Customer Reviews

Best of Louis Jordan

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Sandwiched inbetween the dying days of big band and early rock-and-roll were 1940's R&B singers whose swinging sounds laced with jazz and blues influences provided a transition to what later became rock-and-roll. Roy Brown, Wynonnie Harris, and blues saxophonist and singer Louis Jordan were among these artists, and it's fair to say that because both Bill Haley and Elvis Presley covered their songs and got more attention than they did.

Louis Jordan's heyday was in the 1940's, and his shuffling, swinging "jump" sound combined with his goofy and humorous man-about-town schtick and sax solos. The earliest hit on here is slow "Knock Me A Kiss", was done in 1941.

A full nine years before Bill Haley, Jordan did "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" with an engaging boogie-woogieing piano and bass. Yes, remember, "Take me right back to the track, jack."
"Let The Good Times Roll" has a sound similar to "Heartbreak Hotel", which means early rock.

The partying "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is one of two songs that go beyond the average 2:30 time. It clocks in 5:20 but its excess length doesn't diminish the song. Hearing "It was rockin'" and the electric guitar there, this would've been a great Haley song.

"Caldonia" was the song that made me realize Jordan's connection to rock and roll, as I learned in my music class. That boogieing sound and Haley style rock just blends here, and the way he shouts "Caldonia" like "CaldoNYAAA" A singsong type monologue is included here, which shows another influence to rock.

"School Days" is basically a series of old nursery rhymes set to a snazzy jazzy beat. I remember those rhymes, e.g. Humpty Dumpty, Little Jack Horner, from the past, and was amused to hear them like this. "Five Guys Named Moe" has a similar sound.

Then there were songs with goofy titles like "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" of chickens telling the farmer to let them get to sleep because chickens have work to do laying eggs. "Beans and Corn Bread" has some silly lyrics. "Beans and cornbread had a fight/beans knocked corn bread outta sight/cornbread said now that's all right." "Barnyard Boogie" is plain silly piano and sax jazz, with Jordan going "oink oink" "moo moo" at times, and is about the animals boogieing in the barnyard.

Jordan could do city blues as well, as evidenced by "Buzz Me Blues", and the slower-paced "What's The Use Of Getting Sober", and "Somebody Done Changed The Lock On My Door." And with the Calypso Boys, he combined the Caribbean sound in his music in "Run Joe".

Most of his biggest hits are here, although not "GI Jive" or "Is You Or Is You Ain't My Baby." Better get the Five Guys Named Moe album for those songs.

Jordan is unjustly underrated when taking the history of rock and roll into consideration and is an artist requiring more evaluation and examination. His music anticipated rock and roll a decade before "Rock Around The Clock" and small wonder Chuck Berry, B.B. King, and Van Morrison acknowledged his influence.

If you were trying to find the exact midpoint between the swing-jazz era and the rock `n roll era, this is it. This is one of the kinds of music that made rock `n roll possible. Jump blues is what it was called, and Louis Jordan - composer, singer, bandleader, saxophonist - was its most successful and important practitioner. As jazz veered into the less commercially appealing bebop style, and delta blues was brought north during the pre and post-World War II northward migration of southern blacks, this hybrid musical form was standard entertainment at nightclubs, particularly but not exclusively those with black audiences, during the late 40s and early 50s. At the time, Billboard called this "race music", yet Jordan had great crossover appeal without "whitening" his style, and had several pop chart-topping million-sellers to his credit. These recordings of Jordan's band, the Tympani Five, date from 1942-1954, but are mostly from the late 40s. They include several boogie-woogie piano-driven tracks (like the very successful "Choo Choo Ch' Boogie"), some non-jump blues ("Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out") and a few tracks that actually do sound like early rock `n roll ("Saturday Night Fish Fry"). The band even throws in a calypso number ("Run Joe"). Jordan also created what might be considered the first music videos that served as introductory fare at movie theaters.

Make no mistake, Jordan was more than a musician - he was an entertainer, and specifically, a comedian. There is a strong lacing of humor through almost every song. For example, in "Saturday Night Fish Fry", you will learn of the events that caused him to warn in the last verse "If you ever want to get a fist in your eye, just mention a Saturday night fish fry." In "Beware, Brother, Beware", Jordan gives an appreciative audience of men hilarious advice for the dubious objective of avoiding marriage at all costs: "If she saves your dough and won't go to a show......Beware! If her sister calls you brotha, you better get furtha.....Beware! If she calls on the phone and says `are you alone', you say `no I got three girls with me!'" In "Caledonia", Jordan squeals out the last syllable of the lady's name in such a way that you will instantly know this is what inspired Little Richard to squeal "Lucille" a few years later. In "Beans and Cornbread", we learn of a fight that almost breaks up the marriage of these two foods. There's a nice call and response in this song, in "I Want You to Be My Baby", and in "Five Guys Named Moe".

You can't help but love this guy, so buy this CD! The only good reason you could possibly have for not buying it is that you are buying the Boxed Set instead.

When I was growing up in The Sixties on the British Invasion and Motown and Stax classics, I thought I knew everything about popular music. Over the last couple decades I've realized how myopic my vision was in my youth. By looking over my shoulder to the past, I've discovered a wealth of amazing artists in popular music's rich history.

