1 comments about Gold.

1. Unlike many Best of CD's this one crosses her entire recording career and labels. It includes scratchy tracks from 1935 up to pristine recording in 1958. This is about as good primer of her career as you can expect. Furthermore, it isn't marred by an overly bright or compressed sound that you often find in some modern remasters. My only complaint and the main reason I'm writing this review is that the jewel case is essentially useless. The discs no matter how I try, do not stay within the spindle. It's beyond me how any record company can use such a defective case design. It's really annoying.

3 comments about The Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 (1924-1925).

1. The whole Complete Recording series (Vol. 1 - 5) is a must get for any old-time jazz/blues collector, afficionado, lover. I knew I always liked Bessie, but in reality I'd only heard a few numbers that were often played (St. Louis Blues). Upon hearing her other stuff, she has become one of my all-time favorite musicians ever.
   These sets come with booklets that put perspect on each track. Be aware that the booklets overlap with the same info from one vol to another at the beginning of each one. But each one does offer new/different info towards the end.



2. Rough, rowdy, and precious was our dear
   Bessie. Treat your ears to a woman who
   still blows the competition away.
   
   Featuring nearly 2 hours of Bessie's best,
   this double disc collection contains 37 tracks
   and is a "must" for those who love early 1920s
   blues and jazz. A real treat here, for those
   who also love Armstrong's early cornet work (as
   mentioned in the other review) are seven tracks
   she did with Louis:
   
   St. Louis Blues (Jan. 24, 1925)
   Reckless Blues (Jan. 24, 1925)
   Sobbin' Hearted Blues (Jan. 24, 1925)
   Cold in Hand Blues (Jan. 24, 1925)
   You've Been a Good Ole Wagon (Jan. 24, 1925)
   
   Careless Love Blues (May 27, 1925)
   I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle (May 27, 1925)



3. Bessie Smith's greatest collaborations with Louis Armstrong--need I say more? Two of the greatest artists of their time working together to create some of the greatest music of the entire century. This is the best of the Complete Bessie Smith volumes to have--this is the artist in her (recording) prime.

4 comments about Copulatin' Blues.

1. Get your mojo working with this CD from Mojo Records. "The Copulatin' Blues" is bound to put some of ya'll in heat.

   This CD contains tracks spanning from 1929-1947. I've only heard of one of the songs before, but there are legendary artists like Jelly Roll Morton, Alberta Hunter, and Sidney Bechet & his New Orchestra.

   While the recording quality isn't as good as on "Risqué Rhythms: Nasty 50's R& B", I think it would loose its charm if it was. These songs are rough and gritty. The recording studio did not (or could not) over produce the rawness out of the music so the edges are sharp. These are "race records" being saved from complete obscurity.

   The songs offer varying degrees of subtlety from the play-on-words in the song "Yas! Yas! Yas!" by Jimmy Strange, the Yas Yas Yas Man to the explicit version of "Shave `Em Dry" by Lucille Bogan and the downright X-rated "Winin' Boy" by Mr. Jelly Roll Morton.

   "Sissy Man Blues" records the lamentations of a man so hard up for sex, he'll take on a sissy man. And you have to be kin to Hard-Hearted Hannah to pass up Bo Carter's plea in "Please Warm My Weiner." He sounds so pitiful you just want to throw him a bun-or two.

   One of my favorite tracks is "New Rubbin' On That Darn Old Thing" by Oscar's Chicago Swingers. It's not as edgy as the other songs, but it gets you be-boppin' to the beat. "Get Off With Me" by Coot Grant and Kid Wesley Wilson wins points not only for being evocative, but for Coot's charming, beguiling voice. She may sound like an innocent girl, but the sailors know better.

   Alberta Hunter's "You Can't Tell The Difference After Dark" is the one tune I have heard before. This CD has the original 1935 release and Hunter's torch performance makes me think of Marlene Dietrich. But my first encounter with this song was on "The Glory of Alberta Hunter" album recorded in 1982 a few years before her death when her voice is older and more mature. Lesbian or not, at the time Hunter sounds like a grandmother who knows that there may be snow on the roof but grandpa still keeps the home fires burning. Frankly, I prefer this later version rather than the original on this CD.

