Various Artists - The Birth Of Modern Blues

This surprisingly cohesive set collects the complete 1950s recordings of Fenton Robinson, LittleMilton, Little Junior Parker, Earl Forest, Johnny Ace, and Bobby "Blue" Bland for the various Bihari Brothers labels (Meteor, Flair, and Modern) and adds four cuts from B.B. King's 1950 session for RPM Records. The result is a nice anthology of mostly uptown blues tracks highlighted by Robinson's impressive and soulful "Tennessee Woman," Forest's deliciously loose "Rumpus Romp," Bland's early signature tune "Drifting from Town to Town," and King's "B.B.'s Boogie," which finds the guitarist honking along joyously on a semi-improvised vamp. A young Matt Murphy is featured on guitar on Junior Parker's two sides.
(AllMusic Review by Steve Leggett)

Some years ago I was looking for a copy of Little Milton's 'Love At First Sight' and couldn't find it anywhere. I eventually found and purchased an obscure Japanese CD that did have this rarity. And here it is with some other rare recordings. Some, like the B B King sides, are easy to locate but this disc is a pretty expensive buy ...if you can find a copy. 
It sounds like they lifted these sides direct from the vinyl originals but it's very listenable if you are into historic recordings. Anyway...it is what it is...and now available at 'Chitlins' for those that cherish this stuff. Musician details are in the scans - Gus

Little Junior Parker - Blues Man (1969)

Little Junior Parker or just Junior Parker was a great soulful Blues vocalist and harmonica man . This album seems to have been overlooked during the rush to digitalise everything worthy. Its a good listen with some tasteful horn arrangements - I don't know the source of this LP rip, I've had it for some time and it's in very decent nick ! Thanks to the original uploader - Let's hope we get a CD version soon ! - Gus

Junior Parker - You Don't Have To Be Black To Love The Blues

Had Junior Parker not died Far too soon, who knows what additional treasures he could have left us. Given a longevity like Bobby or B.B. he appears to have had the creativity to have been a major dude for a long time. This Groove Merchant LP from 1971 certainly seems to indicate that he had plenty left to say and the open ears to stay relevant.

Ya gotta love the cover!

Junior Parker - I Tell Stories Sad and True.... [vinyl rip, flac]

a re-post by request:

One of Parker's final albums before dying prematurely from a brain tumor only months later. I just finished the rip for Cliff last week.

  I Tell Stories Sad and True, I Sing the Blues and Play Harmonica Too, It Is Very Funky [United Artists, 1972]
"Once a big man on the blues circuit, Parker was turning into the forgotten Beale Streeter by the time he died last year, and this is a respectful farewell--Sonny Lester, who wrecked his recent collaboration with Jimmy McGriff, keeps things simple (well, fairly simple). Never as penetrating as B.B. or Bobby, Parker smooths his way over the arrangements with the calm of a man who was mellow before the concept existed, at least in its present de-racinated form. Highlight: the sad, true story that goes with "Funny How Time Slips Away." " [R. Christgau]

Junior Parker - Ride With Me, Baby (The Singles 1952-1961 +bonus)

A repost from a couple years ago.....

Murphy's Law is a powerful thing.

Some of y'all will remember that back around last Thanksgiving, I had spent a weekend assembling an upgraded version of MCA's less-than-great re-issues of Junior Parker's Duke sides. Literally the following week, Cliff found and ordered this newly re-mastered double disc set that covers EVERYTHING, Sun and Duke, from 1951 to 1961. Once again it was time to figure out what to keep and what to pitch. Sigh....Oh, well it was no where near as complicated for having done the previous work.

This set does a really nice job on the period it covers, BUT this one too is mysteriously pulled up at least one disc short of completing the entire Duke era. Perhaps they are working on a second set, but in the meanwhile I have attached a new 20 track supplement to cover as much of that material as I have now. Hopefully this will trigger a second Murphy's Law response and a second package will be issued that finally does Junior full justice.

Sorry to revamp your files yet again, but I think you'll find it is worth it.

Junior Parker - The Duke Recordings Volumes 1, 2 and bonus

Okay...let's try this again and hopefully the links last more than 10 minutes. eh?

When last we were listening to some Junior Parker, I mentioned the deplorable job that MCA had done on their remasters of Junior's Duke material, not to mention that they quit the set without finishing it. Well by using some data base tools I came to realize I had alternate sources for a good many tunes; around 60%. I sat down one night and opened the 5 sources in as many windows and started a-b-ing to find the best version. It turned out that nearly every one of what I considered the worst examples, I was able to replace with a superior mastering. A couple I tweaked myself, but only a couple. To my surprise, there were a good number of songs on disc 2 where the version from the set was actually the best of the lot but a large portion of disc 1 was replaced. Once I was done constructing my new improved sets I had 10 whole tracks left over from various sources and they are good stuff that should have appeared on the abandoned Volume 3. Those of you who downloaded the earlier "Driving Wheel" single disc will want to delete that one and grab this far more complete set from Junior's great Duke era.

