Various Artists - Honkers & Bar Walkers Vol. 1

Year: 1993
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:34
Size: 141,6 MB
Styles: R&B
Scans: Full

1. Jimmy Forrest - Night Train (3:01)
2. Teddy Brannon - Everybody Get Together (2:26)
3. Teddy Brannon - Mixin' With Dixon (3:17)
4. Cozy Eggleston - Cozy's Beat (2:40)
5. Cozy Eggleston - Big Heavy (Blue Lights Boogie) (2:50)
6. Tab Smith - Because Of You (3:14)
7. Tab Smith - Ace High (2:31)
8. Jimmy Coe - After Hours Joint (3:00)
9. Jimmy Coe - Fast Blues (2:31)
10. Doc Sausage - Sausage Rock (2:37)
11. Fred Jackson - Sentimental Blues (2:41)
12. Fred Jackson - Duck Fever (2:27)
13. Chris Woods - Cool One-Groove Two (3:00)
14. Fats Noel - You Belong To Me (2:59)
15. Fats Noel - Duck Soup (2:19)
16. Fats Noel - Wish You Were Here (2:59)
17. Fats Noel - High Tide (2:29)
18. Paul Bascomb - Pink Cadillac (2:23)
19. Paul Bascomb - Blues And The Beat (3:02)
20. Paul Bascomb - More Blues-More Beat (2:39)
21. Jimmy Forrest - My Buddy (3:02)
22. Jimmy Forrest - Flight 3-D (3:16)

This CD serves as a strong introduction to the tenor sax- (and occasional alto-) oriented R&B music of the early 1950s. It includes a few major hits (most notably Jimmy Forrest's "Night Train" and Tab Smith's ballad feature "Because of You") and six previously unissued alternate takes.

Also heard from are Teddy Brannon, Cozy Eggleston, the underrated Jimmy Coe, Doc Sausage (on 1950's "Sausage Rock"), Fred Jackson, Chris Woods, Fats Noel and Paul Bascomb. Overall, it gives listeners a fine sampling of the United and Regal catalogs. Fun and occasionally riotous music. /Scott Yanow, AllMusic

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Various Artists - Honkers & Bar Walkers Vol. 2

Year: 1993
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 59:53
Size: 137,8 MB
Styles: R&B
Scans: Full

1. Willis Jackson - Pee Wee (Call Of The Gators) (3:09)
2. Morris Lane & His Orchestra - Return Of B.O. Plenty (2:55)
3. Morris Lane & His Orchestra - Gitchie Gitchie-Goomba (2:13)
4. Morris Lane & His Orchestra - Joe's Beat (2:35)
5. Morris Lane & His Orchestra - Blue Jeans (2:19)
6. Panama Francis - Benson Bounce (2:34)
7. Panama Francis - Darkness Of The Delta (3:10)
8. Panama Francis - Bess's Blues (3:11)
9. Panama Francis - 12:00 Jump (2:46)
10. Bill Harvey & His Orchestra - I Love Her (3:07)
11. Bill Harvey & His Orchestra - Walk Right In (2:54)
12. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - Doll Baby (2:20)
13. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - Bean Head (2:52)
14. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - Hard Times (3:01)
15. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - Big G (2:27)
16. Bobby Smith - That's For Sure (2:18)
17. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - That's It (2:44)
18. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - Low Lights (2:43)
19. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - Hi Beam (2:37)
20. Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra - I Got It Bad (2:29)
21. King Curtis - Rush Hour (2:07)
22. King Curtis - Dynamite At Midnite (3:11)

Founded in 1944, New York-based Apollo Records was home for a time to an impressive roster of artists, including saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Arnett Cobb, and Illinois Jacquet. Honkers & Bar Walkers, Vol. 2, a compilation of meat-and-potatoes blues, blues-based swing, R&B, and some early rock & roll, is one of a series of reissues by Delmark of material from the Apollo archives. This volume focuses on some of Apollo's other sax players and sax-based bands and combos. Sequenced chronologically, the set presents rare and previously unreleased sides from eight sessions recorded between 1950 and 1956, opening with Willis Jackson's "Call of the Gators" and concluding with King Curtis' "Dynamite at Midnite."

