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Like a siren call
to the obsessive collector the budget priced blues box sets
from European labels like JSP, Proper and Boulevard Vintage
are almost impossible to resist. For those, like myself,
who feel the obsessive compulsion to
own, say, the complete recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson,
Blind Blake, Charlie Patton or Memphis Minnie, or
at least a huge chunk of prime Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner
or Lightnin' Hopkins for a small outlay, these are boon
times. Previously you could only find these type of box
sets from labels like Bear Family or Mosaic and enticing
as they were, they weren't exactly cheap. How you say can
these labels put out four and five disc box sets for a mere
$20-25 bucks? And what about the quality? The how has to
do with copyright law. It seems that in England, the copyrights
to most recordings last for 50 years after the date of the
first issue. This means that everything recorded before
1955 is up for grabs and can be packaged and sold at a low
price because this material is now essentially in the public
domain. As to the quality of the box sets don't expect lavish
affairs like the amazing Bear Family sets or Mosaic, and
certainly nothing on the order of Revenant's gorgeous Charlie
Patton box "Screaming and Hollering the Blues"
or Dust-to-Digital's daunting gospel behemoth, "Goodbye
Babylon." For the most part the budget priced boxes
come with good, sometimes excellent notes from respected
blues writers and in my experience very good sound quality
that's on par or better than what's already available. The
labels mentioned also issue all manner of roots box sets
but for this article we'll stick to the blues. The box sets
reviewed below are among my favorites and are not listed
in any particular order and is certainly not comprehensive
(I can't buy them all but I'm trying!) but should give you
some idea of what's available.
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Subtitled
"The pounding, pulsating roots of rock & roll,"
Ham Hocks and Cornbread crams in 118 tracks
of honking sax, pounding boogie piano and over the top blues
shouting spread over four discs. The time frame spans from
1945-1953 and the frenzy and mayhem of many of these sides
is a direct precursor to rock and roll which emerged just
when the music on this collection went out of fashion. This
is a thoroughly entertaining set studded with well knowns
and complete unknowns. Among the more famous names include
Johnny Otis on the blistering rollicking big-band instrumental
"Barrelhouse Stomp" featuring a wild Big Jay McNeely,
Roscoe Gordon's rocking and raggedy "T-Model Boogie",
the more suave but still swinging Jimmy McCracklin on "What's
Your Phone Number" and Little Willie Littlefield's
loping "Happy Pay Day" featuring some bold baritone.
All the usual big name blues belters are on board including
Gatemouth Moore, Jimmy Witherspoon, Roy Brown, Big Joe Turner,
Tiny Bradshaw, Jimmy Rushing plus a batch of great second
stringers like H-Bomb Ferguson, Tommy Brown, Crown Prince
Waterford, Piney Brown and Eddie Mack among others. The
collection roams stylistically far and wide from moody after
hours numbers like Eddie Chamblee's atmospheric "Walkin'
Home" to big band Texas guitar blues by Zuzu Bollin
on the magnificent "Why Don't You Eat Where You Slept
Last Night" and Goree Carter's T-Bone inspired fireworks
on "I'm Your Boogie Man", down to New Orleans
for Cousin Joe's furiously swinging "Hole In The Ground"
and back up to Detroit for T.J. Fowler's breathless "Red
Hot Blues." Sound is generally quite good with informative
notes by Neil Slaven and complete discographical info.
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If you've picked up
the above box set and still can't get enough of that honkin'
sax then Proper's The Big Horn, subtitled
The Complete History of the Honkin' and Screamin' Saxophone
makes the perfect companion set. The four-CD set contains
106 tracks cut between 1942 to 1952 and unlike the above
collection focuses primarily on the sax. The blueprint for
this music was Illinois Jacquet's "Flying Home."
Big Jay McNeely sums up it's influence this way: "Every
time we picked up our horns we were just elaborating on
that, trying to make it bigger, wilder, give it more swing,
more kick. If you want to know where rhythm and blues began,
that's it brother." Appropriately the collection blasts
off with Jacquet's classic solo on Lionel Hampton's recording
of "Flying Home" followed by his roof raising
ten minute plus "Blues" from a Jazz the Philharmonic
concert. All the big tenor titans are here from those with
prominent jazz careers like Arnett Cobb, Benny Golson and
Harold Land to those who were known primarily in the rhythm
and blues field such as Big Jay McNeely, Hal Singer and
Paul Williams plus swing era veterans such as Paul Bascomb,
Al Sears and Buddy Tate to more obscure players such as
Frank "Floorshow" Culley, John Hardee and Lynn
Hope. All time classics like Big Jay McNeely's "Deacon's
Hop", Paul Williams"The Hucklebuck" and Hal
Singer's "Cornbread" are all here but the real
joy is lesser know gems like the underrated Eddie Chamblee
on the hand clapping swing of "Back Street", Tiny
Grimes and Red Prysock's peeling the paint off the walls
on "Hot In Harlem" and Julian Dash's romping "Open
Up Them Pearly Gates" are just a few of the many delights.
