Various Artists Atlantic Jazz Kansas City Atlantic 1986

Various Artists Atlantic Jazz Kansas City Atlantic 1986 CAT# 81701-1

There are numerous KC Jazz comps out there all of which are good, but this one does a tremendous job showcasing Kansas City as a pioneering city in music. The back liner notes do a much better job than me, but it takes all the artists featured here and connects the dots. From Buster Smith showing up from Texas, Basie from Ohio, and McShann coming from Oklahoma, they all met and played together in Kansas City. They also crossed paths with Charlie Parker. And just as soon as they hit upon a Kansas City sound, they took it nationwide.

What you have hear is the Atlantic Records story of Kansas City. The swing that would transform jazz. The same artists who featured a young Charlie Parker before he revolutionized the genre. And the jump blues performed by Big Joe Turner that would eventually lead others to rock n' roll and be heard in soul records. It's not the complete story, but the selections here are all amazing and tell some of the best parts to it.

Jay McShann Jumpin' At the Woodside

The Original Boogie Woogie Piano Giants Original Recordings 1938-1941 Columbia 1974

The Original Boogie Woogie Piano Giants Original Recordings 1938-1941 Columbia 1974 CAT #KC 32708

This is compilation featuring Chicago pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, but it's full of Kansas City's Pete Johnson.  It was released by Columbia as part of a John Hammond blues reissue series. Pretty solid to be thrown up with those names and shows that KC was a big deal. And, to have John Hammond credit Johnson is appropriate as he led the blues revival scene back in the day with his love of the blues.

The compilation has 9 tracks that feature Johnson on the piano. He dominates the LP. A number of tracks feature Big Joe Turner, but Johnson is found here working with the other mentioned names as well as solo on the defining track, "Boogie Woogie." He's clearly defined as one of the primary influences and inventors of the boogie woogie style.

The compilation took the original tracks, possibly from old 78s as you tend to hear surface noise throughout most tracks that sounds as if it was recorded in and original masters if they available. All tracks are presented in original mono and it appears the only hard work came in the transfer. There doesn't seem to be remastering job, just an attempt to get these as close to the original issues as possible. Solid pick up on the cheap due to the quality of the tracks, both Johnson's and others.

Pete Johnson Boogie Woogie

Joe Tuner Rock & Roll Atlantic 1957

Joe Tuner Rock & Roll Atlantic 1957 CAT# 8005

Known as Big Joe Turner, credited here as Joe Turner for this Atlantic LP.  The Kansas Citian is easily Kansas City's best link to the birth of rock and roll.  He started as an underage blues shouter in Kansas City clubs of the1930's.  Rumor has it that he was so "big," that no one questioned his age and as a minor, tended bars and shouted blues at Kansas City night clubs.  The term "shout blues" stems from the fact these guys were performing without a microphone.  The shout out style would become a genre and lead to jump blues, to which Big Joe excelled at.  In his early days, he began performing boogie-woogie after meeting pianist Pete Johnson.

Johnson and Turner would leave Kansas City for New York and begin a professional recording career.  Cutting sides and scoring some substantial R&B hits for various labels.  He wound up on Atlantic by chance.  At the famed Apollo theater, Turner was singing for Count Basie and only  filling in for Jimmy Rushing.  Atlantic was there to catch Count Basie, but were encourged to sign Turner to contract despite that most accounts indicate Turner struggled to fill Rushing's shoes.  With Atlantic, Turner was able to reach everybody.

His shout style latched on with rock and roll pioneers.  Black and white artists covered his tunes, songwriters were influenced by his delivery.  At the time of this release in 1957, Turner was somewhat of an icon in rock n' roll circles, a grandfather figure to the genre.  Atlantic wasn't stupid and capitalized on  Turner's clout, releasing records like this that contained his most rocking sides.

Turner's version of "Shake, Rattle & Roll" is here, which is clearly the biggest link to the development of Rock and Roll as a genre.  Bill Haley would later polish up the arrangement and make a massive hit out of it.  However, Turner's versions of "Flip, Flop & Fly", "Honey Hush," "Corrine Corrina," and "Sweet Sixteen" are all just as fundamental to early rock and roll and all placed on this LP.  Outside a greatest hits compilation, this is great starting point for his work.

Shake, Rattle & Roll
Corinne Corinna