Papa Charlie Jackson - Collection 1924-34 (2019)

Papa Charlie Jackson was one of the first country blues artists to emerge from the minstrel, vaudeville and medicine shows to become a successful recording artist during the 1920s. Born in New Orleans in 1885, he played banjo and guitar, working in travelling shows across the south before settling in Chicago, close to the hubs of commercial recording in the ‘20s. He largely recorded the kind of material he had been performing for years on the road, comprising blues in the bawdy tradition, often with a humorous flavour. This great-value 72-track 3-CD set comprising most of his recordings for Paramount, Vocalion and Okeh from his debut in 1924 through to 1934 – the era which encompassed his entire recording career prior to his death in 1938. As well as his solo recordings, it includes tracks done with the great blues singers Ida Cox and Ma Rainey, and with Freddie Keppard's Jazz Cardinals, featuring Johnny Dodds, as well two unique sides with Blind Blake in 1929 comprising elements of blues jam session, hokum recording, and ragtime. It is a substantial, thorough and very entertaining overview of the career of a bluesman who was not maybe one of the genre’s most historically important or influential figures, but who paved the way for many other blues artists to pursue successful recording careers.