Prysock

Even before the first KuschelRock album, Kuschelrock was named as a weekly nightly music program for HR3 radio station (HR3 broadcasts from Frankfurt, Germany), the author and host of this project was Thomas Koschwitz, who is considered to be the co-author of a number of albums in Kazle … After Sony Music patented the right to release a series of albums called "KuschelRock", the HR3 radio station can no longer air this night music show … And now Sony Music regularly releases every year on the album … Later, to Mpano began producing a series of albums by genre, some of which are called "Kuschel Jazz" this release represent to your attention …

Mentioning that little has changed for a band in nearly 35 years might sound like a criticism, but forRoomful of Blues, that's actually a compliment. After more personal shifting than Savoy Brown and with saxist Rich Lataille as the only remaining original member, the Rhode Island-based jump blues outfit still swings with the passion and precision they exhibited three decades ago. On their 17th album (but first for Alligator Records) they have swapped frontmen/singers yet again, with harmonica ace Mark DuFresne now ably filling that position. Still, the band retains and even enhances the buoyant, horn-injected sound that has always been their trademark…

The Buddy Johnson Orchestra was one of the few big bands that were able to stay together during the second half of the 1940s. They did that by featuring the vocals of Ella Johnson and Arthur Prysock, leaning towards R&B at times and hinting at (but not outright playing) bebop. This CD has the music from Johnson's last three sessions of 1947 and his three 1949 dates; the 1948 recording strike caused a gap. There were no major soloists in the band, but the musicianship was high, the vocalists (heard along with Buddy Johnson himself on all but four numbers) were excellent and there was plenty of spirit.

"Go Back Home to the Blues" is the second Knickerbocker All-Stars record, building on the enthusiastically received "Open Mic at the Knick". Once again the deep pool of New England blues talent has provided knockout versions of blues and R&B classics, this time adding some new songs which are perfect fits stylistically. The Knickerbocker All-Stars are celebrated veterans and masters of their craft. Original Roomful of Blues members and other Roomful alumni, members of the Duke Robillard Band, Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, and vocalists Willie J. Laws and Brian Templeton all make a powerful blend, and among them they've garnered literally dozens of BMA and Grammy nominations. The songs are characteristic of the ones played in the heyday of the Knick, first done by early Roomful influences Bobby Bland, Freddie King, Guitar Slim, Cleanhead Vinson, and many others, and this crew reanimates them with authority.

When it's quarter to three and there's no one in the place except you and me, drop another nickel in the machine and play some tracks from Bar Jazz, another smartly compiled entry in Verve's Jazz Club series. This 18-track collection of standards, ballads, and novelties celebrates the fine art of boozing, capturing in richly atmospheric detail the smoke, sex, and sorrow so pungent in corner bars and cosmopolitan nightclubs the world over.