FURTHER MELLOW CATS ’N’ KITTENS: Hot R&B and Cool 1946-1951 Ace CDCHD 1322 (70:47)

LUKE JONES: Rompin’ The Boogie/ Jump Me Some Boogie; IRA AMOS: I Was Too Blind To See*/ Blue And Disgusted; GORY (sic) CARTER: Seven Days/ Four O’Clock In The Morning*; AUSTIN McCOY: Happy Pay Day Pt 1; THREE BITS OF RHYTHM: The Man That Comes To My House; JOHNNY ALSTON: Everything Will Be Alright; RED MACK: Worried Life Blues/ Mean Ole Frisco*; P.K. JOHNSON: Sunset Romp; : Motel*; DUKE HENDERSON: Trouble In Mind/ In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down; JIM WYNN: Cold Blooded Boogie; FELIX GROSS: Mary You Are Mine Pts 1 & 2/ Forever On My Mind*; RAMP DAVIS: Baby Sue (aka Mary Sue); HADDA BROOKS: Why Did You Say We’re Through*; EFFIE SMITH: Be On Your Merry Way*; HERB FISHER: Wine, Wine, Wine/ Don’t Want Nobody Else; ‘BEBOPPER LULU’ (unknown artist): Mellow Scat*; TEDDY BUNN: In The Oven* (* = previously unissued)

This is the fifth of Ace’s ‘Mellow Cats ‘N’ Kittens’ series sourced from the Modern catalogue and presenting rarities, oddities, singletons, and not a few gems, a good many of them previously unissued. Nine of the 25 tracks here are showing their fair faces to the world for the first time. These tend to confirm that rejection was most often for commercial rather than musical reasons. By the late forties, it was easy to record more material than you could issue.

The trio number by Hadda Brooks survives on the reverse of a Smokey Hogg acetate. It is utterly beguiling, and features a terrific guitar solo withal. Its presence alone will be a sufficient reason for purchase for Hadda’s fans. The unknown female artist who has been dubbed ‘Bebopper Lulu’ made four sides, which were allocated matrix numbers but, unlike those for the last two volumes, these notes do not quote them, so I cannot report the recording date. This is the first to be issued and is essentially a instrumental with scat vocal, featuring tenor, trumpet, and alto sax. With an excellent swinging drummer, references are largely confined to the very derivative alto player. Everything else is first-rate if not quite at the same level as the Teddy Bunn title, which was an un-numbered warm up at Duke Henderson’s Modern session. With Al Wichard on drums and Jay McShann at the piano, it is a gorgeous boogie.

I think Duke Henderson’s only Modern coupling is itself making its reissue debut here. He is a major league and is heard reprising two blues standards. Accompaniment is top notch, with McShann at the top of his game. Curiously the guitar, if present at all on the vocal sides, is inaudible and honestly not much missed. Jimmy Witherspoon is represented by ‘Motel’ from his first Modern session. In this case the reasons for rejection are clear. It’s a Latin novelty with banal ‘risqué’ lyrics. It may have worked as a humorous interlude in live performance but on record it could be by anyone. Even Buddy Floyd’s tenor solo is uninspired. Spoon fans will want to hear it nonetheless.

Four of the six Modern sides recorded by Luke Jones are here, two under Red Mack’s name, one of them previously unissued, which leaves one unissued side outstanding. ‘Mean Ole Frisco’ lopes along easily. Jones wails away in customary fashion and the unidentified guitarist shows himself a master of obbligato. Chuck Barksdale’s bass solo is a surprise. If the pianist heard on this session is really Dorothy Broiles we have another name for an ‘invisible woman’ storming through ‘Romping The Boogie’.

Singing drummer Felix Gross is another whose career on Modern was very short, and produced only one issued disc, a two-parter of which this is said to be the first issue in ‘its unedited, full-length form’. It has gloriously blue tenor sax and trumpet solos. The three unissued sides previously known were rescued on CDCHD 1140 and 1174 in this series. ‘Forever On My Mind’ was not allocated a matrix number and was not previously known.

Herb Fisher is not a very original or distinctive vocalist, though he was a draw on Central Avenue in his day, but the guitarist heard on ‘Don’t Want Nobody Else’ and (notwithstanding discographies) the tenor sax extensively featured on ‘Wine, Wine, Wine’ are well worth the space. The Three Bits Of Rhythm are not in ‘The Blues Discography’. They are a jive group in the Spirits of Rhythm tradition, who specialised in risqué lyrics, which they do delightfully and with considerable musicality. Their complete Modern output is included in this series of CDs. Tony Rounce here reports their names as Theodore Rudolph, Solomon Langenour and Bruce Williams, without assigning roles but has previously noted the first two as guitarists, with Rudolph on bass. Jazz discographers name the excellent pianist as Tommy Agnew. I can’t hear any guitar at all on this one.

Pete Johnson’s ‘Sunset Romp’ (a.k.a. ‘Swingin’ The Boogie’ and ‘High Tower Drive’) appears here with an extra drum track said to ‘drive Johnson’s boogie riffing even harder’. How can that possibly be if the extra drums were not in the studio? Actually the tenor sax is overdubbed too, so this is an early example of an assembly job, here designed, I suppose, to turn a ‘jazz’ performance into an ‘r&b’ performance. Ira Amos, represented here by one issued and one unissued performance, was credited as ‘New Orleans Slim’ on Octive, a possible clue to his origins, says Rounce. So is his vocal resemblance to late Lonnie Johnson. Presumably the composer credits to ‘Lonnie Amos’ are just a coincidence. Definitely from New Orleans is Ramp Davis, really bassist George Alexander (though ‘The Blues Discography’ has him as George Miller and I don’t really know who is right). This was first issued by Ace on an ‘80s LP. Leroy Rankin’s tenor solo is a gutsy joy.

I’ve probably said enough for those to whom this is indispensable to have their purchasing intentions confirmed, as if they needed me to tell them. Should anyone reading this be unsure, it’s a treasure chest of surprises and curiosities, absorbing from beginning to end. I only hope there will be a sixth volume.

Howard Rye