1 LP + BONUS TRACKS 24 BIT DIGITALLY REMASTERED STEREO One of the most exciting of the blues shouters ever was Texas-born Eddie Cleanhead Vinson (1917 1988) whose declamatory style and big, virile voice had the intensity and impact of such other greats as Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing. But Vinson was also a musician of much wider scope; he was one of the first altoists outside the bebop inner circle to absorb the innovations of Charlie Parker, while Coltrane worked in his band in 1952-3. After a spell off the scene, he was signed by altoist Cannonball Adderley to record for Riverside Records, the label for which Adderley himself worked. Back Door Blues is the result of two successful sessions in 1961-2, on which the Cannonball Adderley Quintet offered Cleanhead a solid, spirited, blues-rooted foundation for his earthy singing and basic, pure-lined, lyrical alto. With both Cannonball and Nat Adderley also in prime form, Joe Zawinul delivering funk without triteness, and Sam Jones and Louis Hayes completing an idiomatically flexible rhythm section that combined sophistication with implacable swing, it was a reminder of just how good Vinson was at both aspects of his art.