Big Joe Turner

Classic Hits 1938-52 is a five-disc, 123-track collection of Big Joe Turner's earliest recording sessions before finding stardom with his mid-'50s R&B sides. While this JSP set isn't extravagant, it's a luxury to have Turner's sides for National, Aladdin, Freedom, MGM, and Imperial remastered and together in one collection. The final disc also includes the Boss of the Blues' first recordings for Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic Records: "Chains of Love," "Sweet Sixteen," "Poor Lover's Blues," and "Still in Love (With You)." Turner tackles blues, swing, and fiery up-tempo jump blues, assisted by Pete Johnson, Wynonie Harris, Pee Wee Crayton, Budd Johnson, Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino, Joe Houstin, Albert Ammons, Don Byas, Art Tatum, and Hot Lips Page. While this is a collector's dream, the casual listener would do better with Big, Bad & Blue: The Big Joe Turner Anthology on Rhino.

This fine collection captures Turner in his early prime, out on the West Coast and cutting some of the tightest jump blues of the '40s. Part of Classics' chronological series, the disc features such fine support players as pianists Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons, guitarist Teddy Bunn, and alto saxophonist Tab Smith. Among the 23 tracks are fine remakes of earlier Turner gems like "Roll 'em Pete," "Nobody in Mind," and "Ice Man Blues." Other highlights include Turner's initial R&B chart topper "My Gal's a Jockey" and the salaciously swingin' "Around the Clock Blues." A solid bet for fans of vintage jump blues.

Big Joe Turner went through record companies like some people go through cigarettes, one after another, cutting sides for anybody who waved a dollar in his face. This installment of the Big Joe story focuses on an eight-month period that found him recording for National, Savoy, EmArcy, RPM, and Downbeat, usually in the company of longtime piano-playing partner Pete Johnson. A mixture of live and studio tracks, it's the usual blend of blues and boogie, with Big Joe hammering the notes flat by the sheer strength of his voice alone. Another excellent entry in this series.

This Collectables reissue combines two post-R&B-era Big Joe Turner Atlantic sides, Big Joe Is Here and Joe Turner Rides Again, originally released in 1959 and 1960, respectively. The focus here is on the jazzy blues side of Turner's career, closer to Kansas City jazz and traditional pop than his pioneering R&B hits. Alongside a few tracks penned by Turner, he tackles several standards, including "Time After Time," "Pennies From Heaven," "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," and "I Get the Blues When It Rains."

The original blues shouter found a way to meld some of Jimmy Rushing's rambling jazz phrasing with the low-down tone he naturally bellowed out to Kansas City audiences - sometimes while behind the bar serving drinks. And before hitting the charts with several early rock & roll hits, Big Joe Turner did bedrock work with such fine stride and boogie-woogie pianists as Pete Johnson, Freddie Slack, and Willie "The Lion" Smith. On Classics' 1941-1946 chronological sampler of Turner's early prime, these and other luminaries of the after-hours fraternity sympathetically back Turner over the course of 22 gems. A good chunk of the material finds Turner ideally framed by just a piano trio, with highlights including "Nobody in Mind" (Sammy Price is at the keys for this cut), "Little Bittie Gal's Blues," and "Blues on Central Avenue"…