BIG MAMA THORNTON - "The Complete Vanguard Recordings" – Two Albums "Jail" and "Sassy Mama!" both from 1975 on Vanguard Records, One Live, One Studio, With A Third Previously Unreleased Album From The Same Sessions - Guests Featuring Cornell Dupree, Paul Griffin, George "Harmonica" Smith, Jimmy Johnson, Buddy Lucas and more (2000 UK Ace/Vanguard Masters 3CD Set of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Rock Me Baby..."

Elvis made "Hound Dog" famous in 1956 (a US No. 1) and Janis Joplin blew the audience away at California's 'Monterey Pop Festival' in June 1967 singing a gut-wrenching version of "Ball And Chain". The originator of both of these loaded tunes was Blues Shouter (and occasional drummer) BIG MAMA THORNTON - born Willie Mae Thornton in Montgormery, Alabama in 1926 – one of seven children. She was the first to record Leiber & Stoller's wonderful "Hound Dog" in 1952 and penned "Ball And Chain" which Janis would put on the 1968 "Cheap Thrills" album by Big Brother and The Holding Company in all its near 10-minute Bluesy glory. 

So by the time she made this trio of albums (one live - two studio sets – the third a stunning unreleased LP) – she was already a 49-year old veteran riding the wave of yet another Blues Revival. But that’s not to say that the goods aren’t here – they are. If anything – her age and experience exude out of these recordings - sounding not unlike Etta James on a good day backed by a crack-band complimenting her guttural Blues (the studio sessions featured Texan guitar wizard Cornell Dupree). Here are the 'snooping-round-the-door' details...

UK released April 2000 (reissued in 2013) – "The Complete Vanguard Recordings" by BIG MAMA THORNTON on Ace/Vanguard Masters 3VCD 175 (Barcode 015707017527) is a 3CD set and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 - "Jail" (36:34 minutes):

1. Little Red Rooster

2. Ball And Chain 

3. Jail

4. Hound Dog [Side 2]

5. Rock Me Baby

6. Sheriff O.E. & Me 

7. Oh Happy Man 

Tracks 1 to 7 are the album "Jail" – released 1975 in the USA on Vanguard VSD 79351 (No UK release). Recorded live at two venues - The Monroe State Prison in Washington and Oregon State Reformatory, Eugene in Oregon. 

BIG MAMA THORNTON – Vocals

J.D. NICHOLS – Piano

GEORGE "Harmonica" SMITH – Harmonica

BEE HOUSTON and STEVE WACHSMAN – Guitars 

BILL PORTER – Tenor Saxophone 

BRUCE SIEVERSON – Bass

TODD NELSON - Drums

Disc 2 - "Sassy Mama!" (35:35 minutes):

1. Rolling Stone

2. Lost City 

3. Mr. Cool

4. Big Mama's New Love

5. Private Number 

6. Sassy Mama 

7. Everybody's Happy (But Me)

Tracks 1 to 7 are the album "Sassy Mama!" – released 1975 in the USA on Vanguard VSD 79354 (no UK release). Studio album. 

BIG MAMA THORNTON – Vocals

CORNELL DUPREE – Guitar 

RONNIE MILLER - Guitar on "Big Mama's New Love" only

PAUL GRIFFIN – Keyboards 

BUDDY LUCAS – Tenor Sax 

WILBUR BASCOMB – Bass 

JIMMY JOHNSON – Drums 

Disc 3 - "Big Mama Swings" - (46:08 minutes):

1. Good-Bye Baby 

2. Gonna Leave You

3. Mixed Up Feeling 

4. Special 

5. Going Fishing 

6. Big Mama Swings

7. Happy Me 

Tracks 1 to 7 are a PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED studio album with the following line-up

BIG MAMA THORNTON – Vocals

CORNELL DUPREE – Guitar 

PAUL GRIFFIN – Keyboards

ERNIE HAYES – Piano  

BUDDY LUCAS – Tenor Sax 

WILBUR BASCOMB – Bass 

JIMMY JOHNSON – Drums 

The booklet is a fairly basic 12-page affair (for a 3CD set) with album credits and new liner notes on her career and the recordings by noted writer ED WARD. JEFF ZARAYA has carried out the 20-bit remasters from original tapes using the DCS 900 –and the audio is great – both on the live set and on the polished studio sets. There are three black and white photos of Thornton live and smiling – and even a snap of Janis Joplin in full concert flow (Thornton mentions her in the intro to "Ball And Chain" – Joplin’s loss only recent in the memory). 

