R&B

[Paisley]

There is a terrific program on Denver radio called R&B Jukebox. The DJ is Easy Bill (who has a band of his own). I sent him an e-mail and he recommended some R&B CDs. I don't think he would mind if I posted his response here:

Jiving Jamboree (Ace) - Get the first volume and you won't be
disappointed. Fun compilation with stuff that you can dance to.

Risque Rhythm - Nasty R&B (Rhino) - Great double entendre songs by
some great artists.

Blues Masters Vol 5 - Jump Blues (Rhino) - There are two volumes of
jump blues, actually, but they may be out of print now... although
you can probably still find them on the internet.

Ray Charles - Atlantic Recordings (Rhino) - This is a single disc
comp of his early stuff. A must have.

Wynonie Harris - Bloodshot Eyes (Rhino) - There was only one Wynonie!

Little Richard - The Georgia Peach (Specialty) - Beware of Little
Richard comps... many are pretty sketchy. This is the one to get!

Ruth Brown - Rockin' In Rhythm (Rhino) - Let's not forget the ladies.
Also some Etta James stuff would be good... I've got the 20th Century
Masters disc, which was inexpensive and has some good Chess stuff.

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Blues Masters Vol 5 - Jump Blues (Rhino)

I strongly second this one; the best compilation I've ever heard of late 40s-early 50s r&b (and I've bought a few).

Also, if you like the 40s/50s instrumental honking & squawking tenor sax stuff, you MUST get "Honkers & Bar Walkers, Vol. 1" (Delmark), while still in print.

http://www.amazon.com/Honkers-Bar-W...7108822?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1173127788&sr=8-1

- C H

 

[kools]

All the above are certainly considered classics. If you want to build a R&B collection you must also have...
Louis Jordan
Roy Brown
Big Joe Turner
Jay McNeely
Joe Houston
Calvin Boze
Charles Brown
Floyd Dixon
Roy Milton
Joe Liggins
Jimmy Liggins
Percy Mayfield (early '50s stuff)
Little Willie Littlefield
Buddy Johnson
Bullmoose Jackson
Willis Jackson (honking '50s stuff)
Jack McVea
Amos Milburn
Johhny Moore's 3 Blazers
Jimmy 'T99' Nelson
any stuff Johnny Otis did in the '40s & '50s
The Treniers
Helen Humes
Jimmy Preston

At least that is where I'd start. Right now I'm diggin' some stuff that Ace has put out recently. They've got 3 discs in their "Central Avenue Scene" series & 3 discs in their "Mellow Cats & Kittens" series. This response may be a bit scattered, but there is so much great early R&B easily available now.

 

[Salv]

Jiving Jamboree (Ace) - Get the first volume and you won't be disappointed. Fun compilation with stuff that you can dance to.

There are three volumes in the Jiving Jamboree series on Ace, all highly recommended.

Also, if you like the 40s/50s instrumental honking & squawking tenor sax stuff, you MUST get "Honkers & Bar Walkers, Vol. 1" (Delmark), while still in print.

Another great honkin' tenor compilation is The Big Horn - a 3-CD set on the UK Proper label.

Possibly the most interesting series is Stompin', a long series (up to Volume 33 last time I looked) of very obscure rocking R&B, recorded from original 78s. I have a few of the earlier compilations on vinyl albums, but from about Volume 25 they started releasing them on CD and reissued the earlier volumes on CD as well. Dusty Groove in the US have some of the later releases and the ones I have are uniformly excellent, and filled with artists I;ve never heard of anywhere else.

 

[flat-top]

I gotta reccommend this series:
http://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Blues-...7302436?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1173137491&sr=1-1
100 songs from each year! This is one of the most comprhensive R&B series that I've ever seen!

 

[Lady Day]

I gotta reccommend this series:
http://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Blues-...7302436?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1173137491&sr=1-1
100 songs from each year! This is one of the most comprhensive R&B series that I've ever seen!

Oooooohhhh!

LD

 

[kools]

Possibly the most interesting series is Stompin', a long series (up to Volume 33 last time I looked) of very obscure rocking R&B, recorded from original 78s. I have a few of the earlier compilations on vinyl albums, but from about Volume 25 they started releasing them on CD and reissued the earlier volumes on CD as well. Dusty Groove in the US have some of the later releases and the ones I have are uniformly excellent, and filled with artists I;ve never heard of anywhere else.

The Stompin' series is great. Certainly not a starting point, but I love discovering a "new" artist from their corp of obscurities.

 

[Hawkcigar]

I would recommend a cd titled "Night Train To Nashville". I was watching CBS News Sunday Morning a couple of years ago and saw this reviewed by Bill Flanagan. I have had good luck with many of his recommendations and this was no exception.

Night Train To Nashville

 

[Salv]

I would recommend a cd titled "Night Train To Nashville". I was watching CBS News Sunday Morning a couple of years ago and saw this reviewed by Bill Flanagan. I have had good luck with many of his recommendations and this was no exception.

