Personnel: Louis Jordan (vocals, alto saxophone); Dorothy Smith (vocals); Bert Payne, Irving Ashby, Mickey Baker (guitar); Lowell Hastings (saxophone, tenor saxophone); John Kirkwood (saxophone, drums); Johnny Kirkwood (saxophone, drum); Maurice Simon, Dave McRae , Jerome Richardson (saxophone); Budd Johnson (tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone); Lowell 'Count' Hastings, Sam Taylor , Austin Powell (tenor saxophone); Ernie Royal, Robert Mitchell (trumpet); Jimmy Cleveland (trombone); Chester Lane, Ernie Hayes (piano); Jackie Davis (organ); Thurber Jay, Wendell Marshall, William K. "Billy" Hadnott (bass instrument); Frank Cirillo (drums, drum); Marvin Oliver, Charlie Persip (drum); Francisco Pozo, Rafael Miranda (bongos, percussion).
While he never quite gets enough credit, alto saxophonist/singer Louis Jordan was one of the fathers of rhythm & blues and rock & roll. Emerging from a jazz background (Chick Webb's big band), Jordan infused a scaled-down version of big band swing with fast-tempo blues and came up with jump blues, a joyous, upbeat style that laid the foundations for the mid-`50s revolution. LATER YEARS finds Jordan competing with the sounds that he helped to create, as well as revisiting some of his biggest hits from the `40s--"Caldonia" and "Saturday Night Fish Fry," along with some pop and jazz standards. While Jordan's popularity slipped during these years, he still had the right stuff--his recordings delivered the goods, and thusly, so does the two-CD LATER
