This installment of Take 5 is a short playlist of Esther Phillips. Esther Phillips had a remarkable career starting with her first recordings with Johnny Otis on "Double Crossing Blues," and continuing decades later when she had a disco hit with "What A Difference a Day Makes." She was one of the great post-war women of the blues and those who select the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame inductees for the Blues Foundation should be ashamed that she has not already been inducted posthumously.
First up is her hit, "Double Crossing Blues," with the Johnny Otis and The Robins.
Another one from her early years was for Federal with the Dominoes, "The Deacon Moves In"
Esther had hits with songs that were not strictly in the rhythm and blues vein such as "Release Me," and "When a Woman Loves a Man." Her cover of the Beatles' "And I Love Him," so impressed them, that they flew her to England to perform on tv with them.
She never strayed far from the blues however as can be heard in this medley with Johnny Otis titled "Cry Me a River Blues," but so much more.
Finally, we close with her harrowing performance of a Gil Scott Heron song whose lyrics Esther unfortunately lived. This performance was so stunning that Aretha Franklin gave the Grammy to her because she thought Esther deserved a Grammy more than she did.
While I normally stop at 5 tracks, I have a bonus today with a clip of her with Nina Simone, Carmine McRae, Maxine Weldon, and Morgana King paying tribute to Billie Holiday.
I never had the pleasure of seeing Etta James perform. Several times I attended events she was supposed to perform at, but each time she withdrew shortly before the performance. I can only remember her by her body of recordings as well as television appearances she made. I remember the memorable episode of the original PBS Soundstage program where she sang a duet with Dr. John on I’d Rather Go Blind.
The first albums of Etta James I purchased included the double-CD compilation of her Essential Chess Recordings and one of her albums on Island which included a stormy rendition of Standin’ On Shaky Ground, and the classic Otis Redding number “I’ve Got Dreams To Remember. What was striking about her was her husky, earthiness, yet the ability to caress a ballad so that her signature song was a song written in the forties, At Last. She could be a force of nature and yet caress a ballad. Few could handle the range of material she did with the same conviction and authority. There was the church rooted style of Something Got a Hold on Me or I’d Rather Go Blind and the romanticism of At Last, as well as her latter day recordings of standards.
While the recordings she listened to by Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington, one of the most important influences on her singing was her dear friend, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson. Some, who were not aware may have called Watson, “the female Etta James” but if she was asked she would correct them and state she was the female John Watson. This might be evident if one mixed some of Watson’s slow recordings like Cuttin’ In or Embraceable You, with James’ ballads or her Billie Holiday Tribute, Mystery Lady. Her impact can be seen in the number of recordings of her songs by others, with At Last becoming a wedding standard.
Prior to her death, Universal released on its Hip-O-Select label, the four-CD Heart & Soul: A Retrospective, that in its four CDs surveys her recordings from her debut as The Wallflower doing Roll With Me Henry, for Modern Records to the previously unissued 2007 recording of Rodney Crowell’s Ashes By Now. The first disc opens with 9 recordings from Modern including Roll With Me Henry, and her jump blues Good Rocking Daddy. The bulk of this compilation derive from her stay at Chess starting from All I Could Do Is Cry, her duet with Harvey Fuqua of Willie Dixon’s Spoonful, the standards At Last and Sunday King of Love, duets with Sugar Pie DeSanto and her visits to Muscle Shoals which produced Tell Mama, I’d Rather Go Blind, and Otis Redding’s Security. Before she left Chess they experimented with other producers turning in renditions of St. Louis Blues, Tracy Nelson’s Down So Low, and Randy Newman’s Sail Away.
After her tenure at Chess she produced a moving version of Alice Cooper’s Only Women Bleed, for Warner Brothers (although I prefer the rare Ike and Tina Turner rendition) and was caught live with Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson for Fantasy represented here on Percy Mayfield’s Please Send Me Someone To Love. She joined Island and produced a stirring “Damn Your Eyes,” that today perhaps only a Bettye LaVette could do equal justice to. Not everything is top level. Her duet with B.B. King on Big Jay McNeely’s There Is Something on Your Mind, is a nice track but not as powerful as the original with Little Sonny Warner on the vocal or Bobby Marchand’s two-part reworking which is the source for the King-James interpretation here. Blues remained a core of her music whether on The Blues Is My Business, or the acoustic blues rendition of Elmore James’ The Sky Is Crying.
I purchased this box set. Here is Etta singing At Last.
Others have written obituaries about the late Johnny Otis. One of the best ones appeared in the New York Times and Marc Myers at his blog, jazzwax.com, had a very astute appreciation of the gentleman who was sometimes referred to as “The Godfather of Rhythm & Blues.” But Johnny Otis was so much more. Born in Northern California in a primarily African-American neighborhood, he may have been genetically of Greek ancestry, but he choose to live as an African-American. He played the spectrum of Black American Music (to use a phrase favored by Nicholas Payton), not simply Rhythm & Blues.
His musically chops may have started with Count Matthews and his Blues Band in the San Francisco Bay Area. On the recommendation of Nat King Cole and Jimmy Witherspoon, he moved to Los Angeles to play drums with Harlan Leonard and His Rockets, one of the last big bands to emerge from Kansas City. He himself was leading a big band soon after and recorded “Harlem Nocturne,” the first of a number chart topping records over his career.
He was among those who made the transition from big band to the smaller jump bands that would provider the foundation for post-war rhythm and blues. With Bradu Ali, he soon was operating “The Barrelhouse,” which would feature some of the greatest artists. And he would soon be starting his career as a talent scout, disc jockey, television host, record producer, community leader and organizer, entrepreneur, author, songwriter, recording artist, church leader and so much more.
The performers he discovered as well as those he recorded with are legion and legendary: (Little) Esther Phillips, The Robins (later the Coasters), Mel Walker, Linda Hopkins, Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rushing, Johnny ’Guitar’ Watson, Big Mama Thornton, Jackie Wilson, Little WIllie John, Devonia Williams, James Van Streeter, Preston Love, Big Jim Wynn, Pete ‘Guitar’ Lewis, Jimmy Nolen (guitarist on “Willie and the Hand Jive” and inventor of scratch guitar as bassist Christian McBride observed), Etta James, Delmar ‘Mighty Mouth’ Evans, Margie Evans, Jackie Payne, Charles Brown, Johnny Ace, Slim Green, Gene ‘The Mighty Flea’ Connors, Clifford Solomon, Marie Adams, Joe Fritz, Don ‘Sugarcane’ Harris, Amos Milburn, Gatemouth Moore, Pee Wee Crayton, and Louis Jordan to throw a few names around.
My first conscious exposure to Otis’ music was the Kent album Cold Shot in DownBeat. That album introduced me to the singing of Mighty Mouth Evans, Johnny’s son Shuggie on guitar (displaying a facility way beyond his years) and Otis himself on piano, vibes and drums. Featured on the instrumental title track was Sugarcane Harris on violin and his performance with Otis at the time would relaunch his career. Cold Shot brought Johnny back to the fore of the blues world and led to a follow-up studio album on Epic (which I do not believe is currently available), as well as albums by Shuggie and Harris and The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey. This latter album was from a live Monterey Jazz Festival performance where Otis brought together Big Joe Turner, Esther Phillips, Roy Milton, Pee Wee Crayton, Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson and Ivory Joe Hunter for one of the greatest celebrations of this music ever.
Over the next thirty odd years Johnny continued to record, both with new recordings on his Blues Spectrum label by some of these pioneering legends as well as a variety of albums that covered the whole spectrum of blues and jazz. For Arhoolie, he did a loving homage to those Black Big Bands that inspired and influenced him, Spirit of the Black Territory Bands. For Alligator he produced in the early 1980s, The New Johnny Otis Show which introduced vocalists Vera Hamilton and Charles Williams as well as had plenty of Shuggie’s guitar, while Good Lovin’ Blues from 1990 had a fuller band with saxophonist Clifford Scott and vocalist Jackie Payne.
Of course, Johnny Otis was more than simply a musician. He was a painter, a community leader and social activist who also ran for political office (endorsed at the time by Dodger legend Maury Wills). He also ministered at his non-sectarian Church at which folks of any faith (even nonbelievers) were welcome and which carried out a variety of social welfare programs including a community kitchen. He was a disc jockey as well as a performer and in the late 50’s had a popular television show. In addition to recording for a variety of labels, he produced and played on recordings for Mercury-Emarcy, Duke-Peacock, Federal and Capitol Records, and later operated Dog Records. He continued in radio, even after moving back to the San Francisco area, hosting a regular show of music and interviews until the past few years.
Otis championed the pioneers of blues and Rhythm and Blues for his entire life. He conducted a series of interviews for Blues Unlimited with some of these and when he himself was interviewed, always noted the hype and publicity received by imitators and popularizers while the originals were still around. As a songwriter he contributed such classics as Every Beat Of My Heart for Gladys Knight and The Pips. He authored several books, including Listen To The Lambs which contained his reflections after the Watts Riots, and Upside Your Head!: Rhythm and Blues On Central Avenue, where he discussed the music he played such a major roll in. Otis was also a painter with some of his paintings reproduced in Colors and Chords: The Art of Johnny Otis. Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story, is George Lipsitz's excellent biography on Otis.
Otis’ musical legacy consists not only of Shuggie, but also Nicky, drummer with the Steve Edmondson-Jackie Payne Band, and Shuggie’s son, Eric Otis, who is also a guitarist as well as composer and orchestrator with works with his other grandfather, another musical legend, Gerald Wilson.
Marc Myers had several recommendations of Johnny’s recordings in his blog that I have linked above. I recommend:
The Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Caravan; The Complete Savoy Recordings. A 3-CD box set with 77 recordings of which I wrote: “[T]he recommended collection of Otis’ Savoy recordings, not simply because it is so complete, but because it is so good and influential. This is out-of-print but should be available
Midnight at the Barrelhouse - The Johnny Otis Story Volume 1: 1945-57. I have ordered this Ace reissue which was released a few months ago to celebrate Johnny’s 90th Birthday. It is the first of a two disc retrospective of Johnny Otis’ musical career. It includes a variety of his Savoy, Duke, Capital and Dig recordings along with big Mama Thornton’ Hound Dog as well as versions of his songs So Fine and Every Beat Of My Heart. The second volume, On With the Show - The Johnny Otis Story Volume 2: 1957-1974, is scheduled for early February release.
