Savvy Sugar - The Pure Essence Of West Coast Rock & Roll

'Savvy Sugar' is designed as a natural successor to the thoroughly-recommended Fantastic Voyage compilation, 'Heavy Sugar'. Whereas that 3xCD release was devoted to a panorama of R&B sides out of New Orleans, 'Savvy Sugar' focuses on "The Pure Essence of West Coast Rock & Roll". Los Angeles may well be synonymous with movie stars, the Capitol Tower and Sunset Boulevard, but it also ranks as a leading location on the road to rock n roll. The music's emergence in the 1950s brought about a profusion of area recording facilities, many of which were dotted around the city's 498 square miles. These included Radio Recorders, United, Gold Star and Master Recorders, and the studio owners were quick to learn that it paid to be as diverse as possible. The day might start with a film dubbing, ahead of a television commercial being taped over the lunch hour. Then in the afternoon the microphones could be adjusted to record a big band, followed by a teenage pop session in the evening. What made the system totally unique was the fact that a clutch of skilled musicians from the Hollywood sound stages were also responsible for supplying the goods on the rock n roll dates. Drummer Earl Palmer, guitarist René Hall, bassist Red Callender, and the sax and piano-playing brothers, Plas & Ray Johnson, were the guys in question, and their infinite adaptability was responsible for some of the most exciting rock n roll recordings of all time. Having said that, many of the new breed-ers like Ricky Nelson, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Tommy Sands chose to use their own players; a situation that effectively allowed the baton to be handed over in readiness for another era.

Compiled and annotated by Stuart Colman, 'Savvy Sugar' contains several hard-to-find items from this electrifying era, plus a miscellany of freshly-unearthed gems and a range of goodies that have been laying in wait for far too long. Bearing in mind the CD set's all-important sub-title, "The Pure Essence of West Coast Rock n Roll", 'Savvy Sugar' could well turn out to be this season's # 1 guilty pleasure.