Think the five discs and 131 songs of Louis Jordan & His Tympany 5 is too much Louis Jordan? Not a chance. Not for a man who so consistently and so definitively achieved the elusive and delicate combination of musicianship and accessibility. Not for a man who paved new and vital musical roads without ever losing his sense of style or his appetite for fun. Covering Jordan's historic (not to mention commercially successful) Decca tenure from 1938 to 1950, this amazing collection finds the alto-sax player, songwriter, and singer building blues and swing into a hot mix that came to be known as R&B, producing hit after hit with top-notch bands behind him, streamlining the big-band concept without diminishing the music's force. Much has been made of his role in the development of R&B--and as a result, rock & roll--and his importance as a musical pioneer can't be under estimated. But all ideas about "historical importance" fade away as these vibrant, insistent, irresistible tracks roll by. --Marc Greilsamer