Air Week: February 4-10, 2019

Dave Bartholomew: Happy 100!

The “Juke In The Back” proudly celebrates the 100th birthday of Dave Bartholomew, one of the fathers of not only Rhythm & Blues, but also Rock n’ Roll. Bartholomew grew up with the music of New Orleans, learning to play trumpet from Peter Davis, the same cat who taught Louis Armstrong to play. He fortunately also learned how to read and write music at an early age, which would help him out later as a producer. In the studio, he could arrange the tunes on the spot as he worked with some of New Orleans’ finest musicians. Bartholomew was hand-picked by Lew Chud, the owner of Imperial Records out of Los Angeles, to be his local New Orleans talent scout and producer. He discovered and recorded Fats Domino, The Hawks, The Spiders, Bobby Mitchell & The Toppers, Shirley & Lee, Lloyd Price (for Specialty) and so many more. Though Dave Bartholomew is best remembered for who he recorded and discovered, Matt The Cat takes this week’s program to showcase Bartholomew’s own recordings for DeLuxe, Decca, King and Imperial Records. He unfortunately only had one nationally charting record during his entire career, but he was the New Orleans R&B sound of the 1950s. His band played on almost every important record to come out of the Crescent City during that time period. It’s fitting that a man who did so much has lived so long and we’re honored to dedicate an entire program to the GREAT Dave Bartholomew. 

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