+review

lou rawls
the best of lou rawls:
the capital jazz & blues sessions
blue note records

Lou Rawls may be best known to my generation as the spokesperson for the United Negro College Fund and Parade of the Stars but for me, Rawls was the singer that worked with David Axlerod, an A & R that helped shape the sound of the jazz artist Cannonball Adderley. The Cannonball Adderley records I know, namely Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, would not have been if it were not for the sonic format Axlerod followed in making Lou Rawls Live. As one of the albums my parents grooved to Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, in an indirect way, influenced my childhood. And given the impact Axlerod and Rawls had on that album they too, in an indirect way, influenced my childhood. 

So when Blue Note Records recently released The Best of Lou Rawls, a compilation of seventeen songs from 8 of Rawl’s Capitol Records albums plus 3 previously unreleased tracks, I had to give it a listen.

Ironically, his career was almost over before it began. He was in an auto accident with his friend, and fellow soul man, Sam Cooke that left him in a coma for five days. Shakened by his near death experience, Rawls refocused his energy on a solo career. If he hadn’t, we may have never known him or been able to appreciate the works he achieved in his lifetime.

Born on the south side of Chicago in 1933 Rawls started out, as most musicians do, in gospel but he didn’t stay there. He would go on to become a cross genre artist as the liner notes say – blues, jazz, doo-wop, standard or soul. But regardless of the format, when Lou Rawls does a song he takes it to a place all his own and pulls you with him. Fortunately, The Best of Lou Rawls captures this.  In this collection are gems like “Motherless Child” a beautiful blues tune from his first album The Soul Stirring Gospel Sound of the Pilgrim Travelers Featuring Lou Rawls, “Blues for the Weeper” a song arranged by Benny Carter that lets you know that life isn’t always roses and “Street of Dreams” arranged by H.B. Barnum. But what this collection truly notes about Rawls is his connection with the common man’s struggles, loves, losses and dreams. Rawls can grab an audience with a monologue like “Southside Blues/ Tobacco Road Medley” off Lou Rawls Live or tell a beautiful jazz-inflected story like “Street of Dreams.”  Lou Rawls Live is the album that put him on the map and listening to it today, it still does. A quartet never sounded so good with Rawls in front. I mean really, this cat could rip a song up, down and side-to-side. If you doubt his ability to make a song his, listen to his renditions of “Georgia on my Mind”and “God Bless the Child.”  They are all classic Lou Rawls renditions of the human condition. And as hard as it is to bring the rawness of life to a song, Lou Rawls does it.  It is no ordinary thing to bring that much empathy to songs. It just isn’t.

If The Best of Lou Rawls is the beginning of knowing him, well, get the albums that these songs are from and enjoy the work of an artist that you can truly feel and does what an artist should do – put you in a specific mood, space and place.  The power of a signature voice and energy like his is unmistakable and will be sorely missed.