Description
2 vintage recordings: 1944 Navy jazzmen who were members of B-1, the first African Americans to serve in the modern Navy at rank higher than messman, and a soundtrack recording from 1947 of a black cast musical comedy featurette.
The Moonglowers were the second dance band formed out of U.S. Navy B-1 during its service at Pearl Harbor during World War II.
The soundtrack recording for Pitch a Boogie Woogie was made by musicians from a Greensboro, NC-based band called the Rhythm Vets, comprised of Navy veterans from B-1 and from other African-American Navy bands, including Lou Donaldson, who makes his professional recording debut on this recording. [Watch the movie, as part of an hour-long documentary written and produced by Alex Albright]
All songs were written and composed by William Lord. Vocalists were all performers traveling in eastern North Carolina with Winstead’s Mighty Minstrels and Irvin C. Miller’s Brown Skin Models.
- Published by R.A. Fountain February 2015
- CD • 51 minutes
- Engineered and co-produced by Lightnin’ Wells & Jim Roshelli
- Liner notes by Alex Albright, co-producer
- Manufactured by Blind Dog Studios, Crestwood, Kentucky
- CD within vintage 1985 cover with liner notes insert
This 1985 e.p. was made from the original soundtrack of Pitch a Boogie Woogie, after it had been cleaned up and re-mastered by the American Film Institute and then, for Audio Arts, by Lightnin’ Wells.
