Great post Sir! I have his Stand Back debut with an owners stamp of Jan 7 1967. I am wondering if this may have possibly been released in late 66', do you know of a release date?
You know that's debatable, but I distinctly remember buying mine in early 67 at the same I bought the Doors s/t... Could be it was released after Christmas '66 & didn't hit record shops until early January, like Dylan JWH in December 67 but not in stores until early January... I am going to do in depth research & see what I uncover at the local college music library... Thanks for reading
King Ernest... I usually only mention artists and recordings that the rank ‘n file may not know. I ordinarily leave recommendations of the usual suspects to others. If you’re looking exclusively for searing, gut ripping blues guitar; which of course has it’s place, this isn’t it. King Ernest - Blues Got Soul is an outstanding slow churning aptly named record. It is Blues drenched in Soul or Soul drenched in The Blues. Another; King’s only other recording is more of a bona fide blues outting. King of Hearts. I prefer BGS... and it’s my Favorite Blues Record Today. King Ernest died in 2000 a young man fell as a result of an auto accident. If you are so included and give him a listen you might hear what I do. The guy was so close to being a great one; approaching the pantheon. More time, more life might have resulted in those “in the know” to know King Ernest. He might never have entered the rarified turf of other Kings: BB, Albert or even Freddie. He was more akin in style and temperament to Bobby Bland (To Steps To The Blues), Solomon Burke, Johnny Adams (One Foot In The Blues), Charles Brown or the great William Bell (check out his latest - This Is Where I Live) other practioners of the deep soulful slow burn. But who knows... who knows.
You could be onto something here. It may have been released in 1966 intended for the pre-Christmas sales period but then held back so as not to get lost in amongst the other releases or even delayed due to Vanguard not having the distribution power & network to get it out on time. It is probable that the album resulted from positive feedback from the 3 album set Chicago/The Blues/Today!. which had been released earlier in 1966.
One of my favorites from Champion Jack Dupree and with such a great band to.King Curtis,Cornell Dupree-guitar,Jerry Jemmott-bass and Oliver Jackson-drums. Live at Montreux 1971 and a very live clip from this same show..Champion Jack looks pretty relaxed here and the Queen of Soul sitting there enjoying it all
Muddy Waters - The Chess Box or if a box set is considered cheating I'll take The Best Of Muddy Waters
Mr. Buddy Guy....if he sneezes, I am buying it. We need to appreciate the history he represents, IMO.
Over the last day or so I have been revisiting some of the great albums that are included in this neat and compact budget box set. Original Album Series - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (Elektra/Rhino) 5CD Disc 1 - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Disc 2 - East<->West Disc 3 - The Resurrection Of Pigboy Crabshaw Disc 4 - In My Own Dream Disc 5 - Keep On Moving
Greetings once again fellow Bluesters....time for my new post Junior Parker - Blues Man (1969).... In the 1930s young street hustler turned entrepreneur Denver D. Ferguson jump started a group of clubs on Indiana Street in the "Bronzeville" section of Indianapolis that would eventually come to be known as "The Chitlin Circuit" Therefore creating the Indy ,Memphis , Houston & Dallas connection... Ferguson was the only booking agent & he dealt with only black promoters such as Tom Wince in Vicksburg MS ,Don Robey in Houston , Howard Lewis in Dallas & Andrew "Sunbeam" Mitchell lower tier racketeer ,bootlegger & right hand man to dangerous powerful gangster Abe Plough in Memphis.... Enter Little Junior Parker... By 1946 Memphis Beale St. had caught up with the musical world & Sunbeam & his wife Ernestine nurtured all the young talent that showed up.... Giving bowls of chili & bed to the likes of Johnny Ace , BB King , Bobby Bland , Richard Penniman & Junior Parker... BB King sent Ike Turner to Sam Phillips & Ike Turner introduced Junior Parker to SP... In 1953 JP would cut 8 sides for Sun Records that would become some of the most revelatory music in rocknrolls 1950s evolution... JP was a major influence on a young Elvis Presley hence Presley version of Parkers Mystery Train... JP guitarist Pat Hare licks on Love My Baby were copied by every rockabilly cat to come out of Sun therefore every rock guitarist ever to play the instrument.... & Feelin Good , Fussin and Fighting are some of the greatest rocknroll ever recorded... JP & his Blue Flames were masters of the rhythmic changes white musicians are unable to accomplish... JP influence can't be underestimated and by 1969 a few years from his untimely death JP released what I hear as his best album recorded specifically for LP format... After the Blues Man LP Junior Parker would be reduced to covering songs like Beatles Taxman & other such nonsense for a Blues great with talent to match any other artists then or now.... Blues Man puts orig reworkings along side covers & it works throughout.... JP voice ,personality & charisma are in fine form... And his backup band follow his every move perfectly... I have a orig NM pressing but the 2017 reissue from orig Minit label was a welcome surprise... Flat heavy dead quiet vinyl with great sound... Performance - 10 Sound - 9
Nice write up samthesham. I need to do some work on listening to Junior Parker & do some branching out to the more soul side of the blues rather than the hard Chicago Chess sound that has informed much of my listening. I think your comment "JP & his Blue Flames were masters of the rhythmic changes white musicians are unable to accomplish.." really hits the nail right on the head. I am sure many white musicians are not only unable to master these subtleties they are unable to hear or feel them. Same for many of the listeners.
