78 RPM - Reviews by slholzer

78 RPM - Reviews by slholzer

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
slholzer 7th Apr 2018		78 RPM Guido Deiro - Jazz Band Ball / Ostrich Walk (1918)	Review These are two very manly attempts to translate onto an accordion what the Original Dixieland Jazz Band was doing at about the same time with five guys. As such, they are not entirely successful, but then, they probably were doomed to that from the get go because that was a very ambitious notion. That Guido Deiro and whoever did his arrangements (Deiro himself?) got as close as they did is quite remarkable. Deiro's touch on the accordion is surprisingly light and his rhythm is nimble. He handles the ragtime elements of the tune adroitly. Of the two sides, "Ostrich Walk" is the more successful. "Jazz Band Ball" is marred (at least to my mind) by the recurrent "crashes" at the end of particular phrases. I suspect it is some element of the ODJB's rendition that doesn't translate well (or that I would probably find jarring on their record, too). I would give "Jazz Band Ball" a 7 and "Ostrich Walk" at least an 8. Dyed-in-the-wool accordion fans might well go higher. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 22nd Dec 2016		78 RPM The Art Ray Quintette - The Roving Kind / I'll Never Be Free (1950)	Review This version of "The Roving Kind" from down under is more or less contemporaneous with the hit version by Guy Mitchell in the US. (By way of comparison, I went and found the Mitchell version on YouTube. It was preceded by a bizarre commercial for a product called Poo-Pouri... but I digress.) It is considerably looser in its attack than the Mitch MiIller produced Columbia issue. In fact, after an awkward few bars at the beginning, the Ray Quintette settles into a nice jump groove that closely emulates the early Nat King Cole sound, including group vocals by the musicians interwined with the Lester Sisters efforts. There is a mild disconnect between the band and the Sisters sound, but not enough to spoil the track. It was a pleasant surprise. "I'll Never Be Free" is really more of the Lester Sisters' vehicle than the Ray Quintette's. The accompaniment is mostly limited to sparse support from what sounds like an accordion. The tune is an ordinary ballad and not nearly as interesting as the first side. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 30th Oct 2016		78 RPM Carl Perkins - Let The Jukebox Keep On Playing / Gone, Gone, Gone (1955)	Review Certain artists fail to impress me when they play in a straightforward country music vein, but really light up when they move into the rockabilly style. Bill Haley is one. Carl Perkins is another. "Let The Juke Box Keep On Playing" is Perkins in his straightforward country style. It is no doubt a competent foray in that genre. I will leave it to somebody who's into that to rate it, because I would not do it justice for those people. "Gone, Gone, Gone" is another matter, however. It is Perkins at least halfway to his ultimate rockabilly persona. The rhythm is more urgent, his voice is more dominant, his guitar is more clearly a part of his personal musical voice when he plays this kind of material. I don't know if this track pre-dates "Blue Suede Shoes", but it feels like it does by just a little. It's not as good as it gets, but whoever gave it an 8 was pretty much on the money. It's far better than merely good, and it ought to whet your appetite for more Perkins. 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 6th Apr 2016		78 RPM The Super-Sonics - New Guitar Boogie Shuffle / Sheik Of Araby (1953)	Review This is a solid guitar record. It's probably not very common, so if you're into good guitar work you should pick it up when you see it. I don't know who the Super-Sonics were. I'm guessing they were a studio group, guitars and rhythm. There are clearly some very good guitarists in the lot, and they've had the benefit of a good arranger. The solos do not have the feel of improvised music about them, so the arranger is probably central to the success of this disc. It would be nice to know who he was. Because it's Rainbow, it could be Enoch Light, but I'm sure there must be other candidates. Using Arthur Smith's Guitar Boogie as a starting point was a good plan. The Sheik Of Araby is almost as good material-wise, but the arranger didn't get quite as much out of it. The boogie side is the more fully-realized of the two, which is why I gave it a slightly higher rating. Good songs, good overall sound, nice interplay between the different players. