St. Louis Blues considered

Arguably W.C. Handy's most famous song might be "St. Louis Blues." I recall the founder of the Blues Foundation, Joe Savarin claimed that it was the most recorded song in the US history. Whatever the truth of this statement, it has been recorded and performed numerous times. Here are simply some of the many recordings of it starting with a 1914 recording from W.C. Handy's Band.

One of the most celebrated versions is by Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong on cornet.

Louis Armstrong recorded his first version in 1930. I once heard someone suggest the difference between blues and jazz can be heard in the recordings by Bessie Smith and Armstrong.

Here is a more recent rendition from Catherine Russell from the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Mark Shane is the pianist and Jon-Erik Kellso plays the muted trumpet.

Here is the New Orleans clarinetist George Lewis.

Here Nat King Cole sings this classic

Earl 'Fatha' Hines did his "Boogie Woogie on Saint Louis Blues."

Albert Ammons also did a boogie-woogie interpretation.

Here is the legendary Billie Holiday.

One of my favorite versions by a bluesman is the late Johnny Copeland. It was on his first Rounder album "Copeland Special" that included jazz saxophonists Arthur Blythe, Byard Armstrong, and George Adams.

Then there is the great Furry Lewis

And the duo of Sylvester Weaver and Walter Beasley recorded this instrumental version in 1927.

Finally an early version from Duke Ellington with Bing Crosby singing.

There are so many more, but I hope you found these enjoyable.

A few thoughts on the Blues Hall of Fame

One of my friends, who may be on the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame Committee, inquired about my suggestions of folks to be considered for the Hall. I provided him with a number of names. The names I submitted included Roy and Grady Gaines (who are both still with us), the Boogie Woogie Trio of Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, and Meade Lux Lewis and their mentor Jimmy Yancey, the great Esther Phillips and Duke Robillard. I also suggested as Classics of Blues Recordings the compilations that accompanied Sam Charters "The Country Blues," Paul Oliver's "Blues Fell This Morning and the Origin Jazz Library "Really the Country Blues," and a number of the early Yazoo vinyl albums.

 Albert Ammons & Pete Johnson

The artists selected for induction were announced Sunday by the Foundation and include: Mavis Staples, Magic Slim, Johnny Copeland, Henry Gray, Latimore and Willie Johnson. For Classics of Blues Recordings albums they choose John Lee Hooker, The Real Folk Blues (Chess). I do find these artists deserving although I do not believe any of these artists are more deserving than the ones I had suggested. 

I am pleased for the Texas Twister, Johnny Copeland, a singular performer that was always adding new elements to his music.  Magic Slim was one of the biggest and most reliable acts on the blues circuit of the past forty odd years. I was surprised of the selection of Latimore, although pleased that someone in the soul-blues world was honored. Henry Gray has been a solid pianist and vocalist in the over forty years since he moved back to Louisiana, not to mention his tenure with Howling Wolf. Willie Johnson was a major player on Wolf's early recordings (but how can you pick him and also not pick Roy Gaines, who did session work for Duke (with Bobby Bland I believe); Chuck Willis (he was also Willis' band leader); Jimmy Rushing and many more, as well as numerous outstanding recordings on his own, several of which were award-winning ones). 

Johnny Copeland doing "Devil's Hand" in 1984

To my mind, the only questionable selection of a performer is that of Mavis Staples, whose iconic status as a performer is well acknowledged, but one whose performances and recordings are outside the blues. The press-release announcing the selections acknowledges this, stating that she "one of America’s premier singers of gospel and soul music, has expanded her musical mastery with her performances in more blues-based settings in recent years." Performances being in a blues-based setting is not, to me, a strong rationale to induct a non-blues artist, as wonderful as she is, to a Blues Hall of Fame. I understand the rationale, I do not agree with it. 

A few other observations about this year's selections. Once again, with the exception of Son House's "Preaching the Blues" as a classic single, pre-war blues artists and recordings were generally ignored. Also the one album selected, John Lee Hooker, The Real Folk Blues, is not, in my estimation, one of the more important albums of Hooker's music. 

Of course this represents my opinion, but one resulting from following and listening to blues for a half century.

Shemekia Copeland's Deluxe Alligator Blues

Shemekia Copeland impressed me the first time I saw her perform as she was with her father, Johnny Copeland. I had heard amazing things about this teenager and on the night in 1995 or 1996 at Tornado Alley in Wheaton, Maryland, she sang a few numbers backed by Johnny’s band exhibiting a poise as well as power that belied her age. I believe it was Bill Wax (now of XM-Sirius Bluesville) who said she reminded him of a young Irma Thomas. And her dad was beaming on stage listening to his baby perform. Her late father undoubtedly would not be surprised by how far his daughter as come, being one of the biggest attractions in the blues today.

Alligator, for whom Shemekia recorded her first four albums, has just issued the latest in its “Deluxe Edition” series of reissues with 16 selections (over an hour of music) compiled from these four releases as well as an Alligator Christmas release. Along with her live performances, these recordings have established her reputation and these do provide a good sampling of these recordings. She really shouts out these out against solid bands. What is striking is how good she is, how solid the bands are but the songs stand out more from what she invests in them as many of these songs are solid, if somewhat idiomatic. One song that stands out is her father’s “Ghetto Child,” which has become a cornerstone of her performances, but her lament on the state of current radio, “Who Stole My Radio?” is better sung than the lyrics perhaps deserve. Other songs like a toast to a lady’s salon in ”Sholanda’s,” are a bit more original. That song along with the fine late night lament “Don’t Whisper,” are songs Shemekia collaborated with others in writing. This latter number has a fine vocal where Shemekia has turned the heat down, but it still smolders. Other songs include here include the burning “Turn the Heat Up,” and the acidic “Salt In My Wounds.”

