Snooks Eaglin - With His New Orleans Friends

This is a review that I wrote in Fall 2006 and published in the November-December 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 288). I will be posting other reviews from this every few days in next couple weeks.

Universal Music on the Verve label has released the second batch of CDs in its series, The Sonet Blues Story. These sides make available albums from the 1970s that were issued in Europe on the Sonet label although some were imported in the United States and some were even issued in the US, as GNP-Crescendo issued The Legacy of the Blues recordings stateside. This latest batch includes more from that series along with other albums that Samuel Charters had produced for Sonet. I will be posting these reviews every few days.

Snooks Eaglin was represented by a prior volume in this series playing solo. The 1977 recordings represented on this latest album is With His New Orleans Friends who include the great Clarence Ford on tenor sax, George French on bass and background vocals, Bob French on drums and Ellis Marsalis on piano for a set of New Orleans R&B in the mode of Eaglin’s Imperial recordings.

The songs include Down Yonder, a Smiley Lewis number that Eaglin would keep in his repertoire decades later, Roscoe Gordon’s No More Doggin’, J.B. Lenoir's Talk to Your Daughter, Fats Domino’s Going to the River and Let the Four Winds Blow, James Wayne’s Traveling Mood (which Eaglin recorded for Imperial), Fat’s Domino’s Going to the River, and even Sir Mack Rice’s Mustang Sally (which comes off as tolerable in Eaglin’s hands. 

The band plays solidly behind Eaglin here, although not quite as inspired as the bands Snooks would have on his Black Top recordings. Charters notes how Eaglin insisted on his fuzzy tone for his guitar and there is plenty of his unique guitar playing with the band playing solidly behind him and these enjoyable sides foreshadows his spectacular Black Top recordings that started a decade later. 

I likely received review copies from Jazz & Blues Report. This may still be available new or used and as downloads. Here is a Snooks Eaglin performance

Capital Blues Reissues

The second group of Capitol Blues Reissues from EMI continues the high standard of the first set. Five new releases along with a sampler compilation are in the same distinctive packaging with solid annotation and illustration andfirst-rate music. These reissues serve as a final testament to blues scholar, writer and producer, Pete Welding, who was the executive producer of this series. Welding, a former Down Beat, Blues Unlimited, Rolling Stone and Living Blues contributor, also headed Testament Records, was A&R for Playboy Records (responsible for that label's releases by Phillips Walker and Leadbelly), and was involved in numerous reissue projects over the years. The quality of the Capitol Blues series, including his own liner notes for several volumes, is not surprising to those of us who relied on his Down Beat reviews of twenty five years ago in building blues collections. According to the monthly publication ICE, Billy Vera is taking over the as the series executive producer.

The musical level of these five new releases may be higher than the initial reissues in the series. Texas  Guitar Killers (Capitol CDP 33915) is the only compilation among the present releases, and brings together a diverse group of performers. Included are several superb recordings by T-Bone Walker from the Old Swingmaster label that Walker recorded in December 1945, along with several alternate takes of Walker's Imperial work. These supplement the available reissues of Walker's Black & White and Imperial
recordings. They are exceptional sides with tasty small group backings (with particularly interesting hom voicings on the 1945 recordings). Another electric guitar R&B pioneer, Lowell Fulson is heard on two different sessions. The earlier 1948 session is comprised of Texas country blues duets with brother Martin, while a 1953 big band session provides a completely different, jump-band flavor. Other recordings include Gatemouth Brown's first recordings, a couple of strong tracks from Pee Wee Crayton, country blues sung by LC. Wilams backed by Lightnin' Hopkins, and thirteen (sometimes chaotic) selections from Smokey Hogg (some with Hadda Brooks on piano) that display his down-home Texas roots along with his idiosyncratic sense of time. Mark Humphrey's notes place this diverse and lively music in its musical and historical context.

