Anu on Unicorn

 

Anu

22553 - Just Say So (Anu, Vestal Music BMI)

22554 - Prayer

Produced by Elliot Ryan

Unicorn Records

Just Say So

A new label added to my Rite list. A third Unicorn label. Not the same as The Plantation Singers one, or as The Hazards (from Ohio, related to Bryte/Brite Star).

This Unicorn label was from Washington, DC. Operated by Elliot Ryan, also owner of Vestal Music, BMI publisher affiliated.

Ryan was originally from New York, had graduated from Michigan State University, and after a two-year stint in the army settled down in Washington, DC in May 1960. He took over the Unicorn, a major beatnik establishment, which offered folk music and a bohemian atmosphere for those who shied away from the hustle and bustle of Connecticut Avenue, with the idea of making it a live music coffee house and installed a Wednesday night “hootenanny” where a bevy of folk singers gathered and sung for the masses. Jazz musicians were featured on Monday nights and on weekends he booked such folk artists as Tim Cameron, Allen Damron, Mario Illo, John Everhart, Robbie Basho, Pete LaFarge, and Eric Darling (of the Weavers). Local guitarists like John Fahey and Max Ochs regularly showed up for impromptu performances and the popular Joan Baez even stopped in one night to sing onstage with the resident folkies.

Calvin "Hound Dog" Ruffin, Billy Stewart, the Michael Graham Crackers

Calvin "Hound Dog" Ruffin And the Michael Graham Crackers
CP- 2010  Tell It Like Tee I Tis (Calvin C. Ruffin)

Billy Stewart And the Michael Graham Crackers

CP-2011  I Want a Sweet Little Girl  (Michael A. Graham)

Mag Music record no. 103

(BALE 103 in dead wax)

 

 address label of label owner

"2 nice little-known '59 D.C. R&B tracks" currently on ebay HERE.   Or rather unknown, I would say,  There is no mention of this record anywhere on the internet. 

 

 This record was perhaps intended to be issued on Bale Records, a tiny Washington label owned by Bea Tibbitts (Betsy B. Tibbs).  It showcases two artists probably managed at the time by Michael Graham, artists who had already recorded several singles (on Chess/Argo and Okeh for Billy Stewart,  on Josie (as Frank Motley band vocalist) and Golden Crest for Calvin Ruffin).

A native of Savannah, Ga., Michael Angelo Graham (picture on left is from 1946) started as an entertainer and was" nationally known in theatrical circles" as "Georgia's Glamour Boy".  He came to the nation's capital in the late 1940s, working in night clubs and also touring with his Washingtonians and then with his Graham Crackers.   Both groups featured blues and scat singer Nudie Williams who recorded for Wheeler Records, a New York label, in the early fifties.

 

Michael Graham worked with various singers and doowop groups and helped launch the careers of Van Allen McCoy, Marvin Gaye, the Clovers, Johnny Hartman, Don Covay, and Billy Stewart.  

Master of ceremonies at the old Howard Theater, he also promoted a number of musicals and a variety of shows in Washington (Graham Crackers and Oldies But Goodies, a TV program that featured The Clovers, The Jewels, and Sonny Till and The Orioles).   

Graham joined The New Observer, Washington D.C.'s oldest Black-owned community newspapers in 1956, worked his way up from a reporter to editor-in-chief. 

 

He died in 1985, aged 72.

Adelphi Ladies Trio

Adelphi Ladies Trio

Mrs Norman Krogstad at the Lowrey organ.

Deep Settled Pace

SIDE 1  CP-7035

    A Deep Settled Peace
    How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings
    Teach Me How To Pray
    O The Wonder
    Jesus Is The Sweetest Name I Know

SIDE 2  CP-7036

    Thanks Be To God
    Softly And Tenderly
    Moment By Moment
    Beside Still Waters
    Overshadowed

    Family Altar Records #115

 1962

sample

Family Altar Records was a division of The Columbia Union Conference, which "exists to advance and fulfill the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Mid-Atlantic United States.". 

