Josh White - Complete Recorded Works , Vols. 1 to 6.

Review Vol1.
Josh White, who became famous in the 1940s as an accessible and highly intelligent folk singer, began his career as a blues-oriented vocalist and guitarist. Vol. 1 of his complete early recordings starts with a couple instrumental jams from 1929 with the Carver Boys (a quartet consisting of harmonica and three guitars). The remainder of this CD is from 1932-1933, with White heard on some easy-to-take religious songs and as a blues performer. These 24 recordings are all solo numbers other than two selections that have an unknown pianist added. White's voice is strong, and his guitar playing is quite fluent. Among the better numbers are "Black and Evil Blues," "Things About Coming My Way," "Double Crossing Woman," and "Lay Some Flowers on My Grave." This set is particularly recommended to blues collectors who were not aware of Josh White's musical beginnings.

Review Vol.2 .

The second of three Josh White CDs that document the folk singer's early period features him both as a gospel performer (known as "The Singing Christian") and as a blues singer (billed as "Pinewood Tom"). White's guitar playing was quite fluent during this period and he sounds quite authentic in these different idioms. The first two sessions feature him solo and then other selections have Walter Roland, Leroy Carr or Clarence Williams on piano, with two songs adding Scrapper Blackwell on second guitar. Among the better selections are "Welfare Blues," "I Believe I'll Make a Change," "Evil Man Blues," "Black Gal," "Milk Cow Blues" and "Homeless and Hungry Blues."

 Review Vol.3.

 The third of three Document CDs that cover Josh White's early years has 16 selections from 1935-1936 and eight from 1940. In between those periods, White suffered a serious injury to a hand that forced him out of music temporarily. The earlier numbers feature him either as "The Singing Christian" or as a blues singer under the name of "Pinewood Tom." Those duets (with either pianist Walter Roland or guitarist Buddy Moss) are excellent including such numbers as "Jet Black Woman," "Got a Key to the Kingdom" and "No More Ball and Chain." The later eight numbers have White accompanied by bassist Wilson Meyers and, on "Careless Love" and "Milk Cow Blues," the great clarinetist Sidney Bechet. Listeners who think of Josh White as primarily an urban folk singer, will find these performances, and those are the preceding two Document CDs, to be quite intriguing.

Dirty: I didn't find reviews online for the three last albums of this collection... But believe me: They're good!

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http://www.filefactory.com/file/ca4cb5d/n/jwcrw1to6.part1.rar
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c5bdb77/n/jwcrw1to6.part2.rar
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ca4d15e/n/jwcrw1to6.part3.rar

Bumble Bee Slim - Complete Recorded Works Vol.2 - Released in 1994.

Bio
Popular and prolific, Bumble Bee Slim parlayed a familiar but rudimentary style into one of the earliest flowerings of the Chicago style. Much of what he performed he adapted from the groundbreaking duo Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell -- Slim built on Carr's laconic, relaxed vocal style and Blackwell's guitar technique. During the mid-'30s, Bumble Bee Slim recorded a number of sides for a variety of labels, including Bluebird, Vocalion, and Decca, becoming one of the most-recorded bluesmen of the decade.

Born in Georgia, Bumble Bee Slim left his home when he was a teenager. He joined a circus and travelled thorughout the south and the Midwest for much of his adolescence and early adulthood. Eventually, he made a home in Indianapolis, where he played local parties and dance halls.

Bumble Bee Slim moved to Chicago in the early '30s. After a few years in the city, he began a recording career; his first singles appeared on Bluebird. Slim wrote and recorded frequently during the mid-'30s, selling more records than most of his contemporaries. In addition to cutting his own sides, he played on records by Big Bill Broonzy and Cripple Clarence Lofton, among others.

Bumble Bee Slim moved back to Georgia in the late '30s. After a few years, he left the state once again, relocating to Los Angeles in the early '40s. During the '50s, Slim cut some West Coast blues for Specialty and Pacific Jazz, which failed to gain much interest. For the rest of his career, he kept a low profile, playing various Californian clubs. Bumble Bee Slim died in 1968.

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Mc Coy Brothers - Complete Recorded Works Vol.2 - Recorded Between 1936 and 1944 - Released in 1992.

Review

Document's second volume devoted to the "complete" works of Charlie and Joe McCoy covers a span of more than eight years and presents their selected final recordings, all of which were made in Chicago for Decca, Okeh, and Bluebird. What appear to have been Charlie's last sides as a headliner were cut in April and September 1936 and were listed as by Papa Charlie's Boys or the Tampa Kid. The Palooka Washboard Band, an offshoot of the Harlem Hamfats, waxed four sides in October 1937, including the refreshingly direct "You Done Tore Your Pants with Me." Four hokum stomps were recorded in December 1940 by Big Joe & His Washboard Band; these are punctuated by the leader's booming laughter. The home stretch of this entertaining compilation documents the last 12 recordings made by the McCoy brothers. Realized during the years 1941-1944 and released under the heading of Big Joe and His Rhythm, these sides combine rural sensibilities with Bluebird's big city sound; Amanda Sortier sings and plays washboard, Robert Lee McCoy blows harmonica, Washboard Sam shows up on the 1942 sessions, and the last two titles are dominated by pianist Eurreal "Little Brother" Montgomery.

