Boogie-Woogie

While there has suddenly been a flood of CDs featuring masterful New Orleans keyboard wizard and vocalist James Booker, his best release arguably remains Classified. The 12-track set was a landmark album, as Booker displayed every facet of his distinctive style. He did up-tempo lues,...

Pianist Joe Liggins presented a fairly sophisticated brand of swinging jump blues to jitterbuggers during the early '50s, when his irresistible "Pink Champagne" scaled the R&B charts. Twenty-five of his very best 1950-1954 Specialty sides grace this collection, including a...

The third of three CDs tracing the recording career of the unique oogie-woogie pianist Jimmy Yancey, whose subtlety could often result in some dramatic music, completes his December 1943 session and also has his December 23, 1950 solo set; his final recordings from July 1951 are available on an...

Classic Early Solos (1934-1937) contains solo performances of 20 songs Art Tatum recorded in the beginning days of his career. These invigorating performances demonstrate that Tatum was already considerably accomplished at this early stage, and the performances are continually breathtaking. This...

This solo disc by arguably the most brilliant of New Orleans' resplendent pianists shows off all the edge and genius he possessed. There may be moments on other discs of slightly more inspired playing (and this is arguable), but for a whole disc this one stands far from the crowd. You can...

This early-'60s date was the second -- and one of the best -- of Memphis Slim's many top-notch Bluesville recordings. Featuring Slim accompanying himself on the piano, All Kinds of Blues is a vintage set of mellow yet deep lues by one of the music's most urbane performers....

If you have trouble keeping track of the "reds," Rufus G. Perryman was "Speckled Red," while William Lee Perryman was either "Piano Red" or "Doctor Feelgood." In addition, Speckled Red's style contained more rag and folk elements than "Piano...

The material ranges from magnificent Cow Cow Davenport solo tunes to good and not-so-good duets with a host of performers. Ivy Smith and Dora Carr are the artists with whom Davenport works best. Since these were dubbed from 78s, don't expect pristine sound. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide

This LP has 12 of the 17 selections that pianist Jimmy Yancey cut during his first recording session. All of the music (plus the missing titles) have been reissued in full on CD by Document but this album has the advantage of also having Rudi Blesh's extensive and informative liner notes....

This 1998 HighNote CD reissues a long-out-of-print Art Tatum LP that was put out by the defunct Onyx label in 1973. The live performances are from the Jerry Newman collection of acetate discs and are fortunately in better technical quality than most of the music from Newman's archives. The...

The third of eight CDs matching the great pianist with a variety of classic jazzmen is the first of two that finds him in a trio with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and drummer Buddy Rich; no weak spots in that group. Much of this music really burns. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

The fifth of eight CDs in this recommended series (which is also available complete as a six-CD box set) features the largest band in this program, a sextet with Tatum, vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Red Callender and...

The seventh of eight CDs in this valuable series matches the remarkable pianist in a quartet with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco. DeFranco, no slouch himself, directly challenges Tatum and their uptempo romps are often quite wondrous. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

The final volume in this very worthy series is a comparatively relaxed affair, a quartet set with tenor-saxophonist Ben Webster. Webster lets Tatum fill the background with an infinite number of notes while emphasizing his warm tenor tone in the forefront on a variety of melodic ballads and...

The R&B boogie pianist waxed some rip-roaring rockers for the tiny Los Angeles-based Vita and Mambo logos during the mid-'50s. Fourteen of his best are collected here for a long-overdue airing. This guy deserved a lot more respect than he got, judging from the jumping Louisiana-tinged...

This four-CD set, containing 122 songs (23 of them previously unreleased) cut between 1950 and 1966 for RCA, Groove, Okeh, and Columbia is, literally, the best of Piano Red, and may be the best box in the entire Bear Family catalog. This is about as good as piano blues and R&B got, and also...

Do you realize that all these Meade Lux Lewis records almost didn't happen? After making his one three-minute side for the Paramount label in December of 1927, Lewis went back to driving a cab in Chicago. And his record didn't sell. So that could have been the end of the story. But in...

Previously released as two separate volumes, The Complete Capitol Recordings of Art Tatum is a two-disc collection that presents everything the pianist recorded for Capitol Records in chronlogical order. There's 20 solo sides from 1949 and a 1952 session with a trio of guitarist Everett...

Jasmine presents 24 classic ig-band swing performances recorded between June 12, 1936 and September 3, 1940 by Decca recording artists Bob Crosby & His Bobcats. Ace players include trumpeters Yank Lawson, Billy Butterfield and Sterling Bose; trombonists George Brunies, Floyd O'Brien...

Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) created his own label after many years in collaboration with Joel Dorn's Hyena Records. The result is an imprint called Skinji Brim that will issue Rebennack's archived live recordings as well as recordings by other artists that "ain't found a home...