Music » Jump Blues Music

Band leader and lounge kingpin Louis Prima will be best be known for the classic, "Just a Gigolo," immortalized by David Lee Roth for a whole new generation of swingers. But Prima's output went much further: in his day he recorded for Capitol, acted in a movie or two, even owned a golf course. Prima's genius is infectious: lounge, swing, and Dixieland all fuse together into medleys that are fun, dance-worthy, and upbeat. Prima's duets with Keely Smith are the obvious highlights here: "That Ol' Black Magic," "Hey Boy! Hey Girl!," and "I've Got You Under My Skin" are essential Prima tracks. Sure, the cheese factor occasionally runs high, but it is a fun trip. --Jason Verlinde

With 20 originals from Louis Jordan's '40s and early '50s heyday at Decca Records, Best Of is the definitive collection of the blues-jazz bandleader-singer's work. Most of the cuts are up-tempo jumpers with lyrics that tell sly tales of the black experience in midcentury: the house-partiers in "Saturday Night Fish Fry" end up in the slam, while the institution of marriage occasions a warning in "Beware." Jordan also dabbled in Latin and Brazilian rhythms on "Run Joe" and "Early in the Morning," and even added a major ballad, "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'," to the standard repertoire. A major influence on Ray Charles, James Brown, and Chuck Berry, Jordan is a must-hear. --Rickey Wright

Release Date: 1991-07-01, Audio CD, Ojc

Array

Release Date: 1993-09-18, Audio CD, Delmark

The back of this two-CD set may say "File under Lounge," but frankly, lounging will be the very last thing on your mind once you put Louis and Keely on. It's simply impossible to stand still while the duo, backed by Sam Butera and the Witnesses, gets going. When Keely sings "Hey boy, I can really cook," there's a tiny chance she's talking about something that takes place in the kitchen, but the galloping bass line behind her says that she really belongs to the dance floor. Whoo-hee! Cole Porter's "Just One of Those Things" is taken at a frenetic pace--do these people ever pause to breathe? The bulk of this collection was recorded between 1957 and 1962, and it makes for an explosive document of a now-gone era when men in sharp suits hung out at the Copa, babes with pointy rocket-launcher breasts at their arms. The sheer effortlessness of it all is still supremely exciting. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Release Date: 1991-08-13, Audio CD, Capitol

Listen to Hipster's Holiday and you'll feel like you just spent Christmas in the coolest nightclub on Earth. "Silent Night" swings in Tim Fuller's Vegas-lounge setting while Lambert, Hendricks & Ross lay on the playful jazz vocals in "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie" and John Greer dictates that "We Wanna See Santa Claus Do the Mambo." And so it goes, 18 totally hip tracks with lots of dancing opportunities--and some comic relief from Pearl Bailey with "Five Pound Box of Money" and Eartha Kitt from 1953, making history with her now classic "Santa Baby." The showstopper, however, in a lineup that exudes cool, from Miles Davis and Lionel Hampton to the Marquees, Lena Horne, and Mabel Scott, comes from Louis Armstrong and his Commanders. Their romping versions of "Cool Yule" and "'Zat You, Santa Claus" are must-hears for any kid. Armstrong again conquers with his All Stars in a lively panoramic view of "Christmas Night in Harlem." If this dynamo set can't jump-start your holiday season, your battery might be dead for good. --Martin Keller

Release Date: 1991-07-01, Audio CD, Ojc

Simply put, LaVern Baker, one of the greatest vocalists in Atlantic Records' history, could sing anything, as she proved again and again during a seven-year run of chart hits that began with 1955's "Tweedle Dee" and culminated in 1963's "See See Rider." Her material, supplied by many of the era's greatest songwriters (Leiber-Stoller, Pomus-Shuman, and many others), encouraged her to draw on her gospel and big band backgrounds in exploring the emotional subtext of serious ruminations on life such as "Saved" and the powerful "Soul on Fire." The latter was her first Atlantic single, and on it she used virtually every vocal technique at her command to bring out the slow-burning sensuality of the Ahmet Ertegun-penned gem of erotic longing. Thus was notice served, and, in the glorious years that followed, Baker cut a swath wide enough that her name and label-mate Ruth Brown's were spoken in the same reverent terms, sotto voce. The 20 tracks here remain as vital today as they were indispensable to the music's evolution in her own time. --David McGee