Tenor saxophonist Eddie Lockjaw Davis group gives Al Smith and Mildred Anderson sympathetic backing in these two fine albums recorded for the Prestige/Bluesville label in 1959 and 1960.
Smith, whose bold style was greatly influenced by the Gospel tradition, had the earthy quality often found in the best blues artists. His singing ranges from full-voiced and declamatory to intimate and confidential, but it always carried a charge of vitality that jolts the listener into full awareness. Mildred Anderson possesses a very individual Blues style, neither haunting, nor painful and filled with nostalgia, and certainly not the pretty, dressed up Blues then in vogue. Hers is the rough-hewn, pay-youback, swinging blues, direct, forceful and unsentimental.
Shirley Scott, Wendell Marshall, George Duvivier, and Arthur Edgehill drive powerfully, while on both sessions Jaws brings his huge, bustling highly vocalized tenor to bear with idiomatic authority on the material.
Tracklisting:
01. Night Time Is The Right Time (Oden-Sykes) 4:16
02. Ill Be Alright (Smith) 3:50
03. Ive Got The Right Kind of Lovin (Smith) 3:23
04. Never Let Me Go (Scott) 5:09
05. Ive Got A Girl (Smith) 4:32
06. Tears In My Eyes (Smith) 5:59
07. Come On Pretty Babby (Smith) 2:54
08. Pledging My Love (Robey-Washington) 2:27
09. Im Gettin Long Alright [Connections] (Sharp-Singleton) 2:41
10. Im Free (Singleton-Bradshaw) 4:55
11. Dont Deceive Me (Please Dont Go) (Willis) 4:31
12. Hello Little Boy (Anderson) 3:43
13. Person To Person (Gold) 3:04
14. Cool Kind Of Poppa [Good Kind Daddy] (Smith) 2:55
15. Kidney Stew Blues (Vinson-Blackman) 3:48
16. I Didnt Have A Chance (Curry) 4:44
Total time: 63:00 aprox.
Original sources:
Tracks #1-8 from the Al Smith Prestige/Bluesville album "Hear My Blues" (BVLP 1001)
Tracks #9-16 from the Mildred Anderson
Prestige/Bluesville album "Person To Person" (BVLP 1004)
Personnel on HEAR MY BLUES (#1-8):
Al Smith (vcl), Eddie Lockjaw Davis (ts), Shirley Scott (org), Wendell Marshall (b), Art Edgehill (d).
Recorded at Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on September 20, 1959
Personnel on PERSON TO PERSON (#9-16):
Mildred Anderson (vcl), Eddie Lockjaw Davis (ts), Shirley Scott (org), George Duvivier (b), Art Edgehill (d).
Recorded at Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on January 20, 1960
Original recordings supervised by Esmond Edwards.
Sound engineer: Rudy Van Gelder.
Prodced for CD release by Jordi Pujol
Stereo 24-Bit Digitally Remastered
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