Sleepy
John Estes: First Recordings (JSP 6001)
In the back catalogues of our richest traditions, there
are many signs to roads not taken, stylistic byways of
often astonishing formative power - some of which far
surpass those which became the mainstream of their time...and
that still retain their power, for those in search of
what they know not. Such are Sleepy Jon Estes first sessions,
with Jab Jones - usually a jug player - on piano &
Yank Rachel’s mandolin accompanying Sleepy John’s
guitar & voice... Now, whilst Yank was a virtuoso,
his instrument - mandolin, remember - doesn’t have
much midrange to speak of, let alone bass...which left
that entire range to the mercies of Sleepy John’s
simple chopped chords, and Jab Jone’s strange hands.
And what resulted was one of the most uniquely distinctive
small band sounds of all time, and one which I - still
- find it hard to credit that no one has yet copied &/or
built upon.
For theirs was both an accessible and startling form
of interplay, capable of being stretched in all sorts
of directions. Jab’s left hand comps under Sleepy’s
dogtrot, and he has a v.nice sense of how to vary things
somewhat, so that together, they meld into an addictive
(and subtly varied) pulse. But it’s his right hand
that’s the marvel...albeit not for technical reasons,
but because of its skill in sketching in bare-boned rhythm/lead
melodic lines which alternately plunge and reach, like
no other pianist I’ve ever heard. Counterpulses chase
romping chordal counterpoints, involuted turns trade w/rhythmic
arpeggios - nothing really “difficult” just,
nothing much like anyone else... And, floating atop this,
Sleepy John cries the blues, eternally circled & echoed
by Yank’s fluid mandolin, chopping in w/rhythm breaks
all the while...
Sleepy John’s other recordings are wonderful, to
be sure, but nothing will ever beat these, his first sessions,
which pioneered a truly wondrous band style...only to
remain without issue, for none have yet followed in the
footsteps of the great Jab Jones. So, to get a handle
on what I’m attempting to describe, here, this time
you really will have to have a listen, for these sessions
are truly sui generis.
The rest of the disc is hardly negligible, either, including
as it does the complete recordings of Noah Lewis’s
Jug Band - surely Sleepy John’s only stint as a sideman,
given the simplicity of his guitar work - as well as Noah’s
solo harmonica sides, all things of rare beauty. Noah
was possessed of the most sheerly aching tone and lyricism
in early blues, and this disc, by rounding up all of his
recordings outside of Cannon’s Jug Stompers, offers
us yet another reason to treasure it. Not to mention the
remastering - by the great John R.T. Davis, himself, the
very best craftsman alive in this particular field, but
one who has worked very little outside of jazz. Not enough,
you say...then, how’s about a little wisdom from
Sleepy, a true poet by any measure?
“If I hadn’t’a had my pistol, think I
would run, myself.”
John Henry Calvinist
