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MATCHBOX BLUESMASTER SERIES SET 5 |
MATCHBOX MSESET 5 [6 CDs: 5 hrs 30 mins]
Track listing
CD1
Blind Lemon Jefferson 1926-29
- Got The Blues (2471-1)
- Long Lonesome Blues (2472- )
- Match Box Blues (80524-B)
- Hot Dog (4578-3)
- He Arose From The Dead (4579-1)
- Struck Sorrow Blues (20039-2)
- Gone Dead On You Blues (20070-2)
- One Dime Blues (20075-2)
- Change My Luck Blues (20387-2)
- Lemon's Cannon Ball Blues (20401-1)
- Lockstep Blues (20815-2)
- Hangman's Blues (20816-2)
- Disgusted Blues (21110-2)
- Empty House Blues (21200-1)
- Saturday Night Spender's Blues (21201-2)
- Bed Springs Blues (15664)
- The Cheaters Spell (15674)
CD2
Frank Stokes 1927-29
The Remaining Titles
- Half Cup Of Tea (4774-2)
- Ain't Goin' To Do Like I Used To Do (21229-2)
- Hunting Blues (21234-1)
- Rockin' On The Hill Blues (21240-2)
- Fillin' In The Blues - Part 1 (21241-1)
- Fillin' In The Blues - Part 2 (21241-2)
- South Memphis Blues (55573-2)
- Bunker Hill Blues (55574-1)
- Right Now Blues (55584-2)
- Shiney Town Blues (55591-1)
- Downtown Blues (41822-1) [actually 41822-2!]
- Bedtime Blues (41825-1)
- What's The Matter Blues (41826-1)
- It Won't Be Long Now (45420-1)
- I Got Mine (45422-2)
- 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do Part-1 (45452-1)
- 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do Part-2 (45453-1)
- Take Me Back (45454-2)
- How Long (45455-1)
- Frank Stokes's Dream (56305-2)
CD3
Blind Blake 1926-29
- Skeedle Loo Doo Blues (3073-1)
- You Gonna Quit Blues (20110-1)
- Wabash Rag (20154-2)
- Doggin' Me Mama Blues (20517-2)
- C. C. Pill Blues (20520-2)
- Hot Potatoes (20521-3)
- Southbound Rag (20522-2)
- That Lonesome Rave (20556-1)
- Terrible Murder Blues (20557-2)
- Leavin' Gal Blues (20558-1)
- Rumblin' And Ramblin' Boa Constrictor Blues (20565- )
- Detroit Bound Blues (20567-2)
- Ramblin' Mama Blues (20872-2)
- New Style Of Loving (20873-2)
- Back Door Slam Blues (20874-1)
- Cold Hearted Mama Blues (20884-1)
- Guitar Chimes (21459-2)
- Blind Arthur's Breakdown (21460-2)
CD4
Big Bill Broonzy 1927-32
- House Rent Stomp
- Tadpole Blues
- Papa's Gettin' Hot
- Police Station Blues
- They Can't Do That
- Mr. Conductor Blues
- No Good Buddy
- Meanest Kind Of Blues
- I Got The Blues For My Baby
- Ain't Goin' There No More
- That's The Way She Likes It
- Too Too Train Blues
- Shelby County Blues
- Mistreatin' Mama Blues
- Me And O Blues
- Rukus Juice Blues
CD5
Mississippi Sheiks 1930 (Vol.1)
- Driving That Thing
- Alberta Blues
- Winter Time Blues
- The Sheik Waltz
- The Jazz Fiddler
- Stop And Listen Blues
- Lonely One In This Town
- We Are Both Feeling Good Right Now
- Grinding Old Fool
- Jake Leg Blues
- West Jackson Blues
- Baby Keeps Stealin' Lovin' On Me
- River Bottom Blues
- Loose Like That
- Sitting On Top Of The World no. 2
- Times Done Got Hard
- Still I'm Traveling On
- Church Bell Blues
CD6
Lonnie Johnson Vol. 1 1926-28
Mostly New To LP
- When I Was Lovin' Changed My Mind Blues (73936-B)
- Sun To Sun Blues (73937-B)
- Bed Of Sand (73938-B)
- Lonesome Jail Blues (73939-B)
- No Good Blues (73940-A)
- Newport Blues (73941-A)
- Love Story Blues (73942-B)
- Woman Changed My Life (9673-A)
- Lonnie's Got The Blues (9674-A)
- You Drove A Good Man Away (74267-A)
- Ball And Chain Blues (74268-A)
- To Do This, You Got To Know How (80075-A)
- Superstitious Blues (80808-A)
- Cotton Patch Blues (80809-A)
- Blackbird Blues (80812-A)
- Unkind Mama (80813-A)
- Back-water Blues (80831-B)
- Crowing Rooster Blues (400491-A)