The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey. As I wrote when this was rereleased on CD in 2000, “There has been hardly anything recorded in this vein since this that has come close to equalling this good rocking time.”
Other releases of note include:
Creepin’ with the Cats. One of several albums from the English Ace label compiled from Otis’ Dig Records and includes vocalists Little Arthur Matthews and Handsome Mel Williams as well as guitarist pete ‘Guitar’ Lewis and Jimmy Nolen on a range of material that was contemporaneous with Otis’ Capitol Recordings. Another Ace reissue in this series from Otis’ Dig group of labels is Dig These Blues with selections from Al Simmons, Slim Green, Sidney maiden The Cats From Fresno and Sugarcane Harris.
Johnny Otis Show: Vintage 1950’s Broadcasts from Los Angeles. Another release from English Ace Records that captures some live location performances with Johnny and his band although with some radio ads of the time (including Maury Wills endorsement of Johnny running for assemblyman).
Cold Shot - A reissue of the album which featured a young Shuggie on guitar, vocalist Delmar Evans and Sugarcane Harris with some fine blues with highlight’s including “Country Girl,” with plenty of swagger in the performance, “Goin’ Back To LA,” a “Sweet Home Chicago” variation and the title track, a strong instrumental showcasing Harris’ violin.
Spirit Of The Black Territory Bands. The Big Band Album Otis recorded for Arhoolie may only be available today as a download. It has strong renditions of songs associated with the big bands of Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, and Jay McShann that influenced and provided inspiration for Otis.
Here is Johnny and company doing "Willie and The Hand Jive" from 1958. It is a different you tube clip than circulating the web.
The music world and fans of jazz, blues and rhythm and blues have come together to note, mourn and celebrate the life of Johnny Otis. Obituaries with details on Johnny’s life have been published in the NY Times and LA Times and more will follow. This writer has been a fan of Johnny Otis’ many faceted career for over four decades since first acquiring the Cold Shot album by The Johnny Otis Show on Kent Records. I will be providing a fuller appreciation of him in a few days, but thought it might be useful to post this review from the May/June 2000 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 245). The underlying CD box is no longer in print but can be purchased from dealers of our-of-print and used recordings.
The release of a triple disc box set, The Johnny Otis Rhythm & Blues Caravan, The Complete Savoy Recordings is coincidental with Otis’ induction into the Blues Foundation’s Hall of Fame. The release is one of a series of reissues being produced by Atlantic, The Savoy Jazz Originals that includes also a box set of Jimmy Scott’s Savoy recordings and other classic modern jazz sessions from that pioneering label.
The seventy-seven selections on the three discs present almost 4 hours of Otis’s classic rhythm and blues. As Billy Vera, who programmed and annotated this box notes at the conclusion of his booklet notes, “Johnny Otis certainly must be listed high on any list of rhythm and blues pioneers. Along with his caravan of singers and musicians, he played a vital role in creating and nurturing one of the most vibrant musical genres of the twentieth century.”
The collection opens up with four sides Otis recorded with a Big Band for Excelsior that show his links to the Count Basie sound. The opening Harlem Nocturne was a classic slow instrumental blues that included Bill Doggett on piano, Teddy Buckner on trumpet, Paul Quinchette, and James van Streeter on tenor saxophones, and Curtis Counce on bass. A couple of sides from this session sported terrific vocals from Basie vocalist Jimmy Rushing, one of which, Jimmy’s Round the Clock, predates similar songs from Joe Turner, Otis himself and Chuck Berry. One other instrumental dates from this 1945 session and is followed by a striking 1947 instrumental, Midnight at the Barrelhouse, which finds Otis working with the smaller jump band combo and sports some electrifying guitar.
By 1949, Ralph Bass signed Otis to Savoy and started recording with smaller groups that included the wonderful pianist Devonia Williams, and the great Pete ‘Guitar’ Lewis. Otis by this time was often heard on vibes, and not drums. The basic model of his group was the pioneering, chart-topping combos of Louis Jordan and Roy Milton. Like them he had a crisp, swinging rhythm section and punching, riffing horns. He also had Pete Lewis’ slashing guitar; and vocalists including shouter Redd Lyte, The Robins, Little Esther Phillips and Mel Walker. Lyte is an able shouter on the rocking Ain’t Nothin Shakin, while Lewis turns in a nice T-Bone flavored solo on the slow Hangover Blues.
Prior to being paired with Little Esther, the Robins showed their versatility on the rocking If I Didn’t Love You So, and the sweet ballad, Rain in My Eyes. The addition of Little Esther for the classic Double Crossing Blues led to Otis first #1 recording with Savoy, and one of 11 Otis recordings to chart in 1950. A slashing instrumental like Headhunter showcased the great Pete Lewis, as did the first part of The Turkey Hop, a dance number derived from a children’s song. Otis revisited Harlem Nocturne on Blues Nocturne, with some hot Lewis guitar and deep in the groove alto sax from Floyd Turnham, while Cry Baby introduced the blues crooner Mel Walker (backed by the Robins) on a number that adapts the melody of Charles Brown’s Drifting Blues. This description of the contents of the first volume only touches on the riches to be found here.
