b King

** 1991 GRAMMY Awards, Best Traditional Blues Album - or - Best Traditional Blues Recording **
There are both good and bad points to this CD. Of the latter, the Phillip Morris "Super Band" is confined to background work with – other than a few spots for Plas Johnson's tenor – no soloists being heard from. As an ensemble, the all-star orchestra performs well, but is essentially anonymous. Also, despite the backing, B.B. King does not attempt to play jazz, a wasted opportunity. But, switching to the good points, Live at the Apollo is an excellent example of a strong B.B. King live performance. Somehow he always makes his combination of blues and familiar hits sound fresh. With a liberal amount of space set aside for his guitar solos, B.B. is in top form throughout the well-paced set, which is far superior to most of his overproduced studio sessions for MCA. Even if the big band is mostly irrelevant, this CD is recommended for B.B. King's singing and playing.
AllMusic Review by Scott Yanow

Celebrate 50 years of blues music with The King of Blues, B.B. King, as he performs his greatest hits live by request from his fans. Originally aired on the A&E Network on A&E's Live By Request, B.B. and special guest Jeff Beck electrify New York city with all-time favorites like "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Ill Survive."
Universally hailed as the reigning king of the blues, the legendary B.B. King is without a doubt the single most important electric guitarist of the last half century.

B.B. King - The Blues (1958) {2005 Remastered & Expanded, Crown–Ace Records CDCHM1084}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 165 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 105 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 23 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1958, 2005 Crown Records | Ace Records | CDCHM 1084
Blues / Modern Electric Blues / Soul-Blues / Memphis Blues

Originally released in 1958 by the budget-priced Crown label, The Blues collected a dozen sides B.B. King cut for RPM and Kent between 1951 and 1958. (RPM and Kent were owned by the Bahari Brothers who also ran Crown, which explains how one of the true prestige artists of the blues ended up on such a notoriously cheap-o label.) As was often the case with Crown's product, The Blues used a single hit tune (in this case "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer," a Top Ten R&B chart entry in 1954) to help sell a package of lesser-known material, but thankfully the label also picked some great tunes that hardly sound like filler, even if they didn't make the charts.

In 1974, B.B. King brought the blues back to Africa. Invited to take part in the three-day music festival which featured the legendary boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, King played before a crowd of over 80,000 Africans and delivered a performance considered by many to be one of the greatest of his phenomenal career. B.B. King filled the night with his raw power, searing energy and heart stopping emotion.

B.B. King has cut a lot of albums since the success of Live at the Regal. And, like the live shows they document, none of them are any less than solid and professional, hallmarks of King's work aesthetic. But every so often B.B. truly catches fire; his playing and singing comes up an extra notch or two, and the result is a live album with some real sparks to it. Live in Cook County Jail is one of those great concerts that the record company was smart enough to be there to capture, documenting B.B. firing on all cylinders in front of an audience that's just damn happy for him to be there…