Before Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley created what became known as “rock and roll”, the juke boxes were jumping with the pre-cambrian mixture of jazz and blues, better known as R&B or “jump” blues. Here are a pair of recent anthologies that show the early chemicals of music that eventually fused together to become the sound of future generations.
Guitarist and singer Jimmy “Baby Face” Lewis (1929-1969) made a name for himself with the Post WWII orchestras of Tab Smith and Floyd Campbell before going out on his own. His guitar playing is influenced by T-Bone Walker, but with a bit more grit and sludge, and his solos earned him the nickname “ Madman of the Guitar”. This 26 song collection has him as both leader and sideman, and he is rollicking whether in small groups of his own as on “Dusty Road”, and a hard hitting “Slippin’ and Sl idin” with fellow guitarist Rene Hall or backing the alto saxist Smith alongside tenor titan Hal Singer on the rollicking “I’m Wise To Your Baby”. He even brings in some jazzers in taft Jordan/tp, Eddie Barefield/as, Buddy Tate/ts and Budd Johnson/ts for a swinging take of “Cherry Wine”. The joint was jumpin’!
Varetta Dillard (1933-1993) was a singer that belted out bluesy rhythm material that was the prototype for rock and roll. This two disc, 56 song collection has her in the company of both jazz artists l ike Buddy Tate (on “I Love You Just The Same” and “I Love You” as well as her Roamers band that included Jerome Richardson/ts, Budd Johnson/bs and Milt Hinton/b under Leroy Kirkland’s direction on “Ill Never Forget You” and “I Can’t Stop Now”. Her big hits like “Easy Easy Baby”, “Mercy Mr. Percy” and tribute to Johnny Ace in “Johnny Has Gone” are all here, as well as Ellingtonian Al Sears’ “Gonna Tell My Daddy” and hit songwriter Otis Blackwell for “I Can’t Help Myself” and “ Teaser”. She also produced a paene o James Dean on “I Love You Jimmy” before retiring to become a musical therapist. This music heals!