Artist: The Flairs
Album: The Ultimate Flairs
Genre: Blues
Released: 2011
Charlie Reynolds was just one of many black entrepreneurs in 1950s Los Angeles who started his own independent record company, hoping to cash in on America’s post-war rhythm and blues juggernaut. As the owner of the popular Flash Record Shop at 623 East Vernon Avenue, he had a first-hand look at what customers, especially teenagers, were buying. Operating out of his back room, he released 31 blues, R&B, doo wop, and proto-soul platters between 1955 and 1959. One of them even spent a couple of weeks in the national Top 40 charts. But as Reynolds soon discovered, the indie record business was a hustler’s game. The increasing costs of payola and his distributors’ refusal to pay royalties for the last single until the next one started selling ate up his profits. He eventually let Flash Records lapse quietly into history. Still, as this new 2-CD, 60-song package attests, Reynolds had a great run and produced more than his share of exciting and worthy material.
“The Flash Records Story” contains nearly every Flash release – most of them on CD for the first time – along with a few tracks that remained in the can. Gutbucket aficionados will love the blues trio of Sidney Maiden, Haskell Sadler and Bee Brown, not to mention singer-guitarist Frank Patt with pianist Gus Jenkins’ band, and sassy blues thrushes Sheryl Crowley and Mamie Jenkins. There’s also bluesy balladeers James Curry, Paul Clifton and Buddy Cypress, boogie woogie pianist Judge Davis, budding black hearththrob Nip Roman and honking tenor saxophonists Maurice Simon and Lorenzo Holden.
LA’s most popular form of R&B in the 1950s was doo wop, and Flash’s roster of vocal groups is second to none. Most collectors are aware of the Jayhawks, who wrote and recorded the original ‘Stranded In The Jungle’, so naturally we’ve included all their Flash singles and documented their amazing if turbulent story. Flash’s other vocal group singles were one-off affairs but no less impressive: the mysterious Emanon 4, with their haunting, gospel-tinted harmonies; the Hornets, a quartet of servicemen aboard the USS Hornet aircraft carrier who drove to Los Angeles during a weekned leave and recorded only two songs in a Watts garage studio – but what great songs they are; the Poets from LA’s famed Jefferson High School, whose ‘Vowels Of Love’ became a popular record several years later during the early 60 doo wop revival; the Arrows from New Orleans, newly migrated to the West Coast; and an ultra-smooth supergroup of doo wop veterans who called themselves the Cubans, who would evolve two years later into Little Caesar and the Romans of ‘Those Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me Of You)’ fame. The Cuban were so fantastic, we’ve included their entire session of five songs, plus an alternate take. Rounding out the set is a huge booklet chocked full of photos and newly discovered information.
Most of Flash’s singles sold poorly and are rare today: to buy them all from collectors you’d have to sell your house and at least one child. With this package, mastered directly from the original tapes, you can keep the house, keep the kid, Flash back to the 50s, and enjoy the legacy of the late, great Charlie Reynolds.
By Jim Dawson
Tracklist
CD 1
01 Good Woman Blues - B Brown & His McVouts
02 Gone For Good - Haskell Sadler
03 Hurry, Hurry, Baby - Sidney Maiden & His Ramblers
04 Mambo For Dancers - B Brown & His McVouts
05 Everything Is Wrong - Sidney Maiden & His Ramblers
06 Do Right Mind - Haskell Sadler
07 Counting My Teardrops - The Jayhawks
08 Blues For Monday - The Emanon "4"
09 Oh! That Girl - The Emanon "4"
10 The Devil's Cousin - The Jayhawks
11 Just A Night Girl - Sheryl Crowley with James Curry & His Orchestra
12 Still Longing For You - James Curry
13 I'll Be Seeing You - Sheryl Crowley & James Curry
14 Walking Down Swing Street - Lorenzo Holden
15 Please Baby - James Curry
16 Don't Mind Dyin' - The Jayhawks
17 Stranded In The Jungle - The Jayhawks
18 My Promise - James Curry
19 My Devotion - Sheryl Crowley with Lorenzo Holden's Orchestra
20 My Only Darling - The Jayhawks
21 Love Train - The Jayhawks
22 It Ain't To Play With! - Sheryl Crowley with Lorenzo Holden's Orchestra
23 Flashy - Maurice Simons
24 Blue Light - Maurice Simons
25 You Told Me - Gus Jenkins
26 Gonna Hold On - Frank Patt
27 Don't Forsake Me (Bop To De Lao) - Buddy Cypress
28 I'm In Love With You - Buddy Cypress
29 You Going To Pay For It Baby - Frank Patt
30 Ooh-La Cha-Cha - The Fabulous Preston Combo
CD 2
01 Mr Boogie - Judge Davis
02 Can't Sleep At Night - Judge Davis
03 Sawmill Section - Judge Davis
04 Hambone - Mamie Jenkins
05 Jump With Me Baby - Mamie Jenkins
06 Darling I Need You - Nip Roman
07 With These Words - Nip Roman
08 Crying Over You - The Hornets
09 Tango Moon - The Hornets
10 Dead - The Poets
11 Vowels Of Love - The Poets
12 Explain Yourself - Judge Davis
13 Ain't I Cried Enough - Paul Clifton
14 I'm Hurted - Mamie Perry with the Gus Jenkins Orchestra
15 My Baby Waited Too Long - Mamie Perry with Gus Jenkins Orchestra
16 I'm Your Slave aka How Long Will I Be Your Slave (Take 2) - Frank Patt
17 You've Been Gone So Long - The Cubans
18 Indian Bop Hop - The Arrows with Paul Clifton's Band
19 Annie Mae - The Arrows with Paul Clifton's Band
20 Don't Go Baby - The Cubans
21 Just A Minute Baby - Frank Patt
22 Drift On - Gus Jenkins
23 Don't Have To Cry No More - Frank Patt
24 You've Been Gone So Long (Previously unissued) - The Cubans
25 Oh Miss Dolly - The Cubans
26 Can't You See - The Cubans
27 Tell Me (Will You Ever Be Mine) - The Cubans
28 Are You Alright? - Paul Clifton
29 I'm Your Slave aka How Long Will I Be Your Slave (Take 1) - Frank Patt
30 Slow Down - Gus Jenkins
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