Various - Picking The Blues: Boogie Woogie Pioneers Compiled By John Mayall

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:29
Size: 161.4 MB
Styles: Boogie Woogie Piano blues
Year: 2006
Art: Front

[3:09] 1. Cow Cow Davenport - Cow Cow Blues
[3:18] 2. Pinetop Smith - Jump Steady Blues
[3:16] 3. Charlie Spand - Moanin' The Blues
[3:01] 4. Romeo Nelson - Head Rag Hop
[3:10] 5. Wesley Wallace - Fanny Lee Blues
[2:53] 6. Little Brother Montgomery - No Special Rider Blues
[3:15] 7. Jabo Williams - Pratt City Blues
[3:18] 8. Turner Parrish - Fives
[2:58] 9. Walter Roland - Jookit Jookit
[2:26] 10. Cleo Brown - Boogie Woogie
[3:06] 11. Jesse James - Lonesome Day Blues
[3:39] 12. Albert Ammons - Bass Goin' Crazy
[4:02] 13. Pete Johnson - Holler Stomp
[2:41] 14. Jimmy Yancey - 35th And Dearborn
[3:51] 15. Meade Lux Lewis - Six Wheel Chaser
[2:36] 16. Jay Mcshann - Vine Street Boogie
[2:43] 17. Cripple Clarence Lofton - In The Mornin'
[2:56] 18. Big Maceo Merriweather - Chicago Breakdown
[2:46] 19. Montana Taylor - Indiana Avenue Stomp
[2:42] 20. Memphis Slim - Slim's Boogie
[3:56] 21. Speckled Red - Early In The Morning
[4:35] 22. Otis Spann - Otis In The Dark

British musician, bandleader, and blues historian John Mayall was tapped by the excellent jazz and blues archival label Document to dig through his record collection and present the best of the boogie-woogie pioneers. Not only did Mayall select the 22 songs for the disc, but he also wrote the liner notes in which he recalls his life-altering discovery of this music by hunting down used 78s back in the early '50s. The lineup Mayall chose speaks for itself. Not only does he pay tribute to the professors of boogie-woogie, but also a cross reference of blues pianists recorded between 1928 and 1960, none of which are represented by more than one track, serving the listener with a full scope of variations in style. ~Al Campbell

Picking The Blues: Boogie Woogie Pioneers Compiled By John Mayall mc
Picking The Blues: Boogie Woogie Pioneers Compiled By John Mayall zippy

---

Montana Taylor - Detroit Rocks

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 45:43
Size: 104.7 MB
Styles: Piano blues
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[3:21] 1. Detroit Rocks
[2:45] 2. Indiana Avenue Stomp
[3:16] 3. Whoop And Holler Stomp
[3:10] 4. I Can't Sleep
[3:12] 5. In The Bottom
[2:45] 6. Worried Jailhouse Blues
[3:07] 7. Sweet Sue
[3:08] 8. 'fo Day Blues
[3:01] 9. Mistreatin' Mr. Dupree
[3:06] 10. Montana's Blues
[3:06] 11. Rotten Break Blues
[3:03] 12. Low Down Bugle
[3:10] 13. Hayride Stomp
[3:09] 14. Black Market Blues
[2:18] 15. Five O'clocks

Listeners who have ducked the flying chairs in a typical Hollywood saloon scene of the Old West should have a pretty good idea what the atmosphere of such a place was like. The pianists that played music for the clientele of these venues became known as barrelhouse pianists, the style of music also called barrelhouse to perhaps associate it from its close relative boogie-woogie. The latter style at least suggests the merest hint of politeness, while in barrelhouse the overall idea is that all hell will be breaking loose, the music expected to compete with all manner of saloon noise, sometimes including rip-roaring fights. To be able to play "lowdown" is the ultimate compliment for such a player, perhaps one of the clearest cases in music of what bandleader, composer, and musical scholar Col. Bruce Hampton has established as a cardinal rule of making good music: to go "lower."

Born Arthur Taylor, but of no relation to the stylish bebop drummer of the same name, Montana Taylor picked up his nickname as a tribute to his home; and perhaps it was above all an attempt to balance out the high altitude of Montana with the low attitude of Taylor the musician. He is considered the lowest of the low in terms of barrelhouse playing, with fans of boogie-woogie sometimes claiming that nobody could play the barrelhouse style with quite the authority of this artist. It can certainly be said without the slightest indecision that he is the finest blues pianist, and possibly even the best blues artist in general, from the state of Montana, since there hardly seem to be any others. Taylor himself seemed to be in a big hurry to get out of Montana as well, nicknames aside. He was raised in Indianapolis, where he learned piano around 1919. Coffeeshops, nightclubs, and rent parties were the gig possibilities, and he dove into this world with the fingers of both hands flying, moving on to Chicago where he cut two 78s for Vocalion in 1929. It can't be said to be a recording debut that went without a hitch, as one of the sides was rendered a dismal mess by a vocal outfit known as the Jazoo Boys. The pianist did everything he could to make up for this group's almost complete lack of talent, demonstrating a pounding, rhythmically invigorating style with traces of the melodic sweetness that later prompted comparisons between one of his solos and the Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven. ~Eugene Chadbourne

Detroit Rocks mc
Detroit Rocks zippy

---