At the M&F Grocery and Market the aisles are so big that two shopping carts can pass each other and never bump into each other. And everything in the store has a price on it. You don't have to worry about what it costs because the price is right there on it - Early Wright, obituary to the DJ, WROX Clarksdale
I have recently gotten hooked on some of Big Bill's early works, which seem to have more ragtime guitar in them than blues...
You've got to hit the right lick Too Many Drivers Bankers Blues
Those 3 are my favorites lately
I am wondering if there are any releases that cover his early work, besides Good Time Tonight and The Young Big Bill Broonzy, 1928 - 1930 that fellow Weenies can recommend....
I have a few CDs on a French label - Media 7, Masters of Jazz. Volume 1 starts in 1927 and ends in 1930. Volume 4 starts in 1930 and ends in 1932. If it's all produced in chronological order, 1930 must have been a busy year for Big Bill. never did get around to picking up vols 2 and 3... at least, I don't think so...
There are of course the Document disks, 12 single disk volumes covering Broonzy's career through 1947.
There's also the JSP multi-disk set All The Classic Sides 1928 - 1937, which contains... well, all the classic sides from 1928 through mid-1937. It's 5 disks, 128 songs, and you should be able to get it for less than $30 US. The sound isn't bad at all, though some individual tracks are a little rough. I'd go on in great detail, but the set is at work, where I've been having a bit of a Bill Broonzy fest this week, and I'm at home. But it's got Big Bill finger picking and flat picking in a variety of settings: solo guitar and voice, guitar duets with John Thomas and Frank Braswell, guitar/piano duets with Georgia Tom and Black Bob, small group sides with the likes of Casey Bill Weldon on lap steel, Jazz Gillum on harmonica, Washboard Sam on washboard etc. Well worth the money.
JSP has a second set, 4 disks, 100 sides, covering 1937 - 1940. Still great music, but not quite as varied as Broonzy's earlier stuff.
And should anybody ever want to track down ALL BBB's appearances on record (i.e as accompanist too) it's well worth tracking down Chris Smith's 100 page discographical booklet (Hit The Right Lick: The Recordings of Big Bill Broonzy, 1996) which demonstrates what an incredibly buzy musician he was in his life time.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2006, 11:57:45 PM by Bunker Hill »
Oh I was convinced I had attached a scan of the booklet cover. 10 hours later it's come to my notice either I hadn't or the process failed. I'll try again:
Don't know how many were produced but mine has a printed "no. 107" on inside cover, against which I've scribbled "Sept 1996". Can't imagine more than 500 being produced. Damned if I can find a review in Blues & Rhythm so here is one from Juke Blues 37 (spring 1997):
HIT THE RIGHT LICK: The Recordings of Biq Bill Broonzy by Chris Smith Blues & Rhythm Magazine Bedford, UK, 1996. 103pp, illus., softback. ?4.00 UK; ?5.00 overseas.
The publication of research data in pocketable form like Les Fancourt's compilations from the Chess files or Bill Rowe's (regrettably terminated) Career Discographies continues a line of British blues booklets that can be traced back through Blues Unlimited's '60s monographs to the Jazz Music special issue on Leadbelly, whose issue in 1946 Chris Smith's discography of Big Bill Broonzy incidentally commemorates. of blues documentation.
The discography ? which includes, as well as his own recordings, all Broonzy's known and supposed work as an accompanist ? is extremely accurate, orderly and succinct. To reduce lengthy columns of release numbers, only primary LP/CD issues are cited, re- or co- issues being relegated to an appendix. Thus the LP 'Big Bill's Blues' is listed in the discography proper only in its original US form, Ep LP 22017, without its eight equivalents on UK CBS, Czech Supraphon, etc. But matters of musical content, such as news on unidentified accompanists, or distinctions (or lack of them) between takes, are discussed on the spot. Smith advances several interesting hypotheses, for example that the speaker on 'House Rent Stomp' (Broonzy's first issued side is the man also heard on William Moore sides of the period and is probably Mayo Williams. I had reached this conclusion as well, and firmly support Smith's opinion.
The work ends with an annotated list of recommended recordings and three blank pages headed 'Notes'. These, I suspect, will not be filled in a hurry even by the most obsessive discologue.
The only thing I regret, in company, I'm sure, with other readers who enjoy Chris Smith's writing, is his introduction: thoughtful, humane, assiduously researched, crisply expressed ? and, at hardly more than seven pages, disappointingly soon done with. Tony Russell