The word "
bop" shows up in as many different genres with as many different meanings as the word "boogie." Boppin' the Blues is the name of a
rockabilly tune by
Carl Perkins, a
jazz composition by
Ray Brown, and is the title of several albums by artists as diverse as
Carl Perkins with
NRBQ,
Miles Davis, and
Nat King Cole. The budget Charly label has sown even more potential confusion by issuing two very different samplers that are both called Boppin' the Blues. Not to be confused with the
rockabilly collection of the same name, Charly's 1996 rhythm & blues retrospective covers the Afro-American wing of the Sun Records story with dynamite jams from such ball-busting rockers as
Ike Turner,
Little Milton, and
Doctor Ross, along with
Billy "The Kid" Emerson,
Little Junior's Blue Flames,
Elven Parr & the Groove Boys, and a whole lotta other people you might not yet be hip to. With the possible exception of
Earl Hooker's jazzy take on "The Hucklebuck" (a
pop hit based on
Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time"), any connection between
jazz-
bop and
blues exists here in the same sort of joyously-impossible-to-fully-delineate stylistic undercurrents that characterized urban Afro-American music during the late 1940s and early '50s, when modern working
jazz musicians regularly sat in with rhythm & blues shouters. Like any other part of the vernacular, "
bop" was a versatile word.
Doctor Ross, whose "Boogie Disease" treads the same turf traversed by young
John Lee Hooker, sings an ode to his "Bebop Gal" that sounds like a visitation from
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and
Rosco Gordon's "Bop with Me Baby" bears more than passing resemblance to
Hank Ballard's "Work with Me Annie." This collection maps the musical territory where bopping means rocking, rolling, cooking and cutting loose. ~ arwulf arwulf, All Music Guide
![Various Artists - Boppin' the Blues [Charly]](http://cc.sacdstatic.com/200/drd900/d914/d914253rhvi.jpg "Various Artists - Boppin' the Blues [Charly]")
