Billboard : 02/10/1958
Special Merit Jazz Album

Allison is a fresh young talent. He translates the feeling of the grass roots of jazz, the “country” background of his childhood, into modern language without losing basic flavor. His writing, playing on both piano and trumpet, and singing are charming, and often powerful in their simplicity. Set is composed of five selections comprising “Local Color,” and five other blues or blues-infused tunes. Could be sold to traditional or modern buyer.

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Boston Globe
Fr. Norman J. O’Connor, CSP : 01/18/1959

A young, slim man named Mose Allison has created such memories as well as almost anyone. He has two albums on Prestige, with titles that give you a fair idea of what is to come. They are called Local Color and Back Country Suite. Mostly he plays the piano, but occasionally he tries the trumpet, and what comes out are crisp, short, but most attractive musical portraits of the country around Tippo, Mississippi. Tippo is a small town in the Upper Delta area of the state, and from memories of Saturday in town to a warm night, Allison creates music that reminds you of down-home melodies, church blues, hillbilly stomps, all of it done with the freedom and spirit of good jazz.

Carnival from Local Color might take a look and a listen.

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High Fidelity
John S. Wilson : May, 1958

The promise that was evident in Allison‘s first disc (Back Country Suite, Prestige) is developed slightly in this second set. His own compositions, played in his unique and engaging mixture of primitive blues and modern jazz, have a bit more substance, and his striking talent for blues improvisation on the piano is in a broader vein. He also sings again in his slight but idiomatically accurate voice and shows his versatility with a muted trumpet solo that smacks strongly of Harry Edison‘s style. This is a varied and generally successful disc.

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Oakland Tribune
Russ Wilson : 02/09/1958

Mose Allison, the 29-year-old pianist whose Back Country Suite was so widely praised, does equally as well on his second album. Once again his Mississippi background permeates his writing and performance with an engrossing earthiness. Allison sings on two tracks Parchman Farm, with its ironic twist, is a gas), and plays a fascinating muted trumpet solo on, Trouble in Mind. Bassist Addison Farmer and drummer Nick Stabulas provide perceptive support.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 02/23/1958

Allison is the blues-based pianist who did the recent Back Country Suite album. Here he again does some blues, sings a number and even plays the trumpet as well as some modern piano on the rest of the tracks. I remain unconvinced, however, that this is really very close to the basic blues feeling, no matter what the liner notes say.

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Down Beat : 03/20/1958
Don Gold : 4.5 stars

Allison, one of the brightest young figures in jazz, is more pastoral in his approach to music than hot or cold. There is an element of contemplative calm in his playing and composing that makes him efforts warmly revealing and almost constantly significant.

He is a musician who is eager to draw directly on his own background; in this case he explores life in Mississippi. Local Color, like his previously released Back Country Suite, occupies one side of the LP. The previous work contained 10 segments; Local Color consists of five pieces written during the 1951 to 1957 period in his development. They are not as vividly related as the portions of the suite, but they are fascinating glimpses into his Mississippi past.

Carnival is a sprightly portrayal of a back country carnival, with marching band overtones. Parchman is the story of a man at the Mississippi State penitentiary farm, a work song lament movingly sung and played by Allison. Air is a ballad in a twilight mood. Mojo, as annotator Ira Gitler points out, is a “portrait of an old, toothless hag who deals in herbs, charms, and spells.” Town is a gay expression of “that feeling of what town means to country people… that holiday feeling,” Allison told Gitler. As individual compositions, the works are appealing; as a five-part statement, Local Color lucidly depicts some aspects of southern life Faulkner hasn’t dissected.

The second side of the LP begins with Allison’s trumpet weaving through Mind, with the dramatic bass-drums backing. His trumpet playing shows more evidence of attention to Armstrong than Gillespie. Lost is a down home lament by Percy Mayfield, sung and played by Allison with forceful honesty. On Free, often associated with Dinah Washington, Allison manages to transmit the poignancy of the blues without destroying the piano. Goodbye is a little-known but charming Duke Ellington tune. Mess is an Allison original, written in 1955, and is an excellent example of his two-handed approach to the instrument, his regard for melodic structure, and his knowledge of the history of jazz piano.

Farmer and Stabulas, who have worked in several groups with Allison, support him intelligently throughout.

