1950 Singles: Blue Light Boogie - Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five

 Blue Light Boogie - Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five

Why included: Personal pick (#35 on RYM's top singles of 1950)

A-side & B-side: Blue Light Boogie

Apple Music link: https://music.apple.com/us/album/blue-light-boogie-pt-1-2/1434911391?i=1434911696

Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/60emakxnA5wHFDPGQoZRbF?si=9ea2ee054a794ff9

If you listen to this outside of the context of Louis Jordan's accomplished career of jump blues and swing classics, it might indeed confirm Chuck Berry's comment about Louis being "the first person I heard play rock and roll." If songs like "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" hinted at the riff-oriented rockers of the future, this single goes all the way by basing the whole five-minute song on Bill Jennings's elegant guitar soloing. It was a pretty brave move to record a single not just without any horn passages but also with the guitar at the forefront of the mix, but luckily, the production is perfect, allowing his smooth, fluid phrasings to be quite tasteful and enjoyable. 

All of those proto-rock solos are pretty damn impressive by themselves though: Bill's style here may not be as shattering as, say, the stuttery, jumpy shuffle of T-Bone Walker's guitar, but it manages to impressively balance grit and loungeyness in a way that makes the whole slow boogie quite endearing. At the very least, the combination of the catchy chorus and instrumental backbone make the song quite listenable the whole way through, and for a group that relies on the virtuosic prowess of their brass section, that's quite the achievement. No wonder it was a big hit for the group (their last #1 R&B chart hit), and it already shows that Louis is fully aware of the new electric guitar-oriented paradigm being created in popular music and is willing to even try to compete on that front.

Verdict: Recommended

Although this single doesn't capitalize on the band's incredible horn section nor does it count as their most influential contribution to rock 'n' roll, the song shows both the versatility of Louis's charisma and the creativity of the Tympany Five. At their best, they could take on whole new musical paradigms and generate exciting musical passages on a whim and still have Louis's playful personality and lyrics make it feel seamlessly natural. It's no wonder that, unlike so many other jump-blues and swing combos that faded into obscurity, Louis Jordan still retains a large number of listeners today and even more admirers through those who covered him. "Blue Light Boogie" may be far from their quintessential song, but it captures much of that inventive spirit that kept them relevant artistically and commercially for more than a decade. And even if all of this talk of Tympany Five is irrelevant to you, just dig the catchy instrumental work on the song and the influence that it would have on the future of rock & roll.