great but a bit overwhelming, 18 Oct 2007
Regarded now as one of the great early blues artists, Lonnie Johnson embarked on a recording career largely consisting of blues primarily because in 1925 he won a blues contest in which the prize was a recording contract with Okeh Records, and blues was what Okeh expected him to record. But he was equally at home in the company of jazz musicians, as evidenced here by 3 sides with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, one with Duke Ellington's Orchestra and numerous spectacular guitar duets with Eddie Lang.

Unlike the great country blues artists such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton or Skip James, Lonnie Johnson was a city boy from New Orleans. He was adept on numerous instruments and while he mostly played guitar, there are a couple of examples of his violin playing on this set.

As a vocalist, he may take a bit of getting used to for modern ears - unlike the raw but often extremely powerful vocal styles of his country blues contemporaries, which have, via the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, influenced singers right up to the present day, the 1920s urban blues/jazz style he used throughout his career sounds much more "proper" and old-fashioned - people haven't sung like this for several decades. But this is by no means to disparage his voice, which is technically very good - merely to warn that anyone expecting raw or "primitive" blues singing should not be surprised by this very sophisticated musician. His even more sophisticated guitar playing, on the other hand, is a joy to listen to, and here, on some tunes at least, you can hear that he quite probably did influence the likes of Robert Johnson.

The actual content covers the years 1925 to 1952, and is far from exhaustive - Lonnie Johnson was a highly prolific recording artist and often a couple of tracks may be included from a session that produced 8, for instance. Quite a few tracks in the earlier years feature him backing or duetting with other artists including "classic" blues singers Victoria Spivey and Clara Smith, country blues singer Texas Alexander (his 2 tracks are particularly fine) and the previously mentioned Armstrong, Ellington and Lang.

His own material, the bulk of the set, includes both accompanied (there's some very fine piano playing on quite a few tracks) and unaccompanied recordings, and towards the end of the period covered he took up electric guitar, though to be honest it doesn't sound that different from his acoustic material. His songwriting (and there aren't many covers on here) covers the usual blues subjects of cheating women, sex (several songs feature bawdy double entendres), drinking, floods etc., though with far more intelligible lyrics than with most country blues artists. The guitar playing is frequently dazzling, particularly on the earlier (1925-1932) material that makes up the bulk of the collection.

For me his later years show him trying to fit into current styles and ending up sounding like a slightly watered-down version of himself and are less compelling than the earlier material, but there is more than enough fine stuff here to make the box worthwhile. Tastes will vary, but while his reputation now is most strongly based on the duets with Eddie Lang and some equally dazzling solo instrumentals, many of the songs are also excellent and it's worth persevering until you become used to the singing style.

The sound quality is a joy - the vast majority of this set comes from the first decade of electrical recording, and in view of this the sound is quite excellent - the surface noise is not intrusive on the vast majority of tracks and the timbre of the guitar is usually so well reproduced that at a decent volume it sounds very close to having him playing in the same room as the listener.

The quantity of material in these Proper boxes can be a bit daunting for anyone new to the artist or genre in question - these recordings were never meant to be collected together or listened to at such length, and while there is enough variety on the first couple of discs to maintain interest it can be a bit overwhelming. But persevere because there's a lot of fantastic music on here and Lonnie Johnson was one of the greatest, most influential and most original musicians of his day and we're very lucky that so much of his music has survived 80 years on in such amazing quality.

GUITAR GENIUS!, 29 Jun 2007
Lonnie Johnson was probably the first really brilliant guitarist and in my opinion, there are not many, even now, his equal. Lonnie was a truly great blues/Jazz musician and a mentor to many including Robert Johnson. Just listen to his guitar work and blues vocals on the tracks and if you own any of Robert Johnson's cds you will recognise how big an influence he was. This box set is a must for any blues enthusiast or anyone who admires superb guitar playing. Whatsmore, the sound quality is excellent!

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

great but a bit overwhelming, 18 Oct 2007
Regarded now as one of the great early blues artists, Lonnie Johnson embarked on a recording career largely consisting of blues primarily because in 1925 he won a blues contest in which the prize was a recording contract with Okeh Records, and blues was what Okeh expected him to record. But he was equally at home in the company of jazz musicians, as evidenced here by 3 sides with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, one with Duke Ellington's Orchestra and numerous spectacular guitar duets with Eddie Lang.

Unlike the great country blues artists such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton or Skip James, Lonnie Johnson was a city boy from New Orleans. He was adept on numerous instruments and while he mostly played guitar, there are a couple of examples of his violin playing on this set.