Buddy Guy - The Complete Chess Studio Recordings Specifically, I'm skipping around and listening to the tracks that are true blues. I'd read that Chess didn't really know what to do with Buddy when they signed him and it shows. There's everything from Blues to RnB to numbers that approach Funk on here. I particularly enjoy the alternate vocal take/mis of "My Time After Awhile".
Listening to some Johnny Jenkins tonight,but not the classic from 1970 with Duane Allman on Capricorn. But this one done much later in 1996 on Capricorn"Blessed Blues" featuring some great musicians..Jack Pearson-Guitar,David Hood-Bass and Chuck Leavell-keyboards Johnny vocals and Jack Pearson playing some smokin slide guitar..
Good weekend Blues-niks.... Tonight I am enjoying some smooth & tasty Big Band , Bounce & Boogie Blues from Jay McShanns Orchestra... I like to call it Big Band with Soul as the white Big Bands just leave me cold...nothing in them for me anyway... The LP is Hooties(Jay McShanns nickname) KC Blues (1983) & it consist of 16 tracks recorded between 1941-1942 when JM was at the heighth of his big band sound... That would all change in 1944 when Uncle Sam beckoned & he answered... But for a brief time in the early 1940s JMO was in a class all by itself ccombining Blues & Big Band sounds and exceeding in both thanks to Jays magnificent piano genius & the musicians who were playing in his band.... 2 of many greats to pass through JMO were a very young Charlie"Bird" Parker & vocalist Walter Brown.... This compilation has sessions recorded in Dallas , Chicago & New York.... Walter Brown & Jay McShann are the original composers of Confessin' The Blues & that song was recorded in my hometown of Dallas on 4-30-41 so it holds a special place in my heart... Of all the blues covers that the Stones have done this one impressed me the most in the 1960s , not because of execution but because the band actually was aware of something this smooth & urbane & not their usual Delta blues abrasiveness.... Walter Brown does vocals on 7 tracks & Parker flys magnificently as usual on all but 6 tracks.... Blended with McShanns smooth as silk boogie & jazz influenced piano work along with the rest of the band and you have some essential WW2 sounds emitting from the grooves of this excellent LP... After the war JM would leave the now out dated Big Band sound behind opting for a smaller ensemble.... Charlie Parker would go on to revolutionize jazz arguably more than any other artist & Walter Brown would die from drugs as would CP only a few years later.... JM would die 12-7-06 but would leave behind a legacy as rich as any in the history of American music & these 16 sides are some of his greatest.... This is a M pressing and still plays dead quiet after all the years & spins it has sustained... Picks to click : Confessin The Blues , One Woman's Blues , Vine Street Boogie & Hold Em Hootie Recommended listening : Eddie Vinson & Jay McShann - Live In Paris (1969) Jay McShann - Warm (1991)
Thanks for reading... Nice addition on the hear , feel & listeners by the way... About 25 or so yrs ago I decided to broaden my Blues palette even further so I began a thorough listening to the soul end of the Blues.... I have always liked Junior Parker & while my favorite genre is Jump Blues with Wynonie my favorite I made the jump if you will over WH back to the swing & bounce black American Big Bands of the late 30s-mid -40s... There upon discovering a treasure trove of golden delights ie Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers , Jimmy Lunceford Orchestra & Jay McShann Orchestra etc....McShann I was aware of due to Stones cover of McShann & Walter Browns Confessin The Blues (1941)... Another wonderful discovery was the trumpeteer & vocalist Oran " Hot Lips" Page...whose style & technique was closer to Armstrong more than any others I have heard... But Page also had a real feel for the Blues... To me you can only disect & research the sounds of a 4 or 5 piece unit so much... I'm not saying that I have conquered every note or rhythm that Muddy or The Wolf etc ever laid down...that would be foolish to ever entertain that idea.... What I am saying is I