Customer Reviews

Presents Best of Rhythm & Blues

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

 

 

All of these songs are remakes made in the 70s. They are not the original recordings. Sadly, neither this web site's description nor the packaging of the set informs customers of this. The fact that these are remakes becomes clear only after you open the first CD in the set and read the liner notes. Since this web site won't allow returns of opened CDs, I want to warn others so they aren't ripped off too. The remakes aren't even faithful to the R&B genre: many of the arrangements are more 70s Soul than R&B.

I agree with Mr. Gilpin. These R&B greats (Rock & Roll pioneers/influences, all of them) still had it, when they recorded these tracks for Johnny O's Blues Spectrum label in the 70's. Special mention to the late great Amos Milburn...he had suffered a stroke prior to these recordings, and was left paralyzed on his left side. Thus he's only playing right-hand piano, with Johnny Otis covering the bass end of the keyboard. But you know what? Ol's Amos's voice was in great shape, his good right hand was as swingin' as ever, and he sounded like he was having a good time making records again. Damn, why has the musical world forgotten about Amos Milburn - he should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as an "early influence" . The "Jukebox Genie" they called during his hit-making days! All these guys: Pee Wee Crayton, Big Joe, Louis Jordan, etc....they wrote the freakin' bible of rock & roll, before it even had that name!

I note a one star rating for this set because these are not the original late 40's, early 50's recordings. In some ways these are just as viable. They are the original artists rescued and revived by the great J.O. 20 years after their heyday. With Suggie Otis and others in a great back up band, this stuff cooks.
The recordings are now over 30 years old and most of the artists are gone. At the price, this is an incredible set. Get the originals, but get these too. What they show is, notwithstanding their age, the artists still have a swinging message and deliver it in stereo with a band that, for the most part, was there with them in the beginning. I disagree with the one star rating. When you know it is the original artists still rocking their respective classics 20+ years after their original release of the track, you will appreciate where J.O. and all are coming from. Kick back and enjoy. All the tracks rock and are well done.

I bought this set sometime not long after it was issued in the 1990s, just as I was beginning my exploration of old R&B to find out what really was behind the rock 'n' roll I love so dearly as a boy in the '50s. Brought up in white bread America, I had never heard of these artists before, except for Johnny Otis because of his 1958 hit "Willie And The Hand Jive." This set of discs was my introduction to that unknown world hidden from my early childhood during a white New England upbringing. I was undone by these performances. They were all new to me and sent me into musical bliss. I have since collected the originals, but these performances are as fine and so close to the originals that they are hard to tell apart stylistically. What's more, they are more modern recordings and generally higher fidelity than the originals. Think if this as a stage show where the performers are covering themselves. If you don't own any other set of R&B recordings by the artists who were the godfathers of rock 'n' roll, then buy this one. Yes, I prefer to hear and own originals, but before I knew there were originals, I was rockin' to this set.

P.S. It is uncanny that I wrote this review just minutes before finding out that Johnny Otis died at age 90. We have lost a national cultural treasure -- one whom I had the pleasure to meet in 1993 at his health food grocery store/luncheonette/night club near Santa Rose, CA -- the meeting that sent me on my quest to explore R&B's history, much of which he made.

Listening to these songs is an absolute window into the birth of rock and roll

My uncle (a blues/jazz fan) gave me this set probably 20 years ago - he lived in Petaluma CA and probably bought the set at Johnny Otis' club in Sebastopol, Ca. I've listened to it on and off ever since - may not be the originals but the artists definitely "own" the songs. My set is 5 CD's - don't know why amazon says only 2. Love the whole set.