Jaybird
Coleman: Complete Recordings (Document DOCD-5140)
When I first read about early black music in Alabama,
it was as something much more akin to the original form
of slave music than the twentieth-century form of “blues”.
And, although I have since discovered that there were
many early black Alabama recordings that did not fit into
this model, Jaybird Coleman’s solo 78s superficially
did...
And not only that, but Coleman’s history appeared
to live up to the decisively constrained pattern that
would be expected, in this most “backward” state
of the union. Managed by the Klu Klux Klan - no less -
he would (undoubtedly) have been encouraged to reproduce
the vilest of racial stereotypes in his recorded output.
But this, contrary to what we might expect, is not at
all what Coleman delivered...
Instead, what resulted is perhaps the closest thing we
have to a radical artistic reformulation of field hollers
as such...with absolutely no sign of any “re-writing”
to please the KKK. Having heard a wide variety of hollers
myself - courtesy of the many field recordings made by
the Library of Congress - I’d have to say that Coleman
offers us a highly stylized & transfigured version
of this form, although most historians have failed to
notice this.
To be sure, he undoubtedly makes use of the basic holler
pattern, but his radical use of the neo-African technique
of “voice masking” is distictly different to
any holler I’ve ever heard...and this is not to mention
his mean - and lean - harmonica work, amongst the most
expressive ever recorded. Together, they combine to create
one of the most unique versions of the call-and-response
pattern ever.
...and I think that acknowledgement of this fact is well
overdue...
On top of this, he also performed one of the greatest
harmonica duets ever - with the under-rated Ollis Martin
- as well as working with perhaps the meanest jugband
of all time, in the shape of the magnificent Birmingham
Jug Band...their Wild Cat Squall being one of the most
savage rock’n’roll cuts of the nineteen twenties.
All up, this set is one of the most unique collections
of music ever recorded in the 1920s... And, although it
isn’t programmed as an album - being “Complete
Recorded Works In Chronological Order” - I have absolutely
no hesitations in recommending it to anyone who is genuinely
willing to listen beyond the surface noise...because the
art contained herein is truly unmistakable...
John Henry Calvinist
