As far as anyone can tell, the 22 sides on Document's third volume of Johnny Temple's complete recorded works are the last he ever made. The first six titles, recorded in New York City for Decca on April 4 1940, have him backed by a quartet composed of clarinetist
Buster Bailey, pianist Sam Price, guitarist
Al Casey, and a drummer named Herb Cowans. Whereas these are characteristically bittersweet blues performances with lyrics that assess the positive and negative attributes of various women (including one who smells like a Tootsie Roll), the inclusion of jazz musicians like
Bailey (a longtime
Fletcher Henderson sideman who at that time was breaking new ground with the
John Kirby Sextet) and
Casey (world famous as
Fats Waller's guitarist) greatly enhance the proceedings. Tracks 7-13, which document a follow-up Decca session that took place nearly six months later on September 23, find Temple and
Bailey joined by trumpeter
Henry Red Allen and pianist Lil Hardin Armstrong. Again, the jazz element makes for good listening, particularly "Corrine Corrina" and two takes of "Fix It Up and Go." Back in Chicago on September 11, 1941, Temple cut four titles for Bluebird accompanied only by pianist Horace Malcolm. During the Second World War, Temple gigged regularly in Chicago but was unable to record again until 1946 when he waxed two modern-sounding sides for King with a quintet that included a trumpeter and a tenor saxophonist believed to have been
Lester Young devotee
Paul Quinichette. "Yum Yum Yum" is extremely catchy and might be one of the best representative late-period Johnny Temple records in existence. "Olds ‘98' Blues," recorded in 1947 for the Barrelhouse label, pared the instrumentation down to one electric guitar and feels like an R&B taproot of rock & roll. Originally released on the Miracle label in 1949, "Between Midnight and Day" and "Sit Right on It" are the last Temple records in Document's chronological retrospective. He kept performing throughout the '50s and led a band called the Rolling Four that featured musicians with names like Pork Chop and Mess Around before leaving Chicago and returning home to Jackson, MS where he passed away in 1968. ~ arwulf arwulf