Some will remember Mississippi Fred McDowell's double album, I Do Not Play No Rock'N'Roll. A two-disc release includes that long out-of-print album, along with the same title (Capitol CDP 33919) with selections issued on an obscure album, Just Sunshine, and unissued takes and tunes, all from the same sessions, produced by Malaco Records Tommy Couch. McDowell, perhaps the last great traditional Mississippi blues musician, is the foremost of the bluesmen discovered by folklorist Alan Lomax in the late fifties, playing an intense slide guitar style marked by his keen cutting tone and his percussive, mantra-like rhythms. Echoes can be heard in R.L Burnside and (to a lesser extent) Junior Kimbrough, but neither reaches the level of McDowell. The recordings here are among the first McDowell made using an electric guitar, and Couch backed him with a couple of rock musicians on bass and drums who provide firm, sympathetic accompaniment on many numbers. Many of these tunes were recorded by McDowell on several occasions, but his renditions of Kokomo Me Baby, Red Cross Store, 61 Highway, and Write Me a Few of Your Lines, as well as his interpretations of Baby Please Don't Go, Good Moming Little School Girl and Drop Down Mama, stand up with his best recordings of these items. With the simple rhythm backing added to his highly charged hesitating guitar riffs on Drop Down Mama, it makes for a high voltage performance that one will have trouble sitting still to. While a few tunes may come off as not as tightly executed, the overall level is quite high, and it is certainly one of the more valuable additions to the Capitol Blues series.

John Lee Hooker may be the most prolific blues recording artist of all time. Particularly around the late forties and early fifties, he made numerous recordings for a variety of labels, most done for either Bernie Besman or Joe Van Battle, operators of small Detroit labels as well as lessors of material to national labels.Such recordings as Boogie Chillum, Crawling King Snake, Hobo Blues, and I'm in the Mood, established Hooker as a National act. Ace Records' has collected Hooker's most commercially important sides from this period on The Legendary Modern Recordings (available on Flair in the US), while Hooker albums on Charly, Specialty and Krazy Kat collect other Hooker recordings from this time. Newly issued is Alternative Boogie (Capitol CDP 33912), a three disc album that brings together two vinyl albums, Coast to Coast Blues Band, and the three record set, John Lee Hooker's Detroit, that United Artists issued in the early seventies after the success of Hooker 'N' Heat (the collaboration with the blues-rock band, Canned Heat). These albums (reissued on this set) made available alternative takes and other songs by Hooker from the stockpile of producer Besman. Hooker's guitar boogies and moody. slow high intensity blues formed a distinctive and powerful body of blues, and the level of these and other performances of the time are remarkably high, such as the takes of John Lee's Original Boogie (an altemative of Boogie Chillum), I Rule My Den (a variant of Crawling King Snake), three versions of I'm in the Mood and other strong cuts. Some of these sides include either Andrew Durham or Eddie Kirkland on second guitar, James Watkins on piano and Eddie Burns on harmonica. And while many of these are alternatives to issued recordings, Hooker's performances from this time have a particularly improvisatory feel to them. Those who are into John Lee Hooker's early recordings know what to expect and will have to consider whether they want this material or not, while those more familiar with his band boogie recordings may want to first check out the Ace-Flair or Specialty discs of Hooker's early music first. However those, like this writer, who are into Hooker's early recordings will find plenty of musical treasures here.

After Freddie King signed with the independent Shelter label, he was able to get his friend Jimmy Rogers onto the label as well. Chicago Blues Masters: Volume Two: Jimmy Rogers (Capitol CDP 33916) makes available Rogers Shelter album along with four unissued tracks. Included are sessions with pianist Bob Riedy, the Aces, and Riedy's own band with Freddie King guesting. Rogers was a member of Muddy Waters greatest band (and later Howlin' Wolf's band), leaving Waters after his success with That's All Right. He made recordings for Chess that are amongst the finest examples of Chicago band blues. His Shelter recordings were among the first he made after resuming music. The earliest sides include remakes of such classic Chess tunes like Act Like You Love Me and Broken Hearted Blues along with the fine new blues, Gold Tailed Bird, still a staple of his performances today. While Rogers is in good voice, the backing provided by the Aces is surprisingly more functional than the spectacular accompaniment they often provided. Better are the selections with Riedy's band (the band Rogers was then regularly associated with). The best of these also sports some tremendous guitar by Freddie King with spirited new renditions of such classic Chess recordings as That's All Right, You're Sweet, Sloppy Drunk and You're the One. The final four songs (without King) include a tasty remake of Blues (Follow Me All Day Long) and a reworking of Sonny Boy Williamson I's Decoration Day Blues titled I Lost a Good Woman, with added horns. These sound better than I remember, although they are overshadowed by the best of Rogers' Chess recordings (look for the Chicago Bound album on cd).

The last new album is devoted to Snooks Eaglin, The Complete Imperial Recordings (Capitol CDP 33918). Eaglin, one of New Orleans' most celebrated contemporary performers was known to many as a street performer before his compelling recent recordings for Black Top. These early 1960 sides were produced by Dave Bartholomew and include the legendary James Booker on piano. There is a mix of classic blues like C.C.Rider and J.B. Lenoir's Mama Talk to Your Daughter, Bartholomew's own songs like That Certain Door and Goin' to The River, along with efforts obviously inspired by the contemporary pop music of the time. Those familiar with Eaglin's singular guitar style with its quirky twists and unusual rhythmic emphases will hear it in these 26 short tunes, though with a less fiery, chicken scratching tone than his recent recordings, while his heart-felt and earnest singing might explain why he never enjoyed great commercial success at the time. There are seven previously unissued tunes and one can hear occasional minor glitches in the performances or the ensemble work, but otherwise these wide-spanning performances have substantial entertainment value in addition to their historical nature.

In addition to these releases,Capitol also has issued a sampler collection Livin' With the Blues (Capitol CDP 31747) with tracks from these and the initial seven releases in the series. The packaging,  annotation and the material on all the Capitol Blues releases is first rate, and one could hardly go wrong from an entertainment point of view with any of these. I look forward to future releases under Billy Vera's direction.

This review originally appeared in the March 1996 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 209). I believe I received review copies from EMI. I am not sure of the availability of these reissues today, but one might to check used CD stores.

Blues Takes on St. James Infirmary

Discussing Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man in his book, The Jazz Standards, Ted Gioia includes recordings by it by Buddy Guy and Albert King and bemoans what he found the scarcity of blues artists performing the songs he viewed as jazz standards. One problem is that his list of standards omits juke box jazz hits like Herbie Mann's"Comin' Home Baby, and Jimmy Smith's Back at the Chicken Shack, that served as band and/or set openers for various bands such as Muddy Waters and the like. But even with famous blues songs that he included such as W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues and St. James Infirmary he seemed unaware of notable blues recordings of those songs, some of which I included with respect to St. Louis Blues, a couple of days ago.

Today I do the same with St. James Infirmary, the story and origins of which are discussed in a wonderful book by Robert W. Harwood, I Went Down to St. James Infirmary: Investigations in the shadowy world of early jazz-blues in the company of Blind Willie McTell, Louis Armstrong, Don ... where did this dang song come from anyway? It explores some of the myths of the songs origins as well as its complicated copyright history and the like. In his book, Gioia inexplicably omits the great Bobby Bland Duke recording that can be heard on the link of the top of the page (Soul singer Geater Davis did a tough recording that mirrored Bland's. Below are some more renditions from the Blues World.

Snooks Eaglin

Gary B.B. Coleman

Chris Thomas King recorded this on his 2006 post-Katrina recording Rise. 

Here he is seen performing this in 2015 at Toronto's Beaches Jazz Festival.

Chicago blues diva Angela Brown

The highly underrated Dave Alexander aka Omar Sharriff

Heritage Blues Orchestra

Lastly, Rhiannon Giddens with the Silk Road Ensemble

Tommy Ridgely Since The Blues Began

Tommy Ridgely 
Since The Blues Began 
Black Top

While attending the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for the first time at the end of April, I caught plenty of great blues, zydeco and R&B. While he did not play the festival during the first weekend, Tommy Ridgely was at Howlin’ Wolf, a New Orleans Club, as part of a New Orleans Rhythm & Blues revue that also included Oliver Morgan, pianist Eddie Bo and Earl King. 

Ridgely, who first recorded with Dave Bartholomew’s band in 1949, made such memorable sides as Shrewsbury Blues, Looped, Jam Up and Gonna Meet My Girl. At the Howlin’ Wolf he stuck to the songs from his new album, Since the Blues Began and his vocals were exquisite. I also saw him the next afternoon at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville where he played piano, and sang a wide range of blues, backed by acoustic guitar and harp. 

Since the Blues Began is a superb album, and shows Ridgely to be as vital today as his first recordings with Dave Bartholomew’s band. He is heard with a crack band that includes Sammy Berfect and Edward Frank on keyboards, the incredible Snooks Eaglin on guitar, George Porter on bass and Kaz Kazanoff and Tony Dagradi on saxophones. Ridgely may be close to 70, but he still sings with great vigor and flexibility in his delivery. He doesn’t sound his age. 

