Search - Jimmy Rushing :: Everyday I Have the Blues / Livin the Blues

It's 1967, the winter before the summer of love. And swing-era-born blues shouter Jimmy Rushing's "Berkeley Campus Blues" sported this observation: "We've got sit-ins, drop-outs, and freedom fighters, too/ We've got sit-ins, drop-outs, and freedom fighters, too/ We've got kooks and politicians--everything but kids in school." Rushing laid Everyday I Have the Blues and Livin' the Blues to wax over two days in February of '67, and both cuts appear in their entirety on this spectacular CD. As always, Rushing is a topnotch, peerless shouter, belting it out with a charging band led by arranger Oliver Nelson and fronted by trumpeter Clark Terry and trombonist Dicky Wells. On organ and piano there's Hank Jones, filling the alleys and spaces between Rushing's full-bodied vocal attack. The whole affair is surprising, especially considering that upon their release, these LPs were presented by Impulse!, then known as home to the late-Coltrane-inspired energy jazz of Pharoah Sanders and others. Rushing's seemingly apolitical blues are an anomaly considering the intense political nature of jazz at the time (and the idea that lots of the swing-era cats were somehow no longer cool), but it's vital to remember how powerfully Rushing transcends genres and eras. This is jumping, stirring blues and snappy swing at once. And if anything, Rushing was just a touch old school, expressing in "Berkeley Campus Blues" the idea that the right to education--for African Americans especially--was hard fought and worthy itself of some curricular attendance. Whether there's consensus on the point or not, Rushing's blues is some of the best, and he shines brightly here. --Andrew Bartlett