Jimmy Witherspoon easily ranks among the best who ever sang the blues. Possessed of a smooth voice and a emotional sound that gave new meaning to his unerring sense of songs that propelled the genre, Witherspoon deserves to be remembered along side such undisputed talents as Big Joe Turner (he made "Shake, Rattle and Roll" prior to the cooled-down white version), Count Basie vocalist Jimmy Rushing, and the masterful B.B. King.
Evidence abounds of Witherspoon's prodigious talents in a new compilation on the Prestige label. "Jazz Me Blues: The Best of Jimmy Witherspoon" (Prestige PRCD-11008-2) contains 20 excellent tracks ranging from 1956 through 1969. The CD, produced by David Axelrod, has been lovingly remastered in the Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, Calif. by Joe Tarantino. The sound quality is outstanding on every track, results in 68-plus minutes of Witherspoon magic.
Backing up this unique voice are some of the finest jazz players ever recorded. The familiar names include Harry "Sweets" Edison, Teddy Edwards, Gerald Wilson, Hampton Hawes, Kenny Burrell, Ernie Freeman, Herman Mitchell, Bill Watrous, Pepper Adams, Roger Kellaway, Mel Lewis, and many, many more.
The collection includes such classic tunes as "Good Rockin, Tonight," "When I've Been Drinking," "Bad Bad Whiskey," and the magnificent "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer." Of the songs included, only two were written by Witherspoon: "I Had a Dream" and "Money's Getting, Cheaper."
If you are unaware of Jimmy Witherspoon, this album is a good introduction to one of the best.
BENNY RIDES AGAIN
Tenor man Benny Golson has been around jazz for a long, long time, producing some of the best straight-ahead sounds ever heard. His new album "Remembering Clifford" (Milestone MCD-9278-2) serves as a memorable tip of the Golson hat to one of jazz's great talents, trumpet master Clifford Brown.
Although best remembered for his writing and arranging, Golson plays an excellent tenor. Perhaps his best known composition is "I Remember Clifford," which has become a standard in the jazz repertoire, recordings made by many, including Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz. That's not included in the new album, which does have several familiar songs made famous by Brown, who died in a car accident in 1956 while still in his twenties.
That death shook me, an assistant editor then for a small weekly newspaper in Northern Kentucky. I remember the exact spot where I heard the news. I had gone to the Post Office in Florence to pick up a stack of mailbags to be used for the upcoming edition of the newspaper. A radio somewhere in the Post Office, tuned to a Cincinnati jazz station, announced the news.
The liner notes for "Remembering Clifford" note that Golson and Brown played together in Tadd Dameron's pivotal group, Dameronia.
The song list for the CD includes nine tunes, all memorable, all well performed. "Dear Old Stockholm," which has been recorded hundreds of times, receives a solid interpretation. War-horse "Lullaby of Birdland" gets a nine-minute workout that delights the ear. The five backup musicians are stellar in every respect. John Swana deserves special mention for his worthy chops on trumpet and Mike Ledonne does superb work on the piano.
At 69, Benny Golson shows no sign of diminished talent. He still has that warm tone, he still makes solos that are intelligent, personal, and emotional. As he told writer Fred Bouchard, "We're always moving forward, coming up with extrapolations on old things, metaphors for the creative process."
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