Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ESSENTIAL BLUES, September 20, 1999
If there is one post war chicago blues compilation box set that must be in every blues collection it is this one for sure. These recordings from 1965 are simply outstanding. J.B. Hutto, Junior Wells, Otis Spann, Otis Rush, Johnny Shines Blues Band, Johnny Young's South Side Blues Band, Homesick James, and Big Walter Horton's Blues Harp Band with Memphis Charlie Musselwhite are all peak perfomrances. This set is the 1999 re-release which, unfortunately, includes no new material from the original three disc series, so current owners of the entire series don't need it. However, if you don't own this set, then you are missing out on some of the greatest blues ever recorded. This is the blues!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
mo better blues right here, April 7, 2000
What a collection! A few thousand bucks and some very quick sessions and ole Sam came up with some terrific stuff. The vocals in this collection are unbelievably strong, culminating in the overpowering Johnny Shines. There are some palpable ghosts lurking in the collection as well: Muddy Waters through his band led by James Cotton, Robert Johnson through former fellow traveler Shines, Elmore James through cousin Homesick James, and Sonny Boy Williamson II honored right after his passing by Junior Wells. Shines and Homesick are particularly eerie echoes of their inspirations. Otis Rush is brilliant as usual and J.B. Hutto was a revelation for me.Rush is the only real modern in the bunch and even he is stronger drink than most modern blues. Junior Wells evinces a bit of a James Brown influence in this set. This is not really for hi fi types, although the sound is very good. There was little time to record it so it's a warts and all job. But there's all kinds of excellent blues: barrelhouse from wizard Otis Spann, guitar from Rush and Buddy Guy, harp from Wells, Cotton, Walter Horton, and a very young Charlie Musselwhite. Just a wonderful set.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential Blues, July 19, 2005
In early 1966, blues history was made with the issuance of a three-volume set of new recordings produced by blues historian Samuel Charters. This series was known as Chicago/The Blues/Today! and the release sent shock waves through the world of rock and roll. Every artist on the three volumes had recorded before (some, like Otis Rush and Junior Wells, had actually seen small hits on the R&B charts), but these recordings were largely their introduction to a newer -- and predominately white -- album-oriented audience.The "today" part of the title was no bit of hyperbole, either. This series accurately portrayed a vast cross section of the Chicago blues scene as one could hear it on any given night in the mid '60s.
Rather than record full albums (which Charters had neither the budget nor legal resources to pull off), each artist simply came in for a union-approved session of four to six songs, with each volume featuring three different groupings. With these recordings, blues suddenly gained respectability as something much more vital and vibrant than just a poor cousin of jazz. A new market for this music began, one that exists today in full blossom.Their effect on musicians was enormous. It's fair to assume that most blues-influenced artists had all three volumes in their respective collections, and the songs on them ended up in the repertoires of everyone from Jimi Hendrix (Junior Wells' "Rock Me") to Led Zeppelin (a note-for-note copy of Otis
Rush's "I Can't Quit You Baby") to Steppenwolf (Junior Wells' "Messin' with the Kid") and beyond. These recordings have stayed in print and been reasonably good sellers over the 30 years since their original release, all coming out on compact disc in the mid 1980s. This new packaging puts all three volumes together, but with no bonus tracks, as no extras were recorded for these sessions.So if one already owns these sides, what's the incentive this time around? That's easy: The sound is massively improved, with the bass that was rolled off the vinyl and original CD versions now being restored. This
makes the tracks truly come alive, especially on the Otis Rush and Junior Wells sides, both fortified with some major amounts of badass bass thumping by Roger Jones and Jack Myers, respectively. One can really hear the spaciousness of the old RCA studios where this stuff was cut for the first time, and the detailing of the mix is in sharp focus throughout, although the increased bass causes some unwanted distortion on the Homesick James Williamson tracks. The other plus is the new packaging, which features a nice booklet with detailed, updated notes from Charters, a nice appreciation from Ed Ward, and absolutely eye-boggling session photos taken by Charters' wife, Ann, that alone are worth the price of the set. With the glut of blues reissues out there, it is often a coin toss as where to best spend your hard-earned money. Even if you still have the original vinyl or CDs, this is one of the times when it would be best to spend the dough and add this one to your collection, because blues records seldom come as important, innovative, or just plain pleasurable to listen to as this set. File under "essential."
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Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ Buddy Guy & Junior Wells
~ Magic Sam
~ Elmore James
DVD ~ Joan Baez
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