Personnel:
Odetta (vocals); Herb Hall (clarinet); Buck Clayton (trumpet); Vic Dickenson (trombone); Dick Wellstood (piano); Ahmed Abdul-Malik (bass); "Shep" Shepherd (drums).
Recorded at Plaza Sound Studios, New York, April 11-12, 1962.
Originally released on Riverside (9417).
Includes original liner notes by Ed Michel.
Digitally remastered by Phil De Lancie (1991, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley California).
Although Odetta’s commercial breakthrough came from her affiliation with the collegiate folk revival of the late ’50s and early ’60s, the singer/guitarist spent the early ’50s singing mostly blues in the early Bessie Smith/Ma Rainey style. Knowledge of this earlier period in Odetta’s career puts 1962’s wonderful ODETTA AND THE BLUES into context: no mere bandwagon-jumper she. Unlike the majority of her folk albums, which feature Odetta, her acoustic guitar and occasionally unobtrusive bass work by Bill Lee, ODETTA AND THE BLUES was recorded with a full band of the mid-’20s style: clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, and drums. The sextet knows their history–a drag like "Hard, Oh Lord" wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Kid Ory 78 in 1925–but aren’t mere revivalists, kicking into standards like "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor" with verve and passion. Odetta, as always, sings magnificently.
Review by Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.: Odetta earned her rep singing traditional folk in the mid-’50s before the American folk revival got underway with the Kingston Trio and "Tom Dooley" in 1958. Unlike many of her contemporaries, however, she had a habit of going her own way from time to time. One of Odetta’s most interesting deviations from straight folk, and one that caused a bit of contention among her more conservative contemporaries, was Odetta and the Blues, released by Riverside in 1962. Drawing from classic female blues singers like Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, and Ma Rainy, she traded in her acoustic guitar for a six-piece jazz band featuring trumpeter Buck Clayton, trombonist Vic Dickenson, clarinetist Herb Hall, pianist Dick Wellstood, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and drummer Shep Shepherd. The results are so convincing that if one didn’t know who Odetta was or what time period she sang in, it would be easy to believe she had been a classic blues singer. From the upbeat New Orleans jazz of "Believe I’ll Go" to the down-home blues of "Oh, My Babe," Odetta and the Blues is a fun, inspired, and surprising album. Odetta gives full range to her magnificent voice, providing a fresh makeover to old favorites like "Yonder Comes the Blues," while trumpet, trombone, and clarinet work offers lively, vivacious accompaniment. In many ways, Odetta and the Blues isn’t the typical Odetta album, but it is an excellent portrait of an artist who refused to be boxed in by the assumed aesthetic of her time.