Columbia / Legacy Roots N’ Blues Reissues

Columbia / Legacy Roots N’ Blues Reissues
Columbia

The latest batch of Roots N’ Blues reissues from Sony Corporation maintain up the series’ high standard. One of the latest releases is Bessie Smith, The Complete Recordings Vol. 4 (Columbia/Legacy C2K 52838) which brings us near the end of her recording career, and contains some of her most celebrated recordings, including Me and My Gin, Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, Empty Bed Blues, You’ve Got to Give Me Some. Other numbers may not be as well known, but are memorable for the total conviction of the performances. James P. Johnson’s stride piano enlivens a number of performances , and the cornet of Ed Allen or Louis Metcalfe is heard on several tracks. But it is the majesty of Bessie’s vocals that make this so memorable, and the sound reproduction from the vintage 78s is quite good.

Blind Willie Johnson, The Complete  (Columbia Legacy C2K 52835), duplicates what has been available for a couple years on two Yazoo albums. Blind Willie Johnson was one of the most astonishing practitioners of the bottleneck guitar (his standard guitar playing was adequate), and sang in a raspy, hoarse shouting style with an intensity reminiscent of  Son House. House’s formidable slide guitar playing can sound rudimentary and mechanical compared to Johnson. Johnson’s recordings including Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed, It’s Nobody’s Fault But

Mine, If I Had My Way I’d Tear the Building Down, Lord I Can’t Help But Keep From Crying, You’ll Need Somebody on Your Bond and John the Revelator are classics of African-American roots music, and influenced numerous numerous others who adapted them including Gary Davis, Son House, Muddy Waters, and Fred McDowell. Johnson’s masterpiece was Dark Was the Night- Cold Was the Ground with his wordless vocalising and slide guitar accompaniment, that later Ry Cooder played homage to. Sam Charters provides a lengthy annotation that covers Johnson’s life, his music, and his impact. This is essential music, the only question being whether one already has the Yazoo albums.

New Orleans Barrelhouse Boogie (Columbia/Legacy CK 52834) collects Champion Jack Dupree’s first recordings made for Okeh in 1940 and 1941. Several of the 25 recordings are previously unissued alternate takes to issued sides. Most of the songs here find Dupree’s piano and vocals backed by just  a bass, although the final eight recordings feature Jesse Ellery’s nimble guitar. New Orleans Barrelhouse Boogie is a fitting title, describing his driving two handed piano style, although his bass heavy playing here lacks the touch and articulation found in his later recordings. A major reason for Dupree’s appeal was his soulfully delivered vocals that were ebulliently delivered, and his downhome country supper lyrics which touched a chord with those listening to him sing about ‘those greens those Cabbage Greens.’ Junker’s Blues  and Angola Blues reflect his New Orleans roots, while New Low Down Dog is a barrelhouse version of a Leroy Carr recording which he later recorded as Stumbling Blocks. While Dupree sang about drugs and prison, these songs were not based upon Dupree’s personal experiences, but from knowing people, and personalizing their stories. This marriage of lyric and performance that make these Champion Jack

Dupree recordings stand up half a century later. This collects some of his finest recordings.

The Slide Guitar, Bottles, Knives & Steel Vol. 2 (Columbia/Legacy CK 52725) is the second such collection in the Roots N’ Blues series. While there are no selections from Robert Johnson or Blind Willie Johnson, this provides a diverse sampling of slide players, with a healthy number of selections featuring Tampa Red, perhaps the most influential of all slide guitarists. One interesting song by him is Things Bout Coming My Way, heard in both instrumental and vocal versions. Derived from Sitting on Top of the World, he later revamped it as It Hurts Me Too. Perhaps the most influential slide guitarist in blues hisory, he was not represented in Rhino’s supposedly essential collection. Sam Montgomery, who recoded as the King of Spades is heard on the previously unissued Where the Sweet Orages Grow, a Kokomo Blues variant recored a few months before Robert Johnson waxed Sweet Home Chicago. Other slide guitarists heard here include  Casey Bill Weldon’s with lively Hawaiian style playing on the Hokum Boys’ Caught Us Doing It; Barbecue Bob backs Nellie Florence’s powerful singing; Curley Weaver’s slide is heard with the Georgia Browns and supporting Buddy Moss  sober vocals; and  Sylvester Weaver, is heard on the selections by Helen Humes and his partner Walter Beasely.

