Jack McVea & His Orchestra - Fortissimo! The Combo Recordings 1954-57 (2012)

Tracklist
---------
01. Trying To Tell Ya
02. Nobody In Town Can Bake A Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine aka Nobody In Mind
03. Fiddle Sticks
04. You Brought Me Heartaches
05. Oh That'll Be Joyful
06. Hoo Doo You Baby
07. Taquila Hop
08. The Surch
09. Ube Dubie
10. On The Sunny Side Of the Street
11. Don't Bruise The Feeling
12. Wino
13. Let's Ride, Ride, Ride
14. Oh How I Miss You Tonight
15. Chop Chop Boom
16. Yaka Boo
17. Gaucho Hop
18. I'll Get Along Somehow
19. Trying To Tell Ya (Previously unissued rehearsal)
20. Going Home
21. Hoo Doo You Baby (Originally unissued take 4)
22. Nobody In Town Can Bake A Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine aka Nobody In Mind (Previously unissued take 3)
23. Oh How I Miss You Tonight (Previously unissued take 4)


Jack McVea has a secure place in the history of both jazz and R&B, both for his work with Lionel Hampton (especially on "Flying Home") and his 1946 hit "Open the Door, Richard," one of the early R&B records that was most influential in helping set the table for rock & roll. His recording career, however, was on the downside by the early '50s, and he was without a label for a year before hooking up with the Combo label for a while in the middle of the decade. This 23-track compilation is a typically thorough Ace overview of the period, mixing instrumentals and sides on which the vocals were taken by obscure singers Louise Beatty, Christine Chatman, Rudy Pitts, and Al Smith. It's more or less typical mid-'50s Los Angeles R&B, sometimes looking forward to the raunchier flavor of rock & roll, yet also containing lingering traces of jazz swing and jazz vocals that were verging on the outdated. A good-time novelty flavor pervades many of the vocal tracks, though it's not really saucy or funny enough to be too memorable. It's one for sax-and-piano-driven R&B completists, including some previously unreleased outtakes and rehearsals.

DOWNLOAD ALBUM [flac]