There is very little video of B. B. King prior to his 1969 crossover hit, "The Thrill is Gone." This clip is far better than any others I've seen. It's a 30-min appearance on Jazz Casual from May 1968. He is backed by a small group of his band members: Mose Thomas, trumpet; Lee Gatling, tenor sax; James Toney, piano; and Sonny Freeman, drums. The songs are:
Whole Lotta Love
I've Got a Mind to Give Up Livin'
(I Think I'll Move to) The Jungle
Darling, You Know I Love You
That's Wrong, Little Mama
This is followed by an interview with host Ralph J. Gleason. He finishes with a slow blues instrumental which is probably untitled.
This week, some rare footage of guitarist Django Reinhardt, with Stephane Grappelli on violin and the Quintette du Hot Club de France playing "J'attendrai." This 1939 clip is from a documentary that tries to explain the meaning of jazz. You will notice that Reinhardt did not have the use of the last two fingers of his left hand, which were injured in a fire when he was 18.
Spaghetti western fans will be familiar with the 1966 film Django by Sergio Corbucci. (Quentin Tarantino paid tribute to it, and its star, Franco Nero, in Django Unchained.) Corbucci named the title character after Django Reinhardt. In the film, Django's hands were crushed by the bad guys, but he was still able to operate a machine gun in the final shootout.
As promised, Ace
Records in the U. K. has followed up Volume 1 with a second 2-CD set
of hits from the RPM label owned by the Bihari brothers of Los
Angeles. This one covers the years 1954 through 1957. It is
disappointing, in part because the recordings they have to choose
from are not as good as the earlier RPM sides, and also due to some
questionable choices of what songs to include.
The good news is
that B. B. King recorded some of his best sides between 1954 and
1957, and this set includes nine of them. An interesting oddity is
an extended alternate take of B. B. covering Tennessee Ernie Ford's
hit “Sixteen Tons,” complete with a lengthy false start, an
apology, and a completed version. There are also five terrific songs
from Johnny “Guitar” Watson, and four rare selections by Chicago
harmonica man George Smith, one of them the classic instrumental
“Blues in the Dark.”
However, Ace's
policy of including alternative takes when the master take has
already been issued on another CD is called into question by what
appears to be a blooper. The alternate take of Johnny Watson's
“Ruben” features only a backing track by the band during the
break. Missing is Watson's guitar solo, the highlight of the song.
A mistake of a different kind is including Eugene Fox's two part lame
attempt at comedy, “The Dream.”
I have two main
problems with this set. First of all, beginning in 1956, RPM tried
to expand into the pop market. There is, for example, an
embarrassing early effort by Paul Anka. There are five rockabiily
songs. As a result, the second CD includes about ten songs that are
of little interest to R&B fans, who are, after all, the primary
consumers of this set.
Next to B. B.
King, RPM's biggest hits during this period were by R&B vocal
groups. I've noticed that European R&B reissue labels prefer up
tempo vocal group sides, while American collectors prefer ballads.
Given my bias, not surprisingly, I'm disappointed with Ace's choices.
The Biharis' most
successful group was the Jacks, who had six RPM releases and also
recorded on Modern as the Cadets. (In general, the Jacks sang
ballads and the Cadets did up tempo songs, but there were
exceptions.) The Jacks receive only two selections here, their big
hit “Why Don't You Write Me?” and the undistinguished jump tune
“Sugar Baby.” Left on the table are several fine ballads by
their smoky-voiced lead singer Willie Davis. If they felt the need
to include an up tempo side, “How Soon” would have been a better
choice. Fortunately, the entire Jacks/Cadets output is available on
two Ace CDs.
Arthur Lee Maye
and the Crowns were a top-notch West Coast group who had three RPM
releases. Only one of them makes it onto this set. (By the way, did
you know that Maye was also a major league outfielder/first baseman.
As Lee Maye he for played 12 seasons (1959-1971), primarily with the
Milwaukee Braves.) I can't quarrel with the inclusion of “Eddie,
My Love” by the Teen Queens, since it was one of the label's
biggest hits, but I'm unimpressed with their other two choices from
this group. Clydie King and the Teens' cover of the Six Teens' “A
Casual Look” has to be one of the “youngest” teen hits ever.
And so it goes.
This set is not without its unexpected pleasures. I had heard of, but not heard, Little Eddie Lang (real name Langlois), a New Orleans singer-guitarist known for his row of gold front teeth. CD 2 contains one side of each of his two 1956 RPM releases, the only records he made. He is not to be confused with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang (real name Salvatore Massaro), who recorded some great instrumental duets with Lonnie Johnson and died in 1933.
There is some
excellent R&B on these two CDs, but not enough to justify their
purchase.
Disc 1: The Meadow Larks, Real
Pretty Mama; Pass the Gin; Quinn Kimble, Feel
My Broom; Connie Mack Booker, Love
Me, Pretty Baby; Earl Curry, One
Whole Year, Baby; Lover Boy (Ike Turner), The
Way You Used to Treat Me; Lonnie the Cat, I
Ain't Drunk; B. B. King, Don't
You Want a Man Like Me?; You Upset Me, Baby; Every Day I Have the
Blues; Crying Won't Help You; PreacherStephens, Whoopin'
and a-Hollerin'; The Chanters, She
Wants to Mambo; Buddy Milton and the Twilighters, O-O-Wah;
The Fox (Eugene Fox), The
Dream, Parts 1 and 2; Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Hot
Little Mama; Too Tired; Those Lonely, Lonely Nights; Arthur
Lee Maye and the Crowns, Truly;
Joe Houston, Shtiggy
Boom; The Jacks, Why
Don't You Write Me?; Little George Smith, Blues
in the Dark; Oopin' Doopin' Doopin'; Donna Hightower,
Doggone It; Hands Off; Johnny
Wright, Suffocate. (74 min.)
Disc 2: B. B. King, Sixteen
Tons; Did You Ever Love a Woman?; Sweet Little Angel; Bim Bam; I
Wonder; The Teen Queens, Eddie,
My Love; Billy Boy; Rock, Everybody; Johnny “Guitar”
Watson, Ruben; She Moves Me;
Little George Smith,
Cross-Eyed Suzzie Lee; Down in New Orleans; The Jacks,
Sugar Baby; Pat Cupp,
Do Me No Wrong, Long Gone
Daddy; Little Clydie and the Teens, A
Casual Look; Richard Berry, Yama
Yama, Pretty Mama; Eddie Lang, I'm
All Alone; You Got to Crawl Before You Walk; Paul Anka,
Blau-Wile-Deveest-Fontaine; The
Jewels, She's a Flirt; Donna
Hightower, He's My Baby;
Maxwell Davis, Cool
Diggin'; Jack Lewis, Bippin'
and Boppin'; Prentice Moreland, Memories
of You; Vido Musso, Speak
Easy; Darrell Glenn, Hello,
Baby; Don Cole, Snake-Eyed
Mama. (73 min.)
Thanks to the American Folk Blues Festival, a series of European tours organized by Willie Dixon in the 1960s, we have some of the best--and in some cases the only--video of many Chicago blues artists. Here, harmonica great Big Walter Horton plays an instrumental, "All Star Boogie," and a vocal, "It Ain't Right," accompanied by Lafayette Leake, piano; Lee Jackson, guitar; Willie Dixon, bass; and Clifton James, drums.
