Northeast Ohio Blues - NEOBA
  • Home
  • 2022 NEOBA Challenge
  • Joe's Blues Blog
  • Hidden Gems by JJ Vicars
  • Store / Membership
  • Local - Live - Blues Calendar
  • Blues Special Events
  • Photo Gallery
  • Sponsors & Musicans
    • Music Instructors
  • Blues in Ohio
  • About us
Contact us

Big Jay McNeely Live At Birdland 1957

6/30/2021

1 Comment

 
There are very few live recordings of early pioneering Blues, Jazz, and Rhythm & Blues performers in their heyday. Recording technology was still in its infancy and the required budget for live recording was typically reserved for Pop stars. Studio recordings and tales of over-the-top performances are about all we have. While the Bob Willoughby image of Big Jay laying on his back “blowing his brains out” with two youths in front going even more ecstatic than the rest of the already ecstatic crowd is firmly ingrained in the collective conscious as the definitive image of post-war Rhythm & Blues most people alive today never got to witness it firsthand. Coming straight out of the church it was brash, loud, wild, and over the top in every way. Louis Jordan was the “pop star” of the sound, much as Stevie Ray Vaughan would later be the “rock star” of the Austin Blues & Roots sound, scoring the most radio hits. It’s easy to see in retrospect just how palatable Jordan could be to a wider audience but it was on Central Avenue in Watts, CA where nightclub after nightclub was jam packed with patrons blowing off steam to the “honkers”, sax players who would stretch one note to ungodly lengths driving audiences into a frenzy. Big Jay McNeely was the “king of the honkers” and outlived them all too, passing away in 2018 after playing his own 91st birthday four months earlier.

Big Jay McNeely Live At Birdland 1957 gives us one of the very few examples left for posterity of those sweat drenched stages. We get to hear him in the full glory of his youth playing in front the kind of audience that helped forge the sound. The song list is ranges from the expected to the delightfully unexpected. Big Jay’s single “Insect Ball” comes in after the opening number and the Bill Doggett hit “Honky Tonk” that became a standard is also present along with Big Jay’s anthem “Deacon’s Hop”. 

Of course his biggest hit of all “There is Something On Your Mind” is also present. Recorded in 1957 and later recorded by B.B. King, Albert King, Professor Longhair, Buddy Guy, Sleepy LaBeef, Freddie Fender, Gene Vincent, and most recently by Samantha Fish, “There Is Something On Your Mind” was Big Jay’s biggest and most enduring hit. Here we get to hear it performed live when when it was a brand new hit in front of an audience who helped make it a hit.

Like his contemporaries (and guitar legend Mickey Baker) Big Jay started out playing Jazz, formally educated in music theory, harmony, and arranging. Running around with Charlie Parker was probably a lot of fun but with Jazz not quite the popular music it previously was and the emerging Bop having little room at the top it was soon evident that Rhythm & Blues was the way to go and thus a new style was forged. Jazz did not disappear from the picture, though, and while the subtleties and nuances remained, as well as the swing, it was pared down much as the the rhythm was being pared down to The Big Beat. Ray Charles’ “I’ve Got A Woman” shows up here and unsurprisingly since it was not only a hit but also followed the same formula of combining church and secular music. Jazz still had its place in the Big Jay picture and we get to hear him let loose on several Jazz numbers. “Things Ain’t What They Used To Be” is a 12 bar Blues that became a Jazz standard, much like Jimmy Smith’s “Back At The Chicken Shack” which even Muddy Waters recorded. The big surprise here is the Les Paul & Mary Ford hit “How High The Moon”. What a treat to hear it interpreted this way! One of the numbers that Big Jay and his contemporaries used to hone their craft was “Flying Home”, the Benny Goodman number co-written with Lionel Hampton and featuring electric guitar pioneer Charlie Christian on guitar in 1939 and tenor sax pioneer Illinois Jacquet in 1942. Big Jay and company tear through the number at breakneck speed with a pending backbeat and the most unearthly sounds ever to be squealed out of a saxophone. You’re going to need a cigarette when it’s done.

This album is time capsule, a memento from a world that gave birth to new sounds and changed music around the world forever. Most important of all it demonstrates clearly why this music took over during its time and remains influential to musicians and just plain fun to listers more than six decades later. As the man himself would say, “Oh yeah!”
1 Comment

LIVE! B.B. KING ON STAGE

6/30/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
LIVE! B.B. KING ON STAGE is meant to take us back the late 50's chitlin circuit. Released in 1965, the album compiles his early 50’s RPM recordings with an overdubbed MC and audience. Somehow the effect works despite its overuse. Folks screaming and hollering through his early hits sounds completely natural. One in particular is exceptionally loud and sustaining and you get the impression that the engineers were having a blast dropping her in at all the right spots.Side One opens with “Please Love Me”, peacock strut of a shuffle, with a variation on the “Dust My Broom” lick kicking it off. The horns lay it on thick with a tenor-heavy repeating riff. One of the notable differences in B.B.’s earlier recordings is his guitar tone. Although still distinctly B.B. it’s rawer and dirtier than when he started to cross over, a result of the guitars and amps available at the time. The T-bone Walker influence is more evident and the overall sound of the band is post-war to the hilt, in step with artists like Lowell Fulson and Pee Wee Crayton.

“Every Day I Have The Blues”, “Sweet Sixteen”, and his breakout “3 O’clock Blues” continue the compilation with the overdubbed audience still adding atmosphere. The original “Rock Me Baby” stands out in stark contrast from its later recordings simmering like an alley cat in heat and if any track benefits from the fake audience it’s this one. As great as it is on its own they sound like a completely natural response. The song is restored to its original primal intent, the easy lope of the piano and rhythm section providing the perfect backdrop for B.B.’s straight to the chase plea.
Side Two opens with his signature “Sweet Little Angel” picking up the vibe but not the tempo on “Baby Look At Me” followed by the rhumba “Woke Up This Morning” with its swinging big band middle and wailing sax. “You Upset Me Baby” keeps it uptempo shuffling along at a steady clip. “You Upset Me Baby” brings us back to the after-hours vibe that made up most of Side One which continues through “I’ve Got a Right To Love My Baby”. “Let Me Love You” verges on Gospel closing out the album with a nice landing, though our infamous screaming lady could have been used more sparingly here.
Although these sides can be found on any early recording compilation, and have been reissued time and time again, the audience noise gives it a nightclub setting reminiscent of Redd Foxx, Lawanda Page, and other comedy albums. The album has never been issued on CD but LPs pop up on eBay from time to time. It’s a good collection of his early hits and the overdubbed audience noise, fake as it is, makes for an enjoyable listen. The introduction by the MC alone is worth searching it out; “You heard him sing, you heard him popping’ strings, now we’re gonna see him really do the thing! The sensation maker, the record breaker, B! B! King!”
0 Comments
    Picture

    JJ Vicars

    "JJ Vicars is a walking Blues-Rock encyclopedia. His performances are always fun, full of energy, and he really knows how to play a room! As a venue owner, I've had the pleasure of booking him as a solo act and a group and though you get to hear more of his  guitar work with the band, he has no problem holding his own and entertaining audiences with just an acoustic guitar. Highly Recommended!" - Richie Kindler, Jupiter Studio

    Archives

    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly