Lowdown Baby – Joe Morris And His Orchestra

Side A
1. Lowdown Baby
2. Jump Everybody Jump
3. You're My Darling
4. Ghost Train
5. I Hope You're Satisfied
6. Pack Up All Your Rags
7. Midnight Grinder
8. Can't Stop My Crying

Side B

1. Bald Head Woman
2. Love Fever Blues
3. That's What Makes My Baby Fat
4. I Had A Notion
5. Who's Gonna Cry For Me
6. Take Your Time
7. Crazy Mixed Up World
8. Going Going Gone

We continue our jump season with the second Joe Morris LP issued by Jonas Bernholm, this time on his Jukebox Lil label. This collection of sides recorded between 1949 and 1957 looks at the “second stage” of his band, when bop influences were abandoned in favour of out and out R&B. For a while the band was billed as the “Joe Morris Blues Cavalcade” and featured a number of vocalists, including Laurie Tate whose “Any Time, Any Place, Any Where” was a huge hit in 1950/51, Billy Mitchell who later became a member of The Clovers, and a certain Fay Scruggs who changed her name to Faye Adams and went on to have to big hits on Herald with “Shake A Hand” and “I’ll Be True To You” with Joe’s band backing her on both of those smashes.

This LP has a nice mix of sides by the various vocalists as well as a couple of strong instrumentals. My favourite tracks are the atmospheric “Ghost Train”, the rousing “Jump Everybody Jump” and the amusing “That’s What Makes My Baby Fat” sung by Joe and the future Faye Adams. It’s a response to all those R&B songs about large women as Miss Adams upbraids Joe about his increasing rotundity.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps. No password. Link:

Lowdown Baby (Mega)

 1. Lowdown Baby (vocal – Joe Morris) Decca 48126

 2. Jump Everybody Jump (vocal - Joe Morris) Atlantic 931

 3. You're My Darling (vocal – Laurie Tate) Atlantic 942

 4. Ghost Train (instrumental) Atlantic 974

 5. I Hope You're Satisfied (vocal – Laurie Tate) Atlantic 942

 6. Pack Up All Your Rags (vocal – Billy Mitchell) Atlantic 933

 7. Midnight Grinder (instrumental) Atlantic 940

 8. Can't Stop My Crying (vocal – Laurie Tate) Atlantic 965

 9. Bald Head Woman (vocal – Billy Mitchell) Atlantic 974

10. Love Fever Blues (vocal – Jimmy Lewis) Atlantic 940

11. That's What Makes My Baby Fat (vocal – Joe Morris & Faye Adams) Atlantic 985

12. I Had A Notion (vocal – Al Savage) Herald 417

13. Who's Gonna Cry For Me (vocal – Mr Stringbean) Herald 418

14. Take Your Time (vocal – Al Savage) Herald 430

15. Crazy Mixed Up World (vocal – Faye Adams) Herald 429

16. Going Going Gone (vocal – Louis Madison) Atlantic 1160

Buying Joe:

This 26 track CD came out on Acrobat in 2003. It features lots of the early jazzy sides with Johnny Griffin plus some of the later R&B material. Still available on Amazon.

You can usually rely on the Classics label from France to come up with the goods and sure enough they’ve two Joe Morris discs. Both are available through Amazon.

And lastly Johnny Griffin’s debut album for Blue Note is a monster. Get hip and get it!