Customer Reviews

Jivin' With Jordan

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This box set is hands down the best set out there. It has all the classics; sax a woogie, Caldonia etc and tons of great songs you have never heard. The sound quality is just as good as any of Jordan's other albums. On top of all that it is dirt cheap. i feel bad for you if you don't buy this box set.

This set is a requirement for Jordanites. The overall majority of the good stuff and then some for a very economical price. Of course one is tempted to compare this with the 5 disc-set "Louis Jordan and the Tympani 5"- so here goes: That set tends to concentrate more on the early stuff up to about 1950. This set has some of the early stuff (from the late 30s and early 40s) concentrating on LJ's peak years (mid to late 40s) and his big band and later work of the early 50s. In either case, anyone who is fond of good jumping, jazzy blues and floor-pounding funny stories (like his comedy ancestor and father's friend Bert Williams, Jordan was a master of the comic story-song), will do well to get this set.

"Jivin' With Jordan" brings you over 100 songs from the late, great Louis Jordan's years at Decca Records, roughly the late 1930s to the very early 1950s.
The music ranges from big band swing to jump blues and beyond.
Jordan was one of the most influential musicians of the era and is considered an early progenitor of R&B and rock & roll.
The sound quality of these CDs is excellent and there is an informative liner notes included.
As with every Proper box set I've bought, this set offers excellent music and a great value.

I've bought about a half dozen of UK Proper's boxed set and believe you can't buy a better value for the money. Song selection is great, sound quality is very good and the price is very affordable.

As a radio Dee-Jay playing music from the big band Era, This 4 CD Proper Box Set has "ALL", not just some of Jordan's charted hits of the forties. No other set has all of his greatest recordings. This one does. The songs are crisp and clean and a lot of care went into the mastering this set. I have several other Proper Box Sets and use them regularly on my Sunday Night Radio Show.

Brian Lee Hart
WVUD FM
Newark Delaware

Louis Jordan, along with his Typany Five, was a pioneer of early rock and roll. He has influenced everyone from Little Richard and Chuck Berry to Joe Jackson, Wilson Pickett, and even David Bowie. Unlike most black artists of the 1940's and early 1950's, he was a hit with white audiences too. His type of swing music mixed with R&B and jump blues was huge back then. Listen to "Caldonia Boogie" and I dare you not to think of Little Richard's "Lucille". He once said that he wanted to make music for the people. He did---it was mostly fun. Heck, his songs have even been parodied in old classic cartoons like Tom and Jerry and Popeye! That's how far his influence reached. It is just too bad that most younger people don't know who he is. Which is why I write reviews for underappreciated artists like Jordan...too few reviews are written for these great forgotten artists. I could write reviews for many other rock and soul artists who have hundereds of other reviews on Amazon, but I choose to write reviews for the artists who deserve more attention. Like Jordan.

His material, except for a few songs like "Ration Blues" and "Reconversion Blues", never send too much of a message. They are lighthearted. There are, however, a few REALLY stupid songs. Like "GI Jive" or "Show Me How You Milk the Cow". But not very many. They're not terrible, just goofier than you-know-what. The only really terrible songs on here are "Stone Cold Dead in the Market", a really racially insensitive song (to Puerto Ricans) that has Louis and Ella Fitzgerald duetting, in mock accents, over a Caribbean beat. How this song reached number one on the R&B/"race" charts is a mystery, because this is easily the worst song both of them have ever recorded. I also can't stand Louis' duet with Bing Crosby, "My Baby Said Yes" because I find Bing Crosby just bland. I'm assuming that this was Jordan's attempt to appeal to an even wider audience, I'm sure that he succeeded. After all, Crosby has sold even more records than Michael Jackson. I'm also not crazy about "Open the Door Richard" but of course I'm in the minority, this was a huge hit by several people and even became a catchphrase in the late 1940's. These songs along with the fact that the great duet he recorded with Louis Armstrong, "Life Is So Peculiar" is NOT included here keeps this box set from getting an absolutely perfect rating. But it's still worth buying!

But really, there are 102 songs on four CDs here and all but a very few of them are great. And this comes with a 40-page booklet detailing Jordan's career and extensive liner notes. All for a very low price---heck, you can actually pay more than this for a large pizza! And it's worth it to have songs like "Saturday Night Fish Fry", "Deacon Jones", "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby", "Louisville Lodge Meeting", "Let The Good Times Roll", "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'" "You're On the Right Track Baby" etc. etc. etc.! Need I go on? If you love early rock, R&B and soul, then you should at least give the samples a spin. So what if the music's old? It's great. Better than today's pop or hip-hop anyday! And I'm in my early 40's, not that old. And Louis Jordan's music should appeal to people of ALL ages!

Rating ****1/2 stars.