Joe Turner Meets Jimmy Witherspoon – Patcha, Patcha All Night Long (1985)

Photobucket
Photobucket

Joe Turner Meets Jimmy WItherspoon
“Patcha, Patcha, All Night Long”
1985 Pablo Records 2310-913
A1 Patcha, Patcha 7:30
A2 Blues Lament 12:07
B1 You Got Me Runnin’ 3:33
 B2 Kansas City On My Mind 7:56
B3 J.T.’s Blues 5:38
 B4 I Want A Little Girl 5:46

Bass – Rudy Brown,
Drums – Al Duncan,
Guitar – Gary Bell,
Keyboards – Bobby Blevins, 
Saxophone – Lee Allen
, Saxophone [Alto] – Red Holloway,
Saxophone [Baritone] – Jerry Jummonville,
Trumpet – Ike Williams

Producer – Norman Granz

 

Vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable (with Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply); Creek Audio OBH-15; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; Click Repair light settings; individual clicks and pops taken out with Adobe Audition 3.0 – resampled (and dithered for 16-bit) using iZotope RX Advanced. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

There’s really no particular reason why I’m posting this particular album other than that I was going through my crates of records, stumbled on this one, and realized I couldn’t remember what it sounded like. So I took it out, put it on the turntable, and now here it is.

This could be called a ‘jump blues’ album but it’s basically jam session and, like the Kansas City tradition where Joe Turner hails from, what you call it isn’t really all that important. It’s the groove and the swing and all these guys got plenty of it. Nat Hentoff provides nice liner notes, although he doesn’t praise Red Holloway nearly enough, and doesn’t even mention stalwart blues drummer Al Duncan. He also skirts around the fact that he had nothing to do with the session, wasn’t there, and doesn’t seem to have anything to say about the particular day in the studio when these two luminaries were brought together. Label head Norman Granz (of Jazz At The Philharmonic and Verve Records) apparently had Big Joe doing all kinds of ‘duet’ albums like this during his stint with Pablo, but this is the only one I have. In reality, they only sing *together* on the first side, where they trade off verses. The second is split evenly between the two of them.

 Hentoff, oddly enough, mentions being surprised by a rather disturbing line that Witherspoon sings in the impromptu “Blues Lament”, but only because he hadn’t heard it before, not because it was, well, really, REALLY not cool: “I’m going to take you to the dentist tomorrow morning, because I’m knockin’ out all your teeth tonight.” Dude… just not cool at all.

 Spoon sounds really at ease doing Jimmy Reed’s “You Got Me Runnin’.” Although both these guys were in the twilights of their careers at this point, I have to say that Witherspoon sounds in better form. He nails this, and the chestnut standard “I Want A Little Girl,” which has become an unofficial anthem for pedophiles the world over. Big Joe is a lot of fun though. Kansas City On My Mind is a great slow-burner, but the kicker for me is “J.T.’s Blues”. I’ll also give $20 to anyone who can transcribe the lyrics to the first verse. I actually find myself cracking up laughing trying to figure out what the hell he’s saying.

 Just for the hell if it, I’ve included a partial list of all the people who’ve recorded “I Want A Little Girl.”
 I WANT A LITTLE GIRL
(Billy Moll / Murray Mancher)

McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (vocal: George Thomas) – 1930

Count Basie & His Orch. – 1956
Big Joe Turner – 1956
Ray Charles – 1958
Benny Goodman’s Big Band – 1958
Billy Eckstine (with Count Basie & His Orch.) – 1959
Vic Damone – 1962
Oscar Peterson Trio Plus One – 1964
Jimmy Rushing – 1971
Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson – 1981
Roy Eldridge – 1986
Joe Williams – 1987
Jimmy Witherspoon – 1988
Bert Firman & his Rhythmic Eight – 1930
Louis Armstrong – 1946
Kay Starr (“Boy”) – 1955
Sammy Price – 1957
Nat “King” Cole w Count Basie’s Orch (but not CB!) ’58

Also recorded by:
Pee Wee Russell; Jimmy Smith; Ike Quebec; Ben Webster;
Jack McDuff; Lou Donaldson; T-Bone Walker; Earl Hines;
Clark Terry…….and others.

 Not an essential piece of either of their discographies, but still a fun record to have around.

 Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

in 320

 in FLAC 16/44.1 khz

 in FLAC 24-bit / 96 khz

password in comments