Wynonie Harris- Rockin' The BLues

 

Wynonie Harris - Rockin' the Blues - Proper

Along with Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing, Wynonie Harris is generally regarded as the greatest of the blues shouters. Harris was one of the most popular and influential artists in the first years after World War II, scoring a number of hits. First emerging on record with Lucky Millender's Big Band, Harris' vocal Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well was a success for the Millender band. For several years, he recorded for various labels, including Philo/Aladdin, Apollo, Hamptone, and Bullet, before signing with King in July 1947. With King, he enjoyed his greatest success. A singer with a booming voice and an extravagant stage presence, The British Proper label has put together a four-disc box, Rockin the Blues, which contains 81 recordings through 1950. 

It is handy to have all of Harris Philo/Aladdin and Apollo recordings, along with the rarities from Hamptone and Bullett and his first thirty-seven recordings for King. Included are classic recordings like Wynonie's Blues, Somebody Changed the Lock on My Door, In the Evenin' Blues, Mr. Blues Jumped the Rabbit, and the two-part Battle of the Blues with Big Joe Turner. Other recordings reissued in this set include: Good Morning Mr. Blues, Good Rockin' Tonight (his version eclipsed Roy Brown's original), Grandma Plays the Numbers, I Feel That Old Age Coming On, I Like My Baby's Pudding, Rock Mr. Blues, and Good Morning Judge (a version of a country hit). 

Harris was accompanied by bands that included some of the finest jazz players of the postwar era. Among the accompanists are Howard McGhee, Teddy Edwards, Illinois Jacquet, Charles Mingus, Jack McVea, Gene Phillips, Arnett Cobb, and Milt Buckner. Sun Ra is credited as pianist on the four sides recorded for Bullett in Nashville in March/April 1946. Other notable musicians who played on his recordings include Tab Smith, Bill Doggett, Hot Lips Page, Hal Cornbread Singer, Tom Archia, Buddy Tate, Sonny Thompson, and Cat Anderson. This is quite a roster of musicians, and they provide Harris with terrific support. 

It has been over thirty years since Harris died, and, thus, he never was able to enjoy the type of career revival that Big Joe Turner enjoyed in the seventies and eighties. The level of the music on these is consistently first-rate. Wynonie Harris may have been a bit of a bragger when he called himself Mr. Blues, but few shouted the blues with the power and skill that he did. 

I purchased this. I wrote this review in mid-2001, and it likely appeared in the DC Blues Society newsletter at the time. I do not know if it still is in print, but it should be available on Amazon, eBay, and other sources. Here is his classic rendition of "Good Rockin' Tonight."

Count Basie Swingin' The Blues

COUNT BASIE
Swingin the Blues 
Masters of American Music 
EUROARTS DVD

Among the recent reissues from the Masters of American Music video series is one Swingin’ the Blues, devoted to Count Basie, the great big band leader and pianist. Issued by EuroArts on the Lower 5th imprint, it presents the near hour appreciation of Count Basie with some choice video clips and interview recollections by Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, Al Grey, Illinois Jacquet, Jay McShann, Buddy Tate, Earle Warren, Claude Williams, Joe Williams and Albert Murray (who co-authored Basie’s autobiography), along with a number of interview clips of the Count himself.

Additionally, there are a number of performance clips from Basie himself from several periods of his career which feature Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, and Lester Young. The sources range from the soundies (an amusing Rushing performance of Take Me Bake Baby, a film short (the clip of Young is from the classic film The Blues), and television (Basie with Judy Garland).

The mix of recollections and oral history with the clips helps us understand the development of the Basie sound as Basie remembers how he came to Kansas City and gradually put together his own band and Jay McShann remembers Basie and his band and the impact they had. Earle Warren, Edison, Williams and Tate recall there time with the band (Williams ironically recalling that John Hammond had him let go from Basie at a time when Claude was highly regarded as a guitarist) and the personalities including Lester Young, and Buck Clayton as well as how Basie could set the tenor of a number with just one note, the use of the two tenors, and the All American rhythm section. Murray adds his own perspective on Basie’s place in the music.

