"Tennessee Memories" Blue Steele and His Orchestra (Victor, 1929) Memphis

Blue Steele, tb, dir: ? Clyde Davis, and another, t / ? Jesse James, tb / 2 cl, as, ss / ts, ss, cl / ? Brick English and another, vn / p / g / bb / Moe Goodman, d / George Marks, v Memphis (Ellis) Auditorium, 255 N Main St Memphis, TN 18 Sep. 1929 BVE-55539-3 “Tennessee Memories” (Blue Steele–Brick English) v. GM Vic V-40161 Transferred with 3.5ET lateral stylus in a VMN70SP cartridge via an Audiotechnica AT-LP120 Turntable. Declicked and EQ’d by Colin Hancock. Discographical Info and Research from Brian Rust’s Jazz Records, Brian Rust’s Jazz Records, Newspapers.com, The Billboard, Variety Magazine, DAHR, HistoricMemphis.com, Connor Montgomery’s “Old Time Blues” Blog, Radio Dismuke, and Colin Hancock. Recordings and Images from the Colin Hancock Collection. From Connor Montgomery’s “Old Time Blues” Blog: The man known as Blue Steele was born Eugene Staples on March 11, 1893 or 1897 in Arkansas.  According to legend, his nickname came from a metal plate he had in his head after being wounded in the Great War.  Perhaps caused by that injury, he was also known for his short temper and erratic behavior.  He started out playing trombone and mellophone in Watson’s Bell Hops, before starting his own band in 1925.  Although Steele filled his band with great musicians, because of his unstable personality and often poor treatment of his employees—he was known to have a habit of throwing punches right into the bells of his band members’ brass instruments—they tended not to stay with him for long, and we can thank Steele for bringing us a number of great talents by scaring them out of his band.  Quite a number of his musicians, including reed man and vocalist Kenny Sargent and guitarist, banjoist, and arranger Gene Gifford moved on to the Casa Loma Orchestra, a band known for their strict code of conduct, which may have been a welcome change from their prior engagement.  Nevertheless, Steele continued to lead successful bands well into the 1950s, despite becoming increasingly unstable as years passed; as legend has it, he murdered a tax agent in Atlanta [due to an altercation likely caused by an attack of Steele’s medical condition]. Blue Steele died July 7, 1971.