Sear-iously

When he wasn't playing in Duke Ellington's band or with the Johnny Hodges Orchestra, tenor saxman Big Al Sears was cutting R&B and rock & roll numbers leading his own group or as a member of the Alan Freed Orchestra. This CD collects Sears' complete R&B/rock & roll sides, cut for the Coral, RCA Victor, Herald, and Groove labels between December 1949 and July 1956, in one place. There's not a lot of difference between the 1949 and the 1956 sides except for the disappearance of the Mills Brothers-style vocalizing on the early tracks in favor a greater emphasis on the beat and on solo vocals where there are any at all -- mostly, though, this is a showcase for playing, primarily Sears' sax (and those of Eddie Barefield, Rudy Powell, Budd Johnson, Sam "The Man" Taylor, and Haywood Henry). Mostly this is great R&B-style dance music of the kind that had pretty much gone out of style in much of the black community by the second half of the 1950s, though in its curious way it shows Sears' (and Freed's) continued commitment to the most complex sides of R&B, even as the latter was being abandoned around them in favor of simpler and safer commercial sounds. Despite some disclaimers in the booklet about the sound, the audio quality is excellent throughout and this is a hot disc through and through, with some of the best sounding big-band-style R&B of its era. ~ Bruce Eder