It isn't hard to discern what veteran jazz bandleader
Benny Carter had in mind in arranging and conducting
Lou Rawls' fourth Capitol album (following
Stormy Monday [1962],
Black and Blue [1963], and
Tobacco Road [1964]).
Carter's conception simply was that the 29-year-old
Rawls was a young
Joe Williams and should be treated as such. The idea is logical enough;
Rawls, a Chicago native like
Williams, also possessed a deep, rich voice with a bit of grit at the bottom. Accordingly,
Carter wrote arrangements that echoed the blues-jazz style of Count Basie and His Orchestra (for which
Williams had sung before going out on his own) and conducted a horn-filled big band to play behind
Rawls in swinging style. Although he had actually come out of a gospel, not a jazz, background,
Rawls handled the arrangements just fine, swinging lightly and singing warmly. At any given moment, it was easy to suppose you were listening to
Williams. And
Carter left plenty of room for the band to have solos. The result was an excellent session, if one not likely to break
Rawls out to a pop or R&B audience. That would begin to happen over the next year, and
Nobody But Lou would stand as the last of
Rawls' albums before his music took a more commercial direction as he began to emerge from
Williams' shadow and be himself. ~ William Ruhlmann