From:  "Dik de Heer"  
Date:  Sun Apr 11, 2004  2:45 am
Subject:  This Is My Story : Chris Powell
 
CHRIS POWELL (By Dave Penny)

One of the earliest of the many Philadelphia-based R&B acts signed to US
Columbia in the late 1940s/early 1950s, and a great influence on the young Bill
Haley, Chris Powell's Five Blue Flames was a local jive band that consisted of
leader Powell on drums/percussion (on recordings, however, Powell's musical
skills were obviously felt to be too weak, resulting in the role often being
taken over by a succession of session drummers), Harold "Duke" Wells on piano,
Eddie Lambert on guitar, saxophonists Danny Turner and Leonard "Red" Spencer,
and bass-player James Johnson. By the summer of 1950, Vance Wilson had replaced
Spencer, and remained with the group until it disbanded at the end of the
decade.

Another loyal star of this superb jump band was guitarist Eddie Lambert who
added another dimension to cover versions such as Rock The Joint and I'm Still
In Love With You - his already strong playing was sometimes bolstered on
recording sessions by guest guitarists such as "Snags" Allen and Bill Jennings.
The band switched from Columbia to the OKeh subsidiary, and bop trumpeter
Clifford "Brownie" Brown joined the Blue Flames in late 1951, following his
convalescence from a serious auto wreck in June 1950. He added a welcome touch
of brass to the ensemble, but he spent just sixteen months with the Blue Flames,
and after making a stunning recording debut with Powell's group, left to pursue
a brief but dazzling career in serious jazz before his untimely death in a
further car accident in June 1956, aged only 25.

Originally a group firmly in the grand tradition of the 1930s and 1940s jive
vocal/instrumental groups, the vocals were often ensemble affairs with a brief
lead break taken usually, by leader Powell, but occasionally by another band
member - such as pianist Duke Wells - who exercised his chops on Down In The
Bottom.

The record labels of My Love Has Gone and Blue Boy, from the final session for
Columbia/OKeh, identified the singer as "Johnnie Echo", but it has been
suggested that this name hid the identity of Joe Van Loan, lead tenor with The
Ravens vocal group (although saxophonist Vance Wilson disputed this and claimed
that Echo was really a guy named Johnny Leak!). The final OKeh session also
included the first recorded work of Clifford Brown whose Dizzy
Gillespie-inspired trumpet playing added weight and sophistication to such
novelties as Ida Red and I Come From Jamaica.

The Blue Flames were dropped by OKeh following this 1952 session and the group
spent the next couple of years on Philly's local Grand Records before being
offered a year's contract in early 1955 with RCA's Groove subsidiary. The
group's final recordings were made for Groove in February 1956, by which time
the Blue Flames were but a shadow of their former selves, struggling
unsuccessfully against the tidal wave of rock 'n' roll and reduced to churning
out show tunes and old swing standards.

Music historian Ron Meyers is considered the foremost authority on Chris Powell
& The Blue Flames, and when I asked him how he had "discovered" this relatively
obscure jump combo, this was his answer:

In the early fifties I used to travel to Philadelphia, PA very often on weekends
to see a friend, Mutt Spivack, who was well versed in what was then known as
"rhythm & blues". I was into Monk, Bud Powell and Bird at the time and aside
from a few in person shows with the likes of The Treniers, Sam 'The Man' Taylor
and a whole gang of Alan Freed's Shows at the Brooklyn Paramount, was never
really exposed to Rhythm & Blues. In those days, it seems to me, the jazz club's
audiences were primarily white and the musicians primarily black. But when Mutt
asked me on one of my visits to Philly if I would like to see "Chris Powell &
The Five Blue Flames", it was at an all black club. Mutt & I and our two white
faces stood out like a sore thumb but nobody paid much attention to us. The
people were there to dance more than to listen. The couples danced real close to
each other, even on the up tempo tunes. When the group played "A Man & His Horn"
I stood there with my mouth open. It was that great. Two days later I had the 78
rpm record on my turntable and played it so many times that the grooves
disappeared.

Recommended listening:

The Chronological Chris Powell 1949-1952 - Classics 5065 (complete Columbia/OKeh
recordings)

The Groove Story - Westside WESA 831 (contains one 1955 Groove recording "Break
It Up")