The big-toned, Tulsa-born tenor saxophonist Hal Singer (1919-2020) came up through the territory big bands, most notably those of Ernie Fields and Jay McShann, before he joined the Ellington orchestra in August 1948.

That was his dream come true, as he told me. But then ‘Corn Bread’, a honking ‘one-note blues’ he’d made for Savoy months earlier, became a surprise juke-box hit. Offers then poured in and he spent the next 10 years on the road playing it every night and recording more and more R&B sessions.

It's this aspect of Singer's busy playing career that Acrobat's generous double-CD compilation largely represents until its final selections which are taken from Blue Stompin’, the 1959 Prestige album he made with Charlie Shavers and Bryant, and which put him back on the jazz map.

Saying that many of these 40-plus tracks are simplistic trifles, as Singer's hoarse tenor pounds out the jumping riffs, may seem disparaging but it's illuminating to spot the many major African-American jazzmen quietly earning a crust in these undemanding circumstances. I knew Singer well, and can recall that he had little regard for much of this material; it did however earn him a decent living for a decade or so. The quartet of tracks under Thompson's name offer some respite and stress the leader's blues and boogie piano, and swing brightly, Singer handling his solo spots well. He gets to play the occasional ballad, too. His ‘Blue Velvet’ is sumptuous, as is ‘Easy Street’, with Glenn's vibes, but it's mostly ‘scorching R&B’ with the torrid ‘Rock And Roll’ from 1955 quite typical. Happily, for those who remember Singer's strong swing credentials, it's good to have the entirety of Blue Stompin’ here, whose five-star quality reignited Singer's mainstream jazz career.