1944 - August 22

 Meade "Lux" Lewis Solo – August 22 1944 

 

Pic Magazine – 5 December 1944 

Two good Blue Note twelve-inchers, heard once over lightly on test pressings, will be reviewed in a later issue. They are She’s Funny That Way – Indiana, by the Ike Quebec Quintet (B. N. 38), and Chicago Flyer – Blues Whistle, by Meade Lux Lewis (B. N. 39), piano solos with whistling on one side excelling that of his famous Whistling Blues. 

Pic Magazine – 18 June 1946 

Piano solos: Chicago Flyer – Blues Whistle (BN 39; 12-in) 

The Flyer, a “train” boogie, tends toward the monotony of any long train ride, despite sparkling stretches; Whistle, an expansion of the famous Whistlin’ Blues (Bb 10175), is enlivened by some of Lux’s most dazzling lip work. 

October 1944

Dan Morgenstern – the Complete Blue Note Recordings of Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis – Mosaic Liner Notes 

Yancey Special, with its simple but compelling bass motif straight from the source, and for a special treat, Lux’s marvellous jazz whistling on Blues Whistle, with its elaborate closing cadenza leading up to a high note very much in the Louis Armstrong tradition. (Louis was a virtuoso whistler himself, though no recorded evidence, alas, exists.) It is a marvellous follow-up to Meade’s 1936 Whistling Blues. 

Specialists and discographers will want to know that the piece we’ve called Meade’s Blues is an untitled previously unissued selection originally found by the undersigned when he was asked to put together some albums from vintage material in Blue Note’s archives in the late 60’s. They never saw the light of day, but thanks to Michael Cuscuna, this welcome addition to Lux’s legacy is now in your hands. 

Downbeat Magazine – 15 November 1944 Volume 11 Issue 22 

This pair of boogie numbers constitutes the only, and therefore the best. hot jazz on the current crop of platters. Lux is always very good, and what's more, he's usually refreshing. These sides are no exception. Flyer is exciting, climactic. Whistle is novel, quite an improvement over Lewis' original Whistling Blues.  
Although the final cadenza and subsequent coda tax Meade's whistling apparatus to the utmost, they provide the listener with an equal assortment of kicks and laughs. 

Dan Morgenstern – Hot Jazz on Blue Note CD Liner Notes 

In the label’s early days, Meade “Lux” Lewis was its most frequently recorded artist, but here it’s not his piano playing that’s front and center, but his wonderful whistling. He phrases like a trumpet, and very much in the Armstrong manner – especially in the elaborately constructed cadenza. There’s a direct link there, for we know from Lil Hardin Armstrong’s reminiscences that she would hear her husband whistle the most marvelous inventions, which, partly due to her urgings, he eventually translated to the trumpet. Bunk Johnson, too, was a fine whistler, as recorded evidence shows. The beat Lewis sets conjures up a picture of a man walking down the street, and as a bonus, he gives us three choruses of fine blues piano. 

Session Information 

Meade "Lux" Lewis, piano, whistling. 

WOR Studios, NYC, August 22, 1944 

BN1201, Yancey Special, Blue Note BLP 7018; Mosaic MR3-103 

BN1202, Chicago Flyer, Blue Note 39, BLP 7018; Mosaic MR3-103 

BN1203, Blues' Whistle (aka Whistlin' Blues), Blue Note 39; Mosaic MR3-103 

BN1204, Meade's Blues, Mosaic MR3-103