Anihony Hopkins

The clarinet has long been embraced by American composers for its jauntiness and jazzy flexibility (think of that slide opening Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue), qualities heard in abundance on this album. We hear Leonard Bernstein's Cuban-influenced Sonata, and the Sonatina by Budapest-born Miklós Rózsa, who made his name as a Hollywood movie composer. These pieces are bookended by two Aaron Copland works, his Concerto, for American jazz clarinettist and King of Swing, Benny Goodman, and his Sonata. Fiterstein's playing with the Tesla Quartet was praised by The Arts Desk as impressive and heart-stopping. The Washington Post described his playing as dazzling in its spectrum of colours, agility, and range. Every sound he makes is finely measured without inhibiting expressiveness and The New York Times described him as a clarinettist with a warm tone and powerful technique.

Recorded for Prestige's Bluesville subsidiary in 1960 and reissued on CD for Fantasy's Original Blues Classics (OBC) series in 1990, Lightnin' is among the rewarding acoustic dates Lightnin' Hopkins delivered in the early '60s. The session has an informal, relaxed quality, and this approach serves a 48-year-old Hopkins impressively well on both originals like "Thinkin' 'Bout an Old Friend" and the familiar "Katie Mae" and enjoyable interpretations of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee's "Back to New Orleans" and Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "Mean Old Frisco." Hopkins' only accompaniment consists of bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Belton Evans, both of whom play in an understated fashion and do their part to make this intimate setting successful. From the remorseful "Come Back Baby" to more lighthearted, fun numbers like "You Better Watch Yourself" and "Automobile Blues," Lightnin' is a lot like being in a small club with Hopkins as he shares his experiences, insights and humor with you.

There's something affecting about Lightnin' Hopkins' off-the-cuff approach. Whether he's in the studio or before an audience, he gives the impression of a guitar player and singer who's just doing his own thing. When he breaks out a signature piece like "Mojo Hand," he isn't really trying to impress the listener as much as do what he does best: just play a little blues. Recorded in 1965, Live at Newport captures Hopkins in a loose mood communing with an appreciative audience. The mostly solo electric set apparently didn't cause any controversy (as Dylan's electric set with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band would in 1965). The nice thing about the album is that all the material seems to have come from the same set, giving the listener a taste of what seeing Hopkins at Newport might have been like…

This five-disc collection from London's JSP Records brings together 126 sides that Lightnin' Hopkins tracked for the Aladdin, Modern/RPM, and Gold Star labels at the very start of his recording career. Included are the Texas bluesman's first hit, "Katie May" from 1946, "T-Model Blues" from 1949, and arguably the most startling Hopkins composition, the powerful "Tim Moore's Farm," also from 1949. Most of the tracks are Hopkins solo, playing either acoustic or electric guitar, but he takes a turn at the organ for "Organ Boogie," a track that shows the same adventuresome liberties with tempo and time that mark all of his work, whatever the instrument. Since his approach and style to the blues never altered throughout his life, a case could be made that these first recordings are the ones to get, but at an astounding 126 tracks, this set is mind-numbing overkill for all but the most devoted fan.

The famous bluesman's stellar recordings for Tradition epitomized Lightnin's spare "country blues" which was in contrast to the brash and bold Chicago blues so commercially appealing at the time. Lightnin' started his career singing on Houston's street corners for change and drink and his best performances are those intimate concerts. Lightnin's first two albums for Tradition (AUTOBIGRAPHY IN BLUES and COUNTRY BLUES) were just that-down and dirty, out and out blues, honest and true-perfect documents of Lightnin's style, songs and performance.

The most important part of Lightnin' Hopkins' career was spent in juke joints in Houston, but during the early 1960s, he also became a star along the folk circuit, playing clubs that catered mostly to college students eager to hear authentic acoustic blues. Several of those shows were recorded over the years to capitalize, and while the albums don't have the same importance as Hopkins' classic blues sides of the 1940s and 1950s, they do show another side of the man, and one he seemed to take to very naturally. Hootin' The Blues is one of Hopkins' better folk club concerts, capturing him in an intense performance on acoustic guitar, rapping (in the sense of talking) about the blues and what it means as he introduces some powerful songs: "Blues Is a Feeling," "In the Evenin'," and "Meet Me in the Bottom," among others…