The second disc opens with four items featuring the Robins who parted from Otis after a dispute with the Robins’ management. I’m Living OK may not have charted, but this rocker featuring the group’s bass vocalist sports fine playing from Otis and Lewis. There Ain’t No Use Begging is a slow ballad featuring Bobby Nunn, while their last recording, You’re Fine But Not My Kind is a medium tempo blues with some fine vibes from Otis. Little Esther and Mel Walker developed into Otis’ prime vocalists. Their duets featured playful banter between the singers and Deceivin’ Blues, Cupid’s Boogie, Wedding Boogie and Faraway Christmas Blues (the latter two with Lee Graves added) proved quite popular. The second disc concludes with a couple vocals by gospel singer Mary DeLoatch who recorded as Marilyn Scott and produced a nice coupling including a hot Beer Bottle Boogie where Otis is heard on drums and features terrific piano from Devonia Williams and a tenor solo by Lorenzo Holden.
By the time of the Disc Three recordings, Little Esther had been signed by Ralph Bass to Federal, so Mel Walker becomes even more prominent on the vocals. A title like Gee Baby, which reached #2 on the charts with a larger band sports very nice muted trumpet and trombone along with some apt tenor fills and a vocal that suggests a Charles Brown influence. Pete Lewis evokes T-Bone Walker’s Stormy Monday on the intro to Redd Lyte’s Gonna Take a Train. Linda Hopkins made some of her earliest recordings with Otis, and her Doggin’ Blues shows that even then she was a powerful singer.
Mambo Boogie was a hit for Otis and his band as they took advantage of the mambo craze of the time, while Otis’s first vocal, All Nite Long, also was one of 15 Savoy recordings to crack the Billboard charts. One previously unissued selection is the theme for Hunter Hancock’s Harlem Matinee radio show and illustrates all the musical bases that Otis covered in less than two minutes, with snippets of Harlem Nocturne and Jumping at the Woodside included along with a nice boogie woogie segment.
This is a class production. The booklet by Billy Vera provides his usual literate and thoughtful consideration of the artist and the music. Otis himself contributed the painting that serves as the cover for the booklet and the box. While much of this has been issued over the years, I do not know how much was available on compact disc. I believe most of Disc 1 was previously available, but this becomes the recommended collection of Otis’ Savoy recordings, not simply because it is so complete, but because it is so good and influential.
The following brief review of a compilation of blues recordings, mostly classic tracks from the forties and fifties from the Savoy label, appeared originally in the March-April 2004 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 267) and is still available.
The historic Savoy catalog has been reissued numerous times over the past few decades, making available seminal reissues of blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues. The catalog may now be in new hands and it seems the label is being mined yet again. One of the new releases is Savoy Blues1944-1994 which is a three disc sampler that not only includes classic recordings by Joe Turner, Johnny Otis, Little Esther, Little Miss Sharecropper (Lavern Baker), John Lee Hooker and Big Maybelle, but also recordings by Eddie Kirkland, Robert Lockwood and Charles Brown that reflect the acquisition of the Muse and Trix catalogs to supplement the Savoy classics.
Opening with Hot Lips Page’s Uncle Sam’s Blues and closing with Charles Brown’s I Got a Right to Cry, the three discs cover a wide spectrum of music including Billy Eckstine’s classic Jelly Jelly, Gatemouth Moore’s Walking My Blues Away, Billy Wright’s Stacked Deck, Doc Pomus’ cover of Joe Turner’s Hollywood Bed, Turner’s My Gal’s a Jockey, John lee Hooker’s Miss Pearl’s Boogie, Joe Williams’ In the Evening, Nappy Brown’s The Right Time, Big Maybelle’s Blues Early, Early (Parts 1 & 2), Eddie Kirkland’s Snake in the Grass, and Robert Lockwood Jr.’s Selfish Ways.
A review of these titles should give an idea of the range of material presented here from the swing and uptempo mood of Hot Lips Page and Gatemouth Moore, to John Lee Hooker’s delta blues boogie and Eddie Kirkland’s mix of soul and delta blues. With good sound and good notes on the performers by compiler Billy Vera, this serves as a solid overview of the riches of the Savoy Catalog and is value priced as well.
I do not recall if I was sent a review copy from Jazz & Blues Report or the record company.
Jimmy McCracklin’s career still goes strong almost five decades after his first recordings. His second Bullseye Blues album joins him with Johnny Otis, Lowell Fulson, Smokey Wilson, Barbara Lynn, saxophonist Bobby Forte and the late Larry Davis for what is billed a West Coast Blues Reunion. McCracklin certainly has grown from the early recordings that showed a strong influence of Walter Davis’ bittersweet blues. By the mid-fifties, his Blues Blasters with the late Lafayette ‘Thing’ Thomas, were blasting out shuffles and minor key blues with rocking boogie piano, Thomas’ cutting, twisting guitar lines and honking saxes ripping through shuffles and mid-tempo blues.
