Biography

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Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson
Kidney Stew Is Fine
Delmark DD 631 (1993)


Eddie Vinson was a blues shouter extraordinaire in the style of Big Joe Turner and Wynonie Harris. Always an outstanding alto saxophonist, Vinson played jazz and blues with equal vigor. The improvisational skills learned from his years as a jazz musician combined with his traditional vocal style helped him achieve the status of an American original. The occasion here finds Vinson teamed up with veteran jazz-blues musicians Jay McShann, Hall Singer and T-Bone Walker.

1. Somebody Sure Has Got To Go 3:17
2. Old Kidney Stew Is Fine 3:00
3. Juice Head Baby 4:32
4. Wait A Minute Baby 3:12
5. I’m In An Awful Mood 3:16
6. Just A Dream 3:46
7. Things Ain’t What They Used To Be 4:46
8. Old Maid Boogie 3:45
9. Wee Baby Blues 3:17
10. Please Send Me Someone To Love 4:08

Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, vocal, alto saxophone
Hal Singer, tenor saxophone
T-Bone Walker, guitar
Jay McShann, piano
Roland Lobligeois, bass
Paul Gunther, drums

Recorded March 28, 1969

Delmark Records, 4121 N. Rockwell, Chicago, IL 60618 • www.delmark.com
CP 1993 Delmark Records


1. Somebody Sure Has Got To Go 3:17 (Bill Broonzy Songs Of Universal Inc., BMI)
2. Old Kidney Stew Is Fine 3:00 (Vinson/Blackman, Cherio Corp., BMI)
3. Juice Head Baby 4:32 (Vinson/Zito, Songs Of Universal Inc./Louis Zito Music Co. Inc., BMI)
4. Wait A Minute Baby 3:12 (Eddie Vinson)
5. I’m In An Awful Mood 3:16 (Walker/McDaniel, Songs Of Universal/Lord and Walker Publ., BMI)
6. Just A Dream 3:46 (Bill Broonzy, Universal MCA Music Publ., ASCAP)
7. Things Ain’t What They Used To Be 4:46 (Ellington/Persons, Duke Ellington Heritage LLC/Tempo Music Inc., ASCAP)
8. Old Maid Boogie 3:45 (Eddie Vinson, Hot Chocolate Music Co., BMI)
9. Wee Baby Blues 3:17 (Johnson/Turner, Universal MCA Music Publ., ASCAP)
10. Please Send Me Someone To Love 4:08 (Percy Mayfield, Sony/ATV Songs LLC, BMI)

Supervision: J.R. Monestier, Black and Blue records
Album Production: Robert G. Koester
CD Production: Steve Wagner
Photo: Greg Roberts
Design: Dave Forte
Recorded at Studio Pathe Marconi, Paris

Other Delmark Albums Of Interest:
T-Bone Walker, I Want A Little Girl (633)
Wynonie Harris, Everybody Boogie (683) with Illinois Jacquet
Illinois Jacquet, Jumpin’ At Apollo (538) with Sir Charles Thompson
Arnett Cobb, Arnett Blows For 1300 (471)
Coleman Hawkins, Rainbow Mist (459) with Dizzy Gillespie, Ben Webster…
Jimmy Forrest, Night Train (435)
Barkin’ Bill, Gotcha! (672)
Duke Henderson, Get Your Kicks (668) with Lucky Thompson, Jack McVea…
Honkers And Bar Walkers, Volume One (438) with Jimmy Forrest…
Honkers And Bar Walkers, Volume Two (452) with King Curtis…
Honkers And Bar Walkers, Volume Three (542) with Eddie Chamblee…


Delmark Records 4121 N. Rockwell, Chicago, IL 60618 www.delmark.com
CP 1993 Delmark Records