Mrs Krogstad, former Eleanor Cowles, a Bachelor of Music Education degree holder (with piano as her specialty),  was married to Norman Krogstad – NOT the veteran high-ranking Vancouver Hells Angel, I assume  – who was appointed chairman of the Department of Music at Washington Missionary College in 1957 and may have been involved in the formation of Family Altar Records.

From the back cover :

The Adelpho Ladies Trio is well-known in the area around Washington, D.C.  The group sings at many church and social functions throughout the East.

Vallevia Grant, second soprano began to sing at an early age.  Through her school years she sang in various trios and choral groups, often taking solo parts.

Kathaleen Fuller, alto, has also sung in other trios and choral organizations.  Her experience includes choir directing.

Betty Morford, soprano, wife of the director of physical education at Columbia Union College has a varied musical background. She has appeared with various trios and other musical organizations

From ebay HERE

The Rickshaw Five and Hoo Mei

12043 - Skip School Flu (Clip)
(R. Boling)

12044 - Jungle (clip)
(Kim Larn, Bragi Music Co. BMI)

A Mai-Lin production
Recorded in Hong Kong,

Encore Records - P.O. Box 2801
Washington D.C. 20013

Affiliate of Era International
1964

A 1962 copyright on the "Skip School Flu" side and a 1964 copyright on the "Jungle" side. Both titles were also issued on the CMP label. See The Nite Cats and the Rickshaw Five entry. "Jungle" on Encore is probably a re-recording of the CMP recording, while "Skip School Flu" (along the "Summertime Blues" line) is possibly the same recording. Anyway an unusual "sophisticated" label design for a record pressed by Rite.

.

Curtis Davis and the Arketts

Curtis Davis and the Arketts
Crossfires Band

Ronnie RJ-101

20217 - Tell Me
(Chuck McClendon) Ron-Jon Music BMI

20218 - Don't Count Me Out

Soul produced and arranged by Chuck McClendon. Double address on the label : Washington DC and Phila. PA.
But another release on Ronnie (Argie & The Arketts – You’re The Guy (That Put Tears In My Eyes) / Hey Baby) has just Washington DC as the address.

Curtis Davis had another release on the Pittsburgh Bev-Mar label.

Charles Ruben McClendon (Chuck) McClendon is the arranger and producer of the Contrails on Reuben (Someone / Mummy Walk).

This Ronnie label is not related to the song-poem label of the same name located in Broadway.

.

The Nite Cats and The Rickshaw Five

The Nite Cats
CMP 1
7547 - Skip School Flu
7548 - Jungle
1962

This record is listed in the Rockin' Country Style website, but name of the band is listed (mispelled) as The Nite Kaps. "Jungle"has been compiled on CD : "Jungle Exotica, Vol. 2" (Crypt Records). One reviewer says :

Dominated by tribal drums, and accented with jungle chants, this seems to be a credible though night clubbie vision of jungle lands. Like pre-Osibisa, it thunders rhythmically with many different drums, but is thankfully lacking the horns. All percussion and chants.

Both titles are also found on Encore 72/73, with a Washington D.C. address! Artists credit goes to
The Rickshaw Five And Hoo Mei, a Mai-Lin production recorded in Hong Kong. Same titles. But are they the same recordings? I think that the answer is yes, even I didn't have the chance (yet) to hear The Rickshaw Five version. Judging from the (poor) picture, the label has "the typical Rite look". It could be a Rite pressing. Possible Rite numbers are 12043/4 or 12063/4.

One description said :

"Skip School Flu" is a garage/surf tune with vocals along the "Summertime Blues" line along with great guitar work. "Jungle" is an rather odd but great instrumental that reminds me of the drums/space break at a Grateful Dead show mixed with a little exotica. Again, great guitar and drums and some flute with feedback.

"Skip School Flu" seems to remain not compiled. Pre-Osibisa (?) or Grateful Dead show reminiscence (??), you decide :

Ruth Fairchild and the All-American Quartet

Ruth Fairchild and the All-American Quartet, Vocal Ruth Fairchild
Paul Revere 45-001/002 - '64
1818-19th St., N.W., Washington D.C.

13319 - Politics
13320 - Dont Tread on Me (A Warning to Communism)