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Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #59 Sept-Oct 2005

Freddie Slack

Self-Titled (Mosaic Select)

By

When boogie-woogie moved from a black piano style to mainstream American craze in the late 1930s, pianist Freddie Slack became one of its greatest white exponents. From 1939-41, he was integral to the Will Bradley-Ray McKinley Orchestra, the musical force behind their hits “Strange Cargo” and “Beat Me Daddy, Eight To The Bar”. Slack’s band, formed in 1942, became charter artists on then-new Capitol Records. This three-disc, 72-track set compiles Slack’s complete 1942-52 output of big and small band fare. It showcases the band’s own prowess and their versatility accompanying vocalists Ella Mae Morse and Margaret Whiting as well as bluesman T-Bone Walker. Lyricist-singer Johnny Mercer (Capitol’s co-founder and a superb vocalist) and the big band uncork a particularly rip-roaring, powerful “Wreck Of The Old 97″. Drummer McKinley’s single 1942 Capitol session with his own orchestra, the now-classic “Hard Hearted Hannah”, rounds out the set, demonstrating his own laid-back, swinging vocals.

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Originally Featured in Issue #59 Sept-Oct 2005

Cover of Issue #59 Sept-Oct 2005

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