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Bless Lips Page, but this CD is for suckers only

Ravenous Fellow | Chicago | 11/19/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Bootleg CD producers often rip off an original product (in this case, a vinyl Lips Page anthology called "Play the Blues in B" on Jerry Valburn's Jazz Archives label), describe it sneakily and inacurately, then offer it for sale. People like myself who long for new music by their heroes buy it -- and are disappointed. This "new" CD is titled "Hot Lips Page Trio Live at the Apollo Theatre 1950" online, more or less, but only three tracks are from the Apollo (1944); others are from the late 1940s, and only the last track is from 1950 or so. But don't feel too bad: the original lp mistook they common key of Bb for the very rare one of B, Paul Quinichette for Lester Young, Emmett Berry for Lips himself, "Corsicana" for "Savannah," so this music has a long history of being misrepresented. Why should we object? A million stars for Lips, Berry, Ed Hall, Benny Morton, Teddy Wilson, Sid Catlett, Ralph Sutton, Billie Holiday, and others -- but this is often-reissued and often-mislabeled music. Had Amazon listed the titles, I would have recognized the issue for what it was. Alas! But Lips on "Muskrat Ramble" is something to marvel at."