Search - Various Artists :: Great British Rock 'N' Roll 1948-1956

2007 compilation that is the first authoritative musical documentation of the British music scene of the late '40s and early '50s that set the foundation for their Rock 'N' Roll scene. There is a lot of fascinating stuff here, such as the Deep River Boys (from Virginia, USA, recording in Britain during their many UK tours), Ray Ellington (a British-based black bandleader of American and Russian descent) and Winifred Atwell, a classically trained pianist from Trinidad who would go to 'her other piano' to belt out some rockin' boogies. Elsewhere there are numerous talented British jazzers seeing which way the wind was blowing and jumping that jive, and some up 'n' coming UK popsters swaying their hips to the transatlantic rhythm. And of course Tommy Steele, who was acclaimed as Britain's first Rock 'n' Roll star. Smith & Co.