Jimmy Blythe - Messin' Around Blues

Back in the hoary days of the Depression-era recording industry, records were a bit like toasters: promotional swag given away with consumer purchases. One of the glaring downsides to this practice was that production values were often atrocious. Master copies frequently got lost or tossed and large chunks of the Pre-War music archive survived only in battered and eroded form, if at all. That lamentable legacy led to the necessary, albeit grudging, acceptance of compromised audio quality on the part of collectors. Which brings me to this rousing new Delmark release; a disc that earns “must hear” designation directly out of the gate, but not for entirely expected reasons.

Chicagoan Jimmy Blythe was an accomplished ragtime and boogie-woogie pianist. His talents were such that a variety of labels solicited his services and he ended up taking part prolific array of sessions by everyone from Ma Rainey to Blind Blake as well as dozens under his own name. He found another lucrative sideline recording of piano rolls for nickelodeons, a body of work from which this collection is culled. Blythe succumbed to meningitis several months after the nineteen rolls were recorded in 1931. The tunes are nearly all originals or collaborations and reflect the popular tastes of the day with Blythe deftly blending syncopated left hand rhythms with nimble right hand leads. There’s nothing that deviates far from the norm for the idiom, but Blythe’s playing carries a blithe simplicity that’s downright endearing and many of the ditties go down like gulps from a frothy mug of draft sarsaparilla.

As pleasing as the music is, it’s the recording quality and clarity that really stands out. Restoration is credited to one Frank L. Himpsl and considering the aforementioned industry culture into which these tracks were originally birthed, his work in that area borders on genius. Nary a surface crackle or glitch is audible anywhere and unlike other restorative jobs that end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater in an effort to abolish all signs of age, Himpsl’s ministrations retain a warm depth and natural resonance. Seriously, these rolls sound as if someone like Reginald Robinson could’ve baked them yesterday. Listening to the results it’s hard not to extrapolate what magic Himpsl might work on notoriously gummed up classics like Son House’s Paramount sides. In the meantime, Blythe’s forgotten artistry lives and breathes anew.

~ Derek Taylor