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mississippimoan
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Ivy Smith And Cow Cow Davenport - Complete Recorded Works 1927-1930 - Released in1994.

Review

Virtually nothing is known about blues singer Ivy Smith. She recorded with Cow Cow Davenport (not only on her own sessions but guesting on some of his selections) and was in an unsuccessful road show organized by the pianist-singer called "The Cow Cow Steppers". Otherwise she is lost to history. All 20 titles issued under her own name are on this interesting CD, not counting two that have not been found. Smith shows that she was a capable lowdown blues singer who could also sing vaudevillian blues and hokum. None of these songs became hits, the blues craze was long past by 1927, but Smith acquits herself well. Cow Cow Davenport is mostly in a background role, taking occasional short solos. However he is more prominent on three vocal duets with Smith ("Mistreated Mamma Blues," "Doin' That Thing," and "Somebody's Got To Knock a Jug") and occasionally takes a forceful spot, most notably on "Alabammy Mistreated." But this CD is very much Ivy Smith's show; she is worth discovering by vintage blues collectors.

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mississippimoan
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Blind Lemon Jefferson - Complete Recorded Works Vol.2 - Recorded in 1927, Released in 1994.

Review

Volume two of Document's near-complete recorded works of Blind Lemon Jefferson presents 22 sides waxed for Okeh and Paramount during a seven month period between March and October 1927. On tracks six, nine, and ten he is accompanied by pianist George Perkins, and this adds another dimension to an artist who was almost always heard by his lonesome. Lemon's adept handling of the guitar and his disarmingly expressive voice account for the fact that some folks fall in love with his distinctive sound after hearing him sing two or three tunes. For this reason, truly devoted listeners will regard three decidedly different versions of the "Match Box Blues" as a burst of good fortune rather than something esoteric intended only for musicologists. True to Lemon's multifaceted personality, this collection is packed with colorful images and subject matter drawn from all walks of life. He sings about what happens when the Mississippi River overflows its banks, of sexuality and infatuation, of locomotives, loose change, and bed linen infested with parasites, of Jesus rising from the dead, and, most famously, about his own grave, which he asks be kept clean. The upbeat "Hot Dogs" features Lemon knocking out rhythm with his feet and dexterously picking away at the guitar while keeping up a steady stream of friendly banter. Although this excellent disc and its three adjacent volumes on Document are highly recommended, JSP's four-CD Blind Lemon Jefferson set has since proven to be the best way to acquire and absorb this wonderful artist's complete works, not least because of the "cleaned up" audio. On the other hand, there is something to be said for hearing these records through varying degrees of authentic 78 rpm surface noise. For this reason those who really love their Lemon will not flinch at the prospect of owning both sets.

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mississippimoan
mp3 320 kbps - 134 Mb
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c157507/n/blj2.rar

Blind Lemon Jefferson - Complete Recorded Works Vol.4 - Recorded in 1929, Released in 1991.

Review

Document's Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 4 (1929) is the final volume in a series of Blind Lemon Jefferson collections, reissuing the last 23 tracks he recorded before his tragic death in December. Despite a raft of great performances (including "Long Distance Moan" and "Black Snake Moan No. 2"), the lengthy running time and poor fidelity make it of only marginal interest to the great majority of blues fans.

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mississippimoan
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Blind Lemon Jefferson - Complete Recorded Works Vol.3 - Recorded in 1928, Released in 1991.

Review

The third volume in Document's Complete Recorded Works series of Blind Lemon Jefferson collections features 21 songs, all recorded during 1928. Though the period included one stone-cold classic ("See That My Grave Is Kept Clean") and a few intriguing novelties ("Balky Mule Blues," "Piney Woods Money Mama"), most blues fans won't need to hear these tracks. Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 3 (1928) remains an interesting curiosity for completists and academics, exactingly sequenced but not as listenable as the more popular collections available.


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Blind Lemon Jefferson - Complete Recorded Works Vol 1 - Recorded Betwenn 1925 and 1926 - 1994.

