The London Chronicles Vol. 1 (Blue Note)
Mose Allison
Released March 13, 2001
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2002
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kg9_BmnvQL1RLH-_ds3raK0cwIphKVjLw
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2If01HRh3I0w5mQ9M6to7M?si=Ugg9e18LRfG19WSc3R-jqw
About:
Mose Allison is one of the great American songwriters. By his own estimate, he’s written over 150 songs, several of which have been covered by such pop artists as Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, Tracy Nelson, the Who, the Yardbirds, Elvis Costello and Merlin Factor. And while wide-scale attention has eluded the 73-year-old jazz pianist/singer, Allison continues to perform 125 gigs a year, including two annual three-week stints at The Pizza Express in London—which is where he and his trio of bassist Roy Babbington and drummer Mark Taylor were captured live for The Mose Chronicles: Live in London, Volume 1. Recorded in January 2000, the album is produced by longtime associate Ben Sidran who has not only piloted all of Allison’s Blue Note recordings but also paid tribute to him with Morrison and Georgie Fame on the 1996 CD “Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison”.
The Mississippi-born Allison celebrated his 50th anniversary of performing last year. His first gig was playing six nights a week at a club in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1950. Influenced by a range of jazz musicians including Nat Cole, Bud Powell, John Lewis and Al Haig, Allison moved to New York in 1956 and found work in the bands of such jazz artists as Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Gerry Mulligan before launching his own trio in the late ’50s. With swinging piano lines reminiscent of Lester Young’s saxophone style and down-home lyrics teeming with irony and wisdom, Allison recorded his cabaret-from-the-backwoods brand of folky jazz for several major labels.
Regarding his lyrics, Allison says, “People call me a cynic, but really my songs are almost always jokes. The idea of the ironic couplet appeals to me. That’s from my childhood in Mississippi, where I also learned the value of exaggeration and understatement. People try to take my songs too literally when all I’m doing is playing around with implied satirical notions.”
Given his huge repertoire of songs, Allison says that these days he only plays live those tunes that still have relevance. “I write all my songs with the intention of lasting. But some are no longer pertinent to me, such as my cottonsack songs that were inspired by growing up in the rural South. I’ve been told that my other songs are really holding up. I hope they’re right.”
Track Listing:
1. Excursion and Interlude (Mose Allison) 7:03
2. No Trouble Livin’ (Mose Allison) 2:05
3. I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues (Duke Ellington / Don George) 2:47
4. Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy (Mose Allison) 2:21
5. Meet Me at No Special Place (J. Russel Robinson / Arthur Terker) 2:41
6. If You Only Knew (Mose Allison) 3:28
7. Middle Class White Boy (Mose Allison) 2:50
8. You Are My Sunshine (Jimmie Davis / Charles Mitchell) 3:17
9. What’s Your Movie (Mose Allison) 2:54
10. How Much Truth (Mose Allison) 2:50
11. Ever Since the World Ended (Mose Allison) 3:45
12. You Call It Joggin’ (John D. Loudermilk) 2:54
13. Trouble in Mind (Richard M. Jones) 2:36
14. I’m Not Talking (Mose Allison) 3:04
15. I Feel So Good (Mose Allison) 3:05
16. Since I Fell for You (Buddy Johnson) 2:37
17. Seventh Son (Willie Dixon) 3:48
18. Hello There, Universe (Mose Allison) 3:06
19. What Do You Do After You Ruin Your Life (Mose Allison) 2:20
20. Gettin’ There (Mose Allison) 2:52
21. I Love the Life I Live, I Live the Life I Love (Willie Dixon) 2:20
22. Finale (Mose Allison) 1:43
Personnel:
Mose Allison; piano, vocals
Roy Babbington: bass
Mark Taylor: drums
Recorded live January 21, 22 & 23, 2000, at Pizza Express, London, England
Producer: Ben Sidran
Engineer: Andrew Tulloch
Mixing: James Farber
Art Direction: Chris Kornmann
Photography: David Sinclair
Review:
Few if any white performers have captured the soul, heart, and emotion of the blues better than Jack Teagarden and Mose Allison. Allison has the added distinction of singing songs with words that sometimes remind the listener of situations where those words would have come in real handy if thought of at the time. Volume One — hopefully the first of many — was recorded over a three-day period at a gig at the Pizza Express in London, England. The play list is made up of songs Allison likes to sing, whether he composed them or they were written by others. “You Call It Jogging” and “What’s Your Movie” have shown up on other Allison recordings for Blue Note, and “Middle Class White Boy” was the title of one of his most popular albums. All of these compositions, with their often sardonic lyrics, tell stories real people can relate to. There’s no pie in the sky, wide-eyed romanticism in Allison’s material. Some songs have a hopeful outlook — some would call it wishful thinking — such as “Ever Since the World Ended” (when “there was no more difference between black and white”). He acknowledges the influence of Nat “King” Cole with a song Cole used to sing with his trio, “Meet Me at No Special Place.” Even after all these years, Allison still has that imitable style, a mixture of blues and country delivered in a soft understated manner, and always swinging. Still another feature of an Allison performance is that one must be ready and willing to be surprised. For example, “You Are My Sunshine” is done in an unusually slow tempo and possesses a somber, regretful spirit replete with arpeggios and Allison dramatically pounding the keys. He indulges in some pianistic flights of fancy on “Entruption.” The members of the trio are in total sync with Allison’s way of doing things. Roy Babbington’s bass and especially Mark Taylor’s drums chip in with accents at just the right places, italicizing the impressions Allison is creating. A Mose Allison album requires close listening to catch the meaning of the message and to appreciate the good humor of Allison’s playing and singing. This is not background music, and is strongly recommended.
Dave Nathan (AllMusic)