CHUBBY NEWSOME

Die R&B-Walküre wurde von PAUL GAYTEN entdeckt
und sie sang "Hip Shakin´ Mama" und andere Kracher..

Nicht immer die genauste Quelle, aber für den Anfang ist
JC Marion nicht schlecht:

Hip Shakin' Mama : Chubby Newsome
©2004JCMarion

Chubby Newsome was originally from Detroit but found recognition in New Orleans where she was a regular performer in the late 1940s. She was discovered by Paul Gayten at the famous Dew Drop Inn. She was soon signed to the DeLuxe label where she recorded her signature tune "Hip Shakin' Mama", and also "He May Be Your Man" with Gayten's band. This song also showed up on Miltone #3199, a label originally known as Roy Milton Records where the original "R.M. Blues was released. Reportedly on the session on tenor sax was Sam Butera, later leader of The Witnesses, Louis Prima's backup band. She recorded "Perdido", "The Big Date", "Belle Vista Jam", and "Don't Cry Little Girl" with Gayten. Newsome recorded some other sides for the DeLuxe label backed by the Dave Bartholomew band but none of those matched the popularity of the deep bluesy atmosphere of her original tune. In those days the Bartholomew band included Joe harris on alto sax, Herb hardesty on tenor, Salvador Doucette on piano, Ernest McLean on guitar, Frank Fields on bass, and Earl Palmer on drums. Some of the tunes is recorded are "New Orleans Lover Man", "Close To Train Time", "Bedroom Blues", and "Back Biting Woman".

Newsome starts out 1950 with an extended engagement at The Showboat in Philadelphia. In February "I'm Still In Love With You" is released on Regal #3250. The flip side is the tune "Hard Lovin' Mama" and she is accompanied by the Howard Biggs Orchestra (who would later be a New York session musician for Bruce and Apollo Records). In July Newsome records "You Better Find A Job" and "Poor Dog" (also called "Throw A Poor Dog A Bone") on Regal #3268. That same month Chubby appears at Baltimore's Royal Theater with a big show that features Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams, Errol Garner, and Larry Darnell. In September Newsome returns to Baltimore's Royal with Paul Williams, Toni Harper, Larry Darnell, and Dusty Fletcher. Late in the month the same lineup does a week at Chicago's Regal Theater. Still in Chicago in October the lineup does a number of shows for McKie Fitzhugh at the Pershing Ballroom. In an odd historical note, a Charlie Parker be-bop session in 1950 which resulted in the album "One Night At Birdland", the live version of "Embraceable You" featured a vocal that was credited to Chubby Newsome. After many years and discographical work it has been determined that this vocal is in reality sung by the great jazz and blues artist Little Jimmy Scott.

In early 1951 Regal Records states that three quarters of its sales are from R & B records from its roster of artists including Chubby Newsome. In April Regal Records packages a number of its music stars for a series of one nighters throughout the country. It is called "The Regal Hit Paraders" and includes besides Newsome, Paul Gayten and his band, Little Jimmy Scott, and Sammy Cotton. The tour will start out in New Orleans at the Swing Club. In June Regal releases #3319 which features Chubby Newsome on the tunes "Where's The Money Honey?" and the wildly titled "Little Fat Woman With The Cocoanut Head". In September the Newsome, Darnell, and Williams show hits Philadelphia's Club Harlem for a week's stay.

In October of 1952 RCA Victor Records announces the signing of Chubby Newsome to the label. Almost as soon as that announcement is made Newsome goes to Chicago's Chance label in January of 1953. Newsome recorded for Chance with Al Smith and his band which featured Red Holloway, Mac Easton, and Sax Mallard on saxes, Bill Wallace on piano, Willie Dixon on bass, and Leon Hooper on drums. The songs were "Chubby's Story", "Shades Of Midnight", "Great Day In The Morning", and "Always Come Home To Me". As far as it is known, none of these sides for Chance were ever released. Chubby Newsome appears at the Orchid Room in Kansas City and will soon tour with the band of Al Smith and singer Bobby Prince. In July of 1954 Newsome joins many artists at Harlem's Club Baby Grand in New York to salute radio personality Willie Bryant (the unofficial mayor of Harlem). In 1955 Newsome joined Alberta Adams and formed a female R & B duo called The Bluzettes. The group toured with Tiny Bradshaw during the year but they never caught on and Chubby Newsome faded from the music scene in the mid nineteen fifties.

