Title: Seariously Artist: Big Al Sears Label: Bear Family Product Type: COMPACT DISCS UPC: 4000127156686 Genre: Soul/R & B Release Date: 1994-06-28
2008 release. New York was loaded with blasting R&B tenor saxophonists during the '50s. Their frantic wails helped define Rock 'N' Roll during it's formative years. In that scene, Big Al Sears was a titan among titans. Prior to his full-fledged leap into the R&B arena, Big Al played with the orchestras of Andy Kirk and Duke Ellington, later blowing his mighty horn loud and long on Johnny Hodges' 1951 instrumental hit 'Castle Rock'. Sear-iously deals with his swinging 1949-56 sides as a bandleader for Coral, RCA Victor, Herald, and Groove, when scorching instrumentals were in vogue and the bespectacled sax player was in the vanguard of it all. Backed by a coterie of New York heavy hitters including sax man Budd Johnson, guitarist Mickey Baker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Panama Francis, Sears rattles the rafters time and again with barn-burners such as 'Rock And Roll Ball', 'Here's the Beat', 'Great Googa Mooga', 'Right Now, Right Now' and more. Bear Family.
Tracks: 1.1 125th Street, New York 1.2 Shake Hands 1.3 Tan Skin Lad 1.4 Brown Boy 1.5 Huffin' and Puffin' 1.6 Sear-Iously 1.7 Mag's Alley 1.8 Fo-Yah 1.9 In the Good Old Summertime 1.10 Ivory Cliffs 1.11 Easy Ernie 1.12 Vo-Sa 1.13 Goin' Uptown 1.14 Tweedle Dee 1.15 Come and Dance with Me 1.16 Come A' Runnin' 1.17 Tom, Dick 'N' Harry 1.18 Tina's Canteen 1.19 Right Now, Right Now 1.20 Midnight Wail 1.21 Love Call 1.22 Rock and Roll Ball 1.23 Here's the Beat 1.24 Great Googa Mooga 1.25 Fo-Yah (Take B)
