Jimmy Witherspoon Concert

Jays Blues is a fine collection of early-'50s jump blues sides that Jimmy Witherspoon cut for Federal Records. This 23-track collection offers a good retrospective of one of Witherspoon's most neglected – and admittedly, uneven – periods.

Blues vocalist Jimmy Witherspoon is at the peak of his performing career during this 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival set, where he is backed by a young but enthusiastic electric band that he had recruited after hearing them open for him in a club the previous year. Witherspoon is in a playful mood, frequently speaking to the crowd. The program is filled with several Witherspoon's most popular numbers, including the humorous "I'm Going to Move to the Outskirts of Town," "Kansas City," and "Early One Morning." Following his raucous take of "Walkin' by Myself," the stage curtain is evidently pulled prematurely, provoking an extended outburst from the singer, who repeatedly threatens to cut the curtain with his knife to the delight of the crowd…

When Willie Dixon left his native Mississippi and traveled north to Chicago, he almost single-handedly dragged the blues with him into the modern era, giving the country blues a hard, new sheen with his deft songwriting, sturdy bass playing, and his considerable talents as a producer and arranger. This two-disc, 47-track set catches Dixon wearing all of his hats, with the first disc featuring him in the studio and in concert (including several live tracks with Johnny Winter) and the second spotlighting his bass playing and production work with the likes of Robert Nighthawk, Eddie Boyd, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Lowell Fulson, Bo Diddley, Willie Mabon, and Howlin' Wolf. What emerges is a well-rounded portrait and introduction to one of the major architects of the modern blues sound.

The mid-to-late Sixties was a strange and difficult time for many Blues men - most were without contracts, forgotten and under-appreciated. Then the Blues boom happened (particularly in the UK) and many had their careers kick-started all over again. Freddie King was no exception. His last album had been for Federal in 1964, but with a new lease of life on the mighty Atlantic label, he produced two much revered LPs in rapid succession. The first was "Freddie King Is A Blues Master" released in 1969 on SD 9004 - and then this peach - "My Feeling For The Blues" on Cotillion SD 9016 released in early 1970.

Dick Morrissey - It's Morrissey, Man! (1961) {Emarcy Redial CD 558 701-2 rel 1998}
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© 1961, 1998 Emarcy / Redial / PolyGram | CD 558 701-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone

Saxophonist Dick Morrissey towered among the finest and most innovative British jazz musicians of his generation when he teamed with guitarist Jim Mullen to spearhead the UK fusion movement of the 1970s. Born May 9, 1940 in Horley, England, Morrissey taught himself the clarinet at age 16, later mastering all of the saxophones and the flute. In his late teens, while apprenticing as a jeweler, he played with the Original Climax Jazz Band, followed by a stint in trumpeter Gus Galbraith's septet, where alto saxophonist Pete King introduced Morrissey to his chief inspiration, Charlie Parker. Tenor saxophone remained his weapon of choice for years to follow, and as he gravitated to bebop. Morrissey formed his own quartet in the spring of 1960 and cut his debut LP, It's Morrissey, Man!, the following year.