The live set opens with an enthusiastic crowd losing their interned marbles to "Little Red Rooster" – a tune where the band gets to stretch out and find their feet – solos from Bill Porter on Saxophone and George Smith on Harmonica. The 7:14 minutes of "Ball And Chain" slows everything down but ups the intensity while "Hound Dog" proves to be a crowd-pleaser. But better is the solo-filled Slow Blues of "Rock Me Baby" where all three lead musicians get their spots and slaughter it (her voice is great on this one – salacious and Bluesy in a way that only a big woman shouter can be). The law-breaking story in "Sheriff O.E. & Me" allows her to tell a tale of wrongful arrest that naturally tickles the audience. She ends the gig on a hand-clapping version of "Oh Happy Day" – sounding like a hoarse Mavis Staples backed up by a Harmonica. 

She opens the very cool studio set with a cover of the Muddy Waters 'I wish I was a catfish' song "Rolling Stone" where she pines for men in a way that's real and not preening for the sake of it. Paul Griffin gives it some wonderful Booker T type organ on the slinky and sexy "Mr. Cool" – jabbing away at his keyboard as she draws out the 7:45 minutes – only to be joined for the second half by Cornell Dupree doing his best B.B. King/Albert King fretboard impressions. Ronnie Miller makes his Guitar known on the Piano Funky Blues of "Big Mama's New Love" (sounds fab too). Things gets Bluesy Mellow with "Private Number" where the operator won't give Big Mama her man's phone number so that she can get monogamous peace of mind (fab Sax solo from Buddy Lucas). Back to Funk-Blues with the hugely likeable "Sassy Mama" - the kind of tune that's going to turn up on a Kent-Soul CD compilation real soon. Proceedings end with the 'blue as I can be' Jeannie Evan’s cover "Everybody's Happy (But Me)" – the Piano and Sax doing battle in left and right speaker coolsville. 

I had expected the unreleased "Big Mama Swings" studio album to be filler – but if anything – it’s probably the strongest set of the three! Superbly produced by ED BLAND and mostly featuring the same band as "Sassy Mama!" with slight alterations – it's that album Part 2 – only better. "Big Mama Swings" opens strongly with the shuffling barroom boogie of "Good-Bye Baby" but then lurches into some fireworks - a nine-minute slow Blues called "Gonna Leave You". Both Ernie Hayes (Piano) and Buddy Lucas (Saxophone) add so much to her whining vocals – later joined by the fluid fretwork of Cornell Dupree on Guitar (stunning track). 

More emotional Funk Blues with "Mixed Up Feeling" because her baby won’t love her 'that way' and she can't find his door in the alleyway (nice Sax work and guitar licks) - while "Special" could be Etta James on Chess circa 1974 – updated and Funky but still anchored in that 60ts R&B sound. We go full-on Catfish Bluesy with the superb "Going Fishing" – 7:21 minutes of slow rolling piano and 'since I've been left behind' lyrics (she wants to know who's tugging on his line now). Hearing both the stepper-boogie "Big Mama Swings" and the killer Blues of "Happy Me" – it's a real wonder as to why this excellent album wasn’t released? At least it's available through this Ace/Vanguard Masters Reissue...

Willie Mae Thornton would have made the History books with "Hound Dog" and "Ball and Chain" alone – but how good is it to know that she had more Blues/Soul/Funk in her in the mid Seventies. Almost last of the big shouters – she passed away in July 1984 aged 58 – and this 3CD set does her legacy proud...