This “Deluxe Edition” includes a booklet with all the session information of the performances and a poster whose the back containing Bruce Iglauer’s reflections on her as well as rare photos of Shemekia. It is a fine retrospective of the music Shemekia Copeland recorded for Alligator and especially for those lacking a CD by her, serves as a welcome starting point to her powerful blues.

The review copy was provided by Alligator Records.

Randy Weston's Blues Eruption

One of the dilemmas of writing about jazz and blues is that recordings go in and out of print, no matter how meritorious the recording is. One case in point is the Randy Weston album, Volcano Blues that was issued on Antilles and now found on Amazon as a rare collectible or as a used gem. It was a particularly appealing album for me in that in included two vocals by the late Texas blues man, Johnny Copeland. And of course it had the marvelous arrangements by Melba Liston, Weston’s longtime collaborator. Anyway here is a review I did of it back in the January-February 1994 issue of Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 188) of an album that certainly holds up today, and hopefully will get reissued soon.

Pianist-Composer, Randy Weston, and arranger, Melba Liston, have teamed for an exploration of the blues in its various forms as they lead a little big band which includes Wallace Roney on trumpet, Hamiet Bluett on baritone sax, Teddy Edwards on tenor sax, Ted Dunbar on guitar and Charlie Persip on drums. Comprised mostly of Weston’s compositions, the voicings of Liston’s arrangements add more than punch to these intriguing explorations in the blues. Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland performs accompanied solely by his acoustic guitar, Blue Mood, a Jessie Mae Robinson composition that T-Bone Walker first recorded. Eschewing his guitar, Copeland also reprises Jimmy Rushing’ vocal on Harvard Blues, which, like the Caribbean flavored Volcano, is taken from the Count Basie orchestra book. It should be noted that one expecting to hear wailing Kansas City jazz with plenty of blowing solos will be disappointed as Weston and Liston explore a variety of aspects of the blues but in a more deliberate approach. Links with Africa are explored on Chalabati Blues, anchored by Jamil Naser’s steady bass line and framed by Liston’s imaginative arrangements. Wallace Roney’s trumpet shines on Sad Beauty Blues, a Weston composition featuring another carefully worked out Weston solo. More African flavor underlies The Nafs, a feature for Hamiet Bluett’s gut bucket baritone sax. In addition to Copeland’s vocal, Harvard Blues sports a splendid tenor solo from Teddy Edwards who also solos on Blues for Strayhorn, which Weston originally wrote for (and performed at) the funeral of Duke Ellington’s right hand man. Both Weston’s piano and Liston’s scoring capture the Ellington flavor here. J.K Blues is a tight bop blues reminiscent of some of the hot blues instrumentals recorded forty years ago, although this performance is distinguished by the many fine concise solos. Weston is the primary soloist on piano and while economical playing, like that of Basie and Monk, shows that it is what one plays and says that matters, not how many notes are played. While the liner notes get pretentious at spots, there is little else to fault about this consistently thoughtful, earthy and rewarding recording.

There are copies available on ebay as well as amazon.

Weston & Liston's Blues Eruption

The following review originally appeared in the January-February 1994 Jazz & Blues Report. As originally written it contains one major gaffe that I have corrected here. This is a part of the Johnny 'Clyde' Copeland recorded legacy I would suspect most are unaware of. This is well worth trying to acquire at used CD stores or ebay auctions.

Pianist-Composer, Randy Weston, and arranger, Melba Liston, have teamed for an exploration of the blues in its various forms, Volcano Blues (Gitanes), as they lead a little big band which includes Wallace Roney on trumpet, Hamiet Bluett on baritone sax, Teddy Edwards on tenor sax, Ted Dunbar on guitar and Charlie Persip on drums. Comprised mostly of Weston’s compositions, the voicings of Liston’s arrangements add more than punch to these intriguing explorations in the blues. Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland performs on unaccompanied acoustic guitar, Blue Mood, a Jessie Mae Robinson composition that T-Bone Walker first recorded. Eschewing his guitar, Copeland also reprises Jimmy Rushing’ vocal on a Count Basie recording, Harvard Blues, which like the Caribbean flavored Volcano, is taken from the Count Basie orchestra book. It should be noted that one expecting to hear wailing Kansas City jazz with plenty of blowing solos will be disappointed as Weston and Liston explore a variety of aspects of the blues. Links with Africa are explored on Chalabati Blues, which is anchored by Jamil Naser’s steady bass line and framed by Liston’s imaginative horn voicings. Wallace Roney’s hard bop trumpet shines on Sad Beauty Blues, a Weston composition featuring another carefully worked out Weston solo. More African flavor underlies The Nafs, a feature for Hamiet Bluett’s gut bucket baritone sax. In addition to Copeland’s vocal, Harvard Blues sports a splendid tenor solo from Teddy Edwards who also solos on Blues for Strayhorn, which Weston originally wrote for (and performed at) the funeral of Duke Ellington’s right hand man. Both Weston’s piano and Liston’s scoring capture the Ellington flavor. J.K Blues is a tight bop blues reminiscent of some of the hot blues instrumentals recorded forty years ago, although this performance is distinguished by the concise solos. The supporting cast features some great players who shine here. Weston is the primary soloist on piano and while economical playing, like that of Basie and Monk, shows that it is what one plays and says that matters, not how many notes are played. While the liner notes get pretentious at spots, there is little else to fault about this consistently thoughtful, earthy and rewarding recording.