Sunday Morning Blues - Big Mama Thornton, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Terry, Eddie Taylor

Getting down into the last 10 volumes of the ABC Of The Blues...

Big Mama Thornton
Starting her career in the early 1940s with the Hot Harlem Revue in Georgia. Big Mama was a singer, drummer and harmonica player. She moved to Houston in the late 1940s and started her recording career with the first recording of Hound Dog, made famous by Elvis only five years later. As with many blues artists her career began to flag in the 1950s, she lasted into the early 1960s before moving to San Fransisco and performing mostly in local clubs. Drinking had taken its toll by the 1970s and she released very few records after that. She passed away in 1984 from a heart attack.

Big Mama had a big voice and often backed by a full band, the recordings here are full of Jump Blues as well, another uptempo style. Some of the songs are from later on when she led a larger revue, and some from her earlier solo days. Another artist where the box set nicely pulls from across her career.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Rosetta was mostly a gospel singer, but unique in that she incorporated very early rock styles, mostly boogie and early R&B, into her songs. The combination of the uptempo rhythms and the very traditional gospel singing had made her a hit with secular audiences in the 1930s, though decidedly less popular with the non-secular audience. Her record Strange Things Happening Every Day (1944) has occasionally been credited as the first rock and roll record ever. In the 1940s she was paired with Marie Knight by the record company, performing a common call-response style. In 1951 Knight went solo, and both artists took a downturn in popularity. Tharpe returned to a more strict gospel, not coming back to the more rock style until the resurgence in blues in the 1960s.

Not really blues in the strictest sense, today she'd be placed either with Gospel or possibly with R&B, sometimes called the "first soul sister" her uptempo style is not something the blues would entirely embrace until later on from the start of her career. Still, an important part of the early blues scene as it's a bridge from the classic folk, country and East Coast styles of the 1930s to Rock And Roll from the 1950s. The music here is amazing early 'rock' in every sense of the word.

Sonny Terry
An east coast harmonica player, Sonny primarily stuck with Piedmont Blues, though he didn't limit himself there. His style of harmonica was energetic and often included shouts and hollers of one kind or another. As the blues waned in the 1950s he joined the growing folk movement and continued to make music until the 1980s when he died of natural causes.

His music here is from both earlier Piedmont and later Folk recordings, most of them showcasing his harmonica right up front. Definitely a musician to add if you want solid harmonica playing in your collection. A lot of energy, and sometimes the songs are really one long harmonica solo.

Eddie Taylor
Eddie was one of the many blues guitarists in the Chicago Blues scene. While he never attained stardom like some of his contemporaries, he was integral in the scene. He played accompaniment to a number of records and artists through the years and stayed in the blues scene in Chicago even as the popularity waxed and waned. He passed away in 1985 on Christmas day.

Pulling from the few solo recordings Eddie made while in Chicago, he wasn't as prolific as some contemporaries - at least for solo records. Lots of classic Chicago Blues as expected, with harmonica, and long electric guitar solos. For a cross section of Chicago through a few decades of time this is an excellent cross section.

Next Week - Big Joe Turner, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, T-Bone Walker, and Jimmy Whitherspoon.