He is obviously happy with the album and there is no filler among the songs. There are some new recordings of songs he waxed years ago, including I Heard That Story Before, and Let’s Try to Talk It Over. The latter number may suggest why he was once known as the “New King of the Stroll”. He contributed a number of new songs, like the opening Pretty Lady ( many guys will be able to identify with the sentiment of its lyrics), Running After You, and The World Is Our Stage. Jody Siegel contributed the title song. 

Ridgely’s lyrics explore the varying aspects of male-female relationships from a sophisticated, adult perspective. And, for someone whose early recordings are classic jump blues in a Roy Brown vein, Tommy Ridgely seems completely at home with the nineties Crescent City R&B groove. To reiterate, Tommy Ridgely’s Since the Blues Began is a terrific disc. 

I likely received my review copy from Black Top Records. This review appeared originally in the July-August 1995 Jazz and Blues Report (Issue 203). This is available used or as a download.  Here is the original recording of I Heard That Story Before, that he remade for this album.

Snooks Eaglin Soul’s Edge

Snooks Eaglin
Soul’s Edge

Blacktop



A recent Offbeat article analogized that Snooks Eaglin is to guitarists what Professor Longhair was to pianists. Further evidence of his distinctive musical styling is presented by his fourth album for Black Top, a set which may be the label’s most significant body of music. 



His percussive, chicken-scratching guitar playing is immediately recognizable. His slightly sand-papered, but unmannered vocals deliver lyrics with wit or earnestness as required. His low-key approach certainly helps boost such trivial lyrics as Ling Ting Tong, and Skinny Minnie. At the same time, the simplicity of his vocal makes I’m Not Ashamed so believable. 

There are a couple of great second line grooves, with Fats Domino’s Josephine, and the equally terrific, I Went to the Mardi Gras. 

Not everything works, as Snooks’ vocal lacks the vitality of Hank Ballard as he fails to pull off the Midnighters’ Let’s Go, Let’s Go (here titled Thrill on the Hill). The instrumental Answer Now, sports too much musical noodling, but the late night blues You and Me has more terrific playing, though its impact is somewhat diffused by its length. 



This album does not reach the level of Out of Nowhere, my favorite of his earlier Black Top albums, but, given Snooks imagination, the variety of material, and his startling guitar playing, one can hardly go wrong with Soul’s Edge. 



I likely received a review copy from Black Top. This review originally appeared in the May 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 201). This may be found used. Here is Snooks in performance.

 

Snooks Eaglin JazzFest 07 Day 2-289

JazzFest 07 Day 2-289, a photo by NoVARon on Flickr.

Today is the anniversary of the birth of the great Snooks Eaglin. I remember standing next to the poet, radio announcer and activist John Sinclair at what is now the Gentilly Stage and kidding John about Snooks, on a live recording that was on a wwoz CD, calling him out and saying I want to see you dance. Well at this performance the first thing Snooks says before he launches into his set is "Sinclair, you out there? I want to see you dance." Snooks was one of a kind.

My recommendation for a Snooks album is the Black Top release Out of Nowhere that was reissued by Shout Factory and which is available from amazon as a cd-r. You may be able to find vendors selling the original CD as used or a collectable. It is well worth trying to locate. I previously posted reviews of several of his albums including Snooks Live in Japan.

Snooks Eaglin - Crescent City Rhythm and Blues Troubador

Back three decades ago, Samuel Charters produced a series of blues lps for the Swedish Sonet label, The Legacy of the Blues, along with some other blues recordings. Charters is known as both a blues author (The Country Blues, The Poetry of the Blues, Bluesmen) as well as a producer of blues recordings, including the classic Chicago, The Blues Today! and albums by Junior Wells and Buddy Guy to name a few of the artists he recorded. Universal Music, through its Verve imprint has just issued seven of the seven Sonet lps for reissue in a series, The Sonet Blues Story. Six of these are from The Legacy of the Blues series. This is the sixth in a series of posts of my reviews from this series, although my statement about Snooks being the only living performer in the series is no longer true. These reviews that originally appeared in the June 2006 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 283)


It should be noted that on these Sonet reissues, the playing time is somewhat short. Even those with extra tracks (such as the one reviewed below) do not exceed 45 minutes. Still there is some good to exceptional music to be heard on these. This CD may be out-of-print but is available from various sellers and is available as mp3 files. I received my review copy from the publication.


