Tampa Red - The Guitar Wizard

Tampa Red

As long as I've been listening to the blues, I've rarely listened to any Tampa Red recordings. In retrospect, I'm kind of surprised that I haven't. Granted, I've only recently gone back into the pre-war recordings, and when I did, I focused on the Mississippi Delta variety. I don't think I avoided him intentionally....his music just didn't happen to fall in my particular choices.

Now that doesn't mean that I wasn't familiar with Tampa Red....I've heard his songs from numerous other blues artists over the years. It's safe to say that nearly all blues fans are familiar with Tampa Red's songs - "New Stranger Blues," "Black Angel Blues," "Crying Won't Help You," "It Hurts Me Too," "Love Her With A Feeling," "Things 'Bout Coming My Way," "Anna Lou Blues," "Let Me Play WIth Your Poodle," and "Early In the Morning" were among his hits, and were also recorded by many other blues artists. I just didn't realize when I first heard them that they were written by Tampa Red.

I've always been a huge fan of slide guitar, particularly the work of Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters. Well, Tampa Red was a major influence on all of these guitarists and many more (B.B. King was a huge fan), and these artists' versions of Red's songs might be the versions that you are familiar with. Upon listening to Tampa Red, his influence made complete sense. I can only imagine the impact his single-string slide guitar technique had upon both artists and listeners when his first recordings hit the streets in the late 20's, when it would have been considered a new concept.

Tampa Red with Leroy Carr

Though I hadn't listened to a lot of Tampa Red's music, I had read about him...mainly because I wondered, given his body of work that has been covered by so many blues stars who followed him, why he is not mentioned as much as other blues pioneers. One of the things you read about is that he sort of mixed genres, recording songs that were considered to more pop songs or R&B songs or even hokum. Hokum music is suggestive, or “dirty” blues, which were popular at the time, but are sort of disregarded by some blues scholars as lightweight these days.

Another factor was his use of the kazoo, which he began incorporating into his songs from the mid 30's onward. At the time, with the various styles of music played in the pre-electric era, it made sense to Red to use the kazoo, and it was popular to his listeners as well, but it was often used in lieu of Red's amazing guitar work. Listeners at the time were probably fine with it because, to them, it was fun and entertaining, but for modern listeners, it can be somewhat jarring.

That being said, listening to Tampa Red's sides, recorded from the late 20's through the mid 50's with only a couple of pauses in-between, can be a rewarding experience and for blues fans, it's definitely worth your time. The story of his life is interesting as well.

Tampa Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in Smithville, Georgia....the actual date is a bit of a question mark because he gave varying dates from 1900 to 1908. The date usually recognized is January 8, 1904 because that's what's listed on his death certificate. His parents died when he was very young and he was moved to Tampa, Florida to live with an aunt and grandmother, whose last name was Whittaker, so he adopted their name, Hudson Whittaker.

Whittaker's older brother played the guitar around the Tampa area, so he learned a bit from him, but his primary inspiration was an old street musician named Piccolo Pete, who taught him his first blues licks. He had also heard Hawaiian guitar played and he learned to play it in standard position instead of lap style, using a thumb pick to strike the springs and a bottleneck, which helped him develop his unique slide sound. He also learned from listening to recordings from many of the female blues singers at the time.

Whittaker started playing the vaudeville circuit in the 20's, eventually settling in the Chicago area around 1925, where he adopted the “Tampa Red” moniker referring to his childhood home and his light skin. His playing style was a combination of his country blues roots and a newer, more polished style that would work better in an urban setting and his guitar work was a mix of Mississippi and Hawaii with his precise bottleneck work which sounded like no one else at the time.

In 1928, Red found his ideal partner in “Georgia” Tom Dorsey, a singer/piano man who eventually left the blues and became known as the “Father of Gospel Music.” That career change for Dorsey was several years down the road when the pair recorded “It's Tight Like That” on Vocalion Records in late 1928. The hokum number was a huge smash and eventually sold over seven million copies, which launched Red and Dorsey's recording careers in a big way. He also managed to insert some recordings that highlighted his guitar playing along the way.

Red also formed a Hokum Jug Band, a mix of guitars, piano, bass, washboard, and jug players), but once Dorsey left and the novelty of the hokum craze subsided, he formed Tampa Red's Hot Five, which included clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone, and occasionally the aforementioned kazoo (check out "Anna Lou Blues" below). The audiences apparently like the kazoo, it was a fun sound, and Red must have liked it too, because it became a regular part of his repertoire from 1936 onward.

The mid 30's through early 40's were the period that generated most of Red's greatest songs, such as “Black Angel Blues,” which became “Sweet Black Angel” in B.B. King's hands. Another King, Freddy, covered “Love With A Feeling,” while slide master Robert Nighthawk transformed Red's “Anna Lou” into “Anna Lee” (Nighthawk also covered “Sweet Black Angel”), and Elmore James, another slide master, covered “It Hurts Me Too” and “New Stranger Blues.”

Red cut these sides during his tenure with RCA's Bluebird Records, signing on with the label in 1934. His recordings were so successful that he eventually was responsible for the overall sound of most of the label's releases, dubbed “The Bluebird Beat.” He played on his own sides and appeared on other Bluebird artists recordings as well, notably Big Maceo Merriweather, Sonny Boy Williamson I, and Memphis Minnie. He also began incorporating electric guitar into his music as well. Other notable tracks from this period included “She Wants To Sell My Monkey,” “Let Me Play With Your Poodle,” and “Don't You Lie To Me.”

In 1947, Red moved from Bluebird to RCA's main label, Victor, where he remained until 1953, recording new songs and reworking some of his previous hits for a new audience, even moonlighting for a small independent label, Sabre, using the name Jimmy Eager for several tracks in the fall of 1953.

Red enjoyed much success and prosperity during the 30's and 40's and his house became a center for the blues community in Chicago. Many musicians rehearsed there, set up their gigs, even stayed there when making their way up north. His wife, Frances Whittaker helped him do all of this, offering new arrivals a place to stay and a meal. Sadly, she passed away in late 1953 and her loss devastated Red. He became an alcoholic and developed mental problems, which curtailed his music career and eventually left him destitute.

Red recorded a couple of albums for Bluesville Records in 1960, in hopes of capitalizing on the blues revival, the new interest in blues from a white audience, but returned to obscurity soon afterward. His mental problems worsened. Blues expert Jim O'Neal found him in 1974 on Chicago's South Side, living in poverty with an older lady serving as caregiver (who passed away near the end of the same year), and he ended up in a nursing home, where he died from a heart attack on March 19, 1981 in his late seventies.

Tampa Red recorded over 300 78's during his career, making him one of the most prolific blues artists of his era. He only recorded two albums, the two on Bluesville Records, but there have been numerous albums released that collect his early sides and they're all worth listening. My two choices cover most of his career from beginning to end. It Hurts Me Too – The Essential Recordings, on Indigo Records, covers the period from 1928 to 1942, and I'll Find My Way – Hot Chicago Blues 1947 – 1953 takes in most of the rest of his career.