Little Boy Blue

Little Boy Blues started as a mid-'60s garage rock band leaning toward Rolling Stones-ish blues rock, with a lesser degree of folk-rock. By the time their sole album came out in 1968, however, they were very much into period psychedelic heavy rock, with more of a soul color to some of the songs and the arrangements than the average such band. Comprised entirely of original material (from Little Boy Blue Ray Levin), In the Woodland of Weir is of fair but somewhat anonymous quality, stewing together psychedelic-influenced wordplay, blue-eyed soul, and fuzz guitar-and-organ-drenched harder rocking passages.

Bobby "Blue" Bland - Further On Up The Road: The Duke Recordings 1955-1962 (2016) {2CD Set Southern Routes SR-3002}
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© 1955-62, 2016 Duke Records / Southern Routes | SR-3002
Blues / Rhythm & Blues / Soul / Electric Texas Blues / Soul-Blues

There's nobody like Bobby Blue Bland on Duke Records – especially during the early years that are featured on this collection! Bland came out of Memphis with a very unique, really amazing sound right from the start – an approach to blues that was a lot more sophisticated than most of his contemporaries, even those on the LA scene – with lots of jazz in his phrasing, and his backings as well – and this sublime vocal approach that often had Bobby growling in a way that seemed to come from deep down in the depths of his soul, but never in any sort of gimmicky sort of style. Bland was always the perfect balance of cool, class, and outright blues power – and that was never more true than on these sides.

Donald Byrd - Byrd In Flight (1960) {Blue Note Japan TOCJ-4048 rel 1993}
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© 1960, 1993 Blue Note / Toshiba EMI Japan | TOCJ-4048
Jazz / Hard Bop / Trumpet

By the time of this fourth Blue Note album by trumpeter Donald Byrd, it became clear that his playing was becoming stronger with the passing of time. Byrd in Flight features separate studio sessions from January and July of 1960 with constants Duke Pearson on piano and drummer Lex Humphries. Bassists Doug Watkins and Reggie Workman split duties six tracks to three, as do tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, making for some interesting sonic combinations, although Byrd is the dominant voice.