10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forget the rest, buy this !!!!!, August 18, 2001
This review is from: Early Recordings 51-56 (Audio CD)
The Elmore James boxed set spans the first half of his recording career - This is regarded by many (especially me !) to be his finest period - I say this because many of these recordings have better backing musicians - Little Johnny Jones' blistering piano fills and solos - (second only in intensity to Otis Spann's playing for Muddy Waters & others) and J.T. Brown's sax playing. This boxed set has been criticised in the past for containing many alternate takes of some songs, becoming a little tedious on the ears. While I understand what they mean, any first or second time purchase of Elmore albums will turn that person into an obsessive fan, guaranteed !!! In a short time, any fan develops a craving to own every track available. This boxed set goes a long way to giving every track in the first half of his recording career - all completely essential and almost all of them (compared to the second half of his recording career) all gems !!! The boxed set gives fantastic sound quality on all tracks including his original 1951 Trumpet single "Dust My Broom" which is easily his best sung version. The boxed set also contains the best and largest range of photograhs of Elmore in the best quality I have yet seen - perfect for close scrutiny to inspect all the modifications Elmore made to his Kay acoustic guitar over the years. This is really a good value boxed set. Also recommended is the Capricorn boxed set (9 42006-2) for the later stage of his recording career, although this does not cover his recordings for the Chief label in 1957 - but you could get the Charly 3 CD set (CPBOX 301) which has both the Chief and Fire sessions- then you will only need the Chess label recordings to have almost all of Elmore James recordings - all absolute essentials !!!!! Special note though - The Relic label CD (Relic7040) has a great picture of Elmore with a huge F-Hole electric guitar and has the best and most complete recording career / discography I have seen and the sound quality is also fantastic - and you get Sammy Myers singing on one superb track !! Anyway, the Modern Elmore James 3 CD boxed set is a must !! Buy it, I say !!!!!!!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A treasure trove for hardcore Elmore James-fans, February 29, 2004
This review is from: Early Recordings 51-56 (Audio CD)
Properly titled "The Classic Early Recordings 1951-1956", this wonderful, handsome box set from the Virgin subsidiary Ace Records includes all of Elmore James' singles for the Bihari brothers' numerous labels, as well as several outtakes, alternates, and bits of studio chatter. His lone waxing for the Trumpet label, the first electric rendition of Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom", is here as well, and the 38-page booklet includes several rare colour pictures, an insightful essay, and all available recording information.
These are Elmore James' earliest recordings, and he is backed by one of the first electric Chicago blues bands, and one of the very best as well: The Broomdusters, named after Elmore's first hit, and featuring pianist "Little" Johnny Jones, "Homesick" James Williamson (Elmore's cousin) on second guitar, and saxist John T. Brown.
Elmore James, a radio repairman by trade, had reworked his amplifiers, getting them to produce the rawest, most distorted sounds anyone had ever heard at the time, and his gritty slide playing and huge, emotional voice must have made for an incredible experience when he was playing live. Even the sheer repetitiveness of the recording process couldn't dim the intensity of his performance...Elmore gave it his all every time the light went on, as is obvious on all of these 71 recordings.
The highlights are too numerous to mention - almost every song would be considered a highlight on most other electric bluesmen's best record - but "The Classic Early Recordings" certainly dispells the notion that Elmore was merely "a one-riff boogie king", recording one "Dust My Broom"-knock-off after another. Here are slow blues, up-tempo boogies, tough, mid-tempo grinds, funky instrumentals, and a handful of recordings featuring Elmore as a sideman to piano player Johnny Jones, and to band leader "Bep" Brown.
Elmore James is equally great on traditional electric re-workings of Delta blues tunes like "One More Drink" or "Sinful Woman", and on urban, R&B-styled numbers like "My Baby's Gone" and "Strange Kinda Feeling", and his smouldering slide playing and occational single-string picking is alternately raw and dirty and smooth as cream.
This box set, with is numerous alternate takes, appeals mostly to "serious" fans, of course...not that fans who are satified with "just" the masters are not serious, but they will probably be better served by "The Best Of Elmore James: The Early Years", also from the UK-based Ace label (ASIN B0000252P2). That one includes every A- and B-side issued by the Bihari brothers.
But if you're really into Elmore James, this beatiful box set is the only way to go. The sound is good, the annotation is excellent, and once you've got this one, the "King Of The Slide Guitar" box set with James' latter-day recordings, and his handful of Chess singles on "Whose Muddy Shoes" or "Elmore James, John Brim, Floyd Jones", you'll be set!
This is some of the finest, grittiest electric blues you'll ever hear.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dust that broom!, December 23, 2005
This review is from: Early Recordings 51-56 (Audio CD)
The ultimate Elmore James collection, it's got everything he ever recorded from his first side on Trumpet in 1951 (DUST MY BROOM, of course) up through 1956, mostly for the Flair and Modern labels. The only session not included is the single Chess one he made in 1953 (5 sides, including the classic WHOSE MUDDY SHOES). Lots of alternate takes and breakdowns are included.
It's amazing how many different songs based on the DUST MY BROOM licks he made - it's a terrific theme. Highlights include all four sides from a 1952 Meteor date with the great J.T. Brown on tenor, I MAY BE WRONG and SWEET LITTLE WOMAN billed as by Little Johnny Jones and the Chicago Hound Dogs, the issued take of DARK AND DREARY, and HAPPY HOME from 1954. That monster slide guitar is always in evidence on these sides, as is his emotionally powerful, soaring vocal stylings. With wailing horns in accompaniment, nobody could lay down a more stirring, heart-felt performance than James.
He's been knocked for a repetitive approach (like I said, DUST MY BROOM gets reprised under different titles throughout this 3-disc set), but in the end it doesn't matter: Elmore James's rough-and-tumble blues recordings are among the best to come out of Chicago ever. Too bad he died so young before the blues revival of the '60s had a chance to catapult him right up to the top in popularity and not just genius. In this box set there's also a 40-page booklet included that's got lots of photos and detailed biographical and discographical information. This is THE James CD set that any post-war blues fan ought to have.
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