Little Tobias Lilja

Unsurprisingly, Little Freddie King pays homage to his idol Freddie king throughout Swamp Boogie. Little Freddie King hasn't recorded an album since the mid-'70s, but Swamp Boogie illustrates that he didn't spend the ensuing two decades just sitting around. While he doesn't stray far from the original Freddie King blueprint, he does play with grace and a bit of personality. The album isn't necessarily energetic, but it has its moments, even if during those moments you wish that he would let loose just a little bit more.

It's unequivocally nice to have Little Sonny back in harness after a long recording hiatus, but the harpist's comeback offering suffers from backing that feels too mechanical to really do his supple harp justice. A little more earthiness would have suited the project much better.

Originally released on Stax's short-lived Enterprise label, this finds Detroit harp man Aaron "Little Sonny" Willis backed by Memphis players working in an early-'70s blues-rock groove. The Bar-Kays provide the horn blasts, and although it would be a sin for Memphis players to overplay on anything, nothing here really catches fire; the whole session stays in low gear throughout.

Blues with a Feeling is a two-CD, 40-track compilation which makes the perfect audio bookend to The Essential Little Walter (or the single disc The Best of Little Walter for those on a budget) by systematically combing the Chess vaults and rounding up the best stuff. No bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings here; this compilation effectively renders all '70s Euro vinyl bootlegs null and void, both from a sound and selection standpoint. While not as exhaustive as the European nine-CD retrospective (in and out of print as of this writing), there are still things on this compilation that are left off the box set on Charly. The rarities (including the low down "Tonight with a Fool," possibly the rarest Walter Checker single of all and one whose title never shows up in the lyrics) are all noteworthy by their inclusion…

Trumpeter Booker Little's second session as a leader (there would only be four) is a quartet outing (with either Wynton Kelly or Tommy Flanagan on piano, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Roy Haynes) that puts the emphasis on relaxed tempoes. Little's immediately recognizable melancholy sound and lyrical style are heard in top form on "Who Can I Turn To" and five of his originals, some of which deserve to be revived. His jazz waltz "The Grand Valse" (inspired by Sonny Rollins' "Valse Hot") is a highpoint of this set.

The very word concerto naturally calls up automatic associations with the Classic and Romantic musical traditions. If, however, there is one composition that does not fit this classical template, it is de Raaff’s Violin Concerto. This is even less true for Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto (1935); Berg, like de Raaff, employed the fruits of this tradition in a highly unusual and individual way.

Little Bob Story was a French rock band with strong rhythm 'n' blues influences. The band was fronted and formed by Italian born Roberto Piazza in Le Havre in 1974. Their first album "Off The Rails" ("Living in the Fast Lane" in France) was released on Chiswick records in the UK in 1977, and the band successfully rode the pub rock wave along with the likes of Dr. Feelgood and Graham Parker And The Rumour.
"Livin' In The Fast Lane" is an infectious, oomph-packed slab of dynamism which drew from the same inspirational well as punk rock.