Search - Clarence Williams & Blues Singers :: The Complete Sessions, Vol. 1 (1923-1928)

Sidney leaps in.

Peter Gordon | Canberra, ACT Australia | 07/14/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."