Biography

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Curtis Jones
Lonesome Bedroom Blues
Delmark DD-605

1. Lonesome Bedroom Blues
2. Evil Curse Blues
3. Highway 51
4. Stackolee (Traditional)
5. Curtis Jones’ Boogie Woogie
6. Tin Pan Alley
7. Gut Bucket Blues
8. Rolling The Blues
9. Black Magic Blues
10. Love Fake Blues
11. Tour Blues
*12. Tour Blues (alternate)
*13. Lonesome Bedroom Blues (alternate)

*did not appear on the LP version of Lonesome Bedroom Blues

Curtis Jones, vocals, piano

2,7,9,10 recorded January 27, 1962. Remainder recorded January 12, 1962.

Big Bill Broonzy said of Texas bluesman Curtis Jones; "he had a way of playing piano I haven't never heard nobody play...or even try to...nobody could learn his style." Every chord, every note in his economical style lends full support to his unusual vocal style. Shortly after recording this album Curtis moved to and remained in Europe for the rest of his life, spending most of his time in Paris, playing concerts and clubs in most major cities from Scandinavia to Iberia and across the straits in North Africa. For nearly ten years he found the appreciation and a modest income denied him in the United States. Curtis passed away in 1971. Complete notes by Bob Koester enclosed.



Lonesome Bedroom Blues is an obvious title-choice for an album of blues by pianist Curtis Jones: it is the name of the 1937 Vocalion hit that remained in the catalog for more than a dozen years.
Curtis Jones was born in 1906 in Naples, Cass County, Texas, near the Louisiana border, and was raised on a farm. His parents, Willie Jones and Agnes Logan, lived in the area since their births. Curtis' mother died when he was six and Curtis had to work in the fields a few years later. It was at this time that he took up music. "I started to scratch the guitar after my work was done."
When Curtis was eleven he fled the farm and moved to Dallas eventually adapting his guitar style to organ and piano. He played his first professional job in 1924 as a singer, with Papa Chitlins as his piano accompanist. Curtis recorded with Chitlins "about 1925," but doesn't recall the label.
In 1929 Curtis left Dallas and worked his way to Chicago (by way of Wichita and Kansas City), arriving in 1937, the year Curtis and his wife, Lula Stigers, parted company and Curtis expressed his loneliness in "Lonesome Bedroom Blues". Luck and success ended with the cutback of minority-market recording during the war because of shellac rationing. A hassle with Lester Melrose, dean of Chicago blues recording at the time, may have also been a factor.
Ten years later disc-jockey Al Benson recorded Curtis on his Parrot label. Parrot was ill-acquainted with the type of blues played and sung by artists of Curtis' generation, and the session was a rush-job. The earlier Vocalion, OKeh and Bluebird sides were much better and featured more sympathetic accompanists such as guitarists Hopson Johnson (now a minister on the city's South Side) and Willie Bee, harmonica player Jazz Gillum, bassist Ransom Knowling, and drummer Freddy Flynn. "Melrose," said Curtis, "really knew how to make good blues records."
In summer, 1958, I visited Curtis in company with two California blues enthusiasts, Don Hill and Dave Mangurian. He was living in a shabby hotel on South Michigan near 40th Street. Curtis' formally asked us to "please accept my acquaintance." Soon informality set in. He told us frankly of his triumphs and his troubles. He had received letters of encouragement from blues buffs in Europe, but was forgotten at home. Visits from blues fans who had traveled hundreds, even thousands, of miles to meet the man who made "Lonesome Bedroom Blues" and support given by drummer Lawrence Hall and saxist Jimmy Russell, with whom he worked occasional gigs, helped to pull him through the dark days before the dawn of the blues revival.
In 1960 Curtis made his first LP for Prestige with New York studio musicians. Curtis' vocals were adequately captured but his piano playing was buried under the accompaniment. He also toured Europe with the Chris Barber traditional jazz groups.
During the summer of 1961 Curtis was a regular at Tuesday-night blues sessions at the Blind Pig on North Avenue. A small concert at the University of Illinois, a few weeks of work at Hooley's in Old Town, and appearances at Birdhouse followed. His European move was finalized by Champion Jack Dupree and Curtis emplaned for Zurich January 30, 1962, after a final American appearance at the Gate of Horn.
--Bob Koester (1962)

Curtis Jones remained in Europe for the rest of his life, spending most of his time in Paris, playing concerts and clubs in most major cities from Scandinavia to Iberia and across the straits in North Africa. He died in a Munich hospital in December of 1971. --Bob Koester (1975)

1,3,6 by Curtis Jones, Universal Duchess Music Corp./Wabash Music, BMI

Album Production and Supervision/ Robert G. Koester
Recording/Bill Hall and Stu Black, Hall Recording Studios
Photography/George Adins
Design/Kate Hoddinott