The most intriguing of these releases may be the two compact disc set, White Country Blues-

Lighter Shade of Blue (Columbia/Legacy C2K 47466), devoted to recordings of blues by various white performers of what was then marked as old time or hillbillymusic. As the respected country music historian Charles Wolfe notes, there was a distinct white country blues tradition that certainly reflected the influences of pioneering African-American performers, but reached a different audience. Some performances, like Frank Hutchinson’s lively K.C. Blues are not far removed from contemporaneous recordings of Furry Lewis, and the hawaiian style steel guitar heard on some of these will remind some of Tampa Red’s hokum recordings, or Casey Bill Weldon. In a blindfold test, the Blue Ridge Ramblers might be mistaken for a Memphis based jug band, and Larry Hensley stays pretty faithful to Blind Lemon Jefferson Match Box Blues, even if he can’t replicate all of the nuances of Jefferson’s recording. After all, who can.  Other recordings, like those by Charlie Poole with the North Carolina Ramblers, are string band blues performances that have few recorded counterparts by African-American musicians. While some of the performances here are more country than blues, they are more than dry historical specimens, and illustrate the influence and reach of the blues outside of the African-American community long before the rock and roll era. They also show how skillfully and movingly the music was adapted by white southerners who were drawn to the power and simplicity of the blues, just like many of us are drawn to the blues today.

This review appeared in issue 188 of Jazz & Blues Report from 1994. The original review also included "The Okeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957" which I will reprint on Monday the 28th. I received review copies from Columbia Records. 

Classic Blues Artwork From the 1920s - Vol. 15

Various Artists
Classic Blues Artwork From the 1920s - Vol. 15
Blues Images

John Tefteller's annual Calendar with accompanying CD of remastered rare 78s is certainly one that blues fans will want. The Calendar has each month illustrated with reproductions of original advertisements from African-American newspapers of the time, or rare photos of the artists (in this case newly discovered images of Johnny Temple and Isaiah Nettles also known as The Mississippi Moaner).  There are songs by the performers that are the subject of the illustrations, along with brief comments on the performers and the recordings. There also is a selection of birth and death dates for selected blues artists as part of the Calendar.

In addition to these twelve selections that tie to the Calendar, there are twelve bonus selections that include  the other sides for some of the 78s along with other rarities. This is the third straight year that he has employed the technology that was employed on the recent American Epic PBS television series, and reissue recordings associated with that series, to remaster original 78s (generally the best existing copy which usually are from his own collection) to present the music with the best possible sound.

Their are some terrific music to be heard here starting with Memphis Minnie's debut as she sings "Frisco Town" that was originally issued as by Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie. Several of my favorite recordings are here including Blind Lemon Jefferson's superb "Hot Dogs"; Blind Willie Johnson's magnificent song inspired by the sinking of Titanic, "God Moves on the Water" and Charlie Patton recordings "Screamin' and Hollerin' The Blues" (and the other side of this is a bonus track and equally good, "Mississippi Boweavil Blues." Blind Blake's "Hard Road Blues," may not be his best known song but a typically fine performance of this masterful guitarist and singer. Blake is also heard backing Bertha Henderson on "Lead Hearted Blues."

It is certainly nice to hear a much cleaner remastering of the rare Tommy Johnson coupling "Slidin' Delta" and "I Wonder To Myself," on which he plays kazoo. The Beale Street Sheiks (Frank Stokes and Dan Sane) are present in the solid "Wasn't That Doggin' Me," while "The Evil Devil Blues" by Johnny 'Geechie' Temple is a terrific cover of Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman." Then there is the Mississippi Moaner's superb "Its Cold in China," a recording Johnny Shines reworked as "So Cold in Vietnam," three decades later. Also related to the images on the Calendar are a novelty by Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "Strewin' Your Mess," along with a gospel performance Rev. Steamboat Bill's Revival Singers, "Happy As The Day Is Long."

I have mentioned a few of the bonus tracks which include Blind Lemon's "Weary Dog Blues," the flip side to "Hot Dogs "; Johnny Temple's "Jacksonville Blues," (a superb selection that was the flip to "Evil Devil Woman Blues"); and Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie's "Goin' Back To Texas," which is an actual vocal duet and musically even better than "Frisco Town." Other selections include a superb pair from St. Louis artist, 'Hi' Henry Brown with the great Charlie Jordan also on guitar, ("Brown Skin Angel" and "Hospital Blues"), and a spectacular couple from Sam Butler under the name Bo Weavil Jackson ("The Devil and My Brown" and "You Can't Keep No Brown"). The Memphis Jug Band (coming off like a skiffle band) is heard backing pianist jab Jones on a pair of songs that were thought to have been lost as well as backing Charlie Nickerson on an excellent and ebullient "Going Back to Memphis."

Once again John Tefteller has produced a remarkable Blues Calendar and fabulous reissue CD. This year's Calendar also includes some observations from Bernard MacMahon, one of the creators of the PBS film documentary "American Epic." Among his observations are "These recordings represent some of the most powerful, sociologically important music of the early blues era.They are especially relevant in these parlous times when hard-won freedoms are sorely threatened." Also, these recordings have never sounded better on this latest Blues Calendar, which can be obtained from BluesImages.com and online retailers. It certainly makes for a wonderful gift for the blues lover on your holiday gift list.

I purchased this from Blues Iamges.