An outstanding record from Count Basie's favourite blues singer. "Jazz Odyssey" reflects Jimmy Rushing's own musical journey which runs parallel to the development of jazz. Backed up by a Buck Clayton led band he performs songs associated with the four great jazz meccas -- New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago and New York.
Coupled with this is Rushing's tribute to the great female blues singers of the 20s: Bessie, Mamie, Clara and Trixie. Buck Clayton is once again on trumpet, while Coleman Hawkins played tenor sax and Buster Bailey clarinet. With three bonus tracks taken from one of his first Columbia sessions, the result is almost 80 minutes of what Nat Hentoff called " wholly magnificent music".
Tracklisting:
01. New Orleans
02. Tricks 'Ain't Walkin' No More
03. Baby Won't You Please Come Home
04. Piney Brown Blues
05. Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do
06. I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
07. Careless Love
08. Doctor Blues
09. Rosetta
10. Lullaby Of Broadway
11. Old Fashioned Love
12. Some Of These Days
13. Arkansas Blues
14. Downhearted Blues
15. How Come You Do Me Like You Do?
16. Crazy Blues
17. Squeeze Me
18. Trouble In Mind
19. Muddy Water
20. Gulf Coast Blues
21. Everybody Loves My Baby
22. Shipwrecked Blues
23. Gee Baby, 'Ain't I Good To You
24. Cool Breeze Woman
25. Pretty Little Baby
Total time: 79:11
Tracks #1-12 from "The Jazz Odyssey of James Rushing Esq." (Columbia CL 1152). Personnel: Jimmy Rushing (vcl), Ernie Royal (tp), Vic Dickenson (tb), Budd Johnson (ts), Danny Bank (bar), Hank Jones (p), Skeeter Best (g), Milt Hinton (b) and Jo Jones (d). Recorded in New York, November 6-8, 1956. (Track 2 is a trio with Jimmy Rushing (vcl, p), Walter Page (b) and Jo Jones (d) only.)
Tracks #13-22 from "Jimmy Rushing And The Smith Girls" (Columbia CL 1605). Personnel: Jimmy Rushing (vcl), Dickie Wells, Benny Morton (tb), Buster Bailey (cl), Coleman Hawkins (ts), Claude Hopkins (p), Everett Barksdale (g), Gene Ramey (b) and Jimmy Crawford (d). Recorded in New York, July 7 & 13, 1960.
Tracks #23-25 taken from "Cat Meets the Chick" (Columbia CL 778). Personnel: Jimmy Rushing (vcl), Emmett Bery (tp), Dickie Wells (tb), Budd Johnson (ts), Sir Charles Thompson (p), Steve Jordan (g), Milt Hinton (b) and Jo Jones (d). Recorded in New York, August 18-23, 1955.
