From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Dec 24, 2002  6:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Dave Bartholomew

DAVE BARTHOLOMEW (By Phil Davies)

Born 24 December 1920, Edgard, Louisiana

Bandleader / producer / singer / trumpet player.
Dave Bartholomew is the multi-talented figure behind a majority of classic
New Orleans R&B of the '50s and the self-proclaimed inventor of the "Big
Beat." Bartholomew has over 4000 songs in his enormous catalog and is
responsible for arranging and producing timeless records by Shirley & Lee,
Lloyd Price, Smiley Lewis and especially Fats Domino.
His first instruments were tuba and trumpet. His father Louis Bartholomew
was a noted tuba player. Dave was tutored on trumpet by Pete Davis who
taught one Louis Armstrong. He fronted several bands in the Crescent City
before being drafted into the army. His military time brought scoring and
arranging experience which came in handy following World War II. After
his stint in the service, Bartholomew returned to New Orleans and put
together a group of musicians that would comprise the bedrock of R&B
in the city, including saxophonists Alvin "Red" Tyler and Lee Allen, bass
player Frank Fields, guitarist Ernest McLean and drummer Earl Palmer.
This became the band that backed up the majority of solo talent traveling
through New Orleans. Most of the work was done at the great Cosimo
Matassa's J & M Recording Service.
Bartholomew led his first studio session under his own name in 1947 for
DeLuxe, but the label went out of business shortly thereafter and the
sessions went unnoticed. In 1949 whilst in Texas, Bartholomew met Lew Chudd
who was forming a new label, Imperial Records. Chudd hired Bartholomew as
house arranger, bandleader, and talent scout, and he immediately started
cranking out numerous hits through the '50s for Fats Domino, Shirley & Lee
(Aladdin), Smiley Lewis, Earl King, Chris Kenner, Tommy Ridgley and a
zillion of other worthies, all benefitting from the DB magic touch.
Jewel King's 3 X 7 =21 , Fats' Fat Man, Archibald's Stack-O-Lee and
Ridgley's Shrewsbury Blues, quickly confirmed Chudd's luck in finding Dave.
When the two briefly fell out, Dave produced Lloyd Price's seminal Lawdy
Miss Clawdy for Specialty, Lew bit the bullet and quickly got Dave back on
board. Dave recorded some great solo stuff for King and Imperial. Chuck's
infamous 72 chart topper Ding A Ling started out as a solo King Bartholomew
cut, he recut it for Imperial as Little Girl Sing Ding A Ling and Toy Bell!
More importantly he worked with Joe Turner, Roy Brown, The Spiders and
T -Bone Walker. His place in history is ensured by his many timeless
collaborations with Fats, the most successful r&b act of the 50s.

Bartholomew stayed with Imperial until the hits dried up in the mid-'60s,
followed by short stays at Trumpet, Mercury, and his own Broadmoor label.
In the '70s and '80s, he took various behind-the-scenes musical jobs while
living off his many song royalties and formed a Dixieland jazz band that
continues to play around the Crescent City. The '90s found Bartholomew
being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 and releasing
two discs: Dave Bartholomew and the Maryland Jazz Band in 1995 and
New Orleans Big Beat three years later.
Surely someone should give this man's work the definitive cross label box
set treatment and also get him to pen his life story (Almost Slim, where are
you??).
He memorably said "Before Fats came along, music was very segregated ----
when we started making what's now called R&B, it made people dance, all
people, all colours, it brought them together --- it still does."

Perhaps Santa is really from Nawlins after all?

Highly Recommended listening -
Everything he did!
especially Fats Domino - Out Of Orleans BF box set
any Imperial Fats anthology (the Ace ones esp),
Smiley Lewis Shame Shame Shame BF Box
The Spiders Imperial Sessions 2cd BF

For an introduction try:
Spirit Of New Orleans - The Genius Of Dave Bartholomew -US EMI 50 track
2cd set, now reissued as single cd compilation, but get this fuller earlier
version.
In The Alley - D Bartholomew - Charly
DeLuxe/King 49-52
Classic Chronological D B 47-50 - Classics
the old Pathe-Marconi lps and a host of others.

Web -zines:
Jammup and Doowop nation at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/jammuppTP.html
check out Jammupp #1,22, 25 and D Nation 10