Eddie Vinson was one of three remarkable saxophonists who played side by side in the orchestra of Milton Larkin in Houston during the late 1930s. The others, Arnett Cobb and Illinois Jacquet, were tenor saxophonists (although Jacquet played alto exclusively during his tenure with Larkin). In fact, Cobb and Vinson had played together with Chester Boone prior to joining Larkin, when both were teenagers in Houston.
When it came time to leave the nest, Jacquet, the youngest, went first. His move to Los Angeles found him in the right place at the right time. The formation of the first Lionel Hampton big band and the switch to tenor were accompanied by a leap to stardom in a very short period of time. When Jacquet left to join Cab Calloway, he recommended Cobb as his replacement. Stardom followed quickly for Cobb as well. Vinson took a different route, more circuitous, yet he also became a star.
It was a short tour with Big Bill Broonzy that left a lasting imprint on the alto saxophonist. Vinson had sung with the Larkin band (Jacquet recalls that Vinson also sang ballads with the band and that he was a big fan of Jack Leonard, the vocalist of the Tommy Dorsey band) but he has always credited Broonzy for showing him tricks of the trade that permitted him to rise above the competition of other blues singers.
The dual abilities of saxophonist and vocalist were showcased by Cootie Williams in the Williams orchestra from 1942-1945. Vinson’s vocals on the band’s recordings of “Somebody’s Got To Go”, “Things Ain’t What They used To Be”and “Juice Head Baby” were important for Williams, but also for Vinson when he left Williams to form his own big band in late 1945. The most important vocal for Vinson was his treatment of a Joe Turner classic, “Cherry Red”. When he featured the tune during his frequent visits to the Apollo Theater, the lighting man would flash a big red spotlight on Vinson’s face at the time of the punch line.
It was during his Cootie Williams association that Vinson, the saxophonist, became fascinateds with the emerging music of bebop. Williams was known to be a most social bandleader who was content to play his features and leave much of the instrumental direction to the members of the band. Vinson and young Bud Powell, the band’s pianist, were responsible for the forward sound of many of the band’s instrumentals.
Vinson’s own recordings began for Mercury in 1945, and he was heavily recorded during the next two years with more than thirty sides to his credit. Among the recordings was “Old Maid Boogie” a number one Race hit in 1947 and a tune that was on the popularity chart for an outstanding twenty-three weeks! With that success working for him and the impending strike of the AFM musicians set to start January 1, 1948, there was a lot of recording activity during 1947. By that time, Vinson had trimmed down to a more manageable sextet which included Clark Terry and a fine, little-known tenor man named Red Carmen. The Mercury recordings of Eddie Vinson are superb models of mid-40s blues (and jazz) just prior to the rhythm and blues era. It is truly sad to note that the owner of those recordings, to date, has never seen fit to reissue them not on CD, not even on LP!
Cleanhead’s King period (1949-52) produced more good music, and while much of that association has been reissued, it has been done in a rather shoddy fashion. “Wineola” and “Person To Person” are among the best remembered efforts of that time. “Somebody Done Stole My Cherry Red” was the only hit and that was a minor one.
A largely undocumented period in Vinson’s career is an eighteen month stay in Philadelphia during 1952 and 53 when he worked with a small band that included John Coltrane. The book contained at least one number where Vinson and Coltrane, who began his career as an alto player, would exchange horns. It was a period of great frustration for Vinson who couldn’t get his group recorded. He was in a strange position of having an instrumental conception that was too modern and a vocal style that was viewed as too old hat! Vinson did a lot of writing during this time and two of the tunes he wrote were recorded (and copywritten) by Miles Davis; they were “Tune Up” and “Four”.
Cleanhead was back and forth between Houston and Los Angeles for the rest of the decade. Some singles were tried, without success, for Mercury and a 1957 album was cut for Bethlehem. The latter was cut with several of Count Basie’s sidemen and has stood the test of time nicely. The 50s were notable for the occasional reunion with Cobb or Williams, but the slows had truly set in by late 1961.
It was then that Vinson made another album, this time for Riverside, under the aegis of Cannonball Adderley. Adderley was one of several modern jazz stars who had been deeply influenced by Vinson’s work, especially his blues playing. The album was a musical success and served to reintroduce Vinson to the modern jazz market. His next recording was back into the blues bag with an album for ABC-Bluesway. The album at hand was his next project.
The occasion here is the only time that Vinson, McShann and T-Bone Walker appear together on record. Would that it could have happened more frequently! Another southwesterner, Oklahoma-born Hal Singer is on tenor , but he is given relatively little to do. Vinson did not like what he called “a lot of music” behind his vocals. That this album was recorded in France by the Black & Blue label serves as a reminder of the superb blues and mainstream jazz which that label has given the world for more than twenty-five years. Delmark’s Bob Koester picked up the US rights from Black & Blue.
The repertoire is a solidly representative look at what Cleanhead would perform nightly for many years. Several of the tunes were originally cut for Mercury while others harken back to associations with Cootie Williams and Big Bill Broonzy.
Cleanhead made many more European trips after the maiden voyage which produced this album. His popularity there served as a springboard to a revitalized career in the US and he spent his last twenty years as an active, touring performer. The audience soon discovered that his saxophone playing wasn’t too out nor was his blues style too old fashioned. When he passed in 1988 at age 70, he had achieved the deserved status of an American original.

Bob Porter
Portraits In Blue
WBGO, Newark