Customer Reviews

The Complete Chess Masters (1950-1967)

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Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith might be decent comparisons of what Walter Jacobs' impact on popular music was, but I think a better one would be; 'he was to Blues harmonica what Jimi Hendrix was to Rock guitar'. He was incredibly innovative in the use of amplification, so far ahead of his contemporaries in technique and phrasing and like Jimi,never equaled.
Maybe it took a large dose of the Little Walter legend (much of it fabricated) in the recent film, CADILLAC RECORDS to now give us the full measure of his recordings for Chess; much of which has been out of print or only available on various imports until now. Whatever the reason, BRAVO! Now all you young, aspiring Blues harmonica players start listening and learning.
Not only will you get all of Walter's fabulous riffs to try and master but these recordings also feature some of the hardest, swingin' Blues to ever be waxed. Legendary Chicago drummer, Fred Below leads the way.

Little Walter's remarkable reputation isn't totally unassailable and he completely lost his way in his final years. But then, apart from his own fantastic records, there were performances on other artists' sessions that lifted their achievements closer to the stratosphere. Bo Diddley's `Diddley Daddy' was a churning minor masterpiece even before Walter's solo begins. Notice how everyone shifts up a gear in response to a sequence of harp riffs that come from somewhere beyond technique. That's the Little Walter we need to remember.
It was a shrewd move to begin this set with `Evans Shuffle', for it shows the acoustic Little Walter making a jumping country dance tune out of Joe Liggins' `Honeydripper'. Eighteen months later came `Juke', a riff-laden exhibition of assured technique that placed Walter beyond the competence of his accompanists, even if one of them was Muddy Waters. The excellent `Can't Hold Out Much Longer' was a barely disguised remake of Sonny Boy Williamson's 1937 `Black Gal', exhibiting a vocal technique with more charm than style.
The Aces, Louis and David Myers and Fred Below, joined him for his second session; their obvious affinity and their jazz sensibility helped to focus and intensify Walter's eclectic approach. `Mean Old World' and `Sad Hours' made a good single but neither had the stature of `Blue Midnight' and the title-less `Boogie'. The latter was a staggering piece of work, harnessing the outer edges of a talent that even Walter couldn't have gauged. The search was on for another single, although the four takes of `Fast Boogie', precursor of `Off The Wall', are frustratingly second-rate, with neither Walter nor the band able to pool their resources effectively. Two takes of Charles Brown's `Drifting Blues' all but collapse due to a poorly executed stop-time break, doubled in the second take.
Neither of the tunes selected for Checker 767, the instrumental `Don't Have To Hunt No More' and `Tonight With A Fool', were hit material, which is why it was either withdrawn or never issued. Luckily, `Off The Wall' resolved the problems from `Fast Boogie' and `Tell Me Mama' was sufficiently intriguing to pass muster. A marathon session cut in July 1953 brought forth two singles, one combining an excellent `Blues With A Feeling' and `Quarter To Twelve', the other `You're So Fine' and `Lights Out'.
The rest of the session added three more instrumentals to the surfeit already in the can, and three vocal items; one, `Too Late', written by Willie Dixon, would be issued some years later. `Rocker' featured deliciously over-amped harp, and a capering Fred Below made for a good entertaining workout. `Oh Baby' is the same song as `I Love You So' but someone thought it sufficiently different to warrant a fresh master number.
The drought ended with the splendid `You Better Watch Yourself', Walter's harp tone a wonder, and `Blue Light', the engineer sending Walter's chromatic harp into howling feedback. That set the stage for two successive winners, `Last Night'/`Mellow Down Easy' and `My Babe'/Thunderbird', Willie Dixon making profitable use of `This Train' for `My Babe', which topped the R&B charts for four weeks in April/May 1955, elevating Walter to the peak of his relatively short career.
That was it as far as Top Ten hits were concerned, apart from `Key To The Highway', which took fourteen weeks to peak at No. 6 and recede. `Who' and `Everything Gonna Be Alright' managed just two weeks apiece. That doesn't denigrate the music but novelties like `Boom, Boom, Out Go The Lights' did him no favours. Nor were his instrumentals consistent; `Flying Saucer' soared while `Teenage Beat' plodded. Those that stick out at this stage of his career include the driving `It Ain't Right', `Just A Feeling' and `Everybody Needs Somebody'.
1958 saw an artistic revival with a sequence of songs that showed Walter still had the stuff when he could find it. `The Toddle' is a bit of a shambles but `Confessin' The Blues is better, with Jimmie Lee Robinson's loping bass riffs and Luther Tucker's fleet-fingered lead. Then came `Key To The Highway' and `You Gonna Be Sorry'; the previously unissued take 5 of this latter has Walter contributing an intimate vocal and blowing acoustic harp. `One Of These Mornings' is termed `instrumental' but is in fact a backing track with a good 24-bar harp solo.
Quite a lot of recording was done in 1959 and on the plus side there's `My Baby Is Sweeter', `Worried Life', `Everything Is Gonna Be Alright' (some excellent Otis Spann in here), `Mean Old Frisco', `One Of These Mornings', `Blue And Lonesome' and the instrumental `Back Track', which does indeed call up times past. Although they're perfectly serviceable, the paint is beginning to come off `Me And Piney Brown' and `Break It Up'. `Going Down Slow' was a gem and should have been issued, and `You're Sweet' wasn't far behind.
Chess delved into a capacious back catalogue to release a number of singles in the hiatus that then ensued. Walter seems like an uninvited guest at the 1963 `Up The Line' session, a clutch of poor songs and poor performances marred by indifferent sound. His solos on `Line' and `I'm A Business Man' are faded. `Dead Presidents' is Dixon at his worst and there's more riffing than playing during `Southern Feeling'. The February 1966 session with a fruitily persistent J.T Brown is best forgotten; there's no irony in `I Feel So Bad'. Disc Five ends on a higher note (how could it not?) with `Juke' from the `Super Blues' sessions and `Feel So Bad' and `Make It Alright', collaborations with Bo Diddley probably cut at the same time.
Let's be plain: the tailing-off of Walter's sessions in no way casts a blemish on what went before. No one could have sustained the level of performance he did in his good years, so a discreet veil should be drawn over the last half of Disc 5. So to the packaging. The front cover consists of contact sheets from a Don Bronstein session and there are two further colour shots in the 36-page booklet. The comprehensive notes carry a joint credit for Tony Glover, Scott Dirks and Ward Gaines, co-authors of Blues With A Feeling. Despite some mistakes and inconsistencies in the discography, this is an absolutely indispensable release that Little Walter fans cannot be without.
(this review, by Neil Slaven, first appeared in Blues & Rhythm magazine, June 2009; used by permission)