The riffing and bumptious beats here can blur into an indistinct haze over the course of its 22 tracks, but taken individually, there are a number of fine performances. Highlights include an astonishing artistic and technical display from alto master Hilton Jefferson on the ballad "Darkness on the Delta" - one of four tracks from drummer and bandleader Panama Francis; the unidentified baritone sax player with Bobby Smith on "That's for Sure"; and the prototypical yakety sax of King Curtis' "Rush Hour."

There are also some interesting vocal choruses, notably the lugubrious moaning behind the unidentified bluesy tenor sax on "Hard Times" from Charlie Ferguson & His Orchestra. The hopelessly politically incorrect stereotyping on "Gitchie Gitchie Goomba," one of two tracks from Morris Lane & His Orchestra, is the only lame moment.

The compilation's documentation is helpful: Bob Porter's useful liner notes provide context and attempt to identify as many of the key performers as possible, and the track listings include session dates, master numbers, and take numbers. The remastering is also very good, bringing to life sounds that current players might be able to approximate but never replicate. /Jim Todd, AllMusic

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Various Artists - Honkers & Bar Walkers Vol. 3

Year: 2002
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 64:04
Size: 147,5 MB
Styles: R&B
Scans: Full

1. Eddie Chamblee - Spider Web (2:42)
2. Eddie Chamblee - It Ain't Necessarily Blues (2:42)
3. Eddie Chamblee - Lonesome Road (3:20)
4. Eddie Chamblee - Caravan (2:50)
5. Eddie Chamblee - Come On In (3:15)
6. T.J. Fowler - Take Off (2:49)
7. T.J. Fowler - The Queen (2:51)
8. Sax Mallard With Roosevelt Sykes - Fine And Brown (2:57)
9. Jim Conley With Memphis Slim - The Cat Creeps (3:05)
10. J.T. Brown - Walkin Home (2:39)
11. Eddie Chamblee - Rhaphsody In Purple (3:02)
12. Eddie Chamblee - St. James Infirmary (2:36)
13. Eddie Chamblee - Air Mail Special (3:27)
14. Eddie Chamblee - Walkin Home (3:17)
15. Eddie Chamblee - La! La! La! Lady (2:49)
16. Wild Bill Moore - Dynaflow (2:43)
17. Wild Bill Moore - Blues At Dawn (2:33)
18. Wild Bill Moore - Wild Bill's Bounce (2:45)
19. Floyd Taylor - Bar B Q (2:53)
20. Floyd Taylor - Loch Lomond (2:58)
21. Floyd Taylor - Baritone Boogie (2:54)
22. Swinging Sax Kari - Down For Debbie (2:45)

Before Jimmy Smith reinvented the organ - before the explosion of soul-jazz in the late '50s and early '60s - there were the honkers: big-toned, extroverted, hard-blowing swing/R&B tenor men who believed that instrumental jazz had a right to groove. It is no coincidence that Willis "Gator" Jackson, Wild Bill Moore, Jimmy Forrest, Arnett Cobb, and other honkers of the late '40s and early '50s went on to play soul-jazz in the '60s; honker music, like soul-jazz, swung relentlessly and did so in a very accessible, straightforward, groove-oriented fashion.

Assembled in 2002, Honkers & Bar Walkers, Vol. 3 picks up where its two predecessors left off and spotlights some more recordings from the honker era. Not all of the 22 tracks on this compilation are instrumentals; several are examples of vocal-oriented jump blues. Nonetheless, swing-based instrumentals dominate this 64-minute CD, and ultimately, the spotlight belongs to tenor sax honkers like Eddie Chamblee, Jim Conley, and the abovementioned Wild Bill Moore.

Spanning 1949-1954, these recordings came at a time when Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and other bebop heavyweights were pointing jazz in a more intellectual, less groove-oriented direction. But the honkers didn't want to be abstract and ultra-complex; their roots were Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Jimmie Lunceford, and Louis Jordan, and they didn't believe that jazz was strictly for intellectuals in Sweden.

Honkers valued accessibility, which is why instrumentals like Conley's "The Cat Creeps," Moore's "Dynaflow," and Chamblee's arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Caravan" are as straightforward and uncomplicated as they are. Honkers - like Basie, Lunceford, and Hampton back in the '30s - saw no reason why instrumental jazz couldn't be party music. Those who admired Delmark's two previous Honkers & Bar Walkers collections will be equally appreciative of Vol. 3. /Alex Henderson, AllMusic

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