The set is rounded out with an excellent 68 page illustrated
booklet filled with informative notes and discography.
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Within the tenor sax
tradition documented above there there was a number of tough
tenors from Texas such as Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet,
Buddy Tate and David "Fathead" Newman among others.
Less celebrated was the alto players among whom Eddie "Cleanhead"
Vinson was far and away the most popular. Honk For
Texas is a 4-CD box collecting all the recordings
he made between 1942 and 1952 when Vinson was playing with
the Cootie Williams Orchestra, and first led his own groups
until the end of his run of big bands. Actually the first
two and a half CDs feature Vinson with rest spotlighting
fine Texas tenor Jim Wynn on sides he cut between 1945 through
1954. Wynn plays on some of Vinson's sides while Vinson
returned the favor playing and singing on a bunch of Wynn's
sessions. Vinson set an incredibly high standard during
this period backed by terrific players like Clark Terry,
and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis in the 1940s to Slide
Hampton and Charlie Rouse in the 1950s among many others.
This is swinging big band R&B featuring Vinson's appealing,
distinctive catch-in-the-throat vocals on classics like
"Cherry Red Blues", "Somebody's Got To Go",
"Old Maid Boogie", "Too Many Woman Blues",
"Just A Dream" and the salacious "Oil Man
Blues." Everything Vinson cut during this period was
top notch and it's a pleasure to have them all here in one
place. Jim Wynn sides , quite good as they are, suffer a
bit in comparison when measured against Vinson's output.
Wynn was a fine tenor player who employed a range of vocalists
including Claude Trenier, Pee Wee Wiley, Robert "Snake"
Sims and others. Highlights mostly come from the final disc
including smoking instrumentals like "Wynn's Boogie",
the furious "Blow, Wynn, Blow" and "Goofin'
Off" and the vocal blues of "west Coast Lover"
featuring some knockout T-Bone inspired fret work from the
great Chuck Norris. As usual fine notes provided by the
tireless Neil Slaven and excellent sound.
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The 88 tracks on Hey!
Piano Man spotlight influential barrelhouse stylists
Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, and Jimmy
Yancey over four entertaining discs. As Keith Briggs notes
all four men sprang from the barrelhouse/rent party school
of piano playing. In short, apartment dwellers would offer
food, drink, and of course a piano player for entertainment
and hopefully by morning they would have made enough money
to cover the month's rent. While all four men cut their
teeth in these types of events they were each very distinctive,
inventive players in their own right. Disc one focuses on
Jimmy Yancey, a thoughtful, introspective and ceaselessly
creative pianist heard on wonderful mellow numbers like
"Jimmy's Stuff", "Slow & Easy" to
more uptempo fare like "Rollin' The Stone" and
the rollicking "Yancey Stomp." Like Yancey, Meade
Lux Lewis was also from Chicago and in fact Yancey was a
prime influence. Lewis was more extroverted player hammering
out bold flowing ideas on 1935's "Honky Tonk Train
Blues" (a remake of his classic 1927 composition),
the remarkable five part "The Blues" shows a more
thoughtful side while "Nagasaki" is another barn
burner. Disc three puts the light on Pete Johnson who was
born in Kansas City, Missouri and became widely recognized
through his association with vocalist Big Joe Turner. Their
appearance at Carnegie Hall for John Hammond's Spirituals
To Swing concert helped ignite interest in boogie-woogie
piano. Oddly Johnson's signature "Roll 'Em Pete"
is missing but we get 22 strong cuts from 1938-1939 including
driving numbers like "Shuffle Boogie", "Climbin'
And Screamin' and the rumbling "Barrelhouse Breakdown"
with some great string bass from Abe Bolar. Highlighted
on disc four is another Chicago native Albert Ammons, a
close friend of Meade Lux Lewis. These 20 tracks, span 1936
to 1939 and are equally split between larger bands including
those of trumpeter Harry James and trombonist J.C. Higginbotham
with the balance featuring his stellar solo work. Ammons
was the quintessential boogie-woogie pianist as shown on
storming big band songs like "Boogie Woogie Stomp"
(with an equally potent solo version) plus prime solo pieces
like "Shout For Joy' and the amazing "Bass Goin'
Crazy." The notes by Keith Briggs seem a bit cursory
and sound quality varies which probably has more to do with
the original sources than remastering.
