Roosevelt Sykes, Smokey Wilson, Big Joe Turner

Here are some miscellaneous reviews from the June 1978 Buffalo Jazz Report (Issue 52).

Music is My Business is the latest set by Roosevelt Sykes (Blue Labor BL 111) and is a welcome new release featuring him and his piano in mostly a solo mode. Louisiana Red, Johnny Shines, and Sugar Blue also join in on some tracks and even throw in a vocal or two. Tunes range from the reflective title track to the stomping "New York Boogie". This is a damn nice piano blues record by one of the masters.

Smokey Wilson is an impressive Mississippi born blues singer and guitarist who has become a central figure in the blues scene of LA. His album (his second I believe) Sings the Blues (Big Town BT-1006) shows him to be a cross between the late Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King singing with a considerable ferocity and playing nice guitar. The album is basically retitled remakes of classic blues credited to him featuring a style that is how the Wolf would have sounded if he phrased his singing and played like B.B. Nice record.

Bummer of the month is Big Joe Turner-Really the Blues (BT -1007) which has Joe redo versions of songs he has recorded numerous times before. Joe is all right but the acid- rock band is terrible . Much nicer is the Spivey Joe Turner album "I'm Gonna Sit Write Down and Write Myself a Letter". With sterling Lloyd Glenn piano, nice band work by Bill Dicey on harp, Robert Ross on guitar and a rhythm section including a drummer and Washboard Doc, the music is enjoyable, and gets into a nice groove even if at times the drummer and Washboard Doc move with a relentless drive suggestive of Sherman's march . Only down here is the presence of Brenda Bell whose hysterics on two numbers are jarring. Otherwise Big Joe repeats verses, sings with apparent enthusiasm and the band gets a nice groove going.

I may have received some review copies from a record distributor and I may have purchased one or more. I am not sure of the availability of any of the music on these recordings. One might try used. Here is a vintage clip of Smokey Wilson in performance with William Clarke and Hollywood Fats.

Strong Recorded Memories of William Clarke's Early Years

The following review appeared in the September/October 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 286) and is another of older reviews (slightly revised) that I believe is forth sharing several years later. William Clarke was one of my favorite blues performers and person. I had a chance to talk and chat with him pretty much every time I saw him perform and he loved talking about blues as much as playing it. He was also someone who sounded different every time I saw him depending on his mood and what inspired him that day. We should be grateful for his widow Jeannette Clarke-Lodovici who still continue to keep his legacy alive. I recommend his Alligator releases of course, but the previously unissued and reissued Watchdog releases are generally excellent as well. I had purchased these and they are still available. It’s been way too long since William Clarke passed away. While his Alligator recordings are central to his recorded legacy, his widow, Jeannette Clarke-Lodovici continues to supplement that body of music with previously unissued recordings. Two volumes of Clarke’s The Early Years, have been issued on Watchdog Records, and will certainly be of considerable interest to fans of Clarke, modern blues harp and the West Coast mix of jump and Chicago blues. Clarke certainly sang with as much authority and conviction as he played the harmonica with his big fat tone (on regular harp as well as on chromatic harmonica), showing the influence of his mentor, the late George ‘Harmonica’ Smith. Smith is heard on both of the two volumes with playing on a terrific untitled slow blues on Volume 2, while Clarke’s harp is heard behind Smith’s vocal on Teenage Girl on Volume 1. Others who make guest appearances here include Smokey Wilson on Fine Little Mama on Volume 1 and Johnny Dyer on Volume 2. A bonus on Volume 1 is the presence of Hollywood Fats on six tracks including Clarke’s easy rocking instrumental in the vein of Off the Wall, Hittin’ Heavy, the slow midnight after hours feel of a feature for his chromatic playing, Blues Afterwhile, as well as the imaginative rearrangement of Sonny Boy Williamson II’s Keep It To Yourself, set to the Help Me/Green Onions melody. Volume 2 sports his interpretation of Louis Jordan’s Early in the Morning, and his strong singing on The Feeling’s Gone, and Bloody Tears on My Pillow. Clarke was superb, not simply as a singer and harp player, but also was a fabulous songwriter. These latest two posthumous discs are more than welcome additions to the available recordings by Clarke. The both contain a number of superb performances. The only quibble is the CD packaging could be printed a bit more sharply, but the music is wonderful. This is available from bluebeatmusic.com as well as amazon.com and other mail order specialists. Here is a little clip of William Clarke performing.

McCracklin's Well Seasoned Taste of the Blues

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. Jimmy McCracklin at 2008 Pocono Blues Festival Photo © Ron Weinstock 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’.

Smokey Wilson's Blues For Big Town Still Rocks

Ace Records (UK) put out a reissue of some early Smokey Wilson recordings which in my blog I listed as among the best blues of 2006 and this review was carried in the January-February 2007 Jazz & Blues Report and accessible on the web site if you do a search of the reviews. Anyway, Smokey had some health issues, (I remember a stroke) and believe he never has fully resumed playing music, which is a shame because his gritty delta rooted blues is certainly missed today. Anyway, here is my review

Until the early 1990s when he was signed by Bullseye Blues, Smokey Wilson was one of the best blues secrets out on the West Coast. The albums recorded for the Bihari Brothers for Big Town that have been culled for the Ace (UK) CD, Round Like an Apple, The Big Town Recordings 1977-1978 along with recordings made with Rod Piazza and William Clarke indicated what a talent this gentleman who operated the Pioneer Club in Watts was. A Mississippi native, he moved to Los Angeles and established himself on the West Coast. The Big Town Recordings display his powerful straight no-holds barred style that would have been at home at a Little Rock juke as it would a West Side Chicago guitar as Wilson sang with a gritty, gravelly voice that suggested Wolf, as well as played strong guitar whether driving modern single style or slide. Few can match his ability to handle Howlin Wolf’s material like How Many More Years, or remake Night Time is The Right Time into a scorching rocker. The way he tears into a vocal like Johnny Copeland’s I Wish I Was Single, or Low Rider (Deuce & A Quarter) similarly shines. His reworking of Lowell Fulson’s Tramp is marvelous as is the title track with its relentless boogie groove, and the driving Blues For Big Town. These recordings have been unavailable for so long and their reissue is very welcome. One might hope that this sells enough so that Wilson’s other Big Town sides are also made available.