Many got started there. At nearby Jefferson High School, music teacher Sam Browne oversaw the musical education of several generations of jazz men, bluesmen and doo-woppers. In those segregated times, the black Musicians' Union, Local 757, was located on Central Avenue. Booking agents, like Ben Waller and Harold Oxley found jobs for black bands in and out of town. Black entrepreneurs, like Leon & Otis Rene, Joe Greene, Jack Lauderdale, Al Patrick, Dootsie Williams and John Dolphin formed record labels to record local talent. 

Elihu "Black Dot" McGee, an associate of mobster Mickey Cohen, ran the local bookmaking and policy rackets. Integration turned out to be a double-edged sword which men like McGee, who believed that black people "should do for themselves," felt destroyed the entrepreneurial spirit among his people and led them to dependency on a paternalistic state, which, in turn, led to an infantilization of the race.

But Central Avenue's heyday was a time of hope for a bright future. In 1941, Duke Ellington's musical, Jump For Joy held forth at the Mayan Theater on Hill Street; movie stars, like George Raft, Lana Turner, Robert Mitchum and Ava Gardner made the scene, digging the music, and Negro musicians Buddy Collette and Lee Young began to find work in the movie studio orchestras.

This volume (Editors note: this artice was written as liner notes for an album), Central Avenue R&B, covers the period from the mid-40s to the mid-50s, the period in which black popular music became known as rhythm & blues and, as it gained acceptance with the mainstream public, evolved into rock'n'roll. The artists here all kicked off their careers on Central Avenue.

"The Honeydripper" was an enormously popular record in 1945 on Leon Rene's Exclusive label. When Exclusive went under in 1949 and its creditors demanded more than Specialty Records boss Art Rupe was willing to pay for Rene's masters, he simply re-recorded the song with the original artist, Joe Liggins, to meet continuing distributor demand. Liggins, from Oklahoma by way of San Diego, was a talented songwriter whose hits included "I've Got A Right To Cry," "Tanya" and "Pink Champagne." His tunes have been recorded by Tommy Dorsey, Cab Calloway, Patti Page, the Ravens and Eydie Gorme, among others.

The recently departed Charles Brown, after a long period of professional decline, made a wonderful comeback in the last years of his life, allowing him to once again feel like a star. "You Won't Let Me Go," later recorded by Ray Charles on his Genius album, was one of Brown's more popular records, which include "Driftin' Blues," "Black Night," "Gloria" and the perennial "Merry Christmas Baby."

Singing guitarist Gene Phillips played for the Mills Brothers and on records by the likes of Percy Mayfield. He also sold a few for the Bihari brothers' Modern label. One of his more lively items is "Stinkin' Drunk."

How many girls can say they appeared onscreen opposite both Humphrey Bogart and Jack Nicholson? Hadda Brooks can. She is the pianist in Bogie's In A Lonely Place and in Jack's The Crossing Guard. Hadda tells me her selection here, "Out Of The Blue," the title song of the 1947 screwball comedy starring George Brent, Virginia Mayo and blonde bombshell Carole Landis, was taught to her by it's author, Henry Nemo.

Erskine Hawkins's 1940 classic "After Hours" has been called the Negro National Anthem. A decade later, the diminutive guitarist PeeWee Crayton reached #1 nationally with his six string version. Pee Wee was taught the finer points of the art of the plectrum by that master of the Gibson, T-Bone Walker. Many of the tiny Texan's tunes were written by his wife, Esther.

One of 1949's biggest songs was "The Huckle-Buck," with recordings by Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra and, heard here, Roy Milton. Roy was a jump blues star, second only to Louis Jordan. With his band, the Solid Senders, Milton played gigs from the 5-4 Ballroom to Beverly Hills niteries. The song's story is complicated. Charlie Parker blew a riff that was probably around since Adam and Eve, calling it "Now's The Time." Saxophonist Paul Williams played Baltimore's Royal Theater on a bill with Lucky Millinder, who was featuring a tune he was about to record, "D'Natural Blues," based on Parker's riff. Williams went in and cut it under the title, "The Huckle-Buck." By the time the smoke cleared, Millinder's arranger, Andy Gibson, was credited as the writer and Roy Alfred was assigned by the publisher to write a lyric.

Yet another Texan, Floyd Dixon is still with us, still playing great blues. Another graduate of Jeff High, he recalls Sam Browne admonishing his fellow students not to make fun of his blues playing, "because he might be famous someday." When bassist Eddie Williams left Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, he formed the Brown Buddies with Floyd in the Charles Brown role. Floyd went on to have hits like "Dallas Blues," "Call Operator 210" and "Hey Bartender."

