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SUPER BLACK BLUES VOL II Super Black Blues Band RCAVICTOR Gold Series 09026638742

 

1. Honey Hush
2. Yakety Yak
3. Cleanhead Blues
4. I Had a Dream
5. Person to Person
6. Welcome to New York
7. Disillusion Blues
8. Damn Nam
9. Stormy Monday Blues
10. Sail On

Tracks 1 to 5,9,10

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson - Alto Sax, vocals 3,4, &5
T-Bone Walker – Guitar, vocals 9,10
Joe Turner – Vocals 1,2
Russ Andrews – Tenor
Wynton Kelly – Piano
Al Hall – Bass
Lawrence Lucie – Guitar
Elvin Jones – Drums

Tracks 6 to8

Leon Thomas – Vocal
Earl Creque – Piano
James Phillips – Bass
Pablo Landrum – Conga
Sonny Morgan Bongos
Sherman Ferguson – Drums

In retrospect, this was some band that they had at Carnegie Hall in 1970, Elvin Jones on Drums and Wynton Kelly on Piano for a start, they have certainly played with the very best. Carnegie Hall is obviously packed with a very excited audience, the top of the bill that night was B B King. He is still bill topping, with his own club in New York City and very popular it is too.

I like the blues, but I find that concerts with just that musical form, start to get hard on the ears after half an hour or so even with the best performers. There is no doubt that these artists are the ‘tops’, because they do sustain your interest throughout the performance. The sleeve note puts this forward as a protest performance, but that isn’t my view. The blues is a way to make the audience react to the performance and any attention grabbing subject will do. The rhythm sections of both bands are really good, I would like to hear them in a non blues performance. Eddie Vinson is also a very talented saxophone player, as he demonstrated when he toured with the incomparable

Sonny Stitt.

The vocals are provided by Joe Turner, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vincent, Leon Thomas and T-Bone Walker, each one is a fine blues performer and with Vincent and Walker, we get to hear their skills on Alto & Guitar respectively as well.

I don’t know what the BB King part of the show was like, but if this was the supporting cast, he must have had to go some. This re-release will I’m sure appeal to all Rhythm and Blues fans and I know there are a lot of them out there.

Don Mather

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