Forty And Tight
Four’s Company
Swinging The Blues
Dreamed I Had The Blues
Skinnie Minnie
St. James Infirmary Blues
New Orleans Hop Scop Blues (take 2)
Pauline’s Blues
Margie
Yama Yama Blues
At Sundown
Royal Garden Blues
Rose Room
Winin’ Boy
Ostrich Walk
Nobody’s Sweetheart
New Orleans Hop Scop Blues (take 1)
Somebody Loves Me
Miss Otis Regrets
The Lady In Red
Everybody Loves My Baby
How Long Blues
Shimme Sha Wabble
Shortnin’ Bread
Willie The Weeper
Blue Post Haste
Show Me The Way To Go Home
In The Evening
Oh, Little Girl
Backwater Blues
Mamie
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
All These Days Are The Beginning Of Sorrow
They Call Me A Blind Man
Oh, What Kind Of Woman
I Want A True Lover
You Been Going Too Long
The House Of The Rising Sun
Chicago Hop
Al Fairweather (trumpet) with Albert Nicholas,
Brother John Sellers, Sandy Brown’s Jazz Band,
John Picard’s Angels, Stan Greig’s Jazz Band,
Humphrey Lyttelton and his Band.
rec. 1953-57
Lake’s two-for-the-price-of-one
releases make a tempting proposition not least
when they corral such enticing material as
here. This company has made a study of releases
Fairweather material as a look at their catalogue
swiftly shows – things such as Dr McJazz
and The Incredible McJazz are albums
that should never go out of print – and there
are plenty of other examples of the trumpeter’s
work on the label.
These latest CDs have the
great merit of real archaeological retrieval.
Many of these sides will be unfamiliar to
all but the most ardent Fairweather collector.
Though the bands themselves may look familiar
it’s certainly worth pointing out that the
Stan Grieg’s Jazz band recordings were made
in Copenhagen, as were the sides where Fairweather
joins clarinettist Albert Nicholas. The John
Picard Angels tracks - with Wally Fawkes as
part of the front line - were recorded in
1955 in The Fishmonger’s Arms, Wood Green
in London; the tracks where Fairweather, Fawkes
et al accompany Brother John Sellers - Tony
Kinsey incidentally was the drummer – are
also extremely rare. The upshot is rarity
and excellence of presentation; the result
is two well-filled discs full of the greatest
interest.
The tunes on the first disc
run the gamut from South Side Chicago to blues
and boogie, Basie influence, Ory, and all
stylistic ports in between. The splendid meeting
with Lyttelton worked well – Humph always
spoke with admiration of Fairweather’s playing
– and the Basie rhythm section sound on Swinging
the Blues is a virtuosic tribute. Stan
Grieg was a great boogie and blues player
and unveils his penant throughout. For some
tracks Henrik Johansen replaces Fairweather’s
accustomed partner Sandy Brown, a player who
was clearly a tonal role model for Johansen.
On the Picard tracks the
piano of Alan Thomas is badly under-recorded
but the Fairweather-Fawkes-Picard front line
functions with enviable fluency. There are
twelve tracks featuring Brother John Sellers
backed either by the band, rather skeletally,
or by Grieg who is a really vital support,
absorbing Sellers’s style with great perception.
I’m a bit surprised that sleeve note writer
Ralph M Laing, usually so on the ball, doesn’t
know much about Sellers and nothing after
1957. But Sellers is a pretty well known figure
and worked alongside Mahalia Jackson, was
filmed, and had a strong career well into
the 1970s. He sounds influenced by Jackson
and also by Leadbelly.
The remastering has been
expertly carried out and altogether this is
a very varied and broad-ranging and rare selection
of discs by the tonally eloquent and exceptional
Fairweather and friends.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
LAKE
LACD 260 [54:29 + 68:17]
