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Arbee Stidham: Tired of Wondering
by Derek Taylor
Ask your average casual blues fan about Arbee Stidham and a blank stare will likely be your answer. He’s an archetypal example of the forgotten blues hero, one whose past laurels have completely withered with the passage of time. Not so in the post-War years of the late 1940s, when his single “My Heart Belongs to ...
Jimmy Witherspoon: Blue Spoon/ Spoon In London
by Derek Taylor
‘Spoon’ was a singer who regularly defied rote categorization. The rudiments of his vocal approach were most prevalently built from the blues, but over a career that spanned decades he sang in a range of styles that ran the gamut from gospel to pop. Jazz was also a favorite song source for the singer, and Blue ...
Reverend Gary Davis: The Guitar and Banjo of Reverend Gary Davis
by Derek Taylor
Calling Gary Davis a bluesman is something of a misnomer and it's a title he likely would have balked at, particularly in his younger years. The blues were but one facet of his far-reaching folk repertoire. Banjo tunes, string band numbers, Tin Pan Alley, and ragtime and gospel all fall under his fertile jurisdiction. In 1935 ...
Dexter Gordon: LTD: Live At the Left Bank
by C. Michael Bailey
Long Tall Dexter in Baltimore, circa 1969.The most telling thing about this disc is a political one. Inside the liner notes, in small print, are the words. “Special Thanks to Joel Dorn." Indeed, special thanks. Dorn has based his new company, Label M, on about 300 performances he negotiated away from Baltimore's Left Bank ...
Shirley Scott: Like Cozy
by Derek Taylor
In the ranks of unsung organists Shirley Scott has to be among the most overlooked. A veteran of countless Prestige studio gigs and an indispensable creative cog in the Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis organ combo of the late 1950s her role in popularizing and broadening her instrument’s appeal is difficult to overstate. Yet she’s rarely named among ...
Jack McDuff: The Soulful Drums
by Derek Taylor
Essentially collaborative ventures the two albums collected on this Prestige two-fer are not only vehicles for McDuff but also, as the title denotes the Soul-injected percussion of Joe Dukes. Both sessions are heavy on grooves, but each suffers from the clichés of the soul jazz idiom despite the dynamic drum play at the core of the ...
Dexter Gordon: L.T.D.
by David A. Orthmann
Consisting of four cuts spread out over a 62 minute running time, Dexter Gordon’sL.T.D.is not for listeners with short attention spans. Within the trappings of a mundane blowing session, there is a lot going on during these previously unreleased tracks recorded live in May 1969 at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore. Gordon is in an expansive ...
Dexter Gordon: L.T.D.
by Derek Taylor
For most fans of hard bop the fact that this disc presents previously unreleased Dexter Gordon of late 60s vintage will alone be sufficient impetus to make the remainder of this review superfluous. Discovery of vault tapes is always cause for celebration and this set, recorded on the occasion of one of Long Tall Dex’s (source ...
Pee Wee Russell: Swingin' With Pee Wee
by Mike Neely
Pee Wee Russell was an odd-duck of a clarinetist who in his idiosyncratic way foreshadowed some of the innovations of modern jazz. His playing at times seems “off" in the way that some of the earliest jazz sounds almost otherworldly with its unique tones and timbres. Russell’s expressive slides and dips pre-figure the likes of the ...
Blackbyrds & Charles Earland: At the Movies
by Derek Taylor
Basketball and Blaxploitation collide courtside in the film Cornbread, Earl and Me a mid-70s urban blockbuster with a soundtrack scored by Donald Byrd, which comprises the first part of this recent Prestige two-fer. Bringing in his band of former pupil protégés The Blackbyrds and backing them with a studio orchestra Byrd set about tailoring music to ...
