Count Basie and his Orchestra - Swingin' The Blues LP

Side 1:
01. Swinging The Blues
02. John's Idea
03. Blue & Sentimental
04. Texas Shuffle
05. Panassie Stomp
06. Sent For You Yesterday And Here You Come Today
07. You Can Depend On Me
08. Every Tub

Side 2:
01. Jumpin' At The Woodside
02. Time Out
03. Jive At Five
04. Oh Lady Be Good
05. Shorty George
06. Out The Window
07. Topsy
08. Doggin' Around

Swingin' The Blues LP (Mega)

Swingin' The Blues LP (Zippy)

I've included "LP" in the title of this post and also in the tagging of this album because, as many of you will be aware, I've previously posted the cassette version of this collection. It was re-upped in March 2015 here:

https://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2015/03/count-basie-his-orchestra-swingin-blues.html

That was in response to a request for a re-up of the album which was originally posted in August 2008 here:

https://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2008/08/count-basie-his-orchestra-swingin-blues_8959.html

Last year I came across this LP while browsing in a local charity shop, so here for your delectation is the vinyl version. The sound on the vinyl rips differs considerably from the cassette rips, being clearer, although there are the inevitable clicks, pops and crackles to remind us that the source is a second hand record.

These are recordings made between July 1937 and February 1939 for Decca in New York (the band having migrated from Kansas City in 1936). The lineup includes tenor sax duo Lester Young and Herschel Evans (replaced by Chu Berry in the final session as Evans was in hospital with the heart condition which would cause his death 6 days later). There is the All-American Rhythm Section of Freddy Green (guitar), Walter Page (bass), Count Basie (piano) and Jo Jones (drums). Earl Warren features on clarinet and alto sax, Buck Clayton on trumpet and, shouting the blues on 2 numbers, Mister Five by Five himself, Jimmy Rushing.

Full band lineups and recording dates are on the back cover along with an essay by jazz critic Stan Britt.

Jimmy Rushing - I Want A Little Girl

 
Side 1:
01. My Baby's Business
02. Jimmy's Round The Clock Blues
03. Thursday Blues
04. Good Mornin' Blues
05. I've Got To Have You That's All
06. I Want A Little Girl
07. I'm So Lonely
08. Go Get Some More You Fool

Side 2:
01. Hi-Ho-Sylvester
02. The Way I Feel
03. In The Moonlight
04. She's Mine, She's Yours
05. Where Were You?
06. Somebody's Spoiling These Women
07. My Last Affair
08. Baby, Don't Tell On Me

I Want A Little Girl (Mega)

I Want A Little Girl (Zippy)

Jimmy Rushing was the first of the great male blues shouters and a big influence on all who followed in his footsteps, from Joe Turner to Wynonie Harris, from Jimmy Witherspoon to Gatemouth Moore.

He is associated with the roaring Kansas City big blues bands, starting with Walter Page's Blue Devils in the late 1920's and then of course with Bennie Moten and Count Basie. None of the sides on this compilation are with the Basie band (officially), although the first six tracks were recorded while Jimmy was still a member of the Basie outfit. "My Baby's Business" and Jimmy's Round The Clock Blues" were recorded at a Johnny Otis session in LA in 1945 for Excelsior. A year later Jimmy again recorded for Excelsior (tracks 3-6) with the backing band, which consisted mostly of Count Basie band members, going under Jimmy Mundy's name.

The Count Basie band broke up in 1950 and Jimmy kept going with a small group which often featured Dickie Wells, Buddy Tate and Walter Page. He recorded a couple of singles for Gotham in 1950 (not included) and then in 1951 - 1952 four singles for King Records. All of the King sides are on this comp. The remaining two sides here were released as a single on Okeh in 1957 by which time Jimmy was well established in the jazz LP market with releases on Vanguard and Columbia. A single recorded for Parrot in Chicago (Mr 5 x 5) in 1953 with the Frank Culley band is not included.

Full recording details are on the back cover along with an excellent essay by Alun Morgan. I hope you enjoy these sides aimed at the Race Records / R&B market rather than the jazz audience which sustained Jimmy's career through the second half of the 1950's, the 1960's and the early 1970's.

A belated Happy New Year to all followers of Be Bop Wino. We'll be rockin' through 2019!

Count Basie & His Orchestra - Swingin' The Blues (re-up)

These classic recordings for Decca were cut between July 1937 and February 1939. The band line-up included the twin tenor sax threat of Lester Young and Herschel Evans, and of course the All American Rhythm Section of Freddy Green (guitar), Walter Page (bass), Jo Jones (drums) and the Count himself on piano. There’s a tremendous blues shouting performance by Jimmy Rushing on the classic “Sent ForYou Yesterday” which is a number I just can’t get out of my head at present.

“Jive at Five” and “Lady Be Good” were recorded on the third of February 1939, just five days before Herschel Evans died of a heart condition. On these tracks Chu Berry deputized for the ailing Herschel. Berry himself was to die in an automobile accident just two years later.

The tracks were ripped from a cassette issued in 1984 by Charly Records. Inlay card with notes is included in the download.

Ripped at 320 kbps

1. Swinging The Blues

2. John's Idea

3. Blue & Sentimental

4. Texas Shuffle

5. Panassie Stomp

6. Sent For You Yesterday

7. You Can Depend On Me

8. Every Tub

9. Jumpin' At The Woodside

10. Time Out

11. Jive At Five

12. Oh Lady Be Good

13. Shorty George

14. Out The Window

15. Topsy

16. Doggin' Around

New download link:

http://www82.zippyshare.com/v/9cCIFLS2/file.html

The original post from 2008 is here:

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/count-basie-his-orchestra-swingin-blues_8959.html

Re-uploaded at the request of a Be Bop Wino fan!

