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Cool Blues-Jumps & Shuffles

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There are precious few CDs available for this blues singer/guitarist from Staple, Louisiana [born March 13, 1909]. But thankfully one of them is from Ace of London and, with their involvement, you KNOW you are getting quality sound reproduction, informative liner notes and, not least, all four sides of his only two hit single.

After listening to the electric guitar licks of the legendary Charlie Christian, King took up the instrument and formed his own band in 1942 in San Francisco. After securing a contract with Rhythm Records he recorded the self-penned Saunders Blues, later a # 3 R&B hit in 1945 as S.K. Blues [Saunders King Blues] for Joe Turner with Pete Johnson's All Stars.

Hit singles, however, eluded him until 1949 when, for the Modern label, he had a # 9 R&B in March with Empty Bedroom Blues b/w Imagination, billed to Saunders King & His Orchestra. In one of those quirks of the recording industry back then, at the same time as Empty Bedroom Blues was making its chart debut, so was Stay Gone Blues, which had probably been recorded for the Rhythm label a few years before and which they decided to release only in 1949. The A-side made it to # 14 in March b/w S.K. Jumps. Two hits over a long career, both in the same month of the same year, and for two different labels.

But, listening to this fine band you just know that the lack of hit singles had to be related to the fact his releases were not handled by a major distributor - such as that enjoyed by Louis Jordan [Decca].

Saunders King passed away on August 31, 2000 at age 91. Honour him by picking up this compilation of some of the best orchestrated jump music you will hear anywhere.