Harlem Hamfats

The Harlem Hamfats was a jazz group in Chicago in the late thirties, who played dance music. Her music was a mixture of blues , Dixieland and swing, the group was initially a studio band that accompanied artists on recordings, but after the men scored a hit with Oh! Red went focus exclusively on the production of records and had thereby luck.

The group was formed by record producer and businessman J. Mayo Williams and consisted of brothers "Kansas" Joe McCoy (guitar and vocals) and "Papa" Charlie McCoy (guitar and mandolin, both fromMississippi ), Herb Morand (trumpet and vocals, from New Orleans ), John Lindsay (bass, New Orleans), clarinetist Odell Rand (New Orleans) and three musicians from Chicago pianist Horace Malcolm anddrummers Freddie Flynn and Pearlis Williams . Led by Morand and Joe McCoy, the main songwriters, the band accompanied artists from the stable of Mayo Williams, like Frankie Jaxon , Johnny Temple and Rosetta Howard .

In 1936 the group had a hit with "Oh! Red" and got the Harlem Hamfats a recording contract with Decca . This was followed by other successes, such as "'Let's Get Drunk And Truck", "When The Sun Goes Down In Harlem," "That Lonesome Road Took My Baby" and "We Gonna Pitch A Boogie Woogie". Several songs were ' dirty blues 'Songs, and had in their text references to sex, drugs or alcohol, such as "Weed Smoker's Dreams". This song was sung about drugs. Joe McCoy later changed the text and improved composition, entitled "Why Do not You Do Right" became a hit in 1941 for Lil Green . Even Peggy Lee with the orchestra of Benny Goodman made ​​a recording of it. "Why Do not You Do Right" has become a jazz standard. "Oh! Red" was retreaded by include Count Basie, the Inkspots , Blind Willie McTell , some western swing -Bands and Howlin 'Wolf .

The on riffs based style of the Harlem Hamfats paved the way for the sound of the small group of Louis Jordan and was one of the pioneers of rhythm & blues and rock & roll .

[Discography edit ]

 * Hamfats Harlem, Vol. 1 Document Records 1994
 * Hamfats Harlem, Vol. 2. Document Records 1994
 * Hamfats Harlem, Vol. 3 Document Records 1994
 * Hamfats Harlem, Vol. 4 Document Records 1994
 * Hamfat Swing 1936-1938, EPM Musique 1997
 * Let's Get Drunk And Truck, Fabulous Records 2004