1032 - Mojo 11. Mose Allison - Back Country Suite (1957)

Track Listing

1. New Ground
2. Train
3. Warm Night
4. Blues
5. Saturday
6. Scamper
7. January
8. Promised Land
9. Spring Song
10. Highway 49
11. Blueberry Hill
12. You Won't Let Me Go
13. I Thought About You
14. One Room Country Shack
15. In Salah

Review

A cool jazz album by amazing pianist/vocalist Mose Allison. The music is pretty nifty and the album is mostly instrumental, but it is when Mose's voice comes out in tracks like Blues that it really shines.

Mose's voice is sweet and light and sounds pretty young indeed, put together with his amazing piano playing it really brings another dimension to what would already be a great album.

The recording is crisp and clean for the standards of the time, it has been very well remastered and the available versions are really something. It has a kind of smoky nightclub feel to it, and again Mojo surprises us with great stuff.

Track Highlights

1. Blues
2. One Room Country Shack
3. New Ground
4. Scamper

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

He has been called "the William Faulkner of Jazz". His music has influenced many blues and rock artists, including The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, John Mayall, J. J. Cale and The Who, who made "Young Man Blues" a staple of their live performances. Blue Cheer also recorded a version of his song "Parchman Farm" on their debut album. The Yardbirds and The Misunderstood both recorded versions of his song "I'm Not Talking".

Mose doing a cover of You Are My Sunshine at age 83:

1031 - Mojo 10. Nat "King" Cole - Love is the Thing (1957)

Track Listing

1. When I Fall In Love
2. Love Letters
3. Stardust
4. Stay As Sweet As You Are
5. Where Can I Go Without You
6. Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much
7. Ain't Misbehavin'

8. When Sunny Gets Blue
9. I Thought About Marie
10. At Last
11. It's All In The Game
12. Love Is The Thing

Review

The king of mid-50s easy listening... Nat "King" Cole gives an album of sweet superficiality which is nonetheless very pleasant to listen to. There is nothing particularly original about it, a lot of the songs are overplayed and some performances don't bring much new to the song.

What sets this album apart from the usual dross is Nat's voice which is velvety to the extreme and as the first track comes on there is almost a chill up the spine... unfortunately the rest of the album doesn't really live up to that first track.

With repeated listening the album doesn't get much better, unfortunately, it is still good but there is very little to develop or mature in our ears with repeated listenings. However it is what it is and makes no bones about that, it does not want to be anything other than easy listening and for that we have to admire it and also Nat's incomparable voice.

Track Highlights

1. When I Fall In Love

2. Stardust

3. When Sunny Gets Blue

4. Ain't Misbehavin'

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Originally released by Capitol Records, the album has been re-issued by various companies in alternate forms. A 1996 re-release on 24-kt gold foil included three bonus tracks, the same tracks incorporated in the re-titled 1991 CD Love Is the Thing (And More). In 2007, The Collectors' Choice label reissued the album in conjunction with the final Cole/Jenkins collaboration on a single disc entitled Love Is the Thing/Where Did Everyone Go?

When I Fall in Love:

Mojo 9. Miles Davies - Birth of the Cool (1957)

See review number 12.

1030 - Mojo 8. Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (1956)

Track Listing

1. You Don't Know What Love is
2. St. Thomas
3. Strode Road
4. Morirat
5. Blue 7

Review

Another great, great album. Sonny Rollins was the contender to the title of best Jazz sax player against the also great John Coltrane, but I must say that at this point in time Rollins was probably the superior one. This being before the great works of Coltrane, particularly A Love Supreme.

Everyone knows St. Thomas, even if they don't know they know it and even if they've never heard of Rollins before. However the album is packed full of great tracks, in fact all of them are pretty awesome. However, other than St. Thomas, Strode Rode has to be the definite stand-out track here.

So really enjoyable and flawlessly cool music by one of the immortal truly great virtuosos of the tenor sax. This is really an album that you need to have even if you are only very marginally interested in jazz music.

Track Highlights

1. St. Thomas
2. Strode Road
3. You Don't Know What Love Is
4. Morirat

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

"St. Thomas" is a calypso-inspired piece named after Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands. The tune is traditional and had already been recorded by Randy Weston in 1955 under the title "Fire Down There". (In the booklet provided with the boxed set, The Complete Prestige Recordings, Rollins makes it clear that it was the record company that insisted on his taking credit.) In any case, the piece has since become a jazz standard, and this is its most famous recorded version.

St. Thomas, just witness Max Roach's solo:

1029 - Mojo Special 2. Various Artists - Cabin in The Sky OST (1943)

Track Listing

1. Cabin in the Sky Main Title)
2. Little Black Sheep
3. Old Ship of Zion
4. But the Flesh Is WEA
5. Prayer
6. First Revelation
7. Saint Petunia
8. Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe
9. Dat Suits Me
10. Besides the Still Waters
11. Cabin in the Sky
12. Ain't It the Truth
13. Ain't It the Truth
14. Takin' a Cahnce on Love
15. Meek and the Mild
16. Life's Full of Consequence
17. Petunia in the Wilderness
18. Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe
19. Things Ain't What They Used to Be
20. Going Up
21. My Old Virginia Home
22. Shine
23. Honey in the Honeycomb
24. Love Me Tomorrow
25. Honey in the Honeycomb
26. Sweet Petunia
27. Third Revelation
28. Little Joe Throws Snake Eyes
29. Amen
30. Takin' a Chance on Love/End Title


Review

This is the first on the list of 100 great soundtracks that Mojo has provided as an appendix to their list. It is an interesting soundtrack even if not a particularly amazing one.

As often happens in soundtracks there is too much stuff going on here to really make for a coherent recording, from orchestral to black spiritual to jazz to songs there is a bit of everything here.

While most of it is of pretty great quality such as the famous title track or Happiness is a Thing Called Joe, the album lacks cohesion. As such the best moments are really the songs, the orchestral parts are sometimes reminiscent of Tom & Jerry, which while being a good thing in itself is sometimes distracting. So a good but not great soundtrack.

Track Highlights

1. Cabin in the Sky
2. Happiness is a Thing Called Joe
3. Honey in the Honeycomb
4. Things Ain't What They Used to Be

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe" sung by Ethel Waters.

Trailer for the film: