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Champion Jack Dupree: Junker Blues
by Derek Taylor
Jack Dupree was one of the barrelhouse champions. Weaned on the coarser piano styles of the brothels and speakeasies of his New Orleans youth his utilitarian approach on the instrument always favored volume and vigor over skill and polish. But the attribute that set him most apart from the legion of juke joint ivory ticklers was ...
Various: Mississippi Blues
by Derek Taylor
The Mississippi Delta is commonly revered as the American birthplace of the Blues, both figuratively and factually. The porous soil of the regions vast cotton fields and the hot humidity of the Mississippi sky were catalytic ingredients that sparked an alchemical reaction between the poverty and repression felt by Southern Blacks and their more ancient musical ...
Roosevelt Sykes: Nasty But It's Clean
by Derek Taylor
The Honeydripper, Willie Kelly, Easy Papa Johnson, and Dobby Bragg- just a few of the aliases ascribed to one Roosevelt Sykes, the prodigal juke joint pianist. Sykes was one of the few stylists whose successfully straddled the decades. From his beginnings in the 1920s and he continued to wax records into the 60s after his relocation ...
Von Freeman & Frank Catalano: You Talkin' To Me?!
by Derek Taylor
Break out the party hats and cut the celebratory cake; another Von Freeman jam session is out of the can and ready for the grasping hands of Windy City jazz fans! Vonski is cat so good at what he does that even the most callous critical eye can’t help becoming weepy in admiration. The man has ...
John Fahey: The Great San Bernadino Birthday Party
by Derek Taylor
Relatively few musicians can lay claim to creating an entire school of music. John Fahey is among the number who can though his reclusive nature has often been at odds with the accompanying celebrity his earlier innovations engendered. Fahey gathered the seemingly disparate genres of European classical, country blues, religious music and even free improvisation, and ...
Leroy Carr: Sloppy Drunk
by Derek Taylor
The title of this generous collection doesn’t mince words about the principal vice of its subject. Carr was one of the most famous and self-debasing artists in the history of the blues. So much so that his battles with the bottle are nearly as legendary as his talent. Forming one of the first high profile partnerships ...
Sir Charles Thompson: Robbin's Nest
by Derek Taylor
In his youthful years during the 1940s Sir Charles Thompson was fortunate enough to be situated at ground zero for the collision between swing and bebop. High profile sessions with Charlie Parker, Illinois Jacquet, Coleman Hawkins and others ensued as well as stints with Lester Young, Roy Eldridge and Don Byas. How’s that for a resume? ...
Various: Rare & Red Hot Gospel
by Derek Taylor
Pre-War gospel is one of the most emotively charged forms of expression in the American musical diaspora. There’s something indescribably moving about a singer or congregation shouting out devotion to a higher spirit regardless of denomination. It’s a music that communicates across religious, social and demographic boundaries and can stir the emotions in sanctified and secular ...
Ron Carter: Parade
by Derek Taylor
The decade of the 70s was a time of artistic uncertainty in jazz. Faced with a dwindling audience many musicians buckled under to commercial pressures and diluted their sounds to fit into the frameworks of popular trends. While this is nothing new in music, there was something particularly bromidic about 70s pop and remaining economically viable ...
Kahil El'Zabar w/ David Murray: One World Family
by Derek Taylor
Jazz musicians are among the most prolific artists around. It’s not uncommon, particularly in the freer strains of the idiom, for an artist to have a half dozen albums under his or her belt on an annual basis. Sales of course are an entirely different matter and even the busiest artists in the music frequently go ...