The greatest blues harp player ever. One of the great blues singers,(John Lee Hooker's favorite!). (Walter was also a wonderful guitarist,as revealed on some Muddy Waters tracks). In all honesty, there's more here than a casual listener will ever need, but if you love blues harp, you need every one of the 101 tracks here.

I love Little Walter and I'm glad I sprung for this comprehensive collection. However, there are 21 alternate takes of songs that often sound almost exactly the same, one after another, in one case (Temperature) six takes in a row, though there is some great studio banter between Walter and the producer here. One of the songs repeated oddly ends disc 3 (Ah'w Baby) as an alternate take and begins disc 4 with the original recorded version...again, they sound identical. Never thought I'd say this because I consider myself a completist when it comes to collecting music but for me this repetition detracts from the overall listening experience even though it's the great Little Walter. Don't know why Amazon doesn't list the tracks but of the 126 tracks:
Songs repeated twice in a row: 15
Songs repeated three times in a row: 3
Songs repeated four times in a row: 2
Songs repeated six times in a row: 1
Whatever, probably way too much information and some may find it hyper-critical but as I said, I am glad I sprung for it overall. Can never hear too much Little Walter.

Released March 2009 in the USA-only, "The Complete Chess Masters (1950 - 1967)" is a non-numbered limited edition of 5000 copies and is 'the' definitive retrospective for his entire output on the Chess offshoot label Checker.

Hip-O Select/Geffen B0012636-02 is a 5CD mini box set with 126 tracks (10 previously unreleased, 8 previously unreleased in the USA) and breaks down as follows:

Disc 1: has a 'Checker Records Co.' Red Label Design, 25 Tracks, 74:52 minutes
[Tracks 12, 13 and 17 are Previously Unreleased]

Disc 2: has a 'Checker' Plain Red Label Design, 25 Tracks, 72:11 minutes
[Track 21 is Previously Unreleased]

Disc 3: has a 'Checker' Plain White Label Design, 26 Tracks, 74:33 minutes
[Tracks 22 is Previously Unreleased while Tracks 18, 23 and 24 are Previously Unreleased in the USA]
NOTE: Tracks 12, 19 and 20 are mistakenly missing their track info in the booklet