As a vocalist, he may take a bit of getting used to for modern ears - unlike the raw but often extremely powerful vocal styles of his country blues contemporaries, which have, via the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, influenced singers right up to the present day, the 1920s urban blues/jazz style he used throughout his career sounds much more "proper" and old-fashioned - people haven't sung like this for several decades. But this is by no means to disparage his voice, which is technically very good - merely to warn that anyone expecting raw or "primitive" blues singing should not be surprised by this very sophisticated musician. His even more sophisticated guitar playing, on the other hand, is a joy to listen to, and here, on some tunes at least, you can hear that he quite probably did influence the likes of Robert Johnson.

The actual content covers the years 1925 to 1952, and is far from exhaustive - Lonnie Johnson was a highly prolific recording artist and often a couple of tracks may be included from a session that produced 8, for instance. Quite a few tracks in the earlier years feature him backing or duetting with other artists including "classic" blues singers Victoria Spivey and Clara Smith, country blues singer Texas Alexander (his 2 tracks are particularly fine) and the previously mentioned Armstrong, Ellington and Lang.

His own material, the bulk of the set, includes both accompanied (there's some very fine piano playing on quite a few tracks) and unaccompanied recordings, and towards the end of the period covered he took up electric guitar, though to be honest it doesn't sound that different from his acoustic material. His songwriting (and there aren't many covers on here) covers the usual blues subjects of cheating women, sex (several songs feature bawdy double entendres), drinking, floods etc., though with far more intelligible lyrics than with most country blues artists. The guitar playing is frequently dazzling, particularly on the earlier (1925-1932) material that makes up the bulk of the collection.

For me his later years show him trying to fit into current styles and ending up sounding like a slightly watered-down version of himself and are less compelling than the earlier material, but there is more than enough fine stuff here to make the box worthwhile. Tastes will vary, but while his reputation now is most strongly based on the duets with Eddie Lang and some equally dazzling solo instrumentals, many of the songs are also excellent and it's worth persevering until you become used to the singing style.

The sound quality is a joy - the vast majority of this set comes from the first decade of electrical recording, and in view of this the sound is quite excellent - the surface noise is not intrusive on the vast majority of tracks and the timbre of the guitar is usually so well reproduced that at a decent volume it sounds very close to having him playing in the same room as the listener.

The quantity of material in these Proper boxes can be a bit daunting for anyone new to the artist or genre in question - these recordings were never meant to be collected together or listened to at such length, and while there is enough variety on the first couple of discs to maintain interest it can be a bit overwhelming. But persevere because there's a lot of fantastic music on here and Lonnie Johnson was one of the greatest, most influential and most original musicians of his day and we're very lucky that so much of his music has survived 80 years on in such amazing quality.

GUITAR GENIUS!, 29 Jun 2007
Lonnie Johnson was probably the first really brilliant guitarist and in my opinion, there are not many, even now, his equal. Lonnie was a truly great blues/Jazz musician and a mentor to many including Robert Johnson. Just listen to his guitar work and blues vocals on the tracks and if you own any of Robert Johnson's cds you will recognise how big an influence he was. This box set is a must for any blues enthusiast or anyone who admires superb guitar playing. Whatsmore, the sound quality is excellent!

A fantastic guitarist and a pretty good singer, 06 Aug 2006
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.

Guitarist Eddie Lang ranked with Bix Beiderbecke and Jack Teagarden as one of the giants of the 1920s. A cosmopolitan musician, his playing took in everything from earthy blues to Italian opera, and he played with every kind of jazz musician and singer. He worked with what could be called the first of the jazz chamber groups (most often with his colleague violinist Joe Venuti) through to the giant orchestras led by Jean Goldkette and Paul Whiteman. His guitar, whether in rhythm work or solo, was of unfailing taste and interest and there was a multitude of recordings worth hearing just to savour a couple of bars from him amid surrounding dross. Some of the best jazz tracks have been crammed onto this bulging collection. There are classic tracks with Armstrong, Bessie Smith and Teagarden and one of the series of guitar duets he recorded with Lonnie Johnson (the rest of these should be pursued by the listener). The outstanding track is "I'm Coming Virginia". It has Beiderbecke and Lang at their most lyrical. Bix died four years later at 28, Lang survived him by little more than a year to die at 31. --Steve Voce

great but a bit overwhelming, 18 Oct 2007
Regarded now as one of the great early blues artists, Lonnie Johnson embarked on a recording career largely consisting of blues primarily because in 1925 he won a blues contest in which the prize was a recording contract with Okeh Records, and blues was what Okeh expected him to record. But he was equally at home in the company of jazz musicians, as evidenced here by 3 sides with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, one with Duke Ellington's Orchestra and numerous spectacular guitar duets with Eddie Lang.

Unlike the great country blues artists such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton or Skip James, Lonnie Johnson was a city boy from New Orleans. He was adept on numerous instruments and while he mostly played guitar, there are a couple of examples of his violin playing on this set.

