Search - Various Artists :: Swinging on the Golden Gate

The history of black music in the San Francisco-Bay Area is incomplete without a look at R&B. Dixieland and Ragtime jazz has been established for more than a century. Blues, Be-bop and Swing flourished for three decades at least. Local rock & roll and rockabilly existed but never really produced much significant national talent. Gospel music sprang into being in the Twenties and Thirties and was mainly an East Bay phenomenon. The onset of WW2 transformed the sound of Bay Area Blues completely. Migrants from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi brought their earthy country sounds to the Bay Area. These speedily transformed into a unique form of pulsating R&B, encouraged by avid audiences and a string of enthusiastic indie labels, among which were Olliet, Big Town, Bay Tone and Trilon. This collection features artists singing their hearts out - many taking their first shot at fame. Some, like Ivory Joe Hunter, Pee Wee Crayton and Jesse Fuller did make the big time. Others didn't - but it cerainly wasn't for lack of trying or talent. Here's a moment in popular music when the game was entirely changing. And as always, the West Coast had its own particular contribution to make.