The Blues Side of Ike and Tina

 When I was in college back in the latter part of the sixties, I purchased a copy of the album, “Outta Season” by Ike and Tina Turner on Blue Thumb. It has a gatefold cover showing the two in whiteface eating watermelons which may have been controversial back then. It was a collection of mostly blues including a terrific rendition of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” I had known of Ike and Tina from Murray the K playing the heck outta of the Phil Spector produced single “River Deep, Mountain High,” but getting this album was a revelation since at that time I was unaware of Ike’s legendary role in the post-war Delta blues scene as well as is the St. Louis music scene of the late fifties and sixties.

My musical education continued when the succeeding album, “The Hunter” came out a year or so later, with some really superb guitar by Albert Collins on many of the tracks. Of course after some major crossover hits, the relationship between Ike & Tina turned very sour and Tina became perhaps an even bigger star than in earlier years. Ike himself produced and played on a number of blues recordings that displayed he was still quite the musician.

Several years ago, the Spanish Blue Moon label reissued the Blue Thump albums on CD, “The Hunter and Outta Season,” which was, and is, available as an import. More recently, the American Acrobat Music label, issued an abridged reissue of the two albums that I reviewed in the November 2010 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 310-with my photo of McCoy Tyner on the cover) which can be downloaded at jazz-blues.com. Here is that review of the American Acrobat reissue. Both reissues are still available, with the import being a bit more expensive.

Among its initial releases, the American Acrobat Music has issued Ike & Tina Turner “ Sings the Blues.” This album is compiled from the two albums that they had issued on Blue Thump, “Outta Season,” and “The Hunter” but unlike a Spanish reissue of the two albums of a few years back, this release only makes available 11 of the 13 songs on the first album and 7 of the 9 on the second release, which is unfortunately, since the full contents of both do fit on a single CD. One other serious shortcoming is the liner notes make no mention that Albert Collins, not Turner, was guitarist on much of “The Hunter,” which is not to say that Turner’s own guitar work is not worthy of praise as he was a first-rate and distinctive string bender as well as bandleader and Svengali. That all said, the music still resonates as fresh as it was four decades ago (I still have my vinyl LPs).

Tina was, and remains, a superb singer, able to touch one’s gut with her expressiveness whether its her nailing Otis Redding’s “I've Been Loving You Too Long,” or her take of “Three O'clock in the Morning Blues,” taken from B.B. King’s recording with some terrific guitar around her vocal from Ike, or her down-in-the-alley take of “Five Long Years.” “Grumbling” is an instrumental where Ike evokes Freddy King’s “The Stumble.”

Tina’s vocal shines even more brightly on the spiritual “ I Am a Motherless Child,” with its spare backing. Albert Collins’ stinging guitar should be immediately recognizable on her strong take of the Albert King blues, “The Hunter,” and it certainly sounds like Collins, although somewhat restrained in the solo, on the Jimmy Reed Classic “Baby What You Want Me to Do,” titled here as “You Got Me Running.” Ike is on guitar on the funky “Bold Soul Sister,” but Collins is laying it down on his Telecaster for the Bobby Bland classic, I Smell Trouble,” and also on “Early in the Morning,” a version of Junior Parker’s “Mother-in-Law Blues.”

I already mentioned the two main flaws in this reissue, its omission of songs and inaccuracies in its annotation. The music that is made available on this is compelling and highly recommended.

For FTC purposes, I received a review copy from a publicist for this issue.

2008 JazzFest Day 2

Continuing my travelogue (sort of to speak) of my 2008 New Orleans vacation, here is my recollections of the Second Day of JazzFest. As I noted before, it can be found in its entirety in the June 2008 issue of Jazz & Blues Report which can be downloaded as a pdf file at that publication's link.


Saturday, April 26, the weather forecast was for showers midday and while the rains came midway and shortened the performances that day, some of the best performances I saw were before the showers. My day began in Economy Hall where I saw several numbers by a fine traditional cornet player, Connie Jones who has a marvelous new CD on Arbors with pianist Tom McDermott. On the way to the Blues and Jazz tents I stopped for a bit of The Black Seminoles Mardi Gras Indians with there chants, songs and dancing. Rockie Charles, a fine singer with a touch of Al Green in his delivery impres me with his soulful blues style. He had an excellent album on Orleans Records a decade ago that is worth searching out. I had not seen the exuberant contemporary cajun sounds of Wayne Toups and the Zydecajun who rocked the Acura Stage with their strong music. Then a chance to see Carol Fran whose recording career stretches back to the sixties and who made two really memorable recordings for Black Top with her late husband Clarence Holliman. She suffered a stroke a few years ago, but that did not stop her from even sitting at the piano and weaving her spell on the audience. She remains a marvelous singer, although one limitation is that a good portion of her set was standards. Still it was wonderful to see her sound so vibrant. From her set I drifted to the jazz Tent to finally see Germaine Bazzle, one of New Orleans most beloved jazz singers and she did not disappoint me with her song selection and her marvelous singing. The charm and joy of Economy Hall beckoned for Greg Stafford’s Young Tuxedo Brass Band which had the crowd, including a sizable contingent from Lillestrøm, Norway, to second line in the tent.

Legendary honker Big Jay McNeely celebrated his 80th Birthday a bit over a year ago, but his performance in the Blues Tent showed the tenor saxophonist with the vitality of someone much younger as he wailed on sax and sang fairly strongly. After several excellent numbers by him I headed to Congo Square where Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington and the Roadmasters were holding forth with his solid funky blues including a couple numbers from his new Zoho release, “Doin’ the Funky Thing.’ With long-time bassist Jack Cruz and saxophonist Jimmy Carpenter, the Wolfman has one of the tightest bands that can really kick the groove around. After several numbers I headed to the Fais Do Do stage to catch Eddie Bo, New Orleans legendary pianist and songwriter (His ‘I’m Wise’ was a hit for Little Richard as “Slippin’ and Slidin.’” In exuberant form he led his band through some solid performances. As he was performing, the rain started getting heavier and I returned to the Blues Tent to meet my wife. I had been hoping to catch Astral Project in the Jazz tent and Dr. John on the Acura stage, but with the rain I settled in for the entire set by James Cotton and his excellent band marked by the terrific guitarists Tom Holland and Slam Allen, with his longtime bassist Noel Neal anchoring things. Allen warmed the tent audience up with several strong vocals and both guitarists are marvelous players. Cotton finally came up, and while he doesn’t sing anymore, Mr. Superharp was wailing on the Mississippi saxophone. He does not fail to satisfy. With the heavy rain, we caught a bus back to the hotel, Billy Joel cut his two-hour set early at 6:15 I understand, but I would have passed on him. I caught on WWOZ a broadcast of the Ponderosa Stomp Revue and the Count Basie Band was in the jazz Tent, but weather shortened all the closing sets. While the weather limited who I had the opportunity to watch, it was an exhilarating afternoon.

That night, my wife and I went to the Palm Court to have dinner and hopefully see 95-odd year old cornet player Lionel Ferbos and the Palm Court Jazz Band. We trekked in the very rainy streets till we reached there and stayed to hear the band even though Mr. Ferbos was unable to get out of his home because of flooded streets. The Palm Court has marvelous food and offers terrific traditional jazz nightly and the band, most of whom would play with Ferbos at the Festival on Sunday, were excellent. After dinner and the music we headed back to our hotel, although stopping at Margaritaville to catch some lively blues & R&B by veteran New Orleans guitarist Irving Bannister, who have a regular no cover gig at Jimmy Buffett’s New Orleans establishment.

Witherspoon Goes TO KC

Mosaic Records has a well deserved reputation for superb boxed sets of many different giants of jazz. In recent years they have started new series of reissues including Mosaic Select, three CD sets by various artists (often underlooked) and most recently Mosaic Singles that makes available out-of-print classic albums.
Among the most recent releases in the Mosaic Singles series is a classic 1957 recording by Jimmy Witherspoon with Jay McShann and His Band, Goin’ to Kansas City Blues. Originally on RCA, I believe this has been on CD but undoubtedly deleted. Mosaic has made available the entire album with three other recordings from the sessions that had been issued on a French vinyl reissue. Opening up with Jumpin’ the Blues from the pen of McShann and Charlie Parker, Witherspoon handles other McShann classics as Hootie Blues and Confessin’ the Blues, along with Until the Real Thing Comes Along, the classic ballad made famous by Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy and the immortal celebration of a legend of KC night life by Joe Turner-Pete Johnson, Piney Brown Blues. Witherspoon contributed a couple of originals, Rain is Such a Lonesome Sound and Blue Monday. He shines throughout backed by the swinging big little band McShann led. Others on the session included Kenny Burrell on guitar, Hilton Jefferson on alto sax, Seldon Powell on tenor sax, Al Sears or Hayward Henry on baritone sax, Emmett Berry or Ray Copeland on trumpet, J.C. Higginbotham on trombone, Gene Ramey on bass and Mousey Alexander on drums. Stereo masters were found for all but two of the thirteen songs heard here. This is a most welcome reissue and available directly from Mosaic at http://www.mosaicrecords.com.

This is an edited version of my review that first appeared in Jazz & Blues Report. www.jazz-blues.com.

Nappy Brown returns

Its been a decade since Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp, better known as Nappy Brown, last had a new recording out. Thanks to producer Scott Cable, Brown has a terrific new recording available on Blind Pig, Long Time Coming. Helping on this new recording is a terrific band that includes guitarists Bob Margolin, Junior Watson and Sean Costello, keyboardist Jim Pugh, bassist Mookie Brill, saxophonist and harpist John Nemeth, and drummer Big Joe Maher. There is a mix of new versions of some of the songs most associated with Nappy Brown (Don’t Be Angry and The Right Time (which Ray Charles made famous as Night Time is the Right Time) along with a nice selection of material that range from hot jump blues like the opening Keep On Pleasin’ You to the more downhome feel of Walter 'Lightning Bug' Rhodes Aw Shucks Baby, You Were a Long Time Coming and the Little Walter classic Who. Aw Shucks Baby is the one track not from this session as it was from a performance at the Phoenix, Arizona club, The Rhythm Room. Brown's voice sounds like he has lost little over the years, comparing his renditions of Aw Shucks Baby and The Right Time with renditions on a 1991 Ichiban album by him. The new versions benefit from a much crisper band that adds more punch to the proceedings. I know Margolin has performed with Nappy over the years, but special mention must be made of Big Joe Maher’s drumming. Maher anchored the band that backed Nappy Brown in 1991 DC Blues Festival, and besides his own swing based jump blues, has been a sought after drummer for touring acts as diverse as Earl King, Johnny Adams, James ‘Thunderbird’ Davis, and Jimmy ‘T-99’ Nelson. Maher’s playing playing is consistently in the pocket. The foundation of Maher's drums and the electric bass of Mookie Brill is one reason the music here sounds so crisp and vigorous. There is plenty of terrific guitar throughout and Nappy is in real good voice, whether employing a stuttering shouting vocal on Don’t Be Angry, handling a ballad, Give Me Your Love, or singing with faith on the closing, Take Care of Me. One would be hard pressed to find any recording by Nappy as good as this one since his classic Savoy recordings. Highly recommended. For those in the Washington DC area, Nappy Brown appears at the State Theatre in Falls Church, November 2.

A magical evening at the Duke Ellington Festival

Last Thursday, September 13, I saw a wonderful intimate performance by vocalist Roberta Gambarini and pianist Hank Jones as part of the 3rd Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in Washington DC. This performance which included wonderful interpretations from the American songbook (including Duke Ellington's Come Sunday, Billy Strayhorn's Lush Life and others). One highpoint was her performance of Sunny Side of the Street based on Dizzy Gillespie's recording with Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins. She scats like Ella, does some vocalese and has such a pure voice that is an instrument like the voice was for Ella. The most sterling moment was Irving Berlin's Supper Time written for a thirties review. Written for Ethel Waters, it is a song about a woman waiting for her husband who won't be home for supper because he's been lynched. A very simple, straight-forward delivery that was quite moving. As one might expect, Hank Jones was marvelous as an accompanist. They have a duet album coming out, so keep an eye for it.

BTW, they answered some Q's and A's from the audience and one member of the audience came with her mother who had suang with Hank at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo in the fifties. hank spent a lot of time in Cleveland and Buffalo in those years. And after his night was done he would catch Art Tatum at some other Buffalo venue. Chicken wings were invented later at the Anchor Bar.

Hank also accompanied Marilyn Monroe when she sang Happy Birthday to President Kennedy. He is the older brother of the late drummer Elvin and late trumpeter-composer Thad. Quite a family and he was quite funny in addition to being a marvelous pianist.

Recommended listening-
Roberta Gambarini - Easy to Love
Hank Jones as part of The Great Jazz Trio (with his late brother Elvin)

Ron