Snooks Eaglin, the remarkable New Orleans singer-guitarist, is the only performer still living in this series. Unfortunately Samuel Charters recorded Eaglin as a solo artist rather than in a band context, helping perpetuate the myth of him being a street singer-songster. Not to say that this disc is not full of engaging performances including takes on songs from Sam Cooke (Good News), Little Richard (Lucille), John Lee Hooker (Boogie Children taken at a slower tempo and opening with Eaglin’s own spontaneous rap), Jimmy Rogers (That’s All Right mistitled here as Who’s Loving You Tonight and credited to Eaglin), and Lonnie Johnson (Tomorrow Night), as well as a stunning guitar adaptation of Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie and a terrific Funky Malaguena. Previously unissued bonus tracks include Shake a Hand and Shake Rattle and Roll.


Listening to these performance one is astonished by the fertility of Eaglin’s imagination but also one wishes that he had been plugged in, but one would have to wait for Rounder and Black Top to capture the side of Snooks that still dazzles us today. This is not to dismiss the many pleasures here, but Snooks could be electrifying, not simply astonishing.

Classic New Orleans Sounds on Smithsonian Folkways

Another in Smithsonian-Folkways “Classic” series, the anthology Classic Sounds of New Orleans from Smithsonian Folkways compiles a variety of recordings that were issued by Folkways when it was under the auspices of the late Moses Asch. This compilation by Robert H. Cataliotti mines the recordings of New Orleans music by Frederick Ramsey, Jr., and Samuel Barclay Charters along with other recordings make for a varied grouping of performances, that includes jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, spirituals and other roots music expressions.

The music on this opens and closes with the Eureka Brass Band who kick things off with the classic hymn, Just a Closer Walk With Thee, and ends with their propulsive rendition of Lord, Lord, Lord. The latter number may be familiar to fans of todays Crescent City Brass Band such as the Tréme Brass Band that have recorded it, but the performances by Eureka harken back to what many would think of the classic traditional New Orleans Jazz sound. Eureka Brass Band was an amazing group and I would recommend either of their releases on the American Music label. Also representing the Brass Band tradition is the late Doc Paulin’s renditions of We Shall Walk Through The Streets of the City, both as a dirge and as a march with a second line rhythm. The melody is the same as Red River Valley, and Doc Paulin’s sons still carry on the family tradition in the Paulin Brothers Band.”

Street music is represented by an anonymous shoeshine boy vocals and hand slapping on Shine - Hambone, the solo harmonica rendition of Tiger Rag by Freddie L. Small, and Dora Bliggen’s call of a fruit vendor on the streets, Blackberries! It is followed by Red White and Blue Got the Golden Band, by Mardi Gras Indians from assorted tribes. Certainly this 1956 recording is amongst the earliest of this tradition. It is followed by several spirituals/gospel performances including Dark Was the Night by Reverend Lewis Jackson and Charlotte Rucell.

New Orleans Jazz is represented with Kid Punch Miller (with Sam Charters on piano) doing Bucket’s Got a Hole In it, and an absolutely brilliant drum solo, Spooky Drums #1 by Baby Dodds. Clarinetist Emile Barnes leads an enthusiastic rendition of Milenberg Joys, while The Six and Seventh Eighths String Band of New Orleans are heard on Clarinet Marmalade, which should delight fans of skittle bands. Two celebrated New Orleans guitarists, Snooks Eaglin and Lonnie Johnson, are heard on celebrated New Orleans classics. Eaglin turns the classic High Society Rag, into a brilliant solo guitar showcase while Johnson does a nice Careless Love, recorded in 1967, long after he had left his native city. Billie and De De Pierce, another couple mainstays of the New Orleans scene in the fifties and sixties are heard on a nice blues Lonesome Road, warmly sung by the pianist Billie Pierce. It is followed by Kid Clayton’s Corrine, Corrina, with the famed pianist Sweet Emma Barrett part of his group.

After these performances, another Snooks Eaglin performance, of Saint James Infirmary, makes the transition to the blues although this recording and other contemporaneous ones of Eaglin gave the mistaken impression that he was a solo street singer when he know he played rhythm and blues and contemporary jazz at the time. In any event Eaglin’s guitar playing is marvelous, even if acoustic. A medley of pianist HJ Boiusseau provides a glimpse into a the period between ragtime and jazz. Like Lonnie Johnson, Champion Jack Dupree left his home city when young, yet the influence of some of the pianists who taught him was always evident in his playing including the second line rhythms in Rattlesnake Boogie. In contrast to Dupree, the great Roosevelt Sykes grew up in Arkansas and Delta and moved to St. Louis, becoming one of the greatest of all blues pianists, but he moved to New Orleans in1962 where he became a fixture of the music scene. His adaptation of Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone, displays a technical facility and sophistication that many celebrated blues pianists would be unable to match.

A nice Jimmy’s Blues by trumpeter Kid Clayton has some fine clarinet from Albert Burbank, tailgating trombone from Kid Avery and barrelhouse piano from Sweet Emma, followed by another splendid solo performance by Lonnie Johnson, C.C. Rider. Another staple of the traditional New Orleans repertoire, Shake It and Break It, is heard in a performance by Billie Pierce, with Lawrence Tocca, not her husband De De, on trumpet. Sam Charters noted at the time this recording was first issued that it was one of the most exciting recordings done in new Orleans in years.

All in all, this is a splendid compilation of a wide range of New Orleans music. In includes a marvelous booklet with a concise overview of the collection as well as observations on all of the included recordings. It is a terrific introduction to traditional New Orleans music.


Smithsonian Folkways provided an electronic download for my review.

Snooks Eaglin's 1st Black Top LP reissued

One of my favorite artists was the late Snooks Eaglin who passed away in February of this year. Hep Cat, a Collector’s Choice subsidiary obtained the Black Top catalog and started reissues from the catalog with a Digi-pac reissue of Eaglin’s first Black Top album amongst others. Here is my review which was run in the June 2009 issue of Jazz & Blues Report (#317).

Hep Cat, a subsidiary of Collectors Choice, has reissued Snooks Eaglin’s 1987 album, “Baby You Can Get Your Gun.” This was the first of five discs he recorded for Black Top that are the cornerstone of his recorded legacy. Labeled the Human Jukebox because of his vast repertoire, the Black Top recordings captured his wide repertoire along with his singular guitar style with his unpredictable twisting lines and an almost pianistic attack on the strings. This disc had him backed by a stellar band that included Ron Levy on keyboards, Ronnie Earl on guitar, bassist Erving Charles and drummer Smokey Johnson from Fats Domino’s band, and saxophonist David Lastie. Things get going with a solid rendition of Guitar Slim’s “You Give Me Nothing But the Blues,” followed by a reflective take on Percy Mayfield’s “Baby Please,” with Lastie adding the tasty sax. More of a direct second flavor follows on “Oh Sweetness,” while a jazz meets Ventures flavor marks the instrumental, “Profinia,” with Snooks dazzling with what sound like off the cuff riffs. Tommy Ridgely’s blues ballad “Lavinia,” receives a nice vocal followed by the vintage Earl King rocker that gives this disc its title. The hard funk number “Drop the Bomb,” is followed by a reworking of his Imperial recording”That Certain Door.” Another strong blues performance is “Nobody Knows,” with its pleading vocal with more solid guitar followed by a rocking rendition of Eugene Church’s “Pretty Girl Everywhere,” with more fine tenor from Lastie. At the time, this was Snooks best album, and it holds up today as a very fine effort. It would be followed by even better albums later (my particular favorite is “Out of Nowhere”), and we should be thankful that it has been made available once again.

I was sent a review copy from the publicist for Collectors Choice.

I Blueskvarter made Blues History Available

The following was a review of the 3rd double CD in a series that an offshoot of the Swedish blues magazine, Jefferson, released in the earlier part of this decade. The review below was written in 2004 and may have appeared in Jazz & Blues Report. I purchased this recording.