This documentary then traces how Basie had to disband the big band for a sextet before gradually bringing back the big band and the new personnel and sounds with arrange- ments from the likes of Neal Hefti, Frank Wess and Frank Foster and numerous new legendary soloists like Lockjaw Davis and Al Grey.

Joe Williams recalls how Basie asked him to join the band, which he agreed to so long as he did not to do any of Jimmy Rushing’s material. And he brought Basie an old Memphis Slim tune, Everyday I Have the Blues, that helped reignite Basie’s profile. And that led to more commercial successes as well as partnerships with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others.

Like others in the Masters of Modern American Music series, the program on Count Basie; Swingin’ the Blues, fleshes out a musical icon in a most entertaining and informative manner. 

This review originally appeared in the June 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 326). I received my review copy from the publication.  Here is a classic video of Basie with Buck Clayton on trumpet.

Riffin' CD Set Shows Why Nat Cole Was a Jazz King

Nat Cole's musical contributions and career need little elaboration. It should be noted that Hip-O-Select has put together a three CD set, Nat King Cole & Friends "Riffin': The Decca, JATP and Mercury Recordings.” The performances contained here, with the exception of five from 1936, come from the forties when Cole was emerging as a National star. This set comes in a 5 X 7 book that includes an essay by noted author David Ritz about the music contained on this disc. The book also includes full discographical information and has hard sleeves for each of the three CDs. One CD contains 17 tracks by the classic King Cole Trio along with the 1936 selections from Eddie Cole's Solid Senders, and the 1946 sessions by The Keynoters. The middle CD contains Cole’s performances at the legendary Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts, while the final CD includes his sessions with Dexter Gordon and Lester Young and alternate takes of selections with the Keynoters.

Among the 17 selections from 1947 the King Cole Trio are such iconic performances as “Sweet Lorraine,” and “Hit That Jive, Jack,” with Cole’s deft, sophisticated piano, warm vocals, and Oscar Moore’s sparkling guitar runs. Then there are instrumentals like the bouncy “This Side Up,” with Cole and Moore playing off each other. “Honeysuckle Rose,” shows Cole’s ability to spin a horn-like solo on Fats Waller’s stride classic as Moore responds with a similar guitar solo, before Cole’s piano provides a setting for bassist Wesley Smith. “Gone With a Draft,” has a lyric dealing with the wartime military draft, while “Early Morning Blues,” is a low-key, jazzy blues instrumental. and “Scotchin’ With Soda,” is more hip jive, while “That Ain’t Right,” is a vocal blues that perhaps anticipates the similarly uptown piano blues of Cecil Gant (and Charles Brown although Cole’s vocals are much less morose than those of Brown) several years in the future.

The 17 tracks by the Cole Trio are followed by 1936 recordings by Eddie Cole’s Solid Senders, a small group led by Nat’s brother on bass and occasional vocal. As Ritz notes, Nat’s playing is in the manner of Earl Hines on a swinging combo while brother Eddie sings “Honey Hush,” a jive lyric about Sadie Green with punchy horns (trumpet and two saxophones) and a full rhythm section. The other four selections (including an alternate take) are peppy instrumentals including “Thunder” that has nice solos from trumpeter Kenneth Roane as well as Nat and the two saxophonists both of whom display a fair amount of vibrato in the tenor sax solos. Cole’s playing sounds quite modern against the horns. These tracks are followed by the four issued 1946 sides by The Keynoters that featured alto saxophonist Willie Smith along with Cole (as Lord Calvert), bassist Red Callendar and drummer Jackie Mills. Compared to the wobbly playing of the saxophonists with Eddie Cole, Smith is a more modern player and was along with Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges among the finest swing alto saxophonists with a nice tone that hints at the blues. After a wonderful performance of “The Way You Look Tonight,” a torrid instrumental, “Airiness a La Nat,” opens with some wonderful Cole playing before some splendid playing from Smith. This is swing at its finest.

