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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:28 pm
by main_stem
Swifty wrote:Joe Williams is considered a blues shouter? The Joe Williams that sang with New Testament Basie (not Big Joe Williams)?
I actually wrote latter-day blues shouter meaning his roots stem from the blues shouter tradition.

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:31 pm
by Swifty
main_stem wrote:
Swifty wrote:Joe Williams is considered a blues shouter? The Joe Williams that sang with New Testament Basie (not Big Joe Williams)?
I actually wrote latter-day blues shouter meaning his roots stem from the blues shouter tradition.
Sorry, I understand what you're saying but I still don't see the similarity. Maybe I'm just an ignorant fool.

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:03 pm
by djstarr
I'd say there is a connection - there is definitely a line (i.e. influence) between Jimmy Rushing, Joe Williams and Kevin Mahogany.

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:06 pm
by Yakov
Blues shouting is a pre-amplification style. Not that no one can do it in the 50's, or today, but I wouldn't call anyone a shouter if he don't shout.
I would call Joe Williams a blues crooner. He doesn't shout, he sings very smoothly, fully rooted in the age of microphones.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:08 am
by main_stem
Yakov wrote: I would call Joe Williams a blues crooner. He doesn't shout, he sings very smoothly, fully rooted in the age of microphones.
There is no doubt that Joe Williams definitely used a smoother style on many recordings, one of his influences was Nat King Cole; however he did use the shouting style on many upbeat live recording. As for being rooted in the "age of microphones", Williams cut his teeth in the 30's with Less Hite and Jimmie Noone and worked with Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawking and Andy Kirk in the 40's. So, it would be better to say that he has one foot in the old traditions of the big band and one in the "age of microphones".

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:09 pm
by CafeSavoy
Yakov wrote:Blues shouting is a pre-amplification style. Not that no one can do it in the 50's, or today, but I wouldn't call anyone a shouter if he don't shout.
I would call Joe Williams a blues crooner. He doesn't shout, he sings very smoothly, fully rooted in the age of microphones.
Joe Williams can croon (he did spend many years in Vegas) but that is not the sum total of his style. Because he is so smooth we don't realize the power of his voice. But i remember watching a documentary about him where he said that he owes his voice to an old-timer who showed him how to project without straining. Without that insight he said he would have lost his voice a long time ago.

I think blues shouting refers to the Kansas City way of singing the blues as in songs like "Roll 'Em Pete", "Sent for You Yesterday", etc.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:10 pm
by CafeSavoy
main_stem wrote:[There is no doubt that Joe Williams definitely used a smoother style on many recordings, one of his influences was Nat King Cole; however he did use the shouting style on many upbeat live recording. As for being rooted in the "age of microphones", Williams cut his teeth in the 30's with Less Hite and Jimmie Noone and worked with Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawking and Andy Kirk in the 40's. So, it would be better to say that he has one foot in the old traditions of the big band and one in the "age of microphones".
Do you know if there are any recordings of his early work?

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:05 pm
by main_stem
CafeSavoy wrote:
Do you know if there are any recordings of his early work?
His first recordings were with Andy Kirk.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 1:58 pm
by Nate Dogg
main_stem wrote:
CafeSavoy wrote:
Do you know if there are any recordings of his early work?
His first recordings were with Andy Kirk.
Some of the PastPerfect Joe Williams CDs have Andy Kirk tracks on them. One of the ones labled "Joe Williams and Count Basie" is where I got the Andy Kirk songs.

I know there are other sources.

natahn

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:46 pm
by djstarr
CafeSavoy wrote:I think blues shouting refers to the Kansas City way of singing the blues as in songs like "Roll 'Em Pete", "Sent for You Yesterday", etc.
yes this is what I mean when I say blues shouting - thanks Rayned for clarifying that.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:45 pm
by CafeSavoy
djstarr wrote:
CafeSavoy wrote:I think blues shouting refers to the Kansas City way of singing the blues as in songs like "Roll 'Em Pete", "Sent for You Yesterday", etc.
yes this is what I mean when I say blues shouting - thanks Rayned for clarifying that.
although thinking about it more, i find the genre is larger and includes people like wynonie harris and roy brown. it's a bold brash self-confident expression of the blues.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:11 pm
by GemZombie
Wynonie Harris is a good example of a shouter. It gets a bit old after a while I think.

Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 6:51 am
by Nate Dogg
I am not endorsing this album. I thought it would be fun to post it though.

Billboard, 5/5/05

Veteran singer/songwriter Paul Anka tackles the music of a younger generation on his new album, "Rock Swings." Due June 7 via Verve, the 14-track set features Anka's orchestra-backed interpretations of everything from Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."

Released earlier this year internationally (even reaching No. 1 on the German album chart), the set also includes covers of Oasis' "Wonderwall," Van Halen's "Jump," the Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin," the Cure's "Lovecats," Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face," Lionel Ritchie's "Hello," Spandau Ballet's "True" and Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven."

Anka will be on tour in North America throughout the rest of the year, with a new round of dates set to begin May 29 at Harrah's in St. Louis.

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 9:03 am
by main_stem
Nate Dogg wrote:I am not endorsing this album. I thought it would be fun to post it though.

Billboard, 5/5/05

Veteran singer/songwriter Paul Anka tackles the music of a younger generation on his new album, "Rock Swings." Due June 7 via Verve, the 14-track set features Anka's orchestra-backed interpretations of everything from Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger."

Released earlier this year internationally (even reaching No. 1 on the German album chart), the set also includes covers of Oasis' "Wonderwall," Van Halen's "Jump," the Pet Shop Boys' "It's a Sin," the Cure's "Lovecats," Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face," Lionel Ritchie's "Hello," Spandau Ballet's "True" and Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven."

Anka will be on tour in North America throughout the rest of the year, with a new round of dates set to begin May 29 at Harrah's in St. Louis.

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
This has to be as good as Basie's Beattle Bag and Basie Does Bond. :evil:

Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 5:59 pm
by Lawrence
GemZombie wrote:Wynonie Harris is a good example of a shouter. It gets a bit old after a while I think.
Yes and yes. 8)

Joe Williams started as a Blues Shouter and later matured into the Basie-version singer that was more popluar and that we know him for.

He recorded as a shouter on OKeh records in the mid to late 40s as "Jumpin Joe Williams," and has several songs on that OKeh Rhythm and Blues Story Set that Nathan plugged a while back. Basie had used Willaims in a 1950 Chicago engagement at the Brass Rail, but wasn't impressed with him enough to ask him to join the band until Basie returned to Chicago in 1954. I think one of Basie's trumpet players caught Williams singing at a small club down the street during a break, and Basie told him to bring Williams back to join them onstage. He was a hit and joined the band for the rest of that tour.