Shindig! Magazine - Psychedelia, Garage, Beat, Powerpop, Soul, Folk

DAVE PENNY'S ROCKIN' HOEDOWN

The fascinating history of seminal jump blues and R&B from the West Coast from a variety of Ace-owned labels can be traced on a bumper bundle of compilations; dipping back to the late 1940s, Blues For Dootsie is a first time reissue for a generous 30 track selection from Dootsie Williams' Blu/Blue, Dooto/Dootone and Authentic labels which encompasses artists from a veritable household name like Big Joe Turner to obscurities such as Violet Hall and styles from downhome blues to close-enough-for-jazz - all are worthy of your attention! A veteran swing trumpeter, like Dootsie, Jake Porter owned Combo Records in los Angeles, and Cool Daddy: The Central Avenue Scene 1951-57 is the third volume in this Ace series devoted to collecting the best of Combo's fine R&B recordings, and like the Dootsie compilation, this set is topped off with a fact-packed and well-illustrated booklet with notes by expert Jim Dawson.

     Porter's biggest star on Combo was honking tenor saxophonist Chuck Higgins, who is featured on Cool Daddy but also gets the solo treatment with a CD to himself on Chuck Higgins Blows His Wig! featuring most of his great R&B tracks cut between 1952 and 1957, the earliest boasting Johnny "Guitar" Watson on vocals and piano before he ever picked up a git-box! The set, rather oddly, omits Higgins' best known number and nearest thing to a hit, "Pachuko Hop".
     The most famous, and longest lasting independant record label on the West Coast was the Bihari brothers' Modern Records, a stable which also included the RPM, Crown, Kent and Meteor labels. A Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party was the first release when they launched their Crown budget LP line in 1957, and was no doubt a big disappointment to many a teenager whose loving parent picked the LP up for their r'n'r-loving offspring, featuring cover versions, older hits and, in the case of Joe Turner, a track that was a full decade out of date. Realising the error, the LP was recompiled in the early 1960s and both versions have been included on this CD along with eight more bonus cuts cherrypicked by compiler Tony Rounce to dovetail nicely with the original selections. The resulting CD should now be regarded as a classic of the genre - Great stuff!
     A Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party kicks off in good rockin' style with "Dance With Me Henry", Etta James' blasting 1957 remake of her big hit "The Wallflower", and she also gets the complete treatment on the double CD set Miss Etta James: The Complete Modern and Kent Recordings; a 42 track masterwork of Etta's debut sessions from 1954 to 1957 which is essential listening for any fan of rock 'n' roll music, but particularly for the student of the r&b side of the music. One of Etta's contemporaries at Modern was Shirley Gunter who gets her own "complete" treatment with Oop Shoop: The Flair and Modern Recordings 1953-57. Not quite as prolific as Etta, Shirley's recordings fit onto a single CD, but that is packed with highly-listenable doo wop and jump r&b, including her big hit from 1954, "Oop Shoop".
     Although surviving well into the rock 'n' roll era (and beyond courtesy of B B King), Modern Records was grounded in the jump blues and r&b of the immediate post-war years. It had been incorporated in 1945 at the height of the explosion of West Coast indie labels and was immediately successful with the recordings of torch singer and boogie pianist Hadda Brooks. By the late 1940s the label was secure enough to buy in releases that were threatening to break out, from smaller labels, and a major source of fine material was Bob Geddin's Bay Area-based Down Town Records. Bad Luck Is Falling is a second volume from legendary pianist Roy Hawkins, featuring cool blues and jump from his 1948/49 debut for Geddins and his more sophisticated cuts for Modern/RPM between 1949 and 1955 and a parting shot for the Kent label in 1961. Including an alternative take of his best known song "The Thrill Is Gone", this stuff is precious!
     Modern Records had an early hook-up with Sam Phillips in Memphis before Sun Records was formed, but fell out with him when he began peddling his masters to Chess in Chicago. In retaliation, the brothers dispatched Lester Bihari to Memphis to set-up Meteor Records and to plug in to all that fine Memphis blues and r&b and The Complete Meteor Blues, R&B & Gospel Recordings finishes the story started by Ace's 2003 release of the label's hillbilly and rockabilly masters. The label was largely unsuccessful and was left in the shadow cast by the mighty Sun label, but check out this role call: Elmore James, Smokey Hogg, Rufus Thomas, Fenton Robinson, Little Milton and William Bell. The program runs the gamut of the 1950s black experience from Billy Eckstine styled ballads and sweet doowop to hot r&b and jazz to downhome blues, modern blues and fervent gospel. Get it...but get the other volume too for the full picture.
     Coming up country to Motor City, Joe Von Battle was an important independent producer of mainly downhome blues recordings in the Hastings Street area of Detroit in the 1950s on his own labels JVB and Von, which were often sold to bigger labels to maximise their impact. Famous for cutting the best of John Lee Hooker's early classics, Von Battle is celebrated in Ace's cleverly-titled compilation Battle Of Hastings Street, a 24 track selection bought from JVB by King Records in Cincinnati. It features no big names, but blues buffs' hearts will skip a beat at the mention of Eddie Kirkland, Eddie Burns and the Richard Brothers, while local hero, the late Joe Weaver, provides a little sophistication with his five tracks.Eleven previously unissued cuts and a superb 16-page booklet with notes by Dave Sax make this another essential purchase.

