Music Notes Earworthy - Ruth Brown and Etta James are both members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; their work is discussed - Brief Article

Embodying the connection between jazz and blues, Ruth Brown and Etta James are closing out the century with highly stylistic, personal and historic recordings that accentuate their similarities and highlight their differences. Born 10 years apart and inducted together in 1993 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, these Aquarian ladies differ in age, approach, delivery, perspective and era.

A Good Day for the Blues (Rounder) is Ruth Brown at her warm and humorous best. She is too funny when she cracks on the brother in "Can't Stand a Broke Man." Her rap on "H.B.'s Funky Fables" is a delightful variation of the Signifying Monkey, weaving laughter into a straight-ahead jazz, blues, rhythm-and-blues, rock-and-roll, and country tapestry.

Miss Rhythm, however, is not all fun and games. Her interpretations of "Never Let Me Go," "A Lover Is Forever,.... The Richest One" and "I Believe I Can Fly" reflect 53 years of performance. Her first No. I hit, "Teardrops From My Eyes," dropped in 1950. Atlantic Records was called the House That Ruth Built because Brown's string of more than 20 hit records kept the company afloat.

Still, at age 71 (she was born January 30, 1928), she expresses irrepressible good nature. "It's a good day for the blues anytime you can sing the blues out of just caring about the music rather than having to experience the blues," says the 1989 Grammy winner and recipient of Broadway's prestigious Tony. Her story, Miss Rhythm: The Autobiography of Ruth Brown, Rhythm and Blues Legend, was published in April by Da Capo Press.

Etta James takes no prisoners on Heart of a Woman (BMG/Private Music). "Say It Isn't So" and "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" stake out the emotional terrain that she surveys. Her voice resonates with experience: "You don't know what love is/Until you know the meaning of the blues/Until you've lost a love you had to lose/You don't know what love is."

The softer side of James is not neglected on this CD. Her takes on "I Only Have Eyes for You" and "You Go to My Head" and the reprises of her '60s hits "At Last" and "Sunday Kind of Love" all have that late-night sweetness.

Hard or soft, it's the way she scrambles those eggs. Etta is so bad. Born January 25, 1938, Jamesetta Hawkins was 15 years old when she was discovered by popular bandleader Johnny Otis, who rephrased her name. Etta James' "Roll With Me, Henry" hit No. 2 on the rhythm-and-blues charts that same year.

James waited until 1995 for a Grammy, which she received for a collection of Billie Holiday songs, Mystery Lady (BMG/Private Music). Her autobiography, Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story (Villard), was also published in 1995.

Brown and James are true soul singers, in the sense that you have to have some to be one. But they're also much more: They sing with the certainty of having created it all. The unification of jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues within their individual styles as translated through song, phrase, word or inflection is no less than revolutionary.

Duke Ellington was an incredibly hard worker. Wynton Marsalis describes him as "America's most prolific composer of the 20th century, in both number of pieces and variety of forms." A prime example of Ellington's genius as a composer and collaborator is "Maybe I Should Change My Ways," a cut on disc 2 of The Duke: The Essential Recordings (1927-62) (Columbia/ Legacy). It's one of 78 songs written by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn for their Broadway show Beggar's Holiday, and it's one of 65 songs included in this three-CD anthology, which is part of an ongoing international tribute to Ellington on the centennial of his birth. Featured vocalists include Mahalia Jackson, Al Hibbler, Kay Davis and Rosemary Clooney, and Ellington makes spoken-word contributions. This collection presents wide compositional range and deep collaboration.

Hip and Philip Bailey go together. His latest CD, Dreams (HeadsUp), is hip. It's slick: a boss example of creative musicianship. Has he really been Earth, Wind and Fire's lead singer for 30 years? Wow! A versatile array of jazz grooves--"Moondance," "Sail Away," "Masquerade"--and the smoking bass line underneath the pianism of George Duke on "Are We Doing Better Now?" leap out of a splendidly produced package.

Far from slick was McKinley Morganfield, also known as Muddy Waters. "I hear my phone ringing/Sounds like a long distance call/I hear my phone ringing/ Sounds like a long distance call/I picked up my receiver/The party said, `Another mule is kicking in your stall.'" King and creator of modern Chicago blues, the late Muddy Waters can be seen and heard on Muddy Waters--The Lost Tapes (Blind Pig), an enhanced CD with two historic video clips, an interview and a performance filmed in 1971 on the road between Washington and Oregon. Both give an up-close look at the Mississippi-born maestro.

T. Brooks Shepard is a writer in Boston.

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