Search the Community

Schoolboy Porter discography and career John “Schoolboy” Porter – Porter (ts), Jesse Hart (p), Walter Broyle (b), Carl Scott (d). Chicago. Prob Sep 1950. Schoolboy’s boogie – Chance 1101 I’ll never smile again – Chance 1101 Kayron – Chance 1105 Deep purple – Chance 1105 Tennessee waltz pt 1 – Chance 1103 Tennessee waltz pt 2 – Chance 1103 ………… Porter (ts, bars), Jesse Hart (p), Walter Broyle (b), Carl Scott (d). Chicago. 15 Nov 1950 High tide – Chance unissued Nevertheless – Chance 1104 Walk heavy (aka Wig deal) (Porter bars) – Chance 1104 ………… Porter (ts), Art Hoyle (tp), Peterson (bars), Eugene McDuffy (Jack McDuff) (p), Floyd Dungy (b), Vaciro (d). Chicago. 25 Jul 1951. Soft shoulders (aka School’s blues) – Chance 1114 Rollin’ along (aka Tojo’s boogie) – Chance 1114 Top hat (aka Question mark) – Chance 1111 Stairway to the stars – Chance 1111 Sentimental journey – Chance 1117 Fire dome (aka Land of the misch) – Chance 1117 As Clyde Wright & the Chanceteers I may be down – Chance 1112 ………… Same band (but McDuffie now on organ). Chicago. 1 May 1952. Small squall – Chance 1132 Lonely wail – Chance 1132 Break thru – Chance 1119 Junco partner – Chance 1119 Brother John Sellers (voc) added. Record issued as by Johnny Sellers. Josie Jones – Chance 1120 Rock me in the cradle – Chance 1120 …………. Roosevelt Sykes. Sykes (p,cel*), Schoolboy Porter (g), Ransome Knowling (b), Jump Jackson (d), Remo Biondi (vln). Chicago. 21 Aug 1952. Walkin’ this boogie – United 129 Four o’clock blues (tk 12) – United 139 Four o’clock blues (tk 4) – Delmark DE642 Too hot to hold – United 139 Something like that – P-Vine Special (J) PLP-9039 Toy piano blues * – P-Vine Special (J) PLP-9039 Security blues – United 129 Listen to my song (aka She’s the one for me) (tk2) – Delmark DE642 Listen to my song (aka She’s the one for me) (tk 17) – Delmark DE642 ……….. Porter was from Gary, Indiana. He was 24 when he made his first recording session in 1950. He’d served in the Navy for 2.5 years during WWII. In the summer of 1947, he joined Cootie Williams’ band but didn’t make any recordings. In 1948, he enrolled in Midwestern College of Music, where he stayed for a year. Porter’s first session was with a non-union band. When the local union realised this (after the second session) Chance Records was banned from making records. During the gap, Porter joined Lionel Hampton’s band for a while, before making his final sessions for Chance and United. He stopped being a professional musician in 1952 and joined the US Air Force. He was a member of the 750th Air Force Band, then the 541st. After retiring from the USAF, sometime in the late seventies, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he took up being a musician again and was still performing occasionally in 1991. All that very interesting info comes from Clemson University’s The Red Saunders Foundation’s pages on Chance Records, and on United Records. You can look at it here: http://campber.people.clemson.edu/chance.html None of his sax work has been reissued on CD (or even LP) except for “Rollin’ along”, which appeared on the Pontiac compilation “Rare R&B honkers vol 1”, the first of a 3 CD set. Despite Pontiac’s release, Porter wasn’t truly a honker. Clemson accounts for this by the shortness of his stays with the two main bands from which the honkers graduated: those of Cootie Williams and Lionel Hampton. Having heard only three of his sides, which doesn’t make me much of a Porter expert, I’d say he was a strongly forthright player who fitted well into both leaders’ personal and musical predilections. I suspect that, had he stayed with either for a longer period, he would have become a very well respected honker. But honkers were, in a way, two a penny in the period during which Porter was working. His real importance, as far as I can see, is that he was a pioneer of the tenor-organ style. Go back up to that little discography; Jack McDuff was recording with him on organ in May 1952. Few jazz organists had recorded at that time (Wild Bill Davis, Jackie Davis, Milt Buckner, Bill Doggett). And that was also the year in which Jaws made his first tenor-organ session, for Roost, with Bill Doggett. We don’t know the month of the Jaws session; it could be that Porter was ahead of Jaws. But it’s probable that neither knew what the other was doing. Clemson says nothing about McDuff having been persuaded to use organ for his May 1952 session. But that McDuff and Porter were long time associates is sure. And I doubt if an organ is just something one can sit at and play, just like that. “Rollin’ along” features a surprisingly articulate piano solo from McDuff, which is not the case with his organ playing, which does seem to argue that the organ may have been a spur of the moment decision. But I rather think not; he was always a Wild Bill Davis man, very chordal in his approach; much more so prior to absorbing lessons from Jimmy Smith, and always retained a swing band approach throughout his career. So someone, somewhere in Chicago, may well have seen them working this up on the bandstands. In my view this puts Porter, historically, in a more or less equivalent position to Jaws. OK, personal stuff now. My mate had a 78 of “Lonely wail”/”Small squall”, which was one of his treasures. In the mid-seventies, when we both had tape recorders and then lived in different towns, he recorded them, along with other forthright tenor players etc, for me. At some time, I lost the tape but, as it was something I didn’t play all that often, I didn’t notice. A while ago, I started looking for this tape and couldn’t find it (or the other two he did) ANYWHERE! After a month of panic, I shrugged my shoulders and lived without it. But when I was beginning to rip my African cassettes, I opened up a box, buried deep in the garage, containing spare copies of those cassettes, to rip some material from unplayed, and sometimes sealed, tapes. And there the three of them were, submerged amongst a bunch of African stuff!!!! So I ripped them. If anyone is interested enough to want to hear these three sides I’ve got, I’d be happy to e-mail them. Just send me a PM. MG