5 Songs Friday, March 14, 2025

This is a particularly fun batch of records

Blind Lemon Jefferson – “Right of Way Blues” 1927 available on King of the Country Blues. There are a number of stories about why and how Blind Lemon Jefferson died in 1929 at the age of 36 but what’s important to us now is that he lived. More than lived, he recorded dozens of tracks to let us still hear that high, plaintive voice he used to deliver some of the most familiar lines in blues history. This song, like many of his songs, mixes and matches lyrics that don’t always add up to a narrative but do add up to a feeling. The second verse foreshadows “Mystery Train,” the song we all know from Little Junior Parker, Elvis Presley, the Band, and Greil Marcus’ classic book. All of the verses are tied together by Jefferson’s concerns about a woman or women – she’s calling him, she’s on that train, she’s spending his money, she (or the woman he asks about her) is hesitating to answer his knock, he’s looking for her everywhere, and he’s warning her that plenty of other women will take him if she rejects him. To our modern ears, the 1920s Texas straight-forward singing style doesn’t have the emotional signifiers we’re used to hearing in blues, but I think he lets us know the urgency and the confusion he’s facing in these situations. Also, this record has a rarity in 1920s blues, a whole verse of solo guitar at the end, which is nice to hear.

Louis Armstrong – “Maybe It’s Because” 1952 from Satchmo Serenades. There are dozens of distinctive proofs that Louis Armstrong was the world’s greatest jazz singer. This is another one. I don’t know anything about this song besides this performance – I think it was written by a team with the last names of Scott and Ruby, but the Internet is letting me down for further research. I do know it’s a fairly typical and sweet melodic love song of it’s time, presumably the 1930s. Armstrong turns it into a masterpiece. The trumpet cadenza that opens the record. The lilting moan of a hum that follows. The way he stretches out the last syllable of the word “because.” The light vibrato on the word “through” followed by a brief delirious scat. The way he pulls back on “Tells a story.” The careful, slow-walking feel through the whole bridge, with extra vibrato on all the key words. The incandescent trumpet break after the third verse. The glorious scatting at the end. And heck, the orchestra behind him sounds great, too, offering gentle support and occasional brassy exuberance that never overwhelms. Simply a stunning record.

Count Basie and Joe Williams – “The Come Back” 1956 from Count Basie Swings Joe Williams Sings. Here we have another terrific jazz singer giving us his take on the blues. Heck, this song even starts with the opposite of the train verse in Blind Lemon Jefferson’s song above; this time the man is coming home on the train, and his girl “is gonna jump and shout” when she sees him step off at the station. Williams gives a clinic on the variety of ways a jazz singer can tackle the blues – he offers slow, staccato lines, soaring jumps, dirty growls, and swinging slides. Basie’s orchestra, as ever, leaves plenty of open space in between the definitive powers of its full sound. I’m not sure who plays the saxophone solo about 2/3 of the way through – my guess is it’s Frank Foster, but it could be Frank Wess. It’s a nice contrast to Williams’ singing, running through the changes with less emotive power but plenty of gusto. This song was originally by Memphis Slim, but I don’t know that version. I’m sure it’s terrific. This version is stunning.

Robert Glasper – “Everybody Love” 2022 from Black Radio III. Robert Glasper is a jazz pianist who has made it his mission this century to connect all forms of African-American musics. The three albums so far in his Black Radio series have brought him in contact with dozens of major musicians from r&b, hip hop, jazz, and other worlds. This cut features Musiq Soulchild and Posdnuos from De La Soul. It’s the sonic equivalent of about five layers of comfortable blankets on a cold night, with Glasper’s electric piano, a gently thumping bass, shimmering drum beats, backing vocals, and Musiq’s smooth singing. While there is talk here of making connections, the love being championed is more of a universal concept – “It’s that moment when you realize that the thing that got you here / It’s the only thing that gets you beyond the fear.” Posdnuos raps over a slightly funkier beat, and drops a reference to Radio Raheem from Do the Right Thing that went over the head of the contributor at LyricFind who interpreted “Raheem” as “Barahir.” Guess they wanted to be culturally sensitive. Glasper’s electric piano solo is quite nice at the end, too.

Billy Stewart – “Why Am I Lonely” 1974 from Cross My Heart. Stewart had died in a car crash (along with several members of his band) four years before this album was released. I can’t remember ever even seeing this collection of previously unreleased material before, and that’s after spending basically five days a week for 42 years in record stores. I’m not sure what year he recorded this particular song – it sounds like 1966 or 67, but you never know how up to date things were. It’s an intriguing song with Stewart bemoaning his loneliness despite having a girl he’ll never never never let go who treats him nice and she’s told him he was her only man. Frequent key changes might reflect the turmoil in his heart as he tries to figure this conundrum out. Stewart was a fantastic singer, by the way. I love the way he hangs behind the beat and the way he uses emphatic syncopation on the “never never never” line.