The Scandinavian Blues Association has issued on its Jefferson Records, I Blueskvarter * 1964, Volume Three. This is the third double disc volume in the series which makes available recordings that the Swedish Broadcasting Company made in Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans in 1964 that was broadcast in autumn 1964. The first two volumes were devoted to recordings from Chicago and included recordings by such legendary figures as Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery, Johnny Young, Walter Horton, Willie Mabon, Johnny Young, Washboard Sam and Paul Butterfield (on what were Butterfield's first recordings). This volume includes New Orleans recordings by Snooks Eaglin and Babe Stovall and Memphis recordings by Johnny Moment, Will Shade, Furry Lewis, Earl Bell and Moose Williams with the second disc containing extra recordings from Mabon, Sunnyland Slim, Walter Horton, and Johnny Young among others before concluding with three 1961 recordings by Big Joe Williams and then from Champion Jack Dupree recorded in performance and conversation in Sweden. This is a varied set of music opening with Snooks Eaglin performing ten numbers in a vein similar to his early recordings as a 'street singer' although the opening Yours Truly, a Pee Wee Crayton song he had recorded for Imperial as a R&B artist. Few could pull off PInetop's Boogie Woogie on guitar like Snooks can and other songs he provides his unique skills to include My Babe, Let Me Go Home Whisky, and Hello Dolly. Babe Stovall, who also was resident in New Orleans presents some more down home blues on his four songs that includes renditions of Candy Man and Gonna Move to Kansas City. The first Memphis selections are by harmonica Johnny Moment, whose rendition of Keep Our Business to Yourself, is heavily indebted to Rice 'Sonny Boy Williamson II' Miller. He also backs legendary jug band musician Will Shade on a slow I Got the Blues So Bad, Furry lewis has sounded better than on Baby, I Know You Don't Love Me, which does have moments of nice slide guitar. Traditional Mississippi blues are represented by one Earl Bell who does a competent cover Robert Johnson's Terraplane Blues. The selections from Chicago supplement recordings by these artists that are on the first two volumes in this series. Willie Mabon delivers a strong Somebody's Got to Pay, while piano blues are also represented by Sunnyland Slim on Leroy Carr's Prison Bound and Little Brother Montgomery who reprises his immortal Vicksburg Blues. Walter Horton, accompanied by Robert Nighthawk on guitar is heard on three numbers including a nicely delivered Tin Pan Alley. Two early recordings by Paul Butterfield with Smokey Smothers on guitar include One Room Country Shack, while Johnny Young is backed by Slim Willis on harp and Otis Spann on piano for You Got Bad Blood, I Think You Need a Shot. The Joe Williams performances are typically fine and are followed by a Swedish broadcast of Dupree and Olie Helander in which Dupree recalls growing up, his big influence and other matters along with a rendition of his Drive 'em Down Special, as well as Leroy Carr's Barrelhouse Woman. In addition to being a great pianist, Dupree was a marvelous conversationalist. As with the first two volumes, there are copious notes that discuss the artists and how the recordings were made. This is an invaluable addition to the body of downhome blues of this time. This is an important musical document and contains some very strong performances by artists who have mostly passed away. The Swedish Blues Alliance is to be thanked for the over six hours of vintage blues music that they have made available in this series. You probably can only obtain these by mail order, and I would suggest contacting either Bluebeat Music at www.bluebeatmusic.com or Triangle Music at www.triangle-music.com for information on obtaining these. Its too bad that Olie Helander only did a radio documentary of the blues forty years ago, because the musical legacy of this radio series stands tall compared to the recent over-hyped Martin Scorcese PBS series on the blues.

Bluebeat Music shows the three volumes of this series as still available.

Snooks Eaglin at 2007 JazzFest Day 2-299

JazzFest 07 Day 2-299
Originally uploaded by NoVARon

I have become jaded over the years, but few acts could continually astonish me as much as the late Snooks Eaglin who passed away this year at the age of 72 in New Orleans. While he recorded with Smiley Lewis and on his own for Imperial as a R&B musician, folklorist Harry Oster recorded him as a blind street singer that misled many as to the extent of his talents. He reemerged with some performances and recordings with Professor Longhair as well as a Scandinavian recording that paired him with New Orleans musicians including pianist Ellis Marsalis. Called the human jukebox, he could play thousands of tunes and always brought something new. I saw him only a handful of times, but he was one act I would not miss if I could help it. JazzFest can bring national touring acts, but these acts are a dime a dozen. Who will they bring in that can replace Snooks. No one. RIP Snooks. Your music will continue to astonish us every time we play it.

James "Wee Willie" Wayne

Many may be familiar with the song "Junco Partner". The song was written and originally by James Wayne although most are probably familiar from more modern recordings by Professor Longhair, James Booker and Dr. John (On his Gumbo album). He also has another recording Traveling Mood that Snooks Eaglin recorded for Imperial and Black Top (This link to Dan Phillips blog Home of the Groove has a nice label shot of the Imperial 45) and also nicely done by Dr. John on his live recording on Hyena, Right Place, Right Time.

On the post-war blues internet group at yahoo, this interesting link of Wayne's dealings with California judicial and mental health systems was provided and it is worthy of further publicizing. People v. James Douglas Wayne

Thanks to Terence McArdle for posting this link.

