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Honkers & Bar Walkers – Volume One
Delmark DD 438 [United Series]
Compact Disc (1992)

“the sound of the R&B tenor saxophone, moaning, shaking, quivering and groaning…dance music, made for Saturday nights”

New York Times –Peter Watrous

Featuring Jimmy Forrest, Teddy Brannon, Cozy Eggleston, Tab Smith, Jimmy Coe, Doc Sausage, Fred Jackson, Chris Woods, Fats Noel, Paul Bascomb


1 Fats Noel– You Belong To Me
2 Fats Noel– Duck Soup
3 Fats Noel– Wish You Were Here
4 Fats Noel– High Tide
5 Paul Bascomb– Pink Cadillac
6 Paul Bascomb– Blues And The Beat
7 Paul Bascomb– More Blues-More Beat
8 Jimmy Forrest– My Buddy
9 Jimmy Forrest– Flight 3-D


1 Fats Noel– You Belong To Me
2:56
Composed by Chilton Price, Pee Wee King & Redd Stewart

Orville "Fats" Noel: Tenor Sax

Other musicians unknown

Recorded in Beltone Studio, New York City, N.Y. August 26, 1952

Originally issued on the 1953 single (Herald 401)


2 Fats Noel– Duck Soup
Other [Remainder Unknown] – Unknown Artist
Tenor Saxophone – Fats Noel
2:16
written by Orville Noel
Herald 45, released in 1953

Orville "Fats" Noel & His Orchestra
Recorded in Beltone Studio, New York City, N.Y. August 26, 1952

3 Fats Noel– Wish You Were Here
Other [Remainder Unknown] – Unknown Artist
Tenor Saxophone – Fats Noel
2:56

Herald 45, Recorded in Beltone Studio, New York City, N.Y. August 26, 1952
written by Orville Noel

Orville "Fats" Noel & His Orchestra

4 Fats Noel– High Tide
Other [Remainder Unknown] – Unknown Artist
Tenor Saxophone – Fats Noel
2:26
Recorded in Beltone Studio, New York City, N.Y. August 26, 1952

5 Paul Bascomb– Pink Cadillac

Paul Bascomb & his All-Star Orchestra:

Recorded in Chicago, IL. Monday, March 3, 1952

Alto Saxophone – Frank Porter, Tommy Waters
Baritone Saxophone – Harold Wallace
Bass – James McCrary
Drums – George Dehart
Piano – Duke Jordan
Tenor Saxophone – Paul Bascomb, vocals
Trumpet – Eddie Lewis

also released on PAUL BASCOMB's Delmark LP and CD- BAD BASCOMB!

6 Paul Bascomb– Blues And The Beat

Paul Bascomb & his All-Star Orchestra:

Recorded in Chicago, IL. Monday, March 3, 1952

Alto Saxophone – Frank Porter, Tommy Waters
Baritone Saxophone – Harold Wallace
Bass – James McCrary
Drums – George Dehart
Piano – Duke Jordan
Tenor Saxophone – Paul Bascomb
Trumpet – Eddie Lewis

also released on PAUL BASCOMB's Delmark LP and CD- BAD BASCOMB!

7 Paul Bascomb– More Blues- More Beat

Paul Bascomb & his All-Star Orchestra:

Paul Bascomb- tenor saxophone
Alto Saxophone – Frank Porter, Tommy Waters
Baritone Saxophone – Harold Wallace
Bass – James McCrary
Drums – George Dehart
Piano – Duke Jordan
Trumpet – Eddie Lewis

Recorded in Chicago, IL. Monday, March 3, 1952

also released on PAUL BASCOMB's Delmark LP and CD- BAD BASCOMB!

8 Jimmy Forrest– My Buddy

Jimmy Forrest & All-Star Combo

Jimmy Forrest - tenor sax
Bunky Parker - piano
Jonny Mixon - bass
Oscar Oldham - drums

written by Gus Kahn & Walter Donaldson
United Records 1106, recorded Chicago, March 30, 1952

Album："Jimmy Forrest / Night Train"
Recorded：1951-1953
also on Delmark LP/CD - NIGHT TRAIN

9 Jimmy Forrest– Flight 3-D

Jimmy Forrest & All-Star Combo

Jimmy Forrest - tenor sax
Bart Dabney - trombone
Bunky Parker or Charles Fox - piano
Jonny Mixon - bass
Oscar Oldham - drums

written by Jimmy Forrest
United Records 1377, possibly St. Louis September 7, 1953

Album："Jimmy Forrest / Night Train"
Recorded：1951-1953
also on Delmark LP/CD - NIGHT TRAIN

Honkers & Bar Walkers, Vol. 1 Review by Scott Yanow

This CD serves as a strong introduction to the tenor sax- (and occasional alto-) oriented R&B music of the early 1950s. It includes a few major hits (most notably Jimmy Forrest's "Night Train" and Tab Smith's ballad feature "Because of You") and six previously unissued alternate takes. Also heard from are Teddy Brannon, Cozy Eggleston, the underrated Jimmy Coe, Doc Sausage (on 1950's "Sausage Rock"), Fred Jackson, Chris Woods, Fats Noel and Paul Bascomb. Overall, it gives listeners a fine sampling of the United and Regal catalogs. Fun and occasionally riotous music.

