1. Hide and Seek
2. Corrina, Corrina
3. Chains of Love
4. Honey Hush
5. Shake, Rattle and Roll
6. Early One Morning
7. Roll 'em Pete
8. Around the Clock Blues
9. Cherry Red
10. Somebody’s Got to Go
11. Lee's Blues
12. Walkin' With Mr. Lee
Big Joe Turner – Vocals
Lee Allen – Bandleader, sax
Steve Berlin – Baritone sax
Johnny Taylor – Guitar
Dennis Riggs – Drums
Gene Taylor – Piano
Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson – Vocals, sax
“Rock and Roll would never have happened without him”. Doc Pomus was referring to Big Joe Turner, whose 1954 hit Shake, Rattle and Roll was
covered by Bill Haley and his Comets in the same year. It was Bill Haley’s first hit record and might be said to have launched the phenomenon known as rock
and roll.
The song is performed by Big Joe Turner (the man for whom it was written) on this album of a concert in October 1983 at the Music Machine in Santa Monica.
Joe is often categorized as a “blues shouter”, and he has been dubbed “The boss of the blues” but his blues singing had the freedom and informality of
jazz.
Big Joe certainly paid his dues, working with bands led by such people as Count Basie and Andy Kirk in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Most notably, he
sang at the famous “Spirituals to Swing” concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. He was already 72 when he performed at this 1983 concert. Joe had to sit down to
sing, as he had diabetes (he died in 1985), but you wouldn’t guess it from the vigour with which he performs.
One problem is that Turner had been singing these songs for so long that he tended to slur the words, which are not always easy to hear. And the recording
quality is not always 100%, with an enthusiastically noisy audience in a hall which was not acoustically perfect. Nevertheless these problems fade into the
background because of Joe’s fervent delivery of blues standards. And he is accompanied by some fine musicians, including baritone saxist Steve Berlin and
jazz-blues legend Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. It’s primitive but it’s fun – and it swings like mad.
Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Floating World FLOATM 6212
