MARIETTA, OH, USA - Regular readers of this weekly missive may have noticed that praise has taken a huge lead over pummeling in recent months. It’s not that your devoted columnist has decided to cut back on the nasty notices. Rather it’s that the quality of CD’s arriving on my front porch has shown marked improvement.

Proof of that statement can be found in the terrific new album from Jessica Williams called “This Side Up” (Maxjazz Records). A veteran performer, Ms. Williams has performed her piano magic with such name talent as Stan Getz, Eddie Harris, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Airto and Flora Purim, Woody Shaw and Tony Williams. She’s definitely been there, done that. It’s high time that she steps into the spotlight, for her talents cry out for notice. Maxjazz deserves a tip of the fedora for giving her the opportunity to show her stuff. She’s no overnight success, but this album should receive wide airing, because she possesses all the goodies.

Eight of the ten tracks are Williams' compositions and show off her abilities in creating melodies and offering dazzling solos. This is one of those rare albums that will win a favored spot in any jazz fan’s collection. Frequent plays only serve to demonstrate that Williams packs the good stuff. There’s no showing off, just a confident attitude that must derive from her long experience in working with some of the biggies in the jazz realm. Dave Brubeck once said Williams was “one of the greatest pianists I have ever heard.” It’s praise of a sort not handed out easily and dipping into the wonders of this album may indeed have you beginning to agree with the icon Brubeck’s assessment.

Williams has been sitting at a piano bench for a long time. In her native Baltimore, she was seven when she started to take lessons. She tells the story that she saw colors when she struck keys on the piano. She persuaded her parents to buy a piano and she began to take lessons at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Her destiny began to be fulfilled when she first heard Brubeck’s classic, “Time Out.”

She said, “That was the end for me. I couldn’t not explore the jazz form. I was getting in trouble for improvising on Rachmaninoff, and jazz seemed to offer me the freedom I craved in my interpretation of music.”

She began playing jazz joints in the Baltimore area at age 17. In 1976 she moved to San Francisco and played with legends such as Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz. She eventually tired of the “unhealthy lifestyle.” She won several grants and concentrated on composing at a studio along the Central California coast. During this period she recorded 25 albums, many on her own label.

Bob Powers

“This Side Up” provides 10 excellent examples of Williams’ distinctive style. Backed by Ray Drummond on bass and Victor Lewis on drums, the album contains eight originals, plus M. Sealey’s lovely “Black Diamond” and Rahsaan-Roland Kirk’s “Theme for Eulipians.”

After a long and tiring day’s work, sit in front of your stereo equipment and listen to this wondrous album. Jessica Williams will wipe away your fatigue and give you a jolt as only jazz can do. I call this a “must” experience.

Crescent City Soul

The good folks at EMI are performing miracles in their reissue program of hits from various important artists in jazz and rock n’ roll. This week’s spotlight turns to the excellent four-CD box set called “The Crescent City Soul Series” (Capitol/Imperial/Minit Records). Anyone who has good feelings about the early days of rock should find this a goldmine of old memories and forgotten gems of those innocent days of rock’s glorious past.

If you don’t want to invest in all four CDs, you can buy them individually, then saving wear and tear on one’s battered pocketbook. A warning, however, dipping one’s ears into one CD may well create a yearning to accumulate the entire set. This is prime stuff, ladies and gents, and those of you old enough to have been listening when these performers first arrived on the music scene will undergo a shakedown of the memory banks.

The set opens with 20 songs from the inimitable Fats Domino. The CD is called “The Fats Domino Jukebox: 20 Greatest Hits the Way You Originally Heard Them.” Yes, it includes “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blueberry Hill” and “Jambalaya.”

Next comes “The Big Beat of Dave Bartholomew: 20 of his Milestone Productions 1949-1980.” Working with Bartholomew are such performers as Chris Kenner, The Spiders, Bobby Mitchell, Earl King, Smiley Lewis and the Bees. My favorite Bartholomew song was “Who Drank My Beer While I Was in the Rear.” It’s hard to match that title, except perhaps country star Travis Tritt’s “Here’s a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares.”

Allen Toussaint has worked with such talents as Paul Simon, Joe Cocker and Bonnie Raitt, but in the ‘60s he made a major impression in rock producing a stellar list of talents. “Finger Poppin’ and Stompin” Feet” contains hits he worked on in the early ‘60s. He produced Aaron Neville’s “Over You” and “Let’s Live.” Neville sounds very young, but he’s still mesmerizing. Others on the CD include Ernie K-Doe with “Mother-in-Law,” a catchy piece of nostalgia, along with classics from Irma Thomas, The Del Royals, and The Showmen.

Finally comes “Let the Good Times Roll,” which contains 20 classic hits from New Orleans, circa 1949-1966. This is perhaps the strongest collection in the box set, opening with “Let the Good Times Roll” by Shirley and Lee, then moving to such classics as “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” by the magnificent Lloyd Price and Little Richard’s unforgettable “Long Tall Sally.”

It’s refreshing to hear this music after decades of neglect, especially with the remastering that has cleaned up the sound. For anyone around in those early days of rock ‘n roll, this should provide hours of happy listening.

Bob Powers always is interested in hearing from record distributors who deal in jazz, rock, folk, and anything that's good. For instructions on getting your album reviewed, contact him at rpow123@charter.net.

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