Rebekah Witherspoon

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.

This CD includes the high point of singer Jimmy Witherspoon's career. On October 2, 1959, he appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival and created such a sensation that it caused his career to go through a renaissance. Heard at the peak of his powers, Witherspoon holds his own with a mighty group of veterans (trumpeter Roy Eldridge, both Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins on tenors, clarinetist Woody Herman, pianist Earl Hines, bassist Vernon Alley, and drummer Mel Lewis). Although the five-song set only lasted 25 minutes, Witherspoon's performance was the hit of the festival. The other half of this CD features Witherspoon romping through ten mostly traditional blues songs two months later with Ben Webster, baritonist Gerry Mulligan, pianist Jimmy Rowles, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer Mel Lewis; the performance is equally exciting. This CD is the one truly essential Jimmy Witherspoon release.

Despite the title, this actually leans considerably further to the jazz side of Witherspoon's muse than the blues one, with backing by Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Roger Kellaway on piano, Bill Watrous on trombone, Richard Davis on bass, and Mel Lewis on drums. The songs, too, are much more in the jazz/pop vein than the blues/jazz one, heavy on standards by the likes of Johnny Mercer, the Gershwins, and Ellington. Witherspoon's one of the masters of closing-time bluesy jazz, and he doesn't let anyone down on that account on this relaxed (but not sleepy) session.

One of the many unfairly overlooked albums from Witherspoon's early career, Hey Mrs. Jones is a marvelous discovery, although its lack of stylistic unity, whilst showing Witherspoon's versatility, also accounts for a occasionally confusing listening experience. The best cuts on the album are priceless Witherspoon - "The Masquerade Is Over" contains one of Witherspoon's most emotional and desperate performances, while "Have Faith" is a great gospel song, sung with genuine fervor. The album is marred slightly by a few novelty numbers, and it's hard to see anyone listening to "Pink Champagne" or "Lovey Dovey" many times, but this is a slight criticism of an album which is still one of Witherspoon's greatest.