ED Gerhard : Sunnyland (2006)

JSP, one of the U.K.'s most active historical reissue labels, presents an outstanding postwar Chicago blues anthology packed with essential recordings made between 1947 and 1955 by Sunnyland Slim & His Pals. Out of the 104 tracks (not 97 as stated on the front of the packaging), 60 are "by" Sunnyland Slim; the other 44 were released under the names of Johnny Shines, Robert Lockwood, Floyd Jones, Leroy Foster, J.B. Lenoir, Jimmy Rogers, and St. Louis Jimmy. Sunnyland sat in on each of these dates; the enclosed discography denies his presence on the Johnny Shines date, although his piano is clearly audible…

Wild, raw, rough-edged Chicago slide guitar blues, this is jumpin', partyin' music in the tradition of Hound Dog Taylor and J.B. Hutto (Lil' Ed's uncle). Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, it includes nine original compositions plus covers of Hutto and Albert Collins tunes.

Wild & greasy blues at its best, a two-song session for an anthology turned into an all-night, live-in-the-studio jam. Sounds like it was great fun.
Signing to Alligator in the mid-'80s, they released their debut album, Roughhousin', in 1986 and found themselves receiving national attention. They began playing urban clubs and festivals all over the country and eventually toured Canada, Europe, and Japan.

Combining sessions that blues pianist Sunnyland Slim and blues guitarist Johnny Shines recorded separately on the same day in Chicago in 1968 for the Blue Horizon imprint, this interesting little set shows two blues veterans doing what it was they did, which was, in part, to push and pull the Delta blues one small step closer to being in the modern urban world. The Slim sides, several of which are new to digital disc, are a bit more interesting than the Shines sides, but only by degree. Slim's songs can appear on the surface to be tossed-off exercises in the usual blues clichés, but they were actually carefully written, while Shines worked similar territory, giving old blues figures a slightly ironic twist. Since both played at one time or another with Robert Johnson, and both straddle the old and new worlds of the blues as it transfigured into an electric and urban form, it makes perfect sense to stick these two sessions together in one package.

The sixth release from the veteran foursome is another rollicking, electrified romp through old-school Chicago boogie blues. Lil' Ed Williams is the nephew of, and was schooled by, slide guitar legend J.B. Hutto, so it's no surprise that the Blues Imperials' sound is driven by the high-octane, raw, bottleneck attack popularized by Hutto and the great Elmore James. Both are covered here, and even though Williams's originals adhere to the standard blues format, the energy generated by this live-in-the-studio recording could power a small city. You can practically see the sweat dripping down Ed's fez-covered head as he charges through the humorous yet driving "Icicles in My Meatloaf" and the fast shuffle of "Broken Promises"…

The perfect case of a pianist who sounds completely relaxed in the studio and, because of that, manages to balance assertiveness and poetry in ideal proportions. Gerhard Oppitz is a penetrating Brahmsian, bracing in the youthful works, quietly confiding in the later ones.

For more than 50 years, the towering and beloved Chicago piano patriarch Sunnyland Slim has rumbled the ivories around the Windy City, playing with virtually every local luminary imaginable and backing the great majority in the studio at one time or another. On this album originally recorded in Seattle on May 7th, 1976, he's joined by the rousing vocalist and dynamic entertainer 'Big Time' Sarah, who is among the more enterprising contemporary blues performers. She moved to Chicago from Coldwater, MS as a child, and sang in South Side gospel choirs before debuting as a blues vocalist on stage at Morgan's Lounge at 14. She later worked with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Johnny Bernard and Sunnyland Slim.

The sixth release from the veteran foursome is another rollicking, electrified romp through old-school Chicago boogie blues. Lil' Ed Williams is the nephew of, and was schooled by, slide guitar legend J.B. Hutto, so it's no surprise that the Blues Imperials' sound is driven by the high-octane, raw, bottleneck attack popularized by Hutto and the great Elmore James. Both are covered here, and even though Williams's originals adhere to the standard blues format, the energy generated by this live-in-the-studio recording could power a small city. You can practically see the sweat dripping down Ed's fez-covered head as he charges through the humorous yet driving "Icicles in My Meatloaf" and the fast shuffle of "Broken Promises"…

Slim cut this session in May 1968 in Chicago (with Mike Vernon producing) as a member of the Chicago Blues All Stars, an ad hoc touring group that consisted of Willie Dixon, Johnny Shines, Walter Horton, and Clifton James. With all that to recommend it, it's still a pretty workmanlike set - no real sparks of any kind, just competently played blues by five old veterans who could knock this stuff out in their sleep, and probably did.