It’s worth reprising the principles behind the fifth of the seven scheduled sets from Matchbox so I’ll copy my introductory paragraph from my review of first volume of this reissued series. Gef Lucena’s Saydisc label is well-known for its folk records, amongst other specialisms, but back in the 1980s it released 42 LPs that formed the Matchbox Bluesmaster Series. Most featured chronologically complete runs of artists’ recordings, the series editor was Johnny Parth and the notes were written by none other than Paul Oliver. Now thirty years after the last LP was released the whole catalogue is being issued on CDs grouped together in seven 6-CD boxes. It is an immense undertaking, with the necessary digitizing being undertaken from the LPs (the original master tapes no longer exist) by Norman White, and one that has an expected completion date of May 2022 when the final, seventh set is due to be issued. Lucena is the series producer.
By now, quite some way down the road, we are revisiting musicians who have already been covered. In this case Blind Lemon Jefferson, Frank Stokes and Blind Blake are represented by albums called ‘The Remaining Titles’. It’s interesting to us now that the late Paul Oliver, the genius behind the notes, refers to Jefferson as a then rather overlooked artist as over the last three decades it’s my perception that he has increasingly been recognised – as Oliver always said he was - as one of the foundational figures of country blues. He can be heard in his glory in the years 1926-29 in the first CD. The earliest discs were poorly recorded but Match Box Blues – presumably the disc that gave its name to this whole reissue project - is in a different category. Jefferson was an enigmatic musician in many ways, with his quixotic lyrics, soaring voice and his occasional recourse to foot tapping accompaniment. It’s a shame that the copies selected for the original LP of the first three songs of the 1927 session in Chicago were poor but one can at least get to grips with One Dime Blues, a very influential recording. Despite the imperfections of a number of these copies – Disgusted Blues is really rough – little can disguise the subtlety of his metrical flexibility and few tracks show it better than The Cheaters Spell.
I’ve always loved the stentorian charms of the songster Frank Stokes whether under his own name or as part of the Beale Street Sheiks, alongside his friend, the guitarist Dan Sane. CD2 is devoted to his 1928-29 sides with a single expedition to 1927. Unusually for this series, not everything here appears to be chronological with some 1928 tracks interspersed between 1929 ones, made either in Chicago or Memphis. Stokes’ early life was spent in turn-of-the-century medicine shows and the like and that repertoire is pervasive in these tracks. An obvious example is Take Me Back, a real old-time number. A blacksmith who played with early string bands he was well placed to record with fiddler Will Batts – a colourful if very hit and miss player - in Memphis in 1928 and his vocal prowess – he was hardly the most refined singer, possessing a voice that could strip wallpaper – is one of the glories of ragtime-based songster singing. Even his parlando on Hunting Blues is personal and full of vitality. The apex of this disc comes with the final tracks recorded in Memphis toward the end of August 1928, one classic after another with the two-part 'Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do at the pinnacle. There is also the rare example of his singing and self-accompanying on Frank Stokes’ Dream. Matchbox admits some of these are rough originals but the great ones aren’t.