The second disc contains all of Nat King Cole’s performances at the legendary 1944 initial Jazz at the Philharmonic Concerts, that in contrast to the cool trio Cole Trio, was wide open jam sessions. In July, 1944 Cole helps anchor a rhythm section of Les Paul on guitarist, either Johnny Miller or Red Callendar on bass and Lee Young on drums with saxophones by Jack McVea and Illinois Jacquet, and trombone by J.J. Johnson. McVea robustly kicks off “Lester Leaps In,” followed by hot buzzing from Johnson and Cole’s hot playing who is followed by Jacquet. Jacquet's incendiary solos starts off with a hint of Lester Young before he gets down with a hot solo that would set the template for all the bar walkers and honkers as he bellows on the tenor. Les Paul follows with strong single note runs mixed with chords before Cole takes a brief solo chorus as the horns take the song out. McVea sets the table for the swinging “Tea For Two,” with his Coleman Hawkins’ influenced playing followed by Cole with a solo that mixes his virtuosity and restraint. It is followed by Jacquet’s gutbucket tenor before another scintillating Paul solo.

After “Tea For Two” come perhaps the most celebrated performance from the initial concert, “Blues.” Jacquet’s solo on this track is legend as are the  percussively rooted solos of Cole and Paul as Lee Young and Miller anchor the rock solid in-the-pocket-groove before the solos of McVea, Johnson and Jacquet. The blues playing here is as good as it gets and Jacquet’s solo is one of the greatest blues solos played by anyone on any instrument. The ballad “Body and Soul,” takes the tempo down with more marvelous playing. Cole is heard singing “Sweet Lorraine,” with Les Paul taking the spot usually held down by Oscar Moore. The performances of “I Found a New Baby,” “Rosetta,” and the brief rendition of “One O’Clock Jump,” provide more opportunity for the aggregation to raise the roof with their exuberant playing, and Cole is marvelous whether comping and trumpeting out a piano solo. Most, or all, of this specific disc has been available on a Verve reissue although that may be long-out-of-print. In any case, the JATP performances here never sound stale to these ears.

The final disc finds Cole primarily in the role of accompanist as he backs Dexter Gordon on a session that includes Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison on trumpet and this 1943 or 1944 session opens with Long Tall Dexter showing a strong Lester Young influence on a group of swing-based tunes including “I Found a New Baby,” “Sweet Lorraine,” and “Rosetta.” The small combo instrumental rendition of “Sweet Lorraine” contrasts with the two vocal renditions presented in this set. Dexter’s session closes with a jumping blues, “I Blowed and Gone.”

The Gordon session is followed by another legendary session, The Lester Young Trio, with the great saxophonist and pianist Cole joined by drummer Buddy Rich. From the opening of “On the Waterfront,” these are, in essence, magical duets between Young and Cole as Rich generally displays a light touch, even on the swinging tempo found on “Somebody Loves Me.” The trio romps on “I Found a New Baby,” while Rich sits out “Peg ‘O My Heart,” a marvelous display of Cole and Young’s magic together. Alternate takes from The Keynoters session are the final performances issued in this compilation.

Fans of Nat King Cole who are interested in the jazz side of this American master certainly will love the music here, although they may already own a good portion of the music released here. The packaging is first-class and includes full discographical and session information and the mastering sounds fine to these weathered ears. This might make a marvelous gift for the holidays or special occasions and should be readily available from a variety of sources. This was a present for myself.

Ghosts of Harlem Will Be Great Gift For Jazz Lover

The following review has been written for Jazz & Blues Report and hopefully will appear in the December issue. I certaainly think this book (with an included CD) would make for a terrific present for the jazz lover in your family or a gift for yourself. This lists for $75 but amazon has it for a bit over $50 as I post this.

The Ghosts of Harlem
Hank O’Neal
Vanderbilt University Press

At one time Harlem was the center of the Jazz World with such bands and performers as Duke Ellington, the Savoy Sultans, Chick Webb and others playing as part of shows at such legendary places as The Cotton Club, Connie’s Inn, the Savoy Ballroom, the Lafayette Theatre and the Apollo Theatre along with other places such as Monroe’s and Minton's. In “The Ghosts of Harlem,” Hank O’Neal provides a brief history of Harlem’s jazz scene from its heyday to its decline after World War 11, as well as provides interviews of 42 artists who were part of Harlem’s vibrant scene and get their memories as well as views on what led to the decline.

