VA - Drink Up - Light Up! Jazz Noire Tales Of Dope, Booze & Sleaze [2CD] (2011)

Fantastic Voyage follows 2011 s hugely-successful Jazz Noire collection by letting the same team return to those sleazy dives and bars, this time homing in on the dope, drink and dubious characters to provide a vivid picture of high-seeking low life between the 1930s and 1950s. The music on Drink Up Light Up! evokes that time when orchestras swelled, brass sections exploded like fireworks and blues dripped off piano keys onto booze- and tear-stained barroom floors, staggering cast including names like the Reefer Man and Snuff Dippin Mama, but the themes are just as relevant to today s recession-hit climate: the desire to escape by getting high (and the often unfavourable repercussions on relationships). Whether it s Sam Price commanding Lead Me Daddy, Straight To The Bar , Buddy Banks confessing I Need It Bad (Groove Juice) or the Four Clefs getting philosophical on When I m Low I Get High , the selection straddles the whole spectrum of substance-fuelled whoopee, the up- and downsides. Springing out of Prohibition and the Depression, the set also provides a fascinating glimpse of street life during that period, up to the Korean War, from domestic scenarios to dope slang, quite apart from the providing a sublimely evocative listening experience. Along with his usual knowledgeable annotation, compiler Dave Penny repeats Jazz Noire s scene-setting movie themes and finales with Wild Weed, Reefer Madness, D.O.A. and The Man With The Golden Arm, the 51 tracks locked between including names such as Sarah Vaughan, Cab Calloway, Stuff Smith, Dinah Washington, Cee Pee Johnson, Billy Valentine, Hot Lips Page, Jay McShann, Cootie Williams, Wardell Gray, Bull Moose Jackson, Pee Wee Crayton, Doc Pomus, Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Jimmy McCracklin, Joe Liggins, Earl Bostic and Godfather of Booze Wynonie Harris, plus many more taking their shots from all angles. All told, just the ticket after a summer of Lycra-clad Olympic water-wielders!