| Sometimes, putting out albums is about one thing and one thing only – money.
Four recent compilations from Rykodisc illustrate this point very well. By the company’s own admission, Easy Pickins, Original Blues, Broken Hearted Blues and Blues Had A Baby & Its Name Was Rock N Roll are "value-priced collections" selected from the back catalogue of the Tradition label. Only four or five artists are represented on each disc, with one or two artists contributing the bulk of the tracks – the Kossoy Sisters and Etta Baker provide half of the tracks on the bluegrass-oriented Easy Pickins, while Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly and Big Joe Williams perform over a third of the tracks on the three blues albums combined. (In fact, Broonzy’s "Baby Please Don’t Go" is featured on all of the blues albums). While these musicians deserve to be showcased, many other performers could have been included to create more well-rounded releases. It’s not as though these CDs are crammed full – in fact, they average only 40 minutes in length.
Blues Had A Baby... is the only one of the four albums to provide any information about the artists, and even then it focuses more on the rock artists who covered the songs in the ’60s and ’70s (e.g., Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones) than on the original performers. It also includes two versions of the song "See See Rider," which seems like a classic case of overkill to me. No information is given about any of the recordings that the tracks originally appeared on, which does a disservice to Tradition as well as to the artists. I suspect that Rykodisc is aiming these releases squarely at supermarket check-out aisles and discount store bargain bins, which is far, far less than these seminal artists deserve.
Although they’re probably still being put out for their earning potential, Verve’s "...For Lovers" series of records holds up better under critical scrutiny, with each album focusing on one classic jazz artist. I got a chance to listen to the releases for singer-trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Chet Baker, but there are also collections for Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday.
The Baker compilation alternates vocal and instrumental selections, and places equal importance on sad songs like "Everything Happens To Me" and happier tunes like "There Is No Greater Love." Armstrong’s collection features his unique vocal stylings on every track, and his horn makes an appearance on several songs, including "You Go To My Head" and "Sweet Lorraine." Poet and novelist Al Young’s liner notes discuss the importance of the artists, although he glosses over Baker’s struggle with drug addiction. Both albums give credit to the other musicians who played on the tracks (including such greats as pianist Oscar Peterson and guitarist Kenny Burrell), as well as information about the sessions where the songs were recorded. And, at between 50 and 60 minutes in length, they provide a wide view of the artists’ skills with the soft, gentle, downtempo end of the jazz spectrum. You can probably pick them up in the check-out line of a major chain bookstore near you.
After JXL’s remix of "A Little Less Conversation" made major waves among the retro-hipster crowd last year, another Elvis Presley compilation aimed squarely at the people born since the King died was inevitable. After all, as producer Ernst Mikael Jørgensen points out, Elvis #1 Hits held 26 No. 1 chart positions around the world. To fill our seemingly insatiable appetite for the old-become-new-again, RCA/BMG has given us another 30 tracks on Elvis: 2nd to None.
The previously released tracks are arranged mostly chronologically, beginning with "That’s All Right," which was recorded in Elvis’s first session at Sun Records in 1954, and ending with the 1976 track "Moody Blue." This year’s potential club hit is provided by Paul Oakenfold, who reworks the 1969 track "Rubberneckin’" into a beat-heavy dance track, and the previously unreleased 1964 track "I’m A Roustabout" is also included. While Jørgensen’s introductory note makes me cynical about the motives behind this release, I like the fact that biographer Peter Guralnick has contributed a balanced liner essay that looks at Elvis’s journey from the young man who found joy in singing to the weary veteran who tried to avoid the recording studio.
Guralnick’s work raises Elvis: 2nd to None a little bit above some other money-making endeavours, even if "Rubberneckin’" will be the soundtrack to a cola commercial before you know it. |
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