wanted something more complex & urbane with something more to offer than T Bone Walker or BB King... And these as like it to call it Big Bands with Soul are truly magnificent listening experiences... I also focused exclusively on the Aladin sides of pre Doo-Wop era Five Keys amongst other Black vocal groups of the era & The 5 Royales who I am very partial to especially their early Apollo sides that had Charlie "Little Jazz" Ferguson Orchestra behind them.... I prefer these sides with CF sax being the prominent solo instrument over Lowman Pauling's guitar as the prominent solo instrument... The 5 Royales are a top 3 fav of mine I just like the Apollo stuff over the King recordings... Anyway Ive spent the last 2+ decades listening almost exclusively to pre-55 mostly Black American music... I still get my Chess & Wynonie fix in but there is just so much going on in those orchestras its just hard to listen to anything else.. McShann had Charlie "Bird" Parker as a member for a few years & stated before Parker got so far-out with his music after the "stuff" took control he really had the chops...I tend to agree... But if you are looking for something a little smoother & complex you can't go wrong with the artists I have mentioned.... Advise you to stay away from Junior Parkers LPs Blues Ain't Nothing But A Business (1971)& The ABC Collection (1976)... BANBAB is where JP covered the Beatles & The ABC C is electronic stereo of the Duke mono stuff & mid-range is detestable also...both these are embarrassments to JP musical legacy... Happy Listening
Greetings & salutations one more time Blues-niks... My weekly post tonight is 2 CD UK Import ; Lucky Millinders Orchestra - Apollo Jump (2002) I picked up on LMO through Sister Rosetta Tharpe who I picked up on through Dylan in the mid-60s...thanks Bobby Lucky Millinder was born in Anniston Alabama on Aug.8,1910 & died Harlem NY 9-28-66... LM was a syndicate bossed bandleader & was also a first hand witness to the rise of the South... LM could not read music nor did he play a instrument & rarely did he sing... His popularity was built on his showmanship & musicianship in his orchestra... LMO began in the late 1930s... LM scouted & recruited unknown & up and coming talent for his orchestra ie Wynonie Harris & sanctified gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe among others , LM did this regularly through his traveling talent shows.... LMO also played Harlem on a regular basis... In 1952 LMO was among the Black entertainers in the 200 grand + a year bracket with artists Duke Ellington , Satchmo & Nat King Cole , he also managed to break the restraints of a white South through his music... LM also chose the freshest newest musicians to perform in his orchestra such as Bill Doggett & Bull Moose Jackson therefore allowing him to be more modern than his contemporaries... On July 2,1947 a 14 yr old Richard Penniman (Little Richard) would perform during a Macon Georgia Millinders Talent Search... This would also be where Penniman would meet his idol Sister Rosetta Tharpe who would in a few months give Penniman his 1st shot at stardom by allowing him to open for her at Macon City Auditorium 10-27-47... Any-hoo the 48 sides on this great set spanning 1942-1951 features Wynonie Harris , Sister Rosetta Tharpe , Trevor Bacon , Annisteen Allen among many more great performers who got their big break in front of LMO , eventually branching out on their own & carving their name in American Music history.... Of course all these great performances are backed by "Dynamaestro" LM & his smoking hot heavy groove rhythm based Big Band Jump Blues sounds... At times the rhythm LM gets out of his musicians are breath taking in their momentum & periodically quite devastating... With dynamics that put rock artists to shame (I love premo live Dead & Who) let's be honest they can't hold a candle to these recordings & those artists knew it as well...that is even if they heard them at all... If you are looking for something more complex to sink your teeth into& different than your Chess & 4 or 5 piece guitar oriented Blues with a lean toward the Big Band & Soul side of the Blues then you will absolutely dig this set.... I have this on vinyl with 16 tracks but the CD is a nice addition to any Blues collection... Performances - 10+ Sound - 8
