Customer Reviews

Chicago: Blues Today

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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."

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!

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.

As a serious blues musician, I am always on the lookout for those few seminal recordings which I might have heard about, but not owned. To go over to the jazz world for a moment, I would put Chicago the Blues Today
in the realm of A Love Supreme by Coltrane or Kind of Blue by Miles et al in terms of influence. And, as a harp player, the Junior Wells and James Cotton tracks are absolutely killer!!! I can't believe how good this is-one of the crown jewels.

I bought the three separate Vanguard vinyl LP's years ago. Wore 'em out. They got me started on the harp and I have played ever since....or at least, tried to play. I memorized and absorbed all of this inspiring stuff, I played it so much. It has had a major influence on my entire life. What a brilliant idea by Sam Charters in the first place, and then to actually pull it off, with all these blues giants, is a simply amazing feat. Prior to that the only blues I had listened to was the Stones and Paul Butterfield, and from there I went back to the originals, like Little Walter and Muddy and Wolf and Sonny Boy.
Those last four legends are NOT on these recordings--Walter and Sonny Boy had passed by then--but just about everyone who meant anything in Chicago blues is. Muddy's former harp player James Cotton and the one and only Otis Spann, his favorite keyboard man, are both in strong form. Cotton's version of Rocket '88 is the most rocking and explosive jump blues you will ever hear, truly a gigantically important recording. His harp performances on this set are tremendously powerful and creative, showcasing his inimitable style. Junior Wells and Buddy Guy play a strong mini-set, with Junior's vocals on Vietcong Blues some of the best he's ever done.
It is simply incredible that these recordings feature three guys who, over the years became some of my all-time favorite musicians, and remain so to this day: Johnny Shines, Otis Rush, and Charlie Musselwhite. Not that race matters, but Charlie, just as in the very first Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, is the only white guy on the records. Since it's Chicago blues, Johnny Shines plays electric here, and he blows the doors off with his powerful and impassioned vocals. I am convinced that Shines, unlike any musician I can name, is at least as great acoustically as he is amped up. The great Big Walter "Shakey" Horton lends superb harp to Shines', and Johnny Young's sets, and Charlie--billed then as Memphis Charlie--plays a really nice harp duet with Big Walter.
The immortal Otis Rush, again, only in my opinion, the greatest combination blues singer/guitarist ever, tosses off a sublime version of I Can't Quit You Baby, which rivals and possibly exceeds his Cobra version.
This is an absolutely essential recording for anyone interested in blues Chicago-style: amplified, electric, stunningly powerful. These blues will grab you and will not let you go.

I bought all three of the albums in this set separately a few years ago, but you can get all three in a set for this ridiculously low price. It would still be a great deal to buy each of the three discs for whatever it was that I paid, probably [cheap], because this is an utterly superb collection of electric blues that you could never find anywhere else. For my money the Otis Rush contribution is the best thing he ever recorded, the Junior Wells version of Help Me is better than the Sonny Boy original, and every single track on all three albums is absolutely choice. One of the strengths of the set is that with three acts on each disc, there is no space whatsoever for inferior or filler material. If you want Chicago electric blues, this set should be your first purchase.

In the sixties, the Chicago blues scene was so vibrant, alive, and brimming with great blues that an enterprising producer could (and did) literally pull some of the finest second-line bluesmen off the street, hustle them into a studio, and turn them loose. The resulting three-disc set represents some of the finest blues ever made, yet no one on this session is named Muddy, Wolf, Johnson, or Hooker! Of course, Junior Wells (with Buddy Guy in tow) is brilliant, especially with his moving "Tribute to Sunny Boy" (Williamson, of course!) and his fabulous "Messin' With The Kid" (later covered by the Blues Brothers, among others). JB Hutto is amazing, sounding as raw and unpolished as Robert Nighthawk, yet every bit as soulful. His mighty, slide-fueled renditions of "Going Ahead" and "Too Much Alcohol" will leave you begging for more! (More blues AND more alcohol, too!) Otis Spann, Muddy Waters long-time pianist, closes out Disc One with five mellow-yet-intense pieces, including an extra-wonderful "Spann's Stomp". Disc Two kicks off right-as-rain with another former Muddy colleague, harp extraordinaire whiz James Cotton. His frenzied cover of Ike Turners "Rocket 88" is the standout of his set. Otis Rush contributes a superb version of "I Can't Quit You Baby", later borrowed by Led Zeppelin, while former Elmore James cohort Homesick James weighs in with his first-rate "Set a Date." If there is a weak point of this set, it happens during the third disc, with Johnny Young and his rather annoying use of "blues mandolin"; however, his rendition of "One More Time" is very good indeed. Finally, ex-Robert Johnson sidekick Johnny Shines closes out the set in chilling, thrilling style, with "Dynaflow Blues" and "Black Spider Blues", while Big Walter Horton and Memphis Charlie (Musslewhite) serve up a sizzling version of "Rockin' My Boogie". A great 47-page booklet accompanies this box set, and the photos of winter in Chi-town circa 1965 are haunting and evocative indeed. In short, this is a must-purchase, for this three-disc wonder, recorded it seems only just yesterday, will give you true pleasure from Chicago blues not only today but tomorrow and far into the future as well!!!

Every single one of the 42 tracks is a gem. All of the original liner notes and artwork are reproduced and augmented with additional notes for a total of 47 pages of blues history with lots of great period photography. I have two complaints though. The first is that the CDs are in hard cardboard sleeves which subjects them to possible scratching and difficulty in returning them to the sleeves. The second is that the song credits are not shown in the 3-CD set. If you buy the individual CDs, however, the song credits are shown! Just sloppiness I suppose.

If you want to know real Blues is, then buy this CD set. From the hard, honest singing of Johnny Shines to the soulful guitar of Otis Rush, to the Sheer Power of James Cotton to the sincere crooning of Junior Wells: Its all here! This album reads as virtual yearbook and testament to 1965 Chicago. If you want to know what the Chicago Blues scene was like in the 60's, then look no further. This stuff is too good die, it will just keep getting better!

Quite simply, blues heaven. This compilation is a whole lot of bang for anybody's buck. Produced on a limited budget back in 1965, the musicians just streamed into the studio and did what they were known to do best. A barebones approach to recording, you won't find much in the way of studio wizardry here, but who cares?

Legend has it that Johnny Shines and his band just walked in, unpacked their instruments and powered into a version of "Dynaflow Blues" that pasted the onlookers in the studio to the wall and that song is captured forever here as that one take. The onlookers themselves happened to be some of the finest blues musicians of the day.

I later met some of the people bearing witness to that memorable day and they were still talking about it. Two decades later, Charles Musselwhite was still impressed enough to name one of his bands the Dynatones, in honor of the "Dynaflow Blues." Johnny Shines's voice is exciting and electric, his guitar playing has an electrified delta sound, and his music is pushed along by back-beat drumming. Johnny Shines and band continued pushing hard in the studio that day, laying down their tracks, I think recorded in the same sequence as they were played. They blistered through an essential hard blues, "If I Get Lucky" and at the end one of them shouts "Roll the tape!" as if that was all just a warm up session for the band. Man!

That's Johnny Shines on two of his six tracks. But elsewhere on different tracks on the disc there's also a young Charles Musselwhite disguised as Memphis Charlie ... Johnny Young, Otis Spann, Otis Rush ... I don't have room here to say all that I want to say, just read the list of names on all the tracks and take a chance on this. I think it's superlative. Chicago/The Blues/Today has always been one of my favorite blues series, and one that will continue to inspire people for as long as it's played. There's a beautiful little book with this collection, full of photographs and stories, some 47 pages.