Born Delores Evans in Chicago in 1928, LaVern Baker was following a well-worn path forfemale singers and playing in clubs around the Chicago area as early as 1951 under such names as Miss Sharecropper and Bea Baker (under which name she recorded for Okeh Records in 1951). As LaVern Baker she signed to Atlantic Records in 1953 and had a series of R&B hits over the next few years including Tweedle Dee, Bop Ting A Ling and the all-time classic Jim Dandy which would sell a million copies and go on to be voted Number 343 in Rolling Stone's Top 500 All Time Greatest Songs as well as being voted as one of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame’s greatest songs to have shaped Rock N Roll. 

Earl Bostic is arguably now best remembered as one of the pioneers of the post war Rhythm & Blues movement of which he was a major player. His name would not necessarily jump out if you were asked to name ten of the best alto sax players ever. Yet he was up there amongst the best when he began his career back in the 1930’s, firmly in the jazz tradition. He played with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Charlie Christian, Arnett Cobb, Don Byas, Thelonious Monk and Cab Calloway. He arranged for the likes of Paul Whiteman, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Louis Prima and Jack Teagarden. By the late 1940’s Bostic turned towards the upcoming new R&B movement and after signing to the King label he produced a series of hit singles and albums. 

Two classic Champion Jack Dupree albums plus, including original LP liner notes.
Blues From The Gutter and Champion Jack’s Natural & Soulful Blues from 1958 and 1959 respectively are complemented by a host of singles from the 1940’s and 50’s, many of which are finding their way onto CD for the very first time. Things kick off with Jack’s first two albums, Blues From The Gutter recorded in New York in 1958 and considered by many to be his finest work to that point and perhaps his finest work ever. We follow this with an album dear to British blues enthusiast’s hearts and recorded in 1959 in London using such stalwart British bluesmen as Alexis Korner and Jack Fallon, Champion Jack’s Natural & Soulful Blues. Concluding side one and onto side two we have a selection of Jack’s singles recorded in the 40’s and 50’s for such diverse labels as Continental, Red Robin, King and Groove and Vik. Unlike many bluesmen born around the early 1900’s, Champion Jack Dupree went on to have a very long and full life, traveling extensively around Europe and recording for many different labels as witnessed on this fine double CD. He finally settled in Germany where he died in 1992 having recorded over 40 albums. 

The Queen of R&B, otherwise known as Miss Ruth Brown had a classic, storybook adventure musical beginning when, in 1945, she ran away from home at the age of seventeen with musician Jimmy Brown to sing in bars and clubs before joining Lucky Millinder's orchestra for a short spell. Her career really began to take off when she started recording R&B and before long she became known as Miss Rhythm and later the Queen of R&B. Between 1949 and 1955 she spent 149 weeks in the charts, had 16 top 10 hits and 5 number 1’s. Her first pop crossover hit was Lucky Lips in 1957 but she primarily stayed within the R&B musical universe. 

AVID Jazz continues with its Three Classic album plus series with a re-mastered 2 CD release by Tiny Grimes, complete with original artwork and liner notes. Blues Groove with Coleman Hawkins, Callin’ The Blues and Big Time Guitar plus five of six tracks from Tiny In Swingville with Jerome Richardson are included on these discs. Lloyd Tiny Grimes was perhaps a little unsung in the annals of jazz but he was a fine jazz and R&B guitarist possibly best remembered for playing a four-string electric guitar. Grimes began his jazz career playing drums and one finger piano before discovering the guitar in 1938 and teaching himself to play, as he had with his other instruments. Tiny Grimes was a well -respected guitar player both as a leader and sideman and this is reflected in the caliber of musicians he played with. Some of these include jazz legends like Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Iliinois Jacquet, Roy Eldridge and Earl Hines among others. 

