Roll, Jordan, Roll

A chronological history of jazz vocal presented by André Francis and Jean Schwarz. 10 CDs with more than 12 hours of music.
The resulting 2 boxed sets of 10 CDs in each, unlike any other available today, groups together the main vocalists in the story of jazz from the first half of the 20th century. Each of these 20 CDs offers in more or less the same proportion, the purest of African-American song with gospel and blues singers, from truculent Ma Rainey to majestic Bessie Smith, sophisticated Sarah Vaughan to popular Louis Prima, the folk-related tones of Charlie Patton to the honeyed voice of Frank Sinatra.

This CD is volume two in a series produced by Frenchman Bernard Frémeaux and his associates that explores the roots of rock & roll in the blues and rhythm & blues of the late '30s, the '40s, and the early '50s. The songs of that era were sung by primarily African American musical artists and became the inspiration for the phenomenon known as rock & roll. The music features hard-driving rhythms, as well as a sensuousness in both style and lyrics. Many of the early rock & roll stars, notably Elvis Presley, drew on this rich tradition. Unlike the King, most of these musicians received little notice or remuneration from the white audiences that devoured rock & roll music from the '50s on. In this volume of the collection, the music comes from as early as 1938 and carries up through 1946…

If Lonnie Jordan's 2007 long-player War Stories is to believed - that and a couple of thousand other 12" singles and albums by other artists around the globe - the era of nu soul has given way to soul, and acid jazz has given way to genuine jazz-funk once more. It's not so much that he makes a claim for these things, it's that the evidence is in the grooves themselves. Jordan is, of course, a founding member of Bay area legends War. His singing and keyboard playing helped to define that group's brave (and very successful) attempts at combining jazz, funk, soul, Latin groove and polyrhythmic pop. War Stories is Jordan's third album as a leader, and his first since 1982. It is also easily the best of his own recordings. Of course there are elements of War's sound here and the synthesis that was their trademark is, as expected, all over this 14-song set…