The Complete Sessions, Vol. 1 (1923-1926) [Import]

Clarence Williams | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 21, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Document
• ASIN: B000000JCJ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #293,348 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sidney leaps in., July 13, 2002

By 

Peter Gordon (Canberra, ACT Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Sessions, Vol. 1 (1923-1926) (Audio CD)

Fortunately for posterity, Clarence Williams' entrepreneurial abilities exceeded his rather modest skill at the piano. This French issue, well filled, with useful translated notes and full recording details, brings together his first 24 sides, all cut in 1923.
Most tracks feature one or other of several minor blues singers, including Sara Martin, Mamie Smith, Margaret Johnson and Rosetta Crawford. Some of these, and in particular Eva Taylor who was married to Williams and sings on 6 tracks, veer towards the vaudeville end of the classic blues spectrum. Nonetheless they're of more than merely historical interest.
The chief glory here is the towering presence on all tracks of the great Sidney Bechet, whose first known sessions these are. His style emerges already fully formed, and not suprisingly he dominates especilly on the tracks with no vocal
The next CD in this series is the better choice if only one is to be bought because Louis Armstrong replaces the worthy Thomas Morris. His competitive tension with Bechet creates some of the most exciting and driven music surviving from these earliest years.
Given the primitive acoustic technology, the sound quality seems remarkably good. There's much more life and presence than in, say, the slightly earlier King Olivers.