A Taste of Blues (Blueseye Blues) finds him in a funky mood reminiscent of his later Minit and Stax recordings as he performs some new songs, and new versions of older songs like My Answer or Yesterday is Gone. McCracklin’s best songs reflect Walter Davis’ influence is his dealing with adult human relationships, while his vocals are delivered with a low key that suggests a certain hesitancy and vulnerability.
While Lowell Fulson, Barbara Lynn and Smokey Wilson each contribute guitar, McCracklin’s own guitarist Pee Wee Thomas is the most effective, adding tasteful, scratchy solos that complement McCracklin’s reflective lyrics and tempos. In contrast, Smokey Wilson’s overstated, buzzsaw solos don’t work and suggest his limitations as a guitarist. Former B.B. King saxophonist Bobby Forte adds several fine tenor saxophone solos including a really fine, moody break on My Answer. The duet with Lynn (whose guitar solo is nicely constructed), Yesterday Is Gone, is nice rendering of the lyrics dealing with the two recognizing the break down in their relationship and a hope for reconciliation, as they jointly sing “Let’s talk about our future and let bygones be gone…” The slightly jerky rhythms are those that would be echoed by Magic Sam and other sixties admirers of McCracklin.
There is little on this of the hard rocking boogies McCracklin recorded of Peacock, Irma and various West Coast labels. The opening number Boogie On Down, relates not to hot boogie woogie numbers, but the let’s get down and boogie funk dancing. It may be the nature of McCracklin’s songs, vocal approach, or the lazy tempo, but his music has aged very well. With Ron Levy adding organ, and the use of a vocal chorus on several songs, one cannot accuse Bullseye of underproducing this, although there are places like Put Up Or Shut Up, where a lighter touch and a shorter performance would have made for a more focused blues.
Another solid recording from McCracklin, although when his best recordings from the forties, fifties and sixties get reissued on cd, this may be viewed as a minor recording.
I have made a few minor changes to the review that originally appeared in the October 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 195), and I believe is still in print. I likely received a review copy from Rounder Records. I previously reviewed on this blog an English Ace reissue of classic McCracklin recordings from the Modern label, Blues Blastin’.
Back in the early 1990s, EMI issued a series of blues reissues that made some important and vintage blues available for blues listeners. In the October 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 195) I reviewed a pair of reissues by Amos MIlburn and Big Joe Turner. These reissues included their important recordings for Aladdin and Imperial which in Milburn’s case was his legacy. I have noted that while the original CD sets (which had wonderful booklets) may be available from used sources, but the music is available as downloads on itunes and amazon (and I presume other sources), so my observations are worthwhile, especially since Milburn is such an important artist whose star has faded. Given that most people today associate Milburn’s big hit “Chicken Shack Boogie” with Pinetop Perkins, these recordings should be a revelation to many. What follows is the pertinent portion of my review from 1994 with a few stylistic changes. {Amos} Milburn’s star has been in eclipse for at least twenty years, yet, in the late forties, he was one of the biggest hit-makers in the rhythm and blues world, with most of his hits included on his collection. Despite Amos Milburn’s importance and influence, Rhino Records included no selections by Milburn on their Blues MastersJump Blues or Texas Blues volumes. With the release of Down the Road Apiece, Milburn’s star will perhaps shine a bit brighter today. Inspired by the boogie woogie threesome of Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson, and Louis Jordan’s jumping jive, Milburn was discovered playing in Houston by Lola Anne Cullum and taken to the West Coast to record at sessions that also produced Lightnin’ Hopkins’ first sides.
His earliest recordings were strong Texas boogie woogie numbers, represented here by the title track, with Milburn’s firm piano and smooth, soulful singing, and a November 1947 session that produced his chart record, Chicken Shack Boogie, which was on the charts for 23 weeks and reached number 1. It would start a period of several years where Milburn consistently was on the Billboard R&B charts, with the boogie instrumentals and uptempo numbers Let’s Have a Party, Roomin’ House Boogie and Sax Shack Boogie (many with Maxwell Davis’ gritty tenor saxophone); Charles Brown influenced ballads and dreary blues including Hold Me Baby, Empty Arms Blues and Bewildered, (some also showing kinship to T-Bone Walker’s blues ballads); and mid-tempo blues like Walking Blues and Thinking and Drinking, the latter one of many recordings he made about booze including Bad, Bad, Whiskey, and One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer.
With the success of his songs about drinking, Milburn’s life imitated art and he started drinking heavily, including shot glasses from his his piano while performing. While he continued to chart records until mid-1954, he wasn’t able to stay on the charts with the advent of rock and roll despite efforts to update his sound. Even a pounding new version of Chicken Shack Boogie, in New Orleans with Dave Bartholomew’s studio band, that rocked with the force of a two-trailer diesel doing 75, could not restore him to his status as a chart topper. It is one of the greatest rock and roll records, and it is unfortunate that EMI did not include it in this collection.