One of my most thrilling discoveries was when I first came acros Louis Jordan, a Forties jump-blues singer and sax player. His popularity was so widespread during the decade that between 1943 and 1950, Jordan was atop the charts with 18 songs for a total of 113 weeks! Songs like "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie," "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and "Saturday Night Fish Fry" display his swinging blues 'n' boogie style. It's no surprise that Jordan was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 as an early influence.

The 20 tracks on the CD belong in any serious collector's library. ESSENTIAL

Just do yourself a favor and get it. With 20 stone-cold winners lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, this is not just the best Louis Jordan anthology available, it delivers more jubilation for the buck than just about anything in the Amazon jungle.

"Serious" students of pop music use the word "important" when describing Jordan, a word that always makes me think I am about to encounter something boring that will remind me of medicine. Yes, he was one of the originators of rock & roll. Yes, he was a breakthrough crossover artist who appealed to black and white audiences alike. Yes, he created a distinctive style that used singing/talking in place of an instrument, influencing ersatz practitioners to come. And yes, he used "coded" lyrics that were extremely funny, and salty at times, to cover material that simply never got aired in those days. All well and good. But the net on Louis Jordan is that he is a party waiting to happen; put this CD on and in no time at all you'll find yourself laughing, dancing, and feeling better about life.

Whether on sax, vocals, as a writer, or bandleader, Louis Jordan cooks. Saturday Night Fish Fry is a rockin' classic with a story to tell, as are Beans and Cornbread, Five Guys Named Moe, and Choo Choo Ch'Boogie. Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens is a riot, a splendid piece of political incorrectness that uses code to have a little fun (a lot of fun) at the white man's expense. The source is a very old, racist joke that Jordan simply turns on its head and returns with a smile. Caledonia, another foot stomper, is equally irreverent and delightful.

Jordan also shows off his smooth, lady-killer crooning chops on tracks like Blue Light Boogie and Early In The Mornin' - nice. So jump on in, the water's fine. If you want to be wowed by what a pioneering influence he was, that's great. But don't miss out on the real point of Louis Jordan - this cat is over the legal limit for fun.

Jump blues is the most criminally overlooked musical style of the 20th Century, and Louis Jordan is unquestionably the master of it. Jump blues is rooted in the blues of the 20s and 30s (as well as swing music of the 30s and 40s), but it's a more uptempo, good-time style--it was the dance music of the 40s for venues where full big bands were impractical. The biggest difference between jump blues and raw, early r&b and rock & roll (both of which evolved a few years later) is that the horn section dominates the sound, not the electric guitar.

Raucous songs like Caldonia, Saturday Night Fish Fry, and Five Guys Named Moe (featuring an incredible sax solo) really capture the energy of the music. Check this out, and then go track down other, even less well-known jump blues artists like Wynonie Harris and Big Joe Turner. After you've heard this music, you simply won't believe that it's dissappeared almost without a trace for half a century.

When I was a child in the 50's, my father had the original Louie Jordan records and he and my mother played them and danced in the living room. I just thiught they were funny records and learned all the lyrics and sang along. Now, as an adult, I put the music in the context of the times. There was a Depression and a War, and life for Blacks was not easy. Louis Jordan was able to provide entertainment and a tempory respite from the realities of every day living. The lyrics are still fresh and funny. I ordered this CD for my parents and we sat in the backyard on the Fourth of July and treated the neighbors to a Louis Jordan mini- concert (we sang along). Everyone laughed and had a great time.

For better or worse, Louis Jordan invented rhythm & blues. Graduating from Chick Webb's jumping Harlem swing band of the 1930s, Jordan assembled the "Tympany Five" in order to garner bookings with a small band that sounded mighty big. He also brought what used to be called "jump tunes" to a high art, honing the style that would later be called R&B. His songs were covered by several white artists, especially Woody Herman whose version of "Caldonia" is almost as funny as Jordan's own, and this crossover cultural exposure made Jordan a big name in the music business despite the racism that kept him booked into second-best places.

But do yourself a favor: buy this CD and listen to Jordan's original classics. Like Louis Prima, they are so full of fun and life that you can't resist a smile or dancing inside along with the music!

You can't live without this collection if you like Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, rockabilly, Diana Krall, or any of the current swing stuff.

You just can't!

Louis Jordan essentially invented rock and roll and Chuck Berry acknowledged Jordan's influence on his music. Listen to this disk and you will hear the original versions of classic tunes recorded by the great bluesmen and for the last 50 years! And some tunes recently repoularized by the current latter day swing bands. Asleep at the the Wheel has been doing Jordan tunes as part of their standard repetoire for 25 years. Check ut Early in the Morning for influences on guys like Nat King Cole as Well.

Like many an all time master, Jordan never really received a lot of credit in his day, but there aren't many who have had such a great influence. Check this disk out, you can't go wrong.

You cannot be in a bad mood after listening to this CD, it's just impossible. I was familiar with a couple of Louis Jordan songs from _The Blues Brothers_ and Joe Jackson's _Jumpin Jive_ but didn't know that much more about the music. Then I got this CD and put it on one night and listened to it three times in a row before I went to bed. The songs are fun, in addition to _Let the Good Times Roll_ there is also _Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens_ and _Five Guys Named Moe_. I wish that I had a time machine so I could go back and see Louis Jordan live, he must have been a Hell of a performer, fortunately his music survives.

Like Bob Wills and other lesser known artists from the first half of the century, Louis Jordan laid the groundwork for what came in the second half. A tour de force. It is a crying shame that more people don't know about this artist.