Hal Singer - Blues & Rhythm Series 5073: The Chronological Hal Singer 1948-1951 (2003)

Tenor sax player Hal "Cornbread" Singer spent his career moving with ease between jazz, R&B and early rock & roll, and his hard, muscular sax sound is unmistakable, practically defining the words "searing" and "scorching" on key instrumentals like "Cornbread" (his first big solo hit) and its follow-up, "Beef Stew." Both tracks are included here in this collection of his earliest solo sides for Savoy Records, along with two late-'40s sessions with pianist Sir Charles Thompson and Chicago shouter Carl Davis, Singer's first side with Coral Records, and "Spo-Dee-O-Dee," his lone Mercury Records recording. Singer was never wilder or more dynamic than on these wonderful sides, and he shows remarkable versatility on pieces like "Disc Jockey Boogie" and his slightly slowed version of "Rock Around the Clock," even though his attack mode is roughly the same. The horn-blasts during the breaks in the latter song are nothing less than a force of nature, while his rough-hewed gentleness on "Blue Velvet," the final track here, is full of a kind of rugged beauty. This is a marvelous compilation, and an ideal introduction to an important sax man. ~Steve Leggett