T-Bone Walker

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller put so much loving labor into this double-LP that it came out too tricky--the big band and the small band and the famous sidepeople and the new songs are all quite tasty, but they distract from what ought to be the business at hand. Of course, since T-Bone is singing more with his brain than his larynx these days, that may have been the idea. But I'd trade all the solos here except maybe Dizzy Gillespie's on "Evening"--and there are lots of good ones--to hear T-Bone play guitar on every cut. (Grade: B-)