dited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents a YouTube example of the Jazz song "Four Or Five Times" (also given as "Four Five Times") by McKinney's Cotton Pickers and by Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra.
The lyrics for these examples are included in this post along with information about these performers and selected comments from these examples' discussion threads.
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The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Sister Rosetta Tharpe for their musical legacies. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.
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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE #1: McKinney's Cotton Pickers- Four Five Times
Richard L., Published on Dec 29, 2010
-snip-
The McKinney's Cotton Pickers' version of "Four Five Times" is the first recorded example of the Jazz scatting words "Bebop".
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INFORMATION ABOUT MCKINNEY'S COTTON PICKERS
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinney%27s_Cotton_Pickers
"McKinney's Cotton Pickers were an African American jazz band, in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in 1926 by William McKinney, who expanded his Synco Septet to ten pieces. Cuba Austin took over for McKinney early on drums. Between 1927 and 1931, they were one of the most popular African-American bands. Many of their records for Victor were bestsellers.
In 1927, Fletcher Henderson's arranger and saxophone player Don Redman was invited to become the Cotton Pickers' musical director,[1] and he assembled a band which rivalled Henderson's and Duke Ellington's.[citation needed] Aiding Redman with arrangements and rehearsals with the band was the talented trumpeter-arranger John Nesbitt. The line-up in 1928 was Cuba Austin (drums and vocals), Prince Robinson (clarinet, tenor saxophone), George Thomas (clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, vocals; Redman (arranger, clarinet, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, vocals, and leader), Dave Wilborn (banjo, vocals), Todd Rhodes (piano, celeste), Ralph Escudero (tuba), Nesbitt, Claude Jones (trombone), Milton Senior, Langston Curl (trumpet).[2]"...
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LYRICS: FOUR FIVE TIMES (as sung by McKinney's Cotton Pickers)
(Composed by Byron Gay / Marco H. Hellman with the title "Four Or Five Times")
[Scatting]
I'm never a flop
[Scatting]
I started on top
[Scatting]
Just keep strolling, keep the ball a-rolling
[Scatting]
This isn't a boast
[Scatting]
But what I like most
[Scatting]
Is to have someone who is true
Who will love me, too!
Four or five times
Four or five times
There is delight
To doing things right
Four or five times
Four or five times!
Maybe I'll sigh
Maybe I'll cry
And if I die
I'm gonna try
Four or five times
Six or seven times!
We like to play
We like to swing
We like to go
Ski-dat-a-dat doh
Four or five times
Four or five times!
Bip-bop one
Bip-bop two
Bip-bop three
Ski-adda-dadda-dee
Four or five times
Four or five times!
[Scatting]
Wow!
[Scatting]
Yes! Sure! Okay!
[Scatting]
What? Yeah!
Four or five times
Four or five times
There is delight
To doing things right
Four or five times
Four or five times!
Source: https://genius.com/Mckinneys-cotton-pickers-four-or-five-times-lyrics
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THIS EMBEDDED SOUND FILE OF MCKINNEY'S COTTON PICKERS
(numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. Barry I. Grauman, 2011
"This was recorded on July 11, 1928, and was one of the first McKinney recordings under the baton of Don Redman (who arranged this as well). Don, George Thomas {lead vocalist}, and Dave Wilborn are the vocal trio. The folllowing day, Redman and the Cotton Pickers recorded the definitive version of his jazz classic, "Cherry" [using a similar arrangement]."
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2. Mistermaarten150, 2016
"Absolutely lovely... the term 'bebop' by the way was first used in the scat singing in this song, for example after 0:40"
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Example #2: Sister Rosetta Tharpe ca. 1941 "Four Or Five Times"
harryoakley, Published on Mar 31, 2009
Early footage of Sister Rosetta Tharpe when she was band vocalist with Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra.
-snip-
This video includes footage of African Americans performing jazz (swing) dancing.
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LYRICS: FOUR OR FIVE TIMES (as sung by Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra)
(Composed by Byron Gay / Marco H. Hellman with the title "Four Or Five Times")
Four or five times
Four or five times
It's my delight
Doing things right
Four or five times
Now, maybe I'll sigh
And maybe I'll cry
But if I die
I'm gonna try to do it
Four or five times
I said four or five times
(Four or five times)
Ah, four or five times
(Four or five times)
Now he's my king
He makes me sing
Four or five times
(Yes indeed)
I confess
(I confess)
He is the best
(He is the best)
That's the test
That kills that myth
Four or five times
(Four or five times)
Four or five times
(Four or five times)
Oh, four or five times
You find a guy
That sets the world on fire
Four or five times
(Now you're talkin', Sister)
Now maybe I'm wrong
(Maybe I'm wrong)
Then maybe I'm right
(Maybe I'm right)
But right or wrong
I'm gonna swing this song
Four or five
I said four or five times
Oh, four or five times
It's my delight
Doing things right
Four or five times
Now maybe I'll sigh
Then maybe I'll cry
But if I die
I'm gonna try to do it
Four or five times
One, two, three, four
Ah, four or five times
Source: http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Sister_Rosetta_Tharpe:Four_Or_Five_Times
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INFORMATION ABOUT LUCKY MILLINDER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Millinder
"Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder (August 8, 1910[1][2] – September 28, 1966)[3] was an African American rhythm-and-blues and swing bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful. His group was said to have been the greatest big band to play rhythm and blues,[4] and gave work to a number of musicians who later became influential at the dawn of the rock and roll era. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1986.
