COW COW DAVENPORT — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 1 • 1925 to 1929 | DOCD- 5141 (1992) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The complete output of pianist/singer Cow Cow Davenport as a leader has been made available on two CDs by Europe's Document CD; his sideman dates are also available on two other CDs. Because Cow Cow (named after his famous "Cow Cow Blues") is often categorized as a member of the blues world, it is sometimes overlooked how strong a jazz/blues pianist he was. On this first volume, Davenport is heard collaborating with singer Dora Carr, playing duets with cornetist B.T. Wingfield, interacting with singer Sam Theard, and performing heated solos which are sometimes commented upon by his partner Ivy Smith; in addition, there are a few solo instrumentals that really show what Davenport could do. The highlights include "Chimes Blues," "Atlanta Rag," "Back In the Alley" and four versions of "Cow Cow Blues." Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Through the efforts of early jazz enthusiasts we know more about Charles “Cow Cow” Davenport than any of the pioneer blues and boogie pianists. Born in 1894 in Anniston, Alabama into a religious and musical family, he taught himself on the church organ. A brief sojourn at the Theological Seminary, Selma was terminated in 1910 when he played piano too freely for a function where the students marched (dancing was not allowed) and “the girls got so frisky they couldn’t march in time”. This incident was to inspire his most popular and enduring song, Mama Don’t Allow No Music Playing Here while the general disapproval of church people for the music he wanted to play led to his coining the term “boogie woogie”. As badly behaved children would be threatened with the “boogie man” (“bogey man”) Davenport said, “I called my music ‘Boogie’ music”. Note that in Davenport’s dictionary the phrase covered all the music “in the honky tonks, joints where nice people did not go”.

A short-lived (one year) marriage to a blues singer pianist Helen Rivers led to Cow Cow Blues (Railroad Blues) his most famous song: “I was so blue I commenced to get drunk. I went from honky tonk to honky tonk drinking everything I could get my hands on. When I walked out on stage that night I could hardly stand up straight. But I had sense enough to pretend like it was part of the act. I made up some words right there on the spot and began to sing my sadness:
Lord I woke up this morning, my gal was gone Fell out my bedside, hung my head and moaned Went down to state and I couldn’t be satisfied Had those Railroad Blues I just too mean to cry

His despair was short-lived too for he met singer Dora Carr who “pestered” him until they teamed up and worked the T.O.B.A. circuit as Davenport And Carr. Laid off in New Orleans they met Ralph Peer who sent them to New York and the first recordings as a vocal duo for Okeh followed in 1924 with Clarence Williams on piano and it was to be a year before Cow Cow Davenport was to play piano on record. Even then the session for Gennett went unissued (possibly because of the Okeh contract?) and it was later that year that Williams allowed him to accompany Dora on Cow Cow Blues. One more Davenport And Carr duo the next year (see BDCD-6040) and the relationship with Dora and, it seems, Okeh broke up. A Paramount session in 1927 with new partner Ivy Smith had violin accompaniment from Leroy Pickett and cornet by B. T. Wingfield who was in Pickett’s band at the Apollo Theatre, Chicago but 1928 and ’29 were the boom years with over twenty sessions for Vocalion and Gennett with Ivy Smith, novelty numbers with his new discovery Sam Theard, accompaniments to Hound Head Henry, probably Jim Towel and Memphis Joe (BDCD-6041) and brilliant solo sessions in a rich variety of styles. Along the definitive Cow Cow Blues and State Street Jive, great classics of Blues piano, Alabama Strut and Atlanta Rag were consummate ragtime while Mootch Piddle hinted at his vaudeville comedy routines. Cow Cow Blues was his most influential number but Dirty Ground Hog was even recalled by John Lee Hooker at his 1952 Chess session. Constantly in demand Cow Cow Davenport must have thought the good times were going to last for ever. DOCD-5141
Tracklist :
1        Cow Cow Blues    2:53
2        Alabama Mistreater    3:01
3        Jim Crow Blues    3:07
4        Goin' Home Blues    3:18
5        New Cow Cow Blues    2:53
6        Stealin' Blues    2:38
7        Cow Cow Blues [Take 1]    3:05
8        Cow Cow Blues [Take 2]    3:10
9        State Street Jive [Take 1]    3:01
10        State Street Jive [Take 2]    3:04
11        Chimin' The Blues    3:11
12        Alabama Strut    2:52
13        Alabama Mistreater    2:53
14        Dirty Ground Hog (Blues)    2:51
15        Chimes Blues    3:19
16        Struttin' The Blues    3:07
17        Givin' It Away    2:28
18        Slow Drag    3:15
19        Atlanta Drag    3:11
20        That'll Get It    3:22
21        I'm Gonna Tell You In Front So You Won't Be Hurt Behind    3:24
22        State Street Blues    2:49
23        Back In The Alley    2:56
24        Mootch Piddle    2:53

