Irma Thomas' Rounder Heritage Retrospective

Irma Thomas' career was elevated from being a regional New Orleans treasure to an artist that received national and international recognition when she signed to Rounder Records. In 2000, Rounder celebrated its 30th Anniversary with the Rounder Heritage Series. One of the releases was devoted to her recordings for the label. This review originally appeared in the July/August 2001 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 252), although i have made minor changes. There are more recent compilations of Irma's work, including one that spans her half century career. This release is available as a download.

The Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas has had a substantial and rewarding career since she signed with Rounder in the mid-1980s. A recent addition to the Rounder Heritage series celebrating the label’s 30th anniversary is If You Want It Come and Get It, a collection of 16 performances collected from six of the eight albums she has recorded for Rounder, including the collaboration with Marcia Ball and Tracey Nelson, Sing It! No tracks are included from her live album and also there are no tracks from her gospel album. 

What stands out is the consistency and high level of her vocals. She is a warm singer who can belt it, but raises the roof mostly to accent the lyrics. Producer Scott Billington has constantly sought out choice new material along with finding lesser known gems, and she can tear into a soul ballad like Love of My Man as well as a rocking The New Rules, dealing with the new male-female relationships. 

A wonderful singer she adds her own voice to songs associated with others, even with her straight reading of the Bobby Bland classic, Yield Not to Temptation, from the Sing It! album. Love Don’t Change is a previously unissued track from the sessions for that album. The rendition of the title track is an extended performance of the track from her Handy-Award winning album My Heart’s in Memphis. The later tune was co-written by Dan Penn, one of several songwriters who have brought material to producer Scott Billington over the years. The late Doc Pomus and Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) contributed I Never Fool Nobody But Me, with a nice New Orleans R&B piano backing from David Torkanowsky. 

Add some of the finest Crescent City and Memphis musicians such as drummer Herman Ernest, organist Sammy Berfect, bassist George Porter, guitarists Michael Toles, and Renard Poché and saxophonists Foots Samuel and Red Tyler, and it is not surprising that Ms Thomas has produced some extremely fine recordings for Rounder which are well sampled here.

James Booker's Classified: Remixed And Expanded

James Carroll Booker, that genius of New Orleans piano tradition, passed some 30 years ago on November 8, 1983, several months after Rounder issued his final studio recording Classified. Rounder has just issued an expanded version Classified: Remixed And Expanded to celebrate the Thirtieth Anniversary of the original release of along with a documentary about Booker, Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker. This new expanded Classified adds alternate takes and previously unissued recordings from the October 1982 sessions that produced the original LP.

Booker is a revered figure in the history of New Orleans music who incorporated the inventions of Professor Longhair into his repertoire that ranged from boogie blues, New Orleans R&B, jazz and classical. His legacy as a pianist, vocalist and songwriter shines even brighter three decades later. His influence is heard in such performers as Dr. John, Harry Connick Jr., Tom McDermott, John Boutté and Henry Butler. Booker played on a number of studio recordings in addition to ones he made under his own name (he is on keyboards on Freddie King’s Cotillion Recordings for example). In the booklet accompanying this reissue we get Scott Billington’s essay in addition to Bunny Matthews original 1983 notes. Billington’s essay provides this overview and cites a number of those who might be called Booker’s musical children.

To use a term associated with Duke Ellington, Booker was “Beyond Category.” The depth of his repertoire is suggested by the performances here including the opening signature title tune that opens this compilation which opens with some nice solo playing before joined by a small backing trio that included legendary tenor saxophonist, Alvin ‘Red’ Tyler. The contents of this include a Professor Longhair medley, two takes on Lloyd Price’s Lawdy Miss Clawdy (one of which is solo), Warsaw Concerto (which explains why he was sometimes called the Bronze Liberace and along with Madame X displays how accomplished he was a s pianist of classical music), a medley of Tico Tico / Papa Was a Rascal / So Swell When You're Well, (and this last number was one Aretha recorded), his solo piano reworking of Little Willie John’s Hit All Around the World, a manic vocal on King of the Road, the classic Art Neville ballad, All the Things You Are, and “Yes Sir, That's My Baby,” the one selection on which he plays the organ (with the sounding like he is playing a calliope for a carousel). This last track is one of the several with Red Tyler’s saxophone. Among these selections, a highlight is the Fats Domino flavored, One For the Highway, again with Red Tyler taking a choice tenor solo.

