Hoot & Holler Saturday Night!

Back in the '40s, a variety of things were done with the 12-bar format. Southern country blues (Mississippi, Texas, or otherwise) was '40s blues (as well as '20s and '30s blues) at its most rural, raw and basic; jump blues, on the other hand, had an urban sophistication and a jazz-minded, dance-oriented outlook. Jump blues swung unapologetically hard, and there is plenty of hard-swinging exuberance on Hoot and Holler Saturday Night! This CD focuses on two of the jump blues shouters who recorded for the independent Apollo Records in the late '40s and early '50s: Piney Brown and Eddie Mack. The singers don't perform together, and Hoot and Holler Saturday Night! (which spans 1948-1950) is what is now called a split CD. Neither Brown nor Mack was a huge name in jump blues — neither was as well known as Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, or Wynonie Harris. But both of them had small followings, and both were enjoyably gutsy shouters along the lines of Harris. All 22 of the tracks on this 2002 CD (seven of which were previously released) are examples of early R&B — early as in pre-James Brown, pre-Ray Charles, pre-soul, pre-rock & roll R&B. The jump blues that Brown and Mack performed was part of early R&B (which was called "race music" before producer Jerry Wexler coined the term rhythm & blues in 1949), and back in the day, early R&B was heavily influenced by swing. In fact, one of the musicians who accompanies Mack is tenor saxophonist Willis "Gator" Jackson, a superb jazz improviser. Those who have only a casual interest in jump blues would do well to look for a best-of collection by Turner, Jordan, or Harris, but Hoot and Holler Saturday Night! is easily recommended to the more seasoned jump blues/early R&B enthusiasts.