     Although it is hard to imagine these days post-Motown, urban Detroit was once also home to a thriving hillbilly community of migrants from the southern states and played host to a healthy country music scene. Perhaps the most famous of the local recording artits were the York Brothers - originally from Kentucky - who enjoyed local hits with songs like "Hamtramck Mama" and "Highland Park Girl" which celebrated Detroit suburbs. In 1947 they began recording for King Records in Cincinnati and their sessions soon began to emulate those of King's more famous brother act, the Delmores, with uptempo material featuring hot electric guitar. Arguably, the Yorks overtook the Delmores in this respect and began covering black r&b material by Tiny Bradshaw, Sonny Thompson and Wynonie Harris. The latest instalment of Ace's irresistable "King & Deluxe Acetate Series", The York Brothers: Long Time Gone, sports 24 tracks of high-lonesome heavenly harmonies and boisterous barnyard boogie including a full ten previously unissued masters or alternative takes. The roots of the Everly Brothers are here.
     On to the Caucasian side of fifties music, and we kick off with The Golden Age Of American Popular Music. Having apparently exhausted the "Golden Age Of American Rock 'n' Roll" with their ten volumes and four "specials", from the same era (1956-1965) Ace now turn to the more gentle strains of US Pop, serving up a 28 track smorgasbord of MOR snacks; from legends such as Johnny Mathis and Bobby Darin to a pre-Dawn Tony Orlando and a post-Rock 'n' Roll Trio Dorsey Burnette on down to barely-one-hit-wonders The Dolphins and The Voxpoppers. All hit the US Hot Hundred, but only three made any mark over here: Gene McDaniel's 'Tower Of Strength' (#49 1961), Tony Orlando's 'Bless You' (#5 1961) and Bobby Darin's 'Things' (#2 1962).
     The Golden Age Of American Rock 'n' Roll series bows out (or maybe not) with a fourth "special", this time subtitled "Bubbling Under Edition", this volume flies in the face of what went before by ignoring the criteria that the selection should be cherry-picked from the Billboard Hot Hundred and instead is selected from 30 tracks that "came within striking distance" of the US chart. A bit of a cop-out, but it does allow for the inclusion of superb regional hits like Harmonica Fats' 'I'm Tore Up', Ricky Allen's 'Cut You A-Loose' and Jackie Brenston's Rocket-88-beater 'Trouble Up The Road'. Like earlier volumes there is a pleasing spread of black and white rockers, doo wop, R&B, country and instrumentals, including the original "Nut Rocker" by Jack B Nimble & The Quicks (AKA Kim Fowley).
     Both CDs are graced with big, fat, picture-packed booklets.
     Ace's meandering history of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller makes a welcome second whistle-stop at The Leiber & Stoller Story #2: On The Horizon a 24 track compilation spanning the years 1956 to 1962 and featuring The Clovers, The Drifters and The Coasters, of course, but also the likes of Roy Hamilton, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and , even, Cassius Clay. I'm afraid it loses direction somewhat with this volume, as the tracks by Buddy Holly ('Smokey Joe's Caf�') and Clyde McPhatter ("Spanish Harlem"), while pleasing in their obscurity, are only included because their songs are second-hand borrowings. Lonnie Donegan's 'I'm Sorry But I'm Gonna Have To Pass', even though a cover of a Coasters b-side, was at least produced in NYC by the songwriters. Nice to have the originals of 'Bossa Nova Baby' (Tippie & The Clovers) and 'Some Other Guy' (Richie Barrett) included, though.

Ace have also launched a new budget range of classic LP releases in CD form. Coming housed in a mini-LP-sleeve styled 5" cardboard facsimile of the original LPs (which makes the purchase of a magnifying glass essential to read the sleeve notes!), the first batch includes Whirlwind: Blowing Up A Storm (1980s Brit rock 'n' roll/rockabilly revivalists) and Link Wray: Early Recordings (which was on display for many years on the record stall in Albert Square!), together with cute little reissues of the debut LPs of The Everly Brothers ('Bye Bye Love', 'Wake Up Little Suzie', 'Hey Doll Baby', etc) and The Champs: Go, Champs, Go ('Tequila', 'Train To Nowhere', 'El Rancho Rock', etc).
Finally, the lovely Wanda Jackson - our first lady of rockabilly - has just been brought over to the UK by Ace for a one-off gig at Kilburn's Luminaire club to promote the release of Wanda Jackson: The Very Best Of The Country Years. A companion volume to Queen Of Rockabilly which was released six years ago, this selection cherry-picks the best of her US Capitol country tracks from 1956, when she joined the label, up to 1972, shortly before she found God and parted from Capitol. Despite her fame in the rock field, her Billboard Country Chart run was phenomenal, and this set includes biggies such as 'In The Middle Of A Heartache' (#6 1961), 'Right Or Wrong' (#9 1962), 'Tears Will Be The Chaser For Your Wine' (#11 1967) and 'Fancy Satin Pillows' (#13 1971). For all us rockers, in addition to the country chart hits it also features well-chosen misses and LP tracks such as 'I Wanna Waltz' (an irresistibly schizophrenic hillbilly/rockabilly dialogue), a live version of her career song "Let's Have a Party", the cool 'You Bug Me Bad', and kicks off with the boogin' 'Memory Mountain' from 1963. Nice one, Ace!
www.acerecords.co.uk
Dave Penny