This LP is a worthy addition to any jazz collection, for the reflection of folk tradition in jazz and the promising ability of Allison.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

With the release of Back Country Suite (Prestige 7091) and its acclaim by fans, critics and musicians alike, the name of Mose Allison became a trigger for the affirmative shaking of heads and yea saying. The music of Mose Allison, whether it be his own or someone else’s that he is interpreting, always has that “right” feeling about it. One of the qualities that makes it so is “natural funk.” Part of Shelly Manne‘s response to Don Gold’s placing the word “Funk” in front of him in Cross Section (Down Beat, October 17, 1957) was, “Funk is old as jazz. It’s an earthy quality of playing, dating back to original blues. A guy like Mose Allison plays funk because it’s natural; he’s from Mississippi, I think.”

Shelly was right on all counts including the state. As for the state, or more particularly the part in which Mose was raised, it is revisited in Local Color. Another of Mose’s winning characteristics, the ability to write descriptive melodies of charm, wit, warmth and emotional power is again present as it was in Back Country Suite.

The album, Local Color, varies in several ways from the first Allison outing although it also has much in common. First of all, the vignettes that comprise the side, Local Color, total only five and are not as closely bound together as the ten that make up Back Country Suite. With five less selections, there is, quite naturally, more room for improvisation.

The feel of approaching the dusty midway of a traveling tent show pervades Carnival. “A marching band (the town high school band) was always present at small town carnivals,” relates Mose. He makes sure they are present here too. In his solo and the exchanges with Nick Stabulas, Mose maintains the active air of festivity. This was written in 1957.

Written in the same year, Parchman Farm is the vocal and instrumental tale of a man serving time (his life) on the farm at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. It is a work song lament not without ironic humor. Mose’s singing voice, which incidentally is much like his speaking voice, is a delight and he plays a complementary genre solo with backbeat backing by Stabulas.

Crepuscular Air, written in 1955, is a contemplative, twilight mood. Mose’s sensitive solo effectively carries the feeling from one melody statement to the other.

Mojo Woman, which predates Air by a year or two is a portrait of an old, toothless hag who deals in herbs, charms and spells. Her appearance is a combination of the comical and the bizarre. Mose’s music captures both qualities. Addison Farmer solos here in addition to the leader.

“The feeling of what town means to country people … that holiday feeling” is how Mose explains Town. He maintains that bright feeling in this last daub of local color which also has a bit of interplay between piano and drums. Town was composed in 1951.

The other side of the record, like Mose’s first album, consists of four pieces from other sources and one Allison original which is unrelated to the material on side one.

Trouble In Mind is credited to Richard M. Jones but his authorship of this and several other compositions has been questioned on more than one occasion. Whether it was written by the pianist from New Orleans’ Storyville or is a folk song which Mose can remember from the time of his childhood, it is a moving bit of basic blues… more like church blues or hillbilly music. Mose’s muted trumpet smacks of Harry Edison with undertones of Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. Mose has a definite preference for “Sweets” but also expressed admiration for the work of Herman Autrey with the late Fats Waller. The simplicity and soul of the Allison horn in this performance should lead to further exposure in subsequent albums.

Lost Mind is a Percy Mayfield blues ballad of a couple of years back in which Mose pleads convincingly for someone (female) to help him get over the effects of “a devil with the face of an angel” who was as “cruel and sweet as homemade sin.”

Another blues ballad of a bluer hue is I’ll Never Be Free which was done by Dinah Washington in its most successful version. Here it is an instrumental and a touching one which is Mose all the way except for a brief solo by Farmer.

A little heard Duke Ellington tune, Don’t Ever Say Goodbye, came to Mose’s attention several years ago via a recording. He liked both the melody and chord changes and has played it ever since.

Ain’t You A Mess, written in 1955, is an Allison expression of mock indignation whose title sums up its feeling very well. Stabulas is heard in exchanges with Allison before the conclusion.

Another difference in this album is the appearance of a new rhythm duo. Like Taylor LaFargue and Frank Isola in the first album, both Addison Farmer and Nick Stabulas have worked with Mose in small groups. Addison was a Getz teammate while Nick was with Mose in the Zoot Sims–Al Cohn and Zoot Sims-Chet Baker combos during the last half of 1957. Mose made it clear that he was very happy to have their excellent assistance in the painting in of Local Color.