Japan Blues

Although guitarist Joe Pass recorded many unaccompanied solo albums, he made relatively few dates as part of a duo. This CD reissue of a session with tenor-saxophonist Joe Pass works quite well because Zoot Sims was a natural swinger who did not need a full rhythm section to push him…

The Blues Project is a band from the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City that was formed in 1965 and originally split up in 1967. Their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles. They are most remembered as one of the most artful practitioners of pop music, influenced as it was by folk, blues, rhythm & blues, jazz and the pop music of the day…

With their second album, Rio Grande Mud, ZZ Top uses the sound they sketched out on their debut as a blueprint, yet they tweak it in slight but important ways. The first difference is the heavier, more powerful sound, turning the boogie guitars into a locomotive force. There are slight production flares that date this as a 1972 record, but for the most part, this is a straight-ahead, dirty blues-rock difference. Essentially like the first album, then. That's where the second difference comes in – they have a much better set of songs this time around, highlighted by the swaggering shuffle "Just Got Paid," the pile-driving boogie "Bar-B-Q," the slide guitar workout "Apologies to Pearly," and two Dusty Hill-sung numbers, "Francine" and "Chevrolet." There are still a couple of tracks that don't quite gel and their fuzz-blues still can sound a little one-dimensional at times, but Rio Grande Mud is the first flowering of ZZ Top as a great, down-n-dirty blooze rock band.

Fresh Cream represents so many different firsts, it's difficult to keep count. Cream, of course, was the first supergroup, but their first album not only gave birth to the power trio, it also was instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock…

British band founded in 1962 by Manfred Mann and Mike Hugg as "Mann Hugg Blues Brothers" and later renamed to "Manfred Mann". The band's line-up changed several times before the break up in 1969…

Hidehiko "Sleepy" Matsumoto was one of the best jazz sax players in Japan. Born October 12, 1926 in Okayama; died February 29, 2000. His nickname was given by an American soldier when he was playing in a US military camp after the war. A true giant on tenor and flute, his contributions to the jazz industry of Japan were many and recognized by many awards and honors.

Blues Interaction - Live In Japan 1986 Is a 1986 live album by blues singer and guitarist Otis Rush. Recorded with local Japanese band Break Down, the album has been panned by many critics because of what was considered to be the backing band's rudimentary knowledge of blues music.[citation needed] Ironically, Rush has dual citizenship in the United States and Japan.[citation needed] His current wife is a native of the country. Originally the album was released in Japan only by P-Vine Records but was subsequently released in 1996 in the United Kingdom by Sequel Records.