Chicago P.d.

Horton was tragically underrecorded as a bandleader; this album certainly attests to his talents in that regard, whether romping through a joyous "Everybody's Fishin'" or elegantly exmaining the tonal possibilities of the Duke Ellington chestnut "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." John Nicholas provides sympathetic backing on both guitar and piano, and Kaz Kazanoff is the stellar saxman.

The veteran vocalist wraps his suave, bottomless pipes around a well-chosen cross-section of covers, from Duke Henderson's jump blues "Get Your Kicks" and Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "I Love to Love You" to tougher straightforward blues originally cut by Freddy King, Guitar Slim, Jimmy Rogers, and Little Walter. A cadre of local session aces provides fine support, especially guitarist Steve Freund (who receives a couple of instrumental showcases).

The harpist hooked up with a young Maryland-based band called Tough Luck for this disc, certainly one of his better outings. The traditional mindset of the combo pushed Bell back to his roots, whether on the originals "Just like You" and the Horton homage "Big Walter Strut" or revivals of Muddy Waters' "Short Dress Woman" and "Walking Thru the Park" and the classic Little Walter title cut.

Boogie-woogie pianist and Muddy Waters Band alumni Pinetop Perkins is in fine form on his second Telarc disc, Back on Top. These ten tunes cover familiar territory that most blues fans will know by heart, including "Hi-Heel Sneakers," "Kansas City," and "Down in Mississippi." Perkins' band, consisting of Denny Breau on guitar, Michael "Mudcat" Ward on bass, and Per Hanson on drums, helps breathe new life into the classic urban blues sound, and is joined sporadically by special guests Corey Harris and Sugar Ray Norcia.

The music Earl Hooker and Junior Wells made together demonstrates the blues in transition, still upholding its traditions but recasting them in a format that reflected the musical taste of contemporary black society. Shortly after these records were produced, the Blues Boom shifted the music’s focus on to young white audiences. The tracks featured here represent some of the last instances of Chicago blues being produced for the artists’ own community.

Chicago's debut album, Chicago Transit Authority (self-titled at the time), was a groundbreaking double-LP that showcased the band's imaginative writing, proficient musicality and genre-blending mix of rock, jazz, funk and pop. In recognition of its enduring influence, the album was inducted into the Grammy® Hall of Fame in 2014.

Pianist Otis Spann played in Muddy Waters' band from 1953 to 1970, and was instrumental in creating the electric Chicago blues sound. These 11 tracks were recorded in the mid-'60s by Down Beat magazine editor Pete Welding, and were previously released as Otis Spann's Chicago Blues on Testament Records. This reissue omits the solo Spann material from the original disc and highlights the group recordings featuring S.P. Leary, Johnny Young, James Cotton, Willie Dixon, and Muddy Waters. While not as revolutionary as the records Spann played on with Muddy in the late '50s, you can't deny this lineup of seminal Chicago bluesmen doing what they did best.