Customer Reviews

All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at The Wise Fools Pub Chicago [Live]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Otis Rush has always been one of the enigmas of the Blues World. He has retired, refused to play, walked out on recording sessions, even changed his voice (ala "Screamin' and Moanin'). Otis has not had a CD release in seven years since the excellent "Any Place I'm Goin'" set in 1998 (a lovely innovative recording).

Otis and Buddy Guy are the last of the West Side Bluesmen. While Buddy seems to get more popular and out there, Otis seems to have gotten more reclusive. For example, he should have been on the "Lightning In A Bottle" DVD at Radio City in 2003! Otis has had a bad time with record companies, managers, royalties, and the rest of it. This is a re-issue of a long lost tape of him playing in Chicago in the 1970s. We hear a younger, stronger and very impressive Mr Rush.

This set was recorded at the Wise Fools Pub in Chicago. It was part of a Chicago Radio Station live concert series sponsored by 7 Up of all things. As with most of Otis' output it took years for these tapes to become available. This CD is a must for Otis fans.

The tracks we hear include some of his best live performances yet released. He, interestingly, stays away from his normal set list (which we all have three or four versions of) and does some interesting never before heard tunes.

Otis starts with BB King's "Please Love Me" and goes through a varied set with a couple of old favourites like "All Your Love", (well we can't get enough of that one), and an eight minute "Gambler's Blues". However, he also offers new material in Robert Nighthawk's (later B.B. King's) "Sweet Little Angel", "Motoring Along", "High Society", "Mean Old World"(T-Bone Walker), "You're Breaking My Heart", "Woke Up This Morning" and others which make this a definate collector's item. It's a fantastic set.

Any material or recordings of Otis Rush are scarce! This CD is a must for Blues Fans. It is also released on the old Delmark label as well, one of the premier Blue's Labels(Jr Well's Hoodoo Man). Get this CD and Otis Rush's only two DVD performances: Live Part 1 on Blues Express and Live at Montreux.

It's hard to believe that this was recorded at a pub over 30 years ago, and the tape was sitting on a shelf. The one problem I've personally encountered when buying older electric blues CD's, is sometimes the recordings, are so bad, they sound like it was recorded with a nail, by Thomas Edison. I.e.: "Buddy Guy & Otis Rush" "Blue on Blues", and "Buddy Guy & Junior Wells", Chicago Blues Festival 1964!" (Do not waste your money or your hopes on those two!) THAT IS NOT THE CASE with "LIVE AT THE WISE FOOLS PUB CHICAGO"! This is a crisp, clear, recording. In fact, it is louder than some of my brand new CD's. This is a winner from start to finish. Otis is in top form, guitar and voice wise. As of this writing, I have listened to it at least fifty times, and it is as fresh and rewarding, as the first time. Buy it, and it will be a valued member of your electric blues collection!

For almost fifty years Otis Rush has been one of the most powerful singers and innovative guitarists we have ever had. But what is truly mystifying is that for most of this time--and this continues to this day--Otis has been an unsung hero of the blues. He is taken for granted.

At the beginning of HIS career, John Mayall did everything he could to spread the word about the greatness of Otis Rush. He recorded one of Otis' masterpieces, All Your Loving (I Miss Loving), on his legendary Clapton/Bluesbreakers LP. And Mayall is now called the "Grandfather of British Blues." So that gives you an idea of the stature and longevity of Otis Rush. Clapton and Vaughn and Cray and Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne and hundreds of others have gone on to great fame and success and riches, singing the music of Otis Rush and others. Ironic that the young followers got most of the props and recognition. But they are all very good musicians and it is not my intention to denigrate them; more power to them for keeping the blues alive! As technically proficient and talented as these guys are, at best they are only interpreters; at worst, imitators or even plagiarists.

Please, don't bother listening to them unless you have listened to the real thing first. This is the real thing: live electric blues wonderfully recorded at a small blues club, by one of the all-time greats, one of the innovators, one of the originals. Otis Rush is to Chicago blues as Robert Johnson and Son House were to country blues. Incredibly and fortunately, he is still with us, still vital, still performing.

There are only a handful of truly great original Chicago blues performers still around, and Otis, with Buddy Guy, is at the top of the list. I would not hesitate to call Otis THE greatest combination blues singer/guitarist ever.

How can someone this fabulous so be relatively unknown?

"You're Breaking My Heart".
If you want a single cut to add to your collection of must-have, 5-star Chicago blues music this is one of them.

This is 8 minutes of live Chicago blues at a near psychotic nuclear meltdown intensity of lead guitar licks. The passion in the vocals must be witnessed to be believed.

Guitar players: You can hear so much Clapton in the lead solos it's not funny. Kinda like SR Vaughn vs. Albert King.