   Overall there is inconsistency in the CD because of the range of years it covers. You can hear the changes in recording quality and even songwriting ability. "Risqué Rhythms" is a more cohesive compilation because its scope is better defined. But the purpose of this copulatin' blues CD is aptly presented.

   Anyway, as a whole "The Copulatin' Blues" is a good investment.




2. This is really great material. The lyrics and music are fantastic and really transport you to another time and place. I highly recommend this and related albums including "Reefer Songs" which was also reprinted on this label and anything on the Jass or Stash labels if you can find them.



3. A must have for Blues lovers. All the rawness of old blues, celebrating sex or the lack of it, with humor, passion and the sincerity of the true blues singer. Fine audio quality with all the cracks and pops preserverd far behind the vocals. Everything you'd expect from a great label.



4. If you like blues I advise you to listen it! They just made it how it must be!

5 comments about Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

1. Gertrude Malissa Pridgett, born in 1886, was THE pioneer blues belter, taking the stage name Ma Rainey following her marriage to vaudevillian William "Pa" Rainey. Everyone who followed - from Bessie Smith on down - owed their success to her paving the way. Her life [she died on December 22, 1939 at age 53] inspired the 1985 Broadway musical "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" - which in 2003 was revived with Whoopi Goldberg in the starring role. In 1983 Ma Rainey was inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame.
   
   If there's a fault with this 1990 CD from Yazoo Records it's the lack of liner notes and the omission of her one popular charted hit, the immortal, classic See See Rider Blues [# 14 in February 1925] which she did for the Paramount label with Louis Armstrong on coronet and Fletcher Henderson at the piano.
   
   According to the insert, liner notes are credited to Stephen Calt but, rather than providing any background information on Ma Rainey, these are confined to merely a listing of some of the musicians who accompanied her on each track. Immortals in their own right, these include Henderson, guitarist Tampa Red, Kid Ory on trombone, Charlie Dixon on banjo, drummer Kaiser Marshall, and clarinetist Artie Starks.
   
   Given today's technology and computer ability to eliminate much of the old crackle, hiss and pop, we should soon see more of Ma Rainey's "cleaned up" hits re-released [along with others of that era]. I can't wait. In the meantime, this is how your grandparents or great-grandparents would have heard them.



2. Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey was billed by her record company as the "Mother of the Blues" (something which pleased her greatly), and although there was blues and blues singers even before her, she was certainly one of the genres most important trailblazers.

   "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is a fine collection of 14 of Ma Rainey's best songs recorded between 1924 and 1928. She was a powerful and expressive singer, and she is backed here by various brass- and/or string bands (Kid Ory, Coleman Hawkins and Tom Dorsey being credited among the musicians).

   The sound quality on these recordings, of which some are almost 80 years old, is surprisingly good, and among the highlights are "Shave 'Em Dry Blues", "Yonder Come The Blues" and the title track.
   This is highly recommendable to anyone with an interest in early blues, or even jazz.




3. Here is a hot CD! Ma Rainey is recaptured in all her richness. What a great listening experience, especially for those who love to hear the African American sound the way it was! No wonder August Wilson found such a wonderful tapestry on which to draw his play -- the music on this CD wants to be heard again and again.



4. Ma Rainey was a classic blues singer, whose many songs are over 70 years old, but still highly beautiful and entertaining. This collection shows it all. If you are just starting to listen to the blues, I recommend you to get this!



5. Usually compilation CD's are not up to par, for collectors standards, however this is an excellent sampler of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's finest sessions put out by surprisingly a US label Yazoo Records. Lovie Austin & Her Serenaders are featured here backing Rainey, as well as many other 20's jazz musicians. Ma Rainey was perhaphs the finest blues singer to emerge from the "blues craze" of the roarin' 20's. Rainey who was Bessie Smith's vocal coach, was singing the blues yaers before the 20's "blues craze," Rainey who was a popular vaudeville entertainer would always include blues numbers in her act long before, Mamie Smith started the 20's blues craze with "Crazy Blues." Rainey sings some blues and some popular jazz from the era like "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and "The Georgia Cakewalk." There is also a dirty blues "Shave Em' Dry." Some other classics are "Oh Papa", "Blues Oh Blues" and "Don't Fish In My Sea" are essential. Every song on this CD is a classic, making this set essential for beginners as well as the collector who will want all the goodies on one CD. Heck I already have her complete chronological series on the European Ducument label and I still recommend this gem.

