Atlantic Blues: Piano

by

Various Artists

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Most various-artists collections are hit-or-miss, and even the best of them can be a little unsatisfying to listen to straight through because the styles are so diverse, or weak/poorly recorded live tracks are tossed in with more polished studio recordings. This collection is an exception -- even though it includes a wide range of blues pianists, from the New Orleans parade rhythms of Professor Longhair to the barrelhouse style of Meade Lux Lewis to the mellow blues of Van "Piano Man" Walls, it doesn't feel like a mishmash of pianists whose records just happened to be owned by the same label. Not a weak track in the bunch. As someone who wore out the first Blues Brothers album as a teenager, I was pretty blown away by Floyd Dixon's "Hey Bartender" and Willie Mabon's "I Don't Know."

One complaint: no booklet information about personnel and recording dates in the copy I bought, which was probably a reissue. (I had an earlier version on cassette, which had good liner notes and info.)

In his liner notes to this Atlantic Records piano blues anthology, "Living Blues" magazine editor Jim O'Neal writes that "The Atlantic team knew what they liked; they also knew what sold." It's instructive, then, that six songs from the original vinyl release -- two each by Little Brother Montgomery and Ray Charles, one each by Professor Longhair and Joe Turner -- remain off the CD reissue 11 years later. Musical archeology only sells so far.

This carelessness of sequencing (two songs each from Jimmy Yancey and Meade Lux Lewis would have made their cases) is part of why "Atlantic Blues Piano" is weakest among the label's four volume blues series despite some exceptional performances. You get some of blues' finest pianists and samples of native city styles (Chicago, Kansas City, New Orleans. But the artists are caught either pre-ascension (Charles on a 1953 audition tape of Lowell Fulsom's "Low Society," Amos Milburn quarterbacking Texas Johnny Brown's jumpin' "After Hours Blues" with a superb intro) or post-peak (Yancey, heard without "Mama," heard here two months before his death with a somber "Mournful Blues" and salute to fellow piano great Pinetop Perkins).

O'Neil acknowledges this in his liner notes. "Most of the pianists represented on this volume were already well-established recording artists by the time they went into the studio for Atlantic," he wrote."...their Atlantic sessions were in one way or another intended to recapture or restore past glory."

That said, enough excellent music remains on this collection to earn partial recommendation. The New Orleans piano style is well-represented by Longhair's signature song "Tiptina," while Longhair disciple Dr. John rocks on a too-funky "Junco Partner" from 1971's "Gumbo." Turner (with ace Kansas City pianist Pete Johnson) provides some classic early R&B with 1956's "Roll 'Em Pete" while Lewis (helped by a young John Scofield on guitar) gallops through "Fore Day Rider" and the ballad "My Chile."

"Atlantic Blues: Piano" is worthwhile for completists, but unfulfilling for casual listeners. Blues or R&B piano fans would do better reading the artist lineup, then finding a full album from that performer.