Awesome track. Up there with James Cotton's 'Sweet Sixteen' with Luther Tucker on guitar.

Wouldn't mind a vinyl release either...

Okay, okay I have been talking about doing a review of the legendary electric blues guitarist Otis Rush ever since I say him on some DVDs in the "American Folk Blues "series from the 1960's that I reviewed earlier in this space. Arguably, the 1950's and 1960's were the heroic age of electric blues guitar with the likes of Muddy Waters, Hubert Sumlin (from Howlin' Wolf's band), Elmore James, the incredible T-Bone Walker and Brother Rush. What makes the case for his inclusion here is some very rippling solos where he runs the board.

Sometimes the quality of live performances especially in the days before better sound production technology was developed, as here at the famous blues club the "Wise Fool Club", diminishes the quality of the sound. However, for a performer like Rush, having that live audience in front is the spark that takes them to flights of ........musical fancy. Put that together with Rush's deep, powerful voice to match the intensity of the riffs and a self-selected back up band and you have the blues when they are dos.

You don't believe me. Well, listen to a smoking "Sweet Little Angel" or the pathos of "Feel So Bad". Or the pain of "You're Breaking My Heart" or the frenetic longing of the title song "All Your Love I Miss Loving". Case closed.

"All Your Love I Miss Loving: Live at the Wise Fools Pub, Chicago, January 1976" (!) was originally recorded for broadcast as part of Chicago's WXRT Sunday Night Unconcert series, and didn't appear in album format until 2005.

Unlike some of Rush's live albums, "All Your Love" is recorded not with a random pick-up band but with Otis Rush's regular working band at the time: Second guitar, bass, piano, and drums, and two saxes added for the last five songs.
The sound is not quite outstanding, but it is good enough, and Otis Rush belts out a terrific, soulful rendition of his classic Cobra single "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)", covers "Mean Old World" and "Sweet Little Angel" in style, and plays gritty, fiery lead guitar. His smouldering solos burn clean through Mel London's "Will My Woman Be Home Tonight", "Woke Up This Morning" swings and swaggers, equal parts smooth soul and hard, angular blues, and the dance floor must have been full during the driving, up-tempo original "It Takes Time".

If I am to say one thing against the greatness of this record, it would be that most of these twelve numbers are very similar in style and tempo, and a bit more variation would have been nice (as would a bit more seperation of the instruments). But that is a minor complaint, really; this is still a fine album, one which fans will not want to miss.

I grew up in the 60's and most of my exposure to the blues was the kind you got from John Mayall and Johnny Winter. Listen to Otis Rush and you hear the sound they were trying to copy but never did. In my opinion this is Otis's best live recording. This is his Cold Day in Hell backup band and they let Otis play while complementing his sound. I would pay anything to see a show like this live. Unlike the statement of another reviewer the sound is excellent. Peter Green and Eric Clapton have covered some of the songs Otis plays in this set and you can see why they admired his style. Otis is a lefty who doesn't restring his guitar that gets a unique sound out of basically playing upside down. He had a stroke a few years ago and regretfully will probably never play a guitar again. This CD is a worthwhile investment and I would say buy it before it goes out of print.

This superb live recording was done in 1975, and it holds up like it was recorded yesterday.

The great Otis Rush was in his element and enjoying himself when he recorded this record. His voice and playing are in regal form, and the recording does not suffer from the sounds problems that many live recordings possess.

Look for great renditions of "Please Love Me," "You're Breaking My Heart," "Will My Woman Be Home Tonight," "Woke Up This Morning," "High Society," and "Gambler's Blues."

This is a great recording, and should be treasured by the vast majority of Otis Rush fans, Chicago Blues fans, and blues fans in general.

Showcasing all the power he put into his blues live, with a band that matches up; this is the perfect album to take you back to the 70's. The sound is real here, not all pushed through computers to "perfect" it, so even if a remastering is done in the future you'll still want this original to capture the tone and feeling of being there.

I've been fortunate enough to see Otis live quite a few times, in Chicago and in Tokyo, and just last year after a stroke that hurt him so bad he couldn't stand on the stage. He had Carlos Johnson with him playing blues so sweet that the audience cried and gave them a standing ovation. That night we all saw that Otis isn't just one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time, but a truly great and loved man.

Get all the love you been missin', people, get the Live in Montreux combo up there and really rock the house!

With his original Cobra recordings still being Otis's best, his live recordings have consistently been among his best 'new' works. Up until now , the live cds were perhaps a little -too- new: No problems, but a little beefed up in tone, not as representative of his original sound as this cd. This can never be duplicated, unfortunately, even by Otis himself.Necessary.