Disc 4: has a 'Checker' Light Blue Label Design, 27 Tracks, 71:59 minutes
[Tracks 3, 11 and 14 are Previously Unreleased; Tracks 22 and 24 are Alternate Takes 1 and 2 and are Previously Unreleased in the USA]

Disc 5: has a 'Checker' Multi-Colour Label Design, 23 Tracks, 68:01 minutes
[Tracks 21 and 22 are Previously Unreleased while Tracks 17, 18 and 19 are Previously Unreleased in the USA]
NOTE: Tracks 21 and 22 "Feel So Bad" and "Make It Alright" (from January 1964) feature BO DIDDLEY

PACKAGING:
When you take off the "Little Walter" Obi that wraps around the outside, you get a chunky gatefold card sleeve that folds out into three flaps on either side - the first 5 flaps contain a label-themed CD in each (as listed above the colour is appropriate to the years involved) and the last flap to the right houses a 36-page booklet by noted biographers TONY GLOVER, SCOTT DIRKS and WARD GAINES who co-authored the 2002 book "Blues With A Feeling - The Little Walter Story".

AUDIO:
The sound is GLORIOUS throughout, the original master tapes remastered by tape expert ERICK LABSON (has over 850 restoration and mastering credits to his name - including most of the Chess catalogue). Each track has extraordinary power and presence - his amplified harmonica blasting out through your speakers. Apart from the totality of the package, the really great sound quality is for me one of the best reasons to buy this set.

CONTENT:
Three major USA Chess retrospectives are all here in their Little Walter entirety (including their previously unreleased tracks at the time) - the 2CD set "The Essential Little Walter" and tracks from the 4CD Box Set "Chess Blues" (both from 1993) and the 2CD set "Blues With A Feeling: Chess Collectibles, Vol.3" from 1995. In between those songs are the A & B sides of every one of his Checker singles, exclusive LP cuts and the Previously Unreleased Versions listed above.

The sessions also featured Chess legends WILLIE DIXON, OTIS SPANN and BO DIDDLEY along with other great session men like Jimmy Rogers on Guitar and Fred Bellows on drums. The mighty MUDDY WATERS turns up here and there too - the opening track on CD1 is "Evan's Shuffle", the B-side of Muddy's "Louisiana Blues" 78 on Chess 1441 which first charted in January 1951 - it's Little Walter's first appearance and it's a blast (the title to this review is Muddy shouting enthusiastically during the track).

In truth of course it's hard to take this amount of harmonica blues on one CD let alone five, but just when you think you can take no more, he hits you on CD2 with "Rocker" - a 1954 single on Checker 793 - it's a raucous instrumental with his trademark warbling harmonica technique that is absolute mind-blowing. I played it on a shuffle play in our shop and I could see customers foot-tapping and boogieing along to it as they browsed through our record racks...

Downsides - for customers outside of the USA, "Complete..." is a very expensive import - the track info missing on some songs is sloppy (something Hip-O Select has been accused off before), there's some nice colour photos in the booklet and on the some of the flaps, but 5 are blank when they could have been filled with something? There's no album sleeves pictured either, the track-by-track annotation doesn't tell you what's the A or B of a single, its year of release, chart position attained if any - so from an informational standpoint, the whole thing feels a little too lightweight for such an important release. Having said all of that - the musical content is a genuine thrill.

And yet despite booklet and packaging niggles, this is a HUGE Blues release - and at last gives respect to one of the genre's most mercurial and brilliant of musicians.

Born Walter Jacobs in Louisiana in 1930, he'd formed his first band at the age of 11 and was a star by 1951. He died of a head injury from a fight in February 1968 - a lifetime of drinking, gambling, womanizing and gun toting having finally caught up with him...

Little Walter literally dragged the blues harmonica kicking and screaming into play and there will always be millions of people around the world who will love him forever for it.
Nobody blew the harp like him and "The Complete Chess Masters" is a fabulous celebration of that. Big time recommended.

