Albert Collins Live

"Ice Man" or not, Albert was on fire the night of his taping on October 28, 1991. "You just can’t believe how long it took me to get on this show!" he declared, and wasted no time proving why it was long overdue. His performance was a wild ride, and the ACL stage proved too small for his antics, so with his long guitar chord in tow he took off into the audience during his ten-minute-plus finale of "Frosty." He was first and foremost an entertainer, but nonetheless belongs up front in the pantheon of great blues guitarists. He awed at least two generations of young pickers, not the least of whom including Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, who was quoted as saying back in the 60's, "There’s one cat I'm still trying to get across to people…his name is Albert Collins … he’s good … really good."

Albert Collins would be gone just a year and a few months after this July 1992 set at Montreux but there was no loss of vitality even at this late date in the blues guitarist's career. The set consists only of seven tracks, but three of those - "Lights Are On (But Nobody's Home)," "Too Many Dirty Dishes," and the über-funky "Put the Shoe on the Other Foot" - clock in at between 11 and over 15 minutes, plenty of time for Collins and his band to kick up some serious dust. On the latter song, bassist Johnny B. Gayden's bass , Bobby Alexis' keys, Marty Binder's drums, and the sax and trumpet of Jon Smith and Steve Howard, respectively, lay down a solid foundation on top of which Collins goes to town with the kind of stinging, mean-ass solo that initially provided him with his reputation as one of the heavyweights.

Compiling a number of performances recorded shortly before Albert Collins' death, Live '92/'93 offers definitive proof that the guitarist remained vital until his last days.

The Iceman is in remarkable form on this 1992 live date, offering proof positive that his smoldering Texas-style electric blues is ageless. With a set list that spans from his early hit "Frosty" to tracks from his 1991 release, ICEMAN, Albert Collins's stinging technique makes his Telecaster sing out over his no-holds-barred full electric band. A deeply satisfying blues excursion, LIVE AT MONTREAUX was recorded merely a year before Collins's death from cancer, making it a fitting tribute as well as a fine concert recording.

Compared to Frozen Alive!, Live in Japan is a little more drawn-out and funky, featuring extended jamming on several songs. That isn't necessarily a bad thing - Collins and his bandmates can work a groove pretty damn well. Of course, the main reason to listen to an Albert Collins album is to hear the man play. And play he does throughout Live in Japan, spitting out piercing leads with glee. On the whole, it's not quite as consistent as Frozen Alive!, but that's only by a slight margin.

Albert Collins, "The Master of the Telecaster," "The Iceman," and "The Razor Blade" was robbed of his best years as a blues performer by a bout with liver cancer that ended with his premature death on November 24, 1993. He was just 61 years old. The highly influential, totally original Collins, like the late John Campbell, was on the cusp of a much wider worldwide following via his deal with Virgin Records' Pointblank subsidiary. However, unlike Campbell, Collins had performed for many more years, in obscurity, before finally finding a following in the mid-'80s.

Collins is never far in spirit from the 1940s and 1950s gin mills of his youth, where he soaked up blues, R&B, country and western, jazz, and all their various amalgams. On this 1983 date he impressively revitalizes his old Texas hit "Don't Lose Your Cool," turns the heat up on Guitar Slim's "Quicksand," and adds newfangled vocal and guitar insinuations to Big Walter Price's "Get to Gettin'."

Truckin' with Albert Collins is a 1969 Blue Thumb reissue of The Cool Sound of Albert Collins, which was originally released on TCF Hall Records in 1965. These are the earliest recordings that Collins made, and already his trademark sound is in place – his leads are stinging, piercing and direct. The album features a set of blistering instrumentals (with the exception of the vocal "Dyin' Flu") that would eventually become his signature tunes, including "Frosty" and "Frostbite." Collins doesn't just stick to blues, he adds elements of surf, rock, jazz, and R&B. These songs may not have been hits at the time, but they helped establish his reputation as the Master of the Telecaster.