Blues

Broke, Black & Blue delivers multiple surprises within its 100 songs of prewar blues. Arranged chronologically by Joop Visser, the set admirably covers the first 22 years of recorded blues, 1924 to 1946, from vaudeville and Delta to boogie-woogie and jump blues. It's a swell gift for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of blues. But old-timers will be pleased, too, as special attention has been paid to culling rare and idiosyncratic tracks by the well-known and the obscure. The first three discs present single tracks by artists as diverse as the Memphis Jug Band, De Ford Bailey, Tommy Johnson, Son House, Skip James, Peetie Wheatstraw, Lonnie Johnson, and Bukka White, alongside unknowns such as Isaiah "The Mississippi Moaner" Nelson, Barbecue Bob and Laughing Charley, Ed Andrews, Chicken Wilson, and Bumble Bee Slim. On the fourth disc, this convention is jettisoned to luxuriate in a series of very rare sides of lovely, oddly subdued boogie-woogie and jump blues by Jimmie Gordon, Johnny Temple, and Lee Brown.

The set Roots N' Blues features many hours worth of early blues, folk/country and gospel recordings from a variety of American artists.

This superb five-disc box set gives a sweeping overview of the hugely influential music of blues legend Ma Rainey. Rainey was already a seasoned performer by the time she made her first recordings in 1923, and though she only recorded for six years she cut over 100 songs, many of which went on to become blues classics. Those tunes, including "C.C. Rider," "Bo Weavil Blues," and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," are here, alongside dozens of other gems. Rainey ranged across styles and settings, from acoustic blues to jazz to jug bands, but her saucy, gritty vocal delivery remained a lynchpin. Given the historical impact of Rainey's output, the set's title - Mother Of The Blues - is no understatement.
Heard along the way are such notables as Lovie Austin’s Blues Serenaders (with excellent playing from cornetist Tommy Ladnier and clarinetist Jimmy O’Bryant), three groups drawn from the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra…

The Blues Masters series, much to Rhino`s credit, adopts an expansive definition of blues, allowing the likes of Count Basie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Muddy Waters and even Louis Prima admission. There is none of the purist`s quibbling over strict 12-bar form or the relative significance of prewar and postwar styles.
What Rhino delivers instead is the blues in all its myriad guises. This music is old and new, black and white, acoustic and electric, folksy and jazzy, performed by women and men, and yet it is all still blues at its core.