BIG BILL BROONZY STORY MONO NM 5LP BOX SET DG VERVE Original 1961 Set
This 5-lp set was a product of three recording sessions, held on July 12 and 13, 1957, immediately before Broonzy entered the hospital for surgery on the lung cancer that would end his career and take his life just a year later. He sounds in good enough spirits, and the voice and guitar are still in excellent form as he runs through the songs that evidently mattered most to him on those two days: "Key to the Highway," "Take This Hammer," "See See Rider," "Alberta," "Frankie and Johnny," "In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and more than two dozen others. Producer Bill Randle didn't get a lot of the songs he'd hoped to record, such as "Stack O Lee" and "Night Time Is the Right Time," which Broonzy didn't want to sing, but he got enough for five LPs' worth of music out of the ten hours of recordings. (Did the rest survive, one wonders, and might there be anything that was left off that's worth hearing?) The sound is state of the art, with the singer and his solo acoustic guitar clean and close. The set is a vital and important document, as well as great listening, not only for the music but for Broonzy's between-song banter -- he was one of the great raconteurs of the blues -- although it isn't quite as indispensable as one might think.
ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING - VERY RARE!
· DEEP GROOVE PRESSING
· ORIGINAL BLUE VERVE LABEL WITH SILVER PRINT .
· EACH SLEEVE TELLS A LITTLE ABOUT BIG BILL AND HAS LYRICS AS WELL.
· THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.
· THICK, HEAVY VINYL PRESSING
· CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS, RECORDS MINT NEVER BEEN PLAYED
ALBUM COVER:VG+. Art work is mint, however the corner edges of the box are split (Click on pics to enlarge).
(PLEASE SEE THE IMAGES OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH)
(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from a previous auction. What you see is what you'll get. GUARANTEED!)
It’s the midnight hour on Friday, July 12, 1957, and blues legend Big Bill Broonzy, 64, is ensconced in a Chicago recording studio laying down tracks for what will become a mammoth 5LP box set released as The Big Bill Broonzy Story on Verve’s Folkways imprint. There’s no band behind Broonzy – rather, it’s just him with his acoustic guitar sitting in front of a lone microphone. Beside him is producer Bill Randle, and behind the glass-fronted control room is the shadowy figure of a recording engineer.
Born in 1893, in Scott, Mississippi, and raised in Pine Bluffs, Arkansas, William Lee Conley Broonzy was one of 17 children born to impoverished, sharecropping parents who were former slaves. He worked as a plow hand on a farm from the age of eight, but when he wasn’t toiling in the fields he could be found playing a crudely-constructed box fiddle, which he quickly became proficient at, performing for small change at segregated picnics.
In 1920, after a spell in the army, Broonzy ventured north to Chicago. There he hooked up with early blues pioneer, Papa Charlie Jackson, switched from fiddle to guitar, and began his career as a musician. With his smooth but strong voice accompanied by dexterous guitar playing, Big Bill Broonzy was soon impressing people with his urban-inflected country blues, and then cut his first record, in 1927. He recorded under a variety of guises in his early years – Big Bill And Thomps, Big Bill Johnson, Big Bill Broomsley, to name a few – and in 1938 appeared at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall (which up until that point had been exclusively a classical music venue) in the famous From Spiritual To Swing series of concerts organized by legendary A&R man and talent spotter John Hammond.
Broonzy wasn’t a convert to the electric blues style that emerged in Chicago in the 50s, but continued to ply his trade in an acoustic setting, which resulted in him being largely perceived as a folk musician. It was a period when, despite his approaching twilight years, he traveled abroad and was playing to packed venues throughout Europe.
A sprawling quintuple LP, released on April 17, 1961, The Big Bill Broonzy Story came at a time when there was an explosion of interest in blues and folk music from predominantly white audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Producer Bill Randle just put Broonzy in front of a microphone, gave him a whiskey, and rolled the tape. They recorded for three hours and then had two more follow-up sessions. The vibe on all of them was informal and relaxed, with Broonzy interspersing his performances with spoken reflections on his life and anecdotes concerning the many musicians he had known. What results is a deeply fascinating oral history of Broonzy’s life – significantly, it also paints a vivid picture of life for African-Americans during the early part of the 20th Century.
Randle gave Broonzy a free hand in choosing his material for the album, which included two of his most famous songs, “Key To The Highway” and “Southbound Train.” He also featured “Tell Me What Kind Of Man Is Jesus” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” to illustrate his roots in African-American spiritual music. He also paid tribute to fellow blues mavens Bessie Smith, Tampa Red, and Leroy Carr – the latter described by Broonzy as “one of the greatest blues writers I’ve ever known” – with heartfelt renditions of their songs.
It’s hard to believe that Broonzy’s voice – with its clear articulation, rich timbre, and soulful vitality – was silenced not long after the album was made. In fact, the day after the third recording session for The Big Bill Broonzy Story, Broonzy went into hospital to undergo surgery for lung cancer. By April 1958, the singer was seriously ill and required another operation, this time on his throat, which, tragically, took away his ability to sing. Just over a year after The Big Bill Broonzy Story was recorded, its creator was dead, passing away on August 15, 1958, at 5.30am.
Often described as Big Bill Broonzy’s last will and testament, The Big Bill Broonzy Story remains an enduring monument to a man whose singular style was the bridge between rural and urban blues styles.
Excellent original condition, appears unplayed