After his tenure with Aladdin ended, Milburn continued performing and he recorded for a variety of labels, including some duets with Charles Brown for Ace. He even did an album for Motown, now a collector’s item. He suffered the first stroke in 1969 while working in Cincinnati. He suffered a second stroke shortly thereafter, and in April, 1971, this writer spent an afternoon with Milburn, then in a wheelchair, at the Cleveland VA Hospital. Somehow Milburn recovered enough use of one hand so that in 1976, with Johnny Otis playing the left hand parts, Milburn recorded for Otis’ Blues Spectrum label, although these cuts were not memorable. He died in 1980.
Down the Road Apiece collects his hit records and a few other choice items, although obviously ignoring a substantial part of his 160 or so sides for Aladdin (for instance, there is also a great version of Flying Home). Fans of boogie woogie, club blues and jump blues will find plenty to enjoy here, and, if it meets with your approval, you might watch for a rumored Mosaic box set. {The Mosaic Box was a joy, but has been long out-of-print}.
This collection includes liner notes and lists all of the pertinent Aladdin and Imperial recordings. Lacking is personnel and other complete discographical information, although the notes do highlight the important sidemen. Given the absence of available Amos Milburn, Down the Road Apiece, is a particularly important reissue.
As a footnote to my review I should mention that Milburn’s guitarist, Texas Johnny Brown, is still on the scene, laying down his sophisticated, urban blues.
With a career spanning five decades, Esther Phillips left an impressive legacy of music. She is of course known as a blues singer from her early recordings as Little Esther as part of the Johnny Otis Show. As a thirteen, she recorded “Double Crossing Blues,” with the Robins and had other hits on Savoy with Otis including “Mistrusting Blues” with Mel Walker and “Cupid Boogie” among a number of hit recordings. Later she signed with Federal where she only had one chart record, “Ring-A-Ding-Doo,” but had some great sides including “Brother Beware,” and “The Deacon Moves In,” the latter with the Dominoes. She also had a fine interpretation of Big Mama Thornton’s hit, “Hound Dog.”
In the mid to late fifties, she was still touring the western states where Kenny Rogers, then a struggling performer, saw her and introduced her and introduced his brother, Lelan who co-owned the Lenox label. Signed to Lenox, she recorded, in 1962, her first hit in a decade, a remake of an old Ray price C&W charter, “Release Me,” leading to her recording her an album of country and western songs. After Lenox went bust, Esther ended up on Atlantic which bought her Lenox masters as well as recorded a number of superb sessions. her first hot for Atlantic was “And I Love Him,” a cover of the Beatles hit that so enamored the British stars that they flew her over to England to perform on a British television show with them.
If one looks at some blues references works such as the Euro-centric Penguin Guide as well as the latest edition of Blues Records, one does not find Esther Phillips recordings represented after her Federal days. This means that her Atlantic albums “Burnin’” and “Confessing the Blues,” are not considered. “Burnin’” and “Confessin’ the Blues,” are paired on a Collectables reissue and also were sampled in Rhino’s compilation of Esther’s Atlantic Recordings.
“Blues Records” does state that it is a selective discography, but one notes that perhaps they should have listened to some of these albums. The Penguin Guide generally ignores even Bobby Bland’s recent recordings, including some selected by The Blues Foundation for its Hall of Fame, while including recordings that would not be out of place in a book on rock recordings.
It might reflect that some African-American recordings often do not like to be described as blues singers. The late Tyrone Davis was one, not that he didn’t like or respect the blues, but they felt that they could sing so much more. Perhaps reflecting the time in the post-war era when black singers were usually given blues material to perform. I recall Ruth Brown in the eighties might have made a similar statement, although a decade later the great rhythm and blues pioneer would show no such qualms with being called a blues singer, and she continued to record more than simply blues. Whites want to be called bluesmen or blues women because it supposedly lends them credibility. When they play rock, it allegedly is taking the blues in new directions. I realize this commentary is oversimplified, but many of these same folks will be among those criticizing hip hop as having no connection to blues, ignoring the facts that both blues and rap (soul, doowop, gospel, jazz) are part of the African-American River of Song).
Both of these recordings have made a strong impression on this listener. “Burnin’” is a live recording that was recorded at Freddie Jett's Pied Piper, in L.A. The live recording was with a trio or maybe a quartet I believe, and later King Curtis overdubbed horns, and other musicians. He did a rather startling good job in the overdub as it sounds seamless. It is a mix of material from standards and pop tunes to the blues. It opens with a marvelous swinging rendition of Aretha’s “If I Lose This Dream,” that displays her growth into a more mature, richer singer with a nasally vinegary sound mixed with a strong does of the Queen, Dinah Washington, with the overdubbed punchy horns extremely effective. Her wonderful rendition of the Beatles’ “And I Love Him,” is dedicated to the lovers in the audience is followed by her “Cry Me A River Blues,” in which she transforms the torch song identified with Julie London into a hot jump blues with her incorporation of Leroy Carr’s “After the Sun Goes Down,” and the Pete Johnson-Joe Turner classic “Roll ‘Em Pete.” For those who have “The Johnny Otis Show Live at Monterey,” this is a separate contemporaneous recording of this. “Release Me” follows and shows that 8 years after first waxing this, she displays a similar soulful approach to country material as did Ray Charles. If the marvelous vocalist, Janiva Magness, did a similarly styled rendition of this number, would folks claim this ain’t blues. The fact that she was at home in a sophisticated vein to do “Makin’ Whoopee” or handle the ballad, “If It’s the Last Thing I Do,” does diminish the blues core of the music here, and can their be any complaint with her wonderful rendition of Percy Mayfield’s “Please Send Me Someone To Love.”