Though he may still be biographically obscure, Blind Blake always impresses by virtue of his wonderful stylistic versatility. He’s always been a favourite of jazz fans because his swinging style could accommodate the likes of Johnny Dodds and fortunately the Dodds recordings are in this volume. From the start he proves a musician who won’t be constrained by expectations. He can be elegant and he can be down-home but he’s never predictable. He tends to show up Jimmy Bertrand on Doggin' Me Mama Blues. Bertrand was a jazz player who plays xylophone here very simplistically and tentatively. Adding slide whistle and woodblocks to his armoury Bertrand joins Dodds and Blake for a couple of invigorating sides teeming with blues cadences from Dodds and a welcome feel of hokum. Blake accompanies Bertha Henderson in three blues. Of them, because of the intriguing lyrics, Terrible Murder Blues is the best, despite Henderson’s bleaty vibrato. His solo recordings in Chicago in 1928 are all excellent but you must expect some bad copies and of them Ramblin’ Mama Blues is by far the worst – more surface noise than music, I’m afraid.
CD 4 introduces that firm favourite, Big Bill Broonzy. John Thomas is an assertive collaborator on House Rent Stomp whilst the deeper voiced Frank Brasswell is equally good. When Broonzy both plays and sings, however, one feels an extra buoyancy and rhythmic vitality enter proceedings. It’s a pity that the pianist on a New York session is so backwardly recorded as it’s conjecturally Georgia Tom Dorsey, who’s always worth hearing. By his 1932 session in NYC Broonzy has pretty well codified the vocal-guitar approach to his material and henceforth he is very much his own man. Too Too Train Blues is a perfect example and it’s just a pity that another, Shelby County Blues, is compromised by so worn a copy.
The Mississippi Sheiks were a leading country string band and their 1930 tracks show how such bands had a wide repertoire of material, ranging from early songs through blues and waltzes, for specific use at dances. This was also a family band with the Chatman Brothers at its core. Their recordings that year show that they got around, geographically speaking – Shreveport, Louisiana to San Antonio, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi. Vocals were a specialty of this band, raw, enthusiastic, full of vitality and with strong fiddle playing sonic variety can be guaranteed. Though the original recording was none too good, Lonely One in This Town shows that even not-so-well recalled tracks as this prove to be catchy and indelibly exciting. There’s the usual complement of cross-talk here, notably on Loose Like That – an obvious play on Tight Like That - but their really big hit came at the end of the year when they cut Sitting On Top Of The World. You may think you don’t know any of the Sheiks’ songs but you do, you do.
The sixth and final disc surveys the music of Lonnie Johnson from 1926-27, with one brief excursion to March 1928. He takes a very feminine-sounding vocal on the very first track, When I was Lovin’ Changed My Mind Blues accompanied by probably the worst violinist in the series – for which there is considerable competition – namely, Lonnie’s brother James Johnson, who was probably doubling as elsewhere he plays piano. Lonnie Johnson himself was a decent fiddler as he shows on a few tracks. He also plays banjo, as well as his more commonly encountered guitar. The earlier tracks are fascinating for their fallibility but when he is solo, as he is on Love Story Blues, it’s as if a gauze has been removed and Johnson emerges fully fledged. In August of the same year he takes a brilliant guitar solo on To Do This, You Got To Know How and though he is often dogged elsewhere by a really bad pianist – De Loise Searcy – and has to accompany terrible singers, such as the lugubrious Raymond Boyd, he can still hit gold. With pianist John Erby in St Louis, he cut a splendid Back-Water Blues, which washes away the memory of Boyd and of bad pianists and fiddlers.
Volume Five is another example of Matchbox’s assiduous collecting policy in the 1980s which was to source chronological runs of an artist’s complete discography, contextualizing it, analyzing it, and subjecting it historical and biographical scrutiny. It’s inevitably the case that a number of the copies used then are in less than stellar condition and even digital restoration has its limits in that respect. But seen as a whole this remains a foundational reference point for the artists represented and for the genre as a whole.
Jonathan Woolf