Mississippi Jook Band

about

BLIND ROOSEVELT GRAVES (Mississippi Jook Band) Blind Roosevelt Graves was a moderately successful Mississippi bluesman and guitarist who mixed secular and sacred material and recorded a few songs during a relatively short career. However he has one significant claim to fame in that he is accorded by many as being the artist to make the earliest rock and roll recording. Very few biographical details of Blind Roosevelt Graves' early life are known. He was born in Rose Hill near Meridian, Mississippi, probably around the beginning of the 20th century. He and his brother Uaroy began playing juke joints in the Mississippi Delta in the early 1920's, and in 1929 they cut a number of sides, 'rocking and reeling' spirituals, for Paramount, which all appeared under Blind Roosevelt's name. At this time Graves was also playing with pianist Will Ezell. In 1936 Paramount Records talent scout and Jackson furniture store owner H C Speir, who had been responsible for their 1929 recordings, located the Graves Brothers performing in a church in McComb, Mississippi, and arranged for them to do a second recording session in Hattiesburg. To play piano in the Hattiesburg session, Speir chose Cooney Vaughn, an influential live performer in Hattiesburg. They called the new combo the MISSISSIPPI JOOK BAND. The combination of Vaughn's uninhibited piano style with the religious feeling and musical versatility of the Graves Brothers resulted in what was described as the beginnings of a new type of

top songs

albums

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Good Time Blues

The Ultimate Best of the Blues Collection

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Back To The Crossroads

The First Rock And Roll Record

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Vintage Songs Of Sex, Drugs & Cigarettes

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When The Levee Breaks: Mississippi Blues Rare Cuts 1926-1941 (CD A)

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Back To The Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson

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Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4 (Disc 2)

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Anthology of American Folk Music

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American Folk Music CD 4B - Compilation

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When The Levee Breaks: Mississippi Blues Rare Cuts 1926-1941 (CD D)

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When The Levee Breaks: Mississippi Blues Rare Cuts 1926-1941 (CD B)

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