As a vocalist, he may take a bit of getting used to for modern ears - unlike the raw but often extremely powerful vocal styles of his country blues contemporaries, which have, via the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, influenced singers right up to the present day, the 1920s urban blues/jazz style he used throughout his career sounds much more "proper" and old-fashioned - people haven't sung like this for several decades. But this is by no means to disparage his voice, which is technically very good - merely to warn that anyone expecting raw or "primitive" blues singing should not be surprised by this very sophisticated musician. His even more sophisticated guitar playing, on the other hand, is a joy to listen to, and here, on some tunes at least, you can hear that he quite probably did influence the likes of Robert Johnson.

The actual content covers the years 1925 to 1952, and is far from exhaustive - Lonnie Johnson was a highly prolific recording artist and often a couple of tracks may be included from a session that produced 8, for instance. Quite a few tracks in the earlier years feature him backing or duetting with other artists including "classic" blues singers Victoria Spivey and Clara Smith, country blues singer Texas Alexander (his 2 tracks are particularly fine) and the previously mentioned Armstrong, Ellington and Lang.

His own material, the bulk of the set, includes both accompanied (there's some very fine piano playing on quite a few tracks) and unaccompanied recordings, and towards the end of the period covered he took up electric guitar, though to be honest it doesn't sound that different from his acoustic material. His songwriting (and there aren't many covers on here) covers the usual blues subjects of cheating women, sex (several songs feature bawdy double entendres), drinking, floods etc., though with far more intelligible lyrics than with most country blues artists. The guitar playing is frequently dazzling, particularly on the earlier (1925-1932) material that makes up the bulk of the collection.

For me his later years show him trying to fit into current styles and ending up sounding like a slightly watered-down version of himself and are less compelling than the earlier material, but there is more than enough fine stuff here to make the box worthwhile. Tastes will vary, but while his reputation now is most strongly based on the duets with Eddie Lang and some equally dazzling solo instrumentals, many of the songs are also excellent and it's worth persevering until you become used to the singing style.

The sound quality is a joy - the vast majority of this set comes from the first decade of electrical recording, and in view of this the sound is quite excellent - the surface noise is not intrusive on the vast majority of tracks and the timbre of the guitar is usually so well reproduced that at a decent volume it sounds very close to having him playing in the same room as the listener.

The quantity of material in these Proper boxes can be a bit daunting for anyone new to the artist or genre in question - these recordings were never meant to be collected together or listened to at such length, and while there is enough variety on the first couple of discs to maintain interest it can be a bit overwhelming. But persevere because there's a lot of fantastic music on here and Lonnie Johnson was one of the greatest, most influential and most original musicians of his day and we're very lucky that so much of his music has survived 80 years on in such amazing quality.

GUITAR GENIUS!, 29 Jun 2007
Lonnie Johnson was probably the first really brilliant guitarist and in my opinion, there are not many, even now, his equal. Lonnie was a truly great blues/Jazz musician and a mentor to many including Robert Johnson. Just listen to his guitar work and blues vocals on the tracks and if you own any of Robert Johnson's cds you will recognise how big an influence he was. This box set is a must for any blues enthusiast or anyone who admires superb guitar playing. Whatsmore, the sound quality is excellent!

A fantastic guitarist and a pretty good singer, 06 Aug 2006
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.


Early Days In New York, 09 Aug 2007
Eddie Condon was born in Indiana and cut his jazz teeth in Chicago. In 1928 he moved to New York, where he participated in some classic sessions. The first two tracks tend not to be included in Molers' compilations, so it's good to have them here. Having got his toe in the door, Condon then began organising his own sessions, taking vocals on the first two, but then handing over to Jack Teagarden. The third session is the best-known, and both takes of the two tunes recorded are included.

That's followed by the ten Mound City Blue Blowers sides cut between August 1929 and June 1931, with the chronological interpolation of the two sides made in October 1930 with the prefix of Red McKenzie's name, but never issued at the time. These give us the opportunity to listen variously to Glenn Miller, Pee Wee Russell, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman, Fats Waller, Muggsy Spanier and Jimmy Dorsey letting their hair down and having fun.

great but a bit overwhelming, 18 Oct 2007
Regarded now as one of the great early blues artists, Lonnie Johnson embarked on a recording career largely consisting of blues primarily because in 1925 he won a blues contest in which the prize was a recording contract with Okeh Records, and blues was what Okeh expected him to record. But he was equally at home in the company of jazz musicians, as evidenced here by 3 sides with Louis Armstrong's Hot Five, one with Duke Ellington's Orchestra and numerous spectacular guitar duets with Eddie Lang.

