Customer Reviews

T-Bone Blues: Essential Recordings

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If you're new to the jazzy, smoky and highly influential electric blues of Aaron Thibeaux Walker, and perhaps looking for a suitable compilation to start you off, this could be what you are looking for.
The sound on this very reasonably priced Indigo release is fine, and it contains many of Walker's best songs, including "Mean Old World", and of course "They Call It Stormy Monday". Sure, it doesn't have all of T-Bone Walker's important recordings (no single-disc could accomplish that), but "T-Bone Blues" is a good way to start off your T-Bone Walker-collection, although it doesn't quite match Rhino's Blues Masters album "The Very Best Of T-Bone Walker".

This is a wonderful collection of early T-Bone from the period when Walker was experimenting with the future direction of his career. Many of the new musical forms of the period are explored, and it's fascinating to hear T-Bone trying them out before deciding the best route to take.

The first two tracks, from 1942, show Walker on what are basically a couple of country blues songs, backed with the relatively small line-up of piano, bass and drums, although his own amplified guitar is well to the fore, already with the familiar solo licks that were to become his trademark.

Three years later, and the next six tracks feature the complete Rhumboogie session, accompanied by the Marl Young Orchestra, a larger outfit comprising trumpets and saxes. The variety of styles on these tracks is quite amazing. 'Sail On Boogie' is a wild affair, with the saxes wailing pure bebop. In complete contrast, 'I'm Still In Love With You' and 'Evening' are slow blues reminiscent of the sort of songs Lonnie Johnson had been recording over the previous decade. With 'T-Bone Boogie' we are in Big Joe Turner territory, and this performance is virtually rock 'n' roll, while 'Mean Old World Blues' is a reworking of one of the 1942 tracks, but this time with horns in attendance. At a Mercury session at the end of 1945 the main influence is jump jive, with a Louis Jordan-like performance on 'She Is Going To Ruin Me', and more bop tenor sax work from Jack McVea on 'Come Back To Me Baby'. The remaining numbers are all from Black & White sessions between 1946 and '47, and show T-Bone gradually settling into his own unique style. Included from this period is the famous 'Call It Stormy Monday', the huge hit that was really to kick-start Walker's career.

All the tracks feature T-Bone's exciting electric guitar sound, a novelty at the time, and a massive influence on other up-and-coming musicians. The variety on this CD makes it one of the most enjoyable of the currently available crop. Sound quality is fine, and it dovetails neatly into the other Walker releases on Catfish and Zircon Bleu with duplication at a minimum. An excellent CD displaying T-Bone Walker at his very best, and, at Indigo's price, not to be missed.