T Bone

A founding father of electric blues in general and Texas blues in particular, guitarist T-Bone Walker influenced countless blues players and, by extension, countless rock & rollers as well. The Complete Imperial Recordings date from the early to mid-1950s, when the idea of electric blues was really taking hold, and the two-disc set is a wealth of classic songs exquisitely performed. While definitely blues, there's more difference between this and the acoustic blues that predated Walker than amplification can account for; there's jazz and swing mixed in as well, as on tracks like "I Walked Away" and "Strollin' with Bone," and something of that feel has remained in electric blues ever since. From B.B. King to Buddy Guy to Stevie Ray Vaughan and beyond, Walker's influence is felt in the blues up through the present day.

2011 three CD collection from the Blues legend. Without T-Bone's innovatory approach to playing the guitar there would have been no B.B. King, no Buddy Guy, no Freddie King, no Eric Clapton, nor any of the plank-spankers who strut the stage at Blues festivals and club gigs. The line began with T-Bone, who, along with his friend Charlie Christian, invented the vocabulary for the amplified guitar. Throughout the late 1940s, T-Bone cut a sequence of singles for labels like Black & White and Capitol that laid the groundwork for what became the prevailing style of Blues recording. T-Bone transferred to the Imperial label in 1950 but the music continued in an unbroken line of creative superiority, heard in 'The Hustle Is On', 'Strollin' With Bone', 'I Get So Weary' and 'Here In The Dark'. 75 tracks.

Despite critical acclaim as a performer, the rootsy singer/songwriter T Bone Burnett earned his greatest renown as a producer, helming recording sessions for acts ranging from Roy Orbison and Elvis Costello to Counting Crows and Sam Phillips.

Modern electric blues guitar can be traced directly back to this Texas-born pioneer, who began amplifying his sumptuous lead lines for public consumption circa 1940 and thus initiated a revolution so total that its tremors are still being felt today. Few major postwar blues guitarists come to mind that don't owe T-Bone Walker an unpayable debt of gratitude. B.B. King has long cited him as a primary influence, marveling at Walker's penchant for holding the body of his guitar outward while he played it. Gatemouth Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Goree Carter, Pete Mayes, and a wealth of other prominent Texas-bred axemen came stylistically right out of Walker during the late '40s and early '50s.

Taking inspiration from Charlie Christian and Lonnie Johnson, T-Bone Walker plays with an exceptionally elegant and relaxed style, the perfect foil for Charles Brown's piano. An innovator of this caliber could only spark emulation. T-Bone Walker's influence can be heard in B.B. King, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown or Buddy Guy. Even Jimi Hendrix confessed his indebtedness. Today guitarists, like Duke Robillard, Pete Mayes or Otis Grand, still perpetuate his legacy. In 1962 he toured with the very first American Folk Blues Festival (with John Lee Hooker). T-Bone Walker subsequently performed in Europe on a regular basis, with a marked preference for France. In November 1968, Black & Blue took advantage of one of his tours to have him record the album "Feelin’ The Blues," rightly considered to be one of the best he made at the end of his career. We thought it appropriate to add a few titles from his sessions with Jay McShann and Eddie Vinson, recorded a few months later while T-Bone was doing a stint at the Trois Mailletz club in Paris. T-Bone Walker is surely the most jazzy blues musician, while McShann and Vinson are among the most bluesy jazz musicians! It was impossible for this confrontation to produce anything but success.

Recorded in Paris during November 1968, Good Feelin' was the album that rekindled public interest in the life and music of Aaron "T-Bone" Walker throughout Europe and even in some portions of the United States of America. The album begins and closes with informal narration spoken by Walker while accompanying himself on the piano…