And the fact that “Confessin’ the Blues” finds her with her big band does not make this stunning Atlantic studio date any less a blues album than Joe Williams with Count Basie, Sonny Parker with Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Witherspoon or Walter Brown with Jay McShann or Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson with is own groups. What a delicious selection of material including “I'm Gettin' 'Long Alright,” which sounds like a tough number out of the Dinah Washington songbook (and it may well be), the classic Cecil Gant ballad “I Wonder,” the Walter Brown-Jay McShann hit “Confessin’ the Blues.” She gets so seductive on the Lil Green classic “In the Dark,”while she shows how she can boogie her man’s woogie on “Cherry Red.” Then there is a terrific big band arrangement for her interpretation of Leroy Carr’s “In the Evening.” The highlight though is a terrific medley taken primarily from Dinah Washington (“Blow Top Blues” and “Long John Blues” and Billy Eckstine (“Jelly Jelly Blues”) that also incorporates bits of Eckstine’s “Stormy Monday Blues” (not T-Bone’s “(Call It) Stormy Monday”) and other songs. It is also a medley she would perform in Monterey with Otis. The disc also includes a couple of standards but doesn’t change the fact that this is an album substantially of blues performances of the highest order. Maybe that is the problem in that Esther is a vocalist and that the album lacks the focus on rocking blues guitars and is too ‘sophisticated’ to be blues for some blues ‘authorities.’
Both of these recordings show how good the blues could sound when handled by someone who certainly had lived through some real hard times in both her relationships and her addiction, yet was an experienced and mature vocal stylist. Paired together by Collectables, this is a terrific “Blues” CD that may have overlooked by some.
Esther continued to make significant and powerful recordings and I will consider an Australian compilation of her Kudu recordings tomorrow.
Johnny Otis The Johnny Otis Show Live At Monterey (Epic / Legacy)
This compact disc reissue of Johnny Otis rhythm and blues spectacular from 1970’s Monterey Jazz Festival is long overdue (part of which was in Clint Eastwood’s film,Play Misty For Me). Bringing together some of the giants of the music, (none of these still with us twenty three years later) Big Joe Turner, Eddie Vinson, Roy Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Ivory Joe Hunter, Roy Milton and Little Esther Phillips, this was not merely some exercise in nostalgia, but rather a first rate afternoon of jump blues. They are all in great form with Turner’s I Got a Girl going back to his KC days, while Cleanhead and Roy Milton keep a nice groove going and Ivory Joe Hunter sings a ballad. Highpoint of the proceedings has to be Esther Phillips’ two songs, showing very much her Dinah Washington roots, but tearing into Cry Me a River Blues (with a great Clifford Solomon tenor solo) and Little Esther’s Blues, a medley of Blowtop Blues, T Bone Blues and Jelly Jelly. Johnny (who is still with us) reprises Willie and the Hand Jive. Also present were son Shuggie, and singers Margie Evans and Delmar Evans, part of Otis’ then current review. Shuggie has a country slide guitar feature, and a rocking electric guitar blues instrumental, Delmar Evans does a credible You Better Look Out, modeled on some Howlin’ Wolf songs, and teams with Johnny for Goin’ Back to L.A., a great take-off on Sweet Home Chicago. Otis put together a killer band, who really jump the blues. There has been hardly anything recorded in this vein since this that has come close to equalling this good rocking time.
This review originally appeared in the December 1993 Jazz & Blues Report, contemporaneous with the reissue of this classic album which I purchased when it first came out. Unfortunately the CD apparently is not currently in print although it is likely available from some vendors that sell to collectors. It is available for download on amazon and itunes and likely other sources. It remains a celebration of classic post-war blues and R&B that will never be equaled. And Johnny Otis is still with us 17 years later after this was reissued. In case you missed it, there is a terrific biography of Otis, Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story by George Lipsitz published by University of Minnesota Press and available from amazon and other sources.
Bob Corritore sent the word of this latest sad news to blues folks everywhere in his email newsletter:
RIP Mel Brown 10/7/1939-3/20/2009: This note just in from Eric Thom: "Mel Brown has just passed - around 5pm tonight, but details are still pending. He was to open for Mavis Staplestonight,but has been in St. Mary's Hospital in Kitchener fighting to get his breathing back without the use of a machine. This is a huge loss for the blues, and for the blues world in Canada, specifically".Mel Brown was one of the real treasures of blues guitar and piano. He had a long history of spectacular recordings for labels such as Impulse, Bluesway, Antone's,and in recentyears, for his home base label of the Electro-Fi records. He also recorded as a sideman for some of the greatest of blues artists, including T-Bone Walker, B.B. king, Bobby "Blue Bland," Albert Collins, Lightnin' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Snooky Pryor, Jimmy McGriff, James Cotton, Doug Sahm, Earl Hooker and Charles Brown (could a discography be any more fulfilled than that?) Yet another irreplaceable blues great has left us.
He was the son of John "Bubba" Brown, a Delta Blues Artist of note who ha traveled with Tommy Johnson and the Chatmon Brothers, but in order to raise his family, did not pursue music full time. Growing up in Jackson he met numerous blues legends and saw others growing up like Elmore James, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and Sonny Boy Williamson. Mel ended up working several gigs with Sonny Boy in nearby Vaughn, Mississippi "He needed a guitar player, so he came by my house and got me".
In 1958 he moves to LA where he hooks up with Jimmy Beasley and then Johnny Otis. Later he tours with the Olympics and Etta James. At this juncture of his career Mel begins to work steadily in the highly competitive L.A. studio scene appearing on sessions with everyone from Bobby Darin to Doris Day, Bill Cosby to Jerry Lewis. Meanwhile back in the blues world, after impressing T-Bone Walker with his playing one night at the Sands Club, Walker invited Mel to appear on an album , "Funky Town", that he was preparing to record for the ABC/Impulse label . Also impressed with Mel’s guitar work on the T-Bone sessions, producer Bob Thiele summoned Mel back to the studio a week later to record his debut "Chicken Fat". The LP is a flavorsome mix of blues, jazz and funk instrumentals with special guest Herb Ellis along for the ride.
He waxed several more albums for ABC-Impulse as well as records with many blues legends like Bobby Bland (The California Album), Charles Brown (the album "Legend" opposite Earl Hooker), Jimmy Witherspoon (again opposite Earl Hooker) and way too many more. He also worked off and on with Bobby Bland from 1971 to 1981. In 1983, he moved to Austin and becomes part of house band at Antone's including recording as part of the Silent partners. He is heard on a number of Antone's label albums as well as some by Albert Collins.
He moved to Ontario, Canada in 1990 where he remained for the rest of his life. He recorded a number of albums as a leader for Electro-Fi, as well as played on albums by Snooky Pryor and other legends. His 1999 Electro-Fi debut album " "Neck Bones & Caviar," which in 2001 won Mel the W.C. Handy (now Blues Music Award) "Blues Comeback Album of the Year" award."
He was highly respected in the music world throughout his career. I never had the pleasure of seeing him perform, but his legacy as a leader and a sideman is substantial.
The image of Mel is by taLkiN' bLuEs and taken from his website, www.melbrownblues.com
Since writing this I became aware of a Mel Brown obituary on the cbc's website.
The title track of the new Delta Groove CD by the Jackie Payne-Steve Edmonson Band, Overnight Sensation, quickly dispels that myth as Payne sings of growing up to Lightning Hopkins and T-Bone Walker, playing with Johnny Copeland and touring with Johnny Otis. “they call me an overnight sensation, but it sure has been a mighty long time.” Often such songs can come off flat, but this gem penned by vocalist Payne and guitarist Edmonson sets the tone for this soulful, funky set of modern urban blues. This is the third collaboration between the two veterans of the blues scene. Payne had been featured with Johnny Otis for about 15 years, and then had several fine recordings in the company of guitarist Kenny ‘Blue’ Ray (including an album under Payne’s name for JSP) while Edmonson had made his mark with various musicians before the two teamed up and put together a terrific band that include bassist Bill Singletary; drummer Nicky Otis (one of Johnny’s sons); saxophonist Carl Green and trumpeter Lech Wierzynski.
Payne and Edmonson are responsible for most of the material here but their are some choice interpretations of vintage material such as Gene Barge’s Mother-in-Law Blues, with Payne’s gripping vocal and Edmonson’s sizzling guitar work certainly compares favorable with Buddy Guy’s Chess original. of the originals, Take a Chance on Me, has a Latin tinge with a strong Memphis soul-styled vocal by Payne and a nice trumpet break from Green. Mitch Kashmar adds harp (and the horns sit out) for the Windy City salute I Got a Mind to Go to Chicago, while the mood shifts on the jazzy Uptown Woman Downtown Man, with a vocal that would have done the late Lou Rawls proud. The rest of this album is equally good. There is a terrific remake of Your Good Thing (Is About to Come to an End), the strutting funk of Bag Full of Doorknobs, with a great line “My woman has a bag full of doorknobs, she changes the lock every time I leave home.” and some tasty guitar commentary from Edmonson. It is followed by the driving deep-soul medley She’s Looking Good/ I’ve Never Found a Girl. After the instrumental Bringin’ Me Right Home, this disc ends with Charlie Rich’s Feel Like Going Home, with a country-soul flavoring in Payne’s vocal that ends this marvelous disc on another high musical note. There are some singers who affect me deeper than Payne does, but none of them sing as soulfully and consistently strongly as Payne does here and with the superior playing by guitarist Edmonson and the band, this certainly will be on my list of best blues recordings of 2008.
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