Its not a dry oral history either as author O’Neal is a gifted and noted photographer. While some may know him as the principal person behind the Chiaroscuro Records label, he was at one time on duty for the Central Intelligence Agency, before his more known musical activities which also included producing the Floating Jazz Festivals, the source of the various jazz, blues and other themed music cruises of today. Also he is well respected as a photographer and author having compiled “The Eddie Condon Scrapbook of Jazz,” “Gay Day: The Golden Age of the Christopher Day Parade,” and “Berenice Abbott”, about his friend, the noted photographer. His talents as a writer, interviewer, photographer and record producer are all given effect in this handsome coffee table volume that is richly illustrated with both his own portraits, mostly taken with a view camera, as well as archival photos from various sources. This updates the original version which was published in France in 1997).

The early chapters set the table as he explores some of the that made Harlem, contrasting his contemporary photos with historical photos as he discusses the venue, who played there and lets us see how its now a church, an apartment building or a few clubs still exist and feature live entertainment, including some jazz. The bulk of the book is devoted to the interviews of The Ghosts of Harlem. They are Ghosts only in a figurative sense, as O’Neal has common themes in the interviews including some basic biographical information, when and how they first came to Harlem, what memories they had of the places they played and what performers they remember as outstanding as well as thoughts or observations on the decline in jazz and any recent visits or experiences they had.

The persons interviewed range from such prominent jazz figures as Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Cab Calloway, Milt Hinton, Clark Terry, Benny Carter, Illinois Jacquet, and Joe Williams, along with such important persons, if not as widely known among the general public, as Andy Kirk, Eddie Durham, Sammy Price, Buddy Tate, Danny Barker and Sy Oliver. The recollections are fascinating as O’Neal is a gifted interviewer (some of his Chiaroscuro CDs included jazz speak tracks with the performers recollections included), and his contemporary portraits are mixed in with historical photo as well as label shots of 78s that the artist was featured or performed on.

Added to the interviews is a compact disc with eleven performances from the Chiarascuro catalog featuring 17 of the Ghosts of Harlem including Illinois Jacquet, Buddy Tate, Milt Hinton, Jonah Jones, Doc Cheatham, Eddie Barefield, Red Richards, Al Casey, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, Danny Barker, Frank Wess, Harry Edison, Major Holley, Benny Carter, Clark Terry, and Joe Williams, and a bit of Jazz Speak with Eddie Barefield, Cab Calloway, Eddie Barefield and Milt Hinton recollecting about the times together in Cab’s great band as they joke about whether Cab had his Studebaker or Lincoln in the Pullman Car they traveled in while touring.

This is a large and heavy book. 432 pages with 475 b&w photographs and the CD with over an hour of music and talk. Its is fascinating and by its very nature invites one to delve back into it again and again. “The Ghosts of Harlem have come to life in this superb book. Something to keep in mind when looking for a gift for a jazz lover in your circle of friends or family.

Mr. Jacquet's Texas Tenor still sounds tough

The late Illinois Jacquet certainly left his mark on musical history with so many outstanding recordings. The Man I Love is a marvelous reissue from the French Black & Blue label that I downloaded from emusic (I believe it is available on other download services such as amazon and itunes). A trio date with organist Wild Bill Davis and drummer Al Bartee, there are few musical surprises, but plenty of space for Mr. Jacquet's tough texas tenor as well as space for organ pioneer, Wild Bill davis to shine. Perhaps not a lot of surprises in the music contained as it includes classic big band swing numbers. Still Jacquet handles it in his own distinctive approach with a heavy blues foundation (and a bit of vibrato in the manner of Ben Webster) with a dash of Lester Young in how he phrases his solos. This can be heard in the marvelous trio rendition of Cottontail, a feature for Webster in the Ellington Band of the early forties. The title track is taken at a quicker tempo than usual for a song most probably identify with Billie Holiday's classic renditions. Of course Jacquet was one of the great ballad players as evidenced on Misty. There are also strong renditions of Herschel Evans blues ballad, Blue and Sentimental, and Ellington's It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got the Swing). I won't claim this is a definitive Jacquet disc, just one that has given me plenty of enjoyment after downloading it and well worth folks sampling.