Reet Petite and Gone: 22 Original Classics (1999)
22 tracks, 63 minutes
Spotify playlist · Bear Family Records
This album is a proper obscure one, basically because it’s just a bargain bucket compilation from 20 years ago, but I still think it’s the best Louis Jordan compilation I’ve heard – and I’ve heard quite a few – so I’m including it here anyway, and I’ve taken the time to actually recreate it in the form of a Spotify playlist so you can listen as intended – aren’t you lucky?
I’ve mentioned before how I reckon I can pinpoint Miles’ Bitches Brew as the start of my obsession with jazz, but Louis Jordan definitely played his part, and at a much younger age for me too. I’m a bit hazy about it, but I’m sure that he was one of the first artists whose music I actually owned (a title he holds alongside other such luminaries as Björk and S Club 7). It was a hand-me-down cassette from my dad, and that was a typically good call from him: Jordan is a great introduction to jazz and blues for younger kids. It’s really good fun to dance around to, the melodies are exciting but hummable and the lyrics are easily memorable and crammed with witty (and/or crude) jokes, even if I didn’t get at least 50% of them back in primary school. Plus, I loved trains, so it was ‘Choo Choo Ch’Boogie’ that got my attention in the first place.
That cassette had a different tracklist to this album, but there’s still quite a bit of cross-over, although this one misses out some classics – ‘Five Guys Named Moe’ was another favourite of Little Jim and an unfortunate omission from this collection, together with ‘Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby’ and ‘Saturday Night Fish Fry.’ Never mind though, it’s full of classics that really show off what Jordan was about. His style of jump jive is at the exact midpoint between two popular styles at the time: jazzier than R’n’B, bluesier than swing to make the perfect pop music of its day. It was a style he perfected and it was perfect for him. He was a singer, a saxophonist, a composer, a lyricist, a bandleader and a comedian – and he was amazing at all of them. It’s not fair really, is it? Telling jokes to blowing a mean solo to crooning a heartfelt ballad…he could do it all and in quick succession. I’m sure a concert by Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five must have been a cracking night out.
Parents, take the heed of Abu Djimm: Louis Jordan is a gateway drug to the crazy worlds of jazz and blues – get it in their ears early.
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