Back Cover Notes
In various fields of music there tends to be a period when simplicity is shunned in favour of a complexity which sometimes covers up a lack of basic content. We are in such a period at the present time as far as jazz is concerned and for this reason the piano work of Jimmy Yancey is known only to a few collectors. Yet, Yancey has influenced the field of blues piano playing to a considerable extent and better known pianists like Meade Lux Lewis have frequently paid tribute to him.
Yancey was born in Chicago in 1894 and in his twenties he toured Europe as a dancer and singer. For thirty years he was employed as a groundskeeper at a Chicago baseball park and only played the piano at rent parties and private functions. His wife, Estelle Yancey, is a blues singer of great talent and she recorded with him on a number of occasions. Yancey died in Chicago on September 17, 1951, leaving behind him only a few records.
From all accounts, Yancey was a quiet, gentle man and this is shown in his playing. His style was one of stark simplicity and he used a number of themes often retitling them, and created innumerable variations within this framework. In one sense Yancey was a technically limited performer, but such is the impact of his work that this is never obtrusive. The four sides on this record were originally recorded for the American Session label in December of 1943 and are amongst Yancey's most moving work. At The Window is a particularly reflective solo and has a characteristic haunting beauty. The Rocks is a very familiar Yancey theme and is superbly played here. In fact, all the four numbers on this record are outstanding. There are very few records issued at the present which really qualify as great, critical assertions to the contrary, but this is, in my opinion, one of them. The very simplicity of Yancey's playing is deceptive, for it is not the simplicity of an inadequate performer. Within his self-imposed framework, Yancey created music that, by its moving quality and absolute authenticity, deserves to rate as a classic of its kind. Those who fail to perceive the validity of this music reveal only a formidable lack of sensitivity.
Albert J. McCarthy
Vinyl Details:
Label: Vogue EPV 1203
Country: UK
Released: 1957
Genre: Boogie-woogie
Side 1:
01 At The Window
02 Boodlin'
Side 2:
01 Sweet Patootie
02 The Rocks