Junior Parker - Mystery Train

There are a whole lot mess of white folk that would dearly love to believe that Elvis didn't learn nothin' from black folk. That Professor Longhair warble, the Roy Brown and Wynonie Harris influences in both sound and showmanship, the Junior Parker influences? "Naw, HE made ALL that shit up and THEY copied him." (this is where my eyes roll back in my head)

Now I have actually had this conversation and more than once I might add! When I pointed out that Fess, Wynonie, and Roy all pre-dated Elvis, I was, after a bit of incoherent sputtering, challenged to a fight! The last refuge of that sort of idiot. I have similar experiences with Tea Party-ers who value their ignorance so highly that they will fight for it when presented with actual facts and cogent argument.

So here we have a photo that kind of gives lie to the story that racists love cite in which Elvis is purportedly quoted as saying that a black man is only fit to carry his luggage. (btw I have a whole lot of black friends who point to that and so they refuse to HEAR Elvis. The stupidity works both ways!) So to ALL these fools I offer this picture. Elvis showed up at these guys shows all the time when he could sneak away. You think he got the hair, clothes, voice and swinging hips from White Folks? PLEASE!! Elvis is known to have shown up in Chitlin Circuit bars and to have even gotten up on stage! Particularly in his early years.

All of which only has to do with the photo so let's get to the music. You will remember from the earlier bio that Parker was discovered by Ike Turner, did a pair of tracks with Ike at Modern and then was quickly snapped up by Sun. Something tells me Ike made money on every step of that process. The Sun period too, was short before he moved on to Don Robey and Duke but there are enough tracks to make this set with a little filler from James Cotton and Pat Hare. The Cotton tracks aren't all that exciting but the Hare tracks are killer, especially 'I'm Going To Kill My Baby'. Hare actually did kill his woman a year or two latter and spent the rest of his life in jail! He was a R&B guitar hero pioneer using distortion tricks unknown at the time. The Junior tracks are all first class including the oft covered (including by Elvis) 'Mystery Train'.

Junior Parker - Driving Wheel

I had intended to begin with the two volumes of Duke singles that MCA/Universal issued prior to abandoning their complete Junior Parker on Duke set, but frankly the remastering is so hideous I'm going to start with this far better sounding MCA Canada set while I see if anything can be done for the 2 US discs. 

Junior Parker (May 27, 1932 – November 18, 1971) was an American Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth". He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001. One music journalist noted, "For years Junior Parker deserted down home harmonica blues for uptown blues-soul music"

Junior Parker was born West Memphis, Arkansas.

He sang in gospel groups as a child, and played on the various blues circuits beginning in his teenage years. His biggest influence as a harmonica player was Sonny Boy Williamson, with whom he worked before moving on to work for Howlin' Wolf in 1949. Around 1950 he was a member of Memphis's ad hoc group, the Beale Streeters, with Bobby 'Blue' Bland and B.B. King.
   
In 1951 he formed his own band, the Blue Flames, with the guitarist Pat Hare. Parker was discovered in 1952 by Ike Turner, who signed him to Modern Records. He put out one single on this record label, "You're My Angel." This brought him to the attention of Sam Phillips, and he and his band signed onto Sun Records in 1953. There they produced three successful songs: "Feelin' Good" (which reached # 5 on the US Billboard R&B chart), "Love My Baby," and "Mystery Train", later covered by Elvis Presley. For Presley's version of "Mystery Train", Scotty Moore borrowed the guitar riff from Parker's "Love My Baby", played by Pat Hare. "Love My Baby" and "Mystery Train" are considered important contributions to the rockabilly genre.

Later in 1953, Parker toured with Bobby Bland and Johnny Ace, and also joined Duke Records. Parker and Bland headed the highly successful Blues Consolidated Revue, which became a staple part of the southern blues circuit. He continued to have a string of hits on the R&B chart, including the smooth "Next Time You See Me" (1957); re-makes of Roosevelt Sykes' song "Driving Wheel" (1961), Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago", Guitar Slim's "The Things That I Used to Do" (1963), and Don Robey's "Mother-in-Law Blues" (1956); plus his own "Stand by Me" (1961).

His success was limited after he left Duke in 1966. He recorded for various labels, including Mercury, Blue Rock, Minit, and Capitol.

Parker died on November 18, 1971, at age 39, in Blue Island, Illinois, during surgery for a brain tumor.