Artist: Various
Album: Hey! Piano Man: Selected Boogie Woogie Sides Remastered
Genre: Boogie Woogie
Label: JSP Records
Released: 2007
Quality: mp3, 320 kbps
Tracklist:
- Disc A:
- Jimmy' Stuff
- The Fives
- La Salle Street Breakdown
- Two O'Clock Blues
- Janie's Joys
- Lean Bacon
- Big Bear Train
- Lucille's Lament
- Beezum Blues
- Yancey Limited
- Rollin' The Stone
- Steady Rock Blues
- P.L.K. Special
- South Side Stuff
- Yancey's Getaway
- How Long Blues
- How Long Blues No. 2
- Yancey Stomp
- State Street Special
- Tell 'Em About Me
- Five O'Clock Blues
- Slow And Easy
- The Mellow Blues
- Bear Trap Blues
- Old Quaker Blues
All tracks by Jimmy Yancey
- Disc B:
- Honky Tonk Train Blues
- Yancey Special
- Celeste Blues
- I'm In The Mood For Love
- Mr. Freddie Blues
- Honky Tonk Train Blues
- Whistlin' Blues
- Bear Cat Crawl
- The Blues Part 1
- The Blues Part 2
- The Blues Part 3
- The Blues Part 4
- The Blues Part 5
- Melancholy Blues
- Solitude Blues
- Twos And Fews
- Nagasaki
- Untitled Original
- Messin' Around
- Deep Fives
- Blues De 'Lux'
All tracks by Meade 'Lux' Lewis
- Disc C:
- Dying Mother Blues
- Fo' O'Clock Blues
- Roll 'Em
- Boo Woo
- Home James
- Shuggle Boogie
- Lone Star Blues
- Buss Robinson Blues
- B&o Blues
- How Long How Long
- Climbin' And Screamin'
- Buss Robinson Blues
- Pete's Blues
- Let 'Em Jump
- Pete's Blues No. 2
- Boogie Woogie
- Vine Street Bustle
- Some Day Blues
- Holler Stomp
- Barrelhouse Breakdown
- Kansas City Farewell
- You Don't Know My Mind
Tracks 1-3, 6-16 Pete Johnson, tracks 4-5 Harry James & The Boogie Woogie Trio,
tracks 17-22 The Pete Johnson Blues Trio
- Disc D:
- Nagasaki
- Boogie Woogie Stomp
- Early Mornin' Blues
- Mile-Or-Mo Bird Rag
- Shout For Joy
- Boogie Woogie Stomp
- Chicago In Mind
- Suitcase Blues
- Boogie Woogie Blues
- Untitled Ammons Original
- Bass Goin' Crazy
- Backwater Blues
- Changes In Boogie Woogie
- Easy Rider Blues
- Woo Woo
- Jesse
- Weary Land Blues
- Port Of Harlem Blues
- Mighty Blues
- Rocking The Blues
Tracks 1-14 Albert Ammons, tracks 15-16 Harry James & The Boogie Woogie Trio,
track 17 J.C. Higginbotham, tracks 18-20 Port Of Harlem Jazzmen
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Each and every one of JSP's affordably priced four-CD sets is well worth pouncing on, and Hey! Piano Man is no exception. Released in 2005, this blues and boogie tetralogy focuses upon the early recordings of Jimmy Yancey, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Pete Johnson, and Albert Ammons, using records cut during the years 1935-1940. This incredibly satisfying set illuminates the interwoven influences that made their music into a sturdy launching pad for the national boogie-woogie craze of the late ‘30s and early ‘40s. Yancey, whose modes sometimes reveal a clear lineage leading back to New Orleans and Caribbean influences, employed a wonderfully personal, introspective approach to his music, and the importance of an entire disc filled with this man's piano solos cannot be overemphasized. Lewis, a seemingly inexhaustible font of ideas and improvisatory variables, is well-represented here, although one of the highlights of the entire set (located on Lewis' disc) is the nearly six-minute piano duo version of "Nagasaki", which is mainly a showcase for Ammons' joyously explosive attacks upon the upper octaves of the instrument. Ammons and Johnson were both superb jazz players with formidable stride piano chops. One of the grievous failures in all of recorded jazz was the industry's failure to line up either or both of them with Fats Waller, but that seems never to have happened. Four masterful sides by Albert Ammons & His Rhythm Kings reveal him at his very best; these recordings, made in 1936, combine trumpet and sax with a rhythm section that included bassist Israel Crosby and guitarist Ike Perkins. Ammons is heard solo, with trombonist J.C. Higginbotham's Quintet; with trumpeter Frankie Newton and the Port of Harlem Jazzmen; and with trumpeter Harry James & His Boogie Woogie Trio. Pete Johnson is also featured with the Harry James unit, with his own Blues Trio, and as a soloist. The rarest material is positioned at the opening of Johnson's part of the set; three Library of Congress recordings made on Christmas Eve 1938 consist of a smart reading of "Roll ‘Em," a sobering "Dying Mother Blues" sung by Ammons, no less, and a severely battered "Fo' O'Clock Blues," which is so scratchy and uneven that some may object to its inclusion here. Given the fact that this is a rare example of Pete Johnson speaking at length while manipulating the keyboard, someone ought to invest in the technological processing necessary for a complete remastering of this extremely rare yet difficult to navigate recording. This is not the first time it has been made available to the public. Document brought it out on a collection awhile back, warts and all. The fact that the folks at JSP inserted it in this collection "as is" may come as a surprise to those who are accustomed to this label's often miraculous restoration of ancient and considerably weathered pressings. If Rounder was able to rescue and remaster the complete Library of Congress recordings of Jelly Roll Morton, there's no reason on earth that computer science could not be used to salvage this tantalizing blend of language and blues piano by the one and only Pete Johnson.