PETITE SWANSON- SUNBEAM 78 RPM- MY JOCKEY KNOWS HOW TO RIDE - CRACKED RECORD

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23

Petite Swanson (Alphonso Horsley) on a 78 RPM on the Sunbeam Records label entitled My Jockey Knows How to Ride / Lawdy Miss Clawdy. The 78 RPM record is cracked across the entire playing surface.  The crack is very tight, as this record still plays remarkably well. The record plays with good fidelity, shows lots of gloss, with light scuffs or wear. Please see the scans, and listen to the partial sound file. Here is some more info on this record taken from the Internet:

Up for auction is a mega rare blues 78 RPM record by Petite Swanson (Alphonso Horsley), who recorded this "impossible to find" record in March, 1947 on the equally mega rare Sunbeam Records label out of Chicago! The Sunbeam Records label was only in business for one year...from September 1946 to September 1947! I am not a collector of 78 RPM records, but I had a feeling that I was looking at a special record when I saw this one in a stack of Big Band 78 RPM records a few days ago. The A side tune is titled LAWDY MISS CLAUDY, and the B side tune is titled MY JOCKEY KNOWS HOW TO RIDE...both tunes have the legendary Gene Ammons playing the tenor sax, and if you have not heard these tunes, you will be blown away by the lyrics and the arrangements. I have taken the liberty to copy and paste the following information that I found on the Internet for those of you who do not know the story of Petite Swanson or the Sunbeam Records label:

Petite Swanson was a member of Valda Gray's troupe of female impersonators, who for much of the 1940s were the main attraction at Joe's Deluxe Club in Chicago; Marl Young had led the band t in 1943. Some of the entertainment at Joe's Deluxe is preserved on the recordings made by two of the house band leaders: Dallas Bartley's session for Cosmo and his three soundies from 1945, and Bill Martin's  1946                             

sessions for Hy-Tone (although Martin used a studio lineup instead of the musicians he was appearing with nightly). But the Swanson session includes the only surviving performances by a member of the Gray troupe. Referring to him as a "fem impersonator," Billboard announced in its March 22, 1947 issue that Swanson had just been signed to the label. The way indie labels usually did their business, we infer from this that Swanson had already recorded. In his article on the label in Blues & Rhythm, Bo Sandell gives La Swanson's real name as Alphonso Horsley. In its March 1948 issue, Ebony magazine ran an article on the female impersonators at Joe's Deluxe Club. Petite Swanson is mentioned as a regular performer t; Ebony spells Alphonso's last name as "Hersley" and states that he was 40 years old at the time, a former school teacher who "attends Catholic church quite regularly." According to the Ebony writer, he was a "topnotch blues singer but favorite song is Schubert's 'Serenade'."Not everyone appeared to understand Petite Swanson's act. In 1945, a young Marshall Stearns, in from New York, decided to take in Dallas Bartley's six-piece group at Joe's Deluxe Club, and wrote a rave review of Bartley's band--which then included Bartley on bass, Mac Easton on alto sax, Reese Thomas on tenor, and Bob Hall on trumpet (the other two were unnamed)--hailing their music as "real jazz." He was also thrilled by Swanson, writing, "Highlight of the floor show is a blues singer named Petite Swanson, whose idols are Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. When Petite backs away from the mike and lets go with 'Evil Gal Blues,' put up on what she's putting down! She has the power and tone of the old-time, great blues singers and she knows the style by instinct." Nothing in Stearns' report indicates that he was watching a female impersonator floor show, or that the source of Ms. Swanson's power and tone included some testosterone! In any case, he knew the jazz was real. See M. W. Stearns, "Dallas Bartley Pleases Those in Search of Jazz," Down Beat, 15 September 1945, p. 2.

Swanson's first release on Sunbeam 103 obviously followed the repackaging of Sunbeam 102 (see above). The second release inadvertently used the same number as the first Bob Carter release. Both of Swanson's 78s are very rare; the main lure for today's listener would be the appearance by the young Gene Ammons--but even Jug's presence has so far failed to spur any reissues.

Sun7. Vocal - Petite Swanson (Alphonso Horsley) | Marl Young - Piano Eugene Ammons - Tenor Rail Wilson - Bass Petite Swanson [Alphonso Horsley] (voc); Marl Young (p, arr); Gene Ammons (ts); Rail Wilson (b).

Universal Recording, Chicago, March 1947 U-654-IV...

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There is a complete audio stream of at least one side of each record on the listing page. Occasionally the audio stream "times out" overseas, limiting the sound, to a brief "clip". If this happens, please email or message me, and I will try to make a correction. Here is my grading system:

NM- = record appears mostly new and uplayed

VG++ = record looks great, may be a few light paper scuffs, plays like new.

VG+ = fairly nice copy, may be a few light marks, occasional tick or pop, but mostly clean sound.

VG = wear, scuffing, light scratches, ticks and pops, but a very playable copy.

VG- many scuffs or groove wear, plays with some noise, but still listenable.

G+ = a playable copy but very very worn, plays with lots of noise

G through G- = wall hanger