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Great compilations of early R&B

Rabshakeh

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JSngry Grand Master

JSngry

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A big source of pre-rock R&B is the Savoy catalog. Their Roots of Rock & Roll series was damn near epic, beginning as LPs and the moving to CD. No idea how to look for it on Spotify today.

This list doesn't seem complete, but maybe it is?

https://www.discogs.com/label/680442-Roots-Of-Rock-N-Roll?srsltid=AfmBOopX3H5g8ag3wiuv-LEG80y0n2E0TP-uZ9gMDo4zRrOsCmITVNro&page=1

And here's The Ravens:

Jimmy Ricks sounds like Lockjaw on that one!

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Rabshakeh Grand Master

Rabshakeh

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27 minutes ago, JSngry said:

That's all there was. 78s. Jukeboxes. Radio.

Albums only game later.

I get that. 

But a bit like dance music now. There's so much and it is so disorderly. I am always quite historiography focused in my approach to music and I like to know where things stand, so the sections of bubbling chaos are an adjustment. 

Another issue with RnB is it is high stakes. The gold is really shiny but the shit stinketh. A bit like comps of old timey fiddle music. Not always a rewarding trawl. 

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Big Beat Steve Proficient

Big Beat Steve

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On 11/22/2024 at 12:37 PM, Rabshakeh said:

I get that. 

But a bit like dance music now. There's so much and it is so disorderly. I am always quite historiography focused in my approach to music and I like to know where things stand, so the sections of bubbling chaos are an adjustment. 

Another issue with RnB is it is high stakes. The gold is really shiny but the shit stinketh. A bit like comps of old timey fiddle music. Not always a rewarding trawl. 

Late to the game in this thread, so ...

First of all, I understand your "early R&B" wants to cover roughly the 1945-55 period, or at any rate the PRE-Soul R&B years (i.e. some of the stuff from the later 50s falling alternately into the R&B or R'n'R category, depending on how you classify your music "historigraphically" - an approach I sympathize with because I tend(ed) to adopt the same, but am not afraid of wading through :D).

I am not sure what you refer to as "shit that stinketh". (Any examples of what stinks to you? :D) I'd venture a guess these feelings are more of a matter of taste than anything else (particularly i that field where the rough cohabits with the sophisticated). At least to those who dig deeply into this and who are prepared a) not to be turned off by less-than-perfect fidelity of ultra-rare 78s being reissued, and b) to take the tracks above all as unpretentious dance and entertainment music for the "average man" (and woman ;)) of the target audience of those bygone days (plus those who are into it again now).

As for the COMPILATION recommendations (I'll concentrate on Various Artists anthologies in order not to get carried away with too many individual artists - you might risk ending up with lists of ALL artists that there were, depending on the respectives forumists' preferences) and looking at vinyl in the first place, I'd second ALL the SAVOY recommendations. Their twofers were great and numerous. The Atlantic box (that in its later twofer volumes enters Soul territory) is excellent too. Though maybe with less "new finds" than the Savoys.
Beyond this, the Ace, Charly and Krazy Kat labels from the UK had plenty of interesting compilations. Ace drew heavily from the Modern/RMP catalog (plus King, IIRC, and Specialty), Krazy Kat did a lot on the Gotham label.
P-Vine from Japan did some very nice "themed" vinyl comps too, but they are likely to be very rare and expensive to source secondhand these days. At least in Europe.

With you being UK-based, in case you come across R&B compilation series titled "SAVAGE KICK" or "STOMPIN'" (even though they may look sort of grey-area-ish ;)) at good prices in specialist (underground) record shops, pick them up! They were done with the hardcore R&B and Black R'n'R collectors (and deejays and dancers) in mind in the 90s (and as CDs a bit later on) and circulated mainly at the concert record stalls.

https://www.discogs.com/de/label/341528-Savage-Kick?page=1

https://www.discogs.com/de/label/59225-Stompin?page=1

 

As for the CDs, I'll do a separate post later on. There is sooo much there, particularly off the beaten tracks of the "usual suspects" labels ... ;)

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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Big Beat Steve Proficient

Big Beat Steve

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Part II ... ;)

Before I get going with my CD recommendations, one rec for a SINGLE artist:

Clarence Gatemouth Brown - San Antonio Ballbuster (reissued first on Red Lighning, then on Charly, and more recently on CD - and available on Spotify)! This would be one of my Desert Island R&B platters. (But that's only me ... ;))

CD box sets:

The Okeh box set already mentioned above is fine. Others going in a similar direction are the two Mercury boxes, the Mercury Blues & Rhythm Story 1945-55 box set and another one with the notorious radio-shaped - but fragile - case. Both are great at introducing listeners to many artists from the 40s/50s Mercury Black Music roster, but advanced collectors are likely to end up with many overlaps with what they already have elsewhere.

One notch up is this: A Shot In The Dark - Nashvile Jumps by Bear Family (blues and R&B from Nashville indies 1945-55, lavishly produced - as customary for that label - but at a price yet worth it for those who want to dig deep enough ...)

The following 3-CD sets (all on the Fantastic Voyage label) include many tracks that many collectors will already have elsewhere but  they might be worth shelling out for if found at a good price because they are compiled, "curated" and annotated well. And their contents should serve well as nice introductory compilations to relative starters in 40s and 50s R&B. Don't be thrown off course by the "Jamaica" connections in their titles - it's all US R&B from c. 1945-60 (covering everything from jazzy early post-WWII Jump Blues to late 50s R&B that some may file under Black R'n'R), focusing on tunes favored by the Jamaican Sound System DJ scene on the island:

-  Jumping The Shuffle Blues
-  Jamaica Selects Jump Blues Strictly For You
-  Jump Blues From Jamaica Way
-  It's Jamaica Jump Blues Time!
(There may be more ...)

