Consumer Guide Album

Slim Gaillard: Groove Juice: The Norman Granz Recordings [Verve, 2018]
A proudly biracial genius who died at 80 in 1991, Gaillard spent portions of his boyhood on the cruise ships where his German-Jewish father worked as a steward. By the late '30s the silly classics "Flat Foot Floogie" and "Cement Mixer (Putti-Putti)" had established novelty-artist bona fides every bit as as august as those of his heirs Louis Jordan and Spike Jones. Personifying the lost hipster compliment "wiggy," Gaillard fooled with animal sounds and foreign lingo, savored new jargon and here-and-gone trends, and never stopped swinging. Jazz was his milieu, and vocally and instrumentally he had the chops for it. But while nobody needs his "St. Louis Blues" or "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," two of many extras on this double-CD, we can all use an occasional shot of "Laughing in Rhythm," "Chicken Rhythm," "Serenade to a Poodle," "Potato Chips," and "Mishugana Mambo," which are here as well but also featured on 1994's still buyable one-disc Laughing in Rhythm. So while grateful to own "When Banana Skins Are Falling (I'll Come Sliding Back To You)," for instance, I advise that you buy this one only if you already just love the guy or have no other options. Gaillard was a great American, both original and major. B+