Interracial Jazz Tune (#20) Lang, Johnson, Dorsey (not Oliver) & Carmichael

Blind Willie Dunn was a pseudonym used by guitarist Eddie Lang when he played in black sessions, including the sessions he did with his pal, guitarist Lonnie Johnson. Johnson is the only non-white player on the 5 sessions done by this group in spring, 1929 and is probably the soloist you hear, as he was more deft at single-string playing than Lang.

Lang and Johnson

King Oliver is listed on the label but Tommy Dorsey, known of course as a trombonist, is actually the trumpet player and he sounds excellent. Hoagy Carmichael is the pianist, does some light scatting and probably slipped in the little bit of the xylophone we hear in "Jet Black Blues" and the wood blocks in "Blue Blood Blues." 

I'll go crazy and post both. What the hell.  

Blind Willie Dunn’s Gin Bottle Four: Tommy Dorsey (tp) Eddie Lang, Lonnie Johnson (g)  Hoagy Carmichael p,vcl, percussion New York, May 1, 1929.

• Jet black blues- OKeh 8689, Swag (Aus)33717, Par (E)PMC7106, Col C2L24;
• Blue blood blues- OKeh 8689, Swag (Aus)33717, Par (E)PMC7106, CBS (F)63610

All entries are from my book “As Long as They Can Blow. Interracial Jazz Recording and Other Jive Before 1935.”