   Also if you already are a fan of Ma Rainey, go see a newer artist by the name of Big Mama Sue, who sings(and is very influenced by Ma Rainey) and plays washboard in the 20's blues and dixieland tradition, she's often at Dixieland Festivals, listen to her and find out where she's playing at Bigmamasue.com

3 comments about I Got What It Takes.

1. This is Koko Taylor's first Alligator album, forty minutes of tough electric blues and one of the very best of her many post-Chess recordings.
   It is not as polished as some of her later efforts, and she is backed by a tight little combo which includes guitarists Mighty Joe Young and Sammy Lawhorn, pianist Bill Heid, and saxist Abb Locke.
   
   Taylor tears into the driving "Trying To Make A Living", and does a great, funky rendition of Ruth Brown's "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean". The title track is a mediocre rewrite of Willie Dixon's "The Same Thing", and there are one or two more rather unoriginal numbers among the eleven songs, but most of what is here is terrific.
   The many highlights include Taylor's own "Honkey Tonkey", a delightfully swinging blues n' boogie number, the slow grind of "That's Why I'm Crying", a great take on Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man", and the best song of the lot, Denise LaSalle's supple soul/blues number "Find A Fool, Bump Her Head". And while a song like "The Blues Never Die" may suffer a little bit from the "trite lyric"-syndrome, the fiery guitars and the excellent rhythm section make it all worth while.
   
   Koko Taylor has one of the most memorable voices the blues has ever heard, right up there with Muddy and Elmore James, and second only to Howlin' Wolf himself, and anyone who loved Muddy and the Wolf should take comfort in the fact that Koko Taylor is still around.
   This is one terrific, muscular slice of Chicago blues by one of true greats of the genre. Start off with Taylor's classic Chess sides, and then pick up this one and work your way up!
   4 1/2 stars. Highly recommended.



2. Koko Taylor lets out all of her power onto this cd. She really shows that she puts effort into the blues. Buy this CD and I mean it. She is the only woman I have ever heard make such growls and have such energy. Koko Taylor is The Quen and get it straight. Buy this Cd and I know you will not be dissapointed.



3. This is quintessential Electrified Chicago Blues at its very best! If you like the Blues Brothers sound, if you like horns-This CD is for you! My blues collection spans the earliest recordings to the most recent, and this CD is on my short list. Truely outstanding!

5 comments about The Complete Commodore Recordings.

1. bonjour, comme mon nom et mon adresse vous l'indiquent , je suis français, et je parle peu l'anglais...je ne peux vous donner mon avis sur ce disque car depuis ma commande je ne l'ai toujours pas reçu!...je me doute qu'il doit être excellent car , en fan' de Billie , je ne peux pas penser qu'un tel enregistrement (la seule série que je n'ai pas encore, d'où ma commande) de Strange Fruit en particulier ne soit pas parfait.
   Puis-je encore ésperer le recevoir? merci de me donner des nouvelles de cette commande. à bientôt, Claude Perrolle.



2. enjoy the alternative takes and for me the additional cost is worth it...all takes contained here are interesting.
   This period and group of recordings should not to be missed by listeners, coming after Columbia into the Decca period ..this is a nice package with a 40 page book showcasing intimacy.



3. This is good music. Billie makes some of her most outstanding performances here. These are the first sessions Billie had where her singing was the key element and the band's performance was subdued in order to sport and clarify her singing. Perhaps, this is a result of the general motion in the recording industry in the mid 1940s to acknowledge the singer, rather than the orchestra. Billie's previous work on Columbia was always issued under the rubric of some orchestra either the Billie Holiday Orchestra or the Teddy Wilson Orchestra, even though the recordings were done by whatever pickup group of members of the Basie Band or other big bands were in town at the moment. Instead of the kind of intros that we hear on the Commodore Sides, the band plays the whole tune a time or two before we hear the voice. This was just what people bought records for before the 1940s when the singer played a smaller role in all jazz and popular music.
   
