Travelin' Blues/ I'll Get Along Somehow/ What Do You Know About Love?/ It's The Talk Of The Town/ Nutmeg/ How Deep Is The Ocean?/ You Left Me Forsaken/ Warsaw Concerto, pts, 1 & 2/ So Long/ Make Believe Land/ You Won't Let Me Go/ You Are My First Love*/ It Had to Be You/ You Showed Me the Way/ More Than You Know/ Sail On Blues/ Blue Because of You/ When Your Lover Has Gone/ If You Should Ever Leave/ Copyright On Your Love* (* denotes previously unissued master)
As we all know, Charles Brown has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years with new recordings on labels like Bullseye Blues, Muse and Gitanes Jazz which have been received very well by jazz and blues critics alike - even those who had previously dismissed him as a marginally funkier clone of Nat Cole. This has led to pleasingly comprehensive trawlings of the vaults for vintage material, culminating in 1994's Mosaic box of the complete Philo/ Aladdin recordings and this neat package of the entire Modern Records' sessions from 1945-46. Unfortunately the Biharis, much more so than the Mesners at Aladdin or the Renes at Exclusive, cast Brown and the Blazers as their answer to Cole and his trio (and we're talking 1946 Cole here of "For Sentimental Reasons" fame, not the hip and bouncy trio of the early 40s), resulting in a legacy top-heavy with ballads.
Not blues ballads but Tin Pan Alley standards, although like Billie, Dinah and Ella Johnson, the Three Blazers were always able to infuse with the blues. Happily, there are exceptions; the two original bona fide blues "Travelin'" and "Sail On", a bright 'n' breezy boppy instrumental "Nutmeg", an unusual, but ultimately dreary party piece in "Warsaw Concerto" (which, bizarrely became the Blazers' theme tune), and a handful of interesting jazz covers that must have influenced the young Charles Brown - Buddy Johnson's superb 1940 Decca hit "You Won't Let Me Go", Ella Fitzgerald's "You Showed Me the Way" (1937), "What Do You Know About Love?" (1938) and "So Long" (1940), and "I'll Get Along Somehow" which was a hit in 1937 for Andy Kirk with vocal by Charles' idol Pha Terrell. Most surprisingly, there are no standards associated with King Cole at this time, except for "It Had to be You", but Cole had recorded that in 1942 as an instrumental. We are treated too, to a brace of previously unissued tracks; the historically interesting "You Are My First Love", a song that Charles had crafted well before hooking up with Johnny Moore, and the decidedly lo-fi, but appealingly unpolished "Copyright on Your Love", with Charles playing what sounds like a detuned piano and Johnny Moore taking a purely rhythmic role.
Apart from this last mentioned track, however, Johnny's instrumental contribution is extensive and peerless. Thank you Ace! I like this CD, but I'm a CB freak and a partisan of the jazzy west coast trio style. Other like-minded wimps (are there any? I sometimes think I'm in a minority of one!) can buy without giving it a second thought, whereas all you macho hard blues fans had best wait for Night Train's CD of Exclusive material for your fixes of "Merry Christmas Baby" etc.
Dave Penny