New Orleans 1960

In 1960, noted photographer William Claxton and German musicologist Joachim Berendt travelled the United States to document the American Art Form. The massive coffee table book JazzLife was published by Taschen and available in a regular edition which lists for $200 or a deluxe edition with prints and an audio CD for over $1000. It is a 700 page book and weighs over 17 pounds. Did I say coffee table book, the book itself might serve as a coffee table. Ok enough for the poor attempts at humor.

From JazzLife, Taschen has published the portion devoted to the New Orleans, New Orleans 1960, which is a more manageable 191 pages and has pertinent text portions to explain their trip across the United States and their experiences in the Crescent City and also Angola Penitentiary. It is dedicated to the many souls who lost their lives and the survivors who are rebuilding the city.

The selling point for this are the stunning photos of Claxton, who is probably best known for his iconic images of James Dean and Chet Baker. There are many striking images here, mostly of traditional jazz performers including the Eureka Brass Band, the Tuxedo Brass Band, the marvelous clarinet player George Lewis (and one of a marvelous one of Lewis' wife and Lewis 100 + year old mother), Nick LaRocca (who they recall was still claiming to have invented jazz), drummer Paul Barbarin, blues singer Lizzie Miles, trombonist Jim Robinson, Lewis Keppard and so many others. There are a couple images of a picnic in Slidell where Snooks Eaglin and band are seen playing on a truck bed, as well as a marvelous image of the Melvin Lastie Quintet (which included at the time drummer Charles ' Honeyboy' Otis), one of the few representations of modern jazz that they captured. A series of images here also follow a funeral to the cemetery and then back witnessing the second line exploding on the way back. The section on Angola includes marvelous images of Hoagman Maxey and Roosevelt Charles.

Text is presented in English, French and German and certainly helps the appreciation of the marvelous images. Certainly this will appeal to lovers of traditional jazz and the Cresent City.

Snooks Eaglin Live

Has it been Ten Years since Black Top issued Snnoks Eaglin's Live in Japan. A poorly distributed studio album of Snooks had been issued after this, but its amazing that such a striking talent as Mr. Eaglin has not been in the studio in about a decade to present his highly idiosyncratic music.

Here is a review of this album that appeared in Jazz & Blues Report when it was issued.

A new Snooks Eaglin album is cause for celebration enough, but Eaglin’s new Black Top album also marks the return of the Black Top label that had been in hiatus since severing ties with its previous distributor. Live in Japan was recorded during Eaglin’s first Japanese tour, and he is backed by bassist George Porter’s trio (John Autin on keyboards and Jeffrey ‘Jellybean’ Alexander on drums). He gets to reprise songs he has recorded over the years with a few new surprises in terms of material. Eaglin is an exceptional guitarist, often referred to as the Professor Longhair of the guitar with a very individualistic, highly rhythmic instrumental chicken scratching attack, as well as being a fountainhead of material that lead some to call him a human jukebox. Whatever. The man is a dazzling and very effective guitarist. After opening with a Bill Doggett instrumental, Eaglin gets the second line groove going with I Went to the Mardi Gras, that he co-authored with Tommy Ridgely, followed by Earl King’s Soul Train, a superb soul dance number with a solo that is deceptively simple. Then there’s Don’t Take It So Hard, a swamp pop flavored blues ballad. Classic New Orleans is reprised in renditions of Fats Domino’s Josephine and Smiley Lewis’ Down Yonder (We Go Ballin’) and Lillie Mae. It’s interesting to hear Eaglin introduce Down Yonder, telling the Japanese audience he played on Smiley’s original recording. Eaglin is most effective as a singer on laments like Nine Pound Steel, while his guitar’s vocalizations during the solos serves to remind us of why the blues guitar is often referred to as the singer’s other voice. Covers of the Isley Brother’s It’s Your Thing, and Stevie Wonder’s (Boogie On) Reggae Woman get a nice funky groove going. A strong vocal is also given Jessie Mae Robinson’s Black Night.

This serves as a splendid sampler of Eaglin’s music, illustrating his depth as a performer and guitarist, although his skills as a bop guitarist is only hinted at. Snooks Eaglin is an American original, but one probably has a better chance of seeing Snooks in Japan than in the US outside of New Orleans. Well, at least you don’t have to go to Japan to get this album.