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Blues & Ballads | 
| Artist: Lonnie Johnson With Elmer Snowden
Label: Obc
Category: Music
Buy New: £13.19
New (17) Used (4) from £5.13
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 97827
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 531
UPC: 025218053129
EAN: 0025218053129
ASIN: B000000XY0
Release Date: July 1, 1991
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 6 to 9 days
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| Tracks:
| • | Haunted House | | • | Memories of You | | • | Blues for Chris | | • | I Found a Dream | | • | St. Louis Blues | | • | I'll Get Along Somehow | | • | Savoy Blues | | • | Backwater Blues | | • | Elmer's Blues | | • | He's a Jelly Roll Baker |
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.com
This beautiful album was engineered by Rudy Van Gelder in his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home studio where so much jazz history was made. It features guitar innovators Lonnie Johnson and Elmer Snowden together for the first time--despite a friendship going back to the 1920s when both appeared on some of the earliest jazz and blues 78s. Johnson, the father of single-note six-string soloing, is in marvelous voice on this selection of blues, ballads, and jazz, crooning the double-entendre "Jelly Roll Baker" and the heartache-laden "Back Water Blues" (a Bessie Smith tune he first cut in 1927) with a marksman's sense of pitch and chilling nuance. Snowden serves mostly as accompanist. But these men play so closely that they seem to be sharing every breath. --Ted Drozdowski
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| Customer Reviews:
A fantastic guitarist and a pretty good singer August 6, 2006
13 out of 17 found this review helpful
Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson was born in New Orleans but later lived in various big cities. He was an "urban" blues artist if there ever was one. Besides some recordings with blues singers like Victoria Spivey and Texas Alexander, he played with the very best jazz musicians of the day (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Eddie Lang, Bessie Smith, Hot Lips Page...). He also waxed numerous blues sides either on his own or with simple piano or guitar accompaniment.
He had a huge influence on both blues and jazz guitarists with his innovative guitar playing style that mixed chorded with precise single note lines. This style had not been developed in neither blues nor jazz before. In jazz, he had an impact on Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt whilst B. B. King acknowledges his influence on his style.
This album was recorded in 1960 after Johnson's retirement from the music business in 1954.
He is in fine form both instrumentally and vocally on a fine repertoire of his favourite material: sentimental blues ballads. The guitar sounds fluid and crystal clear all along. Lonnie's bittersweet, slightly crooning voice is also a joy to hear. The second guitarist and the string bassist appearing on this album complement him really well. Finally, the recording by ace engineer Rudy Van Gelder is of a high standard and captures their performances very nicely.
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