January 19, 1945: Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five Record "Caldonia"

January 19, 1945, 80 years ago: Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five record "Caldonia." It is sometimes called the invention of rhythm & blues, or R&B. Some people even consider it the 1st rock and roll record.

Rock and roll, while World War II was going on? Rock and roll, while FDR was still alive? Not exactly.

Louis Thomas Jordan was born on July 8, 1908 in Brinkley, Arkansas, and took up the saxophone. He joined bands in Philadelphia, and played in the Chick Webb Orchestra in New York, before forming his own band, and recording duets with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.

He formed the Tympany Five in 1938, and opened for The Mills Brothers. In the 1940s, they were one of the acts that filmed "soundies," proto-music videos for "video jukeboxes" that were installed in bars. One of these was "Caldonia." The song had a familiar theme: A man loves a woman, his family doesn't like her, but he doesn't care.

In the middle of the song, Jordan starts riffing, talking about how his mother doesn't like Caldonia. This led disc jockey-turned-singer Johnny Otis to say, "Louis Jordan wasn't just the first rock-and-roller, he was the first rapper!"

Was he the first rock-and-roller? Certainly, he was one of the earliest black performers who was popular among white people. And his style -- his rhythms, his lyrics, his vocals -- influenced many early rock performers. His pianist, Bill Doggett, would have an early rock hit with the instrumental "Honky Tonk, Part 2" in 1956. But rock and roll is a guitar-driven medium, and while his songs had a good guitarist in Carl Hogan, they were driven by horns, like jazz and its derivative, "Big Band" -- not by the guitar.

Ironically, rock and roll seemed to pass him by. But he toured Britain in the 1960s, making him popular there. He died on February 4, 1975, of a heart attack, at age 66. He had not benefited from the 1950s nostalgia wave, and there never really has been one for the 1940s, so he got forgotten.

Until 1987, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame elected him in its "Early Influence" category. In 1990, the "jukebox musical" Five Guys Named Moe debuted, featuring Jordan's music. In 2008, the U.S. Postal Service honored him with a stamp.