Willpower was really designed to be Jack Bruce's Crossroads – it followed Clapton's monumental box by a year, had similar artwork, a similar approach that blended selections from throughout his various projects, and the same remastering/production team. Thing is, Bruce didn't have the commercial success of Clapton, nor did he have the same sizable following (although his fans were indeed devoted), and critics just sorta gave up paying attention around 1970, so there wasn't much of an audience for Willpower upon its release in 1989. Nevertheless, it's a pretty terrific summary of Bruce's career, never staying too long in one particular period (even the selections from Cream lack such heavy hitters as "Sunshine of Your Love" or "I Feel Free"), and encapsulating how unpredictable and adventurous Bruce's career has been.
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) is considered a literary iconoclast and a pioneer of the Beat Generation (along with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg) who is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement.
"But it's Shakespeare's coffin!" Dupree exclaimed when he saw the enormous grand piano awaiting him in the studio on July 21, 1971, where on one of his numerous visits to Paris he had been asked to record. But regardless of the piano his puncher’s hands worked out on - usually it was a humble upright - Champion Jack Dupree expressed the essence of the blues.
During his prolific career Dupree often paid tribute to men he admired by improvising a blues to their memory. So he recorded The Death of Big Bill Broonzy, The Death of Luther King, President Kennedy Blues, and The Death of Louis, which gives its title to the present collection. Armstrong had died a few days earlier, on July 6, and Dupree evokes with feeling their days together as children in the Waifs’ Home…
George Benson's facile post-Wes Montgomery single-line and chord-accented style was well received in his salad days of the mid- to late '60s. Primarily self-taught and ear-trained, he made great strides in a five-year period around his native Pittsburgh, working with organist Jack McDuff on the East Coast chitlin circuit. As the soul-jazz and boogaloo movement was establishing itself, Benson was right in the pocket, as these seminal mid-'60s sessions perfectly illustrate. In tandem with saxophonist Red Holloway, the two Prestige label LPs New Boss Guitar and Hot Barbeque were initially reissued in 1977 on a vinyl two-fer, and now on this single CD. The first two tracks, "Shadow Dancers" and "The Sweet Alice Blues," sans McDuff though toeing the groove line, are the most original and modern numbers…
Fear of the Dawn is the fourth studio album from Jack White, founding member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather. True to his DIY roots, this record was recorded at White's Third Man Studio throughout 2021, mastered by Third Man Mastering and released by Third Man Records.