A complete rarity tonight. A recording long though lost and not to have existed which hasn't seen the light of day since it was recorded in July 1950 at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Hosted by Los Angeles disc jockey and impresario Gene Norman (who also was creator of the Just Jazz Series), this was the first of what would become a yearly event, The Rhythm & Blues Jubilee.

This is the second half of the concert featuring Roy Milton and His Solid Senders with Camille Howard on Piano and Lil Greenwood on vocals. Gene Norman is the MC.

A couple of things to be aware of - the original master discs are badly damaged, bordering on unplayable. The reason? The discs are larger than the conventional 16" diameter Transcription discs of the time. They measure a whopping 19" and because of their size, they were difficult to transfer. And also because of their size they were not properly stored as there were no sleeves. So the discs were susceptible to scratches digs and gouges over time, and there are plenty. I have tried to get rid of as much of the offending sound as possible. What sound there is comes out very clearly but be aware it gets a little dicey at times. The other problem took place during the actual concert itself when some important mikes died and for a time the sound is rather distant. But only for one song.

Those precautions aside, this is a very rare glimpse into a formative period of popular music. In 1950 R&B was still considered "race music" and not rock n' roll yet. Roy Milton was one of the great Jump-Blues outfits of the post-War period in music and sadly, this is about the only example of him in a live concert setting from that period.

So even though the sound is rather funky in places, it's still an important and historic event. And you get to hear it first - because no one else has.

Enjoy and try to put yourself in the audience that July night in 1950. And imagine you never heard this music before.