Thirty years after being originally released, Classified remains as a cornerstone of James Booker’s recorded legacy. His genius is well served by this well thought out and expanded reissue.

I received my review copy from Rounder Records. Here is a trailer for the film documentary, Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker.

Irma Thomas Sings Dan Penn and Her Heart Is In Memphis

Here is another older review of another Irma Thomas CD from the September/October 2000 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 247) and likely appeared in the DC Blues Calendar at the time. I likely received a review copy from Rounder. Irma Thomas, the great singer from New Orleans has a fabulous new Rounder cd in the stores now, My Heart’s In Memphis; The Songs of Dan Penn. Thomas has been such a terrific singer since she recorded such R&B classics as Ruler of My Heart, I Done Got Over It and the original Time Is On My Side. In the seventies she did some sessions in Muscle Shoals, and included a couple songs by Dan Penn. Penn contributed three songs to Irma’s 1997 album, The Story of My Life. Dan Penn is among the great songwriters, having had a part in such classics as Aretha’s Do Right Woman, the Box Tops’ Cry Like a Baby and James Carr’s great deep soul classic, Dark End of the Street. With collaborators including Spooner Oldham, Carson Whitsett, Marvell Thomas and Irma herself, Penn has provided some wonderful new tunes and he and co-producer Scott Billington has brought together a sterling studio band with Michael Toles guitar, the keyboards of Oldham, Whitsett, and Thomas, along with saxophonist Jim Spake. Anyone who loves the classic Memphis Sound will groove to the playing here and when Irma sings about traveling all over the world, but her heart being in memphis on the title track, one almost believes she lived in Memphis all her life. There’s a wonderful reworking of the Bobby and James Purify hit, I’m Your Puppet, along with Zero Willpower, which Irma recorded in Muscle Shoals in the late sixties. There are blue laments of love gone wrong and mistreating men, Blue in the Heart and Woman Left Lonely, as well as songs with a more assertive tone, If You Want It, Come and Get It. All these songs display Irma’s greatest strength as a singer, which is her sincerity and believability. My Heart’s In Memphis is possibly the best classic soul album since the late Johnny Adams’ last album, Man of My Word, another Scott Billington production.

Irma Thomas' The Story of My Life

In addition to posting current reviews of recordings, you know I also post reviews I have written for publications for five and more years ago. Today’s review is from 15 years ago and appeared in the April 1997 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 220 and likely was also published in the DC Blues Calendar which I edited for the DC Blues Society for nearly 20 years. I noted that I have not posted any of my Irma Thomas reviews, so this is in part to rectify that. Irma’s recording career has slowed down in recent years but the Soul Queen of New Orleans remains a national treasure.  For her seventh album for the Rounder label, The Story of My Life, Irma Thomas is backed by a stunning band of Crescent City stalwarts - bassist George Porter, drummer Raymond Weber, and pianist David Torkanowsky, along with guitarist Michael Toles plus horns and backing vocal choruses on several selections. Scott Billington who produced this one with Thomas, arranged for the songwriting team of Dan Penn, Jonnie Barnett and Carson Whitsett to contribute some songs, and there is new (or at least unfamiliar) material from Dawn Thomas, Sarah Brown and Lisa Mednick, and Allen Toussaint before Thomas closes with a very strong reading of Aretha’s recording of Dr. Feelgood. The album has its share of Crescent City grooves on the opening funked up blues, No Use Talking, and the second line rhythm underlying her boost of independence, I Won’t Cry For You (from the afore-mentioned trio of Penn, Barnett and Whitsett). Dawn Thomas’ song, which gives the album its title, is a more straight-forward modern R&B ballad, while Love Don’t Get No Better Than This is an uptempo celebration of romance that Thomas delivers with an assurance that her decades of performing have given her. This is also evident on her soulful delivery of the mournful Hold Me While I Cry, which has a tasty tenor sax break from Charles Elam III, who also duets her on the ballad Get Here. The liner notes speak about Thomas’ frustration with being treated as a oldies act due to her classic songs from the early sixties, but this is simply the latest Rounder recording that illustrates just how wonderful a vocalist she is, and the mix of blues, New Orleans, soul and some pop elements make for a most delicious musical stew. I likely received a review copy from Rounder back in 1997. This should still be relatively easy to find. While not from this album, here is Irma singing one of the songs she is known for, even if many more know the Rolling Stones version.