b King

The potential for a collaboration between B.B. King and Eric Clapton is enormous, of course, and the real questions concern how it is organized and executed. This first recorded pairing between the 74-year-old King and the 55-year-old Clapton was put together in the most obvious way: Clapton arranged the session using many of his regular musicians, picked the songs, and co-produced with his partner Simon Climie…

20 killer tracks from B.B. King's 1950s heyday, including quite a few alternate takes and a few tough-to-locate items ("Bye Bye Baby," "Dark Is the Night," "Jump with You Baby"). Many of the titles are familiar ones – "Woke Up This Morning," "Every Day (I Have the Blues)," "Please Love Me," "Whole Lotta Love" – but often as not, compiler Ray Topping unearthed contrasting versions from the same sessions that shed new, fascinating light on King's studio techniques.

Completely Well was B.B. King's breakthrough album in 1969, which finally got him the long-deserved acclaim that was no less than his due. It contained his signature number, "The Thrill Is Gone," and eight other tunes, six of them emanating from King's pen, usually in a co-writing situation. Hardliners point to the horn charts and the overdubbed strings as the beginning of the end of King's old style that so identifiably earmarked his early sides for the Bihari Brothers and his later tracks for ABC, but this is truly the album that made the world sit up and take notice of B.B. King. The plus points include loose arrangements and a small combo behind him that never dwarfs the proceedings or gets in the way. King, for his part, sounds like he's having a ball, playing and singing at peak power. This is certainly not the place to start your B.B. King collection, but it's a nice stop along the way before you finish it.

Although Live & Well wasn't a landmark album in the sense of Live at the Regal, it was a significant commercial breakthrough for King, as it was the first of his LPs to enter the Top 100. That may have been because recognition from rock stars such as Eric Clapton had finally boosted his exposure to the White pop audience, but it was a worthy recording on its own merits, divided evenly between live and studio material. King's always recorded well as a live act, and it's the concert tracks that shine brightest, although the studio ones (cut with assistance from studio musicians like Al Kooper and Hugh McCracken) aren't bad.

This unusual compilation from the Kool Jazz at Midem Festival combines parts of three separate sets. The Dave Brubeck Quartet with clarinetist Bill Smith, bassist Chris Brubeck and drummer Randy Jones, has the most interesting program, utilizing an electronic delay along with Smith's clarinet to add a new touch to "Lover Man," offering an energetic version of "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and introducing a recent work by Brubeck, the very swinging "Ol' Bill Basie" which showcases some fine playing by the leader and some choice bass trombone by son Chris. Guitarist Pat Metheny joins the Heath Brothers for "Move To The Groove; " Metheny's bluesy guitar and Jimmy Heath's soulful tenor sax work well together. B. B. King's set is at best average and an odd choice to include on what is predominantly a jazz record.

American blues musician, singer and songwriter, born September 16, 1925 near Itta Bena, Mississippi, United States. He died in his sleep at May 14, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States at 9:40 PM Pacific Time. B.B. is an abbrevation for 'Blues Boy'…

Over-glossed R&B tracks, heavy doses of keyboards and drum programming are an ideal way to make albums for the pop charts, but for B.B. King, they are tools of disaster. Lyrically and vocally the album holds up rather well. …

The seventh volume in Ace's ongoing mid-price series based on B.B. King's original Crown LPs with bonus tracks. "More B.B. King" was released in 1961 and is an entertaining mix of booting R&B, blues ballads and instrumentals, drawn primarily from the Kent singles of the period. The bonus tracks comprise eight related Kent singles that have mainly escaped the reissuers net. These are quality recordings orchestrated by the great Maxwell Davis. As always, there is an eye-catching front cover, while compiler John Broven supplies the explanatory background notes.