Big Joe Jumps Again!

Big Joe Duskin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 7, 2004)
• Original Release Date: September 7, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yellow Dog Records
• ASIN: B0002SPS16
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #388,252 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Blues and boogie pianist Big Joe Duskin is one of the last of the blues Greatest Generation the men and women who created the music years before World War II, blazing the path for every blues and blues-rock musician to follow. Although Duskin's releas.Yellow Dog.2004.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big Joe Jumps Again!, September 8, 2004

By 

Ann Rabson (Hartwood, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Big Joe Jumps Again! (Audio CD)

There's a wonderful new recording which is a real delight for those
of us who love down-home blues piano playing and singing. It's the
latest by the shamefully under-recorded blues shouter and
powerhouse of the 88s Mr. Big Joe Duskin. It's "Big Joe Jumps
Again," Yellow Dog Records YDR 1133.

There's nothing artificial or overly polished about Joe's style.
It can be gentle or hard-driving, but it always feels completely
natural.

Even though Joe is a true original I can hear echoes of blues
history in his playing. This is a man who has obviously been a
listener as well as a player.

The recording starts with a short snippet of a rocking version of
Lowell Fulson's "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone." One of my
only complaints about this recording is that it includes several
short pieces like this that end abruptly. Just when I get into
them, WHAM! they're over. That's also the case with "Down the Road
a Piece" and "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." I find this
frustrating. I want to hear MORE! Fortunately there's a longer
version of "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" later in the
recording, with a very different groove - kind of a slow "Linda
Lou" shuffle. "North To Alaska," yes, that Johnny Horton song, is
another of those snippets, but it's worth a little frustration to
hear it arranged as a boogie woogie!

I was really delighted by Peter Frampton's soulful and sympathetic
accompaniments of Joe on "Every Day I Have the Blues" and "Key to
the Highway." It just shows that my prejudice against rockers is
as off the mark as most prejudices prove to be. These cuts show a
fine blues sensibility. Really a treat.

The other backing musicians do a terrific job of supporting Joe.
They never dilute what makes his music special, which is a common
pitfall for musicians backing an inventive artist. Great job,
fellows. The "Black Mountain Blues" track features vocals by
Bessie Smith-influenced Shawna Snyder. This cut allows us to see
that Joe is an excellent accompanist, a role which, in my opinion,
requires even greater skill and sensitivity than being the star.

Roosevelt Sykes' love song to "Miss Ida B" and his vengeful "Get
Out of My Way," as well as that old tale of "Betty and Dupree," are
told with such a traditional feel that I forget it's the 21st
century.

"Black Rat Swing" by Memphis Minnie (and, I believe, one of her
husbands named Joe) turns up here renamed "One Dirty Rat." Joe has
put his own very original stamp on this tune, bringing to it a
groove that suggests a funky version of Brother Ray's "What'd I
Say." Very, very cool!

Joe's own composition "Mean and Strange" is a very effective lament
about a love gone wrong. His singing reminds me of what first
appealed to me about the blues: that bewildered, wronged, lost and
lonely thing. Even the piano part feels that way to me.

"Sloppy Drunk Blues" is a tune I love. So many great artists have
performed this gem, including Lucille Bogan, Leroy Carr John "Sonny
Boy" Williamson, Jimmy Rogers and so many more. Joe's version is
certainly one of my favorites.

Like so many bluesmen I've known from his generation, Joe is a
wonderful storyteller. The cut "The Preacher and the Devil's
Music" represents that side of Joe.

I highly recommend that you catch Joe live, telling his stories and
making his music with power and grace. I think Joe is a gem, a
real deep and original bluesman. This fine recording captures his
magic and will bring joy and pleasure to any lover of the blues.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

- Ann Rabson

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yellow Dog Records Has a Real Winner With This One!, September 20, 2004

By 

Steve Emerine (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Joe Jumps Again! (Audio CD)

As a jazz fan, I usually only like blues in small doses, but "Big Joe Jumps Again!" caught my attention with the first track, "You're Gonna Miss Me," and kept me all the way through to "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," the final tune. And then I went back and played it again. Big Joe Duskin does a number of tunes Joe Williams sang, but he does them in his own wonderful style. Ann Rabson, an East Coast blues expert whom I don't know, said it better than I can in her review for amazon.com. Suffice to say that a jazz guy from the Southwest agrees with her. Thanks to Yellow Dog Records for this real blues treasure!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, June 6, 2005

By 

Joseph Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Joe Jumps Again! (Audio CD)

For the first time in a long time, I have just played straight through a CD (this CD) three times in the same sitting. This CD is thoroughly enjoyable, both musically and sonically (i.e., it is very well recorded). I think many people will like this music even if they generally aren't great blues fans (in the way that many people like Ray Charles but don't necessarily like other artists of the same genre). This is simply great music that just happens to be blues. This music has great bounce, rhythm and texture to it, but it's not over-loud and "electrified." At the risk of going overboard here, this might be my new favorite blues disc.