CD Liner notes, Bob Porter- from the late, great journalist and radio DJ, formerly of WBGO- Newark, NJ

One story is that jazz began in New Orleans and moved up the river before spreading throughout the United States (and later, the world). Another is that the music was evolving spontaneously throughout America and that the New Orleans style was merely the most prominent of many regional styles in early jazz.

Similarly the evolution of Rhythm & Blues developed various flavors through its regional influences. If we wish to consider Rhythm & Blues as a melding of both city and country blues styles we must still acknowledge the Southwestern influence of Texas and Kansas City style swing bands, the New Orleans piano style pioneered by Champion Jack Dupree and Professor Longhair with the smooth vocal stylings of Californians such as Charles Brown and Cecil Gant.

Yet when one talks about the tenor saxophone and its relationship with Rhythm and Blues, we start with Jean Battiste Illinois Jacquet. Jacquet was born near New Orleans, raised in Texas, and came to prominence in California (thus having absorbed influences from all key contributing territories.)

There is myth about Illinois Jacquet - that his FLYING HOME solo with Lionel Hampton (for Decca in 1942) showed the way for the future of R&B saxophone. The solo, which is without question a tenor masterpiece, owes much to Jacquet's idol, Hershal Evans, but is clearly in the swing tenor idiom.

Jacquet's own FLYING HOME solos for Aladdin (1945) shows the new style in more bold relief. Airchecks of Jacquet with Cab Calloway in 1943 demonstrate that his above-the-staff screaming was already part of his style but 1945 was really the year when the new tenor style came into vogue.

It can be argued with considerable historical precedent that Jacquet was the first to demonstrate the potential and that King Curtis was the last of the great tenor stylists of that era. By the time of Curtis' death in 1971, the "roll" had long since disappeared from Rock and Roll and the saxophone was no longer prominent in whatever was left of the Rhythm and Blues of the 40's and 50's.

In the wake of the tenor explosion came many players who worked in the style. They came from all over and the styles ranged from reed-biting squealers to honkers just slightly less creative than, say, Lester Young. Stagecraft played a very large part in the presentation. Whether the player was jamming his knee into the bell of the horn (in order to go for a quarter-tone lower), peeling off his jacket and shirt and ultimately lying on his back with feet in the air blowing his brains out, or walking the bar while playing, the showmanship was as important as the playing as far as the audience was concerned.

Guys like Big Jay McNeely, Hal "Cornbread" Singer, Sam "The Man" Taylor, "Big" Al Sears, Rusty Bryant, Willis "Gatortail" Jackson, Sil Austin, Lee Allen, and many others were the stars of the idiom. Other players such as those represented here achieved less fame but still contributed mightily to the musical legacy of the idiom. The style, while not prominent today, is still heard occasionally in the neighborhood bars of black inner city areas.

The record companies that documented this music were, in the vast majority of cases, the small independent labels of the era. Two such organizations are represented here. The UNITED/STATES combine presided over by Leonard Allen and his producer Lew Simpkins and the Linden, NJ REGAL label of Fred Mendelsohn.

Mendelsohn started first, recording by late 1948. It was a unique operation because all Regal masters were recorded on tape in an era when many major labels were still going strong direct to disc. Regal didn't last long, but they managed to record not only in their own area, but also in New Orleans and Atlanta, both hotbeds of R&B talent.

Simpkins arrived on the scene with short-lived Miracle and Premium and then produced for Leonard Allen from 1951 until his death a few years later when Allen took over. They were among the first black entrepreneurs in the business ad one of their biggest successes was the classic recording of NIGHT TRAIN by St. Louis tenor artist Jimmy Forrest who distilled this and countless other great tenor performances from his years with the big bands of Andy Kirk, Jay McShann, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.


Little is known of Fats Noel. Mendelsohn thinks he came from Connecticut and that he may have died within a few months of this session. The ballads on the date were an attempt to cash in on similar ventures by Gene Ammons, James Moody and others during this era. On his own DUCK SOUP and HIGH TIME, Noel demonstrates that he could drive with the best of them. This session, produced by Mendelsohn after Regal had expired was issued on the Herald label prior to its absorption by Al Silver.

Paul Bascomb was a charter member of the great Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, then spent some time with Count Basie before forming a series of excellent combinations, often with his brother Dud. This was a particularly excellent group, probably largely due to the presence of former Charlie Parker sideman Duke Jordan, later resident of Europe.

In all this is a mellow album with solid playing by all concerned which manages, at one time or another, to touch most of the stylistic tendencies of the R&B tenor of the time. In order to enjoy it, you needn't walk to the bar but it wouldn't hurt at all to pour yourself a beer while listening.

- Bob Porter, WBGO-FM, Newark

Thanks to Michael Cuscuna for background info on Chris Woods.