The Piano Blues - Paramount 1929-30 Vol.1 (1977)

Side 1

1. Charlie Spand – Moanin' The Blues

Guitar – Blind Blake Vocals
Piano – Charlie Spand

2. Blind Leroy Garnett - Chain 'Em Down

Piano – Blind Leroy Garnett 
Vocals [Speech] – James Wiggins

3. Little Brother Montgomery – No Special Rider Blues

Vocals, Piano – Little Brother Montgomery

4. Wesley Wallace – Fanny Lee Blues

Piano – Wesley Wallace

5. Louise Johnson – By The Moon And Stars

Vocals, Piano – Louise Johnson

6. Will Ezell – Pitchin' Boogie

Cornet – Baby Jay 
Guitar, Tambourine – Roosevelt & Uaroy Graves
Vocals, Piano – Will Ezell

7. Blind Leroy Garnett - Louisiana Glide

Piano – Blind Leroy Garnett

8. Blind Blake / Charlie Spand – Hastings St.

Guitar, Vocals [Talking] – Blind Blake 
Piano – Charlie Spand

Side 2

1. Charles Avery – Dearborn St. Breakdown

Piano – Charles Avery

2 .Charlie Spand – Mississippi Blues

Vocals, Piano – Charlie Spand

3. Will Ezell – Heifer Dust

Piano – Will Ezell

4. Little Brother Montgomery – Vicksburg Blues

Vocals, Piano – Little Brother Montgomery

5. Wesley Wallace – No. 29

Vocals, Piano – Wesley Wallace

6. James Wiggins – Forty-Four Blues

Piano – Blind Leroy Garnett
Vocals – James Wiggins

7. Henry Brown – Henry Brown Blues

Piano – Henry Brown

8. Louise Johnson – All Night Long Blues

Vocals [Speech] – Son House, Willie Brown 
Vocals, Piano – Louise Johnson

This 16-song U.K. LP, from the Sussex-based Magpie label, was one of the better overviews of American piano blues of the late 1920s that one could find, back in the '70s -- a time when few US labels wanted anything to do with archival releases of this sort. The relatively well-known figures such as Charlie Spand, Will Ezell, and Little Brother Montgomery are the bait, to draw us into the joys of such relatively obscure players as Wesley Wallace, James Wiggins, and Blind Leroy Garnett. Blind Blake and Louise Johnson are also featured in this good overview of one corner of the Paramount Records legacy. --- btsdl.cc

On December 4, 2009 Francis Wilford-Smith died and today we pay tribute to him. Smith was an avid collector of 78 records, a broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 (Aspects of the Blues) and the compiler of some excellent piano blues LP's on the British label Magpie Records, drawing all the material from his own collection. Today's selections all come from Smith's groundbreaking 21 volume series he started in 1977 and issued on the Magpie label, a subsidiary o of the Flyright label. Subsequently his collection was used for a piano blues series on Yazoo issued on CD. He had one of the largest collections of piano blues 78's in the world. Smith also field recorded Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery at his home in Sussex in 1960, yielding two 1980s LP's of the latter: These Are What I Like: Unissued Recordings Vol. 1 and Those I Liked I Learned: Unissued Recordings Vol. 2. Smith made a good living from cartoons published under the pen name 'Smilby' in Playboy, which allowed him to outbid others for rare 78s. Wilford-Smith was 82, had suffered from Parkinson's disease since 1994, and spent his last years in a nursing home. He died asleep in bed.

The first volume and volume 17 are devoted to Paramount and as Smith writes: "…We start with Paramount, almost unchallenged as the greatest blues label, and its piano content lives up to its reputation. Here are joys indeed – and some of the greatest blues piano ever recorded. Spand, Little Brother, Ezell, Louise Johnson, Wesley Wallace, Garnett. …I think the playing here must satisfy the most critical lover of the blues." From those volumes we spin tracks by Little Montgomery, Charles Avery, Charlie Spand, Louise Johnson, Henry Brown and Jabo Williams. ---sundayblues.org

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

uploaded yandex 4shared mega mediafire zalivalka cloudmailru oboom uplea

back