 1948 is a classic Blues that was much more to Geddins’ taste no doubt. Even better for guitar fans is “I Walked All Night” from 1949, Fulson’s last single for Geddins on the Down Town label, with the piano replaced by a second guitar played by Lowell’s brother Martin.
The smooth guitar tone and that Jazzy piano (often played by Eldridge McCarty) are the key elements that identify Fulson’s recordings as West Coast Blues and make them part of the early development of R&B. Two years later, Muddy Waters made his first recordings for Aristocrat in Chicago and took Blues music in another direction. Waters became a legend, thanks to Leonard Chess, while Fulson is not well-known at all. Nevertheless, Bob Geddins and Lowell Fulson played an important role in the development of West Coast popular music. He deserves to be much better known.
Jimmy Wilson was probably born in Louisiana around 1922. By 1948, he was in California, cutting several singles for Bob Geddins which were leased to Aladdin Records, before joining the Bob Geddins’ Cavaliers Gospel group in 1951 in Oakland. In 1952, Wilson cut some tracks for Aladdin, after which Geddins began to record him again as a solo singer in 1953. He recorded several singles for Big Town that year, including “A Woman Is To Blame” and “Tin Pan Alley”, with Que Martin on saxophone, Lafayette Thomas on drums and guitar, and King Soloman on piano. Both songs are slow Blues, typical of the work of Bob Geddins. “Tin Pan Alley” sold well, reaching number ten on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart.
Jimmy Wilson
His final release for Bob Geddins was “Blues In The Alley” on the Irma label, issued in 1957, before he went back to Louisiana.
Roy Hawkins came from Texas. Like many other musicians, he came to California in the nineteen-forties. Bob Geddins discovered him playing in the clubs in Oakland and recorded his first songs in 1948. Hawkins first single was “They Raided The Joint”/ “Ain’t No Fault Of Mine”, issued on the Cava-Tone label in 1948.
That was followed by three singles on the Down Town label in 1949, credited to Roy Hawkins & His Four Jacks. The Jacks in question were William Staples (saxophone), Madison Little (drums), Floyd Montgomery (bass) and Ulysses James (guitar). Hawkins sang and played piano on the recordings. That same year, Hawkins moved to Modern Records, staying for five years and enjoying two big hits. The first was “Why Do Things Happen To Me”, which reached number two on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart early in 1950. The song had been written by Bob Geddins, who had sold it to Jules Bihari at Modern! The second hit came in 1951 with “The Thrill Is Gone”, which reached number six on the same chart.
Roy Hawkins has a strong Blues voice and the arrangements of his recordings for Geddins all have a powerful piano and saxophone backing, with James’ guitar used to add subtle frills and fills. The A-sides are typical Geddins songs, but tucked away on the B-sides are some up-tempo Jump Blues instrumentals to make everyone dance and smile! Sadly, although Hawkins had a couple of big hits, he was never able to make a name for himself.
Jimmy McCracklin is another West Coast musician who deserves to be much better known. According to Tom Mazzolino (San Francisco Blues Festival): “He was probably the most important musician to come out of the Bay Area in the post-World War II years.” He was born in 1921 and was named James David Walker Jr. He was still writing songs, performing and recording over seventy years later, known by his professional name Jimmy McCracklin. He estimated that he had written nearly a thousand songs. He recorded over thirty albums, earning four gold discs. In 1990 he received a pioneer award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2007 he received the Living Legend and Hall of Fame award at the Bay Area Music Awards ceremony. He died in 2012.
Jimmy McCracklin at the 100 Club in London in 1981
Photo: Lionel decoster (Wikimedia Commons)
His first recordings were made at Globe Records in 1945. They are simple Blues with a piano backing (Jimmy Nichols), songs that he sang no doubt at the Club Savoy in Richmond, California, which his sister-in-law owned. It was in such clubs that Bob Geddins went looking for talented artists to bring to Big Town and his other labels. Geddins released two Jimmy McCracklin singles in 1949 on his Down Town Recordings label. Several McCracklin singles then appeared on the Modern label in 1950 and on the Swing Time label in 1951/2, before Geddins issued four more on the Irma label in 1956/7.
In 1957, he appeared on American Bandstand to sing his composition “The Walk”, which was issued by Checker in Chicago in 1958. It reached number five on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and then number seven on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart.
After another break, the final three McCracklin releases by Geddins appeared in 1961/2 on the Art-Tone label. The songs are all Blues-based, starting with some typical slow Blues at Down Town and moving to some up-tempo Jump Blues at Irma. The best of the collection is “That’s No Big Thing” in 1962, on the Art-Tone label, a mid-tempo ballad driven along by a piano and saxophone with a certain swing. This is West Coast R&B!
