If the Chicago music scene of the '40s and '50s was in the palm of anyone's hand, it might as well have been Horace Palm, a pianist and vocalist who seemed to be all over the place, from studio to bandstand and back again. Many listeners associate the Windy City simply with Muddy Waters and the blues, yet Palm and his cohorts were actually more representative of the city's musical direction. Palm played plenty of blues and RB, but he also backed doo wop bands and played in many trios, aping the sound of Nat King Cole and his sophisticated balladacio. He was a mainstay of the Vee-Jay label's house band, playing on dozens of sessions in which arrangements were simply thrown together as the tape began to roll. These performances survive as great testaments to the inspiration of musicians when allowed to create outside of stiff, confining production processes.

Palm is not a man about which there are a series of raucous anecdotes. He also never made a recording as a leader, or asserted his personality in any way that left a mark, other than his superb accompaniment. Rumors of his reliability are completely backed up by his many recording credits, as well as his presence in certain key performing groups. The lion's share of his work seems to have taken place between the late '40s and mid-'50s. Around the end of the '40s, he was part of bassist Duke Groner's first trio, also featuring Emmett Spicer on guitar and one of many trios going for the Cole style. The trio recorded for Aristocrat in both 1947 and 1948 and was particularly known for Palm's ballad singing. Another of his frequent playing partners was Lefty Bates, with whom he formed a trio in 1952. Quinn Wilson was the bassist in this band, which played regularly through much of the decade, sometimes increased to a quartet with a horn player. Clubs such as Duke Slater's Vincennes Lounge, the Shalimar, Trocadero Lounge, and Spruce's Duck Inn Lounge were the haunts of these types of combos. Another such dive that Palm took residence in was the Cotton Club, one of the rare clubs run by musicians. It was opened in 1953 by pianist Harold Youngblood, vibraphonist Bobby Payne, and drummer Tony Smith. Payne was the real owner, but had to be anonymous on the license because of a felony conviction. It is possible that some of the musicians had to be extra tough simply to fight off the efforts of local businessmen to take over the music scene. Some of these impresarios named their record companies after themselves, thus ensuring immortality on the blues scene. There is no blues collection on earth without a few Chess sides on it, and Palm was front and center when Marshall and Leonard Chess took over the Aristocrat label. As Groner recalled to the Chicago Jazz Institute's oral history project, "That's when I made 'Dragging My Heart Around.' Horace Palm was the vocalist. Chess and two ladies picked out two tunes for us to do. One called 'Blue Bird of Happiness.' Chess made a remark to someone that before it was over, he was going to own every black musician out there, and put them on his label..."

But if Palm was "owned" by a label, it would have been Vee-Jay. By 1955, he was well established as part of this label's house band, a hard-working unit that included Bates, bassist Wilson, Paul Gusman on drums, saxophone players Red Holloway and Lucias Washington, and the brilliant drummer Vernel Fournier, who later became a key part of the Ahmad Jamal Trio. If horns were needed, there was McKinley Mac Easton on baritone and Harlen Booby Floyd on trombone, among others. Some of the quickie style arranging was done by the legendary Von Freeman, and of course nobody would forget the bandleader, Al Smith, despite his incredibly common name. Smith was nearly adored by musicians, because he got lots of gigs and they always paid well. Many of the musicians already mentioned worked regularly with Smith, as did tenor saxophonist Von Freeman and even Sun Ra. During the '50s, the sharpie Smith had recording sessions sewed up at four different independent labels in Chicago. Working with Smith, Palm backed vocal groups such as the Flamingos, the Swans, and the Parrots, bringing to mind strange images of exotic birds flocking to nest on the branches of the musical Palm tree. Sometimes they would back a solo singer who didn't have a band of his/her own. In all cases, the group would toss together instrumental tracks whenever there was studio time left over. At the start of a typical session, the group would jam some instrumentals while producers prepared to cut sides with an RB singer, such as Bobby Prince. As soon as Prince had made his final bow for the day, the studio doors would open and in would come legendary bluesman Tampa Red, ready to tape a few songs with just the rhythm section backing. Since he was under contract to someone else, these tracks came out under the name of the Jimmy Eager Trio. VeeJay likes to boast that it was there well before Motown, but once the latter company came along, the public's interest in RB began shifting toward the new soul music, a concept that put Palm in a pocket with a hole in it. The creation of a Vee-Jay reissue program now allows listeners an opportunity to revisit the Chicago music scene that kept Palm busy. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi