Customer Reviews

Odetta & The Blues

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Powerful contralto voice laden w/emotion and backed by impeccable ensemble and solo work by such notables as Vic Dickenson and Herb Hall. Some passages bring tears to the eyes. Fidelity could be better--often hard to make out the words

Its very hard to found personalities who can continue tradition of blues queens of 1920's without failing:Dinah Washington,Koko Taylor and Etta James perhaps did honorable work,their passion matches famous pioneer women who sang at the beggining of century.Billie Holiday occasionaly surprised with clever incorporation of traditional blues in her material ("Long gone Blues").Even early rock star LaVern Baker recorded Bessie Smith tribute that was actually good.But who would expect folk singer Odetta to be another link between famous past and 1960's? Yes,Odetta obviously had a presence,strong voice and passion but she used them mostly for singing folk and spirituals,so this blues album was fabulous surprise - she sound very relaxed and authoritative,as she knows this songs inside out.And yes,she can match with legends like Bessie Smith,Ma Rainey and Ida Cox - her version of "Oh Papa" is simply stunning.Song listed as "Hogan Alley" is actually old Ma Rainey hit "Black Eyed Blues" ("you low-down alligator,I'll catch you soon or later...") and I didnt really like arrangements by D.Wellstood who in attempt to be contemporary somehow fastened up the tempo of legendary songs,so unfortunately Odetta sounds as she was running behind a band occasionaly.The only reason that I gave it 4 out of 5 stars is that "modern" arrangments ruined majestic 1920's "Nobody Knows You When You Are Down And Out",sad and poignant song that should be delievered as deep-feelt truth about life - in hands of this backing musicians it almost ended up as boogie woogie.

When I heard a cut of the record on FM radio I was puzzled....was this Bessie Smith?...it had the snap and crackle of the great Bessie Smith....but it almost sounded like the unmistakable voice of Odetta. I called the radio station host who told me it was an old Odetta album. He was good enough to send me the whole album and it is one of my favorites. What a combination! The distinctive voice and soulfulness of Odetta in a spare blues setting with the great Vic Dickensen on trombone and Herb Hall I believe on piano. I'm glad the album is now available on CD. Many wonderful cuts. Some of my favorites: Yonder Come the Blues and Make Me a Pallett on Your Floor. People who like this album will also like the re-issue When Your Lover Has Gone by the less well-known singer Claire Austin. This album features trombone by Kid Ory. It is a classic as well.

...when you need to hear greatness, when you need inspiration, when you want to listen to The Best...hell, when you are plain "in need...!"

This album on vinyl competed with Dinah Washington to get me through many a nightmarish Dartmouth exam - in the mid-60's. I already miss Odetta. She will always enrich my life.

I first heard this marvelous album at a "Students for a Democratic Society" fundraising party, in a cool old house in Venice, California, in late 1968. It has haunted me ever since. I've owned it on record, tape and cd, and have played it more times, I think, than nearly any other single album and I still feel just as moved and just as thrilled. Odetta's magnificent voice and spirit will live forever, even tho' this great lady passed today. Thank you, Odetta, for sharing your heart with us.

I have looked for this on cd for years. Odetta's voice is astonishing

There are almost as many kinds of "blues" in the music world as their are troubles to inspire the writing of them. There are black blues from the Delta to Chicago with detours to Harlem, Atlanta and Los Angeles; funeral blues; folk, rock, jazz, classical and opera blues. On this CD, originally issued as an LP in 1962, the great folksinger Odetta, who in that day hung out with Harry Belafonte and performed the songs of Dylan, Guthrie and other folk/protest composers, got with jazz producer Orrin Keepnews to make a blues record for the Riverside label, which was famous for jazz and lesser-known for folk releases. Keepnews put together a backing group featuring trumpet, trombone, clarinet, piano, bass and drums, and Odetta chose a dozen blues numbers that mostly could be performed in an assertively defiant style, at moderate and faster tempos. This album could be subtitled "Fightin' Back at the Blues" because there's no surrender, no defeat. I like it a bunch. I've only had two criticisms of Odetta over her long career in folk music: on many of her albums, she stretched out great three-minute songs to four, and powerful four-minute songs to five, and tended to slow down many songs I felt were better rendered at a quicker pace. No problem like that on this disc. One reviewer here hated the jazz band arrangments, but I felt they contributed a great deal to the enjoyability. I withheld one star only because a couple of the songs are a bit weaker than the rest. Odetta's vocal gift was immense. She is the closest thing to a female Paul Robeson I have ever found. And this CD, while not showcasing Odetta doing the material that made her a folk star, belongs in the collection of every real fan of hers.

Billie Holiday I love, Ella Fitz, too, but when this record came out I was completely blown away. Odetta does the blues like Billie did when she was at her best, she has Ella's heart and she reminds you of Louis, but her style of blues is her own. She takes you down low, brings you up high, reaches into your soul, grabs it, twists it and takes you to places you maybe don't want to go. If the opener, "Hard, Oh Lord" don't make you cry, you ain't human.

The closer, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", is the absolute best version of this song I've ever heard and that's saying something when you consider I've heard versions of it done by Eric Clapton, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, B.B. King and Alberta Hunter among others. They are all great musicians and they all do this song justice, but Odetta really takes you down there, makes you feel, makes you believe. When Odetta does the blues, she is the blues.

Some of my favorite recordings were my two LP recordings of Odetta singing the Blues. This was the first album. The time was the early 1960's and I was living in New York City. Odetta combined everything she had into these old ballads. They spoke to me then and they speak to all of us still. When Odetta passed away recently, I got to thinking about these recordings. My LP records had long since disappeared in various moves. But EBAY provided the solutions where I could once again enjoy Odetta in a digitally remastered disc!

I have looked for this on cd for years. Odetta's voice is astonishing