R&B Hipshakers Volume 4 - Bossa Nova and Grits

Fourth volume of the 'R&B Hipshakers' series, featuring rockin' R&B and early soul from the King and Federal catalogues. A compilation of tracks from 1953 to 1967 by essential artists such as Little Willie John, The 5 Royales, Little Esther, Wynonie Harris, Lula Reed, Freddy King... 20 terrific dance cuts selected by genre expert Mr Fine Wine, from WFMU's Downtown Soulville. Several titles reissued for the first time. 'Bossa Nova And Grits' features some showstopping acts new to the R&B Hipshakers series: There's 18-year-old Little Esther Phillips and her indelibly nasal voice, which would make her a star for decades to come; her fierce, piano-pounding fellow Texan Camille Howard, pushing 40 by the time she growled "You mole, you!"; Los Angelenos The Lamplighters, led by a young Thurston Harris (doin' sixty-what'd-they-say?!); the otherworldly singer's singer Jimmy Scott, just before a sad 20-year lull in his recording career that would be followed by a fresh round of well-deserved accolades in the 1990s. And then there's our first dip into the oeuvre of guitar god Jimmy Nolen, who would basically invent funk guitar playing a decade later as a member of James Brown's band but is already wielding a pretty expressive instrument in 'The Way You Do'. Some old favourites are back, too: It wouldn't be a Hipshakers box, after all, without brilliant new entries from Little Willie John, The 5 Royales, Hank Ballard and The Midnighters, Johnny Watson and Freddy King - he in a rousing dance-floor duet with series stalwart Lula Reed. Non-bouncing meatballs? We've got 'em. Slinky mambo beats? They're here. Back-toback odes to vino? Yep. Wailing instros? But of course. Twin blast-offs to outer space? Check. Now just put the needle on the first record and prepare to taste the sound of these boss grits.