Customer Reviews

Bosses

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After he stopped working with Art Tatum, a lot of recordings with Joe Turner were made in a very blunt R & B, or Chicago/Mississippi style blues (including the intriguing recordings Atlantic did of Joe singing with Elmore James and his band)and with rock blues records. Later until his death, Joe usually was used for indifferent recordings where only his spirit and brashness prevail against stock blues bands.

Joe was a swing singer. A blues shouter of the nuanced style. He began as a swinging, singing waiter and then bar tender in Kansas city. He came east and developed fame with the Great Pete Johnson. His blues were Kansas City Jazz. Kansas City Jazz is his blues.

These recordings work magically because he is playing with the premier Kansas City jazzman, the premier swing rhythm man, the man whose entire work illustrates the blues as a rich musical art, and not as a blunt formula cranked out at will. Joe Turner works here with Basie.

He swings and lilts and takes his time through these blues, even ones he had earlier recorded as proto or rock hits at faster paces. Like any true bluesman, accompanied properly, rather than blasting out song for dance, here Joe is making commentary. A stranger to the blues could believe the man is writing every single song as he goes out of personal commentary right on the spot.

As the years went on, except in the hiatus between the Old and New Testament bands when Basie had a trio and then a sextet and then a nonet, after WWII, Basie's piano playing tended to be be more layed back in the full band setting. On this, and other small group sides he produced, Basie lets the world know that he owns the KC blues piano, that subtlety and grace as well as musicial decision are among his powers.

Must I tell you that the rest of the band fits in too.

Another place where you can see Joe Turner sing the blues with appropriate KC swing jazz accompaniment is in the great film available cheaply on DVD, the Last of the Blue Devils, a reunion in the 1970s of the stars of 1930s KC Jazz. There Joe is accompanied by some incredible support by the great Jay McShann. Basie even checks in the club to say hello and the DVD includes several cuts from his full band including a thrilling performance of the Night Train by Jimmie Forrest who had the big hit on the song (I was going to say he wrote it, but if you are educated, you know it is a direct ripoff of the Duke's Happy Go Lucky Local)

The impact these two artists had on our society and modern music has never been more eloquently stated than on this CD. The messages and the music are powerfully emotional and sexually urgent. The listener can feel the pleasure The Count and Big Joe took in their music. Joe Turner has often been referred to as the father of Rock'n'Roll and you'll hear him recapture that early rock'n'roll sensuality in "Blues Around the Clock." Much of the CD has the feel of an impromptu jam session in an almost-empty bar room on a Monday morning...just The Count's band and Joe jammin'! The respect these two artistic giants had for each other is obvious on this recording. (ie: Joe asks: "Mr. Count Basie, please play the blues for me.") OH MY! does he ever respond! The Count sometimes toys quietly with the keyboard, then surprises as he explodes in jazzy blues riffs that slam you back in your seat! If you love the blues, don't miss this treasure. You'll keep it on your frequent-play stack. I've enjoyed it dozens of times already!

I have a lot of Basie and some Joe Turner I bought based on reviews here. I found the Turner CD reviews quite exaggerated. The Bosses though is the real thing, a place where time is an integral compositional element and the storytelling from the heart. My favorite Basie CD and Turner was never better.

The great blues shouter (Big) Joe Turner really shines on this album; although he was past his 60th birthday, the energy and feeling from his youth is still intact... Joined by a great, musically like-minded but very flexible group, Joe creates some classical blues and jazz blues, Kansas City style, with the more modern contributors coming down to the basics (basiecs) of the blues.

Turner is great, but he is probably partly inspired by great solos and accompaniememnt by none other than Harry Sweets Edison (tp), Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Zoot Sims (two quite different giants of the tenor sax), J. J. Johnson (tb), Ray Brown (b), Irvin Ashby (g), Louis Bellson (dm) and, ofcourse, Count on piano and organ....

A must have for all swing fans, blues fans, Joe Turner fans, Basie fans, Kansas City jazz fans... This CD will boogie your woogie till your face turns cherry red!

a great combination of classic joe turner and some great basie sideman-lockjaw,johnson,sims etc..great music

the CD was awesome just as i was told. it did not disapoint great buy

The first time I listened to this (on cassette), I met a beautiful woman. Four years later, we gave copies of the record to everyone in our wedding party. Now our son has the cd. This is the album that introduced me to Big Joe Turner, and while I now own virtually recording he made, this is the disc that gets played the most, 25 years later. It's the best late-night album I know--not as background music, but to listen to the way you'd listen to old friends. The recording is intimate, and while it's true that Joe and the Count make it sound as if the music is theirs, when Joe says, "Come on, Count," and "Make it church-y," he's inviting us in.