Customer Reviews

Big, Bad & Blue: The Big Joe Turner Anthology

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This is an absolutely fabulous Jump Blues collection, and, as a 3 disc set with extensive liner notes, probably gives a good overview of Big Joe Turner's long career. A few tracks stand out: "She's Drivin' Me Crazy" on disc three really Swings. Shake, Rattle and Roll is a classic and was later covered by Bill Haley and the Comets.

This impressive, three-disc anthology, which includes a superb fifty-page booklet with pictures, an essay, and extensive recording information, is by far the best and most comprehensive Joe Turner-compilation going.

Joseph Vernon Turner was the premier blues shouter of the 30s and 40s, and he was equally adept at singing blues, R&B, jazz, swing, and even proto-rock n' roll.
He enjoyed a lengthy coorporation with highly esteemed piano player Kermit "Pete" Johnson, who appears on Turner's late-30s recordings, and the reappears on some of his late-40s waxings, and again in the mid-50s.

In fact, Big Joe Turner's music very often features the piano as the main instrument, and his upbeat jump blues is quite different from the gritty electric Chicago variety of men like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Elmore James (although James actually plays slide guitar on one of Turner's singles, the excellent "TV Mama").
This is urban, often jazz-flavoured blues, and "Big, Bad & Blue" gathers (almost) every Joe Turner-song of note, including the lusty "Tell Me Pretty Baby (Howdy 'Ya Want Your Rollin' Done)", "My Gal's A Jockey", "Hide And Seek", and "Chicken And The Hawk", as well as slower, moodier pieces like "Chains Of Love", "Still In The Dark", "In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down)", "Sweet Sixteen", and a superb, soulful take on "Honeydripper".

Big Joe Turner was the first to record "Shake, Rattle & Roll", which was written by Atlantic records staff producer Jesse Stone (under the name Charles Calhoun) for a Turner session. It's a shame that this song is mostly remembered for Bill Haley's corny, whitewashed version...listen to the powerful, swinging original, and you'll forget about Haley's bland pop rendition, as well as Elvis Presley's early rockabilly recording.

These three discs are filled with tough boogie romps like "Honey Hush", swinging, classic blues tunes like "Midnight Cannonball", and slow, jazz-styled shuffles like the dirty "Don't You Make Me High", showing how Joe Turner, without really ever changing his style, moved from strict Kansas City swing to pioneering rock & roll and back to basic jazzy blues.
Highly recommended.

This is great stuff. If you like r&b, rock, and jump blues, then why don't you own this already? This is the set to get of the most important blues shouter in the history of music.

With impeccable phasing and a swinging band behind him, Big Joe belts out chorus upon chorus of down home and down town blues. Occasionally a lyric is reused under a different song title. No matter. This CD collection is a fascinating journey through pre-rock'n'roll swing, morphing in and out of rhythm and blues. West Coast Swing dancers will find this to be a great party set. The man and his music are well documented in the included booklet. However, I would have preferred three separate jewel cases to the Rube Goldberg packaging provided.