Air Week: April 22-28, 2024 The R&B of RCA It is a popular belief that the seeds of Rhythm & Blues, Rock n’ Roll and even Jazz were planted by the small independent labels and that the major labels exhaustively played catch-up as the music grew in popularity. That is simply not true. The major labels were there from the beginning, often breaking important artists, many with mainstream leanings, while the indie labels promoted the more “grittier” aspects of the music, which we view today as the more “authentic” sound of R&B, Rock n’ Roll and Jazz. And so, like Columbia and Decca, R ..read more

Air Week: April 15-21, 2024 Groove Records In late 1953, RCA Victor launched a new subsidiary to focus on the Rhythm & Blues market, called Groove Records.  They intended for Groove to compete with the independent labels like Chess, Atlantic and Vee-Jay that were dominating the genre.  RCA treated Groove as an indie by setting up its own record distribution network, like an indie, ignoring the mighty distribution arm of RCA Victor.  That might have been the label’s downfall.  Groove ended up scoring only one major hit in its 3 year stint, but along the way, Groove issu ..read more

Air Week: April 8-14, 2024 Lil Greenwood This week, the “Juke In The Back” pays tribute to a very dynamic, soulful and often passed over R&B female vocalist: Lil Greenwood. Today, Lil Greenwood is best remembered as a vocalist for Duke Ellington during the late ’50s and early ’60s, but it’s her R&B recordings from 1950-1954 that are the real standouts. She recorded for the Modern, Specialty and Federal labels and often had vocal groups like The Four Jacks and The Lamplighters backing her up. Hear Lil’s story and some of her greatest records on the “Juke In The Back” with Matt The Cat ..read more

Air Week: April 1-7, 2024 Percy Mayfield: 1949-60 Some songwriters and singers just know how to tap into deepest regions of sadness, passion and truth. Such is the musical prowess of Percy Mayfield, the “Poet Laureate Of The Blues.” Mayfield was born in rural Louisiana in 1920 and found he had a knack for writing poetry early on in life. By high school, he was putting his poems to music and finding local encouragement. By the early 1940s, he was settled in Los Angeles doing odd jobs, trying to make it as a songwriter and a singer. In ’49, he took his song, “Two Years Of Torture” to Supreme Re ..read more

Air Week: March 25-31, 2024 Guitar Slim Eddie Jones grew up in Hollandale, MS, pickin’ cotton and dreaming of a better life when ambition and musical talent plucked him from his situation, christened him Guitar Slim and made him a star. After moving to New Orleans and befriending Huey “Piano” Smith, the two became a sensation at the hep Tiajuana Club, landing them a deal with Imperial Records. The two singles released by the label failed to chart and they were dropped, but then serendipitously found themselves in Nashville cutting a record for Jim Bulleit’s J-B Records. “Feelin’ Sad” b/w “Cer ..read more

Air Week: March 18-24, 2024 The Cleftones This week, Matt The Cat looks at one of the greatest Doo Wop groups, The Cleftones, through an archival interview with the late Herbie Cox. Cox was a founding member of this unique sounding vocal group from Queens, NY. Started in 1955, The Cleftones enjoyed two national top 10 R&B records with “Little Girl Of Mine” in 1956 and “Heart & Soul” in 1961 and were one of the few vocal groups to score hits in two decades. Matt The Cat was fortunate enough to have interviewed Herb Cox and this week he shares that wonderful interview, packed with Herbi ..read more

Air Week: March 11-17, 2024 Slim Gaillard This week, we honor the “Prince Of Vout,” Mr. McVouty himself, Slim Gaillard. He was a one-of-a-kind-o-reenee as he spoke 7 languages including his own language of Vout, played guitar, piano, drums and several other instruments, wrote off-beat tunes that were always drenched in rhythm and jive and appeared on TV and in several motion pictures. Slim Gaillard’s beginnings are shrouded in mystery, but we know he burst on the scene with Slam Stewart in 1938 with the classic “Flat Feet Floogee,” which was an international hit. In the ’40s, he worked with b ..read more

Air Week: March 4-10, 2024 Duke & Peacock Records This week, the entire “Juke In The Back” is loaded with records from the catalog of Duke/Peacock Records.  Don Robey started Peacock in 1949 in order to record Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, whom he also managed.  In 1953, Robey took over Duke Records (which was owned by David J. Mattis and Bill Fitzgerald) and a R&B empire was born.  Matt The Cat shares the history and music, which features some of the greatest R&B talents of all-time, including: Bobby “Blue” Bland, Johnny Ace, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Big Mama Thor ..read more

Air Week: February 26-March 3, 2024 Lucky Millinder The “Juke In The Back” is loaded this week with records by one of R&B’s greatest and most underrated bandleaders, Lucky Millinder.  He worked with vocalists as varied as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Wynonie Harris, Annisteen Allen, Bull Moose Jackson and Big John Greer, but Lucky Millinder is mostly forgotten by today’s audiences.  Dizzy Gillespie actually played trumpet in Millinder’s Band in the early 1940s for a brief time.  Even though Lucky Millinder is not remembered well today, his records certainly helped lay the foundat ..read more

Air Week: February 19-25, 2024 The Ray-O-Vacs It’s staggering, the number of R&B groups that have been left out of the history books and off radio station playlists just because they don’t fit into an accepted category of “cool.” The Ray-O-Vacs is one of those groups. Though they made the R&B charts 3 times, that didn’t guarantee them inclusion. They were more “middle-of-the-road” than the gospel-tinged groups that were gaining popularity in the early 1950s and they weren’t a vocal group, so they can’t be classified with the emerging doo wop scene of the day. That’s probably why the R ..read more