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Now
here's a prime slab of rocking and jumping post-war blues
if ever there was one. Boogie Uproar comprises
four CD's with 103 tracks of Texas jump blues and R&B
recorded between 1947 and 1954 with an emphasis on some
of the great guitarists from the Lonestar state. What we
get are the complete recordings from this period of Clarence
"Gatemouth" Brown, Goree Carter, Lester Williams
and deserving lesser knowns like Zuzu Bollin, James Widemouth
Brown, Nelson Carson and R.B. Thibadeaux. The bulk of the
material has been available previously but it's great to
have it all in one package. Gate's sides from this period
are phenomenal, featuring driving backbeats, blazing horns
and Gate’s trademark knife-edged guitar. Gate cuts loose
on jumping big band blues in the tradition of T-Bone Walker
on knockouts like "Midnight Hour," "Depression
Blues", "Dirty Work at the Crossroads", "Boogie
Rambler", "Gate Walks to Board," "Boogie
Uproar" and "Okie Dokie Stomp", one of the
all-time great blues guitar showpieces. Goree Carter was
one of the legion of T-Bone Walker inspired Texas blues
guitarists during the years following World War II with
his elegant electrified riffs and fat chords. He also cut
some more introspective Charles Brown styled numbers. Carter's
career was brief spanning 1949 to 1954 with all those sides
on board including stormers like "Rock Awhile",
"Hoy-Hoy", "I'm Your Boogie Man" to
atmospheric ballads like "Lonely World" and "When
Night Falls." Lester Williams was another T-Bone disciple
who emerged from the fertile Houston scene in the 1950's
who scored hits like the moody "Winter Time Blues"
and his biggest hit in 1952, the jumping "I Can't Lose
with the Stuff I Use." Williams cut a number of appealing
sides including the low-down "Dowling Street Hop"
and swingers like "I Know That Chick" and "I'm
So Glad I Could Jump and Shout." Zuzu Bollin was another
who fell under T-Bone's spell as evidenced on the two 78's
he waxed in 1951 including the swinging "Why Don't
You Eat Where You Slept Last Night" and the steamy
late night feel of "Headlight Blues." Bollin died
in 1990 but thankfully laid down an exceptional rediscovery
album in 1989. Also on included are a pair of wonderful
sides by Gatemouth's older brother, James "Widemouth"
Brown who cooks on "Boogie Woogie Nighthawk" and
the sultry "A Weary Silent Night." It's a shame
he didn't record more as he was supposedly a guitar mentor
for guys like Joe Hughes, Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland
and Johnny Watson. A fabulous set through and through.
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When
you think of great blues centers Atlanta doesn't necessarily
come to mind, however in the 1920's and 30's it had a vibrant
and thriving blues scene. Fortunately the scene was well
documented on record as companies like Columbia, Victor,
Brunswick and Vocalion made almost yearly trips to record
local talent. JSP's Atlanta Blues gathers
four CDs of performances by Julius Daniels, Curley Weaver,
Georgia Browns, Peg Leg Howell, Henry Williams & Eddie
Anthony, Sloppy Henry, Lil McClintock and Lillie Mae recorded
between 1926 and 1949. There's no denying the music here
is excellent but there's a number of glaring omissions.
Outside of a few brief appearances there's barley a glimpse
of the city's greatest bluesman, Blind Willie McTell (Mctell
does have his own box on JSP's The Classic Years 1927-1940),
only a few brief supporting appearances by the great and
prolific Buddy Moss and nothing by twelve string ace Barbecue
Bob. Julius Daniels was a fine big voiced singer and guitarist
who's complete recordings from two 1927 sessions are included.
Backed by a second guitar, these are wonderful sides with
highlights going to "My Mamma Was Sailor" and
the gorgeous slide driven "Slippin' & Slidin' Up
the Golden Street." One wishes he recorded more. Better
known is Curley Weaver a close associate of Blind Willie
and who's complete sides are included. Weaver's signature
"No No Blues" sounds uncannily like Barbecue Bob
while he's quite effective on the moving "Some Cold
Rainy Day" with Ruth Willis and rapid fire pieces like
"Baby Boogie Woogie" and "Wild Cat Kitten"
with vocals and probably second guitar from Clarence Moore.
Blind Willie shows up on a few Weaver songs with the two
beautifully complimenting each other on "You Was Born
To Die" while Weaver also appeared as a member of The
Georgia Browns along with Fred McMullen and Buddy Moss,
all which are included as well. Most welcome are the complete
recordings of Peg Leg Howell, born in 1888, whose music
harks back to the era before the blues emerged. Howell recorded
prolifically between 1926 and 1929 tackling everything from
traditional ballads like "Skin Game Blues" to
dance numbers like "Beaver Slide Rag" and even
jazz on "New Jelly Roll Blues." While some of
his sides were solo performances, others featured the backing
of his "gang" of street musicians including the
ragged fiddle of Eddie Anthony who smokes on "Georgia
Crawl." Lesser known gems by Lil McClintock represent
the songster tradition, there's fine performances by vaudeville
singer "Sloppy" Henry including the wonderfully
descriptive "Long, Tall, Disconnected Mama" and
the duo of Macon Ed (Eddie Anthony) and Tampa Joe featuring
more of Anthony marvelous fiddle playing. With the omissions
mentioned above this isn't the definitive Atlanta blues
collection one might hope for but it's certainly filled
with some terrific and fascinating music. Once again Neil
Slaven provides excellent historical background notes. Sound
is quite good, in many cases an improvement over what's
come before although a number of the Weaver sides seem impervious
to remastering attempts.
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