Wynonie Harris- Rockin' The BLues

 

Wynonie Harris - Rockin' the Blues - Proper

Along with Big Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing, Wynonie Harris is generally regarded as the greatest of the blues shouters. Harris was one of the most popular and influential artists in the first years after World War II, scoring a number of hits. First emerging on record with Lucky Millender's Big Band, Harris' vocal Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well was a success for the Millender band. For several years, he recorded for various labels, including Philo/Aladdin, Apollo, Hamptone, and Bullet, before signing with King in July 1947. With King, he enjoyed his greatest success. A singer with a booming voice and an extravagant stage presence, The British Proper label has put together a four-disc box, Rockin the Blues, which contains 81 recordings through 1950. 

It is handy to have all of Harris Philo/Aladdin and Apollo recordings, along with the rarities from Hamptone and Bullett and his first thirty-seven recordings for King. Included are classic recordings like Wynonie's Blues, Somebody Changed the Lock on My Door, In the Evenin' Blues, Mr. Blues Jumped the Rabbit, and the two-part Battle of the Blues with Big Joe Turner. Other recordings reissued in this set include: Good Morning Mr. Blues, Good Rockin' Tonight (his version eclipsed Roy Brown's original), Grandma Plays the Numbers, I Feel That Old Age Coming On, I Like My Baby's Pudding, Rock Mr. Blues, and Good Morning Judge (a version of a country hit). 

Harris was accompanied by bands that included some of the finest jazz players of the postwar era. Among the accompanists are Howard McGhee, Teddy Edwards, Illinois Jacquet, Charles Mingus, Jack McVea, Gene Phillips, Arnett Cobb, and Milt Buckner. Sun Ra is credited as pianist on the four sides recorded for Bullett in Nashville in March/April 1946. Other notable musicians who played on his recordings include Tab Smith, Bill Doggett, Hot Lips Page, Hal Cornbread Singer, Tom Archia, Buddy Tate, Sonny Thompson, and Cat Anderson. This is quite a roster of musicians, and they provide Harris with terrific support. 

It has been over thirty years since Harris died, and, thus, he never was able to enjoy the type of career revival that Big Joe Turner enjoyed in the seventies and eighties. The level of the music on these is consistently first-rate. Wynonie Harris may have been a bit of a bragger when he called himself Mr. Blues, but few shouted the blues with the power and skill that he did. 

I purchased this. I wrote this review in mid-2001, and it likely appeared in the DC Blues Society newsletter at the time. I do not know if it still is in print, but it should be available on Amazon, eBay, and other sources. Here is his classic rendition of "Good Rockin' Tonight."