Slide

From the very start, blues guitarists forged an irresistible partnership with the slide, the sound of which epitomizes the very essence of the genre. This Rough Guide highlights the revolutionary players who pioneered this most captivating of styles during the early recorded heyday of the blues.

This compilation provides an interesting survey of 9 blues slide guitar players. Collected from various independent record labels and recorded over the period 1960 through 1993, all of these tracks have been previously released albeit on hard to find albums and CDs. It is great to have these tracks collected in one place.

A firey stormer from the great Slide Hampton! The album's one of his few early sides for Atlantic - and like the others, it's a groundbreaking batch of larger group material, with slide out front on trombone, and the rest of the ensemble vamping along like a tight Blue Note combo. Players are excellent - and include George Coleman on tenor, Horace Parlan on piano, Hobart Dotson on trumpet, and Ray Barretto on drums - and Slide makes them come together so tightly, you'd think they were working together every night of the week!

Trombonist Slide Hampton, just 30 years old at the time of this octet session in Paris, had already developed into a forward-thinking arranger. Scoring a mix of standards and well-known jazz compositions for a group that included two trombones, two trumpets, tenor sax, baritone sax, bass, and drums, Hampton's stunning interpretation of "Exodus" (from the film of the same name) still sounds very fresh decades later. The brisk "Star Eyes" might suggest the so-called "cool" players of the 1950s, featuring excellent solos by trumpeter Richard Williams and bassist Butch Warren. Baritone saxophonist Jay Cameron shines in "Confirmation," while the leader explodes in a powerful rendition of "Moment's Notice".

Sterling Koch returns with a new album "Let It Slide," the follow up to his very successful 2011 release "Slide Ruler." "Let It Slide" includes 13 songs, 8 originals and 5 covers, of varying blues and blues/rock styles. The cover songs include songs by Elmore James, Doyle Bramhall (I and II) and Rick Vito (Fleetwood Mac) as well as the single "Mercury Blues" by K.C. Douglas. "Let It Slide" features Gene Babula on bass and John Goba on drums taking over for Tommy Shannon (Double Trouble) and Chet McCracken (Doobie Brothers) from the "Slide Ruler" album. Sterling only began to play the lap steel in 2004 as the result of a neck injury, a herniated disk. He had previously played the conventional 6 string guitar for 35 years. Sterling specializes in playing slide guitar blues on the lap steel guitar and is widely acclaimed as one of the foremost propnents of the lap steel guitar.