LOOKING BACK - AND FORWARD - AT THE BLUES : FULL SPECTRUM OF GENRE'S HISTORY PAID HOMAGE IN NEW BOXED SETS.Byline: Chris Morris Billboard Just in time for the summer blues festival season, a pair of comprehensive blues boxed sets - one from the Smithsonian Collection of Recordings, the other from MCA Records MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group, which MCA Records was still part of. - will see near-simultaneous release in July. On July 23, the Smithsonian Collection will issue ``Mean Old World: The Blues From 1940 to 1994,'' a four-CD, 79-track compilation focusing mainly on post-World War II developments in the genre. On July 30, MCA MCA in full Music Corporation of America Entertainment conglomerate. It was founded in Chicago in 1924 by Jules Stein as a talent agency. In the 1960s it bought Decca Records and Universal Pictures, and today it produces films, music, and television shows. will release ``Blues Classics,'' a three-CD, 72-song collection comprising 1927-1969 recordings drawn from the company's extensive catalog holdings. Allan Larman, blues buyer at the Rhino Records store in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , says that the seasonal prominence of blues and a recent surge in sales within the genre - thanks to the popularity of such young acoustic performers as Keb' Mo' and Corey Harris For the football player of the same name see Corey Harris (football player). Corey Harris (Born February 21, 1969 in Denver, Colorado) is a Bates College educated blues and reggae musician. - bode well for the commercial fortunes of the boxed sets. ``I'm noticing a burst of energy in blues sales,'' Larman says. ``Once again, people are looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. something different. ... A lot of people are talking about the MCA box already.'' ``Mean Old World'' is the second set devoted to the blues produced by the Smithsonian Collection, the nonprofit record arm of the Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution, research and education center, at Washington, D.C.; founded 1846 under terms of the will of James Smithson of London, who in 1829 bequeathed his fortune to the United States to create an establishment for the "increase and diffusion of . In 1993, the label issued ``The Blues: A Smithsonian Collection of Classic Blues Singers,'' a four-CD package surveying material released between 1926 and 1985, with an emphasis on prewar blues performers. Smithsonian Collection executive producer Bruce Talbot says, ``It was always my intention when we did the first Smithsonian (blues) set that that would not be the end of the story. I wanted to produce a set which dovetailed with the original set and carried the story right up to date. And I wanted to try, in the space of two four-CD sets, to give a really good overview of the blues for people who might not want to buy every Charlie Patton set and everything on (blues reissue label) Yazoo.'' ``Mean Old World,'' which is priced at $59.95 for CDs and $54.95 for cassettes, was compiled by blues scholar Larry Hoffman, who also wrote the extensive annotation for the set's 90-page illustrated booklet. Talbot says of Hoffman, ``He's got as good, if not better, a grip on the state of the blues today and its evolution over the last 50 years than most people. He has tremendous enthusiasm and tremendous knowledge. He has direct relationships with living blues musicians. He's done a lot of interviews, and he has a very sincere viewpoint as far as the blues are concerned.'' The box's selections survey the full sweep of the blues from the early '40s onward. Artists include blues-oriented jazz performers Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Hot Lips Page; r&b artists Louis Jordan, Amos Milburn and Johnny Otis; Chicago-based titans of the '50s Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson Sonny Boy Williamson may refer to either of two 20th-century American blues harmonica players:
The compilation brings the genre right up to date: Its last track, by Harris, was recorded in 1994. To co-compile and co-produce the project and write the notes for its 64-page booklet, Andy McKaie turned to blues authority Mary Katherine Aldin, who produced MCA's 1994 ``Chess Blues'' box and co-compiled and co-annotated the label's 1989 Waters collection, ``The Chess Box.'' ``We discussed each song and each artist,'' McKaie says. ``We tried to give a level of importance to both, not just to one or the other, but to both. ... (But) the repertoire itself was very important. This is just as if we were doing a (set on) Willie Dixon or any other artist who's known for songs - we had to make sure that the songs were the right songs. In some instances, the songs are as, if not more, important than the artists. The songs, subsequent to those recordings, have taken on such importance in history.'' The set draws from recordings originally released on Vocalion, Brunswick, Decca, Aristocrat, Chess, Duke, Peacock, ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. and BluesWay. Many of the artists on ``Blues Classics'' have been virtually unrepresented unrepresented adj → nicht vertreten on major-label reissues until now. Among the country blues performers included on the set are Furry Lewis, Robert Wilkins, Kokomo Arnold, Peetie Wheatstraw, Sleepy John Estes John Adam Estes (25 January 1904 - 5 June 1977), commonly known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a U.S. blues guitarist and vocalist born in Ripley, Tennessee. and Robert Lee McCoy (a k a Robert Nighthawk nighthawk: see goatsucker. nighthawk Any of several species of North and South American birds in the whippoorwill family (Caprimulgidae) that are buff, reddish, or grayish brown, usually with light spots or patches, and 6–14 in. ). All the Chess stars - including Waters, Wolf, Guy, Williamson and Little Walter - are represented; Duke/Peacock stars, such as Bland and Parker, are also featured. B.B. King, who has spent his latter-day career at MCA, is heard on four cuts from his '60s tenure at ABC. The durable songs range from Wilkins' 1929 masterpiece ``That's No Way to Get Along,'' later adapted by the singer as the gospel blues ``Prodigal PRODIGAL, civil law, persons. Prodigals were persons who, though of full age, were incapable of managing their affairs, and of the obligations which attended them, in consequence of their bad conduct, and for whom a curator was therefore appointed. 2. Son'' and appropriated by the Rolling Stones, to B.B. King's 1964 hit ``How Blue Can You Get,'' which is sampled on Primitive Radio Gods' current modern rock hit, ``Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in My Hand.'' A mailing promoting the set has been sent to the 23,000 members of the Chess Club, an MCA direct-mail club servicing Chess fans. McKaie adds, ``At the Long Beach Blues Festival The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, is one of the largest and 2nd oldest Blues festivals on the West Coast (1st being the San Francisco Blues Festival). (in September), we're going to be giving out a catalog that will feature (the box). It's called ``Blues, Rhythm & Roll,'' and it features all of MCA's roots-oriented music: rock 'n' roll rock 'n' roll: see rock music. , rhythm and blues rhythm and blues (R&B) Any of several closely related musical styles developed by African American artists. The various styles were based on a mingling of European influences with jazz rhythms and tonal inflections, particularly syncopation and the flatted blues chords. , and blues. It will be a consumer-oriented catalog, and the cover of it will be the cover of the (boxed set) booklet. That will be one of the things we mail to all the new members of the Chess Club.'' McKaie expects that some neophyte ne·o·phyte n. 1. A recent convert to a belief; a proselyte. 2. A beginner or novice: a neophyte at politics. 3. a. Roman Catholic Church A newly ordained priest. blues fans will be alerted to ``Blues Classics'' through a Chess Club promotion with Starbucks Coffee shops that will continue through August. ``People are writing in,'' he says, ``and they're going to get the ``Class of '15'' (CD) sampler that we made for last year's festival and the new catalog and the first mailer, which talks all about this new package.'' CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1) Singer Billie Holiday's work as a jazz vocali st always came from a strong basis in the blues. (2) Lightnin' Hopkins is one of the country blues artists represented on the Smithsonian's boxed set. |
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