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Among my favorite musicians there are many pianists (who happen to have frequently chosen excellent guitarists for musical partners). These are by no means all of them, just off the top, Sunnyland Slim and Johnny “Big Moose” Walker should be represented here, not to mention Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols and Duke Ellington. And it’s certain I’m forgetting someone. Some other time.
The first song in last week’s OBR playlist was Tampa Red’s “Rambler’s Blues,” which should have leapt from the speakers with Johnny Jones’ ecstatic piano run (Johnny Jones is best known as Elmore James’ main pianist, at least to me). It also featured Big Walter Horton (harp), William Lacey (second guitar), Ransom Knowling (bass), Odie Payne (drums). That was so nice, I have to repeat it here. Anyone who’s heard it knows why—I really hope everyone has the chance to hear it. Everything else today is here for the first time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9tMwNrsI1YThe Return of Roosevelt Sykes—Roosevelt Sykes (vocal, piano); Clarence Perry, Jr. (tenor); Floyd Ball, Frank Ingalls (guitars); Armand “Jump” Jackson (drums); recorded in Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, Wednesday, March 2, 1960 (song listing can be found at YouTube video, “Driving Wheel” and “Night Time Is The Right Time” are both known as being his tunes).
Tasty Blues from 1961 is an exemplary pairing. Little Brother Montgomery (vocal, piano), Lafayette Thomas (guitar, he’s so good, I used to think there were two guitarists on this album), Julian Euell (bass). I wasn’t able to find the album on YouTube, so I collected as many songs from it as I could, added a few that are on the album, but not the version heard here. The two versions of “Vicksburg Blues” here are from 1930 and 1976.
Those two albums were reissued by Fantasy in 1973 as a double-LP set called Urban Blues.
Otis Spann Is the Blues (recorded August 23, 1960)—Otis Spann (vocals, piano) with Robert Jr. Lockwood (vocals, guitar). “The Hard Way” (Otis Spann, vocals), “Take A Little Walk With Me” (Robert Lockwood, Jr., vocals), “Otis In The Dark” (O.S., piano solo), “Little Boy Blue” (R.L., Jr., vocals), “Country Boy” (O.S., vocals), “Beat Up Team” (O.S., vocals), “My Daily Wish” (R.L., Jr., vocals), “Great Northern Stomp” (O.S., piano solo), “I Got Rambling On My Mind” (R.L., Jr., vocals), “Worried Life Blues” (O.S., vocals)
Walkin’ the Blues (recorded August 23, 1960, released 1972)— Otis Spann (vocals “It Must Have Been the Devil,” “Half Ain’t Been Told,” “Evil Ways,” “Walking the Blues,” “My Home Is On the Delta,” piano) with Robert Jr. Lockwood (guitar on 8 of the 11), St. Louis Jimmy Oden (vocals “Going Down Slow” [Jimmy Oden wrote this tune and made the first recording, please see IN ADDITION below], “Monkey Face Woman,” “Come Day, Go Day,” “Bad Condition”)
Leroy Carr (vocal, piano) and Scrapper Blackwell (guitar), “Midnight Hour Blues” (March 16, 1932)
Leroy Carr (piano) and Scrapper Blackwell (vocal, guitar), “Blues Before Sunrise” (1934)
Now, down to business… with Memphis Slim, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, and quite often on drums, Billy Stepney. Memphis Slim didn’t like working with guitarists till he met Matt Murphy.
Memphis Slim at Montreux (1973), with Mickey Baker (guitar), Benny Turner (bass), Charles Myers (drums). Mickey Baker, of Mickey and Sylvia (Robinson), whose “Love Is Strange” was a big hit in the early ’60s, was having a bad night. If you want a thorough chord/scale education, check out one of his books.
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Although you can’t hear them together, Big Bill Broonzy (guitar) and Roosevelt Sykes (piano) are both featured in this moody, artistic film called Masters Of The Country Blues: Big Bill Broonzy & Roosevelt Sykes (that title is misleading, although these are early acoustic blues, they are urban). Part 3 (as named on YouTube) features Big Bill Broonzy.
Otis Spann with Luther “Georgia Snake Boy” Johnson, “Cryin’ Time,” “Blues Is a Botheration” (1968).
Same session as directly above, “The New Boogaloo,” “Mule Kicking In My Stall” (1968)
There were three different guitarists named Luther Johnson who played with Muddy Waters (what are the odds?). Snake Boy was one of them (check out his “Chicken Shack” sometime).A hard-to find album by the one-and-only Johnny Shines, Last Night’s Dream (1969), on which Otis Spann plays piano on “Pipeline Blues,” starting at 18:15.
St. Louis Jimmy Oden, “Going Down Slow” (1941)
And one bonus rocker here for Roberto, who may be the only person who will get this far.
Don D.
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