Search - Jimmy Rushing :: Essential

Mr. Rushing, I Presume...

Tom A. Paterson | Houston, Texas USA | 01/18/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ah, at long last. Found him, after searching (if sporadically, still fervently!) for thirty years, this new wwweb user parted the dense digital foliage of the Amazcom, and there he was, Mr. Five by Five, standing on a bright, silvery-new CD, singing those great songs with that great band playing: Pete Johnson, Freddie Greene, Walter Page, Jo Jones, Emmet Berry, Lawrence Brown, Rudy Powell, and Buddy Tate. I must confess that I write these words before ordering the CD--I know this music from the Vanguard album "Listen to the Blues," SRV 73007. I guess V is for vinyl, but for sure the first "7" means "electronically reprocessed for stereo," which was like a "may somehow be harmful to your health" warning of the '60's (1968, in my case). Well, no harm here, and this music, recorded in about 1957 if dusty memory serves, is indeed worth a listen. And another. I've never seen this stuff on anybody else's imaginary desert-island list, and a pro gunslinger-reviewer might not rate so high performances given years after the big bands had mostly died out and were, even where lingering, being deeply and impolitely covered over in the early Elvis/Chuck Berry/Little Richard era. Some might say the style, and the players, were old and tired, and some wear undeniably shows on both men and material in these songs. But something else shows, too--the long years of working at their trade, decades spent playing ensemble music night after night, enduring the hard travelling and some-way making the show, and then making everything fit on stage, and doing it all over and over again, unnumbered times. These great men could still make it all fit, and swing, too, even at this "late date". (Walter Page, credited with inventing the 4/4 "walking" style of bass(!), born in 1900, passed in 1957). To me, the brightest of the great stars here, though by the time of this recording in quite ill health, is Pete Johnson, the boogie-woogie piano great who leaves showing off behind for some measured musical conversation about that travelling and the shows and those nights. When he plays, sometimes I can hear the whooshing and the clickety-clack of "been somewhere, goin" someplace else" and if I close my eyes, I can go along too..."

Great classy, great and classy, swinging like all h*ll

Tony Thomas | SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA | 02/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"John Hammond used his position at Vangugard to make at least two albums worth of Jimmy Rushing with veterans of the Basie Band and members of his generation from KC and the rest of the old Southwest like Sammy Price and Pete Johnson. These are classy records. Mr. Rushing's voice is strong and warm, perhaps losing some of the creamyness he had 20 years before with Basie, but still filled with humor and expression. The pianists here are really the center of the swinging and of course no one swings like Pete Johnson. Buddy Tate and other musicians are also there to make you think and wonder and desire.

The nice thing is that this is pure Rushing, and you dont have to wade through other things to hear him again and again. The good thing about these recordings are that instead of trying to make Rushing sound like he is up to date in 50s and 60s Jazz or a R & B shouter like his friend Joe Turner, this record is designed to reproduce that Kansas City/ Oklahoma/ Texas swing that took Rushing, Basie, Walter Page, Herschel Evans, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Mary Lou Williams, Jay McShann, Charlie Parker, and so many others out of the territories and gave them to the world.For the same Rushing joy, look for the several Rushing vocals on the Buck Clayton breakdowns, jam sessions of Basieites and other Southwest Swing musicians recorded by Hammond at Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s and lead by Basie's featured soloist along with Lester and Herschel, trumpeter Buck Clayton. Oh to have this music playing, sit out on my balcony on a sunny afternoon, with golden wine, a nice antipasto, and warm and loving friend."

Little Jimmy Rushing

Morrissey | Korea | 07/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wonderful stuff. Little Jimmy Rushing is an extremely underrated - if only forgotten - Blues Shouter. This is wonderful music, Jump Blues, that all important stride between Swing and RnB. Highly recommended."