Mose Allison

Fat Possum Records is proud to present If You're Going To The City: A Tribute to Mose Allison, in stores November 29, a collection of songs celebrating Mose Allison, and the influence and legacy he left behind. The names behind the collection let the project speak for itself: Taj Mahal, Robbie Fulks, Jackson Browne, The Tippo Allstars featuring Fiona Apple, Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite, Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, Bonnie Raitt, Loudon Wainwright III, Richard Thompson, Peter Case, Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin, Anything Mose!, Frank Black, Amy Allison with Elvis Costello.

Mose Allison - The Sage Of Tippo (1998) {2CD Set, Atlantic–32 Jazz 32068 rec 1961-1968}
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© 1961-68, 1998 Atlantic / 32 Jazz | 32068
Jazz / Blues / Hard Bop / Jazz Blues / Vocal Jazz / Piano

As someone once said, Mose Allison songs are like haiku – each very much like another, and yet each with their own qualities. So you can pretty much get any Mose album, and get a fair sampling. There are a few outliers: his 50s albums only had one or two vocals per album, but this collection is past that. Swinging Machine has horns, and that is included here. Western Man and Middle-Class White Boy favored electric piano, but neither of those are here. Down-home jazzy piano, wry lyrics, easy-going vocals, and an attentive rhythm section – that's basically any Mose album from 1960 onward, and four of them are here.

Mose Allison - Creek Bank (1958) {Prestige ‎PCD-24055-2 rel 1994}
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© 1958, 1994 Prestige / ZYX Music | PCD-24055-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Jazz Blues / Piano / Vocal Jazz

This Prestige collection combines two 1958 sessions that feature Mose Allison on many cherished standards, and a few early originals. Here the pianist/vocalist divides his time between instrumental piano trio numbers and those that feature his bluesy Southern vocals. Listening to many of these familiar tunes, it is easy to see how Allison was influenced by everyone from Sonny Boy Williamson and Nat King Cole to Bud Powell.

Mose Allison - Down Home Piano (1957-1959) {Prestige OJCCD-922-2 rel 1997}
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© 1957-59, 1997 Prestige / Fantasy / OJC | OJCCD-1892-2 / 00025218692229
Jazz / Hard Bop / Jazz Blues / Piano Trio

Although Mose Allison is perhaps best known for his enjoyably idiosyncratic vocal style, he is first and foremost a marvelous piano player with a unique style pitched somewhere between a New Orleans bordello and the rhythmic and harmonic experimentation of Thelonious Monk or Sun Ra. This well-chosen 1966 compilation (released after Allison had split for Atlantic Records) pulls together ten of his best instrumentals from four of his six Prestige albums, and it makes a strong case for Allison as one of the most inventive piano players and composers of his generation.

Mose Allison - …Hello There, Universe (1970) {Atlantic–Collectables COL-CD-6534 rel 2004}
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© 1969-70, 2004 Atlantic / Collectables Records | COL-CD-6534
Jazz / Bop / Jazz Blues / Cool / Vocal Jazz / Piano

Mose always had a darkly comic way of looking at life on Earth, and his caustic wit was never sharper than on Monsters of the Id , one of the many great originals on this 1969 Atlantic LP. The title track and Wild Man on the Loose became instant Mose classics, too; they join his sultry version of Blues in the Night and more, all sporting that idiosyncratic, ultra-cool piano style of his!

Mose Allison was already 34 and had recorded nine records as a leader before cutting his debut for Atlantic but this was his breakthrough date. One of jazz's greatest lyricists, at the time, Allison was making the transition from being a pianist who occasionally sang to becoming a vocalist who also played his own unusual brand of piano. In addition to the original versions of "Your Mind Is on Vacation," "I Don't Worry About a Thing (Because I Know Nothing Will Turn out Right)" and "It Didn't Turn out That Way," he sings bluish versions of two standards ("Meet Me at No Special Place" and "The Song Is Ended") and plays five instrumentals with his trio. There are only 33 1/2 minutes of music on this straight reissue of the orignal LP, but the set is one of Mose Allison's most significant recordings.

Released in 1982, Middle Class White Boy was Mose Allison's first recording in six years, and his debut for the fledgling and relatively short-lived Elektra Musician label run by Bruce Lundvall. Allison is featured here in a sextet setting. His fellow front-line players are saxophonist Joe Farrell and guitarist Phil Upchurch. The set is a well-blended collection of originals and covers including Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone," and Duke Ellington's "Just a Lucky So and So." As is his trademark, Allison effortlessly blends jazz, backwoods blues, and Southern hipster jive in a heady brew of fantastic musicianship. His work on electric and acoustic piano here is as startling as ever and his songwriting is canny, wildly swinging, funny, and biting.

It seems strange to realize that this was Mose Allison's only recording during the 1973-1981 period. In addition to his trio with bassist Jack Hannah and drummer Jerry Granelli, such guests as altoist David Sanborn, Al Cohn, and Joe Farrell on tenors and trumpeter Al Porcino pop up on a few selections. ~ AllMusic