Boogie-Woogie - Will Bradley with Ray McKinley

 

Boogie Woogie Congo

Boogie-Woogie
Will Bradley with Ray McKinley
Epic LN 3115
A Product of CBS
1955

From the back cover: When boogie woogie left the piano to become an orchestral form, it was Will Bradley who made it as popular as it is today. The selections in this collection, as famous for their weird titles and odd vocals as for instrumental work, represent the best of his work. They feature one of the finest drummers in the business, Ray McKinley, and the trombone playing of Bradley himself. There is also the piano work of Freddie Slack, considered the best boogie player among white musicians. This, in short, is a hand-picked collection of some of the greatest boogie woogie in recording history, one that can hold its own in any musical library.

Will Bradley was born in Newton, New Jersey, and learned the complexities of the trombone at an early age. After a brief career in a vaudeville unit, he joined a jazz band known as Hilt Shaw's Detroiters. Several months later he left them and went into radio with a vengeance, playing for such conductors as Andre Kostelanetz, among others. Soon thereafter Will Bradley decided that the time had come to form his own band, and six months from the time he set out, he crashed into the musical big-time with that unforgettable best-seller, Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar). That, and other numbers in this collection, made Will Bradley a national favorite, and here are the original settings and recordings of those masterpieces, some of the best music to come out of the boogie form.

Beat Me Daddy To The Bar
Down The Road A Piece
Celery Stalks At Midnight
Flyin' Home
Boogie Woman Conga
Strange Cargo
Scrub Me, Mama With A Boogie Beat
Basin Street Boogie
Chicke Gumboog (ie)
Rock-a-bye The Boogie
Rhumboogie