VARIOUS ARTISTS Groovin' the Blues: When Groove Was More Than Just a Habit Bear Family — BCD 17411 Rockin' the Groove: When Groove Was More Than Just a Habit Bear Family - BCD 17212
Due to the World War II shortage of shellac, a resin that was used in the manufacturing of 78 r.p.m. records, major labels such as RCA Victor and Columbia cut way back on recording music that appealed primarily to African Americans and other minority populations. largely limiting their focus to mainstream pop. Independent companies such as Gilt Edge. Juke Box. Philo. Exclusive and Apollo emerged to fill the void and soon dominated the blues and gospel markets.
66 • LIVING BLUES • December 2016
RCA Victor kept strong-selling blues artists Arthur Crudup and Tampa Red on its roster into the early '50s but essentially overlooked the already dominant rhythm and blues style of black popular music until com-pany executive Danny Kessler launched the Groove subsidiary label as a home for R&B in early 1954. (He had earlier produced bluesman Chuck Willis and R&B-inspired pop vocalist Johnnie Ray for Columbia's OKeh subsidiary.) Kessler didn't stick around long, however. and was gone by the end of the year. He was replaced by former Billboard reporter Bob Rolontz, who ran the label until it folded in February of 1957. Groove, according to Bill Dahl. producer and annotator of Bear Family's two separate CD overviews of the label's 178-disc output. "wasn't an immediate success." That's an un-derstatement. Despite some terrific music, the label didn't score a major hit until Mickey and Sylvia's Love Is Strange at the end of 1956. The 33-song Groovin' the Blues, as its title suggests, is filled with blues and blues ballads. Six tracks feature Sonny Terry with hard-punching R&B-style rhythm sections. Brownie McGhee played electric guitar on both sessions and joined his partner vocally on the previously unissued Throw This Old Dog a Bone, a rare early example of the two men harmonizing together. Other highlights include Big Tiny Kennedy's shuffling / Need a Good Woman, on which Mickey Baker plays some Elmore James-like slide guitar. and Bertice Reading's emotive reading of the blues ballad I Washed My Hands. Tracks by Champion Jack Dupree. Buddy Lucas, Clayton Love. Zilla Mays, the Du Droppers and a bunch of others complete the program. Ace New York studio musicians such as Baker and Sam "The Man" Taylor appear on much of Groouin' the Blues and show up frequently on the sister set. There's still plenty of blues on Rockin' the Groove. although the tempos are more up. Particularly
noteworthy are Roy Gaines' newly issued Hoodoo and Paul Williams' Women Are the Root of All Evil and Humpty Dumpty. Especially curious are the instrumental Grab That Thing and Run by Sam "Highpockets" Henderson and His Jumpers—actually a group of West Coast jazz giants led by trumpeter Shorty Rogers and masquerading as jump blues band—and two tracks by the then 11-year-old George Benson. who does the singing but must have left his guitar at home. Lucas, Love, Mays and the Du Droppers are again present, along with numerous others. —Lee Hildebrand