Jimmy's Round The Clock Blues / Harlem Nocturne - Jimmy Rushing with Johnny Otis his Drums & his Orchestra (Excelsior JR 142)

William Gottlieb collection, Library of Congress

Recorded in Los Angeles, September 13th, 1945. Released November 1945.

Personnel: Johnny Otis, his Drums & his Orchestra : John "Teddy" Buckner, Billy Jones, Loyal Walker, Harry Parr Jones (trumpets); Henry Coker, Eli Robinson, John Pettigrew, Jasper "Jap" Jones (trombones); Rene Bloch, Bob Harris (alto saxes); Paul Quinichette, James Von Streeter (tenor saxes); Leon Beck (baritone sax); Bill Doggett (piano); Bernie Cobbs (guitar); Curtis Counce (bass); Johnny Otis (drums); Jimmy Rushing (vocal on "Jimmy's Round The Clock Blues").

"I looked at the clock, and the clock struck one,
 I said, 'now, daddy, ain't we got fun?'
 Oh, he was rockin' me with one steady roll."

"I looked at the clock, and the clock struck six,
 I said, 'daddy, you know I like those tricks!'
 'Cause he was rockin' me with one steady roll."

"I looked at the clock, and the clock struck ten,
 I said, ... 'glory, amen!'
My man was rockin' me with one steady roll."

Thus sang Trixie Smith on "My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)" back in 1922. The tale of round the clock lovin' (although with a mere three bouts, for sex hadn't really got going in the 1920s) lived on. There was a good cover version by Jimmy Noone's Apex Club Orchestra in 1929 even though the instrumental breaks left only enough time for two rounds as the looming Great Depression presaged a new wave of puritanism. In the previous year while they were still the Roaring Twenties, Mr. Noone had regaled the public with a filthy version of "It's Tight Like That" with lots more words and less musical doodlin'.

Fast forward to Los Angeles in 1945, to the Club Alabam where the musical aggregation in residence was a big band led by drummer Johnny Otis. Also in residence at the same club at the same time was blues shouter Wynonie Harris, late of the Lucky Millinder Orchestra with whom he had recorded a record that was about to become very big, "Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well." But even though success with Lucky was just around the corner, Wynonie decided that big band life couldn't satisfy his ambitions and so he struck out on his own and headed west to the land of sunshine and booming nightlife.

Part of his club act was an extended double entendre song based on the premise of "My Man Rocks Me", i.e. an hour by hour account of whatever gets you going. For his first solo record he recorded a two part version of "Around The Clock" for Philo in July of 1945. Backing him on the record were the "Johnny Otis All Stars" who weren't the Johnny Otis Orchestra, but were in fact the Howard McGhee band with Johnny on drums.

The record caught enough action to kick off a steady stream of cover versions over the following years, including one by Big Joe Turner and another by the Howard McGhee band featuring Pearl Traylor. One of the first cover versions was by Johnny Otis, this time with his own band and featuring Count Basie's vocalist Jimmy Rushing. The B side was an arrangement of "Harlem Nocturne" which with its slow, throbbing drumbeat and the wailing alto sax of Rene Bloch, managed to be far more suggestive than the A side ditty. So much so, that it became the compulsory soundtrack of thousands of strip joints and clip joints from Soho to Shanghai.

The Rushing version of "Around The Clock" with added instrumental sleaze on the B side sold well enough to send the Otis ork on a nationwide tour in 1946. The days of the big bands were drawing to a close, and at the end of 1947 Johnny had to slim his band down to a small group.

In our next suggestive post - Wynonie "Mr Blues" Harris goes round the clock.

Don't The Moon Look Lonesome?

Detail from "The Trysting Tree" by John Atkinson Grimshaw

One for autumn. "Sent For You Yesterday" recorded by the Count Basie Orchestra in 1938. Vocal by the great Jimmy Rushing.

Count Basie & His Orchestra - Swingin' The Blues

There’s a distinct lack of swing on the blog since I removed the Jazz Greats links, so it’s time to start uploading some more and what better band is there to start with than that of Count Basie? These classic recordings for Decca were cut between July 1937 and February 1939. The band line-up included the twin tenor sax threat of Lester Young and Herschel Evans, and of course the All American Rhythm Section of Freddy Green (guitar), Walter Page (bass), Jo Jones (drums) and the Count himself on piano. There’s a tremendous blues shouting performance by Jimmy Rushing on the classic “Sent For You Yesterday” which is a number I just can’t get out of my head at present.

“Jive at Five” and “Lady Be Good” were recorded on the third of February 1939, just five days before Herschel Evans died of a heart condition. On these tracks Chu Berry deputised for the ailing Herschel. Berry himself was to die in an automobile accident just two years later.

These tracks are ripped from a cassette issued in 1984 by Charly Records.

Ripped at 320 kbps.

Download from here:

http://www82.zippyshare.com/v/9cCIFLS2/file.html

1. Swinging The Blues
2. John's Idea
3. Blue & Sentimental
4. Texas Shuffle
5. Panassie Stomp
6. Sent For You Yesterday
7. You Can Depend On Me
8. Every Tub
9. Jumpin' At The Woodside
10. Time Out
11. Jive At Five
12. Oh Lady Be Good
13. Shorty George
14. Out The Window
15. Topsy
16. Doggin' Around