How Blue Can You Get?

Ebony, Sept, 1989 by Charles L. Sanders

How Blue Can You Get?

A REALLY marvelous anthology of the blues is How Blue Can You Get? (Bluebird 6758-1-RB) which was released earlier this year. Featuring vocals and instrumentals by such greats as Leadbelly, Louis Armstrong, Thomas (Fats) Waller, Little Richard, Joe Williams and the Hot Lips Page Trio, the album offers 16 traditional Blues tunes including "Stormy Monday Blues," Lil Green singing "Why Don't You Do Right?," "Crowing Rooster Blues" and the classic Duke Ellington "Rocks In My Bed" with Joe Williams fronting the Jimmy Jones Orchestra. Produced by Ed Michel and Leonard Feather, the album is digitally remastered from the original tapes dating back to 1940, a process that makes everything sound as if it was just done yesterday. Many record companies are rediscovering blues and jazz treasures in their vaults and are cleaning up the sound and reissuing them for today's audience. None does it any better than RCA's Bluebird subsidiary.