Review

90 performances by Blind Lemon Jefferson were reissued in chronological sequence as his "complete recorded works" by the Document label in 1994. The songs were parceled out neatly so that material from each successive year of his short recording career occupied a separate disc, with volume one containing 23 selections recorded between December 1925 and December 1926. Those who feel prepared to shed the shackles of convention and jettison preconceived notions of what the blues or music in general is supposed to sound like should seriously consider obtaining all four volumes, for listening to nearly every record known to have been made by Blind Lemon Jefferson can be a moving and transformationally rewarding experience. Born near the end of the 19th century in the village of Couchman, south of Dallas between Mexia and Corsicana in Freestone County, TX, he came up in a racially segregated environment where blindness lowered his already rock-bottom social status as a member of the African American underclass. The name Lemon, which is believed to have been bestowed upon him at birth, was a reference to the shape of his head. (A few years later, this playful aspect of the culture would cause saxophonist Coleman Hawkins to be dubbed "Bean" by his fellow musicians because they felt that his cranium resembled a haricot bean.) Legend has it that Lemon and the slightly younger Blind Willie Johnson, who grew up in Marlin a few miles southeast of Waco, would sometimes perform publicly on the streets of Marlin at the same time. This would have made for an intriguing if inadvertent near-rupturing of the socially constructed barrier between the sacred and the secular, for Willie sang nothing but spirituals and Lemon, who hung out with gamblers, hooch peddlers, pimps, and prostitutes, was and has since been solidly identified with the hedonistic genre of the blues. Lemon, however, cannot be so easily categorized, and the first record he ever cut was "I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart" b/w "All I Want Is That Pure Religion." Although historians usually pronounce these to be puzzling non-sequiturs, the obvious lesson is that Lemon sang exactly the songs that he felt he ought to sing, and that the profoundly spiritual component that exists in the heart and marrows of African-American culture continues to be underestimated and misunderstood by those who seek to evaluate the music from their own points of reference outside of that culture. As for the listening experience itself, bear in mind that these deliciously scratchy, acoustically recorded Paramount platters were meant to be experienced as single playbacks heard on a windup phonograph, not as nearly two dozen consecutive segments on a disc that takes about an hour to play through. What the CD compilation does accomplish, however, is to enable the listener to relax and surrender to what comes to resemble a sort of early 20th century African-American oratorio made up of beautifully honest reflections on what it's like to live in the world. Lemon's guitar and voice are utterly captivating, and an hour spent in his very special company can be positively magical. Those who yearn for "cleaner" audio should go directly to JSP's 94-track four-CD set, issued in 2003. And there's nothing wrong with consulting both sets so as to be able to compare differently remastered take

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mississippimoan
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Blind Blake Complete Recorded Works Vols 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Vol.1 1926 - 1927.

Blind Blake, one of the top blues guitarists and singers of the 1920s, is a mystery figure whose birth and death dates are not definitively known. He recorded 84 selections in six years (1926-1932), and fortunately all have been reissued on four Document CDs. Vol. 1 mostly features Blake in unaccompanied performances other than six numbers backing singer Leola Wilson, one song in which he is joined by a kazoo player and two in which someone plays rattlebones behind his guitar. Among the classics heard on this CD are "Early Morning Blues," "Too Tight," "Come on Boys Let's Do That Messin' Around," and "Seabord Stomp." All four of Blind Blake's Document CDs are essential for every serious blues collection.

Vol.2 1927 - 1928.

Guitarist/singer Blind Blake's entire recorded output has been made available on four Document CDs. Vol. 2 covers a busy seven-month period and features Blake in several different diverse but equally rewarding settings. He performs solo; backs singers Elzadie Robinson, Bertha Henderson, and Daniel Brown; and holds his own with clarinetist Johnny Dodds and percussionist/xylophonist JImmy Bertrand in a jazz set. There are many memorable numbers among the 25 songs on this CD, including "Southern Rag," "He's in the Jailhouse Now," "Hot Potatoes" (an exuberant instrumental with Dodds), "Southbound Rag," and "No Dough Blues." Blind Blake at his best, but get all four volumes.

Vol.3 1928 - 1929.

The third volume in the series opens with a pair of mid-1928 tracks featuring Blind Blake in the role of sideman, lending his brilliant guitar leads in support of Elzadie Robinson on "Elzadie's Policy Blues" and "Pay Day Daddy Blues." Blake's next session, from later that same year, returns him to the fore, yielding the mesmerizing "Notoriety Woman," one of the most menacingly violent tracks he ever cut; the same date also produced the comparatively lighthearted "Sweet Papa Low Down," a seeming attempt to cash in on the Charleston dance craze. The real jewel of the set, however, is a 1929 session teaming him with pianist Charlie Spand; "Hastings St." is a lively, swinging guitar and piano duet, while "Police Dog Blues" is among Blake's most vividly lyrical efforts, further galvanized by his haunting instrumental work.

Vol.4 1929 - 1932.

The fourth and final volume in Document's series assembles a wide range of Blind Blake material, from sides cut under the name Blind Arthur ("Guitar Chimes" and "Blind Arthur's Breakdown"), collaborations with vaudeville singer Chocolate Brown (a.k.a. Irene Scruggs), and even his sole two-part blues, the morbid "Rope Stretchin' Blues." Among the final pair of tracks, from mid-1932, the first, "Champagne Charlie Is My Name," is so atypical that some question whether it is even Blake at all; however, his last known side, "Depression's Gone from Me Blues," is a career-capping triumph -- just why he never recorded again is just one of the many mysteries which continue to swirl about this legendary figure.

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mississippimoan
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