There are a few CDs that preserve the sound of Chubby Newsome for the ages. Best among them are "New Orleans Blues" - Black Music of the 50s - volumes 1 and 2 from Delmark which features Newsome's DeLuxe and Regal sides. Another compilation CD is "New Orleans Blues & Rhythm" also from Delmark. Watch for the usual duplication of sides. "Birth of New Orleans Funk" a German import also features six early sides from Newsome. "Hip Shakin' Mamas, Crooners, and Shouters" a British import on Proper from the collection "Gettin Funky - The Birth of New Orleans R & B". Then there is "Carnival Day - The Essential Recordings of New Orleans" on Indigo.

ALL MUSIC GUIDE (eine deutsche Biografie gibt es auch in ROCKIN FIFTIES, Nummer 108):

A legendary blues belter, Chubby Newsome was born in Detroit but gravitated toward New Orleans, both for a style to embrace and for a home. Newsome was something of a legendary beauty whose most notable feature -- aside from a very pretty face, lustrous hair, and a big voice -- was enormous hips, which she learned to use to her advantage as a singer and performer on the vaudeville circuit in the 1940s. She arrived in New Orleans in 1948 and quickly began making a name for herself locally in venues such as the Dew Drop Inn, where she was spotted by bandleader Paul Gayten, who got her signed up to the Deluxe label and recorded her late that year. Newsome's debut was the appropriately titled "Hip Shakin' Mama," which became a number eight hit on the rhythm & blues charts in early 1949. Newsome released four more singles for Deluxe backed by Dave Bartholomew and his band, but none was remotely as successful as her debut, despite being excellent records and some of the most delightfully raunchy New Orleans-style rhythm & blues of their era. She subsequently left Deluxe and split with Gayten's band after marrying his resident male vocalist, Ken Gorman. The union lasted through only part of 1949 and when Newsome next surfaced, it was fronting her own band at the Dew Drop Inn. She recorded a brace of excellent sides for the Regal label during the years 1949-1951, none of which were particularly successful. During the mid-'50s, Newsome surfaced as a member of the Bluzettes, an all-female R&B vocal group whose members also included Alberta Adams. Her last known recording sessions took place in 1957. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

ALBERTA ADAMS:
Alberta Adams, who has been a mystery to the liner note writers on the Chess reissue packages, is from Detroit. According to Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert's book Before Motown (University of Michigan Press, 2001), she was born in Indianapolis in 1921 or 1922; her family moved to Detroit while she was a child. Her long resumé begins in the late 1930s and includes turns as a shake dancer, tap dancer, comedian, and MC as well as singer. In 1947 she was popular enough on the Detroit scene to win one of the annual awards offered by a Detroit entertainment weekly. She performed on two different occasions with Duke Ellington, toured with Louis Jordan, Roy Eldridge, and Cleanhead Vinson, and in the mid 1950s co-starred with Chubby Newsome in a vocal group called the Bluzettes. Alberta Adams headlined at the 1994 Montreux/Detroit Jazz Festival and is still performing in the Detroit area. She put out a CD recently on the Cannonball label, with a band that includes Johnnie Bassett on guitar and R. J. Spangler on drums. Many thanks to her agent, R. J. Spangler, for alerting us to Alberta Adams's continued activity.

Auf dem Kool Kat-Sampler ist CHUBBY mit folgendem Track:
WHEN ARE YOU COMIN' HOME - Chubby Newsom with David Clowney Orch.

CHUBBY ist mit "Where´s The Money, Honey" auf dem
Sampler I´M A BAD BAD GIRL...

noch Sampler mit CHUBBY NEWSOME..

CHUBBY NEWSOME, die auch CHUBBY NEWSOM geschrieben wurde,
war als Velma Newsome am 27. Januar 1920 geboren worden. Verstorben
ist sie am 13. September 2003.