Five discs-74,72,74,71,67 minutes each approximately. This is a limited edition release. The sound is warm yet fairly crisp-we are talking about recordings anywhere from 60 to 40 years old after all. All the instruments can be heard clearly and have their own "space". In the liner notes there is a "thank you" for disc dubbing,but don't let that deter you from purchasing this set. The title is a bit misleading. The only track from 1950 is "EVANS SHUFFLE". On the other end,there are only a few tracks from 1967. This collection really begins in 1952. However, Little Walter can be heard earlier backing Muddy Waters,most famously,and others in the Chicago area on other collections.
Now,the music. If you're a fan of electric Chicago blues,or harmonica playing by a master,or both-buy this. With accompanists with names like Waters,Below,Dixon,the Myers brothers,Robert Jr. Lockwood,Spann,J.T. Brown,and even Bo Diddley on a couple of tracks-how can you go wrong? Even though this is a deep collection,the musical intensity never really lets up. From shuffles to slow blues,Little Walter approaches each tune with the same idea-to play something different each time he steps up to the mic. That's what sets him apart from all the others.
Much has been said about Little Walter's style of playing,so there's no need to rehash that here to any great degree. Suffice to say he was "instructed" by Sonny Boy Williamson II and the great Walter Horton,and listened very closely to Sonny Boy Williamson I. His tone is close to an up-dated,electrified version of the first S.B.W.,especially the spaces left between notes. Basically his approach to the harp was different than other players (and there were several others playing amplified harmonica) because he would play on,behind,and all through the melodies of songs. His sharp,clipped notes are really forward-thinking for the time. By doing this,he was able to build excitement all through his tunes,especially the instrumentals. Usually in collections such as this,having the same song repeated over,several times,tends to get boring. Not here. Even the mistakes by Little Walter and/or the band are worth hearing. Like jazz players,he would often change something in his playing from take to take. His vocal style was in direct opposition with his harmonica playing. His vocal tone and approach were fairly laid back,while still having a certain amount of expressiveness and energy. While not a truly gifted vocalist,his singing was always adequate if not good,and seemed to fit in perfectly somehow.
The packaging is pretty cool to look at,as are the individual discs,which have a different label reproduction on each one. This is probably the world's longest "fold-out" package. When completely unfolded,you have access to each disc (which are slipped in loose between cardboard) and the accompanying booklet. The booklet is nice. It gives an overview of Little Walter's life and goes into a bit more detail about his musical career while at Chess Records. Interspersed throughout are mostly b&w photos of Little Walter,and a nice reproduction of an ad for his famous tune"JUKE". There is also a track-by-track listing of the various personnel playing with Little Walter,and the date. But back to the packaging. This set comes wrapped with a band around it to keep it closed. After it's removed,see how long it takes to put it back on. The cardboard used should have been a bit more substantial. You have to be very careful when slipping the discs in and out,or the paper might tear.
But in the end,it's about the music. There is something about the sound Little Walter got from his instrument,combined with his approach to music making,that makes him (and this collection) unbeatable. If you're new to the blues/Little Walter,perhaps you should look for a collection that's not so all-encompassing. But if you crave that Little Walter sound-buy this now. This is something special.

Highly recommended for Little Walter fans, such as I have been for over forty years, who want it all in one place. The prodigious output, first with the Muddy Water's band and then solo, is certainly an enduring legacy bequeathed by this phenomenal blue's harmonica virtuoso. As to the compilation, alternate takes do not distract and the out-takes are hilarious! As far as comments as to packaging, get yourself five jewel cases, what's the big deal? Thanks to Amazon for excellent servce, as always. Make the plunge and enjoy Little Walter's "Crazy Mixed Up Whorl"!

I've been playing harmonica for years, and nothing beats hearing great harp music. Little Walter is my blues harmonica hero. He is the king of the harmonica. He is the one that put blues harp music on the map.

I downloaded this box set in MP3 format, and love listening to Little Walter sing and wail like only he can. My favorite song in the set is My Babe.

If you're looking for the cream of the crop from Little Walter, look no further. If you want to get all, and I mean all of Marion "Little Walter" Jacobs best songs, this is the set to buy.

Thought provoking reviews. You might be a little older than I but I too am at the point where I am thinking about my music collection in Retirement Age terms. That's why I upgraded from "The Essential" to this set: before I know it; more time to listen, less money to acquire. I haven't A-B'd 'em yet but just going from memory, this sounds like improved fidelity (darned good, in any case). I was really enjoying the liners at first but they do sort of devolve into "then he recorded this, then he recorded that" monotony. One commentator noted that on these boxes, multiple takes in a row can ruin the momentum of a disc. True. However, after hearing the first two discs so far, I find the takes different enough from one another to avoid that problem. And there's always the, ahem, shuffle button. That avoids the Ugly Stepchild all alternate takes disc problem. So in summation, great Chicago Blues, but you knew that already and from the pot to the kettle - dang, some of y'all's reviews are long.

This is the CD set for Little Walter fans, especially if you want one single purchase to cover the career of this icon of American music!