   On these Commodore siese, we have a sustained group of performers who work with Billie on and off record, arrangements that seem to be more developed, and openings that seem to lead up right to her voice.
   
   Of course, "Strange Fruit" had a big political and artistic impact at the time, but I don't think it measures up as a performance to a number of the Jazz tunes on the CD. Myself, I tend to see it, along with John Hammond Sr. whom I otherwise detest in many regards, as part of an evolution of Billie away from being a Jazz singer towards seeing herself as more of a chanteuse of dramatic songs.
   
   Looking at her whole work, I think Billie did best when she was in a fully jazz environment and when she was recorded with musicians whose work challenged her. This was the case in the many recordings she did for Columbia in the 1930s and 1940s, To a certain extent this is also true in records she made in the early 1950s for Verve with Ben Webster and Sweets Edison presiding.
   
   The Commodore recordings are great. However, nothing compares except perhaps Louis Armstrong's working on pop tunes between 1928 and 1932 to the Columbia sides Billie cut with the likes of Buck Clayton, Lester Young, Johnny Hodges, Benny Goodman, Ben Webster, Freddie Green, Bunny Berrigan, etc. Nothing. Billie was more alive, her voice was stronger, there was more joy in her heart, and no heroin in her bloodstream. Above all, on these sessions she was challenged by a total jazz environment, Jazz masters of her calibre, and an improvisational freedom to the most of the Columbia sessions that seems to have died by the time we get to these Commodore recordings.
   
   Just one word about Mildred Bailey. Yes, Billie's work was a triumph compared to Mildred's. One can appreciate that because Bailey was jealous and spiteful to Billie when Billie first came on the scene. Famously, Bailey hired Billie's mother who catered parties, to cater one of her own parties in the early 1930s, knowing Billie's mother would bring Billie along to help serve the food to her guests. Bailey alledgedly gloated to her guests at the scene of Billie Holiday in a maid's uniform serving her guests and thus put in "her place." That wasn't nice.
   
   One gets the idea that Bailey who had significant Native American ancestry and who was the first well known white female Jazz singer trying to sing in Black style (Bailey had started doing this shortly after World War I), was a bit touchy about her own whiteness. In an age before television, Bailey continued to have fans white and Black who did not know she was white. This remains true even recently when I have loaned tapes of Mildred to other African Americans without any liner notes or anything and had them ask why they had never heard of this great Black singer.
   
   However, I do find it distressing that Mildred Bailey seems to be so forgotten. She was the first prominent female band singer in Jazz. She was and is fun to listen to and a great voice. Mildred was actually able to swing and swing hard even with Paul Whiteman. She produced masterpieces using some of the same small groups as Billie's for HER Columbia recordings, although Baily semed to prefer Herschal Evans to Lester Young. Bailey was also pretty out front for the time as a white female singer performing with an all black combo--"Mildred Baily and Her Oxford Browns." Mildred was simply magnificent in the small combos her husband Red Novro organized, She had a sense of humor about her performances and a bit of salaciousness that you won't find in Billie's recordings.
   
   I don't think it was just out of sentimentality, but in tribute to her artistry, that Sinatra and Bing Crosby (who owed his career to Bailey's bringing him in contact with Whiteman)spent thousands of dollars helping her out in the last years of her life when health problems and the end of her career led her to very hard times.
   
   More people need to listen to Mildred Bailey. I think I will put one of the Commodore disks and one of my Mildred Bailey disks on the CD player now and let the random mix blend all those good sounds together.



4. The remastering is spectacular, great sound, better than what I expected. Includes a nice booklet with over 40 pages and session details. A casual fan will probably prefer to buy the master takes CD instead. The only thing about this CD I dont like is that hey should have put the alternates takes at the end, and all the master takes in sequence. But it is a stellar reissue all around.



