The Okeh Blues Story

There has been much publicity in the last couple of years concerning the Paramount record label. This has mainly been down to the absolutely superb releases via Third Man and Revenant Records, 'The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records Volumes 1 & 2'. Personally I can't praise these packages highly enough and the musical content has been a revelation.

Having said that, there is something of an irony in the fact that fans of old time jazz, blues and vaudeville music are getting excited over these releases whilst other notable labels from that era (the 1920's and 1930's) are hardly getting a mention. It's ironic because it is a pretty well known fact that Paramount paid scant regard to the quality of their product, paying their roster of artists less than their rivals and even using substandard materials in the manufacture of their discs.

Consequently the work of artists who featured on labels such as Brunswick, Vocalion, Victor and Okeh among others are often consigned to the bargain bins. Great news for those who care to do their research and purchase these collections, but sadly it means they do not gain the publicity of the more expensive sets. In my view that's a great shame as those labels feature some truly great blues artists.

And that is why I grabbed 'The Okeh Blues Story' a double album containing 50 tracks all for the princely sum of five English pounds (yes, £5). A quick glance through the list of artists featured on this collection will show that there are some pretty well known names represented here. But there are quite a few names that were new to me and will possibly be new to you. For example I was unfamiliar with Little Hat (George) Jones, Peter Chatman (it turns out that he was later better known as Memphis Slim), Snitcher Roberts, Peter Cleighton (it transpires that he later became known as Doctor Clayton) or the wonderfully named Sloppy Henry (the recording name of Waymon Henry).

Okeh was founded in 1918 in New York by Otto K E Heinemann and was named after his first two initials. Besides releasing popular music of that time, Okeh also released music in German, Czech, Polish, Swedish and Yiddish. This appealed to the large number of immigrants residing in the US. In 1920 however, the label found themselves with an unexpected smash hit on their hands following the release of 'Crazy Blues' by Mamie Smith. From then on, the label went from strength to strength with a fine roster of so called 'race recordings' aimed primarily at the African-American market. In 1926, the company was taken over by Columbia but the Okeh name was used until the 1960's. Then in 1994 Sony resurrected the label as a vehicle for blues artists and one of the first signings was Keb' Mo. The label folded again in 2000 but a couple of years ago was again resurrected, this time as a jazz label.

'The Okeh Blues Story' is a fine addition to anyone's blues collection and has to be regarded as a real bargain at such a low price. If I have one small quibble, it's the fact that there is scarcely any information about the artists or the songs included in the set. Notes written by Michael Heatley, are restricted to two columns on the inside cover of the digipak  and whilst they are interesting, there could have been so much more. Nevertheless at such a low price I would not let that put you off buying this package. If you really want the information, you could do what I did. Seek it out on the internet!