Mose Allison - Mose Allison (1957) [Remastered 2007]

Not unlike his namesake, Luther Allison, pianist Mose Allison has suffered from a "categorization problem," given his equally brilliant career.
Although his boogie-woogie and bebop-laden piano style is innovative and fresh sounding when it comes to blues and jazz, it is as a songwriter that Allison really shines.
Allison's songs have been recorded by the Who ("Young Man Blues"), Leon Russell ("I'm Smashed"), and Bonnie Raitt ("Everybody's Cryin' Mercy").
Other admirers include Tom Waits, John Mayall, Georgie Fame, the Rolling Stones, and Van Morrison.
But because he's always played both blues and jazz, and not one to the exclusion of the other, his career has suffered. As he himself admits, he has a "category" problem that lingers to this day.
"There's a lot of places I don't work because they're confused about what I do," he explained in a 1990 interview in Goldmine magazine.
Despite the lingering confusion, Allison remains one of the finest songwriters in blues of the 20th and 21st centuries.

This two-LP set has the complete contents of Mose Allison's first two albums: Back Country Suite and Local Color.
The former session is dominated by the interesting ten-song "Back Country Suite" but is most memorable for Allison's brief vocals on "Young Man Blues" (here called "Blue Blues") and "One Room Country Shack."
While the earlier date has bassist Taylor LaFargue and drummer Frank Isola completing the trio, Local Color finds Allison interacting musically with bassist Addison Farmer and drummer Nick Stabulas and talking a very rare trumpet solo on "Trouble in Mind."
However, once again it is Mose's two vocals (on "Lost Mind" and the classic "Parchman Farm") that are the standouts; it seems obvious that his future lay in being a singer who plays piano rather than the other way around.