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 6th Apr 2016		78 RPM Esquire Boys - We Drifted Apart / Caravan (1952)	Review I had never encountered the Esquire Boys before this record. I was led to believe they were a rockabilly group, but there is no indication of that on this disc. "We Drifted Apart" is a mediocre sentimental song. It isn't made any better by the Esquire Boys' attempt to emulate the Ink Spots with a lengthy spoken recitation by the deepest voiced of their number. It comes off as an exercise in kitsch. I doubt that I would play this side twice if I owned it. "Caravan", on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise. It is a neatly arranged instrumental, faithful to the spirit of Duke Ellington, but original in its adaptation to the context it finds itself in. Each member of the band gets his chance to make his statement and they all contribute something of interest. In its best moments it reminds me of Les Paul's solo guitar sides on the back of the multi-tracked Mary Ford vocals. Swinging, tasteful, a nice overall sound. I would gladly listen to more of this. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 3rd Apr 2016		78 RPM Mad Milo - Elvis For Xmas / Happy New Year (1956)	Review Break-In Master would perhaps be a better person to review Side A of this disc. The "break in", if you aren't familiar, is a kind of shtick, mostly practiced by disc jockeys, which it would appear Mad Milo is, or aspires to be. The disc jockey-narrator throws out straight lines and then delivers punch lines/answers in the form of snippets from popular recordings. Perhaps the best known examples were on Luniverse. In this case, the disc jockey purports to interview people on the subject of wanting Elvis Presley for Christmas. One of the interviewees is apparently a chicken or possibly a pigeon. When done well, break-ins can be moderately clever, but in my experience they're rarely very funny. I think you can decide for yourself if Side A is worth sampling. Side B is no way related to Side A. The combo appears to include a bongo drummer, who is the main musician heard, playing a hipster style beat rather than any discernible Latin beat. A small group of not particularly sophisticated male vocalists sing a reasonably pleasant New Year song that, as Break-In Master correctly states, has a more than passing resemblance to Come On Get Happy, both melodically and rhythmically. Of course, it substantially pre-dates the Partridge Family. If you liked the Beatles' "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time", you'll probably like this, too. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 1st Apr 2016		78 RPM Chris Powell - Mambo Gunch / Mr. Sandman (1955)	Review In 1951, the mambo was the hot thing in the music world. People went out of their way to record mambo versions of almost everything. (A similar thing would occur in the early 1960s when the Twist hit.) This is a product of that wave. Chris Powell and the Blue Flames sound like a tenor sax and piano quartet with an augmented rhythm section. Most of the melody is carried by the piano with occasional brief interjections by the sax. The obligatory Latin drums are always present and rarely make much room for the piano or tenor to do anything remarkable. This is especially so on "Mambo Gunch", which is an original. The piano is little more than an additional rhythm instrument in that one, the tenor not even that. If you want to sample this, I'd suggest you start with "Mr. Sandman". It's easily the more melodically interesting of the two sides, and it wasn't especially incompatible with the mambo beat. The piano work on it is the highlight of the entire disc. If you're still curious after that, move on to "Mambo Gunch". Remember that the essence of the mambo was aggressive butt wiggling. This recording assumes you want something to do that to. If you're looking to enjoy a mambo from something more at arm's length, get a copy of the "West Side Story" movie and watch the dance fight between the Sharks and the Jets at the neutral gym. That's mambo pop at its peak. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 30th Mar 2016		78 RPM Little Richard - Milky White Way / I've Just Come From The Fountain (1959)	Review Milky White Way is an extremely effective example of Little Richard doing a spiritual. His voice is well-suited to it, he sounds sincere. His approach is dialed back somewhat from the kind of frenetic delivery we are used to from romps like "Tooti Fruiti", but he uses his sense for that kind of thing to ring up a moving performance without going to excess. By comparison, "I've Just Come From The Fountain" is more or less a travesty. It is at least 90% showbiz, and I'm not sure you can give the remaining 10% to spirituality. Little Richard's contributions are nominal, mostly interjected Hallelujah's and an occasional whoop or "oooo". The bulk of the side consists of sections of a choir singing the catch phrase "I've Just Come From The Fountain" back and forth at each other like a riff. It would fit on a Broadway stage with dancers all over the place. "Hello, Jesus...Well, Hello, Jesus, it's so nice to see you back where you belong..." You probably get the picture. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 23rd Mar 2016		78 RPM Piano Red - Rockin' With Red / Red's Boogie (1950)	Review Piano Red comes across in this disc as a competent pianist. It appears that he was playing a "prepared" (like when they put thumbtacks in the front of the hammers to give the piano a tinny sound) instrument. Some people think it gives a honky tonk feel to the music. You either like that or you don't. It happens that I don't. If you do, you might have given this record a higher score than I did. "Rockin' With Red" is a half piano/half vocal novelty style tune of the type that itinerant piano players such as Piano Red is supposed to have been were quite fond. "Rockin" has a thinly veiled sexual connotation, but Red doesn't push it too hard and you can choose to think of it as referring to the music if you want to. Red's Boogie is the more interesting of the two pieces to me, largely because it is all piano. Most of the itinerant piano men were exponents of the boogie sound to one degree or another. "Red's Boogie" is something of a surprise in that the boogie takes an unexpected back seat to a spritely and imaginative ragtimey approach. I think it was a more enjoyable record because of that. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 23rd Mar 2016		78 RPM Amos Milburn - Money Hustlin' Woman / Real Gone! (1947)	Review Amos Milburn was one of the brightest stars in the Aladdin label's stable. This disk is a fairly good example of why that was the case, although I would not say this was one of Milburn's very best recordings. Money Hustlin' Woman is the better of the two tracks for the simple reason that it has a Milburn vocal on it. Both tracks showcase Milburn at the piano with a light touch on the keys and a melodic sensibility that you frequently find among jazzmen but not as often among bluesmen. His vocal and piano work gives at least a veneer of sophistication to what is still fundamentally a blues record. On "Real Gone" he shares the track with an unidentified tenor sax player. The sax has a good mellow tone but isn't very creative. I would have rather had a vocal on this side as well. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 18th Mar 2016		78 RPM Eddy Howard - She's Funny That Way / The Rickety Rickshaw Man (1947)	Review Eddy Howard did not have a remarkable voice, unlike most male singers of the big band era, but he made a good career with what he had. Part of that was due to his skillful use of the vocal trio, which is not in evidence on this disc. Part was due to the a canny choice of songs he sang and making the most of what voice he had. He didn't show off, it wouldn't have worked. He just sang the songs with a modicum of originality and a maximum of necessary correctness. And of course, he had the band, which was a good one and which would contribute occasional brilliant interludes. "She's Funny That Way' is a slightly quirky song that fits Howard's understated but personal style very well. The emotional content, a man musing about why he's lucky enough to have a woman in love with him, comes across in his hands. "The Rickety Rickshaw Man" is a simple story set to music, a description of a romantic character who would probably end up badly in real life, but does all right in the fantasy world of 1940s pop music. I don't think either of these were big hits for Howard but they are solid examples of his work and were certainly not failures. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 3rd Mar 2016		78 RPM Fred Russell - Snowdrops / Keep On March (1922)	Review Bell solo and Xylophone solo records are so anachronistic there may be little point in reviewing them. Nobody records anything remotely like them anymore. People don't even show up to play bells or xylophones on America's Got Talent, although I seem to recall occasional acts of this sort on Ed Sullivan in his day. Still, there's something oddly refreshing about listening to these unsophisticated performances by musicians who obviously had pride in what they did. "Snowdrops" is an attractive tune worth at least one listen. "Keep On March" is less melodic, the more so because the xylophone is such a limited instrument to begin with, but it recorded well in the 1920s and it was rhythmically alluring by the standards of the day, as well. I won't bother to rate these, but when you're tired of hearing the same old blues licks over and over again, pop over to this and give a listen. It'll help purge your synapses and you may find something you didn't expect. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 3rd Mar 2016		78 RPM Hugo And Luigi - Shenandoah Rose / Rockabilly Party (1957)	Review This is a beautifully produced record on both sides. Whether it deserves the high rating it currently has probably depends on your personal taste in music. The A side reminds me of the better examples of Sing Along With Mitch Miller. You may remember his spectacular (if brief) success on records and TV leading a large group of singers in choral renditions of popular songs. (Yellow Rose Of Texas, Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, etc.) If you liked those, you will agree that Shenandoah Rose is an 8.0 or possibly even better. If you didn't, you probably won't agree. "Rockabilly Party" is entertaining, as long as you don't take it too seriously. You can have fun identifying the artists referenced in the badinage between the singers. Here's a tip, though - these supposed hipsters aren't (should say weren't) as hip as all that. It's a well-done (probably unintentionally parodic) snapshot of the time when white cover artists were moving the rock'n'roll sound inexorably into the mainstream. I like it better than the A side, so maybe it is a 9.0 on some scale. I wouldn't class it as any kind of permanent high art, though. It's just good fun. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 3rd Mar 2016		78 RPM Andy Williams - I Like Your Kind Of Love / Stop Teasin' Me (1957)	Review I don't have much quarrel with the ratings already on this disc. "Stop Teasin' Me" isn't much of a song and the production values are minimal. If Andy Williams had accessed his inner Elvis a little more, he might have made more of it, but it probably still would've been mostly fluff. "I Like Your Kind Of Love", on the other hand, was an excellent piece of Andy Williams artistry. I doubt that anybody who heard it back then even paid attention to the mediocre flip side. I know I would have worn out the A side before I ever played the B side again. There's no other way to put it, the A side had "bedroom appeal" - Andy's voice, a viscerally romantic song, and Peggy Powers' unabashedly sensual vocal contribution add up to a hot side. I'm surprised it didn't cause a serious stir back in 1957 among guardians of the purity of the air waves. (Maybe it did. I was only 4 then. Who would have been aware?) I first heard the track on an oldies station here in Indianapolis decades later, and it was an unusually erotic piece of music even then. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 26th Feb 2016		78 RPM Frankie Trumbauer - Riverboat Shuffle / Ostrich Walk (1927)	Review The Trumbauer sides, of which these two are some of the best, were possibly the high point of Bix Beiderbecke's career. He was surrounded by musicians who were sympathetic (i.e. hot oriented) and highly competent in equal measure and he had not yet completely descended into the debilitating lifestyle that would bring on his young death. Some people prefer the free-wheeling atmosphere of the Wolverines, but there is little doubt that except for Bix, most of them were essentially semi-pros, and that the recording quality at Gennett was sub-par. The company with Trumbauer was uniformly faster, the arrangements imaginative, the recording quality better. Bix got the space he deserved. When he took the bait and joined the prestigious Paul Whiteman orchestra, he would find much changed for the worse. His band mates were still top talent, and many of them among the best hot musicians, but the arrangements were not what you would expect from a man who billed himself "The King of Jazz", and space for Bix was extremely limited. The recording quality remained high, but it only served to highlight how little of the real Bix his fans were hearing. If you like hot, you should make it a point to find the entire Trumbauer set. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 14th Dec 2015		78 RPM Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith And His Cracker-Jacks - Who Shot Willie / Express Train Boogie (1951)	Review If you're looking for a good Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith record to introduce him to somebody, you could do a lot worse than this one. Who Shot Willie is a boogie tune with lyrics, sung nicely by Smith. I won't spoil the ending, but you'll see it coming if you listen carefully. As a song, it isn't high art, but it's cute and better than a lot of commercially more successful sides. As music, it's pretty good. Most of the action is carried by a solid fiddler. Express Train Boogie is a great example of a "train song". It's solid boogie and it's almost all done on the guitars. No lyrics, doesn't need any. The rhythm is dead on and the melody is carried surprisingly well by intermittent "train whistle" effects on the guitar strings. This is what earned Smith his nickname. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 13th Dec 2015		78 RPM Arthur Smith And His Cracker-Jacks - In Memory Of Hank Williams / I'm Richer Than You (1953)	Review I'm going to review this record, but I don't intend to rate it. Any rating I would give it would inevitably be very personal to me and might lead others who would actually like it to give it a pass when they shouldn't. In Memory of Hank Williams starts and ends with excerpts of Hank Williams' recording of I Saw The Light. You either like Hank Williams or you don't. The rest of the record is a rhyming tribute to Hank recited by Sonny Smith. This kind of thing used to be fairly common. I never much appreciated the genre. I'd rather hear Hank sing or Arthur Smith play a Williams tune with a dedication to Hank. If you like mawkish sentiment, it's here in abundance. I'm Richer Than You has a distinct feel to it. It is a religious song and both the song and the performance would have been right at home on a 1930's mail order record from Montgomery Ward or Sears. It would have been labelled old time singing even then. It is an anachronism on a 1950s MGM disc, but if you liked The Carter family or Jimmie Rodgers, you'll probably like this, too. There's a nice leisurely banjo solo in the middle that I thought was the best part. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 13th Dec 2015		78 RPM Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith And His Cracker-Jacks - Mr. Stalin You're Eating Too High On The Hog / Banjo Buster (1950)	Review This is another intreresting record by Arthur (Guitar Boogie) smith and his Cracker-jacks. Mr. Stalin, You're Eating Too High On The Hog is a topical piece with a vocal by Arthur Smith and lively accompaniment by the Cracker-Jacks. The main subject seems to be the perception that Stalin was over-reaching in his dealings with the rest of the world, but there is some irony in the fact that he was, at the time, engaged in deliberately starving millions of Russians as part of his pogroms. I doubt that many people in the US knew that at the time, though. It's a nice musical artifact of the early Cold War. Banjo Buster is just what the title suggests: a rollicking, beautifully executed banjo solo. We need to hear these kinds of things now and again to remind us that there is so much more to the banjo than Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey sung by some guy in a straw hat and garters, Steve Martin would appreciate this one. I hope he has it in his collection. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 13th Dec 2015		78 RPM Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith And His Cracker-Jacks - Conversation With A Mule / Mandolin Boogie (1950)	Review This is a really nice novelty record by Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith. The Cracker-Jacks are only listed on one side, but I think they're present on both. Conversation With A Mule is probably badly dated now, but when this was made it I think it still reflected the harsh realities of share cropping in the South. Smith doesn't so much sing it as recite it, rather in the manner of Tex Ritter, and he does it with supreme irony. I like his delivery. It's a considerably better than average country record. Mandolin Boogie is a rare romp on the mandolin. As a boogie piece it is only so-so, but that can probably be said of more than half of the country tunes that were labelled this or that Boogie over the years. It's better on that score than many I've heard. As a mandolin solo it's adventurous and masterfully played. On that basis the record as a whole is well above average. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 5th Oct 2015		78 RPM Harry (The Hipster) Gibson - Riot In Boogie / Stop That Dancin' Up There (1944)	Review Harry (The Hipster) Gibson was a colorful character on the New York scene. H fit in well with the exaggerated hipsterism of Cab Calloway, Slim Gaillard and the like. He was a competent jazz pianist as is well demonstrated on "Stop That Dancin' Up There" where he delivers a lightly swinging and very melodic solo between signature comedic vocal choruses. If you're not familiar with him, this is an excellent introductory piece. "Riot In Boogie", on the other hand, is probably not. Although boogie-woogie featured prominently in his act, it wasn't really Gibson's forte. If you're looking for high art in the genre, you'll need to look elsewhere. For sheer poetry in boogie, check out Jimmy Yancey. For house-rockin' excitement check out any of the so-called Boogie Woogie boys (Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis). Then come back to this and you'll see what I mean. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 5th Oct 2015		78 RPM Joan Brooks - Someday Somewhere / What A Difference A Day Made (1944)	Review I am always amazed at how many really great female vocalists there were in the 1940's. I had never heard Joan Brooks before until I clicked on BigBadBluesMan's YouTube post of "What A Difference A Day Makes". Wow! A beautiful voice singing a beautiful song in a sensitive, beautiful way. I'll be watching for more of her work, for sure. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 4th Oct 2015		78 RPM Elmore James - Baby, What's Wrong / Sinful Woman (1953)	Review It's almost a sin that the backup musicians are not identified on this disc. We would not be wrong to say they rock on "Baby, What's Wrong" but those of us with longer memories would also rightly say they swing, and swing hard. This must have been a juke box hit. It's eminently danceable. Elmore James proves he has chops on the guitar by staying with this bunch, particularly the bad ass sax man. You'll be surprised how much space they give that sax, but you won't begrudge a second of it. He's hot and soulful. It sounds like the same bunch of guys on "Sinful Women", but they relax back into a more usual blues groove for that track. It shouldn't be a letdown, but some how it is. If you're going to listen to both sides, do yourself a favor and listen to "Sinful Women" first. It's a better than average blues track by a better than average blues band and it deserves to be appreciated for that. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 27th Sep 2015		78 RPM Thelma Carpenter - Bill / Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (1946)	Review These two songs from "Show Boat' show Thelma Carpenter off somewhat better than her debut Majestic record (#1023) did. They are more even from the engineering point of view, and Earl Sheldon's orchestra provides the accompaniment on both. The dramatic subtext of "Show Boat' would seem to be Carpenter's meat. She reaches for and largely achieves a Billie Holiday sound on "Bill". She lets it go in the more aggressive environment of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and returns to her more typical dramatic-emotive style. It ought to have worked out fairly well, but belting was apparently not in her playbook on this day, and the last bars are disappointingly anti-climactic as the band builds through a surprisingly fiery trumpet solo and a stirring arrangement to a big finale in which she seems unwilling or ill-prepared to join. It doesn't say much for the A&R man on the session that he left the nominal star of his recording at the mercy of such a huge disconnect with her backing and wouldn't or couldn't work around it to savean otherwise promising record. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 27th Sep 2015		78 RPM Thelma Carpenter - Just A-Sittin' And A-Rockin' / Hurry Home (1945)	Review Thelma Carpenter was a competent vocalist somewhere between Ethel Waters and Ivie Anderson. She delivers attractive renditions of Duke Ellington's "Just A-Sittin and A-Rockin'" and of "Hurry Home", although I think they would have been more attractive with a better engineer on hand. Some of her softer moments are swallowed up on this recording. The Ellington side is the better of the two, thanks largely to the suitable and well-executed accompaniment by Earl Sheldon's orchestra. The Deep River Boys and Bud Freeman AHO are virtual non-factors on "Hurry Home". The Deep River Boys provide a few organ-chords behind Thelma and then largely disappear. Their space would have been better allotted to wider and more imaginative use of the Freeman orchestra. Freeman provides a single microscopic sax solo but fails to leave an impression. Even a sax great like Freeman can't be expected to do much rhythmically or melodically in three or four notes. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 27th Sep 2015		78 RPM Louis Prima - Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well? / You Gotta See Baby Tonight (Or You Won't See Baby At All) (1945)	Review By the time this record was made, Louis Prima had pretty much evolved the approach for which he would be known throughout the rest of his career: high energy swing-oriented music laced with irreverent or nonsense lyrics sung by Prima and sometime by his female sidekick, who would eventually, and spectacularly, be Keely Smith. "Who Threw The Whiskey In The Well" pretty much fits that mold, and is an okay but unexceptional example of his usual work. "You Gotta See Baby Tonight...", on the other hand, is a stellar example of what Prima could do when he settled down a little bit and let his softer side out. He plays a beautiful extended trumpet solo wrapped around a pensively delivered vocal and some sensitive guitar work. The band's pianist also contributes a notable solo. None of contains even a smidgeon of Prima's usual raucousness and the track almost glows as a result. I would have bought this one for the B side and it probably would have set me up for disappointments well into the future, in spite of my liking the basic Prima show as well as most people. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
slholzer 27th Sep 2015		78 RPM Cootie Williams - Cherry Red—Blues / Things Ain't What They Used To Be (1945)	Review Cootie Williams and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson may have been riding the historic coat tails of other giants here, but they had the chops to do it and the result was an excellent double-sided swing disc. Vinson does a spot-on imitation of Joe Turner's blues shouting on Turner's own "Cherry Red" and then carries the same approach over to Ellington's "Things Ain't What They Used To Be". Williams provides solid horn solos over an Ellington-flavored orchestra. It's really a shame that Vinson never made it into the Ellington stable. They could have done a lot of great records together. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?