Unlike the great country blues artists such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton or Skip James, Lonnie Johnson was a city boy from New Orleans. He was adept on numerous instruments and while he mostly played guitar, there are a couple of examples of his violin playing on this set.

As a vocalist, he may take a bit of getting used to for modern ears - unlike the raw but often extremely powerful vocal styles of his country blues contemporaries, which have, via the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, influenced singers right up to the present day, the 1920s urban blues/jazz style he used throughout his career sounds much more "proper" and old-fashioned - people haven't sung like this for several decades. But this is by no means to disparage his voice, which is technically very good - merely to warn that anyone expecting raw or "primitive" blues singing should not be surprised by this very sophisticated musician. His even more sophisticated guitar playing, on the other hand, is a joy to listen to, and here, on some tunes at least, you can hear that he quite probably did influence the likes of Robert Johnson.

The actual content covers the years 1925 to 1952, and is far from exhaustive - Lonnie Johnson was a highly prolific recording artist and often a couple of tracks may be included from a session that produced 8, for instance. Quite a few tracks in the earlier years feature him backing or duetting with other artists including "classic" blues singers Victoria Spivey and Clara Smith, country blues singer Texas Alexander (his 2 tracks are particularly fine) and the previously mentioned Armstrong, Ellington and Lang.

His own material, the bulk of the set, includes both accompanied (there's some very fine piano playing on quite a few tracks) and unaccompanied recordings, and towards the end of the period covered he took up electric guitar, though to be honest it doesn't sound that different from his acoustic material. His songwriting (and there aren't many covers on here) covers the usual blues subjects of cheating women, sex (several songs feature bawdy double entendres), drinking, floods etc., though with far more intelligible lyrics than with most country blues artists. The guitar playing is frequently dazzling, particularly on the earlier (1925-1932) material that makes up the bulk of the collection.

For me his later years show him trying to fit into current styles and ending up sounding like a slightly watered-down version of himself and are less compelling than the earlier material, but there is more than enough fine stuff here to make the box worthwhile. Tastes will vary, but while his reputation now is most strongly based on the duets with Eddie Lang and some equally dazzling solo instrumentals, many of the songs are also excellent and it's worth persevering until you become used to the singing style.

The sound quality is a joy - the vast majority of this set comes from the first decade of electrical recording, and in view of this the sound is quite excellent - the surface noise is not intrusive on the vast majority of tracks and the timbre of the guitar is usually so well reproduced that at a decent volume it sounds very close to having him playing in the same room as the listener.

The quantity of material in these Proper boxes can be a bit daunting for anyone new to the artist or genre in question - these recordings were never meant to be collected together or listened to at such length, and while there is enough variety on the first couple of discs to maintain interest it can be a bit overwhelming. But persevere because there's a lot of fantastic music on here and Lonnie Johnson was one of the greatest, most influential and most original musicians of his day and we're very lucky that so much of his music has survived 80 years on in such amazing quality.

GUITAR GENIUS!, 29 Jun 2007
Lonnie Johnson was probably the first really brilliant guitarist and in my opinion, there are not many, even now, his equal. Lonnie was a truly great blues/Jazz musician and a mentor to many including Robert Johnson. Just listen to his guitar work and blues vocals on the tracks and if you own any of Robert Johnson's cds you will recognise how big an influence he was. This box set is a must for any blues enthusiast or anyone who admires superb guitar playing. Whatsmore, the sound quality is excellent!

A fantastic guitarist and a pretty good singer, 06 Aug 2006
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.


Early Days In New York, 09 Aug 2007
Eddie Condon was born in Indiana and cut his jazz teeth in Chicago. In 1928 he moved to New York, where he participated in some classic sessions. The first two tracks tend not to be included in Molers' compilations, so it's good to have them here. Having got his toe in the door, Condon then began organising his own sessions, taking vocals on the first two, but then handing over to Jack Teagarden. The third session is the best-known, and both takes of the two tunes recorded are included.

That's followed by the ten Mound City Blue Blowers sides cut between August 1929 and June 1931, with the chronological interpolation of the two sides made in October 1930 with the prefix of Red McKenzie's name, but never issued at the time. These give us the opportunity to listen variously to Glenn Miller, Pee Wee Russell, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman, Fats Waller, Muggsy Spanier and Jimmy Dorsey letting their hair down and having fun.

Superb!!!!!!!!!, 06 Jan 2007
The cornet playing on this date is the best I have heard in 50 years of listening to Dixieland music.It is simply stunning.Ed Polcer was a revelation when I played this music for the first time.Now it is never off my cd player.The other musicians are all experienced,stalwarts of the Condon style,and clearly enjoying just being part of it all.There are some vocals,but they fit in nicely with the concert mood.Grab this one while it is still available.