Farther south on Central Avenue, in Watts, was another musical community that included the Woodman brothers, Charlie Mingus and that madman of the tenor sax, Big Jay McNeely. Big Jay took the honking style of Illinois Jacquet even farther, walking the bar, lying on his back and running through the audience. This past year, Jay broke up the house at the Apollo Theater, showing those youngsters a thing or two, when he was honored with a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm & Blues Foundation.

I first met Jimmy Witherspoon in 1979 when he threatened to beat the shit out of a pair of loud mouthed lads at the bar who were preventing him from fully enjoying my singing. Needless to say, we became pals after that. Spoon got his start as a replacement for Jay McShann's singer, Walter Brown, soon gaining fans of his own. His 1949 hit, "Ain't Nobody's Business," rode the charts for 34 weeks and, over the years, he grew into a jazz as well as a blues star. "Who's Been Jiving You" is a good example of Jimmy's laid back, behind-the-beat style.

L.A. was known for its crop of soft-voiced, piano playing singers with trios, all patterned after the King Cole Trio. Like Charles Brown and Floyd Dixon, Little Willie Littlefield took it in a bluesier direction, as on his hit, "It's Midnight." Willie is most famous as the artist who first recorded Leiber & Stoller's now-standard, "Kansas City."

Johnny Otis was a Caucasian who immersed himself into Negro life, where he remains to this day. In the process, he discovered numerous stars, including here, Little Esther and the Robins. "Double Crossing Blues" was a song by Jessie Mae Robinson to which Otis added a night club comedy skit about a "bear," or ugly black woman, for the first of a series of hit records for all concerned. Bandleader, songwriter, publisher, producer, disc jockey, painter, sculptor, chicken farmer, author, politician and minister of his own church, Johnny Otis has done it all.

Roy Hawkins was a San Francisco Bay Area performer who found success after hooking up with the L.A. label, Modern. An auto accident inspired his hit, "Why Do Everything Happen To Me," later revived by James Brown. Hawkins was one of the first to record a Leiber & Stoller tune, "Gloom And Misery All Around," also known as "Snow Is Falling," as recorded by Ray Charles. Another of Roy's songs, "The Thrill Is Gone," became a giant hit for B.B. King in the 60s.

Jimmy Grissom, nephew of Jimmie Luncefor vocalist/sax man Dan Grissom, began recording as a teenager with Roy Milton's Miltone label in 1947. In 1951, for John Dolphin's Recorded in Hollywood label, he recorded the original hit version of Jessie Mae Robinson's "Once There Lived A Fool," covered by Charles Brown, Big John Greer, Anita O'Day, Jimmy Witherspoon and Tony Bennett.  Jessie Mae Robinson scored with such hits as "Blue Light Boogie" (Louis Jordan), "I Went To Your Wedding" (Patti Page), "Keep It A Secret" (Jo Stafford), and "Let's Have A Party," by Elvis and Wanda Jackson.

Soon after his hit, Jimmy Grissom joined Duke Ellington, recording with the great one on Columbia and Capitol. The fans of saxophonist Chuck Higgins mostly hailed from L.A.'s East Side and were mainly of Mexican descent. He catered to these fans with honking instrumentals like "Pachuko Hop" for trumpeter Jake Porter's Combo label. Later, Chuck unknowingly offended his constituency when he named one of his tunes "Wetback Hop." "Wetback" was considered a slur by his Mexican fans, referring to illegal aliens who snuck across the Rio Grande River to the United States.

Virtually every Los Angeles singer genuflects at the name Jesse Belvin. Lou Rawls, who hung with a clique that included Sam Cooke, Gene McDaniels, Les McAnn, Johnny Watson and Larry Williams, says, "We all bowed to Jesse, man, even Sam. Jesse was our leader." "Dream Girl," heard here in a solo version, was Jesse's first hit, as recorded by the duo Jesse & Marvin for Specialty. When Specialty owner, Art Rupe, delayed releasing the duo version, Jesse, according to a note in Specialty files, "got salty and recorded it for Dolphin." This solo version is actually the better of the two, although via superior distribution, Specialty got the hit.

Another Bay Area performer who made good on Central Avenue (Dolphin's of Hollywood was located at the corner of Vernon and Central) was Harry "Little" Caesar, whose "Goodbye Baby" charted in 1952. The record may have been an influence on Leiber & Stoller's later "playlets," or aural skits, with the Coasters. Harry's "The River" was covered by Floyd Dixon, Patti Anne and by Art Lund for the pop market. He later recorded a session with the West Coast Turbans for Dolphin's Cash label.

Talk about covers, Gene & Eunice even covered themselves, switching labels from Combo, heard here, to Aladdin with the same song, "Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)." Among the many versions were those by Perry Como, Andy Griffith, Louis Armstrong, the Crew-Cuts and Tito Rodriguez. The boy/girl duo also hit with the Johnny Ace-inspired "This Is My Story."

Another Johnny Otis discovery was Etta James, whose reworking of Hank Ballard's "Work With Me Annie," "The Wallflower," was her first of many hits. Like Little Esther, Etta's battle with heroin kept her out of the big time for many years, but she'll never be forgotten for her classic, "At Last." I once asked Johnny Otis how he felt when Georgia Gibbs covered "The Wallflower" as "Dance With Me Henry," to which he replied, "Are you kidding? Georgia sold a couple million, for which I got paid; how would you feel?"

By 1954, the cool sounds of teenage vocal groups were coming out of L.A.'s high schools. One of the earliest of these younger groups was the Medallions, whose "The Letter" contains a recitation by lead singer Vernon Green, with the never-to-be-forgotten line, "the pompitudes of love," appropriated by Steve Miller in his song, "The Joker." Vernon said he made up the word "because I liked the way it sounded."

If anybody could out-honk Big Jay and Chuck Higgins, it would have to be Mighty Joe Houston, whose "All Night Long" speaks, or shouts, for itself. Based on a riff borrowed from Hal Singer's "Cornbread," this thing rocks for all it's worth. Like so many Central Avenue musicians, Joe is from Texas. The music of America's great Southwest informs much of the city's music, as played for homesick emigres. Joe's still at it, although he sometimes has to be coaxed to play his signature song.

Richard Berry was much more than merely the guy who wrote "Louie Louie." An original member of the Flairs, Richard, like so many L.A. doo-woppers, moved around from group to group. He's the male voice on "The Wallflower" and can be heard with the Crowns behind Arthur Lee Maye, perhaps the only doo-wop singer to become a big league baseball player. Berry's "Get Out Of The Car" is a cover of the Treniers and was also recorded by Sammy Davis, Jr., another Central Avenue "name."

The Penguins are best remembered for "Earth Angel," but we thought we'd give you a taste of their up-tempo stylings with "Ookey Ook," the b-side of their follow-up, "Love Will Make Your Mind Go Wild." Between "Earth Angel" and the risque comedy albums of Redd Foxx, Dootone owner Dootsie Williams made a nice living for many years.

It's hard to believe that Young Jessie's "Mary Lou" never reached the national charts; it was all over the radio in New York. I recall Alan Freed playing the hell out of it. The tune was later cut by rocker Ronnie Hawkins. Obediah Jessie started with the Flairs, but his backing group on "Mary Lou" is the Cadets. Later, Jessie recorded with the Coasters, and continued to record solo.

Don Julian & the Meadowlarks were an integrated group, with one lone white guy. Their slice of vocal group magic, "Heaven And Paradise," also never charted, but found a new life when it was included on disc jockey Art Laboe's popular LP series, Oldies But Goodies. Don hit again in the 60s with the Larks' dance tune, "The Jerk." In later years, Don, always a hot rod enthusiast, spend a lot of time at car shows.

Johnny "Guitar" Watson, besides being a major influence on Etta James, was a monster talent who also played piano and saxophone. His records on Federal, as Young John Watson, and RPM are legendary among blues fans. Listen to his solo here on "Three Hours Past Midnight." As they say where I grew up, "Fageddaboutit!" Johnny saw a revival of fortune during the 70s with an array of hits in the dreaded disco idiom.

Finally, we have Ernie Freeman's "Jivin' Around," which many think of as a "Honky Tonk" knock-off, but was actually riding the charts some seven months prior to Bill Doggett's smash. Ernie's bandmates here include Nat Cole's guitarist and bassist, Irving Ashby and Joe Comfort, who would later achieve fame with the Jazz Crusaders. Mr. Freeman was eventually to become a leading arranger, writing charts for Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

This is the music heard up and down Central Avenue, as played by DJs like Al Jarvis, Hunter Hancock, Joe Adams, Ray Robinson, Charles Trammell and Huggy Boy, music that holds a lot of memories for a whole lot of people."

Billy Vera

Compiled by Billy Vera