Arhoolie producer Chris Strachwitz purchased these masters for reissue from the Swing Time label, and maybe got the tracks at a special price if he promised not to print the "Big" in Big Joe Turner. Thus the album is credited simply to Joe Turner and the big guy is referenced this way throughout the liner notes. When it comes time to describe the man's girth, writer Rolph Fairchild calls Turner "tall, powerful." Big, no? This nitpicking is gotten out of the way first because it is really the only problem with this set. Bandleader Pete Johnson gets a big credit right under the title; all the tracks are recorded with his large and small groups. While the Turner musical style is certainly a product of the entire Kansas City experience, from music to barbecue, there are many experts who proclaim the Turner/Johnson collaboration to be at the heart of it all, and thus at the heart of rock & roll. The tracks here come from the late '40s, and it would be a few more years before this singer's Atlantic sessions came along with arrangements and tempos capable of blasting current rock hits off the air decades later. Things here settle more into a jazz boogie groove, with the vocalist aggressively setting a pace that a bassist such as Addison Farmer still managed to interpret from a swing perspective. Everyone involved wants the boogie to dominate all the same, to the point of putting the word boogie into many of the song titles. Much of this material seems like it might have been improvised on the spot, the way a blues performer would cook up a new song based on a shouted suggestion from the recording booth. At any rate, no information is provided as to songwriters and publishers. The tracks with horns are particularly appealing; Johnson knew what he was doing when he hired horn players and whipped together a section, and the results are clearly audible. The smaller band tracks feature guitarist Herman Mitchell and a bit more of a mellow feel, although the latter adjective is used only by Big Joe's standards.