Early career
Millinder was born Lucius Venables in Anniston, Alabama. He took the surname Millinder as a child,[1] and was raised in Chicago. In the 1920s he worked in clubs, ballrooms, and theatres in Chicago as a master of ceremonies and dancer. He first fronted a band in 1931 for an RKO theater tour, and in 1932 took over the leadership of Doc Crawford's orchestra in Harlem. He also freelanced elsewhere.
In 1933, he took a band to Europe, playing residencies in Monte Carlo and Paris. He returned to New York to take over the leadership of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, which included Henry "Red" Allen, Charlie Shavers, Harry "Sweets" Edison and J. C. Higginbotham, and which had a regular slot at The Cotton Club.
In 1938 he teamed-up with pianist Bill Doggett to front Doggett's group. By 1940 had formed a completely new orchestra, which included Doggett and the drummer "Panama" Francis. Around this time he discovered the established gospel singer and guitarist Rosetta Tharpe, with whom his ensembles performed for many years and first recorded with on four cuts for Decca in 1938.
He established a residency at New York's Savoy Ballroom and won a contract with Decca Records. Dizzy Gillespie was the band's trumpeter for a while and was featured on Millinder's first charting hit, "When the Lights Go On Again (All Over the World)", which reached number 1 on the R&B chart and number 14 on the pop chart in 1942. The follow-up records "Apollo Jump" and "Sweet Slumber" were also big hits, with vocals by Trevor Bacon.
By the mid-1940s the band was drifting towards what came to be known as rhythm and blues."...
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INFORMATION ABOUT SISTER ROSETTA THARPE
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Rosetta_Tharpe
"Sister Rosetta Tharpe (March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist. As a pioneer of mid-20th-century music, she attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and rhythmic accompaniment that was a precursor of rock and roll. She was the first great recording star of gospel music and among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm-and-blues and rock-and-roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the Godmother of rock and roll".[1][3][4][5][6] She influenced early rock-and-roll musicians, including Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.[7][8][9]
Tharpe was a pioneer in her guitar technique; she was among the first popular recording artists to use heavy distortion on her electric guitar, presaging the rise of electric blues. Her guitar playing technique had a profound influence on the development of British blues in the 1960s; in particular a European tour with Muddy Waters in 1963 with a stop in Manchester is cited by prominent British guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Keith Richards.[10]
Willing to cross the line between sacred and secular by performing her music of "light" in the "darkness" of nightclubs and concert halls with big bands behind her, Tharpe pushed spiritual music into the mainstream and helped pioneer the rise of pop-gospel, beginning in 1938 with the recording "Rock Me" and with her 1939 hit "This Train".[11][1] Her unique music left a lasting mark on more conventional gospel artists such as Ira Tucker, Sr., of the Dixie Hummingbirds. While she offended some conservative churchgoers with her forays into the pop world, she never left gospel music.
Tharpe's 1944 release "Down by the Riverside" was selected for the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress in 2004, which noted that it "captures her spirited guitar playing and unique vocal style, demonstrating clearly her influence on early rhythm-and-blues performers" and cited her influence on "many gospel, jazz, and rock artists".[12] ("Down by the Riverside" was recorded by Tharpe on December 2, 1948, in New York City, and issued as Decca single 48106.[13]). Her 1945 hit "Strange Things Happening Every Day", recorded in late 1944, featured Tharpe's vocals and electric guitar, with Sammy Price (piano), bass and drums. It was the first gospel record to cross over, hitting no. 2 on the Billboard "race records" chart, the term then used for what later became the R&B chart, in April 1945.[14][15] The recording has been cited as precursor of rock and roll.[8] On December 13, 2017, Tharpe was chosen for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence."..
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THIS EMBEDDED VIDEO OF SISTER ROSETTA THARPE AND LUCKY MILLINDER & HIS ORCHESTRA
(numbers added for referencing purposes only)
1. Anders Åborg, 2009
"Wonderful! I love SRT and I check her carrier out.. Where did you find this?..."
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REPLY
2. harryoakley, 2009
"I "found" it in my 16mm jazzfilm collection!"
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3. chrisb1953, 2010
"She can play a pretty mean guitar also - check out "Up Above My Head". Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top was no doubt inspired."
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4. Nostalgico80, 2011
"Where's Sister Rosetta's guitar solo :( ?"
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5. britainluver431, 2012
"She was in her twenties or thirties when this was filmed."
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6. stars2luv, 2012
"Is this a gospel song??"
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REPLY
7. Joseph Scott, 2017
"No, it's a comedy song about sex, written by Byron Gay and Marco Hellman. Tharpe didn't quit singing secular songs until a few years later."
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