R&B Tenor Sax Cats

[king ubu]

Thanks! Western Swing is a can of worms I've hardly opened yet ... don't plan to go there anytime too soon, just got the two Bob Wills JSP sets so far, they're very good.

[Big Beat Steve]

Not wanting to derail THIS discussion, but in what sense do you expect to find yourself with a "can of worms" there?

There are no worms there, just the WHITE counterpart of not-so-city-slickerish popular music to BLACK 1935-55 territoy band swing (at first) and city blues/R&B (later on). The only thing that could happen to you is that you might discover all sorts of crossbreding in BOTH directions in the black AND white U.S. popular music off the beaten tracks of MOR mainstream pre-rockn'roll pop churned out by the majors in those two decades.

If you want to go into it and explore the (approx.) 1935-55 era with an eye on quality and diversity, you cannot go wrong with the Krazy Kat CDs. Each and every one of them is good (OK, some may lean a bit more towards early 50s Honky Tonk country music but the boundaries are not rigily fixed anyway, just like they weren't all the time between black jazz and R&B).

;)

Anyway ... in THIS discussion the Krazy Kat records that tomatamot alluded to probably are the vinyl reissues from the 80s.

Here is a listing that should have most of the LPs

http://www.wirz.de/music/krazyfrm.htm

Edited October 30, 2013 by Big Beat Steve

[king ubu]

Thanks - I stumbled over that wirz.de listing a few minutes ago. Some of that does look nice!

As for Western Swing ... I'll happily as for advice in some more appropriate place once I feel like digging deeper there (and hey, if you dig in good soil, you'll finde worms, there ... it's a good thing).

Edited October 30, 2013 by king ubu

[tomatamot]

Anyway ... in THIS discussion the Krazy Kat records that tomatamot alluded to probably are the vinyl reissues from the 80s.

Here is a listing that should have most of the LPs

Oh yessss, big fun vinyls.

[Tom in RI]

Regarding the Bear Family set, I wouldn't disagree with Big Beat Steve's comments. I will say the booklet with this set is about as good as it gets.

Bumping this fine thread since ...

Another fabulous source for tenor sax dominated rockin good tunes is the Buddy Johnson Orch. I was lucky to pick up the Bear Family Buddy & Ella Johnson box set which covers from 1953-1962. Featured tenors include David Van Dyke, Purvis Henson and Johnny Burdine.

... a recommendation on another forum just prompted me to check out Buddy Johnson's band ... and for sure there's some fine blowing (I've got the 1947-49 Chrono disc) by these guys David Van Dyke and Purvis Henson!

[paul secor]

I' d like to add that James Von Streeter, who's best known for playing with the Johnny Otis Band, recorded a wild piece of blowing for Coral, "Landslide". Ace reissued it on Jumpin' the Blues Vol.3 (LP), remastered wonderfully by the late Bob Jones. There are two Von Streeter cuts on the LP, and Ace reissued the lesser of the two, "Chitlins" (the lesser of the two, at least my ears), on their Jumpin' the Blues CD. Grab the LP if you can find it.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Bumping this fine thread since ...

Another fabulous source for tenor sax dominated rockin good tunes is the Buddy Johnson Orch. I was lucky to pick up the Bear Family Buddy & Ella Johnson box set which covers from 1953-1962. Featured tenors include David Van Dyke, Purvis Henson and Johnny Burdine.

... a recommendation on another forum just prompted me to check out Buddy Johnson's band ... and for sure there's some fine blowing (I've got the 1947-49 Chrono disc) by these guys David Van Dyke and Purvis Henson!

Do get the other Buddy Johnson Chrono Classics CDs. There's a very nice tenor player in the '41/'42 band, who'd previously been with Louis Jordan - Kenneth Hollon. And the songs are classics anyway.

MG