JazzWax

In the early 1940s, when African-Americans in the South and Southwest moved north and west in search of job opportunities at war-time factories, they packed their souls. As the Great Migration filled cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland and South Central in L.A., transplants from places such as Mississippi, Alabama and Texas longed for the Delta blues they heard back home. Once settled in cities in the swing era, many of these migrants wanted the blues served up as dance music, providing them with a country sound seasoned with urban flavoring. 

So in the mid-1940s, blues dance music began to emerge as a popular genre. By 1948, the drums, saxophone and electric guitar were key instruments in the rise of jump blues. Blues shouting also became a favored merging of rural and urban vocalizing. The jump blues was so potenent that it became the essence of R&B and rock 'n' roll in the early 1950s.

One of the most important figures in the development of the electric guitar in jump blues from 1940 on was T-Bone Walker. Born in Linden, Texas, Walker was exposed to music early. Both of his parents were in a band, and early blues guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson was often at his family's house. By the time Walker was 15 in the 1920s, he was a professorial musician. His first recordings were for Columbia in 1929. Then in 1935, Walker married and moved to Los Angeles, playing clubs on Central Avenue and recording in bands led by Les Hite and Freddie Slack.

From 1946 to 1948, Walker recorded as a leader on Black & White Records. From 1949 to 1954, he recorded for Imperial. Singles made for Atlantic in 1955, '56 and '59 were released on T-Bone's Blues, a highly influential 12-inch album for rock guitarists of the 1960s. On the album, you can hear Walker's modern attack on the instrument. Instead of furiously picking at the strings, he let notes ring, bent strings for effect and played the guitar so it would sing his melodies.

On T-Bone Blues, he records blues-shouter vocals such as Mean Old World, jump blues such as T-Bone Shuffle, a song that the Allman Brothers would later leverage (Call It Stormy Monday), strong mid-tempo blues (Blues for Marili), strolling blues (Evenin') and blues with a rockabilly feel (Shufflin' the Blues). The personnel varies across the tracks from three different time periods, but the kick and hopping feel are strong throughout. If you're curious about jump blues, T-Bone Walker's recordings are the place to start.

T-Bone Walker died in 1975.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find T-Bone Walker's T-Bone Blues here.

You'll also find the album at Spotify.

Want more? Other great albums are T-Bone Sings the Blues here, the Complete Capitol/Black & White Recordings here and The Complete Imperial Recordings 1950-1954 here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Blues for Marili...

And here's the entire album...

On the day before Christmas in 1964, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter recorded his fourth leadership album, Speak No Evil. He had just joined Miles Davis's second great quintet, but still had a Blue Note recording contract. Davis was fine with that. Shorter's composition, Speak No Evil, developed from his fascination with Buddhism and the concept that every action has a reaction, that every cause has an effect. In Michelle Mercer's Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter, Shorter was quoted on the meaning behind the song: "[Speak No Evil] is about caution, be careful what you say. What comes out of your mouth can cause some horrendous effects or beautiful ones."

The track features Freddie Hubbard (tp), Wayne Shorter (ts), Herbie Hancock (p), Ron Carter (b) and Elvin Jones (d). Here's Speak No Evil, a taut and powerful gateway into Shorter's mystical approach to hard bop in the 1960s and beyond...

A good number of jazz organists of the early and mid-1960s were put in a box. Many of their albums from this period were larded with tedious original blues and a few ancient Songbook standards. This mind-numbing approach allowed labels to hold down their copyright bills, but the strategy resulted in countless dull cookie-cutter recordings that didn't sell well back then and certainly don't hold up today.

Not until the late 1960s did the material improve as younger producers encouraged organists to record hip covers of the latest pop and soul hits. At which point, organ albums became much more interesting, since they were in sync with the times and in step with younger jazz fans. 

Richard "Groove" Holmes was an organist who made the transition smoothly from tedium to funky pop. From 1961 to 1968, he recorded sagging albums for Prestige (excluding Soul Power! in 1967 and one or two others). In 1968, he left the label for Pacific Jazz, followed by World Pacific in 1969 and then Groove Merchant in 1973. At these labels, the material improved markedly and so did the value of the music. Three albums stand out, and all featured Holmes paired with horns.

The first example of this sass 'n' brass concept was Workin' on a Groovy Thing, a swinging 1968 album for Pacific Jazz with a band arranged by Gerald Wilson, featuring guitarist Dennis Budimir.

A second example is Come Together (1970) for World Pacific, with tenor saxophonist and arranger Ernie Watts. The third is New Groove (1973) for Groove Merchant, with a big band and knockout arrangements by Manny Albam.

Grab these three and you'll have a superb entry point to "Groove" Holmes's soul-jazz years.

Richard "Groove" Holmes died in 1991.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find Workin' on a Groovy Thing here and New Groove here. New Groove also is at Spotify.

Come Together never made it to the digital format and is rare even on vinyl. However, you'll find the full album of Come Together at YouTube here...

JazzWax clips: Here's the title track of Workin' on a Groovy Thing with guitarist Dennis Budimir...

Here's Manny Albam's spectacular arrangement of Meditation from Holmes's New Groove...

And here's Gerald Wilson's arrangement of Do You Know the Way to San Jose from Holmes's Workin' on a Groovy Thing...