Impressive, yet incomplete

by Jim Trageser
This review first appeared in Living Blues in March / April 2023.

While that business model may not have suited the interests of the artists then under contract with the label, Concord's ongoing acquisition of smaller independent labels has created an unrivaled catalog of jazz, blues, rock and folk to where it can now issue compilations to please the palate of nearly any music fan.

Since 1999, Concord has acquired the catalogs of legendary independent folk, jazz and roots labels such as Rounder, Sugar Hill (the bluegrass specialty label, not the hip-hop label of the same name), Flying Fish, Fantasy, Pablo and Stax. Perhaps only the Atlantic label (now owned by Warner Bros.) and Blue Note (Universal) can match the importance of Concord's catalog (and neither of those esteemed catalogs can touch Concord's overarching breadth of styles).

All of which is by way of saying that a new box set celebrating black roots music from Concord's reissues imprint, Craft, is absolutely stellar – yet also feels as if it could have included far more from the expansive Concord holdings.

"Birthright: A Black Roots Music Compendium" is a modest two-disc collection whose introduction and accompanying essays in the 48-page booklet suggest a far more ambitious project than what is actually represented by the 40 songs found here.

The challenge is that any single-label collection inherently limits the producers to what is available on that label. Thus, while "Birthright" aims to celebrate a century of black roots music, the oldest recording included here is from 1951 – only 72 years ago. Missing from this collection are any of the influential, even seminal, recordings of black roots music – jazz, blues, gospel – from the 1920s, '30s and '40s.

Of the music that is here, there is nothing to complain about. The producers did an outstanding job in curating the music to illustrate "One hundred years of black roots music in America" from the materials available to them.

That 1951 song, "Weary Blues" by clarinetist George Lewis' Ragtime Band, hearkens back to Lewis' own history in the Crescent City in the 1920s and ‘30s. He sounds in top form here, and this is one of the first tracks he recorded as leader.

And we do get some unquestionably groundbreaking recordings here, including a 1955 track from Clifton Chenier that captures the then-nascent sounds of zydeco – when Francophone Creole musicians in Louisiana melded traditional French, Cajun folk and New Orleans-styled rhythm and blues into something new and fresh.

We also get one of Professor Longhair's early singles, a 1959 version of "Go to the Mardi Gras" with its lilting Caribbean rhythms coupled to danceable R&B punctuated by a tight horn section.

The 1960s blues revival is well-represented with tracks from such "rediscovered" artists as Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, John Lee Hooker, and Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry. While some may argue that these artists' 78s were more influential that what they did in their later years, certainly these recordings are representative of their respective careers.

And others of roughly the same age and style – Jesse Fuller, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell – were only able to issue records after decades of performing because of the folk revival and the increased demand for traditional acoustic music of all styles. So these recordings are among the earliest they did.

The breadth of styles on this collection is perhaps best illustrated by a quick look at some of the other artists included, which range from the church gospel of the Staple Singers to the more contemporary gospel of Sweet Honey in the Rock, the traditional Mardi Gras sounds of The Golden Eagles to the modern New Orleans jazz of The Dirt Dozen Brass Band, the folk blues of Odetta to the fife and drum music performed by Shardé Thomas with Corey Harris.

A curious inclusion given the stated theme of this collection is that of Bahamian singer Joseph Spence. The Bahamas aren't part of the United States, and if the focus here was on black roots music of all nations, then we would have had other tracks from outside the United States.

So that seems a bit of an outlier – albeit a pleasant one.

The songs are not arranged chronologically, nor in any stylistic grouping. It's more like what a good disc jockey would do back in the day on the radio or at a dance: alternate fast and slow, happy and sad. This juxtaposition of eras and styles is a nice touch – so many thematic collections hew to such a strict narrative that the music can get lost. The presentation here lets the music breathe on its own merits, without assigning it to this or that bin.

Corey Harris' opening essay in the booklet is impassioned, heartfelt and illustrative of the music and the cultural impetus for this collection. The tracks themselves are amply annotated, with the names of the musicians, the recording date, the composer, and generally some background about the band or the song that provide welcome context.

Most longtime blues fans and serious collectors will already have much of what is on here. For a newer fan still finding their way around the blues, African American folk music, early jazz and New Orleans styles, it is a solid top-level introduction with plenty of pointers for follow-up exploration.