5. All the old Commodore Jazz recordings have been taken over by MCA Records and an extensive reissue of the labels
   recordings is currently underway. One release that will instantly appeal to every Jazz fan is this new Billie Holiday 2 CD set The
   Complete Commodore Recordings. Of the 16 tunes featured you actually get a total of 45 tunes recorded between '39-'45
   for the Commodore label because all are multiple takes with the exception of "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" & "Fine And
   Mellow". Some of the classics included are "I Cover The Waterfront (4 takes)," "Billies Blues" (3 takes), "Embraceable You"
   (2 takes) and probably the most controversial classic of all Billie's recordings...The landmark recording "Strange Fruit" offered
   in 2 different takes. The booklet is breathtaking! A walloping 40 pages full of great historical info on these recordings and the
   great Lady Day during these years is excellent. Rare pix, complete recording data and producers' info on putting this
   masterwork together is also included so you get the inside story correctly. All this material has been digitally remastered and
   should come as a very big surprise to many when you hear the playback. A must!

2 comments about Stars of the Apollo.

1. I love this collection! Saturday Night Fish Fry, I Got An Uncle In Harlem, and Fifteen Minute Intermission are my favorites but practically every song on these two discs is special. Do yourself a favor and nab it because music this good, be it from the 20s, 30s, 40s, or whatever, should never be without a listener. "We were rockin'...!"



2. I first heard this album 25 years ago, thanks to some very good friends. It was a favorite back then, one of those albums you played constantly, always finding something time and again that made it special. It's one of those rare CD's that simply does not have a bad cut on it. You'll find that you not only want a hot dog for your roll, but you'll also want this CD for your Blues/Swing/Jazz collection!

2 comments about Irving Berlin Always.

1. A great collection of songs. Irving Berlin wrote some of the millenium's greatest love songs. And, some of our greatest crooners have recorded his music. They are all here. Some even collaborate with each other for beautiful duets. Highly recommended for any audiophiles.



2. When I sat down to this, I was expecting good. I wasn't expecting this to blow me away! One great Berlin song following another -- It was almost more than I hoped for, but knowing the performers and the writer of these songs, you get what you pay for. This is the best musical experience of Berlin's on cd I have ever heard. I recommend this to the most discriminating buyer who has maybe heard only a song or two. I promise, you wont be disappointed. You'll be thrilled... Always...

4 comments about Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Billie Holiday Story, Vol. 1.

1. I've never heard the Compact Disc version of this LP, and I'm sure it's nearly just as fantastic, but when I found this record in my attic, and put it on my turntable, it was like time stopped, and I heard the most passionate music my ears have heard for years.



2. This is a great collection of some of Billie's best, very well selected, sequenced and engineered. Just enough of the old
   gramophone sound remains to give it that blues quality without detracting from its enjoyment.



3. I am a huge fan of Billie's and this recording is just great in every way. First, it is live, and as another reviewer mentioned, you can actually hear the audience cheering and catcalling, thrilled to be listening - it is almost as if one is sent back in time and we're there, too! Second, it is a compiltion of performances through the years, so we get Billie soaring, gliding, and struggling from the early 40's through the late 50's. A must have, to be sure!!! "You'd better go now," "There is no greater love," and most especially "Travlin' light" are beyond great. They're mythical and light as a feather. You cannot go wrong with ANY of the Verve Billie's and this one is a super introduction to one of music's most complex and moving performers. We love you, Billie.



4. This CD is probably one of the most played I have of Billie's and I have a LOT. The label has done a terrific job of getting things that are on lots of CDs, on THIS one alone. Acetate discs were used for some remastering, and it is evident, but equally evident is Billie in front of an audience! They literally go wild, at the mere suggestion of a song. Her versions of "No Greater Love" and "I Cover The Waterfront" are the DEFINITIVE ones here. Her voice was never so beautiful, floating through the air at Carnegie Hall, the audience in a quiet hush listening to history being made. This CD also ends with the last two songs Billie ever sang, "Lover Man" and "What a Little Moonlight." Great voice, great sound, great night! This gives you a complete picture, and a lovely one of that, of the great artist in concert. There is no other CD like this one!

No comments about Super Hits.