Night Train To Nashville

Oh, yes, that's great, and it covers the early soul years as well. I love the Little Richard advert for Royal Crown hairdressing - "...even Long Tall Sally use it..."

I must get Volume 2.

 

[Senator Jack]

I knew I shouldn't have read this thread. Too many recommendations and not enough scratch.

 

[Salv]

I knew I shouldn't have read this thread. Too many recommendations and not enough scratch.

And if you want even more you can't go far wrong with Ace Records:
- general Various Artists compilations
- Excello compilations
- Individual label comps - not all R&B on this page as it also includes a few soul labels, but R&B comps for Dootone, Class/Rendezvous, Ram, Domino, Ebb, Modern, Spark.
- Jump & Jive - including the three Jiving Jamboree CDs

 

[flat-top]

- Jump & Jive - including the three Jiving Jamboree CDs

YES! Those are great!

 

[kools]

I just picked up Jim Wynn 1945-1946. Some nice early jump...very Jordanesque. The only tracks I had heard before were "Buzz, Buzz, Buzz" with Claude Trenier (one of his 4 tracks on this cd) and Wynn's "Ee-Bobaliba"-later covered by Helen Humes. Highly recommended.

 

[kools]

This may fall under the category of "influential to the creators of R&B" because the term had not been coined yet when they were at their peak, but I'm a huge fan of the vocal groups such as the Mills Bros., Ink Spots, the Brown Dots, Cats & a Fiddle, & the Three Peppers, etc. Today I'm listening to my favorite vocal group, the Delta Rhythm Boys! They're as smooth as they come...plus they were featured in a ton of '40s films & soundies.

 

[kools]

Once again the outrageous Treniers:

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBORqEsHOns

 

[cookie]

That could be the FL Avatar of all time

I strongly second this one; the best compilation I've ever heard of late 40s-early 50s r&b (and I've bought a few).

Also, if you like the 40s/50s instrumental honking & squawking tenor sax stuff, you MUST get "Honkers & Bar Walkers, Vol. 1" (Delmark), while still in print.

http://www.amazon.com/Honkers-Bar-W...7108822?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1173127788&sr=8-1

- C H

Is that record cover an FL classic or what?? It is like everything that the FL stands for... is... and wants to be. Now can't see the armholes.... are they high enough? >>>....

 

[Salv]

Once again the outrageous Treniers:

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBORqEsHOns

Fantastic, thanks for that one. I've never thought to look for the Treniers on You Tube so I've got some downloading to iTunes to do this morning.

Speaking of You Tube there are plenty of Louis Jordan clips to enjoy.

 

[kools]

Today on my R&B playlist: Duke Henderson "Get Your Kicks" cd on the Delmark label. Great west coast sound from 1945 with a Jimmy Witherspoonesque vocal delivery from Henderson. A collection of tenor players includes Jack McVea, Wild Bill Moore & Lucky Thompson. Mostly slower blues with a few jump tunes thrown in.

 

[cheaterome]

All the above are certainly considered classics. If you want to build a R&B collection you must also have...
Louis Jordan
Roy Brown
Big Joe Turner
Jay McNeely
Joe Houston
Calvin Boze
Charles Brown
Floyd Dixon
Roy Milton
Joe Liggins
Jimmy Liggins
Percy Mayfield (early '50s stuff)
Little Willie Littlefield
Buddy Johnson
Bullmoose Jackson
Willis Jackson (honking '50s stuff)
Jack McVea
Amos Milburn
Johhny Moore's 3 Blazers
Jimmy 'T99' Nelson
any stuff Johnny Otis did in the '40s & '50s
The Treniers
Helen Humes
Jimmy Preston

At least that is where I'd start. Right now I'm diggin' some stuff that Ace has put out recently. They've got 3 discs in their "Central Avenue Scene" series & 3 discs in their "Mellow Cats & Kittens" series. This response may be a bit scattered, but there is so much great early R&B easily available now.

I will say this.

A "BIG DISH" of gratitude of thanks goes out to Kools from myself back when I evolved my tastes from strictly rockabilly to the beginnings of Rock n'Roll what was that back in like "93"---- many eons ago.

Without guys like him and Joel Patterson, all of the Chicago crew of the Sutton family and cats like Nick Curran .
The evolving or sophistication of my musical tastes would not be where it is now ..or my appreciation of what I consider the classics ,which he mentioned above.

Thanks,
Jerome

 

[kools]

Thanks, Jerome. Playing for cats like you is always fun! The funny thing is, there were loads of people back in '93 that didn't know the difference between our jump/R&B stylings & rockabilly. They saw us dressed sharp & with an upright bass and associated it with rockabilly. Then a couple of years later they called it swing, never really getting it right. As much as I enjoy swing & some rockabilly, post-war jump is really my thing. I do, of course, enjoy studying the history of how the different styles evolved & borrowed from each other!