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Dancing for us all starts with the music.  The Album of the Week feature helps share some of our insights into the music we feature in our DJ sets so as to expand upon the Essential 25 list.  The idea is to help you develop some of your own by giving you a starting point, and to help add to your obsession by giving you some guidance as to what you can listen to on your own.   This week's album of the Week is the following: 

Jimmy Witherspoon: The Concerts

     The 'Spoon Concerts (Fantasy 1989)

          Rockin With Spoon (Charley R&B 1992)

          The Concerts (Fantasy 2002)

This week features more Jimmy Witherspoon, this time of live performances which have been re-released at least three times: these are not three different CDs but three CDs of the exact same material reshuffled.  The most commonly-available CD version is the one pictured to the left from Fantasy Records.  Charly Records shuffled the exact same tracks and released the same material as the CD in the middle in 1992.  Then Fantasy re-released the same material again, highlighting that the material comes from two Hi-Fi Jazz LPs of two 1959 live performances: one at the Moterrey Jazz Festival in October 1959 and the other at The Renaissance in L.A. in December 1959.  Both Charly and Fantasy rightly have a reputation for releasing CDs with poor sound quality, but the sound quality on these CDs is great.

In 1959, Spoon got his big break as a solo singer.  He had sang for Jay McShann's band out of Kansas City for a while, but had fallen into obscurity singing solo in the dingy night club circuit.   Indeed, the story goes that the Monterrey Jazz Festival organizers had a difficult time even finding him to perform at the festival in October 1959.  However, they found him.  Toward the end of the showcase concert, Spoon strutted on the stage as some of the audience started to leave, thinking that the show was over when it really was just about to begin.  He slapped Earl Hines' piano, shouted to Ben Webster, "Down Home!  A-Flat!" and kicked into a show that brought him back into legendary status and propelled critical acclaim for his "Singin the Blues" LP.  Hi-Fi Jazz released this concert as one album, and then released another Spoon concert from a pair of December 1959 appearances at The Renaissance on the Sunset strip in Hollywood.  These CDs compile and re-arrange the material from both albums.   Spoon also cut his seminal "Singin' the Blues" LP on Blue Note in 1959, which is one of the Austin Lindy Hop Top 25 Essential Lindy Hop CDs. 

 Previous Albums of the Week:

Big Band Swing

  Lucky Millinder: Apollo Jump (1941-1951)

   Willie Smith with the Harry James Orchestra: Snooty Fruity (1944-1955)

   Duke Ellington: Historically Speaking  (1956/2001 Bethlehem/Rhino)

   Duke Ellington and His World Famous Orch. 1946-47 Boxed Set

  Harry James Orchestra: Still Harry After All These Years

  Benny Goodman: The Yale Sessions Vol. 3

  Diane Schuur and The Count Basie Orchestra

  City Rhythm Orchestra: Swingin' Blue

 

Singer-fronted Jazz & Mainstream Swing

  Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (Polygram 1957)

  Frank Sinatra: Songs for Swingin' Lovers (Columbia 1956)

   Sonny Clark: Standards (Blue Note 1958)

  Betty Roche: Take the "A" Train

  Yoko Noge: Yoko's Blue Monday Jam (JazzMeBlues Records 1999)

 

Groove Swing

  Jimmy Witherspoon: The 1959 Concerts

 Jimmy Witherspoon: Spoon's Blues (Stony Plain 1995)

  Barbara Morrison: Live at the 9:20 Special 

  Jimmy McGriff: Tribute to Basie

  Milt Jackson + Count Basie

  Charles Brown: Cool Christmas Blues

 

Jump Blues/Blues

 

    W.C. Clark: Heart of Gold

  Taj Mahal: Dancing the Blues

  OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957

  Buster Brown: The Very Best of Buster Brown

  The Swan Silvertones: (Self-Titled)/Savior Pass Me Not

   Eddie Clearwater: Help Yourself

   Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson: Cleanhead's Back in Town

   Steve Forbert: Any Old Time (Songs of Jimmie Rogers) 

   Dave Herrero: Hard Life Blues (Doc Blue Records 2002)

 

Neo Swing

   Cigar Store Indians: el Baile de la Cobra

"Modern" Lindy Music

   Al Green: Greatest Hits

   Verve Remixed, Vol. 2

ALH Album of the Week

ALH Restaurant of the Month