Clarence Williams & The Blues Singers, Vol. 1 (1923-1928) (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  Jazz  »  Piano
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: September 1, 2000
• Label: Document (USA)
• UPC: 714298537529
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106237328
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #164662 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #15091 in Jazz (See Top 100 Jazz Bestsellers)
• #1930 in Piano (See Top 100 Piano Bestsellers)

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Features the earliest recordings of Sidney Bechet and vocals by blues singers Sara Martin, Rosetta Crawford, Margaret Johnson, Eva Taylor and Mamie Smith.

Full performer name: Clarence Williams & The Blues Singers.

Here's a parcel of fascinating and rare vaudeville, blues, and jazz recordings from the mid-'20s, featuring seven singers and one obscure instrumentalist backed by pianist, composer, publisher, and talent scout Clarence Williams (1898-1965). "Blue Feelin' Blues," without a doubt the rarest and most unusual track heard here (or anywhere else in the Clarence Williams discography for that matter), features violinist E.L. Coleman, "The Fiddling Sheik." This sole surviving example of Coleman's sanguine sonorities was recorded in St. Louis during April of 1925 -- a rare example of Williams recording well outside of the New York vicinity. Rosetta Crawford performs with the King Bechet Trio, marking Sidney Bechet's first appearance as a leader on phonograph recordings. Irene Scruggs sang rock-bottom old-style blues and Dora Carr carried on in a feisty theatrical manner using a lot of vibrato. New Orleans vocalist Mary Mack was an expressive entertainer who came across better on her own than on the titles where she teamed up with Billy Mack, executing uncomfortably rigid vaudeville routines with an almost paralyzing lack of any sense of timing. Although the liner notes by Colin J. Bray speak disparagingly of Elvira Johnson, her "Numbers on the Brain" (one of the many vice-oriented songs favored by Clarence Williams, garnished in this case with references to drinking, gambling, and intravenous drug use) is practically the hottest tune on the entire compilation. Note also that "How Could I Be Blue?" resurfaced a few years later as a delightful piano duo with comic dialogue by Clarence Williams and James P. Johnson. Anyone familiar with that recording will thrill to hear this earlier example of the tune. Elizabeth Johnson's cover version of Bessie Smith's famous "Empty Bed Blues" is most memorable for the sounds of Joe "King" Oliver's cornet. Gritty, gutsy tough-voiced Anna Bell made her only known recordings with the Clarence Williams "Orchestra" (a quartet!) in Long Island City, NY, in September of 1928. These six sides are especially valuable for the presence of cornetist Ed Allen and clarinetist Arville Harris. The identity of the tuba player -- possibly the great Cyrus St. Clair -- has never been firmly established. "Shake It, Black Bottom" and "I Don't Care Who Gets What I Don't Want" are delightfully hot and scruffy. Altogether an excellent album of 24 rare and at times fascinating tracks, some of which seem to lie beyond entertainment, feeling instead like rituals grounded in everyday life. ~ arwulf arwulf

This imported CD has all of Clarence Williams's recordings from a 3 1/2 month period; not only The Blue Five performances but Williams's work with blues singers Sara Martin, Mamie Smith, Rosetta Crawford and Margaret Johnson in addition to his wife Eva Taylor. Most valuable are the eight instrumentals for they feature the great soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet on his earliest recordings along with trumpeter Thomas Morris. Highlights include "Wild Cat Blues," "Kansas City Man Blues" and "Oh! Daddy Blues" although "I've Got the 'Yes We Have No Bananas' Blues" is amusing. The Classics reissues series bypasses the sometimes so-so blues singers. ~ Scott Yanow

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