good & joyous Sat. afternoon all you Blues freaks.... I started off a few of my Asch Records 78 RPMs of LB but be forewarned Asch Records 78s of LB are of poor quality because they were recorded during the heighth of WW2 & their was a ban on quality shellac... So I shelved those and now I am listening to my monoraul NM 2nd pressing of Lead Belly - The Library of Congress Recordings 3LP box set... Huddie Ledbetter was born in the Caddo Lake district close to Moorings Port LA (close to the Texas-LA line) & died on Dec. 6 ,1949 @ Bellevue Hospital NYC... I own 3 of John A & Alan Lomax LOC box sets LB , Woody Guthrie & Jelly Roll Morton and they are essential sets , especially those who are interested in pre-historic blues ,jazz & folk music.... The recordings & dialogue were recorded between LB incarceration at Louisiana State Prison at Angola in 1933 & the final session in Wash DC 1942 & numerous other places during this time frame.... These recordings were not meant for consumers but in 1965 Alan Lomax & Elektra Records released everything LB recorded for Alan & his Dad John A & it is amazing to listen to LB play , sing & conversate with the Lomax family.... This release along with the Woody Guthrie box were bolstered by the 1950s & 60s folk boom.... Of which LB was perhaps the most influential most imitated force of the revival of American traditional music during this period in the U.S. Every rock artist from Dylan , Van Morrison ,The Animals to Led Zeppelin cover or mention LB in their music.... LB was a master of the 12 string guitar & many other instruments, amazing singer & story teller, rancontuer , Bluesman , traveling minstrel etc among his outlaw traits of gambler , ex-con, murderer , hard drinker , womanizer etc.... Not to mention close friend to Texas Folk & Country Blues genius Blind Lemon Jefferson... To say LB was a very colorful character would be a gross understatement... Now to the music... There are 45 tracks with 4 parts monologue where the Lomaxs asked questions about LB experience & history of certain songs & functions he performed at along his ramblings... The music is presented in 7 segments 1.Texas , Louisiana , Barrelhouse 2.Square Dances , Sooky Jumps & Reels 3.Penitentiaries 4.Spirituals 5.Blues 6.Ballads 7.Topical , Protest With the Lomax's asking all the right questions & LB giving first hand facts & along with his mystical music LOCR is a fascinating document of a great American Folk Blues artist... Some of the tracks are an acquired listening due to lack of high fidelity recording gear but to me that just adds to the days gone by magic of the recordings... Among the more mainstream better known tracks on LOCR are The Midnight Special , Irene Pts 1&2 (later titled Goodnight Irene) Rock Island Line , Amazing Grace , Match Box Blues ,Mama,Did You Bring Me Any Silver (retitled Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin in yet another LZ rip off) If you're looking for boogie groove heavy Blues this is not for you but if you're looking for some deep rooted American Folk-Blues performed & told by on of our greatest musical treasures then the LOCR is a must have collection... The original vinyl of which I prefer came with a wonderful booklet that contains many of the facts I posted along with a song by song lyrics & dialogue & short bio on LB...not unlike the Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music set... LB recorded for many labels during his life but the LOCR are less stiff & exaggerated than those other recordings... LOCR are more relaxed & true ,more real if you will to LB personality character & essence... All in all a very worthy historical & musical investment Note : Lead Belly with Robert Moseley is a excellent film on LB life & times
I've managed to find a digital needledrop copy of Bobby Radcliff's almost impossible to find 1st album released in 1985. Inspired by the west side soul sounds of Magic Sam he later cut many of these tracks on his later far easier to find albums that were released on the Black Top label.