Now, for the single CDs:

The following list (some of the R&B comp CDs I own and find worthy of tipping others off about ...) is lengthy and you won't and can't explore them all in full. But they should be worth listening in if any artist, region, label or other criterion you noticed elsewhere earlier strikes your fancy in order to explore the music on these CD further.
I selected them mostly because they usually were programmed with advanced collectors in mind and do not often overlap to any significant degree with other fairly easily accessible reissues of that music.
I'll group them by reissue label:

Delmark:
-  East Coast Jive
-  West Coast Jive
-  Honkers & Bar Walkers Vol. 1, 2 and 3 (Vol. 1 ist most often available on vinyl but has also been reissued on CD)
(all of the above cover the Apollo label)

Acrobat:
-  Roy Milton's Miltone Records Story
-  Jumping At Jubilee
-  Saxophony - Jubilee Honkers & Shouters
-  The Derby Records Story
-  Boogieology - The Atlas Records Story
-  Queen of Hits - The Macy's Recordings Story (some Hillbilly records interspersed on the last two comps)

Capitol:
-  Jumpin' Like Mad - Cool Cats & Hip Chicks

Westside:
-  Groove Station - King-FederalDeLuxe Saxblastzers Vol. 1
- Titanic and 23 Other Unsinkable Saxblasters

Blue Moon:
-  Juke Box R&B 1945-1046
-  Obscure Blues Shouters Vol. 1 & 2

Ace:
-  Mellow Cats 'n' Kittens
-  More Mellow Cats 'n' Kittens
-  Even More Mellow Cats 'n' Kittens
-  Yet More Mellow Cats 'n' Kittens
-  Further Mellow Cats 'n' Kittens  (you get the idea? :D)
-  Let's Jump! Swingin' Humdingers From Modern Records
and if an entire box set on the Specialty label is too much for you:
-  Specialty Legends of Jump Blues, Vol. 1 (cannot coment on subsequent vols.)
And the below one on Ace is interesting as it shows that Jump Blues and beboppish jazz were not that far away from each other and are pretty compatible, actually (it draws on the Specialty and Prestige catalogs):
-  Jumpin' & Jivin'

Fantastic Voyage:
-  Wailin' Daddy - The Best of Maxwell Davis 1945-1959
-  Wail Man Wail! - The Best of King Curtis 1952-1961
Both of these 3-CD sets (there may be other, similarly programmed ones on that label) are single-artist and V.A. comps all in one. One CD features tracks from leader dates recorded under the featured artist's name, while the others have him as a featured sideman in the backing groups of others (mostly vocalists). 

Many of these CDs are likely to be OOP now so you will have to check Discogs and other online sources. But they should be available here and there.  

Another label that has focused increasingly on 50s R&B in recent years is Jasmine. I haven't explored them in depth as many of their reissues have overlaps with earlier vinyl reissues I already own. But it IS worth checking out if you do not have much from early R&B yet.

One UK mail order source for these and related CDs would be Bim Bam Records (Bob Thomas). Checking the track listings on their website is guaranteed to keep you occupied!


Now if all of the above isn't enough, there were/are plenty of CD reissues out there that sail under the P.D. flag but visibly are VERY "grey market" things (on fictitious labels such Blaze, Pontiac, Lucky, Eddie, a.o. - check the "Jiving On Central Avenue" CD series on eBay.com, for example). Some of these have the merit, though, of going where not even in the field of obscure early R&B many other reissuers would want to tread. They share certain common traits in their CD inlay artworks and do seem to have come from the US.

To give you an idea of to what extremes the compilers of those labels often went, if you peruse the ""Red Saunders Research Foundation website (on 1945-60 Chicago R&B artists and labels), you will come across a label called "Club 51". Short-lived and among the very obscurest ones. And yet among those "grey-market" reissues there is a CD titled "The Best of Club 51 Records", including 22 tracks which are about the TOTAL output of the label during its entire existence ... The label catalog number: "Club 51 C-101"!  :g

Finally (whew ...)  there is another P.D. reissue label focusing (mostly) on R&B that has been very active during the past 5 or 6 years: KOKO MOJO.  Their digipacks are compiled and produced by collectors and R&B/R'n'R subculture DJs in Continental Europe. I bought most of their first 15 or so (plus a scant few later) but they have gathered reissue steam to such an extent that I have given up following their releases long ago. They are past 200 CDs reissued now!
On the one hand they are not all that cheap for what they are (unless you search hard for special offers) and on the other I just cannot see myself anymore checking them all out for what I already have elsewhere (overlaps mostly tend to be considerable for me) and what would really be new and essential to me. :blink:
But to others there may be untold treasures there! Their focus seems to be not so much on pre-R'n'R R&B up to, say, 1954/55 (though they do feature some of that too), but rather on R&B and Black R'n'R from the second half of the 50s (with some contents crossing over into the seeds of Soul). Discogs has a listing of them:
https://www.discogs.com/de/label/1323365-Koko-Mojo-Records?page=1

So ... NOW you are entitled to feel "bewildered"! :D

Anyway ... happy browsing! ;)

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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