There is a movie from the
late 70’s called the Last of the Blue
Devils about the Kansas City jazz scene.
Kansas City is one of those iconic American towns, like Memphis, like
Chicago, like New Orleans, where a white redneck mayor’s machine held sway and
enforced the law as if they were characters in a James Elroy novel. Man the
place was wide open. Sinful! Anything went down ,in KC. Such phrases were used
by those who passed through or worked in the town.
Jay McShann |
I saw the film when it first
came out and fell in love with the music. The film documents a reunion of some
of the city’s giants who were nearing their 70s and back together for the first
time in many a year. Count Basie, Joe
Turner and Jay McShann featured
prominently and I was particularly taken by the rousing rendition of Shake Rattle and Roll, one of the tunes
that vies for status as the ‘original
rock n roll’ song. Big Joe Turner was shouting it out, rolling his wide hips
and sweating like a coal miner a kilometre under God’s fair earth. Jay
McShann was giving him the bum’s rush by banging out a frenetic
boogie-woogie beat on the piano. Everyone was laughing and hooting the two ever
more elated heights.
A few months later Jay McShann came to the University and
I got to meet him back stage and thank him for his music. He was a fat jolly shortish guy with puffy
hands but slender fingers. He was soft spoken and self effacing. He signed a
copy of the album I share tonight, Big
Apple Bash.
Here’s a link to a great interview with Jay in which he talks about how he came to KC and got to become
one of the greatest boogie woogie pianists of all. Charlie
Parker, got his start with Jay’s band and for that reason McShann’s own aura has been somewhat
diminished by his star pupil’s revolutionary conduct. But he’s a wonderful player of the ivories
and has a warm friendly bluesy voice.
One of my favourites!
Track Listing: (Jay McShann)
01 Crazy Legs and
Friday Strut
02 Georgia on My Mind
03 Dickie's Dream
04 Ain't Misbehavin'
05 I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water
06 Blue Feeling
07 Jumpin' the Blues
As is the Boss of the Blues, Big Joe Turner! What a voice! What music! I’ve listened to this album hundreds and
hundreds of times. The Kansas City sound is here in perfection. Boogie woogie
piano thanks to Pete Johnson, greasy
trombone and rat-a-tat drumming! Wow. It
doesn’t get much better than this.
The premier blues shouter of the postwar era, Big Joe Turner's
roar could rattle the very foundation of any gin joint he sang within -- and
that's without a microphone. Turner
was a resilient figure in the history of blues -- he effortlessly spanned
boogie-woogie, jump blues, even the first wave of rock & roll, enjoying
great success in each genre.
Turner,
whose powerful physique certainly matched his vocal might, was a product of the
swinging, wide-open Kansas City scene. Even in his teens, the big-boned Turner
looked entirely mature enough to gain entry to various K.C. niteries. He ended
up simultaneously tending bar and singing the blues before hooking up with
boogie piano master Pete Johnson
during the early '30s. Theirs was a partnership that would endure for 13 years.
The pair initially traveled to New York at John Hammond's
behest in 1936. On December 23, 1938, they appeared on the fabled Spirituals to
Swing concert at Carnegie Hall on a bill with Big Bill Broonzy,
Sonny Terry,
the Golden Gate
Quartet, and Count Basie.
Turner
and Johnson
performed "Low Down Dog" and "It's All Right, Baby" on the
historic show, kicking off a boogie-woogie craze that landed them a
long-running slot at the Cafe Society (along with piano giants Meade Lux Lewis
and Albert Ammons).
As 1938 came to a close, Turner
and Johnson
waxed the thundering "Roll 'Em Pete" for Vocalion. It was a thrilling
up-tempo number anchored by Johnson's
crashing 88s, and Turner
would re-record it many times over the decades. Turner
and Johnson
waxed their seminal blues "Cherry Red" the next year for Vocalion
with trumpeter Hot Lips Page
and a full combo in support. In 1940, the massive shouter moved over to Decca
and cut "Piney Brown Blues" with Johnson
rippling the ivories. But not all of Turner's
Decca sides teamed him with Johnson;
Willie "The
Lion" Smith accompanied him on the mournful "Careless
Love," while Freddie Slack's
Trio provided backing for "Rocks in My Bed" in 1941.
Turner
ventured out to the West Coast during the war years, building quite a following
while ensconced on the L.A. circuit. In 1945, he signed on with National
Records and cut some fine small combo platters under Herb Abramson's
supervision. Turner
remained with National through 1947, belting an exuberant "My Gal's a
Jockey" that became his first national R&B smash. Contracts didn't
stop him from waxing an incredibly risqué two-part "Around the Clock"
for the aptly named Stag imprint (as Big Vernon!)
in 1947. There were also solid sessions for Aladdin that year that included a
wild vocal duel with one of Turner's
principal rivals, Wynonie Harris,
on the ribald two-part "Battle of the Blues."
