Robert Walter

This is the real deal, recorded live in 1978. The Blues the way it's supposed to be played. The way it's supposed to be enjoyed, in a setting that is, and has been, home to the blues throughout it's history, in the juke joints, lounges and bars throughout the USA. The Bocce Club is one of those places. The Artists: Big Walter Horton - Vocals & Harp, John "Guitar Johnny" Nicholas - Vocals & Guitar, Ronnie "Youngblood" Earl - Guitar, "Sugar Ray" Norcia - Vocal (Every Day I Have The Blues) Chromatic Harmonica (That's Why I'm Cryin), Ted Harvey - Drums, Mudcat Ward - Bass and Anthony Giarossi - Piano.

Who the devil is Walter Kaufmann? Sorry that the cloven-hoofed one is summoned right at the start in a prominent place. But it is true – Armin Kaufmann is an Austrian composer, known at least for the title of one of his orchestral works, Erotikon. Dieter Kaufmann is an Austrian composer, pioneer of electro-acoustic music, co-founder of the society for electro- acoustic music. So far, so good.

Walter Washington became a local legend in the black clubs of New Orleans in the '70s and '80s and worked his way up to national status with a series of well-received albums and appearances. His recording affiliations have likewise moved from local to national independent to major label. An innovative guitarist and fine singer who has also done some excellent work with vocalist Johnny Adams, Washington does not perform in the classic New Orleans R&B mold but incorporates soul, funk, jazz, and blues with fluency and power.Washington was born and raised in New Orleans, where he performed in his mother's church choir as a child……

Robert Levin plays these works on a restored Walter fortepiano that Mozart owned. This headline feature is both an asset and a limitation. The instrument has its own pronounced personality, which is arresting, when you can hear it. It also has a frailer sound than most of the early pianos or replicas used for concerto recordings, so you can't always hear it clearly. Perhaps this balance was what Mozart's audiences actually heard, but, more likely, if he used a piano like this, he also used a very small orchestra.

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…

]This release is a little confusing, coming out as it does more than a year after the release of MCA-Chess' Little Walter rarities collection Blues with a Feeling, and two years after the double-CD anthology set that contains most of the best parts of this collection. Still, this disc, coupled with the two best-of volumes, and the other Walter compilations, fills in some holes that are well worth filling. Made up of songs cut between 1953 and 1959 – none of which had ever appeared on LP before the original 1974 release of this collection – the selection features Walter in his prime, playing alongside Robert Lockwood, Jr. and Louis Myers or Luther Tucker on guitar (with Muddy Waters present on slide on one indispensable track, "Rock Bottom"), mostly Willie Dixon on bass, and Fred Below on the drums, with Lafayette Leake or Otis Spann on piano.