Charlie Burse And His Memphis Mudcats Magic Spell Blues

Various Artists - Let Me Tell You About The Blues - Memphis: The Evolution Of Memphis Blues 1927-1958 (2009) {3 CD Box Set}
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© 1927-58, 2009 Fantastic Voyage / Future Noise Music Ltd. | FVTD022
Blues / Regional Blues

Memphis was the town blues musicians passed through on their way to Chicago. But some of them stayed and the record companies sent their mobile units to record them. Over a three-year period from 1927, an astonishing amount of talent was recorded: local stars like the Memphis Jug Band, Frank Stokes, Cannon’s Jug Stompers, Jim Jackson, Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins, Bukka White, Memphis Minnie, Joe Callicott and Sleepy John Estes.

From the classic sounds of the jug band heyday to the earthy blues straight from the Mississippi Delta, Memphis was at the very epicentre of the 1920s country blues explosion. This Rough Guide charts the city’s huge influence with classic tracks by blues legends Memphis Minnie, Furry Lewis, Sleepy John Estes and many more.

Skyliner was one of Charlie Barnet's most exciting hit records, and quickly became as closely identified with his big band as was Ray Noble's Cherokee. This 1996 EPM Musique Jazz Anthology compilation is one of at least six Barnet albums with the word "Skyliner" in the title. Tracks one through twelve were recorded for the Bluebird label between June 19, 1940 and April 30, 1942. Tracks thirteen through twenty follow Barnet's progress through the turbulent wartime years with a trail of Decca sides cut between July 1942 and February 1944. "Skyliner" comes from a V-Disc recorded on July 13, 1944; "E-Bob-O-Lee-Bob," like "Oh Miss Jaxon" a vocal feature for trumpeter Peanuts Holland, was harvested from a Jubilee broadcast on December 6, 1945. Some of this band's arrangements were written by Horace Henderson, Billy May and by the leader himself. Most Charlie Barnet albums are well worth investigating. This one lives somewhere near the top of the heap.

Charlie Parker and His Orchestra - Swedish Schnapps (1951) {2014 Japan Universal 100 Series UCCU-99111}
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© 1951, 2014 Verve Records / Universal Japan | UCCU-99111 | Mono
Jazz / Bebop / Bop / Saxophone

Musicians like to observe that for all his notoriety as the wellspring of bebop, Charlie "Bird" Parker's music was loaded with the blues. SWEDISH SCHNAPPS is as good a place as any to make that connection with Parker's music, including as it does two of his most enduring bop heads based on the blues, "Au Privave" and "Blues For Alice." While you wouldn't mistake either composition for a Muddy Waters tune, both relate Bird's off-kilter accents and serpentine melodicism at walking tempos that let you hear what's actually going by, instead of leaving you astonished but bemused. To really drive the point home, there's "K.C. Blues," which finds the altoist at his hollerin' best, and "Lover Man," certainly one of the bluesiest 32-bar standards around.

Collectors will be thrilled to learn that The Come Back contains 11 previously unreleased tracks, but even those who aren't hardcore collectors will find that this CD paints an exciting picture of Slim's two years at United.
Like John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim was very much a label-hopper - from the '40s to the '80s, it was safe to assume that the singer/pianist wouldn't stay at one label for too long. In the '50s, Slim did some of his best work for United, a Chicago-based indie whose catalog has since been acquired by Delmark (another Windy City label). Slim's United period of 1952-1954 is the focus of The Come Back, a 20-track collection that Delmark assembled in 2002. This is a blues CD that has both jazz and rock appeal…

In 2002 the Transatlantic Radio label fortified their catalog with a 26-track anthology of historic sides by the Jean Goldkette Orchestra. Victor Recordings 1924-1928 neatly samples some of the group's best works by beginning in March 1924, a good nine months before Bix Beiderbecke first sat in, and ending in December 1928, more than a year after Bix had joined the ranks of Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, along with some of Goldkette's most capable players. During the mid-‘20s the Goldkette band played its best music in front of live audiences, using arrangements by Bill Challis. Studio recordings captured some of the magic in the form of sweet and hot dance music punctuated by period pop vocals. Rather than packing in a lot of alternate takes (which may be found on other equally fine collections), the folks at Transatlantic chose to lay out a sensible selection that accurately embodies what the Goldkette band was all about.