COW COW DAVENPORT — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 2 • 1929 to 1945 | DOCD- 5142 (1994) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The second half of the Cow Cow Davenport story (the two Document CDs in this series have all of his recordings as a leader) features Davenport in a variety of settings: solo in 1929; sharing vocal duets with Sam Tarpley and Ivy Smith during 1929-30; sticking to vocalizing on a lone date from 1938; and performing eight selections (six of which are piano solos) in 1945 for what would be his final recordings. Although Cow Cow Davenport ended up quite destitute and forgotten, his music was generally quite joyous, and he was certainly a fine, underrated pianist. Among the more memorable selections on this recommended disc are "Mama Don't Allow No Easy Riders," "Everybody Likes That Thing," "The Mess Is Here," "Jeep Boogie" and "Hobson City Stomp." Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. 1928 and ’29 were the good years for Cow Cow Davenport. He was on the staff of Vocalion Records, paid $ 85 a week as a composer, owned a large apartment at 35th & Wabash and had money in the bank. Further he claimed he was even owed $ 3000 royalties on his Paramount sessions. The road beckoned again and with Iva (possibly her correct name?) Smith he put together “Cow Cow’s Chicago Steppers” review. Sinking all his money into it but charging the bus to Paramount, against the owed royalties. He hired musicians, acrobats, comedians and showgirls and, on the eve of the Depression, took to the road. Kansas City was a successful first stop but when they moved down South to Dallas, “things began to break bad”. With no money left the show broke up in Mobile and Cow Cow, who’d pawned the bus several times, ended up in jail and with pneumonia. On release, six months later, arthritis set in and he lost the use of his right arm. Still trying, he joined up with Haeg’s Circus in Florida as a minstrel and eventually made his way to his sister’s in Cleveland. Gradually, he started to play again and when he met Peggy Taylor, a performer who did a dance with snakes and had a show in the city, Cow Cow couldn’t resist. “When you see shows, you always want to join them” he said. He introduced himself as a comedian and he was off on the road again. There was still trouble – this time with the snakes, police and, not surprisingly, landladies. Back in Cleveland, Peggy went to work for the city and Cow Cow kept writing Mayo Williams, now at Decca, who set up the 1938 session. With Sam Price and a bunch of New York musicians he recorded two earlier songs he’d written for Sam Theard; I Ain’t No Ice Man and That’ll Get It and, of course, the vocal version of Cow Cow Blues. (Incidentally the original “Iceman” was the precursor of Bo Carter‘s All Around Man.) Despite the good songs it was not a happy session. Cow Cow only sang (Teddy Bunn remembered Don’t You Loudmouth Me, and Davenport as a loudmouth too) and one can imagine Cow Cow Davenport the old-fashioned, once famous entertainer down on his luck, and desperate for a comeback but his brilliant piano-playing just a memory, trying to impress a slick New York house-band. Cow Cow Davenport was to play piano again, from time to time, in small clubs and jobs engineered by collectors, while working as a washroom attendant and on record for J. H. Alderton Jr‘s Comet label in 1945. A vocal session with Peggy for Rudi Blesh‘s Circle label remains unissued. His last years of poverty on Scoville Avenue in the heart of the Cleveland ghetto have a depressing familiar ring to them. Local jazz enthusiasts had persuaded A.S.C.A.R to admit Cow Cow as a member and there was a small royalty cheque each month – but not from “Cow Cow Boogie”, a pop song he’d signed away to Leeds Music for $500 in 1942. DOCD-5134
Tracklist :
1    Cow Cow Davenport–    We Gonna Rub It 3:12
Piano [Solo], Speech – Cow Cow Davenport
2    Cow Cow Davenport–    Texas Shout 3:10
Piano [Solo] – Cow Cow Davenport
3    Cow Cow Davenport–    Mama Don't Allow No Easy Riders 3:03
Piano [Solo] – Cow Cow Davenport
4    Cow Cow Davenport–    Slum Gullion Stomp 3:09
Piano [Solo] – Cow Cow Davenport
5    Memphis Sam And John–    It's Just All Right 3:00
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Sam Tarpley
6    Memphis Sam And John–    Everybody Likes That Thing 3:04
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Ivy Smith, Sam Tarpley
7    Charlie Davenport And Ivy Smith–    He Don't Mean Me No Harm 3:02
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Ivy Smith
8    Charlie Davenport And Ivy Smith–    You Got Another Thought Coming To You 2:45
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Ivy Smith
9    Charlie Davenport And Ivy Smith–    Now She Gives It Away 2:52
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
Vocals [Duet] – Cow Cow Davenport, Ivy Smith
10    Cow Cow Davenport–    Don't You Loud Mouth Me 2:33
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
11    Cow Cow Davenport–    I Ain't No Ice Man 2:43
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
12    Cow Cow Davenport–    The Mess Is Here 2:43
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
13    Cow Cow Davenport–    Railroad Blues 2:40
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
14    Cow Cow Davenport–    That'll Get It 2:35
Double Bass [Stand Up Bass] – Richard Fullbright
Flugelhorn – Joe Bishop
Piano – Sammy Price
Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
15    Cow Cow Davenport–    Jump Little Jitterbug 2:54
Piano, Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
16    Cow Cow Davenport–    Gotta Girl For Every Day Of The Week 3:06
Piano, Vocals – Cow Cow Davenport
17    Cow Cow Davenport–    Jeep Boogie 2:55
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
18    Cow Cow Davenport–    Chimin' Away 2:52
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
19    Cow Cow Davenport–    Hobson City Stomp 2:54
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
20    Cow Cow Davenport–    Run Into Me 2:58
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
21    Cow Cow Davenport–    "Cow Cow's" Stomp 3:03
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport
22    Cow Cow Davenport–    Gin Mill Stomp 2:52
Piano – Cow Cow Davenport