Ever since Joe Jackson's debut album, Look Sharp, yielded his first single in "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" in July of 1979, which peaked at number 21 on Billboard (the album hit number 20), his career has seen him investigate a multitude of musical styles with clean-cut charm and poise. Jackson has dabbled in everything from reggae, disco, and soul to power pop, jazz, and even big band. Stepping Out covers 15 of his biggest singles, including his highest chart-topper, "Stepping Out," which hit number six on Billboard's Top 40, from the suave sounding Night and Day album. The downhearted appeal of "Breaking Us in Two" appears here as well, along with the salsa- flavored "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)," which reached number 15 and was the strongest track from 1984's Body and Soul album. Outside of his chart appearances, the rest of this hits collection holds up well. Jackson's voice is heard in wispy detail on "Fools in Love," while his humor and wit explode on "I'm the Man" from the album of the same name. The live release entitled Big World from 1986 is spoken for with both "Right and Wrong" and the candid allure of "Hometown."
After his one-album stint at Asylum Records with Luxury You Can Afford in 1978, Joe Cocker was without a record label until 1981, when he signed to Island Records. Island head Chris Blackwell took him to the Compass Point studios in the Bahamas, where he recorded a 12" single, "Sweet Little Woman"/"Look What You've Done," released in May 1981, then continued working on a full-length album. When that album, Sheffield Steel, appeared a year later, listeners could be forgiven for imagining, during the instrumental portions, that they were hearing not a Joe Cocker disc, but rather a Robert Palmer record.
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"…
Avid Jazz continues with its Four Classic Albums series with a re-mastered 2CD set release from Joe Williams complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details.
“A Night At Count Basie’s”; “A Man Ain’t Supposed To Cry”; “Everyday I Joe Williams was born Joseph Goreed in Georgia 1918 but was raised by his mother and grandmother on the south side of Chicago. His early years were spent singing gospel in church choirs and he began his professional solo career in 1937. Joe played with many of the big bands of the era including Lionel Hampton and Jimmy Noone as well as touring with Coleman Hawkins in 1941. From 1954 to 1961 Joe was to play with the man whose name he is perhaps synonymous with, the legendary Count Basie…
American expatriate Joe Dassin was one of France's most popular singers during the late '60s and '70s, initially building his name with stylized adaptations of folk and country material from his birthplace. As his career blossomed, Dassin turned increasingly to traditional-style chansons penned by some of the genre's best writers, scoring an all-time classic with his 1975 smash "L'Eté Indien." Notorious for his perfectionism, Dassin could play the introverted romantic, but his persona also played off of American archetypes and imagery. His premature death of a heart attack in 1980 robbed French pop of one of its greatest modern-day practitioners.