Bat the Hummingbird

If this nickname was invented to be able to describe some type of music activity, then your blues artist referred to as Bat the Hummingbird may have been thought to have tremendous accuracy, for example. Maybe it intended he could play the difficult, or maybe the person was a sadistic thug when it found adorable creatures that may arrive hovering in one’s backyard. It really is hoped and assumed that it’s the previous case as that might be an excellent quality for any musician if they perform piano or drums. Regarding Bat the Hummingbird, the person performed both piano and drums, devices which actually perform participate in the same family members tree of idiophones. Some listeners may possibly like to understand if the “bat” involved may be the type that flies around during the night, or the type utilized to smack homers. But you will find more important alternative ideas in the blues universe, probably the most interesting of which is usually that there have been in fact two different performers that recorded beneath the name of Bat the Hummingbird. One of these might have in fact been Cow Cow Davenport, an excellent boogie-woogie pianist who installed with Vocalion in 1927 as both a performer and skill scout. Davenport slice records under additional names such as for example George Hamilton, no regards to the acting professional, bandleader, or nation vocalist; the Georgia Grinder, and Bat the Hummingbird, if one purchases right into a theory that expands the on-hand pet populace to two cows, a hummingbird, and perhaps a bat. This still leaves a fellow from the name of Wayne Robinson who documented on both piano and drums beneath the name of Wayne “Bat the Hummingbird” Robinson and perhaps just the usual Bat the Hummingbird, aswell. There’s a record of the man being given birth to in Louisiana, and dying in the past due ’50s of tuberculosis. On drums, he supported players like the underrated Wayne Crutchfield, plus some excellent types of their interact are available for the Biddle Road Barrelhousein’ Compact disc on Delmark. Adam “Bat the Hummingbird” Robinson also performed drums on early albums by Luther Allison and B.B. Ruler. In 1957, he documented several tunes being a boogie-woogie pianist; one of these, “Bat’s Blues,” will do to create some blues scholars desire to send out the couple of Davenport cows back again to their very own pasture. The sooner recordings by Bat the Hummingbird, those that had been lower for the Gennett “competition” series in the past due ’20s and so are accused of actually getting by Davenport, add a tune entitled “Bat’s Very own Blues.” Two different bats, and two different bat’s blues, or the same kind of bat and the same kind of blues? Maybe somebody should go question a hummingbird. The piano recordings, by whoever do them, have already been reissued on both Record as well as the Shanachie-Yazoo imprint.