Born into a large musical family in New Orleans, Lonnie Johnson was always much more than just the bluesman that he became known as during his long and intermittent career. He began learning to play music from a very young age tackling and mastering the piano, guitar, violin and mandolin and quickly finding his place in the family musical unit. By his early teens, Lonnie was primarily playing guitar and violin in his father’s band and by 1917 he joined a revue that toured England. During these early years he was probably playing as much jazz as blues, but after winning a blues competition in 1925 he was signed to the Okeh Records label and this pretty much sealed his fate as a blues player. His career echoed that of many of the classic bluesmen of the early twentieth century in that he achieved much success in the early days only to be forgotten in the later days of the 1940’s and 1950’s having to make his living with whatever menial jobs he could get. Then miraculously he was discovered again during the blues boom of the 1960’s from which these four selections were produced. 

Jimmy Reed is another blues legend with a familiar story to tell. Born in Mississippi, where he learned to play guitar and harmonica, he joined the black exodus of the 1940’s to the industrial cities of the north in search of work away from the farms and cotton fields of the south. Reed arrived in Chicago in 1943 where he was immediately drafted and served in the Second World War. After the war he returned to Mississippi to marry before moving to Gary, Indiana, to find work. All the while he was learning his musical craft and by the 1950’s he was becoming established as a popular blues musician. Jimmy Reed had many hits over the years, however his alcoholism prevented him from achieving the level of success and career longevity that fellow bluesmen B.B.King and John Lee Hooker had. 

This is a miscellany of Big Bill Broonzy's 50’s recordings. The first CD begins with Big Bill's Blues, ten recordings made in February, 1956, in Philips studios in Holland, which the original sleeve note represents as a private party rather than a recording session, presumably to deflect the charge of commercialism. That is followed by Big Bill Broonzy Sings The Blues, nine recordings made a week earlier in Paris with Kansas Fields on drums, and issued in full on a French 10" LP, and minus Diggin' My Potatoes on two UK EPs. The second CD starts off with Folk Blues, eight numbers recorded in Chicago in December 1951 with Big Crawford on bass and the original sleeve note is at pains to establish Big Bill's credentials as an Arkansas farmer who played and sang as a kind of sideline, rather than in reality a Chicago-based musician and singer. That's followed by The Blues, twelve numbers recorded in Chicago a month earlier, mainly with bass accompaniment, but for the last four numbers which feature a quartet accompaniment. In addition, a further eight tracks from early 1949 are included, two at the end of the first CD, the remainder at the end of the second CD. 

Where do you start with this guy Slim Gaillard? As mad as Spike Jones or Spike Milligan or maybe even madder. We present some crazy music from the man himself, including tracks from the following “The Vout Orenee Man”; “Opera in Vout”; “Slim Gaillard Rides Again” and “Smorgasbord. Where it all fits into the jazz landscape is anybody’s guess. Here’s a few quotes from the original liner notes to help you on your way: “Most people know and relish Slim Gaillard’s genius for musical slapstick.” This is a goulash of funny songs salted here and there with some straight cooking instrumental blues and resembling nothing else you’ve heard before”. Here is Slim Gaillard’s “Smorgasbord” you take your choice and you have your fun”. All songs have been digitally re-mastered. 

It is not surprising that in an extraordinary musical career which lasted over 50 years, Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins became the most recorded of all the legendary bluesmen. Primarily a country blues singer and guitarist from the old tradition which included Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charlie Patton, to name but a few, Lightnin’ outlasted them all to become quite literally a living legend when the blues revival hit the US and UK in the 1950s and ‘60s. He had met Blind Lemon Jefferson at the age of 8 which became a defining moment in his life and went on to become his accompanist for a while. Just think of that for a moment...the history and the stories the man must have carried around inside his head! Lightnin’ had been trying to break into the recording business from the late 1930s, but it wasn’t until the mid-1940s that he was discovered singing and playing in the streets in Houston and was signed to Aladdin Records of Los Angeles. Houston was to become his home base from then on. Our four fine selections include his album Lightnin’ Hopkins which saw Lightnin’ return to his roots with just a guitar and voice. Our album includes the rare and lengthy original essay booklet written by legendary blues writer Samuel Charters and retells a fascinating story of his search to find Lightnin' amongst his perhaps rightly suspicious associates and family before finally tracking the great man down. What followed was music played by Lightnin’ as he used to be heard, just by himself with his guitar; the results as you will hear, are stunning. 

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