Few West Coast indie labels of the late '40s didn't boast at least one
or two Turner
titles in their catalogs. The shouter bounced from RPM to Down Beat/Swing Time
to MGM (all those dates were anchored by Johnson's
piano) to Texas-based Freedom (which moved some of their masters to Specialty)
to Imperial in 1950 (his New Orleans backing crew there included a young Fats Domino
on piano). But apart from the 1950 Freedom 78, "Still in the Dark,"
none of Turner's
records were selling particularly well. When Atlantic Records bosses Abramson
and Ahmet Ertegun
fortuitously dropped by the Apollo Theater to check out Count Basie's
band one day, they discovered that Turner
had temporarily replaced Jimmy Rushing
as the Basie
band's frontman, and he was having a tough go of it. Atlantic picked up his
spirits by picking up his recording contract, and Turner's
heyday was about to commence.
At Turner's
first Atlantic date in April of 1951, he imparted a gorgeously world-weary
reading to the moving blues ballad "Chains of Love" (co-penned by Ertegun
and pianist Harry Van Walls)
that restored him to the uppermost reaches of the R&B charts. From there,
the hits came in droves: "Chill Is On," "Sweet Sixteen"
(yeah, the same downbeat blues B.B. King's
usually associated with; Turner
did it first), and "Don't You Cry" were all done in New York, and all
hit big.
Turner
had no problem whatsoever adapting his prodigious pipes to whatever regional
setting he was in. In 1953, he cut his first R&B chart-topper, the storming
rocker "Honey Hush" (later covered by Johnny Burnette
and Jerry Lee Lewis),
in New Orleans, with trombonist Pluma Davis
and tenor saxman Lee Allen
in rip-roaring support. Before the year was through, he stopped off in Chicago
to record with slide guitarist Elmore James'
considerably rougher-edged combo and hit again with the salacious "T.V.
Mama."
Prolific Atlantic house writer Jesse Stone
was the source of Turner's
biggest smash of all, "Shake, Rattle and Roll," which proved his
second chart-topper in 1954. With the Atlantic braintrust reportedly chiming in
on the chorus behind Turner's
rumbling lead, the song sported enough pop possibilities to merit a considerably
cleaned-up cover by Bill Haley &
the Comets (and a subsequent version by Elvis Presley
that came a lot closer to the original leering intent).
Suddenly, at the age of 43, Turner
was a rock star. His jumping follow-ups -- "Well All Right,"
"Flip Flop and Fly," "Hide and Seek," "Morning, Noon
and Night," "The Chicken and the Hawk" -- all mined the same
good-time groove as "Shake, Rattle and Roll," with crisp backing from
New York's top session aces and typically superb production by Ertegun
and Jerry Wexler.
Turner
turned up on a couple episodes of the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the
Apollo during the mid-'50s, commanding center stage with a joyous rendition of
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" in front of saxman Paul
"Hucklebuck" Williams' band. Nor was the silver screen
immune to his considerable charms: Turner
mimed a couple of numbers in the 1957 film Shake Rattle & Rock (Fats Domino
and Mike "Mannix" Connors also starred in the flick).
Updating the pre-war number "Corrine Corrina" was an inspired
notion that provided Turner
with another massive seller in 1956. But after the two-sided hit "Rock a
While"/"Lipstick Powder and Paint" later that year, his Atlantic
output swiftly faded from commercial acceptance. Atlantic's recording strategy
wisely involved recording Turner
in a jazzier setting for the adult-oriented album market; to that end, a Kansas
City-styled set (with his former partner Johnson
at the piano stool) was laid down in 1956 and remains a linchpin of his legacy.
Turner
stayed on at Atlantic into 1959, but nobody bought his violin-enriched remake
of "Chains of Love" (on the other hand, a revival of "Honey
Hush" with King Curtis
blowing a scorching sax break from the same session was a gem in its own
right). The '60s didn't produce too much of lasting substance for the shouter
-- he actually cut an album with longtime admirer Haley
and his latest batch of Comets
in Mexico City in 1966!
But by the tail end of the decade, Turner's
essential contributions to blues history were beginning to receive proper
recognition; he cut LPs for BluesWay and Blues Time. During the '70s and '80s, Turner
recorded prolifically for Norman Granz's
jazz-oriented Pablo label. These were super-relaxed impromptu sessions that
often paired the allegedly illiterate shouter with various jazz luminaries in
what amounted to loosely run jam sessions. Turner
contentedly roared the familiar lyrics of one or another of his hits, then sat
back while somebody took a lengthy solo. Other notable album projects included
a 1983 collaboration with Roomful of Blues,
Blues Train,
for Muse. Although health problems and the size of his humongous frame forced
him to sit down during his latter-day performances, Turner
continued to tour until shortly before his death in 1985. They called him the
Boss of the Blues, and the appellation was truly a fitting one: when Turner
shouted a lyric, you were definitely at his beck and call.
(AllMusicGuide)
Track
Listing:
01
cherry red
02 Roll 'em Pete
03 i want a little girl
04 low down dog
05 wee baby blues
06 you're driving me crazy (what did i do?)
07 How Long Blues
08 morning glories
09 st. louis blues
10 piney brown blues
4 comments:
Two of my all-time favorites! Thanks! You blog is definitely one of the best for quality and variety, and one that I check every day!
Moses,
thanks very much for checking in regularly and your encouragement.
Love that Kansas City jazz!
Thanks for this!
Post a Comment