Album Reviews

Another Pure Pleasure mono reissue more important for the music than for “audiophile sound,” which these 1950 and 1951 mono sessions surely are not.

Never mind because the tracks do sound fine for the vintage and for some reason recordings of this era sound even harder and more glazed over converted to CD than do more modern ones.

Walker was an electric guitar originator who began playing during the 1930’s. His solos influenced all the big names from both sides of the ocean who came later and of course his tune “Stormy Monday” (not on this set) became a blues classic.

This is an album of west coast big band, hard charging, urban blues fronted by Walker’s guitar and cool, suave singing. Cottin’ pickin’ rural it ain’t! Walker’s slinky single note runs speak as clearly as his vocals.

The white girl on the cover was pretty much mandatory back then in order for the record to appeal beyond the “race music” bins and the liner notes, which complain about the complexities of modern jazz compared to Walker’s bluesy jazz, are devoid of information as to who’s playing in the band, who did the recording and producing, and where it was done.

None of that matter though, this stuff speaks for itself and for the post-WWII American emotional re-awakening as well as showing the way for the harder-edged music known as rock’n’roll that would soon emerge.

The sound may be lower high fidelity in terms of frequency response, but its transparency is not to be denied and the way the recording gets the finger-touch on the guitar strings can’t be beat. It’s like looking from the outside, through a door into a smoky joint where the band can be seen rocking out on a somewhat distant stage. It’s a sound that’s somehow most appropriate for the music.