- Trumpet Records
Trumpet Records was a recording company started by Henry and
Lillian McMurry inJackson, Mississippi in 1951.cite web
url=http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/fall2003/trumpet_records.html
title=Trumpet Records Diamonds on Farish Street
publisher=
accessdate=2006-11-06 ]History of Trumpet Records
The goal of Trumpet Records was to provide a means of recording some of the most popular combos in the
Mississippi Delta region that were going unrecorded because they did not have access to recording studios inNew York City ,Los Angeles , orOakland . The company was in competition with theBihari brothers ofModern Records . Between the two companies, they recorded some of the era's bestblues music, from lively jump boogie woogie to slow bluesballads .cite book
first=Charlie
last=Gillett
year= 1996
title= The Rise of Rock and Roll
edition= (2nd Ed.)
publisher= Da Capo Press
location=New York, N.Y.
pages= p. 136
id= ISBN 0-306-80683-5] The record company was only in existence from 1950 to 1955 but was nonetheless influential.Elmore James recorded his originalDust My Broom here. The company was also home to the first recordings of Sonny Boy Williamson.cite book| last = George| first = Nelson
title = The Death of Rhythm & Blues
publisher = Plume
date = 1988
location = New York
pages = p. 30
isbn = 0-452-26697-1 ]The label was founded by Lillian McMurry, whose husband owned a radio repair shop. Elmore James worked at the shop in 1949 fixing radios until Ms. McMurry started the label. Thereafter he was employed as a rhythm guitarist until he began his own solo career. In 1952 Elmore's song "
Dust My Broom " appeared on Billboard's "Best Seller" R&B chart at #9. At the time Elmore was still working at Holston's radio repair shop. Talent scout Joe Bihari hunted him down there to alter record him at a local night club backing up Ike Turner.The company was located on Farish Street, the black district of Jackson, and recorded a range of future
R&B ,gospel andblues artists including such future greats asElmore James ,Sonny Boy Williamson II ,Little Milton ,Wynonie Harris and James Waller.Arthur Crudup recorded at the label under the name Elmer James.cite book
first= Arnold
last= Shaw
year= 1978
title= Honkers and Shouters
edition=
publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company
location= New York
pages= p. 32
id= ISBN 0-02-061740-2]Sonny Boy wrote about Lillian in two songs specifically. "Pontiac Blues" was about Lillian's Pontiac, and the song "309" was named for 309 Farish Street, Trumpet Records' street address. In the lyrics he actually gives out Lillian's home phone number. They couldn't have parted too sourly; in 1977 it was Ms. McMurry who paid to erect Williamson's headstone.
The company closed down in 1956. Creditors sold the artists' recording contracts; Sonny Boy Williamson II was sold to Chess Records in Chicago where he released another 70 songs.
The site of the Trumpet Records recording studio is now commemorated by a
Mississippi Blues Trail historical marker. [cite web
url=http://www.msbluestrail.org/blues_trail/
title=Mississippi Blues Commission - Blues Trail
publisher=www.msbluestrail.org
accessdate=2008-05-27]ee also
*
List of record labels Notes
External links
* [http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalog/fall2003/trumpet_records.html Trumpet Records]
* [http://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2007/06/lillian-mcmurrys-radio-shop.html Mcmurrys radio shop article]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
